As Draco and Hermione reached the steps of the castle, she quickly pulled her hand out of his. He would have liked to have walked in holding her hand, but she would have been too embarrassed to do something like that.

When they entered the castle, they could hear the sound of the many students escaping from the Great Hall as they crossed to enter it themselves. He motioned for her to go ahead into the Great Hall, with a slight bow. She smiled and did a little curtsy in return. They laughed about that as the two walked in. Hermione turned to face him, holding out her hand. Draco was confused for a moment, and then remembered her book.

"I'll see you later." he whispered in her ear as he handed her the book. She started chewing on her lower lip and nodded. Then, she turned to walk over to the Gryffindor table. She waved at Luna Lovegood as she passed the Ravenclaw table. Luna waved back, obviously trying to display whatever new amulet she was using to protect herself this week that was hanging off her wrist. Luna turned her blonde head towards Draco and waved at him too. He waved back at her and then turned to make sure that Hermione was settled in and eating, not just reading through supper, again.

Draco turned on his heel and headed towards the Slytherin table. Crabbe and Goyle flagged him down to join them, so he did. These two were just about the only Slytherins that Draco could tolerate. After all, they did act as if his world was law. And the two boys' fathers treated Draco's father the same way.

Draco was making himself a plate; when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small crowd of girls gathered at the middle of the Gryffindor table. Each girl was giggling and trying to politely make her way to the center of the crowd.

Oh boy. Draco thought with a chuckle. He knew exactly what was causing all the commotion.

Just then, two boys broke through the crowd. The first one was rather tall. He had slightly shaggy, ginger-colored hair. As usual, he had a mischievous look on his face. The other one was just shorter than the first. The second one had hair that was a black as a blackboard that was cut just shorter than the first one. The second one also wore round glasses. Standing next to the ginger one, the second one had very pale-toned skin.

Ron Weasley and Harry Potter were the "it" boys of Gryffindor. Draco chuckled at the truth of his best friends. The three boys had been in all the same classes since their First year. Meeting one another for the first time on the Hogwart's Express seemed like fate, they all became friends immediately.

Over the years, the three got into trouble together all the time. Even though Hermione told Draco he shouldn't, Draco was always up for whatever scheme Harry came up, with Ron leading the way. The three had traveled all over Hogwarts, learning as many of its secrets as they could. They had more than their fair share of time in Headmaster Dumbledore's office as well for pranks gone astray.

But it wasn't until last year that Ron became such a playboy. Ron had asked Draco to help him with his "game". The reason being that Hogwarts was hosting the Tri-Wizard Tournaments and that included the Yule Ball. Draco, with some help from Harry, turned Ron from a dateless loser to one of the most wanted guys in school. Draco Had to admit the transformation of his best friend was amazing.

Speaking of amazing, Draco thought, and those three has been in the same house for all these years, yet I've never heard them mention each other. Bet they never even talk to each other. Draco turned his attention back to his food. Then another thought struck him.

As long as Ron doesn't go after Hermione, then all's well.

"Where is she?" Draco asked himself out loud.

He leaned back against the wall of the stairs that lead up to First floor. A group of giggling Slytherin girls passed by him. He could tell that they wanted his attention. Draco politely waved and said hello to them. The girls squealed and broke into a run towards the dungeons.

Probably off to the common room to gossip.

Draco slid down the wall and sat down on the steps.

If I'm going to wait, might as well get comfortable. He had just closed his eyes, when he heard footsteps running in his direction. He couldn't help but smile at her perfect timing.

"I'm sorry I made you wait, Draco." Hermione said, just the slightest bit breathless. Draco stood back up as he looked at her, still carrying that big book. "Luna was telling me something about a creature called a…a Nargle."

Draco was happy that Hermione had made another friend. Seemed as if it wasn't for answering questions in class, Luna and himself, Hermione would never get her nose out of a book.

"Its alright." he assured her. With that, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Would you mind walking with me to the library to return this?" she asked, pointing to the book she had been lugging around.

You know I would do anything for you.

"Sure."

Hermione smiled and rushed up to the step he was on. They slowly started to climb the stairs when Draco heard the sounds a multiple girls groaning coming from just inside the Great Hall.

"Now, now girls, its gunna be alright." Draco recognized Ron's voice as it carried out into the corridor.

"Everyone has to be fair." Harry added.

Draco wished he could have sped Hermione and himself along and hurried out of there.

"Oi! Malfoy!" Ron called out as Draco and Hermione had almost gotten away.

Oh man!