A/N- Thank you everybody for all the reviews. [ 25 ]
Anywayz, on a different note, if anyone has noticed, I have revamped the past few chapters so they are all in the new layout. It took me forever to do it 'kuz I kept making mistakes, like posting the wrong chapters in the wrong order, etc. [ I had to do the third chapter like 5 times ]. So by the time I was finished, I was practically homicidal. And then I found out that I had stuffed up the dividers in two chapters [ I think ] AND made a mistake in the 'A/N' for the first chapter [ I think as well ]. And then I thought, Who gives a shit about this anyway? I DO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I still couldn't be bothered to change it. -_-
And I just remembered that you could get cancer and die if you kept getting angry. After all that hard work on making the chapters look better, I might die and never see the final result ??? *rips out hair in frustration*
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Chapter Eight: Potions
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Love is like quicksand, the deeper you fall in, the harder it is to come out …
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Hermione and Draco walked silently side by side, occasionally glancing in an empty classroom. They were each enthralled into their own thoughts.
Hermione was, of course, thinking about what Ginny had said earlier and Draco was thinking about that as well. He finally knew why Hermione had been spending so much time by herself lately. Because her only friends had left her.
Draco looked over at her and noticed her eyes had a faraway look to them, like she wasn't really doing the Hall Duties but just taking a pleasant stroll.
Draco looked back at the ground as they turned around another corner and walked up the stairs to the fifth floor. He knew what it was like to not have any friends. There was no one to confide with, no one to hang out with, no one you could laugh with and most importantly, no one you could trust.
He had Crabbe and Goyle but they weren't exactly classified as friends. Draco had never experienced a friend-like moment with them. The closest was in second year in Hogwarts, when Crabbe got a 'Bertie Botts Every Flavored Bean' stuck up his nose and Draco walked him to the Hospital Wing.
Draco shook his head as he peered inside an empty suit of armor, hoping that Peeves wasn't in there. This was all his father's fault. Lucius only thought about power and reputation. He didn't care if Draco suffered through his childhood, but as long as Draco became a deatheater and followed Voldemort, he considered his life long dream completed.
Draco sighed as he opened the door of a broom closet, expecting to see a snogging couple, but there was no one in there, just brooms and cleaning potions.
It would be very uncomfortable to actually catch someone kissing another person and then having to break them up. It was even more embarrassing to be have Hermione watching the whole thing so he was glad he wasn't in that situation.
They walked up to the sixth floor, with Draco slightly ahead of Hermione.
Actually, it would be extremely uncomfortable if he was kissing Hermione. And then someone ran into them and saw them.
Why am I thinking about kissing Hermione Granger??? he thought to himself.
Then, as if she had heard, Hermione spoke up.
"Well, that's the whole school. Glad the first night went along well."
"Huh? Oh … yeah …" mumbled Draco. He couldn't believe they've already finished so quickly.
"Erm, yes, well, let's go back then, shall we?"
"Yeah, we'd better go back," muttered Draco.
They turned and retraced their steps back, walking in silence again and Hermione regained that faraway look in her eyes.
Draco couldn't stand being quiet anymore, he had to say something, to remind her that she was still officially on Hall Duty.
"So, er, have you done anything else with the Valentine's Day Ball?" he asked.
"The Valentine's day Ball? Oh my gosh! I totally forgot about that! We need to do more work on decorations and stuff!" exclaimed Hermione.
Draco smiled, she was back on earth.
"Are you smirking at me?" she asked him, looking intently at his face.
"No …" he muttered, looking down.
For the rest of the trip back to their room, Hermione chatted about what she had planned.
"Well, we should have a big banner that says "Happy Valentine's Day …"
They walked down to the sixth floor.
' … and a buffet table, with anything red or pink. That should be the decoration theme for the Ball, red and pink, isn't that a good idea?"
Draco grunted. When Hermione started talking about things like these, she seemed to be different from the shy bookworm that she use to be. She didn't use a different tone when communicating to different people, she was the same to everyone. For instance, right now, she could be blabbing to Ron or Harry about the party decorations. But she wasn't, she was talking to Draco.
They walked down to the fifth floor.
"… and I also think that we should have a costume theme. Something romantic … I know! Couples can be dressed as any couple from any story, book, song or whatever. Terry Boot told me that in the Christmas Ball that he's organizing with Blaise, they're going to have each couple be announced as they make their entrance. We should do that too!"
Draco immediately wished he hadn't got Hermione so worked up, but luckily, they had finally arrived at their portrait hole.
"… maybe we should have balloons … these muggle things that you blow up and hang in mid-air … strawberry swirl …, " she said to the portrait and it swung open.
For once she was able to change the password so it was easier for her to remember.
As soon as they came in, Hermione rushed over to the study table and got out a quill and parchment and started scribbling furiously.
"What are you writing?" asked Draco, glancing at the parchment over her shoulder.
"Plans for the ball," she said, her face set in complete concentration.
Draco looked at her and realized she had her tongue poking out. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her eyes were slowly traveling along the paper as she wrote.
Don't look at her, whatever you do, do not look at her. She's Granger, bookworm, nerd, mudblood. End of story, he told himself, but he couldn't help but notice she looked sort of … cute.
He quickly moved away from her and muttered that he needed to go to bed.
"Alright, we'll work on this some other time. Good night, Draco."
"Night," he mumbled and strode quickly into his room, while Hermione kept writing.
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The next day, they had potions for their last lesson so by that time, everyone was getting pretty restless.
During the day, Hermione had tried to ask Ginny what day and time they were suppose to meet again, after all, she had forgotten to mention it last time. But every time Hermione wanted to approach Ginny, the other girl would walk away quickly or suddenly engage herself into a conversation with the person next to her. This meant that Hermione couldn't get a word across to her which proved to be a great inconvenience.
Hermione sat with her back straight, waiting for the Potions Master to come into the classroom while her classmates chattered. She carefully placed her quill so that it was parallel to the top of her parchment. She didn't have any ink so she searched her bag for her ink bottle when she found a piece of parchment wedged between her Transfiguration textbook and Charms textbook.
We'll meet tomorrow night. Make sure no one follows you. Don't try to talk to me again or Harry and Ron will get suspicious.
"Miss Granger, passing notes before I am even in the classroom. Tut, tut, tut. 10 points from Gryffindor. Put that away."
Hermione quickly stuffed it into her pocket as Snape sneered at her and her fellow Gryffindors groaned.
"Today, we will be making a fairly complex potion. Everyone will work in pairs as one brain isn't enough for the slightly slower members of the class to figure it out by themselves."
A slight chatter rose among the students.
"Silence! I will assign the partners. The partners will be Gryffindor and Slytherin because I am quite sure the Slytherins will be able to help out the Gryffindors."
Hermione felt anger rise up in her.
"Now then … the famous Potter with Crabbe, Weasley with Goyle, Patil with Zabini, Brown with Bulstrode, Granger with Malfoy, Longbottom with Parkinson … "
Hermione stopped listening as she prepared her cauldron, her Potions textbook and her Potions supplies case.
"Before any of the foolish students begin, I would like to remind you all that the Potion we are making today is yet to be exposed."
Neville turned red as he had just started to walk towards his Slytherin partner.
"We are brewing the Revealian Potion today. It is used to expose something invinsible, such as a person under an Invisibility Cloak."
His eyes lingered on R&H for a while.
"The instructions for the potion are in your textbook, page 54. I will test the potions at the end of the lesson."
He opened his classroom store room and everyone began to move. Hermione quickly strode towards Draco's table and set her things down. Draco was leaning back in his chair, his potions equipment lay untouched on his desk.
"You know, we have to work on this together," Hermione said briskly.
Draco just looked at her and slowly opened his textbook to page 54.
"I guess that's a start," said Hermione, "you can add the four drops of newt's sweat and I'll cut the spiders' legs."
They set to work quietly, as most of the other pairs worked. Harry was still explaining to Crabbe what potion they were making and Ron was demonstrating how to cut the spiders' legs to Goyle. Hermione turned her eyes back to her spider and concentrated on cutting them perfectly, even though a few minutes later, they were to be thrown into a bubbling cauldron.
"Hermione?"
"Huh?"
Draco looked uncomfortable.
"Erm, I've run out of buttress roots, could you lend me some?"
"Yeah, sure," said Hermione, handing him a clump of dirt and roots.
He plopped them into the cauldron and Hermione dropped her spiders' legs in.
They watched as the potion turned green.
"Now, if you have done the potion correctly," Snape called out, "the potion should turn green after you have added the spiders' legs."
Hermione beamed. Harry wasn't up to the spiders' legs yet but Goyle had just chucked them in his and Ron's potion and after the potion turned yellow, Ron furiously told Goyle that they didn't add the newt's sweat yet.
The next step was to slowly stir for three minutes and then add a tuft of unicorn's hair. Hermione let Draco stir so she took some unicorn's hair from Snape's classroom store room and added it after three minutes.
"When the potion is finished, it should be a silvery colour," Snape told the class.
~~~Half an hour later~~~
Hermione smiled proudly as she added some powdered moongrass and the potion turned silver. Snape told everyone to give a sample of it to him and to go wash their utensils at the back sinks. Hermione bottled some of her potion and gave it to Snape, before joining Draco at their sink at the back. Their Potions room had enough sinks for two people to one.
She scrubbed her knife and cauldron, and when she finished, she spotted a measuring cup in the sink, still unclean. She reached for it, not knowing that Draco saw it at the same and was reaching for it as well.
Draco reached it first because of his fast reflexes, and Hermione, too clumsy to pull back, accidentally brushed his hand instead of the measuring cup.
She immediately felt herself go red, as she hastily pulled her hand back.
What's wrong with me? It's just Draco. Nothing else.
Draco, having the same intentions, pulled back as well and dropped the measuring cup.
Damn, why the hell did she pull back? No, wait, it's good she pulled back. I don't want to touch her hand.
This resulted in the measuring cup dropping in the sink with a clatter. Hermione let out a nervous giggle and went to pick up her measuring cup. Draco, seeing this beforehand, didn't bother to touch it so he gathered his equipment as Hermione scrubbed.
He looked over to check if the cup was his when he noticed Hermione was having trouble getting a stain off the cup.
"Here, I'll do it," he said.
He took the cup and scrubber [ A/N- I think that's what they're called ] and scrubbed the spot Hermione was scrubbing. It came off easily as he had stronger arms.
"Done," he said handing it back. Their hands touched again. Hermione turned red and quickly walked away, and as a result, dropped the note that Ginny had given her which was hanging loosely from her pocket.
Draco saw this and picked it up, wanting to call after Hermione to tell her but the bell just rung and she had already rushed out the door.
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A/N- How did you all like it??? Please review !!! And sorry for the outburst before the story, I was just really pissed about it. I hope I didn't scare anyone.
Thanks to my reviewers: [ Sorry if I forget anyone. ]
moween – Thank you for saying my story is good and after I readyour rewiew, I decided to change my story to PG-13, just in case.
manda726 – Remember that Draco and Hermione never were on good terms with each other and none of them exactly has feelings for the other one yet so we'll have to wait for them to actually say something about that to each other ;) … and about Ron, remember, the hormones and stuff.
hazel-leaf – Thank you !!! I will try to write the next chapter a.s.a.p !!!
Luthien Vardamir – Yeah, I know, but don't worry … things will improve for Hermione … damn … shouldn't have revealed too much !!!
blackdragonofdeath13 – Thanks !!! =D
Athena-Knows-All – That's great to hear !!!
