Teach Me Perfection
Chapter Seven: Reality Check

Author's Note:

This chapter didn't need much revision, I did add a few more lines here and there though. Enjoy!

Kaley

A Tuesday, three days before Halloween was when everything returned to its 'normal' state. Which, honestly, wasn't normal at all, but Hermione could deal with that amount of odd things happening. She was Harry Potter's best friend, things hadn't been normal since she started Hogwarts, she would be silly to expect anything different now. However, they had to be a reasonable amount of odd and not crazy, like they had been. Things had to be manageable.

Draco, however, did not think things were normal at all. Last year he would be in the Slytherin common room, taking candy from the first years, and terrorizing everyone. This year, he was sitting in the common room with Hermione Granger, his former enemy. They were both doing their homework after classes. He found it very odd that they could be this comfortable around each other only having been civil for two it was the circumstances. Everyone has their own, and depending on them is how we shape our lives. Her father died and Draco was there for her when she broke down. His parents had left the country to try to save their family, and she was there trying to help and protect him from the bad things happening. Circumstances can ultimately make or break you, its only a matter of how you take them, if you don't play it out right, you could land yourself in trouble.

As Draco sat across the coffee table, studying for his Transfiguration as Hermione worked on an essay for Ancient Runes, he could not help but wonder if maybe, Hermione was in a lot more trouble than she was letting him know about. He shook his head slightly.

It's Granger, what possible trouble could she be in? Draco chuckled in his head.

Professor Snape sat in his study, sipping a glass of Odgen's Old Firewhiskey, and contemplating on all the things that were going on. Order meetings turning into fights, Draco's parents surviving in muggle France of all places, Lord Voldemort threatening him with death if he refused to kill the Malfoy boy, Hermione's father's death, and the most important question of all…

How does the person, who's helping everyone, ask for help?

Who would he go to in case of an emergency? Who would help everyone if he got killed? Who would spy for Albus?

The potions master wanted to scream and yell, but he remained silent and sipped his drink. He could not dwell on these things, but sometimes, especially when he felt there was something bad about to happen, he thought about it and planned for his untimely death. Funeral plans, letters, and his will were all locked safely away in the bottom, left drawer of his desk. Minerva and Poppy both knew where they were. However, if he died, the Fidelus charm on Draco's parents would falter, and their safety would be drastically reduced.

Even Hermione Granger would not be able to save Draco from himself if that were to happen. He thought sadly about his godson.

Severus had to make himself a calming draught to sleep that night.

Hermione awoke on Wednesday with a headache. Not a horrible one, per say, just a small one that would throb every so often. She got out of bed, where the cold of the day hit her and she shivered slightly. She grabbed her journal, a quill, and her scale as she made her way to the bathroom.

I didn't wake up to run this morning. I'm so tired all the time and the weather is starting to get to me. October is a cold month and I don't understand why its so much colder this year.

She stepped on the scale and sighed. Her weight had been the same for three days, regardless of what she did. She would have to eat today to get off the plateau. Her metabolism must be very slow, and that is why she's been so tired lately, and why her weight would not change.

Looking in the mirror at the nude image of herself, it disgusted her. Her thighs were monstrous, so fat they were almost touching and her stomach protruded like she was with child. She wanted to cry, but instead wrote down what she saw and then got in the shower. As Hermione massaged the conditioner through her hair, she noticed more of it was coming out than the amount she was used to. She sighed and finished her shower. She dressed and returned to her room quickly, so that she could brew a vitamin potion before class.

Hair loss, lack of a menstrual cycle, and fatigue were all side effects of her eating habits. They were getting worse as time went on, like she knew that they would.

Draco stared at Hermione all day, for no reason in particular, other than he had this feeling- this stinking knowing, but not knowing feeling- that something was wrong with her. Her father just died, obviously someone will be torn up about that, but something else was going on. She didn't socialize like she used to, but he blamed that mainly on the situation they were in. He rarely saw her eat, but she normally ate in her room. He really just wanted to know what was wrong so he could at least attempt to help, so when he saw her, he tried to figure it out.

"How are your classes, Granger?" Draco asked as they walked towards their common room for lunch. "Grades and such, how are you doing with that?"

"Erm…fine I suppose." Hermione gave him an odd look. "They've been the same all year, I've got O's in everything."

"Oh, okay then. Just checking." He answered. "I figured I would make sure you're doing all right."

This earned a stranger look from Hermione, which she quickly recovered from. "Thanks, Malfoy…I guess."

"Anything you want to talk about in particular?" He asked as they approached the portrait. "Anything bugging you or, are you in any trouble or anything?"

Hermione huffed and glared angrily at Draco. "The only thing bugging me, Draco, is you and the third degree that you're giving me here. What's wrong with you? Why are you so suddenly interested in my life and what I do? I'll tell you what, it's not any of your bloody business about anything that's going on with me."

After she finished shouting she yelled the password and stomped angrily up to her room, slamming the door in the process.

Yep. There's something definitely wrong with Granger. Draco thought as he sat down at the coffee table to eat. He was too deep in thought to notice Hermione's completely untouched platter of food.

Ginny was hungry, ravenous, starving, to say the least. She'd skipped breakfast and was now attempting to peck through her lunch and only eat a little. Her Weasley genes, however, were not cooperating with her, and making her new plan very difficult. When you have a mother that cooks like its your last meal, its hard to politely refuse food, and people tend to notice more when you don't eat.

"Ginny, aren't you hungry?" Ron asked, a large piece of meat on the end of his fork.

"Not very, I think I might just go to the library and study for Charms." She replied offhandedly, picking at her food a little, not eating any of it. She gave up trying to fight the urge to eat and grabbed her bag. "I'll see you all in the common room later."

"Don't forget, we have Quidditch practice after dinner today." Harry reminded her, as she started to walk away.

"I could never forget Quidditch, Harry." Ginny smiled and exited the Great Hall and made her way to the library to study for charms, considering she had the rest of lunch with nothing to do.

Ginny spent her lunch, and free period after lunch, looking up the stories of misfired cheering charms and working on her essay about the subject for Flitwick's class.

Hermione felt bad for snapping at Draco, she honestly did. She knew he was only trying to make sure that her father's death had not affected her too greatly. As she scribbled all of her thoughts down in her journal, she thought about Draco and what he was going through. He had school to worry about, his head duties, his homework, and his grades. On the other hand, although he never expressed it, she knew that he was constantly worried about his parents, who he had not heard from since they went into hiding. Draco also had to worry about his so called friends cursing him when he was alone, he couldn't leave the tower without her as company.

Sighing, Hermione threw herself back on her bed. She felt like screaming, she felt like breaking every single piece of glass in the castle. However, the one thing that scared Hermione, the one thing that made her feel really, really demented, was that the ultimate pleasure for her would be to just kill every death eater, the muggle way. A gun or a sword would do, maybe just a club, and just attacking them until they die.

I wonder if anyone has ever tried sticking a sword in Voldemort…Hermione thought, giggling slightly as she shook off all the worry and anxiety about things that could, and probably would, happen this year.

Hermione closed her journal, and left it on her nightstand for once, as she made her way down to the common room. She was going to try to be normal today, for Draco. Perhaps some normalcy was what would help him through the time he was going through.

Draco looked up at her when she came to stand in front of him.

"I would like to…erm…apologize for snapping at you." Hermione said quietly. "We're all going through a lot right now, and you were just trying to make sure I'm okay. So I'd like to ask you, Draco, how are you doing?"

There was a bit of silence before Draco spoke. "I'm decent Granger, thanks."

And they both smiled.

Professor Snape had a horrible feeling about today. He could barely breathe, as if the Giant Squid was dragging him down to the bottom of the black lake. Today was Halloween, and as he sat at the Head Table in the Great Hall for breakfast, he could not get rid of this feeling.

So after breakfast, he asked Minerva McGonagall to come to his office for a quick meeting.

"Brandy, Minerva?" Severus offered without thinking that they both had classes in twenty minutes.

"No thank you, Severus, we have classes today." The transfiguration professor replied with a confused look on her face.

"Oh, right then." He said, shaking his head and placing the decanted back into the cabinet.

A few minutes of silence passed.

"Minerva, I feel like something very bad is going to happen today. I would like you to take care of some things for me, shall anything happen to me."

"Severus, what are you going on about? Has Voldemort planned an attack?" Minerva looked upon her friend and colleague with concern.

"I haven't the foggiest idea, Minerva. Word has gotten back to the Dark Lord about my activities helping the Malfoys, and let's just say I am not welcome to meetings anymore. However, I feel that something bad is going to happen today, and I want you to know where things are, and I would also like to transfer my secret-keeper status, to you. In the bottom left drawer of my desk, there is a few important documents. The title of my home, my will, the key to my Gringotts account, and a few letters of importance to people I care about."

He glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Also, in the vase over my fireplace of my home with two undying roses. Today, if anything is to happen to me, please leave them on Lily and James Potter's graves for me. I have a class to teach, as do you…and thank you, Minerva, you have become a terrific friend to me over the years."

Severus left Minerva in his office, to teach his class. She almost wanted to cry at this man's actions, but she didn't. She put on a hard face and left to teach her class, his words ringing in her head.

Review! Please, it makes me ever so happy.

Kaley