Chapter Twenty
The next few weeks passed in a blur for Hermione. It was a frenzy of homework and tests and she had had barely enough time to breathe and sort her thoughts out. She felt herself drifting further and further away from Ron and Harry (although she shared the Head Dorms with the latter) as all their free time was taken up by their identical girlfriends. Hermione's free time was split between Head Girl duties, homework, extra study and tutoring lessons with Blaise - they had become rather close due to the amount of time they had spent studying together.
She had barely spoken to Draco ever since their little talk except for the occasional muttered 'hi' when Ron and Harry weren't looking. But she had been stealing glances at him every once in awhile during meals in the Great Hall and during lessons they had together and she felt strangely pleased whenever he saw her looking and winked at her.
The Hogsmeade weekend had been drawing ever closer and now she only had two days to figure out whether she was going or not. Hermione had no idea how to break the news to Ron and Harry - they definitely would not take the news happily and they would definitely persuade her not to go, but she really wanted to go and just spend time with Draco alone again. She was thinking about this moral dilemma as she strode into the library for her tutoring lesson with Blaise.
She made a beeline straight for the table up the back where they usually sat and she was not surprised when she found it empty - she was about fifteen minutes early for the lesson. She sat down and took out her textbook trying to concentrate but her mind wouldn't let her study - she had to sort out whether or not she was going to Hogsmeade with Draco or not.
She sat glumly thinking about all the different scenarios of how Harry and Ron would react when she told them about her 'date' with Draco when suddenly the boy in question walked up to her table and stood towering above her.
"Hey Granger." he grinned.
Hermione's eyes widened in surprise - what the hell was Draco Malfoy doing in the library! He had made it a point all through first year until now to brag about how he never needed to go to the library because his Father would send him whichever books he needed from his infamous home collection so why would he be here now?
"Draco?" she stammered in shock.
"Oh, so we're back on first-name terms again? That's nice - I like saying your name. Its unusual." He replied nonchalantly, leaning on one of the bookshelves.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked firmly, pulling herself together.
"Isn't it obvious, Hermione?" Draco asked with a smirk.
"No." she answered defiantly.
"Just drop the act. You know I'm here about our little deal…the Hogsmeade weekend is coming up and I just want to confirm whether you're still coming or not." Draco said in a low voice.
"Uh, well…"
"Look Hermione, I've kept my end of the deal - I think that its only common courtesy if you do the same." Draco commented coolly.
Hermione gave him a glare and then shot back,
"Fine. I'll see you on Saturday at -"
"At the park next to Honeydukes. Wait at the benches and I'll come and find you." Draco cut in.
"I see you've got this all thought out already." Hermione remarked pointedly.
"Of course I have, I'm always the perfect gentleman." he replied sardonically and Hermione allowed herself to smile.
"Ok then. What time?" she asked.
"As soon as you can detach yourself from those two apes that you're always with." Draco answered with a smirk.
"Hey! You shouldn't say that - especially since you have two apelike bodyguards yourself." Hermione responded hotly.
"Crabbe and Goyle? They're not my bodyguards. They are just my extremely loyal and stupid friends." he admitted.
"Oh whatever. You should probably go now - Blaise will be here soon and -"
"And you're ashamed of me? Is that it?" Draco quipped, pretending to look hurt.
"Oh shut up! You know why you have to leave - no one is supposed to know that we're kind of friends." Hermione said vehemently, standing up to try and lessen Draco's advantage of looking down on her.
"Fine, I shall respect your wishes. But you owe me one." He smiled evilly.
"Just go!" Hermione answered, pushing him out of the secluded corner where they were standing.
"See you on Saturday, Hermione." He said turning to leave, but then turned around and leaned in to breathe this into her ear -
"Don't be late."
And then he was gone.
Hermione was still flustered and in shock when Blaise arrived a minute later and she realised how right she had been to tell Draco to leave - if Blaise had seen them together…
"Hey Granger." he said with a smile, greeting her as he always did.
"Hi Blaise." she replied, trying to pull herself together.
"You will not believe who I just saw in the library." Blaise said with a grin.
"Who?" Hermione asked with bated breath - don't let it be him, she thought desperately.
"Draco!" Blaise exclaimed, but he didn't notice Hermione cringe and kept going, " Haha, and he was so shifty when I asked him what he was doing here. I bet he was checking out Padma Patil - he thinks she's gotten hotter since Harry started dating her."
"Oh, really?" Hermione responded half-heartedly.
"Yeah. Didn't you see him, Granger?" He asked curiously.
"Uh, well not exactly…" she stammered.
"You had to have seen him! This table has the best view of the library - you can see everyone coming in and out." Blaise pressed.
"Yeah well I might've not been looking." Hermione answered shortly.
"But he was coming from the direction of where you were sitting - hang on - was he here talking to you Granger!" Blaise suddenly exclaimed.
"Shut up Blaise! Its none of your business." Hermione burst out in return.
"So he was here to talk to you. What did he want?" Blaise asked suspiciously, staring at her strangely again.
Hermione broke eye contact with him after a few moments - his blue eyes were too piercing and intense.
"Tell me, Granger. Was he threatening you?" he prompted.
"No…nothing like that." Hermione answered slowly.
"Then what? You can tell me - I promise I wont tell anyone." Blaise assured her.
"I don't want to." she said stubbornly.
"Granger - you know that your secrets are always safe with me. Haven't I told you that already? C'mon I thought that we trusted each other." Blaise said, reminding her of how he had told her all about his turbulent friendship with Draco and how she had in return told him about her own with Ron and Harry.
She sighed.
"Do you solemnly swear that you wont tell anyone?" Hermione asked.
"Of course." Blaise replied.
"Ok…well do you remember how I made a deal with Draco?" she asked.
He nodded.
"The deal was that he would be friends with you again…but only if I went to Hogsmeade with him this weekend." Hermione explained.
"What! So you've had this deal for a few weeks and you never told me about it? You shouldn't have done that - you're putting yourself in danger just so that he and I can be friends again. Granger I don't want you sacrificing yourself like that!" Blaise responded heatedly.
"Blaise! You're obviously overreacting to this - I am not 'sacrificing' myself so that you two can be friends - its just one day in Hogsmeade! How is that dangerous!" Hermione retorted.
"You don't know him like I do." Blaise answered, reminding her again of what he had said about Draco before. Was he really as horrible as Blaise was making him out to be? Hermione kept thinking about what had happened between her and Draco back in the past and she just couldn't see what Blaise was talking about - Draco wasn't a bad person at all.
"Look, Granger I don't care what you do. You can make up your own mind about it. I'm out of here." Blaise said suddenly, getting up to leave.
"Blaise -"
"Save it. Have fun with Draco."
And then he stormed off.
Saturday.
Hermione woke up with a headache - she had been unable to sleep the night before because she had spent all night thinking about what Blaise had said about Draco and what excuse to use on Ron and Harry to get away to meet him.
She rolled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom, feeling generally unhappy. She was going to lie to her closest friends about meeting up with her former enemy - talk about a change of priorities.
She tiredly changed into her Muggle outfit for the day - jeans and a plain white fitted sweater - she was trying to be as inconspicuous as she could about her appearance. She walked out in the Head Common Room and found both Ron and Harry there already waiting for her.
"Morning." she said dully.
"Morning Hermione…god, you look terrible. Didn't you get any sleep last night?" Ron remarked bluntly.
"Thanks for that, Ron. Now I feel so much better about myself." She snapped back wearily.
"Don't listen to him, Hermione. I think you look great." Harry assured her loyally, glaring at Ron.
"Where are your girlfriends?" Hermione asked.
"We're meeting them later in Hogsmeade." Harry replied.
"Ok…so are we ready to go?" she asked.
"Sure. We were just waiting for you to get ready." Ron answered.
So they exited the Head Portrait and were almost at the foyer where they were meeting McGonagall when Hermione realised that she had left her purse back in her room.
"Sorry guys, I'll just have to dash back up and get it. I'll catch up with you later." Hermione said, running back up the stairs, leaving two very confused friends behind.
She reached her room in record time and grabbed her purse quickly from her dressing table but then found that she was so out of breath that she needed to take a break before dashing back down to Harry and Ron. She sat down on the sofa in the Common Room and tried to catch her breath.
After a few minutes, she felt a bit better and she walked to the Portrait and opened it only to find someone standing on the other side.
"Hey Granger."
A/N: Yay! Cliffhanger ending! I love them! Sorry I guess that's a bit evil but its true - they're so cool! Haha, anyways thanks sooo much to my awesome reviewers: ShimmeringEvil, etherealfire, Monday Mornings, Hali, Ally, HgBookworm, POTTEROX, kKrEiLsLtYa, Lady-Delphinea, MysticStar7037, The Lady of the 4leafed Clover!
Happy reading and please review!