A/N: Hey! Oh my gosh, you guys, I am so so so so sooooo sorry that it took me so long to update! I've had this chapter written for a really long time, I just haven't had time to type it up. If it weren't for a review I got yesterday, then I probably would have forgotten that my story even existed. Also, I made a minor change at the end of the last chapter. I just changed it from the Friday of that week, to the last Friday of the month. Anyway, here's chapter three. It's not my favorite, but I hope you like it!

I do not own Harry Potter in any way whatsoever :(


Changing the Ways

Chapter 3

The beginning of Potions on the last Friday of that month started off normally: Snape insulting or embarrassing Harry at least once, Draco and Hermione having a battle to see who could make a better potion, and Snape praising Draco on everything that he did. Draco might have been in Gryffindor and not Slytherin, but he was still Snape's godson. Although, that did not mean he treated Harry any better. Snape still hated Harry with a burning passion because of James; it wasn't as bad as it would have been if Harry were not in Slytherin though. Snape still felt that he must treat Slytherins better than every other House.

That day, Snape warned them that they would be brewing a difficult potion.

"Today," Snape said in his drawling monotone voice, "we will be brewing the Draught of Alihotsy. It will be one of the most difficult potions that you make all year, so I want you to pay close attention and follow the directions exactly. Some of you may believe that this is far above your skill level, but I believe that you can do it." He looked at Draco when he said this. "You have the whole class time, and you will be in pairs of two." Draco and Hermione looked at each other and then proceeded to choose different partners as the class flew into a fury of choosing partners.

"Lavender, come here!" Draco waved across the room.

She walked over. "Don't you want to partner with Hermione?"

Draco shook his head and looked over at Hermione. She had partnered with Weasley. "How can we compare potions if we're partners?"

Lavender rolled her eyes. "You guys are crazy." With that, Draco and Hermione started their silent battle of the wits.

"Lavender, fill this cauldron with…" he looked down at the list of ingredients, "Two liters of water. I'll get the ingredients." He hurried to the potions cupboard. "Right," he said, looking down at his list. "Lacewing flies, extract of goldflower, three drops of silver…" He trailed off, grabbing the necessary materials and running back to the cauldron that was now filled with water. He followed the instructions exactly and dropped one lacewing fly into the water and stirred twice to the right. Then he put 23 drops of goldflower extract in, waited ten minutes, and then stirred 50 times to the left, careful not to lose count. He looked down at the instructions again.

This is the part that you must be the most careful on. Any error on this will lead to disastrous results. You must put three drops of silver into the potion. Any more or less, and the result will be instantaneous combustion.

Draco took a deep breath and opened the vial of silver carefully. He held it above his potion and was about to pour the first drop when someone ran into him—and he dropped the whole vial into the potion. Draco could barely process what happened next. There was a bright light and a burning sensation—and then there was nothing but darkness.


"But Ron, we have to go see him! He's our friend!" Hermione exclaimed, frustrated.

"Hermione, we are not going to St. Mungo's until Madam Pomfrey cures your burns." Ron replied.

"After that happens can we go?" Hermione pleaded.

"If you keep arguing with me, we're not going anywhere." Ron said. Hermione shut up and allowed Ron to drag her back to the Hospital Wing. They had already been to the Hospital Wing to make sure that the other students were okay, but they stayed out of the way because the other students' burns were more severe than theirs were. Now that Madam Pomfrey had cured the others' burns, however, she could cure Hermione's whose were, although minor compared to the other students', considerably worse than Ron's.

After Draco had blown up the potion, the room had flown into hysterics both because it had blown up and everyone had been burned, but also because the potion had been one that caused hysteric. Snape had had a hard time keeping the room under control. When he had finally gotten them to calm down somewhat, he had taken the students with the worst burns to the Hospital Wing, Draco being his first priority. His injuries had been so bad that even Madam Pomfrey couldn't heal him. She had ordered Snape to take him to St. Mungo's immediately. Lavender, who had been the one to run into Draco causing him to drop the potion, had had the second worse injuries. However, Madam Pomfrey said that Draco's body had shielded Lavender from the explosion and had been able to heal her.

After Madam Pomfrey healed Hermione's burns, Ron and Hermione got Professor Dumbledore's permission to visit Draco. Of course, he immediately gave them his permission and allowed them to use his fireplace for the trip.

"I've never travelled by floo before," commented Hermione.

"Do you know how to—" Ron started to say before he realized who he was talking to. "What am I saying? Of course you do."

Hermione laughed, took a handful of floo powder, and stepped into the fireplace. "Of course I do, Ronald. St. Mungo's," she said clearly and threw the powder down. There was a spinning sensation, like being sucked down a giant drain and hundreds of fireplaces whirled before her eyes. She closed them, becoming dizzier and dizzier by the second. Suddenly the feeling of spinning stopped and she opened her eyes cautiously. Then she smiled widely; the lobby of St. Mungo's was spiraling before her eyes. She wobbled a bit and started to fall over, but before she hit the ground, a Healer steadied her.

"First time travelling by floo, dear? Drink this and you'll be fine in a few seconds." The Healer handed her a small cup filled with a pale green liquid. Hermione thanked the woman and took a sip of the drink. The room stopped spinning suddenly. There was a flash of light and Ron appeared behind Hermione.

"So…dizzy." He said holding his head.

"Drink this." Hermione handed him the cup. When they both recovered from the floo trip, they went to ask the witch behind the front desk where Draco's room was. She directed them to room 815 on the ground floor. They were headed to Draco's room when Ron saw two blonde figures headed right towards them.

"Hermione, don't look now, but it's the Malfoys." Ron whispered to Hermione and tried to pull her into a room to hide. Thinking that when Ron said 'the Malfoys' he meant Draco, Hermione wouldn't budge and looked over at them. Immediately Hermione realized her mistake, and she tried to hide her face with her bushy hair. She thought that it had worked until at the last second when Lucius grabbed her arm and pulled her over. She fell with a thud.

"Malfoy," Ron spat.

"Do not speak to me in that tone, boy." Lucius told him. "As for you," he turned to Hermione, who was in the process of standing up. "How dare you speak to my son, you filthy little mudblood." Hermione looked around and saw that there wasn't a soul in sight.

Her eyes flashed angrily, "Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, I presume."

"You are never to speak to my son again." Lucius said, ignoring her comment, "You will not be friends with him and you will not communicate or associate with him in any way. That goes for you too, Ronald Weasley. Now turn around and leave."

Ron nodded vigorously, but Hermione had no intention of doing anything that Lucius said, "I will not stop being friends with Draco and I wouldn't stop speaking to him, not even if the whole entire universe depended on it. Why don't you turn around and get out of his life forever? He's much better off without you." Hermione was breathing heavily, having said this in one breath. Lucius didn't hesitate. He stuck her across the face with the back of his hand violently, causing her cheek to split open. Hermione didn't notice that her face was bleeding; she was too furious. Narcissa threw Hermione a pitying glance.

"Come on, Ronald." She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him toward Draco's room. Lucius didn't follow; he was too busy being pulled away by Narcissa. As Ron and Hermione approached Draco's room, a Healer came out.

"Visitors? Excellent, he just woke up," the Healer told them cheerfully.

They entered Draco's room and a grin broke across his face. "Hey! I was wondering when you two would show up. It's been so boring and the Healers won't let me leave until morning, even though I'm perfectly fine." Ron and Hermione looked at each other, and they made a silent agreement not to mention Lucius and Narcissa.

Hermione smiled back and hugged Draco fiercely. "I'm so glad you're okay." She pulled away.

Draco frowned. "Hermione…" He touched the cut on her cheek. "What happened to your face?"

"Huh?" Hermione brought her hand to her face, pulled it away, and saw there was blood on her fingers. "Oh. That. Um…It happened during the potions explosion. Something hit me in the face."

"And Madam Pomfrey fixed your burns but not your face?" He asked, skeptical.

"Well, there were more severe injuries to tend to, so she just healed my major ones. Plus, I really wanted to come visit you." Hermione replied. Draco didn't believe her. He wasn't quite sure why he didn't believe her, but he let it go. After all, he was keeping his own secret from them.


*FLASHBACK*

Draco awoke to his parent standing over his bed. As soon as he opened his eyes, he immediately wanted to shut them and pretend that he was asleep, but it was too late. Lucius and Narcissa had seen them open.

"Why haven't you been writing reports?" Lucius demanded at once. Draco mentally slapped himself. He had completely forgotten. That and he didn't want to lie about being friends with Hermione and Ron. He struggled to come up with a better reason than "I forgot."

"Um…I forgot." He said. Way to go, Draco.

"You forgot? Or you didn't want to reveal to us that you're still friends with the mudblood and blood traitor?" Draco opened his mouth to defend them, but Lucius kept going, "You are not to speak to either of them again, or we will take you out of school. This is your first and only warning." And with that, they swept out of the room.

*END OF FLASHBACK*


Hogwarts

Snape frowned as he opened the letter from Lucius. What could he possibly want from him? Severus, the letter began:

I trust you know that Draco has become friends with Granger and Weasley. This friendship is not appropriate for someone like Draco. Narcissa and I have warned Draco to stay away from them many times, but he has not heeded our warnings. We hope that this time he will do as we say. Since you are the only one we trust with this particular matter, we would appreciate it if you would keep an eye on him and alert us if his friendships continue.

Sincerely,

Lucius

Snape blinked. Lucius wanted him to spy on Draco? There was no way that was going to happen. Snape would keep an eye on Draco, but that was just because he cared about his only family. He didn't mind that Draco was friends with Granger and Weasley. If he was friends with Potter, however…but he wasn't. That's final, Snape decided. He would not tell Lucius about Draco's continuing friendship.


So I hope you like it. You guys deserve this chapter, because I haven't updated is so long. I'm still sorry about that. I'll try to update more often. Please read and review!