The next day goes by quickly.

Now I see the huge clock ticking down the time reading 3:45 pm.

I said that I would be meeting Hermione in the library at 4:00 no earlier and no later.

Even if she is a mudblood I have to keep my word-it's the only thing I truly have.

I'm sitting in the common room with Draco reading alongside me on the couch in front of the green fire.

My head rested on his shoulder when I looked up realizing I should probably leave to study with the mudblood.

I sigh sitting up straight stretching.

"What's wrong?" Draco asks me.

"I need to go," I say. "I'm going to do some extra credit work."

"You with your school work-your so devoted." Draco teases. "You should really take a break, sometimes it's nice."

"Well when I'm trying to top the mudblood-it's kind of hard I need to do this kind of thing," I say shrugging.

He nods, raising an eyebrow.

"You're already better than her, I mean you're a pureblood after all," he laughs.

"I know I'm better but that doesn't mean that I can slack off," I say before standing up and grabbing my book bag.

I wave goodbye to him leaving the common room to go to the library.

On the way there I pressure myself to be nice, but I can't make any promises to myself because I'll only break them the first chance that I can get.

Sure enough, at 4:00 o'clock on the dot she's sitting at the table. I told her about books sprawled out in front of her.

I slide into the seat beside the window across from her.

"Looks like you're here early," I say observing her.

"No-really I just arrived," she says looking at me, her brown eyes inquisitive.

"Really?" I say disbelieving. "Anyways...what did you even want to study for? I mean you've got perfect marks."

"I didn't just want to study per se- but I also wanted to learn more about you," Hermione says.

I raise an eyebrow.

"Now, why would you want to do that?" I ask her.

"Well...you're from a completely different magic school-or we're from," she corrects herself. "Plus I thought since we both take advanced potions we'd have a common interest."

At this she smiles.

I feel a nerve in my forehead twitching from the very sight of that stupid smile.

What was I to her?

An extracurricular?

A charity project?

"So...you lured me because you wanted to be friends?" I scoff.

"To make each other friendship bracelets and tell each other our deepest darkest secrets?" I ask, feeling annoyed that I was wasting my time.

"You looked like you could use a better friend than the ones you've got," she says.

"Really? A friend like you? Don't make me laugh!" I growl. "You're a mudblood! I'm a pureblood. Why would I want to be friends with you? Besides I do have friends- it's not my fault you're blind."

"Then why'd you come?" Hermione asks furious.

I stop my mind feeling scrambled as I think of an answer for her question.

"I-maybe I thought that we'd actually be getting some work done instead of talking of pointless things such as friendship!"

"We are but that isn't the only reason I asked you to come or did you not read my letter?"

"I read it enough thank you," I growled at her.

"So are we going to keep on arguing or are we going to study?" She asks me if her mood changes in an instant.

"Fine...but I'm leaving in an hour," I say, pulling out my potions notebook and textbook.

I compare her notes to mine amazed that they were nearly identical.

I note the part about different sources she used- I found it strange that she wrote down the book names.

But I figured I could give these a try sometime when I wasn't with her or Draco.

"You sketch the ingredients?" She asks me to look at my notebook.

"Yeah I find it helpful to know just what I'm looking for," I say acknowledging her observation.

"I do that sort of-but I'm not much of an artist," Hermione shrugs.

I glance at her attempt at a string of thistle, I cough, hiding my laugh as I compare it to my own.

I grab my wand and take her notebook.

I cast a siphoning spell soaking up the thistle drawing earning protests from Hermione but I shake my head at her.

She fell silent as I began to immediately sketch with my pencil a thistle flower, capturing the bush in a breeze, with each of the spikes and the curvature of the branch.

Then I grabbed my watercolor palette painting the drawing a lilac purple and sage green.

Once I had let it dry I cast a motion spell to make the drawing appear as though it was swaying in the breeze.

Without another word I handed her notebook back and turned away from her back to my own notebook.

Hermione was speechless, her mouth hanging open as she stared at me.

"Might want to close your mouth," I say, smirking.

"Otherwise you'll catch a fly."

She closes her mouth nodding.

I laugh, shaking my head.

"Thank you," I hear her mumble.

I nod not giving her the satisfaction of a verbal response.

We continued to study for the next hour, reminding me that I said I was leaving at the hour mark.

"Right! Yeah...alright I'm leaving now," I say standing up while I grab my things.

"So...Thursday we meet back here at the same time?" I ask rocking back and forth on my toes.

"Yeah...sure," Hermione grins.

I nod leaving her alone in the library, making my way back to the now empty Slytherin common room to freshen up before dinner.

I sit now on my bed inside my dorm feeling guilty that I just spent an hour of my time with the enemy of my house.

And I was planning on doing it again.

Today was Tuesday...so I'd be seeing her again in two days.

Somehow... I wanted it to be Thursday already.