Love on the Rocks with no Ice Chapter 3

Sorry bout the lack of updates, but I've been waiting for my laptop to

arrive and I've been busy with uni and stuff.

Hope you enjoy :p

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After a wretched night's sleep that was filled with worry and tears, Hermione made her way to the Great Hall, thankful that no-one else was there. She took her place at the teachers table and looked around the hall. It still looked as it had when she'd been in her first year. The house banners were the same. She'd inspected the Gryffindor on her first day as a teacher. It still had the miniscule burn that had been made by Ron Weasley's wand in their sixth year. She sighed, sick with herself for constantly remembering the past. She wondered, countless times, why she had actually come back to Hogwarts. Was she trying to recapture the joy that she'd felt learning and growing up here? Or was she afraid to be alone? Hermione sighed again, utterly disgusted with herself. She was at Hogwarts because she had found that she loved kids and teaching gave her a chance to do all the research that she wanted.

Hermione's hand subconsciously drifted towards her stomach as she thought about her own children coming to Hogwarts. A frown replaced her slight smile when she tried to picture her children; who would their father be and, more importantly, would he know and care?

She was stirred from her thoughts by the sound of laughter from a group of students entering the Great Hall She looked up, read to greet them as she usually did when she saw one of the possible fathers walking behind the students.

Hermione froze momentarily as they locked eyes. Even from the other end of the hall Hermione could see the hurt and anger in his eyes. He broke their eye contact as if disgusted with himself and made his way to his seat at the teacher's table which just happened to be one seat away from Hermione.

"Good morning Draco." Her voice was nothing more than a whisper, but he heard it all the same.

"What's so good about it Granger?"

She visibly flinched at the harsh tone of his voice and wisely decided not to respond.

Suddenly feeling utterly nauseas Hermione abruptly stood up from the table. Not caring who was watching she ran through the nearest doorway, shut the door behind her, and puked her guts out.

She crumpled to the floor, wishing she could just curl up into a ball so no- one would ever find her

But someone did.

"Here Hermione, drink this. It'll make you feel better." A hand holding a small vial came into her view.

She looked up and smiled faintly at Blaise. "Thanks." She swallowed the liquid and grimaced at the taste.

"How'd you know I was here?"

Blaise muttered a quick cleaning spell to get rid of Hermione's mess and then sat down beside her friend. "Saw you run out of the hall as I entered. Draco looked freaked by the way."

"That's the least of my problems right now. I think I'll skip breakfast in the Great Hall and go down to the kitchens and grab something there. I don't want to have to sit near Draco and have him throwing evil looks at me."

She stood slowly, not wanting to get a head rush. It didn't work.

"I might see you at lunch Blaise. I'll be in my classroom if you need me."

"Hermione it's a Sunday. What do you need to do in your classroom, it's the start of the year as well, so there's nothing that needs to be marked yet." Blaise stood as well and looked worriedly at her friend.

"Research stuff Blaise. It'll help me keep my mind off things."

"Okay, well be careful. We don't want you to have an accident because you mixed the wrong ingredients because you were thinking about Draco."

"Thanks Blaise. I'll see you later. Go have some breakfast." Hermione gave her a small smile and began to walk off to her classroom.

Blaise watched Hermione go, thinking about the predicament she was in. Slowly a plan began to form in the Slytherin's mind. One that would get her closest friends together again and get that pathetic Potter back to where ever he'd come from.

A smile appeared on her lips and she walked back to the Great Hall, trying to get her wording of what she was going to say to Draco just perfect.

She returned to the Great Hall and took her seat next to Draco.

"What's with Granger?" Draco had thrown the question to her before she could adjust herself in her chair.

"Oh the poor thing. She's freaked out because of Potter's announcement last night. Turns out that she never actually said yes to him, but the drunk bastard just decided to tell everyone anyway. Poor Hermione, she told me last night that she was going to say yes, but now she's thinking of changing her mind."

"Really?" Draco tried to look disinterested in what Blaise was saying, but failed miserably.

"Yeah she said that it showed how little respect Potter has for her. And the fact that he didn't even bother to see her last night, even though she was sick, just pissed her off even more. Poor thing. Who in their right mind would treat someone as lovely as Hermione like that? And why she puts up with it is beyond me. But anyway," Blaise shook her head lightly, "Why should that bother you Draco? I'm probably boring you out of your skull. So how was your summer break?"

"Hmmm?" Draco looked up at Blaise as he came out of his thoughts. "Well they started off good, but turned to shit about two months ago."

Blaise opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by Dumbledore.

"After last night's feast, it came to my attention that I had not finished MY announcements for the school year. They areas follows: The Forbidden Forest is once again forbidden; Hogsmeade weekends will be monthly for third years and above; and the third years will have a new muggle subject with professors Malfoy and Granger. Your parents have been notified and have given their consent. So would the third years stay behind after breakfast to learn what exactly they will be studying."

With that Dumbledore sat down and smiled at Balise, who just wondered what the old man could know.

A muttered curse from beside her brought Blaise back to where she was. She looked at Draco who looked half furious and half excited at something.

"What's wrong Draco?" she asked, already knowing what the answer would be.

"I have to teach a class with Granger, do you know what that's like?"

Blaise nodded. "Our first day here we relieved a first year flying class cos you weren't here yet, I think. It was how we ended up friends. It'll be fine Draco, just try not to piss each other off."

I doubt very much that it'll be fine Blaise, not after," Draco was going to say more, but managed to stop himself in time.

"Not after what?" Blaise had to know.

"Not after our history together."

"But you guys have your moments, like last Christmas. I came back after the break and you two seemed not to hate each other so much."

"Things have changed a lot since then."

"What? Because of Potter?"

"Blaise, stay out of things you don't understand, and maybe I won't have to hex you." Draco stood up and stalked out of the Great Hall leaving Blaise to ponder his words and formulate more of her plan.