A/N: Yep, late I know. If you want the reason, read the bottom Authors Note.
Disclaimer: Don't own it.
Hermione had been avoiding Draco since he had pulled her out of the bath, mainly because of one thought: Draco had seen her unclothed. Classes started today; she had Potions first, and she was dreading it. Slughorn had been making her work with Malfoy for the last few weeks, and she hated it. He could be so obnoxious. Then she thought, how could she call him obnoxious? He had saved her life. He had dived into a bath and saved her, not caring about anything else. He had even covered her up to save her embarrassment, and here she was, insulting him and calling him names when he was the sole reason she was here now, and not in the infirmary, or worse, dead. Hermione sighed and walked out of her room, locking the door behind her.
"I'm going to go and get breakfast. You coming?" Malfoy asked, when she stepped into view.
"Er, no, I think I'm going to skip that, don't feel like eating much," Hermione said, even though her stomach protested this lie.
"Okay. I'll see you in Potions, then," Draco said, disappointment flickering in his eyes. He walked toward the portrait and went to open it, but when he got there, he was stopped by a hand on his arm. Hermione whispered, "Draco, I just wanted to say thank you for saving me last night." let go of his arm and turned her back to him, unsure of his reaction.
"Hermione, look at me," he whispered back. She turned around; her name sounded foreign coming from his mouth. He carried on speaking. "You shouldn't be thanking me, I should thank you. Believe it or not, you've saved me." He walked swiftly out of the common room and made his way to breakfast.
Hermione was now more confused than ever. What did he mean, she'd "saved him"? She hadn't done anything to him, had she? Hermione sighed and walked over to the kitchen area. They hardly ever used this, tending instead to go to breakfast to be with their friends. Pulling out her wand, she waved it a few times. Food began to fly out of cupboards and the fridge, arranging itself on a plate. She turned the oven on manually and placed the food on the hob, then put bread to toast under the grill.
Hermione finished her breakfast and washed the pots before checking the time. It was twenty to eight, meaning she had twenty minutes to get down to the dungeons. She had plenty of time. She pulled her robe on over her uniform, straightened her skirt, pulled her blouse down a bit, pulled her knee-high socks up, and walked out of the portrait hole. A moment later she ran back and picked up her bag, then departed for class.
When she finally got down to the dungeons, Draco was already there with Crabbe and Goyle, who where still eating, their arms full of food. Draco rolled his eyes at them and then spotted Hermione. He raised his eyebrows at her in greeting and she waved a little, then stopped to wait outside the door. Slughorn opened it a few minutes later and grinned at them all.
"Come in, come in. Don't stand out side in the cold," he said jovially as the four students entered the classroom.
"Miss Granger, Mr Malfoy, you two will be working together again. Mr Goyle and Mr Crabbe, you will also be working together. Try not to blow anything up this time," Slughorn ordered, and pointed them toward their desks.
"Yes, sir." Hermione sighed. She knew she was going to be paired with him, and she hated it.
Soon everyone else had arrived and been seated. Slughorn waved his wand and the instructions for the days' potion began to write themselves on the board. One line scared the hell out of Hermione: "If you add too much or too little of any ingredient, the potion will become poisonous." You couldn't really blame her for being nervous; after all, she was working with an enemy of seven years.
"Malfoy, will you get the ingredients while I light the flame?" Hermione asked. She waved her wand, making the fire high enough to boil the potion later on. Draco agreed, and he went to get the stuff. When he returned, the fire was ready and the heavy cauldron had been placed upon it.
"Here you go, Granger," Draco said, unceremoniously dumping the ingredients onto the desk in front of her.
"Thank you, Dra—Malfoy," she corrected herself.
Draco sat down next to her and began chopping the roots, whilst Hermione crushed a bean-like item. As she crushed it, silvery liquid poured out of it. They continued like this until they had all of the ingredients cut up and prepared; now they just had to add them. Hermione added the bean-like ingredient first, along with what she had managed to collect of the liquid from it. Then she added rat tails, disgusting as it was. It was Draco's turn to add the roots. He was meant to add five. He had begun to put them in when Hermione suddenly shouted.
"Stop! We didn't add the bu—" She never got to finish. The potion blew up and hit her full in the face. Draco was thrown backwards, but a little of the potion splashed on his chest as well. He looked at Hermione and saw that she had turned white.
"Hermione!" Ron and Harry cried, but nobody moved, they all sat still.
"Mr Malfoy! What happened? Did any of the potion get in her mouth?" Slughorn yelled frantically, rushing up to where Hermione lay on the floor.
"I don't—I don't know, sir, it just blew up. She said we forgot to add something," Draco stammered.
"What didn't you add?" Slughorn asked apprehensively, his eyes wide.
"Erm, the butterfly wings," Draco said, looking from the remaining ingredients on the desk to the instructions on the board.
"Take her to the Hospital Wing immediately. Did you swallow any yourself?" Slughorn asked, worry etched on his old face.
"No, it just hit my robes," Draco said. He lifted Hermione up, ignoring the looks Ron and Harry were sending him.
"You should fine. Best get going," Slughorn said, hurrying to open the door for him.
Draco nodded and started for the door. When he got there, he broke into a run. He ran all the way to the Hospital Wing, holding Hermione as if she weighed nothing. When he reached the Hospital Wing, he kicked the door open, much to Madame Pomfrey's dismay, and placed Hermione on an empty bed.
"What has she done this time?" the medi-witch asked, walking over to the bed.
"I don't know. We were making a potion and we forgot an ingredient. It blew up," Draco explained, the words tumbling over each other in his haste to get them out.
"What potion was it?" Madame Pomfrey asked, dreading the answer.
"The Soporifer Potion," Draco said, "but we left an ingredient out, so I don't know if it's got the same effects."
"What did you leave out?" Madame Pomfrey asked.
"Butterfly wings," Draco said simply. He studied the witch's face for any sort of emotion, but none was shown.
"Leave now, Mr Malfoy," she demanded, not looking Draco in the eye.
"Why?" he demanded.
"Go!" she barked, pushing him out the door.
Now Draco was worried. He had Charms next with Hermione's two best friends, who were likely to kill him, and they sat right next to him.
Bugger, Draco thought as he made his way to the Charms classroom.
"Ahh, Mr Malfoy. Take a seat, please," Professor Flitwick greeted him as he walked in.
"Thank you, sir." Draco nodded his head in acknowledgement.
When everyone had arrived in class and was seated, Professor Flitwick began to talk.
"Today we will be learning about shrinking spells. One of them – the one we will be practising –is strong enough to make a human shrink, so I advise that when it's time to perform the spell, you make sure none of your classmates are in your way," he told the class gravely.
I wonder if he got hit with that spell or if he's just short? Draco thought, chuckling to himself. He noticed Ron and Harry giving him evil looks. Ron had a very weird glint in his eye, one that worried Draco a lot.
It was half way through the lesson, time to begin the practical. Draco had been practising the spell on small objects. So far it was working. He glanced over at Harry and Ron and noticed that they were shrinking bookshelves already. Draco turned away and carried on with his own work, not worrying for now – until he felt pain in his lower back. He could feel his muscles contract and his bones shrinking. The pain was unbearable. He yelled out, gaining Professor Flitwick's attention. Draco looked around and saw Harry and Ron smirk at each other, and he cried out in pain again. Harry and Ron actually looked worried now; they had thought the spell would just make him shrink, not actually hurt him. By now Draco had fallen to the floor, where he writhed in agony. This felt worse than a Cruciatus – and he should know, his father had subjected him to a few. He cried out again. He could actually feel himself getting smaller. Flitwick ran up to him and Draco was shocked to see that he was now the same size as his professor.
Damn Potter and Weasley. They'll wish they'd never done this! Draco thought, getting angrier by the second. He hurt. He could see that he was still shrinking, as Flitwick was by now taller than him. He cried out again, then the pain stopped and his world went black.
A/N: Oooh, wonder what happens next? I already know - I've got some of the next chapter wrote. Okay, reason this is a bit late? Well, I've a GCSE exam on Thursday! So, I've barely got anytime to study and I had a bit of writers block, I got stuck after Hermione was in the Hospital wing, that is why this chapter stopped at a stupid place, sorry. You know, I wonder if anyone reads these, if you do put "eLePhAnT" in your review. Just so I know, I think most of you do, but ahh well. Love you all (Like I would my brothers and Sisters.)
Just so you know, the reason I don't put "Thanks for all the reviews" is because, I normally reply to every review I getand say it then, and when this story is finished, I am going to post a chapter saying thank you to everyone of you and I'll name you all, even the flamers!
Clare x