Chapter 5
Potions
Hermione
It was Monday. The weekend was over, and I had just finished breakfast. I was on my way to my first class of the week--potions. Usually I would walk down there with Ron and Harry but they are walking their girlfriends to the sixth years first class. This means they will be late, again.
I walked down the steps and entered the dungeon. As usual, the dungeon was not very welcoming. With it's stone floor and walls. Not to mention the Slytherins waiting for the class to begin. I walked over to a caldron the back of the room, opened my Potions book, and began to study.
When Snape came in, the class started. It went on eventful until Harry and Ron came in late and got detention. Near the middle of class Goyle and Crabbe walked across the room and casually dropped two handfuls of spider legs into Neville's caldron. This would make the entire potion go wrong. They had done this prank about six times this year. Didn't they ever do something new. As I was leaving the dungeon to go to Transfiguration, I noticed that Draco was inching toward me, through the crowd. He looked like he was trying to be discreet about it, but it wasn't working very well.
"What are you doing?" I asked when he got close enough.
"Trying to tell you to meet me in front of Green House 4 after classes today, so we can study."
"Will you actually listen me this time?"
"Sorry, I had a lot of other stuff on my mind then."
"Hmm. Well, okay. See you there." Draco walked away without saying good bye. Figures, I thought. Its not like he'd be polite or anything.
Chapter 6
The First Conversation
Draco
I made my way out to the greenhouses to meet Hermione. We were having another tutoring session. This time I was determined to pay attention. I really need to do well in Herbology. How else can I impress my father enough to become a Death Eater?
I was now at the Greenhouse 4. Hermione was waiting for me outside of it. "Come on. Let's get to work," she said, turning around.
"Alright," I replied.
We worked and worked and worked. It was difficult but I understood most of it. Hermione still said I had a way to go before I would be ready for the NEWTs.
"I wish I knew all this stuff. It just does not come easily to me like it does for you," I said.
"I wish I could fly and play Quidditch like you do," she remarked back.
"It is not hard," I said.
"Neither is this, you just have to concentrate," she replied.
"When will I ever need to know all of this plant stuff? I will have servants to do it for me," I asked.
"When you are lost alone in the jungle and all your servants have died and your wand is broken and you need a plant to heal you cut, where will you look for the plant?" When she asked me, she looked up from her work and starred at me expectantly for my answer.
"There aren't any jungles in England," I commented.
"Aren't you going to travel?" she interrogated.
"My father always says, 'Why would I want to travel? Everything I need is right here,'" I replied.
"You don't have to do things just because your father does you know," she said.
"I know," I replied. "But my father is rich and respected. He got where he is from thinking what thinks."
"You're right," she said. "You're father has a mansion, he is rich, respected and feared by all the fellow Death Eaters, but I seriously doubt that he has ever had fun or been in love at all."
"He loves my mother."
"From what I know about him, he probably considers your mother either a prize or property."
"You have no right to talk about my family that way!"
"How is it any different then they way you talk about my, Ron's, or Harry's families?"
"Potter doesn't have a family."
"That doesn't stop you from commenting about his lack of family."
"You're pretty defensive about two people who hardly notice you're alive, aren't you? They're too busy with their girlfriends to talk to you, aren't they? Think nobody's noticed that you always walk into classes alone these days, do you? When Weasley and Potter are late, you're always there. I guess the Three Musketeers have broken up." I had been looking at my work when I said this. I glanced up to see what Granger's reaction would be.
Tears were streaming down her face. I know I'd made people cry before, but never Granger. Something about her crying made me feel like such an evil person. Tears still flowing from her eyes, she closed her book and began to exit the green house.
"Oh, God! Hermione, I'm sorry." I said running after her, and grabbing her arm to stop her.
"It doesn't matter, just let me go. I want to be alone."
"No. You- I mean- we're not done with the tutoring lesson."
"Right, the lesson." The tears had stopped flowing, but her eyes were still red. She had always seemed so strong before, even when I called her a mudblood, she still kept her cool and thought of something just as cruel, if not crueler, to say back. The lesson went pretty smoothly after that. We only talked about stuff that had to do with Herbology.
At the end of the lesson Hermione and I walked back to the castle together. We were at the doors when she stopped suddenly and said "Draco."
"Yeah?" I asked.
"When I was crying, you called me Hermione," she said.
"And you just called me Draco," I pointed out. "What does this mean?"
"I guess this means we're not enemies anymore." She turned and walked away.
We weren't enemies anymore. We have been enemies for more then six years. The amazing thing was I was happy that we weren't enemies!
Chapter 7
Questions
Hermione
I let Malfoy see me cry. What is my problem? He's said so many things that have hurt me before, why did that suddenly make me show so much emotion. When I called him Draco, it seemed so natural I didn't even think about it. What is wrong with me?
After I entered the common room I looked for Harry and Ron again and not to my surprise they were with Ginny and Julia. I did not even try to be part of their group; it was pointless. So I just went upstairs to go to sleep.
But I could not sleep. Something was bugging me. It had been since I left Draco. If we were not enemies were we friends? Did I even want to be friends with him? How would Ron and Harry take it if we were? And more importantly did Draco want to be friends?
Chapter 8
Eggs?
Draco
"Do you want the eggs, Draco," asked Crabbe.
"No," I replied.
"How's about some bacon?"
"No."
"Sausage?"
"No."
"Pancakes? You gotta want some pancakes. They DA bomb!"
"No."
"Milk?"
"Sure, why not?"
I was at the breakfast table on Tuesday morning waiting for our first class, Care for Magical Creatures. Usually, I hate this class but I was looking forward to it because I could see Hermione and see if we could meet later today for tutoring.
I was not an enemy to Hermione. I replayed that sentence over and over in my mind. Just thinking about it made me happy. But why? This is the goody goody mudblood girl that always got the answer right, and that is it. Or at least that was what I thought until she started to tutor me. I found out she has her faults. The amazing thing was she was willing to admit them. She also she defended her friends despite the fact that they have been ignoring her. All that adds up to good character.
But I was confused about one thing: If we were not enemies were we friends? At first the idea of being friends with Hermione made me feel great but then I came to my senses. I could NOT be friends with her. She is a muggleborn. I can not be my Dad's right hand man if I was friends with a muggleborn. And I don't even like good character. What was I thinking?
Oh, my god. Did I just say muggleborn? What's wrong with me? Mudblood, mudblood, mudblood! That's better. I turned back to my milk. Best tasting milk I've had in a while. Yummy!
It is okay that we are not enemies but we are not and will never be friends. Studying was helping me get better but I needed another strategy if I wanted to do better then Potter. And lucky for me his best friend happens to be my tutor.
Chapter 9
The Volcano (metaphorically speaking, of course)
Hermione
The Jupiter Robin Traps were being hungry. When they are hungry, they don't do much. They just sit and wait for some robins. While they were doing that Draco and I just had to sit around until they could do something of interest again.
He opened the conversation with "So how are you doing on your NEWTs?" This was all very well for I was extremely bored.
"I am doing quite well, thank you. A little to well though with all my free time."
"Weasley and Potter doing well?"
"Probably not. They haven't been thinking about schoolwork lately." A smile spread over Draco's face. I wonder why.
"And they're ignoring their smart friend," he commented.
"I'm not that smart," I insisted, "Besides, Harry and Ron are perfectly able to study by themselves."
"Unlike me," he said, "I need you to help me."
"Alright then, let's get to work." The Jupiter Robin Traps had stopped feeding and were ready to be pruned. So that's what we did, we pruned them right past supper and had a great time talking. We talked about the comparison of muggle life to wizard life. He made me laugh and then he joined me. It felt good to laugh like that with him.
Our lesson ended around 8:30. We walked up to the castle together.
"Tell me the truth," he said, "Have you, Harry and Ron ever broken a rule?"
Normally, I would have lied and said, no. But something about his face made me want to tell the truth so I did.
"Well, in first year we got out of bed in the middle of the night" I confessed "We went to have a midnight duel with you. Do you remember?"
"Yeah, I think so," he said, "But I did not go. Instead I told Filch. I remember when you didn't get caught, I could hardly believe it!"
"We had a hard time getting away," I informed, "I remember running away. We ran all the way to the third floor corridor, which was forbidden at that time. But we did not notice so we ran into a room and saw, Fluffy."
"Fluffy? Whose that?" He asked looking bewildered.
Soon I was explaining the whole story of how Harry, Ron, and I had found out about and helped protect the Sorcerers Stone. For nearly a half-hour we sat on the steps of the entrance hall talking.
"Wow," he said when I had finished, "did anything exciting happen in the second year?"
Soon I was of again describing how we caught the heir of Slytherin. When I told him about the Polyjuice Potion he said rather loudly, "I can't believe it! That was Harry and Ron!"
Once he calmed down I continued the story. When I was done it was about 10:30, way after hours. If Draco and I didn't want detention we would have to walk very quietly to our houses.
"Wow," Draco said again, "It is past 10:00! We've got to get to our houses
"I know!" I replied.
So we stood up and walked quietly inside. We walked together silently until we came to the place where we would go our separate ways.
"Good bye, Hermione," he said quietly.
"Let's have another lesson tomorrow," I answered.
"Great," he replied.
Then he turned and left.
I walked toward the fat ladies portrait. I was walking silently when I heard a loud BANG.
"Ron!" somebody whispered loudly. The voice came from right around the corner, and I recognized it. The voice belonged to Harry. I started walking towards them when Harry whispered again "Ron, hurry, under the cloak. Someone's coming!"
As I turned the corner I did not see any body. But I knew where they were. "It's alright you guys," I said, "It's only me."
Suddenly I saw Ron and Harry appear from under the cloak. "There you are!" Harry said, "Ron and I came out to find you, We had not seen you since four. Where were you? Didn't you have supper?"
"I was at my tutoring session," I answered, "and no, I was not hungry."
"Hermione it is after 10!" Ron commented, "You must have noticed that."
"No," I said, "I lost track of time he and I were talking."
"Hermione we were worried about you," Harry said.
"You were worried about me!" I said rather loudly, "All this year you both have been totally ignoring me. It is our last year of Hogwarts I thought that we might spend some time together. But no, you two have been spending all you're time with your girlfriends, and completely forgot about me. You say you came to look for me but did you really notice I was gone. Lavender or Parvati probably told you I wasn't there. Well that's fine. If you two don't want to talk to me anymore then I won't talk to you."
It was as if all of the anger and frustration over them ignoring me had erupted like a volcano. Boom! I was so upset that I just stormed of. My only real friend is Draco; at least he listens to me and talks to me.
Chapter 10
Trouble!
Harry
Ron and I stood there dumbstruck for a minute. We had not realized that we had been ignoring Hermione. We just wanted to spend time with our girlfriends. She seemed so angry.
I wonder whom she was tutoring. They can't be in Gryffindor because they would have been up here two. Maybe it was someone from Hufflepuff.
"Do you think we should tell her that Lavender and Parvati did tell us she was missing?"
"Somehow, I don't think that's a very good idea. I've never seen Hermione that angry, have you?"
"No. How long has it been since we've had a real conversation with her? I talked to her on Monday night, but not since then."
"I think I talked to her on last Friday." We were so into feeling sorry about ignoring Hermione, that we didn't see the cat walk up across the corridor, and we didn't here the footsteps, or the raspy breathing until it was two late.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" said Filch, very slowly.