Alone Together

"I Couldn't Save Him"

 After the Filch incident, Draco kept his distance, withdrawing back into himself.

Granger's idiot plan to test out his vampire powers had worked, annoyingly. They had even had confirmation when Filch had scanned the room. Usually, Draco would have stood there and waited for him, enjoying how the smug sneer turned into a scowl when he saw who it was. Filch knew that Draco always got off light from Snape, and now with the rest of the Death Eaters as professors as well. But with Granger chained to him, he couldn't afford too many missteps. Skipping classes was already pushing the limits, and if he wanted to keep doing that, he would have to not get caught being up on the Third Floor alone with a rebel.

Did he also do it because he knew she didn't need the extra torture? He decided not to think about it. Even though he had somewhat reverted back into his old ignorance policy, the silence somehow felt more... he hated to say but, normal. Avoiding classes and Filch together, and going through the same frustrations of not finding anything had somehow forced them into becoming used to each other.

Yes, they hated each other, there was no doubt about that. The only things they agreed on was that they hated each other, hated the collar, and hated being in Hogwarts. But, he wasn't going to mess around doing her random experiments with her anymore. What had he been thinking? Draco had gone too far, teasing her and letting conversations happen. Apparently he had been so desperate to do anything besides school, or anything slightly dangerous that he just went along with her plans.

He still needed her blood, and to get out of the collar, but no more vampire skills testing. The last two had been... very uncomfortable and Draco under no circumstances would allow that to become normal.

The sooner he could get out of the collar the better.

It seemed that every day he discovered at least five new reasons he wanted to get out of the collar, and that was impressive, considering the two hundred reasons he had thought of on the first day alone, along with the whole night in the library. He had at least a thousand reasons by now, and more coming, he was sure. With the annoying Gryffindor it wasn't hard to find more.

The days crawled forward, spent mostly in the library, or wandering around the more abandoned parts of the castle, which were becoming more frequent, as more and more witches and wizards pulled their students out of Hogwarts. Granger tried to get him to do more experiments, but he wouldn't bend. He would not become more familiar with her than needed.

She respected his decisions for a while, obviously somewhat shaken by the near encounter with Filch, but he could see the impatience and haggardness growing steadily.

"We need to try something new." she scowled, kicking Draco in the leg.

"No." he said simply, without looking up from his book despite it's mind numbing paragraphs.

"If we don't you're going to lose your readily available fresh source of blood." she snapped.

"You're not going to die," Draco scoffed, "We go to the infirmary every day."

"You know it's only a step forward from the two steps back."

Draco didn't say anything.

"Coward." Hermione sniffed.

"Weak." Draco replied casually, knowing that it was untrue.

Her response was a hefty whack of a book to his head that left it spinning.

He let out a string of curses, rubbing the side she hit.

"Good thing I'm weak so it didn't hurt that bad." the Gryffindor drawled.