Hermione was busy wrighting furiously. Her paper was about the segregation of different magical beings over the years. She was currently stuck on how to explain the goblins' reluctance in any interaction with wizards after the goblin war/uprising. The books she had read so far didn't cover much about how discussions went after the war. Nope according to the books there was a war/uprising they lost and went straight to working as blacksmiths and running the banks for the wizarding world. Maybe she should just wright about how wizards like to gloss over things that make them seem repressive over other magical creatures and instead focus on the grandeur of war then their success, after all, is done.
She was hard at work when she felt someone take the seat beside her. she was shocked to find Malfoy sitting relaxed propping his feet up on the table. Hermione spun around her hair flying about her. she didn't see anyone else in the library but it was still crazy for him to just come over and sit at her table. What if someone walked in and saw.
"what the hell are you doing"? she hissed in a hushed voice. Malfoy didn't give any indication that he heard her instead reaching and grabbing her homework and started reading over it. Hermione tried to grab it from him but he moved just out of reach.
" mmm I'd give it an A for acceptable but you seem to be missing a lot not only that but your argument is very onesided and a little weak" Malfoy commented if there is one thing Hermione can't stand it's someone criticizing her work who it's not made for. " it's just a rough draft and I won't be criticized by someone whose grades have fallen eminently this year". Hermione tried once again grabbing her paper back from him and again he avoided her.
His chair started to fall backward Hermione grabbed his collar saving him from hitting his head on the shelves behind them. " Shit, Granger it's a paper you don't need to smash my head in" Draco burst at her. Hermione let go after all four legs of the chair were on the ground again.
" oh shut up, and give me my paper" she snatched it from him and started gathering her things.
" it's not even a good paper what do you care, you should be more concern that your grade will go down if you turn that in" Malfoy was now fixing his expensive shirt collar.
"it's not my fault the school doesn't keep any helpful books on these subjects like this, and my paper is not that bad it's still an E" Hermione was tempted to just shove everything in her bag but Theo had given her this bag for he birthday last year. It was a really nice bag with different pockets for her ink and quill an inside organizer for her different books and everything shrunk ½ inch when put inside not only that it was stain resistant to common spills. Compared to her old bag that she was continually repatching and fixing the seam of this was a true treasure for her. so even though it could take some rough handling she wanted to baby it.
When she was all packed up, she got up to leave, but he stopped her, grabbing her hand.
"do you want to get your hand on some books that can give you insight into those events"? He asked not looking at her Hermione just pressed her lip not sure what to say to that Malfoy just gave her a lazy smile that didn't make her heart miss a beat.
"do you have such books"? she asked intrigued.
" I'm a Malfoy there is little I don't have" his lazy smile turned into a smirk. The little flutter feeling she thought she might have slightly felt disappeared. " right well I'll leave the Malfoy heir to his many things".
" oh come on Granger you know you want to see the books and I'll give you access to them to read to your heart's content" Hermione couldn't help but feel tempted to see these books especially if they can actually tell her something and knowing Malfoy owns them means that they wouldn't be censored in any way.
"ok I'd love to read them, when do you think you'll have them"? she tried to sound not too excited there was no way to hide all her interest but she could try and water it down. But judging by the smug look on Malfoy's face she wasn't doing a very good job.
" well then meet me tomorrow I'll message you were," he told her standing up from his seat.
" wait, tomorrow? it would have to be in the morning I have a Prefect duty in the afternoon then I'm hanging out with Harry and Ron in the evening." She was going through her list of things she had to do tomorrow when she heard him scoff.
" and since when did you start hanging out with those idiots again" Draco didn't really seem to ask but stated wearing a sour face that in comparison to his smug one earlier made him seem like a completely different person.
" don't call them that they're my friends," she told him.
" Really, I hadn't noticed you spending any time with them so I figured you finally wised up and ditched them," Malfoy said in an uninterested way but still wore the sour look.
"NO, they are still very much my friends we've just been busy this year".
" Yeah, I've seen how Weasly been keeping busy" his face looked like it smelled a dumb bomb Hermione felt a little curl of her lips but stopped it just because she shared in his feeling about Rons and Lavender's public display didn't mean she was ok with him mocking her friends.
" We had a conflict of schedules that's all we made a plan to meet up tomorrow and that's what we are doing," she said finalizing.
" whatever have fun with your morons" he got up and left his robes flying behind him a bit. The moodiest boy ever ahhhh.
The three broomsticks was busy as ever it took 20 minutes just to get their first round of butterbeer. The walk down was quiet they mostly just talked about Harry's classes with Dumbledore and how he needed an in with Slughorn. Harry now apparently needed a memory that involved Voldemort.
Now finally sitting and sipping their drinks they were joking around and laughing. Hermione raised her eyebrow when Ron suddenly let out a groan and wouldn't look up from his drink. " let's leave" he said quickly.
" what why we just got these drinks," Harry said looking at him Ron took a glance at a Connor of the bar Hermione followed his point of vision and saw Ginny on a date with Dean. Mmm must have made up. She glanced over at Harry seeing him sulking a bit into his drink.
" oh grow up Ron, would you expect her to get up and leave if she saw you snogging me," Hermione said jokingly and took another swing of her butterbeer. She looked up and saw that he had a rather blushed and dumbstruck face. Ummm not the reaction she thought she was going to get. She was going to correct it to him and Lavendar instead of her joke about them when Harry started waving his arm in the air.
" Professor!" they all looked over to see Slughorn walking over to them.
" Harry my boy how are you".
" I'm good just enjoying an outing with my friends" Harry waved his hand to them Slughorn glanced over giving a nod.
" oh yes Harry my boy I'm having a dinner with a couple of students I hope you'll be able to join," he said Harry smiled telling him he would be more than glad too. Slughorn turned to her and gave the same invite she raised her glass to him saying she couldn't wait. He then turned to Ron she saw him sit a little taller. " nice seeing you wallabee" he gave a final smile and turned to return to the bar, ouch. Hermione took another drink from her butterbeer as Ron sunk down in his seat.
The walk back was fun Butterbeer affects you based on your age so the three of them had a nice little buzz going. Everything felt like the old days were it was just the three of them. she slipped a little on the snow but Harry grabbed her keeping her up she threw her arms around her boys as they continued to walk. " do you think Lavendar is right for me"? Ron suddenly blurted out. Hermione didn't even have time to process what he said before they heard a scream ahead a body was flying around like a rag doll, KATIE.
Draco was pacing their closet. Where the hell was she he had messaged her an hour ago telling her to come and meet him but she hadn't responded. The talk of the school was about how Katie Bell had been cursed and might be dead. No one really knew the only thing people did know was that per usual fucking Potter had been there which means Granger was there.
She had said she was going to be with Potter what if she had touched the dame necklace as well. No, surely he would have heard that she was also cursed. Draco looked down at his coin why the hell wasn't she here or at least sending him a message. Draco ran his fingers through his already tousled hair from his earlier frustration. How the hell was he supposed to find out. Maybe he should walk the halls and see if there's any updated information running around the students but what if he left and she showed up.
Damit he should have waited to send the necklace to Dumbledore. He only sent the cursed item because he received a letter telling him that the dark lord was not happy with the lack of news on his progress. Fuck it he was going to walk around and maybe he'd find her or at least get information. He literally took three steps out of the door when he saw her. he took long and fast strides toward her stopping only an inch from her.
He turned her left and right taking note of the snow on her coat before going to her face he didn't find any physical injuries and her eyes didn't seem clouded. Draco brought his wand up to her to cast a scan charm. But she yanked away and he saw her confused and annoyed face.
" the hell Malfoy what are you doing" she fixed her clothes that he had just rumbled up. Draco felt relief and anger at the same time.
"where the hell have you been, I sent you a message an hour ago, did you touch it or get near it, you didn't touch Bell did you some curses transfer from victim to victim." He again started looking her over here but she swatted his hand away.
"I'm fine really I didn't touch anything, are you ok though your kind of freaking me out a little" Hermione held his hands between them hoping to calm him down.
" How did you even hear about that," she asked remembering Harry blurting out his theory that Draco Malfoy was behind it.
" the whole school has been talking about it," Draco told her she was pretty sure he would have said Duh if wizards watched TV.
"right" she tucked some hair behind her ear.
" Why didn't you respond to the message on the coin"? Draco demanded Hermione just looked at him before patting at her robes.
" I guess I forgot about it" Draco felt his anger boiling over " forgot! how could you forget the dame coin" he quietly shouted at her.
" I didn't have it all day I had plans and didn't feel like I needed it, and then Katie happened" Hermione hugged herself clearly still bothered and affected by the earlier event. Draco soften a little at this and felt the guilt of what he did creep up he shook his head and shoved it down " come on" he grabbed her hand and started leading her off.
" wait where are we going," she asked having a hard time keeping up with his steps. He didn't answer but instead dragged her behind him. he had no intention of dwelling on that feeling he instead had an idea that would make them both feel better. Draco stopped abruptly causing Hermione to run into him. he heard her huff and grumble something under her breath. He smirked as he paced back and forth a few times until a door appeared. Draco stepped in front of the door and looked over to Hermione who was giving him a contemplating look. He opened the door and stepped in not waiting for her leaving the door open he walked into the room that he was all too familiar with.
Hermione watched as Draco walked into the room of requirements she bit her lip thinking of what Harry had said earlier about how Malfoy had been spending a lot of time in the room of requirements which is why he disappeared from the map a lot. When Harry first told her this she thought it was her and how she had enchanted the coins but they were only supposed to work when they were within 3 feet of each other. He then told her that he didn't think the Marauders knew about the room which is why it wasn't on the map. Harry had been pretty obsessed with Malfoy this year convinced that he was a death eater but she had seen his arm and there was no mark also he wouldn't shag a mudblood if he was, right. She started to the door death eater or not according to Harry Malfoy had been spending a lot of time here well now she could see what he was doing.