CatB: Chapter 8 is here! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: As much as I wish that I owned HP, I do not. Borrowing characters for fanfiction fun does not make me any money.

On Monday morning, I rose a few minutes earlier than usual so that I could make certain I had all the right books packed for the day. I was terrified of being caught unprepared again.

In Potions, we were attempting to brew a potion that could make the drinker appear younger-a very difficult potion indeed, and hard to complete in the single class period we were given.

I had barely set up my cauldron and all the ingredients I would need when Malfoy raised his hand.

"Yes, Mister Malfoy?" Professor Snape asked.

"I seem to have run out of lacewing flies, sir," he replied. "Could I take some from the student stock?"

"You hardly need to ask," the professor told him, raising an eyebrow.

I watched Malfoy cross to the cabinet where extra student materials were kept and pull the door open. He rummaged inside for a few moments before ducking back out again.

"Sir, I don't see any lacewing flies in here." There was a curious smile tugging at his mouth as he uttered the words, but it was gone by the time Snape turned to face him.

"How can that be?" He strode over to the cabinet himself, peered inside, and frowned. He then straightened up and said, "It appears that someone," here, his eyes fell upon Harry, "has taken the entire extra stock of lacewing flies."

I couldn't help but smirk a little. I thought I might have an idea who had swiped the flies, and it wasn't Harry. I wasn't sure why Malfoy had done it, though, until he walked haughtily over to the Gryffindor side of the dungeon and said loudly, "Oi, Granger, give me some of your flies, would you?"

I stared at him, and he gave me a quick wink in return. It appeared this was some sort of entertainment for him.

I played along with his strange game, rolling my eyes and sighing. "Fine," I spat at last. "Take it." I shoved my box and scoop toward him, noticing as I did so that Harry and Ron seemed to approve.

He grabbed the box without saying anything and proceeded to measure out the necessary amount at a snail's pace.

I tapped my foot impatiently, growing annoyed. I wasn't even pretending now. I hadn't had a chance to measure out my own share of the flies, so I was going to be behind, and I hated being behind. And if I was unable to finish the potion…I couldn't even think about that.

"Could you hurry up, please?" I asked politely.

"No," he sneered.

"Well, you're not the only person who needs them," I hissed, losing my patience.

Ron looked over to see what the problem was.

"Malfoy's taking forever with the flies," I informed him angrily, and watched as his ears slowly began to redden.

"Give those back, Malfoy," he said in a warning tone.

"And what will happen to me if I don't?" Malfoy challenged.

"You'll-you'll be sorry, that's what!" Ron replied.

I wanted to roll my eyes because Ron really wasn't being very intimidating. I almost couldn't blame Malfoy for not listening to him, and yet-

"Give them here," I snapped, holding out my hand.

"I don't think so." He moved the box onto another desk, further away from me.

I lunged for it, but miscalculated the distance I would need to cover, and ended up knocking over the box of flies onto the floor. I swore rather loudly, drawing the eyes of Gryffindors and Slytherins alike, although the Gryffindors looked shocked while the Slytherins tended towards amused.

"Miss Granger," Snape said quietly, "I would appreciate it if you kept those words to a minimum in my class."

"I'm sorry, Professor," I said quickly, "but it wasn't my-"

"I don't care whose fault it was," he interrupted. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir," I said politely. Once his back was turned, I shot Malfoy a dirty look. "Thanks a lot," I muttered, loudly enough that he could hear me.

"My pleasure," he returned with a smile.

A wave of my wand restored the box of flies, but it couldn't make up for the time that I had lost. I feverishly began to throw ingredients together, glancing back at the instructions now and then. A short while later, however, the concoction in my cauldron turned green and began to foam. I watched it nervously, wondering why it wasn't the expected deep blue that the instructions told me it would be. Harry was peering over at my station, no doubt trying to figure out why our potions looked so dissimilar. Taking a deep breath, I reread the instructions once again. I began to feel sick when I realized that I had neglected to add another batch of lacewing flies. What was I going to do?

I raised my hand slowly, shakily.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" Snape asked, sounding bored.

"Please, sir, I've just realized-well, I forgot to add more lacewing flies, you see." My voice was barely above a whisper.

"Well, I suppose that will affect your standings in this class, Miss Granger," he replied slowly, so that I had no need to guess what he was getting at.

I sank my head into my hands. I was going to fail the lesson. He was going to give me a big, fat zero. That would certainly take me down a notch. And what were Harry and Ron going to think? I wasn't just disappointing myself, I was disappointing them. They expected me to lead the class, and now stupid Malfoy was probably going to take my spot. Perhaps that was the reason he had taken all the lacewing flies from the student supply cabinet, to mess me up and steal my glory. It was just like him. Just like a sneaky Slytherin, actually, and it seemed he was no better. Why, oh why, had I ever thought he was better than the rest of them?

I spent the remainder of the period fuming, putting away my supplies and cleaning my cauldron of my failed potion. When the bell rang, I stalked out of the dungeon. Harry and Ron hurried after me, and Malfoy followed close behind. I shook Harry and Ron off pretty quickly, telling them I didn't feel well and wasn't up for eating lunch. Although they looked like they wanted to interrogate me about my potion-making fiasco, they both nodded and headed to the Great Hall. Malfoy, however, was harder to get rid of, since I was in no mood to talk to him after his sabotage.

He continued to follow me up to the second floor, and then the third. I had been planning on going to the Room of Requirement yet again, but I couldn't with him there. Finally, I whirled around and asked, "Excuse me, is there a problem?"

He grinned. "Not at all. Can't a fellow wander the halls during lunch hour?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Of course, but is there some reason why this particular fellow is tracing my footsteps?"

"Perhaps he is merely curious as to why you keep hiding yourself from the world," he replied, his tone serious.

"Hiding myself from the world?" I repeated incredulously. "Whatever do you mean by that?"

He was spared from replying by my arm on his wrist. I pulled him into an empty classroom, away from the group of Slytherins I had seen coming towards us. I closed the door behind us, and, as I did so, I remembered the reason why I had decided to confront him in the first place.

"Malfoy," I began.

"You can call me Draco, you know," he told me.

"Good to know, but you're Malfoy for now, because there is something I would like to straighten out here," I said.

"Go ahead," he smirked. "Straighten away."

"Fine," I replied. "First of all, stop following me or I'll have Ron and Harry sort you out. That goes for anywhere in the castle, okay?"

He looked like he might start laughing any second. "Okay."

"Second, don't ever try and do anything like what you pulled today ever again. My whole potion was ruined because of you!"

"Actually, all I did was-"

"I'm not finished," I said through clenched teeth. "If we're going to talk outside of class, we will act exactly as we would in class. You'll be rude to me, I'll be rude to you."

"Why?" He genuinely looked confused.

"Because!" I exploded.

"Uh, last time I checked, that was not a good reason to do anything," he said mockingly.

"Because I'm sick of playing your games," I whispered, pressing my hands over my eyes. "I just…this is not...how things were. And I-I want things to go back to the way they were."

I hated that he was seeing me in such a vulnerable state. I could only think of what he would do now that I was so exposed.

"Fine," was all he said.

"What?" I blinked at him.

"Fine," he said again. "You want to go back, fine. That can be arranged." There was a hard note in his voice now, and I felt relieved. It seemed he was becoming his old, nasty self again.

"Great," I said, and I meant it. "Uh, thanks, I guess."

"No problem." He smiled coldly, then turned away. "See you around, Granger. Or not." And with that, he pulled open the door and walked out. I watched him go, feeling an odd mixture of happiness and regret.

"Hermione, you made it! How're you feeling?" Ron asked as soon as I took a seat next to him at lunch.

I smiled weakly. "Better, thank you."

"Good, because I need to talk to you," Ginny said, butting into the conversation from her seat across the table.

"Oh, well, if Ginny needs to talk to you…" I heard Ron grumble.

I laughed. "I'll be able to talk to you next period, Ron."

"I'll hold you to that," he joked.

I turned to Ginny. "What did you want to talk about?" Now that I was really paying attention to her, I noticed that her eyes were puffy and that Dean was not occupying his usual seat next to her. "Ginny, are you alright? Where's Dean?"

"I'm not alright," she sniffed, "and Dean's, well, gone. We broke up."

"Well, good riddance to him," I said honestly.

She looked shocked. "Hermione!"

"Ginny, he treated you badly and you know it. Don't pretend that this doesn't make you feel freer than you've felt in months. He was always tracking your every move, didn't you get tired of his jealousy?"

I thought about how Malfoy had followed me, both that very day and quite probably over the weekend. It hadn't felt great to know that he was following me-it was more weird than anything else- and yet part of me, I realized, felt flattered that he took the time to do so. This was not, however, the time to be figuring this out. I was supposed to be giving Gin a pep-talk about how she was better off without her ex.

"I suppose so," Ginny said reluctantly. "But, I mean, I really liked the guy, you know?"

"Ginny," I said patiently, "if it's meant to work out, you two will get back together, but if not, I'm sure you'll find another great guy and forget all about Dean Thomas."

That's what I needed to do. Find another guy and forget about Draco Malfoy. Not because I felt anything for him, but because I couldn't stop thinking about him. I hated passing up a mystery, but this was one mystery I was sick of trying to untangle.

"You're right," Ginny nodded. "I'll find someone else. Someone nicer, someone better…someone my brother actually approves of!" she added with a giggle.

I nodded. "Exactly."

"Oh, speaking of my brother, I see you two are talking again," Ginny said happily.

"Yeah, we are," I said, glancing over at Ron with a small smile. He smiled back.

"Well, I'm glad, I think he missed you a lot more than he's letting on," Ginny confided.

"Hey!" Ron said indignantly. "I don't tell you these things so you can go and blabber them to everyone."

I giggled. "Don't worry, Ron, she's never spilled too much." I remembered, though, the remark she had made last week about me not wanting to know where Ron would be without me. What exactly had she meant by that? Was she saying that because of something Ron had told her, or was that just what she thought?

I shook my head so I could focus on Ginny once more, but she had already moved on from our conversation and struck up one with Harry. This arrangement left me to talk to Ron, but his attention was on something else.

"Hermione, why is Malfoy staring over here?" he said abruptly.

I directed my gaze towards the Slytherin table. The blond-haired boy was indeed looking our way.

I sighed. "I don't know why, but you don't need to worry about him. He won't be making any trips over here anymore, unless it's to harass us."

"Really?" Ron looked pretty happy considering what I was telling him. "I mean, I hate it when he makes his rude remarks, but it'll be nice to see him acting like his usual self."

"His usual self when he's around us, you mean," I almost added, but I couldn't. I had seen a different side of him, but I wasn't about to reveal that to Ron.

I peered over at Malfoy once again. He had stopped staring at us, and now had his arm draped around Pansy Parkinson. I smiled, sadly. With their sneakiness and hidden motives, the two of them really were perfect for each other. I had always thought so, and now, it was a comfort to know I had been right all along.

CatB: Hope you enjoyed! PLEASE review!

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