Chapter 5

They all convened at the Gryffindor table that night. Pan was staring at the teacher's table intently when Hermione arrived.

"I know that bastard from somewhere," Pan whispered absorbedly, her eyes fixed on Santisi. "Damn him."

"Oh, he's not that bad," Hermione replied mildly, helping herself to a sausage and a healthy scoop of mashed potatoes. "He's a rather good teacher; you can tell because his desk is organized."

"It's not that he's not a good teacher," Pan replied angrily. "But he's not who he claims he is, I know that."

Hermione shrugged. "What is it our business if he wants to go around under a pseudonym, Dumbledore would never hire a spy for the Dark Lord, if that's what you're worried about."

"Heh," Ron said darkly. "Remember, Quirrell was an agent of the Dark Lord, hell, You-Know-Who was sticking out of the back of his bloody head!"

"Well, it was a mistake, and it won't happen again," Hermione insisted, defending Dumbledore with her last shreds of dignity.

"And, he let Barty Crouch Jr. in," Harry said bitterly.

"He didn't let him in," Hermione said loudly. "Mad-Eye is one of the Professor's best friends, if Crouch fooled him, then of course he's going to fool us. Dumbledore has our best interests at heart."

"Of course he does," Pan said impatiently. "But even my dad messes up, he's only human. But we have more important things to worry about; who is this Santisi guy?"

"I'll talk to Draco," Hermione said quietly. "I'm sure he'll have an idea, I mean, he's pretty good with faces. He can recognize just about anybody."

Pan nodded desicively. "We need to get to the bottom of this before I go absolutely insane. By the way, has anyone seen Luc?"

Everyone shook their heads negative.

"Well, I'm worried he's thrown himself in the lake, or something stupid," Pan said conspiratorially. "He's not all there, you know."

"Well, he can swim," Hermione said in a very practical manner.

"How would you know?" Pan demanded.

Hermione blushed. "I dated him for a month."

Pan rolled her eyes. "What is it with you and my brothers?"

"I don't know," Hermione snapped, suddenly defensive. "Why is it any of your business? And what is it with you and Harry?"

"Nothing's going on between me and Harry," Pan hissed back. "I don't know what you're talking about, and isn't he dating some girl back near his aunt and uncle's?"

Harry looked at his plate.

Hermione wanted to slug Pan, and it was clear that Pan had the same sentiment.

"Whoah," Ron said, waving his fork around. "You guys cut it out. You're like best friends, and you shouldn't be fighting about something as stupid as this."

"He has a point," Harry said loudly.

"Harry, Ron, stay out of it," Hermione said angrily. "I could have said the same thing about a lot of your little spats, but I didn't."

"She has a point," Harry said, a little quieter this time. "I retreat from the battle field."

Suddenly, Pan slumped. "This is stupid. How are we supposed to defeat the Dark Lord if all we can argue about is how the other shouldn't date their relatives or friends. This is ridiculous."

"I agree," Hermione said, turning back to her mashed potatoes, relieved that she didn't have to admit defeat quite yet.

Pan sighed, and stared at her pumpkin juice. "I'm sorry." She seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"I'm sorry too," Hermione replied truthfully. "And it's fine if you and Harry date or whatever, I was just getting back at you for criticizing me about Luc and Draco."

"And, I don't mind if you date Draco," Pan said, sniffling slightly. "You do make him a better person, because he wasn't so great before hand, apparently."

Hermione shuddered. "He was awful."


Hermione and Harry went back to the Head's dorm room slowly, for, even on the first day, there was homework.

"Oh, I wish that there wasn't any homework," Harry groaned, dragging his feet unhappily. "This stinks."

"Homework is good for you," Hermione replied fiercely. "It may not be fun, but it will be very useful when you're interviewing for Auror work. So don't be so lazy."

Harry just moaned and continued to drag his feet more.

"Muffleberry," Hermione told Shakespeare when they arrived at the portrait. He swung open dejectedly, muttering something about he had writer's block. Hermione had half a mind to remind him that he was dead, but decided that that would be rude and out of order. She found Padma sitting in her chair, doing her work, while Draco was sitting on the rug, staring at the fire, the red and orange light catching in his hair. She was tempted to run her hand through his hair, but was worried that Padma might notice.

Draco looked up and saw them coming in. He grinned and waved slightly, but then turned back to the fire.

"I'm going to bed," Padma announced suddenly, and stood up. She flounced off to her room, leaving the rest of them in the silence of the common room.

"Draco?" Hermione asked as soon as she was sure that Padma would be out of hearing range. "Did you recognize Professor Santisi? Because he's driving Pan absolutely insane."

"I noticed that you two seemed to be having a bit of a spat," he said absent-mindedly, wrapping his hand around her ankle. "Yeah, I thought he looked a lot like Marissa."

"Marissa Malfoy?" Hermione asked, surprised. "Talfryn's daughter? The one that took us forever to find?"

Draco nodded. "That one."

Hermione thought about it for a second. "Yeah, you're right. He's a spitting image of her. Draco, when are we ever going to stop running into relatives of your's?"

Draco laughed. "Never, they're everywhere."

Harry snorted loudly. "They can't be everywhere, Draco."

"They reproduce like bunnies, Harry," Draco replied sarcastically. "I swear, the Malfoys have too many relatives. We're never alone."

Hermione smiled, and ran her hand through his hair.

"Got that right," she said vaguely. "We're all on this planet together."


A/N: Hey, sorry about the whole uh... eighth year thing... I don't know why I wrote that, don't worry, I'm not completely stupid. I think it was a typo. I'm sorry, I don't have time to fix it now, and I will change it eventually. As for the whole comment about description, I write out everything out ahead of time over the weekend, so I've only posted four chapters, now five, but I've written fourteen. So, around chapter fifteen, I'll add a lot more description:) Thanks for pointing out my mistakes, I'm glad that you guys can see them! Please leave another review!