Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling

Author's Note: Hi everyone! I really hope you are enjoying the story so far. If you haven't had a chance, please check out my completed story Things Can Change. Thanks!

Draco was having a bad day. To be honest, most days where he needed to meet with Hermione for their project were bad. A week had passed since Nina had put the pair together, and every day since then they had worked on their performance. In theory, the project was simple; create an original song and dance portraying a powerful emotion. One person in the pair was responsible for the song, and the other for the choreography; the person responsible for each portion would be the one who was weaker in that area. For example, Draco was known for his choreography, and because of this, he would be responsible for writing the song. The first week of the project was primarily on Draco's shoulders because nothing else could be done until the lyrics were complete.

To say the first week working with Hermione was tough would be an understatement. Constantly being in close quarters with her, while writing an emotional song, was presenting a struggle that he just didn't know if he could continue for the next 3 weeks. It certainly didn't help that the instrumentals that Nina gave them to work with only inspired emotions of love, sensuality, and passion. He had been ignoring these feelings and writing lyrics that were as far away as he could get, but to be honest, what he had been coming up with was terrible. He and Hermione had been arguing about his work for the past few days until she finally told him that there was no point in them continuing to meet if this is all they could offer for lyrics. She hadn't even sounded angry, which might have set him off, but she sounded so tired that all he could do is just nod and walk out of the room. That was two days ago.

Draco was currently laying down in the rehearsal room that had been booked for them to use on a daily basis, trying to figure out what he was going to do. He could refuse to work on the project any longer, it wasn't as if they needed the grades to pass the class due to them being Hogwarts graduates, they only needed to show up. But he loved this class, and knew, through Blaise and Cecee, that Hermione loved it as well, so he really didn't want to blow it off just because he was holding back on this assignment.

He closed his eyes and wandlessly turned on the beautiful melody he had be fighting against all week. After a few minutes of letting the music wash over him, he 'accioed' his parchment and quill and let the words flow over the page.

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Blaise was having a great time working with Cecee. The fact that she was a close friend helped a lot, but she was also very creative and extremely hard working. She was able to turn around their song, with minor tweaks from him, in only 3 days. This gave him more than enough time to come up with amazing choreography.

He felt bad that his good fortune came at the expense of Hermione and Draco, but not too bad. Blaise knew that their struggle with the project was primarily due to Draco's attitude, but he also knew Draco. Eventually, he would stop acting like a child and do what he needed to do in order to present a quality performance for the class. He could only hope that in the process he and Hermione would resolve whatever issues they had with each other.

If Blaise had thought that this was a hopeless case, he never would've spoken to Nina about putting the pair together. He knew they had cared deeply about each other during their final months at Hogwarts; it was obvious to anyone who had seen them together. Blaise also saw the look in their eyes when they looked at each other; it was small, and it was very rare, but it was a look of sadness. All they needed to do was to spend some time with each other and he just knew something positive would come of it. It just had to.

A knock on his apartment door startled Blaise out of his thinking. He wasn't expecting anyone and Draco had left many hours ago to do Merlin knows what. Blaise walked over to the front door and looked through the peephole and smiled; it was Cecee.

"Who is it?" he called through the door.

"Open the bloody door, Blaise. I know you can see who this is!" Cecee said, irritated. "I don't have time to be screaming outside your door like some kind of buffoon!"

Blaise laughed and opened the door. He loved messing with her. She would get all riled up and flustered; Cecee was very easy to annoy and Blaise usually liked to take advantage of it, but didn't really feel like doing it today. He opened the door to let her in.

Cecee pushed past him and walked over to the kitchen counter where she found an unopened bottle of coconut water. She twisted the cap off and started drinking. Blaise just stared at her.

"What?" Cecee asked as she finished drinking from the bottle and twisted the cap back on. She settled onto one of the barstools next to the kitchen counter.

"Did you just walk in and drink my coconut water without even asking me?"

"Yes, I did. You are going to Philippines this week for business so you can get more. I really don't see what the problem is."

"You can't just walk into someone's home and take stuff without asking! I was planning on drinking that!" Blaise exclaimed, irritated. He had really looked worked to drinking the coconut water.

"You mean like when you come to my place and raid my fridge without asking? Or when you come over and steal my fruit snacks when I'm not home? Or when you take my skin moisturizer without asking? Or when—"

"Ok, ok, I get it," Blaise interrupted. "Why are you here, anyway?" He asked while he grumpily walked over to the refrigerator to find something else to drink.

"I was bored and Hermione went out for a run again and has been gone for a few hours now. I thought I would walk over to see how you were doing with the choreography and see if you needed any help." Cecee looked at him hopefully, and for a second Blaise was distracted by how pretty she looked at that moment.

"Oh, uh…yeah. I can show you what I have so far. We should go over to the studio so we have more space and the right floor," he said as he walked over to his bed room to grab his sneakers. "Hermione is out running? Is everything ok?" He knew that she only went running around campus when she needed to blow off some steam. The rest of the time she utilized the gym or yoga studio to stay fit.

"I think working with Draco is really getting to her. She said that hadn't met up in a couple of days because they didn't have a song that could work. Apparently, Draco has been writing awful lyrics, which doesn't make sense to me. I know that writing isn't exactly his area of expertise, but his songs have never been that bad." Cecee got up from her stool to walk over to the front door as Blaise finished in his bedroom and grabbed his keys from the kitchen counter.

"Yeah, I'm surprised too. Are you sure she wasn't just saying this because it was Draco?" Blaise said as he opened the door for Cecee to walk out first. He was a gentleman after all. He checked to make sure the door was locked.

"Nope," she said as they walked towards the elevator that would lead them out of the building. "She read back some of what he had written and it was pretty bad. I think a 1st year student could've done better. I don't think he even tried."

Blaise was silent for a moment. He had known something had been going on with Draco, but it wasn't like him to slack off in this course. He loved Creative Art Forms, and had since they first began taking it at UCoW. Draco always put a lot of effort into the work he did for this class. Maybe the situation with Hermione was worse than what he had originally thought. "Is Hermione angry about it?" he asked.

"I don't think so. She just seems, I don't know, frustrated? She hasn't been herself lately and has just been really quiet. She has been spending a lot of time by herself either in her room or working out. She says she is fine, but I don't believe her."

Fuck, Blaise thought as the two of them walked across campus. He hoped he didn't make a mess of things, but at this point there was nothing that could be done. Hermione and Draco were adults; they needed to learn to work with people they didn't particularly care for. It was what being an adult was all about. If they couldn't figure out how to do it, that was their problem. He was tired of being a buffer between them. "I think that we should distance ourselves from their situation and let them resolve things on their own. We've spent the last two years trying to get them to forgive each other, but look where it has gotten us; they still hate each other. I'd rather focus on my own problems moving forward."

"I agree." Cecee said as they reached their destination. Blaise opened the door for her. She smiled because she loved that he always treated her as a lady, even though they were only friends. Men who were also gentlemen were a rare breed and she knew this from experience. They walked down the hallway to their designated rehearsal room.

"Let's just worry about us from now on. If they want us involved, they can come to us." She said as she walked into the room. For the next two hours she focused on Blaise, as he walked her through their dance routine.

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Hermione headed straight to her shower after she came home. She was exhausted and thoroughly soaked with sweat from her longer than expected run. She had only planned on running 5 miles, but after reaching her intended distance she began thinking about Draco, her frustration with their project, and their tumultuous past. Once her mind began filling up with these anxiety-causing thoughts, she knew she needed to run a little more. So she ran 5 more miles, and now her muscles were as weary as her mind.

Now she stood under her waterfall shower head letting the hot water run over her body. She began rubbing her lavender and chamomile shampoo into her hair and scalp, taking in deep breaths to let its calming qualities flow through her body. After using the matching body wash and taking another ten minutes to meditate, Hermione turned off the water feeling like a new woman. She walked back into her room carefully blotting her hair with her towel because creating tangles would only serve to remove the good mood she was currently in. After finding a camisole and cotton pants to wear, she walked over to her mirror where she began to braid her hair. In the reflection, she noticed an envelope on her bed that hadn't been there when she left. Curious, she continued to braid as she walked over to look at the letter addressed to her.

Once she had secured her hair, she carefully broke the seal of the envelope and took out the pages. On the top page, there was a note:

I wrote new lyrics. The spell to hear my voice simulation is 'cantobo Draco'. We can meet to make any changes we see fit. See you at rehearsal tomorrow.

-Draco

To say she wasn't excited to hear the latest round of lyrics would be an understatement. Everything Draco had written previously had been pure garbage, for lack of a better term. But at least he presented it in a professional manner this time, not scribbled on some random pieces of parchment, and made it so that she could actually hear what it would sound like without needing to guess.

She mumbled to herself, "Well let's get this over with," then sat on her bed ad said the spell. She closed her eyes and began to listen. As the seconds ticked by, she felt tears come to her eyes. She couldn't believe it; how could Draco have written something to heart achingly beautiful? Hermione felt her chest constrict, there was no denying it, this may have been the most emotional song she had heard since she began this course at the university. Now she has something to work with, but the problem was, how could she listen to it in from of Draco without crying?