Hermione tried to focus on the potion she was brewing with Harry, but was finding herself unable to pay attention. Malfoy and Lavender had been whispering and laughing the entire lesson and it was driving her insane. 'It's just the noise,' Hermione told herself as she cut into her ingredients. 'I've always found it hard to work with lots of commotion.' But even Harry was noticing that she was not acting like herself.
"Hermione! It says three stirs every thirty seconds, not continuously stir!" Hermione looked down to find that her potion that should have been a light blue color was in fact a murky bubbling brown. Hermione shook her head to clear it and apologized to Harry, quickly figuring out a way to correct her mistake. Lavender erupted into giggles behind her and Hermione whipped around to shoot her a nasty look. Instead her eyes connected with Malfoy's and he lifted his eyebrows to give her a smug look. He turned to Lavender and pushed her hair back from her ear to whisper something that made he giggle again and slap his arm. Malfoy looked at Hermione again and pointed to her neglected potion.
"Its three stirs every thirty seconds Granger. I thought you were studying with Weasley last night, maybe he isn't working you hard enough." Hermione blushed and was about to retaliate when another call of "Hermione!" from Harry pulled her focus back to her potion. Malfoy and Lavender's flirting continued throughout the lesson and though Hermione tried her best not to listen it was sufficient enough distraction that she and Harry barely scraped together a passing grade by the end of the class.
Harry and Ron waved their goodbyes as they headed to Quidditch practice and Hermione finished cleaning up their cauldrons. Malfoy and Lavender were also taking their time cleaning up and Hermione guessed that Malfoy's low murmurs and Lavender's shrieks and giggles were a large part of the hold up. As she turned and walked past them to leave Malfoy grabbed her hand. She stopped abruptly at the sudden contact and looked down at him. "What do you want Malfoy?"
"If it's alright with you, I'll be using one of those common room passes for the rest of the day. Lavender is going to help me test out the stability of those bookshelves." Hermione snatched her hand away from his grip and Lavender giggled yet again. As she watched Malfoy turn to grin at Lavender, Hermione felt herself become overwhelmed with an urge to punch the other girl in the face.
Instead she heard herself say, "Fine, sure, whatever, I'll be in my room. Try to keep it down." Lavender's final giggle followed her down the hallway as she raced back to her room, intent on studying until she could forget how easily Malfoy had gotten to her. Her transfiguration essay would be an excellent distraction from thinking about the real reason Hermione had been so distracted in Potions. Not the noise level, not Malfoy's taunts, not even the relentless giggling from Lavender Brown, but the realization that the privacy rules she had set up with Malfoy were not just for her and Ron, that Malfoy could have visitors as well. Hermione didn't even want to think about why that fact should make her feel so upset, so instead she performed a noise cancelling spell on her door and dove into her Transfiguration books, filling her mind with spells and theory instead of the disturbing idea that she just might be jealous of Lavender Brown.