Class that day was interesting; Hermione sat beside Ron, Harry beside Seamus, their assigned desk partners for this class. They had been asked to find a partner that they did not usually work with and to please sit together for the remainder f the assignment. As Harry and Ron were usually together, and Hermione and Neville, a switch was in order. Hermione groaned inwardly when Ron had jumped on the chance to be partnered with her. Not that she minded Ron's company – the two were great friends – it was just that she would end up doing both their parts. The work piece was simple enough. They had to prepare a class, a full lecture, on a topic of their choice related to the Defense Against the Dark Arts. Hermione wanted to talk to the students about counter curses. Ron though, wanted to teach the students how to curse in the first place, stating that the first step of self defense was to be able to shoot your attacker's shit right back at them. This project was going to go along just splendidly...

From across the room, Snape observed the students, watching them each closely. A stack of papers lay on the desk, waiting to be marked, and black drops where ink had spilt from his quill. He finally had the position of his dreams, and he was reveling in it.

Hermione did her best not to attract any attention from the wizard at the front of the room, still unsure of how she was supposed to act toward him. It had been made clear t her that her ex-potions teacher and ex-sworn enemy was an indispensable member of the order, though it would certainly take a while to change that many years of beliefs about a person. She watched him idly scan his eyes across the room, watching his group of students brainstorm excitedly, enjoying the freedom of this assignment. His eyes paused when they got to Harry, features turning into a badly hidden scowl, and Hermione froze, instincts still strongly opposing the man. She tried to look over to her friend as subtly as was possible, only to quickly realize why the professor had been so put off. Really, she would be to if her students were loudly gossiping about the latest in the Quidditch world. Hermione rolled her eyes and tried t return her focus to the ever babbling Ron, talking animatedly about all the different curses they could try (he'd probably realize the safety hazard later on). The girl strongly felt that he should just let her choose the topic since she'd be doing all the work anyway. Ron was stubborn though – but perhaps... not as stubborn as the nagging feeling at the back of one's mind that insists someone (or something) is watching you...

Hermione turned around, immediately locking eyes with the culprit. Instead of looking away sheepishly like she would have expected, her observer mustered up a glamorous wink before looking down and returning his quill to his page. With a roll of her eyes, she returned her focus, once again, to the red haired boy, who seemed to not have noticed her lack of attention. She turned around again, ever so slightly to check on the boy who had been watching her before, only to see him watching her again. When he caught her eye for the second time, he only grinned widely – she wasn't sure what the grin meant – and then shook his head, still grinning, and returned again to his work.

Before class had ended, they had gone through this dance a number of times, each encounter becoming worse and worse until the poor girl had blushed very badly before making the mental agreement with herself to not turn around again. She hadn't spoken to Malfoy since their little escapade into the dark forest. He had not updated her on the issue, or made any moves to speak to her again. Until now of course. Not that he was speaking to her... or that she had any intension of speaking to him...

The end of class was signaled and the students shuffled out, talking excitedly to one another. The hall was filled with teens of all ages, heading down to lunch. Of course, Ron had gone to catch up with Harry, and Hermione had stayed behind, insisting that she would probably make a quick stop at the library before she caught up with them in the great hall. She was walking towards the stairs when she heard snickering, and –whoops- turned her head to see where the sound had come from. A group of Slytherins hovered at the wall, watching her, snickering and whispering to one another. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she could have sworn she'd heard a "stupid mudblood" escape Malfoy's lips as he smirked, watching her with his idiot friends.

Hermione flushed, glaring at the floor as she rushed passed them, in no mood whatsoever to make a scene. Her feet stomped down the gray hallway, and she almost thought steam would pour out of her ears with the effort she was making to keep moving forward, and not give Malfoy a piece of her mind.

"Hey, you," a voice called from behind her. Great. She ignored it. "Wait!" It called again, and the footsteps hurried up behind her. She quickened her own pace. "Granger!" The voice shouted, and a hand tugged the sleeve of her robes.

Swiftly, she had turned around, wand stuck out in front of her, hardly a half inch away from poking itself right into the center of the blonde's nose. He looked very surprised, much to the witches glee, as he stared cross eyed at the wooden tip. Scoffing, he pushed her arm back.

"Put that away, Granger." His voice was cool, but his expression revealed the offense he took at her actions.

"What do you want, stupid pureblood." She snapped, drawing herself up for the obvious fight that was about to occur.

"Sorry," he smirked again. "Keeping up appearances." She grunted and turned around, walking away again, ever so quickly. "Hey now," he said, keeping up with little effort. "I said I was sorry."

"Like that means anything."

He chuckled once, shaking his head. "You know I have to do it, Granger." He said.

She stopped moving, and stared straight ahead, voice dark. "No I don't."

"Oh please-"

"No," she interrupted. "You might have helped me once, but you haven't made an effort at all to speak to me or hardly even acknowledge me since then, and then of course you just have to be an arse along with the rest of your stupid bloody house and-"

It was his turn to interrupt. "Granger!" He said sternly, voice loud t be heard over hers. "You have no idea what you're talking about!" She huffed off again, and again, he pulled up beside her. "What are you doing your project on?" He asked innocently.

"Why do you care?"

"I'm curious."

"Well, Mr Malfoy, if you were so curious, then you should have partnered with me." She tried to speed up again, but still he kept up.

"Please, Granger, not in a million years."

She turned and scowled at him, seeing his eyes to be teasing. "Because I'm a mudblood."

It was a statement that seemed to slam Malfoy hard. He reached out and wrapped his fingers around her arm and pulled her back to him, not allowing her to walk away. He stared down at her angrily, eyes dark and focused. "I don't have a choice," he said slowly, enunciating each word carefully. "You silly bint." She tried to pull away but he didn't let her. "I'm trying to help you." His voice was confident and left no room for argument. She tried to fight his grasp again, but gave up, frustrated and defeated.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" She said quietly, staring up at him with hard yet damaged eyes.

His face softened. "I just wanted to see how you are." He said simply, relaxing his hand around her, not letting go completely.

She sighed. "I'm fine."

"That's good," he gave her a small smile. "Were you headed to the library? Aren't you hungry?"

She didn't say anything for a moment, and then gave her own slight smile when she conceded to him. "Honestly," she began. "I just wanted a minute away from Ron."

Malfoy's smile widened as he let go and guided her in the direction she was headed. "So... Not necessarily the library then?" He asked. She looked at him suspiciously and if it were possible, his grin widened again.

She couldn't tell if the look in his eye was mischievous or what it was... but he suddenly was dragging her down the hall, moving just as fast as they had been. She was stumbling behind him down the steps that lead t the dungeon, nearly slipping on the slime that had been sprayed across the floors.

"Peeves..." Malfoy muttered but kept up his brisk walk. Suddenly Hermione was flung into an empty classroom and the door was slammed shut. Surprised, she took a step back and looked around, they were in the potions classroom. Memories f Snape's teaching came rushing into her mind before she remembered to be suspicious. She turned on Malfoy, eyeing him with distrust.

A/N: So... There's a new chapter... What do you think happens next? :D Lemme know what you think!