Disclaimer: Last time I checked, I wasn't richer than the queen of my country. In fact, my country doesn't even have a queen! So, using deductive reasoning, I conclude that I am not J.K. Rowling, therefore I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: I didn't realize I had anonymous reviews turned off! Sorry! And also sorry again about this chapter... I know it's not great. It's mostly just filler. Ehe.

But nevertheless, I present to you the third chapter of Running Away With You! (cue applause)

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. After finishing her breakfast (or at least attempting to), Hermione left the Cafeteria and headed back to her dorm room. She had a feeling that Draco was watching her every move, preparing to leave when she left, but she didn't look back.

Back in her dormitory, Hermione planned to spend the majority of the remainder of the day studying, as the midterm finals were quickly approaching (only three months away!). But her hopes were quickly shattered, for as soon as she settled in her comfy plush chair and opened her textbook, her other two roommates crashed through the door, screaming about something.

"Ohmigod, Hermione! There was this, like, really hot guy staring at you in the cafeteria!" the blonde one exclaimed.

"We saw you talking to him!" the one with jet-black hair continued.

"Who is he, Hermione? Is he your boyfriend?" Blondie squealed.

All the while, Hermione was gaping at them. She couldn't believe it. They had been spying on her? After a bit, she finally realized how ridiculous she looked with her mouth hanging open while her roommates were impatiently waiting for an answer.

"No, he is not my boyfriend!" she declared, her tone of voice showing that she thought this was the most absurd idea in the universe. "Do you honestly think I could see anything remotely boyfriend-material in Malfoy?"

"W-well… he's so handsome!" Black-haired Girl stated, taken aback.

At this remark, Hermione actually threw back her head laughed, as if it were the most hilarious joke she had ever heard.

"You can have him, I'm not interested," she told them.

And then, still laughing and shaking her head, Hermione stalked out of the room.

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After demanding that Hermione meet him outside the Seventh Year lounge, Draco went back to his seat and proceeded to eat a bagel. He never dropped his stare at Hermione, trying to figure out what she would do next. He watched her every move, observed how she picked at her muffin, noted how she ate half of it and then threw the rest of it away, and noticed how tense she was. She probably knew he was spying on her. He smirked at this thought.

As she left, Draco also packed up his things and prepared to leave as well. He wasn't going to follow her; he didn't want people thinking he was a psychotic stalker. No, that would not be good for the Malfoy name.

Instead, Draco headed to the recreation section of the school. He was planning to take a stroll around the miniature "lake" and plan out what he would say the following night. A Malfoy was always prepared.

His moment of peace didn't last for very long. Halfway around the "lake," Draco encountered a Sixth Year boy studying the plant life that lined the bank of the lake. The boy was muttering to himself while making illegible notes and horrid sketches in a spiral notebook. Every so often he would violently shake his head as if in disagreement with the voices that undoubtedly inhabited his misshapen head, and ferociously cross out a few lines in his notebook.

Draco stood rooted in the middle of the path, amusedly observing him. The boy was an interesting specimen.

He was just about to walk around the boy as if he was just another obstacle in the way, but the boy noticed Draco quietly slipping around him.

"Hey, you!" the boy shouted to Draco, who immediately froze, as if caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing.

Draco slowly turned around to face the boy. "What," he stated, not a question.

"Well, I was just wondering if you could help me with my studies," the boy said, not noticing the glare Draco gave him.

"No, I'm busy," Draco replied. He turned around and had taken a step away when the boy stopped him again.

"Doing what, may I ask? All you seem to be doing is taking a walk around this body of water the school calls the lake."

Turning around again, Draco was fuming. It was true; he was just strolling around the "lake."

"All right, I'll help you for just a little bit if you'll leave me alone," he told the boy, gritting his teeth as he said it.

The boy's face lit up as if it were a Christmas light that was just plugged in. His mouth spread into a goofy grin that displayed his crooked teeth. This disgusted Draco to no end, and he automatically ran his tongue over his own teeth, making sure they were still perfectly aligned.

Oblivious to Draco's obvious disgust, the boy proceeded to give Draco instructions on what to do. Draco spent a good couple of hours "helping" the boy with his studies.

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The next morning, Hermione woke to an empty room. Her roommates were, no doubt, out searching for the "hot guy" they had seen Hermione with the day before.

Alone for once, she was finally able to spend the day studying. Before she knew it, the day had passed her by, and it was nearly eight o'clock. Time to meet Draco.

Draco didn't have the same fortune as Hermione did. He was woken up by his two other roommates jumping up and down on their beds, having a contest to see who could hit their head on the ceiling first. There was no way he could sleep through that racket, so he exited the room, shaking his head and muttering something about immaturity.

It was a very windy day. He wandered around campus, putting together his speech for that night. He purposely avoided the lake, knowing the nerdy boy would be there again, just waiting to snag him for another couple hours of boring plant studying.

At precisely eight o'clock, Hermione entered the Seventh Year lounge, looking around for Draco. When she noted that he wasn't there yet, she settled herself down on one end of a couch and flipped open a magazine.

Several minutes later, the door flew open and in stepped a very wind-blown Draco.

"You're late, Malfoy," Hermione remarked, not looking up from the pages of her magazine.

"I'm late? I thought I told you to meet me outside the lounge!" Draco snarled, preoccupied with trying to straighten out his hair.

"Well, Malfoy, if you hadn't noticed, there are some extremely fierce winds blowing out there, and if we stayed outside, we would've caught pneumonia!" she shot back.

Draco scowled and muttered something under his breath.

The next few minutes were spent in silence, with Hermione finishing her magazine and Draco fuming and vainly brushing through his hair with his fingers.

"So?" Hermione asked after a while.

"So what, Mudblood?" Draco growled, confused and still angry.

"So, Mr. Pureblood, what did you want to talk to me about?" Hermione snapped, as if this were completely obvious.

Draco scowled again and muttered, "I knew that."

"Of course you did, Malfoy, now what is it?" she prompted impatiently.

Determined to get his proposal through before midnight, Draco decided not to send another remark at her in reply.

He glanced around the room to make sure no one was eavesdropping, then took a deep breath and launched into his speech.

"I am a wizard – a pureblood wizard. I do not belong here at this bloody Muggle boarding school, no matter how 'academically advanced' it is. I belong in the wizarding world. I am going to leave this Muggle world and go back to the world I belong to. I refuse to spend one more minute here in this wretched place."

Draco knew how terrible it sounded. As much as he had prepared, he was unable to come up with anything better, and wrote a rushed speech at the last second.

Hermione was silent for an entire minute. "You just spent another minute here," she grinned devilishly.

"That's beside the point! You know what I mean! Idiotic Mudblood!" Draco yelled, even more furious than before.

She was doubled over in laughter. He was breathing heavily, trying to restrain himself from hurting her in every way possible.

Finally, Hermione calmed down, wiping a tear from her eye. Still snickering, she said, "I dislike this place just as much as you do, but what do you want me to do about it? I can't very well destroy the school just because we don't like it."

"I know that, Granger! That's why I have a plan! But as much as I'm going to regret it, I need your help with it," Draco stated.

"Is it dangerous? Does it involve killing or anything violent?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"Unfortunately, no," he smirked. "It would make it so much easier if it did, but then I know you wouldn't participate. So I've gone through the trouble and eliminated those parts from the plan."

"Thank you so much for your consideration, Malfoy," she said sarcastically. "So tell me, what's this plan of yours?"

"All right, this is what we're going to do," Draco began…

Bwahaha, a cliffhanger! You know you want to review!

SWC: 1503