A/N: Sorry I took so long to update. I rewrote this like 5 times. cry I just didn't like it.

Disclaimer: Thank you J.K. Rowling for the characters.

Chapter7: A dagger

"You will be making the Alieno Consocio potion. It'll let both people share thought for a period of time, depending on how much wolfsbane you put in."

Hermione looked tired and cranky, sitting at the front table beside Harry and Ron who seemed oblivious to her.

No one seemed to care about her, and frankly, no one really does.

No one noticed her silence through transfiguration and charms. No one would notice her silence in potions either.

No one except her worst enemy.

Draco Malfoy sat at the back corner desk with Blaise, looking extremely bored and superior to everyone. He cast an amused glance to the Golden Trio, but the amusement slightly turned cold.

Blaise was chatting quietly with another Slytherin girl sitting in front of him. The girl was looking extremely beautiful, too beautiful to be real but Blaise looked extremely bored.

Hermione was sitting there silently taking notes, her eyes slightly red. For once in the whole history of Hogwarts, she didn't bother putting up her hands for anything.

Harry turned to look at Hermione, giving her an extremely worried look but didn't bother saying anything.

She sat there, not looking up at anyone. Only taking notes to what Professor Snape was saying.

Something was definitely up with the Head Girl. He made a mental note to ask her about it later and turned his gaze to Professor Snape.

"You will be working on this potion for the next two weeks." Snape said finally turning around to face the class.

Ron immediately turned to Hermione, no doubt thinking she would love to do all the work making sure he doesn't screw up by telling him not to do anything at all.

"No Weasley," Snape drawled glancing around with a menacing glare at the Golden Trio, "I have assigned partners already for the potion you will be working on for the next two weeks."

Groans filled the Potions classroom. It's most probable that Snape would want everyone to suffer a little through this.

"Potter, Bulstrode; Thomas, Goyle; Longbottom, Crabbe…" Neville noticeable whitened at Snape's words, "Weasley, Parkison; Bixthrome, Zabini; Granger, Malfoy…"

Hermione turned white, her eyes widened at her name. Snape sneered at her and continued reading names off the list.

Snape rolled up the scroll and with a wave of his hand, half the class got up and sat down next to their partners.

Harry and Ron said goodbye and gave her a sad glance and walked away.

Hermione looked up at the blond figure with his bag sitting down next to her.

Her eyes usually held a slight mischievous look to it. Although prim and proper, she usually gets involved in adventures anyways. Today, her eyes held nothing but emptiness and sadness.

"So, missing your two boyfriends?" Draco smirked casually, starting to boil water in the cauldron, fully expecting her to retort back and yell at him. Hopefully scraping a few points off of Gryffindor. To his surprise she didn't say anything, just look at him with her large, hazelnut eyes. For some reason, it made him squirm and a feeling of guilt which only happens once a few months filled the pit of his stomach.

She turned her back to him and started chopping the locoweed. After a few minutes, she turned around to put the locoweed into the cauldron.

"What happened to you?" Draco asked after a long time, couldn't help himself.

"That's none of your business." Hermione snapped, not looking at him.

They worked in silence most of the period. He didn't want to provoke her, at least not in front of her two knights in shining armor at least. Not when hot cauldrons full of boiling liquids that could scar him permanently.

After Draco finished the first step of boiling the ingredients and have to wait for two days for the ingredients to be ready to restart, he looked through the corner of his eyes at Hermione. She looked dazed, looking up at the ceiling.

A single tear fell out of her eye, but she bit her lips and Draco saw it become swollen and cut so slightly a small drip of blood fell from it.

No one noticed, except Draco, but he was the only one that wasn't blind in the room.

Soon, everyone packed up and left for dinner. The Gryffindor princess walked with the Golden Boys, trudging silently while the two talked about Quidditch, not noticing her.

Draco narration

The witch infront of him muttered a goodbye to her friends who nodded in response and turned left into the library corridor.

She didn't acknowledge me, probably didn't even see me standing in the shadows. I was particularly good at hiding, no, not hiding, being inconspicuous. Malfoys never hide.

Her brown locks bounced on her back as she walked. She started walking quicker, and I followed.

I am not a stalker, but I knew something was wrong with her. Potter's friend as she may be, but I'm the Head Boy, I can't let anyone get hurt or in trouble.

She ran into the library, no one was inside. Even Madame Pince was out, probably like everyone else, in the Great Hall eating dinner.

She walked to the furthest, most secluded area of the library, where they kept the history section.

She walked to Hogwarts: A History section, where many volumes of the grand book sat, waiting for someone to blow off the years of dust gathered upon them.

She looked around, making sure no one was there, no one was… except for me. I was extremely good at blending in with the surroundings. I hid in the shadows, with my hood on. The only thing is that my hair always gives me away, although I very much cared about my blond tresses.

I saw a tear falling off of her tanned face. She looked so innocent right then that I wanted to walk out of this shadow and comfort her.

But I didn't.

I watched in fascination as she took a book that wasn't Hogwarts a History. Instead, she reached for a book which I didn't notice was there before. It was small and black. It had a lock and key to it.

She reached into her pocket and took out a small silver key and opened the book.

I hit myself on the head mentally, it wasn't a book, it was a small black box which content I couldn't quite see from such a distance.

I gasped audibly as she took out a small dagger from the box.

She looked up, looking around with her startled doe eyes that had tears in them. I ducked a little, fearing that she would see me.

She didn't, she looked back down at the dagger. Her hair blocking my view of her face. God forbid! I couldn't believe I'm spying on Granger- no Leclaire.

She dropped the box, holding the small dagger in her hand.

I stood frozen, afraid of what she was going to do. Thoughts going through my mind.

Was she going to kill herself? Should I stop her? Will she kill me?

Maybe, I couldn't take that chance, if she died and people found out that I was there. I would have been blamed for her death.

I didn't know what to do. She lowered the dagger, to her wrist and was about to strengthen her force when I screamed out, "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

She froze, dropping the dagger as she fell backwards onto the floor.

For the first time in my life, I was scared. I was scared that she wasn't frozen, but was going to come and kill me, I was afraid someone would find me here. I was afraid that someone would blame me. I was most afraid that she harmed herself.

I never cared about anyone before. Perhaps for my mother, but she was always being bullied by father. I was afraid for Hermione's life.

I reasoned with myself I only felt this way was because if she was gone then I wouldn't have anyone to tease, feel superior to, feel a challenge to, and care at the same time.

I walked over to her. Slowly, unsure. My heart felt warm and it was beating against my chest like a mouse trying to break out. My hands felt cold and clammy. I never felt this way before.

I muttered an counter curse.

She stood up, straightening herself. She looked at me, inquisitively, her eyes full of question, hate, and fear.

They were silent for a moment, and she charged at him...

A/N: So what do you think? Like it? I hope you do. I really didn't have any idea how I was going to write this. I knew I had so many possibilities, but this is what I came up with. Thanks to all those people who reviewed.

XOXOXO Arista