Author's Note: I spent all day writing this chapter, from start to finish, and now I am seeing blurry. You didn't need to know that. I just had nothing better to say.

Once again, thanks to all for the reviews.

Disclaimer: I own a lot of things in life, but Harry Potter ain't one of them.

"Are you going to eat that?" Crabbe asked Draco, pointing to all of the food on his plate.

Draco did not respond. He just pushed his plate forward in Crabbe's direction.

"Feeling okay, mate?" asked Blaise, who until now had been ignoring Draco ever since he'd arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast. "Something on your mind?"

"Sod off," Draco grumbled.

Blaise chuckled. "Sod off? You know, I should not have to put up with this kind of treatment from you. You're supposed to be my best friend."

Draco scoffed.

"Oh, hey, look!" Blaise pointed over to the Gryffindor table. "There's Granger." He grinned and waved to Hermione, whom Draco had noticed had been glancing over at their table. She smiled back and waved, but when her gaze fell upon Draco, her smile immediately faded and she looked away.

"So have you given any thought to our discussion this morning?" Blaise asked.

"No," Draco lied. In reality, that's all he'd been able to think about since he'd left the common room a little while ago - Hermione Granger. It seemed as though a lot of his thoughts lately had been about her, and he hated it. He hated her. Right?

"Good morning, Draco!"

The sound of a sickly sweet voice beside him made him jump. He looked over to see Sadie sitting right beside him.

"Sadie," he said, unenthusiastically. "I didn't even see you there."

Sadie's smile wavered slightly. "Well that's good," she mumbled.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," she said quickly. "What happened to you yesterday? I was worried something happened to you."

"Oh…yeah…sorry about that," Draco said, even though deep down, he wasn't really sorry at all. "Something came up and I -"

"It's okay," Sadie said. "Really. Don't worry about it. Just promise me that we can go out again this Saturday?"

"Erm, well actually, Sadie, I think it would be better if maybe we didn't."

The smile never left Sadie's face. "Well," she said as she stood up from the table, "when you change your mind, you just let me know."

Blaise watched as the girl walked off. "Can you believe the amount of confidence that girl has? You just turned down her offer for a date, and she seems convinced you will change your mind." He shook his head in disbelief.

"Yeah," Draco nodded. He wasn't really listening, though. He was too busy staring across the room at Hermione who, much to his chagrin, had just gotten up from the table and headed for the exit to the Great Hall.

Okay, so…maybe he didn't hate her as much as he wanted to. And maybe yesterday, he apologized to her because he felt bad for what he'd said to her, and he wanted her to know that. And yeah…so, she wasn't the most unpleasant-looking girl in the world. In fact, for a mudblo – er, muggle – she was quite pretty. Plain, yes, but pretty. Naturally pretty. And she was interesting – unlike pretty much every other girl he had ever associated with. She didn't appear to be interested in discussing clothes or boys, or other petty subjects that other girls liked to discuss. And she was smart, too – the top in their class. Also, Draco had to admit that he had always enjoyed exchanging barbs with her, because she could always give him a run for his money. She was, in many ways, a worthy opponent – and not to mention a worthy object of his affection.

"Bollocks," Draco muttered aloud. Did he honestly just think of Granger as an object of his affection? Yes. Yes, he did.

"Problem, mate?" Blaise asked, giving Draco a curious look.

"Yeah, you could say I have a really big problem," Draco groaned.

He was in love with Hermione Granger.

Sadie practically skipped down the hallway. She was so happy! She had managed to slip a bit of that love potion into Draco's pumpkin juice without anyone noticing. Not that it had been all that hard – Draco seemed kind of spacey and was busy talking to Blaise Zabini the whole time. Crabbe and Goyle were way too busy stuffing their faces to notice anything, and Pansy Parkinson was too engrossed in a deep conversation with Millicent Bulstrode about some clothing shop in Hogsmeade to notice either. This was all going just too perfectly! So perfectly that she wouldn't even allow herself to be too upset about the fact that Draco had turned down her date invitation. After all, he would be changing his mind very soon!

Taking the vial of leftover potion from her bag, Sadie smiled down at it whilst continuing down the hallway. You are such a good love potion, she thought to herself. I did such a good job on you, didn't I?

She didn't think it was possible, but right at that very moment, Sadie was happier with herself than she'd ever been.

Too bad she couldn't see what was coming.

Hermione hadn't been very hungry during breakfast. Especially after having seen Draco Malfoy over at the Slytherin table. Leave it to him to make her lose her appetite. Blaise, as usual, was nice enough to acknowledge her with a smile and a wave, while Draco just stared at her with that icy glare he's so famous for.

Ron was avoiding her at all costs. She guessed he just couldn't come to grips with the fact he had complimented her. Boys could be so immature sometimes. Meanwhile, Hermione found she was avoiding talking to Ginny, in fear that she might accidentally tell her about yesterday. So because of all of this, Hermione decided to leave the Great Hall a little early…maybe head for the library to do some last minute studying before classes.

Walking down the hallway, Hermione opened her bag and began sifting through it, looking for her essay parchment, which was due for Potions class this morning. Unfortunately for all involved, she was not watching where she was going, and by the time she found her parchment and looked up, she had run smack-dab into that Fifth Year Sadie.

Hermione's bag got knocked out of her hands, as did her parchment, and they landed with a smack on the floor…along with the sound of glass shattering.

"BITCH!" Sadie yelled very loudly.

"Sorry," Hermione mumbled. She glanced down at the ground. Whatever Sadie had been carrying, it was now broken, and it had oozed all over her parchment. "Hey!" she cried. "My homework! It's ruined!"

"Oh boohoo, you stupid bitch! Look at what you did to my…my…" Sadie's voice trailed off, as she couldn't very well blurt out exactly what it was.

Hermione bent down to examine her parchment. She wrinkled her nose. "What is this stuff, anyway?" She picked up her soaked parchment and frowned. The ink was all smeared, and it was now completely illegible. But not only that…Hermione noticed that the parchment was slowly starting to dissolve away…and that suddenly, her hands felt as though they were on fire. Hermione screeched and threw the parchment to the ground.

"Aghhhh!" she screamed in agony. She glanced down at her hands, which were now covered in blisters and boils. "What the hell is that stuff?" she yelled.

"Miss Granger?"

Professor McGonagall had been passing through the hallway when she'd heard Hermione shriek, so she had come over to investigate. "What's wrong? Oh dear Merlin!" McGonagall gasped when she saw Hermione's hands. "What happened to you?"

Tears of pain formed in Hermione's eyes as she sputtered out, "Sh-she spilled some-something. Owwww, it's burning!"

Professor McGonagall looked over at Sadie. "What did you spill?"

Sadie stared at Hermione in shock. "It's just a love potion!"

"A love potion?" Professor McGonagall said. "Love potions are not supposed to do this. What are you even doing with a love potion? Where did you get it?"

"I didn't get it anywhere!" Sadie cried. "I made it myself!"

"To use on whom?" McGonagall demanded.

Sadie's eyes widened with panic. Oh no…Draco! The potion she'd made was apparently dangerous, and she'd already spiked his drink with it! "Draco Malfoy!" she blurted out.

"What?" Hermione cried. "You haven't given it to him yet, have you?"

"Yes," Sadie replied in a small voice. "I put some in his pumpkin juice during breakfast..."

"We have to warn him!" Hermione said frantically.

"It's probably too late!" Sadie whimpered. Oh, this totally wasn't going the way she had planned.

"We don't know that!" Hermione said. She moved away from Professor McGonagall. "I have to go find him!"

"No, Miss Granger," McGonagall said, grabbing a hold of Hermione's arm. "You are going straight to Madame Pomfrey to have your hands looked at."

"But -" Hermione began to protest.

"No buts, Miss Granger. I will find Mr. Malfoy. I'm sure he is fine. Right now, we need to have you seen to."

She gently began to lead Hermione toward the hospital wing, leaving Sadie and a large group of onlookers behind.

Hermione choked back a sob. She was in terrible pain, but it was nothing compared to the pain she would make Sadie feel if Draco had already taken that love potion. If anything happened to Draco, Hermione vowed to make that girl wish she had never been born.

The rumor started out like this:

A Fourth Year Slytherin named Jonathan, who had witnessed the fiasco between Hermione and Sadie, said to his friend Michael, "Hey, Michael, did you hear about that Hermione Granger girl? Her hands got burned by some unknown substance in the hallway."

Minutes later, Michael said to his Fourth Year friend Elizabeth, "Hey, Elizabeth, did you hear about that Hermione Granger girl? She got terribly burned by some unknown substance in the hallway earlier. She had boils and everything. Barely any flesh left at all."

Seconds later, when Elizabeth's Fifth Year brother Daniel passed by, she said, "Hey, Daniel, did you hear about that Hermione Granger girl? She contracted some weird flesh-eating virus in the hallway this morning!"

A short while later, Daniel, who would believe almost anything, because he was not the brightest Fifth year there ever was, said to the first person who walked by him, "Hey, did you hear about that Hermione Granger girl?"

The person he randomly spoke to just happened to be Draco Malfoy, whose ears perked up at the words "Hermione Granger". Normally, Draco would ignore underclassmen, but he couldn't help but be very interested. "What about Hermione Granger?"

"She fell very ill in the hallway this morning!" Daniel exclaimed. "She has contracted some kind of deadly virus! She's in the hospital wing right now."

All of the color drained from Draco's face. "W-what?"

"Apparently, it doesn't look too good! They say she might not make it," the boy went on in his most dramatic voice. "I sure hope it's not contagious! I don't want to die too!"

Draco took a shaky step back from the kid. He couldn't believe this. He had just seen Granger in the Great Hall earlier, and she seemed fine. It was possible that this kid was lying…but yet, why would he lie about Hermione Granger? As far as Draco knew, this kid had no connection to Hermione. He wasn't even aware that this kid would even know who Hermione Granger was.

"Are you okay?" Daniel asked. "You don't look so hot."

Draco's gaze darted around the hallway. Everywhere, there were students huddled together, talking excitedly to one another.

"She's probably going to die," a girl was saying to her friend, as she walked by Draco. "I wonder how Harry Potter is going to deal with the death of one of his best friends! We'll have to do everything in our power to try and help him during his time of need."

The girl and her friend giggled and kept on walking by. Feeling slightly numb, Draco followed them – first with a slow walk, which then turned into a brisk walk, until finally he broke out in a run, pushing one of the girls out of the way to clear his path.

"Hey!" she called out after him. "Rude much?"

Draco ignored her – and every other student he knocked into in the process – as he made his way to the hospital wing in a panic. His mind was racing with thoughts such as, what if it was true? What if Hermione was dying right now at this very moment? What if she died before he could make it to the hospital wing? Then she would never know…never know what he had only admitted to himself just a few short moments ago.

By the time he reached the hospital wing, he couldn't breathe – mainly due to being out of shape. Regardless, he pushed open the door and rushed inside.

"Hermione?" he called out.

Madame Pomfrey, who was over at one of the beds tending to a student, looked up and said, "Mr. Malfoy! What are you -"

"Malfoy?"

Draco, who was clutching at his side, due to a cramp, looked up to see Hermione sitting on one of the beds on the far side of the room. Relief washed over him as the realization hit him that she was still alive. "G-Granger," he sputtered, trying to catch his breath, "I heard -"

"Malfoy!" Hermione exclaimed.

Before he knew what was happening, she was running over to him and throwing her arms around him. Despite the fact that the hug shocked him, he nevertheless hugged her right back – not even caring if she did indeed have some contagious deadly virus.

They managed to stay hugging for about five seconds before the realization of what they were doing hit, and they quickly broke apart and took a few steps back from each other.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Hermione said calmly, "What are you doing here?"

"I heard…I heard that you were sick. Dying, even," Draco said between taking gasps of air.

Hermione burst out laughing. "You heard I was what? Where did you hear that?"

Draco shrugged. "Some kid told me. The whole school is talking about it, practically."

Hermione chuckled. "Ah, rumors. This place is worse than a muggle school. So some kid told you I was suddenly dying, and you believed him?" She glanced up at Draco, who looked like he was trying desperately to hide an expression of concern. "Wait, so…you heard that I was really sick, so you came up here to see me? You were…worried about me?"

"No," Draco said a little too quickly. His usual stone-faced expression had returned as he said, "Actually, quite the opposite. I heard you were on your deathbed, so I rushed up here to make sure it was true. You know, before getting my hopes up."

Normally, Hermione might feel insulted – or even slightly annoyed – at a comment like that. But this time, Hermione could tell that he was just trying to cover up. She smiled. "You were worried about me," she said softly.

"I bloody hell was not!" Draco denied.

"Sure you weren't." Hermione grinned. "Anyway, I'm not dying. I'm not even sick. I have no idea how that rumor got started. This is why I'm here." She held up a bandaged hand for Draco to see.

"What happened?" he asked.

Hermione's smile faded. "I got burned. By your girlfriend."

"My girlfriend?" Draco sounded confused.

"You know – that Fifth Year girl."

"Sadie? Sadie did this to you?"

Hermione shook her head. "Not intentionally. I ran into her in the hallway – literally. She dropped some vial full of liquid, and it broke. It spilled all over my parchment and when I picked it up I came into contact with the vial's contents. Apparently, it was some pretty dangerous stuff she was toting around."

"Well, what was it?"

Hermione paused, wondering if she should tell him the truth. She, of course, decided there was no reason why she shouldn't. He would find out anyway. "It was a love potion," she replied.

"A…love potion?" Draco said. He had hoped to never have to hear that term again. "Why would she have a love potion?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "For you. She was going to give it to you, in hopes that you would fall madly in love with her. Unfortunately, though, it was a homemade love potion, made entirely the wrong way. Hence these bandages on my hands."

Draco took a moment to digest this information. "You mean…the stuff that burned you…she was going to give to me to drink?"

"She already had, Malfoy," Hermione said softly. "She put some in your pumpkin juice this morning. So either it has no affect if taken orally, or you didn't drink it."

Draco thought back to breakfast that morning – he had been too distracted to either eat or drink, and he had left the Great Hall without having touched any of his breakfast at all. Amazingly enough, thinking about Hermione Granger had actually saved his life. It was almost enough to make him want to kiss her. Almost.

"No, I didn't drink it," he said numbly. And what if he had? How dead would he be right now? He preferred not to think about that. So instead, he grinned slowly and said, "So tell me, Granger, is that why you seemed so happy to see me? Because it meant I hadn't been burned from the inside out by that love potion?"

It was Hermione's turn to deny that she had been worried. However, she didn't. In fact, she did the exact opposite. She told him the truth. "Actually, yes. That's why I was happy to see you. I was worried."

This thoroughly confused Draco. At first, he wondered if he'd heard right. And when he realized he had, he then wondered if she was being facetious. But the look on her face told him that she was actually being quite serious. "What did you say?"

"I said I was worried about you," Hermione said simply. "When Sadie said that she had already spiked your drink, I thought…I thought there was no way you hadn't already drank it already. And I was scared. I wanted to go warn you, or see if you were okay, but Professor McGonagall wouldn't let me until I'd had my hands seen to by Madame Pomfrey." She glanced down at her bandaged hands.

Draco was at a loss for words. He hadn't expected her to say this. In fact, he had expected her to deny it and insult him, so he had thought out the perfect retort to throw back at her. But he wouldn't be able to use it now.

That awkward silence had returned as they both avoided each others' gazes. Finally, Draco cleared his throat and said, "Well maybe…maybe I was a little worried about you, too," he said quietly.

Hermione blinked up at him in surprise. She opened her mouth to question him further on that, but Madame Pomfrey interrupted by saying, "Miss Granger, you are free to leave now."

"Okay. Thank you, Madame Pomfrey," Hermione said, never taking her eyes off of Draco.

The time had officially come. Ginny would be so proud of her if she could see her now, for Hermione's next words were the ones Ginny had been encouraging her to say for days: "I think we need to talk."

Draco's breath caught in his throat. Those were the last words he'd wanted to hear, because he knew they meant something he most likely wasn't ready for. Regardless, he motioned toward the hospital wing's exit and said, "You lead the way."

Author's Note #2: Well...this story is finally nearing the end. There will probably be only one or two more chapters left. You know, unless I can come up with yet another wrench to throw into the Draco/Hermione relationship. But honestly, I think they've been through enough already. Will they end up together in the end? Or will they decide to just be mortal enemies? Only I know for sure. Well, actually, I don't know, because I haven't actually planned it all out yet. P