The next morning before heading down to breakfast in the Great Hall, Hermione wasn't quite sure how she should act in regards to Malfoy. Was she supposed to act like nothing was happening between them? Should she go on as usual trying to ignore him and his occasional taunts? Would he even acknowledge her? She was probably overthinking things as usual. This was Malfoy….self-proclaimed prince of Slytherin, sex-god, ladies-man. She had only glimpsed the side of him she had by being her typical bossy, act-before-thinking, caring too much self. After talking herself down from an unnecessary headache from overthinking things, she decided to just act as if everything was normal and play it by ear.

She didn't have to wait long to get her answer. She was sitting down near the entrance doors and was reaching out to spoon a pile of scrambled eggs onto her plate when a group of Slytherins sauntered into the hall in their typical self-righteous style. At the epicenter of the group was Draco and he had his arm slung casually over the shoulder of Daphne Greengrass in a way that made it look like they were so comfortable with each other, you couldn't help but be jealous of that type of intimacy.

She immediately looked away, almost as if she should be ashamed to be privy to such an intimate moment. Her back was stiff as she spooned the eggs onto her plate and ate them woodenly, not tasting the buttery, fluffy flavor of the dish so lovingly prepared by the house elves everyone took for granted. She silently cursed herself for not sitting with her back to the Slytherin table. For some reason she had had this pathetic thought when she walked in that he might catch her eye and give her a secret smile or a wink like some lovesick puppy. How stupid she was.

Hermione kept her eyes downcast and hoped no one noticed the flaming shade of red on her embarrassed, angry face. She quickly finished her meal, stood, and walked quickly to the door, unaware that two pairs of eyes followed her movements. Harry immediately jumped up to follow her, deciding that he had had enough of her weird behavior lately. He needed to talk to her and figure out what was going on.

He caught up to her in the entrance hall about to head out to herbology early.

"Hermione, wait!" Harry called out as he ran up behind her.

"What's up, Harry?" Hermione questioned him, schooling the scowl off of her face as she turned around to face her friend.

"Is everything alright with you, Hermione? You seem a bit off lately. Missing questions in class, turning in homework late." He paused, as if considering whether he should go on. When she didn't immediately jump in, he knew he wasn't imagining things.

He pressed on "You seem exhausted, you're spending a lot of time in your room or off in the castle somewhere." He trailed off as if waiting for her to say something.

Hermione froze. She knew that she had been devoting a lot of time to monitoring Malfoy lately, but she hadn't realized how truly bad it had gotten. She settled on the most Hermione-like explanation of why she had been acting as she had, hoping Harry wouldn't put things together and realize that if she had been studying, then she wouldn't be missing questions in class. Maybe he would think she was just tired from reading so much.

"I….I guess I have been spending a little bit of extra time…studying in my room a..and the library."

Hermione was suddenly hyper-aware of how much she had been lying to her friends lately and a guilty feeling began churning in the pit of her gut. How could she have done what she had done?

Harry's suspicious expression remained.

"Honestly, Harry, I have been hitting the books pretty hard, but that really is all there is to it." She hoped her lie was convincing enough and promised herself that it would be the last one she told. She didn't want to start hating herself.

"Okay Hermione, if you say that's all it is, then that's all it is. I just don't want you to run yourself ragged trying to get months ahead of everyone else in class" He smiled at her, proud and concerned at the same time.

She snuck her arms around his midsection and squeezed tight, grateful for his concern and silently trying to assuage the feelings of guilt the lying had aroused in her. His arms came around her almost automatically, the position so natural to them.

"What do we have here?" Malfoy's instantly recognizable voice boomed across the entrance hall.

Hermione stiffened in Harry's embrace for a moment before she realized how they must have looked. The distant echoing of sniggers alerted her that he wasn't alone and the faint tinkling of obviously fake feminine giggles let her know that Daphne was probably in attendance.

"Finally realized you'll only ever be good enough for mudblood filth, Potter?" More laughter erupted at Malfoy's taunt.

Again, Hermione was struck with anger and embarrassment for expecting that Malfoy would act any differently toward her. She felt so cheap and disgusted with herself. She clutched Harry tighter and burrowed her face deeper into his shoulder so no one would see the tear trickling down her blazing cheek.

This only seemed to incense Malfoy further.

"Have you gone deaf as well as blind, Potter? I'm speaking to you!" His voice came out low and threatening.

She stood on her toes to whisper in Harry's ear.

"Ignore him, Harry. Don't even look at him." He nodded his head slightly, reassuring her.

His natural instinct was to stand up for his friend because he knew how much it stung her every time someone called her a mudblood. Somehow, he knew that she just needed him to be strong for her and that if Malfoy saw her tears, it would only make it worse. Usually, Hermione was able to hold her tears in until they were in private, but for some reason that wasn't apparent to him, she wasn't able to do that today.

Hermione could hear murmurs of "Come on Drake, let it go," and "Yeah, we're gonna be late for Potions," as most of the Slytherins trailed off in the direction of the dungeons, but she knew he wouldn't give up that easily.

A growl was heard from behind them.

"Potter! I'm talking to you!" Hermione might have been imagining it in an attempt to soothe her bruised ego, but he sounded almost a little bit desperate for Harry to turn his attention away from Hermione.

When they still refused to turn their attention to him, Draco did something Hermione wasn't expecting. He stalked up to them and wrenched Harry away by the shoulder, throwing him off balance. Harry stumbled back and caught himself on the wall to stop himself from falling to the ground.

In that short moment, Hermione's surprised gaze finally landed on Malfoy and what she saw gave her only a little bit of satisfaction. His shoulders were heaving visibly and his eyes were piercing her with such a predatory glare that she couldn't help but shiver.

"What the hell, Malfoy!" Draco's attention snapped away from Hermione the moment Harry looked back toward them.

"You should think twice the next time you think about ignoring your superior," he growled. He stalked away in the direction of the dungeons.

"That git has taken it too far, Hermione," Harry muttered under his breath as he stooped down to snatch up his bag. "I'm going to go find Professor McGonagall and let her know before the Slytherins start spreading rumors that I started something up with him. That would be so like them. Will you be alright walking to Herbology alone?"

"Of course, Harry," Hermione replied. It was sweet of him to be concerned for her, but they both knew she could defend herself easily. She smiled at him before he distractedly walked away, muttering something about Death Eaters.

Hermione sighed before crouching down on one knee to dig around in her bag for her gloves before heading outside. Locating them and stuffing them in her pocket, she went to stand up and collided with something that definitely wasn't there when she bent down.

Her hands instinctively shot out to steady herself on the broad shoulders of the blonde menace who had become her existence. He didn't reach out to touch her, even after she quickly yanked her hands away as if burned. He just leaned over to whisper in her ear, one hand leaning on the door behind her.

"That little show you just put on to get my attention…it worked."