After dinner, Riddle insisted on escorting us to our rooms.
"It's okay, we can find our way. I wouldn't want to inconvenience you," I pleaded with him. He wasn't having it.
"Nonsense. Wouldn't want you two to get lost, now would we? It's no problem; I'm heading there myself anyway."
"If you insist." I sighed, conceding.
"Of course. Right this way," he said, leading us to the dungeons.
The temperature continuously dropped on our way to the dungeons, and being the warm blooded lioness I am, I began to shiver. I tried to hide it, but both Draco and Riddle noticed. Draco wordlessly handed me his cloak, and I accepted it gratefully. I would have to get used to the low temperatures. I always used to freeze in potions, and now I would be in the cold temperature for a majority of my time.
The descent to the Slytherin dorms seemed to take forever. It was a mostly silent walk, for which I was grateful. It gave me time to think; something I haven't had in a while. I looked around, pretending to not know exactly where we were. Draco did the same.
The only sounds were our shoes tapping against the stone floors as we walked and the crackling of the flames in the torches that led the way. We passed a few students who were trying to get things done, or meet up with friends before curfew, but other than that it was just us.
It was awkward. So very, very awkward.
A few minutes later, we made it to the dorms. He showed us the common room and where our rooms were going to be, and I was relieved when he finally left us to go to the library.
I went straight to bed after saying goodnight to Draco, and almost immediately after laying my head on my pillow I descended into sweet, blissful unconsciousness.
I screamed in intense pain, my body burning from the inside out but freezing at the same time. My muscles spasmed, protesting any movement yet feeling so restless that I couldn't help but flail around. The pressure in my head increased, and the feeling that my eyes would literally pop out of my head at any moment increased tenfold. I grit my teeth so hard that I tasted blood. Tears streamed down my face, spit shooting out of my mouth as I inhaled and exhaled violently between screams when I needed air. My nails bit into the palm of my hand and I squeezed my hands into fists.
Finally, the excruciating pain stopped. My chest heaved for air, and my muscles forcefully contracted. I lied on the ground, staring up at the ceiling blankly. I could hear Bellatrix asking me questions that I couldn't possibly attempt to answer. The life was drained out of me. Even as she grabbed my face, threatened me and slapped me around a little bit, I couldn't respond. This was my biggest fear; that she would torture me into madness.
Suddenly, that seemed funny. I started cackling, the laughter not showing in my eyes. She looked at me, annoyed, knowing what she had done to me. Finally, thankfully, she pointed her wand at me and said the words I had been waiting to hear.
"Avada Kedav-"
Suddenly I woke up gasping. I sat there panting for a few seconds, realizing quickly it was only a dream. These kinds of nightmares were a normal occurence, but I would never get used to them. I laid back down and closed my eyes, allowing my heart rate to slow down before I got ready for the day. I looked at the time, it was 6 am. Two hours until breakfast. I got up and took a shower and got ready. By the time I was done, it was 7:30.
I went down to the common room only to see that it was pretty full. This was really odd for me; the Gryffindor's in my time were never up and ready this early.
I found Draco reading a book in a chair by the fire. Once he saw me, he got up.
"Ready for breakfast?" he asked casually, walking towards me.
"Yeah. I'm starving!" I answered. He smiled and we began our journey to the Great Hall.
Our first class of the day was potions. With Gryffindors. I was so excited. Draco was dreading it.
After we ate, we began our descent to the dungeons. He was brooding, and I had a skip in my step. We were purposefully late, in an attempt to seem like we really were new. This plan, however, backfired as the only two seats left were the most inconvenient seats imaginable.
"Ah! You must be Hermione and Draco, the new students." Professor Horace Slughorn said, greeting us when we walked into the classroom. "Well there seems to only be two seats left, so Draco you can sit next to Mr. Potter, and Hermione you can sit next to Tom!"
At the mention of sitting next to Harry's ancestor, Draco's jaw slightly dropped before he recovered. Though his expression was emotionless, I could imagine the turmoil inside of him. I wanted to laugh, but I didn't in order to keep up appearances. He gave me a look, knowing what I was thinking. I threw him a smirk, and he narrowed his eyebrows at me. Then we both looked away and sat in our respective seats.
"Riddle," I greeted as I sat down. I began unpacking my things, laying out a piece of parchment, a quill and ink for me to take notes with.
"Granger," he said politely. His side of the table was empty. I assumed he would have been taking notes like me, but I suppose he's too intelligent to need notes.
"Today, class, we will be learning about the Amortentia potion." I rolled my eyes; I could make this potion in my sleep. Slughorn also taught us this potion in my sixth year. I noticed Riddle looking at me, probably suspicious as to why I rolled my eyes. I looked down. "Can anybody tell me about this potion?"
Making a quick decision not to hide my intelligence (mostly because of my pride,) I raised my hand. So did Riddle.
"Ah Tom, I think we'll let the lady take this one. Hermione?"
"Yes sir, amortentia is a love potion considered to be the most powerful in existence. It causes a powerful infatuation, or obsession in the drinker. It has a different aroma for each person, for example I smell freshly mown grass, new parchment and spearmint toothpaste."
"Very good!" Slughorn praised. "10 points to Slytherin!"
I smiled and nodded at him humbly, beginning my notes.
"Miss Granger is correct, it is an extremely powerful love potion, however I'm still going to allow you to brew it in small quantities. The instructions are in your textbooks, bring a labeled vial up to my desk when you have completed it. You will be working in pairs." Slughorn explained. Everyone grabbed their cauldrons and began working. I turned to Riddle.
"Would you like me to go grab the ingredients?" I asked him.
"No, I will." He said and walked off. I shrugged to myself and began preparing. I cleared the table, set up the cauldron and began reading over the instructions. I crossed out a few things, and put in the instructions that the Half-Blood Prince had written in Harry's textbook. Soon enough, Riddle returned with the ingredients.
We divided up the ingredients and instructions, and I noticed him trying to give me all the simple tasks. I huffed, annoyed.
"Riddle, I'm perfectly capable of assisting in making this potion!" I said to him, crossing my arms. "Let me do something!"
"Fine!" He exclaimed. We then separated the tasks equally, and I was satisfied. At one point, I began stirring the potion, but instead of doing it clockwise like the instructions said, I stirred counter-clockwise as the Half-Blood Prince had advised. Riddle was quick to jump on my case.
"What are you doing, you fool?! You're going to destroy the potion!" He whisper-yelled at me.
"Just trust me, it'll turn out better this way." I told him.
He leaned in close, so that only I could hear him.
"If you ruin my potion and cause me to get less than an O, I will hurt you." He threatened.
"Not worry Riddle, your precious grades aren't in any danger." I hissed at him.
He sneered at me and backed away. I looked over to Draco and saw him watching what just happened between Riddle and I. I half smiled at him to reassure him, and he nodded and turned away.
A few minutes later, our potion was done and I was proud to say that it was the exact shade it was supposed to be. I had a proud, triumphant smirk on my face, and despite having his precious 'Outstanding,' Riddle looked annoyed. Slughorn came over to us and looked at our potion.
"Well done, well done!" He praised. "You two did a fantastic job, it looks like an 'O' to me!"
As soon as he walked away, I bottled it up and began packing up my things. As I slung my bag over my shoulder and went to leave, I whispered in Riddle's ear.
"Never insult my intelligence." I told him. As I left, I patted him on the shoulder. I knew this was going to piss him off to no end, and I was making myself a target, but I had to do it. I could feel him seething as I walked out, and I smirked so hard that even Draco would be jealous. I felt alive.
After class, both Draco and I had a free period. We decided to spend it at the lake, having a picnic. We went to the kitchens first and kindly asked the house elves to make us a picnic. Then I conjured up a blanket, and we sat out by the lake and ate.
It was really fun. I haven't felt so relaxed and silly in a long time. Not since Ron, Harry and I could hang out without the pressure of the Order or the war bearing on us. It was innocent and fun, we talked about school, shared embarrassing stories and laughed our asses off.
We began to share some grapes that the house elves had given us when I had an idea.
"Hold on Draco! Open your mouth." I asked him. He looked confused for a second before doing as I asked. I took a grape and threw it at his face, attempting to get it in his mouth. Instead of hitting my intended target, his hit his eye and bounced off.
He stared at me for a second, and then began laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. He was holding his stomach, and his head was thrown back. A deep, loud laugh escaped his lips, and I couldn't help but laugh with him.
It was then that I noticed that we had become friends. Besides everything that stood in our way, being born enemies, a war, and being thrown back in time, we had managed to get over our differences and be friends. I realized then that I had forgiven him for the awful things he had done, like call me a mudblood, betray and almost kill Dumbledore, and try to stop me from coming to the past. It was a good feeling, and I felt as though he had grown a lot in the past year.
"I have a crazy idea." He told me once had sobered up.
"Oh yeah, what's that?" I asked him, amused. He smirked, and then took his robes, shirt and pants off, leaving him in just his boxers.
My face immediately turned red, and I got extremely confused. He looked at me for a second, ran his hand through his hair, and bit his lip.
Suddenly, he began sprinting into the lake. He ran into the water, and began splashing around. I laughed, and didn't make any move to join him.
"I don't have my swimsuit!" I yelled after him.
"Neither do I!" He yelled back, smiling at me. I took off my robe, skirt and shirt, leaving me in my bra and spandex. Then I ran in after him.
After about an hour of swimming and splashing around, we got out of the water. We were freezing, so I quickly grabbed my wand and cast a drying spell on us.
"What do we have next?" I asked him. He took his schedule out of his robe and looked.
"Arithmancy," He groaned. I smiled. I loved arithmancy.
"Well we have about thirty minutes, so we should really head there now." I said to him.
"Good call." He said. He picked up his bag, and I went to pick up mine when he grabbed it for me.
"Gee Hermione, what do you keep in here? Rocks?" He complained.
"You don't have to carry it," I told him, moving to grab it. He wouldn't let me though.
"It's okay, I've got it."
"Okay, but it's your shoulders funeral." I told him.