The next week went by smoothly, Hermione went to class and hung out with Ron, Harry and Ginny and at night she would do homework with Malfoy. Hermione talked as usual but every now and then Malfoy would join in on her one sided conversation.

This delighted Hermione beyond words. She finally after weeks, felt like she was finally getting through to him.

The developed a kind of a friendship, given it was a secret friendship. If Harry and Ron found out she was friend with Malfoy they'd think he had slipped her a potion or something. So on their occasional meetings in the halls they Hermione would give him a small smile and walk past.

She still didn't get much emotion out of Malfoy, the only time had been the first night she had woken him from his nightmares. He still had them, but he had stopped putting the silencing charm on his room after Hermione's multiple requests. So practically each night Hermione would wake up to Malfoy struggling to stop or get away from the death eaters in his dreams, she would softly walk to his room and let herself in. She would push his hair back from his face and quietly tell him to wake up, that it was just a dream.

When he would finally wake up she would talk to him about anything, just to help his mind come away from the nightmares. They had been getting along like this for a couple of months when one night Malfoy surprised her.

"You don't have to do this you know, I can just put the silencing charm back on." He told her quietly glancing up at her face.

"I don't mind besides you'd never get any sleep." She replied firmly.

"Have Potter and Weasley noticed that you're not getting as much sleep?"

"I'm getting plenty of sleep Malfoy." She said frowning, sure she got a little less sleep but she didn't think it had made much of a difference.

"You have circles under your eyes and you yawn a lot more in class." He pointed out.

"Oh" was all she could say. She supposed she did have circles under her eyes but she had never really paid much attention to her looks. She was tall, skinny and had long wavy hair that was a tad bit frizzy; there was nothing special about her. She was no Cho Change or Ginny Weasley.

"They haven't noticed have they? Merlin they really are gits." Malfoy muttered.

Sighing she looked at him and said "Malfoy they aren't gits, they just don't notice those kinds of things, hell I didn't even notice!"

He nodded and was quiet for awhile. He looked like he wanted to say something but kept stopping himself.

"What is it Malfoy? If its and Harry and Ron I don't want to hear it." She said prompting him.

"What do you call me Malfoy? My first names Draco you know."

She sat for a minute opening her mouth to say something but closing it again. After a minute or two she shrugged.

"I don't know you've just always been "Malfoy" I've never really thought about it. Why do you call me Granger?"

"Like you would have let me call you Hermione, those two so called friends of your would have tired to kill me." He said smiling at the picture of Potter and Weasley sputtering and cursing at him.

"Well now that we are friends you can call me Hermione and I'll call you Draco." She said laughing at his reasoning even though it was probably right.

He nodded in agreement kind of liking the way she said his name.

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They became a lot closer after that; Draco would talk to her when something was troubling him or about his dreams. Hermione would rant about Harry and Ron or just talk.

Draco didn't like hearing her talk about Harry and Ron, they didn't appreciate her. She was smart, pretty and a good friend but they didn't see any of that, most of the time they just needed to copy off her homework.

One night as Hermione and Draco were doing their homework together in the common room they heard a knock at the door. Since Hermione was furiously writing one of her essays Draco got up to answer it so as not to disturb her train of thought.

He opened the door to find Harry there. He frowned not liking that number one Harry was barging in on his and Hermione's homework time and number two it was almost 10 o'clock even though it was Friday night he knew Hermione liked to finish as much of her weekend homework as she could on Friday.

Harry grunted at seeing Draco answering the door. "Where's Hermione?" He asked shouldering past Draco to get into the common room.

"I didn't invite you in Potter." Draco spat hating how he just assumed he was invited in.

Harry glared at Draco before walking over to where Hermione was on the couch. She was frowning at what just took place between them. Draco didn't usually insult people anymore mostly he just ignored people. She was wondering what had gotten into him.

"Hey Harry what are you doing here?" Hermione said trying to draw his attention away from Draco, she didn't know what she would do if they started fighting, Draco was her friend now too.

It worked Harry seemed to completely forget Draco or well probably just ignore him. Harry sat down next to her in what was Draco's seat and started telling her of this party they were throwing in Gryffindor tower.

Draco seeing he was not wanted made to go to his room. About half way there he heard Potter ask Hermione to go with him to the party. He stopped it didn't sound like a casual "come to the party with me as a friend" invite to Draco. He watched Hermione think for a minute, Potter started begging her to "please come it will be fun." She looked toward Draco quickly and gave him a face that said she was sorry. Turning back to Potter she agreed.

Draco went into his room and closed the door maybe "a little" too loudly. He Heard Hermione tell Potter to wait for her that she was going to change and he hear her door close.

He sat on his bed and put his hands over his face. Why did he care that she was going to the party with Potter? He shouldn't, its not like they had anything planned they were just doing homework.

He heard her bathroom door open into the joint bathroom, and then a few seconds later a small tap on his bathroom door before it opened.

Hermione walked into his room and sat next to him on the bed.

"I'm sorry about that Harry can be a git sometimes I suppose. You didn't have to patronize him. What was all that about? I haven't seen you do anything of the sort all year." She asked a questioning look in her eyes.

"I don't know I just got mad, Potters a real git and I just couldn't help it." He said sighing; she'd gotten good at being able to tell when he was lying so he had to tell the truth.

She nodded. "Ok well Harry's waiting; I shouldn't be gone too long. We'll finish our homework tomorrow ok?" With a small smile she left closing the bathroom door behind her.

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