Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter. He and everything related to him belongs solely to JK Rowling.
Title: At the Beat of a HammerChapter Eight
"Sorry we're late 'Mione." Harry said apologetically as he sat down next to her. "Ron forgot his potions book back at the dorm so we had to run back up to get it.
"It's alright, I only got here a minute ago myself." Hermione looked past Harry to her other friend and smiled. Apparently they did run upstairs and down to the dungeons because Ron was obviously out of breath when he fell back into his seat.
Today she was in a fairly good mood, since she managed to grab ten whole hours of sleep last night and the highest marks on an Arithmancy exam. The fact that she hadn't seen Malfoy for several days made it even better. After last week's meeting with Narcissa, Hermione had managed to avoid her fiancé completely. If I ignore the monster under the bed it would go away. Right?
However, she already knew that she wouldn't get that lucky today. It was Friday and today the Gryffindors had double potions with the Slytherins, so they were bound to be in the same room. No one dared to miss Friday's potions lessons unless they were gravely ill. Even Slytherins weren't excused.
Behind her she heard the shrill laughter of Slytherin girls and a few "Oh Draco"s followed by dreamy sighs. Hermione didn't have to turn around to know that Malfoy came into the classroom draped in his harem of girls. She stared forward instead, at nothing in particular, and let her frustration out by glaring at stray particles of dust that flew by her.
"You okay?" Ron asked, oblivious to the ferret.
"Yeah, sorry. Just daydreaming." Hermione responded, her eyes following a new dust particle.
Harry snapped his fingers in front of her face, successfully bringing her attention to him. "You sure? Because you're glaring."
"That's true, Hermione. You look like you're about to kill." Ron added in turn.
"I'm fine. It's just about.. It's a Muggle thing." She lied, knowing that Ron would just dismiss it, because no matter what, he couldn't understand anything about Muggles. Even if his life depended on it.
Just as she expected, Ron shrugged it off with a murmured "Okay."
Harry, on the other hand, wasn't about to let it go. On the contrary, he was about to ask more questions. Thankfully he never got the chance. As soon as he opened his mouth the camouflaged door at the back of the room flew open and Snape strode in, his robes billowing around him.
"Open the books to page three hundred twenty-eight." He drawled. The class was silent, only the sound of pages flipping could be heard within the room. It wasn't only Neville that was afraid of the greasy-haired potions master, but he was the only one who had trouble turning the pages of his textbook.
"We are going to be making a Dust Removal potion. Useless and too hard for you fools to make, it is part of the curriculum and it is good practice for the much more precise and intricate potions you will be assigned later on." Snape sat down at his table and took out a piece of paper with a list scribbled on it. "You will be working with partners, listen for your name and then move to sit with the person.
"Weasley and Thomas. Potter and Goyle. Bullstrode and Crabbe. Patil and Zabini. Malfoy and Granger." The names continued but Hermione wasn't paying attention anymore. It was just her luck to be partnered up with the one person she wanted to get away from. "Longbottom and Parkinson. The ingredients are in the cabinet. Follow the instructions in your books, I trust you can do that. When done, put a stopper on it, write your names, and place it on my desk. Get on with it." He snarled the last four words and the class turned to be as busy as an anthill, someone scurrying in this direction or the other.
"It won't be that bad Hermione." Parvatti assured her.
"You'll still get full marks, and even though he's Malfoy he is the second best one at potions in our year." Lavender added, standing up to go sit with her partner.
"Right…" Hermione said uncertainly while picking up her belongings and walking reluctantly over to the Slytherin side of the room. Her fiancé was still snogging the Parkinson whore. Hermione dropped her things next to them, announcing her arrival quite loudly. "I'll get the first five things." Her eyes flashed with anger as she stormed off toward the ingredients cabinet.
When they both got back to their seats, somehow Draco managed to be there first, they began to make the potion. Cutting unevenly and stirring too roughly, the pair was silent but exceptionally angry.
About twenty minutes before the class was over, Hermione was looking into the cauldron when she noticed that something wasn't right. Their purple potion sprouted a lime green bubble. The Gryffindor quickly read over the recipe again, but it didn't say anything about green bubbles.
"Malfoy?"
"I don't have time for you." Was his reply but he wasn't doing anything which frustrated Hermione even more.
"Malfoy!" Her voice seemed more anxious now that the bubble was getting bigger with every passing second.
"I don't talk to Mudbloods." He hissed, blowing her off again.
"Damn it Malfoy. Can't you stop being an egotistic jerk for a second and notice that there is something wrong with the potion!"
"What!" Draco jumped down from the desk he was sitting on and peered into the cauldron where the bright green bubble was growing profusely. "It's all your fault Mudblood."
"Oh my God, I think it's going to…" before Hermione finished her sentence the bubble burst. Green and purple goo covered everybody and everything and the smell was atrocious.
"Blow?" Malfoy asked, glaring at her, an especially large glob of goo sliding down the left side of his face.
"LONGBOTTOM!" Snape yelled, thinking that the misfortunate boy was responsible for this explosion.
"It wasn't our cauldron that exploded, sir." Pansy Parkinson sounded flabbergasted that the head of her house was suggesting that she let the potion explode.
Snape looked around the room, coming to Hermione and Draco last. He was shocked by the fact that his best students were the ones that failed but regained his composure quickly. "Granger, Malfoy. You have some explaining to do. Later though. Everybody of the room, we don't know how dangerous this concoction is."
Some girls shrieked and panicked when they realized that they might be in danger. However, they managed to get everyone out quickly without any more mishaps. When they were outside, it was only two minutes until class was over so Snape let everyone go. Everybody except Draco and Hermione.
"What happened back there?" Snape glared down at Hermione.
"She stirred it too roughly!"
"He cut the ingredients unevenly."
"She put in too many Rododenhedrons."
"He added the snake powder before the owl eye."
"ENOUGH." Snape barked. "You are both at fault."
"But…" Draco was going to say that he was a pureblood and a Slytherin but Snape ignored him.
"Tomorrow, you will both come here at ten o'clock sharp and clean up the mess you made. And then you would have to make the potion properly."
"But Professor…" Hermione protested, she had a meeting with Narcissa early in the morning and didn't know how long that would last.
"Tomorrow. Ten. I trust you to be able to at least follow these instructions, Miss Granger." Snape was already halfway down the hall. The rest of the day went by in a flash, nothing interesting happened nor did Hermione see the ferret again.
Saturday morning, Hermione woke up when the sun rose and made sure that she looked presentable for the meeting. Presentable meant that she brushed her hair a minute longer then usual. Narcissa was surely going to comment on her appearance. So why bother?
At about the same time as last week, Hermione stood outside of the meeting room. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open. To her surprise, Narcissa was already there and so were four other women whom she didn't recognize.
"Ladies, this is the girl who has to marry my Draco. You have to help her choose a dress that will work well with her complexion, since she will be a Malfoy afterall. I don't care how much it costs, but it has to flatter her or else she wouldn't look good for the wedding nor would she look well in the pictures." Narcissa commanded the seamstresses. They nodded and started rummaging through their equipment. "I will be back in about three hours. I expect to have her measured and a dress hologram around her when I get back. Now get to work." With those final words she grabbed some flue powder and was gone.
As soon as the smoke cleared, everybody let out a breath that they were carefully holding.
"What's your name?" One of the women called out, still looking through her things.
"Hermione." The girl responded timidly.
"Okay then, dear. Could you take off your robes and uniform? Mrs. Malfoy requested very precise measurements." A plump lady came over to her from the left, a measuring tape in her hands.
"Right here? Right now?"
"Yes girl, we don't got all day." Another seamstress answered impatiently.
"Alright." Hermione had expected this but she wasn't prepared for it. She never imagined them to ask her so bluntly either. But what Narcissa wanted, Narcissa got. No one wanted to go against her. So, with a sigh she let her clothes fall away. In no time she stood standing there in only her knickers and a tank top. Both were black and conservative.
At least an hour passed before all of the measurements were taken. The plump lady measured everything possible and called them out to be recorded by one of her colleagues. Hermione was blushing throughout the process, not getting used to it in the slightest.
Hannah, the plump seamstress who measured her, collapsed onto the couch, tired and out or breath from her job. A younger woman, introduced as Sophie, motioned Hermione toward an empty seat. "Sit down, won't you? You must be tired of standing by now. You can put your robe on too, at least for now. We're just going to talk about the styles of dresses you can choose from."
Hermione complied without a sound.
"Alright. So do you want your dress to be white?" Nod. "Strapless?" Hermione shook her head. "Sleeveless?" Another shake. "Longsleeved?" The bride nodded. "Long skirt?" Another nod. "Train?" She shook her head again.
"Do you want it to be simple or elaborate?" Sophie asked, marking every answer Hermione gave her in a book.
"Simple. Very simple." The girl stressed the word 'very.' She just wasn't into sequence and such.
"Alright, simple." Another mark on the page. "But is it going to be elegant and sexy or just a plain white dress?" Sophie raised an eyebrow at her client.
'Mione was about to answer 'plain' but reconsidered. "Elegant please." It was her wedding after all, and she would remember it forever. Good or bad. Still, saying the word made her blush.
"And sexy?" Hermione nodded, blushing even harder. Sophie made the final mark on the page and looked pleased.
"Okay then, So based on your answers, here are the choices we have to offer you." She waved her wand and as soon as she tapped the page with it, dresses flew off of the pages and into the room. They circled around Hermione like homeless ghosts looking for a master, showing themselves off to her. The girl sat in the middle, mesmerized.
"Go ahead, pick one." Hannah encouraged.
For another few minutes she watched one or another. Uninterrupted, she examined and evaluated them from different angles. Finally she raised her hand and pointed to the dress she had picked. Immediately all of the other dresses disappeared so that only the one she chose floated in its place in front of her.
"Nice choice." One of the other two seamstresses noted. "Now just stand right over there and we will hologram it onto you."
"Hologram?" She knew what the term meant, but wasn't sure what was going to happen in this case.
"Yes, it will look like you are wearing it but you won't feel it on you. It's a very convenient method."
"Okay." Hermione walked over to where the woman wanted her to be and stood very still, waiting to feel somehow different. She didn't. All of a sudden she just saw the dress appear on her. She twirled and it still felt like she was wearing her robes but visually, the dress spun around her naturally. "Wow." Was all she could say.
"Yes, it's neat isn't it?" Sophie grinned at her, obviously pleased. "Too bad they only last for fifteen minutes."
Hannah came over holding a full-body length mirror that she conjured up. "So go ahead, give it a once over while it lasts."
Hermione glanced at the mirror and gasped in surprise. It wasn't an entirely good gasp either. Sure she looked good in the dress. It fit quite nicely, or at least the hologram dress did. It made herlook innocent and fragile. It was made out of plain white stretchy material that clung tight to her skin at the top but the skirt flowed with even the slightest movement. It left her shoulders bared but didn't have a deep neckline. However, she herself looked horrid. Dark circles under eyes that were puffy and red from crying too much. Her skin was pale and blotchy. Her nose was red and her lips chapped. Even her hair, which she thought looked fine a few hours ago, was frizzy and oily and all over the place.
"What a sight. I look like a virgin sacrifice on crack." Three of the seamstresses laughed, but one didn't get the joke. Hermione didn't have time to explain any of it because Narcissa walked into the room. Everyone froze.
AN: This is only half of what I was planning to write.. but it's already six pages so yeah. The other half will come later. Thank you: HGDM lova, dawn-miko, TomFeltonsDancer, BlueEyedDolly, blonde-brain, and Gothhottie for reviewing.
Brokken