Hermione sat restlessly at her desk in the dungeons beside Harry. She glanced around in boredom, and drifted into a dreamy reverie. She already knew what Snape was prattling on about, could probably manage it better than him...now. The heavy drone of the potion lesson stopped as Snape cast Hermione a reprimanding look for her inattention. She ignored it, gazing ahead of herself. Harry glanced curiously at her, after Snape had swooped off to write something on the board, but Hermione just managed to look vague. Under the table, however, her hands were twitching and swishing unconsciously, swirling with magic. A quick jab here, an elaborate flourish there and she was half way done.
Across the room heads were drooping and eyes were swimming towards unconsciousness. Snape surveyed his classroom in astonishment as half of them fell forwards onto the pocked desks and drew his wand with predator like speed, snarling.
"What is this!" he roared as heavy sighs heralded more and more collapses.
Hermione gasped as she realized what she had done as Snape blustered from student to silent student, prodding them with his wand;
"Who is responsible?"
Hermione looked around desperately for a way out when another voice spoke up, one who had recognized the spell and warded against it.
"I am."
Now only Hermione and the speaker were sitting upright, and Hermione swung around disbelievingly and was confronted with the steely grey eyes of one Draco Malfoy.
"I did it." He adamantly pronounced again, enunciating the hard consonants with a flick of his tongue.
"Mister Malfoy…" Snape's whole body radiated violence, anger moving his usually pallor complexion to an unusual shade of red.
"What could have possibly possessed you to perform such disrespectful magic in my classroom?" Then he paused having noticed that Hermione was also still conscious.
"Granger was the only one who sensed the spell, right Granger? Anyway, no magic could penetrate that thick skull of hers..." Draco stared intently at Hermione, his obvious malice hiding a hint of desperation for her to go along with him."
Snape took one look at the pair of them, Hermione and Draco nodding at each other in agreement on the course of events and he bubbled over with unrepressed anger.
"Both of you, OUT! To the Head Master now, 50 points from Gryffindor and 50 from Slytherin."
Hermione and Draco both complied, scampering for the doors and running up the stairs, leaving Snape to begin the difficult counter curse needed to break the Siren's song off of his students.
"The Siren's song?" he pondered quietly, "No student could have cast that..."
Outside Hermione glared at Draco, but for her efforts he just continued walking through the labyrinth like castle to the Head Master's office.
"I didn't know you were a fool Hermione Granger." he said, keeping his face forward.
"Me, the fool?" she exclaimed.
"Yes," he replied calmly, "The Siren's song? What were you trying to pull, and with Snape as well."
"It obviously wasn't intentional!" Hermione cried, distraught and had to hurry to again to match Draco's stride. "You shouldn't have gotten involved, telling Snape it was you, who is the fool?
Draco turned to look at Hermione, and noted that her eyes were a very deep brown, bordering on red. She would have to compose herself for the Head Master; no-one could know about her.
"Granger, calm down, you are already quite intimidating without red eyes."
Hermione closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them they looked natural again.
"You know this isn't something to be played with, your skill, do you think so many died so you could perform petty classroom pranks."
"For the last time, I didn't mean to, my mind wandered! Don't tell me off!" Hermione bit back and then added softly, "And I never asked for it anyways, did I?"
It was true, neither of them had asked for it.
"No, but would you have done anything differently? You know Potter wouldn't be alive if you hadn't, don't you?" a hint of the bitterness from his old rivalry with Harry had entered his tone. He always seemed to win, and this time wasn't any different. Granger had made the ultimate sacrifice for him.
Hermione looked up at Draco where wisps of hair spun like moonlight had come loose from his bound pony tail and into his eyes, dangerous, like looming storm clouds. She loathed him.
They were both trapped, so completely, set forever on this path.
A year ago the war had been in full swing, death flanking both sides, but Harry had won, he had beaten Voldemort with such gusto, even monologuing at the end, and he had stopped it all, the war, the death, he hadn't managed to stop the pain of loss but everything had seemed irrelevant in the face of his victory against all odds. Hermione, now, had almost managed to forget Ron, bellowing and throwing himself in front of a killing curse for Hermione, of Ginny's memory being stolen and of her rocking like a small child in the midst of battle.
She had never managed to forget the price she had paid for the war, though. There had been a point when Harry hadn't been winning, when he lay at the mercy of Voldemort, dying, and Hermione had acted. To save Harry she had made a deal with Death itself. She had accepted a piece of Voldemort's soul into her own body, and full of heroic action had plunged Godric Gryffindor's sword into her chest, trying to end it for good. Looking back she wondered if what she had done was brave or selfish, a way to get out of it all... a good reason to. And she had died and brought down a piece of Voldemort's soul.
What she hadn't counted on was that magic just didn't end like that, there are always repercussions. She definitely hadn't counted on mercy from the afterlife, of being pushed back into her healed body and finding Draco standing above her and glowing in quite the same fashion that she was. It seems Dumbledore had quite a sway with higher forces. Draco had performed a similar act of sacrifice against the Dark lord, who had slaughtered his parents at the beginning of the war, and had risen again too. And now they were both alive, mortal, yes, but human, no. No-one could know of course, not even Harry. They were called "miracles" and their returned lives were rejoiced. What they were, after intensive research and a letter left behind from Dumbledore, were vessels of power, seives that redistributed any magical fluctuations, pieces of a puzzle that had been adapted to fill empty space that could not remain empty. In their strength they could be called mages, but they were more than that. Dumbledore had also been a very powerful mage. Voldemort too.
Both of them had been pitied, and admired. They were right for the job, chosen to right the magical imbalance caused by both Voldemort and Dumbledore leaving the physical world. And now here they stood; Hermione full of anger and redemption and Draco weary with regrets.
Draco silently wished, not for the first time, that the tender look he had seen Hermione use on Potter could be used on him. It might make their decades of shared servitude go faster.
"Come on Hemione, time to face your misdeeds."
Inside the head master's office a grumbly old man sat, his face scarred and his hair wiry and dyed white. Professor Sunkton, the ministry appointed head master, peered at the two students shrewdly.
"A simple prank, aye? Pretty sophisticated spell material for a prank." He took a moment to reflect inwards, "pretty impressive in fact…" he trailed off.
"Well, yes, now to your punishments, detentions of course and I won't revoke prefectship this time but you two had better think carefully about your actions. And not a word of what you have done, otherwise your punishment will have to be much more severe…yes..Alright then, you may leave."
Hermione whisked out of the office and Draco followed gracefully behind her but almost immediately as she was out of the Head Master's eyesight she disappeared, making herself invisible. Draco could hear the clatter of her footsteps as she ran away. From him. He could have found and followed her easily but he didn't...he turned the other way and disappeared himself. Disappearing felt so good.