When Enemies Interact

Chapter 5: In the Library.

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Hermione sat on her bed, watching the second hand on her alarm clock tick away. She wasn't sure if she should go down to the Great Hall for tea now and face Harry, or later when she wouldn't. She of course had to keep in mind that she had to meet Draco in the library at seven o'clock, but she was having no problem in doing that, as he hadn't left her mind all day.

She smiled slightly as she remembered how he had caught her when her chair lost balance and she remembered vaguely that he had stared at her in content as he had held her steady for those few seconds. The way his silver-blonde hair was tousled from flicking it back several times while sweeping. The way his grey eyes sparkled in the dim light ... She almost slapped herself. She was not thinking of Draco Malfoy in that way; she couldn't think of Draco Malfoy in that way!

But she still was. The image of him just wouldn't leave her head. It just kept circling and circling and she couldn't stop it. She wasn't sure where these feelings had come from, as they had appeared out of nowhere over night, but she knew it had something to do with him saying he cared about her, when she didn't even know if it was even true.

Was it possible that she was falling for him, as she now knew that she liked him? She shook her head as an attempt to rid her mind of these thoughts and stood up. She would go down to the Great Hall and sit as far away from Harry possible, but staying on the Gryffindor table and not look in his direction at all.

Her plan worked well. When she arrived, she saw Harry at the very end of the table, closed to the teachers' table. She sat at the opposite end with a bunch of hyperactive third year girls, one of which was talking about Lavender Brown's younger brother Matthew. From where she was sitting, she had a clear view of the Slytherin table, but she chose not to look in that direction as she had finally got her mind off Draco.

She ate as much as her stomach would take before pushing her plate away from her and standing up to leave. She could feel eyes on her, and in instinct, she looked over at the Slytherin table. There he was, sitting there and staring at her. He made no move to look away when she met his gaze and gave him a small smile she couldn't hold back and she was surprised when he returned it.

Hermione then exited the Hall and as she reached the staircase to head back up to Gryffindor Tower, someone called out to her as they ran towards her.

"Wait, Granger." It was Draco. "Look, how about we meet in the library in about ten minutes? I've just got to get my stuff and I'll be ready, so you can meet me there and we can start a bit early. It's going to be harder than I originally thought after doing a lot of research in the library this afternoon. I only found one bloody book with useful information on this stupid potion in it."

Hermione nodded. "I'll meet you there, then," she replied, turning around and heading up the staircase, wondering when Draco had become the organising type.

*

Draco watched her retreating back and turned around as well, heading in the direction of the dungeons.

He entered the Slytherin common room to find it rather empty. Crabbe and Goyle were sitting around, lazily talking to Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode, while a couple of other people were playing Exploding Snap in which one of them was complaining that they had burnt the tips of their fingers. He crossed the room and took the stairs up to the boys' dormitories two at a time.

When he reached his dormitory, he looked around at Crabbe and Goyle's mess. Things were everywhere. With things such as dirty clothes hanging on the windowsill and lampshades and loose pages from books scattered all over the floor, it was all hard to dodge, but Draco still got to his trunk rather easily. Opening it, he grabbed every bottle of ink he could find -all different colours-, his Potions book, a couple of quills and a book of loose parchment to write down notes in. He then headed back down to the common room, told Crabbe and Goyle where he was going, received grunts as replies and exited the cold dungeon common room to head up to the library to meet Hermione.

He reached the eerie silence of the library and took a seat at a table at the back, away from everyone else. Hermione didn't seem to be there yet, so he unpacked his stuff and waited. Five minutes ... seven minutes ... ten minutes, where was she? The question was answered as Hermione entered, flushed in the face and breathing heavily, as if she had ran there. She slowly approached him and took a seat opposite him on the table.

"Sorry, I-I ran into Professor McGonagall. She kept telling me how wonderful my human transfiguration was," she said. "I also had to find a few things and I got Professor McGonagall to make up this note." She pushed a slip of parchment towards him and he read it.

I, Prof. M. McGonagall, give permission for Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy to enter the restricted section of the library to find information on the Polyjuice Potion for a Potions assignment.

And below that was Professor McGonagall's neat, loopy signature.

Draco stood up, the note in his hand. Hermione just looked at him blankly. "Come on," Draco said. Hermione just sat there. "Granger -"

"Alright!" Hermione said irritably and rather loudly, standing up. "I honestly think we should look around these shelves before hand, though."

"I've been searching all day, Hermione, there's absolutely nothing," Draco said back. He had done it again. He had called her by her first name, making Hermione freeze where she stood. "What?"

"You-you said it again," Hermione replied disbelievingly.

"Said what, Granger?"

"You called me by my first name," Hermione said. She was still looking at him in disbelief.

"Is it a crime? You called me by mine in front of Potter and Weasley," Draco said; he kept shifting around uncomfortably.

"How do you know about that?"

"I, er, overheard Potter saying Weasley's upset with you because you did," Draco replied. "It's about time you broke up with him, may I say."

"It's not a crime, it's just you never -" Hermione said.

"Well I'm going to from now on," Draco said, not looking at her. "I find it's rather stupid calling you Granger when I'm around you as much as I have been lately." This took her by surprise, but she got over it quite quickly and nodded in agreeance.

"It does sound strange coming from your mouth though, Draco," Hermione said.

"So does my name coming from yours," Draco smirked. "Come on."

They walked over to Madam Pince's desk and handed her the note. She looked from the note to Draco and Hermione, who were standing in front of her. Madam Pince stood up and walked to the rope that divided the Restricted Section from the rest of the library. She unlatched it, let Draco and Hermione enter and re-latched it.

The shelves were divided into small sections, each labeled differently to show what sort of books were there. Madam Pince led them to the Potions section.

"Stay in this section only. I know there is quite a lot of books here that will help you. I have a clear view of you from my desk and I'm keeping a close eye on you," the patron said. She looked mainly at Draco with the last part. "If you have to, you may borrow a couple of books each, just tell me which ones." With that, she left, leaving them alone.

Hermione sighed and got down on her knees to look at the lower shelves. There were several books with titles in different languages and some with none at all. She made her way along the shelves, pulling out books and handing them to Draco, who was standing beside her. She made her way up the shelves, looking for any books she thought might be useful. She made sure she grabbed Moste Potente Potions, a book she knew had the Polyjuice Potion in it. (Her, Harry and Ron had used this book back in their second year when they had made the Polyjuice Potion in secret.) When she had grabbed all the books she believed might come in handy, Draco was weighed down, with only his forehead visible over the pile and he kept staggering slightly to the side due to the weight. Hermione smiled amusedly at the sight and took half the pile from him.

"Thanks," he panted as she did so. "Is this all?"

"I think so. For now at least," Hermione replied. She led the way back into the main part of the library and to their table, where she placed her pile of books, helped Draco with his, though he didn't really need the help, and sat down. Draco followed suit.

"Is living with Muggles hard?" he asked abruptly as he grabbed the topmost book.

It took Hermione a moment to answer as the question had taken her by great surprise. "No, not really," she answered finally. "I grew up thinking I was a Muggle and everything I did was Muggle, with the exception, of course, of being able to do strange things others couldn't. It came as a great surprise to me when I got my letter from Hogwarts; I hadn't even suspected that I was a witch.

"My mum was all excited about the fact of me being magical," Hermione continued. "My dad on the other hand, was not. He despised the idea, and mum had to convince him it was alright and to let me come here. It took an awful lot of persuasion to make him allow it. My mum and dad's relationship hasn't been the same since. They're always fighting and, when I'm home, I have to suffer with it." She went slightly pink and looked down at the book she had grabbed from the pile, as if she felt she had said too much. "Sorry," she said quietly.

"For what?"

"You probably don't want to hear about my boring and problem-filled life," she said, flipping through the pages of the book. "You've already heard enough of it. My feelings about Harry and now this."

"Your home life probably isn't as bad as mine. In fact, I don't think it's possible," Draco said. Hermione looked up. He actually wanted to talk to her about this? What had gotten into him? "When I'm home, my father punishes me for everything, and it's never light. He doesn't punish you with chores, like most normal people, he punishes you with pain. As I said last night, if I was nice to Dobby when we had him, I was guaranteed a beating and a rough one at that. Once, this Muggle boy who lived down the road from me, asked me if I wanted to play some Muggle game with this long, weird-looking bat and this really hard ball -"

"Cricket," Hermione interrupted; Draco looked confused. Hermione elaborated, "The game was probably cricket, or some other Muggle sport. There are lots really."

"Anyway," Draco said, "I decided to play and I admit, it was definitely fun, but father didn't like it at all and punished me for it. It was definitely the worst punishment I've ever gotten."

"What was it?"

"He used the Cruciatus curse on me," Draco replied with a look of fright as he remembered it. Hermione gasped and her hand flew to her mouth in terror. "I was nine at the time," Draco continued with a far away look on his face, "And the pain, as you can imagine, was excruciating. I've been terrified of my father since, though I try not to show it, because my father would punish me for showing fear."

Hermione knew Lucius Malfoy was cruel and evil, but she had never thought he would do something that terrible to his own son. She greatly wanted the subject to change. She didn't like telling people about what it was like for her at home and she also didn't like hearing about other peoples home lives, either, much less Draco's, which seemed terribly tragic.

She went back to looking through the book and a moment later, found something that seemed interesting.

"Draco, I think I've found something," she said. Draco looked up and she took a deep breath. "The Polyjuice Potion is one of the only known liquids that will change the form of one human being to resemble another - Well we knew that already - The Potion was outlawed back in 1954, but the law was later changed for the Potion to be restricted and only to be used for reasons accepted by the Ministry of Magic."

"Well I didn't know that," Draco said. "Did you?"

"No, but I knew there had to be some sort of law against it," Hermione said. "Though, of course, there are some people who don't go by the law. There always is in cases like this."

"There is?"

"Yes. Look at Mr. Crouch's son; he used the Polyjuice Potion to take the form of Mad-eye Moody all through our fourth year," Hermione said, "And I've read about other cases like that." Draco nodded. "Could you pass me a piece of parchment?" Draco ripped a piece out of his book and handed it to her. She jotted down the information and began searching another book.

A whole hour passed while they went through book after book, jotting down notes, though there wasn't many, about everything they found on the Potion, talking every now and then about school work and classes or sharing some information that they had found. It was quite peaceful, but Hermione was still yet to find out if he really did care about her and she was beginning to feel a little nervous about asking him such a question for some reason, so she stuck to talking about her classes to keep her mind off it.

"... I have to do this assignment with Dean and Seamus for my Study of Ancient Runes class," Hermione told him. "Professor Kinklewick gave us this book, which is written in Rune, and we have to translate it to English. We've only translated about six or so pages, but it's quite evident that it's someone's old diary."

"I wanted to do the Study of Ancient Runes as a subject, but father said it was a waste of time, doing translations and, well, studying ancient runes," Draco said. Hermione looked offended, making Draco sigh heavily. "It would of course be interesting," he added.

"Oh, it is, it's not just about -" she began, but Draco interrupted.

"Shouldn't we be keeping our minds on Potions, not Ancient Runes?" He made his point and Hermione went back to looking up the Polyjuice Potion.

They were silent for several minutes before Draco let out a breath of irritation and spoke. "This is useless. There's hardly anything on the damn potion in these books," he said, slamming his book shut. "All we've found is some lousy information on it being outlawed and how it's made. Are you sure you got all the books that you thought might be helpful, Hermione?"

"I think so," Hermione said, "But I've got a feeling that maybe there's a book in one of the other sections with lots of information on the Potion, but Madam Pince told us to stay in the Potions section." Draco went to grab another book from the pile, which was only three books high now, but Hermione stopped him. "I think we have to come in here at night, while Madam Pince isn't here and have a look, Draco. Hardly any of these books are helpful and there has to be a book somewhere in this library that will give us enough information for our poster. There just has to be."

Draco stared at her in disbelief for a moment. Hermione Granger, Head Girl and Gryffindor, was willing to risk almost everything, her Head Girl badge and clean record, and sneak into the Restricted Section of the library, after hours, at the dead of night, with him, Draco Malfoy, who was supposed to be her enemy, just for a Potions assignment.

"Alright," Draco said finally, "But we'll have to be careful. I don't know about you, but I don't want to go into the Dark Forest again like in first year or lose my Head Boy badge for that matter."

"Of course we'll be careful," Hermione said in a tone that said he should've known her better than to think she wouldn't be careful. "We just need some sort of plan..."

They sat there for another whole half hour, trying to organise a sensible way to get to the library, at midnight, without being seen, which would've been easier to do if Hermione was on friendly terms with Harry, as she could've borrowed his invisibility cloak, but as she wasn't, they would have to get there some other way, which was easy, but then there was the possibility of being caught on the way, but they decided to sort that out then, as it was hard to know exactly where everyone would be.