Saving You

Dirty Blood

He told himself it didn't matter. When he saw her sad eyes, her tired expressions, he told himself he didn't care. When he realized she hadn't laughed in weeks, he told himself not to wonder why.

But he did wonder. And for some unknown reason he did care. All of a sudden it did matter.

What was wrong with her?

He clenched his jaw, forced his eyes back to the front of the classroom. What was wrong with him?

"I have an announcement about the next few weeks that I hope will be met with the appropriate enthusiasm," Snape was saying to the class. "Because of the level of difficulty throughout the next few chapters, I have decided to permit you to work in teams of two." Excited murmurs broke out, people already eyeing the friends around them for prospective partners. "And I'm sure you'll all appreciate the extra trouble I've gone to in assigningyou into your groups." He held up a piece of parchment, shook it, and smiled a small, secret smile as the class groaned in disappointment. If malevolent Snape had made the pairs, they were in for a long couple of weeks.

"Quiet," Snape ordered, even as he smirked in satisfaction. "When I call your name you may silently assemble into the sets I have so carefully arranged." He held the list close to his face, his eyes slitting. "Potter and Parkinson. Clem and Finnegan. Brown and Lake. Weasley and Crabbe. Malfoy and Granger…"

Hermione sighed inwardly. Somehow she had known that they would be paired together.

Gathering her bag and books, she moved next to Draco, lowering to the seat beside him, as was required. She felt his grey eyes on her as she sat, but she didn't turn to meet them.

Draco hated the wave of satisfaction he felt when he heard Snape call out her name with his. Silently, he watched her as she gathered her things together and moved towards him. She sat, and his eyes stayed on her, maybe longer than they should have. She kept hers glued on Snape as he began to lecture in that low, dull voice of his.

"If you'll turn to page 31 in your textbook, you'll see a list of ingredients, and a diagram of the order in which to combine them..."

Draco was barely listening. He couldn't focus on the class or the potion, not when the girl beside him was dominating his thoughts.

She seemed unaffected by him—a fact that both gratified and annoyed him. Her gaze was steady on the professor at the front of the class. Out of the corner of his eye, Draco could see her writing, could even hear the sound of her quill as it scraped ink onto her page. He could smell the clean, soft scent of her, like raindrops in the spring; could hear the sound of her breath as it sighed against her lips.

He willed himself to direct that focus onto Snape instead of her. He picked up his quill, held it to the parchment that lay before him. He wrote what he heard the professor say, but nothing he was taking down sank any deeper than that. He was too aware of Hermione Granger there beside him, of her gentle breath coming in and out, of her subtle fragrance, reaching him in waves.

"I want detailed descriptions of all the possible side effects. And be warned that anything left out will earn you a lower mark," Snape finished as the class impatiently gathered their things.

Draco watched with narrowed eyes as Harry and Ron came to stand beside Hermione, waiting for her. Ron glared at him pointedly before speaking to his friend.

"You'll come to the Great Hall for your free period, won't you?" he asked her. "Sit with us a while…?"

Hermione nodded mutely as she slowly stacked her books, and both boys smiled. Was that relief Draco saw in their eyes? He was almost sure it was.