Day 3

Hermione was not at all happy at the moment. She had just run into Ron playing tongue hockey with Lavender in the library and it bugged her for some reason that she didn't understand. She was already in quite a foul mood because of Snape's teaching antics in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Harry's constant obsession with Malfoy, and she just wanted to be alone. She told the fat lady the password and entered the common room, possibly walking a little too loudly. It was late and most people were in bed. Harry was one of the few still in the common room. He was sitting at a table, his eyes glued to the Marauder's map. Hermione rolled her eyes, and not wanting to be pulled into Harry's newest findings, she walked as quietly as she could towards the girl's dormintory staircase.

"Hermione! Check this out!"

Hermione turned around to see Harry. He was still looking at the map, so he must've seen her from the corner of his eye.

"Hi!" she said with fake chirpiness. She kept walking, hoping that she could still get away. No such luck.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked, getting up from his chair.

Hermione sighed and turned around again. "I'm really tired, Harry. I just want to go to bed" she said as nicely as she could.

Harry smiled and nodded, but continued talking. "But before that, you need to see this."

Hermione groaned and trudged over to where Harry was now sitting again, his eyes once more on the map. He pointed to the library on the map, where a small black dot entitled "Draco Malfoy" was walking around in.

"He's in the library. Why is that weird?" Hermione asked, putting her books down on the table to rest her arms.

"Draco Malfoy in the library? He's not studying!"

"Why wouldn't he be studying?"

"It's Malfoy! He makes first years do his homework for him. He's up to something"

"Harry! That's based on absolutely nothing!"

Harry made a huffing sound. "That's not the weirdest part. I've been watching him for the last few hours and I noticed something. Right before he came library, he was in Snape's office for about a half hour!"

"So?" Hermione asked, not seeing the significance.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "So? So I'm thinking Snape is involved in whatever Malfoy's up to as well! Snape must be helping him!"

"Because they talked? Harry, that's the weakest argument I've ever heard!" Hermione exclaimed, her voice louder than she intended.

"Why are you getting so upset?" Harry asked indignantly.

"Because this is so stupid, Harry!" Hermione explained, feeling herself getting angrier. This was bugging her much more than usual.

"What's your problem, Hermione? I mean, you're always disagreeing with me on this Malfoy deal! Why?"

"Because there's no evidence, okay?! The only reason you even think this is because you don't like Malfoy or Snape!" Hermione yelled angrily.

"What are you talking about, Hermione?! You think that I'm suspicious just because I don't 'like' them? What about what I overheard on the Hogwart's Express, huh? You think that's just in my head?!" Harry shot back, standing up from the chair quickly and almost knocking it over.

"I think they could have been talking about anything" Hermione crossed her arms.

"Anything? How could you be so thick—"

"I'm not thick!" Hermione interrupted.

"You're being pretty damn thick right now! He pretty much admitted to it! He broke my fucking nose afterwards!"

"Malfoy's a prick, Harry! He caught you spying! Of course he broke your nose!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Harry shouted, his face contorted in anger.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?!"

The two glared at each other, seething. After what seemed to be forever, Hermione let out an angry groan and picked up her books roughly, then stomped loudly across the room and up the stairs into the girl's dormitory. She got to her bed and threw her books down on the floor as hard as she could, then kicked them under her bed.

Hermione lay in bed for a while, but she couldn't sleep. She was still so angry at Harry. She was so sick of the drama that surrounded him. She kicked the covers off of her and got up, taking of her pajamas and redressing. She picked up her books from under the bed and ran down the stairs into the common room.

"Hermione, wait!" she heard Harry say from the corner of the room. She ignored him and pushed her way through the door passing Ron and Lavender, who were coming in. They were still snogging, even as they walked.

"Oh get a room, Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, pushing him as she past. He separated from Lavender's lips long enough to shout her name in disbelief. Hermione ignored him and continued to run down the corridor towards the library.

Draco was beginning to sweat. It was the end of day three and he hadn't spoken a word to her today. Tomorrow was the last day and he wasn't going to be able to do it unless a miracle happened. He had been tipped off by Nott that Granger was in the library, but he had been in there for about a half an hour looking around and he hadn't found her. He wasn't going give up, though. He couldn't.

He continued walking around library, casually looking at the books on the shelves. He neared the far corner near the forbidden section and heard crying. 'Crap' he thought. He didn't know who it was, but he hoped that it wasn't Granger. He walked quietly towards the sound and looked behind some shelves. A stack of books stood partly obscured some bushy hair. Fantastic. He walked warily up to her and felt twinge of sorrow for her. Her face was buried in her hands and she was quietly crying. She lifted her head and furrowed her eyebrows as she saw Draco.

"What are you doing in the library?" she asked, wiping her eyes. Her face was pink and her eyes slightly swollen.

"Studying" Draco responded.

Hermione raised her eyebrows at him for the umpteenth time in the last three days. "Really?" she asked, her voice more cynical than usual.

"Yeah."

Silence. Draco shrugged and sat down next to her. She shrank away from him as he adjusted himself next to her. He smiled at her and crossed his arms.

"What's wrong?" he asked kindly. Hermione's eyes grew wide in surprise at his compassion. Draco was taken aback himself, as well. His question sounded genuine… and he found that it was a little bit. He actually wanted to know what was wrong for some reason.

"Why would you care?" Hermione asked, her eyes tearing up again. She quickly wiped them away, however.

"Just tell me… please. I… I want to know" Draco said quietly, putting his hand on her shoulder.

To his surprise, Hermione flinched but didn't shake his hand off. She shrugged slightly, looking over at him. "It's just… it's Harry."

Draco refrained himself from saying anything mean about his arch rival, and just nodded. Hermione had gone quiet, seemingly expecting a nasty comment. When none came, she continued.

"There's always drama with him. Something's always going on. I just wish there was some peace"

Draco completely understood. "I know, my dad is so… he's… well… a bastard. And with his past as a… you know. There's never any peace. I mean, I don't know…" Draco shrugged. He instantly regretted saying that, but Hermione seemed almost transfixed on him. She watched him for a while before snapping out of her thoughts. She stood up quickly and once more her eyes teared up.

"Well, I'm going to go" she said, avoiding Draco's gaze. Draco stood up as well and stepped in front of her.

Draco tried to think of something really nice to say, something that would make her heart melt, but he couldn't think of anything that wasn't really corny and forced. They looked at each other for a while, Draco trying to figure out what Hermione was thinking all the while.

Hermione stared at Malfoy and noticed changes in his demeanor. His sharp eyes had softened and his face showed concern. Hermione was feeling so lonely, and she suddenly found herself throwing her arms around him in a hug. Malfoy stumbled back in surprise, but he steadied himself and tentatively put his arms around her. Hermione was in disbelief of what she was doing, but she felt comforted in someone's arms. They stood there for a while, and for a moment Hermione forgot who she was hugging. Then it came back to her. She pulled back from the hold and quickly picked up her books.

"I gotta go" she said quickly. Malfoy nodded, avoiding her gaze. Hermione bit her lip and ran out of the library as fast as she could.

Author's Note: So sorry this took so long! I kept putting it off because of who knows why since I love writing. Probably the seemingly impending deadline I had made up. Anyway, I'm 99% sure the next chapter won't take half as long. BTW, I tried to stay in character as much as I could, and so hopefully it was ok. Thanks for reading!