A/N: AH! I totally thought I updated this, and then I look, and WHAT there's only 14 chapters? So so so so so so SORRY! I really thought I had the 15th chapter up!

ok…….again, I get in rages and I don't feel like taking back what I said, and I really haven't gotten any flames….and I'm probably going to keep private what exactly ticked me off. I'm not taking it too seriously; I just needed an outlet for ranting and raving. So I just said that. You don't even have to read my A/N if you don't want; usually they are just me going insane on what point or another. So sorry!

And if you're not "getting" what is happening in the story and are too impatient to just WAIT to find out in later chapters, then go read something else because I don't want to spend all my time writing chapters that explain everything you don't get. If you have a specific question besides "I don't get it." I'd be happy to help you out and answer, but don't give me this "I don't get it" stuff, because am I really supposed to know what you don't get? No!

Again, very sorry about the ranting and raving…but honestly, sometimes some of YOU take it too seriously! And if you're one of my faithful reviewers who ask questions and compliment me, never fear, I'm not talking to you! Just some things….people…anyway, I'll get over it! Thanks, I just…was upset in the oddest of ways.

I like being critiqued and everything, and complimented, but…relax if you don't understand what's going on.

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement is meant.

Last Chapter: Read it or don't…

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Hermione had decided not to tell Harry and Ron about the Love Potion. They hardly seemed on speaking terms at all, some argument that they wouldn't let her know. It infuriated her beyond measure, usually she knew just what they fought over, neither Harry nor Ron seemed willing to give her information, and as all three were already walking on eggshells, she decided not to push it.

Several times throughout the week Harry had come up to Hermione, opened his mouth, closed it, repeated this several more times, before some one would walk up to them and begin talking. Harry would excuse himself and walk away leaving Hermione confused and talking to some one she'd rather not. In classes when they worked as a group, Ron would work with Seamus, and Harry would either work with Hermione, or Dean. She was so confused as to why they were acting this way, what argument were they in? But she knew that it would turn out alright. They were the best of friends, weren't they? They'd been in fights before, they'd work it out, she hoped.

Meanwhile, in between her classes, homework, meals, and social time, she was working out like never before in her life. In her other spare time, she searched for spells and charms of defense and attack, and desperately searched for anything that might possibly help her. It became a sort of secret obsession she had. Trying to find ways to defend herself from magical or non-magical attacks, no one really knew just what she was dong when she spent those long hours in the library and the Room of Requirement. Most people assumed she was studying for one test or another, and other people thought she just wanted to be left alone.

0o0

After the Love Potion incident, Draco didn't try to comfort Hermione anymore. He looked at her and almost moved nearer to her, but then shook his head and walked away. After a week or so, she didn't cry anymore, she just stared into the fireplace with a glazed over melancholy expression plastered on her face. People would call her name and she just went on glaring at the fire. He tried to snap her out of her trance, but he failed. After about an hour she would shake her head, her eyes would become sharp and clear again, and she would stand up and walk away. After a few days, the prefects got used to her sitting there and staring, and left her peacefully alone.

A few times Draco had followed her out of the UPC to the library. She would go to a certain section of books that Draco later learned was about Defense and Attack, Dueling and Fighting, and things such as that. She would collect a large mound, move to a table, glance through them, check out as many as she could carry in her bag, and go to the room Draco and his fellow Inquisitorial Squad had busted for being the meeting place of Dumbledore's Army last year. The memories made him flinch slightly. He couldn't believe what a little git he had been then. He silently prayed he didn't come off like that now.

Honestly, he liked to annoy people, but not so much as…that. It was a challenge to explain that feeling. He didn't want to be so much as mean and cruel, but oh did he ever enjoy pushing other people's buttons!

He never entered the room, but he stood outside it for awhile before backing up a bit and stalking off. He knew she would spend hours in there doing whatever it was that she did, and then would come back to the UPC. She didn't sleep in Gryffindor Tower anymore. She barely ever went up there. She didn't go to the Quidditch games, even for her House, but worked silently and completely alone in the castle. She had become considerably withdrawn from everything and everybody, and Draco could only guess as to why. She still talked to Seamus and Ron though, so obviously she hadn't been told. That was just as odd as the fact that Ron and Seamus hadn't been punished besides the fact that they had detention everyday of the year, or until, he mused, Dumbledore returned from his trip and expelled them. He sighed halfheartedly, why had they done that to her? She was, a little bossy, maybe a little all knowledgeable, maybe gorgeous…wait, no she wasn't. She was a mudblood.

But Draco knew better than that. He knew that she wasn't just any mudblood, because he knew he didn't think like that anymore. Rescuing Hermione had in a cliché sort of way saved himself too. He had begun to stop thinking of half bloods and muggleborns as inferior to purebloods. He had realized they were his equals, if better.

But he wasn't about to let people onto his new thinking. Especially not his family. The never ending punishment would go on if they found out he didn't want to be a Death Eater, and that he didn't acknowledge the Dark Lord as his leader. It terrified him just imagining what would happen if they found out, horrible, horrible things.

He closed his eyes and shook his head, clearing his mind from the nasty image that had filled it. He walked on without realizing that some one had watched him from the moment he had turned around to walk back to the UPC.