Holy macaroni, suddenly reviews are coming in! m/ m/ double digits too! I got 10 reviews so far and some more thank-yous to send out:

Falcon Princess: thanks for reviewing, and I'm overjoyed you like it:D

Monday Mornings: thanks to you too, I'll try and notch down the timid-ness between Draco, Hermione and their respective friend or whoever.

Catgurlfurreal: Don't worry, reviews can never annoy me:D I'm just glad you still like the story. Thanks for your constant flow of support and praise. You're still my number one reviewer!

Now another chapter:

Stay With Me

Chapter 8

(We are stiiiiill in flashback and starting were we left off; Hermione waiting for Draco in the Head's common room)

Hermione sat eagerly on one of the sofas, her hands wringing nervously on her lap. She was ashamed to think that she had spent most of the day thinking about Draco, and even more ashamed to think that she enjoyed wasting her time doing so instead of concentrating on her classes. She fidgeted around where she sat, tugging her skirt around, folding her collar down, adjusting her cloak… She has only been waiting for about fifteen minutes when the portrait door swung open, and Draco Malfoy climbed through.

Hermione sat up straight on the sofas and watched as he made his way towards her, to her sadness yet relief avoiding her eyes. He plonked his bag down on the tabletop and removed the weighty potions textbook. He took out his writing equipment and thought for a second. He had suddenly realised he didn't know what Hermione wanted assistance with. He twisted his neck to look down at her, he kept a cool expression on is his.

"What exactly did you need help with?"

Hermione looked up at his face and pondered for a second. Her eyes drifted around the room as she considered what guidance she could need.

"Well… Neville spilt bat's blood over all my notes from the 20th of September back… I can't remember every detail about brewing the potions, and I had written down the steps with more than enough detail. To be honest, the practical work doesn't come easy for me."

It was half true what she had said; yes Neville had spilt blood all over most of the term's notes, but they were still readable. And brewing potions wasn't such a great deal for Hermione, it was just the pressure of getting it right that Snape enforced on the class, and with Neville as a partner, she had to make sure no accidents happened.

"I'll go get my notes so we can read over them and add anything extra you need. I'll only be a moment."

With that said, Draco sprung up the stairs to his room, and almost instantly came bounding back down again. He flew off the last step with a hop and casually walked back to the table while leafing through his own notes. Hermione waited patiently for him to settle down before she bravely scooted closer to look over his shoulder at his notes. Draco leant back to give her a clearer view as he sorted through them to find the ones she was missing. Eventually two piles had been made, and the larger one was pushed aside.

"Well luckily there's not much to copy up."

"That's good…" Hermione replied half-heartedly. Inside she wished there were more, any excuse to spend time with him.

"Let's see… the first classes of the year we just discussed the syllabus for the rest of the term… hmmm…" He read through the first few pages before deciding to move on. "There's really nothing very interesting there. He put those pieces of parchment aside and looked down at the first real work they did that year. He pulled out a fresh piece of parchment with a quill and a bottle of ink and handed them to her so that she could copy up. However, Hermione took the parchment and left him holding out the ink and quill while he kept his eyes looking over his notes. Within a second, Hermione had pulled out her wand and tapped the clean parchment, muttering a few words, and a copy of his notes scrawled itself over the page, making an exact copy.

Please with her work she placed it neatly in front of her. Draco looked up at her wondering why she still hadn't taken the ink and quill. His eyes met hers, which twinkled with playfulness. He looked down at the parchment to see everything already written down.

"Oh…" He was left stupefied for a moment before he went on, "Of course, how could I forget? A copying charm…" Hermione giggled at his forgetfulness, it wasn't often Draco would let something like that not cross his mind.

After a good half hour Hermione and about an inch of parchment in front of her, but there was still the extra notes she needed to add to aid her when revising the method of brewing. Draco leant back into the sofa, letting out a tired breath of air. His arms were by his sides, lazily hanging with his hands flopping over the edge of the sofa. He rolled his eyes on the back on the sofa to look at Hermione who was still sitting up straight. He watched her straighten the pages up and rest them neatly in a folder she had with 'Potions' neatly written on the bind.

"Do you want to take a break?" Draco groaned out, hoping she would say yes. Potions wasn't the easiest subject, and one hour on the subject a day was enough to drive him crazy.

Hermione looked at the pile of notes in her folder. They had done a lot of work already, and she was wasting his time…

"Sure. Thanks for your help by the way… I never thought a Malfoy could be so generous as to use up their time helping a muggleborns who can't take care of her notes properly…" Hermione regretting saying this as soon as it had come out of her mouth. 'Oh god, I sound like I'm fishing for a compliment of some sort…'

In reality, she was hoping he would tell her that he wasn't wasting his time, and that he was more than happy to help her out. But Hermione kept in mind this was Malfoy, and he was only fulfilling his duties as Head Boy to take an interest in the well being of other students.

"Don't worry about it…" Draco broke off before he let any sign of anything greater than a little compassion for her slip out. "Maybe we can finish this tomorrow outside if the weather's good." He paused for a second before adding, "If you have nothing else planned that is…"

Hermione stopped herself from shouting 'yes I'd love to!' Instead she kept calm and gave the appearance of pondering on the matter for a minute.

"Tomorrow? Well I do have a huge essay on charms from the 18th century for Flitwick to hand in by the end of the week…"

Draco swallowed. "Ok, well then we'll have to wait until next, next week; I've got quidditch practice all this weekend for the big game on Thursday…"

Hermione snapped out of her smooth state of mind, frightened of losing her opportunity.

"Tomorrow's fine!" She spoke out quickly.

"Good." Draco smiled widely at the agreement. As always, he got his was with others; something he was used to.

He stood and gathered his things. Hermione watched on with a slight pout on her face.

"See you tomorrow then" he called back cheekily cheerful as help marched up the stairs to his room. Hermione rolled her eyes thinking 'pedantic ferret' spitefully. She cleared away her things and made her way to her room to put them back in their place on her shelf but she was interrupted when a loud knock was heard on the door.

Hermione sighed and paused while watching the door, hoping whomever it was would go away. Instead they knocked again. Hermione moaned to herself and she put everything back down safely on the table. The person on the other side knocked again. A second later, they knocked again; the rest between bangs becoming less and less. Soon they were drumming against the door, causing an ache to grow in Hermione's head.

She stomped over to the door and flung it open, leaving a shocked Harry and Ron standing with their mouths open and fists balled in the air braced to keep knocking until the portrait should fall down. Hermione rolled her eyes to the top of her head and shook her head, almost praying for less annoying friends.

"Ummm… we came to walk you to the Great Hall for Dinner…" Ron began watching Hermione carefully. She looked ready to snap at them.

Suddenly from behind Hermione, Draco emerged; pushing himself through the hole that Hermione was filling the better part of.

"Ahhh, Malfoy." Harry greeted the Head Boy with a dirty grin on his face. Draco raised one eyebrow at Harry; daring him to continue with whatever nasty comment he was going to spill out. " Don't take the prank too seriously… It was just the shock that was bad, I mean we're all used to the stench you leave behind in the halls whenever you walk past. I don't think the stink bombs added much to that."

Draco gave a short 'tut' before standing to his full height.

"I'd watch your back Potter, you never know when something might strike you down for good." Of course Harry had no idea of the plot Voldemort was forming behind closed doors along with Draco's father.

"Hmm, yeah…" Harry wavered his comment off, giving Ron an amused look. Ron sniggered; shaking his head exaggeratedly at what he thought was Malfoy with high hopes. Draco slithered past the boys, eyeing them with a sense of superiority. Before he turned away he glimpsed at Hermione, with equal dislike in his stare. Hermione cowered under his gaze hoping Ron would cut off his sniggering sometime soon.

Only once Draco had tuned the corner did the boys turn their attention back to their friend. They notice uneasiness about her, but didn't say anything.

"You ready, Hermione?" She stood thinking for a moment. She felt light and heavy at the same time, her body felt like jelly. She didn't know if she wanted to go off with Harry and Ron to dinner just to spite Malfoy and his stern eyes, or to decline the offer and remain cold towards Harry and Ron.

Harry and Ron grew impatient of waiting for her to reply. Harry stood with his hands in his pocket inspecting the frame of the portrait and rocking on the heels of his shoes. Ron tapped his foot, his eyes wondering sarcastically. He uncrossed his arms to look at his watch, making sure they weren't going to miss any of the food prepared by the elves for the hunger-filled students. The meal had already started ten minutes ago.

"Well are you coming or not?" Ron burst out his eyes wide-open expecting Hermione to answer. Hermione looked down at Ron from the ledge of the entrance with a beat-up look.

"I'm not feeling to well, go on without me." She slipped back into her common room closing the door behind her. Harry and Ron shrugged it off and rushed off to the Great Hall.

Hermione still didn't know what she felt like doing. She reluctantly gathered her things from off the table and dragged her feet up the stair to her room where she dropped the bundle of things in her arms on her bed. Slowly she dropped herself next to her new potions notes and lay down on her bed thinking. Was Malfoy's glare at her breaking off tomorrow's arrangements? She sighed and pulled out the book on Hogsmeade's history that lay on her bedside table. She flipped through to where she had left off before she lost herself in its pages.

Ok, shorter chapter here but I will write more tonight. I have plans for Draco and Hermione wriggles eyebrows Gah, I hate the word wriggle, it sounds like a worm… anywho, review if you like it, review if you have any suggestions, review if you hate it, review if you don't even want to review just to do something spontaneous… We shall make contact soon raises arm and flies off to infinity and beyond.