DISCLAIMER: Though I wish it was true I do not own any of the copyrighted things fromHarry Potter,only my original characters.

Chapter 8

Hermione had been annoyed lately. Not by Ron, though he wasn't helping the situation any, but by Harry her least annoying friend… Granted that Ron was really the only other one she enjoyed be around but that wasn't the point.

The point was that ever since Harry had gotten lost in the forest, nearly a month ago now, he had been acting strangely. Disappearing for hours at a time. Being late for class. Actually doing his homework right away so he could disappear without Hermione objecting to his running off during study sessions. Cutting his weekly meetings with Remus short and even missing a Quidditch practice for goodness sake. It just wasn't like Harry at all.

The only explanation Hermione could think of was Ron's theory: Harry had a girlfriend and, for whatever reason, wanted to keep it a secret.

The question is why would he keep it a secret from his two best friends? Was he embarrassed?

No, even if Harry was only embarrassed he would have at least told her. He would go to Hermione first about such things because she was like his sister. She could offer advice and wouldn't further embarrass him like Ron had the tendency to do.

Was whoever Harry was seeing wanted to keep it a secret?

No, that could be it either. Hermione knew that if any girl at Hogwarts had managed to get their…claws into Harry they would try to show him off as much as possible. Many, if not most of them, were superficial that way.

Then what could it possibly be, wondered Hermione as she rounded the corner to the hallway with the prefects bathroom. She was supposed to meet Malfoy there to do night rounds but when she turned the corner she had frozen in place.

There, in front of the prefects bathroom stood Malfoy, but that wasn't what shocked her. Standing next to him was none other then the cause of her migraine, Harry Potter. But not only where they standing together, they were talking in a civilized matter.

"I wrote my Mother about the Phoenix Clan and she sent me her book," said Draco as he pulled spoken book out of his robes and handed it to Harry, neither one of them realizing that Hermione was only a few feet away.

The Phoenix Clan? What's that, wondered Hermione, but she stayed silent, wanting to hear more.

Paging through the book, Harry looked as excited as a child given an entire bag of candy to himself as he tried to absorb the book's contents.

"This is great. Can I look through it the next time we're in the library together?"

"Why don't you just borrow it?" said Draco as if it was an obvious thing to do.

"You don't mind?"

"If I minded, then why would I suggest it?"

Harry looked slightly taken back by the gesture of friendship, the lending of a family possession, as he closed the book and held it protectively to his chest.

"Thanks."

"Just be careful with it. My mother doesn't know I'm lending it to you and if there's so much as a bent page she'll bury us both alive," said Draco, his expression showing that he was serious.

Not able to help himself, Harry laughed slightly.

"Kinda sounds like Hermione."

Now it was Draco's turn to be taken back, but half smiled at the suggestion.

"Yes it does, doesn't it?"

Hermione felt as if she was going to have a heart attack, but in a good way, as she approached the boys.

"What sounds like me?"

The girl Gryffindor couldn't help but smile as Harry looked like he had just been caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar as Malfoy looked perfectly calm.

"Hello Harry, Malfoy," greeted Hermione.

"Granger," Malfoy greeted in return.

"Hermione what are you doing here," asked Harry, blushing slightly.

"Prefect duty," both Hermione and Draco replied.

Harry became confused when neither Hermione or Draco seem to notice that they had both spoken the same thing at the same time.

"So what sounds like me," asked Hermione.

"My mother and your shared obsession with books," replied Malfoy.

"I see," replied Hermione, her smile growing.

It was then Malfoy turned back to Harry.

"You better get going. You only have five minutes before we'll be forced to duct point from Gryffindor for your being out after hours and I would ever so hate for Gryffindor to loose the House Cup this year."

To this Harry rolled his eyes.

"Whatever Malfoy. See you later Hermione."

Soon after Harry was out of sight and Draco turned to Hermione.

"Shall we?"

They began walking down the halls together in silence until Hermione couldn't hold in her curiosity any longer.

"So since when have you and Harry been civil to one-another?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Draco, faking innocence.

"Don't give me that Draco. I know better," said Hermione, using his first name.

"You win, Hermione. We've been slightly getting along for about a month now. Last week we even sat in the library together and I answered some of his questions about the Phoenix Clan," replied Draco, using her first name in return.

"What is the Phoenix Chan," asked Hermione, curiously.

Hermione listened to Draco as he told her what he had told Harry the week before but she also thought back on how she and Draco began to act civil to one-another and even became friends.

At the beginning at the school year the prefects were assigned partners to do night shifts with since Dumbledore didn't think it was a good idea for anyone to be patrolling at night alone anymore since Voldemort had returned last year and even thought Ron was the other Gryffindor prefect she was assigned to work with Draco and Ron was assigned to work with one of the Ravenclaw prefects.

At first Hermione had been annoyed by this, having wanted to spend some alone time with Ron and not wanting anything to do with Malfoy but Malfoy had surprised her. He had been quiet, not calling her Mudblood, teasing her or anything of the sort. In fact, she almost could have sworn that he was… depressed.

Despite her better judgment at the time she had tried to reach out to Malfoy and find out what was wrong. He had just ignored her at first but when she became more insistent he had tried to run away from her and Hermione, being stubborn, had ran after him.

It had been fine until Mrs. Norris came out of nowhere and tripped her. At first Malfoy hadn't noticed and kept running until he heard her whimper from pain when she tried to stand back up. She had twisted her ankle.

Malfoy could have very easily left her there, as she knew the Malfoy from their earlier years would have, but he didn't. He turned around and kneeled by her side and used some spell to reduce the swelling on her ankle and then carried her on his back to the hospital wing.

That Halloween night, she knew Draco Malfoy had changed.

It still took awhile for Draco to talk to her. She had tried everything to make him open up to her. Gentle nudging, making jokes, talking about her own experiences, but he just nodded or shrugged and remained silent.

Two weeks later, the day before Harry had gotten lost in the forest, Hermione had lost her patience. She had started to flat out yell at him, scolding him for keeping everything bottled up inside when there were people who cared about him and wanted to help him. Before she knew it she had shouted, "And whether you like it or not, I care about you!"

She had fell dead silent after that, shocked that she had said such a thing and embarrassed by Draco's equally shocked stare. Then something amazing happened; Draco had laughed and she found herself laughing too and she realized that she had meant it. She did care about Draco, he had somehow snuck into her heart without trying and now he meant as much to her as Harry or Ron… well not as much as Ron, but as a brother like Harry.

Though she still didn't know what had been depressing Draco, they did talk now and he even returned the feelings of friendship though she doubted he would ever think of her as a sister. They even met outside of prefect duties to study together when Gryffindor had Quidditch practice and since Ron had gotten the position of Keeper this year, neither Harry or Ron would notice her missing.

When Draco finished explaining about the Phoenix Clan, Hermione smiled happily the way she always did when she learned something new.

"It's so sad but also very fascinating. I wish they would talk about it in History of Magic class. Do you mind if I take a look at your Mother's book as well?"

"If you can tare it out of Potter's hands then you're more then welcomed to," said Draco, his expression becoming one of contemplation. "He seems awfully intrigued by the entire thing though."

"Do you know where he heard of it," asked Hermione.

Draco shrugged.

"My guess is Dumbledore."

"How do you know about the clan, Draco?"

"I'm related by marriage to the only surviving member. If the youngest member was still alive, he would have been my cousin."