During the last week of the holidays Hermione spent a lot of time hanging out with her muggle friends, Amy and Talia. They had all been planning to go to the same high school before Hermione had supposedly left on a scholarship to some fancy school north of London.
"What's it like at Wellers College?" asked Amy.
"I've told you its really nice there," Hermione replied. She hated lying to her friends.
"But we want details; you've been going there for six years and we know nothing about the place, now spill!"
The three girls were at the London Zoo watching the tiger cubs play.
Hermione sighed, "Well, the science teacher, Professor Snape, is horrible; he spends half the time making fun of this poor kid Neville and Neville becomes so nervous that he keeps breaking all the equipment for the experiments. I find myself taking pity on the poor fellow and helping him out, but this never bodes well with Snape.
"Professor Sprout is the Horticulture teacher and knows more about the care of plants than anybody else I know.I never would have guessed that I would have such an interest in plants. She, the professor, also teaches the healing properties of some of the plants, like in aromatherapy, and I have found it very interesting. Madam Hooch is the PE teacher and apart from a few lessons in my first year I don't have much to do with her, but my friends Harry and Ron…"
"That's the guy who you were dating but then cheated on you, right?" asked Talia.
"Yes… well, he and Harry are quite good at sport and play for our house. They also take art; a subject which I find has no real relevance so I dropped it early on. I found the teacher to be a real airhead who just wafted around the classroom; that was Professor Trelawney. I much prefer maths with Professor McGonagall, who is really strict but you can't help but admire her mathematical mind. The most boring subject is History with Professor Binns, I dropped that as soon as I could, as interesting as History is I felt I could do better learning it on my own. Hagrid is another of the Professors."
"What does he teach?" Amy asked.
"Err… he does… shop! Woodwork, metalwork, things like that. He's also really keen on animals; in my first year at the school he had a very big vicious dog called fluffy. Scary thing, really!"
"Interesting. Now that you've given us the run down on the teachers tell us more about the students; what are they like?" pressed Amy.
"Well Harry is really brave; he'll stand up and fight for what he believes in. He is also really naturally talented. In DADA he's always top of the class." Hermione said.
"What's DADA?"
"Err… it's um…" Hermione was stuck, what could DADA possibly stand for?
"Drama and Dance Academy," said a voice from behind the girls, "not a subject I practically like but Potter does a great job treading the planks."
The three girls spun around to see who had spoken.
"Malfoy?" Hermione said surprised, "What are you doing here?"
"Looking at the animals," he replied, smirking, "and the girls."
This sent Amy and Talia blushing, they both clearly thought that Draco was really hot.
"Hermione, aren't you going to introduce us to this young man?" Talia hinted.
"Err… girls, this is Draco Malfoy, he's a boy at my school. Malfoy, these are Amy and Talia, some of my friends from Primary."
"Pleased to meet you both." Draco said with a duck of his head, "Mind if I join you?"
"Well…" Hermione started.
"Of course you can," said Amy.
"Wouldn't have it any other way!" Talia finished.
The group walked off towards the reptile house where Talia and Amy refused to go in: they said that they would meet Hermione and Draco back at the café for lunch.
"Thanks for helping me out back there," said Hermione, "I couldn't think of anything else for DADA to mean."
"My pleasure, I actually found your whole conversation quite amusing to say the least. You made Snape a science teacher?"
"It fits well, Potions and Chemistry have parallels." Hermione defended, "At least I didn't make Harry an actor..."
"And a dancer." Malfoy said, smirking.
"Hang on a minute, what where you doing listening to our conversation?"
"Laughing." Draco replied with a smile, "I never thought about what you have to tell all your muggle friends, it was interesting to hear how much of the truth you managed to work into the story."
Hermione shook her head. "So what are you doing here, Malfoy? This is a Muggle zoo, you know."
"Yes, but… I find some of the creatures very fascinating," he said, "especially the snakes, dear little things."
"Typical Slytherin."
"The Slytherin King should be fond of snakes." said Draco smiling.
Hermione looked up into his face and melted. He looked so much better when he smiled; not smirked but actually smiled, it make him look almost human, a caring; sensitive, amazing, good looking... No, no, this was Draco Malfoy, he was not good looking. He was mean and horrible.
"You're never going to let me forget that, are you?"
"Forget what?"
"Calling you the Slytherin King."
"No, probably not."
Hermione shook her head and wondered off. The rest of the day went by easily; by the end of lunch not only was Draco the best in the school at soccer and cricket but hockey too. Hermione ended up being the only girl at the school to have ever gotten 100 on five of her exams in one semester and Ron was a year older, having been kept back because he couldn't maintain a C average. Amy and Talia were now happy that Wellers College was a real place that was in fact a normal school, with a really good Dance and Drama department. All in all it was a really nice day, full of misinformation.