All of Hermione's classmates knew that Neville Longbottom was terrified of Professor Snape. In 3rd year, Neville's boggart was revealed to be Snape. Most of the time people didn't tease him about this fact, but every once in awhile, a Slytherin made a rude comment.
Today in Potions, Snape had the class working on a particularly difficult project. The students were put in groups of three and each student had to make one component of the larger potion. Hermione, Draco, and Neville ended up together. As they gathered at a table, Draco Malfoy looked at Neville and sighed heavily.
"What Malfoy?" Hermione hissed.
"Nothing, Granger, just disappointed that Neville's going to bring us down. I need a good grade on this project."
"Well maybe you should try being helpful then."
Snape walked through the class assigning jobs within the groups. When he reached their table, Snape scowled. "Longbottom, I put you with the two best students in this class. Hopefully you can't screw it up."
Neville's face fell and Hermione could tell that his confidence had done the same.
After collecting the ingredients from the cabinet, Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy began working on their jobs. Malfoy's cauldron would be the one in which the separate parts would be combined so he stood in the middle. Hermione looked over to see a strange orange mist floating above Neville's cauldron. She moved to help him, but as she did Snape looked up.
"Miss Granger," Snape sneered. "Mr. Longbottom can do his work on his own."
Neville gave Hermione a thankful glance and then returned to his cauldron. The orange mist subsided, but he could not get his potion to look like the directions stated.
"I'm going to start over," he explained to Hermione and Malfoy and began to walk back to the supply closet.
"Do you need help?" Hermione inquired.
"MISS GRANGER!" Snape's words thundered across the room.
Hermione took that to mean that she was not supposed to help Neville. She turned away from her classmate and pretended to be absorbed in her own concoction.
When Neville returned, he began chopping up the first ingredient.
"Longbottom. This way," Malfoy whispered at the boy while using his knife to imaginarily cut up the leaves.
Hermione watched suspiciously. Since when did Malfoy help anyone, much less a Gryffindor? But, he was giving Neville instructions on the correct way to prepare the oak leaves.
"Mr. Malfoy! What did I just tell Miss Granger?" Snape seethed at Draco.
Draco mimicked his godfather. "Mr. Longbottom can do his work on his own."
Snape glared thunderously at Malfoy.
Across the room, Hannah Abbot raised her hand and Snape went to assist her group. As soon as he had turned away, Malfoy returned to helping Neville. The boys began to make progress on Neville's portion. As the students around the room began finishing the first part of their projects, Snape examined their cauldrons and gave approval for groups to start the next part.
"Much better, Mr. Longbottom," Snape allowed, narrowing his eyes at Malfoy and Hermione. "I hope this is your work."
In order to demonstrate the next steps, Snape walked back to his cauldron at the front of the room. As he turned, Malfoy stuck his tongue out at the professor. Hermione let out a choked laugh and looked around. No one else appeared to have seen Malfoy's movements.
As Snape instructed the students on the process for mixing the separate parts, he again zeroed in on Neville. "Mr. Longbottom, which way should this potion be stirred?"
Neville faced reddened and he managed to stutter that wands should be moving counterclockwise.
"So, you do know something."
Suddenly, the door to the classroom swung open and hit the wall with a loud crash. Just as everyone looked towards it, the door slammed closed. In quick succession, the door did the same thing three more times.
Snape looked around the class, but didn't say anything. He waited a few moments, but as soon as he started talking, the door opened again. Snape took his wand and murmured an incantation towards the heavy wood door. The students began to look at each other for a sign of who might be doing this. Next to her, Hermione noticed that Malfoy's wand was pointed towards the door. He, however, was resting his head on his hand looking supremely bored.
Every time Snape opened his mouth, the door again interrupted him. His spell couldn't stop the action. After several attempts to teach the lesson, the entire class was laughing. Finally, instead of watching Snape, Hermione looked out the corner of her eye at Malfoy. She saw him mutter words to a spell from behind his hand.
"SILENCE!" Snape had totally lost control of the room. The yell, which on a normal day would have been enough to quiet everyone, did nothing. In the group next to Hermione, Michael Corner and Lisa Turpin were actually crying from laughing so hard.
"40 POINTS FROM EACH HOUSE! GET OUT!" Snape was now in a rage.
Still laughing, the students picked up their bags and headed for the door.
"Malfoy." Hermione said the word so quietly that no one else heard.
They were the last people out of the room.
"Why'd you do that? Help Neville?"
"Clearly the guy was incompetent and was going to mess up our grades." He spat the words at Hermione.
The hallway was empty except for Malfoy and Hermione.
"But you did that to Snape."
"What?"
"You were making the door open and close. You did that because Snape was yelling at Neville."
His entire body turned towards Hermione. "You don't know what you're talking about, Granger."
"I know it was you!"
Draco shrugged innocently and left the still-stunned Hermione standing alone.
At lunch, the Gryffindors were telling the story from Potions and imitating Snape's words. The students who hadn't witnessed it could hardly believe that Snape had been unable to stop the door or calm the class down. As they tried to guess who had been causing the commotion, Hermione felt someone watching her. She looked over her shoulder to see Draco Malfoy staring at her. He winked and gave her a quick smile.