Draco sat and waited as the interminable minutes dragged slowly by. Where is she? He'd arrived early for Potions and waited in eager anticipation, a feeling that not so long ago had been alien to him. Before his soul had been a desolate pit of nothing; no happiness or sadness or anger, just a hollow emptiness that could never be filled.

Or so he had thought... Before her.

"Miss Granger, so glad you could join us," intoned Snape in jeering tones.

Draco's heart leapt, actually leapt, at merely hearing her name. He looked up from the age-old scratches in his desk, and there she was, framed in the doorway, the light from outside Snape's darkened classroom playing at the edges of her hair to lend her the angelic glow she always carried in his tortured mind.

Embarrased by her lateness she quickly took a seat and drew her books from her bag without so much as a glance at him. But why would she look? He and she were worlds apart, and she was practically bethrothed to that Potter wretch. His lip curled as Hogwart's latest celebrity intruded upon his thoughts of her.

No matter, he thought as she raised one delicate arm, her perfect features composed in an eagerly studious expression as she answered a question unheard by Draco Malfoy, who had a wicked half-grin flickering at the corner of his mouth. For I know she will soon be mine...