Chapter 1

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It was a chilly November morning as I headed down to potions with Harry and Ron. Once we got there, Professor Slughorn told us to stand in a line as he stood in front of us. Today we were starting the three month group potions project Professor Slughorn had been talking animatedly about for the last couple weeks. "I'll be pairing you up based on skill so that neither of you will feel left behind. Just pick one of the work stations with your partner once I've called you, okay?"

I, along with the rest of the students lined up against the wall of the dungeon, nodded dully. I could tell Professor Slughorn wished we'd be more excited. Oh well. We did have to repeat their last year since the curriculum was far from perfect as well as the fact that some students, namely Harry, Ron, and I, had failed to show up.

"Potter and Weasley," he began. Harry and Ron grinned at each other and sat down at the table. "Longbottom and Abbott," Neville smiled shyly at Hannah and they sat down at a table. I hoped I wouldn't be paired with a Slytherin. I didn't know who else was around my skill level, but I didn't want to be insulted heavily for the three months we had to work together.

"Brown and Zabini," Lavender groaned, everyone knew that she hoped Parvati would take Advanced Potions, but Parvati was against it. Eventually there were only four people left standing, Ernie MacMillan, a Ravenclaw boy I thought was named Terrence Walters, and Draco Malfoy. Hoping against hope that I wasn't going to be paired up with Malfoy, I listened as Slughorn announced, "MacMillan and Walters."

I glanced at Malfoy, he was looking as angry as I felt. Why him of all people? When Slughorn announced "Granger and Malfoy" as a group, I walked over to the last empty work station without as much as a word to Malfoy. I saw Harry and Ron, as well as some of the other students, give me sympathetic glances. But it was only one class, how bad could it be? I heard Malfoy talking to Professor Slughorn. He was complaining rather loudly. "Why do I have to be paired up with that Mu—Granger?"

I felt her face redden, I should be the one complaining to have been paired up with that annoying git. "Because she was the best in the class, and you were second," Slughorn explained, "If you set aside your differences, you can do very well in this project with Granger." Malfoy went over to our station in obvious distaste and made a show of sitting as far from me as possible.

I decided it was best to ignore him. How many times had I told Harry and Ron to just ignore him while he insulted them? I was going to listen to my own advice. Turns out, it's harder than I thought.

Slughorn had us brew a simple potion so we'd know how it was to work with a partner. As I powdered the snake fangs, I saw Malfoy put something in our cauldron.

"What did you put in our cauldron?" I asked angrily, he was not going to make me get anything less than full marks.

"The snake fangs," he drawled.

"I was already doing that!" I said, frustrated. Malfoy proceeded to ignore me. "Malfoy!"

"Granger."

I groaned, this was not going to be going well, I could tell. "Okay, I'll get the Joplyn roots chopped and you shred the boomslang skin."

"I don't want to do the boomslang skin, and aren't you in a bossy mood today?"

"Shut up, Malfoy," I hissed, I was at the end of my rope. I was done being civil to that prat.

"Granger's got a temper, huh?" Malfoy smirked.

"I'll hex you!" I threatened.

"Sure you will. You don't want to get in trouble, do you? Land in a detention."

I fumed. Even if that annoying Slytherin wasn't going to do any work, I was not about to fail. I added a few vials of this and that to the cauldron. Suddenly, red sparks appeared from Slughorn's wand. "Time!"

I jumped. Time? Our potion wasn't even halfway done yet. Slughorn glanced around at the potions, nodding his head. Saving ours for last, he came over to our cauldron with, I could tell, high expectations. I nearly burst into tears when he announced that he was very disappointed in us and he expected more than this.

"Are you crying?" Malfoy asked, incredulously.

"No," I said, willing myself to stay calm.

"You failed, Granger."

"We failed, Malfoy! And if it hadn't been for your messing around, we would have passed."

"Me? I was doing everything perfectly and then you came up and said 'You're doing it all wrong, Malfoy. I'm perfect, you should have known I was preparing the snake fangs.'"

I turned on my heel and walked over to Harry and Ron, pretending that what he said didn't affect me.

"That idiot," Ginny said sympathetically at lunch, "You're much better than he is at everything!"

I felt better after that as Ginny, along with Harry and Ron insulted the blonde Slytherin with everything they could think of. After lunch, I made my way to the library. Picking up all the books I needed for the essay Professor Slughorn had assigned, I levitated the fourteen books to the dormitory before heading off to Transfiguration.

The rest of the day was fine and I enjoyed a game of Exploding Snap with Harry, Ron, and Ginny.

It wasn't until a bit into the game that I nearly choked on the butterbeer I was drinking. Lavender Brown came up to Ron and kissed him on the cheek before sitting down beside him.

"Oh yeah," Ron said sheepishly while we gaped at him, "Lavender's my girlfriend."

I had always thought we had a special relationship. You know, Harry and Ginny, and Hermione and Ron. Well, I guess I was wrong. Ron had admitted on liking me last year, but that hadn't gone very far and frankly, I didn't like Ron in that way. So maybe I should be happy for him.

"That's great, Ron," I said enthusiastically, reminding myself that I didn't like Ron like that.

"I thought you—" Ginny started at me, but then stopped, "Never mind."

That night, I couldn't help but feel left out as Harry and Ginny had said they had to go somewhere and Ron and Lavender were busy in the common room doing who knows what. Picking up a thick book for some light reading before bed, it wasn't that much later that I saw Lavender come in the dormitory, blushing slightly. Parvati, who I thought was asleep jumped up at once and the two girls giggled and whispered. Honestly, was that all they ever did.

With an annoyed huff I closed the drapes around my bed and cast Silencio to block out the distractions. Reading over my Ancient Runes work, I soon fell asleep.

The next day was uneventful, that is until potions, of which we had a twice as long period, due to the fact that we didn't have potions on Wednesdays. I entered the dungeons with Harry and Ron, ignoring their bickering on Quidditch strategies. Was that all they could think about? If I hadn't already told them so countless times, I would have made the point that if they put half that effort in studying, they could do really well.

"At your stations everyone!" Professor Slughorn smiled, "We get to start our first advanced potion today! Mind you, it'll take a long time to complete, a month, perhaps. Now! Let's get started, shall we?"

"Harry, my boy," Slughorn gestured to Harry who looked slightly alarmed as he had no doubt not been listening. Slughorn handed him a miniature cauldron and Harry reached in to grab a vial. Inside was a slip of paper. "Go on," open it!" Slughorn beamed, "That's the potion you're to make. When you're done, just fill up the vial so I can grade you."

Harry did so and read it aloud, "Polyjuice." I shared a look with Harry and Ron. We'd already brewed this potion, and in our second year at that.

When he came to our station, there was only one left that I picked up. "Felix Felicis." Soon after, we decided to start.

"Don't make us mess up this time," Malfoy spoke.

"I didn't!" I said indignantly, Malfoy was ruining my mood already.

Slughorn came up to us, "I was hoping you'd get the Felix! Anyway, since it does usually take six months to brew, I've already done the necessary steps since the last five months. All you have to do is finish it up."

"This'll be easy," Malfoy smirked, "Don't drag me down, though, Granger."

Seriously, how was I supposed to survive three months of this? "So we should divide up the ingredients we need to prepare starting from the beginning of the sixth month," I said.

"Okay, Know-it-all," Malfoy said, "Go look it up in the book now."

I was going to look in the book, but I wasn't about to do it now that Malfoy told me to. "If you're so clever, what do we do now? Without looking."

That got a rise from him. "Well, I'm not the so-called 'Brightest Witch of the Age' am I?" He asked angrily. I huffed at him and checked what we needed to do next.

I went to the student supply closet to get the Wormwood that we needed to powder. I saw Malfoy doing, you got it, nothing while I measured how much of the fine powder we needed.

"Do something to help, it's a group project," I reminded him.

"No kidding, that's why I'm stuck with you." That stupid, annoying Slytherin. I glared at him and he glared back.

"Granger! Malfoy!" Professor Slughorn said, "Can I have your attention?"

I suddenly realized that the rest of the class was quietly listening to Professor Slughorn. I could feel myself blushing at the unwanted attention. "Sorry!" I hastily said.

"Five points each from Gryffindor and Slytherin." I felt extremely ashamed at my behavior; I was not going to let Malfoy ruin my reputation in Slughorn's class, not if I could help it. "What I was saying," Professor Slughorn continued, "Is that you will each turn in an essay at the end of the month on the preparation, effect, side-effects, and uses for your potion. I expect it to be no less than fifteen feet in length. Well, maybe things were going to get better. I was positively gleeful at the challenge, but the others didn't share my enthusiasm.

We continued working on our potion. I had to stir it clockwise seven times, because a particular blonde felt no need to help. Instead Malfoy was leaning back in his chair, hands supporting his head behind him, his feet resting up on the table on which we were supposed to be working, the picture of ease. I had half a mind to give him a little push so that the chair would topple, as it was balanced on two legs. "Why don't you help?" I asked angrily. Malfoy ignored me, typical. "Malfoy!"

"What?" he drawled, "If I do anything, it won't be perfect enough for you."

I was so angry that I must have stirred our cauldron an extra few times because instead of turning a light blue, it was midnight black. Then, as if things couldn't get any worse, the potion exploded.

"Detention!" Professor Slughorn told the two of us angrily. Half the potions classroom had exploded and the rest of the students were backed away as far as possible from our cauldron.

"Both of us?" Malfoy asked.

"Yes!" Professor Slughorn said, "It took me five months, five months, to brew that potion. Couldn't you have used it bit by bit? You won't even be able to do the assignment now. And don't forget that you've done to my classroom. I felt terrible, Slughorn wasn't a teacher to get angry easily. He was laid back and joyous most of the time, too. Not only had I lost Gryffindor five points, but I'd also landed myself in my first detention all year.

"But I wasn't a part of this," Malfoy complained.

"You were supposed to be, what were you doing? Couldn't you have helped your partner?" I couldn't help but smile at Malfoy's expression at being punished by the head of Slytherin House. I threw him a told-you-so look, but he ignored me. "You both will come every evening at seven for the rest of the week, see to it that you're not late."

I glumly nodded, just as the bell rang. I followed behind Harry, Ron, and Lavender out the door. Ron and Lavender left soon for Divination, as Harry and I had Defense Against the Dark Arts. I had talked him out of Divination partially because it was a load of rubbish and partially because I could convince him better than Ron since Harry really wanted to be an auror and who ever heard of an auror who did Divination?

I could barely concentrate on the lesson taught by Professor Black. It was only last year that we realized that if the person who caused another person to fall through the veil died, the person who fell through the veil would be restored. Though Sirius didn't remember what had happened for the last two years, once Mrs. Weasley had killed Bellatrix, he had been thrown back out the veil. Harry had been beside himself with joy since the Hogwarts battle had killed so many he cared for.

"Hermione? Hermione!"

I looked at Harry who had been whispering and poking at me. "What?"

"You should let Malfoy get to you like that."

"I didn't let him," I said defensively.

"Hermione, you never mess up a potion," Harry seriously told me.

"But he's so—"

"I know what you mean, but remember what you always told me and Ron?"

"Ignore it," I said halfheartedly, "It's hard."

Harry chuckled, "If I could do it, you can."

I nodded, feeling much better, "Yeah."

I opened the door to greenhouse three. Professors Sprout was there, waiting for us. It was only a couple seconds until Malfoy strolled in after me. "You will be repotting these Nyundul Partets for my second years. Do any of you know what these are or have you forgotten?"

"Nyundul Partets, or more commonly known as Nyunns are tropical plants known to cure most minor ailments. Nyunns, however, need to be kept in the temperature or their effectiveness for curing will lessen. Furthermore, their soil needs to be kept moist at all times and this plant shouldn't come in contact with direct sunlight until it is ready to be dried at which point the single flower of each plant turns pale purple rather than its usual pink," I explained.

Malfoy coughed and I could swear I heard the words "Show off."

"Very good, Ms. Granger. It's easy to repot them, you know. But there are a lot here, you may leave when you are done." Professor Sprout gestured to the many little Nyunn plants and the dozens of pots as well as the soil. "And don't use magic, they don't like it, you see." She left soon after that.

"Don't use magic? They don't like it? They're plants for goodness sake," Malfoy said. He levitated a pot onto the table and threw in some soil. Unceremoniously levitating a plant, he threw it in there as well. "One down."

"Malfoy!" I gasped, "You can't do that! The soil is dry and messed up and the Nyunn is sideways, for goodness sake! Didn't you hear what Professor Sprout said? No magic!"

"She was just saying that to make it take longer, who cares about these plants anyway?"

"We'll be stuck in detention for so much longer!"

"Oh okay I'll make it look neater, but I'm still using magic. Malfoys don't do this type of work! It's for house elves."

"I can't believe you'd say that!" I spluttered, "House elves are treated like slaves! They don't know what it means to be free."

"They like it, Granger," Malfoy said, "Now are we going to finish this or not?"

It took us two hours of potting them. Malfoy would levitate the pots filled with soil and I would hand-plant the Nyunns. It was a pretty good system. When we were done, I closed the door and we headed back to the castle. To tell you the truth, we barely talked but it wasn't awkward, it was just quiet.

I almost turned to wave goodbye when Malfoy turned to go to the dungeons but I caught myself, I hated Malfoy.