Disclaimer: I do not own Draco nor the wonderful world he lives in
The first week of classes went by like any other the only difference was where Hermione and Draco slept. Everyone expected the Head dorms to be filled with yelling whenever both residents were occupying them. Therefore it surprised everyone that the explosive had yet to be set off.
While Hermione still doubted the sincerity of her dorm mate's apology she did acknowledge that his behavior had improved. He did not antagonize her or purposely irritate her and he never dared mutter that disgusting 'm' word. But this may have been because he completely ignored her. Unless they were discussing something to their headship he did not speak to her. This irritated her greatly but she preferred it to his tormenting ways from the past seven years.
When she wasn't in class, doing rounds, or in the library the brunette Head Girl spent much of her time in the Gryffindor common room. By the end of the week it was just too awkward. She had officially broke it off with Ron thus igniting his temper and contempt and Harry and Ginny only had eyes for each other. Hermione was beyond thrilled the two were engaged but it made her feel like a third wheel. At the moment the only close friends she had were Neville and Luna.
The later was currently in her Care of Magical Creatures class, no doubt trying to prove the existence of some impossible creature, so Hermione was about to meet up with the former. Neville had expressed his interest in going into a career field involving Herbology Professor Sprouts made him her apprentice of sorts. While he showed up on the class roster his role in the class was closer to that of a student teacher. They had a project coming up later in the year involving growing muggle plants in such a way as they could develop magical properties, for example growing a perfect rose for an amortentia potion. Neville was in charge of growing some examples so the class could see where they should be at different stages during their project. The students would have three different plants to choose from and potting them would take some time so he asked Hermione and a friend of his from Hufflepuff to assist him.
She arrived at the green house just a few minutes before she should have and waited for Neville to come and unlock it. Sure she could magically unlock it herself but she didn't feel the need to.
She didn't have to wait very long when Neville arrived with a boy Hermione vaguely recognized. He was Neville's height and lean with shaggy, sandy blonde hair, a deep tan, and dark eyes.
"Hey, Hermione hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long. This is Dante Amer by the way, top Hufflepuff Herbology student, he's the one I said would be helping us today," Neville said to her as he unlocked the green house.
The newly introduced boy greeted Hermione with a handsome smile, "It is very nice to finally meet you Miss Granger."
Hermione smiled back, "The same to you, you can call me Hermione if you'd like."
"Only if you call me Dante," he said as his smile brightened. At this point Neville had opened the door and let them in.
"Okay so we are planted roses, lilies, and clovers," Neville explained going into what Hermione called 'teacher' mode, it was almost a sure bet he'd succeed Sprouts when she retired. "We want the roses to become 'perfect', the lilies' nectar to hold the essence of 'hope', and 'lucky' four leaf clovers." Neville then began to instruct Hermione what spells she needed to cast on the lily buds to begin the process of producing 'hope' even though she already knew them and gave Dante the bag of soil needed to grow the clovers.
By the time Hermione got around to actually planting her buds the three of them were having a conversation about their childhoods. Neville complained about how strict his grandmother was, Hermione spoke of the ban on sugary treats by her dentist parents, and Dante recalled some wacky high jinks at his parents' bakery in Ackerly.
"A lot of the food was normal but sometimes Dad got creative," he said with a smile, "once he put some sort of potion into the batter for these little girl's princess cupcakes that made their tongues glitter after they ate it. The girls were thrilled, the parents not so much after a couple weeks."
After they stopped laughing Hermione remarked his father must have been very talented with potions. "As much as he could be, never received any magical schooling."
Normally that would mean he was muggle-born but then why would they have a semi-magical bakery in a well known wizarding village? "Why not?"
Dante looked down at the messy floor, "Both of my parents are squibs." Well that caught Hermione off guard.
"Well that's interesting; I didn't know squibs could do any magic."
The blonde looked back up, "Not all potions need outside magic, the ingredients take care of it themselves."
Neville looked at the time and announced that charms would be staring soon for the Gryffindors and the trio cleaned their mess before leaving.
xxDMHGxx
The first week of school was very tiring for Draco. Besides all his coursework and Head Boy duties he still didn't know what he should do concerning Hermione. He didn't want to ignore her he just didn't know what to say, didn't want to give anything away. If Hermione found out about his crush she'd rip him a new one. He could already hear her furious lecture about lies and how to treat a girl. She would dig up every bad thing he ever said or did to her. She would utterly and completely reject him.
Draco reluctantly made his way to Divinations, one of his least favorite classes. While his family followed Voldemort the Dark Lord insisted that Draco take the class all the way through N.E.W.T.S. in hopes of having his own personal seer. Occasionally the blonde Slytherin would see something but nothing of importance to his former master.
After the final battle the Draco distanced himself from his former master as much as he could but decided to take Divination his final year just so that all his effort in the subject did not go to waste.
They were going into the finer details of crystal balls at the moment and everyone present could see at least the outline of something. The first day, Draco received the clearest picture in the class, two people dancing. At least he thought they were dancing. The figures spun around in a circle, one significantly smaller than the other. But no matter how hard he concentrated he could find no clues as to how this was significant in his life.
Trelawney hovered over Pavarti—the class was small enough to have students from all houses—helping her determine whether she was seeing birds or shooting stars. The older witch raised her head to see Draco staring at his crystal ball intensely as he had all week. She asked him what he saw the first day and he replied "I see tow people spinning, whoop de doo." The seer guessed this may have to do with her prophecy and left him to his gazing. She normally did not stay stuck on one prophecy for so long but this one intrigued her. Perhaps this is what women meant when they said romance novels were addicting. Just like how the female staff and students read those novels with great interest, Trelawney was hooked on this prophecy.
She left Parvati to her ponderings and walked over to Draco. "What have you seen, Mr Malfoy?"
"Same two figures as before," he said disappointed that he wasn't seeing anything interesting.
"Persistent that means it is important. Yes this is very good. Any changes?" her voice was very dramatic, trying to hide her eager interest.
"They are spinning," he replied.
"Hmmm, keep looking. I'm sure you'll find something of great interest."
AN: I don't see any reason why a squib can't brew potions as long as there is no 'foolish wand waving'
So I don't want to sound like a review hog but I'm disappointed with the lack of them. I'm not looking for praise or anything but just a little commentary please. Maybe some advice, I know what I want to do with this story but if you guys have any ideas I'm all ears. They motivate me to keep going and without them updates will be less frequent.
On the other hand I'm pleasantly surprised with all the alerts
Virtual cookie to anyone who finds out the significance of the name 'Amer' but I warn you it may give away something later on