Hermione put her head in her hands and refused to look up when Malfoy sat next to her. She wanted someone to slap her and wake her up from this horrible nightmare. Why did she have to go to the Astronomy tower that night...why did she have to stay and ask questions...why didn't she just leave? All of these questions were running through her mind as she stared at the darkness of her hands.

"We might as well start, Granger. We all know how much you hate to fall behind." Came Malfoy's drawling voice.

Hermione however refused to look up. Refused to give him that satisfaction of whatever he did. She knows that Snape only put them as partners on Malfoy's request.

"Just get out your goddamn ingredients Malfoy. The sooner this is over the better off we will both be." She said as cold as ice.

She didn't even wait for Malfoy to respond she just got her ingredients out of her bag and put them together the way that Snape had directed them to on the board.

"You seem a bit bitter today." Said Malfoy with a bit of laugh behind his voice.

"Just tell me what your up to, Malfoy. Why are you so interested in getting on my nerves? Why do you keep following me?" she asked finally facing him and looking him in the eyes.

"I don't know what you are talking about." He said in a fake innocent voice that was nothing like his own.

"Yes you do." Said Hermione looking back at her potions task at hand.

"You've been avoiding me." Said Malfoy after a few minutes of silence.

"I wonder why?" Hermione retorted in a sarcastic voice while rolling her eyes.

'Honestly, men are hopeless. You can't get through to them if your life depended on it.' Hermione thought as she started to mix her potion.

"Always the tough one aren't you?" Malfoy said.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" asked Hermione braving a look at him.

Malfoy stared at her eyes. There was a fire there that he hadn't seen since they had first kissed. He smirked at it. He knew he was getting to her.

"It just means that your act doesn't work on me." He said plainly.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" she asked getting angrier by the second.

"Lets just say that anyone can be broken." He said with a small smirk.

Hermione felt herself go red in the face. She couldn't believe that Malfoy had just said that to her. She bent her face down closer to the cauldron so that Malfoy couldn't see that she was blushing. She felt as though she had a million Goosebumps all over her skin. She sighed before lifting her head away from the cauldron. She looked over at her friends and saw that Harry with his arms across his chest with an angry look upon his face.

She looked down at her feet and then back at the cauldron. She took another deep breath and began to stir her potion again.

After the potions class was over she quickly put her finished potion in a vile and placed it on Snape's desk before leaving the classroom in just short of a run. She met up with Harry and Ron and they walked to lunch together.

"So how was being partnered with Malfoy. Bet you wanted to die." Said Ron to Hermione.

Hermione didn't answer him. She still felt as though she wasn't able to breath. The words that Malfoy had said were still ringing in her ears.

"Hermione?" asked Ron beginning to look a little worried.

Hermione looked up at him and painted on the best smile she could.

"Yes, it was absolutely dreadful." She said. It seemed to be a good enough answer for Ron because he didn't press the subject.

They sat in the Great Hall and began to eat their lunch. They laughed and had fun. When Harry and Ron started up a conversation on Quiddich, however, Hermione turned her attention to the book she had brought with her.

They made their way up to their common room when Hermione said she had to check out a book from the library for her next class. She said good-bye and made her way to the library. She looked among the shelves of books before she came upon the book that she needed.

She made her way toward Madam Prince's desk to check out the book when she heard a weird noise near the back of the library. She turned around and wondered if she should check it out. Curiosity got the better of her and she made her way toward the odd noise.

When she came to the back shelf she saw two students snogging in the corner. She cleared her throat and looked at them. They turned and smiled at her guiltily. She told them to go back to their common rooms before she took away any house points and they left as quickly as possible.

She knew that she should have taken points off right away but she had too much on her mind and decided to be nice. Or maybe it was something else...but she wasn't quite sure. She made her way to the front of the library and checked out the book.

On her way to the common room she saw Malfoy heading towards her. She didn't know what to do. He hadn't seen her yet but she was almost positive that he was following her from lunch. She turned around frantically and then she saw a small corner just big enough to hide her. She ran to it and hid. He walked by but he looked sideways at the place that she was hiding. She didn't know if it was the trick of the light or not but she thought that she saw a smirk form on his face.

She made her way back to the common room after he passed and she ran to the girl's dormitory as fast as she could. She closed the curtains around her and shoved her face into her pillow. She couldn't believe that this had gotten so bad that she actually had to hid in corners to get away from him.