Draco ran his fingers through his pale hair, pushing it away from where it was obscuring his eyes.

He glanced over at her table. She was eating an apple and chatting with the Weasley girl. Her eyes were gleaming and her cheeks were slightly pink from the sun. It was the first day back after the summer holidays. Draco wondered if she had been somewhere hot.

She glanced over at his table and their eyes met briefly. Draco smirked at her and she rolled her eyes and looked away. She always rolled her eyes, it was beginning to get to him. Couldn't she understand that he had to smirk at her? He could bloody smile at her, could he?

She beamed when Potter and the Weasel came into the hall. Immediately leaning forward over the table and kissing Weasley lightly on the lips Draco almost gagged. She was talking to them both excitedly, her eyes gleaming. Her hair looked nicer this year, the previous massive bush that had been sprouting out of her head and been vaguely tamed. Now it was made up of small, tight curls flowing down over her shoulders. It still looked shit though. It was nothing compared to Pansy's gleaming locks.

He had always watched her. Ever since their first day at school in first year, he had watched her. It wasn't that he particularly hated her, or even liked her at all, she just intrigued him. Everything about her was endearing to him because of how fascinating he found her. She was so intelligent and confident. There was something about her confidence that just made him want to figure her out, as if there was a secret side to her that no one knew.

He knew things that people didn't know about her from watching her. He knew that she was secretly terrified of flying and always watched anxiously whenever 'her boys' were playing Quidditch. He also knew that she always chewed her lip when she was anxious or worried about anything at all. She chewed her lip the most in Potions whenever Snape was anywhere near her.

He knew that she had noticed he stared at her. She had first seemed to notice two years previously, in their History of Magic class. He had been watching her without really realising across their classroom. She had noticed and had suddenly glared at him angrily, her jaw clenched. 'Stop staring at me' she had mouthed. Draco had put on his best disgusted expression and mouthed back that he would rather kiss Weasley.

Which was bollocks but at least she had rolled her eyes and looked away from him again. It made him uneasy when he accidentally ended up looking into her eyes. She could see too much of him, it was almost as if she was seeing straight into his twisted brain and reading him like one of the many books she adored. He didn't like the distaste she showed when looking at him. Or the pity, that cut the deepest. Infuriated him beyond belief because it was him who should be pitying her, the mudblood. She was the one who should be jealous of his blood, his family, his perfection.

He hated that she could be so small and insignificant compared to him but so much happier than him. So much more confident, inside and out.

He hated her. And he hated himself for having to look at her. Not feeling complete in a lesson or a corridor if they crossed paths and he didn't study her to see if anything was different. He hated himself for every niggling feeling in his stomach that appeared each time she kissed Weasley. Every time he caught her staring at him or smiling at him or even just glancing at him.

He hated that Weasley had something that he didn't. He hated that Weasley had something that he could never, ever even dream of having.

But most of all, above all his flaws that only he knew of, he hated that he loved her, inside and out.