A/N:  Thanks to all our reviewers:

Lemonly: Thanks for adding up to your favourites list, we're flattered.

TheSecretCharacter,

Vulcan22: Sorry you're not a fan of the spontaneous slash, that was actually the point of it, that it was spontaneously slashy.

Wildcat,

CrimsonTearsOfPain,

JillSter,

Katrina,

Hillary: Your wish is our command, something fluffy this way comes…just not yet unfortunately.

Kissage: How is France Katie?

Idril.tinuviel.

On with the story:

It was a long moment before Draco, first, regained his composure and leapt back as though stung, snatching his hand away.

"What? No!" both protested in unison, their expressions so reminiscent of guilty surprise that Hermione's smile lapsed into a fit of spluttered, muffled giggles. Ron stood two steps behind her, freckled face completely bemused, scowling instinctively at Malfoy.  Draco who, head lowered studiously once again, was deep in concentration and completely oblivious to the attention he was getting.

Hermione transformed two of her quills into chairs for herself and Ron and sat quietly down, indicating at a still scowling Ron for him to do the same. She was still trying to smother her giggles the whole while. Harry semi glared at Hermione, who tried to stop laughing. "So what did you find?" Harry asked her, although he looked at Ron.

"She found a decharming spell that will work on the parchment." Ron answered, having enough sense to whisper even though Draco was seemingly oblivious. "Has she tried it?" Harry answered.

"Yes and it does work!" Hermione butted in, her laughing fit finally deflated. "And I don't appreciate being talked about as though I'm not here!" Harry and Ron just sniggered. Hermione's eyes rolled and waited for them to finish. "So what was going on between you and Malfoy?" Hermione asked, her curiosity finally getting the better of her. "Nothing!" Harry protested, his face turning red. Hermione arched an eyebrow, smirking while Ron just looked disbelieving. "Well it certainly looked like something." Hermione replied airily. Harry spluttered.

"What did you think we were doing?!" he almost screamed, his face turning a darker red. Draco looked up at Harry's outburst. Harry scowled at him and he just smirked and went back to reading his parchment. Lowering his voice Harry spoke as Hermione opened her mouth to answer, "Never mind, I don't even want to know, but whatever your twisted mind was thinking it wasn't that!" Harry's tone had died down into a teasing one by the end of his sentence but he had buried his head back into his parchment signalling that he didn't want to talk about it any more, so Hermione just smirked and left it. Ron sat there, open mouthed, trying to work out what had just happened.

A couple of moments later, Hermione nudged Harry. "I've de charmed the parchment but I need to sit next to Ron so that we can both read it." Harry rolled his eyes and stood up so Hermione could switch seats. He sank back into the chair next to Draco and watched amusedly as Ron and Hermione's head bent very close together, supposedly reading the parchment, although Harry suspected they were whispering. Shaking his head Harry bent once again over his parchment, trying to study.

Ten minutes later, Draco could no longer keep quiet: his curiosity making him once again speak to Harry. "Do I really want to know what we were not doing?" he implored, glancing over at Harry, who was glaring at his parchment. Harry offered no answer in words, just shook his head not looking at Draco. Draco sat quietly thinking for a few moments, gazing absently at his own parchment. "Well that was all the information that I needed to know, as if I hadn't already figured it out." He looked up again and stared intently at Harry, trying to gauge his reaction. Harry looked up briefly but looked down again as soon as his emerald eyes met Draco's steely grey ones. To Draco's surprise, although he was slightly expecting it, Harry started to blush once again, his face, neck and ears turning a pale shade of red. "Aaand Potter is blushing, why is Potter blushing?" Harry's face turned redder at Draco's absent-minded comment and started scribbling something on his parchment, pressing harder than necessary, causing the quill to splinter at the tip. "Damn it." Harry muttered not looking up. Hermione and Ron looked up at Harry's muttered comment and saw him gazing forlornly at his destroyed quill. Hermione glanced at Draco too who was also staring at Harry's bent head. Draco felt someone else's eyes on him and looked up to meet Hermione's bright eyes. "Aaand now I'm blushing. Which can't be good." Draco stated in his mind, bowing his head so lowly over his parchment that his hair was traipsing over it, his pale complexion turning an extremely obvious shade of glowing pink. Hermione passed Harry a fresh quill which Harry accepted with a brief smile in her general direction. The four of them returned to their work in silence once again, until Draco could no longer hold his tongue once again.

"What's that doing here?" Draco questioned sardonically, pointing to Ron with an elegant flick of his wand hand, quill still in it. Ink splattered across Ron's face as he looked up and over Hermione's parchment. She glared at Draco, who just smirked, then murmured a quick vanishing spell at the ink. All three Gryffindors ignored Draco, Ron only stopping glowering at him when Hermione nudged him (for the third time). Harry didn't even bother to look up. Draco tried again, knowing that eventually one of them would snap at him, "Does he know?" Draco's request was greeted by stony silence, none of them even bothering to spare him a withering glare. "Ok, I admit that was probably not the most well thought out of questions." The only acknowledgement of Draco's statement was a small snort from Ron. Draco rolled his eyes at Ron's undignified manner. Draco waited for another few moments to make sure none of them were going to answer him. "You're not going to tell me are you?" Draco stated rather than asked, his voice still calm and collected although his patience was rather fractured. "Dare I ask what happened to the whole 'pact of secrecy'?" The time between that comment and the next was shorter than any of the others. "Figures, I guessed not." The silence became prominent once again as Draco thought about how next to infuriate the boy who lived.

"I don't know which disturbs me more." Was Draco's next carefully calculated statement. He lowered his head to study his parchment again before continuing. "That you pricks have decharmed the parchment so he can read it or that you haven't. In which case he's staring at it and hasn't yet realised there's nothing written there." This served Draco's purpose exactly. Ron threw a punch at Draco. Draco deflected it easily by simply raising his hand and pushing Ron's fist away. The sudden change in the direction of his fist and his momentum sent Ron sprawling to the floor. Harry and Hermione glared open mouthed at Draco whilst Ron picked himself haughtily off the floor and stormed out of the private little Draco's drawled reply. "I'm elated by the fact that none of you are ever going to speak to me, besides you talked didn't you?" he continued, smirking superiorly as Harry clenched his jaw and went back to reading the rules, although he was re reading the same rule over and over again.  Hermione was once again watching the two boys interact with a bemused expression across her features.

When Draco realised that neither of the two remaining Gryffindors were making any move to follow Ron he couldn't resist commenting. "I wasn't the only one unable to tolerate his company, then? I can't say I blame you..." he jibed the two. Focusing on ignoring Draco, Harry turned to Hermione, "Do you think I should go after him?" he asked her. Hermione nodded, "Or do you want me to go?" she offered. Harry shook his head. "Its alright, I'll go." He told her stretching as he stood up from his chair. "I need to get out of here anyway." He muttered under his breath leaving a Hermione with a smirking Draco. Not a very good combination, especially when both had knowledge to match the other and neither were disposed to be particularly civil.

"That wasn't very nice, you know. Then again, I'm hardly surprised...since when were Slytherins known for their civility and manners?" Hermione remarked suddenly, casting the blonde boy a reproachful frown as she watched Harry striding away.

"And you would know? You're barely a witch, let alone a Slytherin...you shouldn't belittle what you don't understand." Draco remarked coolly, not bothering to turn his gaze back to her face but his now wearing a light smirk. Her eyes met his levelly, something of a challenge in them, forcing him to look at her.

"Not being a witch or a wizard doesn't make you any less human, everyone has feelings and can have manners, they just have to have the conscience to use them. Something that even your brains in magic doesn't help you to possess."  She announced quietly, her voice even and unfaltering…it had been long years since she was afraid of Draco Malfoy, and even he knew it. Still, his knowing smile irritated her beyond words, and she descended to remarking:

"I'm a better witch than you will ever be a wizard!" under her breath, scowling. Draco merely smiled, wolfishly, taking his time over his answer and strumming manicured fingernails on the tabletop as he thought.

"I never said you weren't human, Granger...unfortunate for me but we share the same species, I'm afraid. But no-one is any better than their beginnings, that isn't how the world works. Look at Weasley...you never take your eyes off him anyway!" He laughed, humourlessly, and turned back to the list, the last comment rather more cutting than he meant, icy and mocking.

 Hermione sighed, infuriated and shocked by his brazen allegation,  her voice ascending a pitch or two in surprised outrage. "Ron has better beginnings than you, he may not have larges amount of access money floating around but he doesn't need it, he has all the charm, wit and manners for himself without his father having to buy them for him!" she announced, cuttingly, shuffling parchments aimlessly in her hands as she glared at him, her manner rivaling his for icy intent. Thought Draco, now, was anything but icy: spluttering with genuine laughter that caught him by surprise, he smirked at her, amused beyond words. "Charm, wit and...what was that last one? Manners? They say love is blind, but you have to be joking...are we talking about the same Weasley?" he drawled, ironic and icily sarcastic, shaking his head whimsically at the announcement.

"Yes, we are, how many other Weasleys do you know in Hogwarts who aren't girls? And who said anything about love? And anyway, just because Ron doesn't waste his manners on the likes of you doesn't mean he doesn't possess them. You are just not worth wasting them on." Hermione snapped, nettled by his humor and gradually becoming more irritated with him.

"That's as well...to see Weasley attempting manners might be the death of me. As for love: No-one, Granger! That's the amusing thing...don't you see?" Draco exclaimed, incredulous and a little wearied: If he could see it, surely they could!?

"See what?" -Hermione exclaimed, exasperated- "I know perfectly well how I feel! Even if I were in love, why would I tell you? You would only twist it against me." She added sharply, lip curling in disgust at his manner.

"Oh, forget it..." –he dismissed, grinning but utterly exasperated- "For someone so intelligent you can be infuriating, I shan't interfere. Though I'm still incredulous. I probably would, wouldn't I? I'm a Slytherin, after all..." he added, dryly now, well aware of her view of Slytherins, in general. And him in particular.

"Exactly. Glad you see my point of view." –Hermione concluded contently, nodding. "And anyways why are you so interested in our lives?" she added as an afterthought, arching a brow at the blonde sitting opposite in veiled suspicion.

"I'm actually not...I'm sorry to disappoint you with the confession, but I actually take no interest whatsoever in your lives. I doubt they would warrant my time..." -Draco drawled, rolling his eyes- "Tell me, what are you doing here? You've already learnt these accursed rules anyway, and your comrades have stormed off..." he asked dispassionately, gesturing after Harry and Ron's exit dryly. Hermione shook her head wearily at his manner, rolling her eyes.

"For someone with no interest in our lives you ask an awful lot of questions. I'm here because I can be here if I wish, and I was wondering what you were like on your own outside of lessons." Hermione announced, her tone suggesting that her findings had hardly been to her liking.

"I'm afraid I'm much the same, if you were expecting any revelations I must be disappointing you terribly...you certainly shan't find a shred more civility in me here than you have previously. I've seven-hundred and Merlin knows rules to learn, it doesn't do much for my temper, I must admit..." was Draco's patient answer, shuffling the parchment impatiently as he tried to find where he had reached to, infuriated. This was taking so long, even longer with Granger pestering him. No prizes for guessing who put her up to that…

"That's true. Learning rules tries the patience but it must be done however tiresome....in fear of getting snapped at how many have you got?" Hermione admitted, the question almost careful, cautious, catching the irritation in Draco's tone.

"Seven hundred and sixty four...I would have thought you of all people would recall that, Granger! I've learned about...the first thirty." He murmured, not looking up but running a hand obligingly over the first few inches to count them for her. Only thirty? This was going to take him forever…

"Yes I realise that, I meant how many have you actually memorised?" Hermione snapped, tiring of his condescending tone…how dare he speak as though he was tolerating her presence, doing her a big favour just by speaking to her!?

"However much you would like to think I am stupid, Malfoy, I am not that stupid." She finished icily, glaring at him.

"I don't think you're stupid, Granger...by reflection, it would make me stupid if I refused to acknowledge the fact. The whole school knows you're clever, it simply doesn't make you likeable." Draco sighed, the words carefully measured and as condescending as ever…he had admitted, though, that she was intelligent. It was a compliment with a sting in the tail, in true Malfoy style, but he had meant it sincerely.

"Thank you." Hermione stuttered, caught off guard by his admission, suddenly feeling rather awkward…she wasn't sure how to act around Draco if he wasn't snapping and making sarcastic comments, Draco docile was strange…! "No one could ever make you stupid in your knowledge however hard they try." She conceded timidly, watching him cautiously out of the corner of one eye.

"And how do you know it doesn't make me likeable? Have you ever taken the time to talk to me rather than just call me a mudblood." She added, almost relieved that he had added some nasty twist to the end, it was more…Draco. Familiar.

"Look, Granger, I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't want to talk to you other than to call you a mudblood, I don't actually have any interest in you whatsoever! You'd better not say that too loud, Potter would be ashamed of you, being civil..." Draco snapped quickly, realising how civil their conversation was becoming, and blinking, looking up in surprise. Hermione smiled benignly at the shocked expression, and stifled a laugh as he hurriedly concealed it, with the cutting comment.

"What Harry doesn't know can't harm him. You realise calling me a mudblood has no effect on me whatsoever? I do realise you do it to wind Ron up, if you hadn't already figured that one out." Hermione added slyly, well aware that she knew more of Draco's tactics than he realised, smirking.

"But Weasley is so very volatile, and yet has so little to say in his own defence...I can't help his being over-sensitive. Or violent." Draco explained, and this time his tone was mocking and patronizing once again, casting a deprecating look towards the doors where Ron had stormed away.

"You could not provoke him!" Hermione snapped in reply, angry. "Then maybe you would both be in a little less trouble...and Ron is only violent around you." Draco smiled, childishly, aware that he was irritating her and only replying all the more teasingly for that.

"I could...I suppose. It did occur to me, you know, but I can never quite resist irritating him, it's so easily done. Is he really? He's not very good at it..." he laughed, mockingly, shaking his head and miming the easily deflected punch rather theatrically, sniggering.

"At what? Being violent? And that's a bad thing because...?" Hermione demanded, lowering her face to his, suddenly adamant to wipe away that cruel smile.  "Just because you have been taught all your life how to fight doesn't mean everyone else has! For normal people fighting is an instinct only used for self-preservation." She added slightingly, casting him a glare. It fell short when she realised that the blonde boy had lowered his head back to work, the smile having disappeared instantly. He had tensed his shoulders slightly, suddenly cold and guarded, no longer playful. Two dusky pink patches of colour stained alabaster cheeks, though he hid it carefully.

"You know nothing about my life, Granger. Never presume otherwise." He snapped, icily, his words clipped and succinct, brief. He sounded angry. Hermione had the sense to realise that she had hit a sore spot, judging by Draco's reaction, and frowned slightly. Any good person would feel guilt, seeing him so easily discomfited.

"I'm sorry." She murmured meekly, guilt and apology written in her voice. "Learnt anymore of the rules?" She added, changing the subject quickly, her voice falsely light.

"Don't apologise to me, either..." Draco snapped, annoyed though he couldn't quite pinpoint why, adding under his breath: "it's almost a shame that the irony of what you just said is lost on you, really."

 "What?" he started slightly, not quite concentrating, her last words lost to him. He was glad, though, to change the subject.  "Oh, no, not really...fifty or so. How did you manage them all so quickly, at this rate I shall be here all weekend!?"

"I learnt them so quickly because I have a good memory. Contrary to what you may think I don't spend all my spare time studying," Hermione snapped, frowning at his biting tone…Draco was impossible to fathom, sometimes he was so snobby and condescending and hateful, yet she had seen today that he could almost speak civilly to her…it was so strange. Yet the comment earlier had really stung him, for whatever reason. The irony of her words? What did he mean?

"They're not that hard, many of them are very similar." She added a little more gently, unable to resist trying to help…watching other people study ineffectually was so irritating!

"I know, I know...it's just as well, once I've learnt the first hundred they correspond, I think if I read through them once or twice I could work out each one...misuse, punishment, preparation, misuse, punishment..." Draco mused, almost to himself, running one hand down the list. His words were absent, not realising he had neglected his usual cutting tone, intent on the parchment that held him so infuriatingly a captive.

"So what you do is skim read all them, taking note of key words, and see how many you can remember when you go through them again." Hermione concluded, smiling as he looked up again, as though he had been civil, forgetting who he was. He smiled, too. It wasn't the dry, humorless smile she was so used to associating with Draco. This was genuine, grateful and slightly wry.

"Key words, right...no wonder it's taking so long, I keep being tempted to take them word-by-word." He laughed softly at himself, shaking his head and stretching the list out further. He looked up, nodding to Hermione, more grateful for the help than he would let on. "Good point, thanks."

At that point, looking over her shoulder, Draco's cold gray eyes caught two approaching figures behind her: Ron and Harry returning. He looked back to the parchment, falling silent. They didn't need to know that he and Granger hadn't been at each other's throats! How would that look, considering his reputation?

^^  Please R&R. Ask and thy shall receive the next chapter…