Draco Malfoy shut the compartment door firmly behind him, relishing in the sound Harry's nose had made when he stamped on his face. Serves the git right.

Draco almost jumped when he looked up and saw he was not alone. He hadn't expected to see her there and he hadn't expected his pulse to quicken at the mere sight of her.

Her blue eyes were looking fierce as she made her way towards him, her long dark locks falling across her freckled face as she dragged her trunk behind her. He wondered why she was still on the train but then he guessed she was probably looking for Potter. There was no way he was going to let her find him.

"Lost something?" He had given her his best sneer, hoping to make her back off and leave him alone.

But instead she had moved towards him, stopping only a mere few feet away and looked him coldly straight in the eyes. "Only the will to live at the thought of spending another year in the dungeons with you."

Ouch. He wasn't expecting that. But then again, she had been known to bite back at him in the past. But he needed her to leave. "What are you still doing here, anyway? Won't your precious Potter be waiting for you at the castle?"

"I could ask the same about you and your precious Pansy." For crying out loud! Draco was getting worried that she would never back down. So even though his heart really wasn't in it anymore, he decided to use his power as prefect to get her off the train.

And it worked. She made it clear she wasn't happy about it though and he had caught a whiff of her hair as she deliberately knocked into him with her shoulder. In that instant he was taken back to the night of the Slytherin party and somewhere deep in the pit of his stomach, something stirred.

Desperately trying to ignore it, he took one last look at the compartment where Harry was lying immobilised, and then he smugly stepped off the train.

***

The door to the Great Hall opened and I looked up from the Slytherin table and sighed with relief - it was Harry!

But my relief quickly turned to concern as I noticed his face was covered in blood. It seemed everyone else in the hall had noticed too as people were standing up to get a good look at him and were murmuring and whispering. Only here, from the Slytherin table, I could hear sniggers.

I automatically looked across towards Draco, where I had assumed he would be leading the snorts of laughter. But I was surprised to see that he was staring down with his chin resting on one hand looking a million miles away. His other hand was using his fork to push food around his plate but he was not eating anything. He looked sort of glum... depressed even. When Crabbe smacked his arm and gleefully pointed out Harry to him, Draco barely lifted his eyes and gave a half hearted smirk before returning his gaze back to his plate.

It was most curious. I had never seen Draco like this before and it wasn't like him to pass up an opportunity to make fun of Harry Potter, especially if, as I suspected, he had something to do with the fact that Harry was covered in blood.

Those silver grey eyes suddenly looked up into mine. I froze, not being able to look away and at the same time feeling humiliated that I was caught staring at him. I couldn't read his expression; his face didn't contort into that usual sneer that he liked to save for me, instead his face just looked hollow and his eyes had a look I thought I could get lost in.

I quickly looked down, feeling a blush rising to my cheeks, not knowing why I was thinking such intense thoughts about Draco Malfoy.

I was careful not to look his way for the rest of the feast and was one of the first to vacate the table once Dumbledore excused us. I quickly ran over to the Gryffindor table to find out what had happened to Harry.

"Oh Harry!" I sighed when he had explained that Draco broke his nose after catching Harry eavesdropping under the invisibility cloak in their compartment.

Harry didn't seem to care about his nose though, he was more interested in what he had heard Draco talking about before.

"He's definitely doing some sort of mission for Voldemort. He was boasting about it to the rest of his Slytherin gang." Harry looked at me as if he expected me to look stunned.

"Come on, Harry, he was probably just showing off for Pansy... I mean, what kind of mission would Voldemort have given him anyway?"

Harry didn't have an answer to that so I took the opportunity to bid him good night before heading down to the Slytherin Common Room.

I had no idea what was going on but Harry was right about something; there was something big on Draco Malfoy's mind.

***