Disclaimer: All I own is a cold that put me in a sour mood and even that will go away eventually.


Her Lucky Break

Detention Duty and Guilt

Hermione woke up late, still feeling exhausted as she rushed through her morning routine. Her hair was quickly brushed but left down in all of its bushy and frizzy mess. Her robes were pulled quickly into place and her bag was grabbed. Knowing she would be too late to sit down and eat her breakfast she grabbed her muffin and ran out of the room. Eating as she crossed the school to her classroom didn't give her a problem as she had done it many times as she woke up with her head in a book.

She got into the classroom with about thirty seconds to spare. Her class stared at her as she entered the room all flustered. Ginny stared at her curiously, wondering what had gotten into the young teacher. To Professor Granger being late and missing out on even the slightest amount of information was a crime punishable by death. So of course, it didn't surprise the young redhead when Hermione jumped right into her lesson without a second to spare.

Once the class had begun their lesson on the basic rules of transfiguration Hermione sat down at her desk, her head resting in her hands. Her eyes glanced around her class seeing everyone hard at work, a much better improvement compared to the previous day. Letting her eyes fall from the seventh years she noticed a letter addressed to her on the corner of her desk.

Dear Hermione,

I miss you so much and I really wish you didn't need to go away. Quidditch is fun but I think playing your knight in shining armour would be even better.

Are you sure you don't want me to come and hurt him? Even just a bit? And why the bloody hell is he not in Azkaban rotting away for the next thousand years?! As far as I know from Harry, all the Malfoys who went to Azkaban have yet to be released. So either he got out or never went in, at least, that's what Harry thinks.

Do me a favour and keep and eye on Ginny, will you?

I love you, take care, and don't let the Malfoy bite!

Ron

Hermione's eyes filled with laughter as she carefully read and reread the letter. Ron, her wonderful knight, willing to do anything to protect two of the most precious women in his life. She blushed slightly at the thought and looked at her class once more. They were still working away at the assignment, the early finishers reading or working on homework for another class.

She sighed, some of these kids reminded her so much of how she was when she finished her work. They'd just continue on to the next thing to be done. Of course she doubted many of them were as well planned as she, using a priority system and everything.

Her classes flew by, all exceptionally well-behaved. Even the Slytherin kids hadn't bothered to act immature. It surprised her to say the least. What had sparked such a difference in kids who were probably friends with some of the other ones? It made absolutely no sense as to why they behaved so much different then her classes the first day. Hermione couldn't think of one thing that would have caused this change in attitude unless the rumour spread that she pulled her wand on the first year. If that was the case then she was done for without a doubt.

Malfoy probably told everyone wild stories about her. At this rate Professor McGonagall would find out. Hermione would probably need to go and see her right away. It wasn't fair to not tell her herself. She would take any punishment dealt to her so long as she got to keep her job. On her way to dinner when was almost positive that she'd catch the woman and tell her everything when she found Ginny standing outside of the great hall.

"Hey, aren't you going to go and sit down?"

"Actually, I was wondering what was wrong with you today. You look like you committed a murder. Are you okay?"

"Well, I guess you haven't heard the rumour about the stunt pulled yesterday involving a first year student. I'm planning on telling McGonagall since the guilt is eating away at me." Hermione said, looking down as if she was ashamed.

"Wait, what? What the bloody hell did you do?"

Hermione mumbled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

"I pulled my wand on him."

"Really?! How come I haven't heard of this yet? When Professor Moody, well, really Barty Crouch Jr, either way... when he turned Draco into a ferret the news spread like wildfire in a dead field. I figured Ms Hermione Granger pulling a wand would've made it big! The golden trio is still being talked about you know."she rambled on.

"Wait, so you really haven't heard anything about it?"

"No, why?"

"Yesterday my classes were bad enough to provoke such a reaction in my first class of the day. Today... well, everyone was well-behaved."

"I overheard that Professor Malfoy had a bad night today in potions. Apparently he even gave a detention out on the first day!"

"Really? I was talking to him last night and he seemed to be his normal, evil self."

"You had a normal conversation with Malfoy?" Ginny asked incredulously.

"I wouldn't go that far!" she laughed.

The two laughed some more and entered the great hall, their good mood not faltering all through dinner. Hermione's guilt had locked itself away in the darkest corner of her brain, already on its way to being long forgotten. Neville happily chatted away with her as they talked about how much they enjoyed their new jobs. He was relieved to see that her sour mood had faded and that she was back to being a fun, upbeat person.

By the time Hermione was heading back to her portrait the young witch had completely forgotten about confessing her crime to Professor McGonagall. She had just said the password to the portrait guarding her room as Neville came skidding around the corner. She winced slightly as he slammed right into the wall, unable to stop.

Hermione was at his side in a flash.

"Are you alright?"

"But of course! I think I may of finally discovered the secret to muggle gardening! I wanted to test my theory but I ran into a slight problem."

"What is it Neville?"

"I got stuck with detention duty tonight so normally I'd have to wait until tomorrow. I was wondering if maybe you'd take over for me tonight and I'll do it for you when you want."

Hermione sighed. She still remembered what Ginny said. Draco had already assigned a detention, whose to say that there hadn't been more? Plenty of teachers were probably annoyed to no end by the mass confusion that yesterday seemed to be.

"I guess." she said offering a hand to Neville which he graciously grabbed.

"Thank you so much! He's supposed to be outside of the great hall in ten. I owe you big time!"

So with that he took off again, happily leaving Hermione without an ounce of understanding. Who was her charge? Dinner had ended just a few minutes ago, people would be pushing out en mass and he expected her to find a lone student who was probably going to use the crowd as an escape route. This is absolutely wonderful.

Trudging her way back to the great hall she thought about what had made her accept the request. It had to have been the spark of curiosity in his eyes. He was so excited to just test out this new theory that it couldn't wait, a pleasure that Hermione herself had felt many times in her short life. If she can't wait to test out a new theory, why would she try to make others?

Sighing she pulled up to the entrance, honestly surprised to see a student standing obediently at the door. Her surprise quickly faded into a mix of sadness and anger with the slightest bit of guilt as she saw just who was waiting for her to arrive.

When she met the first year's gaze, his eyes dropped to his shoes as a light blush covered his cheeks. Hermione likewise looked away at the sudden awkwardness. The poor boy was Jasper, the first year Slytherin that she had threatened just the previous day.

"What did you manage to do to end up in detention when you could be studying for my class?" she asked, forcing the boy to return her gaze.

The boy remained quiet, slightly unnerving Hermione. He wasn't still scared of her, was he? Or maybe it was worse, maybe he hated her now. She wouldn't be able to live if one of her precious minds built for moulding had despised her!

Hermione let out a huff of air again for what felt like the thousandth time in the last week.

"Well, aren't you going to come? We need to get to the library for detention today."

"Why the library?" he asked, speaking for the first time since she had overheard him in her class.

"Why, there's books to be put away and shelves to be dusted. The sooner you get this done the sooner you can leave so I suggest you hop to it. After all, at least you're not looking for unicorns as I had in my first year. You should be thankful for this punishment."

He didn't say anything but put his head back down and started trudging to the hall that started the long journey to the library.


"Wow." she heard him mutter under his breath.

"I know, even I didn't get to finish reading all the books in my time here. Of course, now that I'm a staff member there are a few I'm finally allowed to read, not that I hadn't at your age."

He looked up at her, eyes full of wonder and she realized something. Not all Slytherins were suddenly bad people the minute they were placed in the house. It was all on how they were raised, what they believed. She could see in Jasper's eyes that he thought this room was amazing. He had a passion for books. He may have been a bit troublesome in her first class but he was still just a child! One who had his whole life ahead of him. One who was amazed at the slightest things. He was child by all definitions of the word.

Hermione felt a familiar emotion pull at her stomach, making her sick. It didn't even help that in recent times this feeling had become one that it recognized easily.

Guilt.

It was eating away at her. No matter what the boy had said, none of it justified pulling out a wand on a child. She wasn't even supposed to have heard what he said.

Effortlessly she conjured up some cleaning supplies and told him to just put the unsorted books on the cart. She moved to a desk in the far corner where she could still watch Jasper as well as mope in her now sour mood.

She had to tell McGonagall. It was obvious that the student was uncomfortable around her and it wasn't really his fault. She had acted out of impulse and drove the issue up to the point where even she could feel the awkward tension filling the air.

Slowly but surely she calmed down her breaths. She watched Jasper work meticulously, being particularly careful around some of the older novels. It had been barely an hour before Hermione gave up, not being able to sit still in this room with him any longer. He had only done three quarters of the large room but she thought it was adequate enough.

"Alright." she said snapping her fingers to make the cleaning supplies vanish, "You can return to your dormitories now."

She had started to walk away, planning to head back into her room and sleep well, knowing that this time she wouldn't try to cover up the guilt but actually deal with the source.

"Wait." Jasper said just as she passed him.

She stopped and looked over at him. His face was down again but the blush was back, confusing Hermione.

He peeked a look up at her and Hermione decided that now was as good of a time as ever to start at the root of the guilt issue eating away at her inside.

"Listen..." she began, "I know that you're probably terrified of me but I really didn't mean to pull my wand out at you like that. There was really no reason for me to act so... unprofessional. I didn't mean to make you feel so uncomfortable around me. I was acting strictly on impulse. I'm actually going to tell Headmistress McGonagall when I get the chance tomorrow. I had meant to-"

"No! Don't! Listen, I know the real reason you did that and I'm the one who should be sorry. I said some words that probably weren't the best to say and you shouldn't be getting in trouble over it."

He was looking her straight in the eyes now and she knew that he was being honest with her. He didn't want her to get in trouble at all.

"I shouldn't of been listening in on your conversation anyway." she countered.

"Just please, you can't turn yourself in. It's really not your fault that the times are changing."

She stared at the child in front of her. He was only supposed to be eleven years old but this speech was not one that he could have come up with. Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"You do know that you wouldn't get in trouble for that incident, right?"

"I already am in trouble for it. Why do you think I'm here? I'm really sorry for making you so angry but I wasn't watching what I was saying. You can't try to take all the blame."

This time her eyes narrowed significantly. Enough that if Jasper were looking at her he would think she'd gone mad.

"Professor Malfoy gave you this detention, right?"

Jasper looked up at her surprised. He definitely wasn't expecting that question. One look at her strained features told him that he should tell her the truth.

"Yes."

Inside, Hermione was screaming every obscenity she could think of, both muggle and wizard at the professor. Outside she was still as a stone as she tried to regain her composure.

"How dare he!" she yelled.

Apparently her composure wasn't as well controlled as she thought it was.

Immediately she turned back to Jasper, "He told you to say all of this, didn't he?"

Jasper shook his head furiously, slight terrified as he watched the teacher on front of him. "Not all of it. He only told me that you couldn't tell McGonagall, which I agree with, but otherwise it was all me. I really am sorry for those awful words, and not just because he already gave me trouble."

"Why would he stop me from telling McGonagall?"

"I don't know."

"Well, I really am sorry for threatening you."

"It's no problem, I deserved to be scared a little." he sad, still looking at her with cautious eyes. She still looked ready to blow.

"Can you also tell Malfoy that I don't need his help nor his concern?"

He nodded before running out of the room. The boy seemed scared by her level voice. Hermione would have been too. Inside she was livid. This just wasn't fair. First he was encouraging her bad behaviour, and now he's stopping her from being righteous and saving her sanity from the guilt. After talking with Jasper the emotion in question had disappeared but she still found her actions to be wrong.

Hermione sat down right where she was, rifling through her bag that she hadn't gotten to drop off. Rereading the letter Ron and written her, she grabbed out another piece of parchment and ink to write a reply.

Dear Ron,

I can't believe that snake! He should just bite himself and die from his own venom. It seems fitting enough. He had the audacity to try to tell me what I can and can't do, using a student none the less! He couldn't of said the words right to my face? He really is a spineless git. It wouldn't surprise me if he had made Neville give up his detention job just to make his little plan fall into place. People like him disgust. Besides, there's no reason that he has to keep me out of trouble.

He even said so himself last night, how he'd enjoy seeing my squirm under the spotlight as I received punishment for my actions. I still want to know how he had gotten to be a teacher here! He's probably helping plot McGonagall's fall so the Death Eater's can rise back up and reclaim their stake of fear. Teach all of the young kids their ways and raise a new army.

Besides that argument my day has been a tremendous improvement compared to yesterday. My classes were a lot calmer and much more respectful. I even got to teach Ginny today. She really is bright. She knew all the basic rules off of heart! I even, at least I think, mended the relationship with my first year student, though I don't think I'm ready to face my class yet and they're first thing tomorrow!

I really wish you were here. I love you more than you'll ever know and I can't wait until I can see you again. Which will be soon I assure you! The weekend is coming up and I get every other one-off, promise you'll be there?

Love,

Hermione.

She folded it up and placed it in her bag. It was too late to visit the owlery tonight so she'd have to wake up early tomorrow morning to make a trip. Not wanting to go back to her rooms quite yet she browsed through some of the books, seeing if there were any interesting ones about transfiguration. When she didn't find one she continued to stall by putting away the unsorted books on the cart.

With that chore done and the late night quickly approaching she left for her rooms.

Draco Malfoy had won. Even though she didn't directly talk to him, she was still yelling at him in her head. He had infuriated her without saying a single word to her. His actions spoke volumes.


Wow. Just, wow. Where are all you people coming from?! I've had an awesome amount of readers and followers so I must be doing something right! 15 followers in 3 chapters is a lot to me. Thanks to everyone that's read this so far, I hope to see you all again next week.