Chapter Eight: And It Begins
The Great Hall was still very empty. On Saturdays, most students slept in; some even slept until lunch.
Hermione walked briskly to the table on the far left, Gryffindor's. She was still fuming about Malfoy. He was such a royal ass! Why on earth was she supposed to be involved with him of all people?
She spotted an odd pair to be up early. Their heads were bent over a large stack of books and parchment. Jet black and fiery red brows were furrowed in an unusual concentration.
A slow smile spread across her face. Harry and Ron could cheer her up. She flopped down hard at Harry's side, startling the two boys.
"Merlin, Mione, you could at least announce yourself, before scaring me and Harry to death!" Ron huffed although a smile was on his freckled face. Any interruption was welcome, as long as it kept him from working.
Hermione threw him a dazzling evil grin.
"What're you tow doing up already, anyway?"
"Summer's homework," Harry said without looking up from his furious scribbling.
A smile touched her lips again. "You do know that you could do it during break, don't you?" Then you wouldn't be in such a rush to get it finished."
Ron started muttering under his breath about 'know-it-alls' and 'overachievers.'
Hermione glanced down at his work, since he was sitting in front of her.
"Ron, there's not lacewing in Veritaserum," she corrected half-heartedly.
"Well, you do it then!" Ron exclaimed exasperatedly pushing his paper across to her.
"I already have," she said handing it back.
Harry watched the exchange with amusement in his bright green eyes. He handed Hermione his finished essay on Animagi.
"What did you do last night?" Harry asked, while she scanned over his work. Ron sat across from him red faced.
"Very good, Harry," she commend his work, before tell the two about her elegant quarters.
"Alright, Malfoy's dead!" Ron cheered clapping Harry hard on the back.
"So, how'd you do it?" he asked quickly forgetting that he wasn't talking to her.
"No," sighed Hermione, "He's still alive and smirking as always. Honestly, you two, why can't we try being civil this year?"
Ron's face fell a bit.
"Better luck next time, mate," Harry said grinning at Ron, before turning to Hermione, "Did you tell him about the Prophecy?"
"Yes," she replied rather curtly.
"And?" badgered Ron, not recognizing her rather tight reply as a stop sign.
"And he wasn't too bloody happy about it, alright?"
Ron backed off in surprise. "Gosh, Hermione, we were only asking."
Hermione ran a hand through her tresses, causing the dark waves to cascade over her face.
Suddenly a light whooshing filled the air. The school owls delivered schedules to the few students that were up. The rest settled in the rafters waiting for the owners of their letters.
Hermione, Ron, and Harry tore into their schedules excitedly. This year was their final year at Hogwarts; a year in which they would go their separate ways to prepare for the future.
Schedules would be different this year. No longer, would the houses stay together; now, the boys and girls went to classes that would be necessary for their choice jobs.
Hermione was taking Arithmacy, Potions, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Ancient Runes.
Harry and Ron would only share their Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes with her. The boys were planning to be Aurors for the Ministry, while Hermione was planning on teaching, hopefully at Hogwarts.
"Double Potions," Hermione murmured quietly. The boys looked at her sympathetically over their papers.
But she wasn't upset with it at all. That's what was weird with the trio' relationship. She wasn't exactly a confident with them…they had never gone as far as to get to know the nooks and crannies of Hermione, as she knew them. She just always put it off as a boy thing. The boys acted like it was their responsibility to protect her, while in essence it was she protecting them. Hermione felt a motherly inclination towards the two silly, danger prone boys. She had always staid with them through thick and thin and probably always would. It just worked out perfectly that way.
Harry was he confident occasionally, but while Ron was around, he was swept back into the life boy's loved. Talks about sports and competition; discussing feeling was for girls. That's what Hermione needed, a girl friend. Someone she could seriously talk to.
In all honesty, Hermione loved Potions. Yes, the professor could be a major ass most of the time, but everyone knew that he knew his stuff. She loved it because of the mysteries it held. You could kill someone with a simple mixture of common plants, and heal them just as quickly with another. The oddity of being able to mix simple substances together and getting something complex enthralled her.
She also had an extreme thirst to prove herself in the class. It was probably one of her most Slytherin like traits she held. But she would always find that it wasn't good enough; she had to work harder. It was a drive that Hermione strove for.
"Hey, guys," a kind voice said pulling Hermione out of her reverie. Professor Lupin smiled down at the three of them. His greenish yellow eyes were half hidden by his shaggy, sandy hair.
Remus Lupin had come back to Hogwarts at the end of their fifth year. He no longer looked so tired and shabby. Snape had invented a new solution to fight the werewolf curse. The potion had no side effects and helped amazingly.
"Hello, Professor," they greeted him warmly.
"Ready for me this year?"
"You bet! We have you second, sir," Ron answered enthusiastically.
"Sir, what will we be covering this year?" inquired Hermione with interest.
"Knowing you, Hermione, it won't be anything you don't know already," the man teased with a wolfish grin.
Hermione blushed prettily at his compliment.
"Oh my gosh," she exclaimed, eyes going wide, "I've forgotten to recheck my list of side effects of a vampire's bite! I'll see you guys later!"
She dashed from the table hurriedly.
TJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBJTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJBTJB
Lupin shook his head in silent laughter, while the boys groaned about another essay.
The weekend flew by with its usual turmoil. All the students, nearly, were finishing homework that was assigned over break. Everyone was in a rush to get ready for his or her fist classes back.
Hermione and Draco avoided one another whenever possible. When both were in the common room, it was like you had walked into a room that had a silencing charm cast upon it. Usually when one entered the room, the other found that he or she had something to do elsewhere.
All went well until Potions on Monday.
It seemed as if every class she had, Malfoy took just to annoy her. What was worse was all of her teachers, so far, had thought it a grand idea to pair up the Heads!
Hermione walked into the Potions classroom in a foul mood. She and Draco still refused to speak to each other, so each class had went by with some difficulty. Thank Merlin it was her last class of the day.
She landed heavily into a chair beside Lavender Brown. The girl looked at her with her almond shaped, brown eyes with sympathy. Lavender had been in a couple of classes with her throughout the day. She had been in Hermione's Arithmacy class, when Draco had decided to kick her chair just when she was going to sit in it. Deciding that Hermione was in no mood to hear the latest 'who was dating who' gossip, she turned back around to her best friend Parvati Patil.
Parvati looked over Lavenders shoulder and gave Hermione a small smile. She had been in Hermione's Ancient Runes class, when she tripped Draco as he was walking to the front of the room.
To say the least her day hadn't been going to well. Both her and Malfoy would be sporting some rather nasty bruises tomorrow.
Hermione scanned the room quietly through narrowed amber eyes. She was happy to see that there were no tall, silver haired serpents amongst the group. Her spirits began to rise slowly.
But all was shattered when the heavy wooden door smacked the wall with an echoing crash.
In sauntered the one person Hermione wanted to see least.
Draco walked in late with a pompous smirk on his handsome face. He dropped into a seat beside Pansy, giving her an arrogant wink.
Snape came in closely on his heels, but paid the tardy boy no heed. Instead, he called the entire class to a silence.
"This year I will be assigning partner, as to prevent the less inclined students from slowing others down." He gave Neville Longbottom a look of disgust.
Though horrible in Potions, Neville had forged on to take his last year' course. He gulped as the Potion Master's cold black eyes fell on him. The boy wasn't as large as he had once been, but he hadn't grown much either. His short brown hair and bright brown eyes gave him a look of sheer naiveté.
Snape started barking out the listed names quickly, "Granger: Malfoy, Parkinson: Brown, Zabini: Patil, Longbottom: Finch-Fletchly…"
The man's black eyes twinkled with a dark amusement at the suspense of his grumbling students.
Hermione rose slowly and walked over to the table Draco shared wit Pansy.
The blonde girl nodded at her in a subtle acknowledgement and walked off to find her partner.
'Merlin, why is everyone practically throwing us at one another?'
Snape finished his list with a flourish and waited until everyone was settled in his or her new seats.
"Today, we will be discussing Veritaserum. You all should know something about the potion, considering you all wrote an essay on it this summer." His icy glare threatened anyone who hadn't. "What is Veritaserum, class?"
Hermione's hand shout quickly into the air, surprisingly so did a couple others'.
"Of course Miss Know-It-All has the answer, she's programmed the whole library in her head," Malfoy hissed so only she would hear.
"At least I do know, Malfoy," she retorted in an even tone.
"No one ever said I didn't."
"Oh, well go on and answer it," she said with a grin, before kicking him under the table.
Draco hissed in pain, drawing Snape's unwanted attention towards them.
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?"
"Veritaserum is a complex potion that causes the drinker to tell only the truth when interrogated." Silver eyes burned into the side of Hermione's head throughout his answer.
"Very good. Ten points to Slytherin," Snape said walking back to his desk. He then began his lecture.
Hermione rolled her eyes in disgust.
"Damn it, Granger! What was that for?" he hissed menacingly.
"Oh, did I kick you? So sorry, Malfoy," Hermione replied in a sickly sweet voice that her personality would never match.
"You damn well did it on purpose!"
"Well, I did have to see if my partner has something besides air in his head." A chestnut brow rose as she smirked wickedly at him.
"Can I have the honor of having our Heads' attention?" the Potions Master demanded from his desk, "You both have detention with me on Friday at 8:00pm sharp!"
The rest of the class looked at them in shock. Pansy watched them with a cool interest dancing in her aqua eyes.
"Now, as I was saying, Veritaserum, though a difficult potion, can be made within an hour," Snape said coolly, "And we will attempt to make it today." With a sharp flick of his wrist at the board, the ingredients appeared neatly down the black surface. "Get started!"
The class' attention turned to their cauldrons. Hermione got up for the ingredients hastily. She wanted good ingredients.
"What was that about?" Lavender asked pulling out a large parcel of newt's eyes.
"Oh, just another stupid argument," Hermione said as she picked through a large clump of elder's moss. The blue strands clung together as if in fear of their plight.
"Asfunnel?"
"Thank you, Neville," Hermione said taking a stalk of what looked like red asparagus from the boy.
She picked out some good samples of each ingredient and was looking for a nice piece of lizard tail.
"We need the ingredients this decade, Granger," came Draco's cool voice behind her. He took the ingredients from her arms and left her to find the rest.
She shook her head in distaste and picked out the missing ingredient.
LNWLNWLNWLNWLNWLNWLNWLNWLNWLNWLNWLNWLNWLNWLNWLNW
Hermione was laying on the loveseat thinking again. She was stuck with Malfoy all year! All of her teachers had used some excuse or another for them to be paired. Oh, there was McGonagall's "to set a school example," Snape's "equal partnership," but everyone's favorite was "Heads were to work together." It made Hermione want to chuck her badge into the lake. Then, Malfoy could collaborate up with the giant squid.
'At least we haven't murdered one another, yet…" Draco interrupted her thoughts. She hadn't heard him come in.
"You know, Granger, as many times as I've found you spaced out, I may need to take you to Pomfrey. Surely, she could fix your deplorable brain lapses."
"It's called thinking, Malfoy. But I wouldn't expect you capable of it anyway."
"I do think, but unlike you, I try to have a life in between."
"What the hell are you getting at, Malfoy?" Hermione's blood was beginning to boil.
"Your social life, Granger…Who was your last boyfriend?"
"That isn't your business!" Hermione snapped sharply.
"Well, I daresay it was Krum, during our fourth year…" he said nastily. Something in him told him to stop, but his stubbornness plowed on.
"Yes it was! Are you happy? I haven't dated in three years!" she screamed standing up in front of him. He had hit a definite sore spot.
"Why?" he asked. The voice inside was starting to scream at him.
"Because something is wrong with me!" she bawled, "I'm a freak or something!" Tears started to pour gently down her paled cheeks.
She didn't want to cry, especially in front of him! But it still hurt so badly. Hermione turned to run to her room, but was stopped by Malfoy.
He grabbed her wrists quickly and turned her around. Her small hands were dwarfed in his large, warm ones. Draco pulled her close and held her hands tightly between his.
"Who told you that?" he quested gently. 'Why would someone hurt her with this lie?'
"Viktor did," she hiccupped, "Viktor did when we broke up, because a long distance relationship wasn't working. He said that no one would ever take me…" She choked and buried her head in his robes.
Draco wasn't sure what to do. His worst competition was bawling on him. He patted her awkwardly on top of her head.
"That's not true," he said quietly. No matter how many times he had said it himself, he had always known it wasn't true.
Hermione looked up at him teary eyed. A wane smile floated on her lips.
Then she did something he would never had of expected. Hermione Granger kissed him…
She had looked up into his eyes. And as suddenly as silver met gold, their lips made contact.
It was gentle and feather light, almost shy. But he had felt something within it. Something that was powerful.
Draco stood there with a numb mind.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that," Hermione whispered barely audible. She then took off up the stairs, leaving only a wavering scent of coconut and lime in the air. The door clicked loudly in the silence of the room.
Draco touched his lips with his fingertips in disbelief. Did it just begin?
AN: Taadaa!! So what do ya think? Likes it? I certainly hope so. Thank you, peeples that reviewed, for…well, reviewing! LoL! I wasn't too happy with this chappie myself, but that's all I have today. I hope you like it though. Love ya! Oh yeah, TJB would be my initials, while LNW would be those of a good friend of mine.