AN: Please review, tell me all of your thoughts! For without them, i cannot change any problems that you might have, so...enjoy;D

Hermione turned the page of her book slowly, determined to drag the moment out for as long as possible. "I don't know." She finally drawled slowly. "I'm not sure it sounds like something I would want to do, i'm afraid."
"What do you mean, not something you would want to do?" Malfoy demanded. "I'm only asking to swap patrol partners with you, it's not like i'm asking you to help me bring the Dark Lord back or anything! I thought you liked Seamus, anyway!"
She looked up at him, saw the annoyance in his face, and turned her eyes to her book once more. "Oh, I like Seamus," She began breezily. "That's not my problem. My problem is you." She glanced once more up at Malfoy's now scowling features. "I want to know why you want to swap with me that badly. Now, it could always be Blaise." She peered intently at his face, trying to read his expression. "Or maybe not. So if it's not just so that you can have a chat with your old friend, then what is it?"
Malfoy didn't answer, deigning to instead glare at her with venom in his cold, grey eyes. Hermione waited, before sighing dramatically and turning back to her book.
The silence lasted for a few moments, before being broken by Malfoy's loud groan.
"Okay! I just can't stand him, he's so annoying! He talks non-stop in that annoying Irish accent of his, and i can't take another evening of it!" He gestured wildly as he spoke, illustrating his annoyance.
Hermione grinned in triumph. "Why Draco dear, why ever didn't you just say so?"
"So you'll swap with me?" His voice was eager, and Hermione had to stifle a laugh as she pretended to think about a response. "No, sorry. I quite like Blaise, and I know for a fact that Seamus doesn't say a word to you; he hates you too much. Now, are you going to tell me the real reason, or can i get back to my book?"
"Fine." Malfoy muttered, sulking. "If you must know, it's Blaise. You must have seen how the other students are with me; they don't come anywhere near me." He shrugged. "I don't particularly care what the others think of my, but the Slytherins are my house-mates; the closest things to friends i ever had. And now..." He let his voice trial off, and Hermione just sat there, stunned. She hadn't actually expected him to reply with honesty. And, she had noticed it. She remembered the dig she had made at him and felt horrible; she had thought he knew.
"I can speak to him, if you'd like." She began gently, unsure how to proceed. "I'm pretty sure that i could ask him to talk to you, or to-"
"I don't want your charity, Granger!" He spat, face contorted in anger. "I don't need YOU thinking that you know my best friend enough to 'get him to talk to me'." He crudely imitated her voice, high-pitched and squeaky. "I don't need you thinking that i'm just another lost case, another poor, damaged soul for you to help so that you can feel fucking better about yourself!" He was shouting now, and she just sat there, blood completely drained from her face, on the brink of tears. "I don't need a fucking Mud-blood fucking getting off on making poor ickle Draco all fucking better. I don't fucking need you!" He snarled, glaring at her with a look so venomous, so full of hatred and loathing, that Hermione just wanted to go somewhere and curl up into a ball to get away from the self-loathing that she felt at the moment. She wanted to be anywhere but there, anywhere but with him, who she could not afford to let see the tears that were building up.
"I'm sorry," She half-whispered, half-choked out, as she fled their quarters, leaving Malfoy standing alone, still breathing heavily.

"I'm going to kill him." Blaise growled, as he paced across his room in the Slytherrin dungeons. (All of the returning students had been given their own bedrooms, due to lack of room in the dorms.)
"Blaise, please, listen to me!" Hermione begged from where she sat on the edge of his bed. She had, for lack of other places to go, run to Blaise's room in search of a shoulder to cry on. She had expected him to find some excuse for Malfoy's actions, as he always did. Not to get angry, and then to just ignore her.
"He was angry, okay?"She said. "Besides, it wasn't that bad. Really, I just over-reacted. All he did was shout at me." She laughed weakly. "It's no big deal. Really." She added, as he stopped pacing and walked towards her.
"It's not fine." He said quietly, sitting and joining her. "You came in here, sobbing your eyes out. You were in pieces, Hermione." He narrowed his eyes. "Why are you defending him?"
"He's your friend,"She breathed, anxious of saying the wrong thing, but also incredibly grateful that she hadn't mentioned what he had called her. "I don't want to be the cause of you two falling out."
Blaise studied her for a moment, his face only inches from hers, before sitting back. "We haven't been friends, not for a long time." He began sadly. "Not since he got...that mark, anyway."
Hermione understood what he meant. "He misses you, you know." She told him, shifting over slightly.
"I know." Blaise told her, sighing softly. "I miss him too."
"Then why can't you be friends again?"
"It's complicated, Hermione." He told her, sighing again.
"I know." She replied simply. She glanced down at her hands, and when she looked up again, she found him watching her.
"What?" She asked nervously, blushing ever so slightly.
Blaise shook his head ever so slightly before tearing his gaze away and answering simply, "Nothing."