~ Draco and Hermione ~
"The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters.
We've all got both light and dark inside us.
What matters is the part we choose to act on.
That's who we really are."
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters and settings belong to J.K Rowling.
Enjoy!
Chapter 38
Immediately after Snape had given them the instructions and told them to start, Theodore raced to the ingredients cabinet with his textbook open to the relevant page, without saying a word to either of his partners. In a way he reminded Harry of a male, Slytherin Hermione. He was almost exactly the same in terms of grades and his quiet nature, except he also appeared to care about no one else but himself.
"Potter, you can get mine," Pansy said immediately, as she leaned against the desk and curled a loose strand of her hair.
"You can get your own, actually," said Harry firmly as he moved to walk away.
"If you don't get my ingredients I won't make the potion and you'll have to kiss Theo, and we both know that you want to kiss me," Pansy went on, lowering her voice seductively as she said it. This stopped him in his tracks, and he turned around and noticed her smiling at him deviously.
"I don't know what you're playing at Parkinson, but this isn't funny," said Harry in frustration.
"It's not supposed to be funny, I just don't want to get my ingredients. Everyone pushes and shoves, it's faster when boys do it," said Pansy innocently.
"I'm not getting your ingredients," Harry said flatly.
"It's not hard," Pansy argued.
"That's beside the point."
"Well okay, fine," said Pansy dismissively. She simply shrugged, sat down at the desk and crossed her arms.
"Are you going to get yours?" Harry asked uncertainly.
"Nope."
In the other group containing Ernie, Padma and Millicent, things were far more awkward. All three of them went to get their own ingredients, because Millicent refused to get anyone else's and didn't trust anyone else to get hers, Padma insisted on getting her own so that she could hand pick quality ingredients, and Ernie didn't want to ask either of the girls to get his so he did it himself. At the bench, Millicent went on the opposite side of the table and began working in silence, while Ernie and Padma worked side by side.
"So uh, whose potion should we use do you think? And how are we going to go about the whole kissing thing?" began Ernie, in an attempt to start a conversation.
"Not mine, and not me. Shut up," said Millicent, without looking up. In truth Ernie had just wanted to establish the fact that he would be kissing Padma, and he would only be using Padma's potions because he did not trust nor like Millicent in any way shape or form. Now that this was out in the open, the three of them proceeded to make their potions in the same awkward silence.
"Oh Granger, yours is looking a little red! Doesn't the textbook clearly state that the potion should be a purple-black colour?" asked Blaise, as he glanced over her shoulder and looked into her cauldron.
"Yes, Zabini, it does. Do you mind?" Hermione snapped, leaning away from him uncomfortably.
"Are you worried? Do you think Snape will be disappointed?" Blaise continued persistently, causing Draco to chuckle as he stirred his potion.
"My god, you are actually one of the most annoying people I've ever met!" Hermione hissed, trying to hide the fact that she actually was worried because she rarely had problems with potions like this. And it was probably due to his constant attempts to distract her.
"It's okay. You can just drink mine instead if you'd like?" suggested Blaise.
"I'm not drinking anything, one of you can drink the potion," said Hermione firmly.
"Oh I see, so you want to be the prince in the scenario, I like a girl who takes control," said Blaise with a wink.
"What? No, I just don't trust either of your potions enough to..." began Hermione in exasperation.
"It's okay Granger, we're more than willing to be rescued by you," Draco played along.
"Thanks Potter!" said Pansy brightly as he dumped her ingredients in front of her.
"I didn't get them for you," Harry pointed out bitterly, as he began brewing his potion.
"Yes you did, at least that's what it looked like. I bet Granger saw, what do you think she'll say after the lesson? Do you think she thinks you like me now?" Pansy said rapidly, as she began chopping her ingredients up and chucking random things into the potion.
"I honestly don't care, and are you even looking at what you're putting in your potion?" asked Harry in alarm as he watched her.
"You don't care what Granger thinks? I thought you were best friends?" asked Pansy curiously.
"That's not what I meant," Harry snapped.
"I might tell her," she continued.
"Just ignore her Potter, she tends to get like this when she's bored," said Theodore in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.
"Just ignore him Potter, he tends to get like this when he's in nerd-mode," mimicked Pansy with a smirk, as she dropped a few more things into the potion. Harry watched her work, and read his textbook, double checking to see if she was screwing it up or not. Sure enough, she was getting the ingredients completely wrong.
"See something you like?" asked Pansy, smirking when she noticed him watching her.
"You're doing the potion completely wrong," Harry pointed out.
"Oh well, looks like I'll have to drink one of yours," said Pansy with a shrug. Harry stared at her in utter confusion, as he tried to figure out what the Slytherin motive was behind this new turn of events. "These potions aren't graded, what does it matter?"
"That's her way of forcing you to be the one to kiss her, as a way of embarrassing you in front of the mudblood," Theodore explained. He used the word mudblood as though it meant absolutely nothing.
"Shut up," snapped Harry, glaring at the other guy in anger.
"That's Potter's way of defending the mudblood's honour," Pansy mimicked a second time, with an evil chuckle. Harry found himself absolutely furious and with nothing to do about it, which Pansy no doubt found hilarious. He looked through his textbook at the ingredients, thinking of something that he could do to get back at them. Pansy was right, after all. The potions weren't a formally graded assessment, and Snape couldn't technically drop him for screwing this potion up. Before Pansy could say another word, he grabbed two handfuls of the wrong ingredients and dumped them into his and Theodore's potions. Thankfully Snape wasn't watching, and the result was priceless.
"Well, looks like no matter who's potion you drink, you're screwed either way," said Harry, feeling surprisingly satisfied with himself.
"You idiot, are you trying to get us killed?" Pansy hissed loudly, causing the rest of the class to look over at them.
"We can't die, Snape is here to help, or don't you trust him?" asked Harry sarcastically.
"You'll be the one drinking the potion, this is your fault," Pansy continued furiously.
"Are you scared of going to the Hospital Wing?" asked Harry, hoping to get on her nerves for once.
"Of course I'm not!"
"You sound like it."
"Manipulation isn't your strong suit Potter, you should give up trying to be like me," said Pansy, in an attempt to regain control of the situation.
"Courage isn't your strong suit Parkinson, you should give up trying to be like me," mimicked Harry carelessly.
"I'm not a coward."
"I beg to differ."
"Fine! I will drink the potion no matter how ruined it is!" said Pansy defiantly, though by the looks of her expression she immediately regretted saying it.
Everyone watched the scene in surprise. Hermione didn't exactly approve of the situation that Harry had created, because it was dangerous and against her nature to ruin any potions. But she was proud of the fact that he had found a way to get back at Pansy for once, since she'd been ruining all their moods since they'd arrived. When she returned to her potion she took a quick glance at the two Slytherin's beside her to see their reactions, and was surprised to notice that Draco looked furious. He walked towards the other bench, leaving his potion unattended. Blaise smirked as he quickly picked up Draco's stuff and continued brewing both their potions at once, which puzzled Hermione.
"What's he doing? Why are you smirking?" demanded Hermione.
"If one of us big bad Slytherin's forced you to drink a dangerous potion, what would Potter do?" said Blaise, making Hermione roll her eyes. He seemed to enjoy taking forever to explain something in a silly way, rather than just tell her a straight up answer. But she got the point. If Draco had ruined their potions and forced Hermione to have to drink a dangerous potion, Harry would be walking over at them angrily too.
"Watch my potion?" she asked Blaise quickly, before hurrying over to the other groups bench.
"Oh of course, absolutely!" Blaise called after her, his smirk turning into an outright grin.
"You ruined the potions, you drink it," Draco was saying to Harry when she arrived at the scene.
"Go back to your bench Malfoy, I'm not drinking anything," Harry answered.
"Then Theo will drink it, and you can kiss him," Draco continued.
"You sure about that? Nott, do you want to be kissed by me?" asked Harry, turning to Theodore who shook his head silently as he concentrated on trying to repair his potion.
"What? This is for Pansy, he'll do what I say," said Draco firmly.
"Draco I'm not going out of my way for Pansy or you, I'm not part of this little Slytherin hierarchy anymore," said Theodore, sounding almost angry as he looked up from his potion and gave both Slytherin's a cold look. There was an awkward silence, and Draco looked beyond furious at that point. Hermione was both shocked and confused, having rarely witnessed disagreements between their group before. Snape arrived a moment later, which was just in time to prevent the situation from escalating.
"Why are you two here, and not brewing your potions?" Snape demanded, looking pointedly at Draco and Hermione.
"Potter purposefully ruined his and Theo's potions, so now Pansy will get poisoned, or whatever happens, when she drinks one," answered Draco.
"And why can't Pansy drink her own potion?" asked Snape, sounding bored as he already knew the answer.
"She..."
"Ruined her own potion first, on purpose. I'm not blind, nor am I stupid. If Potter and Parkinson enjoy putting their lives at risk together, that will be their problem, not yours Draco, so return to your bench," Snape instructed bluntly.
"You have to let them make new potions," Draco argued furiously.
"Have I ever let anyone make new potions in all my years of teaching?" Snape demanded.
"No, but..."
"No, and this year will be no different from any other year. Get back to your bench, immediately," Snape continued. Everyone watched in surprise as it was possibly one of the first times Snape and Draco had argued in Potions. Hermione knew that there was something much deeper going on between them, from everything that Draco had told her and the fact that Snape had offered to help him in his trial over the summer. Hermione began walking back to her own bench, and Draco reluctantly followed her. In a few moments, everyone had gone back to work.
"This is bullshit, we need to talk about Theo later," Draco muttered as he continued his potion.
"We probably should. You're up to step twelve by the way," said Blaise, pointing at the textbook. Hermione looked down at her potion, and noticed that it had changed colours and was creating a pinkish mist. She looked over at the textbook, trying to figure out what Blaise had done.
"What step am I up to?" she asked.
"Um, step seven if my calculations are correct."
"You said you'd watch my potion!" Hermione protested, confused.
"I did watch it. I watched it a lot, while I worked on mine and Draco's," said Blaise, almost crying as he tried not to laugh too loudly.
"What the hell, why would you do that?" asked Hermione, looking both devastated and hurt at the same time.
"It doesn't matter, you can just drink one of ours. Plus everyone will be able to make the Wiggenweld Potion afterwards," said Draco, in an attempt to be neutral in the situation.
"Oh, so it doesn't matter if my potion is ruined but if it happens to a Slytherin then it's suddenly a big deal!" snapped Hermione, as she glared at him.
"Yeah, that's pretty much the way it's been since like, forever," said Blaise, recovering from his laughing fit. "Where have you been all summer Granger?"
"Just because it was like this when we were little, doesn't mean it has to always be like this. But whatever," said Hermione, as she grabbed the only textbook they had and walked to the opposite side of the bench to prepare her second potion.
"Come on, we can still work together," said Blaise.
"I don't like you, so I'm not working with you," said Hermione angrily.
"If we can't see the textbook, we can't finish our potions and you'll have to drink something just as bad as theirs," said Draco, nodding towards Harry's group.
"I won't be drinking anything, thanks to Zabini."
"I thought you Gryffindor's were meant to be brave and courageous," accused Blaise in pretend shock.
"I thought you boys were meant to be brave and courageous," Hermione countered shyly.
"Oh she's got us there Draco, we better get our shining armour out," said Blaise as he burst out laughing again. Both Slytherin's continued to laugh as Hermione sighed and continued working on her potion with a reluctant smile.
"Okay fine, I'll drink the potion if you share the textbook with us. I want to get it right so I don't die or anything," Blaise suggested casually. There was an awkward silence that followed, and Hermione realised that if she said yes then she would have to kiss Blaise. She hesitated and made eye contact with Draco for a moment, and Blaise looked between them in confusion.
"What?" he asked curiously.
"Actually, I'd rather be the one asleep during the kissing process so I don't have to remember it. Just try not to screw the potion up," said Hermione quickly, as she pushed the textbook over to them. Draco remained expressionless, though she knew him well enough now to see just a hint of relief.
The end of the lesson came swiftly, and before Hermione knew it she was preparing to drink the potions. Her own Draught of Living Death was still creating a strange pinkish-purple mist and was pretty much ruined, and she suspected that Blaise probably put in the wrong ingredients too because it was beyond fixing. Her Wiggenweld Potion was flawless, it glowed a deep crimson colour with specks of shiny ruby throughout, just as the textbook said it should. She looked over at the boys' potions wearily, trying to decide which Draught of Living Death was safer to drink. Then she remembered that neither of them were safe, because they were designed to put her into a never-ending magical sleep... but still.
Blaise's potion was a smooth, purple-black colour, which had an almost glassy surface as he'd stopped heating it. Hermione assumed he'd given up, because the potion wasn't finished. Draco was still working on his in determination despite the fact that Snape told them to stop and begin drinking. She hoped that he was doing it for her sake, or maybe he just wanted to have a better potion than anyone else. Either way, his Living Death potion was practically clear as water, which was exactly what it was supposed to look like. Their Wiggenweld Potions were nowhere near as good as hers though.
"Let's get one thing straight, you will be using my Wiggenweld Potion to heal me, understood?" said Hermione firmly.
"Oh one second let me write this down, I don't want to forget..." Blaise began sarcastically.
"I'm being serious," Hermione continued, as she pushed her own potion over to them, and pulled their potions to the other end of the desk. Blaise watched her in amusement.
"Damn you've moved them away, guess I won't be able to use them now."
"Malfoy's Living Death potion and my Wiggenweld are the only ones that look like what the textbook says," said Hermione in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.
"Ah, there's the inner bookworm breaking free!" commented Blaise gleefully.
"I hate you," groaned Hermione.
"Let's watch the other groups drink first," said Draco, as he pointed over to Millicent's group where Snape was supervising. Padma drank her own Draught of Living Death, which was perfect, and as she slumped off her seat Ernie leapt to catch her before she hit the stone floor.
"Aw, cute!" Blaise said just loud enough for everyone to hear, causing Ernie to go red with embarrassment and the Slytherin's to laugh.
"Leave him alone," said Hermione angrily.
"Don't worry Granger, we'll catch you too."
"Stop talking," Hermione hissed. As she finished this sentence, Ernie placed Padma on the floor and proceeded to smear the Wiggenweld Potion on his lips. Then, he gently kissed Padma. Moments later she woke up groggily, wiped her eyes, answered a few of Snape's questions about how she felt, and they were finished. It was obvious that their potions were perfect and nothing had gone wrong.
"Draco's group now," Snape announced, looking over at Pansy and Harry wearily. This made Hermione worry about what to expect from them. Would someone have to go to the Hospital Wing? But suddenly everyone was watching her expectantly, and so she filled up a flask with Draco's clear, deadly potion. Since she didn't trust Blaise whatsoever, and she knew that if Draco caught her it would be uncharacteristic of him, she laid down on the ground before drinking the potion. She took a deep breath and drank the tasteless, colourless potion. Everything suddenly faded to black.
From everyone else's perspective Hermione simply passed out, her hand fell limply to her side and the flask rolled from her fingers onto the cold floor. Despite her attempts at avoiding needing to be caught by drinking it while sitting on the ground, she'd passed out so quickly that her head was still going to collide with the stone floor rather hard. Draco dropped to one knee and caught her head before it hit the stone floor out of pure instinct, silently cursing himself for it when he'd realised what he did. After he'd placed her head on the floor, he felt his stomach tie into knots when he saw how she really did appear to be dead, even though he knew it was just the potion's magic. He quickly moved to get up but Blaise put Hermione's Wiggenweld potion in front of him.
"You're closer," Blaise said with a laugh. "Good luck, don't catch a disease or anything."
"What was that Zabini?" asked Harry angrily.
"Nothing Potter."
"Enough," drawled Snape tiredly, having had enough of their childishness.
Draco was trying his best to ignore everyone else as he smeared Hermione's Wiggenweld Potion onto his lips, which was warm and had a surprisingly sweet taste to it. Then he quickly touched his lips to hers, bearing in mind the fact that everyone was watching. Immediately afterwards he wiped his lips in a disgusted fashion, and as he stood up Hermione's eyes fluttered open. Snape asked her a few quick questions like whether she felt any pain, if she was noticeably tired, if she could hear and see properly, if she could move all her muscles, and more. She felt fine though, so he nodded in approval and then walked over to the final group.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this chapter, please feel free to review and add to alerts/favourites! :)
Check out my other stories!
Draco and Hermione - s/5661111/1/Draco-and-Hermione
The Soul Connection - s/9868543/1/The-Soul-Connection
The Time-Turner Division - s/12337018/1/The-Time-Turner-Division