It was another beautiful day at Hogwarts. Ron, Harry and Hermione were making the most of the warm saturday sunshine by relaxing outside by the lake. They were doing what they always did on sunny weekends - Hermione leaning against the thick trunk of the willow tree, her nose buried deep in a book; Ron skimming stones at the edge of the lake; Harry polishing and servicing his broomstick, sitting half in the shade, with the tail of his broomstick glinting in the sun.
Apart from the noise of Harry turning the pages of his broomstick maintenance guide, and the soft plop of the stones sinking to the bottom of the lake, it was a quiet morning.
"Amazing," Harry kept muttering under his breath, his fingers absent-mindedly trailing up and down the handle of his broom. "Hermione, did you know that they are currently making a broomstick which can go 20 miles an hour faster than my firebolt?"
Hermione marked her place in her book with a leaf and snapped it shut. She gave Harry an exasperated smile. "Yes Harry, I did know that. You've told me about a thousand times! How would you like it if I kept telling you my favourite facts from 'Hogwarts: A History' over and over again!"
"You're still reading that!" Ron called over, artfully skimming a stone seven times over the water before it sank. He gave a woop and bounded over, and flopped down next to Harry. "Bloody hell, you are still reading it. I could've sworn you finished it ages ago."
Harry could see Hermione was getting a little frustrated. "Well, Ronald, I have a strange hobby of actually reading books for fun. I personally find it a very interesting book, hence why I am still reading it." Hermione said the last few words with an edge to her voice, a telltale sign that if Ron didn't shut up soon he'd soon have a 'Hogwarts: A History' wacked around his head.
Ron got up to his feet, slightly wary of Hermione, dusting off his knees. "All right, all right," he muttered. "I don't care. All the books in the library are terrible, anyway. They're bloody boring."
Just as Hermione opened her mouth to come out with what probably would have been a very cutting comeback, they heard another voice.
"I expect the real reason Weasle hates books is because he can't afford any!" They heard Malfoy's voice before they saw him. A couple of seconds later, he appeared from a cluster of trees.
Hermione got up to her feet, holding her book across her chest. "Go away, Malfoy," she said, with a slight shakiness to her voice.
Draco merely raised his eyebrows at her and moved on to Harry. Harry quickly got up from his lying position, and stood up face to face with him.
"Leave us alone, Malfoy," Harry said with gritted teeth. Malfoy took a couple of steps back, pretending to be intimidated.
"Oooh, scary Potter!" He laughed, before pulling a horribly exaggerated scared face. Harry was just starting to walk up to Draco when Ron elbowed him out of the way.
"What do you want!" He exclaimed. "Piss of back to Crabbe and Goyle!"
Draco merely laughed at him. "Don't stress yourself, Weasle. You're not in trouble. Go back to skimming your stones; I bet that's your only source of entertainment at home, isn't it?" He chortled at his own joke. "It's Hermione I want to see."
He turned to Hermione, who in the meantime had sat back down against the tree. She simply gave him a smoldering look and opened her book at a random page. This was obviously not the reaction Draco had wanted.
"Oi, mudblood. Snape wants to see you!" He jeered. Harry and Ron exchanged glances, knowing Malfoy had gone too far.
"Don't you DARE call me a mudblood!" Hermione cried as she got up to her feet. Carrying her book, she ran up to Draco and gave him a full, hard blow on the head with it. Shocked, he fell backwards to the ground, staring speechlessly at her. Hermione looked down on him with a smirk, immensely satisfied with her aim. All of her anger had gone into it.
"Miss Granger! Mr Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall cried as she hurried over. Her hands outstretched, she snatched the book off Hermione.
"Violation of school property! Violence on another student! And you, Mr Malfoy, we do NOT have language like that at Hogwarts! How dare you call Miss Granger a mudblood, for a start! Get up now!" She pulled his hand and Draco stumbled to his feet. Brushing down his cloak, he gave Hermione a hateful look which sent uncomfortable chills down her spine. Professor McGonagall turned around and called the two to follow her, as she headed to the castle. Making sure she stayed a good distance away from Malfoy, she ran past him and walked next to the professor.
"I hope you know, Miss Granger, that seeing as this is your first violation of rules in a long time, and you are in my house, you will be getting off much lighter than Mr Malfoy," she whispered out the side of her mouth to Hermione. "Although I am still ashamed I caught you in such an unruly act!"
Professor McGonagall took the pair to her deserted classroom and told them to sit. As if they were two repelling magnets, Hermione sat on the seat nearest to the left wall, and Draco to the right. After a silent minute or so of the professor arranging her desk with her wand, she turned to face them.
"It is an understatement to say that I am ashamed of you both. Not only do we not have violence and harassment at Hogwarts, but you have been a let down to your houses. You, miss Granger, belong to Gryffindor, a house known for nobility and strong friendships. Although I am not asking you and Draco to be friends" - Draco spluttered at that part - "I am definitely NOT allowing you two to be constantly at eachother's necks. And you, Mr Malfoy. You belong to Slytherin, a house for those who are resourceful, noble, and, when it comes down to it, of a high grace. You have fallen to an incredibly low standard by insulting Hermione and her friends. Making them feel like the poorest of poor will not make you any better, Mr Malfoy. Now, as detention, you will be doing various jobs for me. As it is nearly the end of term, I will not set you any more homework. Draco, I would like you to clean these desk down - without magic, please. Miss granger, due to your high intellect of transfiguration, I would like you to mark these first years' homeworks. I want in depth corrections, opinions and explanations.". As she placed the pile on Hermione's desk, she gave her a small wink. Professor Mcgonagall knew that Hermione would enjoy this sort of thing. "I need to go and do some errands of my own, now. I shall be back in two hours. Mr Malfoy, if you finish cleaning the desks before my return, I would highly appreciate the text books being sorted out." She pointed to a vast, messy pile of old text books in the corner. And with that, she turned on her heel and closed the door.
After the slam had finished echoing around the room, the tension was unbearable. Finally, after a minute or so of painful silence, Hermione piped up. "Why did Snape want to see me?" She asked.
Draco was rummaging in the supplies closet at the back for cleaning products. He didn't turn round. "Dunno. Something about a detention. Oh my, Granger. Even more detention."
Hermione turned back round, her eyes stinging. She tried to divert her thoughts to Benjamin Fickley's homework ('The Basic Rules of Transfiguration'), marking crosses down the parchment and printing corrections in her neatest handwriting in the margin. But she was weighed down with heavier thoughts, like how she was going to bear two hours with that monster, when even after a couple of minutes, she was already fighting back tears.