You'll Never Understand, so Don't Even Try
Chapter 2: Transfiguration, Potions, and Boredom
Draco entered the library, glad to be rid of Pansy. To him, it seemed like no matter what he did to get rid of her, she just loved him even more. I guess she thinks that 'bitch' and 'whore' are compliments, Draco thought.
He walked over to an empty table, next to a window. He sat down and took out his favorite book, The Omen of Death, by Merlin Spells. He sat there for a while reading, and when his story was the most suspenseful, the climax of the story, the most exciting moment...
...the bell for classes rang.
He groaned and packed up his belongings and headed to class, cursing his bad luck. As he walked out of the library, he saw some first years, and he watched them trying to figure out where their classes were. He laughed at them like the Slytherin he was as he continued towards the Transfiguration classroom.
Draco entered the room, head high, and proceeded to his usual seat in the back, sat down, and waited for the perfect moment to torture Potter, Weasley, and his favorite Muggleborn Granger. He sat with his eyes closed and feet on the desk, waiting. He knew he would probably hear the Golden Trio before he saw them. He sat there for what seemed to be five minutes when he heard his "favorite people" enter the classroom.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Draco said as he opened his eyes and took his feet off the desk.
"Bug off, Malfoy,"Weasley said.
"Now, Weasel, is that anyway to talk to the Head Boy?" Draco said with that famous Malfoy smirk."Because you know that, as Head Boy, I have full authority to give out detentions."
"Yeah, but you know, Malfoy," Granger started, copying Draco's smirk,"I also have the power to take away that detention if I can prove it was wrongly given to the headmaster. And when it is proven, you'll be the one with the detentions."
"Granger, Granger, I thought you of all people would know that insulting the Head Boy," Malfoy paused and looked ather with disgust before adding, "is punishable by a detention. So I wouldn't be smirking if I were you."
"Yeah, but Ferret Face, aren't you forgetting that you are the one who started all of this? Now, if you don't mind, class is going to start soon."
Professor McGonagall entered the classroom and everyone took their seats. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had the unfortunate pleasure of having the last free desk, which happened to be next to Malfoy and Crabbe. Hermione was the one who sat the closest to Malfoy to hopefully stop Harry and Ron from trying to kill him.
"Today," McGonagall said, "we will be learning how to change animals into one object and how to change them from one object to another. Now, will our two Heads be so kind as to pass out the animal that I have up here to each student?"
Malfoy and Hermione made their way to the front of the classroom and started handing out the small lizards, snakes, rats, and birds to all their classmates. Hermione gave Draco the last rat so she wouldn't have to work with the ugly creature. She just hoped Malfoy didn't know about her fear of snakes and give her one on purpose.
Unfortunately for Hermione, Malfoy noticed how Hermione reacted when she picked up a snake and how quickly she was to get rid of them. Looking at the snake that curled itself around his arm, he smirked and walked over to where Hermione was sitting and placed the snake down in front of her spot. He took his seat and watched as Hermione sat and noticed the snake that was in front of her.
Draco watched her as she started to ask Potter to trade animals with her, but she didn't get the chance to trade, for she now read the writing on the blackboard which said: "No trading the animals". She sighed and looked down into the snake's black eyes and prayed that the class would be over soon. She looked over at Malfoy who gave a small smirk, and the lesson started.
After class, Draco decided not to torment the Golden Trio and walked silently to his next class, remembering that morning's events with Granger. He remembered the big bruise that she had and how she said she got it from "falling off the train," but you don't get big bruises like that from a fall. Something had happened to her and Draco was determined to find out what. It wasn't that he was going soft...was he? Nah, he just wanted to use the information as blackmail, right?
Maybe she ran into one of those things that Muggles drive around, Draco thought.What were they called again? Oh yeah, cars.
He entered the Potions classroom, glad that his favorite subject was next: lunch. He was happy that he was a Seventh Year because they only had two classes a day, but that also meant bigger homework assignments. He sighed and waited for Snape to enter the classroom. Draco didn't get the chance to bully Potter, Weasley, and Granger because they were already sitting down somewhere in front of him, and Professor Snape just walked into the classroom.But to Draco's joy, he already started taking points from Gryffindor because of the Golden Trio and that dolt, Longbottom.
"The potion that we will be making today is known to show a person's deepest desires or secrets. Dose anyone know the name of the potion?" Snape asked. Snape scanned the classroom, surprised to see that Granger had not raised her hand, although he could tell that she knew the answer, unlike Weasley, who looked clueless.
"Mr. Weasley, tell me the name of this potion."
"Uhh…" Ron looked at Hermione for the answer.
"Weasley, don't look at Miss Granger. Tell me the answer."
"Uhh… I don't know Professor," Ron said quietly.
"Five points from Gryffindor."
"What! You can't do that!" Ron shouted.
"Another five points. Oh, and Mr. Weasley, next time look at the board."
Ron looked at the blackboard behind Snape and read what it said to himself:
"The Absconditus Potion".Typical.
"All of you will pair up with someone from the opposite house." Everyone in the class made a noise of disappointment. "Headmaster's orders. Now, to start up, I'll bepairing theHead Boy, Mr. Malfoy, and the Head Girl, Miss Granger. The rest of you can pick your partners. You won't get along with anyone I would have paired you with so you get to choose someone you won't fight as much with. If you really have trouble doing such a simple task, I will pair you myself. You have thirty seconds to choose. Go."
Snape sat back down in his desk. He watched Hermione pick up her stuff because Draco wouldn't have moved up, of course. He watched as the rest of the class just eyed each other waringly.
The thirty seconds were almost up and no one moved during the whole time - they just sat and stared. Finally Professor Snape stood up.
"Now, since none of you moved, you have more homework and you will still get paired with someone of the opposite house. So shall we start the pairing? First we'll put…" Snape looked around the classroom and spotted his first pair, "Mr. Weasley and Miss Parkinson." He watched as neither wanted to be the one to move and said, "Mr. Weasley, another five points from Gryffindor for not moving over to where you partner is sitting." Ron slowly picked up his things with a looks of depression and hatred on his face.
Snape continued to look around the room and found his next pair, "Miss Brown and Mr. Crabbe." He watched Lavender gather her things and move over to where her partner was.
Snape looked around the classroom and continued to say the pairs. "And the last pair, of course, will be Mr. Potter and Mr. Goyle. For homework tonight, you are to do research and to write down all the ingredients of the potion.Write a foot long essay about its history. All of it will be on the same piece of parchment as your partners, so you will be working together on your reports." With that, the lunch bell rang (the class today was very short, but all the time was taken up by stubborn students). It was off to lunch for the Golden Trio.
Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way down the halls of Hogwarts, arms locked, and walked down to the Great Hall. They were laughing and joking around with each other until Hermione and Harry felt an arm separate them and heard, "Move out of the way, Mudblood!" Hermione gripped Ron's hand to try and keep him from attacking Malfoy. She held his hand until Draco was out of sight before letting go.
"I swear," Ron said as the three continued down the hall, "one of these days, I'm going to kill him!"
They entered the Great Hall and made their way to where Ginny was sitting. Once seated, Ron immediately started to fill his plate up of all the different foods. Hermione and Harry took their time to fill up their plates and joked about Ron's eating habits.
Lunch was over shortly, and since the trio didn't have any more classes for that day, they decided go spend the rest of the day down by the lake. As they made their way out of the Great Hall, they heard Malfoy yell from behind them, "Hey, Granger, just where do you think you're going?"
"Nowhere that concerns you, Malfoy," Hermione replied.
"Well, actually," Draco said with that same smirk on his face, "it does concern me because you're my partner for Potions, and you heard what Professor Snape said. Unless you're willing to do the project all by yourself and willing to put my name on it."
"Malfoy willing to help?" Harry said sarcastically."What is the world coming to?"
It seemed to Harry that something had happened between Hermione and Malfoy, and she didn't want to talk about it. All day, she looked at him with a look that said "please don't tell". And the way she acted around him had very faint changes, but Harry could see it, and this now proved it. Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, actually wanted Hermione to help him work. It seemed that Malfoy wanted to find something out from Hermione, and Harry wanted to find out what was going on.
"Umm…I guess, I should go you guys," Hermione finally said after the short, awkward silence.
"Hermione," Ron said annoyed, "you're actually willing to go and study with this guy?"
"I have to, Ron, or I'll get a bad grade." Malfoy scoffed. "And Snape is just waiting for the chance to fail me." Hermione smiled at her friends. "And I just noticed how much I really like my grades, even if it means I have to spend time with Malfoy." Seeing the looks on her friends' faces, she added, "Don't worry guys, I can handle it, I'm a big girl."
With that, Hermione said goodbye to her friends and followed Malfoy back to their dorms.