A/N: Hi! Thanks to those who reviewed! . this is kind of a short chapter, but...oh well. Hope you like! .

Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing.

The morning was dull and dreary. Hermione buried her face in her pillow, but she knew she had to get up and go to class. She met Harry and Ron in the common room, and together they walked down to the great hall.

"What's up, Hermione?" Ron asked wearily as they sat down at the long Gryffindor table. Hermione shook her head slightly and took her schedule, which was being handed to her by Fred Weasley, one of Ron's older twin brothers.

"Yeah, 'Mione, you seem a bit off it," Fred said, smiling. Hermione stuffed a piece of toast in her mouth so she wouldn't have to answer their inquiries. She examined her schedule. History of Magic, Double Potions, Divination, and Double Defense against the Dark Arts. She finished eating and raced off to gather her books.

On the way down to History of Magic she felt someone come up behind her. She turned around to find herself face-to-face with Malfoy.

"Listen...'Mione," He said in an odd voice. "We, um, need to talk, but um.." His words were cut short by the shriek of fellow Slytherin Pansy Parkinson.

"Draco!" She called down the echoing halls. He wheeled around and frowned. Hermione checked her watch. She was well aware that she was early for Professor Binn's class, and that he would not notice her coming in late anyway.

"Eww, Draco! What are you doing talking to that Mudblood?!" Pansy asked, walking up.

"Before potions." Draco simply said to Hermione before he jogged off to meet Pansy. Hermione couldn't understand why, but she felt sort of sad when he left, and jealous when he slipped his hand around Pansy. She got angry at herself, and started for History of Magic.

"Come here!" Draco hissed at Hermione when she made her way down to the dungeons. She followed him into a concealed corner.

"What?" She hissed back.

"Look, what happened this...summer..." Draco started, searching for the right words to say.

"Forget it. I'll pretend like it never happened." Hermione said lazily.

"No...it's just. Don't tell anyone." He said, looking around.

"Right," Hermione said. "Wouldn't want everyone to know you, Draco Malfoy, great pureblood Slytherin, hung around a mudblood all summer."

"Ok you're not as bad as some mudbloods..." Draco said, leaning against the cold, hard, wall. "You're not as bad as some purebloods either." He said coolly.

"This whole half-blood, mudblood, pureblood thing is so stupid!" Hermione said.

"I know." Draco said abruptly. His response had surprised Hermione. Malfoy, thinking judging people on what sort of wizarding family they came from stupid? When that was what he was known for, being a pureblood, and hating others?

"What?" Hermione whispered cautiously.

"It's just so stupid..." Malfoy said. "My father. He already has plans on me marrying that...Pansy Parkinson. A nice little pureblood girl."

"Well, isn't Pansy you're girlfriend?" Sneered Hermione.

"Yes," Malfoy responded, "But that doesn't mean I like her. You should know that by now."

"Uh-huh," Hermione muttered rolling her eyes.

Draco sighed and looked at his watch.

"We're going to be late for potions." Hermione said, turning on her heel, joining the rest of the people gathered outside the dungeons.

"What did she want?" Pansy asked Draco when he walked up beside her.

"Nothing," He said, making eye contact with Hermione.

The dungeon door opened and Snape beckoned them in.

"Today," Snape said, walking up to the front of the class, his long black robes billowing behind him, "we will be doing a simple potion. Partner up, instructions on the board."

Hermione found herself being asked by Neville to help him, and, feeling sorry for him, accepted. Since Neville sat at a desk across from Malfoy, Hermione heard every word that he and Pansy Parkinson were saying. And everything was about her.

"Filthy mudblood, why would she want you?" Pansy said, adding a wrong ingredient in her cauldron.

"Yeah," Draco said half-heartedly.

"Doesn't she know you have a girlfriend?" Pansy said. Hermione kept stirring theirs, not hearing what Neville was saying beside her.

"Look," Draco said, "stop calling her a mudblood. The joke's kind of old."

"Don't tell me you feel sorry for the mud...her?" Pansy asked, looking at Hermione thru her black bangs.

"That's a laugh."

Hermione found herself adding the wrong ingredients now. Could it possibly be that Malfoy actually likes me? Hermione thought. Is it possible he didn't forget what happened this summer?

Before she knew it Snape was instructing them to take a sample of their potions up to his desk, and they bell was ringing, signaling class was over.