He intrigued her .

Draco Malfoy fascinated Hermione Granger

And had done so for years now.

While he had his faults…far too many to really keep record of, Hermione also realized that at heart, beneath all the bullshit Malfoy really wasn't that bad.

True he was acutely annoying, even at the best of times. But after long scrutiny and thoughtful observation; Hermione came to a very real conclusion; Draco was a charming and very talented actor.

Nobody really understood the young Malfoy heir.

Nobody apart from herself, and perhaps his mother.

The truth was in the details.

She knew he was fallowing her.

His looming presence making her heart pick up in pace.

She was also extremely aware how attracted she was to him and how it had been thus every since she had worked out the complicated rubrics of his mind.

Hermione veered off to the library.

She sat at her usual table, not bothering to look up or acknowledge the Head boy when he took a set across from her.

"What are you playing at, Granger?" Draco asked sounding a bit paranoid as he leaned across the table his voice both accusing and suspicious.

Hermione played it cool suppressing a smile. "I have no idea to what you are referring." She stated plainly pulling out homework from her bag.

"Stop watching me." He whispered, looking around to make sure an audience was not present.

Hermione rolled her eyes. She had in fact been studying him since he switched sides in the war, but wasn't about to admit such a thing.

Least of all to him.

Not just yet.

"Why in the world would I be watching you, of all people, Malfoy?" Hermione asked looking him dead in the eye. The bluff of aloof coolness annoying him more then her blatant attempt to avoid his question.

"Because you're a nosey bushy haired cow." He expressed quite ruefully.

Hermione smiled. "Now, Malfoy sweet nothings are hardly going to win me over in revealing any kind of honesty, especially when you don't understand the meaning of the word." Hermione spoke in her well practiced know-it-all voice making Draco frown in confusion.

"What are you blabbering about mudblood, sweet nothings? I just called you a cow. I have wasted enough of my time on you. This is your only warning, stop trying to read me like you read one of those insufferable text books you love so much." Draco sneered standing to dismiss her.

"How is Lydia Lambert? Or Rebecca Xavier?" Hermione asked sweetly looking up as Draco stood before her.

His face paled if such a feat was possible.

Hermione smiled.

"How should I know?" His voice cracked with true emotion.

"Thought you were allergic to muggleborns? Could hardly soil your self with such foul breeding wasn't it. Fought on the wrong side of the war to express such ancestral beliefs, don't you agree." Hermione asked opening her charms book and pulling out a piece of parchment. Her attitude hardly matching the tone of voice she used.

Draco sat back down. "I don't know what you think you know, but your wrong." Draco claimed shooting her a heated glare.

Hermione bit her bottom lip before responding, "Sometimes actions or the lack there of speak louder than words themselves." She told him looking smug. "now if you'll excuse me I have work to do."

Draco sat starring at her in confusion.

"Promise to stop watching you. No need to any more. You're a quite talented actor." Hermione's praise sounded more like sensor though the whole point of their discussion had yet to make sense to him.

"Good to see we understand one another." Though he hardly meant what he said.

Draco had a feeling that Hermione understood him far more than he did her.

"Oh and Draco," Hermione's voice calling his retreating figure to a stop.

"I love you too."

She expressed the sentiment with such devoted sincerity Draco blushed in response.

He did not turn to acknowledge her word, not trusting himself to do so.

"Granger, you are truly delusional." His words came out calm and collected.

The effect of the insult however was lost since his composer was slipping, the perfect and practiced mask of lies threatening to fall at the words he had so longed to hear for her lips.

"Have it your way, then." She called out to his retreating back.

To this Draco had no reply.

The next day started as any other.

Breakfast, Potions, Charms then lunch.

True to her word Hermione didn't look at him once the whole morning.

Draco found he was quite upset over such dedication to her word.

Then he shouldn't expect anything less from the Gryffindor.

Hermione Granger was the epitome of honesty.

He on the other hand couldn't even be truthful with himself.

Draco had tried to catch her eye all morning.

Not taking head if she were scribbling notes in class or joking in the halls with Potter and Weasley.

Still she continued to ignore him.

He hardly understood how she could express such sentiments then go back to pretending like he was nothing more than furniture.

Yes, he had requested quite adamantly that she stop gawking at him, but he had hardly meant it.

The request had just been a means to talk to her, to be with in proximity of the one girl he would never of thought could stand his presence. Long ago he took up the charade of insulting and belittling her for the sole purpose of making a lasting impression.

In their early years before he had dejected his father's legacy, it had been the only way to get the girls attention and not be hexed by her two bumbling friends.

Now it was a habit he hadn't dared back out from in fear of rejection from her.

Now it all seemed silly and ignorant.

In the end he should of known she would see through it, especially since she was the only witch that he went to great lengths to avoid touching or openly admiring.

In fact Hermione Granger was the only person he had ever called mudblood.

For the past five years now, using the derogative word as a term of endearment.

Draco was setting at his house table in the Great Hall eating lunch.

He had already looked for Granger.

When he couldn't find her he took a set between Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini, his back to the Gryffindor table.

For that reason he didn't see her approach, or even realize what was happening until the Head girl took a set besides Pansy (whom she had been on friendly terms with for sometime).

Hermione's back against the Slytherin table top her body turned outward, they were face to face.

The shock of her actions evident though the whispering of Hogwarts students.

"What do you want, mudblood." Draco sneered still not able to let go of the familiar.

Hermione raised an eyebrow in response. "See where still playing that game, Malfoy… Not able to be candid with yourself…or your mates here?" She asked leaning back to look at him dead on in the face.

He felt his left eye twitch.

She sat waiting for an answer.

He refused to give her one.

After a long pause of silence Hermione broke eye contact.

Draco smirked feeling as if he won and important battle.

"Alright then." She said standing. "If this is the way you want things, I can't change that." Hermione told him.

"Pansy always a pleasure." with that Hermione walked from the Slytherin table making a wide path around the Huffenpuffs and to the Ravenclaws.

Draco sat watching.

Hermione looked determined, though he could hardly understand that look of resolution on her face.

Draco watched in silence as she stopped behind a dark hair seventh year boy.

Draco's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Everyone else watched with eagerness on what Hermione would do next.

The dark haired Ravenclaw looked up from his seat in anticipation. "I would love to accompany you to Hogsmead this weekend, Seth." Hermione smiled shyly turning to leave.

"Like Hell you will!" Draco hadn't realized he bellowed his comment making every eye in the hall turn back to him.

Hermione looked at him in false perplexity.

Draco ignored everyone but the insufferable Head girl. He didn't bother walking around the Huffenpuff table to get to her, instead opting to climb over it.

"Now Malfoy…," Hermione was talking to him in a very calm and steady voice when he interrupted her to direct his next statement to the Ravenclaw boy, Seth.

"Hermione will not be going any where with you." Draco's comment was more of a threat then statement. The boy nodded mutely back.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You, Mr. Malfoy do not get to dictate what I can and can not do, nor who I do it with." Her know-it-all snotty voice making Draco's head spin.

"Lets get one thing straight my dear, I don't share." Draco told her looking furious.

Hermione had him right were she wanted him.

"Now I really don't know what you mean, ferret, don't tell me you've suddenly changed your mind about nosey bushy hair, mud blood cows." She was all puffed up looking scandalized.

Draco couldn't help but smirk.

"Now why would I do a thing like that!" He proclaimed in mocking horror.

Pulling Hermione in his arms, his lips touching hers in such a simple gesture of true affection, she couldn't help but smile.

At last a bit of honest from a Malfoy.