-The Way the Cookie Crumbles-

The study session lasted until 10:30. They were still diligently looking things up and scribbling them down when Hermione glanced at her watch and sighed. "Malfoy, it's half past ten. I think we should call it a night."

"Fine by me. You've kept me working all night."

"Just cut the crap and help me clean up, Malfoy." They cleaned up all of their materials tiredly and headed toward the exit of the library. As they were walking, Hermione tripped and dropped all of her books and parchment on the floor. "Oh, I'm so clumsy." She got to her knees and scrambled to pick up everything. Since no one was around, Draco did the gentlemanly thing and got down on his knees to help her pick everything up. As they were gathering things, Draco's hand accidentally brushed Hermione's. A shiver ran up his spine with disgust.

"How dare you touch me, Mudblood?" he spat. Hermione's face flitted through several emotions. First shock, then hurt, and finally, rage. She settled on that one.

"What gives you the right to talk to me that way!?" she screamed at him. "Just who do you think you are?"

"I'm a Malfoy, and that gives me the right to do whatever the hell I want!" he yelled right back. He was surprised at the stinging sensation on his cheek. It took him a moment to realize that Hermione had slapped him. He was outraged. But his fierce anger did not even begin to rival hers.

"If I could, I'd curse you into next week! You're so full of yourself it astounds me! I'll work with you because I have to. God, I hate you. I didn't think it was possible, but I really do. I loath you, you egotistical bastard! Just leave. I can take care of myself. I don't need you!" Draco was shocked by her speech. No one he knew had the nerve.

"I—you—" Draco started, sputtering with anger.

"Save it, Malfoy. I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe you'll have realized by then what a jerk you are, though I sincerely doubt it. All I can do is hope." She stormed past him, her books and parchment in a messy bundle clutched at her breast, her cloak billowing out behind her as she walked quickly down the corridor. Hermione left a stunned Malfoy in her wake, trying to sort out for himself what on Earth had just happened. He'd been humiliated and beaten by a mudblood. That's what had just happened. He'd been told and slapped by a fricking mudblood. What in the hell was the world coming to? As he raged down the hall on noisy feet, he hoped with every ounce of being he had that he didn't run into anyone. He knew that beyond his control, he would beat them into a bloody pulp.

888888888888888888888

Hermione kept her quick pace all the way up to the girl's dorms. She banged open the door, startling more than a few of the slumbering girls inside. She fell onto her bed and buried her face in her pillow screaming with all her might. Malfoy was such a jerk. What did he think gave him the right to treat her as dirt beneath his feet? Nothing, that's what. He had no right. She would slap him again, a thousand times, to make him understand that. She was not to be messed with. She was strong and proud, and no spoiled brat was going to break her, least of all Malfoy, who was all talk, nothing more.

Hermione stripped off her clothes and slipped into her pajamas and into bed. She had cooled down a bit, the high of her anger subsiding, and she found herself to be exhausted. Like the night before, her eyelids became heavy, and she fell into a deep sleep, and not one of her dreams contained a certain pig-headed blond Slytherin.

8888888888888888888888

The next few days were quiet, each very much like the one before it. Hermione and all the other students settled comfortably back into the rhythm that was life at Hogwarts, and Hermione felt more content with each passing day. She still raged at Malfoy and yearned to be with Harry and Ron, but this was just the state of things, she had decided. Might as well make the best of it.

She was on her way to the library for her nightly meeting with Draco. How she hated going to meet him. He was such a jerk, so full of himself, so opposite to her. Why had Snape forced them to work together again? Oh yeah. Snape was evil. She had almost forgotten.

She walked as slowly as possible to what she had come to think of as their table at the back of the library. When Hermione arrived, the girl was incredibly surprised to find Draco there already. He had been early this time.

"Hello, Malfoy."

"Granger." He acknowledged her curtly.

"Are you ready to work? We have to boil the blood of platypus tonight. I reserved an empty classroom for that. Come on."

"As you wish, Granger. How long will this take?"

"Probably most of our three hours. If we want it done perfectly, we must do it slowly and thoroughly. Sorry. That's just the way the cookie crumbles."

"Whatever. Let's just get this over with. I want to spend as little time with you as possible, Mudblood."

"The feeling is mutual," Hermione replied, trying to keep her voice even at the mention of the cruel nickname. Draco got up, and they began the silent journey, side by side and rather uncomfortable, to the empty classroom Hermione had reserved for them.

"I already set up a cauldron and got the materials from Snape. All you have to do is help me set it all up."

"Me help you? Right," he said sarcastically.

"Are you going to help me or not," came the cool reply.

"Only because I have to, Muggle."

"Just shut up and help me, Malfoy. I'm in no mood for your infantile name calling."

"I'm getting to you, Granger. You're breaking out your vocabulary, and you only do that when you're pissed." Hermione's face took a deeper hue of crimson.

"Look, Malfoy. Can't we at least attempt to be civil toward each other?"

"I will never treat you civilly, Mudblood. Civil implies people, and you are hardly that." By this point Hermione was almost to her breaking point. Angry and hurt tears fell down her face in streams, staining her cheeks. As she continued to cry in front of her sworn enemy, Draco watched as her rage disappeared, to be replaced with shame and embarrassment. She had vowed long ago never to cry in front of him. Her eyes looked softer when they were full of sadness and tears. He had hurt her, he realized. The tears were because of him. Tears clung to her eyelashes and made them clump together, and her eyes continued to fill and overflow with the salty water. He had been forbidden to cry when he was two. Emotion was not allowed, and he didn't know how do deal with hers. Unconscious of what he was doing, he reached out and caught a tear on his fingertip, marveling at how it turned everything beautiful inside, making shimmering rainbows. "Granger, I—"

"Don't touch me, Malfoy. Let's just get this done," she said stonily, her voice void of emotion as she wiped shamefully at the tears that soiled her cheeks. Draco had thought that he was the only one who had taught himself to conceal his emotion. He was wrong. Her face went blank, and the tremble that came with the tears was gone. She was back to normal, and yet, Draco could sense something underneath the surface that she wasn't sharing with him. And why should she? It wasn't as though he wanted to know anyway…she was just a mudblood after all…

"Fine," he finally said.

They worked in silence for the rest of the time, stopping at 11:00 to bottle up the boiled blood and return all of the materials to their places. When they reached the door of the classroom, Hermione turned, her eyes full of her heart and her face showing none of it. "Goodnight, Draco. I will see you tomorrow," she said politely, her voice still empty of feeling.

"Yeah," he said. "Later." And then she was gone. It was not until he was back in his dorm that he realized she had called him Draco. He didn't like that. It threw him off guard. Granger was just full of little surprises. He presumed that in her haste and mix of emotions she had let his first name slip. It sounded foreign to him to hear her say it, after he had replayed her last comment in his head a few times. He would have to remind her tomorrow not to call him Draco.

A/N: Well? I hope it's up to snuff with all the other Draco/Hermiones you've read. I'm working really hard here, people, and I think that I am actually going to finish this one. I'm thinking, fifteen plus chapters? Sound okay to you? I hope so! They're not to OOC, are they? I'm trying to have them not be because I really feel that that spoils the story. The essence of the characters is really important.

Please leave a review!:)

-Ella-