A/N: Shorter than usual but there was some concern that this might end up being a Weasley bashing fic and I wanted to clear the air. So, I stopped it before I wanted to but it clears things up and is still an ok place to stop the chapter.

Chapter 4: Clearing the Air

"Piss off, Malfoy," Granger snarled, echoing his words from that morning.

"Ooh, not very nice at all," Draco jeered. "Why the big freeze? I thought Gryffindors were all about love and loyalty?"

"Did you even listen to the sorting song? Daring, bravery and chivalry. Gryffindors are passionate and emotional, quick to anger and able to hold a grudge. Loyalty belongs in Hufflepuff. And Slytherin, funnily enough. Now, piss off… please."

Draco found himself standing outside the Great Hall quite alone before he had formed his next thought. He watched for a moment as uncontrollable toffee curls disappeared around the corner before he took off after the petite witch.

"Hey, where are you going? Is there food? How do you move so fast with such short legs?"

Neither noticed the redhead watching from the Great Hall door, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, hurt, and worry.

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Hermione tickled the pear and stepped into the kitchen with Malfoy hot on her heels. As if her day wasn't bad enough, she had to deal with the aggravation of Malfoy, who had apparently made it his mission to get on her. Last. Damn. Nerve. He had kept up a running dialogue throughout the journey to the kitchens, speculating as to why the "she-weasel" and her gaggle of admirers might be ignoring Hermione. He kept spitting out more and more outrageous ideas, from Hermione and Harry hooking up last year (no way in hell), to Ginny being the cause of Hermione's break up with Ron (she didn't even know about it yet), just waiting for a reaction that would tell him he had figured it out. Well, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of riling her. Besides, she didn't know the reason for Ginny's behavior.

"Hello," she addressed the elves. "I'm sorry for being a bother but may I have a plate, please?"

The elves stared at her for a moment before one silently handed her a plate and resumed his…her…its duties. Hermione started filling her plate from the various platters scattered around the kitchen, Malfoy watching her in amazement from the doorway.

"I didn't know you could do that," he muttered, annoyed that there was yet something else she knew that he didn't. "Granger, what do I have to do to get a plate? I'm starving."

"Ask nicely," Hermione quipped, tickled at the thought of Malfoy saying 'please' to a house elf.

"Excuse me?"

Hermione was about to repeat herself when she caught sight of Malfoy out of the corner of her eye, bent low to speak to a wizened elf with ears so long they brushed his elbows.

"May I trouble you for a plate?" Malfoy asked, voice dripping with courtly manners he certainly had never wasted on her. "Thank you," he said with a bow of his head as the elf conjured him one. He met her eyes and smirked as he began to pile his plate high with fruits, cheeses, and cold cuts.

Decision made, Hermione levitated her plate and a goblet of pumpkin juice behind her head and stood, arms crossed and spine ramrod straight. She waited for Malfoy to turn towards her before speaking.

"Look, as enjoyable as this little foray to the kitchens has been, I'm going to go eat somewhere…quieter. Follow or don't, that's up to you but if you come with me then there are some ground rules. First, no talking about my friends. Second, no talking about the war. Third, my name is Hermione, not beaver, swot, mudblood, insufferable know-it-all, or whatever else you might let come out of that snarky mouth of yours."

Malfoy stood hip cocked, not a care in the world, eyes raised to the ceiling as if in deep thought. Finally, the corner of his lip lifted and his eyebrow arched. "Sure, kitten, lead the way."

"No. Absolutely not. You will not call me 'kitten' like we're…we're…." Hermione spluttered. Honestly, the nickname smacked of an intimacy they didn't have. Wouldn't have. Ever. Probably. Definitely not.

"Like we're…? Friends? More than friends?" Malfoy teased. "Don't get your knickers in a twist, sweetheart. Didn't mean anything by it."

"Then why call me that?" Hermione gritted. Damn he was annoying.

"Because when you're angry you remind me of a cute little kitten, fur all puffed up, claws out, trying to be bigger than you are."

Okay, so that wasn't…terrible. Still…

"Let's just stick with 'Hermione' or 'Granger', shall we?" she asked, trying to keep in control of the situation and not altogether comfortable with the idea of her former nemesis (one chat on a train and he's already a former?) calling her by a pet name.

"Whatever you say, kitten," Malfoy replied, all feigned innocence and barely there smirk.

"You aren't going to let that go, are you?" Hermione asked, already resigned to it and mentally conceding that at least it was better than any of the alternatives.

"Nope," came the response, smirk full-blown and soft lips popping the 'p'.

"Fine, peacock, let's go." Hermione laughed as his smirk turned to a distasteful sneer. The consummate Slytherin though, his smile returned quickly.

"Well if you want to call me a cock, you could have just come out and said so. No need to dress it up, Granger. Unless you're too much of a prude to say 'cock'," Malfoy drawled in a voice she hadn't realized had gotten so deep.

Hermione smirked at his use of 'Granger' instead of 'kitten'. And at the fact he thought her some kind of prude. Hermione Granger was a strong woman who believed in independence and equality for all. That extended to sexual equality and freedom. To each their own, was her policy.

She arched a delicate brow, licked her lips slowly and, when she was sure she had his undivided attention, voice dripping with honey, said, "Cock. Prick. Dick. I also know pussy, cunt, and twat, if you were curious. Now, can we go? I'm starving and lunch will be ending soon."

"Uh…yeah…yeah, lunch, right," Malfoy stammered, shaking his head as if to clear it.

Hermione grinned and turned on her heel, her lunch following dutifully behind her as she headed towards her new dorm, the only place she could be sure would be empty and quiet. Malfoy followed her like a puppy.

He must have regained his senses by the time they made it to the main staircase because the arrogance was back in his voice when he called out, "I didn't know you had it in you, kitten."

Determined to win this battle, as she had won almost every battle between herself and the Slytherin, she looked coyly over her should and replied with a cheeky wink, "Your cock? I can't say I've had the pleasure."

"What the hell is going on here?" shrieked a familiar voice.

Hermione whipped around to come face to face with Ginny, face red enough to blend in with her hair and eyes flashing. She chanced a quick look towards Malfoy, only to see him beating a hasty retreat down the hall. Coward.

"I could ask the same of you, Ginevra."

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Draco left the girls to their little chat and carried his lunch to a nearby alcove to eat. And eavesdrop. Of course. He was curious and always on the lookout for information that might prove useful in the future. Hello…Slytherin.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Hermione," the redheaded witch was saying, her tone obviously saying she knew exactly what the brunette meant.

Gryffindors…no subtlety at all. Pathetic.

"Breakfast. Lunch. The train. I must have missed something because yesterday morning we were sisters and by yesterday afternoon I apparently became persona non grata with my own year mates and you."

"Well what do you expect when you're chumming it up with a Death Eater? I saw you on the map…"

Map?

"You followed me on the map? So much for trust, Ginny. I thought we were friends."

Was Granger going to cry? The thought, strangely, upset Draco. He refused to think it was because the last time he had seen her cry was as his aunt was torturing her in his drawing room.

"Well, what was I supposed to do? I come to find you on the train and who do I see in your compartment? Draco FUCKING Malfoy!"

Middle name is Lucius, actually.

"I figured he was bothering you but then…then!...I hear you tell him he can stay! And. He. Does! Thank God for extendable ears because without them I wouldn't have heard you tell him how damned attractive he is! I left after that. I didn't need to hear any more."

She said 'pretty', Weaslette, if we're getting technical.

"Then, I check the map because I don't know where your dorm is and I want to talk to you and what do I see? I see you and him and you're standing in front of your bedroom door and he's practically on top of you. I couldn't look any more. I couldn't bear to see him go into your room, stay the night. I checked this morning, sure that I had to have been imagining things because there is no way that my best friend, my sister, Hermione Granger would do my brother, the love of her life, wrong like that and you're sharing a bathroom with him! And now…NOW…you're eating lunch together, IN PRIVATE, and he's calling you 'kitten' and you're talking about HIS COCK!"

Seriously, what was this map?

"Well, if you're quite done making a spectacle of yourself, perhaps you'll allow me to explain? Or do I not get to talk? You certainly didn't seem interested in talking to me during lunch when I tried to have this conversation."

That's right, kitten, shift some of that blame on over.

"You mean when you lifted your chin and commanded me to follow you like a servant? Did you expect me to drop everything, conversation, friends, lunch and hop along behind the girl who was slagging around behind my brother's back?"

Okay, so the she-weasel had a bit of a point. Granger is a bit high-handed. Wait, didn't Granger and Weasel split up?

"I expected my friend to trust me, give me the benefit of the doubt, and talk to me. Better yet, maybe try listening to me."

"And what argument could you possibly have that would make any of this okay? Ron loves you. He wants to marry you and have a family with you and a future. You are his whole world. He would be devastated if he knew what you were doing. He would…"

"He broke up with me the day before term started, Ginny." Granger's voice was definitely huskier than usual, like she was fighting back tears and losing.

Silence. Draco wished he could see what was going on, see their faces. Unfortunately he was stuck imagining them and waiting for the silence to end.

"What? But you two are…"

"Better off as friends, not going in the same direction, not on the same page about what we wanted in a family and the future. He would only hold me back. I'm too ambitious. I don't relax enough. We have nothing in common. I make him feel inferior, even if I don't mean to. I'm too damned smart. He loves me and he wasn't lying all the times he said it after we spent the night together but he could never be what I really needed and I would grow to resent him. I was better off without him. His words, Ginny, not mine, right before he and Harry left for training camp." She was definitely crying now.

Always knew he was an idiot but I never thought he was cruel. What does she mean 'spent the night'? Surely she didn't sleep with the wanker because he told her he loved her? Oldest trick in the book.

"I didn't know. I'm sorry. My brother is an idiot, 'Mione, and I'll hex him into next week the next time I see him. But Malfoy? What, are you getting revenge by sleeping with the guy he hates the most in the whole world?"

Sleeping with me? Definitely not. I don't even like her. Much. She's bossy and a swot and a pain in my ass since first year. Her hair is awful and it would probably strangle me in my sleep. Why would she think we were sleeping together? Definitely not interested in that. Really. Her lips do make such a lovely O when she says 'cock' though. And all that pent up fire would surely transfer well to the bedroom….No! Don't think about that, Draco.

"He did come in the compartment and I did tell him he could stay. He had nowhere else to go and it's easy enough to ignore him. I did say he was relatively attractive-"

Pretty, kitten, you said I was pretty. Easy to ignore? We'll have to see about that.

"-but then I kicked him out when he acted like a prick again."

I like how she says 'prick'. Not as good as 'cock' but I can imagine how her lips pucker on the 'p'.

"He had me up against my door trying to intimidate me and we were fighting over who got to take a shower first this morning. He followed me to the kitchens, uninvited, and since nobody else would even look at me, I figured why not eat with him. At least then I wouldn't be alone. He calls me 'kitten' to aggravate me and because I apparently resemble a hissing cat when I'm angry. We are definitely not sleeping together and I'm not out to get revenge on Ron because he was right. He could have handled it better but in all he was exactly right about me and about us. So now here we are, in the middle of the entry way, seconds away from the end of lunch, and I haven't eaten a thing and I've a headache from crying and I just want my only real girlfriend to hug me and be my sister again."

Well, the good bit is over, it seems. Now it's just the girly, emotional shit.

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Hermione was sure her face was red and blotchy, like it always was when she had a really good cry, and she couldn't breathe out of one of her nostrils. Ginny had finally calmed down and the angry flush was receding from her freckled skin. Tears were falling down her eyes now as well and the younger witch quickly stepped forward and wrapped Hermione in her arms, apologizing into her hair and rubbing soothing circles on her back.

The doors to the Great Hall burst open and the hall was soon filled with students rushing to their next class, some pausing to take in the scene of the two friends embracing. Hermione saw Malfoy slip into the throng from an alcove within earshot of where she and Ginny were standing and immediately knew he had heard their entire conversation. She would have to teach him a lesson about eavesdropping.

Later. For now she was just happy to have her friend back. And hungry. She pulled back from the hug, wiped at her face with the sleeve of her robe, and grabbed her hovering plate out of the air. She would have to eat on the way to her private tutorial in transfiguration. She bid her friend farewell, smiling at the promise of a get together in the Gryffindor dorm that evening, and headed off to meet with Headmistress McGonagall.