Hermione bounced lazily down the stairs, an unusually light load of books in her bag, bouncing against her bottom as she jauntily walked down the long corridors to the Great Hall.

Her hair was pulled loosely into a ponytail, and was bobbing and brushing her neck with the pace. The girl was musing to herself, her hands occasionally playing with a buckle on her uniform. Her footsteps echoed with a vast emptiness that the Hogwarts halls had at 7:00 in the morning.

Harry had cornered her on her way out the portrait hole that morning, and made her promise to go and have a good breakfast. She had promised with a slight smile, as the determined look on her friend's face made her wary of what he would do if she told him a banana would be fine.

Best not to go there.

When Hermione had made her morning face-plant onto the floor of her dormitory, she'd found another set of underwear, laid out, with a threatening note pinned to it. They were a deep indigo, and as much as she hated to admit it, were comfortable, and made her feel pretty.

Put these on, or Potions will be found a very eventful class for you.

Lavender's bold hand, splashed with strong and thick purple, had made Hermione uneasy as to what her little 'under-cover under-mother' had planned to make sure she wore the gotchies. So, she did.

"Hermione! Oh dear…Child! Come here! Hello."

Hermione turned as she passed Helga Hufflepuff's portrait, the subject's voice sounding slightly distressed.

"Uh, hello, can I help you?"

"I'm slightly crooked…" Helga began. Hermione blinked, as a grin tugged at her lips, due to the way the portrait had started it's request.

"You are, are you? That's okay. It's not the end of the world to be a closet portrait." Hermione assured, and ignored the woman in it squawk and sputter at her comment. She reached out and straightened the picture, before grinning innocently, hoping she could match Ginny.

Due to the snarl and flustered back turning, she'd failed. Hermione shrugged slightly.

"You're welcome."

And she was on her way again.

Getting slightly devious, Hermione decided to drop a pencil from the top of a staircase and hear it hit the floor on the bottom. She was part of the little population that carried muggle writing implements, so she didn't think people would mind if she broke it accidentally, as she'd gotten in trouble before for using them in class. She then bounded down the stairs, and bent to pick up the pencil, with had broken lead.

As she scooped up the wood, somebody knocked into her, sending her flat on her ass.

"Ow! Excuse me! I…Ginny?" Hermione gasped.

Ginny Weasley looked over her. She was breathing slightly harder, and she had a canvas bag slung over her shoulder. Her fiery hair was splashed over her shoulder, signaling that she had stopped and spun around quickly.

"Hermione! Sorry! I didn't see you!" The girl exclaimed, extending a hand to help her friend up. Hermione grunted as she accepted the help, and was yanked to her feet.

"Well, gotta go. See you!" Ginny said, with a brilliant smile, and dashed off up the staircase Hermione had pitched a sharp piece of wood down moments before.

Hermione tried to snatch at the billowing robes that dangled off Ginny's arms, but missed, and let out a frustrated snarl when her hand bashed on the hard marble railing. With a suspicious glance up the staircase, and a wary thought about Ginny's manner, and departure, she continued down the hall.

When about 5 minutes had passed, a running Colin nearly flogged her.

"Oi! What in the name of Dumbledore are you doing, running?" Hermione snapped, angry about the blatant refusal to follow the rules, how people figured she was slacking and they could run amok and how she had had to flatten herself against a cold wall, hurting her breasts by smashing them against stone, and the fact that she HAD to do so to avoid bodily collision in the first place. Colin froze, but looked longingly down the corridor she had just came from.

"Hermione, nice to see you!" he said, giving her a winning smile.

Hermione thinned her lips.

"You were running!" she hissed, advancing on him threateningly.

"I- had to…go that way…fast" he explained lamely.

"Why?"

"I…"

"You?"

"Look, Ginny saw me, and ran away. I have to catch up to her before she barricades herself up that room of hers!" he explained, looking down the hallway again, desperation catching in. Hermione shook her head.

"She's probably already in there. Colin, you can't run. 5 points from Gryffindor." She said, silently asking forgiveness from Godric for what she was doing. She always asked forgiveness after reducing points.

Colin winced.

"Now. Go. Slowly." Hermione pointed, practically blowing smoke out her nose as he slipped past her.

"Say Hi to Harry for me!" he said brightly, before doing something that made Hermione scream in frustration and kick the wall. He ran up the hallway.

Hermione put a chocolate croissant on her plate, right beside her orange juice and eggs, and had a self-satisfied smile on her face as she spooned some of the eggs in her mouth. The book she had in front of her had a gruesome description of what would happen if you added Lemur feet instead of howling monkey, in a breath potion.

Suddenly, the table jumped, as some pale hands slammed down on it.

Hermione sighed. What a way to ruin breakfast.

"Mudblood." His voice growled.

"Yes, Master?" Hermione answered dryly, ripping a piece of croissant off, and dipping it in melted and warm chocolate, before sticking it in her mouth. He plopped himself down on the bench.

Helping himself to her croissant and chocolate, he spoke in a very clipped, cold voice.

"More stuff of my Slytherins have been taken."

"Exciting." She said, plucking her pastry from his fingers, and ripping off her own piece before handing it back to him.

"You need to look around your common room for this shit." He demanded, putting another chunk in.

Hermione considered it, maliciously.

"Malfoy, I don't know what I'm looking for, how to get it back, who to suspect, where to hide it, what they could be doing with it, and why." She answered distastefully, licking her middle finger clean.

He considered this as he chewed.

"And, I don't know WHY I would do a favor for you." She added, getting a dig in as she again took her food back, snagged a bite, and gave it back to him.

The situation was very odd. Hermione Granger, and Draco Malfoy, sharing a chocolate croissant, basically alone in the great hall, talking calmly, though icily. It wasn't one you saw normally.

"Because it's your duty as an authority figure to take action." He answered, dipping pastry.

Hermione chewed thoughtfully.

"True, but it was your duty as a student, not to make fun of me for years on end."

Malfoy snarled.

"Get off your high horse, Granger. Did I ever wallop you? Did I ever curse you?" he asked nastily.

"I never cursed you, Malfoy. You deserved the smack."

"Bull."

"Who pinned me against a wall? Forced me to take a potion?"

"You took that potion yourself! And, it didn't do you any harm!"

"Bull." She shot back.

He sneered, and leaned back.

"Fine. What did it do to you?"

"Wrecked my self esteem? Ruined my vision of who I was?"

"What a tragedy!" he mocked, plastering a hand to his forehead.

Hermione kicked his shin under the table.

He swore, and kicked her back.

She leaned in, now studying him through narrowed eyes.

"What do you want from me, Malfoy?" she asked, business like.

He rolled his eyes.

"Finally! Progress! Bless the gods." He cried, looking upwards with a nasty grin.

Hermione slammed her palms on the table.

"GET ON WITH IT!" she shrieked.

"Fine! Don't get your…"

She let out a frustrated growl. He stopped mid-quote, and surveyed her.

"I want you to assist me, muddy." He answered.

"You want ME to help YOU?"

"Shut up, or I walk away."

"What a threat. Please. Do follow through."

"What fed you wits?"

"What poisoned you with a intelligent thought?"

"GRANGER!"

"Drakie-poo?"

He glowered at her. She smiled bemusedly. This was fun!

"Help me. I'll give you information on what's missing, you help me look?"

"Give me information on what's missing, and I'll see what I can do."

He watched her with a stoic face. She sipped her orange juice.

"Fine. Don't expect special treatment."

"The thought didn't flit across my mind." Honestly, it hadn't.

He pushed himself up. She bent back over her book.

"Good. The croissant was good, bitch."

She shrugged.

"I didn't make it."

He didn't move, she didn't look up. Finally, he walked away. Hermione stewed over what had just happened. As sharp, and vicious as that was, it was extremely odd. With a shrug, she continued on with her breakfast.

"I want six feet. That's not much mister Weasley, so don't groan." Flitwick said, dictating with his tiny little arms, as chalk scraped and scratched at the blackboard. Hermione took notes, and ignored Ron slamming his head onto the cover of his textbook.

"We have a total of 21 feet of writing to do tonight!" Ron hissed to Harry, who was on her other side. Harry wrote the homework down, before answering Ron.

"I know. Not much you can do about it, though. How much homework do you have Hermione?"

"This." she said, causing both boys to pelt her with questions.

"What?"

"WHY?"

"You have more classes than us!"

"You're in HARDER classes than us!"

Hermione shook her head, as the bell rang, signaling the end of class. She checked her watch. 3:01.

Time to make her library voyage.

She scooped the mess on her desk into her bag, and tied it shut, half hazardly.

"I won't be at dinner, guys. I'll see you later. 'Kay?" she said, shouldering the bag, and making a scramble for the door.

"HERMIONE! YOU NEED TO EAT!" Harry roared after her.

She waved over her shoulder, before disappearing into the moving crowd.

Hermione's eyes were heavy, as she leafed through her 65th book. She checked her watch. 11:58.

Oh, shit, she was real late. The problem was, she couldn't bring herself to go up to bed.

She froze as she heard a slight sob, and the unmistakable crackle of a small fire.

Getting up, she quietly padded closer. It was coming from the restricted section of the library.

Hermione removed her shoes, and left them at the rope. Her stocking feet were silent in the thick, and paper dry darkness of the ancient library. Hermione's heart pounded inside her chest.

Student?

Teacher?

What could possibly be worse?

She'd been awake, thinking about Malfoy and his precious items, fingering through books in hopes that something would jump out at her. Nothing had. There was the odd thing that had jumped out at her.

But, those were unmentionable, and had made a randy sort of giggle come bursting from her mouth.

Those naughty, naughty Slytherins.

Hermione crept forwards, pressing her back into the hard edges of the bookshelves, and inching along sideways, holding her breath.

A small flickering light was winking at her from the around the corner of her bookshelf protector.

Setting her jaw, Hermione stood straight. Sucking a breath of air, she stealthily stepped out from behind the shelf.

A student.

Hermione gasped, and the student yelled, throwing themselves over their workspace.

"Oh my god! What are you doing? How could you?"

Sorry. Movin' around and such. As for the card game, it started out as poker, turned into go-fish, and ended with war. Don't ask, I wasn't willing to actually keep track of a game while writing. I know, I'm lazy. Do me a big favor and REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!

Luff!