When Hermione plopped her books down next to Draco in Charms, Draco's head whirled around to look at her so fast she wondered if he'd get whiplash.
"That's—that's Crabbe's seat," Draco said numbly.
Hermione tilted her head.
"Would you prefer I move?" she asked.
Abruptly realizing what he'd implied, Draco rapidly shook his head.
"No! No," he said quickly. "No, changing classmates – that can be good. More variety. You can sit there. Please."
He pulled back the chair at the table for her, and Hermione sat herself down with a smile.
As the rest of the class entered, Blaise and Tracey both raised an eyebrow at Hermione changing up the typical seating arrangement. Hermione shrugged to them as if it was no big deal, and both of them seemed amused as they sat themselves down. Daphne and Pansy had much more obvious reactions – Daphne's eyes going wide, while Pansy sneered. Hermione ignored them, and instead struck up a conversation on his thoughts on the new variables they were learning in Arithmancy.
During the class, and then on the way to lunch afterward, Draco's initial confusion and apprehension with suddenly having Hermione's attention melted away into a quiet warmness and slight cockiness. He was proud to brag on his private Arithmancy projects he'd been working on – one to track Quidditch odds for the final match of the year, and one designed around figuring out what it would take to get Hagrid fired as Care of Magical Creatures professor – and Hermione laughed and praised him and his ingenuity, which made him flush with pride.
It was easy to forget that Draco actually was quite sharp, she reflected. Hermione answered questions in class and mastered magic easily, so she doubted anyone forgot she was at the top of the class for any significant length of time. Theo was quiet and intense, and he was wicked smart when you spoke to him, so it was easy to imagine him studying alone with a book, determined to master whatever magic they were working on.
With Draco, though, it was different. Draco didn't conjure mental images of hard work or intense studying – instead, it was images of his arrogance in the halls, jeering at Harry and Ron, mocking other people with Crabbe and Goyle at his side. Draco was casual and cocky, assured of his place at Hogwarts and in the wider wizarding world by virtue of his birth, and it wasn't an image that lent itself to an impression of high intelligence.
Like this, though – quietly discussing advanced projects for class, subtly sharing personal goals (however devious they might be) – Draco was almost enjoyable company.
Their conversation continued over lunch, Hermione sharing what conditions for terminating a professor existed in the Hogwarts School Charter. Draco had been surprised to learn there was a school charter, and Hermione admitted to him that she'd found it when looking for a Hogwarts rulebook back in her first year, so very long ago now, and he'd grinned.
"We weren't talking so much back then, were we? Shame." He shook his head, fond. "You've always been one to want to know everything, haven't you?"
"Haven't you?" Hermione shot back, and Draco smirked.
"Well," he amended. "Maybe a little."
Pansy and Daphne kept shooting her looks during lunch as Hermione talked to Draco, and Tracey kept smirking, as if she was aware of something Hermione was not. Eye contact and meaningful looks weren't cluing her in, though, so Hermione ignored Tracey and continued chatting.
She first broached the topic she wanted to know about during Arithmancy, when they were working on a worksheet together. Harry had shot her a betrayed look when she'd sat with Draco at his table, but Blaise had rolled his eyes and partnered with Harry without a fuss.
"We should try and do one of these trees to figure out how to catch Sirius Black," she said quietly.
Draco looked at her sideways.
"What, a probability tree?" He shook his head. "I don't think that would work. There's way too many unknowns – it'd be impossible to even know them all, let alone account for them in the tree."
Hermione sighed.
"I suppose you're right," she said. "It's just—it's all a lot, you know? I wish it would just get resolved."
Draco looked surprised.
"The Sirius Black business?" he said. "I mean, sure? But he's after Potter – it's not like you need worry, you know."
"It's just all very dramatic," Hermione said. She looked up at Draco. "Doesn't your mother want it all to be over?"
Draco paused. "My mother?"
"Well, sure," Hermione said. "He's her cousin, isn't it?"
Draco froze.
His expression smoothed itself out to be perfectly neutral and calm, but Hermione watched as he slowly turned to face her, his eyes flickering with something.
"How do you know that?" he asked quietly.
"Is it supposed to be a secret?" Hermione asked, confused. "Draco, she holds the Black family seat in the Wizengamot."
"Oh," Draco said. He sighed. "Right. I forgot."
He gave her a mixed look.
"I imagine she has conflicted feelings on the entire thing," he said finally. "She's not exactly shared them with me, you realize. All I know is—"
But their conversation had grown too loud and gone on too long, and Professor Vector descended on them with irritation. To test them to see if they'd been paying attention, they were both sent to the board and made to find the slope of a line. Hermione was privately glad she'd reviewed both her Arithmancy textbook and muggle Algebra text over the weekend in preparation for the lesson today, her chalk clacking against the board confidently as she worked it out, Draco's hand hesitating before writing, his movements slow.
Well. It was to be expected, wasn't it? she mused. He was second in the class, not the first.
Hermione figured out the looks she'd been getting Tuesday evening, when Adrian Pucey approached Tracey in the common room, where she'd been scowling fiercely at their Divination homework on phrenology.
"Tracey," he said, twirling his wand in his hand. "Are you busy this weekend?"
Tracey looked up at him, careful.
"It's a Hogsmeade weekend," she said, "so I imagine that I'll be going to Hogsmeade."
"Ah, will you?" Adrian said. He offered her a smile. "Would you go with me?" He stopped his twirling, instead pulling a flower from his robes and handing her a brilliant honeysuckle. "It's Valentine's Day weekend, after all."
Hermione groaned to herself. Valentine's Day – what a hassle. At least there was a Hogsmeade visit coming up so she could get obligation chocolates and whatnot for all the boys in her class.
Tracey's face was red.
"Yes, I'll go with you," she said. She glared at him, embarrassed. "Did you have to ask me in front of everybody?"
Adrian grinned at her.
"Of course," he said, jauntily. "Can't have you think I'm hiding you away, doll."
Tracey rolled her eyes and waved him away, and Adrian laughed and went off, smiling as he left. Hermione was watching as Tracey turned back to her books, shooting Hermione a dark look.
"What?" she demanded.
A small smile played on Hermione's lips. "Nothing."
"Spit it out," Tracey said, insistent.
"I didn't say anything," Hermione said, laughing. "Have fun, Tracey."
Tracey flushed, muttering something under her breath.
"Honestly, I'm glad for you, Tracey," she said. "He's courting you now, isn't he? It's to be expected that he take you, I'd think."
"Not if I went with friends," Tracey protested. She sighed. "Well. At least I'll have a date now, too."
"Too?" Hermione repeated. "Who else has one?"
Tracey snorted. "Are you serious?"
Hermione blinked.
"…have you heard something I haven't?" she wanted to know. "Is Blaise taking Susan out again?"
"No idea about Blaise," Tracey said breezily. "But Hermione…"
"What?" Hermione wanted to know.
Tracey gave her a sly look.
"You mean to say… you're not angling for…?
"For what?" Hermione insisted, her patience waning.
"You know," Tracey said, giving her a significant look. "To go with Draco."
Hermione stopped short.
"Circe," she swore. "That's exactly what this looks like, isn't it?"
"You mean you haven't been angling for that?" Tracey said, snickering. "Then what on earth have you been angling for? You can't genuinely enjoy his company."
"He's not all bad," Hermione protested. "And… I needed information about his mum."
"His mother?" Tracey repeated. "Narcissa Malfoy?"
"Yes," Hermione said. She sighed. "He didn't have much information about her thoughts on the relevant topic at hand, though. I'll have to find a way to speak with her directly – without Dumbledore knowing about it."
Tracey snickered.
"If you're hoping to meet Malfoy's mum," she said, "going out with him for Valentine's Day is hardly the worst strategy to get an invite to the Manor, you realize."
Hermione flushed.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," she muttered, and Tracey laughed.
"Hermione," she admonished, "you gave Draco a modicum of attention. You realize he's probably plotting just how to ask you to go with him as we speak, right?"
"You're exaggerating," Hermione said, rolling her eyes.
"Want to bet?" Tracey challenged, eyes glinting. "Five sickles says he asks you to go with him within a day, and another five that he asks you in an overly-extravagant manner."
"You're on," Hermione snapped.
The next day, Draco charmed dozens of tiny folded-parchment birds to fly around Hermione before History class, a pair of lovebirds flying into the center of the cheeping cloud with a tiny banner reading "Hogsmeade?" before they all disappeared in a cloud of sparkles. Hermione couldn't help but flush and nod, and Draco grinned.
Hermione paid up with poor grace later that night, to Tracey's cackling laughter.