Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter franchise, nor anything affiliated with it.
Hermione's POV
As Draco runs off, I'm left standing at the Portrait hole, wondering what just happened. Just a few minutes earlier, I felt bad about leaving Potions so abruptly, but perhaps I'm not the only one with a lot on their mind.
When I left, I had come straight here. I had refused to slow down until I was in our dorm, with the entrance sealed tight. It wasn't until I had been lying collapsed on the couch for ten minutes that I began to clear my head. Then, I realized that I hadn't had lunch.
When I tried to leave for the Great Hall, I ran into Malfoy, and now I'm here.
Deciding to forgo lunch, I retreat into our common room and settle down on the window seat. Without anything to do, my thoughts drift back to what I smelled in that potion.
I knew it was Amortentia, but at the time, I didn't think much about it. Then, when Neville and I finished making it, I was overwhelmed by the smell of parchment, my mother's perfume, and Malfoy's hair products. I was extremely shocked when I eventually figured out what the third scent was. When Malfoy asked why I was confused, I couldn't help but be defensive.
Later, when I bumped into him outside the portrait, and we had recovered from the collision, he just stared at me. It was rather odd, almost as if it was the first time he had seen me as a real person. Did something change, or was I just imagining things? Should I say something or leave it? On the other hand, perhaps it's just the potion addling my brain.
The vibration of my wand pulls me from my thoughts and I see that it's my alarm. There are only ten minutes left of lunch break, so I push myself up and reluctantly gather the books for my afternoon classes.
At dinner, I swipe some shepherd's pie and a selection of fruits; I try to finish early so that I can finish some of my homework before Malfoy arrives for our lesson. In the common room, I settle down on the couch with my earbuds and start writing the first draft of my potions essay. I've just finished the first half when Malfoy walks in.
"Granger, I just need to get my laptop, and then we can start," he says. While I wait for him to return, I roll up my essay and tuck it away with my pens before pulling out my computer. Just as open it, he returns and sits opposite me on the other couch.
"Alright, let's try to keep this as short as possible so we can get on to the rest of our homework," I say. "First, let's set up your computer. Open the laptop like a wooden box. Yes, like that. You can either rest it on your knees or the coffee table."
In true Malfoy fashion, he places it on the table but still manages to keep a straight back while using it. I shouldn't have expected any less, not when it could wrinkle his immaculate pants.
"Now, your laptop doesn't have all the capabilities of most computers, as they are very expensive. You have a Chromebook, which means your work is entirely internet-based. To access the internet, which is essentially a virtual library, we use a 'browser' called Chrome."
"What's a browser?" he asks, looking somewhat lost.
"Browsers allow you to access the internet and display it in a certain way so that you can navigate it more easily."
"Oh, I guess that kind of makes sense." He doesn't look very convinced, but I move onto the next part anyway. It'll be easier to understand once he's seen it work.
"Is your screen displaying anything? Do you see any images on it?" I ask.
"Yes, there's a picture of a lake and some words on the screen."
"Perfect, at the bottom right corner, there should be a little line of text that reads, 'add person'. Click that by dragging your finger on the silver rectangle on the bottom half of your laptop. That is called a trackpad and will move the little triangular icon on the screen. Once you've clicked that, it will ask you for an email which we will set up first on my computer. I just need to ask you for some details so I can fill out the form, but you can come over here and see how the process works."
He stands up and walks over to sit next to me. Sure enough, he smells like what I breathed in the potion earlier. This just keeps getting better.
"I've filled in your name, but what would you like your email to be? You have to choose the beginning, and then the ending will be 'at gmail. com '. For example, mine is hermione. granger 'at' gmail. com. You can make it as creative as you want or just keep it simple."
He thinks for a moment, "How about draco. malfoy. sg 'at' gmail. com?"
"That should work. What does the sg stand for?"
He flushes and replies, "Oh, it's just a family thing." Somehow, I don't think that's quite it, but I don't press any further.
"Alright, next, you need to pick a password. I'll let you do it yourself, as it prevents other people from accessing your account. Just click here and use the keys for each letter or number, like a typewriter. If you want to use the little symbols painted above the numbers, hold the 'shift' button at the same time you press that key." I show him the button and he nods.
"Is there any set of rules I need to follow for the password or can it be anything at all?" he asks.
"Using a combination of numbers, letters, and symbols would be best as it's harder for people to guess it. Then type the same password in the box underneath it." I look away as he does the password. When he's done he tells me and hands me back my laptop.
"Now, I need your birthday."
"June 5, 1980."
"Okay, you are a male, and we are in the United Kingdom. Done! Now type your email into the box on your computer."
He has to move back to his laptop to type it in, but once he's finished, he asks me what to do next.
"Now it should ask you for your password. Just type it in."
"I've done that, now it's taken me to a page and it's asking if I want a tour? Should I click, yes?"
"No, that's not necessary. I can show you how to change your profile picture and wallpaper another time. For now, at the bottom of the page, click the circle image with the blue circle surrounded by red, yellow, and green. That is the Chrome icon. The one beside it is for your email, electronic mail, then google documents, used for digital writing, and YouTube, for playing music. I'll explain those in a bit. What do you have on your screen now?"
"Well, I clicked the button, as you said, and something opened up. The screen is now white, and it says, 'Google'. Beneath it, there's a long rectangle box."
"Perfect. That box is called the search bar. The other place you can use to search for stuff is the long box at the top of the page. That is the URL box. If you type a website address, like a reference code, it will take you directly to the page. For example, if you type, 'drive. google. com', then hit the enter key, it will take you to Google Drive. You can create a writing document, graphs and tables, and make an online presentation with images and words."
"Perhaps we should look up what those things on my list are before you get side-tracked again?"
"Oh right, sorry. What was the first thing on your list?" I ask, blushing a little. I should have thought of that sooner.
He reaches over and pulls a sheet of parchment out with the words he has to define.
"Hmm… the first word is 'air plan?'"
"It's pronounced 'air plane', like a windowpane."
"Oh, what is it? Why is it called that?"
"Don't worry, you'll get there. For all these items, search 'what is the definition of a' and then fill in the blank with the words on your list. In this case, it would be 'what is the definition of an airplane?'. Then it will show you a list of different pages titles in blue colour. These are called links. Click the link and it will take you to a website and you should be able to find a definition in there. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah, thanks Granger, I can take it from here."
"Okay, in that case, Malfoy, I'm going to go shower now, since you'll be occupied down here for the next while."
He nods but doesn't look up and I feel a bit of disappointment.
I stack my belongings together and then head upstairs to take a quick shower. On my way up, I start to realize that I kind of enjoyed teaching him. In a way that I hadn't previously when I tutored some of my other classmates. I shake the thought and try to finish up quickly.
After my shower, I quickly tie my hair in a rough bun so water doesn't drip down my back while I'm doing my homework. I decide to put on one of my loose-knit cardigans since I'm not going anywhere tonight, and a pair of jeans. I might as well get a little more comfortable since I'll be awake for a while.
When I get downstairs, I see that Malfoy is engrossed in his work, but he's only written down two of the twenty definitions. I've been gone for at least 15 minutes, he should be at least halfway finished by now.
"Malfoy," he jumps a little at the sound of my voice and looks up. He blinks a little, his eyes are probably a little sore from looking at the screen, but his eyes widen a little before settling back into his typical neutral expression. "Are you having trouble with the definitions?"
"Oh, no, quite the opposite actually. I've been learning so much! There's so much information here! I've started using this website called Wikipedia, and it leads from one topic to another so easily! Unfortunately, I don't know how to go back to the pages I already looked at, so I just keep reading about other similar topics."
"That's right! I didn't tell you how to go back!"
"You can go back?" He looks a little confused so I go over to join him. I lean over a little to show him what to do on his screen. As I get closer, I can't help but recognize what I smelled earlier today.
"You can. Do you see the little arrow pointing to the left in the top left corner? Clicking that will take you to the page you were just on. If you had clicked the left button but wanted to go back to your most recent page, you can click the one pointing to the right. Think of it like a line; your oldest pages at the beginning, and your most recent pages at the end. If you want to open something on a separate page, click the link with both fingers on the trackpad. A list will appear just under and you can click the one called 'open link in new tab'. Make sure it's 'tab', not 'window'. If you want to open an empty tab and search something new, see the small parallelogram next to the long trapezoid at the top of the screen? Click that."
He follows along with my instructions and I can see he's getting the hang of this. His fingers move more decisively than before and I can tell he's very engrossed in what he's doing.
"Okay, Granger, I don't need any more help."
He doesn't look up and I can't help but smile a little. His attitude is so different from how it normally is and it makes me very happy.
"Well, I'll stay over on the other side to finish my homework, just in case you have any other questions," I say.
To my disappointment, Malfoy doesn't ask for any more help and finishes the sheet after an hour. In the meantime, I finish writing my essay and edit it before going upstairs to bed.
Just before I leave, I say goodnight as he packs up his equipment.
"Hey Malfoy, I'm going to bed now, see you tomorrow morning."
I brush my teeth and change into my pyjamas, before settling down, my music set up to play quietly next to me. Today was kind of nice, even if it was a little awkward. I'm glad that I was able to help Malfoy and that he wasn't quite so rude. Perhaps this year won't be so lonely after all.
Author's Note: Draco's birthday was sourced from his Wikipedia page if anyone is interested. For the emails, I had to put extra spaces in between them and add 'at' in place of the usual icon as Fanfiction doesn't let me put URLs or emails in the story. Please read and review, feedback and comments are always welcome. Thanks, and see you next time!