Malfoy gripped his nose, blood trickling down from where Granger's fist collided with his face. He could taste the dark liquid on his lips and growled at the bitterness of it all.

Though he didn't truly mean to piss her off that much, Malfoy was in a challenging position when he found himself surrounded by both Crabbe, Goyle, and Granger's posse. He had a choice to make and would suffer the consequences if he didn't act quickly enough. So, he made his choice and saved his own arse from the embarrassment of cowering away from Granger in the presence of the two babbling idiots.

And clearly, he had made the wrong choice.

Moments later, he saw Hermione's fist flying towards his face and could do absolutely nothing to stop it. Both Crabbe and Goyle suddenly understood her wrath and ran off, scared out of their wits. Not that they had any in the first place.

That left Malfoy standing there, gasping in the horror of the situation. Not only had he been beaten by a girl, he had been beaten by Granger. In front of Potter and the deranged weasel.

He stomped away from them, angered that Granger could possibly do something like that to him in front of them, after everything they had been through together. It's not like he could call them friends, but he certainly couldn't call them enemies. Ever since her offer from the previous year, he had taken time to find her in the library and silently study with her. They hardly talked, only answering each other's questions on the homework from time to time, but when they did talk, Draco felt an odd pressure lift off of his chest. During times spent with her, he never felt as though he was forced to do anything. He could simply be. And that's what made him stay.

And from the start of the new school year, he had refrained from teasing her in front of his housemates – or in front of anyone, for that matter. In turn, his housemates had begun to question him constantly, asking whether or not he was sick, or what he thought of Granger. Crabbe and Goyle were the worst of all. He simply couldn't take it anymore, so when he finally had an opportunity to show his strength against both Buckbeak and Granger, he took the opportunity.

But there's never really been an opportunity missed by Granger, either. That is, she seemed happy enough to take the chance to punch Malfoy square in the nose. In front of everyone.

So much for showing his strength.

He stomped away, clutching both his nose and his pride, wondering which one felt more broken to him. He uttered a cleaning spell for the blood, annoyed by the reminding taste that it was, in fact, his pride that hurt more. Though he debated whether or not it was safe to fix his own nose instead of having to explain the situation to Madam Pomfrey, he found himself stomping down the hallway towards the school infirmary – for his nose's sake.

But before he could even make it down the hall, he saw the perpetrator of his attack standing in front of the infirmary doors, stomping her foot angrily and tucking a golden chain back into her robes. He stopped in his tracks as she turned to him and stomped over. He opened his mouth to halt her from doing whatever it was she thought she was doing.

"What the hell-

But he was cut off as she grabbed his sleeve and tugged him into an empty class room, not one ounce of softness in her actions. She could at least give him that after the stunt she had just pulled.

As soon the door swung shut behind them and she had murmured a muffling spell on the room so no one could hear whatever argument was brewing, she turned to him with a furious glint in her eyes, "What is wrong with you?"

"Wrong with me?" He blubbered, trying to retrace what has just happened moments ago, "Wrong with me? I'm trying to remember when it was that I punched you in the face!"

She rolled her eyes and scoffed, "You deserved it! You may not have punched me but you might as well have!"

Malfoy's hands flew back up to his face, rubbing at his eyes angrily, "What the hell are you going on about? I was perfectly normal!"

"Normal? You call that normal?" She yelled, growing increasingly irritated with Malfoy's attitude, "I'm sorry, but do you not remember this past year?"

"Well, you clearly didn't if you were suddenly so able to sock me right in the nose!" He growled, hand going back to cover the broken-feeling protuberance.

"That's because you weren't acting normal! You were acting…" She huffed, her fists clutching at her sides, "You were acting like your father!"

"Don't speak ill of my father," Malfoy snarled, eyes piercing through the girl in front of him, "I was acting like a Slytherin because I am one, if you forgot."

"No," Hermione started, shaking her head, "Don't blame this on your house, Malfoy. What you said back there wasn't a Slytherin thing to do, it was a cowardly thing to do."

Something shifted in Malfoy's chest and he could feel the discomfort radiating off of him from that comment, "Same-difference."

Hermione's eyebrows furrowed as she took in his expression, and he, unknowing of what to do while under her gaze, shoved his fists into his pant pockets. Hermione sighed, "No, Draco…" Oh, so now we're back to Draco? "They're completely different."

Draco grunted and looked away, annoyed that he let her get to him while he should be angry at her actions. Sure, he was acting like an utter jack-arse, but his actions didn't deserve the bitter punishment of her fist, did it?

"Look, I'm sorry." She said, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes as she looked at the uncomfortable blond, "But you can't just choose when you want to be my friend or not. It doesn't work that way."

"Friends? I'd hardly call us-

"Draco." She snarled out his name and he snapped his mouth shut at her tone. He wasn't exactly making it easy for her to apologize, now, was he? And now that he knew what her anger felt like, he'd rather not rile her up again, thank you very much, "You're not going to play friendly with me only when its in your favour. If that's all that this is to you…" She stopped and a crease formed between her pretty brows as she worried her bottom lip. Draco felt his stomach clench and decided now was the best time to speak up.

"No, Granger," He stepped forward, taking his hands out of the pockets but not knowing exactly what to do with them, "It's not. I never meant to-

"But you did." She looked back to him, uncaring of how close they were in proximity. He saw insecurity written on her features and fuck, he really did deserve that punch, didn't he?

"I'm sorry." He said, running a hand through his hair and looking away, "I know that must've hurt, but being friendly with you has been pretty damn exhausting on my end." Her eyes snapped to his and suddenly, it looked as if he had been the one doing the punching. "No! No, not like that. It's just…" looking rather emotionally exhausted, the thirteen-year-old ran a hand through his fallen blond locks, searching for a way to express himself, "it's been a hard secret to keep."

Hermione nodded in understanding, not even attempting to ask why they should keep their friendship a secret; they've had that conversation far too many times and she knew when to not push the issue. It just simply had to be this way. Unless she wanted Draco to spend the next four years isolated by his fellow housemates – and that would be on the easy side of the scale – this friendship of theirs would have to be kept in secret. Even his summers would be in absolute shambles if word got around to his father. Suddenly, the world felt heavy around them.

She felt her eyes dampen and quickly swiped at them with the back of her robe sleeve. Hermione never really knew when it started to happen, but she felt herself growing increasingly emotional as time passed. Hormones.

Draco quickly took another step forward, a look of worry on his face. "No, Granger. Please don't cr-

"I'm not crying." Hermione huffed, looking away from him as a few tears continued to slip passed. She felt herself become even more annoyed with herself and bit down on her lip. Please stop crying, please stop crying, please stop-

She suddenly saw one of his hands reach forward and rest on her cheek, thumb brushing away any stray tears. Her body stiffened at the action, surprise filling her expression. Now, this was not normal.

"Yes, of course, you're not crying." He scoffed, and quickly pulled his hand away again. Hermione rolled her eyes and gave Draco a friendly shove, pushing his concerned action to the back of her thoughts, never to be looked at again.

In the vault. Yep, that one's going in the vault.

Draco looked at her and scrunched up his nose, about to let out a chuckle, but instead, a grunt of pain passed his lips. Oh right, his nose.

"Stay still," She mumbled and got out her wand. He did as he was told and she quickly swayed her wand in her hand, "Episkey." Another groan of pain sounded from Malfoy as he clutched his nose, wiggling it around to ensure the healing spell did what it was supposed to, "Better?"

A smile crossed his features as he threw an arm around the girl's shoulders, heading them towards the classroom door, "Granger, I don't know what I'd do without you."

A/N: In reply to a review: The ficlet is listed under complete due to the nature of it. It's simply one-shots compiled to make sense as a story. But seeing as they are relatively small chapters and don't need to be read together, nor are they completely intended to be read as a whole story, I listed it under complete!

As always, please read and review! I also just posted a severely angsty Draco one-shot called Reason,so if you have a chance, check that out, as well!

Love always, Elle - your author for this story.