AN: For the Test Your Limits competition round 1:

PROMPT: Lethe (memory)

Bonus prompts:

Dialogue: "We'll see what your mother has to say about that."

Title: Things Best Forgotten

Character: Gilderoy Lockhart

Item: Cauldron

AU: set during the summer before their 6th year.

"So tell me again, why is it you're making me do this?" Draco asked his girlfriend as she went to fetch the pensieve from the bookshelf where it was stored.

"Because, Draco, this way I'll have something to use against you as blackmail and everything will stop going your way all the time!" Hermione replied, "How you found out about me accidentally using cat hair in the polyjuice potion I made in our second year I'll never know!"

"I have my ways…" he replied, before going over to help Hermione bring the pensieve to the table.

"Okay, you go first!" Hermione nudged him. She watched as he pulled a silver memory out of his head and flicked it towards the pensieve.

"One embarrassing memory, my dear!" Draco announced, "After you…"

I took Hermione a minute to work out where she was, but soon realised it must be Malfoy Manor when she saw a little blond haired boy in front of her. Taking the room in she realised it must be his mother's room; it was filled with jewellery and expensive looking clothes.

Hermione turned back to face young Draco just in time to see him get one of his mother's necklaces off the desk.

"That was my mother's most expensive necklace – a wedding gift from my grandmother," Draco's voice came from beside Hermione startling her. She hadn't realised that Draco had joined her in the memory.

Six year old Draco started to walk off holding the necklace. Hermione turned her attention back to the memory in front of her and began to follow the boy through the house and into another room which she suspected was his bedroom. Draco placed the necklace on the bed where she noticed there was also a dress, some lipstick and high heels all of which she guessed belonged to his mother as well.

"Please tell me this is what I think it is?" Hermione asked the Draco stood next to her. Turning to face him she noticed an embarrassed blush creeping over his face, "This is brilliant! We'll see what your mother has to say about this!" Draco's face immediately went white at this thought.

"You wouldn't…?"

"Step right up, step right up; see the great Draco Malfoy dress like a girl!" Hermione shouted in her best carnival voice. Draco looked at her like she was mad but Hermione just smiled and turned back to the scene in front of her.

Draco had managed to get the dress (which was way too big for him) over his head and was trying to step into the high heels. When he'd managed this he moved to fetch the necklace, but tripped on his way back to the mirror and the necklace went flying out of the window.

Upon hearing the commotion Draco's mother started up the stair to see what was going on. Draco, already being the cunning Slytherin he was to become, managed to get out of the heels and dress and hide them under his bed before his mother reached the door.

"What happened? Are you okay?" the voice of Narcissa Malfoy came from the doorway.

"I'm fine mother, I just tripped is all," Draco replied before walking over to his broomstick, "I was wondering if I might be able to go for a broom ride?" he asked his mother. Hermione was shocked at how well-spoken Draco was at only six years old; their upbringing had been incredibly different.

The memory skipped ahead to Draco and his parents sat around the dinner table being served by a house elf.

"Lucius," Narcissa's voice rang out, "have you seen that pearl necklace your mother get me for our wedding anywhere? I was planning on wearing it to the dinner at the Ministry tomorrow evening."

"I have not," his father replied, "is it not in your dressing room?"

"It isn't, I have looked," she replied in a tone that let Lucius know she did not like being treated as if she were unintelligent.

Hermione looked to the other end of the table where the young Draco was sat, his face slowly becoming a similar shade to that of Ron's hair.

"She never did find out what happened to that necklace, neither did I. I've tried to replace it but I could never find anything quite so nice," Draco told her just as the memory came to an end.

"That was fascinating!" Hermione exclaimed when they were out of the memory.

"Okay," Draco told her, "You've seen six year old me dressing up like a girl, now it's your turn!"

"I don't really have anything!" Hermione squeaked, not sure she wanted to share anymore after seeing the excited look in Draco's eye, "I'm much too intelligent to get myself into embarrassing situations…"

"Don't get all high and mighty on me now, Granger. I know you tried to turn yourself into a cat in second year, you could always show me that?" Draco teased, annoying Hermione just enough that she shut up and pulled a memory out of her head.

"Don't laugh, okay?" she pleaded with him before allowing him to go into her memory.

Draco realised instantly where they were, they were in to corridor outside the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom at Hogwarts. Draco heard the door open behind him and turn around to see Gilderoy Lockhart smiling at the students as they filed into the classroom. He spotted thirteen year old Hermione walking into the class and smiling up at him in adoration.

"You didn't?" Draco asked the witch beside him who just nodded back, a bright red blush spreading across her face, "Lockhart? Seriously? What happened to being 'too intelligent to get yourself into embarrassing situations'?" he asked her, but got no reply so followed the students into the classroom.

As Lockhart droned on at the front of the class Draco made his way over the Hermione's desk where she was scribbling away. He'd thought she was furiously taking notes, as she usually is in lessons, but when he reached the desk he saw that she was actually writing 'Mrs. Gilderoy Lockhart' and 'Hermione Lockhart' and other doodles to the same effect all over her page.

Snickering to himself he waited while the memory skipped forwards to the end of class where Hermione told Harry and Ron to go on without her, that she'd meet up with them in a couple of minutes as she wanted to ask Professor Lockhart something.

"Um… Professor…" Hermione said as she approached his office door where he'd ran to as soon as the lesson had finished.

Looking up through the door he spotted her and beckoned for her to come in.

"Erm, Hermione was it?"

"Yes sir!" Hermione replied with an enthusiastic grin on her face.

Looking over to the Hermione stood next to him Draco saw that she still had a bright red blush across her face and she was refusing to look at him.

"Well, what do you want?" Lockhart asked, getting impatient.

"I, uh… I just wanted to tell you I… I brought you this!" Hermione said, producing a box out of her bag and handing it to him.

Draco watched as Lockhart opened the box and pulled out a rather expensive looking mirror. Lockhart immediately began to admire himself in it, pausing only to thank Hermione and hand her a signed picture of himself.

"I slept with that picture under my pillow all year," Hermione admitted to Draco, "Until, you know, the whole thing with the Basilisk…"

"So, what were you going to talk to him about anyway? It can't just have been the mirror?" he asked her.

"I... I was going to tell him my feelings..." she replied, the blush on her face getting even brighter.

"Hermione Granger, has anyone ever told you there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy?" Draco mock scolded her.

Back in their own world once more, Hermione was finally able to look Draco in the eye but immediately regretted doing so as she saw the desire to laugh in them.

"Go ahead, laugh!" she scolded him, "But it's your turn next."

At this statement Draco no longer wanted to laugh at Hermione's memory, he knew she'd want to laugh at his next one.

"Okay, I'm not going to laugh as long as you don't laugh at this next one!" Draco told her before adding his new memory to the pensieve.

Hermione shivered as she entered the memory, she hoped she'd never have to enter the potions classroom again after they finished school. It was bad enough being here in a memory, she was dreading having to go back next year.

Standing in the middle of the room, she saw Snape limping up to the top end of the room where the spare cauldrons were kept. So it's first year after he got bit by the dog then, Hermione thought to herself before hearing eleven year old Draco's footsteps behind her.

Snape had just pulled a cauldron off the shelf to clean when Draco spoke up.

"Um, Professor…" Draco started, making Snape just and drop the cauldron he was holding. Somehow it managed to land perfectly on Draco's head and got stuck.

Hermione couldn't help herself, she burst out into fits of laughter which only increased as Snape furiously tried to pull the cauldron off Draco's head. Looking at present day Draco next to her she could see him getting annoyed, however he did start to laugh himself watching the memory back.

"You know," Draco said between fits of laughter, "I read this book once, East of Eden, and it said something like 'I can remember childhood names for grass and flowers, where the toad lives and when the birds awaken – and what trees and seasons smelled like…'"

"Yes, I know the quote," Hermione interrupted, "What's your point?"

"My point is," Draco continued, "that it says 'the memory of odours is very rich' and I've only just remembered how true that is. I can remember exactly what that cauldron smelled like and I wish I couldn't!"

This made Hermione start laughing even more than she had been before, making her miss the end of the memory when the cauldron finally came off Draco's head.

Back in the real world again Draco held up his hand before Hermione could get another memory.

"As fascinating as finding out you had a crush on Lockhart is I think we should stop. I don't think I can go through that again, some things shouldn't be seen by anyone." Draco told her, picking up the pensieve to replace it where it was.

"I agree, we're even now and some things, as funny as they are, should stay in our own memories!" Hermione replied before picking up her book from the sofa and sitting down to read it.

AN: Also for:

The Pottermore challenge:

Gringotts – Write about someone losing something of great value.

The If You Dare challenge:

283. Step Right Up…

OTP Boot Camp challenge:

Fascinated.

Favourite House Boot Camp challenge:

Blush.

Divergent competition:

Dauntless 1 – "There is a fine line between bravery and idiocy"

Animal Competition:

Alligator – Write about a Slytherin.

The Spell, Curse and Charm competition:

Confundo – Write about Draco Malfoy.

Sensational Seasonal Song Quotes challenge:

Summer – "I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer – and what trees and seasons smelled like – how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich." – East of Eden.

Wand Wood competition:

Laurel - Write about a Slytherin.

A Variety of Prompts challenge:

Words (HP) - Cauldron.