Chapter Three

Hermione grumbled her way up to the fifth floor, Luna trailing behind her with a little hummed tune under her breath. The Gryffindor walked hunched, clasping her heavy copy of 'Arithmancy For The Advanced' across her chest. She heaved the book, a sour look on her face. Whilst Hermione had never been one to say no to extra tuition, a suspicious rumour had been circulating in Potions about the identity of their new tutor. Having got the measure of Dolores Umbridge in the past few months, Hermione was almost certain that the rumours would be true.

"It might not be him, you know," Luna mused in a soft drawl.

Hermione stopped on the stairs, swinging with all the force of her textbook to face her classmate.

"It's going to be him, Luna," Hermione groaned, rolling her eyes. "This makes perfect sense for Umbridge. Hire a Death Eater! Why not indeed?"

Luna walked on up the stairs, forcing Hermione to follow. "What's the worst that could happen? He's not going to try anything in these old walls, surely..."

Hermione frowned at the Ravenclaw. She was far too trusting of the castle to keep them all safe.

"But then what's he doing here? Hmmm? If it's not to try and attack Harry, or Dumbledore?"

Luna mused this one out a little longer, then shrugged off the question dreamily. "Perhaps he just really likes Arithmancy."

Hermione released a frustrated growl, attracting the attention of the worried-looking students they had just reached. Some of them chuckled at her, looking away to gossip. Others cast strange looks at Luna, who today sported a painted tattoo of a frog on her left cheek. Hermione too snuck another look at the blonde beside her. Sometimes she wondered if it would be better not to reach out and befriend people quite so much.

Padma Patil emerged behind them from the staircase, which promptly removed itself from the adjacent doorway, deciding it had let in enough fifth-floor people for one day.

"It is true Hermione?" She asked, a little breathless. "Is it him?"

"No-one's been let in yet," Hermione confirmed. She let go of her book with one arm, only to find it trembled when it became loose. She gripped the textbook once more, casting an uncertain glance to Padma. "We'll know in about a minute."

Padma frowned. She passed them to join her fellow Ravenclaws against the wall, all of whom carried their textbooks and cast nervous looks to the door in the same way Hermione did. The only students who looked calm were the Slytherin girls who surrounded the doorway eagerly, gossiping to one another with wry, smiling faces. And Luna was calm, of course. Luna was always frustratingly calm.

After a moment of hesitation, a clock somewhere chimed twelve noon. As the distant bells reverberated through the halls and corridors, a clicking started from within the door of the classroom now emblazoned MAA. A loud creak signalled the door's unlocking, after which it slowly swung away to give access.

Behind it, a man sat at the head desk. As the crowd burst in, Hermione fell behind it, left only to wonder what the girlish gasps of the Slytherins at the front could mean. Were they disappointed? Happy? Or something else? By the time the gaggle had started to disperse, the man had risen from the desk.

Everything hit Hermione at once. The white-blonde hair held back by velvet. The shock of being so very right in her suspicions. The cool, ice-filled eyes that found her among the crowd, narrowing gleefully. The half-whispers she could hear from the crowd around her. That face. That presence. The black velvet, silk and silver. So suave. So austere.

The Hogwarts Students came face to face with a Death Eater in disguise.

"Good Afternoon Fifth-Years."

The words dripped like molten metal from his tongue.

Hermione took a seat beside Luna, her eyes never leaving the figure at the front.

"Welcome to MAA."

He smiled a cruel, curved smile, cobalt eyes sweeping the crowd. He found Hermione's brown eyes again. The smile fell away.

"You may address me as Mr Malfoy."