Updated: Sept. 20, 2010
Sorry it's been so long since my last update. However since tomorrow is my birthday, I'll be uploading another chapter. Hope you enjoy!
AM
"…I've been flying since I was a kid; trust me."
And strangely, she did.
That night Hermione dreamt of angel wings and silvery, starlit eyes. She woke up with a smile on her face and it stayed on her face until Ginny pestered her for details at lunch time.
"Come one Hermione! Something happened! Otherwise you wouldn't have that dopey grin on your face!"
"I do not have a dopey grin on my face Ginevra Weasley! I happened to have a very restful sleep and that put me in a good mood."
Thus said, she put a silencer on Ginny, who had grimaced at her full name, and continued reading her book. Or so it seemed. She moved her eyes across the lines but didn't actually take any of the words in.
She knew that she was falling for Malfoy, and fast. He was a complete arse at times yes, but he was smart and they'd had so many interesting conversation in the past 3 months that she'd never would've been able to have with her friends.
He may still believe in blood superiority, but he wasn't Dark like everyone thought. He didn't like the path his father had chosen and certainly didn't plan on following it.
He loved history and learning almost as much as she did and had a plan to remake the Malfoy name and what it meant. She admired that about him.
He was interesting to talk to about political ideals and various laws in the Ministry, and he actually knew how to make an argument; which was more than she could say for Ron. Harry knew how to, but he lacked the finesse that Draco had when it came to speaking and giving a rebuttal on the fly.
She also knew that an actual relationship between the two of them would never work. Malfoy's purist thought wouldn't allow her a place as his wife; neither would his mother. And really, neither would the Wizarding world. She was a witch of the Light and he a, supposed, wizard of the Dark. Nothing could be more taboo really.
Hermione was unsure of her course of action. Should she give herself wholly to their charade-
"Hey Hermione, let's go flying!"
"No Harry."
"But you went with Malfoy!"
"He's my boyfriend Harry."
Or should she guard her heart ever more closely, and do her best to stave off the eventual heartbreak?
And for once, Hermione didn't have an immediate answer. She thought about writing her mother and asking her for help, but was quite sure her mother would be all over her asking for details about every little thing, and that was something she wished to avoid.
Instead she put decided to put it out of her mind, for the moment and just deal with it when it came about. Though she would err on the side of caution, which meant not getting her heart broken, which meant guarding her heart.
Common sense told her that getting your heart broken is a part of life. Her response was that a heart usually gets a chance to flourish under the love of someone else before it gets broken. What she would have been doing was sheer stupidity.
And with that, the matter was resolved. Feeling satisfied with her conclusion Hermione made her way to her afternoon classes and jotted little notes on ways she could distance herself from Dra-Malfoy when they came to her.
The first was to refer to him in her mind as Malfoy (the name associated with humiliation and seven years worth of fighting) and Draco when speaking to him directly, or to other people in terms of their relationship.
Today was the day they handed in their potions project and Hermione was extremely proud of hers. She had a binder full of notes on what they used; where, when and how they found it; when ingredients were added; how they maximized the potency; the effects they'd both felt at certain stages of the potion.
Well, it would have if she had a binder. As it stood, she'd numbered all her pages and magically bound them. She had also copied her conversations with Malfoy onto regular parchment and bound that as well. She'd taken pictures with a muggle camera of various stages of the potion and had inserted those into her notes.
Her bound pages and Malfoy's together made a stack about 3.5" high and there were several vials of the potion. They had each kept a few vials for themselves.
Everyone sat in their seats and were called up group by group to hand in their projects. Scathing remarks usually accompanied such a procession.
"Veritaserum."
Padma Patil and Terry Boot walked forward and gave their project to Professor Snape.
He spared a glance at the vials and snorted.
"Colour is too transparent, should be more opaque and pearlescent, which means that at its strongest, it will work on a Second Year and no one else with a bigger magical core."
He pulled the cork out and poured a little into a Petri-dish.
"Too watery, probably caused the transparency problem." He snorted again and waved his hand. The two were allowed to sit down.
"Amortentia."
Hermione snorted as Pansy and Millicent strode to the front. 'Typical. A group of girls decided to make the strongest love potion in the Wizarding world.'
Snape sent a baleful glance at the girls as they walked up to his desk.
"Be warned Parkinson and Bulstrode, that if I find any evidence of this potion in your grasp, I will have you suspended or expelled, depending of the degree of the infraction. This is an illegal potion and we were given strict permission to use it as a project. If you have any in your pockets, hand it over now."
Shame-faced, the two girls each pulled a few vials out of their robe pockets and handed them to the dour-faced professor.
"You will have marks docked for this as there was a clear warning about keeping any when you started the project."
The two female Slytherins, who had strode confidently to the front now skulked back to their seats.
"Wolf's Bane"
Harry and Neville got up to deliver their project. Hermione mentally wished them luck with their grades.
"I do hope you don't expect this to be of use to anyone Potter. Why with your big head making it impossible to see anything, and Longbottom's inability to do anything remotely correct with potions, I wouldn't wish this pathetic mishap on any werewolf. Except maybe a certain one we both know."
A cruel smirk marked his face and Harry's fists were clenched as he struggled to contain his temper. Neville grabbed the sleeve of his robe and gave a none-too-gentle tug on it. Harry looked at Neville, who gave a slight shake of his head and then they walked back to their seats. Hermione winked at Harry and gave him a discreet thumbs-up.
"Felix Felicis. Interesting choice Malfoy." There was approval in his voice. Hermione knew that any good marks would be accredited to Malfoy and any loss of marks would be blamed on her. They stood and carried their papers and vials to Snape's desk.
Snape looked at the three vials of liquid gold and felt a surge of pride at Draco's skill. He also had the Mudblood helping him. Not that she really helped improve his skill any, but with anyone else, the potion would have been a flop. And as every potions-master knew, that was highly dangerous.
He had been loathe to include that on the list, not only because it was dangerous, but most likely because students would use it for their own gain in tests and possibly even their NEWTs.
But Dumbledore trusted the students and said it was covered in the curriculum, so it was a viable option.
He nodded his head at the two and they sat down. Hermione breathed a quiet sigh a relief as she walked back to her desk and sat down. She immediately spaced out and began thinking about her winter vacation and that damned present she still had to get Malfoy.
That weekend was the last Hogsmeade trip before Winter Break and Draco asked Hermione to meet him for supper at The Three Broomsticks. Hermione agreed, as it would still allow her some time to spend with Harry, Ginny and Neville.
Once Malfoy had left for his own table, Hermione turned to Lavender and Pavarti who were eagerly listening while trying to look like they were not.
"Lavender. Pavarti. I think it's time you start teaching me those hair and make-up spells."
They squealed. To Hermione, it sounded the damning door of Hell being slammed shut. Ginny snickered into her hand at the look on her friend's face. Had Hermione been paying more attention she would have sent a mild hex at her younger friend.
But, as it was, she was busy contemplating suicide before The Terrible Two got their wands trained on her. The three of them agreed to meet at quarter to five (Malfoy hadn't specified a time but Hermione assumed it would be around six, like the last time).
Once breakfast was finished by everyone, the four students made their way to the Gryffindor tower to get money, jackets, mitts, hats and scarves.
It was while wandering through a lesser known alley of Hogsmeade that Hermione found the perfect idea for Malfoy's gift. Quickly running to the store All-Needs-But-a-Thneed, Hermione sought out her needed ingredients.
A lump of coal, a small silver object, a piece of black leather string, three bottles of varying ink colour, a miniature set of phials, and an eye dropper and took everything to front to pay for it.
She received weird looks for the randomness of her purchase, but she just grinned at the man and went on her way. She was still grinning when she met up with everyone else.
Harry groaned when he saw her face. Ginny and Neville asked what was wrong.
"She's got that look on her face. The one that means she's found something interesting and won't leave it alone until she's either found all the pertinent information or nothing else can be done about a situation. And sometimes even then, she'll keep trying.
It's horrible. She once found this vague mention of some forgotten battle in history that no body cares about; and decided to recreate the battle on a miniature scale to see if the outcome that was written really could have happened."
"What did she do?" Neville had asked before Hermione could silence him.
"She spent the next 6 months creating two armies, as exactly as she could to match those in history. Then she tries to recreate the magical levels (on a miniature scale mind you) and abilities certain people had.
Adding into the mix elements and events that had forced the armies to their current position. The first time didn't work so well, so she roped me an' Ron into helping and got better materials and tried different equations, ingredients and balances. It was bloody insane! She only stopped when McGonagall finally noticed and told her to stop as it was disrupting her learning!"
Hermione had a light blush on her face when Harry began the tale, but her face was scarlet by the time he finished.
Ginny was laughing at her friend and Neville gave a low whistle of incredulity.
Hermione tilted her head up and gave a delicate sniff. "I was curious about something. And that's how all great discoveries are made, you know!"
"Actually some are made entirely by accident." The voice came from behind her. It was Draco Malfoy.
"Name one."
"Potato chips." Hermione and Harry were surprised Malfoy even knew what those were, let alone that they had been created by accident.
"I'd hardly call that a great discovery Sweetheart. Try again."
"LSD."
"Again, not a great discovery."
"Well they are to some people." Hermione glared at Harry.
"Off the top of my head, America by Christopher Columbus in 1492; penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928; smallpox vaccination by Edward Jenner in 1796; anesthesia by Sir Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1846; viagra patented by the company Pfizer in 1996; antidepressants; insulin, idea began in 1869, made progress in 1889 and continued until 1921 when Banting and Best began experimenting and went on the market in 1922 and botulinum toxin, a common sedative."
Hermione's eyes narrowed. "Fine. Some great discoveries are found by accident. Don't you have something else to do? Like scaring little children, or telling everyone that Santa Clause doesn't exist?"
And then she turned on her heel and left, pulling Ginny and Neville beside her. Ginny was pulling Harry.
"What was that all about Hermione? I thought you were happy with him? Did you guys have a fight?"
Hermione heaved an exasperated sigh and looked at Ginny.
"Ginny. I just bought his Christmas present. Do you really think I want him hanging around when he could get a look at it at any given moment?"
Realization dawned on her face and she nodded to herself. "Right. Makes sense."
At half past, Hermione bade her friends goodbye and made her way up to Gryffindor tower.
She spent the evening with Malfoy and they chatted about various wards and their effects, each trying to outdo the other with their knowledge. The finally determined that they knew about equal on the topic and continued the meal.
'Overall it was a good day.' Hermione thought, as she crept into bed. She remembered her present for Malfoy, and resolved to start it the following day.
Alright, please, lemme know whatcha think. The line about Santa Claus may have come from "27 Dresses"...can't remember... It seems familiar and that's the only thing that comes to mind. Anywho. Blame sisters. Apologies for the chapter being so short... =(
AM