Chapter 3

A/N: sorry I haven't updated in awhile, everyone. Lack of reviews has made me a bit uninterested- I mean inconsiderate!! Yes, that's what I meant to say! But I decided to start again for those of you kind enough to review. Also for those who put me on their favorites, (YEAH!! Thank you soooo much!! And especially Ardent Entity. If you're a D/Hr go read one of her fics, I LOVE Shadows of Light and you need to continue! I am!), and, erm. forgot to review. *cough*slackers!*cough* well, on with the show.story. fanfic.oh you get the idea!!!

Hermione woke early. Like most days, she found the morning an excellent time to review for that day's classes, and usually free of certain disturbances.

She had been avoiding her friends, lately. Hermione had strongly advised Harry and Ron to stop their revenge plans, but they refused. *I'm only trying to help them! I hate when they get in trouble.* She thought, but remembered Ron's cruel words. "Hermione! It's none of your business what Harry and I do! You've made it very obvious you don't want to be a part of this so don't! You're always sticking your nose where it doesn't belong! So stop being a know-it-all busybody and leave us alone!" *Well, after that they deserve whatever they're going to get themselves in! And you know what? I don't care! I won't even try to help them get out of their definite mess!* She knew this was a lie. No matter what her friends got themselves into she knew she'd stay by them. That was a fact. But at the moment she was having a lot of fun watching (in her mind, of course) her two best friends sinking in an obviously very deep mud puddle. But she thought it was odd that theyl seemed to be chibified. (A/N: in my story Hermione is a bit of an anime fan, but doesn't talk about it much, mostly because it's a muggle thing and most wizards don't get it.)

She smiled back on her little day dream and realized she had wasted 30 minutes already. *Oh, well. I can't do much studying while chibi Harry and Ron are drowning in their own mess.* So she left for an early breakfast with a small smirk on her face.

Still smiling, she reached the mostly empty Great Hall and sat down. As she reached for the yet untouched bowl of porridge she noticed a flaxen-haired boy sitting across the hall. Over the last year or so she had noticed that this particular Slytherin had grown almost handsome enough to fit own ego, but no one was that good-looking. *It's safe to stare* she thought *He seems to be very engrossed in his readings.* So she did.

Unfortunately, he looked up. And with his famous smirk and, "Take a picture, it'll last longer," he had single-handedly pushed all of Hermione's pleasant thoughts of him out.

*Ughh. How could I even let my mind put Malfoy even slightly closer to the happy place in my mind? He's such a twit! It's just 'cuz I'm still mad at Ron and Harry.* Satisfied with this explanation, she continued on with her breakfast; void of any other thoughts of Draco Malfoy. (However, her mind was not void of a mental image of two struggling boys, now being chased by several large crocodiles.)

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Draco, not yet accustomed to the school beds that were slightly less comfortable that his completely down bed at home, woke up. He was grateful to having a dungeon commonroom for he was never awoken by any annoying little streams of light, but having a pitch-black room, full of furniture just waiting to stub his beautiful toes did have its disadvantages.

Finding the bedside lamp, he turned it on. Wanting some privacy, he dressed quickly and silently, as to not awake his snoring companions. He slipped out of the room and headed to the Great Hall to get a bite to eat, (he had not eaten much the night before so he was ravenous now. He is a teenage boy.) *Maybe Shadow will be there.* He thought, anxious to get his hands on a copy of a Daily Prophet incase there was any news about his father; although he knew if he had escaped he would've found out immediately from his mother.

Sitting down at the Slytherin table, he looked up anxiously. And as he did so a completely black owl swooped into the hall and gracefully landed on the table besides Draco. He leaned over and untied the copy of the wizard newspaper. Thanking his faithful and very well-trained owl, he allowed the bird leave.

But, alas! Draco was disappointed to find that the front-page story was not one containing either the words: "Azkaban" or "Malfoy." Instead it was, to his displeasure, an article about an illegal monlak farm. He studied the picture of the animal, disturbingly similar-looking to a ferret. A shiver ran up his back as he remembered his experience as a ferret, one The Golden Trio would never let him live down.

But then another feeling crept over him. It almost felt as if he were being watched. He looked over the paper and found that Granger was staring back at him. He smirked.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." *Wow! I know I'm hot, but she's a mudblood. That's just creepy! She doesn't even deserve to look at me!* But his spirits raised as he saw that he was making her VERY uncomfortable. *Well, this day might not be so bad after all!*

A/N: yeah, chapter done! I know it's on the shorter side, but I like them this length. I don't want to fluff it up or bull-shit half of the way just to bulk it up a bit, I'm gonna divide where necessary! *sticks tongue out at readers. Just think that this way you have lots of good stopping points so you don't spend an hour trying to find your place just because the chapters too damn long! Oh! And don't worry, (especially sarah, your comment was very helpful! Thanks!!), they're not all "Oh! I suddenly love you!! Let's get together even though we've hated each other forever!" I hate it when fics do that, it's just way OOC, too, too much. It makes it no fun, at all. So the whole Hermione thinking Draco's kinda cute thing is for a couple reasons: a. she's 16, so YEAH!! Raging hormones! b. he's dead sexy and even an enemy can think so c. she is very mad at Ron and Harry and what better way to get back at them than side with their foe, even if it's subconscious? And d. if there aren't even the slightest, most tiny, sorta good feelings towards eachother nothing can happen. It just won't. So don't worry, I've got the story planned in my head it's gonna take something BIG to bring them together. but I'm not telling!! Nanny, nanny, boo-boo!! Mwahahahaha!!! *breaks down in fits of evil laughter but pauses long enough to post second chapter* Hope ya like it!!! REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!