A/N: (drumroll) Here's the third installment. Hope you like!

A Twist of Fate

Chapter Three: Some Things Never Change

Evidently, he recognized her too. "Granger," he spat, his lip curled into his trademark smirk.

'What a git,' Hermione thought. She felt indignant heat rise in her cheeks and she replied angrily, "Malfoy."

Hermione and Draco stared at each other, mouths gaping in shocked silence. Neither were aware that they were blocking the bottom of the staircase and that students brushing past were shooting them dirty looks.

Hermione finally spoke. "What the hell were you doing, Malfoy? You ruined a perfectly good shirt!"

"Well. Mudblood," Draco sneered. "YOU were the one who was walking along with your head up in the clouds." He returned his attention to picking the rest of his books up off of the grass.

Hermione watched him in puzzlement. "Malfoy, why are you here? Did you come just to make my life a living hell?" She punctuated her words by thrusting the book she was carrying at his chest.

He caught it easily and looked at her. "Don't you read the papers, Mudblood?" he scoffed. "Oh that's right, you wouldn't, would you? Your little Mudblood family would have no idea what's going on in the world of wizards." He chuckled and bent to retreive a text book that had fallen into a small puddle.

Hermione fumed. "Look around you, Malfoy!" She lifted her hands in exasperation. "Everyone's a Mudblood! You're the odd one here. Your last name and your pureblood don't mean anything!" She stared at him defiantly.

Draco stared up at her, smirking as he shook the wet book, sending beads of water in her direction. "I'll always be better than you, Mudblood." He let the words sink in before he cocked his head to one side and asked, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be off studying with Potty and the Weasel?"

"Well, my mum and dad - " she broke off. "What am I telling you this for? You don't deserve to know!"

"I could care less," Draco said, finally lifting the huge stack of books into his arms again. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be heading back to my campus."

Hermione's rage finally overcame her. "Here, let me help you with those,"she smirked. Before Draco could react, she had shoved the pile away from him, the books toppling over on to the ground once more.

Draco watched her walk up the crumbling stone staircase to the library, head bobbing in triumph. He formed the books into a pile again, muttering curses to himself. "Bitch!" he spat, as he headed down the path to Wadham college.

He could hear a faint voice from inside the library doors. "I heard that."

*********

Hermione stalked into the building, her shaking hands balled into fists at her sides. She was cold, her shirt was soaked, and she had just had a run-in with her worst enemy. Standing between the two sets of doors of the library's entrance, Hermione took several deep breaths. She wasn't going to let Malfoy, the poisonous toad, ruin her first trip to this beautiful library.

Once she had relaxed slightly, Hermione made her way through the entrance. She stood, flabberghasted, in the foyer, taking in both the size and beauty of the library. Her anger towards Malfoy was replaced with excitement, and she rushed to the closest aisle of books.

This was the most amazing building Hermione had ever been in. Rich tapestries covered the deep red walls; the high ceiling was painted with a heavenly mural of small angels dancing through clouds. Walls upon walls of cherry-wood bookshelves were brimming with knowledge and four large armchairs were nestled around a merrily-burning fireplace. This was a library that had existed only in Hermione's imagination.

After an hour of browsing the aisles and exploring the upper two floors, Hermione set to work on her extensive book-list. She easily found the first eleven selections by searching through the History aisle but was missing her twelfth and final book, The British Isles: A History of Civilization. She eventually gave up and carried the books she had to the front counter.

A young-looking librarian with high ponytails smiled at her. "Good afternoon!" she chirped brightly.

"Hullo," Hermione replied quietly. "I was wondering, though, if you had another copy of -" she looked at her list "- The British Isles: A History of Civilization. I couldn't find it."

"I'll check." The girl punched the words into the computer's keyboarding, eyeing the results carefully. "No, the last copy was taken out today, about two hours ago actually." Hermione was then offered to be put on a waiting list for the book, and she agreed.

The young woman then counted out Hermione's selections. "You'll have to put five of these back," she said apologetically. "There's a six-book limit."

Hermione nodded understandingly. "Sure." She chose the six books that she would need for the beginning of classes Wednesday and the librarian proceeded to enter them into the system.

"You know," the girl began slyly. "The guy who took out the British Isles book? He was gorgeous."

"Really?" said Hermione, mildly interested.

"He had a weird name though. Drake, maybe." The librarian frowned as she tried to remember.

"Draco?" suggested Hermione, also frowning.

"Yeah, Draco that's it!" She smiled and handed Hermione a slip of paper to sign. "His eyes, his eyes were amazing. They were like a window -"

"Are you done with the books now?" Hermione interrupted impatiently.

"Yup! All done!" she said but leaned in towards Hermione, as if telling her a secret. "His eyes were a window to his soul," she whispered mistily, thick eyelashes fluttering. "His beautiful, beautiful soul."

"Hmmm, how nice," Hermione said quickly. "Bye now. Thanks for the help." The girl didn't reply, seemingly lost in her vision of a heavenly Draco Malfoy.

Hermione rolled her eyes in disgust and hurriedly exited the building, carrying the small stack of six textbooks. She shook her head as she walked to Wadham. Malfoy had screwed her again.

*********

Longest A/N in (my) history: Well, hoped you liked this chapter (it was a little shorter than the others though); as you can see, everything's starting to come together. Thanks for all the reviews guys! I was at 15 at last count, which is absolutely mind-blowing for me. So I thought I'd take the chance now to reply to the reviews; I'd love to talk to all my readers.

Sam8: Thanks for being the first one to review! Not only does Austin Academy for Gifted Wizards sound better with a British accent, basically everything does! No, Jillian isn't a very important character. It's scary though how much alike me she is; I was giggling like an idiot during both the scenes I wrote with her! I like her though; she's fun!

Kyra3: Thanks so much for reviewing twice and for adding A Twist of Fate to your favourite stories list. I appreciate it so much!

Taelyn: Thanks! I don't think I write that well, but I loved the encouragement!

FoxyChick4U: Thanks for both reviews; your enthusiasm made me very happy!

I-LOVE_SPENCER: Thanks for the review; I take it that you liked it?

ScarlettRose: Thanks for reviewing! Hermione's wand was left at home, but Draco might have a few tricks up his sleeve, haven't decided yet. The italics thing: I save it as an html document all the time but it still doesn't work, even if I use i and /i but thanks for trying to help!

someone: Whoa! This made me smile so much; thanks for making my day! (Everyone likes compliments once in a while, right?)

angelover41: Thanks for reviewing and adding me to your Fav. Stories and Authors lists. (You are the first and only person to put me on an authors list!)

Draco_fan: Thanks so much!

squorpionlady: Thanks for the review; that was great! I probably won't be able to email (maybe though) but you could add me to your author alerts on the side of your main user page and that'll email you when there's a new chapter up.

iLoVeDrAcO15: Thanks for the support!

Charlotte: Thanks for reviewing!

Whew and that's it. Thanks for all the reviews guys; surpassed any of my expectations. The fourth chapter of A Twist of Fate will be done in about a week, if not sooner. Ttyl everybody. Have a great weekend!

MI