For the rest of the day Hermione and Draco barely spoke. There was a slight tension in the room whenever they both occupied it, though this was a rare occurrence as Draco had been flying for most of the afternoon. Once he had returned to the Dormitory he headed straight for his room, ready with the excuse of being tired in case he and Hermione crossed paths again. Thankfully she wasn't there.

It was now 7pm. Dinner time. He waited for the sound of Hermione's door but all he could hear was his own breath. Deciding it could be time to break their silence, he knocked on her door and waited. There was no reply. He sighed. She's probably left already.

He made his way to the Great Hall and glanced up and down the Gryffindor table as he walked by. No sign of Hermione. She wasn't with Harry or Ron, nor Ginny.

"Draco!" a woman's voice called his name but he knew immediately it was not Hermione. He turned in their direction to find Pansy and Blaise walking towards him, a smile stretched across Pansy's thin lips. "Come sit with us."

Draco smiled a phony grin and sat down opposite Blaise, ignoring Pansy as she sat closer to him than was spatially required. He shuffled away a little, much to her disappointment. He sat through dinner in silence as Pansy talked and talked about nothing that was of particular interest to anyone and Blaise simply rolled his eyes.

He finished his dinner before his other friends, simply because he had placed little food on his plate to begin with, and excused himself from the Great Hall. As he entered the main corridor, Dumbledore walked towards him.

"Mr. Malfoy. I trust you are settled into your new Dormitory?" Draco simply nodded, sensing there was another question to come. "Good. And how are you and Miss Granger getting along?"

"Just fine." he said, producing a another fake smirk.

"Just fine…" Dumbledore nodded. "Perhaps a little better than just fine." He looked at Draco over the top of his glasses before turning on his heels and entering the Great Hall, leaving a very confused Slytherin alone.

Draco scoffed and shrugged his shoulders as he continued his journey, muttering the occasional 'old fool!'

He plonked himself down on his bed as soon as he made it to the Dorm, wrapping his duvet around his shoulders as the cool of the night set in and picking up his book. An hour or two passed as he became enthralled by the pages, yet he knew he had not heard any sound from the portrait hole or movement from the room beside his. He checked his watch. It was half 10.

Draco lay back on his bed and stared at the ceiling, as he had done on many occasions when trying to fall asleep. The minutes ticked by and the moon had long since illuminated his room before he realised he wasn't going to sleep.

Worried about her?

He sighed and got out of bed. There was a soft pattering of rain against his window and for a split second his heart jumped, thinking he had heard the portrait hole click. He opened his door to check but no-one could be seen. "Surely she wouldn't stay out this late in the rain? Especially on a school night..." he asked himself as he made a hot chocolate, shivering against the cold stone of the tiles on the kitchen floor. He left the water to boil and magically mix in with the chocolaty substance as he retrieved his duvet from the bed and placed it on the large window sill by the fire place, settling down with his drink once it was done.

The rain started to come down hard and dense black clouds moved over the moon, stealing the light from where he sat and plunging his pale shape into darkness. He set down his mug and was about to move off his perch to light the fire when he froze. There was a tiny click as the portrait hole closed and small slow footsteps could be heard over the sound of the rain. He was fully aware that Hermione could not see him in the darkness.

He could also tell from the way she walked that she was soaked to the skin. She sniffled slightly and Draco was unsure if she had caught a cold or if she had been crying. He expected Hermione to go into the bathroom to dry off or have a warm shower but she carried on straight into her room. She must be tired. She didn't even turn her light on.

He yawned, suddenly feeling rather tired himself.

…

Draco awoke the next morning to the smell of fresh coffee. He immediately got out of bed, craving the caffeinated drink. The first day of lessons was always the most tiring as the early mornings became a harsh reality that the students could not ignore.

As he stretched backwards on his bed in a desperate attempt to awaken his muscles, he tried to recall what he dreamt about last night. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Draco was surprised by the lack of activity in his subconscious, but guessed it must have been because he was so tired, plus he had barely seen Hermione all day. He sighed, almost a little sad to have an uninterrupted night.

He scoffed to himself. "Don't be stupid. You've been hoping for these dreams to stop ever since they started." he mumbled.

He threw himself off his bed and headed for the kitchen, where a cup of coffee had already been made and placed on the side for him.

…

The small shutters in the Dungeons slammed shut and an immediate hush spread through the students as Professor Snape strode to the front of the class, robes billowing behind him. Though the pupils were used to Snape after all these years he still managed to instil a certain amount of fear in them, a fear he was well aware of.

Draco had been surprised upon his arrival, which luckily was just before Snape's dramatic entrance, to find that Hermione was confined to a table by herself. She looked a little sad to be cut off from her friends, as the work desk was situated in the corner away from the centre tables, yet beckoned him over quietly as he came through the door. A sign just in front of the cauldron informed him that this was the table reserved for the Head Boy and Girl.

"Will we have a separate table in every lesson?" he questioned, a slight edge of annoyance to his voice as he noticed Blaise sat too far away in his normal seat for Draco to even consider sending him a note behind Snape's back.

"I don't know, we'll have to wait and see." Hermione replied, doodling absentmindedly on a spare piece of parchment. Draco nodded, not that she saw. He wondered what she was thinking so intensely about.

"You missed dinner last night. I knocked for you but I guess you weren't in your room."

"I must have been out." She still did not look away from her scribbling.

Draco laughed. "Well I gathered that. So… where were you all day?"

"Down by the lake. Where I said I'd be."

"All day? But it must have been freezing down there."

"Hmm." was all she replied before jumping out of her seemingly catatonic state as Snape banged his way to the front.

"Enough chattering Potter." he shot in Harry's general direction.

"But sir I wasn't talk -"

"10 points from Gryffindor it is in that case Potter." Harry simply grumbled and slouched further down his chair.

"Page 94 in the advanced books. Ingredients are in their usual places. You have 1 hour to make me a perfect potion." Snape shouted mundanely at the class before going about his own business.

Draco sighed and got out his book, flipping to the page quickly as he knew better than to waste time. He skimmed over it quickly and sighed. Projection potion; this potion enables the drinker to project their thoughts and memories onto any surface so that it may be seen by other witches and wizards. The projection will last until the respective thought or memory has been played through. This useful potion was invented by an unknown wizard in the early 17th century and was used to…

Draco stopped reading and skipped ahead to the ingredients list. He stood, waiting for Hermione to do the same so that they could collect their ingredients, but she stayed seated, a somewhat anxious look on her face as she stared at the page.

"Something wrong?"

She looked up at him. "No, no. Just looks complicated that's all. I wasn't expecting a potion so complex in our first lesson." Then she stood.

Draco laughed. "And since when have you found something complex?"

Apparently she didn't hear him as she was rifling through the cupboard for a certain plant extract. He sighed and gathered up his own ingredients.

Through a combination of their potions skills and the general lack of small talk to divert attention, the pair had finished just within the hour they were given. Snape sauntered over to their table and dipped a ladle into the cauldron, stirring it in a figure of 8. He sniffed at it slightly before leaving it to simmer.

"Well Mr. Malfoy, it's the right colour and the right consistency. Good work." He gave Hermione no mention and she scoffed, folding her arms.

"It was a joint effort between me and Hermione, sir." Draco said. Snape looked at him, then to Hermione, and back again, disbelieving that a Gryffindor and a Slytherin could ever work so well together. He walked away to another table and examined their potion in a similar fashion.

"Idiot…" Hermione mumbled.

"I heard that." Draco smiled. "At least he said we have the right consistency and… colour…" Draco's voice faded out as he looked into the cauldron properly, somewhat mesmerised by the topaz shine coming from inside. Like a distant memory, it seemed to stir something inside him, remind him of something. He was brought out of his staring contest with the cauldron as Snape dismissed them coldly.

He turned to ask Hermione what lesson she had next, just in time to see her rush abruptly through the door.

A/N: I'm going on holiday for a while so hopefully I'll be able to do some writing but I won't be able to upload anything of course. Hope this chapter is ok. The first half is beta'd but the second half, everything after Draco going to bed, is unbeta'd.