Hermione entered the common room and slammed her bookbag down onto the couch. Ron raised an eyebrow. "Fun time with Malfoy?"

"Swell time," she muttered. "We didn't get anything done, so now I'll have to meet with him again. I don't know why Slughorn gave us this stupid project in the first place."

"He's being typical Malfoy, eh?" asked Ron. "If he does anything to piss you off, I'll beat him up."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I don't think that will be necessary."

"Why not? You got to punch him in our third year," he grumbled.

"That was different," said Hermione huffily.

"Give me a break. He's still the same Malfoy."

Hermione ignored him and flopped down on the couch. "Where's Harry?"

Ron grinned. "He had to work on his project tonight too. He's in Slughorn's office right now."

Hermione shook her head. "I don't see why he has to work with Professor Slughorn. It doesn't really make any sense. Harry's not going to learn anything this way, and it's really not fair to everyone else. At the very least we should've been allowed to pick our own partners."

She pulled out some arithmancy homework and started to complete it. After about an hour she yawned and stuffed everything back into her bag. "I think I'm going to head up to bed now."

"Good night," said Ron, absentmindedly doodling on a spare bit of parchment.

"You should head up soon too," suggested Hermione. "Otherwise you'll be too tired for classes tomorrow."

Ron shrugged. "I'm going to wait for Harry to come back." He paused. "It might be awhile."

Hermione patted him on the shoulder. "Good luck with that," she said as she went up the stairs.

Once Hermione reached her own bed she had more trouble falling asleep than she would've expected. All she could think of was Draco's tall, muscular body and how good it felt to be beside him for a few minutes. She began to wonder if anyone had seen the exchange between the two of them. She doubted it, or else Draco would never have allowed it to happen.

She smirked to herself at the thought of rumors flying around the school about something going on between herself and Malfoy. Harry and Ron would be so mad. Even though she wouldn't want her best friends mad, it still amused her to think about it. Hypothetically, of course.

oooooooooooooooooooooo

That Saturday, Hermione awoke to see the sun shining through the windows. She smiled, knowing Ron and Harry would be excited to see the sunlight for their final Quidditch game of the year.

Sure enough, as she headed down to breakfast the boys (and Ginny, too) were excited and anxious for the game ahead. It was against Slytherin, and they felt pressure from the entire school for a victory.

Hermione chanced a glance at the Slytherin table and saw that Draco too was experiencing some nerves, but he hid it by digging viciously into his breakfast.

The stands were packed as the entire school gathered around to see their favorite match up of Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Hermione sat with the rest of her house, proudly cheering on their team. Even though she wasn't crazy about the sport, she always attended all of the games and supported her friends.

Early on Slytherin gained a 20-0 lead, due to Ron's nerves. He still hadn't quite been able to handle his anxiety, and let the first two shots through. However, Gryffindor managed to tie it up and keep it that way for awhile.

"And Ginny Weasley has the quaffle! She passes to Robins, who shoots and- oh, it's blocked!" Seamus Finnigan muttered under his breath while commentating. "And Vaisey of Slytherin has it now. He brings it on down to the other end of the field. He's taking a shot! Oh my, this will be a hard save- BUT WEASLEY DOES IT! WOW, WHAT A PLAY!"

The entire Gyffindor house went wild at the amazing move that Ron had done, almost falling off his broom in the process. Once the noise had died down a little, Hermione yelled so that Ron could hear her, "Yeah, good job Ron!"

Two heads turned around at the sound of her voice. Ron's, and Malfoy's. Ron grinned, but Malfoy just shot a dirty look at Ron. Then he flew over to one of the beaters and whispered in his ear.

Hermione had a bad feeling about that, and it turned out she was right. When Ron was paying attention to the motion of the quaffle, a Slytherin beater snuck up behind him and fired a bludger right at his head. Ron's face contorted with pain and he fell forward off his broom.

Hermione screamed and ran down to the field. Half the crowd hadn't even noticed what was going on, as Harry had gotten the snitch at that exact moment.

Once Hermione arrived she realized Ron wasn't critically injured and breathed a sigh of relief. Sloper, one of the Gyffindor beaters, had come over to make sure Ron was okay.

Malfoy sneered at Ron. "Way to keep your head in the game, Weasley."

Ron glared at him. "Your dirty team attacked behind my back. That's just low."

"It's not my fault you weren't paying attention. And it's not my fault, Weasley, that you can't do anything right."

Ron fumed but didn't say anything. However, when the focus had gone back to Harry and the snitch, Ron picked up Sloper's discarded beater's bat and headed for Malfoy. Hermione was the only one who saw what was going on.

"Don't, Ron," she whispered. "You shouldn't hurt him."

"Why not?" asked Ron. "His team hurt me."

"You'll get in trouble!"

Ron shook his head. "It's worth it."

And with that, he charged toward Malfoy with the bat raised over his head. Hermione whipped out her wand and cried, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The bat came floating safely back to the ground just as Malfoy turned around to comprehend what was going on. Once he saw the person who had cried out the spell, he marched over to Hermione.

Grabbing her by the wrist, he growled, "Granger, you dirty little mudblood. I don't need your help."

He began to stalk off the field. Normally Hermione would've been silent as he left, but she could not stop herself from crying out, "Yes, you did."

He stopped in his tracks and turned around. He looked her right in the eyes and stared her down. Neither said a word, and finally he turned away and kept going back toward the castle.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

A/N: I know, this update is late and I'm sorry! I do have a good excuse though. I was sick with the flu and didn't even get out of bed until yesterday. And you can't be mad, because today is my birthday :-)

I know where this story is headed, but I'm having a little trouble getting there, so please bare with me if my chapters aren't always amazing.