Chapter Eleven: The Smell of Conflict
The following Monday, the group is sitting in the Great Hall, at the Slytherin table once again. Of course some people still glared, but less so.
"Ugh, we have potions today," Draco groans, picking at his eggs.
"Cheer up, I'll be there!" Blaise jokes.
"Oh yeah. Just what I want, the snarky likes of YOU to make me happy," Draco responds, rolling his eyes, sarcasm dripping from each word.
"In all honesty, I'll live; Hermione's in my classes today," he thinks, sipping some pumpkin juice.
"Yeah, potions is awful, especially since Snape hates me..." Harry mumbles.
"Harry, he doesn't hate you!" Hermione retorts.
"Oh I'm sorry, I meant to say all Gryffindors in general.." Harry corrects with smirk.
"Well who wouldn't? You Gryffindors are a pain," Draco mocks, but as the three Gryffindors glare, "Oh, all except you three of course..."
Grinning, Hermione looks at her little group of friends again, appreciating them all the more. Sitting next to Ginny today, with Harry in turn next to the ginger, the group laughs, facing the two grinning Slytherins.
Soon, the hall empties and the five stand, setting their napkins on the table.
"Alright, well we're off to Transfiguration," Harry groans, holding Ginny's hand.
After waving to her two friends, she follows Malfoy and Blaise in the opposite direction, just behind the two.
Glancing backwards, Draco makes eye contact with Hermione and grins, causing the girl to blush and turn away.
"Why on earth am I blushing? He just grinned! Get a hold of yourself Hermione!" Hermione silently scolds herself.
Turning his eyes back to the front, Draco grins, laughing at the girls pink face.
"What?" Blaise questions at Draco's grin.
"Nothing, nothing." Draco smirks.
Eyebrows raised, Blaise proceeds to leave them at an adjoining hallway, heading towards Defense Against the Dark Arts with a newly appointed professor, Professor Smitty Allen. Professor Allen was a small, balding man with an unsightly mustache, and seemed quite ill-suited to the position due to his quiet voice, but had survived this long, so something was working!
Catching up to Draco's long strides, Hermione walks next to him, entering the potions classroom. Taking one last glance at Draco, Hermione walks up to her seat near the front, next to Luna Lovegood, one of her good friends.
"Hello Luna!" Hermione smiles brightly.
"Oh, hello Hermione," the girl responds.
A screechy voice could be heard from the back of the room; Draco had been forced to sit with Pansy Parkinson, who was about as quiet as a howler. And just as appreciated.
"Oh Drakey-poo! I haven't talked to you all year!" she squeals, holding the already annoyed boy's arm.
The look on Draco's face was barely contained annoyance, and they had been sitting for only a minute! Hermione, whose gaze had turned towards the obnoxious voice, nearly busts out laughing at her new friend whose face was stony, looking ready to explode.
Unable to take the voice anymore, the Slytherin blonde shrugs away from her grip and turns towards the pale girl and her long black straight hair.
"Did you ever consider, for one minute, that perhaps there is a reason I haven't talked to you?" Draco snaps, "Oh wait, I know why! I. DON'T. LIKE. YOU." Draco finishes, returning his gaze to the front of the room.
"Alright, maybe that was a bit cruel," Draco thinks, seeing the tears in her eyes, but then thinks otherwise. Seeing the laughter sparkling in Hermione's mocking eyes makes him simply smirk, and set his face to Snape, who had just walked in, cape billowing.
"Today, we are brewing an amortentia potion. You may choose your potions. I will collect your finished samples at the end of class," Snape drawls, "Begin."
Shooting out of his seat to get away from the sniveling girl next to him, Draco makes a beeline for Hermione.
"Yeah Draco?" Hermione smiles, seeing Draco's rush to reach her.
"Partners?" Draco pleads, "Please? She's coming, please say yes!" Draco practically begs, seeing Pansy quickly approaching.
Hermione's laughter finally erupts, leaving her bent over and out of breath. Regaining her composure, Hermione looks up at the desperate Slytherin and nods, just as Pansy arrives.
"Drakey! We should be-" Pansy tries to coo.
"Um, no Pansy. I have a partner, see?" Draco drawls, pointing to Hermione.
Huffing, Pansy stomps away, leaving the two to find the nearest station and begin brewing their potion.
"So Granger, what do we need to get?" Draco asks Hermione who is bent over a potions book.
"Can you get some Jabbernoll feathers, licorice, and lavender?" she asks, not looking up, "I'll get the olives, apple, and ginger."
As the two leave the table to retrieve their individual ingredients, a figure steps over to their cauldron, glancing around to make sure no one is paying attention. Quickly, he drops just a few drops of a clear liquid into the pot, and shuffles away, just as Draco and Hermione return.
While Hermione reads the directions out loud to her partner, Draco goes about preparing the ingredients, both students ignorant to the smug expression staring at them from across the room. The two continue creating the complicated potion until at last the final ingredient needs to be added.
"Want to do the honors Granger?" Draco asks, holding up the last ingredient, licorice.
"Sure!" she grins, taking the licorice from his hands.
With a flourish, she tosses it into the cauldron and suddenly the potion releases a puff of shimmering smoke and the partners draw closer, attempting to smell it.
Amortentia is a love potion, and its smell varies based upon what the person smelling it likes; the two know this and lean closer still.
Closing her eyes, Hermione breathes deeply, inhaling the scent of old books, the smell of grass after it rains, and another scent she doesn't recognize.
"Cologne?" she wonders, opening her eyes again only to see Draco with his eyes wide, staring at the potion as if it had bit him.
"What'd you smell?" Hermione asks, curious.
"Um, broomstick wax, my mother's perfume and... um, cookies! Like the ones you made before!" he lies.
"Oh okay!" Hermione grins, turning back to the potion, smelling it one final time before ladling it into small glass vials.
Rubbing the back of his head, Draco ponders what he actually smelled; he did smell broomstick wax, but instead of his mother's perfume, he smelled... something distinctively vanilla, but tangier; maybe apples? Pondering over the scent which he knew but couldn't name, he smiles at his final scent-books! They had been his refuge during the war when his father was away, they were his escape.
Standing once again, Draco leans towards Hermione, grabbing some glass vials from in front of her, and straightens out, suddenly stiffening, recognizing the scent at last. Hermione! That was the smell of Hermione's perfume! Mind racing, Draco fills each vial along with the oblivious Hermione, struggling to tame his racing thoughts.
Across the room, a figure groans in frustration.
"That was supposed to work! I put a random liquid in their cauldron! It should've exploded all over that Ferret git!" the figure seethes, "Then Mione would've come running back to her REAL friends!"
Scrambling to find the vial that he had used, the figure growls, realizing that what he had poured into their potion was only water! Muttering to himself, he practically throws the vial across the room, but restrains himself. Barely.
"Five minutes everyone," Snape drawls from his seat, standing up.
Hermione glances at her professor while Draco and she clean their station. His hair is slightly less greasy, but still long and black as usual. His sharp black eyes compliment his hooked nose and dark outfit, truly bringing out the pessimistic attitude of the professor. Despite this, Hermione has a respect for the professor, especially due to his work during the war.
Returning her focus to cleaning, she smells a familiar scent as Draco brushes by her to throw some used materials away. Mouth falling open, she gasps, mind flying into overdrive, forcing her to sit down.
"No. No way! That smell- aristocratic and yet so manly, oaky but sweet, I smelled that only moments ago! In the potion!" suddenly it dawned on Hermione, "I smelled Draco Malfoy's cologne in the potion!"
Blushing at the implications, Hermione stands, busying herself gathering her books and quills as Draco returns, wiping his hands. Luckily, Hermione manages to rid her face of the bright pink just as Professor Snape approaches.
"Nice job you two," the professor sneers, "You two are the first and only ones finished as of right now. Five points to Slytherin...and Gryffindor, I suppose."
With a sweep, the professor returns to his desk, clearly getting aggravated with the other slower students.
At last, the class ends, and Hermione turns to walk out of the classroom, but turns back to Draco, "Coming Malfoy?"
"Yeah, in a minute." he replies.
"Alright, see you later." she says with a wave, leaving the room.
Gathering the last of his papers, the blonde makes his way out into the corridor, not noticing the figure that was waiting for him. Unawares, Draco continues walking until someone steps in front of him. Scowling, he lifts his eyes to meet the insolent person who stopped him.
"Move." he says.
"No!"
"If you don't move, I swear-"
"What? Are you gonna hex me?" the hooded figure growls, "You would, being a deatheater and everything."
"Excuse me? Get the hell out of the way! Who the fuck are you anyway?" Draco retorts, gradually getting madder.
"That's none of your business. Just stay away from Mione."
"Weasel?" Draco, questions, recognizing the voice, "What the fuck are you doing? Just go before you make a fool of yourself." Draco smirks.
Ripping off his hood, Ron rips out his wand, pointing it directly at Malfoy, who immediately lifts his wand as well.
"Expelliarmus!" Ron yells at the almost bored expression of Malfoy, throwing his wand down the corridor.
Fear flashes through Draco's eyes, only for his famous smirk to return a moment later.
"Alright Weasel, what do you want?"
"Stay away from Hermione! She doesn't want you, none of us do!"
"Then why did she agree to be partners with me last class, and why does she sit with me now during lunch, hm?"
"Stupefy!" Ron shouts, ears and face beet red out of anger.
Draco flies back, but recovers, scrambling for his nearby wand. But before he can say a spell, Ron screams again, launching at the Slytherin, landing a hard fist straight to his face. Holding his arms down, Ron continues to hit the Slytherin until a voice echoes through the hall; loud.
"RONALD BILLIUS WEASLEY HOW DARE YOU!" Hermione bellows at the ginger, running over and ripping the boy off of the now bleeding Draco. She had forgotten something in the potions room and was returning to get it. Ginny and Harry round the corner, ready to meet Draco and Hermione for their next class, but instead stop and gasp at the scene.
"Harry! Take him to Dumbledore, anybody!" Hermione says, calmly throwing the ginger at her friend.
Walking directly up to Ron, eyes blazing, she continues, voice low, "How dare you Ronald? That will be 50 points from Gryffindor for senseless violence. Also, don't speak, look, or even think about me. Ever. Again. Do you understand?"
Head low, Ron nods, being dragged away by a silently furious Harry and screaming Ginny.
With a sigh, Hermione rushes back over to Draco, who is unconscious. Knowing she can't lift his 6'2 frame, she casts a levitating spell, which takes all of her effort and heads towards the infirmary, still incensed at Ron's violence and confused about the potions ordeal in class.
"Oh Draco, why do you have to confuse me so much?" she asks to the levitating figure floating behind her. Her only response is silence.
A/N: Whoa! How's that for some conflict? I bet a bunch of you knew that the 'figure' was Ron, but ah well. How was it? For a fight scene anyway...
Thanks to my lovely reviewers: Soccerisawesome19 and ANEwrites, you guys rock! (:
Anyway, on with the story!
Love you guys!
xx
Jess
