A/N: Here's the third chapter, where Hermione and Draco start having to deal with being partners.
Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
Credits: See previous chapters.
Thanks too: Shadow Slytherin, Selita-Malfoy, Undercover Kitty, malfoyelf, Junsui Chikyuu and keke for reviewing the last chapter!
Chapter 3
Professor Dumbledore glanced over to Hermione who held out her black crystal with a very unsure expression on her face. She glanced over at Draco not knowing what his reaction was, though unsurprisingly his face looked very similar to Hermione's and even Harry's, they all looked like there had to be some huge mistake cause there was just no way Hermione and Draco could be a match.
"Well Mr. Malfoy would you please take a seat with Ms. Granger, your new partner for the year." Draco slowly got up still not looking pleased, Harry got up from next to Hermione and moved over to sit with Lucia. Draco dropped his stuff on the desk and plopped into his chair next to Hermione. He didn't even look over to her once he sat, though he did look at their two crystals which laid together both shining black. He shook his head slightly with a tight jaw as if he were holding back a comment of protest. Hermione looked over to Harry who looked like he didn't know what to say, everything just seemed to go from bad to horrible within a matter of seconds.
Once Dumbledore put everyone together in pairs, he returned to the front of the room.
"Now, please remember you will not learn anything in this class, until you learn things about your partner. You need to know your partners mind and your partner needs to know yours, basically this means you need to get to know each other if you don't already. Now when I say 'get to know each other' I don't mean just names and what house your in or what your grades are, you need to know what's beyond that, what's inside deep within the mind and heart of your partner. That's where the essence of pure magic is, magic that no wand can make."
Everyone was silent, some had looks on their faces of, 'you can't be serious?' others had looks of, 'I don't want to get to know them'. Draco and Hermione had both expressions on their faces.
"This leads me to your first assignment for the next month, you will get to know your partner, get to know everything about them. Write things down afterward if you wish, emotions they make you feel, anger, sadness, happiness, nervousness, frustration, anything at all. Something like journal writing. I'll explain why this is necessary perhaps next class or whenever I feel like it. Now if you think that you can just ignore your partner until the next class without me knowing, your wrong. I am the headmaster I see everything…and I'll know who's been interacting and who hasn't. I'm sure you top grade students wouldn't want point deduction."
Suddenly the bell rang and everyone rose to leave.
"Don't forget your crystals…keep them with you…do not lose them!" Dumbledore added finally as his students exited the class. He watched them file out and all he could do is watch them leave with a grin, "This should be interesting."
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Harry and Hermione met up with Ron for dinner after their Magic of the Minds class which turned out to definitely be something neither Harry or Hermione had expected. Ron saw them come in and he waved to them from his seat and the two of them walked over to him not looking in the best of moods, Ron's brows came together in confusion, "What's up guys? How'd Dumbledore's class go?" He asked, while the rest of the students were coming in for dinner.
Harry and Hermione looked at him as if they were going to beat him up for even asking.
Hermione then pulled out her black crystal from her pocket and dropped it on the table in front of Ron, "That's how great it went!"
Ron arched a brow in confusion, "What's that?"
Hermione's mean expression faded into one of despair, "The source of my misery."
Ron then glanced over at Harry who was looking at Hermione with a very understanding look, "Mind clueing me in, Harry?" Ron asked.
Harry pulled out his purple crystal from out of his robes, "These are mind crystals, they uh, well…they are able to read your mind and stuff-like-that." Harry said hesitantly not wanting to tell Ron everything.
"Is that all? Then why the faces, and the misery?" He asked glancing at Hermione questioningly.
Harry shook his head in disapproval, "We were assigned partners for the year, and these stones selected who are partners were going to be."
Rons brows shot up in surprise, "Those stones, decided? How?"
"Its complicated, but we've been given a month long assignment where we have to be around our partners as much as possible to get to know them 'better', something I don't see has anything to do with the class. When Dumbledore explained everything it all made a bit more sense."
"So who's your partner Harry?"
Suddenly Lucia and Draco walked into the Great Hall looking over at Harry and Hermione, then heading towards their Slytherin table.
"Lucia's my partner." Harry said in a low tone.
Ron's eyes went wide, "No way? That stone must really like you Harry."
Harry looked at Ron as if he was doing something disgusting, "If that's the case I don't want to think what it would do to me if it hated me."
"Who's your partner 'mione?"
"M-M-M-Ma-Mal-Mal-foy." Hermione replied obviously with much difficulty.
"No way?" Ron said, glancing at Draco who was already seated at the Slytherin table and talking with his peers.
"Is 'no way' all you can say?" Hermione asked in agitation.
Ron shrugged, "Don't think I know what else to say."
"Well can't change what has already happened. Might as well just deal with it. Maybe I'll get to see if Lucia actually smiles." Harry said trying to see the bright side of the situation.
"Well maybe I can see if there is a bigger idiot in Malfoy then he let's us see." Hermione said with a sigh.
At the Slytherin table Draco watched Ron, Harry and Hermione talking, as he watched them the moment when he found out Hermione was to be his partner replayed over and over in his mind. He didn't know what he felt really, was it really anger and annoyance? Or was it something else? Something Draco didn't even want to bother trying to figure out, why bother?
He looked over at Lucia who was listening absently to Pansy talking non-stop to her, she looked extremely annoyed yet Pansy was too thick headed to notice. He wanted to know what Lucia thought of this whole situation, about being Potter's partner and all.
Soon the staff table was full and with a clap from Dumbledore the food appeared, and they all began to eat, Draco practically ate in silence as Lucia seemed to be trying to block out the incessant chatter of Pansy.
After dinner some students went to the library while others went back to their common rooms. Draco decided to go back to his dungeon common room, he wasn't in the mood to speak to Hermione yet…not just yet.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were in the library studying when Lucia walked in obviously looking for someone. When she spotted Harry she began walking over towards him, "Hello Harry."
The three of them looked up at her, "Hello." replied Harry.
"Could I have word? In private?" she asked looking at Ron and Hermione.
"Uh, sure." Harry said getting up and following Lucia to the outside hall of the library.
She then spun around quickly stopping Harry dead in his tracks, her eyes pierced right through Harry's giving him a cold chill, "So how do you wish to go about this assignment? Arrange a day or two a week to just 'get to know each other' as Dumbledore has put it."
Harry didn't know what to say so he said the easiest thing, "Ok."
"So how about we start this tomorrow, after dinner Tuesdays and Thursdays? We sit and…talk till its time to return to our common rooms, sound good?" She asked in a rather dominant way.
"Sure, I guess…Tuesdays and Thursdays…no problem." He said nodding his head.
She arched a curious brow at him and nodded, "Alright then, see you tomorrow after dinner."
She then spun on her heels and walked away as quick as she had arrived.
Harry leaned up against the wall and let out a deep sigh, "I don't think I can take a month of this, she has looks to kill…literally."
Lucia entered the Slytherin common right after talking to Harry, she headed up the stairs towards the girls dormitories when she heard someone call her name, "Lucia, hold on."
She turned towards the voice and saw Draco walking out of his dormitory, "Yea?"
"I just wanted to ask, what you think of all this nonsense in Magic of the Minds." he asked a little uncertainly.
She sighed and looked up at him, "I think, I can live with it just fine, " she began as she studied the unreadable look in Draco's face, "though I think the bigger question here is, can you deal with what's going on?"
He looked at her not expecting her to turn the tables the way she just had, "Wh-what?"
"You heard me." She said sounding like Professor McGonagall.
He tried to say something in response along the lines of, 'you must be joking?' but nothing came out, Lucia rolled her eyes and smirked the Malfoy smirk of feeling like she knew everything, "Goodnight Draco."
Draco watched her enter her dormitory still not completely sure about what had just happened, when he then heard a familiar annoying voice call his name, "Oh Draco! Hi Draco!"
Draco turned around muttering something under his breath as he glanced at non other than Pansy Parkinson, "What do you want Parkinson?" he asked in something resembling a growl.
Pansy smirked at him, "You must be so furious having to be paired up with that nasty little know-it-all mudblood, ain't you?"
Draco narrowed his eyes at her "Actually no I'm rather relieved actually."
Pansy put on a face that was beyond confusion, "I don't understand?"
"Being paired up with the mudblood saved me having to be paired up with the likes of you!" He snarled in annoyance as he stormed off past her and slammed his dormitory door, leaving Pansy in confused tears. (A/N: Good for the little hussy! Hehe)
The next day in Magic of the Minds Professor Dumbledore was explaining the different types of horrifying effects that are a result of abusing mind power. Harry and Lucia didn't really mind being partners so much, Harry figured Lucia would take full control of the situation leaving him there to simply hear her talk about herself and that was his part of the assignment, since she seemed to be so domineering, almost like Hermione. But when she asked a question he spoke, and communication was beginning somewhat, at least it was there though, unlike couple number two Draco and Hermione who had no communication what so ever. They would look at each other out of the corners of their eyes but that was about it.
"Alright class, I want you to write down three ways you can abuse mind power and the result, hopefully if you were paying attention to my lecture than you should have no trouble with this little quiz." Dumbledore said as he started an hourglass, "You have fifteen minutes."
The silence was unbearable for Hermione, she never remembered ever having been so quiet in a class, she always had Harry and Ron to talk to, even Lavender and Neville. Apparently class with Draco Malfoy was a totally different story. As she began writing she glanced at him this time turning her head a bit, she saw him writing down his answers he was going at a rapid pace. Hermione wasn't about to let him beat her out in a quiz, she immediately got her train of thought back and went to work on her three questions. She barely noticed Draco anymore and right when she put the last dot at the end of her sentence both she and Draco had put their quills down at the same time.
Her head snapped over to face Draco, and he to had done the same.
Now for the first time their eyes had met, brown on blue-gray, fire and ice, Hermione broke the glare as she looked down at Draco's paper to find he indeed had finished the quiz with perfect penmanship just like she had. There was still ten minutes left.
"You got a head start you know." she finally said looking back at her paper.
Draco narrowed his eyes at her, "Is that so?"
"It is." she snapped back.
"Alright then, why not start at the same time, so you can watch me finish before you." He said with a gleam of eagerness in his eyes. He liked challenging her, he didn't know why but he enjoyed it and wanted to see if this girl next to him was really just all talk and no show or otherwise.
She picked up her quill and dabbed it in the ink bottle, "Alright then, 1...2...3...write."
The two of them started exactly at the same time, they rewrote what they had before with even quicker speed, within three minutes they both dropped their quills down at the same time yet again. Hermione was furious, "How the?"
Draco instead of looking angry this time looked pleased and he sneered smugly at her, his eyes sparkling with delight, "Not bad Granger, maybe your not all talk after all."
She glanced over at him, arching a brow, "Is that what you thought I was? All talk and no show?"
Draco chuckled at the face Hermione had placed on which said, 'how dare you think that of me?', "Yea its what I thought of you Granger, do you have a problem?"
"Yea, actually I do." She said relaxing her face.
"And…? That would be…?"
"You!" she shouted, forgetting their was a quiz going on, everyone glanced over at where her and Draco were and she sank into her chair in embarrassment.
Draco was laughing inside himself it was evident from the smirk he had on his face. Hermione found it to be a very cute smirk when she really allowed herself to think about it…but WHOA why was she even thinking that? Rewind Granger, Draco Malfoy…does not have a cute anything…not-a-thing…right? Hermione had had enough and she turned facing away from Draco with a huff.
He kept his smirk on his face, "You know, I think I can learn to enjoy this class."
For Draco thought that maybe if he continues to play the role of the annoyingly charming better than everyone Draco Malfoy, and get Granger constantly furious…perhaps…he could make this a fun experience by torturing her with his little role play. At least that way he can make an unpleasant twist of fate somewhat enjoyable and tolerable, regardless of how much Granger disliked it.
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A/N: Need I say more about this chapter? So far this is my favorite chapter, though that might change as more chapters get posted. So what does everyone think of this? Like, no like, so so…talk to me people lol! Alright so I guess I'll talk to you all later.
Next Chapter: Hermione and Draco discuss when to start meeting, Harry suspects Lucia will kill him and Dumbledore drinks a pina-colada?
