She sat in potions pulling out her book and quill preparing for the lesson as her classmates slowly wandered their way into the room. It had been a week since their last lesson and the rumors that surrounded the castle were never ending. Malfoy apparently had been missing classes, a problem Harry had pointed out to her at least twenty times in the long week since she had personally seen him.

She needed to stay focused on the task at hand, at whatever was thrown their way today. She needed to step up her game to prove she was better than well than him, if he actually shows up she thought laying a quill on the table. Shrinking Solution ingredients were on the board before them and she bristled a bit, it wasn't fun to show off on a potion they had all been making since second year. Her irritation at receiving an easy potion was noticeably an opposite to the feelings of the rest of the class whose mood had increased greatly based on the chatter around her, quickly almost as if a silencing charm had been placed on the room the talking ceased. She could feel the weight of the room change in response to whatever had happened behind her.

Warily, she turned to see what was happening and could feel her pulse increase. The silence of the room was deafening as he walked down the aisle towards her. He looked as if the weight of the world had fallen on him. His once tall posture had slumped incredibly, the shirt he was wearing was wrinkled, his tie skewed. The dark circles under his eye looked as if someone had taken a swing at him early last week. It was more than appearance though, his once piercing grey eyes that had drilled holes into her as they enjoyed making her life hell when they were younger looked almost dead in comparison. It was as if a ghost had taken his place as he sauntered over to the chair next to her and sat down staring at nothing.

"Malfoy…Are you…" she forced out, the look of him left her heart racing and her mind spinning. Something was not normal, nothing could ever make Draco Malfoy look less than normal, nothing good in the slightest. He cut her off with a wave of his hand and his jaw hardened into a tight line as he clinched his teeth together. She could see the lines of his veins beneath his thin skin running into the collar of his shirt.

"Spare me Granger" He said roughly between his teeth. So low she wasn't even sure she had heard him speaking. She knew trying was foolish…bringing herself into this was foolish, yet she continued to stare at him and take it all in, in less than one week he had gone from king of all to this waste in front of her now. "Stop it right now, I am warning you" He spat at her as Slughorn walked into the classroom to begin the days lessons. She tore her eyes away from her desk partner and over to the Professor, willing him to say something that would make the weight in the room disappear.

He regarded the classroom with a smile and if he noticed the elephant in the room he said nothing of the sorts. They were to brew a Shrinking Solution in order to help Hagrid move some of the Puffskeins that had multiplied rapidly and taken up part of the forest this year. They began quickly, many hoping to make this a quick lesson, she just wanted to get out of the room. The silence had become deafening, painfully so, she had to physically will herself to keep her eyes from drawing to him. As she added her minced daisy roots to the green potion and allowed herself a glance at Malfoys cauldron, his was a puce yellow as he added the same ingredient.

"That's going to poison them" she whispered to him. He only glanced at the potion before setting the roots down and looking up at the ceiling. He pinched the bridge of his nose and she could see the breaths he was talking.

"Mr. Malfoy are you alright my boy?" Slughorn asked walking and looking into the cauldron. "Oh, that won't do, you may want to start over," Malfoy stood and left the room without saying a word. Slughorn looked at her taken aback at the exchange that had occurred. Her gut told her to let him go, to stay out of it no matter what Harry would say. Instead she stood as well and followed him out the door.

He heard her foot steps behind him and groaned. She couldn't just leave well enough alone. He turned down the corridor and headed for the stairs to the dungeon instead. Increasing his stride to a level she would not be able to keep up with.

"Will you please just stop." She yelled at his back, jogging to his side.

"No."

"Can you just for once stop being such a prat and tell me what is going on," She screamed at his back, against his better judgement he turned on her. It was something she wasn't expecting and her whole body froze, leaning away from him as he skidded to a stop and towered over her.

"You are nothing more than the filth beneath my shoes, you can guarantee the day will never come when I share any part of my life with you Granger. What is my business is mine alone and you can bet your ass that you will never be privy to any information I have." He walked her back into the wall, the fear radiated off her in waves, he could see it in her eyes, the spark that normally was there was muted as her breath increased and her hands rose up to create a barrier between the two of them. "Now move along to the Golden Boys and forget about this new found sharing plan or I will make you" he snarled at her before turning and walking the other way, leaving her standing in the corridor.