Draco slouched into the library as dusk settled upon the castle. The approaching snowstorm had nearly arrived and the Headmaster had suggested during dinner that the students should remain indoors until it was over. Draco had hoped to find Hermione there at the Gryffindor table, as much as he disliked seeing her with those annoying friends of hers hanging all about her, he would at least have seen her. Draco had been unable to find her after the incident earlier that morning outside of the library.
She had disappeared almost at once, and if Draco hadn't read Hogwart's A History in his first year, he would have bet all of the Malfoy fortune that she had simply apparated out of the school. But since that was impossible, Draco figured that she had to be around somewhere. He had tried to follow her after Crabbe and Goyle had wandered off in search of an early lunch. But Draco had lost her trail somewhere near the Transfiguration corridor. He spent the next few hours strolling through the school, there wasn't anyway that he could search everywhere, but having a bit of an insight into the mindset of Hermione, and her being a Gryffindor at that, he could easily avoid all of the dungeons. It seemed highly unlikely as well that she had gone to the Astronomy tower, he had overheard her mentioning once to Potter while passing them in the entrance hall, that she found it awfully drafty. Her strong dislike of Divination and Professor Trelawney would keep her away from that tower as well. And the girl had too much respect for her professors to go anywhere near the faculty quarters. So he had searched what was left. But there had been no sign of her though, no whisper or breath, nothing anywhere.
What he had seen though, was Potter and Weasley, appearing somewhat worried, in the Arithmancy hall. He had ducked into the shadows of a near by alcove and they passed without noticing him. The two boys had been deep in conversation.
"Where could she have gone?" Weasley asked worriedly.
"Well, Ginny checked all the girls' bathrooms, so we know she's not there." Potter replied. "And Fred and George said that they'd keep an eye out for her down near the great hall."
"Like Ginny would tell us even if she did find her. And Fred and George only said that so they could go eat lunch instead of helping." Weasley grumbled.
"Think we should check the library again? You know how Hermione is."
"Correction, we did know how Hermione was, now that she's taken up with that stupid git though... I mean, she defended him! Oh, really, Malfoy's not that bad, really we should all throw him a party and give him a bloody medal for being not quite as evil as we all thought!" Weasley snapped angrily.
"Ron..."
"I know, I know. I shouldn't have said that to her. But she always takes it the wrong way." Weasley looked at the floor glumly.
"I think, sometimes, you say things the wrong way." Potter spoke quietly.
Draco had needed to bite down hard on his tongue to keep from lashing out at the unsuspecting boys. It was very tempting to jump out and curse the two Gryffindors from behind, but Draco wasn't stupid. Potter was decent at spells and he had stood up to the Dark Lord on more than one occasion, and Weasley could throw a mean punch. And in the back of his mind, Draco could almost hear her voice asking him not to. He had let them move off, hand clenched so tightly around his wand that it was surprising that it hadn't snapped in half. It was only until much later, during the dinner, where she hadn't shown up, that he realized what Weasley had said; she had defended him. She had stood up for him.
A small part of Draco had been pleased when he noticed how glum Potter and Weasley had looked during dinner. They had obviously not had any luck in finding her either. This small part of him probably would have gloated a bit more than it did if he hadn't been so worried himself.
