Message in a Bottle
Chapter 16
Hermione awoke to the first morning of school feeling better than she had all summer long. She was so excited for school to begin. Just thinking of all the new books she would be reading and all the interesting and challenging exams she'd be taking made her quake in anticipation. But that was what she loved, the anticipation aspect of it all. Nerves racking, palms sweaty...it was an adrenaline rush to her.
She ran into the common room and saw Draco seated on the couch, reading something that seemed to be interesting to him considering he didn't even notice her walking in.
"Morning," she said to him, sitting down in a chair close by. "Did you sleep well?" He looked up and she noticed for the first time that he was wearing glasses. "Do you always wear glasses when you read?"
He didn't seem to be hearing what she was saying at all. "So you didn't read the paper then?" he asked cautiously, not sure how she would be handling the news.
"What do you mean?"
"I think there's something you'd better read," he reported, handing her the Daily Prophet.
He leaned back and watched as she read through the paper, each word impacting her more and more. What was she feeling? What was she thinking? Draco had to know but didn't want to upset her.
"I...I...he's dead?" she asked, looking up at Draco. "I...I guess I never even thought of the possibility of it actually coming true. This is a huge shock."
"The thing is," he said to her, trying to make her know exactly what was happening. "If this isn't a sad thing for you, I'm happy because you really shouldn't cry over a piece of scum like that. But the whole school now knows that your "father" just died and they're going to expect you to be crying and moping and all that good stuff. You have two options. One, lie and pretend to be utterly devastated. Or two, tell the whole school the truth."
Feeling a wave of nausea, Hermione ran up to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She had no breakfast to lose, but it came up anyway.
While Hermione was having her anxiety attack, Draco heard a knock on the door and went to answer it. It was the Headmaster.
"Good day, Mr. Malfoy. It's good to see you again. I trust the Head Tower and your living conditions are to your liking?"
"Eh...there's still no place like home, even if the place is a palace." School may have been a safe haven for him but no one needed to know that. "But this will suffice." Yes, leave it to Draco Malfoy to put down the nicest Tower in the entire school.
"Well I'm just here for Ms. Granger. I assume she read the paper. Am I correct?"
"Yes sir."
"And what did she do after words?"
"Ran right up to the bathroom and locked herself in, that's what she did. She made herself sick over this. I think she's blaming herself for her fathers death." He took the liberty of making the choice for Hermione. She would be pretending to be sad all throughout the day.
"Well I don't want to disturb her from her depressed state right now so I'm going to go on and go. I was just checking up on her. On any other day, I would allow her to take the day off from school but this is the first day back and it is a crucial. I trust that when she gets out of the bathroom, you will escort her to your first class?"
"You want me to be her bodyguard?"
"In so many words...yes. Would you mind terribly?"
"I guess it's not as bad as being alone. All right then. I'll take care of her."
Dumbledore left the room with his ever knowing smile spread wide across his face. Five minutes later, Hermione burst out of the bathroom looking paler than ever.
"You okay?" Draco asked.
"I...I just...I didn't want him to die!" she exclaimed resolutely. "I mean, I know he was a bad person and everything but...I didn't want him to die! I wanted to talk to him, I wanted to tell him how much I despised him, and I wanted to make sure he knew that I wasn't going to let him ruin my life!" She broke down, falling to her knees as her hands flew up to cover her face.
Draco, never being the type of person to comfort others, was clueless as to what to do. He squatted down and patted her back. "Don't cry, Hermione. It's okay. I don't think you needed to actually speak with him in order to make sure he knew you weren't too affected by him. I think that, wherever he is right now, he can watch you and see that you're okay. But at the moment, with you crying, all he's going to see if how affected you are. You've got to be strong!"
Okay, so he wasn't too good at this but hey, it was his first time! And he really WAS trying.
And though his advice wasn't very comforting, it was exactly what Hermione needed. "You're right," she responded as she wiped the salty tears from her cheeks. "He's not worth my tears."
"That's the spirit," he said. "Now listen, we're going to walk down to class together and I'll be escorting you to all your classes, even the ones you don't have with me. Right now your face is splotchy and red from the crying but that's a good thing. We need that. People will think you were crying over his death. It'll work out nicely. Try not to get excited today. Keep a straight face, maybe even try to look sad or depressed. Mope around, walk slowly, keep your head down, looking at the ground as if you're thinking really hard and nothing quite matters anymore. Think you can handle it?"
"I think so."
"You ready to go then?"
"Ready, Freddy!"
"Who the bloody hell is Freddy?"
"Muggle expression...never mind. Let's go."
She grabbed his hand and led him out of the room, both grabbing their books on the way out. They walked all the way down to the dungeons, Potions being their first class. He walked her to her seat, still holding her hand, and she sat down. Then he lingered near her until he saw the professor with greasy jet black hair walk in. Then, he took his usual seat in the back, keeping his eyes on her the whole while. By then, all of the students in either house had begun to gossip but neither of the pair listened to what they had to say.
"Hermione?" Ron said. "Are you okay?"
"Okay? Me? Why wouldn't I be okay?" she said all too quickly. "I mean, it's not like my family crisis has been brought up in the newspaper and it's not like the whole school is watching me, seeing what I'll do next! So why wouldn't I be fine?"
Harry and Ron looked at each other with sympathy for their female friend. "I'm here for you if you want to talk, Hermione," Harry finally said. "Anytime."
"Yeah, me too!" Ron added. "We're here for you, 'Mione."
"Will you three PLEASE shut up!" Snape snapped. "I'm trying to begin my lesson here and it's just a wee bit hard with you three chattering on and on as if you're only here to socialize!" As soon as he was sure that he had the attention of the whole class, he began. "Today we're learning about veritaserum. No we will not make the full strength veritaserum but we WILL make a slightly weaker form. Now can anyone tell me what this potion does?"
For once in her life, Hermione's hand did NOT shoot up immediately. Quite the contrary actually. Instead, she buried her head in her notes, pretending to look busy. That was what most students did if they did not want to be called on.
Snape, being the cruel man the he was, decided to pick on her. "Fine then. Ms. Granger, please tell us what this potion is."
Her head snapped up and she looked him right in the eyes.
"Do you not know?" he asked coldly. "I understand that there has been a death in your family but that is no excuse to come to class unprep..."
"Veritaserum is a very strong truth serum. We studied it a few years ago," she finally let out in a huffy tone.
"Good. Yes, you are correct, we did do this a few years ago but this is Advanced Placement Potions and the one we will be making today will be slightly stronger than the one you made previously."
"What will make this one different from the one we made already?" Draco asked.
"Good question, Mr. Malfoy. This one gets double the ingredients and has stronger effects. It lasts for twenty minutes and during that time, whomever drank it will tell any information asked lest it be life threatening. That is the difference between this and the real veritaserum. The real veritaserum requires the person who drinks it to give all information out, regardless of whom it may harm."
After about twenty minutes more of lecturing, he began to set them in groups. "I'll be pairing you up now. When I call your names, get with your partner and then get your ingredients. I want this done and tested by the end of class which is giving you plenty of time considering we have DOUBLE potions today. Now...let's see...I want Potter and Malfoy. Weasley and Nott. Thomas and Crabbe. Finnegan and Goyle. Brown and Parkinson. Patil and Bulstrode. Granger and Zambini..."
Hermione rolled her eyes, never having ever spoken to the man that was supposed to be her partner. She looked to Draco, her eyes asking him if she was going to be okay but his eyes provided her with little comfort.
She took her seat next to Blaise Zambini, who had been left back during their sixth year for failing Care of Magical Creatures, and began getting together the ingredients.
The preparing of the potion went well and of course, Hermione did it perfectly with little help from her Slytherin partner. As soon as Snape noticed all the students were through with their potions, he moved on to testing it. "Granger and Zambini, you're up first."
They moseyed their way up to the front of the class and Blaise pushed the vile into Hermione's hands. "You test it and I'll observe," he said.
Rolling her eyes, she took one large gulp of the fowl potion. "Good," Snape said. "Now class, you may feel free to ask her questions one at a time. Raise your hand and I will call on you."
Many hands flew up, which wasn't completely unexpected. Hermione was a quiet person. She only opened up to her closest friends so therefore not too many people knew that much about her. "Ms. Brown, you may ask one question."
"Hermione, why do you never wear makeup?"
"Because it makes no difference to me. I have no one to impress. People should like me for who I am, not what I look like. I want guys to know that what they see is what they get. I hate superficiality. It's so...fake."
"Mr. Finnegan."
"Hermione, why did you turn me down last year when I asked you out?"
"Because I didn't want a relationship. School is a lot of pressure and I'm always striving to do well. I didn't want to add more stress to my already stressful life."
"Mr. Crabbe."
"Do you have food with you by any chance?"
"No."
"Mr. Zambini."
"What's going on between you and Malfoy?"
"BLAISE!" Draco roared. "If you want to know the answer to that, you should ask ME!"
"Well I'm asking Granger. So what's the answer Granger?"
"Draco and I are really close friends. Up until this summer, he and I were enemies but then, this summer holiday, we became pen pals. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Do you have a crush on him?"
"I don't form crushes. Crushes are silly and irrational. They're are based purely on hormones and I've learned well to differentiate the feelings of lust and love."
"Do you at least lust for me?" Draco asked, now curious as to what she meant by her complicated answer. Why did women never answer straight out?
"I find you oddly attractive and yes, I feel things for you, but I have yet to put a finger on what it is that I feel."
Draco then felt sad that he had tricked her into telling him. He didn't mean to but unfortunately, that was the way it happened.
"That's enough," Snape declared. "Next victim...Potter and Malfoy. But I reserve the right to interrupt the interrogation!" Of course. Malfoy was Snape's favorite student. It was as to be expected.
"Alright then," Draco said to Harry. "Do you want to drink it or shall I?"
"I have nothing to hide so I'll do it then."
"Fine by me."
Harry took a long swig of the potion and nearly gagged. It didn't taste so good. "I'm ready," he said soon, making sure they kenw he had nothing to hide.
"I have a question!" screamed one of the Gryffindor girls that Harry had never really spoken with. "Are you...single?"
"The answer is unbeknownst, even to me. I met a girl over the summer that lived on my block and we had a relationship based on sex. We never stated whether or not we were going out or not so that is one question I cannot answer fully. But if you ask me, no, I am not single."
"Did you practice for Quidditch?" Ron asked hopefully, desperate for a yes. He was so hoping to win this year and everyone keeping in shape would be a big plus.
"Yes. I made sure to work out for an hour or so daily and I worked on my eye training."
"Any hints of the Dark Lord attacking or anything like that?" someone screamed in a state of terror.
"My scar burned a lot this summer."
"And...?"
"Any more is not required because it could harm others," Snape said as he stepped in. "We shall not discuss He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in my class. This is potions. Let's keep it at potions."
Class ended with that and everyone ran out of class as soon as possible. Draco waited around for Hermione and decided to carry her books for her. "You fancy me, don't you," he asked though he knew the answer already.
"You fancy me as well. You may have never said it but I can see it in your eyes. Why do you fancy me though? That is the question."
He had no clue that she knew but apparently, he had been caught. "I guess it's your personality. I can relate to you. I..."
"I don't want to hear it! Let's get to class!"
A/N...why did she avoid the conversation? What was happening with Harry's scar? What exactly was Malfoy going to say had Hermione not cut him off?
Okay, well I'm back. It's been difficult, keeping up with the updates. I'm struggling to maintain my job at Quiznos, get good grades, keep up with marching band, tutor, write my stories AND have a life... it's just getting more and more difficult. Please bare with me.
No, this chapter was not just filler. I thought it was one of the cuter chapters, even if you guys don't agree. It also gets a look into their minds. Hope you enjoyed. I'd love to hear what you thought.
Chapter 16
Hermione awoke to the first morning of school feeling better than she had all summer long. She was so excited for school to begin. Just thinking of all the new books she would be reading and all the interesting and challenging exams she'd be taking made her quake in anticipation. But that was what she loved, the anticipation aspect of it all. Nerves racking, palms sweaty...it was an adrenaline rush to her.
She ran into the common room and saw Draco seated on the couch, reading something that seemed to be interesting to him considering he didn't even notice her walking in.
"Morning," she said to him, sitting down in a chair close by. "Did you sleep well?" He looked up and she noticed for the first time that he was wearing glasses. "Do you always wear glasses when you read?"
He didn't seem to be hearing what she was saying at all. "So you didn't read the paper then?" he asked cautiously, not sure how she would be handling the news.
"What do you mean?"
"I think there's something you'd better read," he reported, handing her the Daily Prophet.
He leaned back and watched as she read through the paper, each word impacting her more and more. What was she feeling? What was she thinking? Draco had to know but didn't want to upset her.
"I...I...he's dead?" she asked, looking up at Draco. "I...I guess I never even thought of the possibility of it actually coming true. This is a huge shock."
"The thing is," he said to her, trying to make her know exactly what was happening. "If this isn't a sad thing for you, I'm happy because you really shouldn't cry over a piece of scum like that. But the whole school now knows that your "father" just died and they're going to expect you to be crying and moping and all that good stuff. You have two options. One, lie and pretend to be utterly devastated. Or two, tell the whole school the truth."
Feeling a wave of nausea, Hermione ran up to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She had no breakfast to lose, but it came up anyway.
While Hermione was having her anxiety attack, Draco heard a knock on the door and went to answer it. It was the Headmaster.
"Good day, Mr. Malfoy. It's good to see you again. I trust the Head Tower and your living conditions are to your liking?"
"Eh...there's still no place like home, even if the place is a palace." School may have been a safe haven for him but no one needed to know that. "But this will suffice." Yes, leave it to Draco Malfoy to put down the nicest Tower in the entire school.
"Well I'm just here for Ms. Granger. I assume she read the paper. Am I correct?"
"Yes sir."
"And what did she do after words?"
"Ran right up to the bathroom and locked herself in, that's what she did. She made herself sick over this. I think she's blaming herself for her fathers death." He took the liberty of making the choice for Hermione. She would be pretending to be sad all throughout the day.
"Well I don't want to disturb her from her depressed state right now so I'm going to go on and go. I was just checking up on her. On any other day, I would allow her to take the day off from school but this is the first day back and it is a crucial. I trust that when she gets out of the bathroom, you will escort her to your first class?"
"You want me to be her bodyguard?"
"In so many words...yes. Would you mind terribly?"
"I guess it's not as bad as being alone. All right then. I'll take care of her."
Dumbledore left the room with his ever knowing smile spread wide across his face. Five minutes later, Hermione burst out of the bathroom looking paler than ever.
"You okay?" Draco asked.
"I...I just...I didn't want him to die!" she exclaimed resolutely. "I mean, I know he was a bad person and everything but...I didn't want him to die! I wanted to talk to him, I wanted to tell him how much I despised him, and I wanted to make sure he knew that I wasn't going to let him ruin my life!" She broke down, falling to her knees as her hands flew up to cover her face.
Draco, never being the type of person to comfort others, was clueless as to what to do. He squatted down and patted her back. "Don't cry, Hermione. It's okay. I don't think you needed to actually speak with him in order to make sure he knew you weren't too affected by him. I think that, wherever he is right now, he can watch you and see that you're okay. But at the moment, with you crying, all he's going to see if how affected you are. You've got to be strong!"
Okay, so he wasn't too good at this but hey, it was his first time! And he really WAS trying.
And though his advice wasn't very comforting, it was exactly what Hermione needed. "You're right," she responded as she wiped the salty tears from her cheeks. "He's not worth my tears."
"That's the spirit," he said. "Now listen, we're going to walk down to class together and I'll be escorting you to all your classes, even the ones you don't have with me. Right now your face is splotchy and red from the crying but that's a good thing. We need that. People will think you were crying over his death. It'll work out nicely. Try not to get excited today. Keep a straight face, maybe even try to look sad or depressed. Mope around, walk slowly, keep your head down, looking at the ground as if you're thinking really hard and nothing quite matters anymore. Think you can handle it?"
"I think so."
"You ready to go then?"
"Ready, Freddy!"
"Who the bloody hell is Freddy?"
"Muggle expression...never mind. Let's go."
She grabbed his hand and led him out of the room, both grabbing their books on the way out. They walked all the way down to the dungeons, Potions being their first class. He walked her to her seat, still holding her hand, and she sat down. Then he lingered near her until he saw the professor with greasy jet black hair walk in. Then, he took his usual seat in the back, keeping his eyes on her the whole while. By then, all of the students in either house had begun to gossip but neither of the pair listened to what they had to say.
"Hermione?" Ron said. "Are you okay?"
"Okay? Me? Why wouldn't I be okay?" she said all too quickly. "I mean, it's not like my family crisis has been brought up in the newspaper and it's not like the whole school is watching me, seeing what I'll do next! So why wouldn't I be fine?"
Harry and Ron looked at each other with sympathy for their female friend. "I'm here for you if you want to talk, Hermione," Harry finally said. "Anytime."
"Yeah, me too!" Ron added. "We're here for you, 'Mione."
"Will you three PLEASE shut up!" Snape snapped. "I'm trying to begin my lesson here and it's just a wee bit hard with you three chattering on and on as if you're only here to socialize!" As soon as he was sure that he had the attention of the whole class, he began. "Today we're learning about veritaserum. No we will not make the full strength veritaserum but we WILL make a slightly weaker form. Now can anyone tell me what this potion does?"
For once in her life, Hermione's hand did NOT shoot up immediately. Quite the contrary actually. Instead, she buried her head in her notes, pretending to look busy. That was what most students did if they did not want to be called on.
Snape, being the cruel man the he was, decided to pick on her. "Fine then. Ms. Granger, please tell us what this potion is."
Her head snapped up and she looked him right in the eyes.
"Do you not know?" he asked coldly. "I understand that there has been a death in your family but that is no excuse to come to class unprep..."
"Veritaserum is a very strong truth serum. We studied it a few years ago," she finally let out in a huffy tone.
"Good. Yes, you are correct, we did do this a few years ago but this is Advanced Placement Potions and the one we will be making today will be slightly stronger than the one you made previously."
"What will make this one different from the one we made already?" Draco asked.
"Good question, Mr. Malfoy. This one gets double the ingredients and has stronger effects. It lasts for twenty minutes and during that time, whomever drank it will tell any information asked lest it be life threatening. That is the difference between this and the real veritaserum. The real veritaserum requires the person who drinks it to give all information out, regardless of whom it may harm."
After about twenty minutes more of lecturing, he began to set them in groups. "I'll be pairing you up now. When I call your names, get with your partner and then get your ingredients. I want this done and tested by the end of class which is giving you plenty of time considering we have DOUBLE potions today. Now...let's see...I want Potter and Malfoy. Weasley and Nott. Thomas and Crabbe. Finnegan and Goyle. Brown and Parkinson. Patil and Bulstrode. Granger and Zambini..."
Hermione rolled her eyes, never having ever spoken to the man that was supposed to be her partner. She looked to Draco, her eyes asking him if she was going to be okay but his eyes provided her with little comfort.
She took her seat next to Blaise Zambini, who had been left back during their sixth year for failing Care of Magical Creatures, and began getting together the ingredients.
The preparing of the potion went well and of course, Hermione did it perfectly with little help from her Slytherin partner. As soon as Snape noticed all the students were through with their potions, he moved on to testing it. "Granger and Zambini, you're up first."
They moseyed their way up to the front of the class and Blaise pushed the vile into Hermione's hands. "You test it and I'll observe," he said.
Rolling her eyes, she took one large gulp of the fowl potion. "Good," Snape said. "Now class, you may feel free to ask her questions one at a time. Raise your hand and I will call on you."
Many hands flew up, which wasn't completely unexpected. Hermione was a quiet person. She only opened up to her closest friends so therefore not too many people knew that much about her. "Ms. Brown, you may ask one question."
"Hermione, why do you never wear makeup?"
"Because it makes no difference to me. I have no one to impress. People should like me for who I am, not what I look like. I want guys to know that what they see is what they get. I hate superficiality. It's so...fake."
"Mr. Finnegan."
"Hermione, why did you turn me down last year when I asked you out?"
"Because I didn't want a relationship. School is a lot of pressure and I'm always striving to do well. I didn't want to add more stress to my already stressful life."
"Mr. Crabbe."
"Do you have food with you by any chance?"
"No."
"Mr. Zambini."
"What's going on between you and Malfoy?"
"BLAISE!" Draco roared. "If you want to know the answer to that, you should ask ME!"
"Well I'm asking Granger. So what's the answer Granger?"
"Draco and I are really close friends. Up until this summer, he and I were enemies but then, this summer holiday, we became pen pals. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Do you have a crush on him?"
"I don't form crushes. Crushes are silly and irrational. They're are based purely on hormones and I've learned well to differentiate the feelings of lust and love."
"Do you at least lust for me?" Draco asked, now curious as to what she meant by her complicated answer. Why did women never answer straight out?
"I find you oddly attractive and yes, I feel things for you, but I have yet to put a finger on what it is that I feel."
Draco then felt sad that he had tricked her into telling him. He didn't mean to but unfortunately, that was the way it happened.
"That's enough," Snape declared. "Next victim...Potter and Malfoy. But I reserve the right to interrupt the interrogation!" Of course. Malfoy was Snape's favorite student. It was as to be expected.
"Alright then," Draco said to Harry. "Do you want to drink it or shall I?"
"I have nothing to hide so I'll do it then."
"Fine by me."
Harry took a long swig of the potion and nearly gagged. It didn't taste so good. "I'm ready," he said soon, making sure they kenw he had nothing to hide.
"I have a question!" screamed one of the Gryffindor girls that Harry had never really spoken with. "Are you...single?"
"The answer is unbeknownst, even to me. I met a girl over the summer that lived on my block and we had a relationship based on sex. We never stated whether or not we were going out or not so that is one question I cannot answer fully. But if you ask me, no, I am not single."
"Did you practice for Quidditch?" Ron asked hopefully, desperate for a yes. He was so hoping to win this year and everyone keeping in shape would be a big plus.
"Yes. I made sure to work out for an hour or so daily and I worked on my eye training."
"Any hints of the Dark Lord attacking or anything like that?" someone screamed in a state of terror.
"My scar burned a lot this summer."
"And...?"
"Any more is not required because it could harm others," Snape said as he stepped in. "We shall not discuss He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in my class. This is potions. Let's keep it at potions."
Class ended with that and everyone ran out of class as soon as possible. Draco waited around for Hermione and decided to carry her books for her. "You fancy me, don't you," he asked though he knew the answer already.
"You fancy me as well. You may have never said it but I can see it in your eyes. Why do you fancy me though? That is the question."
He had no clue that she knew but apparently, he had been caught. "I guess it's your personality. I can relate to you. I..."
"I don't want to hear it! Let's get to class!"
A/N...why did she avoid the conversation? What was happening with Harry's scar? What exactly was Malfoy going to say had Hermione not cut him off?
Okay, well I'm back. It's been difficult, keeping up with the updates. I'm struggling to maintain my job at Quiznos, get good grades, keep up with marching band, tutor, write my stories AND have a life... it's just getting more and more difficult. Please bare with me.
No, this chapter was not just filler. I thought it was one of the cuter chapters, even if you guys don't agree. It also gets a look into their minds. Hope you enjoyed. I'd love to hear what you thought.
