Hey guys! I'm back! So this is third person, 7th year at Hogwarts. THE BATTLE DID NOT HAPPEN. HARRY RON AND HERMIONE ARE AT HOGWARTS. MALFOY WAS NOT PERSENT AT DUMBLEDORS DEATH. This won't be a long fic, no more than, say, 10 chapters, but it is not my top priority, Making Amends is. I just had to put this chapter up. Read, Review, enjoy!
-Dobz
Trust Me, Follow Me, Save Me.
Hermione Granger smiled and sighed as she walked through the doors of Hogwarts castle. Who could blame her? The fires that lined the walls, creating flickering shadows against the walls, the stone archways, the magic of it all.
It was her final year at Hogwarts, and she couldn't be more excited. As weird as it sounded, she was happy for school to start again. The homework, the meals, the library. She gave another content sigh, shuffling along with the rest of the students as they made their way into the Great Hall.
Students found their ways to their respective tables fairly quickly, some lingering at the entrance to finish exciting stories, or for a quick goodbye kiss, before jogging off to get situated.
Other than a light murmur of chit-chat, and the unavoidable squirms and shifts of the second and third years, the Hall was relatively quiet. Not only were the students hungry, but they knew that, given it was an annual occurrence, the first years would be coming soon.
Sure enough, the doors gave a great, heaving groan, before creaking open halfway, giving the upperclassmen a view of the sorting hat, perched on an old stool, held by the headmistress. Only the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws sitting along the main aisle could see the freshest batch or witches- and wizards-to-be, though. It seemed, to most, they were just getting smaller and smaller. McGonagall strode forward, her stern look ever-present. The first year directly behind her yelped, and scuttled forward. The rest followed quickly behind him.
They neared the staff table, and McGonagall stopped and turned.
"When I call your name, you will come forth." Striding onward once again, she set the stool down, and unrolled the parchment that she was holding.
"Elaina MacKenzie"
A girl stumbled forward, looking a horrid mix of green and red. She struggled onto the stool, shaking, and shrunk away as McGonagall lowered the hat on her head. She gasped, looking frightened. Being muggleborn, she was certainly not expecting the hat to talk! Her jaw clenched shut, and then-
"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat exclaimed.
She looked around, frightened, until she caught sight of the house that was cheering. They seemed like a nice lot, so she allowed to hat to be taken off, before hopping down and speed walking over to her new table.
"Berit Owen"
A happy-looking girl pushed through the crowd, sending McGonagall a tentative smile, before turning and plopping down.
McGonagall knew she was going to like this one, for not a second after the hat touched her straight blond hair, the hat cried, "GRYFFINDOR!" and the table furthest to her left exploded.
This continued, until every child had been assigned a house.
The hall broke out in babble, laughter, and general merry-making once the food appeared on their plates. Not too much later, Dessert arrived in all its splendor. Then, pip pip, off to bed it was. Prefects bustled, and seventh years joked about squishing the new recruits. All-in-all, a calm entrance dinner.
Yes, Hermione had missed this.
Looking back on the feast, one would perhaps notice that not all of the students were as merry as the next. No, there was one student in particular, a Slytherin, that remained impassive throughout the night.
However, if one were so inclined, to take a closer look at this Slytherin's feelings on that night, they would see that indecisiveness, curiosity, and a true Gryffindor desire to do good, were waging a war inside the poor blokes skull. Yes, Draco Malfoy was a troubled lad indeed.
Wednesday, September 12th
Hermione Granger was having a good day.
She had woken up at 10, made her way slowly down to breakfast, grabbed a bite to eat, caught up with a couple friends, and managed to get to class on time.
Arithmancy.
Hermione loved arithmancy.
Numbers. Pure numbers. Just logic. No need to worry about whether getting 4 as a final number in a simple pattern would bring certain death, or any of that other rubbish Trelawney was cooking up these days.
Like always, she managed to answer every question correct on the quiz that day.
Yes, Wednesday was shaping up to be a good day.
After the two hours of arithmancy were up, Hermione sped off to lunch to try to catch Harry and Ron before they went to Potions.
Worming her way through the crowded hallways, Hermione was not aware that she was being watched.
Watched by the same troubled lad we discussed earlier, in fact.
Draco watched her, still not sure if he should do this. What about everything that could go wrong?
However, he knew he had to. So he pushed off of the wall, and, clutching the piece of paper tightly in his hand, he shoved through the people in a desperate attempt to get in front of the girl.
He made his move. Yes, he had thought this out well.
He stopped walking.
She crashed into his back, causing them both to tumble down, and others to trip around them.
So, maybe it wasn't the best plan, Draco mused, as he shoved her off of his body, dumping her onto the floor.
"Malfoy?" She said, sounding affronted, "What was that for?" She scrambled up, straightening her robes as he did the same, only more gracefully.
"Watch where you're going." Keep it simple, Draco.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes, and turned to leave.
His opening!
He sped past her, his shoulder knocking into hers.
He shoved the slip of parchment into her grasp, and felt her hand tighten around it.
Hermione Granger slipped the paper into a pocket, surprised.
Then Draco Malfoy continued on his way as if nothing happened.
Slipping into a bathroom, Hermione fingered the note in her pocket. Pulling it out, she looked around to make sure no one was watching.
She unfolded it, to see the neat, slanted writing of Draco Malfoy.
Meet me in the abandoned classroom on the second floor
at 11 o'clock. Don't tell anyone about this note or
the meeting.
-DM
She repressed an urge to sigh, scream, roll her eyes, and go running off to Harry or Ron. What was he playing at? She wasn't going to go wandering off to meet him in the middle of the night!But…at the same time…
She grimaced to herself. She wanted to know what this was about. But she also didn't want to have Malfoy just set her up to get in trouble like first year.
But this time, you have Harry's invisibility cloak and Marauders map, her adventurous side argued.
The internal war was waging.
Go or Not?
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, telling herself that she would figure out this fiasco after the already-in-session potions class that she was currently late for.
Hermione Granger was having a bad day.