My life's a farce,

One brilliant garish mockery.

I write the truth only here,

I lay myself open only to you.

Else who could know who I am?

Else who might actually see me?

I boast, I strut, I mock, I laugh.

None of it real

The world insists on painting me.

In reds and blacks and golds,

Only you might strain to realize

That I'm painted in the softer hues.

Duns and greys and blue shadows

Drawn under the changing moons.

Now! Draco thought, moving as quickly as he could, his eyes still looking at Blaise, who was making a face at him - undoubtedly, he'd noticed that Draco Malfoy was about to run into Hermione Granger - who, as usual, was the first person out of her class. Well, that didn't matter, now did it? Because Draco wanted to run into her - wanted to confirm that she was really there.

Smash!

Apparently Granger hadn't been looking either, as rather than a simple collision, this wound up with her awkwardly half-fallen (braced by her wrist), with Draco spread on top of her, his arms around her. Both of them managed to make rather awkward noises, that Draco was certain Pansy would laugh at later. Draco, having prepared for how he wanted to react, allowed his eyes to get big, before snapping, "Watch where you're going, mudblood!" he hissed the last word as it wasn't worth getting detention simply to insult Granger. "You ran into me, " Hermione snapped back, fire flickering in her eyes. Draco shoved the ground down, pushing himself upwards into a standing position, with barely a bent knee to do it. Raising his nose high, he said, "If you didn't have too many books to carry, you'd not have fallen." Hermione, climbing more unsteadily to her feet, looked at him angrily, but couldn't respond with any venom to the cold truth. Draco watched as she limped away.

At the same moment, a far more lassidaisical Luna was tripping, tumbling into Hermione, who was leaving the dungeons (undoubtedly after a lesson with Longbottom, as the dungeons were the only suitable places for a Potions lab, self-organized or no). "Oh, I'm sorry, Hermione," Luna said carefully, "How are your lessons with Neville going?"

"Quite well, thank you." Hermione said, bracing Luna so she didn't fall down the stairs.

[a/n: Leave a review! They're trying to figure out the timeturner puzzle, importance unknown.]