Hey!! ok, ok! here's chapter two! Thanks to everyone who subscribed, faved or reviewed!! you're the best!! huggies!! oh and by the way I'm not a Ron-hater, it was the only way! *Clasps hands dramatically* Alrighty then, on to chapter 2... enjoy!!

Disclaimer: I wouldn't dream of stealing anything from the amazing author that is J.K. Rowling!! So...I own nothing!

Chapter 2

Hermione woke up the next morning with a blocked nose and red eyes and realised she had fallen asleep crying. She went to the bathroom to clean herself up before heading down to breakfast. She past Malfoy in the common room and tried to ignore him, but she hadn't succeeded in unpuffing her eyes. She still looked like she'd been crying. He saw her face and bit his lip guiltily.

"Hermione I..." he started.

"Whatever it is, I don't want to hear it," she interrupted him, holding her hand up. She walked out of the room, leaving him to stare after her.

All the way down to the breakfast she tried to understand what was going on. Sure Malfoy had called her a mudblood and insulted her but, even though she never liked it, it certainly wasn't the first time he had done it and it had never made her cry so much before. But she just couldn't like him, it wasn't possible, she was smarter than that...wasn't she? There wasn't a question you could ask her that she couldn't answer if it was in a book, but... Was this something completely different? Could her head control what she felt? Stop this! She told herself. You do not like Draco Malfoy.

She saw Harry, Ron and Ginny sitting with some more Griffindors and she went over to join them. Ginny noticed her eyes immediately.

"Hermione! What's wrong? You look like you've been crying,"

Hermione groaned. She should have used some magic to conceal her eyes properly.

"Oh it's nothing, just Malfoy being an ass, as usual," she told her. Harry and Ron came to full attention at the sound of Malfoy's name.

"Ugh, what's the ferret done this time?" Ron asked.

"Just the usual insults, you know?" She replied. Harry and Ron nodded. Hermione stole a glance at Ginny and noticed that she was eyeing her suspiciously, as if she knew that that wasn't all.

"Aw don't worry Hermione, everything that comes out of his mouth is complete garbage. Just ignore him," Harry told her, patting her on the back. She smiled at him as thanks, silently begging Ginny not to say anything. Her prayers were answered and Ginny held her tongue.

After breakfast they headed off to their first class. The day went by quite fast for Hermione as usual, that was usually a good thing about liking all your classes.

It wasn't so good today though, because the last thing Hermione wanted to do was go back to her common room and see Malfoy. She spent as much time as she could doing her homework in the library and hanging out with Harry and Ron. But finally she accepted she couldn't hide out any longer, it was getting late, so she headed towards the common room, sighing in defeat.

As the portrait swung closed behind her she saw Malfoy sitting in an armchair reading a book. She cleared her throat to make her presence known. Malfoy jumped up in fright, slammed the book closed and threw it on the floor. Hermione stared at him in confusion. She'd never seen him surprised before, he always seemed to be expecting everything. But when he looked up at her his face was composed back into the usual sarcastic look.

"Oh great, I thought you weren't coming, I was looking forward to having the room to myself." He said, Hermione pursed her lips.

"Don't worry, you will, I'm going up to my room now,"

She started walking away, but, over the sound of her footsteps, she heard him mutter,

"Good, because I wouldn't want my atmosphere polluted by your impure blood..."

Something snapped inside Hermione at that moment, she rounded on him,

"Just shut up! You can't talk to me like that! You might hate me and don't worry, the feeling's mutual, but I still have feelings, no matter what you might think! I've put up with your insults for years, but now I've had enough! Nothing gives you the right to..."

She stopped short when she caught sight of the book he'd been reading. She looked at his face, it seemed to be filled with a mixture of astonishment at her cry out and guilt.

Guilt? No, it must be something else, she thought.

She looked at the book again, then back at him. She watched his eyes slide in the direction hers had just come from and realise what had made her stop shouting. His eyes widened and darted around, as if trying to think of an excuse for the question that they both knew would come next.

"Were you..." she started, "why were you reading my notebook?"

"I wasn't!" he immediately replied.

"Yes, you were. I saw you put it down when I came in,"

He looked at her for a few seconds, then shifted his gaze to the notebook. When he looked back at her, his eyes were narrowed and his mouth was pulled up into a smirk.

"Ok you're right, I was reading your notebook. I was reading it because I don't believe you're as smart as the grades you get, I think you cheat! So I was reading your notebook to find out how you do it, and then you wont be Ms. Know-it-all Granger anymore!"

"How dare you?" she hissed, "how dare you! I have never cheated in anything in my life, and you know it! So don't you dare accuse me of doing anything of the sort! Just because you want to be first in the class does not mean you can just, just... ugh!" She screamed in frustration. Without even finishing her sentence, she grabbed her notebook from the floor and raced out of the room.

~*~*~*~

It was an hour or two later before she came down from her dorm. She realised she had left the book she was reading down stairs in the common room and she wanted to go and get it. She decided that she wouldn't even make eye contact with Malfoy if he was still down there.

As she neared the room, she heard voices. She recognised them as Malfoy and Zabini. The conversation became clearer as she came closer. She overheard her name being spoken and decided to hide behind one of the pillars that was in the room.

If they're going to talk about me, I have a right to hear what they say, she thought to herself. But what she heard next left her lost for words.

"It doesn't make sense though!" She heard Malfoy reply to something Blaise had said to him. "I hate her! I hate everything about her, the stupid little mudblood know-it-all."

"You're gonna have to stop calling her that man, I'm pretty sure she doesn't like it, actually she hates it."

Hermione found herself feeling grateful to Blaise, but also quite surprised. He would never tell Malfoy not to call her that, he'd never batted an eye lid when he'd called her that in front of him before.

"Why should I care what she hates?" Malfoy shot back, "She's a little bitch, she deserves it."

"But you just told me..."

"Forget what I told you!" Malfoy cut him off, "I don't know what came over me, I must have lost my mind for a second, I hate her! I hate everything she stands for! I do! I hate her, I hate her, I..."

And to Hermione's utter astonishment, he broke down into sobs.

"I don't," he whispered, so quietly Hermione almost didn't hear him, "I love her,"

Hermione's breath stopped. She was sure she had misheard him. But then he said it more forcefully,

"I love her!"

"Hey man, don't cry," Blaise said, but it wasn't in an awkward guys-don't-cry-in-front-of-their-friends way, it was sympathetic.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it though. I have to hurt her all the time, to try and stop myself feeling like this, but it doesn't help and I hate myself for doing it. It's just...I can't like her, I just can't!"

Hermione gasped. Malfoy didn't seem to hear her but Blaise's head shot up in her direction. She came slowly out from behind the pillar. As Blaise caught sight of her, a grin spread across his face. He may be the type of guy who'll comfort his friend when he cries, but he was a sucker for an awkward situation, he always had been. Whenever he saw people stuck in one, he couldn't seem to keep a straight face. This was no different.

He started snickering, Malfoy looked up at him in bewilderment.

"What the fuck are you laughing at? Do you think this is funny?!" He asked angrily.

"I'm sorry Draco, but your secret's out," he told him pointing towards Hermione, still smiling. Malfoy swiveled around in his chair. His eyes locked with Hermiones' and widened.

"Shit," he said.

Hermione turned on her heel and, forgetting about the book, fled the room.

"Hermione!" Malfoy shouted after her, "crap! What do I do?" he said, turning back to Blaise who, seeing his friend's distress, had turned serious again. "Zabini! What do I do?"

"Erm...I don't know...go after her!" Malfoy bit his lip in indecision.

"Do you think I should?"

"Yeah! Isn't that what people do in these type of situations?"

Malfoy nodded slowly and, deciding suddenly, jumped from the chair to run after her, but stopped.

"Erm, Blaise...about a few minutes ago...you're not going to..." he struggled for the words.

"Hey Draco, don't you know me better than that?" he pretended to be hurt, "don't worry, don't worry, what happens in the room stays in the room,"

Malfoy nodded in thanks.

"Wow, someone could really hear that the wrong way..." he heard Blaise smirk as he raced from the room after Hermione.

He found her sitting cross-legged on her bed, a tight frown on her face as if she was deep in thought.

Ok, her eyes are dry, that's a good start I guess, Malfoy thought to himself. He stepped slowly into the room.

"Hermione?" he said carefully. Her head snapped out of thought.

"What are you?...how can you?...But you...But I...I don't..." she stopped trying to get a sentence out and threw her hands up in frustration instead.

"Can we...talk?" Malfoy asked. Hermione hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. He came further into the room and sat on one of the chairs but quickly got up , realising that he wouldn't be able to sit still and paced instead.

"You said you loved me... do you?" Hermione asked, Malfoy looked at her, "no, you don't," she answered herself. He raised his eyebrows. Hermione looked at him and saw that for once in her life, she had answered wrong.

"But you treat me so badly..."

"I know you heard that part too," he said.

"But you can't!" she shouted angrily, which immediately brought up his defense.

"Hey look! This isn't easy for me either. I don't want to like you, you can trust me on that! I hate your friends, I hate everything you stand for, I hate your kind. I just can't hate you," he told her, "that's why I always act like that, to try and, I don't know, I guess I was trying to convince myself that I still hated you, or to make myself hate you again, or something."

"But that's not fair! I like you but I don't go around treating you like shit for no reason..." she clamped a hand over her mouth, but it was too late. A slow smirk spread across Malfoy's face.

"You like me? Of course you do, who doesn't like me?" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Don't get so cocky," she said, "it's only a recent thing,"

"Ha! I knew I saw you checking me out the other day in the common room with Pansy,"

"What? Are you serious?! That's not true! That was the last thing I was doing, the first was getting sick!"

"Yeah ok, you say that, if it makes you feel better," he mocked.

"Wait, how did this conversation turn around from you trying to explain yourself, to me trying to explain myself instead?"

"I don't know, but I sure like it better this way!" Hermione sighed in frustration, but then another thought occurred to her.

Hey, what about Blaise? Isn't your whole I'm-an-evil-muggle-born-hating-slytherin image ruined now?"

"He won't tell anyone about it, I wouldn't have told him otherwise. Incase you didn't know I'm not one to tell anything to just anyone. Anyway, it's not like he hadn't guessed already, Blaise is different, he's smarter than the other idiots in our school, excluding me of course. Besides, I am an-evil-muggle-born-hating-slytherin."

"Hello? Muggle-born witch that you like right here! And contrary to other's beliefs, you are definitely not evil. You may want people to think you are, but you're not. You're an ass, that's for sure, and one of the most annoying, hate-able people I know. But, and I know this upsets you, you are not evil."

His face was serious now, and he swallowed hard, looking her right in the eyes.

"Don't be so sure of that," he whispered. Something in his voice made Hermione shiver with fear, but not of him, for him and she didn't have a clue why.

"Besides, you're the only mudbl--, oops sorry, I mean muggle-born,that I've ever liked, I hate all others, you're my exception," he told her.

"Well excuse me if I don't start kissing your feet with gratitude for that one," she said, but really what he said sent tingles of pleasure running through her. He smirked.

"Don't worry, you will be. Well, it probably won't be my feet you'll be kissing," he gave her a teasing wink. She raised an eyebrow.

"Ok Mr. I'm-too-sexy-for-my-shirt, you can leave now," she said walking to the door and opening it for him.

He let out a laugh, which made her go weak at the knees.

"Ah, Ms. Granger, do I make you feel uneasy?" he said, taking a step towards her.

"Don't Ms. Granger me! And, no, apart from sickness you have had no effect whatsoever on my feelings,"

"Oh yes, you're sick with love for me," he said, closing the gap between them, quickly enough for Hermione to be feeling quite uncomfortable.

"Ha! Don't flatter yourself!" She replied, but blushed all the same.

Malfoy, seeing her cheeks turn a a deep shade of red, smirked and grabbed her hand, pulling her so that she took the last remaining steps, clearing the distance between them. He bent his head so that it was just centimetres from hers', their noses almost touching. She looked up at him and felt his warm breath on her face. One of his hands was on the small of her back, holding her gently but firmly to him, the other hand was playing with a strand of her hair teasingly. Hermione wasn't sure if she hated what was happening, or loved it.

"Just so you know, this would be a complete secret, no one would know," He whispered in her ear, "Let's see if that doesn't tempt you."

And with one last seductive stare, he stepped carefully around her and walked smoothly from the room.

ooohhhh! Things are getting exciting!...I hope!:P Ok people, you know the drill!! Reviews please!! Next stop chapter 3!!:D

luvness,

LettersFromNoah xxx