Hermione
Hogwarts
End of September 1996

The week following her first detention with Malfoy was…confusing, to put it lightly.

For a good hour, Hermione laid in bed following her and Malfoy's detention, stewing over their exchange, plus his insane reaction to accidently touching her. After thinking it through and letting her emotions settle, she resolved she simply must let it go — that it would be best to ignore him. Pretend that none of it ever happened.

This plan was threatened, however, when she caught sight of Malfoy strolling into the Great Hall for breakfast the next morning, and she noted, woefully, that her body jolted into alertness simply at the sight of him.

Harry had been keen to get intel about her detention over breakfast. She rattled off in a perturbed way that Malfoy was a brainwashed pureblood, lashed out at Slughorn, and brewed a decent potion. The last one just slipped out.

"I thought you said you weren't going to talk to him?" Harry questioned.

"I didn't," Hermione lied, seemingly for no reason, as her cheeks flushed.

"Then how did you know his potion was any good?" Harry volleyed back. Hermione stilled.

"I looked at it after he left."

It wasn't immediately clear to Hermione why she was omitting the facts about what happened in detention. All she could point to was that she was still out of sorts and felt uncomfortably disorganized inside her mind.

Unfortunately for her, matters would only grow more complicated as Malfoy decided to continue to engage with her beyond the confines of their detentions.

The first class they shared together was Ancient Runes. She was the only Gryffindor who continued on to NEWT-level and Malfoy the only Slytherin. They were in a sea of Ravenclaws.

Approaching the classroom that morning, she caught sight of Malfoy leaning against the doorway. His arm was hitched up, holding a book as if checking notes before class. A lock of hair had fallen across his forehead, humanizing him, yet again. Hermione huffed out a frustrated breath.

The plan was to ignore him. After the previous night, there was nothing to say to the other anyway, even if she did want to launch into a rant on his idiotic ideals.

Her hand jutted out for the door when his smell swirled around her. His arm appeared in her line of vision as it passed over her shoulder.

Hermione turned her head ever so slightly to see Malfoy standing directly behind her, reaching over her to prop open the door for them both.

Prickly spots of heat rose to the surface of her skin; she had no earthly idea why he'd put himself in such close proximity with her. It was ironic, really, given their fight the night before. To her utter astonishment, he smirked.

"After you, Granger."

His voice was low enough that no one passing could hear. She gulped, saying nothing back, finding the will to move her feet forward into the classroom.

As he passed her, she heard him emit a low chuckle. The sound of it did not compute with her brain. Has she ever heard Malfoy chuckle in a non-menacing way? Someone must have polyjuiced him. This wasn't the real Malfoy.

Taking a seat, she looked to her left, past Lisa, who sat between them, and scrutinized Malfoy's behaviors. He did seem lighter in mood than previous weeks. His shoulders were not so pinched together, and his facial expression seemed less tortured. What changed?

He turned to face her and, as their eyes met, she sat paralyzed. When he lifted a perfectly arched brow in her direction, she abruptly turned forward in her seat. What on Merlin's green earth was he doing? They didn't interact like this; this was ludicrous behavior on his part.

Her brain tried to point out that watching him like a hawk and inspecting his every move also fell into the category of unusual behavior. She shushed her brain into submission.

Ancient Runes passed with no other incidents, and, when it ended, they both left with no further interaction to speak of.

The next class they shared was Potions. There would be no room for inexplicable interactions there. Unlike Ancient Runes, where there were only Ravenclaws who hardly paid attention to Hogwarts' social dynamics, Potions was filled to the brim with students from both Gryffindor and Slytherin. Any conversing or exchanging of pleasantries would be aptly spotted by either side.

Hermione had taken several steps into the Potion's dungeon when she felt those silver eyes lock onto her. She turned and saw him leaning over his Potion's table, arms crossed, giving her a measured stare.

Goyle, standing to the right of Malfoy, glanced down at the blonde and followed his line of sight. Sensing he'd been caught, Malfoy quickly covered.

"Look who it is… our resident swot, little-miss-know-it-all," Malfoy sneered at Hermione.

Her attention fixed on him, as did Harry and Ron's, with Ron positioning himself protectively in front of her.

"Will you be able to control yourself today and not say every little thing that comes into that obnoxious brain of yours?" His gaze strayed to her lips and something stirred in her chest, "Or should we all just plan to suffer?"

The Slytherins chuckled while Harry and Ron glared at him. She, however, held his stare. His brow twitched ever so slightly, taunting her.

She should have ignored him, but something reared in the back of her mind, wanting to take his bait.

Turning her nose up at him, she finally said, "I don't know, are you going to be a moody brat like you always are? If so, please spare us."

Off to the side, Seamus cackled loudly as the green-clad house cautiously glanced between one another, not knowing how to react to Hermione retaliating against Malfoy.

If anyone had bothered to really look at Malfoy though, they would have seen the ghost of a smile on his lips.

Thus, began their new dynamic:

In Ancient Runes, he would be almost cordial to her, yet say nothing, but in classes they shared with their houses, they would openly attack one another.

It wasn't until that Friday that Ron, of all people, noticed the new development.

While walking out of Defense Against the Dark Arts, mid-bicker with Malfoy, the Slytherin reached out for the door ahead of Hermione and held it open for both of them.

She didn't think much of it and was about to say something smarmy back to his last comment (he'd insulated her hair, which was a weak jab, at least for him…) when Ron pulled her away by the shoulder.

He tugged Hermione to the opposite side of the hallway until her back was against the wall, facing out. Over his shoulder, she caught a glimpse of Malfoy's eyes narrowing on Ron before turning away to join a group of Slytherins down the hall.

"Malfoy is being weird towards you," Ron abruptly declared, an obvious edge carried in his voice. Harry joined them, looking over his shoulder at Malfoy and back to Hermione.

Her shoulders twitched awkwardly into a semi-shrug — it communicated something between a 'so what' and 'how am I supposed to know why Malfoy does what he does?'

Ron groaned in frustration at the lack of a helpful response. "He keeps going after you in classes, ever since detention."

"Malfoy has always been a prat," Hermione reasoned. Harry nodded enthusiastically.

"It's different," Ron flushed. "He never used to talk to you in class."

Hermione fought the uncomfortable feeling that she was betraying her friends by not telling them that she was a willful, albeit confused, participant with whatever was happening between her and Malfoy.

Ron continued, "But, like, just now, he held the door for you."

Hermione tensed. She'd noticed that he had begun to do that in Ancient Runes, and, strangely, he was always waiting by the door as she approached that class now, but she hadn't noticed it had carried over to DADA.

"Nothing strange happened in detention last week, did it Hermione?" Harry now jumped into the questioning. He didn't give the impression he saw what Ron did, but he was curious nonetheless.

She didn't like the idea of lying to her two closest friends, but was also not comfortable enough to admit her views on Malfoy were now complicated.

"He can do non-verbal spells," Hermione shared. Harry's brow shot up, but Ron looked uninterested.

"That doesn't explain why he's interacting with you 'Mione," Ron refuted.

She searched her head for anything else. The truth was, even she wasn't sure why Malfoy had changed towards her. Especially after their heated argument following detention.

She took a breath. "On the way out from the detention, I tripped. His arm shot out to steady me, but when he touched me, he yanked back his arm. Like he had touched something dirty."

Ron's head whipped over his shoulder, seeking out Malfoy in the crowd, the redhead's eyes already glaring. His indignation was enough to squash the inquisition, but Harry looked at Hermione with apologetic eyes.

"I'm sorry that happened. Why didn't you tell us?"

She wrung her hands and shrugged. How could she tell her two friends, one of whom she had a complicated relationship with as it was, that she couldn't stop thinking about Malfoy? That after spending three hours with the Slytherin, and despite his erratic, moody, and, at times, cruel behavior, she couldn't rid her thoughts of him.

The rest of their Friday passed without incident, other than the occasional dirty look shot from Ron to Malfoy across classrooms and the Great Hall.

Saturday came, and during breakfast, so did an owl. It announced her second detention was to take place that evening.

That day, she sat out on the grounds with Ginny and Luna to enjoy her time off from classes, but her thoughts spiraled knowing she would once again be alone with Malfoy later that night. Her brain continued to run amok until she felt the subtle jostling of her arm accompanied by the sound of her name getting louder and louder.

"Merlin! Hermione!" Ginny snapped, bringing Hermione's attention back to the present.

She looked first to Ginny, then to Luna, both of whom sat across from her on the tartan flannel blanket they had laid out over the moist grass. Hermione gingerly closed the open book in her lap and blinked.

"Sorry, what was that?" Hermione asked, doing her best to show some semblance of having been paying attention.

Ginny laughed. "What is it with you lately? You've been in the clouds for days."

"And that is sort of my thing," Luna smiled serenely, looking like a sunflower in a field of grass with her oversized, yellow straw sunhat.

"Sorry, I'm anxious," she paused, and decided she may as well add some truthful context for her behavior. "I have my second detention with Malfoy tonight."

Ginny seemed satisfied by this answer, looking as if that punishment was horrific enough to explain any sort of behavior, but Luna gave Hermione a knowing nod.

"You've been different since the first one," Luna commented. "Draco has as well."

Ginny didn't miss Hermione's cheeks coloring. Slowly the redhead pieced two and two together and raised an accusing finger. "Hermione, you don't…"

"No!" she blurted before Ginny could even finish her thought. Luna looked down, smiling.

Ginny gave a side-eyed glance towards Hermione, looking like she wanted to press the issue, but Luna turned and pulled out an early edition of next week's Quibbler from her father.

"Shall we do the word scramble?" Luna asked, abruptly changing the subject.