Chapter Eleven: Alone
For the next few weeks, after what she mentally refers to as the 'Malfoy Incident', Hermione kept her head down low in the halls to keep a low profile.
Her eyes darted left and right and with her peripheral vision, she saw the students whispering to each other, and she could only assumed that they were talking about her. By now, the whole school knew that she was a muggle-born thanks to Malfoy and his Slytherin cronies. Leave it to the Slytherins to spill her secrets… stupid gits.
To her surprise however, it would seem that most Purebloods were not hostile towards her, they merely ignored her whenever they could, which caused other students to follow suit. The Slytherins were slightly rude, sure, but really it was only Malfoy that threw her the cruel remarks every time they crossed paths in the halls.
Hermione wrapped her arms a little tighter around the textbooks that she was carrying in her arms as she headed towards the dungeons for double potions with Slytherin. It was silly, she knew, but hugging the books provided her a little bit of comfort. Books didn't, and well… couldn't, judge her like people would, and there was way too much of that already.
Hermione kept her gaze to the floor and pushed past the cloaked students that milled about in the busy hallway as each student made their way to their respective classrooms. It didn't matter what color tie or scarf they wore, they couldn't possibly understand her situation. To make matters worse, she felt as if some of her own Gryffindors were isolating her. Just today, she overheard Ron speaking ill of her for being more proficient in charms than he was.
She felt so alone.
She just hoped that she could get through double potions without any mishaps or drawing attention to herself.
Hermione quietly slipped into the classroom and didn't make eye contact with anyone. Oblivious to Hermione, the apathetic eyes of the potion master followed her as she made her way towards the back corner of the room.
Snape's eyebrow twitched at the girl's recent odd behaviors, but he was careful not to show it. He noticed that the silly girl stopped raising her hand in that annoying pin-straight way and generally stayed fairly quiet during the class discussions. His eyes glazed over the classroom and just happened to catch the smirk that graced his Godson's face who was watching the girl's miserable entrance with relish. Snape pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling an onset of a headache. Honestly, the childish behavior of these fools were beyond him.
Hermione sat herself down next to Neville, one of the few people that didn't think ill of her. She gravitated towards the boy, but Hermione couldn't quite figure out if it was because Neville was also someone that had been bullied constantly by their peers as well, or whether she genuinely liked the clumsy boy.
Every time the Gryffindors had classes with the Slytherins, Hermione hunched herself over, willing herself to disappear in the background. If she wished for it enough, perhaps it would actually happen, she thought naively.
She desperately didn't want to face more of Malfoy's taunts.
When it was time for class to start, Snape drawled with irritation in his tone, "Quiet! -," and the class fell silent immediately. " -pass your assignments forward and open your textbooks to Chapter Three."
The shuffling of parchment and textbooks reverberated through the quiet dungeon as Snape turned and picked up a piece of chalk to write on the blackboard.
'Wiggenweld Potion,' Snape scrawled onto the blackboard and underlined it for emphasis.
"Anyone care to take a guess at what it is? Anyone?" He asked, and pointedly looked towards the muggle-born witch. Hermione kept her head down and pretended to copy down notes from the textbook.
"Pity." Snape murmured, mostly to himself.
While pacing the length of the classroom, he explained, "The Wiggenweld Potion is very much referred in conjunction with the Draught of Living Death. The latter, as we learned in the first class, if brewed properly, can allow the drinker to fall into a powerful sleep that can last indefinitely, and even feign death. The Wiggenweld Potion can be used as an antidote for such potion, because it can awaken a person from magically-induced sleep."
Snape paused while his students furiously jot down notes.
"As lore has it," he continued, "there was a Hag by the name of Leticia Somnolens that administered the Draught of Living Death to a princess in medieval England. Many thought that she was dead, but really she was placed in an enchanted slumber. A wizard later came along, and recognized it for what it was, and had the bright idea of putting the Wiggenweld Potion on his lips, and revived the princess with a kiss to not give away his identity as a wizard." Snape frowned in distaste. "He was deemed the princess's savior and later married the princess and became a prince."
"These stories, of course, spread to the muggles to become outlandish fairy tales. Isn't that right…Miss Granger. Care to tell us some of those titles?" Snape narrowed his eyes at Hermione, wondering if she really wasn't going to answer him.
"I don't know sir." Hermione replied in a small voice.
The potion master frowned and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Looks like our resident Know-It-All has lost her flair," Snape commented snidely. The Slytherins all snickered and the Gryffindors turned around to look at Hermione with pity.
"Alright, cauldrons out. We will learn to brew the Wiggenweld Potion today, which is child's play when compared to the difficulty of the Draught of Living Death. Even you won't be able to botch it up, Longbottom."
"Class dismissed." said Professor Snape.
His students quickly packed their things away and rushed out of the dungeons, relieved that the long potions session was over.
Draco kept an eye on the muggle-born as her head of curls bobbed up and down as she made her way down the steps and towards the front of the room. Draco picked himself up, slung his book bag casually over his shoulder and fell a few steps behind the girl. Just as he was about to open his mouth to call the girl, a voice stopped him and Hermione slipped outside the dungeons.
"Mr. Malfoy."
It was Snape, and Draco turned to his Godfather, a little annoyed. He had a witty comment to throw at the Mudblood.
His grey eyes looked up towards Snape, and Snape saw his childish determination to make fun of the poor girl that he thought was beneath him. How wrong he was, but it wasn't time to tell Draco yet of Hermione's Pureblood status. It was far too soon.
"Yes, Professor?"
Snape shook his head and decided better against commenting. "Never mind." he said. "Off you go."
Draco shrugged and raced out of the dungeon, hoping that he hasn't lost sight of Granger. When Draco was out of earshot, Snape murmured quietly, "You'll regret your actions one day, boy."
After pushing a few students out of his way, Draco turned the corner and saw who he was looking for.
"Granger!" he called out.
Hermione's back stiffened, but she kept walking. This angered Draco and he quickened his pace and caught up to her.
"You Mudblood filth, how dare you ignore me." Draco said crossly and reached out to grab her shoulder and forcefully spun her around. With one hand still gripped onto her cloak, he used his arm to push her against the corridor walls.
Hermione's book bag fell off her shoulder to the floor with a thud. "Don't call me that," she gritted out, with fire in her eyes towards this hateful boy.
"That's what you are." Draco sneered, voice dripping with venom. "I can't think of a more fitting name."
Draco released her and stepped back one step. "You were pathetic today. Couldn't even answer Professor Snape's question from your precious muggle world. You should go back to where you came from. What purpose do you even have here? You have no friends here, and moreover, you're not welcomed here. Just go home."
"You think I don't know?" Hermione cried out, her hand was at her sides clutched into tight fists. "You and other have been reminding me every single day! I get the point, Malfoy, you wish that I would just die and disappear, don't you!?"
Tears spilled out of her wide brown eyes and she mustered all her strength to shove Draco away from her. She reached down to grab her bag and she ran away from him, away from the crowd that was heading towards the Great Hall. Most people were heading there for dinner, but Hermione wanted to be as far away from the people that didn't give a care about her.
Draco was a bit startled at her comment and stood rooted at the spot.
Did he wish for her death?
No.
He had never in his life wished for an untimely death upon anyone. He just wanted her gone… simple as that. Her dying never crossed his mind, but the damn Mudblood's comment left him flustered, despite trying to shake it off. Though, feeling satisfied with himself seeing the know-it-all run off into the distance, Draco decided that it was grand time to join the Halloween feast in the Great Hall.
Not long into the feast, the doors suddenly burst opened and a bumbling Professor Quirrell came running in and he bellowed, "TROLLLLL! TROLLLLL IN THE DUNGEONS!"
The next morning, everything was back to normal and the Great Hall was packed with students getting breakfast. It was almost as if the incident with the Troll last night never happened.
But keywords, almost.
As Draco made his way through the Great Hall, his ears perked up when he heard the word 'Troll'. He strained his ears to try listen in to what the Ravenclaw students were saying without looking as if he was blatantly eavesdropping.
"…but it was a Troll….they could've died!..."
"They were Gryffindors…bravery surely clouded their judgment..."
"the troll got knocked-out…!"
"Epic battle… and from first years no less!"
Draco's eyebrows furrowed and the corners of his mouth curled to a frown. What did Gryffindork first years have to do with the Troll? What did he miss last night after they were ushered back to their common rooms?
His eyes found Pansy and Blaise at the Slytherin table and he nodded at them to acknowledge seeing them. Before reaching the Slytherin table, one more comment caught his attention.
"Hermione is sure brave to seek out the troll!" a Hufflepuff said.
Draco stopped in his tracks. The Mudblood went to look for the Troll? That couldn't be possible… she wouldn't have known about the Troll in the dungeons because he saw her running off in the opposite direction from the Great Hall. She couldn't have been in the Great Hall when Professor Quirrell barged in, making the announcement that caused a frenzy last night.
No, that can't be it. Draco shook his head and continued to the Slytherin table. When he reached Pansy and Blaise, he stepped over the bench and took a seat next to Pansy.
"You won't believe what I heard over there." Draco leaned in and addressed his two friends. "I heard that Mudblood Granger went to fight the Troll… ridiculous." He rolled his eyes at the preposterous thought that a first year, and a Mudblood no less, picking a fight with a full grown Troll.
"It's true though," Blaise told Draco and he smirked when Draco's mouth dropped opened really quick in disbelief before he snapped it closed.
"She was asking for a death wish, I suppose. Too bad the Troll didn't grant it to her, it'd be doing us all a favor by killing the stupid Mudblood." Pansy said nastily.
Draco flinched inwardly at Pansy's comment, but neither of his friends noticed. "I still can't believe that she took on the Troll on her own." Draco commented.
"Oh, she had help, mate." Blaise said. "From what I heard at least, Potter and Weasley were there as well."
Draco rolled his eyes. "If it isn't Saint Potter again." Draco spat.
He hated Harry. Harry fucking Potter.
Potter had just gotten permission last week from the old bat McGonagall to play in the Quidditch games as a seeker for Gryffindor. Draco had asked his Godfather to let him on the team, but the potion master refused, and Draco was still bitter about it.
The Great Hall all of a sudden hushed when the double doors swung open and three people were walking in. Everyone, including Draco, looked up towards the doors and they saw Hermione, Harry, and Ron walking in. The three were chatting with smiles on their faces, oblivious to the fact that people were whispering about them just moments ago in the Great Hall.
The three looked very much like a trio of peas in a pod.
For the first time since entering Hogwarts, Hermione was happy.
She was glad to have friends.
A/N: Hello readers! I hope you liked this chapter. I honestly don't know how many muggle-borns there are in Hogwarts (and my research didn't prove fruitful), so I made the assumption that they're rare and that there's only a few each class. Anyways, do you have anything that you would like to see from year 1? If not, I'm moving on to the next year.
Thank you reviewers carick of hunter moon, Guest "t", JessChen, cares 1970, ksouza3, and betty69blue for your kind input. Much love to everyone, and please review and let me know your thoughts. Oh, feel free to check out my other HP story if you haven't already, it's called The Seven Year Reunion. I promise it's good. Happy Holidays!
