Author's Notes: OK so it's been FORVER since I updated this and so I thought I would finish the half written chapter today while I had a few spare minutes. I am still working on All My Agony Fades Away at the moment and will be updating that on Friday or Saturday at the latest.

Disclaimer: As usual I own nothing!

It was nearly two weeks later when Harry finally got Hermione to talk about the Draco incident. She had been sulking for days, not obviously to everyone else of course but to her friends it was clear she wasn't herself. Harry had cornered her in the library that evening and guilted her into talking about it with those big green eyes of his.

"Hermione...is that all he said?" Harry asked carefully.

"Yes, but don't you see it just proves that he was still playing me to win that stupid dare." She retorted.

"Hermione I can't believe I'm going to say this but I think you should have let him explain." Her friend sighed. "He's not the same Draco Malfoy that we knew before the war and while there's not a chance in hell we'll ever be best friends I...I don't think he meant what he said. His friends took him by surprise Hermione he probably hadn't even figured out how he felt about you yet let alone know how to tell them."

"Harry believe me, the only feelings Draco Malfoy has for me are disgust, loathing and various other bad ones." She sighed. Harry put his arm around her and she leant into his side and tried not to let herself cry again.

"Hermione, what's really the problem here? Is it about...what happened at Malfoy manor?" Harry asked quietly. "You have to tell me why you don't believe that he could possibly like you."

"But don't you see Harry?" she asked, sniffling a little. "There is no way Draco Malfoy could like me! That's the problem and this is the only solution that makes sense."

"You need to talk to him." He told her. "You'll never forgive yourself if you don't and you'll never know for certain otherwise. I doubt he would have spent most of half term sat outside the Gryfindor common room if he didn't like you at least a bit."

"He did?" she asked quietly. "I thought Ginny was exaggerating."

"No he really did spend hours every day out there until Sunday." Harry told her. "I guess he gave up because he'd see you at lessons but you flat out blank him in those. I'm literally kicking myself as I say this but I kind of feel sorry for him."

"Sorry for him?" she asked in disbelief. "You're supposed to be on my side."

"Hermione you didn't see him sat out there, he was sat on the landing by the portrait alone with no one talking to him hoping that you'd come out so that he could talk to you. For hours! He even asked several people to let you know he was there and asked somewhat politely. You don't do that for someone you hate 'Mione." He explained. "And if he really does like you then I feel sorry for him that you're ignoring him."

"Oh for Merlin's sake!" Hermione snapped, getting to her feet and storming out of the common room.

She headed down the staircases in a hurry until she reached the passage to the dungeons. She followed the underground passage to the other side of the castle where the dungeons were located, it struck her as entertaining that Gryfindor and Slytherin were almost the furthest that they could get from each other within the castle. She headed in the direction of the Slytherin common room and stopped the first student she saw, who looked to be about second or third year.

"Excuse me, could you tell Draco Malfoy that Hermione Granger is here to speak to him please?" she asked politely. The student gaped and nodded...possibly even a first year then she thought.

"What do you want Granger?" a voice sneered from behind her. She spun around to find Pansy Parkinson stood behind her. "Don't you get it; it was all a game so get lost you're just making yourself look pathetic."

"I'm sure Draco can tell me that himself." Hermione nodded trying not to lose her temper.

"Why would he want to talk to a filthy-"

"Hermione?" she heard Draco's voice enquire. Hermione stared at him for a moment in surprise, she had forgotten exactly how perfect he was in the time she hadn't spoken to him...seeing him looking at her and hearing her name in his voice made her heart thump in ways she thought impossible.

"Apparently you wanted to talk to me." She told him awkwardly. She was nervous, what on earth was she supposed to say to him? All she really wanted was for him to kiss her...

"Oh come on Draco, surely you don't-"

"I can deal with it myself Pansy." Draco growled at the Slytherin girl now edging closer to him. Pansy tossed one last glare in her direction and then disappeared through the Slytherin portrait. "Come on." Draco started walking away from the common room and back the way Hermione had came so she followed him. "What in Merlin's name did you think you were doing coming to the Slytherin common room alone?!"

"I wanted to say sorry for avoiding you." She replied defensively as they reached the bottom of the main staircases.

"So you thought going and getting into a fight with Pansy was a good start?" he asked, wheeling on her and causing her to back away from him. He was mad at her...she deserved that she supposed, didn't stop it from stinging though.

"I didn't, she just came from behind me and took me by surprise." Hermione growled. "Besides nothing happened, not so much as a wand drawn."

"What do you want?" he sighed, the tension slowly leaving his body as he composed himself.

"I told you, I wanted to say that I'm sorry for avoiding you, it was childish of me." She said. "Ginny told me you were practically taking up camp outside the common room but I thought that she was kidding."

"I was there, camping out is a bit of an exaggeration though." He admitted.

"Gryfindor trait." Hermione joked weakly.

"Well you've said sorry now." He said, drawing himself to his full height.

"Draco I-"

"If that's all..." he left the sentence hanging for a moment of silence and when she didn't say anything else he turned and made his way back to the dungeons.

"No! Draco!" she called after him.

"Don't come down here alone again! Understood?!" he hissed at her before swiftly leaving her stood alone at the entrance to the dungeon passageway.

She closed her eyes and blinked the tears back in a stubborn refusal to cry. So Draco Malfoy hadn't changed at all... She made her way back up the staircases as quickly as she could and thankfully the staircases were inclined to move exactly where she wanted them to. She headed straight past Harry in the common room and to her bedroom before she let herself cry.

She had heard Harry and Ron calling after her but she didn't want to try and explain to Harry, knowing Harry he'd go straight to confront Draco about it.

It was Ginny that came up to see her a short while later when the worst of her tears had subsided. The younger witch came and climbed onto Hermione's bunk with her and hugged her without a word for a few moments.

"What happened?" she asked finally. Hermione sniffled and tried to pull herself together for a moment.

"He sent me away." she said softly. "I went to say sorry for ignoring him and he didn't care, he sent me away." She swallowed thickly and wiped her face on Ginny's offered handkerchief.

"Oh Hermione, I don't know what to say..." Ginny said quietly. "He probably didn't mean...you know what? Let's just try to forget about Draco Malfoy for a couple of days and focus on you, yeah?"

Hermione nodded and let the younger girl fix her appearance enough that they could go to the prefect's bathroom. The Weasley girl insisted that it would help her relax and Hermione didn't have the heart to argue with her.

So Hermione went about her life as normally as she could. Why should she let a couple of weeks of Malfoy acting differently affect her? Unfortunately...it did affect her. Her friends knew it and so did she, hell he probably knew it. He wasn't acting like he was affected, he hadn't insulted her like he would have before but he was ignoring her and when she saw him in the great hall or in lessons he seemed perfectly happy with his friends.

"You should actually eat that you know, not just push it around on your plate." Ginny told her quietly one evening.

"I'm not really hungry I'm sort of tired, I think I'll just go to bed actually." Hermione sighed. "I'll see you guys in the morning."

"We need to do something." Harry said a few moments later.

"Yeah, how about we hex Malfoy?" Ron muttered.

"Ron, that won't help." Ginny frowned. "I am beginning to worry about her though. She's hardly eaten a thing in three weeks and you know what? I don't even think she realises that she hasn't been eating."

"What can we do though? She's still coming to lessons, doing her homework and acting pretty normal." Harry shrugged.

"The key word there is acting normal, Harry." Ginny sighed. "I think I might need to speak to Malfoy about it."

"Or not." Ron protested. "What good is that going to do if you told us we can't hex him?"

"Look, he's not being nasty to her anymore right?" Ginny asked them, the two boys made some reluctant noises of agreement. "So he obviously still cares about her."

"Except for the fact he kicked her to the curb you mean?" Ron asked.

"Merlin you boys are so slow!" Ginny exasperated. "He pushed her away because he was embarrassed! He liked her, he tried to apologise which for a Malfoy is a huge deal! But she ignores him and hurts his feelings and his pride! So now doesn't want to risk it but I'm going to talk to him and convince him to."

"How?" Harry asked.

"By explaining that Hermione is in love with him." The witch replied simply.

"In love with him!" Ron snapped. "Is she mental?!"

"Ron shut your mouth!" Ginny hissed. "It doesn't matter if we like him or not, she does. She's going to start making herself ill at this rate and girls don't just do that for fun! She's hurt! She's heartbroken and it's making her feel sick inside."

"So how do you convince Malfoy of this?" Harry asked.

"You leave that to me." Ginny said determinedly. "By the end of the week those two will be on."