"I will never grow to like flying." Hermione admitted as they flew through the fog.

Draco refused to fly all the way from the house they were staying at to the Manor. So they apparated to Hogsmeade and flew from there. And this, Hermione thought, was one of the very few times she was actually thankful to Malfoy.

"You're afraid of heights?" Malfoy asked and she could hear rather than see his smirk.

"No, I'm afraid of flying on a broomstick with somebody I believe is very unskilled." Hermione retorted.

Malfoy didn't reply and Hermione almost smiled in victory at the fact that she silenced him. But suddenly the broomstick started swaying from one side to the other, descending at frightening speed before flying up again forcefully.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked warily.

"Oh nothing. I'm just living up to your expectations. Flying like the unskilled person that I am." he replied simply.

"Fly this thing properly!" Hermione ordered furiously.

"But I can't; I don't have enough skill to do it." he taunted, almost crashing them into a tree.

Hermione reached for her wand, poking it into Malfoy's side. "FLY PROPERLY!" she yelled at him.
Draco was silent for a minute, he considered taunting her a bit more but feeling her wand at his side and the fury that laced her voice told him it would've been a bad move. He started flying again at a reasonable height.

Flying again through the window she had just flown through days ago, Hermione couldn't believe she was willingly going back to this place.

"Just so you would know, Granger. I don't approve of what you're doing. I think it's stupid, let alone futile." Malfoy said.

"Well, it's a great thing then that I don't need you approval." Hermione lifted her chin up defiantly.

"At least your precious Potter should've been doing this, not you." he said, ignoring her words. "But of course you're so willingly throwing your self in hell for him." he smirked at her.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked.

"I think you know what I mean." he replied.

"No, I most definitely don't!" Hermione replied indignantly.

"You know, at first I thought you were with Weasly. I mean, I know they're friends and so, but to the extent of sharing the same girl! That's remarkable." he twisted his mouth in disgust.

Before she could think about it, Hermione pointed her wand at Malfoy.

"DIFFINDO" she yelled and Malfoy shielded himself from the spell in the last minute.

"Have you gone mad? Do you want to kill me?" He demanded. He was not going to raise his wand to attack her, Draco restrained himself. But the fact that she used such a spell, showed him how mad his remark had made her.
Enraged beyond words, Hermione threw her wand from her hand and walked towards Malfoy. She raised her hand to slap him but he caught it in his own.

"Merlin! Calm down, Granger; you're in flames!" he was looking at her in disbelief.

"How dare you say something like that to me!" Hermione seethed with anger.

"I didn't know you would react so strongly." he said honestly.

"Of course I would. Do you even realize what your bloody remark meant?" Hermione demanded.

"If I didn't know what it meant then I wouldn't have said it." He replied coldly. "I have to go now; I have to make a noticeable arrival." he explained before apparating out of the room.

Hermione's face turning into a dark shade of red was the last thing Draco saw before leaving his room. Of course he knew what his words had meant. But did he mean them? Maybe he pushed it too far this time, he conceded grimly.
The minute Draco walked through the main door he knew what was going on. Voldemort was there. He could see it in the way everybody seemed to be hyper vigilant. The fear in their eyes that they weren't even trying to hide. Their hushed voices. The man brought an air of terror with him.

"Draco! You're back so soon? I...oh" Bellatrix was the first to meet him, she was surprised to see him and then her voice trailed off when she saw the blood that covered his arm.

"What happened?" She asked, looking more curious than worried about him.

"I almost caught her, but she wasn't alone. That boy, Ron Weasly was with her and...well I wasn't fast enough to escape his spell." Draco said.

"What about Potter? Was he with them?"

"No, they were alone."

"Why are you back, then?"

"I haven't had a proper night's sleep in a while, I'm tired and I need some potions to heal my arm." he explained. Bellatrix looked at him for a brief moment before turning to leave.

His aunt was edgy, Draco noted. He could tell by the exaggerated shrillness of her voice and the fact that she didn't ask too many questions as usual. But then again, she was always edgy when the old snake was around. For the first time he was thankful for her edginess. The wound in his arm was too severe. He hadn't intended it to be, but he wasn't focused when he cast the spell on himself.

Hermione took off the cloak when she realized it was Malfoy who just apparated into the room. Although she was very tempted to stay under the cloak and attack him once more, taking him by surprise this time. Sharing a girl? This had to be the most demeaning thing he had ever said to her and there were lots of them! She refused to look up at him as he entered the room, staringat the window intently. But when she heard a whimper of pain she was forced to look back.

She saw the trail of blood he was leaving behind him and looked up at him. He had taken his shirt off, a shirt covered in blood just like his hand. Then she looked at the source of the blood and saw the wound that started a his shoulder and ended at his elbow.

"Tell me, Malfoy. Do you enjoy wounding yourself?" She asked with a grimace.

"Immensely." he spat.

He summoned the familiar potion box and started fiddling with the flasks, his hand slippery with blood.

"A little help would be appreciated." he sighed exasperatedly.
Hermione hesitated, she didn't feel like helping Malfoy. If anything, she felt like adding another wound to him. After a while of reasoning with herself she finally walked over to him.
The process of cleaning and healing the wound was a long one that left them both tired.

"Your help, as I said before, is appreciated." Malfoy said indifferently. Was he too arrogant to even say a simple thank you!

"Well, I'm glad I could help. Actually, now that you've found me so useful maybe three can share me rather than just two, don't you think? Oh this would be delightful!" Hermione fumed at him, barely holding herself back from punching his wounded arm.

"Too bad I don't fancy sharing, I think I'll pass." he smirked at her.

Hermione looked at him with narrow eyes, she wanted to retort but she knew it was pointless, just another fight. And it was a stupid thing to say in the first place. That's what happens when you let your anger speak for you, she scolded herself. Hurt and embarrassment took over her and she looked down at her hands, now covered in blood.
She stood in front of the window fighting back tears of frustration that threatened to fall down her face.

Draco felt like an utter git. He didn't know what had gotten into him, the words were out before he could stop them. That thing she said about three sharing instead of two provoked him so much that he felt the need to say something equally provocative. And he knew how far what he said had annoyed her when she decided to ignore him instead of biting back a retort.

"Look, I've apologized to you in the past couple of days more than I've apologized in my entire life. So again, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that." he said as he moved to stand behind her.

"You know what really annoys me more than anything?" Hermione asked "It's that I have absolutely no idea why you're doing this. It's like one minute we're just talking and then you manage to come up with a new insult out of thin air."

She turned around and looked up at him. "So I don't want your apology, it's becoming more and more meaningless over time." she informed. "I want to know why. Because it made more sense when we were on opposite sides. But now that we're -supposedly- not then why you keep doing it, is beyond me."

Draco watched Hermione for too long before before speaking "I don't know." he said.

"You're lying." Hermione replied instantly.

"Yes..." Draco muttered, stepping closer.

Hermione froze in her place. He was standing too close for her own comfort, bending his head down.

"I really am sorry" he whispered against her lips. She tried to say something or at least push him away but his gaze transfixed her. She knew what was happening, could see it his dilated pupils but she didn't do anything to stop it, she didn't want to.

There was a sharp knock at the door. He blinked at the sound, snapping out of the trance he seemed to be in and stood in his place for a minute, reluctant to step back. Hermione raised her hand to push him away but only ended up resting it against his chest. Another sharp knock came, shortly followed by the door flying open. Narcissa Malfoy stood at the door looking at them with wide eyes. She closed the door behind her.

"Draco!" she looked at her son incredulously.