Chapter Five: Vampires

Hermione was having quite an uneventful day, though somewhat in a daze from the night before. She could not believe that she was going out with Malfoy, the same Malfoy that she had hated since the moment she saw him, the Malfoy who called her a Mudblood, yet he was so different now. He was caring, sweet and she loved him. Today, she actually looked forward to potions, because they had it with Slytherin, even if it was with Snape.

"Today we will be brewing the Deflating Draught." Snape said as he glided across the floor staring maliciously at Harry, who was not paying attention due to the mornings events.

"Everyone will be assigned in boy girl partners," Snape said and then he began calling out the names.

"Wesley and Brown, Finnigan and Parkinson, Thomas and Patil, Potter and Bullstrode, and Malfoy and Granger."

The first emotion that came to Hermione was happiness, as she looked across the room into those baby blue eyes of Malfoy's, but a few seconds later she realized that this might give their secret relationship away.

"Hey," Draco said softly, "I'm so glad were working together," he said as he looked at her dreamily.

"Draco! What do you think your doing?" Hermione said in a harsh whisper. "You will give us away! You promised that you would keep it a secret!"

"Oh, right, " Malfoy said disappointedly.

"We must act as normal as possible, ok?" Hermione said in an urgent tone of voice.

"Alright." Malfoy replied.

Harry looked over at Ron, but Ron only coldly started back at him and went back to working on the potion with Lavender. Though Harry, still upset with Ron, seemed to notice that the two were having quite a good time together, but he quickly put it out of his head because he and Ron were not on speaking terms. Harry also looked towards Hermione and Malfoy, and they seemed to be back to their old selves, but he immediately remembered that their relationship was to be kept a secret and that was why they were acting so harshly to each other.

After enduring the torture that was double Potions, Harry ran quickly to Defense Against the Dark Arts because Ginny had it right before him. He wanted to tell her how Ron reacted, and he thought maybe if she could talk to him things would be different.

"Ginny, can I talk to you for a moment?" Harry said quietly.

"Of course," she said, but seeming a little apprehensive.

"This morning, I told Ron that we were going out, but he didn't take it as well as I hoped for. I was wondering if you could maybe talk to him about it.." He stopped just as Ron walked by, giving him a very evil look.

"I'll do my best, but you know how Ron is, always so stubborn," Ginny said.

"Well I have to go to now, class is starting, I'll catch up with you at lunch ok?" Harry said. They quickly hugged and Harry went to class.

"Today we will be learning about vampires," Professor Lupin announced to the class as they all took their seats.

"Can anyone tell me anything about the vampire?" he said, looking at Hermione, but this time she did not raise her hand. Instead, she had a dazed expression on her face, and Ron was the first one to answer.

"Vampires are huge supporters of You-Know-Who. Most remained loyal to him when his powers were gone, but only a few left. Rumor has it that the ones disloyal to him will be severely punished, because next to dementors, the vampires are his natural ally. When in human state, the vampire comes in many different varities." Ron said with a look of maddening superiority on his face.

"Well done Ron. I am impressed. I could not have said it better myself." Lupin said approvingly.

Ron then looked at Lavender, who smiled at him, and his ears went very red.

For the rest of the class they read about vampires, but Hermione was very distracted. Right before class she had met up with Malfoy and they had made plans to meet at the astronomy tower at one o'clock in the morning.