Chapter One

"Today I will be assigning each one of you a partner for the biggest project of the term." Snape turned around from his chalkboard and faced the witches and wizards with narrow, wary eyes. "You will be given the same grade, so do not spoil this assignment for your partner. Hermione Granger's hand shot up.

"Please excuse me, sir, but what if one person does all the work? Shouldn't we be individually scored?" Snape grunted.

"The will be no such thing, Miss Granger. What a foolish question. And selfish too, I must add." Snape devilishly smirked. "Five points from Gryffindor."

And like that, Hermione's day went farther downhill. She thought that it couldn't get worse. First, she overslept and missed a lot of breakfast, and secondly, she accidentally gave Ron a bloody nose in DADD. Therefore, she just sighed and dropped her head onto the table in response to Snape's punishment.

"That's another five points for such an attitude," Snape snarled, causing all the Slytherins to burst into laughter, pointing at her from under the desks. As Snape turned his back to scrawl instructions on the board, Hermione threw her hands heavenward in despair. She quietly cleared her throat and patted down her hair as the Professor turned around.

"Since I do not trust you hooligans to choose your own partners, I will be assigning them for you using a spell, of course." He cast the Pairing spell onto a slip of parchment and after thirty seconds, he read the names aloud. Hermione crossed her fingers, hoping for a good partner, and waited for Snape to call her name.

At last, he read her pairing in a complete and utterly monotone voice. Hermione bit her lip as he drawled, "Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy."

Both Hermione and Malfoy were in utter shock. However, neither one complained. Draco sat still with an angry sneer and Hermione rolled her eyes and leaned her head on her fist. This is not going to go well, she thought to herself.

"Your assignment," said Snape as he placed the parchment onto his desk, "Is to create any potion that will be helpful to a witch or wizard. So no, your potions cannot be a low-leveled wart-creating scum of a potion." The back row or Slytherin snickered and looked over to Neville Longbottom.

"You are to make 5th year potions and only 5th year potions," Snape continued, "Thus, Miss Granger, points will be taken off for potions of higher levels, such as… Polyjuice Potion..." Quickly, Hermione nodded.

"Good," Snape grinned deviously.

Hermione slowly walked into the library and found Draco hovering his head over a book. She took a seat next to him and cleared her throat.

"What?" asked Draco, his eyes not leaving the page.

"I figured that since we will be working together for the next fortnight, we ought to be civil, correct?" Draco scoffed.

"Whatever, Granger."

"This is a serious project, Malfoy!" Hermione whisper-yelled. "Here, let's just choose our potion and start tomorrow." She pushed the fifth year potions book towards him, but he just pushed it away.

"Boring," Draco said. "We'll do it tomorrow." Hermione felt the urge to tell him that they're in no position to procrastinate whatsoever, but she fought the urge and sighed.

"Fine," she said, crossing her arms. "We'll just talk then, I suppose. Er, we'll whisper, actually."

"About what?" Malfoy grunted, trailing his eyes back to his book.

"About what potion we want to make," Hermione said smirking, "You never said anything about discussing the potion." Draco huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Frankly, Granger, I don't care." Draco rose to his feet and shut his book. He walked out of the library, leaving Hermione alone in the alley of books.