Chapter 28
Hermione awoke the next morning refreshed and light hearted, which lasted all of about five minutes. She managed to stay in a good mood until she went in the bathroom to brush her teeth, and saw her arm under the edge of her Gryffindor t-shirt. Lifting the sleeve gingerly, she could see that the skin was bruised there. The bruising was not so bad as to tell that someone had inflicted them on her, but there were purple enough to make her happy for the school uniform and her robes' long black sleeves.
Gently pulling the shirt sleeve back over her arm, she winced and went back to brushing her teeth. Growing up in a family of dentists did have its perks. After all, she'd had good teeth cleaning habits drilled into her from birth (a/n: pun intended), but she had learned all the tips that made her regimen fun. She had a particular song that she hummed or sung along with in her head while she was brushing so that she could make sure she brushed long enough, and she made a point to floss each tooth space a certain number of times before moving on.
Hermione realized, as she had her fist shoved to the back of her mouth with floss firmly wrapped around her finger and thumb, how foolish she looked. Honestly, she was a witch! She knew why she hadn't switched dental cleaning spells, but really, she was of age to do magic anywhere now, wasn't it about time? Once again the answer was the same as every other time she'd asked herself that question – not yet.
Hermione finished up in the bathroom and went back to her room to get dressed. As she squeezed into her woefully malfitting skirt, she made a mental note to use her Hogsmeade privileges to get a new skirt ordered this weekend. It would be nice as seventh years to be able to go to Hogsmeade each and every weekend of the year. Well, it would be nice for those who had already turned 17. Hermione herself had been 17 for almost a year, but had been uncomfortable about using magic outside Hogwarts still since she hadn't yet started her seventh year.
Looking back, Hermione wished she had sued more magic over the summer. She should have been studying twice a day for her N.E.W.T.S rather than simply the once daily she had been.
Feeling she was suitably dressed, Hermione gave a valiant effort at fighting her hair into some sort of shape other than the poofball it had dried into. She managed to get it to lie down in kinky waves, though it was nowhere near as nice as when Ginny had styled it for her – nor as shiny.
Hermione grabbed her messenger bag, emblazoned with a G and Gryffindor lion on the side, and began packing. She grabbed everything she thought she might need, including a few quills, a couple inkwells with anti-spilling charms on them, a roll of parchment for each class and her shrunken class books along with a couple pleasure books called Ancient Egyptian Runes and Debunking Divination. As an afterthought, she grabbed the enchanted journal. Maybe Jake would want to chat during meals. She smiled at that, her first smile since waking, and started to go downstairs.
With one last stroke of genius, Hermione grabbed the remaining ink and parchment she had strewn across her dresser, and brought it down to the common room. She enchanted the large table provided to allow the top to lift, revealing a shelf for holding supplies underneath.
Feeling satisfied at having done some selfish yet useful magic, she checked to see that she had everything, when she noticed her watch. Yikes! Only 20 minutes left in breakfast. Well, the good news was that Ron may have already eaten and left by then.
Behind her, the other door into the common room opened, and she jumped a little. Looking over her shoulder she saw Draco Malfoy leaving his dormitory for breakfast. He was mid eye roll when her eyes met his, and she couldn't help but to reciprocate the sentiment. He was just as cocky as ever. She prayed that beyond her Head Girl duties she wouldn't have to deal with him too much this year.
Without a second look at the boy (man? She wondered idly to herself), she made her way out of the common room and across the hallway into the Great Hall. A quick scan of the ceiling showed that it was partly cloudy and looked like there might be some rain later. Hermione turned her eyes to the Gryffindor table, where she was happily not greeted by Ron's unruly orange mop, but rather caught a glimpse of his sister Ginny's auburn locks, which were tied back in a ponytail which ended in ringlets, cascading down her back.
Hermione put a hand up with a small wave, before sitting across from her best female friend. She tried to smile calmly, but failed miserably.
"What's wrong?" asked Ginny, perceiving her friend's fake smile immediately.
"Nothing," Hermione replied, trying harder to make the smile seem sincere.
"Don't give me that," Ginny reprimanded, "You look like someone just convinced you to cheat on an exam. I know you're upset about something."
"Well, yes, something is bothering me," the older girl conceded, "But that doesn't mean I want to discuss it."
"Come on, Mia, the boys already left to get ready for class, it's just us. You know you can tell me anything." Ginny had a look of pure compassion on her face, and it melted Hermione's heart.
"All I have to say is, if I tell you this, you can't tell another soul-"Hermione began.
"Of course!" Ginny interrupted with a smile.
"-And no interrupting, no matter how shocking this is. Oh, and you can't hate me," she finished nervously.
Ginny's smile turned a little wonky as she looked at her best friend with concern. "Well, go on."
"Remember last night, when you and Harry left my dormitory, but Ron stayed behind?"
"Yeah…"
"Well… he tried to…"
"What did my git of a brother do?" Ginny asked, her face turning a little red at the thought of how stupid Ron could be.
"I – I think he was trying to," Hermione dropped her voice to a whisper, "seduce me…"
"What?" Ginny asked, confused as to what Hermione meant.
"Like, he started talking, but he couldn't seem to spit out what he meant. And he said he fancied me, and then he just-"Hermione broke off, her eyes betraying her brave voice.
Ginny grabbed her friend's hand from across the table, saying, "Go on…"
"He just grabbed me and started kissing me."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"No," Hermione answered decisively, "It wasn't. He didn't do it in a nice way. It was painful, he wouldn't let me go and I wasn't kissing him back. I felt like an animal being cornered."
"How can snogging be painful?" Ginny asked, incredulous.
"Like this," Hermione said, pulling up her sleeve to reveal the bruises on her left arm.
"He did that with his hands?"
"Arms. His arms. He was – squeezing me."
"I hope you slapped him one good time!"
"Actually, I couldn't. He completely overpowered me. I only got free from his terrible kiss by stunning him."
"Oh my God, Hermione." Ginny said softly, shaking her head. "I am so sorry. I can't believe he would do that to you. I mean, I obviously knew about his crush-"
"-You did?" interrupted Hermione. "And you didn't tell me?"
Ginny shrugged, "I guess I thought it would just be more romantic if he told you. He may have gone about it the wrong way, but I think he did really care about you. He has for a long time."
"No." Hermione shook her head defiantly, before standing up. "That's not caring about me. That was the single scariest moment of my life so far, all the Harry stuff included. I want to be friends with you, but I don't ever want to have to see your brother again." She turned and left the Great Hall, pulling her schedule from her bag as she went. Her day started out with Arithmancy, which was her favorite class, then Household and Workplace Magic, then lunch. After lunch were Double Potions with the Slytherins and Double Defense Against the Dark Arts with Ravenclaw. Finally she had a free study period, since she'd tested out of Herbology, which she spent with Professor McGonagall in her office. She was very happy to have that free time with her favorite professor, as well as having some time away from Ron, but mostly it would be important for her to work on planning and organizing in ways that only the Head Girl was required.
Hermione made her way to Arithmancy, which was in the West tower, very near Ravenclaw's common room, if Hermione wasn't mistaken. She passed Dr. Vector's office on her way into the classroom, and as she expected, saw the professor poring over some large book of charts, perhaps searching for the perfect assignment for the first day of seventh year.
Hermione stepped inside the classroom and looked around the tapestry draped walls. There were all sorts of materials hanging from the ceiling to floor, with various charts and pages tacked on top of them. She took her seat as usual toward the front of the class, on the right side of the aisle. The classroom had about 8 tables, each with two chairs, but since the first day of the class, no one had ever bothered to sit next to her to attempt to share her table. It had been nice, albeit lonely.
Hermione spread her things out across the table, laying out her parchment neatly and setting up her inkwells to the right of that: red for her first drafts, black for her final copies to turn in. The beauty of Arithmancy was in how it was unlike Divination. Divination was based off of fiddly little fluke events and showmanship. Arithmancy was a true from of divination based on numbers, sweet practical concrete numbers. That was something Hermione could wrap her head around.
Hermione was pulled out of her train of thought (which involved a sensible Greek numerologist striking down Professor Trelawney with Zeus' lightning bolt) and back to the present as Professor Vector greeted the class.
"Congratulations class, if you have made it this far, then you made an O or and E in your Arithmancy OWL in 5th year and have not yet gotten so bored of me as to jump off the North Tower," Professor said all this with a pleasant smile on her face, letting the small class know she cared for them, and was simply joking. "Now, for today's lesson, we will be pairing up. Since there are 8 of us left in the class, there will be four pairs, so go ahead and get up with the person across the aisle from you.
Hermione turned to her left and met eyes with the last person she wanted to pair up with in the class. Of course, it would be Draco Malfoy.
Sighing, Hermione scooted over to allow Draco to take the seat next to hers. When she didn't hear movement, she looked at him once more, a little more annoyed this time.
"Coming?" she asked, trying to remain calm.
"Why do I have to come over there? It looks like a desk supply factory exploded," Draco rebutted, a look of disgust on his pointed face.
"Because you're going to pretend you have some proper upbringing in how to treat a lady," Hermione replied simply.
Draco sighed as loudly as he could manage without upsetting the teacher and dragged his bag behind him to the seat next to Hermione's. He would sit with her, and he was sure they would both do their best, but he sincerely doubted they would enjoy it.
"Alright," Professor Vector said, clapping her hands together to get the class' attention back. "We'll be using the Agrippan Method to analyze each others' names to shed light on each others' true natures. The first will be the character reading, which involves the full name with all letters. The second will be the heart reading which involves vowels only. Finally is the Social number which involves consonants only. Use the descriptions in index 2 of your book, as well as the chart from index 3. You will have 20 minutes to complete this assignment."
Hermione did not look at Draco. She didn't think about him, but simply opened her book to the index, and found the chart they needed. The letters of the alphabet were divided into nine columns, which gave them value. The values were then added, and if they were double digits, kept being reduced until one digit remained. She could smell his cologne. Hermione began copying down the letters of Draco's name on her parchment. D-4 R-9 A-1 His cologne was the only thing she could smell. C-3 O-6 M-4 His leg was so close to hers. A-1 L-3 F-6 She could hear his quill scratching the parchment as he wrote her name, while the heat from his leg was almost too much to bear against her own. O-6 Y-7
Draco couldn't stand being next to her, and for once it wasn't only because they loathed each other. Ever since that moment on the train when he'd unknowingly checked her out, he'd been slightly obsessed with her on a superficial level. He didn't get what it was. H-8 E-5 R-9 M-4 I-9 She just looked so… naturally pretty. It wasn't something that compared to the sex-laced guiles of Daphne Greengrass and the like. O-6 N-5 E-5 No, hers was beauty rather than sex appeal. She didn't make him want to jump her; she made him want to just look at her. Maybe put her on a shelf where nothing could hurt her. G-7 R-9 A-1 He wanted to wrap one of those beautiful auburn curls around his finger. Her hair had this depth of color to it. It just made it look…warm. Like he could snuggle up to her hair and never need for a fire. N-5 G-7 E- 5 R-9.
Hermione had found her partner's numbers, and began to look up the meanings in the book laid open between them. Craning her neck to read the small print in the index, she rattled off a few of the adjectives she saw for his number 5 character score.
"Instability, insecurity…. Indicates change and uncertainty. Drawn to many things at once without committing to one, adventurous and energetic… ah here, this part's about you: Fives can be conceited, irresponsible, quick-tempered and impatient," Hermione practically felt like sticking her tongue out at him. She scooted away at that moment, realizing how close she had leaned toward his face while reading from the book.
It was Draco's turn to lean now, as he searched the meaning of a character score of 7. He found it a bit farther down and began reading.
"Perceptive, understanding, and bright, sevens enjoy hard work and challenges. Oh barf, was this written for you? Often serious, scholarly and interested in all things mysterious… blah blah blah." He laughed aloud, before continuing, "Originality and imagination are more important than money and material possessions. In what world? And here's the truth: pessimistic, sarcastic and insecure." Draco didn't want to grill her so badly. Maybe he shouldn't have read the insecure part. Now it was making him feel like he might hurt her feelings. He wondered if she really put that much store in originality and imagination. He couldn't value anything higher than his riches.
Hermione was happy that her character reading was all pretty good. She noticed that his heart reading was the same as his character. "If I take the context of your character reading and apply it to the heart category, I would have to say you probably have trouble getting a relationship off the ground. You like that spark of meeting someone knew, but you don't stick with them for long. And you are going through some internal change. For the better or worse, who knows? Ask a real friend. Not some random fake arithmancer in your class." Hermione rolled her eyes, trying to cover up the fact that she had gotten really involved in reading his heart description, wanting to read more into than was necessary.
Draco wasn't sure what had caused her to psychoanalyze him, but he didn't like it. Sure, he had never been in a relationship that was based off anything other than sex, and yes he did move pretty quickly when he got bored of the girls, but that didn't mean he was a bad guy. He just tried to focus on her heart number which was a 4. 'According to this, you enjoy hard work, so I would assume in a relationship you'd put a lot of effort. It says you prefer logic and reason to flights of fancy… oh this is interesting… it says the problems of a 2 are doubled in a 4. 2 refers to conflict, opposing forces, contrasting of good and evil. I would take that to mean that you are highly attracted to your exact opposite even though you consider yourself to be very stable and practical. I think you don't know yourself as well as you think."
Hermione blushed, and quickly turned her face away to look back at her parchment. That whole opposites attract thing had hit home, especially the bit about good and evil. Could she really be attracted to the enemy right now? Instead of focusing on that she looked up his social number.
"Okay, social number is the outer personality, the face you show to the world. Yours is a 9."
"So is yours," Draco said, his voice holding a hint of curiosity rather than its usual deadpan.
"So, our social number represents completion and achievement…"
"We dedicate ourselves to service, as teachers, scientists and humanitarians… hey that works, since I want to be a healer when I get done with school."
"Really?" Hermione was surprised someone like Malfoy would want to commit himself to such a selfless role. "Er… strongly determined… work tirelessly and are inspirations to others… well we are the Head Girl and Boy, so that works out."
"Arrogant and conceited when things don't go their way," Draco laughed a little, and for the first time since Hermione had met him, she could tell it was a real laugh. He wasn't laughing to hurt someone or to hide something; he was just amused.
"I guess Arithmancy is pretty spot-on, huh?" Hermione said with a small smile.
"Yeah," Draco said softly, looking back at her. He quickly looked away. "Whatever, at least we're done."
Draco moved back to his table and didn't look at Hermione for the rest of the class. She wondered for a while what she had done wrong, but then she assumed it was just Malfoy being Malfoy, and tuned in to Professor Vector's lecture on Chaldean rituals and using Arithmancy to choose the winning warrior in a fight.
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