Ch 4: Studying For Your N.E.W.T.s
"You reckon Miss Delacour will give us hard exams? I don't think she will, with her being new and all," said Ron as he, Hermione, and Harry walked out of Transfiguration class. Ron had been very uptight ever since he had figured out that Fleur Delacour was to be their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and he had acted very strangely in front of her, too. Ron would always come out of her class looking dazed
"Ron, why do you like her, anyway?" Hermione asked as they walked down the Defence Against the Dark Arts corridor. "She's not even pretty."
"Who are you to judge, Granger?" a voice sneered from behind the trio. "You aren't necessarily, pretty, yourself, with hair like that…can't even see your face from behind that mane!"
"Shut up, Malfoy," said Ron, plunging his hand down his robes and pulling out his wand. He stepped forward.
Hermione grabbed the back of Ron's robes.
"It's no big deal, Ron," she whispered, "let's go."
They left and headed back to the Common Room. It was a marvel to Harry how Hermione could just turn away from Malfoy like that, and not even care what he was saying about her.
"How do you do it?" Ron asked when they were all sitting by the warmly crackling fire.
"Do what?" Hermione asked, bewildered.
"Ignore Malfoy, like that!" Harry finished. "I swear, I've tried it a million times, and it just doesn't work!"
"Every time I look at him I want to smash his face in," Ron fumed. "Insulting my family the way he does! I could show him a thing or two!"
Hermione gave Ron a you-don't-need-to-get-bad-ideas look, and said, "It's not that hard to do, Ron. If that's all Malfoy has to say than why listen? He says it every time he sees you…it should be a little old by now!" She bent down and pulled her Charms book out of her schoolbag. "We need to work on the Speechlessias Charm. Get your wands out."
Harry pulled his out wand of the inside his robes and looked over to Ron, who was gripping his wand tightly in his hand.
"We haven't studied this one yet—" Ron said.
"Oh, yes we have! You two just won't ever pay attention! We studied for this at the beginning of second term, it's a silencing charm." She rolled up her sleeves importantly. "All you have to do is swish it a little like this —" she made a funny swooping motion with her wrist — "it's quite simple. You two try."
Hermione watched as the two boys tried to copy her, but ended up looking like they were swatting a rather nasty bug.
"No, no, no!" she said, annoyed. "What you have to do is supinate your wrist not your arm," she said, showing them again. "Don't attempt to do it so slowly."