The next day in Care for Magical Creatures, she listened to Hagrid's lecture about Centaurs. It was mildly interesting, even for her. Hagrid was a bit monotonous when he was teaching the class about them. Some of them were even dozing off during class. After a long, boring hour of lecture, he asked:
"Who can tell me more about those fascinating creatures who can see the Future?"
Hermion knew the answer, having read it in a book about Centaurs for her essay, but a Ravenclaw classmate beat her to it:
"They are immensely secretive and their natural habitat is the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts, to hide from other magical creatures."
"Yes, Miss Lovegood. 50 points for Ravenclaw for correctly answering this. Those centaurs are afraid of other beings, to they hide in the most secretive of places, and afraid of being seen by other creatures, they cast powerful Charms around the place they live…" Hermione, Ron and Harry were only half-listening to him.
Second Period, she had History of Magic, and after that, she went to Muggle Studies… At 7 o'clock sharp, after supper, she was in Snape's private office, eager for her first lesson on Legilimency and Occlumency. Snape was better, as a teacher than Rubeus Hagrid. At least, he wasn't dull when he was giving a lecture, he made it very interesting. Before the lesson however, she had used her free period in the afternoon to peruse extensively about the subject in the library. "Very useful stuff" were her thoughts on the matter.
"Granger, as Dumbledore requested, I am here this evening to teach you about Legilimency and Occlumency until 9. But this first lesson will be more theoretical than practical. I hope you'll be more attentive than you were in Care of Magical Creatures."
"Yes, Professor."
"As you know, Legilimency is the art to see inside one's mind and to interpret the person's feelings, emotions correctly. And to counter Legilimency, Occlumency must be used. I believe you have already read about them before the lesson, however, so how much do you know about it, do tell me?"
"There are many uses to the 2 Arts. A skilled Legilimens can completely control someone else's feelings and emotions and use it like the Unforgivable Imperius Curse. And an accomplished Occlumens will be able to block a Legilimens completely and even choose the memories he or she wants the Legilimens to see. And Occlumency can ward off the Imperius Curse, that's how Harry fought it off, on numerous occasions."
"Yes, exactly. You are going to fully master both skills, required for your Mission, in 3 Months. 3 months is barely enough time for that however, but I will teach you some shortcuts and tricks to it. You know the basic theory already, but, let me teach you something else about them: there are different levels of mastery for both Arts. When you will be a Master of both, things will get interesting for you. Not only will be able to be inside the Dark Lord's minds and feel what he feels, but also you will be able to block your feelings from him. If everything goes well, he will not know you are inside his mind, at all."
"I didn't plan for you to start casting the spells yet, but you will start by using Legilimency on me, at first, with your wand and verbally. The Incantation for this is: 'Legilimens.' Please try it on my mind, first. I will not use Occlumency when you'll be using Legilimency on my mind yet, as it's going to be too hard for a beginner. "
"Legilimens!" Hermione said, using her wand, but she couldn't penetrate inside Snape's mind, him being a naturally secluded person. A total beginner had no chance against him as he was a total master at both skills. But she was extremely perseverant, she tried it again and again and again on Snape. Her mind was completely worn out when 9 o'clock hit.
"You'll need more willpower, Granger, to be able to do it correctly." Snape advised her.
In the span of 2 weeks, however, she was able to see a little bit inside his mind. She was able to interpret his emotions and to see some of his thoughts and emotions: he was bored out of his mind, having to teach a beginner Legilimency. This motivated her to be better at it. "Well, I'll show him I'm what I'm capable of!", not giving up. She often had huge headaches, even migraines after the lesson, so she frequently visited the infirmary. Between regular classes, and her extra sessions with Snape in the evening, she barely had time for her friends, after the 3 made up about the "Malfoy incident", as Ron liked to call it. Ron and Harry, of course, noted she went to the infirmary 3 or 4 times per week. Ron wanted to ask her if everything was all right, but Harry told him: "Don't, she's probably just burying herself with schoolwork, as she was beaten by a Ravenclaw in one of our Care of Magical Creatures Class."
Another 2 weeks slipped by quickly for her. She was always on time for her Legilimency/Occlumency training sessions. She now could completely dive into Snape's mind, even see some of his memories, and even was able to do so wandlessly and she didn't need the verbal incantation anymore. One particularly session, she was exceedingly successful with invading Snape's thoughts. This was the Memory she saw in his mind:
He was in his 6th year, like her, and just gotten provoked by the Marauders: James, Sirius, Peter, and Lupin. They were young, handsome, and Lupin wasn't bitten by a werewolf yet. James was sneering at him as usual:
"Greasy-haired, cunning and scheming half-blood, socializing with the Pure-Bloods as if he were one of them!"
"Yeah, you'll never be one of them, Snivellus, although you want to be!" added Peter.
"Stop pretending to be a Pure-Blood, Snivelly! You have filthy blood in you too!" taunted Sirius. Lupin was the only one who didn't say anything mean to him. An enraged Snape started to say:
"Sectu—" But before he could fully cast the spell, Lupin thwarted it with:
"Protego!"
Before she could see more of it, however, he said:
"Occlumens!"
And she was definitely pulled out from his mind.
"So that's why you hate Harry so much, because of what his Father's done to you at school".
"I don't hate Potter because of that, Granger. I just think he is a mediocre, and terrible wizard, he doesn't apply himself in School like you do, Granger." That was perhaps the nicest thing Snape has ever said to her. "Wow, quite an improvement on his part!"
"Then, why exactly, Professor?" She asked him.
"Watch! This is why!" And he pulled out a memory from his mind expressly for her to see, and she said:
This time, he was in his 7th year, 1978, Dolohov, Nott and Zabini Sr. were all tormenting and calling Lily Potter names and making fun of her:
"Mudblood, Muggle-Filth who doesn't deserve to be at Hogwarts! She isn't even a proper Witch! How can Muggle parents conceive witches and wizards?" Dolohov was taunting her with that.
Zabini and Nott were just beginning to torment her with jinxes and hexes. As James Potter was near, he rushed into her defence while he, Severus Snape, watching the scene, didn't even try to protect her from his fellow Slytherins "friends". Lily thanked James profusely for saving her from her harassers.
After the memory faded away, Hermione could feel his sincere and honest regret. She also sensed hed cared for her, yet because he was a Pure-Blood, couldn't show her how much he loved her, a bit like Draco Malfoy, she mused. She felt so sorry for him. As she was highly intelligent, she deducted from this memory that this was when Lily Potter began to fall for his arch-nemesis, James Potter. She nevertheless asked him:
"So that's when Lily Potter began to fall for James Potter, Harry's dad, your arch-rival in school and because you resent him for taking her away from you, am I right?".
"Yes, you guessed right. I was in love with Lily Potter, and as you know, I've met her even before Hogwarts, she was such a warm, loving and pure-hearted girl, capable of compassion and forgiveness. But one day, after I called her a Mudblood myself, she didn't have the heart to forgive me, that is when she decisively for my much despised school rival, James Potter. And like Harry, he was Sorted in Gryffindor and I in Slytherin. So we, Slytherins, might be cold, and heartless in appearance, but we also have feelings and are human. I do hope you'll give Draco a chance to love you."
"Why are you talking about him, all of a sudden?"
"Because I believe his feelings about you have changed."
"He isn't bullying me anymore and isn't calling me a Mudblood anymore, but that's all, Professor Snape."
"There's much more than that to him, Granger. Firstly, he trusts and esteems you as a Witch and a person, like he's never trusted anybody before, except for his Mother, Narcissa. As a Malfoy, he's exceedingly proud of himself and was taught, by his father, to never trust anybody, but himself. His father also taught him that showing emotions was a sign of weakness, and that's why he buried his human heart deep inside of him. So, as his Godfather, I'd ask you to never break his trust in you."
"You know him so well, Professor and he must look up to you immensely. I must admit, I got extremely surprised when he hugged after his father's hearing."
"You have won over his trust, Granger, that's a very big step for him. And I think it won't be before long that he gives his heart to you fully, and when that happens, please try and love him back, don't reject him like Lily did to me."
"Although, I don't consider him an enemy anymore, though given our hostile past and our starting off the wrong foot with each other, I can't promise anything, but I will try. And I don't think he'd fall for me, as he still has a lot of prejudices against Muggle-borns."
"Do you think he still cares about that after he's touched you physically, Granger?"
"A Muggle-saying for you, Professor: 'Old habits die hard.' I don't think he's completely changed… I still have some qualms about him, Sir."
"His mother doesn't care about that, and he's taking more after her than his father as she was his only protect against harsh realities. I know for sure he doesn't anymore care about blood purity."
"How do you know, Professor? I don't think he's changed that much—"
"I know, because unknown to him, I've been using Legilimency for some while on him to find out about how he feels towards you, Granger. All I ask, as his Godfather, is to give him a chance, and please, don't let your prejudices against us Pure-bloods blind you. And I suspect, you'll need to get rid of those yourself, if you want to be able to influence the Dark Lord's perspectives on this matter."
"These are private matters, Sir, not to be treated lightly!"
"It's already 9 o'clock, Granger, time's up." He simply said to that.
Hermione, was more than shocked, to hear Malfoy trusted her, and even esteemed her as a Witch. "Well, that was some good development between them." But she still didn't entirely believe Snape when he said she will win over his heart. In fact, she was pessimistic and skeptical about that. After all, they were just partners. And besides, she liked Ron, and he wasn't even her friend.
Malfoy, Harry and Ron noted her absent-minded state during classes. Malfoy took the chance to win some house points for Slytherin and smirked at her in Herbology when Professor Sprout awarded him 30 points for healing a hurt Venomous Tantacula. Neville Longbottom retaliated by winning 100 house points for Gryffindor by answering another question right. The whole school now knew Malfoy regarded her differently, since he didn't insult her, or call her a Mudblood at all for about a whole month. Students gossiped and talked about that, and some even bet on whether or not she or Malfoy started a relationship, after seeing them together in the Prophet.
"I bet 50 nuts that they are in fact, dating!" said Ginny Weasley excitedly. She didn't want to be too much because if she weren't right, she'd be loosing too much gold for nothing.
"Add 20 sickles more if they were secretly in love with each other the whole time!" called Lavender Brown.
Hermione never knew about the bet on her and Malfoy's 'secret' relationship. She would be appalled if she knew her female friends placed money bets on her.
In the Slytherin Common Room, on the 30th of April 1997, Malfoy and his friends were seriously discussing about things in their lives and their future in general:
"Although we got our Dark Mark in our 5th year, we never really cared to join the Dark Lord's side, we were all forced to," young Zabini said first.
"Yes, but the Light side will never accept us" disagreed Theodore Nott.
"Yes they will, it's fact the Light side accepted me."
"No, they didn't, only Granger did, not Potter or Weasley."
"I'm sure they will." said Draco obstinately.
"After all, we're Slytherins, all treacherous, liars and untrustworthy, to quote the Light side's preconceived views towards us."
"No, I'm sure they will be more understanding and open-minded than that."
"They're not all like Granger, Draco."
"But you guys will follow me? No matter what?"
"Yes, no matter what, friends until our lives end."
End Chapter Note: I have planned 4 chapters for May, June, July and August 1997 at Hogwarts for Draco, Harry, Ron and Hermione and other minor characters. Will be mostly details about the main characters' lives and some major events that will be important to the main plot. PLEASE REVIEW: NO REVIEWS, NO MORE UPDATES BECAUSE I NEED SOME INSPIRATION TO WRITE WHAT HAPPENS IN THE UPCOMING 5 MONTHS, THANK YOU FOR YOU SUPPORT, AS ALWAYS. I AM KIND OF ON WRITER'S BLOCK FOR THESE MONTHS, AS NOTHING MAJOR WILL HAPPEN FOR THE STORY'S MAIN PLOT, SO PLEASE REVIEW AND GIVE ME SOME NEW IDEAS! DID YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER OR NOT? I AM DYING TO KNOW, THANKS, ALL FOR READING AND REVIEWING MY STORY.