Yet again another day was stolen and trampled on by Snape, double potions and we were being forced to make and remake the draught of living death. Ever since Harry used the Half-Blood Prince's old book Hermione had hated this potion. Today however, with an ordinary book, Harry was doing significantly worse. Taking her gaze off of Harry, Hermione found her eyes wandering to Neville - now a tall strapping man rather than the shy, podgy boy she once knew. She smiled as Neville tried to help Harry, whose potion was started to emit slight smoke. Surprisingly she felt no envy over Neville's skill over the cauldron; he was now top of the class. I did have a year out of school though, because of the war. It's only expected that I would no longer be the best .
Her eyes glanced over to Snape to gage his reaction to Neville's success. As he limped around the room Hermione constantly found his eyes flicking to Neville's cauldron, waiting for him to make a mistake. Every lesson his shoulders would slump in defeat, and limp on to someone else, disappointed. Hermione shook her head. Despite surviving the attack from Nagini in the war – a miracle in itself, Snape still hadn't changed his attitude towards past foes.
It wasn't just Snape that had returned of course. Every student who had suffered the teachings of the death eaters had returned to repeat the year. As a result the group of first years was now double the size in order to also accommodate the kids who had turned 11 over the summer. Of course not every student returned to Hogwarts, some had fallen in the war, and some wanted to move on with their life. But really, why did all the Slytherins have to return? Half of them ran away during the battle, or worse, took part in fighting with the deatheaters. Hermione glared across the room at Draco, who was stiring his potion with a slight smirk. Just because he tried to save us at Malfoy Manor… Hermione pursed her lips that by no means makes up for years of torment. MERLIN, I hate that man, why he decided to come back I'll never know.
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What on earth is Granger looking at? Shouldn't she be intently staring at her cauldron and book like she normally does, like it would vanish if she blinked? Draco followed her line of sight to see her gazing over in wonder at Neville. He laughed, he wasn't surprised. Ruddy Longbottom sure had matured and seemed like he'd gained some brains at last, even if it was a bit late. Draco glanced quickly back to Granger to see she now wore a murderous glare on her face directed at him. It must be extremely frustrating for her to see how devastatingly handsome I am. Draco sucked on his cheeks to stop from laughing outright. He better watch out for Granger, he wouldn't put it past her to try and make his year a living hell for all he had done in the past year. His grin slipped at the thought of the year before, but tried to keep it in place.
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Great, now he looks like he's trying not to laugh. Hermione let her potion simmer whilst trying to read Malfoy's mind. He's obviously thinking deeply, he's started stirring anticlockwise instead of clockwise. She started to laugh as she thought about potential consequences. Perhaps he'd pull a Seamus and get a face full of thick black smoke and ruin that styled white blond hair of his. Suddenly Draco looked up at her, and as their eyes met she gave him a sweet smile and help up her fingers in a silent countdown. Three, two, one...
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Draco frowned as Hermione held up three fingers and started to count down. Three, what's happening? Two, crap, she has done something, I was just kidding! As her last finger came down a huge explosion went up in my face, the power of it pushing me to the ground. There was a huge gasp from the entire class, except of course from Snape. Draco glanced around the room and stood up, everyone looking at him open-mouthed. "What" I spat out at them, "hasn't a potion ever gone wrong in one of your classes before, I assume it has counting by how many times Finnegan's lost his eyebrows." Everyone was still staring, not moving a muscle until there was a quiet chuckle from the corner. Draco spun round and saw Hermione, whose face had gone bright red. When their eyes made contact she bust into an uncontrollable peal of laughter and pointed at his face. "What's so funny, Granger?" As Hermione started laughing even harder Draco sprinted into the corridor to find a mirror.
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Hermione couldn't breathe. She started taking deep breaths as Harry turned to her, and anxious look on his face. "Ok Hermione, time to stop laughing now, once Malfoy finds out what's happened to his hair he is going to be murderous," he whispered. Hermione sobered up a little as she remembered how Malfoy was when he was angry, and her mind flicked back to when he was in the inquisitorial squad. The whole class turned when the sound of thundering footsteps approached. Malfoy and his rainbow coloured hair appeared in the doorway puffing but still looking deadly. His glare fixed on Hermione, and he stepped forward pointing and spat out "You. Are. Dead."