10. When Reality Hits

The trio had left for Hagrid's to make it up to him, something about reassuring the broken hearted half giant that they had no choice but to drop his class. Lera didn't follow them, she wasn't the one who hurt his feelings anyway. Besides, she had to go for Astronomy. With Malfoy.

As she glanced at the clock she sighed, unable to put it off any longer. With 5 minutes to spare, she unstuck herself from her bed, grabbed the papers, and left for the Tower. He was already there when she sauntered in about 2 minutes late. Surprisingly, he merely lifted an eyebrow and walked to the telescope. And thus began another long infuriating hour.

"So, how did it go with Malfoy?" Ron asked, making a face.

She thought back to what had happened about an hour ago.

"Hey, I said let me write it!" She exclaimed angrily.

"Why can't I write?" He sounded exasperated.

She floundered for a while. "Because you have ugly handwriting." That was so not true. "And you'll just get it all wrong." That wasn't true either. Then again, she couldn't think of a good reason.

"I got an O for the last test! I should be the one worried about you getting it wrong." Yes, definitely exasperated.

"Well so did I!" She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down her nose at him. It was rather awkward a position, since she was significantly shorter than him.

"Look, just give me the paper, you're being childish!"

"No I'm not!"

She pulled the parchment out from under his quill, and the quill tip drew a long black line across their work.

"Malfoy! See what you've done!"

"Me? That wouldn't have happened if you did not rudely pull the paper away from me!"

The bell rang, saving them from continuing the fight and she promptly stomped out.

She was about to recount the incident to the trio when she realised that it did make her sound incredibly childish. "He's just so annoying," she said vaguely. Eager to change the topic, as thoughts of the ferret were not exactly improving her mood, she asked, "How about Hagrid? Still refusing to talk to you all?"

"Nah, he was really upset cause his pet gigantic spider was going to die, we comforted him, and everything's fine again."

She raised her eyebrows, "Okayyy…"

Hermione frowned at Ron, then recounted the incident in a more understandable manner.

The next time she saw Malfoy was during the astronomy lesson. Professor Sinistra was returning them their test essays they had completed the week before and she was rather looking forward to it. She knew she had done well. The red mark on the parchment the Professor passed to her told her the same.

"So… what did you get?" She wouldn't miss this chance to rub it into his face, given their conversation a few nights before.

"Exceeds expectations. How about you?"

She turned to her left, looked into his eyes and smirked. "Outstanding. I see I won you."

"Only because I was busy with..other more important things."

"Of course." Sarcasm was laced in her words.

"You watch out. I won't hold back the next time." His eyes were teasing.

She raised an eyebrow. "Bring it on."

Unknowingly, they both left the classroom with a smile playing on their lips. She did not want to admit it to herself, but she was beginning to like the banter between them.

The next time they had their astronomy pairwork, she did not groan about it nor turn up late. However, what she did do was to forget the papers. Which she realised only after she stepped into the Tower. She promptly turned back around to retrieve them.

"Leaving so quickly?" A curious voice stopped her.

"Uhh, I need to go get the papers, I left them in the dorm."

"Really? Now who's the one forgetting the papers. What a disappointment." He sounded amused.

"Guess it's my turn to waste a few of your precious minutes as payback," she shot back.

"Hmm, why so petty and calculative?"

"Why, I must have picked it up from you. You are a bad influence."

"Thanks for your compliment," he gave a mock bow.

Rolling her eyes, she ignored his theatrics and walked away, head held high.

A few moments later she returned, and for once, they worked together silently, accomplishing in one session what they had failed to accomplish in all the past sessions.

It was yet another week that passed before the trio started getting suspicious and concerned.

"Hey guys, I'm heading out to the Tower. See you all later," she bid them goodbye with a cheery smile.

The three of them looked at each other before Ron nudged Hermione none too subtly. She frowned at him, then looked up at Lera nervously.

"Lera…are you alright? We're all kind of worried about you," Hermione ventured.

"Well yeah I am, what do you mean?" Lera asked, confused.

"It's just that, well, we," she gestured to the three of them while Ron and Harry nodded their heads in support, "have been noticing that you're getting more…uhm, I mean, you don't ever complain about Malfoy anymore. And it's like you actually look forward to seeing him?"

"What? No! Of course not! I just stop complaining about him because.. because I just want to stop thinking about him, it's definitely not like we're friends or anything!"

"Well, okay, if you're sure. We're just trying to look out for you, you know. He's not a good person," Harry said, but looking more relieved now.

"I know, thanks," she smiled at them, touched.

As she walked to the tower, she thought about what they said and scoffed at the thought of her and Malfoy being friends. Of course we're not friends, we can barely even stand each other! We hate each other! Hermione, Harry and Ron are wrong!

"For the last time, stop pulling it away from me!" Somehow the relative peace and cooperativeness of the last session had not lasted long.

She shoved him hard and caught off-balance, he toppled over with a yelp. He looked so ridiculous sitting on his rear end looking shocked that she could not stop a laugh from bursting out.

"Stop laughing," he growled grumpily.

It only made her laugh harder. He reached out, grabbed her hand and pulled her down before she could react, and she fell onto the floor next to him.

"Ow! You're evil," she pouted at him.

He smirked, pleased at himself, then got up and brushed his pants. He offered her a hand. She was about to accept it when Hermione's voice suddenly sounded in her head. You don't ever complain about Malfoy anymore…it's like you actually look forward to seeing him…

She froze in sudden realization. She was acting rather friendly with Malfoy. He was treating her nicely and worst of all, she was treating him nicely. And she didn't, she couldn't like him. She wasn't supposed to. He was supposed to be her enemy and enemies didn't act like her and Malfoy were acting. They were supposed to shout and glare at each other, not…

Tease and joke with each other.

"Stop it! Stop acting so nice to me!" she cried out, ignoring his outreached hand and clambering to her feet. She stalked over to her bag, grabbed it, slung it over her shoulder and spun around.

There he stood, in the middle of her path to the door. There was not a hint of a smile on his face now.

"Why do you hate me so much?" His voice was barely over a whisper, hurt lacing his words.

Yes, she hated him, she hated the way he treated her friends, she hated his cruelty, she hated him for being so different to her, being so nice and friendly, he made it so hard for her to hate him. She couldn't stop the tears that sprung to her eyes. And most of all, she hated him for being on the other side, the side that killed her parents, the side that killed and tortured hundreds of innocents. That fact, that forced her to hate him. That fact, that made it no longer her choice. She had to. She had to hate him, even though she now realised that she did not want to.

She brushed past him quickly, so he wouldn't see the tears when they finally fell from her eyes. At the door, she turned around, and an overwhelming sense of guilt filled her as she realised how lonely and…broken he looked standing there on the empty stone floor, looking like the world was crumbling around him.

"Because I know who you work for," She whispered to the ground.

Then she was gone.