Never Look Back

Never Look Back 02

Almost immediately after Ginny had left Hermione's dorm, Hermione abruptly awoke from her slumber. She turned over to her cabinet for the picture of her and Harry. She let out a soft sob, seeing its shattered remains on the floor, the two figures in the picture hiding in separate corners. A small tear escaped her eye and fell onto her pillow. "Why?" She thought, "I thought we were going to stay together till the end of seventh year!" Hermione threw her head back onto her pillow, staring up at the upholstered ceiling of her four poster bed. She closed her eyes, only to find that images of Harry had entered her mind. She let out a groan. "I need to get out of here," she thought, and she decided to head for the library. Hermione almost entered the boy's dormitory to retrieve Harry's cloak, but stopped herself. '"We're not going out anymore, remember?'" she chastised herself and with that she dashed out the door.

Twenty minutes later, Hermione had left her room, and she started to roam the corridors of Hogwarts. She quietly tiptoed down to the library, and whispered Alohomora. Instantly there was a click of the latch, and the door was opened. She sneakily headed to her favorite dusty corner of the library, where Malfoy had taunted her that very day. She sat there at a table, and thought about the days events. She peered out the stain glass windows onto the dark lake. A few minutes later she had drifted off to sleep.

The creaking of a door awoke Hermione from her uneasy slumber. She glanced at her watch and panicked at the time. She dashed out of the library, forgetting to make her steps quiet, when an angry voice confronted her.

"Miss Granger!" said a shrilly Professor McGonagall. "What in Merlin's name are you doing out here?" Hermione shifted nervously under her penetrating gaze.

"Um, I think I might have been sleep walking," she lied quickly. Professor McGonagall snorted disbelievingly

"And you of all people! I am afraid, Miss Granger that you will be having detention! Good night! Oh, and 10 points from Gryffindor." with a sharp turn of her heel, she headed up the stairs to another part of the castle. "Could this day get any worse," pondered Hermione, as she solemnly headed up to her dormitory.

Later that night, someone else was strolling about the corridors. A tall boy of seventeen with silvery blonde hair that was brushed back against his head, and misty gray eyes, was heading towards the Owlrey. The boy was Draco Malfoy. He climbed the steep ladder and entered a room with a straw covered floor. Owls lined the ceiling all crammed next to each other. He started to summon his eagle owl when a tiny barn owl swooped in causing him to duck.

"Ruddy owl," he cursed under his breath.

The owl fluttered down from its perch with it's amber eyes staring at Draco. He reached over and stroked the owl's head. It made a soft coo, and Draco ushered it up to it's perch and retreated down the ladder. He was halfway down to the Slytherin dormitory when he bumped into the last person he wanted to see, Professor McGonagall.

"Mr. Malfoy!" shrieked the professor. "What on earth are you doing out of bed at this hour?"

"Nothing," Malfoy mumbled as he avoided her eyes.

"You will receive detention, and you will lose 10 points for Slytherin." Draco merely nodded and walked away.

"Two students out in one night, I can't believe it!" grumbled McGonagall as she walked towards her office.

Hermione awoke late in the morning to find herself a disheveled mess; her bushy brown hair astray and her eyes were filled with sadness. She quickly threw on her black school robes and headed down to the Great Hall. She was greeted by Ginny who motioned for Hermione to sit by her. She ended up sitting next to Ron and diagonally from Harry. Throughout the meal there was a noticeable tension between Harry and Hermione, the two were afraid to speak, in fear of aggravating the other two.

"Ah, the mail is here," spoke Ginny, and not second later hundreds of owls swooped in through the rafters. A tawny owl that belonged to the school flew down to Hermione and delivered her a letter. In McGonagall's harsh handwriting was a detention notice. She read it over quickly and stuffed it in her pocket.

"What was that?" Ron asked.

"Oh nothing," Hermione responded hastily.

Hermione sat through all the classes in a daze. Her mind was completely elsewhere. Only doing the motions. She was a straight O (Outstanding) student, a prefect, and a teachers pet. How could she have gotten a detention? Hermione normally was always in bed before curfew or she was hanging out in the common room unless, she was going out with Harry and Ron on one of their crazy plots. She sighed as she looked up at the clock. It was 6:00. Grabbing her cloak and tossing it over her shoulders she headed out through the portrait hole, her bushy hair bouncing behind her.

Hermione entered the trophy room, and to her disgust she spotted Draco Malfoy, standing there awaiting Filch, his white-blonde tresses glinting in the candle light. He turned around when he heard her coming.

"Granger," he spat.

"Malfoy," she glared. They spoke no more, until Filch arrived and gave them cleaning supplies. He mumbled something under his breath about punishment and something that sounded remarkably like "Umbridge". It was common knowledge that Filch believed Professor Umbridge, whom was their Defense against the Dark Arts teacher in fifth year, was the best thing that had ever happened to Hogwarts. Still grumbling as he set buckets and rags at their feet, he barked instructions at them. They were to clean all the trophies with no magic. "You would think all the gold has been polished off the trophies by how many times they have been cleaned," she thought to herself. Draco and Hermione worked side by side, never saying a word until after Filch left.

"What the hell did you do to get detention? Perfect Granger never gets detention." he said with a smirk.

"I was up out of bounds last night. What about you, Daddy's Boy?" she said quite evilly. Malfoy glared at her and spoke.

"Same as you."

"Ah, so we're in the same boat together." spoke Malfoy

"Yes indeed," she said and continued polishing not noticing Malfoy inching closer to her.

Sometime throughout the detention session Malfoy and Hermione had changed their opinions of each other as they quietly chatted. She no longer thought he was cruel, but a bit of hate still remained. As for Draco, he still thought she was a bossy know-it-all, but his opinion wasn't as strong. They talked about school, friends, and even a bit of Quidditch. As she started polishing the Quidditch Cup trophy of their third year, Draco's arm purposely brushed against hers. She drew in her breath sharply and turned to look at him.

"Sorry," he mumbled though he didn't mean it. He grinned to himself at her being uncomfortable.

"Oh My God!"

Hermione thought desperately, "Why did I react like that!" She brushed a stray hair away from her face and started scrubbing another trophy. Draco glanced over at her as she intently scrubbed the trophy, scrubbing it as if her life depended on it.

"You missed a spot." he spoke suddenly causing her to jump as he reached over and brushed away a speck. He looked into her confused brown eyes while she stared back into his cold gray ones, their faces inches apart. It took all his will power not to kiss her at that very moment. He averted his gaze from Hermione, realizing what he had been thinking of doing and scolded himself. A loud cough brought them down to earth as Filch reentered, dismissing them of their detention. They hurried out of the trophy room side by side and went their separate ways. He stared coldly at her back as she walked down the staircase. After all, to him, she was just a filthy mudblood.

Hermione walked towards the portrait of the Fat Lady, with thoughts of Draco in her mind. She kept flashing back to the moment where he had almost kissed her, and she knew he wanted to also. She had felt something there. They both had. But him. Him of all people. Why? For the first time in 24 hours Harry was off her mind.

"Password?" the Fat Lady asked lazily.

"Bombycinus." Hermione muttered, and the portrait door swung open. The minute she walked in, Harry was in her face demanding where she had been. His face stressed and worried, disrupting her thoughts.

"Does it matter? Why should you care? You're the one that dumped me." she asked grumpily. Harry was not her favorite person at the moment to be arguing with

"Leave that out of this!" He spat back.

"Well if you must know, I was in detention." she said and started heading towards the girl's dormitory.

"Why didn't you tell us at breakfast? Ginny has been looking for you!" he said angrily.

"Damn it Harry! You're not my mother!" she yelled, her bushy hair frizzing out behind her. Harry, shocked at what Hermione said, did nothing as she retreated to the dorm. When she reached the tall oak door with the sign that said SEVENTH YEAR DORMITORY, she quietly opened and closed the door, not wanting to wake up Lavender or Parvati. Though she soon realized this was unnecessary as the two girls were gossiping together. They abruptly ended their chatter and allowed Hermione a brief "hello" before returning back to their conversation. She flopped onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. Closing her eyes, an image of Draco Malfoy entered her brain. "What was it about him that made her react this way?" She wondered. Something about his silver eyes or his secretive mystique made him so, so sexy. She grinned but her smile quickly turned into a frown. She couldn't actually fancy Draco Malfoy? Could she? The boy who had tormented her and her friends for the last six years? She closed her eyes tightly and clamored off the bed.

She glanced down at the picture frame she had smashed the previous night, muttered Reparo, and the shattered glass pieced itself together. She opened up her trunk and placed the picture frame in it, the lid on the trunk, while closing her heart on Harry (romantically that is). For now at least.