Yay I got a review! Thank you very much, hagridlover. Consequently, she suggested that I add a disclaimer, and I am.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or anything in the series. That would be ©JK Rowling. I do not own Hermione or Draco or Harry or Ron, but I do own an excessive number of video games.

Chapter 2: Something Other Than Jogging

The day broke with a gleam that filtered between the gaps of the scarlet curtains in Hermione's room. She was head girl, and was accordingly allotted quite an extravagant room, decorated in Gryffindor gold and scarlet, with a spacious bathroom. The taps shot out different-colored bubble baths, a smaller version of the Prefect's bathroom, which was really more like a bubbling swimming pool. She enjoyed her privacy, though, and preferred her own cozy bathroom to sharing one with other sweaty prefects, something she was forced to endure for two years. There were definite benefits to being head girl. Apart from having to see head boy Draco Malfoy every so often, to share duties. How he made the cut, she still wondered.

Thinking of Malfoy, Hermione blushed to remember the incident last night. Her excuse to Harry was worse than pathetic, and she desperately hoped that Malfoy had not recognized her.

The light from her window was reminding her of how tired she was, wrung out from physical exhaustion from sprinting the previous night. Hermione groaned from the memory. She got dressed, putting on her everyday school robes, with her uniform skirt and sweater underneath. She thought of taking a wet brush to her hair, in hopes of taming it today, but stopped before the thought was formed; it was failed before she even attempted it. Another groan, and she picked up her school bags, dreading an encounter with anyone. Harry was bound to ask questions, to discover the real reason she acted so out of character, and she was still holding onto hope that Draco was oblivious of the real culprit.

"Hey! Hermione!" Harry beamed. It was quite fitting that the person Hermione was most dreading speaking to happened to be the first lovely face she saw in the morning.

"'Lo, harry," Hermione said, quite monotone, still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. In hopes of avoiding the hot topic, Hermione began to talk incessantly, something she was quite good at under pressure.

"Well! I was so busy catching up on homework and all that I fell asleep at 2 in the morning! I wish we didn't have our first classes so early. How's Hedwig doing? I might have to borrow her later…my parents are going to be worried that I haven't written them in awhile. I was reading this muggle fantasy novel, and it was really quite fascinating. You should check it out sometime, Harry. I know you don't read-"

"Hermione."

"-for leisure all that often, but this one is really a must-read." Just a few dozen steps from the Great Hall.

"Hermione."

"Did you have something to say? I was just going to mention that Ron seemed awfully quiet yesterday. Anything up with him? You seem to know everything before I do, since I've got my nose in a book half the time." Almost there, just 5 steps. Hopefully the prospect of food would make Harry temporarily forgetful. Most likely.

"Hermione!" Now Harry was starting to look displeased. Uh oh.

"OH! Just look at the weather outside!" Hermione gestured hugely at the floor-to-wall windows set in along the corridors. "Isn't it lovely?"

"Hermione Jane Granger, stop talking for an instant," Harry had physically hindered their progress toward the lunchroom by stepping bodily in front of her and placing both hands on her shoulders. "I think we need to talk."

Damn. So close.

"Fine, Harry, but I don't see what's so important that we can't discuss it over breakfast." Ooh, mistake. There was much that, should the truth be revealed, was not to be heard by every nosy little ear (wha?) in the Great Hall.

"Better yet, how about we save this conversation for after breakfast?" Hermione was now displaying her best show of teeth and ushering Harry into the Great Hall, to his very embarassed rebuttals.

"Hermione!" Harry said for the fourth time, in exasperation. Then, after seeing the puppy look on Hermione's face, and, more convincing, catching a whiff of someone's sausages, he gave up and got to stuffing his face.

Ron joined the pair, wondering why Hermione looked so relieved and Harry looked so piggish.

"I on," Harry spluttered between chewing huge bites of bacon.

"Hey Harry." Ron sat between the two, and eyed Hermione's hair for a moment (it was more bushy than normal this morning) before greeting his other best friend.

"Morning, Hermione. What have you been up to? I didn't catch you last night."

Immediately Hermione looked much less relieved and much more antsy.
"Oh! Nothing really. Just writing my paper on Stonehedge, er, henge."

"Sounds boring to me!" Ron had already tired of the conversation and now joined Harry in attempting to set a world record for most bacon consumed in a single sitting.

Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered something along the lines of pigs.

That was when she sensed a certain cold stare that was rolling sheets of ice down her neck, and turned around reluctantly to see Draco Malfoy staring quite intently in their direction. She quickly whipped her head around and stared at her pancakes, and the whipped cream that was quickly melting into something quite unappetizing. No problem, Hermione thought. Draco's always eyeing us evilly. He's just planning some big scheme to call attention to my being muggleborn and Ron's being poor and Harry's saving the world several times. No big change there.

She polished her head girl badge with her sleeve, out of habit, never quite satisfied with its gleam. She was reassured for the moment that nothing had changed between her and Draco. She attempted to eat a bit of her bacon, not quite up to Harry and Ron's standard of ingestion, but reasonable considering the very unsettled feeling at the bottom of her stomach. Hopefully the other two weren't noticing anything wrong. She glanced up, quite certain that they had not noticed anything at all. Harry was now looking quite pleased, patting his belly. Ron was obviously daydreaming, probably imagining what was for dinner. It was quite a shock that neither of them were as obese as Harry's infamously large cousin Dudley, but they trained for quidditch more often than they ate, believe it or not. Both boys had very toned figures, and their growth in height had long surpassed Hermione's. They were objects of desire, it seemed, through the school. Hermione had known them much too long to see them in such light. They were really just best friends and occasionally acted like protective brothers.

The rumble of excited conversation turned into a shuffling and creaking as people began leaving for classes. Hermione was one of the first out the door, beckoning Harry and Ron along to Potions, which was the first class of the day. She suddenly felt a drop in body warmth and a curious scent of something like jasmine leaves drenched in wine. It was intoxicatingly sweet, and a pair of calculating grey eyes suddenly found hers. Her breathing was suddenly quite a bit labored, and she found that she could not tear her gaze from his. Oh my, she thought, and suddenly realized that staring at him any longer might jar his memory of the other night, when a set of amber eyes were turned toward him in the same way. So Hermione somehow found the sense to look away. She was quite shaken, and her breath came a bit raggedly, though this time, she had done no running. The effect that a despicable Slytherin boy was having on her utterly amazed her, and she was glad those penetrating eyes were no longer looking at her, as if they could read her soul.

"Hermy? You okay?" Ron inquired, suddenly not daydreaming about food any longer.

"Yeah, yeah…" but Hermione was not. As long as she was unsure of what Draco was, she was far from okay.

Potions in the dungeon was a nightmare for Hermione. The moment they had gotten themselves settled, Harry had attacked Hermione with questions.

"I know you weren't exercising last night, Herm. I've never seen you run so fast in your life. Care to spill? Was someone after you? Because you know that Ron and I could take care of that git easiliy."

"No…" Harry was certainly not onto her, so she decided to take the "hurt friend" approach. "Honestly, Harry, if you don't trust me when I say something, I don't know what kind of friendship we have."

"No, no Hermione. That's not at all what I meant. I just thought that, in the moment, you might have said something untruthful. And you seemed very flustered, which I think was a result of something other than jogging."

Now Hermione felt a bit bad. Her friend deserved the truth.

"Okay Harry. I'll tell you." Hermione didn't even know how to explain. Her mouth was drying up as she spoke, and she was sure her face was becoming a strawberry.

"Er…I saw…-"

"Page 324 please." Professor Snape interrupted Hermione's reluctant confession at quite an appropriate spot. So appropriate, it might have been planned. Potions proceeded. Hermione snuck glances at Malfoy. Harry and Ron snuck suspicious glances at Hermione. Snape stared blatantly at all of them, quite amused.

And the worst thing that might have happened did indeed happen. Draco Malfoy winked at Hermione Granger. Not just a twitch of an eye. A definite, surly, knowing wink. It was the most confusing, annoying thing he could have done, and now Hermione was certain that he knew. He knew that she had spied on him, and she deeply hoped that didn't mean she owed him anything. She let out a sigh that blew a lock of her hair across her forehead, and continued grinding her griffin nails, letting her hair over her now very flushed face.

Oooh, and the plot…searches for non-cliché bubbles..? Haha. Double, double, toil and trouble…that's enough of that, then. I would like to have reviews. They are very good for my fragile self-confidence. :oP