Draco sighed and checked the time for the fifth time: it was 8:15 and Hermione wasn't there yet. He hoped she hadn't changed her mind, as he had noticed lately his improvement in Transfiguration. He couldn't help but feel nervous. Hermione was never late for anything, so where was she now?

A few minutes later, Draco heard the door open. "I was afraid you weren't coming- the Malfoy charm was just too much for you to resist." He grinned and looked up. Hermione had tears streaming down her cheeks, obviously attempting to muffle a sob. Her cheeks were flushed and she looked like she had run to get there.

"Hermione, you're crying... whats wrong?"

"Nothing... I'm... I'm fine..." she trailed off and attempted to calm down. She wiped the tears from her eyes and gave him a weak grin. "So where do you want to start today?"

Draco felt awkward. He'd never been in this situation before - after all, Slytherins don't show their emotions. He knew he should have been trying to comfort her or soothe her, but he didn't know where to start. A few weeks ago he would have been making fun of her but now he didn't know what he wanted. Did he want to torment her, did he want to help her, did he want to just ignore it all together?

"Ummm... do you want to, you know... talk about it?" He shifted his weight.

"It was just… well Harry figured out that I'd been to see you the other night, and so I told him that I cursed you." Draco laughed; no sixth year, not even Hermione, could've cursed a kid on a broom in the middle of a Quidditch match.

"And he bought it? I've always known that Potter was an idiot."

"Malfoy, you shouldn't say that... he was pretty understanding about it... but he told Ron. And Ron was asking some sticky questions tonight... and when I wouldn't answer him, he got rather irate with me. The reader's digest version is that we got in a big row about it with some rather stupid accusations and we broke up."

If Draco was confused before, it didn't compare to what he felt now. He couldn't decide if he should comfort her about the breakup, rub it in her face, and craziest of all these he was wondering if he should CELEBRATE the breakup.

"Oh... well... that stinks." Draco was amazed that something so stupid could've come out of his mouth.

"Yea, well... I don't know, maybe it's for the best..."

She didn't sound convinced. There was an awkward pause. Neither of them moved, not knowing how to handle the new situation. Only a few weeks prior they had been enemies, and Hermione was not about to spill every detail of her heart and mind to the boy who had tormented her for the duration of her education. Draco thought it would be entirely too weird for him to hug her or even touch her in anyway; besides, he wasn't sure if he was even capable of making her feel better.

His body went stiff. He was a Malfoy, damnit, and he wasn't supposed to be having these emotions or thoughts. Malfoys didn't care. Malfoys didn't comfort. As a child Draco had not received any physical affection. Lucius felt it would make him too "soft" and would punish Narcissa if she showed excessive emotion towards her son. As such, he had long ago lost his childlike search for love and joy and settled into his fate as a cold hearted potential Death Eater.

"So could we get started here? You were late, after all."

Hermione simply sighed. She had liked the Malfoy she had seen last week and liked how they got along without exchanging insults. And here she had just broken up with Ron, and all he could think about was himself. She tried looking at his face, tried to judge his emotions, but his face remained a mask of indifference. The only thing that said differently were his eyes, which read cloudy and confused.

"Yea alright. I thought that today we could work on transfiguring this..."

Neither one spoke much during the lesson. Draco was too busy attempting to sort out his thoughts. Could he be coming out of his dark shell? Hermione was too confused by the two sides of Draco Malfoy. Which one was the act: git Malfoy or sensitive Draco? The only words exchanged in the tense room were concerning transfiguration. They were both glad when the lesson was over.

"Well, Malfoy, you're improving. You're almost where you should be in class. Next time I think we should try something a little more challenging."

"Yea, alright, whatever." And with that he left.

There was no way in hell Hermione was going back into the common room. It was a lion's den in there, and she couldn't deal with the stares and whispers just yet. Most distressing of all was the prospect of seeing Ron. She needed to get away and sort out her feelings. There was only one place to go:

The Library.