Chapter 11 – Another's mind

They had herbology next and Professor Sprout was showing her class the methods of extracting the venom from a rare and special plant called 'cobra elleborus' it was said to be useful in remedying madness.

Hermione wasn't really paying a lot of attention and was staring at the pretty flowers on it. She went to touch a petal, Draco had been observing her from across the room

'Stop!' he yelled in his head, instantly she drew her hand back

'Why what's the matter' she thought back to him

'Sprout just said if you touch the plant without gloves you will be poisoned' he thought

'Oh, thanks' she blushed

'No worries'

The rest of the class went by without mishap. And it was soon lunch time

"Thank god" Ron said "I'm Starving" he patted his stomach

"Is that all you ever say?" Draco asked him "you sound as bad as Crabbe and Goyle"

"If only you could read his mind too, you wouldn't think so" he cringed at this

"He is definitely going to need some therapy" Hermione said to Draco, he grinned.

Hermione wasn't used to seeing him grin. He had been smiling more lately and that was lovely but grinning was even better, he had a lovely smile

'I heard that' he told her in his thoughts

'Eurgh, get out of my head' she told him

He grinned at her again

"What's he smiling about?" Ron asked Hermione

"How should I know?" she asked

"You can read his mind cant you?" he asked her

"Oh yeah" she said "I had forgotten"

"Well Zabini has almost proved to me he's quite a nice bloke" Harry said looking over at the slytherin table where Blaise Zabini was staring into space. He doesn't seem very slytherinish at all.

"He isn't" Draco said "he is a good man really, he just is under a lot of pressure from the other slytherins otherwise I would probably talk to him some more"

"Why don't you ask him up to the common room sometimes?" Hermione asked "you could do with some company sometimes"

"Good idea" he said "Harry think it to him would you? I don't want to go over there"
Harry did as he was asked

"He says he will come by after dinner" Harry told them and started on his pudding

After dinner it was transfiguration and McGonagall gave them all a pincushion and told them to transfigure it into a hedgehog.

'Bloody hedgehog' Draco was mentally screaming at the pincushion. He could get the hedgehog but the spikes weren't coming it had a cushioned back full of pins still.

'Wow Draco stop yelling, you're giving me a headache' Hermione had been startled by the invasion to her head

'Sorry it's just driving me nuts'

'You need to concentrate harder'

'Easy for you to say, you did yours half an hour ago'

'Sorry'

'Help me'

'How can I help, you need to envision a hedgehog as clearly as you can, and only then should you use your transfiguration spell'

'Hmmmph, that's what I was doing' he thought

'Well I thought you might be that's why I can't help. I can't imagine it for you can I?'

'No' he sulked and then had an idea 'think really hard of a hedgehog and I can see it from your mind'

'That's cheating isn't it' she asked

'Nah' he said and laughed slightly

'ok' she said and screwed her nose up slightly as she thought really hard a minute later Draco had a cute little hedgehog wandering about his desk.

"Well done Mr Malfoy, second in the class, ten points to slytherin" McGonagall said. She had awarded Hermione twenty for finishing first.

Harry and Ron eventually managed to have hedgehogs and class was dismissed

"I hate hedgehogs" Draco said "that's why I couldn't picture it so well"

"But you did yours second, you can't have had that bad a time of seeing it" Harry said

"Well It still took longer than it normally would" Draco said quickly

Hermione frowned at him

"Oh would you look at the time" he said "Charms"

Flitwick showed them an interesting charm that changed your appearance for ten minutes. It was similar to what Tonks could do but very temporary.

Hermione turned her hair ginger like Rons and they all fell about laughing.

Harry turned his hair ginger too then and they all laughed even harder, but when Draco turned his hair ginger that was it they all died laughing. Hermione looked at him and thought to herself how much he had lightened up

'Glad you appreciate it' he said and stuck his tongue out at her

'Ahh I forgot stop reading my thoughts' she thought

'Hah'

Hermione straightened her hair and turned it a dirty blonde colour with some red streaks in it.

'wow she looks gorgeous like that' Draco thought to himself quietly, Hermione knew he had but didn't dare say anything so she kept that knowledge to herself and quickly changed It back to normal.

Dinner time soon came around but Hermione wasn't hungry so she stayed in the common room reading,

A message came through on the marble tablet

'Hermione, Please come to my office, Dumbledore'

It said so she quickly went

"Come in" he said as he heard her knock.

The girl entered, he noticed she had lost a fair bit of weight over the week, but then he remembered that he had hardly seen her eat a thing at mealtimes.

"You requested my presence sir?" she asked

"indeed, indeed do sit down" he said waving his hand at a chair "sherbet lemon?"

"No thank you" she declined

"Well I have sold your house" he said "I am led to believe I got a very good price on it for you as well"

"Yes sir" she said

"it was valued at three hundred thousand pounds" he said "but we got four hundred for it, this has been deposited into a Gringotts account for yourself, here is your key, and also I wanted to tell you I have arranged your parents funeral for tomorrow at ten am. You will be excused from classes tomorrow"

"Ok" she said, she had quietened at this news

"Come to my office at half past nine tomorrow, you may have someone come with you if you wish" he told her and gave her a small hug
"goodnight sir" She said and went to bed

she wasn't sure if Draco had tuned into her going to Dumbledore's office and she didn't want him to offer to go with her, she had to do it by herself, she wasn't sure why but she just felt it was something she had to do.

Draco came back up to the common room after dinner and didn't know where Hermione was. He checked her room and found she was in her bed. She looked so peaceful for the first time in a long time. She had this look about her lately that could only be described as haunted and he hated it. He wanted her to be happy and she clearly wasn't it was like today in class. She had turned her hair ginger and had been laughing but that wasn't her. There was nothing in it. It was shallow and meaningless a clear front that she had been putting on for their benefit.

'She should know I can see through it though' Draco pondered to himself.

All of a sudden there was a knock at the portrait door and Draco opened it, Blaise was stood there grinning at him

"Hey mate" he said and stepped inside

"Zabini" Draco said and pulled him into a manly hug

They sat on the sofa and were chatting like old times.

"Potter certainly has a thing for granger doesn't he?" Blaise said

"I dunno" Draco said "you could be right though"

"Don't forget I can read wonder boys head" the dark haired boy snickered

"His names Harry" Draco said "not wonder boy"

"Hey lighten up Malfoy, and since when did you start calling people by their Christian names?" He asked

"Since they are my friends" the blonde replied

"Am I not your friend then?"

"Of course you are" Draco said realising the balls up he had just made, "you know what us slytherins are like, its always surname, surname, and surname"

"So you are going to start calling me Blaise or what?"

"Yeah sure why not" Draco smirked at him

Hermione was whimpering in her room

"Whats her problem anyway, she seems a bit upset lately?"

"She just had a few family problems" Draco said "she will be ok just takes a bit of time, as we know"

"Too right" Blaise said, his father had been in Azkaban since Voldemort's first reign. Everyone expected him to be a death eater when he grew up but Draco knew that would never happen, he hated and despised the dark side.

"Anyway mate I got to go" Blaise said "I think they are having a party tonight and if I am not there people will talk"

"When don't they?" Draco asked and saw him to the door

"Don't be a stranger Blaise"

"I won't"

Draco decided to have an early night for once. But went to check on Hermione before he went to bed. She wasn't sleeping well he could tell but she wasn't as bad as she had been the other night.

He went to his room and came back with a teddy bear he had since he was just a year old, his nanny had given to him and he had managed to hide it from his father, he was never able to have toys, it was a waste of time and productive thinking his father had said and punished him whenever he found him playing with one.