Hermione was incredibly happy to be away from Malfoy. 'It's so annoying and tiring to be around him so much!' She walked to sit down in the empty seat next to Ginny, and across from Harry and Ron. Ginny smiled at her. "So, how does it feel to have your own room?" Hermione laughed. "Great! Except for Malfoy…" she said, her expression darkening. Ron and Harry immediately looked at her, Ron actually putting down his fork, looking very concerned. Hermione stared in disbelief. Ron stopped eating because he was worried about her wellbeing? Aww…that was sweet of him. But she'd get a permanent, overprotective, body guard in the form of Ronald Weasley if she told him about Malfoy and the things he had been doing to bother her. And if she was really unlucky, she'd get Harry as a body guard too. And Hermione was now certain she didn't feel lucky today. 'Here it comes. The interrogation of Hermione Granger begins…now.'
"Has that bastard been bothering you Hermione?" he asked, looking at her anxiously. "No Ron, it's nothing I can't handle, just arguments, you know. No big deal!" she said quickly. She hoped they would believe her. She really didn't want body guards as friends. Only idiot people like Malfoy have body guards as friends. Ron was just about to interrogate her more when Ginny, thankfully, interrupted.
"So, what kind of project are you and Malfoy doing?" Ginny asked. "Tutoring in Charms," Hermione said dully. She instantly regretted speaking about it, because then Harry immediately looked at her with very wide eyes. 'Looks like I probably will get a body guard now,' Hermione thought, feeling glum.
"You have to tutor him? Hermione, no you can't! Who knows what he'll do? He might hex you!" Harry looked horrified. 'Oh great, one more thing I have to think about.' She thought. She was worried now.
"Thanks Harry. I hadn't thought of that," Hermione said sarcastically.
Harry looked at his plate. "Sorry," he mumbled.
"I have to, anyway. I already talked to Snape. Malfoy talked to him too. There's no way out of it…maybe it won't be too bad," she said hopefully, not really believing it herself. Harry and Ron still looked very upset. Hermione was frustrated with them.
"Oh Ron, Harry, just let it go! I can handle him!" Hermione half yelled. Harry and Ron looked at her skeptically. Hermione could see they were not convinced, but their hunger beat their concern about her. Ron shrugged and began to eat again. Harry gave her a small smile and then proceeded to pile bacon on his plate Hermione watched them warily. She hoped they were truly done with the Malfoy conversation. She didn't feel like talking about him again. She'd rather put him out of her mind until it was truly necessary: at 5:00.
"So Harry, you think the Chudley Cannons will win the game this Wednesday?"
"I dunno Ron, I don't think so."
"What? Of course they will!"
"But isn't one of their beaters injured? That's the best beater on the team!"
"So? They'll get a new beater!"
"Where are they going to find a better beater than him?"
"Well there is always…"
Hermione smiled. 'I guess they're done discussing me and Malfoy. That's good.' She heard a squeal from the Slytherin table and looked over there curiously. Pansy was talking to Malfoy. Actually, she was idolizing Malfoy. She was practically licking his feet. Well, there's nothing new there.
"Oh Draco, you look so very cute today!" Pansy squealed. Malfoy grabbed the metal container that held the rolls, and looked at his reflection. "Perfect, as always," he said, flashing the girls at the Slytherin table a mega-watt smile. The girls all sighed. Pansy sighed the loudest. Hermione snorted. 'Yeah, he's perfect. Less than perfect, that is.'
"How's Granger? Is she bothering you, Draco dear? Because I'll shut her up, if you need me to," giving him a doting smile and kissing him on the cheek. Malfoy grimaced, but quickly changed his expression to one of indifference. Hermione laughed out loud at this. 'Let's see Pansy shut anyone up.'
"Well, you know, we had to get some things straight first, I think she's rather attracted to me-it's hard not to be of course," He said, giving a knowing smile to Pansy and the girls around her. They all sighed again. "It's so true, Draco." Pansy said giving him puppy-dog eyes. He smiled appraisingly at her. "Anyway, I tried to get her to realize that she's a mudblood and I'm a rich pureblood. I think she's in denial. I think she doesn't want to admit that she's a dirt mudblood, who would?" Malfoy asked. The girls all shook their heads.
"Who would want to admit that they were a dirt mudblood? Nobody, Draco. It's only natural," Pansy said knowledgeably. Then she sighed some more and grabbed Malfoy's hand tightly. Malfoy loosened her death-grip on his hand. Then he continued.
"She sort of got it but it's going to take awhile for the feelings to go away, she really likes me. She keeps on falling on me." He said off-handedly, taking a large gulp of pumpkin juice. Pansy was looking very worried. "Oh, Draco, what are you going to do about it? I don't want that mudblood bitch hanging all over you!" She held onto his arm, as if he was going to run away with her at that very moment. Pansy looked around for Hermione at the Gryffindor table, and saw her watching them. Pansy gave her a look that said "Back off, he's mine." Hermione turned around quickly. 'Oops. She saw me. Great, just great. Now it will look like I really do like him!'
"What were you looking at, Hermione?" Ginny asked as Hermione turned around. "Nothing, Ginny…um I thought I saw something, but I didn't". She had turned a bit pink in her embarrassment of being caught looking. Ginny looked oddly at her. Hermione looked away. Ginny was still looking at her rather suspiciously. She looked back, and started to complain about her "project" some more to distract her. It would not be good if Ginny realized that she was looking at Malfoy. Even if it was just out of curiosity, Lavender and Parvati would have a field day with that information if word reached their ears…by accident or on purpose.
"I mean, really Ginny, 'Tutor Malfoy in Charms' is not even a project! I asked some other students and they said they got things to research, or a difficult potion to make, things like that.. Why do I have to do this?" Ginny didn't look up; she was engrossed in spreading strawberry jam on a piece of toast. "Maybe because Snape knows you would probably enjoy researching an obscure potion, and decided to give you something that would be hard." Hermione sighed. Ginny was probably right. And there was nothing she could do about it…though asking Harry and Ron to beat up Malfoy was looking pretty good right now.