Chapter 23 - Reparo
Advanced Charms was well underway by the time Hermione made it back down from Gryffindor Tower and to the classroom. She paused outside the door, momentarily fearing the reactions her late entrance would cause, when she remembered likely no one but Malfoy had realized she was even absent. Nor would they, if she used her curse to slip through the door instead of opening it.
Hermione phased her way inside and found her fellow 8th year peers staring at a large pile of broken junk at the front of the class while Professor Flitwick went over the necessary theory to fix all the items at once with a single reparo incantation. They had been going through each charm they knew and learning to apply them on a mass scale for quite some time now. The week they did the Dancing Feet charm, Tarantellegra, had been particularly chaotic.
"I think it's time we had someone try it. Miss Gra-, oh right. Perhaps Mister Finch-Fletchley could give it a go?" Professor Flitwick said.
Justin Finch-Fletchley stood up from his seat, waved his wand accordingly, and said, "Reparo!"
The pile of broken things shuffled around. Hermione saw several things become whole again on her way to her usual seat, but many more remained partially damaged or completely unaffected by his spell.
"Not bad for a first try. Not bad at all. Now, do it again. Let's see who can reassemble the pile with the least incantations," Professor Flitwick encouraged. "Miss Abbott, please keep a record of the incantations."
Justin screwed up his face with concentration, took a deep breath, and tried again to more, but not complete, success. In the end, he needed five incantations to complete the task, at which point Hermione could tell the broken items had been a mix of clocks, radios, cabinets, and dishes.
"Excellent job, Mister Finch-Fletchley," Professor Flitwick said as Justin sat back down. Flitwick waved his wand, and the pile of fixed items instantly became a broken mess again. "Now, who would like to go next?"
Hermione scanned the room to see who would raise their hand next. Her eyes fell on Malfoy, who sat across the room from her, but further in the back and to the side. He looked awful. His skin was even paler than usual except for the new dark circles under his sunken eyes. He looked at nothing in particular, but as she studied him, he grimaced in pain and rubbed his neck again. He froze, as if suddenly realizing what he was doing, pulled his arm down, rolled his shoulders, and scanned the others in the room.
Hermione ducked her eyes away before his own fell on her, but every hair on her arms stood anyway at the very thought of having been caught. She had just decided to keep her distance from Malfoy. Ginny encouraged it too, and yet here Hermione was, watching him in class instead of paying attention to the lesson.
The sound of objects breaking snapped Hermione's eyes back to the lesson, and Flitwick beckoned for another student to volunteer. Hermione hadn't even noticed which student had just completed the assignment.
Hannah Abbott had just stood and raised her wand when Professor Flitwick held up a hand for her to stop. Hermione followed Flitwick's gaze to Malfoy and found Malfoy's eyes on her own. "Mr. Malfoy, would Ms. Granger happen to be volunteering?"
Malfoy scowled briefly at Flitwick before glancing back to Hermione and raising his brow in question.
"I would like to try, if you'll allow it," Hermione said into the silence.
Malfoy didn't take his eyes off her. "What do you think? You know that swot never passes up a chance to show off. Granger, do us all a favor and just cast some bloody sparks or something next time you want attention in class."
Hermione's eyes lit up as the bells on her bracelet played a gentle tune in response to the new freedom. She immediately pulled out her wand. "Vermillious," she cast, and a small jet of red sparks flew into the air above her.
"Well then," Flitwick said with a very satisfied and relieved expression. "Go on, Ms. Granger."
Hermione faced the pile of broken things and took a deep breath. If she hadn't spent the night transfiguring letters instead of getting a proper sleep, she would be confident of getting this done the first go. She had fixed several things at once many times over the last year, though perhaps not this many items at once before. The breakfast and shower had restored her somewhat though, and talking to Ginny had relieved some of the pressure on her shoulders.
Hermione waved her wand. "Reparo," she said firmly, focusing on the entire pile of clutter instead. More than half of the items came back together instantly, but the remaining items still were missing pieces here and there. Hermione sighed in disappointment.
"Err, excellent work, Ms. Granger!" Flitwick praised, though his surprise at any broken items remaining was evident. "I expect you'll only need one more attempt to wrap it up."
Hermione cast it again, and as Flitwick predicted, this second attempt repaired everything left.
"Fantastic! Now, who's next? That's right, Ms. Abbott wanted to go." Flitwick destroyed the repaired items once again and continued the lesson.
Hermione sunk back down in her desk and stared at the broken pile in dismay. She had completed the previous practical challenges in one go. To fail her first attempt…
Hermione sighed and focused on how Harry and Ron might react. Likely, they would tease her for getting upset when she still did twice as well as any other student. Hermione smirked at that, already feeling the pressure released from her shoulders. She would master this skill before the N.E.W.T. exams. After all, she was drained, sleep-deprived, and cursed. Surely she could do far better once properly rested.
She really did miss Harry and Ron.
Hermione wrinkled her nose. Ron had just dumped her the other day in quite possibly the most pathetic fashion possible. According to everything she had heard and read about relationships, she should be heartbroken and furious. She should be going over their whole relationship in her head, trying to figure out what she did wrong or how she can win him back. She should scorn his very memory even as she clung to every souvenir of their time together.
She didn't.
Her heart was bruised, of course, but hardly broken. Really, she missed her friendship with him far more than she missed… well, the other stuff. Honestly, Ron had been a lousy kisser and an inattentive boyfriend all around. He had intentionally made her jealous, dismissed her ideas, and lost his temper with her so many times… Honestly, it was a relief that she wouldn't have to deal with all that anymore.
Hermione pursed her lips in contemplation. If she was relieved, then why did she still feel sad? Was it only that she might not be friends with Ron anymore? Of course, that was plenty of reason to be sad, but even still, she didn't really see this as a forever issue. Ron wouldn't hold this against her. Even his breakup communicated that he still cared about her, and Hermione expected he would still want her friendship, if only because he could hardly walk three steps without tripping over his own feet without her around. Hermione had no idea how he had managed to hang onto his auror position without her there.
Yes, Ron would still be her friend once the storm passed, so why had she been so upset? The shock of it? She had known it was likely coming.
Hermione frowned. She rather disliked having puzzles she didn't understand, and even more so when the puzzle was herself. She didn't understand her overnight attraction to Malfoy, and she didn't understand why she was upset to be dumped by Ron.
Of course, injury to pride factored into both. Having Ron find her inadequate was downright humiliating. She was the brightest witch of her year. Wasn't that worth anything? Of course, she wasn't perfect, and brilliance wasn't everything. Ron was perfectly within his rights to prefer a girlfriend who was… well… not her. Hermione took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Malfoy's stab at her lack of social skills from the previous night came to mind, and her eyes drifted back to him. He was rolling his neck like he had a crick he couldn't quite clear out. He really ought to see Madam Pomfrey about that. Stubborn arse.
He was stubborn, infuriating, cruel, rude, and so many other things. She really would be better off avoiding him. After all, the tosser had the gall to call her self-absorbed and selfish. Perhaps not in those exact words, but that was certainly the right of it.
She wasn't so self-absorbed that she hadn't noticed how much his back hurt or that he'd likely never seek proper help on his own, and she wasn't selfish. She regularly helped others who couldn't help themselves. The fact that she hadn't wanted to massage the back of the most entitled wizard she knew when she was exhausted didn't make her selfish. It made her human, and she had held back from hurting him when he asked her to, hadn't she? Nevermind that, she had fought Ginny for him. She had raced to his room and hidden his books from McGonagall for him. She had worked late into the night for him. How dare he accuse her of not thinking of him?
Hermione scowled. Malfoy seemed determined to think the worst of her no matter what she did. He hadn't denied her accusation that he only tolerated her out of desperation for companionship. Every interaction only reinforced that she was better off giving up on trying to improve his opinion of her. Perhaps he didn't hate her, but he would certainly never like her.
Her eyes filled with tears of hurt frustration. Her resolve to stay away from him hardened, and yet… when he winced in pain merely from standing to perform reparo for the class, she felt another resolve harden within as well.
She would help Malfoy, whether he wanted her to or not. She would simply have to do it in a way that would not bring them closer together.
Hermione considered her options while Professor Flitwick had each student perform the reparo in class. By the time Malfoy was called, Hermione had realized two things: Malfoy absolutely needed to get his back looked at, and she could not afford the proximity that would be necessary to convince him to go willingly.
Therefore, she would simply have to drag him.
Hermione got her wand ready while Malfoy focused on repairing the pile of junk. She had to be careful. If her spellwork was too obvious, Professor Flitwick would likely intervene, and then Malfoy could defend himself against her and would likely take away her magic before she succeeded. However, if she knocked him unconscious at the right moment…
Hermione waited for the moment Malfoy finished his third reparo and struck. "Stupefy," she said quietly, and Malfoy's body went limp and crumbled as he lost consciousness.
There was a mix of gasps and gossip immediately, and Professor Flitwick seemed completely at a loss for a moment. "Professor, should we innervate him?" asked Justin.
Professor Flitwick hesitantly began shaking his head, then shook it firmly as he pulled himself together. "No, I dare say Mr. Malfoy looked rather off this morning. Madam Pomfrey should take a look at him before we bring him back. Would someone please volunteer to bring Mr. Malfoy to the hospital wing?"
Hermione wasted no time in shooting off red sparks, indicating her interest. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she said, levitating Malfoy's body.
"I dare say it looks like Ms. Granger will handle it. Well then, let's carry on. Who else hasn't gone?"
Hermione smirked in victory, opened the door to the hallway, and levitated Malfoy out of the classroom.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter, despite its brevity. Thank you for the previous reviews, and I hope you will review this one as well. Yes, you can complain that it's short and ends on a cliffhanger. This is what I could manage this week.
I regret to inform you that I am changing my posting schedule. Instead of every week, I will post every 2 weeks. Next update will be on Feb 21, 2020.
I am rebooting my life, so to speak. When I started posting this story, I was only well enough to function mostly normally about 20% of my days and required midday naps 50% of them. I have now been well enough to function without a midday nap every day for over a month. A lot went into that process, but I am now facing a point where my priority is sorting out a regular schedule to get back on track with my dissertation so I can graduate and return to work ASAP. Once the schedule is established, I expect I'll return to a weekly updating schedule, but for now, I need to step back from my hobbies and spend some extra time/energy on learning how to be human again.
Thanks so much for all your support!