Ch. 5
In the morning she woke him up by knocking on his door.
"Who," he began when he saw Hermione, "of course, Granger, do you know what time it is?" He rubbed his eyes.
"Yes, but we have to wake up early today, it's the first lesson of the school year!" She possessed an enthusiasm that he just didn't share.
"Can't you go wake someone else up?" he said with an irritated tone.
"I want to go down to breakfast now so I can get schedules laid out and conference with students as they enter the great hall." She was not relenting.
"Seriously?" He couldn't believe this.
"I'm just going to head out and meet you there," she said impatiently.
He knew that would draw attention from McGonigal that he didn't need. "Just give me a few minutes!" he snapped at her and shut his door.
She paced around outside of his room until he was ready to go.
He came out a few minutes later looking surlier than usual. Hermione didn't care to speak to him, she just wanted to make it to the great hall.
Once they got there the great hall was empty.
"The house elves probably haven't even woken up to prepare breakfast yet. Next time I'm not leaving this early!" he half shouted.
"It was only for the first day," she reassured and she sorted out the schedules for her students alphabetically. It made her happy to see she had gotten under his skin after the 'I told you so' he had delivered to her the evening before.
"What are you doing now?" He was irritable as he watched her moving small pieces of paper around.
"Sorting the schedules. Aren't you going to do that too? You want to be prepared…" She said in her know it all voice and raised her eyebrows at him.
"Granger you're driving me crazy and I'm pretty close to never talking to you again." He said sarcastically.
She was getting used to his sense of humor even though it didn't make her laugh.
"I think I can manage," she replied with a half smile as he pulled out his schedules and started alphabetizing them as well. He had nothing better to do.
Slowly, students filed in and Hermione managed to speak with everyone from her house over breakfast and pass out their schedule. By the time lessons started she had a free period in her classroom. She took the time to rehearse her first lesson and read the chapter she was assigning for homework for the 50th time.
Her first lesson was good, but it made her feel a bit jumbled to bounce back and forth between different lessons and books for the other years of students. One hour she was teaching to first years, the second lesson she might be teaching 7th years advanced transfiguration. She had five periods to teach in a day, all one hour each. At the end of the day she felt like she was going to crash from exhaustion.
She went to the great hall for dinner and didn't see Malfoy, so she made her way down to the dungeons to find him. When she approached his classroom he hadn't noticed her and was writing down some notes. He was pensive and seemed to be writing furiously. All of a sudden he became aware that he was being watched and looked up.
"Sorry to disturb you…" she quickly added "Professor." The last part caught him off guard. He looked the part so she couldn't help but address him that way, but she didn't want the appearance of respect to go to his head.
"Come in, I'm just finishing a note and then we can be off."
She stepped inside and walked around the classroom, noticing the items he had displayed and noticing too that the dungeon seemed a bit brighter than when Snape taught down here. He set his quill down and stood up.
"Ready?" He waited for her to join him before closing the door. She couldn't imagine what could have brought on this semi polite behavior, but it was a nice change.
The next few weeks went by in a blur. Malfoy had heard about Granger's actual speech to her class and had brought it up often. When she asked him questions or approached him, he would usually utter "not going to give me detention, are you Granger?"
Although they were able to be civil towards each other, they still were not friends. They were careful not to share any personal information and not talk more than necessary during meal times.
Then, something had happened that he hadn't expected at all. He had a Gryffindor student, Travis Bones, in his class that was causing trouble for one of his Slytherin students. The boy, who was pure blood, had been terrible to a girl student from his house. He heard the boy call her a mud blood in the middle of class and he got extremely defensive. He could see the effect Travis's words had on the poor Syltherin student who was close to tears.
"Mr. Bones, one month's detention!" he yelled towards the student while class was still going on. "If I hear language like that again you will go straight to the headmistress, do you understand?"
News of the detention had naturally spread all over the school, although the cause of the detention was a mystery. A few hours later at dinner, Hermione was asking him what had started it all.
"I'd rather not discuss it just now Granger." He replied curtly.
"He is in my house, Malfoy…" She continued.
"And took an action against someone in my house," he hissed at her. He decided he was done with dinner and got up to leave.
Hermione was still eating but called to him in a loud whisper, "Malfoy!" before she saw other students looking her way. She grabbed a few rolls and joined him since they were supposed to leave the hall together.
When she caught up to him she didn't talk, he was obviously enraged. She couldn't understand how asking him about his punishment of her student would cause him to be so angry. Did he feel he was above reproach? She started to feel a little huffy herself as she continued to walk with him.
When he got to the portrait she said the password rather loudly before he could utter it "Chocolate Cauldrons!"
"Shout it why don't you!" He said as he motioned for her to pass first.
She gave him a glare as she went first.
There were teachers already out in the common area by the fire so he couldn't talk to her in the open. He debated asking her to come into his room, but thought that might be awkward. He looked over at Hermione who had her arms crossed and eyes staring daggers at him. He didn't think he was ready to talk about it, least of all to her. She saw a sorrowful look on his face, the same one she saw on him before when she exploded at him about the war.
She dropped her stance and went to her front door and opened it. "Do you want to talk?" she asked. He looked up and down the hall to make sure no one would see him, he didn't want people to make idle talk about him and Granger.
He nodded his head and headed into her quarters. Her place looked very different from his in color, the walls were a warm red and so was the couch and she had a white carpet that made the whole place feel warm and cozy. Her fire was going and she bent down to put a log on the fire so that it didn't go out.
"I'll put on some tea," she said, wondering if this was going to be a short visit. "Please, feel free to take a seat." She tried to add respectfully. It felt weird to have Draco in her place.
He felt awkward coming into her place like this, but it donned on him that it would be easier to leave when he was done talking to her, versus trying to get her to leave his place. "I won't stay long," he thought.
Hermione brought out some tea and set it on a tray. It was a lavender black tea that he had never had before and he almost choked on his first taste.
"Is it too strong? Do you need some sugar?" Hermione offered.
"No," he said as he finished coughing. "I just wasn't expecting the lavender, it is pretty good." He set his cup down, he didn't want a social visit with Granger. Likewise, she didn't want one either.
She didn't push conversation and just waited for him to bring up the subject with her. He knew what she wanted to talk about. She resolved to sit in silence until he was ready. It was a little odd having him in her living room. She noticed he didn't look mad anymore.
After a few quiet minutes of sipping tea and staring at the fire, Draco realized that Hermione wasn't going to talk first, so he began.
"So, Mr. Bone's detention," he began.
Hermione just nodded her head, waiting.
"In class today, he called one of my Slytherin students a… derogatory name."
"I see, name calling has become a capital offense?" She had come to terms early on that Travis was going to be a trouble maker but she only punished him if he was truly out of line.
"Some names, yes…" He didn't want to tell her, or relive the times he had called her the same thing. This was one of those times where saying it to anyone else might not be that big of a problem, but why did it have to be Hermione of all people?
"What could he have possibly have said…" she started when he stood up, angry again.
"Why don't you ask him?" he said as he moved towards the door.
"Malfoy! What is your problem? One moment you're mad, the next you're not, you won't even look at me…" He hadn't yet reached the door handle but his hand was extended. He turned back towards her.
"I'm mad because I told you I didn't want to talk about it and you kept pushing me Granger!" he yelled at her. "That's all you do is push, all the time. Do you even know how hard it is for me to try to work with you?" He regretted how the words came out the instant he said them.
Hermione was taken aback, but a cold look had settled on her face.
"I'm sorry I 'pushed you' to have conversation like a human being. Don't worry, it won't happen again." She turned her back on him as she set her tea cup down rather roughly in the saucer.
He wanted to tell her, he had planned to tell her what Travis had said to his student, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He was being a coward. He had said mud blood in front of Granger plenty of times, but when he needed to do it to talk about someone else, he couldn't do it.
"That wasn't what I meant," he began and Hermione turned to face him again, glaring. "You did push me, but…" he tried to start.
"I'll see you for breakfast," she said coldly.
He took the hint and headed out of her room and caught Neville passing just as he closed her door. Neville gave him an odd look as Malfoy did another curt nod and headed across the hall to his own place.
How could he tell her that the hardest part about working with her was not her, but him changing who he had been. He didn't know if he enjoyed her company or not, but he knew it did bother him that he was the source of her pain at the moment. He thought about his words over and over again, and how he would have felt if she had said that to him. They had both agreed to try to work together and it hadn't been easy, but they were getting along. He didn't know what he could do to make it better, if anything.
After sitting by the fire and finishing her cup of tea, she decided to pay a visit to Travis to find out what had happened that Malfoy couldn't tell her about.
She went to the portrait in her bedroom and paged one of her prefects. The Gryffindor girl prefect Janet answered her call.
"Hi Professor Granger," she said when she saw Hermione.
"Hi Janet, I'd like you to bring Mr. Bones down to see me in the transfiguration classroom as soon as possible."
"Yes professor." Janet returned as she left.
Hermione headed out to her classroom and had arrived just as Janet and Travis did.
"Thank you, Janet," she said in a friendly voice as the girl turned to leave.
"Please come in and have a seat Mr. Bones." Hermione motioned for Travis to enter.
As he entered he took a seat right across from Hermione.
"I asked you here tonight to talk about your detention with Professor Malfoy." She began.
"Yeah, Malfoy gave me detention, for a whole month!" he complained.
"That's Professor Malfoy, Mr. Bones. You may not like your professor, but you will address him respectfully. Understand?" She added in a severe tone.
He nodded his head while giving her a glowering look.
"Can you tell me why he gave you such a severe detention?" She asked again.
Travis didn't know much history about his new teacher and wasn't aware that she was a muggle born.
"I called a Slytherin girl a mud blood, but she is professor!" he tried to defend himself.
Hermione was totally taken aback. She didn't understand why Malfoy couldn't tell her what Travis had done, he himself had called Hermione that several times when they went to school together, and he never even got punished for it. Still, it didn't excuse him saying how hard it was to work with her. She had tried too, and it wasn't from lack of effort that she was able to keep a civil tone with him. She thought they were getting along just fine and his comment cut her deeper than expected.
She also wasn't sure how to deal with Travis, but felt she needed to make something clear to him.
"Why would you ever use a term like that?" she asked in a disgusted tone.
"Because she's a muggle in our school. It's not like she'll be talented enough to compete with real wizards and witches, everyone says so." He pointed out to her.
"So you bullied her because she is muggle born?" she tried to clarify.
"I guess…" he seemed unapologetic as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Does your family believe that way as well?" Hermione would never have expected that Susan Bones would have believed that way. She was trying to gauge where this was coming from.
"No, they love muggles." He returned.
"Mr. Bones, you may not acknowledge a muggle born as your equal, but you will show them respect while attending this school, or I will personally see to it that you are expelled. I have no tolerance for discrimination. You will apologize to the girl tomorrow at breakfast, and I'll be watching and shall know if it appears genuine. Tonight, I will be writing to your family about your behavior." She finished in a severe tone.
The look on his face told her he thought the punishment was severe.
"Oh, you think I'm being unfair…" she offered. She normally didn't have to ask this question because he usually protested any punishments that she gave him.
"I don't see why this would matter much to you, especially since PROFESSOR Malfoy has already punished me." He said professor in the rudest way possible.
"Because I'm your head of house and your punishments ultimately rest with me. Seriously Mr. Bones, you usually seem well informed, but it's strange that you overlooked that your own head of house is a muggle born witch." She gave him a disappointed look.
"You? You are? But, you…" he was having trouble accepting what she had just told him.
"Good night Mr. Bones, I shall see you at breakfast tomorrow." She let him know the conversation had ended.
He got up to leave and she stayed behind to think about their conversation, and her argument with Malfoy. She wondered how long she could be cold to Draco before McGonigal gave her the same speech that she just gave to Travis. Then she wondered if she should act like what Malfoy said tonight hadn't happened and just get the school year over with. Then she wouldn't have to worry about her job or working with him for the following year. She wondered if they would even talk if McGonigal didn't make them work together and highly doubted they would.
She headed back to the teacher's quarters and saw Malfoy reading by the fire. He heard her approach and got up and started to come over to her. She pretended she hadn't seen him and was trying to get into her door before he could get over to her. He ran to catch up with her as she tried to close the door.
"Can I come in?" he asked.
For the second time that night she held her door open for him. She sighed as she let him in, disappointed that she didn't get the door closed fast enough.
"I'm headed off to bed Malfoy," she said, letting him know to make it quick.
"Of course," he replied. He appeared to struggle with his next words. She didn't offer for him to sit down and he stood in her doorway as he closed the door behind himself.
"I was rude earlier Granger," He began.
"Don't worry about it," She said in an irritated tone. "You were being honest. Plus you won't have to work with me that much longer, we've come this far, I think we can get through the year." She said coldly.
"I wanted…" he tried to start again
"Anyways," she said as she rudely cut him off. "I spoke to Travis this evening," she let the last hang in the air.
His eyebrows raised. "And," he pushed.
"And I believe you've dealt with the issue!" She said, starting to feel angry that after all the talk that she was pushing him, he was now pushing back on her. It felt hypocritical.
"I'll just head out…" he reached out for the door handle.
Her emotions began bubbling up and she spoke what was really on her mind. "I thought we were working well together" she whispered in a sad voice.
He turned back around and looked at her squarely for the first time that day.
"We are…" he faltered. "What I said came out all wrong. It can be hard, working together," he explained, "but it has forced me to change how I think about things." He added genuinely.
He walked further in and sat on her couch. He motioned for her to come join him. "I won't stay long," he promised. He felt like coming in like that took some actual nerve on his part after how he had behaved earlier. But he had something else he needed to say to her.
She walked over to the couch, and with a huff she flopped down on the opposite side of the couch.
"I'm sorry if what I said hurt you Granger," he whispered.
She had never gotten an actual apology from him before and wasn't sure what to do with it. "Could he really be apologizing?" she thought as she just stared at him in shock.
"What?" he asked in an uncertain tone.
"I feel like I've seen a very different side of you since being here, but sometimes, I can see it still bothers you to be around me, whether it's because I'm me or because I'm a muggle, that's what I'm not sure about." Now she was the one with an uncertain tone.
"Would it make a difference if either of those things bothered me?" He wasn't sure why how he felt would matter to her. "Why care how I feel?" He asked matter of factly.
"I can ask you the same question, can't I?" She remembered he did come over to apologize.
He considered her point for a moment before answering. "I don't care that you're muggle born, I used to, but that's not who I am anymore."
She gave him a serious look and raised her eyebrows at him, as if to say, 'yeah right.'
"Seriously," He replied to her look and wanted to explain. "When I heard what Bones said to my student, I felt like I was back there. I saw the look on her face, and remembered the terrible things I had said…to you..." He felt awkward now.
Her eyes got wide and then she spoke again.
"Malfoy…I think…we might be becoming…friends…"
They looked at one another in surprise, knowing that what she said seemed to be true. Both of them made an uncomfortable face and he stood up from the couch. "I thought you said you were going to bed?" he offered feeling awkward.
"Oh, right, I'll see you tomorrow," she said as she stood up too.
"I can let myself out," he walked to the door and left. He was glad the interaction was over. What Hermione said was just a little too much for him to take.
Hermione was also relieved, she regretted saying what she did as soon as she said it, however true it might be.