Harry chose to look in front, towards the teacher. He felt that it must be his own wild thoughts that saw pain in Draco's eyes. He might just be looking at Hermione for a brief moment because of her explaining her knowledge of the rarely-brewed potion in class. That's what Harry thought.
"Alright then, people. Take out your quills and jot down what all ingredients are required to brew this potion: Moonlight Blossom, Ghost Orchid Petals, Silver Mist Dew, Essence of Shadow, and Crushed Starlight Crystal," Professor Nightfall announced to the class. After a short pause, he continued, "I have made you write these so that you have an idea about what you are doing. However, these terms might seem extremely vague to you. So, as you might have already guessed-"
"Yes, I have," Draco said.
"You have what, Mr-?"
Draco looked shocked and realized he spoke it out loud in class what he was thinking in his head. Since the students were all curiously staring at him to speak out his name, he stood up and said, "Malfoy, sir. I didn't mean to interrupt."
"It is fine. Care to elaborate what you have guessed so that your classmates also are aware?"
"Sir, I just meant that I understood what you might want us to do. It is that we should spend the evening researching on what these ingredients are."
"Perfect. That's one part of your homework."
A collective sigh could be heard in the class, which made Professor Nightfall smile and say, "Don't be so worked up about it yet. You have a week to do this. No potions class for another week since I need to arrange NEWT level books for you guys, for those of you who are willing to prepare. Those will be found not in England but in the wizarding book markets of Poland, so I'm going to be making a trip there this week." The students' faces lit up. He smiled wider and said, "So, during the following week's potions classes, you guys will be reading about and collecting the ingredients. No one shall try to brew the potion on his own. Bring the ingredients to class next week. You will be informed when that shall be. Try to complete this task by this Sunday." But to much of Hermione's surprise, he added, "We shall brew it together once I return."
Apparently, the whole class was waiting for the teacher to say that they actually were gonna brew this potion. They were already waiting for the next week to arrive but were dreading the studying and collection of ingredients.
"Okay, so all of you guys need to keep quiet for a few moments."
The atmosphere cooled down. Next thing they saw was the professor conjuring a piece of parchment from thin air. With a flick of his wand, he made 20 small chits out of it, with all the class students' names written on each. With another flick, he sent each chit to the students so that now each student had his own name on the chit in his hand. And with one last flick, the chits left the students' hands and fell in the lap of a different student.
"Your chits now bear the names of your partner who you will be working with on this project: from start to end."
"I have received your name, 'Mione", Ron happily told her. Harry had Ginny on his one, and Draco, who immediately regretted what his eyes saw, had received Pansy Parkinson, who was squealing with joy.
"Class dismissed", said Professor Nightfall and stepped out of the room, adding, "See your pretty faces next week!"
Hermione was happy she had Ron as her partner, but felt a pang in her heart seeing Pansy jumping around with Draco's name on the chit in her hand. 'Am I getting jealous of her? No no, why would I be? I don't like Malfoy. He's not changed anyway, he's just putting up a fake persona to gain sympathy, ' she concluded to herself. Involuntarily still, her eyes wandered to check on the silver-white-head. Draco having an intuition and sudden urge to look at her, couldn't resist staring right into her eyes from across the room. While the both of them were staring down each other's souls, they felt something neither of them could explain. All they did next was avert their gaze. Hermione decided to talk to Ron, and Draco decided to just look and listen to what Goyle had to say: "Blaise, why the fuck you are always on my back?" "I didn't tell the professor to write my name and send it to you!" Blaise was annoyed but relieved that at least he didn't have to go out of his circle to work on this project.
It was lunch time after the Potions class, so most people had left for the hall to have the meal. Harry and Ginny wanted to check on their baby, so they took off to get permission from McGonagall to take the rest of the day off. Draco felt a slight hurt in his heart seeing them leave happily together.
He had decided to completely be over Ginny and focus on Hermione, his first ever love at Hogwarts instead. Sure, he had regretted every single pain he had given to Hermione ever since they had their first encounter, but he had realized one important factor of where this feeling of hatred had come from in his previous bully days.
In order to save himself the heartache of potentially never getting together with her because of her lineage, he was so aggressive and full of despise that he wanted her dead. More like "if not mine, no one else's either". His tactics were very obviously mean and full of hatred, but it was inevitable that someday, when he would be thinking independently, away from the lineage, he would get back to being madly in love with her instead. When you try to suppress something too much to the point it cannot bear more, it tends to burst. Same was the case of what Draco was going through.
Hermione had been his first pure love. Ginny had been his means of trying to get over her. Then when his rival Harry started dating Ginny, it arose in him a competitiveness and possessiveness of winning her from him. He wanted to win her, but never really loved her. That was the reason that Harry got to date her instead of Draco, because Harry truly loved her, Draco was just desirous of defeating Harry in this race of love.
Then came the sight of Hermione getting tortured right in front of his eyes, in his own home, by the man he despised the most in this world, the Dark Lord, and that also through the use of the Cruciatus Curse. Her screams had sent horrors and shivers down his spine. He stood stunned and bound there, even though it was very unfortunately or fortunately invisible to others how heartbroken and pained he was on seeing and hearing all of what was happening. He had blamed himself for everything. To this day, he blamed himself for the scar that told Hermione she was a "Mudblood", written all over her arm. It would never be erased.
And there was another fact that could never be erased now that it was surfacing in his heart so evidently, and he decided it firmly that it was the truth:
'Dammit, Hermione, I cannot suffer more because of you. I think I still love you.'