Having been ambushed slightly by her friends, a sudden wave of sadness crashed over Hermione. She realised despite the fact she may have needed to, she didn't even want to talk about what she just witnessed, it was far too painful. So instead she politely sat and tried her best to listen to what the others had been through, and trying to ignore the fact she'd seen them dead not half an hour ago.

Ron kept mentioning how there were spiders absolutely everywhere in his dream, and despite the fact Blaise had initially laughed, they soon found they had to face up to some more serious things. Like death eaters. It was a very grim experience for them both apparently.
Harry on the other hand just felt sorry for Luna. A lot of his past had been bought up, a lot of painful memories, that had to relived with her by his side. It was ok though, she was very understanding.
Neville had clearly had a terrible time, and like Hermione did not want to share anything, so he went straight up to bed. She wondered if Pansy had similar fears to Draco, and that if she too had some rather disturbing weaknesses.

"...and out of nowhere, Blaise had managed to sneak out from under the table and BAM! Just like that there was..."
"Sorry guys," Hermione cut off Ron, "mind if I just head up to my dorm for a while? I'll see you guys at dinner."
The boys looked at each other uncertainly, but then nodded.
"Hey Hermione," said Harry before she could disappear. "How was it with Malfoy?" They hadn't even asked until then, but Hermione didn't answer and just continued her way up to her room.
She was alone, at last, and she flopped on to her bed.

Draco did exactly the same thing, ignoring Pansy's depression as he'd entered the common room. Blaise was also laid down on his own bed and lifted his head a little as Draco entered.
"Was it as bad for you as it was for me?" he asked wearily.
"Trust me," replied Draco, "it was worse."
He slept then until dinner, and although several disturbing images conjured in his mind whilst he rested, he only had to think of Hermione's touch to calm himself down.
But every time he did that he got even more fidgety and uncomfortable. It was Hermione, no, it was Granger. He had to shake this feeling of any actual liking towards her. It wouldn't end well if they got close, which was nearly impossible anyway considering how easy it was to suddenly break out into an argument with each other.

So, just before dinner, Draco had awoken and simply hung about a bit in his surprisingly empty common room, brooding over his thoughts. It took him a full minute to realise Pansy had appeared and sat on the sofa opposite him; probably because she had never been so quiet for so long before.
She coughed, and Draco peered up to see her face was bit damp, obviously from tears. Feeling a sudden responsibility, and quite a bit of pity, he sat next to her and put his arm around her. Not in the way he used to do it when they messed around, now it was just as a friend. She clearly appreciated this, and leaned into him a bit, sniffling slightly.
"Longbottom cause any major accidents?" he asked smirking.
She laughed, "actually, it's funny you should say that. He did quite the opposite. He..." she trailed off, and although intrigued, Draco didn't push her for an answer. After a while they both got up and headed down for dinner.

Hermione was sitting at the dinner table looking rather anxious as people slowly filled the room. She didn't know why she was anxious, and then decided there was no point really in worrying about it all. It was all just a dream, it was all exaggerated, and it was all just a big show of what might come. But she then felt confident it wouldn't.
So having regained a little comfort, she forced a smile to her friends and listened to the conversations. She noticed that despite sitting next to each other, Neville and Luna were very quiet. In a way she was very interested to see what they all saw, but at the same time wanted nothing to do with it.

"To be honest, it wasn't much of an obstacle course, as in the physical sense," mentioned Harry.
"I know what you mean, felt like more of a depressing walkthrough of my partners life," answered Ron. "Still, I suppose that's what this is all about. Getting to know your enemies."
"You know I'm sure not every Slytherin is a bloody death eater Ron," Hermione said suddenly.
"Yes I know that, but you get people like Malfoy..."
"He's not that bad," Hermione cut in.
"Did you really just say that?" asked Ron in disbelief. "After everything he's done to us?"
"You're the one on first name terms with your partner! Honestly do you think I've gone soft in the head? I know he's not perfect but neither are you! No one is."
A very awkward silence settled and Hermione sighed.
"I'm sorry, I just... saw more than I'd wanted to today."
"Dont worry about it," Harry replied before Ron could. "It's been pretty tough for everyone I think."
"Yeah well, it certainly doesn't mean I've become his best friend or anything close to that, so rest easy Ron," she said smirking a little at her protective friend.
That was all he'd ever been to her, a friend. She'd never seen him or Harry in any other way, though she did feel bad when Ron had had a crush on her, but luckily now that had past, and the brief awkwardness they went through had disappeared.

Dinner was good after calming down a bit, though Hermione still felt tired despite having technically done nothing all day.
She'd decided her best course of action was to just avoid Draco as much as possible, and luckily, he'd also decided to avoid her. It wasn't difficult to blank each other in lessons or in the corridor, but both were trying desperately to control their thoughts from straying on to what happened, and the odd sense of comfort they'd found with each other for a while. But no matter how much Draco tried to deter it, Hermione's hand in his was always there in his thoughts.

Avoiding each other went successfully over the next week and the time went rather quickly. Hermione had easily got back into the swing of things and was already surrounded with books and extra homework. Draco on the other hand was somehow putting the smallest amount of effort into his work and still coming out on top. Well, almost. This annoyed him.
It had been a couple days before last making any contact at all, but in Potions class that changed.
Having received results back from their first small assignment of the year, Draco had come so close to getting the top grade, and despite Snape already having slight bias towards him, there was zero fault in Hermione's work, so he couldn't give her any less than full marks.
It shouldn't have bothered him really, it never severely had before, but for some reason he felt the need to break his rule of avoiding her over it.
After being dismissed, Draco came up behind her as she was walking away from class with Harry and Ron.

"Bloody know-it-all," he mumbled as loudly as possible. She rolled her eyes, which gave him immense pleasure in seeing.
"At least I put effort in."
"Well now if you're saying I didn't put any in then... You'd be right. Yet still coming out second best kinda shows how dumb your two boyfriends must be." Crabbe and Goyle sniggered, obviously not realising they also fell into that category. Draco smirked, this reminded him of old times. Ron went red and Harry stayed quiet as Hermione unleashed whatever she'd been holding in since last seeing him and SMACK. Right across his face she slapped him. And immediately regretted it.
The stinging pain shot through his face, and then he couldn't control himself. "You filthy mudblood! Don't you dare try to touch me again you disgusting, pathetic excuse for a witch!"
Tears pricked at her eyes but she wouldn't give in. "Malfoy! No one cares what you have to say! And do you know why? Because you don't have any friends to listen, and quite frankly you never will if you don't stop behaving like a total arse all the time!"
Ron went to applaud her but Harry stopped him, very wary of the extremely angry look in Draco's eyes.
But silence, Draco turned on his heel after looking Hermione dead in the eye, and left without another word.
Hermione let out a deep breath and everyone around them continued to walk and chat. A huge wave of worry then washed over her as she watched his blond hair turn away round a corner.
"Blimey Hermione, didn't know you had that in you," commented Ron, quite mesmerised.
"Neither did I," she said before hurrying off in the same direction Draco went.
"Hermione, wait! Where are you..?" called Harry and Ron, clearly confused.

Draco was angry, very angry. Any feelings of any kind he may have had for her at all were gone. How could she? First the smack, which hurt like a bitch, and then she has the audacity to try and humiliate him in front of everyone who'd stood there watching. And he couldn't even think of a comeback. Because sadly, everything she'd said was true.
He'd managed to lose Crabbe and Goyle in his fluster, and now stood in an empty and eerily silent corridor.
Now tears threatened to fall from his eyes. How the hell was he gonna get through this year.
There was an alcove by the window, which he curled up in and sat for a while, desperately forcing himself to not cry. There was so much pressure on him. He just felt so scared. And Hermione had just made him realise how alone he was.

Hermione felt bad, but she didn't really want to. Had this been only a week ago, she'd have said that all without blinking an eye, but now having seen a glimpse of how damaged he could be, she just felt so pitiful for him and had now also totally ruined any chance they may have had at the truce.
She was wondering slightly aimlessly until she went through an empty corridor. Nearly empty. She stopped moving as she saw him, innocently curled up, knees bought up to cover his face. She could've sworn he was crying.
Feeling very awkward, and now a bit doubtful of having come after him at all, she walked over to him and then eventually sat down. No one was here, she had nothing to lose.
She was only centimetres from touching him, but she just looked at him in silence. Gradually his head lifted and he spotted her, sitting right next to him. She was so quiet, he hadn't noticed her sit down.
When their eyes met and locked on to each other, he could see the sickeningly large amount of pity on her face, she clearly wasn't trying to hide it.

"Don't feel sorry for me," he said, his voice small and raspy.
"I don't," she said defensively.
"Of course you do, or else you wouldn't be here."
"... Ok so maybe I do."
"Maybe? You definitely do Granger."
"Ok fine yes I do!"
"Alright don't get your knickers in a twist."
"Well excuse me for being concerned over for your sanity."
"Aw Granger, if only you'd been this concerned 10 minutes ago," he said sarcastically.
"What happened to Hermione?" she asked, feeling a little guilty saying that after what she'd said to Ron about being on a first name basis.
"I don't know, forgot about her," he said awkwardly. He could feel his cheeks flushing a little, which he desperately willed them not to since he barely ever blushed.
"I'm sorry," she started, "I'm sorry for what I said, it was only after I'd said it I realised how..."
"Stop," he cut in.
"I'm trying to be nice here Malfoy give me a break."
"No Granger just stop, you shouldn't feel like you have to be nice to me. I... appreciate it, but I don't want you to be like this, all friendly as if this was how we'd always been."
She still looked a little confused so he continued, sighing, "look, before this gets too complicated, we should just stay away from each other. I don't want you to be acting all concerned when I know really all your feeling is pity." His tone was quite serious.
"That'll be a little hard considering what we have to do don't you think?"
"Yes, and when we do those tasks we'll just have to get on with it, but outside from that, let's just try and stick with our truce. My life is mine to worry about, so you can relax and focus on your so called friends and the chosen ones terrible destiny," he smirked his famous smirk.

Hermione paused, thinking it over. He was right of course, she had no reason to be so concerned with him and his personal life, but she couldn't block out the memory of Lucius doing what he did, and wondering if it was like that all the time. But no, she'd go along with this, it was for the best.
She sighed, "all right then Malfoy," she got up and he followed closely, realising both their friends would probably be worried. "So we just forget all this and go back to being... Well normal to each other?" she said.
"Sounds about right to me," he replied.
"Alright then, see you around Ferret," she smiled cheekily and ran off to her common room.
Draco would've got angry, but he couldn't bring himself to. He smiled, quite glad that resolved the tension between them, however forgetting about everything was probably not going to happen, he had to at least try, they still had a long way to go before this stupid preparation thing was over.
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A/N; wow so another long chapter, I hope you guys don't think I'm rushing the relationship too much, not that it's gone anywhere yet particularly. Let me know your opinions in reviews! :)