Author's Notes:

I am not a Draco fan, but I thought it would be fun to work him into a fic.

Also, this story has nothing to do with my "Hannah at Hogwarts" fic. They are not part of the same "canon" or "universe" or whatever. They are totally separate. This one takes place fifth year only.

Happy reading.

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The first time she noticed him - really noticed him, not just in the "idle glance" sort of way - was on the Hogwarts Express, in the prefect's carriage. She was looking around at her fellow prefects with increasing feelings of unworthiness. There was Hermione Granger, who was much smarter than she was, and Padma Patil, who was much prettier than she was, and Ernie, who was much more confident than she was, and Draco Malfoy, who was much richer than she was, and...

Hannah noticed that Draco was the only one not hanging on the Head Boy's words; he was looking out the window and seemed not to be paying any attention at all. She also took note of how attractive he was, but that wasn't an unusual occurrence; in low-interest situations, she had a habit of evaluating the attractiveness of every boy in her surroundings. Not like she ever intended to take action on this knowledge, but it was just something she liked to do.

Draco must have felt her eyes on him, because he turned in her direction. She didn't avert her gaze quickly enough; as she looked away, she caught the beginnings of a smirk on his face. She stared resolutely at the Head Girl, whose turn it was to speak, but that didn't stop her cheeks from reddening. It really was a bad habit, to stare at people like that. She always felt like a voyeur when somebody noticed.

A few minutes later, she chanced another glance in his direction. He was back to staring out the window. It seemed like the "detached, aloof, uninterested" thing really worked for him, because it took her a conscious mental effort to stop looking.

The head boy was now talking about patrols. Hannah knew about patrols. It was pretty much a tradition for Hufflepuff prefects (and other house's prefects, she assumed) to complain constantly about them. It certainly didn't sound like fun; tromping around in a cold castle while you were supposed to be curled up in a warm bed was not an exciting prospect. Even the promise patrolling with members of the opposite gender, who could all safely be classified as "cute", didn't make the job any more appealing. And what would she do when she actually needed to discipline somebody?

Suddenly everybody was standing up, and Hannah realized they were dismissed. Ernie joined her on the way back to their compartment, already talking about "the duty we have to Helga Hufflepuff and her glorious house" and "how proud we should be to have this great responsibility bestowed upon us." In a weird way, this was comforting; even if she didn't really intend to live up to expectations, at least the other Hufflepuff prefect was going to pick up the slack. With Ernie around, she would be able to focus on other matters.

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This isn't so bad, Hannah thought as she and Ron Weasley walked through the empty halls of Hogwarts. They had talked for the first few minutes, but Ron's awkwardness and inability to discuss anything but Quidditch, meshed with her own shyness, made carrying on a conversation difficult. Ron, seeming to sense that he should occasionally made stabs at igniting a conversation, helped keep things interesting, at least.

"I can't believe that berk Malfoy is a prefect," Ron said now, with a tone suggesting that this fact had been bothering him for quite a while.

Hannah perked to attention. "I think he's okay," she said. She knew the unsavory reputation that Draco had accumulated at Hogwarts, but had never been the victim of one of his assaults; in fact, she had never even talked to him. So for now, her opinion was based on his attractiveness (which she had been contemplating rather a lot during the past few days) and very little else.

"Are you serious?" Ron asked incredulously, actually turning to look at her. "You probably just like him because he's handsome."

She could feel the blood rushing to her face. "I just think you're being too hard on him, that's all," she responded, carefully avoiding his accusation.

"I could throw that greasy git off the top of the Owlery and it wouldn't be hard enough on him," Ron said with unveiled contempt. "My arse would have been more qualified than that idiot."

Hannah didn't have an answer to that, and the two of them lapsed back into silence. The most exciting thing that happened to them was finding an absolutely terrified first year wandering on the fifth floor who burst into tears when she saw them approaching. Ron was visibly unable to deal with the situation, so Hannah (who was not good with kids herself) tried her best to be consoling. It being nearly three hours past curfew, Ron suggested they call it a night and go back to bed. Luckily; the first-year was a Gryffindor student, so Ron was able to shepherd her back to their common room while Hannah headed back to her own.

Getting ready for bed quietly so she wouldn't wake up her roommates, Hannah's thoughts once again returned to Draco Malfoy. It was well known that everybody in Gryffindor hated everybody in Slytherin, so she didn't need to take Ron's comments too seriously. Malfoy might very well be an aloof twit, but he was definitely good fantasy material.

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Being a prefect was a tiring experience, Hannah thought the next morning as she stared groggily at the bowl of cereal in front of her. She always had problems functioning on too little sleep, so unlike everybody else in the castle, she never worked on homework into the wee hours of the morning. She glanced over to Ron at the Gryffindor table, who looked just as tired as she felt, but then again, he seemed like the kind of person who would make a habit out of poor sleeping patterns.

"Come on Hannah, you'll only be worse off if you don't eat anything," Susan chirped, noticing the untouched food.

"Thanks, mother," Hannah responded sarcastically. She picked up her spoon and managed a small mouthful.

"By the way, how was your first night patrolling the halls?"

Hannah quickly chewed and swallowed. "It was okay, I guess. Ron - you know, Weasley - wasn't very good company. We found a lost first-year, but other than that nothing much happened. We talked about Draco, too, I guess." Right after saying that last bit, Hannah winced. Why had she included that? That wasn't something you would normally say unless you had a crush on somebody.

This fact did not go unnoticed by Susan. "What did you have to say about him?"

Hannah tried to play it off. "Nothing much. I mean, I don't even know him, do I?"

Susan still looked suspicious, but let the subject rest as Ernie, who looked enviably alert, strolled up to the table. Hannah had to restrain a sigh of relief as Ernie thoroughly distracted Susan with talk of the latest charms essay. Susan was a great friend but was more inclined to talk about things such as crushes than Hannah was. Not like she really had a crush on Draco. It was just an interest. Interests were a common occurrence in her life and not something to dwell on.

Despite that mindset, Hannah felt it very difficult to concentrate during Astronomy with Draco at the telescope next to her. If there had been light to see by, she would have been even more unfocused, but as it was, she was still spending most of her time sneaking looks at him under the cover of darkness. Professor Sinistra was saying something about Phobos, but Hannah knew that even with proper concentration, the moons of Mars would never stay in her brain. She sighed and resigned herself to getting notes from somebody else. She would much rather traipse out of reality and enter the "Draco Malfoy Fantasyworld" (a near replica of the "Harry Potter Fantasyworld" from her fourth year) than attempt to ingrain arcane astrological symbols into her brain.

One hour and several snogging fantasies later, she and her heavy-lidded, leaden-footed classmates trudged down to their common rooms. Hannah had deliberately been slow in packing up so as to end up right behind Draco and his cronies as they descended the stairs. The cloaks they were wearing didn't afford much of a view, but she had no problem being imaginative. Susan was trying to carry on a conversation, but soon became aware that Hannah's attentions were directed elsewhere, and they walked to the common room in silence.

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Two weeks later, Hannah was again patrolling the halls, this time with Anthony Goldstein. He didn't seem like the talkative type, which was fine with Hannah, since she never had anything interesting to say, anyway, and especially not around moderately attractive boys.

Anthony suddenly stopped in his tracks and held out an arm, forcing her to stop just as abruptly. "I think I hear footsteps," he whispered.

Hannah almost laughed. He was taking this very seriously. "It's probably just another lost first-year. It's not like Sirius Black is in the castle."

"Don't talk so loud! We don't want them to get away," Anthony hissed.

His worries were unfounded. The footsteps grew more audible and soon, a figure turned the corner and was walking right for them. Hannah couldn't make out the face, but it definitely wasn't a first-year. Whoever it was, he didn't seem reluctant about running into a pair of prefects.

"Just out for a midnight stroll," came the unmistakable drawling voice.

Was there a rule about prefects being out on their off nights? Hannah didn't think so and wasn't going to say anything, but Anthony seemed compelled to enforce the rules, as he said, "You of all people know the rules, Draco. No students out past curfew."

"My walking isn't hurting anybody, Goldstein. I'll walk around when I want," Draco responded coldly.

Anthony was undaunted. "Rules are rules. You should head back to dormitory."

Draco turned to her. "What do you think, Abbott? Is it past my bedtime?"

Hannah hesitated. She really didn't want to get involved. "Well...you are a prefect, but..."

Draco cut her off. "That's right. I am a prefect. I'd better be on my way." Hannah was hoping that Anthony didn't do something stupid like pull out his wand, but all he did was murmur under his breath about telling Flitwick. They watched Draco walk down the hallway they had come from, then turned and continued their patrol.

"What a git." Anthony said once Draco was surely out of earshot. "Who does he think he is?"

Hannah didn't want to further incense Anthony, so she simply agreed, "Yeah, he's a bit of a git."

"Flitwick will definitely be hearing about this. He shouldn't just have free reign to do whatever he pleases."

"Yeah". Hannah's mind was already fast-forwarding to a meeting in Flitwick's office, with her, Draco, and Anthony there, and the little professor asking her to incriminate Draco, and Draco glaring at her, her standing in his eyes dropping precariously...

However, a few days later, neither Anthony nor Flitwick had spoken to her, and Draco didn't seem to be treating her with any more contempt than he did anybody else. Now she couldn't help but think that Draco actually admired her slightly, for not doing the "prefect" thing and trying to get him in trouble as Anthony had done. This thought was a bit of a stretch, but it was quite easy to concoct fantasies based around this concept.

By now, Susan was quite aware of Hannah's infatuation. Whenever they were alone in the Great Hall or the common room, she would pester Hannah about it, prodding her to go talk to Draco if she loved him so much. Susan also had the annoying habit of bursting out into giggles whenever they passed Draco in the hallways. Hannah prayed that Draco didn't notice anything awry, because she definitely didn't intend to ever approach him and she would probably faint if he approached her.

The excuse Hannah always gave for her inaction was twofold; first, her prefect duties (which she mostly relegated to Ernie), and second, the fact that preparation for OWLs consisted of several hours of homework a night. She really didn't have time to pursue boys, and besides, it was their job to pursue her, wasn't it? Not like she was being pursued much anyway.

With the addition of Dumbledore's army in early October (because all Hufflepuffs could agree that Umbridge was an absolutely dreadful teacher) and the complications of making sure that the club went undetected, even Draco was pushed to the side of her mind. Nighttime patrols were also a secondary concern, since Umbridge's presence made them almost meaningless; nobody was going to risk getting caught out past curfew and face Umbridge's wrath. Hannah's patrol with Pansy passed without a single word spoken, and patrolling with Padma was only made interesting by Padma twisting her ankle after missing a step in the dark.

The next patrol, though, that one was one to look forward to. She wouldn't get her hopes up, of course, but a few hours of close proximity to him was better than two months of staring, even if it did come with a portion of indifference or some light abuse. In the week leading up to this momentous event, Hannah had even more trouble focusing on homework than usual, and even earned a detention with Snape after handing in an essay that was both five inches short and completely factually inaccurate. She knew that the upcoming OWL's demanded more of her attention, but she told herself that she would get back to schoolwork in due time, barring any Future Involvement with Draco.

Future Involvement with Draco - Now that was a ridiculous notion.

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I can't believe I got my hopes up over this, Hannah thought angrily to herself. Not that Draco was treating her poorly, but all he wanted to do was talk about himself. It was interesting for the first few minutes, to get a more complete picture of this boy she fancied, but facing the prospect of being talked at for hours had put her in a foul mood. Not to mention the self-important way Draco talked, and his constant forays into the politics of the Wizarding world, as if she cared about those things.

Hannah's thoughts were interrupted by a hand waving in her face. "Hey Abbott, I asked you a question."

"Oh...um, I guess I missed it," Hannah responded, hoping that the dimness of the hallway would obscure the redness of her face.

Draco shook his head and sneered. "Typical Hufflepuff. I asked if your friend Bones thinks I'm funny or if she's just prone to laughing like an idiot."

So he had noticed. Now she was really red-faced, and there was no way he couldn't notice, because he was staring right at her.

"Uh. I guess she can be...giggly sometimes," Hannah said, avoiding his gaze.

Draco laughed. "So bursting into fits of giggles and jabbing you with her elbow is a regular occurrence? That would get awfully annoying, I would imagine. I'm glad that my presence isn't the cause of that." Now he was smirking. To Hannah, it was quite apparent that she had been found out, all because Susan found it so hilarious that she fancied somebody.

She figured she might as well come clean. Maybe she could convince him not to spread it around Hogwarts and then make a hasty escape before he became even more insufferable.

"Alright, I fancy you, " Hannah said in what she hoped was a convincing "exasperated" tone, punctuating the remark with the crossing of her arms. "A girl's still allowed to do that, isn't she?"

Draco didn't seem fazed. "I don't remember saying that I was off-limits."

"Well, obviously...obviously you're not interested, so I think I'll just head back to my common room. We both know that nobody's going to be out here, anyway," Hannah said, hoping to escape from this situation with as much dignity as possible. She turned around and walked the way they had come.

There issued a voice from behind her. "Hannah, hold on." She couldn't help but notice that he hadn't called her "Abbott", but it also occurred to her that he might be beckoning her in order to wring more embarrassment from her. That little filament of hope in her wouldn't go away, though, so she turned back around, to find Draco only a foot away.

"I never said I wasn't interested either."

She noticed that when he wasn't sneering, his face was even more handsome than usual. That fact was easy to notice given that his face was getting progressively closer. She closed her eyes and tilted her head in anticipation.

His kiss was a little commanding, but that's how it had been in her dreams, so she wasn't too concerned.

They pulled apart after what seemed like minutes. Hannah was having difficulty finding words, but Draco didn't seem to be.

"The first time I noticed you - really noticed you - was in the prefect's carriage. You were staring at me. Do you remember that?"

She did.

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Author's Notes:

That's it! This fic really turned out better than expected. If you want to validate my existence, go ahead and leave a review. Thanks for reading.