"You're not having a fit, are you?"
He was back. She should have known that he'd be back. His voice was on the edge of concern, but she paid little attention to it.
"No, I'm not having a fit, Malfoy." She said grumpily. "I'm." She turned over. "Trying." She scrunched into a ball shape. "To." She turned again, in the other direction. "Get." She rolled over a bit more, this time in the same direction. "Comfortable!" She rolled, but too far, and tumbled off the edge of her bed.
She was helpless, caught in her bed linens, as she fell toward the floor. Strong arms caught her before she hit the floor. Draco made a slight "oompf" as he was jerked a bit downward by her weight.
"You're a lot heavier than I expected you to be... Have you put on weight since you blacked out on the train?"
He was trying to take away much of the awkwardness they both felt, but his question only made Hermione feel more awkward. She'd forgotten about her black out on the train, and she'd never really known that he was the one that had moved her into a compartment. She'd remembered running into him in the train's corridor and then waking up with severe pain in her arm in a compartment with him standing before her, but it had all been fairly blank until now. She'd tried not to think much about that day until now.
"Thanks." It was the only thing she could muster to say. She'd never expected him to help her in anything. "Thanks for saving me twice."
"I'd hardly call it saving you, Granger. I simply helped you out a bit. After all, isn't that what the head boy is supposed to do? Help out his fellow students?"
He set her back on the bed and she heard him take a few steps away. She wriggled and turned, trying to free herself from the linen encasement that she'd caused. He watched in amusement as she tugged and pulled at the sheets and accomplished nothing. She let out a frustrated sigh and pounded her fists into the cloth that surrounded her.
"Watch it, you really might go into a fit."
"If you're still here, and so inclined to help your fellow students, then why don't you help me?"
"I've already helped you twice, people might think I'm showing you favoritism if I help you anymore."
Favoritism...?
"Fine then, just leave so that I don't have to worry about making myself look moronic while someone is watching."
"I rather thought you'd be used to doing that by now after hanging with your pathetic friends for so long."
"They're not pathetic, Malfoy. Just because you envy them because they're better than you in every way, doesn't make them pathetic. They care about people, and the well being of every witch and wizard in the wizarding world, even you if it came down to it." He looked down at her. She had her eyebrows furrowed, she truly believed in her friends.
"Yeah, right." He whispered the words without thinking.
"What was that?"
"I said 'yeah, right' Granger. You're friends don't give a flying fart in space about me, how you could even think that is beyond me."
"That's not true! I know them! You-"
"If you know them so well then why did Potter jump me and threaten my life? I know what I'm talking about Granger, get your facts straight."
Her eyes strained, as he watched her face. Tears creeped up and spilled to her pillow. She let out a sob that seemed almost inhuman.
"Harry would never doing anything bad to anyone unless he was provoked. If what you say is true Malfoy, then you brought it on yourself."
"Provoked? Provoked? Right, like I had a giant stamp on my forehead that says 'Accuse Me.' They came at me first, Granger. You've all been around each other so long you all think the same. You accused me of attacking you in the middle of the night, they accused me, but does anyone really know the truth? No. It wasn't me! For all I know, the thing could've been a hallucination. You probably made up the attacker in your head. I bet you haven't even realized that you've been moving all this time."
"Moving?" It hit her. She'd been tossing and turning, able to control her fists. She could move! Her eyes shot open and she blinked, removing the blur in her eyes and adjusting them to the light of the room. She looked at Draco, he was glaring at her in nothing more than outright hatred.
"Admit it, Granger. You were just faking it the whole time. You just wanted something to point a finger at me for."
"I'd never do any such thing, and the fact that you'd even fathom something like that proves how little you know me."
"It goes both ways, Granger." His jaw was clenched, his hands pulsated into fists and back open again. If he didn't leave the room, he'd hit her again, and that was something he simply would not allow.
He turned to leave, but she stood up and stopped him before he could.
"Leave me be, and I won't come near you. Deal?"
His body was tense, her hand on his shoulder bothered him in a way he hadn't been bothered before.
Her offer made him smirk.
"Deal."
She released his shoulder and he left the room.
Hermione let out a sigh and sat back down on her bed once more. Somehow, she knew she had just made things ten times worse.
End of Chapter 9 and Comments- - -
A/N: I'm not J. K. Rowling. I don't own any of the characters, if I did, I'd own every cd of all of my favorite bands.
I'm back. New chapter. Hope you like it! Love you guys, sorry you had to wait so long!