Chapter Four: Hermione
Ariadne had been sitting in the library reading over her potions notes and slowly writing that weeks essay for Snape for the last two hours. Hermione had sat and joined her after a half hour, and the two had worked in silence. Finally Ariadne let out a sigh and plopped her quill down on her paper in frustration.
"Working on potions?" Hermione asked, taking a break from her work as well. Ariadne looked up in surprise. Usually Hermione didn't start conversation with her, still wary of the Slytherin.
"Yeah," Ariadne nodded, stretching her arms out in front of her, letting her shoulders pop loudly. "I must have missed something in class yesterday because I just can't figure out the connection between all these stupid ingredients for this essay." She crossed her arms on the table and set her chin on top of them.
"Want to look over my notes?" Hermione asked, pushing a muggle notebook across the table to her.
"You don't mind?" Ariadne asked, lifting her face.
"No it's fine, I already finished my potions essay anyway," Hermione said, smiling across the table at Ariadne.
"Thanks," Ariadne said, lifting the notebook in front of her and scanning through Hermione's note. She paused to scribble a few things down on her own notes, then handed the notebook back ten minutes later and began work on the rest of the potions assignment. Finally she rolled up that parchment, satisfied with the essay, and pulled out her transfiguration book to start reading what they would cover in class tomorrow.
"What are you working on?" Ariadne asked, noticing Hermione tap her wand against her parchment to remove the words she had written for the fifth time in the last ten minutes.
"Transfiguration," Hermione said, not looking up. "I was just reading over the assignment for tomorrow one last time and I decided to rewrite part of it, but now I can't figure out how to word it."
"What part are you at?" Ariadne asked, tilting her head to the side.
"I've detailed the incantation and pronunciation for turning the match into a needle, and I've got the wand movement down, but I just can't get the wand movements into words correctly," Hermione said, scowling down at her paper and tapping her wand against it again.
"Would you like to look at mine?" Ariadne asked, pulling it out of her bag. "I've finished it, maybe it'll give you some ideas." She set it on top of one of the books Hermione had stacked in front of her. Hermione hesitated for a moment, looking at the scroll.
"It's fine Hermione, it's not like you are copying it, and you already know how to do the spell, it's not cheating or anything," Ariadne said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
"Okay," Hermione said, grabbing the scroll and glancing over it. Ariadne returned to her book and read over the next chapter for the next twenty minutes, trying to make sense of the next spell they would be learning.
As the bell signaling curfew approaching rang out, Ariadne let out a breath and packed up her books and notes again, preparing to leave.
"Thanks," Hermione said, rolling up the scroll and handing it back to Ariadne, then packing up her things as well.
"Anytime. You're a good study partner," Ariadne said, smiling as she waited for Hermione to pick up her bag. They walked together out of the library, parting ways at the staircase with murmured farewells.
Breakfast the next morning passed in a flurry of motion as Crabbe and Goyle hurriedly copied off someone's notes to finish their potions homework for Snape in an attempt to avoid detentions. Ariadne might have taken pity on them, but last night when she had gotten back to the common room one of them had purposely tripped her as she crossed the room to the girls dorms, so she didn't care right now if they got detentions.
Ariadne was listening to Pansy talking about a party her mother had thrown over the summer, and frowning to herself as Pansy companied about all the extra 'girl training', as she called it, she'd had to endure. Millicent and Hestia nodded in sympathy.
"I've never had table manner lessons," Ariadne said, frowning as she played with the food on her plate with her fork.
"We know," Millicent said, rolling her eyes, but she had a small smile on her face to let Aria know she was joking. "You slouch too much to have ever been taught the way we were."
"I slouch?" Ariadne asked self consciously, sitting up straighter on the bench.
"It's nothing that bad," Pansy said, waving a hand at her. "Most of our mothers are just really picky about how we should behave."
"Can you teach me?" Ariadne asked, frowning over in their direction. Pansy and Millicent looked at each other and Hestia gave a shrug.
"I don't see why you would want to learn, but I can tell you what my mother told me if you really want," Pansy said, raising an eyebrow at Aria.
"I just want to know, in case I'm ever in a situation where it's important," Ariadne explained, shrugging.
"Well I'm sure there are books int he library too if you are really that interested," Pansy said, taking a bite of her food.
Ariadne watched the other girls closely through the rest of the mean, noticing how they sat and moved, now that she was paying attention. Even with the backless benches, all of them, and many of the boys as well, sat straight and kept their arms and hands off the table, only leaning forward over their plates to take a bite. Ariadne straightened her back, trying to get used to the new position, and spent the rest of the meal keeping her posture correct.
She stopped by the Library after classes let out that afternoon and searched through the shelves for any books on table manners, and settled on one called Pureblood Society Etiquette: Lessons for a Young Witch. She tucked it into her bag and returned to her common room quickly, hoping not to be caught alone in the hallways. Most of the pranking on Slytherin house had died down after the first month, now that many of the other students were focusing more on their homework, but not many would pass up a chance to get back at a lone first year.
As she entered the common room, Ariadne took note of all of her house mates that were sitting around the room, looking to see where her friends were. The four other girls, as well as Blaise and Theo, were once again gathered around their usual table in the back corner, all of them with their assignments out. Ariadne dropped her book bag off in her dorm room before grabbing her Charms book and heading out to join them. She had gotten pretty far ahead in her classwork, a pleasant result of studying with Hermione, and she only had to write a conclusion for her Charms essay before she was done with work for the rest of the week.
The next few days flew by, and before she knew it, Halloween had approached and the first year Slytherin's made their way down to the Halloween feast together. Ariadne tagged behind the group a bit, nodding or waking to the students she knew that passed by her. The Great Hall had been decorated fantastically, and Ariadne smiled as she took in the many carved pumpkins and charmed plastic spiders. As she entered the hall, she ran straight into the back of another boy and lost her balance, falling backwards. She flung out her left hand to try to break her fall and heard it pop loudly before the she registered the pain.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you," the boy said, holding a hand out to help her out. She grabbed it with her right hand and let him pull her up, then cradled her left arm in her good hand and looked up, keeping the pain from her face.
"It's okay," she said to the boy, who she recognized as Harry Potter, the infamous Gryffindor boy she hasn't talked to before. "I'm fine."
"Well, sorry again," he said, then turned around to enter the nearly full hall, joining his red haired friend who gave her a glare as she walked to the table.
"Aria, where were you?" Pansy asked as she sat down beside her. "And what did you do to your arm?" Ariadne glanced down at her wrist which was now turning purple and swelling a bit.
"I fell," Ariadne said, wincing as she moved her arm a bit. "I'll go up to the hospital wing as soon as Snape sees I'm here so I don't get detention later.
"It looks-" Pansy began, but was cut off as the headmaster stood to address them all. Ariadne patiently waited out his speech, and as soon as Snape did his daily scan of the table from where he sat, she stood and slipped out of the doors, making sure they shut quietly behind her. She was a little sorry to miss the meal, but she wasn't really that hungry anyway. The halls seemed much colder now that they were empty, and she tried to hurry up to the fourth floor.
As she rounded the corner to the second floor, she heard a muffled sob, followed by a few sniffles, and paused, looking around the hallway.
The sounds seemed to be coming from the girls bathroom on that level, and Ariadne pushed the door open quietly as whoever was inside continued to sniffle. She paused outside the stall that was obviously occupied, and noted that she could see the shadow under the door, indicating whoever was inside was curled up on the floor. She pushed the door gently, letting it swing open slowly, and took a hesitant step inside.
"Hermione?" She asked, frowning down at the girl who sat with her arms around her knees and her face buried in her arms. She looked up as Ariadne spoke, and tried to wipe the tears off her face. Her eyes were swollen and red, suggesting that she had been there for a while.
"Aria? What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, uncurling her legs. Her voice was rough, and Ariadne frowned further.
"Are you alright? Whats wrong?" Ariadne asked, kneeling down in front of Hermione while making sure her left arm wasn't too jostled.
"I'm alright, I was… just, uh, upset," Hermione mumbled, looking down.
"I can see that. Whats wrong?" Ariadne asked, folding her legs underneath her in a more comfortable position.
"Oh, well, Ro- someone, just said something, it's fine," Hermione said, still mumbling. Seeing she was in for a long conversation, Ariadne scooted over next to Hermione and leaned against the wall too.
"Ron was a jerk?" Ariadne guessed, frowning again. She had heard the red head and Harry Potter in their shared classes and she had to admit that Ron had a habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong times, quite often.
"He said that maybe if I wasn't such a know-it-all I'd actually have friends," Hermione said, her tears watering up again.
"Well you do have friends," Ariadne said, confused. "You have me and Neville Longbottom, and that's more that Ron has, he only has Harry."
Hermione just sniffed in response, but her tears didn't flow over.
"Besides, he's just mad because you are smarter than he is. Have you seen his attempts in Potions?" Ariadne said, laughing quietly. The last class period, Ron's potion was nearly as bad as Neville's, and the only reason Snape didn't point it out was because he had been trying to rectify the explosion caused by Seamus Finnigan's potion. The corners of Hermione's mouth twitched up, and Ariadne smiled.
"Not everyone is as good at studying as you are Hermione," Ariadne said, the smiling falling from her face again. "And everyone you beat is going to be a little upset that they aren't the best, so naturally they will try to bring you down to make themselves feel better."
"It's just annoying," Hermione said loudly, living her head up again. "I get enough crap from the other girls in my dorm, I don't need it from that idiot as well," she said, scowling.
"What's wrong with the other girls?" Ariadne asked, leaning her head back against the wall to look up at the ceiling.
"They make fun of me because of my hair and the way I dress," Hermione admitted quietly, twisting the ends of one puffy curl around her fingers.
"Well, your hair is really fluffy," Ariadne said, patting down the hair on the top of her head. Hermione let out a little laugh. "But I think it's great. It's something unique, and that is always good."
"Thanks," Hermione said, getting to her feet. "The feast must be nearly done, we should go," she said, holding out a hand to Ariadne to help her up. As Ariadne got to her feet, a wave of foul smelling air hit both of them, and they both immediately brought hands up to cover their noses.
"What on earth is that?" Hermione asked, her face scrunching up. The door to the bathroom fell shut loudly, and there were a few guns and shuffling heard from the large area in front of the sinks. Ariadne pushed open the door and let out a loud scream, slamming it quickly.
"There's a troll out there!" Ariadne cried, wincing as she heard it coming closer. Hermione's eyes widened, and she shrunk back against the wall.
"What do we do?" She cried, hearing the footsteps stop outside their cubicle.
"Quick, crawl under there, maybe we can confuse it if we split up," Ariadne said, using her good hand to point to the small area under the wall that led to the next stall over. Hermione nodded and scooted herself under the wall, barely fitting. The troll smashed through the stall door and Ariadne used it's recovery time to run past it and duck underneath the sinks. It turned toward her and let out a howl, swinging a large wooden club over its head to smash the sink Ariadne hid under as she scooted farther down the line, out of its way.
"Aria!" Hermione called worriedly as she flung open the stall door, letting it hit the troll from behind. It whirled around and spotted her, giving Ariadne time to run towards the door, but it swung open as she approached, and Ron and Harry ran in, both with frightened looks on their faces.
"Confuse it!" Harry yelled as the troll approached Hermione. Ron and Harry threw pieces of the broken sink at it, yelling as they did so, and the troll turned toward them.
Hermione ducked as the troll stumbled and waved its arms around, and Ron dived out of its way, pulling Harry with him. The troll wrapped one giant hand around Ariadne's legs and she let out a scream as it pulled her into the air upside down.
"Do something!" Hermione shouted at the other two, as the troll regained balance and swung it's club toward Ariadne's dangling form. She lifted up the upper half of her body, feeling her stomach muscles burn at the strain, and the club passed inches from her. Harry jumped onto the trolls back with a yell, startling it into spinning around, taking Ariadne with it, her head barely missing the wall as it turned. A moment later, Ron did something, and the trolls club was pulled from its hand, and lifted above its head, falling with a loud crack onto it's scull. As the troll fell over, it loosened it's grip on her enough that Ariadne was able to roll free from the body. The four of them stood panting in the bathroom for a moment, staring at each other in disbelief.
"What is going on here?" A harsh voice said from the doorway, and they turned to see Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape standing with their wands out. The boys looked at each other, then at Hermione. "Why aren't you four in your dormitories?"
"Er," Ron said, looking anywhere but at the Professors.
"Um," Harry added unhelpfully. "Well you see, Professor-"
"It was my fault Professor," Hermione said loudly, making everyone in the room look at her in surprise. "I went after the troll. I thought I could take it on, you see, I've read all about them. If Harry and Ron hadn't come after me..."
"Foolish girl," Professor McGonagall cried, "you could have been killed! Ten points from Gryffindor," she continues. Ariadne could see Professor Snape watching her with narrowed eyes, and she looked down at her feet, holding her injured arm out from her side slightly.
"Now get back to your dormitory immediately," Professor McGonagall continued, and Hermione slipped through the door quickly, her head down.
"And you two," McGonagall said, turning to the boys. "What were you thinking, taking on a full grown mountain troll by yourselves? Why didn't you call for help? Never mind," She said quickly as Harry opened his mouth to try to make more excuses. "Not many first years could have gotten away without injury. Five points each, for sheer dumb luck," she said, then turned to Ariadne and frowned.
"If you don't mind, I will discipline students from my house," Snape's voice drawled, and McGonagall hesitated, but stepped back.
"Explain, in the briefest way possible, how you managed to be here, instead of in your dorms as all the students were ordered to be. Do you think yourself above the rules, Ms. Black?" Snape said in a low voice, and Ariadne nearly lost her nerve to say anything at all. She cleared her throat though, and lifted her head to look at the Professors face as was the polite thing to do.
"I was on my way to the hospital wing, Professor, and I heard the commotion and came to see what was happening. I didn't know we were ordered to return to the dormitories." Ariadne said, then lost her nerve and dropped her eyes to her feet again. "I must have left the Great Hall before hearing that order, sir."
Snape said noting for a moment, then leaned back just the slightest amount, and looked her over quickly.
"And why, pray tell, were you on your way to the hospital wing?" He drawled, not seeing the immediate injury. She held her left arm up so they could see the purple bruising and swelling around her wrist.
"I fell on my way to dinner, and I think I broke my wrist," she said, forcing herself to look up again. She let out a small gasp as Snape's cool fingers lived her wrist higher. His grip was gentile though, and he dropped it as soon as he had grabbed it, and backed away.
"If you don't mind, I need to escort my student to the infirmary," Snape said, then whipped around and, with his robes trailing behind him, gestured for her to follow him. She didn't look back at the others as she followed Snape up two flights of stairs and to the hospital wing. He waited near the door and Madame Pomfrey fussed over her wrist.
Ten minutes later, her arm was back to normal and she hesitantly returned to the doorway where Snape was waiting. He turned and began to lead her back to the dungeons in silence. She resigned herself to trailing slightly be hid him in silence. As they neared the doors, he finally spoke, and Ariadne expected detention at the very least.
"Five points to you for not getting killed by a troll," Snape said, surprising her into looking up. He raised a brow, and Ariadne had the sudden thought that he wasn't as uptight as all the other houses thought he was. "The others got points, and we need to keep things even," he said in way of explanation. They came to a halt outside the portrait.
"Don't let me catch you out of the dorms at night again, or I will give you detention," he said, then turned and walked away, leaving Ariadne standing open mouthed for a moment, before muttering the password and climbing in the common room in silence.
The next morning Ariadne sat silently at the Slytherin table for breakfast, half concentrating on her posture, and half wondering if the Gryffindors would tell anyone what happened with the troll
When no one had said anything to her about it by lunchtime, she presumed they wouldn't. She had seen the three of them sitting together for their meals, which surprised her, but then she supposed Hermione must have forgiven them after they helped take care of the troll.
After classes, she went to the library and wandered back to the table she usually shared with Hermione, only to find it filled with Ron and Harry as well. As she set her books down in her normal seat, they all looked up at her. Hermione smiled, Harry nodded in greeting, and Ron glared.
"What are you doing here?" Ron spat at her as she sat.
"Ron!" Hermione said, chastising him.
"I study here with Hermione every Tuesday and Thursday," Ariadne said, refusing to let his glares bother her and she pulled out her books.
"Shouldn't you be sitting with your Slytherin friends?" Ron asked rudely, not even five minutes later.
"Ron, she can sit here if she wants, shut up already," Hermione said, scowling at him. He rolled his eyes, but continued to glare at Ariadne. After ten minutes of this, she sighed and looked up.
"What's your problem?" Ariadne asked, glaring back at Ron.
"Well it's obvious you are just sitting here to spy on us for your other stupid friends," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. Ariadne looked at him incredulously for a moment, then shook her head.
"Are you serious?" She asked, watching Harry and Hermione's heads turn between the two of them.
"Why else would you be here?" He spat at her.
"Because Hermione is my friend," Ariadne said, scowling at him. He snorted.
"We are Hermione's friends," he said harshly, gesturing between himself and Harry. "She doesn't need friends like you who will probably turn around and stab her in the back as soon as you can."
"Fine," Ariadne said, standing from the table and gathering her things up. She shoved her things back into her bag and shoved her chair in angrily, letting it bang against the table.
"Aria," Hermione began, but she just shook her head and walked away from the table. Behind her, she could hear Hermione berating Ron before she left the room completely. She sighed, hesitating outside the doorway, unsure where to go now. She didn't want to go back to her common room, she could only deal with the loud company of her housemates a few times a week.
After a brief pause, she headed to the Great Hall. Dinner would start in two hours, which gave her plenty of time to finish her work. The Hall was empty, the tables cleared of food and full of place settings lined up neatly. She sat about halfway down the Slytherin table, in the spot her classmates usually sat at, and pulled out her books and notes. After half an hour of focusing on her work, Ariadne's throat was dry and she looked around for the jugs of water that usually lined the tables, but they weren't there. She had assumed her first week here that the meals were prepared by elves, but she wasn't sure how the magic of the tables worked. She cleared her throat, then glanced around again, making sure the room was still empty.
"Er, could I have some pumpkin juice? Please?" She said, feeling foolish for talking to no one, but at least her room mates weren't around to tease her for it. A few seconds later, a jug of juice appeared in front of her and she let out a sigh of relief and poured a glass for herself.
"Thanks," she said into the air, then returned to her homework. She was just finishing up her last assignment when a few Slytherin's began to filter into the hall. Slytherin's were usually the first to arrive, and they were the only table that was full at the start of each meal.
"Why are you here so early?" Pansy asked, plopping down next to Ariadne as she tucked her books back into her bag and waited for the rest of the table to fill.
"The library was a bit crowded today, so I came here," Ariadne said, shrugging.
"Oh," Pansy said, then turned to talk to Millicent who was sitting on her other side.
Ariadne ate her dinner in silence, only glancing up at the Gryffindor table once, catching Hermione's eye as she did so. Ariadne raised an eyebrow at her, and Hermione shrugged in apology. Ariadne smiled and shook her head back, letting Hermione know she wasn't mad at her.
A/N: Hey guys, sorry I've been so slow at updating this story, I've been really distracted with a new site I found called Accio Nox. It's a Harry Potter RP site, and it's super fun, and I've been addicted the last few weeks. You should come join us, if you are bored. Just google Accio Nox and it's the first thing that comes up. If you do join, make sure you PM me and let me know :) My username is Aria Gray. I'd love to see you all there :)
