The next Hogsmeade weekend was coming up, and Draco wanted to invite Hermione to go with him, and to apologize. If the old bat Snape hadn't told his father about everything, he definitely would have already. But he had. Snape always ruined everything.
Draco found it increasingly hard these days to speak to Hermione. Though Ron was still snogging Lavender in public, and Hermione was still not talking to him, their end-of-year exams were coming up very fast, and in any case, every time he caught Hermione alone he always chickened out of talking to her.
"Dude, just do it," Blaise said to him after Draco had confessed his feelings for Hermione to one of his friends. "I've always wanted to ask Pansy out, but then she got snatched by you first. Regretted every day."
This was not what Draco had been looking for as advice, though what Blaise said was certainly true. Hermione Granger was indeed very popular, and her best friends were two boys, and they were very close. Ron still had Lavender, but they were falling apart, and Harry was, in fact, single. And why wouldn't Hermione want the "Chosen One" as her boyfriend? Anyone would.
He finally found her alone in the library, reading a thick-volumed spellbook.
"Er-hi, Granger," Draco said, sliding into the seat next to her.
"Hi, Malfoy," Hermione said, not looking up.
This worried and annoyed Draco tremendously.
"Back to last name terms, then, are we?" he said irritably. Hermione looked up, wounded. Draco immediately regretted saying this. And right after what had happened in the common rooms to....
"Look, I'm sor-" he began, but Hermione opened her mouth.
"Just because I've gone mental for a few months, ferret, does not mean that I really liked you. I don't know why that happened, but I wish it hadn't, because I could never like you. You were the one who made fun of Ron just because he was poor, remember? You were the one who jinxed Neville. You were the one who tried to get Hagrid sacked. You were the ne who called me Mudblood!" Hermione cried. It was as if a dam had burst.
Draco could not deny this, but he could not agree to it, either.
"And after all that, you don't even admit it," Hermione finished nastily.
"What book are you reading?" Draco asked meekly, and to his very great surprise, Hermione blushed heavily.
"Transfiguration Through the Centuries."
"Oh." Draco blushed too. He thought of the time he had lifted Hermione just to get this very book down. Things were so simple then. Apparently Hermione had been thinking the same thing, because she said, "Malfoy, let's not fight anymore. Let's make up. And I don't mean we would be together again, because that will never happen. But there's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up, and we're both free. We should go together. Discreetly, that is, of course. I miss that time."
Draco didn't have to ask what time she was talking about.
"Okay. Fine. I'll meet you at the south entrance, ten sharp, Mudblood."