1993 - Third Year
"-And then we went to The Three Broomsticks and - OH And Shamus did this thing-"
"Ron you've already told this story." Hermione interrupted Ron as he gave Harry a full update on their trip to Hogsmead, for the third time.
Ron's cheeks flushed as he closed his mouth and gave Harry an apologetic look.
"What did you get up to today then Harry?" Ron asked, changing the subject before he received another scolding from Hermione.
"I went and had tea with Professor Lupin." Harry told them, Hermione raised one of her eyebrows slightly at his answer.
"Oh really? And how was that?" Hermione asked sceptically.
"He knew my mum, and my dad in fact. So it was nice to speak to someone from back then who knew my parents." Suddenly his choice in company for the day made sense to Hermione, although she still couldn't fathom why he would want to spend the whole day of free time with a teacher.
"What do we think of Professor Lupin?" Harry asked his friends.
"He's the most normal teacher we've had yet, he just seems very… down to earth. What you see is what you get with this one." Ron answered whilst reaching for his bag of sweets he'd purchased earlier in the day.
"I'm not sure. I like him, he seems nice enough, but I don't think he's as much of an open book as Ronald may think, I think he's definitely hiding something, I just can't quite think what." Hermione added.
"Do you think perhaps, that might just be because of what we have experienced with the last two DADA teachers?"
"No there's something more. I know we've only had two months with him, but he goes through phases of looking full of life and happy to be here - to looking like he has some huge internal struggle,"
"Struggle with what though?"
"I don't know Harry, that's just it. I'm not sure, its just a feeling I have, as I said, there's just something about him I can't quite put my finger on."
Before her friends could ask her any further questions, the portrait to the common room opened, and a large group of Gryffindors wandered in.
"Told ya they'd be in here." Shamus said to Dean as they wandered over to the sofa opposite where Harry and Hermione sat.
"Look at these Harry." Dean said as he began emptying the contents of his bag, displaying the items he had bought from Hogsmeade.
"Hey." Ginny said quietly to Hermione before taking a seat beside her on the floor.
"Hey, what've you been doing today then?" Hermione asked her friend, turning slightly to face her more, aware that the boys were in a deep conversation about their new toys.
"Nothing much, I just kind of went for a walk, did some work. Nothing exciting." Ginny shrugged before her eyes flicked towards Harry, only briefly, but enough for Hermione to notice.
"Bump into anyone interesting on this walk of yours?" Hermione teased causing Ginny's cheeks to turn pink as she scowled.
"Perhaps,"
"Funny, he didn't mention that you went for a walk, I assume that was at your request?"
Ginny nodded at her before her eyes moved back to Harry briefly, she watched as he laughed along with his friends, his emerald eyes glistening as the sides crinkled, his smile grew wide, flashing an incredible smile that was enough to make Ginny's heart stop.
Of course it made perfect sense now, Harry hadn't spent his entire day with Professor Lupin, but it was an easy enough alabin when he had spent a portion of it with him.
"Made sense. Besides, it's nobody's business. Just like it's nobody's business that you met up with someone, that you're not prepared to name, throughout the holidays." Ginny said in a low voice, Hermione knew this was her friend's way of reminding her that she still wanted to know who the said unnamed individual was.
"The secrecy makes it exciting, welcome to the club." Hermione winked at her friend who could only bring herself to playfully scowl at her before turning back to the group.
It wasn't the answer Ginny wanted to hear, she wanted a name, details, but it was the only answer Hermione was prepared to give, for now at least.
~X~
Throughout the castle, all the students prepared for their Halloween parties. Each year a prefect from every house was nominated to come up with a theme for the house parties, this year it was decided the theme was to be Magical Beasts.
Not very original, Hermione thought, but she found herself overly enthusiastic about her costume this year, having never really thought about it for the previous 2 years. However, this year she had an idea with a certain friend in mind, who she hoped would see the funny side of her costume.
"A what!?" Ginny gasped once Hermione told her what her costume was. "Hermione, we discussed this last year, what happened to sexy?"
"Gin, I'm 14, why would I be bothered about looking sexy?"
"Sexy doesn't have to actually be a sexual reference… well it does, but… well that's not what I mean… Oh you know what I mean! At least look nice, last year you were not a sight for sore eyes!" Gin laughed.
"Thanks." Hermione said, shaking her head whilst she tied her hair out of her face.
"Look, Im just saying, mystery man wouldn't want to see you with a massive beak and feathers coming out of your ass."
"Who said mystery man is going to see me?"
"Really, we're going to pretend you're not going to go running off into the night?" Ginny raised her eyebrows at her friend and looked at her suggestively.
Hermione looked at her through the reflection in the mirror, thankful for the makeup she had on her face as it covered the blush that would no doubt have surfaced on her cheeks.
"I don't know what you mean." Hermione lied, however playing stupid wasn't something she was good at, Ginny simply rolled her eyes in response.
"Well I'm going to be a cat."
"How original."
"Now now Hermione, don't be rude, just because you're going to look like a giant chicken doesn't mean you can take it out on my costume."
Hermione couldn't help but laugh as she finished her make-up and turned around to face her friend, who quickly transitioned from laying across her bed to an upright position within seconds, once she caught a glimpse of Hermione's face.
"What the - How!? How did you do that? That looks amazing!" Ginny said excitedly.
"Face paint. It's what muggles use at parties and stuff for children." Hermione told her.
Using the Face Paint make up kit, Hermione had drawn feathers of different shades of grey around her eyes which, combined with the lashes she had attached, made her eyes stand out dramatically. Below the feathers she had drawn a silver beak that sat over her nose and mouth, with hints of glitter throughout.
"Not at all what I expected! I think you're going to look hot after all! I best go get ready myself otherwise you'll put me to shame!" Ginny told her before she left the room.
Hermione smiled to herself before she grabbed her wand and prepared her hair to be tamed. She had already decided she wanted to straighten her hair, which meant over an hour of research in the library on effective grooming spells, thankfully, she was a quick learner.
~X~
Over an hour later, Hermione was ready. She gave herself a once over in the mirror, confirming her costume was to her liking before she left to join the party.
As she looked in the mirror at herself, she felt a small sense of pride. She had put a lot of thought into her costume this year, all for a practical joke. She wore a grey long sleeve jumpsuit with wings attached to her back that bore feathers of the same shade of the ones on her face. Her hair straightened and left down, fell just above her waste, she had fashioned a headband out of leftover feathers from her wings and used it to keep any hair from falling into her face.
Giving herself one more nod, she left her room to join the noisy Gryffindor common room.
As soon as she reached the bottom step, she saw Ginny running towards her. She had gone for a black dress that had long sleeves and came down to just above the knee, she wore cat ears that were enchanted to glamour whiskers onto the wearer's face, her long red hair had been pulled back into a ponytail and tyde back. Her costume wasn't anything extreme but it was just enough for Ginny.
"I take it all back, you look absolutely amazing!"
"You don't look so bad yourself." Hermione smiled before she moved forward with Ginny to join the rest of the group.
Hermione looked around the room at all the different costumes, admiring the effort some people had gone to, whilst others couldn't have made any less, although she couldn't judge as this was the first year she had made an effort, she was definitely glad to be joining in with the festivities.
She glanced at the clock and wandered when she would be able to sneak away to see Draco, bubbling with excitement to see his response at her costume.
~X~
"Drakey, why don't you ever dress up for these things?" Pansy whined, the Slytherin common room was livelier than Draco had seen it in his short time attending Hogwarts.
"I don't like to dress up, you know that Pansy." He sighed, forcing a smile on his face in hopes it would make his words sound less snappish. He never meant to be nasty to Pansy, but sometimes he didn't have the patience to pretend to be interested.
"He's just boring, that's all Pan's." Blaise commented as he moved around the sofa to sit opposite Draco.
"I'm boring because I'd rather not spend my evening dressed as a-" Draco paused for a moment as he examined the Slytherin opposite him, his eyes landing on the sharp point of the corn on his forehead "- prick?" the word fell out of his mouth, as did the contents of Theo's as he spluttered his drink, laughing at Dracos comment.
Blaise scowled at him in his Unicorn costume and turned his attention towards Theo.
"And what're you supposed to be?" He sniped.
Theo finally composed himself before standing tall, straightening his back and lifting his chin in the air. His chest lay completely bare and he wore thick brown textured trousers with boots that resembled that of hoofs.
"I'm a centaur." Theo said proudly.
Confusion spread around the group as they examined Theo who appeared to be missing a vital part of his costume.
"Erm, Theo… Centaur's are part horse, y'know that right?" Draco's question earned him an eye roll from his friend.
With a small click on something that hung from his trousers, the rest of Theo's costume appeared. Glimmering behind him was the body of a horse, his feet where at the front and his costume was complete. The image lasted for around 10 seconds before it disappeared and Theo sat back down.
"I picked it up at Hogsmeade, cool right? So remind me again, does a Unicorn have the body of a horse?" Thoe smirked at Blaise.
With flushed cheeks and a scowl to match, Blaise stood up with a huff and moved across the room, away from Draco and Theo who were sniggering quietly.
"Got somewhere else to be?" Theo asked Draco as he observed him looking at the time on the clock for the fourth time.
Draco shook his head and took another sip of his drink. It was a lie. He wanted to head to the secret room as quickly as possible, having not agreed on a meeting time with Hermione beforehand, he didn't want to miss seeing the surprise she said she had for him.
~X~
Draco stood in the corner of the Slytherin common room that still buzzed with students celebrating Halloween. He glanced at the clock for the hundredth time before assessing the likelihood of him being able to leave the common room unnoticed. All of his friends seemed to be deeply occupied in some conversation or other that he seized his opportunity and moved swiftly through the portrait.
He made his way, quickly and quietly, through the castle, his family room as his destination. It was only then, as the cool chill that swept through the castle, wrapping itself around him, that he realised the effects of the last drink that Blaise had handed him. It was clear now it had been spiked with alcohol.
Once he reached the entrance to his family room, he stood still for a moment, one hand on the foot of the Dragon with the other rubbing his eyes to shake the ever growing tipsy feeling that was forcing itself to the surface.
With another shake of his head and one more sigh, he pulled aside the veil and wandered into the room. For a brief moment, Draco had forgotten that Hermione had a surprise in store for him. Even with that in mind, he could not have braced himself for what he saw.
As soon as his eyes landed on her, he knew exactly what she was dressed as. He moved further into the room, her costume design becoming clearer and her smile growing wider as she watched his reaction unfold before her.
He stopped just a short space before her, staring down at her, his eyes wandering over every inch of her costume, from the grey boots she wore on her feet, right up to the feathers on her head, but they lingered most of all of the piercing golden brown eyes that looked up at him through her thick lashes.
Hermione found herself fidgeting as Draco examined her, unable to read his expression. She bit down on her lip, trapping the laugh that so desperately wanted to escape.
"A Hippogriff… a fucking Hippogriff?" he said.
Hermione sensed just enough humor in his voice for the laugh she had been holding in to finally escape her lips, once she started she found it difficult to stop.
Clutching her stomach that ached from her laughter, she moved to take a seat by the window, Draco remained put, his arms folded across his stomach as he watched her laughing hysterically to herself. Her infectious giggles caused a lopsided smile to form on his lips.
"You think you're hilarious don't you." He commented, still unable to control herself she simply nodded in response.
Growing tired of being the but of her joke, he decided to silence her the only way he knew how, the alcohol he had consumed, despite against his will, had provided him with the courage to make her feel uncomfortable, not that he needed any.
"Well, it's had the opposite effect of what you may have desired, because instead of being insulted that you dressed up as the overgrown chicken that maimed me. I find your costume insanely hot." He spoke as he moved to sit opposite her on the window seat.
His plan had worked. Hermione's laughter ceased immediately and had it not been for the makeup that covered her face, he was certain her cheeks would've flared deep red.
"Maybe that was the desired effect?" Hermione responded, shocking both herself and Draco.
She stood from the seat and wandered over to the table to pour herself a drink, leaving Draco sat with his mouth still slightly open in shock. He had made a few flirtatious comments in the past, ones he figured were harmless but enough to turn her cheeks a colour he'd grown to love, but she had never fired anything back at him. He found himself liking this side of Hermione very much.
All the wires in his brain finally reconnected and he closed his mouth whilst he watched her walking over to the table. Her costume was tight and fitted to every curve and dip on her body. For a teenage boy who struggled to control his hormones, Draco was having a very intense battle with himself internally to not react at the sight before him, he mentally cursed Blaise once more for feeding him alcohol as his strength to control himself felt like it was dwindling whilst his eyes wandered down her body moving south of the wings that hung on her back.
"How long have you been here for?" he asked, distracting himself before his eyes landed just below the point where her wings stopped.
"I'd say about an hour. We didn't agree on a time, I didn't want to leave it too late incase you came and fell asleep. I said I was going out for some air, so I don't actually have that long before someone comes looking for me."
"You can't stay?" the disappointment was clear in his voice.
Hermione wandered back over to the seat, her drink in hand, it was something to keep her hands occupied as opposed to her being thirsty and needing a drink.
"How is it, you have time to go to all these extra classes, do all this extra studying, and yet the only time we get to see each other is in the dead of night when we should technically be sleeping?"
"People would question where we were going if we left throughout the day, you know they would."
"Yes, but if we said we were in the library, they wouldn't exactly come looking for us."
"No, but I do actually spend time in the library and if I saw you in that time, I wouldn't get any studying done."
"Good, that would give the rest of us a fighting chance to match your grades!"
"Match? Not beat?"
"Let's be realistic, that would take one hell of a wizard to beat your grades… someone like me." he teased, a smirk spread across his lips.
"Clearly not if you haven't already."
"You're on fire tonight, Granger."
"I learn from the best, Malfoy." She said, before mimicking his trademark smirk.
"We digress, how is it you have time to do all of this?" Draco asked once more.
Hermione's face fell slightly as she pondered over her answer. She had a secret she wasn't sure whether or not to tell, a secret that wasn't hers to tell, not entirely. Moving her eyes from the cup she held in her hands, she looked up at him through her lashes, curiosity written all over his face as they sat in silence.
"You have a secret?" Draco surmised.
Hermione's eyebrows furrowed together as a wave of panic washed over her.
"Are you… are you using your Legilimency skills on me?" She asked, the hurt clear in her voice.
"What?! No! Of course not, Hermione I would never do that." He told her as he moved quickly to sit closer to her, his hands clasped over hers as she held the cup.
"Trust me Hermione, I would never, ever, use Legilimency on you. If I asked you something and you didn't want to tell me, that's you business, I promise you."
Hermione nodded at him, giving him a small smile in response, relief washing over her.
"You clearly have a secret though and I'm guessing it doesn't just belong to you. I won't push you to tell me, but you know you can trust me." he stretched out his arm and tucked a small strand of hair behind her ear as he spoke.
Hermione's stomach did a complete backflip once she felt his fingertips glide across her face. She cleared her through and put down her cup before turning back to him.
He was right, she could trust him, and if the shoe was on the other foot, she would like him to feel like he could tell her and she would want to know.
Draco watched her as she started to pull down the neckline of her costume, what was probably a two second process seemed to slow down completely for him. His stomach dropped and his heart felt like it was going to break through his chest due to the speed it was pounding. As quickly as she had started to pull down the hem she stopped and let it bounce back up. She had only moved it an inch to gain access to the necklace she had intended to show Draco, but an inch was enough to send his heart racing.
He hadn't been lying when he expressed his fondness for her costume, he was beginning to struggle to be around her in it, as his hormonal mind was too busy picturing her out of it.
"This-" Hermione said, bringing his mind back to the original topic, "-is a Time Turner."
Draco stretched out his hand to take hold of the necklace Hermione wore and held in her hand. He had never seen anything like it, his eyes wandered over each individual golden hoop before stopping to examine the hourglass in the middle.
After a close inspection of the necklace, he handed it back to Hermione with a confused look on his face.
What does this have to do with anything? He thought.
"Professor McGonagall gave this to me at the beginning of the year, she said it would allow me to take on all the extra classes that I wanted to do as well as find time to study. This device allows me to turn back time. In the wrong hands, it could be lethal."
Draco was astonished. He had never heard of such a device existing, which, the more he thought about it, that was probably for the best. Given the line of work his father and his friends were in and their allegiance to Voldemort, Hermione was right, in the wrong hands it could be lethal.
"So, you've been going to class and then going back in time… to go to another class?"
"Basically."
"Wow… trust Hermione Granger to be in possession of such a powerful and amazing artifact and she uses it to study more, you really are a unique being."
"It took a lot of convincing from McGonagall to the Ministry for them to allow me to use it, my grades were taken into consideration alongside my behaviour… which despite always landing on my feet, I have technically broken a lot of rules in the past two years."
"Very true. So, how does it work?"
"I have to twist the dial, the number of twists will be dependent on how far back I want to go."
"Sooo… If you wanted to go back a couple of hours so that we could spend more time together before you have to run off back to the Gryfindorks, how many twists would that take?"
Hermione scowled at his insult towards her fellow housemates, but could feel her mouth bending to a smile at his not-so-subtle plan.
"I'd say about 1, maybe 1.5 twists. That would buy us a few hours. That would be IF I wanted to spend more time here rather than going back to the party in my common room."
Draco tried a different approach. He reached out for the time turner once more, holding it in the palm of his right hand. Slowly and gently, his grip tightened on the time turner, he used his grasp on the chain to pull Hermione just a few inches closer to him.
"Why wouldn't you want to spend more time here." he whispered. He could feel his heart rate pick up speed again, so much so he could feel the thumping traveling up to his now dry throat. He knew he came across as cool, calm and collected, but on the inside, he was going insane.
He sometimes wondered where his courage came from to say these things to her, anybody else and he wouldn't find it so difficult, perhaps because he didn't mean it or he didn't want anything to happen, but with Hermione he felt nervous, there was something to lose if she responded badly, and yet, something in his brain gave him a boost of confidence that lasted for a few seconds, long enough for him to go through with speaking his mind, but not long enough to remain overly confident afterwards.
His eyes flickered down to her lips and back up to her eyes, he tried desperately to read her thoughts without having to invade her mind unwillingly. Now was his chance, he wanted to kiss her, he wanted to show her how he hadn't meant to reject her that night by the lake, all he had to do was move forward ever so slightly.
Hermione's breathing came to a complete stand still, there was no doubt about it, her body had forgotten how to function, the wire that led from her brain to her lungs evaporated. She looked into Draco's eyes, they were now just a few inches away from her face, she could feel his breath against her, almost tasting the drink he'd had before coming to meet her.
She had a momentary battle with herself as her heart told her to lean forward just an inch further, but her brain reminded her of the last time she leaned forward and how she felt for some time afterwards.
The memory of her near kiss with Draco kick started her brain and she came to her senses once more before clearing her throat to speak.
"Fine." She spoke, startling him slightly, "but you cannot tell a single person EVER. And we can't get caught, I can't begin to tell you the problems it would cause if we saw ourselves."
Hermione pulled the chain of the Time Turner, freeing it from his grasp, her fingertips brushing against the back of his hand. She ignored the electricity that emitted from his touch and pulled the chain further out from beneath her costume.
Quickly and without hesitation she pulled the chain to drape over his neck and held the Time Turner between them.
"Will it hurt?" Draco asked hesitantly.
Hermione couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her lips, she gave him a small smile and shook her head.
As quickly as she wrapped the necklace around both of their necks, she moved the dial on the Time Turner. Draco remained completely unaware of the shifting time around him as he watched her closely.
She grabbed the chain once more and placed it back underneath her costume. Draco stared at her, confused and somewhat disappointed.
"Did it work?" he asked, the scepticism clear in his voice.
Hermione smiled and moved to the window, pushing it open wide, it was still dark outside, she hadn't gone back too far. It was clear to see from where they sat that there were students still wandering around down below, which meant it was before curfew. Draco turned his head back quickly in astonishment before he glanced over towards the clock that rested above the fireplace.
"7:30… that's 3 hours, you did it!" He said, Hermione scoffed, pretending to be insulted as if he didn't believe she had been telling the truth.
"That is a truly amazing piece of equipment you have there. Make sure nobody else ever gets hold of it."
"I won't, you're the only other person that knows about it. To anyone else, its just a stupid necklace."
Draco looked down towards her neck where the chain stuck out slightly just above her collar.
"You don't tend to wear jewellery do you?"
"No… I don't see the point in wearing it for an accessory. I think Jewellery should mean something."
"Agreed. I wear a ring with the family crest on." he said as he held up his hand to show her, a black ring rested on his right index finger. "So if you had a piece of jewelry that meant something, you would wear it?"
"Don't you dare."
"Whatever do you mean?"
"I know the way you think Draco, I'm not falling for your 'maybe if i'll act stupid she will forget about it and I'll do it anyway' act. It wont work, don't be getting any ideas."
"I do not do that!" he said in shock.
Hermione raised her eyebrow and looked at him, giving him a moment to really think about what he had said.
"I don't! I don't have a clue what you're talking about."
"Mmm." Hermione hummed with a smirk across her lips.
"It's a shame. That chain looks good on you."
"Draco!"
"I'm just saying!"
"So. Now you have me for a few hours, what do you intend to do?" Hermione asked, changing the subject from a topic she wished he would forget, never mind his intent for her to do so.
He smiled, rose from the window seat and began making his way towards the fireplace. Hermione's stomach flipped once she realised exactly where he was going, or more, what he was getting.
"I'm sorry I asked." She said as he moved back towards her, his broom held firmly in his right hand, his ever growing grin on his face.
"You loved it last time, you can't even deny it."
"I maybe didn't hate it as much as I thought I would, but I certainly didn't love it." She protested, standing up from the seat she didn't particularly want to leave.
Draco let out a small chuckle before holding the broom out in front of him. Hermione stared, confused when he didn't immediately mount the broom first.
"You first, you're going to guide us this time."
"Absolutely not."
"Come on, I'll be pretty much doing all the work, I just want you to experience being at the front, seeing everything." He moved closer to her, towering above her with the broom beside him.
"I won't let anything bad happen to you Hermione, ever." he said softly. Hermione stared up at him, looking into the intensity of his eyes that glistened down at her, like butter wouldn't melt. She both hated and loved the effect his gaze had on her. He made her feel like anything was possible and she could get lost in the silver pools that were his eyes, but he knew that and often used it to get his way.
'One day I'll come up with a strategy to get my own way.' she mumbled to herself.
He watched, amused at the sight before him, as Hermione grabbed the broom from his hand and started mumbling about wanting the ability to get her own way. Little did she know, he would go to the ends of the earth for his little Gryffindor, all she needed to do was ask.
She finally mounted the broom and gave him an impatient look. Without hesitation he climbed on behind her, snaking his arms through hers. He felt her sharp intake of breath before his hands touched the broom and wrapped his fingers around.
"Just tell me when I need to go because I'm beginning to lose the feeling in my legs." she stuttered.
Hermione's sole focus lay on the position of Draco's hands. He moved one hand around her waist, holding her tightly in place whilst the other remained clasped around the broom between her legs, making it very difficult for her to concentrate on the task at hand.
He kicked off slightly from the ground and they both hovered for a moment, Hermione knew she wouldn't be controlling the flight, but she was nervous nevertheless, and yet, she wouldn't dream of complaining about being at the front if it meant his arm would be wrapped around her.
"Go." He whispered, and they soared through the window into the brisk October night.