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Chapter 4

Separation Anxiety

A chink of sun fell through the open bed hangings and onto Hermione's tear-streaked face. She groaned as she picked her head up and looked at the clock by her bed. It read 7:42. "Aahhh!" She screamed as she jumped out of bed, grabbed her things and ran downstairs to breakfast without showering or changing her clothes.

She sat down across from Harry and Ron and grabbed a piece of toast.

"What took you so long?" Harry looked up at her. Her hair was tangled and she had dark circles under her eyes. "Are you okay?"

Hermione swallowed her toast. "I'm fine, Harry. I just didn't sleep very well."

A piece of parchment fluttered down onto the table. Hermione grabbed it. "My schedule." Harry and Ron looked at the papers they got. "I got charms first, Harry. What'd you get?"

"Potions."

"Sorry, mate. I guess there was a bad side to getting an outstanding in potions on your OWLs. At least you know Snape'll hate it as much as you do."

"Thanks, Ron."

"Don't mention it."

Hermione stared at the two boys and rolled her eyes. "Don't fret, Harry. I'm in potions too. We'll partner up."

Harry forced a smile, while Ron glared at him. Hermione raised her eyebrow at this.

"What's your problem, Ron?"

"What? Oh, nothing. I was just thinking that you two will have a lot of classes together and I'm going to be alone in most of mine." Hermione patted Ron's shoulder. "No you won't. Neville will be with you most of the time."

Harry snickered into his cereal as Ron's face turned pink.

"Oh, shove it, will, you?"


Harry and Hermione parted ways with Ron after breakfast. They made their way down the flights of stairs that led to the dungeons where potions class was held. The stairways smelt of mold and ice. The torches on the walls cast eerie shadows. Hermione had never liked it down here, but potions was required if you wanted to be a teacher.

They approached the open door and Harry peered in.

'Snape's not here yet, but look who is." Hermione glanced in the direction of Harry's pointed finger. Draco Malfoy sat in the front row of the class absentmindedly carving something into the desk with a silver penknife. His white blonde hair was gelled back and his pale skin seemed translucent in the dim light of the dungeon.

Hermione cursed under breath as they made their way to a couple of empty chairs towards the back. Hermione sat down and took out her new book: An In-depth Study of Potions and their Possibilities by Hope Oberlin, and then folded her hands and stared at her desk. She was reading a message engraved in the corner (Snivelly looks wonderful in a red mohawk), when the door to the classroom slammed open. Snape marched in, black robes billowing behind him like the wings of a bat.

"You are here because you have exceeded my expectations and managed to get an outstanding on your OWLs. As is the case, I expect no less than perfection in my class." He stared at Harry. "Now get out your books and turn to page two." There was a shuffling of papers as eleven students got out their books. Hermione already had hers out. "Read the chapter on the Elpidius potion. When you are done, begin making it. The ingredients are on the board. You may work in pairs if you so wish."

At that, Snape sauntered over to his desk and sent withering glares to whoever looked up at him.

Hermione had finished reading before Harry and took this time to see who else was in this class besides Harry and Malfoy. Sitting next to Malfoy was Blaise Zabini, and behind him was a Ravenclaw girl with short golden curls, who kept on giving the two boys sultry looks. In the very last row was Hannah Abbott who was talking animatedly with another chubby Hufflepuff girl.

Two rows behind her, Hermione saw a pair of Ravenclaw boys staring at the ingredients on the board. One had dark brown hair and even darker eyes. The other had dyed his short, spiked hair, bright blue, but Hermione couldn't see his eyes, as he was rather short and was hidden by his caldron for the most part.

In the front row, Parvati and Padma Patil were still reading the chapter, while a Slytherin with long, straight, black hair stared at them in disgust.

Harry tapped Hermione on the shoulder, snapping her out of her wanderings.

"You ready to make this?" he asked.

"Yes, Harry." She stared at the board. "Okay, you start chopping up the frog spleen, and I'll count out the reindeer hairs."

For the next half hour the only thing heard were soft whispers and the plop of ingredients being dropped into cauldrons. Snape stood up and clapped his hands. The room instantly hushed.

"By now, your potions should be light blue." He glanced at the cauldrons. Most of them held bluish liquid of some shade, but the curly-haired Ravenclaw's was sea foam green and smelled of the ocean. Hannah's had turned dark grey. Snape sneered at the Ravenclaw.

"Well, it seems as though Miss Rabindra has managed to turn a hope potion into hydration potion. Not what I had in mind at all. Five points from Ravenclaw.

He walked up the steps to Hannah's potion which was now sizzling. "Miss Abbott and Miss Zaftig. I see we need to separate you two from now on." He tapped his wand on their cauldron and the grey liquid disappeared. "You two get a zero for the day. The rest of you, flask and label your potions and set them on my desk."

Hannah looked furious and her friend looked ready to burst into tears. Hermione ladled their potion into a plastic bottle and walked it up to Snape's desk. She was still looking over at the two Hufflepuffs when she ran into something hard.

"Watch where you're going, Mudblood." Hermione looked up into Draco Malfoy's icy eyes. 'Don't call me a mudblood, you Ferret." She hissed.

Snape, who had ignored Draco's insult, pounced on Hermione. "Miss Granger, there is no name calling in my classroom. Five points from Gryffindor and I want a ten inch essay on the Elipidius potion on my desk by next lesson."

Hermione was about to interject, but the gleam in Snape's eye told her that he was just waiting for an excuse to take an even 50 in the next five minutes. She bit her lip and nodded.

As she walked out of class, only one thing ran through her mind: heart dew, sad water, risse...