Chapter 17:

"I'll see you guys later," Hermione parted with her friends when they walked inside the great oak doors. It was ten minutes to eight, which meant she had to make her way to the Transfiguration class in order to make it to detention on time.

Hermione wished she could have gone to her dorm and changed before she left for detention; but the walk back to the castle was longer than any of them expected, and she feared that if she would do so, she would be late to detention. The best she could do was give Ginny her traveling cloak and ask her to place it in her dorm.

"Bye Hermione, I'll see you when you get back," said Ron.

"You don't have to stay up waiting for me, go rest, I'll just see you tomorrow."

"It's ok. It's no trouble," replied Ron.

"Good night hon, unlike my brother, I do not suffer from insomnia," joked Ginny, hugging Hermione good bye.

"Thanks again for everything Gin."

"Don't even mention it."

Hermione waved good bye one last time and walked off in the opposite direction.

"Good evening Professor," Hermione smiled to McGonagall, who looked up from her notes and smiled back at her.

"Good evening Ms. Granger," McGonagall answered formally, "I like the change in your appearance," she added with a smile.

"Thank you Professor," said Hermione, as she placed her wand on McGonagall's desk and hurried to her seat by the now unrecognizable dirtier trophy.

'It looks hideous,' she thought to herself. 'How would it ever sparkle flawlessly?' Her thoughts were distracted by the sound of wood hitting against wood. She looked up from the trophy in time to see Malfoy dropping his wand on McGonagall's desk.

'What the hell happened to Granger!' Draco thought to himself when he noticed Hermione sitting on the chair. In fact, at first he didn't even recognize her; she looked so different.

"What are you looking at?" asked Hermione, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Nothing," Draco muttered, and looked away quickly. He sat in the chair across from her, and pulled out his thick yellow gloves.

"What happened to your appearance?" The words came out of his mouth before he had the chance to think about what he was saying.

"What about my appearance?"

"Where's the bushhead? And why are you not wearing a black Hogwarts robe?"

"It's the weekend, I can wear what I wish, and why do you care?" asked Hermione defensively, she wasn't really in the mood to be interrogated about her looks at the moment.

Draco just shrugged his shoulders. A minute later he asked, "Were you on a date with the Weasel?" the reason behind her change finally hitting him.

"It's none of your business," answered Hermione, as a blush crept to her cheeks.

"You were! Look at you, you turned crimson," replied Draco, laughing.

"Oh shut up will you. I told you, it's none of your business."

"Granger and the Weasel, what a pair," sneered Draco.

Hermione decided to ignore his remark and went back to her work. She knew coming here looking like that was a mistake, she would have preferred being late, rather than interrogated by Malfoy. Besides, the date went horribly wrong, and she didn't want to talk about it, or hear of it; especially from Malfoy.

They worked silently for twenty minutes; Hermione concentrating on her work, and Draco concentrating on Hermione. He cursed himself for looking at her, but he found that his hormones were stronger than his better judgment.

"Would you stop looking at me?"

"I'm not looking at you Granger, stop dreaming," sneered Malfoy.

"Whatever. Just stop it, it's freaking me out," said Hermione, pushing the curly strands that fell on her face back. Doing that simple and innocent move, made her look even more beautiful, without her even realizing it.

Draco looked at her for a minute longer, before he couldn't help himself and asked the question that's been bothering him since he realized she got all made up for Weasley.

"Is the Weasel really worth doing all of this for?" he asked, sneering.

"Ron has nothing to do with this."

"Doesn't look like it. You changed your appearance completely, for the first time in seven years."

"Yeah, and I see it was a huge mistake," huffed Hermione angrily. "Professor McGonagall, may I use the ladies room?" asked Hermione, feeling the need to escape from Draco at least for a minute.

Having Malfoy look at her that way freaked her out. She didn't know why he looked at her, and what went through his mind when he did, all she knew was that she had to leave this room right now.

"Yes, you may."

Hearing those words, Hermione quickly got up from her seat, and made her way towards the door. Draco couldn't help but follow her with his gaze until she left the classroom.

Seeing the Mudblood in very tight fitting jeans and a tight and revealing sweater was a first; he never expected the annoying teacher's pet to have the unmistakable body of a goddess. He hated admitting it, but Granger was stunningly beautiful.

'Where was I when Granger got a body?' he asked himself, the image of her curves still running wildly in his mind.

'Will you stop looking at her, she's a fucking Mudblood!' he thought to himself angrily. 'You are a rich, handsome, high class, and most importantly pure blooded Wizard; she is not and will never be on your level, now snap out of it.' his mind added.

"Oh great, now I'm having fucking debates with myself. Bloody brilliant," said Draco, irritated. "Bloody Granger," he added, spitting into the trophy.

When he felt the saliva leave his mouth, he forgot about being smacked by the trophy last time; when it happened again just now, all he could do was be thankful that Granger wasn't here to witness it. "Bloody trophy," he muttered, rubbing the same spot on his head angrily.

Hermione came back and sat across from him. She went back to her work and decided to ignore Malfoy completely. Which was very hard, seeing as he threw weird glances at her every time she looked away.

"Granger, this trophy is not getting any cleaner," muttered Draco, twenty minutes after she came back from the bathroom.

"I've noticed."

"What now?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Aren't you suppose to be the annoying know it all?" asked Draco, smirking.

"I didn't create this trophy, so I wouldn't know."

"Lame Weasleys," muttered Draco.

"They are not lame, they happen to be brilliant."

"Do you make it a hobby standing up for pathetic poor families?"

"The Weasleys are not pathetic," Hermione said angrily. The trophy seemed to sense her tone, because a splatter of newfound dirt appeared on it as soon as the words left her mouth.

"Now stop arguing with me, you're only getting the trophy dirtier!" commended Hermione.

"This trophy is lame."

As a result to his words, the trophy hit Draco in the same exact spot as it did twenty minutes ago.

"Ouch," he cried out, angrily.

"This trophy seems to be sensitive as well," Hermione added, laughing.

"It's not funny!"

"It is to me," Hermione continued laughing.

'Ugh lame Granger, how humiliating. Lame trophy, second time it hit me in front of the Mudblood; like I really need the whole entire school to know about this. Who does she think she is, sitting here, laughing at me, looking bloody hot and shit, honestly.'

"Lose the gloves," ordered Hermione.

"What?"

"Lose the gloves," she repeated.

"Why?"

"Because I think it could be one of the reasons this trophy isn't getting any cleaner."

"That's ridiculous. I told you my reasons for the gloves before."

"Well, they are stupid. I mean honestly, just waste both of our precious time here scrubbing," huffed Hermione.

"Your precious time of what? Being alone with Weasley?" sneered Draco.

Hermione blushed and looked down at the trophy. 'Why are you blushing?' she thought to herself, 'It's not like what you do on your own time is any of his business.'

"I guess I was correct," smirked Draco.

"What is it to you?"

"Nothing."

"Doesn't seem like nothing, you keep on bringing it up. What would you be doing right now? Have Pansy stuck on you?"

"I have a lot of girls stuck on me," Draco clarified.

"Well I'm very happy for you," Hermione remarked sarcastically. "Now would you please lose the gloves?" she asked again.

"No."

"Ok, be stubborn. Watch me care."

"You said the gloves were one of the reasons, what other reasons are there?" asked Draco, raising one eyebrow.

"I think our constant muttering and arguing isn't helping the situation either," added Hermione.

"So you want us to stop fighting, you're kidding right?"

"It's not what I want. It's what McGongal wants. Haven't you heard anything she said? She is using this trophy to make us get along."

"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard."

"It might be stupid but it's true. If you haven't noticed, this trophy gets dirtier with every argument we have. It even hits you when you are being rude or hurtful. I mean I've realized this already, the rest is up to you," said Hermione, shrugging her shoulders, and going back to her useless work.

"Well I don't think that by not arguing and not using those gloves would change anything. If this trophy really does feel everything, it would sense that us being civil towards each other is just a mask, and it wouldn't get cleaner," reasoned Draco.

"At least it wouldn't get dirtier."

'She has a point there,' Draco's inner voice spoke up. Draco shot Hermione one last glance, and shoved the gloves off his hands. He threw them to the floor and glared at the trophy hatefully. He then grabbed a cloth, poured some polish on it, and started really scrubbing the trophy for the first time since he was assigned to.