Malfoy picked up his water bucket and sponge, and walked to the wall behind Snape. Hermione began working in the opposite corner of the room. She had finished her first wall, Malfoy had almost finished, when it happened.

"Professor, you're needed on the second floor, near the Transfiguration classroom." The Fat Friar had glided through the door and said this.

"It will have to wait, as you can see I am supervising a detention."

"Yes sir, but you are needed, the Headmaster sent me to get you, I saw it happen sir, and it is an emergency." He glided over and whispered something in Snape's ear, a look of utter shock appeared on Snape's face. He jumped to his feet and all but ran to the door, where he paused and looked at Hermione and Malfoy.

"You are to stay here, I am going to lock the door behind me, and you won't be able to open it. Finish your cleaning and then sit quietly." And with that he closed the door and hurried away.

"What was that all about?" Hermione asked.

"All I caught was boy and birds, but at least we can stop cleaning" said Malfoy.

"What are you talking about? Snape said to finish."

"Oh come on, and everyone says you're the smartest girl in our class!" Malfoy waved his wand at the walls and the potion disappeared.

"That's cheating."

"Well I didn't get put in Slytherin for nothing." Malfoy said with a smirk as he sat down on a table.

"How did you learn that spell?"

"The servants use it all the time and they taught me." When he saw the questioning look on Hermione's face he added "I made them teach me, I thought might come in handy....... Mudblood."

Hermione had to struggle not to laugh, she had never seen him look this uncomfortable before, and it was like he had just added the mudblood comment as an afterthought to seem tough. Other than that they were actually having a decent conversation, was he actually being nice?

"Were you and your grandmother close?" Malfoy asked.

"Yeah, she was very active. She would always go with me and my parents when we went out of town. I always went to her house at least five times every summer. She was a lot of fun."

"Yeah, that's how it was with me and my grandma. I loved to spend time with her. When she died, I took a slightly different approach to the grieving than you."

"What approach did you take exactly?"

"I got angry, and very mean, more so than usual at least, remember at the Quidditch World Cup?"

"Oh, when did it happen?"

"One day before we left for the cup. My parents decided to go anyway."

"How did you get over it? How did you get back to normal? Well...."

"You don't, at least I didn't, I just realized that being angry wouldn't make a difference, wouldn't bring her back to life. I didn't have that power, I wish I did, but all I could do was be me, whoever that is."

They sat quietly for a minute and Hermione was about to say something when the door opened and Snape walked in.

"Come with me."

Snape led them down a hallway. "Mr. Malfoy, please return to your common room and stay there. Miss Granger, follow me."

Hermione followed Snape back up through the passageway to the Entrance Hall where Professor McGonagall was standing with Harry and Ron.

"Thank you Severus. I will take them from here. Follow me please."

Professor McGonagall led them upstairs to their common room.

"What happened?" Ron asked "Nick came floating into the room and said there was some kind of emergency."

"I don't know, filch had me cleaning the floors down here, then he stuffed me in a classroom when Professor McGonagall came running downstairs and pulled him away."

"When the Fat Friar came in.....I....Heard him say something about a boy and birds." She couldn't explain why but she didn't want to tell them about Malfoy.

The school was buzzing the next day with rumors about what had happened the night before.

"Did you hear, they say some kid got poisoned last night" reported Dean Thomas.

"I heard it was a teacher" put in Colin Creevey.

They were all seated at the Gryffindor table eating breakfast when the owls came swooping in. A large grey one landed in front of Harry and stuck out its leg. As soon as Harry untied the letter the owl took off. He unfolded it and read in a whisper so only Ron and Hermione could hear:

Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger,
Your defense lesson scheduled for tonight is
cancelled, we are making arrangements, please be
patient.
Albus Dumbledore

"Great, now our lessons are cancelled. Now what are we supposed to do?" Harry asked, it was obvious that he was angry, Hermione attempted to console him "He didn't say they were cancelled, he just said they weren't happening tonight."

"When are they going to happen then?" asked Harry.

"Well, we'd better get to class. Don't want to be late" said Hermione.

"What do we have first today?" Ron asked.

"Herbology."

"Fun."

They got up and walked out of the Great Hall, as they passed the Slytherin table Hermione couldn't help but glance in Malfoy's direction. He was sitting there, laughing with his friends. She forced herself to look away. What was she doing? She couldn't like Draco Malfoy, look at who he was and what he stood for, everything she was supposed to be against. But when he wasn't being rude, he was actually somewhat nice to be around, oh, what was she thinking, she had had one civil conversation with him. She couldn't change her image of him over that.

They could see Professor Sprout standing outside the green house. "Come on everyone, greenhouse five today, let's go, everyone inside, hurry up, don't want to be late."

When they were all inside she closed the door and walked to the front of the class. "Ok, today we will be working with inocubolious inubatrum; can anyone tell me what they are?"

Neville's hand shot in the air. "Yes, Mr. Longbottom."

"They're a type of weed that lures its prey in, its mouth is hidden in the dirt around it and when its prey steps on it, the mouth opens and swallows them" said Neville in a surprisingly strong voice (Sarah was standing next to him smiling).

"Excellent, ten points to Gryffindor, another ten if you can tell me what it eats."

"Its preference is young Homo sapiens, especially muggles, it prefers the young because they have not yet been tainted with play and sun, the skin is still soft, plus they fit in its mouth."

"Very good, take twenty points. Now, can anyone tell me what they are used for?"

To everyone's surprise two hands shot in the air, Neville's and Hermione's.

"Miss Granger"

"They can be used for a number of things. Its most common use is a repellant. It stops other inocubolious inubatrum from growing, as well as many other weeds, but the poisonous stickers can be used in potions to create a death like sleep."

"Very good indeed, another ten points to Gryffindor. Today we will be chopping up the tentacles, which have already been removed from the base, for a repellent, remember to keep your dragon hide gloves on at all times, they still have their poisonous stickers, I don't want anyone dying today."
As soon as they got out of class for lunch Hermione rushed up to the owlery to write a note to her parents:

Dear mom and dad,
I was kind of wondering if I could stay here
over break. I need to catch up on my school
work and my friends asked me to come and spend
Christmas with them, I don't have to, I just
thought it would give me a chance to catch up.
Can I? Please write soon. Miss you.
Love always,
Hermione

"Hey mudblood" said a cool voice from behind her.

"Are you stalking me Malfoy?" asked Hermione as she tied her letter to the leg of a school owl and it flew out the window.

"No, just came up here to send a letter, get a problem with that?" The tone of his voice was different, and the look in his eyes was too.

Hermione started to walk out of the room but stopped at the door and turned around. He was tying his letter to his owl, "The other night, you said something, you said all you could do was be you again, whoever that is, what did you mean?"

He walked over to stand in front of her "I meant that I had to act how I normally act around people, and I don't know which one of those personalities is the real me."

"What do you mean, which one was the real you?"

"Well, I act one way when I'm at school here, another way in front of my parents, and I acted another way in front of my grandma, and I don't know which one is real. The one where I was a happy kid, with my grandma, the one where I'm a scared kid, or the one where I do the scaring. Or the one that is having thoughts that you would not appreciate, I'm sure."

Hermione was getting a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach that she had not felt before. But she knew what it was, and it all seemed right when he started to lean toward her. She understood the look in his eye now, and it wasn't unwelcome. He reached out with his hand. Time seemed to be moving very slowly right now. But then he turned the door knob and left the owlery, leaving a very confused Hermione behind him.

What had just happened? It hadn't scared Hermione that she had been alone in a room with a boy, who was claiming to have very inappropriate thoughts about her, who had been about to kiss her, and it didn't bother her that he had left, what bothered her was that she actually wanted Draco Malfoy to kiss her.
What had just almost happened? Had he actually just admitted to having the thoughts he had had since their fourth year? Had he almost kissed Hermione Granger? What would have happened if he had?

note- thank you for reading, more on the way, please review, good or bad, they really help.