Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter book series or movie adaptations.
Chapter Two: Returned
1 September 1998
The next time that Hermione makes eye contact with Draco Malfoy is at the feast on their first day back at Hogwarts.
Harry and Ron opted out of their eighth year, deciding instead to follow careers in the Auror department. Job offers had come flooding in to each of the three of them following the end of the war, and the fact that the Ministry was being rebuilt from scratch meant that every department was open and happy to hire one of the saviors of the Wizarding World. Hermione, on the other hand, had decided that she wanted to finish her education and get a job the proper way.
That was how, on the first night in September, Hermione finds herself picking at her food in the Great Hall, sandwiched between Ginny and Luna. Her eyes wander the Hall, taking note of those that have returned - and those that have not.
For the Gryffindors, of course, it's easy. Lavender isn't here - an image of blonde hair matted with blood, vacant blue eyes staring straight up - and neither is Parvati or their other roommate, Eloise Midgeon. None of the boys opted to return either, of course. Last she'd heard, Seamus and Dean had moved to a flat in muggle London, and Neville was taking a year off before deciding what to do.
Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Zacharias Smith from Hufflepuff are all absent, though Wayne Hopkins, Susan Bones, and Megan Jones are all sitting spread out at their House table. Hannah Abbott, Hermione happens to know, had inherited the Leaky Cauldron after the war and was working as innkeeper there instead of returning.
The Ravenclaws had managed to retain all of the students from Hermione's year, and Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Terry Boot, Kevin Entwhistle, Stephen Cornfoot, Padma Patil, Mandy Brocklehurst, Su Li, Lisa Turpin, and Morag Macdougal are all seated in a big cluster at the end of their table.
In lieu of Azkaban, any Death Eater who had been a minor when Voldemort regained power was given the option to a sort of "parole" - go to Hogwarts for Eighth Year, take Muggle Studies as an elective during that year, and regularly check in with a parole officer, and they would be pardoned upon graduation. Hermione knows, thusly, that Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, and Theodore Nott will all be present at the Slytherin table. Upon further inspection, she notices Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, and Daphne Greengrass as well.
She's just about to pull her eyes back to her plate when she sees him.
Grey eyes all but pierce hers, and his brows furrow. She can't tell if he's confused or angry, but her eyes are glued to him for what feels like hours before Ginny pulls her attention back to her.
After the feast, McGonagall calls for all eighth years to remain in the Great Hall for further instruction. There are less than two dozen of them, and Hermione is left alone and feeling awkward at the Gryffindor table.
"As all of you may have noticed," McGonagall announces from the podium, "The castle looks a bit different this year." A picture pops into Hermmione's head unbidden, the castle in shambles and lit by green. "We, meaning the remaining staff and those who helped us put the castle back together after the war, felt that it would have been painful for some of those who fought here to come back to a castle that looks much the same. In the spirit of that, not only have there been some minor changes to the grounds themselves, but there is also one major change this year.
"Eighth years will not be housed in their normal dorm rooms this year. Rather, in the interest of mending relationships and rehabilitating all who suffered under the reign of Voldemort," a muffled gasp comes up from every corner of the room, "You will all have a separate set of rooms specifically for your year." A murmur of disapproval echoes through the room before it's silenced by a pointed glare from their Headmistress. "If you will follow me," she says with an air of finality, "I will lead you to it."
As it turns out, the eighth years' new common room is located in almost the exact same spot as the Room of Requirement used to be. McGonagall explains that the Room was destroyed at some point during the Battle of Hogwarts, and the intense magic needed in order to recreate it was past the knowledge base of any of the construction wizards that had attempted it.
The common room, much like the Room of Requirement, has no visible door. Unlike the Room, however, the door appears as soon as the password ("knocking kneazles") is said, and what is on the other side won't change. Inside, there's a large sitting room with a roaring fire, two brown sofas, a brown armchair, and a large coffee table. There are bookshelves built into one wall, lined with books that are probably older than Hermione's great grandparents. On the wall above the fireplace are flags for each of the four Houses. There's a door on that wall that McGonagall specifies is a private bathroom for the eighth years' use.
On the far wall, across from the door, there are two staircases. McGonagall explains that, just like in the normal common rooms, one leads to the boys' dorms and one to the girls'. She doesn't specify whether the stairs of the girls' dorms turn into a slide when a girl steps on, and nobody asks. What she does specify, however, is that since there are only ten girls and twelve boys, the girls' rooms will be divided into two rooms of five and the boys' will be divided into two rooms of six.
The eighth years move through the common room quietly for the most part, even after McGonagall leaves, and each of them go upstairs. The doors are labeled, and the door that Hermione finds her name on almost makes her roll her eyes.
Susan Bones
Hermione Granger
Daphne Greengrass
Padma Patil
Pansy Parkinson
McGonagall, apparently, had decided that she was going to take the inter-house unity idea as far as she could.
Hermione sighs as she steps into her new room. Whatever, she thinks. If I can survive Bellatrix Lestrange, I can survive Pansy Bleeding Parkinson.
The next morning, when the bed next to Hermione's creaks before the sun has even woken up, Hermione rethinks that sentiment. Her four-poster happens to be directly next to Pansy's, by some stroke of luck, and the Slytherin girl is apparently not a quiet morning person.
Within moments, two pairs of footsteps echo throughout the room, and Hermione thinks that there's no way that Pansy or (who she assumes to be) Daphne are even attempting to let the other girls sleep. A groan resounds from the other side of the room, and Hermione doesn't know if it makes her feel better or worse that she isn't the only one that's been disturbed.
Hermione reluctantly opens her curtains when, after ten minutes of the two girls all but stomping around, she hasn't managed to get back to sleep. When she peeks through them, she notices the way the room is completely lit, every lantern flaming. She sets her lips in a hard line.
"I don't suppose that it bothers either one of you that you've woken the whole castle," she says in a groggy but annoyed voice.
Pansy looks over her shoulder from where she's sitting at a vanity and sneers. "No," she says. "It truly doesn't."
Anger floods through Hermione, but she refuses to start their first day of classes with a fight in the dorm room. "You're all to be on your best behavior," McGonagall had said with finality before leaving the dorm last night, her eyes focusing on Hermione in particular for a long moment.
Taking a deep breath and resigning herself to getting up, Hermione reaches for her trunk and draws out her school uniform, leaving the dorm and going toward the girls' bathroom in the common room. The door is wide open when she gets there, luckily, so she dips directly into the room, beelining for the shower.
The shower is too warm when she steps into it. Ironically, one of the things that she'd found nearly impossible to become accustomed to again after her year on the run was hot water. Her skin had become too sensitive to it after nearly a full year of freezing aguamenti charms and baths in freezing rivers, even with the benefit of the occasional heating charm. Room-temperature is the best that she can handle at this point.
Hermione's shower is quick and thorough (a habit that she'd had long before her ill-fated seventh year), and within ten minutes she's done and dressed, a quick drying spell doing what would have taken her hair over an hour to do by itself. She steps back out into the common room with her uniform skirt and button-down shirt both perfectly done up and according to code, her long, thick curls pulled back into a low ponytail. For a moment, she almost feels some semblance of how she felt on her first day in classes during her first year.
"Really, Granger, how is it that you manage to make a schoolgirl outfit look completely sexless?"
She could've rolled her eyes. Just like first year, she thought, Including the mean girls.
"First of all," Hermione says, "Some of us don't need to rely on our looks. Second of all, the idea that grown adults find outfits that children wear to be attractive in the first place is kind of disgusting. If I wanted your help, Daphne, I would ask for it."
She turns to face the other girl, who stands with her hands on her hips, her skirt hiked halfway up her thighs and her shirt unbuttoned enough to show cleavage, her uniform tie loose and askew. Her long hair falls in free waves and her makeup looks like it's been done professionally. She opens her painted mouth as though to say something before being interrupted by a loud guffaw from behind her.
Both girls look at the source of the sound to find Anthony Goldstein, his arms crossed in front of him and an amused smile on his face. "Sorry about that," he says when their attention shifts to him, looking down at the floor with a small flush, "Couldn't help but overhearing, and Hermione happens to be right." He shuffles away, and Daphne lets out a little annoyed sound and glares at Hermione before walking away.
The brunette breathes a sigh of relief. One morning down.
Classes that day start and Hermione is happy to find that seventh- and eighth-years are still taking the same classes, with eighth years attending whichever block their former housemates have, so she wasn't to be stuck with her new roommates all day. In fact, she avoids having to look at a Slytherin at all until that night, after dinner.
She's walking back toward the eighth year dorm (quite late in fact, as Ginny had wanted to talk for quite a while) when suddenly she suddenly hears a growl from behind, surprising her, and immediately turns around, wand drawn.
She's almost unsurprised to find Malfoy standing there, looking annoyedly at her from about two meters. The fact that she's alone in a dark corridor with a man who's played a supporting role in several of her recent nightmares does not escape her, and she doesn't drop her wand fully for a moment.
"What are you doing sneaking up on people?" Her voice comes out in a hiss, sharp and clear and echoing throughout the hall. Even now she can feel her magic reaching forward toward him. "Bloody warn someone if you're going to be right behind them–"
Malfoy growls, low and animalistic and angry. "I'm not doing anything, you stupid bint." The words have no effect on Hermione, but for some reason the blond seems to recoil for a moment at his own insult. Malfoy breathes deeply and when he speaks again, his voice is more contained. "I'm sorry for scaring you."
The brunette frowns. "You're sorry?"
Malfoy laughs sardonically. "Yes," he says. "I am. Almost funny, isn't it?"
Hermione is thoroughly confused now, her wand fully lowered to her side as she cocks her head at the blond. "Funny isn't the word I'd use, but I appreciate your apology, however surprising."
Malfoy's expression changes until it's unreadable. "Whatever," he says. She's trying desperately to find something to break the awkward silence that ensues, but then she blinks and he's gone. She's left, alone in the corridor and grasping for an explanation, for almost a full minute before she resumes her trek to the dorm room.