Divine Vitality

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter characters and such. Recognition and ownership of such belongs to the wonderful author, J.K. Rowling. (I love you!)

Chapter 4: A Night with the Lion

Written by melancholic orchid

Hermione woke up fatigued; her mind filled with confusion. Strange… she pondered. It was probably some weird hallucination. Yes. That was it – and nothing more.

Stepping into her clean robes, she grabbed her book bag and with an anxious mind apt for learning and knowledge, she prodded out of the girls' dorm and walked off to the common room.

"G'morning, Hermione," Ron said wearily, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Hey, Ron – Harry."

"Come," Harry said. "Time for breakfast."

The trio walked off to the Great Hall where they enjoyed a delicious morning meal. "So, I'm taking History of Primeval Runes first block as well and then…" She went on and on about her new extra curricular subjects she was taking. Her whole schedule was filled with session after session of lessons and classes.

"But then you'll have to be in two classes at once!" Ron exclaimed.

Harry lightly tapped Ron on the shoulder, "She has that weird Time Turner, remember?"

"Oh right! – I so knew that."

Hermione laughed, too distracted to notice the clock ringing throughout the Great Hall.

Subsiding her fit of giggles, she stared at the large clock in the Great Hall, Hermione gasped. "Drats!"

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"I better get going or I'll be late for History of Primeval Runes!" She rapidly stuffed a muffin in her mouth and grabbed her bag. "Bye! I'll see you two later then!" Then she dashed off to class.

"How could I get so carried away?" Hermione whispered to herself treading to her first block.

"Talking to yourself, huh?" an icy voice sneered.

"Malfoy," she grunted under her breath.

"You know, talking to oneself is an accurate sign of madness," Draco snickered.

"You know, Malfoy," she spat, "Being someone like you is a positive sign of insanity. It's a shame you aren't at some mental asylum."

His cruel sneer turned flat. Without reacting back at her, he continued walking the other way to his initial class, shoving her to the side with his arm which caused her to topple over, spilling the contents of her shoulder bag. His cold laugh echoed in the deserted hallway as she scrounged for her items, repairing whatever was broken from the fall.

"Stupid, git. No way in hell am I patrolling with him."

Draco lazily kept a distance away from Hermione. I can't believe I have to spend my night with Granger. This is ridiculous!

"I hope you enjoyed being tardy on the first day of classes, Mudblood," he drawled, "It must've ruined your perfect know-it-all reputation, didn't it?"

"Oh, I enjoyed it very much," she sardonically replied without looking at eye contact.

"You know," he continued, "A good conversation always has eye contact between the speakers. Wouldn't you like to be a good girl and take pleasure in our good conversation?"

"Not with you." Her face was slowly turning crimson. Draco smiled menacingly. He had always liked to use her short-tempered attitude to his advantage, with her bushy locks flying in the air, her face contorted with red-hot anger.

"Gee. I'm hurt by your harsh comments."

"Good thing too."

Draco was now somewhat irritated by her presence but he kept his icy face straight. "Where's your common courtesy? You know Mudbloods should never talk to the wealthy with such a filthy mouth."

"Oh piss off, Malfoy," she mumbled. "You're the one with the filthy mouth."

He silently cursed with displeasure. Why must you be so proud, Granger?

"Didn't your parents teach you nothing about etiquette? Terrible parents they must be!" he continued.

Grunting angrily, she turned her body to face him. "Don't say anything like that about my parents! They've taught me plenty about proper etiquette and also to ignore the fools who go on and on about their arrogant selves."

Draco scowled. I'll never be able to make her life with me truly a living hell. When did Mudblood pride exist? Sighing, he gave up taunting her and carried on with his duties. Look on the bright side, his conscience whispered; at least spending time with her won't make you fond of her. After all, this is the bushy-haired nerd we're talking about.

Hermione didn't hear him defending himself and smirked. "You were really that desperate weren't you?"

"Desperate? For what?" he inquired, "If you mean as in desperate to having this year end quickly so I don't have to patrol with you, then yes. I am desperate for that."

"No. Not that. You were desperate to make me fume like hell's fire, weren't you?"

"You can take over for that fraud, Trelawney," he commented.

So we both think she's a fraud, huh?

"A pleasure but I decline."

"I didn't even ask you to take over her position, Mudblood. If you did, Divination would be worse than ever."

"Apparently, your crude comment seems to simply bounce off of me."

This is hilarious. For some reason, after six years of knowing him, I thought he'd be smart enough to realize that his foolish taunting has no effect on me whatsoever.

Suddenly, her wand vibrated nonchalantly. "Oh, well, we're done for the night."

"Thank God," she heard him murmur.

"This has definitely been a waste of my time. I could've been doing my homework."

"You think this has been a waste of your time? What about me! Now I'll be waking up with bags under my eyes, ruining my utterly handsome face. So much for my beauty rest."

Still extremely arrogant I find.

"Gee, Malfoy. It's too bad you won't be attracting girls anymore with that horrendous face of yours then. Well, good night." With that, Hermione stalked off to the Gryffindor House beaming at herself for not losing her cool with Draco.

That wasn't all that bad. As long as I don't turn into a human waterfall at his presence, I have nothing to fear.

"Hermione!" Ron called once she entered through the portrait hole. She smiled seeing that her companions waited for her to arrive.

"How did it go?" Harry asked.

"It was fine," she answered hugging them tightly. "But I'm real glad to be back here."

"I couldn't agree more!" Ron exclaimed.

Hermione giggled. "And why is that?" She wanted to hear those pleasing words, 'Because we missed you of course!' which would wash away all of her irritation with Draco that night.

"Well – Well, I kind of need you to help me with homework."

"Oh thanks, Ron," she muttered sarcastically. The thought of Ron's 'supposed' sincerity vanished from her mind. "Give me more homework, huh?"

"It's just one assignment."

Her face froze with frustration.

"Please?" He looked at her with sad, puppy-dog eyes.

"Oh fine!" she cried out, defeated. "But don't think I'll be doing this for you again!"

"Thanks, Hermione!" Immediately, Ron scurried off to retrieve his homework. Ron seriously needs to take responsibility.

"You sure it was just fine?" Harry asked once Ron was out of sight.

"Yes. What do you want me to say? He kissed me?"

"Well no." She could tell Harry bought what she just said. "Not unless that was what had happened."

Hermione patted him on the shoulder. "Nothing like that could ever happen, Harry. It was just the usual. He kept on teasing me so I could fume like crazy for his enjoyment."

"And did you?"

"No, Harry. Someone like you should know that I'm used to it by now."

"But there's always room for new insults."

"I'm fine, Harry. You don't need to worry." Hermione pecked him in the cheek. "Besides, Malfoy's too idiotic to come up with more flames."

"Alright then." She saw that he was not all convinced.

"Harry, I can take care of myself. Don't let my safety be a bother to you. You already have a lot of things to think about."

"Which includes you."

A/N: This chapter took so long! Stupid brain stuck.

Anywho, thank you Lauren and Crodo for editing my chapters and to all of you reviewers who reviewed my story. Good for you! Give yourself a pat on the back!

... Yes, Lauren. The initial incident is coming up very soon. Thank you for pointing that out by the way.