Author's Note: I don't own anything but the idea. :)

Draco

Hermione Granger was leaving the Great Hall, and although seconds before, he had been pondering the ceiling, Draco had twisted to watch her go. Now, he was acutely aware of Potter watching him, and with a mocking wiggle of his eyebrows, he turned back to the ceiling for a moment, before he got up and followed her out. There were no words for the raw unease he struggled to hide. Things were not going as smoothly as he had hoped, and he was running out of time. He made for the library, but as soon as he arrived at the doors, he found Granger headed for the Restricted Section, and under the circumstances, he walked away quickly.

He needed a book in there though, possibly more than one, but he was not sure he could risk her brown eyes catching a glimpse of him, or else she would report him to Potter, who, naturally, would accuse him of the very crime he was guiltily attempting to commit. Yet to risk delaying the project any longer would render him in danger and far behind schedule. It would be his head if he failed, and the lump in his throat rose threateningly. He was too young, too afraid to die. Therefore he was determined not to fail. Leaning back against the cool stone wall, Draco mentally berated himself. He had to get himself under control, remain calm. Stuffing his shaking hands in his pockets and biting down hard on his lip to stop the trembling, he breathed deeply and composed himself. Her refused to show signs of failure or weakness in front of anyone; least of all one of the Golden Trio.

The library was unusually quiet, and for the first time, Draco felt the lack of students deeper than before. No one was snogging in a dark corner, there were no girls giggling about some nonsense, not a single Hufflepuff was to be found, not even Ernie, and a lone Slytherin sat at a long table, composing what looked like two feet worth of parchment for Potions. He did not know the boy personally, and merely nodded solemnly in his direction when the boy looked up.

Draco headed swiftly past Madam Pince's unfriendly eyes, straight for the back of the library. Deep in the Restricted Section, the silence was eerie, but the quiet was a source of solace. Browsing among the Dark Magic section, he felt eyes on him.

"Looking for something?"

"Is it any of your business, Granger," spat Draco as he continued to finger the edges of the books, looking for a title.

"I think I have the book you're looking for. I'm done with it, so you may have it."

"How would you have any idea what I'm looking for?"

"Because you keep going over the same row," she pulled him away from the bookshelf and shoved a large black book in his hands. Immediately, she turned on her heels and left. She clearly didn't expect the thank you that he was too proud to give. He looked down at the book. She had been right; it was exactly what he needed. But why had she been reading it? He seriously doubted it had been for academic purposes, but he had been under the impression that Ms. High-and-Mighty would never touch it.

"Damn you, Granger," he whispered, and headed back to the front desk. Madam Pince looked quite suspicious as she checked it out form him. "For Defense Against the Dark Arts, of course," he drawled calmly, but his own reasons for the unnecessary explanation were lost upon him as he left.

Granger was still in the hallway as he headed down to the dungeons, her bag having split. He chose to ignore her rather than hurl an insult, and leaned against a column, waiting for her to stay ahead of him as she too headed to Potions. Though it was clear she would never admit it in front of anyone, Draco had an inkling that Potions was at least her second favorite subject, as her exceptional brewing lent her top marks, and the satisfaction written on her face whenever she succeeded was increasingly obvious. At least, it was to Draco, who had watched her all last year. It was now nearing the Christmas holiday, and, it dawned on him that it being their last year at Hogwarts, she undoubtedly aspired to become an Auror. Her charmwork was certainly worthy of acceptance by the ministry, he envied her himself. Perhaps even envy was the wrong word for it, he realized, it was something closer to admiration.

He shook his head before he entered the classroom. He couldn't be having these thoughts during class, they were wrong in the first place, but thinking about Granger with her in the same room was downright idiotic. He'd go insane if he let the admiration grow.

As soon as the last student walked in the door, Snape slammed the doors and took his usual place at the podium next to his desk. He flicked his wand, and instructions appeared on the board. "Today, you will be choosing partners for the remainder of the term for a...project of sorts. Choose wisely, as your grades are combined. You will be responsible for both of yourselves; therefore, you will both fail together and pass together, according of course on your intellectual abilities to not screw this assignment. As seventh years, I expect," Snape glanced at Potter and Weasley with a look of loathing, "most of you to be up to par. Do not fail, or you shall fail the class." Snape left the podium abruptly. "Now, it is the policy of this school for you to choose someone you would not normally work with, someone of equal intelligence. I however, prefer to select pairs myself. Thus, if you do not have a partner in sixty seconds you will risk the unpleasant consequence of having them chosen for you."

For a moment, no one moved. The Slytherins looked unhappily at each other; all except for Draco, who was staring determinedly at Granger. Being the dunce he was, Potter looked over at the perfect moment, and upon seeing Draco's gaze, clenched a fist and snapped a quill. Draco smirked. Then, suddenly, the room was abuzz with students choosing and fighting for partners. He simply crossed the room, and stood in front of her desk, and stared down at her curly head. She reluctantly looked up at him, questioning him silently. Potter formed a silently threatening stance next to her, and again, Draco smiled.

"Granger, would you do me the honor of being my partner?"

"I...uh...erm..." he'd never seen her so flustered and so surprised. She glanced nervously at her friends.

"Well?"

"I...yes."

He nodded triumphantly at Potter, and smiled again. The smiling had to stop. It was so unlike him. But secretly, he was elated for a reason he couldn't quite put his finger on. "Thank you," he replied, as he made his way back to his desk. He quickly squashed the energetic back flips in his stomach, and turned his eyes away from Granger, who was still staring at him as though her were swearing a highly shocking strain of curses. Gods what am I doing? I'm only going to screw things up worse. I can't afford to get tangled up with Granger, he thought, feeling thoroughly idiotic, then immediately regretted the choice of words in his mind; it only made him think of Granger curled up in his arms. What is going on? There was no rational answer, of course, so he decided he was simply going insane under the pressure of his work.

Snape cleared his throat curtly, drawing Draco from his pondering. "I do hope you have chosen by now." The class nodded nervously. "Then you should have no trouble moving to sit with your partner to discuss the project." Once again, there was an awkward delay before anyone moved; and in the end, it was Neville Longbottom who moved first. Since the seat next to him was empty, Granger picked up her bags, waved guiltily at Potter and Weasley, and came over and sat next to him. She did not look at him, instead, she looked up at Snape, who, looking surprised, but oddly pleased, stared over at them. Draco simply smirked slightly, then pulled out his notes and a fresh quill. Snape went back to perusing the class, and with a flick of his wand, laid out the steps to their assignment. "You have forty minutes to complete this assignment. It is a second-level health restoration potion, this should be doable for even the least proficient of you," he glanced once at Longbottom and Weasley, who reddened. "You can expect low marks if you do not succeed to brew a mediocre potion today...homework is two feet of parchment on the properties of batwing serums in health potions. Start."

Without looking at Granger, Draco lit the cauldron and began adding ingredients. When it came time to cut up the lacewings, he reached for the lacewings to find them already very finely chopped. He looked over at her, as she poured over the book and the instructions, as she checked off each step on her notes. He had thought she had not been paying attention; that she was letting him take the lead, but he realized with a lump of satisfaction that she had been helping all along. As his hands had blindly groped for ingredients, she had made sure he had taken the right thing, handing him each vial in a neat, perfect row. Now, she held out the chopped lacewings for him to take. He hesitated, aware of how strange it would look if he took them directly from her hand. But he was acutely aware how it would look to her if he did not, and he could not fathom why, but he put his hand under hers and, using the other, brushed the pieces onto her hand, slowly making contact with her soft skin. Her brown eyes met his silver ones, and her lips held the tiniest of smiles, and Draco could not help it, he had to smile back. "Alright, now how many times am I to stir it?" He could tell by the way she looked at her book that he'd made her happy with this small truce he had randomly made.

"Oh, twice clockwise, then three times counterclockwise."

"Right then," he replied, stirring the potion gently.

"Oh good...it's the purple it's supposed to be!"

"Did you expect it to be green like Longbottoms," he quipped rather harshly, unable to allow her all the friendliness she deserved.

"No. I was simply noting our accomplishment. But I suppose that's too positive for the King of Darkness."

He couldn't help it. He snorted at her name-calling. He knew she was above actual insults, but it was highly amusing all the same. "I see, but," he lowered his voice as Snape walked by," I wonder, is that the best you've got Queen of Knowledge?"

"No, it's not. But, as you can clearly see, we are in class. We are partners. I would think you'd like to get good marks. So lets keep the insults to a minimum, hmmm?"

"Deal."

It was the beginning of a very scary road, Draco thought, as the rest of the class went by quickly, and he escaped back to his room.

Meanwhile, he could not ignore the angry looks thrown at him by a livid, loathesome Harry Potter.

AN: How's that for another chapter? Reviews please!