Authors note:

wow, that took a lot longer than usual to type, I had planned for it to be 2 separate chapters, but changed my mind, because of that it took a long time to edit so apologies about the wait.

Anyhoo let me know what you think!

I love all reviews and any feedback you give!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: sadly like earlier, I still don't own Harry Potter, although I have placed a bid and am still currently waiting to see if I won the auction, but until then J.K Rowling owns it all

Hermione stared at the map searching for Malfoy, she checked the dungeons first, and sure enough, there was Malfoy.

He wasn't in his common room, instead, he seemed to be headed away from there.

She judged his direction, trying to find the nearest place where she would be able to cross paths with him, finding just the place, she quickly headed towards the stairs that led up from the dungeons, as much as she trusted the map she preferred to be able to see the person she was following.

When she got close to where she assumed Draco would pass, she leaned against the wall right around the corner from the staircase.

She was panting and out of breath, noting how out of shape she was, she decided that starting tomorrow she would jog around the school (more like to the library and back) after all exercise boosted the brain.

Just as she had predicted, Draco ended up walking right by her, but like literally right by her, he had cut the corner so close that his shoulder brushed against the cloak, she could hardly contain the gasp that escaped her lips, but thankfully he didn't hear her, just kept walking.

He was walking quite briskly and was halfway down the hall before Hermione remembered that she planned to follow him.

She hurried after him, but she had disregarded the fact that they were in a deserted hallway, making it so that any step either of them took reverberated loudly off the walls, and in her mad dash to catch up she had inadvertently generated a good bit of noise

Draco stopped in his tracks, he stood there silently for a long time, shoulders tensed, Hermione foolishly decided to take another step towards him.

He must have been waiting for this because he instantly turned on his heel with his wand in hand.

His face was shadowed so she couldn't see his eyes, she held her breath as he scanned the space "who's there?" his voice a harsh whisper, Malfoy tilted his head ever so slightly, the light from his wand illuminating his face, his gaze swept back and forth in a paranoid manner, she could have sworn that his eyes met hers for a brief second before moving on to study the rest of the corridor.

After a few moments, he seemed to decide that no one was there but still lowered his wand slowly as if he was afraid that someone would just pop out and hex him.

After what seemed like forever, he finally turned and resumed his fast walk away.

She stood there in silence holding her breath for a few moments as he steadily got farther and farther away, she couldn't help but notice how graceful his gait was, it was as if he owned the place.

She followed him at a distance, afraid to alert him of her presence. After a few minutes of walking, she figured out where they were going, the room of requirement.

Why would Malfoy need to go there?

They entered a spacious corridor, the last one before Malfoys assumed destination, if she had thought the earlier hallway had been echoey, she had not been prepared for this one.

She paused before entering, Draco was already to the end about to turn the corner and out of sight, she'd have to wait for him to be farther away before pursuing further, she slowly made her way across the stone floor flinching every time her footfalls made a noise.

Every second that ticked by she was sure Malfoy was just going to peer around the corner holding his wand up, demanding to know who was stalking him, but thankfully he never did.

By the time she had turned the corner; being very careful because of how close he was, she was too late, Hermione watched his blonde hair disappear behind the door which slammed shut upon his entry, she dashed towards the opening noisily, not caring if he heard her, but the large door had disappeared by the time she got there.

After an outburst of grumbled profanities, she started pacing, back and forth, again and again, trying in vain to get into the room.

The problem was though: was that Hermione hadn't the faintest idea what Malfoy had required, meaning that she'd just have to keep guessing.

After about 20 minutes of mindless pacing, her legs were getting tired, and she realized it was absurd to continue.

So she sat down situating herself against the wall facing where the entrance to the room was. She was hoping to wait Malfoy out, after all, around 30 minutes had passed so he had to be coming out sooner or later, right?

After only 5 minutes of sitting silently and wondering what he was doing, Hermione had gotten bored and was really regretting not bringing the transfiguration book she had been reading earlier.

She impatiently checked her watch, and was surprised to find it was getting quite late; she could already feel her eyes starting to get heavy.

A little nap couldn't hurt, right?

(A/N tip for readers, when stalking someone do not fall asleep, it never ends well)

Malfoy was taking this long already so surely she had time to close her eyes for a bit.

Before she finally nodded off Hermione promised herself she would wake before Malfoy left.

Hermione startled awake to the sound of voices, 'Malfoy' was her first thought, but was disappointed to open her eyes only to find out it was just Filch talking to himself whilst passing by, did the man ever sleep?

She checked the time and saw that it was about 4:30 in the morning, an hour before she usually got up (she was a morning person, also with hair as crazy as hers she needed that extra hour).

Disappointed that she'd missed Malfoy, she headed back to her house.

Hermione was quite disgruntled, having just spent the night asleep on the cold floor.

Her back was aching and she was feeling a bit grumpy, she sincerely hoped that her friends would take the hint and not bother her, for she was not in the mood, (oh poor Harry and Ron they never manage to take the hint.)

She walked past the library and stopped, Harry and Ron would be suspicious if she didn't have a book, especially after (according to them) spending the whole night in the library.

Hermione tiptoed in knowing she wasn't supposed to be there this early.

As soon as she was amidst the bookshelves she relaxed and quickened her pace, heading once again for the restricted section.

She weaved through the maze of aisles and towards her favourite secret nook, deciding that because she had a few hours before class, she might as well get some light reading done.

When she got there she was surprised to see someone else was already occupying the small desk, they were facing away, their back to her, shoulders hunched slightly.

Hermione, not wanting to intrude, was about to turn around and find someplace else to sit when she realized with a gasp that it was Draco.

He didn't notice her presence and she walked closer stopping a few feet away, watching the slow rise and fall of his back, she could hear a faint nose whistle and watched as his mussed up hair would flutter in the air with each breath only to float back down before rising again, the movement was hypnotic really.

She crept ever closer and continued to stare at him, he looked so peaceful, with his face no longer in a permanent scowl and oh Merlin he looked cute, like really cute, she could just imagine Ginny's squeal if she saw, and she resisted the urge to brush the hair out of his eyes.

She found herself taking another step in his direction and paused, everything had gone silent, the only thing she could still hear was the blondes soft breathing before she had been able to hear the wind against the windows outside, and she realized with a start that Malfoy must have put a silencing charm around him, probably so he could sleep.

she knew nothing good would come from being there when he woke, not wanting to take the chance of waking him she inched back till she was out of range of the silencing charm.

As she was stepping away her foot hit something, and upon further inspection, she saw that it was a small stack of books, 3 to be exact, and being the nosey person she is, Hermione picked them up studying each of the titles, the first one was quite heavy and old looking, the title read " Fixing Dark Artifacts for Dummies, 394 catalogued examples and blueprints" her brow furrowed, why on Earth would he be reading this?

She placed it back where it had been and moved on to the next book, it was a thin paperback old and written in a different language, ancient runes to be exact, she opened it and nearly dropped the book, it radiated dark magic, and a sense of despair washed over her, she immediately slammed it shut.

Whatever magic had been used ceased, and she looked over at Malfoy, wondering what the bloody hell he was doing with such a wretched evil thing.

A little shaken she hastily put it down in its earlier place.

The last book was thankfully not as sinister as the rest had been, it was a very worn advanced Potions volume, she wondered why Malfoy would have such a battered old textbook, didn't he pride himself on always having the best newest stuff? It seemed so unlike him to own such a thing.

Judging from the texture there was a sealant charm placed on it, but whoever had cast it had done so after the damage had already been done.

Tons of pages were dog-eared (the horror!) and Hermione found herself opening it, she was surprised to find that the book was practically filled with notes in the margins, as well as over the text at some points, she knew it was Malfoys having seen his penmanship before, and upon further inspection, noticed that the writing seemed to get neater and neater further into the book. She stopped at a random page and started reading the tidy notes scattered across the paper, and was taken aback when she found that almost all of them had absolutely nothing to do with Potions. Instead, the notes were questions, thoughts, observations, and even a few reminders one read " Owl Father to inform him of the Apple quality, I suspect the house-elves are plotting to kill me." she snorted loudly after reading this, his obsession with the fruit was peculiar, to say the least. (A/N there was also a lot of heart encircled granger+malfoy scribbles...Nah jk I wish)

Suddenly she heard the faint fluttering of clothing, Malfoy was stirring.

She quickly jumped up scampering away, grateful she still had the invisibility cloak, she threw it on.

She watched as Malfoy stretched, a small exasperated sigh escaping his lips.

Hermione felt guilty watching him when he didn't know she was there, after all, what if he decided to change?

She felt her face heat up at the thought, before berating herself with the reminder that they were currently in a library, making it highly unrealistic for him to change.

She regarded him gathering up things, and watched as he frowned when sifting through the books as if something were missing. Hermione realized that she still had his potions journal/book.

She silently cursed her stupidity knowing that she'd have to find a way to get it back to him.

Thankfully Malfoy just shrugged and continued packing up.

The moment he turned his back, not taking her eyes off him, she blindly reached behind her and grasped a random book off the shelf before stuffing it into the pocket of her robes, she wanted to at least have something to show to Ron and Harry, after all, they did think she stayed the night.

Malfoy had packed up and was leaving, Hermione waited a minute before leaving too. It was still early so she had a bit of time to get ready before meeting up with her friends to go to breakfast.

Authors note:

yay, another chapter completed wow that one was loooooooooong, it took way more time to finish then intended thanks to editing.

anyway, let me know if you liked it!

give any advice and feedback you can think of, as well as any questions? concerns you may have

thanks for reading hope you enjoyed it!

Love yall thanks again!