These characters, places, and all but two of the creatures are not mine.

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As the small hours of the morning dawned, Hermione decided not to waste the night. She was wide awake. Harry and Ron had gone to their beds in the Gryffindor common room hours ago, but even in the quiet of her private Head Girl dorm, trying to think of nothing, her eyes remained open. She imagined Professor Binns lecturing, but even that had failed to bring her to sleep.

Hermione crept out of bed, down the stairs, through the Head common room, and out the portal. She went to the library, although it was well past curfew.

In the library, she pulled out a massive book, plopped it down, and began to study the quarter lives of purple-striped gopher snakes, which lived only in the southeastern corner of Canada. She hoped this mundane topic would make her sleepy.

Draco Malfoy, who suffered from an equally stubborn case of insomnia, was on his way to the library as Hermione had just finished Chapter One: habitats of purpled- striped gopher snakes. He was restless, and often prowled around the school at night.

He slipped noiselessly into the library, and quickly found the shelf he wanted. Malfoy did not disturb Hermione, and she did not realize he was there. He was silent, and he was used to seeing her in the library at night. The first time he had seen her there, several months ago, he had very seriously considered hexing her, but he knew it would cause him trouble. Malfoy took her presence as a matter of course now, and avoided her easily. During the day, he would have used the chance encounters to ridicule Hermione, but at night, he just wanted to walk free.

As he reached for another book, Malfoy glanced at Hermione. Usually, she was smart enough to leave the library quickly, but tonight, she poured carelessly over some book, with a light shinning brightly, as if no caretaker and his cat patrolled the halls. As Malfoy left, he hoped she wouldn’t allow herself to be caught.

The next morning, Malfoy and Hermione each rose, tired and sullen, for their Monday morning lesson. Hermione had not been able to sleep until she had read through Chapter Thirteen: The competition between the purple-striped gopher snake and the green horned lizard. Malfoy had gone to sleep without thinking of his charitable hope for Hermione’s safety.

He did not even realize that he had given Hermione any kind of thought until he saw her in his afternoon class. As he plodded down the stairs, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, he vaguely thought of all the Gryffindors he hated, and would see once he walked into the dungeon.

As he thought of those despised Gryffindors, her face popped to the front of his mind. His vague musings about his hatred for Gryffindors sharpened into a delightful, clear mental picture of Hermione, shocked and offended at one of his insults. Then, he passed into Snape’s dungeon, and immediately searched for Hermione. She sat with her back to him, much as she had last night, in the library. With that view, Malfoy’s memory was jogged and he finally wondered at his wishing for her not to get in trouble.

He didn’t worry too much about his moment of weakness. It had been night, without other students to keep him in his reality of being in a school full of mixed blood. Mudbloods and half-muggles. His mind had been free of its usual red-hot malice, and he had been comfortable with Hermione’s presence in the library. At night, she just seemed like another restless, not the know-it-all mudblood he had to face at school.

---

For several more weeks, Malfoy accepted Hermione’s presence, but she began to grow on his mind. He wondered why she broke curfew so often. He had thought she was a goody-two-shoes who wouldn’t risk dirtying her nose, but her frequent rule-breaking proved there was more to her.

And why is she such friends with Potter and Weasley? Malfoy always wondered. Well, Potter he could understand. Potter was an excellent Seeker, and always seemed to be in the thick of things. No doubt Granger wanted some credit for helping Potter if he ever took down the Dark Lord. But Weasley? What did she see in him?

Malfoy saw her so often in classes and so often sneaking around at night that his curiosity grew.

During a Care of Magical Creatures lesson, he was disturbed to see Hermione watch with interest as a Slytherin guy flagrantly disregarded the old school rule of “The Prohibition of Displays of Affection During Lessons.” The boy had been leaning over to kiss his boyfriend each time their diricawl disappeared to pop up again in another place. Many boys were carefully ignoring the scene, but some of the girls, like Hermione, were watching with undivided attention.

Malfoy sidled over to Hermione. “Aren’t you going to stop them, Head Girl?”

Hermione snapped out of her fascinated gaze to say, “No. The old rule is outdated. As long as they’re paying attention to their less-”

“Yes, but they seem to be distracting you from yours.” Hermione looked at him with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms, but he continued. “You seem to find gay love fascinating,” he taunted.

Hermione would have ignored him, but a few students were looking at her strangely. “I can’t say I particularly enjoy the view, Malfoy, but it is loads more interesting than your face, so sod off,” she ordered.

Malfoy skulked away unhappily. She’s bluffing, he thought, I’m vastly more interesting than a couple of guys making out. But I would like to hear her admit it.

---

On her way back to the Head’s dorm from a prefect meeting, Hermione asked Ernie Macmillan, the Hufflepuff Head Boy, “What do you think about that public display of affection rule? Don’t you think we should make exceptions if the offenders aren’t really offending anyone?”

Ernie said “yes, I suppose so,” thoughtfully. “I mean, that was the reason the law was set down. Of course, I usually don’t care a thing about light kissing in classes, but I did hear that a couple of male Slytherins have been at it in class, and that would distract me,” Ernie emphasized, looking more interested than he should be.

Hermione shot a glance at him before changing the subject. “It’s such a pain to have to leave our own House common rooms in order to come here to sleep,” she whined. They were at a shiny suit of armor. Hermione tapped the left hand of the armor four times before climbing through the widening hole behind the armor. “Of course,” she continued, “it helps to have a private common room to make plans, but what if we want to visit our own house common rooms?”

“Well, we can before curfew,” answered Ernie.

“I know,” said Hermione. “I just think it’s a stupid rule that prevents us from being with our friends for as long as we’d like.”

“Maybe you’re right,” he admitted doubtfully. “Should we talk to Dumbledore about it?”

“No,” said Hermione assertively. “That’s a waste of his time. Well, good night,” and she headed off towards her room.

Hermione wanted to eliminate curfew for herself because she did not like the risk of being caught as she snuck out at night. She did not believe she was doing anything wrong during her midnight trips to the library. Unfortunately, school rules were growing along with the threat of the Dark Lord.

The next day, during lunch, Malfoy inspected Hermione closely. She sat with her back to the Slytherin table, with Potter and Weasley. Weasley seemed to be making some joke, and Hermione was alternating between laughing with Potter, and chastising Weasley. Malfoy felt himself rise up a bit to watch her twist backwards to reach for her bag. In that moment, Malfoy decided he was paying far too much attention to a girl who wouldn’t give him the slightest glance unless he taunted her. He decided to have some fun with Hermione. He didn’t necessarily want to hurt her, but he did want to twist her around his finger, at least for a little while.

Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown were working together in Potions. As they waited for their Fame potion to curdle, they began whispering loudly. “You know, Ginny Weasley is in love with Harry Potter.” At Potter’s name, Malfoy, who sat across the aisle, began eavesdropping.

“Really? I’m not terribly surprised. Hm... it’s really too bad for Ginny then.”

“Why? I didn’t know Harry likes anyone.”

“Oh no. I don’t think he does, but have you ever noticed the way Hermione Granger looks at him? Like when he took care of that Erkling the other day in Care of Magical Creatures?”

“You know what? I think you may be right. They spend an awful lot of time together. I’ll bet she puts up with Ron so she can get to Harry, but I can’t really blame her. Harry’s always been cute, but he’s growing up. He’s more manly now, if you know what I mean.” Both girls dissolved into giggles for a moment.

“Ya, you’re right. I just feel bad for Ginny; Hermione’s tough competition. You know how stubborn she can be. We’ll have to warn Ginny tonight. Oh! Snape just looked over,” and the girls fell silent to watch their potion.

Malfoy looked up the aisles to Hermione. He was unsettled by Parvati and Lavender’s opinion of Hermione’s interests. He had been thinking more seriously of getting to know her, but he only wanted a bit of a good time. He didn’t want to fight for some mudblood’s affection.

At the end of the difficult lesson, Malfoy bottled his potion and queued up with Crabbe and Goyle to turn in the assignment. He positioned himself right next to Hermione. She was cleaning her table when Malfoy sniffed the air sharply and said, “what is that unnatural stench?” Hermione turned around with her eyebrow raised. “Oh, of course,” Malfoy said loudly, “Granger’s disgusting Muggle perfume.” Crabbe and Goyle laughed thickly. “Honestly Granger, why would anyone flaunt their Muggle heritage? You’re a complete disgrace.”

“I’m surprised you’re able to smell anything when you’re positively swimming in cologne,” Hermione retorted. She squinted her eyes at him and turned sharply to walk over to the faucets.

---

Malfoy was out again, the same night after his juvenile comment about Hermione’s smell, that warm smell that he would never admit to actually enjoying. As he strolled cautiously through the halls, he realized he was hoping to see her. For some inexplicable reason, he felt drawn to her. He still hated the bossy know-it-all, but she refused to get out of his head.

He needed to do something; needed to satisfy his burning... curiosity. He’d have to have her all to himself, just once, and then purge her from his system. The problem would be in winning her cooperation.

He’d have to sweet-talk her.

She was a mudblood. How could he evade that fact? If he just began ignoring that glaring fault, she would not believe a single kind word he said. He couldn’t continue berating her for being a muggle-born, and try to seduce her while insulting her. If Malfoy wanted to have any sort of thing with Hermione, he would probably have to admit to her that muggle-borns were as capable as purebloods, however much they lacked sophistication.

That won’t be so hard, he thought. I can be convincing.

Malfoy believed he had given himself the proper pep talk to get on Hermione’s good side, so he set off to find her. He reached the library, knowing it to be the most likely place for Hermione to be if she happened to be out that night. She was browsing through one of the Charms sections, using her wand to light the titles. Malfoy was about to walk toward her when he heard a resentful “meow.”

Hermione had been up doing Charms homework several days before it was due when she decided to take a quick break from her stuffy common room. She needed to stretch her legs and thought some extra information from an unassigned book would really enhance her essay. She stole quietly down to the library, and began to quickly skim through the Charms titles. She had found one she could use, and didn’t realize she was being watched until she heard the ominous yowl of Mrs. Norris.

Hermione’s heart sped as she looked up to find the pale eyes of Draco Malfoy. She was as much surprised by him looking so solemnly at her as she was by his presence. He turned away at once, almost kicked the cat, and disappeared into the dark halls. Hermione hesitated for only a moment after he’d left. She flew quickly out of the library with her one book, never knowing how close she had been to getting caught.

---

After an uneventful week of school, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, were staying up later than the rest of their house. Harry and Ron had had a few rounds of Exploding Snap before a long and involved game of Wizard’s Chess. Hermione finished up her weekend homework before leaving them for her own room. She was just cursing the fact that she could not have a dorm connected to the Gryffindor common room when she heard a pair of hushed voices coming from behind her.

Hermione panicked when she saw the glow of approaching wands. She should have been in bed hours ago. Her pursuers were approaching fast. She did not want to be caught, but they were coming too quickly. If she ran, they might hear her. She had to take a chance on one of the classroom doors nearby, but they did not always open.

Suddenly, a hand clamped over her mouth, and another around her waist. She was pulled out of danger into the shadows of an empty room. Just as she was escaping the light of the wands, she saw Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey stride past. Their footfalls turned to echoes before Hermione faced her savior.

“It’s me,” came a drawling voice from the dark.

“Malfoy? What on earth were you doing?” Hermione asked incredulously.

She could feel the satisfied smirk as he said “before I saved your ungrateful skin? I don’t see how it’s any of your business, Granger, but if you must know, I was on my way back from detention- pissy McGonagall- when I saw you three coming down the hall.”

“I wasn’t with them,” she blurted.

“Yes, I realize that, Hermione,” he said sarcastically. Hermione’s face remained stubbornly annoyed, even with the use of her first name. “Not that I expect anything, but you could thank me,” said the criticizing voice.

“Ya, alright, thanks,” she announced bluntly into darkness. She was very thankful not to be caught, but was wondering why the devil Draco Malfoy and herself were standing together in the black of an empty classroom, not trying to provoke each other to anger.

Malfoy was standing silently, without knowing what to say. This was the perfect opportunity; a great chance to ignite her interest! But nothing was coming out. He had imagined it as being so much simpler. He couldn’t bring up casual topics; it would just be too soon and too strange. He only knew how to insult her.

To Draco’s relief, and due to her sudden comfort at Malfoy’s lack of insults, she asked “why were they out this late?”

“A first year in my house fell off her broom this afternoon. She landed on a rock, and with great talent,” he started to snigger, “crushed a few of her internal organs. I suppose Madam Pomfrey needed Snape’s help with a healing potion.”

“That’s terrible,” Hermione moaned. “I bet she didn’t want to fly. I’m not sure it’s right that they force us to try flying,” she said fiercely. She preferred less dangerous modes of travel.

“I never said she was in a lesson,” he contradicted. “This girl is an utter fool. She got completely drunk after lessons, and tried flying for the first time. Stupid first year.”

“Well you certainly don’t have to laugh at her,” Hermione retorted haughtily. Her eyes finally adjusted to the dark, and she could see the smirk on his lips. Hermione didn’t really care if some idiot Slytherin was laughed at, but it was her natural instinct to contradict Draco Malfoy.

“Come on, Hermione, the idiot deserved it. It’s not as if she died.” After a silent second, he said “Well, good night.” Then, he swept out of the room, feeling very pleased with his first civil conversation with Hermione. He was especially satisfied with being the first to leave. Oh, she’ll be wondering about me tonight. In bed, he thought happily.

Hermione did think of Malfoy as she was falling asleep that night. She did not understand why, according to her standard view of Draco Malfoy, he had been nice. He had saved her from trouble and used her first name. Two complete opposites to his usual infuriating behavior. How had this change come about? He had been too rude to be under an Imperius curse and although Malfoy was an insufferable git, Hermione could not imagine anyone taking the risk of an illegal curse just to make him bearable.

She continued to wonder about Draco throughout most of her weekend.