Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, they belong to J.K Rowling. I only own the plot.

A/N: Thank you so much for all you reviews, I truly appreciate them.

Chapter Four – Falling Apart

"Hello Granger," said Draco smirking.

"Oh dear lord," thought Hermione.

"Hi Draco," said Hermione just trying to be polite before Snape might think of some stupid comment if she didn't greet Draco properly. Though she knew how much Snape was enjoying making her spend detention with the trios most annoying enemy Draco.

"Now, get this done fast and make sure you put the right labels on the right bottles, wouldn't want some 1st year blowing his friends up, would we?" said the Professor adopting Draco's smirk, and then he left the room, slamming the door just hard enough to make Hermione shiver.

A strange noise came from behind Hermione and made her turn around, at first she wasn't sure what it was, but then she realized that it was Draco who made that sound. He was laughing.

"Excuse me, but what is it you find so funny?" said Hermione strangely annoyed by his laugh.

"I was just thinking about how funny it is that while I'll be sitting over there," he pointed at a chair near the small window, "you'll be serving the detention you deserve."

Hermione looked at him with a disapproving look and took a deep breath.

"What?" she said as calmly as she could, though she already felt like slapping him just for being in the same room as her.

"You heard me, and I'm pretty sure that a geek like you understood it too, or perhaps I am mistaking, maybe your brain has gotten infected with your dirty blood and stopped working, huh?" said Draco cocky, with a smirk and then shrugged.

Hermione felt the rage boil inside of her. 'Who the hell does he think he is? How dare he? Especially after he apologized, not that I have forgiven him, but he kissed me,' thought Hermione and realized that she had thought he had meant the kiss and that he actually liked her, 'Oh, how stupid am I? I can't believe this..' Hermione's thought-train was broken off, before she had even had time to think of something to say back to him, but now he was laughing again.

"Ah, don't worry Granger, I'm just kidding," said Draco and looked self- assured.

"Weird sense of humor you have," said Hermione and felt a bit calmer inside now, "but honestly, I don't have time for your little witty remarks, let's just get to work now, if you take those four tables, then I take the other four."

"Err, Granger, I wasn't kidding about that," said Draco, "I will be sitting over there while you'll do the work."

Hermione was just about to punch him, but then Draco smiled at her and she realized that it was just another silly joke.

They went to work and were both quiet for a while. Hermione couldn't help, but to glance over at Draco regularly. He worked fast and looked like he had everything under control. Once in a while a blond tuft of hair would fall in his eyes and he would with smooth movement put it back in place. It was weird to see this other version of Draco than she was used to. Even though, he had been annoying her from the moment he entered the room, he still seemed different to her, a bit more relaxed, he had even been able to smile at her, not just his usual smirk, but a real smile.

"So are you done yet?" said Draco suddenly.

Hermione's heart beat faster. Had he seen her watching him?

"Err.. hmm.. What do you mean?" said Hermione and felt her cheeks becoming a light shade of pink.

"With the bottles! What else?" said Draco and looked at with a wondering expression.

"Oh yeah, right. Yes, I am.." said Hermione, but noticed she was only at her third table, "not."

"Only what you could expect," said Draco, "well, then I'll just finish your last table."

Hermione gaped at Draco, who was now helping Hermione with her bottles. 'That boy just keeps surprising me,' thought Hermione and smiled to herself.

Soon they were finished and Hermione looked at Draco.

"Thank you," she said and for the first time, ever, she smiled genuinely at Draco.

"You're welcome, but don't get used to it," said Draco and winked, and then he left the dungeon and Hermione, who was speechless because of the way Draco had acted. She too left the dungeon and made her way back to the Gryffindor common room. There weren't many students roaming the halls now, so Hermione gave into all the thoughts screaming in her head. 'There was definitely something different about Draco today," she thought, 'he seemed so...so nice and civilized, I've never seen him this way. Did somebody cast a spell on him?' thought Hermione and laughed to herself, she couldn't help, but to notice that Draco's name was present in her thoughts all the time, and she wasn't disgusted, instead she felt... she felt like she had met a whole new Draco and she liked him. 'I can't believe this!' thought Hermione, 'what is wrong with me? Draco is NOT a nice person and he is not interested in you!' Hermione told herself and tried to convince herself that it was true, 'though it did seem kind of...odd, that Draco got detention for something so stupid as roaming the halls after dark. Maybe he just did that to be with me,' thought she smiling, but then the smile faded, 'or maybe you're just completely delusional and should be locked up in some mental institution, for being so silly and ridiculous to think that Draco is interested in you, you're everything he despises,' she thought and shook her head and opened the door to her room.

She threw herself on the bed, 'Geez, this is screwed up,' she thought and heard someone knocking on her door.

She got up and walked to the door, opened it and saw Harry and Ron outside.

"Oh, it's you. Hi guys," said Hermione and put on a little smile.

"Hi Hermione, we were just heading towards the Great Hall and thought you'd might come down and have dinner with us," said Harry and smiled.

Hermione who couldn't resist Harry's charming smile, said yes and the three of them went down to have dinner.

"So where have you been all day?" asked Ron.

"Yeah, we went looking for you in the library, but we couldn't find you anywhere," added Harry.

"Oh well, I was in the dungeons," said Hermione. The boys looked at her with wondering, strange expressions, "you know, serving the detention I so bravely earned myself yesterday," continued Hermione with irony.

"Oh!" said the boys at the same time.

"So what annoyingly evil punishment had Snape thought of this time?" asked Harry.

"Well, we.. erm.. I labeled potion bottles," answered Hermione with a vain expression.

Ron broke out in laugh and Harry too, a few seconds after.

"Seriously?" laughed Harry.

"Snape has done some seriously slacking off with the whole evil ways to torture students!" laughed Ron.

Hermione didn't really know how to act, so she just laughed along for a while, but then she felt a feeling of agony growing inside of her.

"Well, if it helps, then I have to do detention tomorrow too, and probably for the rest of the semester," said Hermione seriously.

The two boys stopped with the laughing and a guilty look appeared on their faces. They looked at Hermione for a while, to see if they could read what she felt, but then gave up and started talking about something Hermione didn't pay any attention to, because she just noticed that a certain person had just entered the Great Hall and now her eyes dwelled on him, just like they had done when he had been working with her not long ago, but here she could watch him from afar and he wouldn't notice her.

She watched how Draco so elegantly walked to his seat, the way his lips moved when he spoke, the way he blinked.. 'Whoa, wake up Pansy! What is wrong with you,' thought Hermione and immediately looked down at her plate, 'I seriously need to get a grip.'

"What do you think Hermione?" asked Ron suddenly and awoke Hermione from her own world.

"Err, what? Sorry, I was just thinking...about some.. homework," lied Hermione.

"Err.. yeah, okay, but what do you think? I mean, Harry is doubting our victory in the match against Slytherin next Saturday, would you believe that?" said Ron and then turned his attention to Harry, "Of course we're gonna win, mate!"

"Yeah sure," said Hermione and nodded like she cared. 'Gosh, do they ever think about something else besides Quidditch?' thought she. The boys' talk continued on the subject of Quidditch, 'Apparently not,' thought she, and let her eyes glance over at Draco once more, she saw Pansy Parkinson all over Draco, but Draco didn't seem to care, well he talked with her, but Hermione noticed something in his eyes that told her that his mind was elsewhere and for a second Hermione was sure that he had glanced over at her too. Hermione was now done with her dinner and stood.

"I'll see you later guys," she said to the boys and then left them without giving them a chance to answer.

Hermione went back to her room and sat on the bed, just staring at the wall. She sat like that for a while, and then she got ready for the night and went to bed. She realized that she hadn't done any of her homework for tomorrow, honestly she hadn't had the time for it and now she was too drained and depressed to do it, so instead she let the heaviness of her tiredness take over her and her eyes closed and she entered the land of dreams.

Next morning on her way to the Great Hall she ran into Ron. He looked more tired than usual, the area around his eyes were noticeable darker.

"Ron, is something wrong?" she asked.

"That's interesting, I wanted to ask you the same thing," he answered without any expression, just a cold look in his eyes.

Hermione looked away, but then pulled herself together and looked him directly in the eyes.

"What makes you think there's something wrong?" she answered just as cold as his eyes.

"Seems to me that you've been avoiding me and Harry the last couple of days, well mostly me," he said and his eyes changed from cold to a searching and desperate look.

"Well, I... I've just been really busy, you know, homework and detention and stuff," answered Hermione.

"So everything is cool? Also between the two of us?" asked Ron bravely.

"Yeah, definitely. Everything's fine," lied Hermione, she felt that things had definitely changed.

"Okay, then I'll see you later," said Ron smiling.

"Sure," said Hermione and managed to force a little smile on. Ron turned and walked in the opposite direction of the Great Hall, "Hey, wait! Where are you going? Breakfast the other way Ron!" called Hermione. "I'm going to Quidditch practice, gotta be ready to take the snakes down on Saturday," he said smiling.

"In your dreams Weasley!" said a voice from behind Hermione that shocked her and she started. She turned around and a well-known figure stepped out of the shadows.

"Malfoy, what are you doing here?" said Ron angrily and walked towards him.

"I don't see why that's any of your business," said Draco and sneered.

"Well it is!" snapped Ron, "why don't you just go back to your dungeons where you belong?"

"Don't worry, I'm not planning on staying in this area for long, wouldn't want to get infected by the same air that you breathe," said Draco contemptuously.

Ron looked like he was about to punch Malfoy right in the face, so Hermione quickly got in between them.

"Boys! Please behave, or you'll get us all into trouble! Now, I can't believe you're both too immature to even be in the same room together without mocking each other! Now, stop it!" Hermione said raising her voice threateningly, and then walked away towards the Great Hall, and left the boys gaping and staring after her.

Hermione went into the Great Hall and got her breakfast. She sat quietly while she ate, and thought about what she had just done. She felt good about it. 'I am just so sick of all the mocking and torture, and the endless drag of it! Good thing, I yelled at them, maybe now they'll try and behave themselves like young adults...' thought she and then sighed, 'Geez, I sound like my mother... But why can't we just get along, it would make it so much easier,' thought she. She decided to not think about that now and instead she wanted this to be a good day, and by the end of her breakfast, she was in a really good mood and she was even humming a on her way to class.

Hermione's classes went easily, and even though she hadn't studied she still managed to have the answers for the questions she was asked. Around two o'clock she had some time off before she had to go to the dungeons to serve detention, well actually Snape hadn't said anything about where and what time her detention would be today, but Hermione just assumed that it would in the dungeons and same time as the previous day.

She went to the library in her time off. She sat quietly and read in her Transfiguration book when someone suddenly stood infront of her on the other side of the table, blocking the sunlight coming through the window. Hermione looked up and saw her stalker, Draco.

"Draco? What are you doing here?" asked Hermione surprised, and observed Draco as he walked around the table and stopped when he was right behind her. Hermione started when he put his hands on her shoulders.

"Easy now," said Draco, as he gently removed her brown hair from her shoulders. He let his finger touch the skin of her neck. Hermione froze. He ran his finger along her neck. Hermione felt her heart beating faster and her hands trembling. "Draco, what are you doing?" said Hermione insecurely, and felt how he let both his hands rest on her shoulders again. Suddenly she could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin. He held his face right next to her ear and in a soft whisper he said, "I just came to tell that I will not be able to spend detention with you today 'cause I have other plans. I know you must be heartbroken now, but don't worry Granger, I'll schedule another..." he hesitated, then said, "..date, so we can spend some quality time together."

He was gone before Hermione could respond in any way, so she sat quietly and stared into the air, but was interrupted when someone suddenly slammed his hands in the table.

"What did he want?" said Ron angrily.
-------------------------------------------------

So what do you think? Did you like it? Not? Please review.

Chapter Five won't be up until around the beginning of July.