A/N: Hermione's thoughts are in italics. This story is not canon.
Quidditch League Finals Round 1, Chaser 3. Use quote: 'The next time I tell you it's a bad idea, how about you try actually listening?' Prompts: (colour) salmon; (word) dilated; (colour) aquamarine
Love Potion Number Nine*
"I took my troubles down to Madame Rue
You know that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth
She's got a pad down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
Sellin' little bottles of Love Potion Number Nine"
Hermione couldn't understand why the muggle rock song's lyrics popped into her head when Professor Slughorn assigned them Amortentia to make during Potions in her sixth year and again in her eighth. She thought Potions from Slughorn was a waste of time, but eighth year students were required to take even if they had taken it in seventh year. "Now who thought up that stupid rule, most of the students their year had been in Hogwarts during the seventh year to take Potions were Slytherins. Those here spent time in the Room of Requirement rather than the classroom. Anyway I have to get this stupid class out of the way. What is Seamus Finnegan in this class for? There is no way he was eligible to go for a N.E.W.T., although he had done a good job of blowing up the bridge during the Battle of Hogwarts, to be fair. And what on God's green earth was Slughorn thinking when he assigned Seamus to be her lab partner?"
"Hey, Seamus. Do you want to get the ingredients from the supply cupboard while I start brewing? With any luck we can have the best potion in the class," said Hermione a little too brightly.
Hermione began carefully crushing the Ashwinder eggs with the blade of a silver knife, while Seamus retrieved rose thorns, peppermint and Moonstone from the potions supply cupboard. Reaching across the worktable she turned up the heat under the cauldron and asked him to crush the Moonstone in the mortar and with the pestle. She had just finished getting the eggs ready when she heard a disheartening sound of the cauldron exploding when Seamus added the Moonstone to the hot vessel.
"Yikes!" shouted Seamus. "Duck, Hermione."
The warning was too late. The finely ground powder was sprayed throughout the area surrounding the lab table. What had melted when contacting the caldron flew in blobs like molten lava from a volcano melting or burning whatever they contacted. Professor Slughorn stood rooted to the floor in shock, but the students surrounding the explosion sprung into action. Slytherins and Gryffindors alike helping whomever was down or had gotten in the way of the shrapnel. Harry and Draco being natural leaders were performing something akin to triage and sending people to the hospital wing or leaving them where they lay until Madam Pomfrey could be summoned to their side. They told the rest remain calm and finish the potion for the class.
Hermione and Seamus, being in the epicenter, were among the students with burns as well as a dusting of aquamarine powder form the Moonstone. Neville and Pansy being at the table just in front of them were also hurt badly, but to a lesser degree. Blaise and Lavender being just behind the explosion were spared the burns from the molten Moonstone, but were covered with the powder as well.
"I told her that I was a flop with chicks
I've been this way since 1956
She looked at my palm and she made a magic sign
She said 'What you need is Love Potion Number Nine'"
Hermione couldn't move. Her eyes were open, but there was a dark cloth over them. "Where was she? Oh, that's right the caldron exploded in Potions. It isn't cold or hard so someone must have moved me."
Madam Pomfrey hustled in to check the patients. All except Hermione and Seamus were sent to their dorms to rest and then could attend classes on the morrow. Hermione could hear her talking with Seamus. "I was able to heal the burns and remove the powdered Moonstone dust, but Dear, you really should listen to Hermione. She is one of the best in potions and she knows what she is doing. If you follow her lead, you may get at least an A on your N.E.W.T. for potions."
"Okay," he mumbled.
"Then you can go back to your dorm, too," she said. "I need to check on Miss Granger," dismissing him after summoning his clothing.
After a moment's silence, Hermione heard the Mediwitch hustling into the area, pulling the curtain aside. "Are you awake, Miss Granger?" she asked, gently removing the blindfold from her eyes. "I have dimmed the room so you won't be shocked by the sudden light in your dilated eyes. You got some of the Moonstone dust into your eyes. I have removed most, but your tears will have to wash the rest out. Just let them water and put some of these drops in to make more tears." She handed Hermione a vial of muggle eye drops. "What?" Madam Pomfrey remarked. "These are quite good and more efficient than every wizard eye potion I have tried. They are supposed to be the same chemical formula as natural tears." She then handed Hermione a small jar of burn ointment and told her that she could leave if she had someone to stay with her. If she didn't have someone, she would have to spend the night in the infirmary.
Now she did feel blue. She had no one to stay with her. "Harry had Ginny. Ron had Lavender and from what she had been overhearing she had been hurt, too, so he would stay with her. Neville had Hannah, though they lived in different dorms they were together now. Hell, even her dorm partner in the Head's Dorm, probably had somebody. Malfoy wasn't called the Slytherin god for nothing. He wasn't seeing Pansy this year, but surely he had someone because he was definite eye candy—WHOA, Hermione you can't think about him that way. They had been cordial this year, but he wouldn't want to stay with me."
"I guess I will be spending the night here, because I cannot think of someone to stay with me," Hermione stated with resignation in her voice. "I guess I should let Malfoy know I will be here all night."
"She bent down and turned around and gave me a wink
She said "I'm gonna make it up right here in the sink"
It smelled like turpentine, it looked like Indian ink
I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink"
The next morning dawned a crisp, blustery autumn day. After a final check from Madam Pomfrey, Hermione was excused. She rushed back to the Head's Dorm to shower and change before breakfast. As the portal opened and she started in, she ran smack into Malfoy as he was exiting. "O-o-f! Watch where you are going, Granger," Draco snapped. Then he paused and offered her a hand up. As she struggled back to her feet, she felt another hand slip under the other elbow for extra help in rising. "Where were you?" he asked. "I didn't realize you weren't in the dorm until I didn't have to battle you for the shower. I was just going to see if St. Potter knew where you were."
Hermione's heart skipped a beat at the touch of his hand and it nearly stopped when he lifted her by her elbow back to her feet. "Didn't you get the message? I had to spend the night in the infirmary because I had no one to stay with me. My vision is kind of fuzzy, but getting better."
"No, but I wasn't here last night. Mother had owled for me to come home to sign some papers since she cannot leave." Then he added at barely above a whisper, "House arrest and all. We are selling off some property to pay for our fines and with Father gone I am the head of the house."
"I'm sorry I didn't know," Hermione replied.
"Hardly everyone does. I wouldn't want it any other way. I really don't like people in my business."
"People only want to know so that they can understand. It isn't that they are nosy, it is because they want to care."
"I'm just not used to people wanting to care."
"I'm so sorry, I didn't think," Hermione started.
"No, don't," she was cut off. "So you are okay? You said something about blurred vision, didn't you?"
"Yah, I will survive thanks to your and Harry's quick thinking according to Madam Pomfrey. I only got some Moonstone dust in my eyes and have a few burns, but I will survive. I have to shower and change clothes before breakfast. It looks like these robes are destined for the rubbish heap. It could have been worse."
"Do you want me to wait?"
"I wouldn't want to put you out."
"You wouldn't be if I offered to, you do know that?"
"Okay." The awkward silence was followed by a blush and a flurry of feet running up to Hermione's room for clothes and the shower. Mere minutes she returned to the common room dressed in clean robes, book bag over her shoulder, and brushing out her towel dried hair.
"Let's go find some food." "Tuesday has to be a better day."
Wednesday, Hermione made her way down to the Potions classroom with trepidation. Slughorn was still the Potions instructor. Seamus was still her lab partner. They still had to brew Amortentia this week. "Now, Seamus, if you will get the ingredients, I will start the caldron to heat. Don't do anything that is not on the instruction page of the potions book."
She began to crush the Ashwinder eggs with the silver knife, just as she had on Monday. When Seamus got back with the ingredients, she set him to mincing the rose thorns and peppermint, while she crushed the Moonstone this time. She turned the heat down on the caldron, scraped in the crushed eggs, and slowly stirred in the crushed Moonstone. Thee instructions said to stir four turns clockwise, wait a minute, then as it turned a salmon colour, they could add the peppermint, stir again and add the minced rose thorns, stir anticlockwise and let it brew seven more minutes until it had a mother-of-pearl sheen.
"Careful, Seamus," Hermione warned. "Don't mix the rose thorns with the peppermint. They must be added separately. Did you use the same knife or separate knives to mince?" At the strange look on his face, she shouted, "DON'T PUT THAT IN HERE!"
As the caldron exploded, you could hear Hermione whimper, "The next time I tell you it's a bad idea, how about you try actually listening?" Then she fell to the floor.
Draco rushed to her and shouted to Harry, "Potter, get Madam Pomfrey!"
"I didn't know if it was day or night
I started kissin' everything in sight
But when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
He broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number Nine"
When Hermione awoke, she was lying on a cot in the Hospital Wing AGAIN. "Damn Slughorn, I really do need a new Potions lab partner."
"Why was I so stupid? Why didn't I tell him to keep the thorns separate from the peppermint? Why didn't I tell him to use two knives? Why didn't I just do it myself?" Hermione continued with the self-flagellation.
"Because you are not omnipotent, Granger," drawled the blonde who was sitting on a chair beside the foot of her bed, his feet up on the mattress near her feet. He was staring at his fingernails as if they were the most interesting thing on the planet and acting like he was totally bored with being here. In truth, he did not want Hermione to know how worried he was.
"No, I didn't say that aloud, did I?"
"You most certainly were berating yourself for something you had no control over." Draco added, "Madam Pomfrey says you can leave if you don't have a headache. She had to go to St. Mungo's to advise on something and will be back later this evening." When Hermione raised an eyebrow showing a hint of skepticism, he said, "At least you have no burns this time. How are your eyes, by the way?"
"No headache and my eyes are better, thank you," replied Hermione. "I just don't know how I am going to get this potion made in time to be finished by Monday."
"Good news, Granger," Draco smirked, "since I am your dorm mate and 'keeping an eye on you' Professor Slughorn has said that you can brew yours after supper, with me watching. He says for us to come to his office when we are ready to start."
Draco and Hermione made their way to the Potions room in the dungeons after eating in the Great Hall. The door to the room was ajar and Professor Slughorn could be seen sitting at his desk through the crack between the door and jamb. "Enter," he called out when they rapped. "I will be retiring to my quarters and I trust you to lock up when you leave." He rose from his seat at the desk and moved swiftly from the room.
Hermione busied herself, lighting the fire under the caldron, turning the flame to medium, then moving swiftly to the cupboard gathered the ingredients. Draco sat at an adjacent table with a book open and feigning indifference, but he was really watching her every movement. He was always amazed at the efficiency with which she worked. It was like a complex ballet. It was simple and beautiful to watch, but beneath were years of practice to complete the choreography. As she crushed, chopped and stirred, he quit pretending that he was reading and watched with amusement at her joy. She was completely absorbed in the task. After she cleaned the workspace, she picked up her book bag and then noticed that she had been watched. "Well, I finally have a potion brewing," she said with a sigh. "Let's go. I need some sleep in a bed other than a hospital cot."
Her comment brought a slight chuckle from the Slytherin. "Let me carry that," he said taking the book bag and holding out his hand, hoping she would take it. They fell into a comfortable silence as they walked to their dorm. When they reached the common room, Hermione did not want to release the warm hand holding hers. As she reached for the book bag, he caught her wrist, stared into her eyes and asked her if she really needed a love potion. Then he gently kissed her lips. No, she no longer needed a love potion; she was now on "cloud nine".
*by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, 1959 originally performed by The Clovers and released by United Artists