Takes place during HBP. Enjoy. Pretty light-hearted, I must warn.

The Encounter

There was a girl sitting in the middle of the Great Hall, seemingly doing her homework right in the middle of the long mahogany table. Books and parchments were scattered on the table within her radius, all had been opened, skimmed through, and dumped atop of each other. The girl, however, paid no attention to the mess of research splayed before her. Her focus was solely on the pieces of parchments kept neatly in front of her, as she intently scribbled on it, occasionally stopping to either chew the tip of her quill or flip fervently through the tome on her lap.

Her brown hair was in a frizz by now, and she had barely been awake for the past hour. It was reaching six in the morning, and apparently, there was no trace of anyone else in the Great Hall. Not that she minded though, after all, she needed some time to herself. She picked up the watch that was lying carelessly on top of her bag, and then stuffed it into her bag, sighing sadly to herself. In one hours' time, students would start to file into the Great Hall, and then… and then she would spot Ron and Lavender entangled in each other arms as they strolled in…

NO! She tried to fight back the tears, tried to let the practical side of her take control over her emotions. To no avail, unfortunately. Fresh tears brimmed at the corner of her eyes, and soon enough, her parchment was soaked with salty tears. Feeling a sense of defeat and dejection overwhelming her, she laid her quill on the table and hid her face behind her hands, sobbing softly to herself.

The shadow of a young man crept up towards her, slowly and stealthily. He had watched her for the past two weeks. Ever since Weasley and that Brown girl had publicly professed themselves as 'The Snogging Couple'.

It had all started with a trip down to the kitchens for a cup of coffee, when he first spotted the Gryffindor prefect studying early in the morning in the Great Hall, since the Library was closed. She had not noticed him as he walked past the doors, but he had spotted her sure enough. He had planned to throw her an insult, but stopped when he had seen her crying. Yes, it was his conscience that had stopped him from going over to taunt her. Weird now, don't you think? No one expected him to have a conscience.

From that day onwards, he started watching her from behind the Great Hall doors linking to the corridors. He still hated her of course, but he was curious about the fact that why a girl like Hermione Granger would be sitting all alone in the Great Hall, crying quietly to herself? She was always so strong, bull-headed and sarcastic in her retorts. So, what made her cry?

"Did you hear about - ?"

"…"

"KISSING!"

He rolled his eyes as he glanced over at Pansy and Millicent, who were both huddled together on the couch in the common room. There they were, partaking in a senseless gossiping session like most frivolous girls do. He went back to reading his Transfiguration textbook, quill in his hand and he jotted down short notes at the margin.

"EEWWWWW! Ronald Weasley and Lavender Brown kissing!" That was just so like Pansy, he thought, amused.

"Don't you know? They've been very blatant about it. They just can't seem to keep their hands off each other!"

"But… but I thought that…"

"…That Weasley and Potter could be gay?"

Pansy nodded eagerly, gesticulating for Millicent to continue. Meanwhile, he snorted out loud, biting his gums to keep himself from rolling over with laughter. Potter and Weasley… together? Priceless!

Both of them didn't notice that he was listening to their conversation, and continued to chatter incessantly. He was positively sure that he heard 'Slut couple' or something along those lines.

He pondered thoughtfully over that recollection. He had overheard that piece of conversation about two weeks ago, a few days after he had spotted Granger crying in the Great Hall. Could it be…?

"Stop crying Granger. It's not winning over my sympathy." Draco Malfoy suddenly spoke, and immediately regretted ever opening his mouth. It wasn't supposed to come out that way, really. He had intended to say "Why are you crying, Granger?", but somehow his mouth had a funny way of playing with his words. Perhaps she would read it differently, he hoped. He honestly couldn't help the fact that he was so used to insulting her that nasty words naturally came out of his mouth whenever he saw her.

The Gryffindor beaver jumped up in her seat out of fright, and shot him a withering glare with her blood-shot eyes. Her cheeks flushed pink, probably from the embarrassment and shame of letting her arch nemesis spot her crying her eyes out over some dumb guy issue. However, she soon regained her dignity and retorted in a hoarse voice in between sniffles, "get lost, Malfoy."

Now, Draco was rather angry with her. He, of all people, was trying to be nice and amiable for once, but he was rudely told to sod off – from a mudblood, no less!

"Now Granger, you've been crying here for the past two weeks at an outrageous hour! Your hysterical sobs are enough to wake the whole dungeon up!" he intoned, stormy grey eyes staring curiously at her.

Hermione let out a small smile and muttered defensively, "I did not!" Then, it vanished quickly, replaced by a very serious expression as she rubbed her tears away, "have you been stalking me?"

Draco Malfoy glared at her in sheer horror, his jaw almost touching the floor. When he caught Hermione staring at him with eyebrows lifted, he closed his mouth and cleared his throat, chin tilted up to add to the pompous effect, "My taste, fortunately, is not that bad. Unlike some other people, who is so besotted over the redhead Weasel. Honestly, I do not even see anything captivating about that weasel punk."

He fixated his gaze on her, waiting to see her reaction. And soon it came.

Hermione turned into a livid shade of purple, her ears burning to a violet shade of red that could compete with the Weasleys. Draco could literally see smoke coming out of her flared nostrils as she breathed fire onto him, slamming both hands on the wooden table as she stood up to speak, "DO NOT INSULT RON!"

Draco did not flinch an inch, neither did he show any other form of emotions. However, his silver-grey eyes flashed dangerously for a moment. He looked at her squarely in the eye and replied coolly, "I knew you had a thing for the Weasel, Granger. Now, it seems that I am correct, as always."

Hermione plunged into a deeper shade of red, and cast her eyes away from him, anywhere but him. She mumbled something under her breath in which he was unable to catch. Satisfied by her response (just the way he expected it!), he gestured her to sit down and slipped into the bench facing opposite of her. Skeptically, she plopped back down and folded her arms crossly. "What do you think you aredoing Malfoy? I'll really appreciate if you would rather not sit opposite of me where I have to see your stinking pointed face."

"Ex-cuuuse me," Malfoy pointed out defensively, "I do not have a pointed face. Now, about the thing you call hair that resembles a beaver's dam?"

While Hermione flushed with embarrassment over the remark and fought for a comeback, Draco however, just continued to stare at her solemnly. He peered hesitantly over the enormous pile of books, and nonchalantly picked up the piece of yellowed parchment which Hermione was last seen writing on.

" What's this? Transfiguration essay?" He grimaced, face contorting into what looked like a disgusted look, "you mean you actually started on it?"

She nodded and said matter-of-factly, "of course! After all, it would soon be due in two weeks time. Besides I do not have to…" she trailed off, and paused for a moment.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" she eyed him suspiciously, her friendly tone suddenly replaced by an icy tone.

He jerked slightly,recoiling back into his seat as he averted his gaze away from her intense glare. He had been expecting that phrase for quite some time, but the unexpected change in her behaviour startled him immensely."Apparently, I was wrong about you," he coughed, and stood up stiffly, causing the bench to scratch against the floor as he sauntered out of the Great Hall.

Tense silence ensued, then…

"WAIT!" Hermione yelled, jumping out of her seat as she pursued after him.

Draco stopped in his feet, head bowed low. Fringe covering his eyes, the edge of his lips curling upwards slowly.

-

Hoped you enjoyed it! Please do review.

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