Draco Malfoy looked at the window. Again. He wasn't actually staring out it, yet. Simply looking at the window.
The curse of a wandering mind, Draco thought, cursing to himself. He needed to find the answer, any answer practically speaking. In one of these books, it HAD to be here! Draco wouldn't let it not be here, there were a million ways to do it...
And yet, just outside, like the scent of rain before the first drop falls, tantalizingly close yet so far away, was an infinitely easier solution. A useless, completely ridiculous solution, Draco reminded himself. Greg couldn't manage, Pansy wouldn't manage. It was unacceptable, unthinkable. And yet, here Draco was, thinking about it.
Irritably, Draco Malfoy shook it from his head, like a Shetland shaking water from its coat. He bent to his books, again, his mind still half on that woman's face, her form, her laugh.
No! Draco thought, shouting at himself. He began to read out loud, "Every choice twins the world, breaks it in twain - and from each branch steps a world anew..." His mouth shaping the words kept his mind from wandering... for a little while.
Where is he now? Hermione Granger thought, her belly flat on the bed, her heels waving above her knees. She had a book open, was paging through it idly (woe be the day when Hermione Granger was too preoccupied to read). It wasn't helping. She wanted to -
In frustration, she cut herself off. Don't dream of the impossible, she said to herself, crossly. There were things that you might do, and things that you could do, and plenty of things that Hermione knew she should do - but one thing that she couldn't do, called to her.
She wanted to see him again, to taste his laughter in her ears. It was illogical, true, but that wasn't hardly the problem. The problem was that it was impossible. He was gone, she thought with a sigh. She wasn't going to see him again, not even if she walked every road in Wales.
[a/n: Draco's up to something. Can you see where his mind is going? Hermione is trying to stave off self-inflicted madness.]