Back in the Gryffindor common room after dinner Harry and Ron complained about their bad luck in potions.
"Goyle is so awful. First he tried to add the roots whole, and then he almost forgot to put in the last ingredient," Harry groaned.
"That's nothing. Crabbe tried to add a dragon's heart to the potion. Do you know what that would have done? I could be dead right now because of him," boasted Ron as he clutched his heart and fell over, imitating his own death.
"Well at least you two are learning something. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea of Snape's after all," Hermione mused.
"You have a partner who actually knows what he's doing, Hermione," reminded Harry. "Although he seems like a bigger git than Malfoy."
"He's actually quite nice. And he can hold an intellectual conversation. In fact I'm meeting him in the library," Hermione announced.
Flabbergasted, Harry and Ron could only stare at Hermione as she got up and left.
"First Krum, now Malevich—maybe I should consider transferring to Durmstrang," said Ron in a depressed voice.
"Oh get over it Ron. You barely even noticed she was a girl until a couple years ago. You can't expect her to just wait for you."
"Get off it Harry, you sound exactly like Ginny. I already have an annoying sister and I don't need another one." Ron sounded annoyed, but Harry knew it was because he knew Harry was right.
Meanwhile, Hermione had found Malevich in the library surrounded by a bunch of Slytherin and Ravenclaw girls. She could hardly blame then, since he was a smart Slytherin, but at the same time she was a little jealous. Malevich, however, walked over to Hermione as soon as he spotted her and led her away from the others.
Although they couldn't be too loud because Madam Pince would find and chastise them, Hermione had one of the most stimulating and enjoyable conversations of her life. She, Harry, and Ron had been best friends since their first year, but never had she been able to talk to them like this. Neither had it distracted her from her schoolwork; in fact, Malevich, or Aleksei as he had insisted she call him, had given her some truly brilliant ideas.
Hermione returned to the common room still half-smiling to herself.
"Have you been in the library this entire time?" asked Ron incredulously. "What were you doing in there? Snogging another Durmstrang?"
Coloring slightly, Hermione responded tartly, "Not that it's any of your business, Ron, but no, were not snogging, as you so delicately put it. We were discussing literature."
"Right." Ron rolled his eyes dramatically.
"And when have you ever seen me so consumed by love that I go and snog people who I haven't even known for a week?" asked Hermione sarcastically.
"Well--," Ron trailed off, unable to come up with a decent example.
"Are you suggesting that he gave me a love potion?"
"It's possible."
"Ronald Weasley! You have sat with me at every meal since we've known Aleksei. You would have seen him give me a potion. It seems like Snape is right: you don't pay attention in or out of class. Good night Ronald, I have work to do." With that, Hermione stalked off to the girls' dormitory.
Ron and Hermione began to completely avoid each other, putting Harry in an all too familiar position. While he thought that Hermione was right, he couldn't desert his best mate in a situation like this.
"Ron, seriously mate, get over Hermione. There are plenty of other girls. At least cool off while she deals with this Malevich thing, in a semester he'll be back at Durmstrang and Malfoy will be back. You can make your move then. Besides, maybe if you lay off her for now she'll see that you respect her."
"Yeah, ok. I can do that," Ron acquiesced glumly.
"Ok, let's get to Potions. Remember we don't have Hermione to remind us anymore? And we definitely don't want to be late for Snape again. He's liable to put us in detention for a month straight, the foul git."
Potions, for once, was relatively uneventful, except for Snape's announcement at the beginning of class. He had said, "In order to give the rest of you idiots a chance, I will be splitting up Miss Granger and Mr. Malevich," and sent Malevich to the unused bench in the back corner.
"Since when has Snape ever been interested in the rest of us idiots a chance?" asked Ron.
"I dunno. You'd think that since it's almost time for Malevich to go back to Durmstrang he'd leave them alone and then make Malfoy take his place with Hermione." Harry was absorbed more in his Charms homework than the conversation.
"It's creepy how he still looks at Hermione all of the time."
"It's probably just because he hates that she's a Gryffindor who is good at Potions, and he couldn't give a detention to her without giving one to Malevich too. I can't believe she's in detention with him for finishing her potion early and reading without his permission though."
"It's Snape, what d'you expect?" Ron almost spat contemptuously. "And why isn't she back yet? It's almost midnight? How long is he going to keep her in detention?"
"Ron, I agree with you, but don't let Hermione see you this possessive if you want a chance later. Speaking of Hermione, looks like she's back." Harry had spied Hermione climbing through the portrait hole.
"Hermione! Where have you been? Don't tell me Snape kept you there for 4 hours?" Ron burst out, forgetting Harry's advice.
"For your information, he did. It was strange though--," Hermione recollected.
"Would you like to explain that Hermione? We don't know what you're talking about." Harry was genuinely curious, even though he hated Snape.
"Well, I went down to the dungeons to do my detention at 8. Snape told me that since I loved books so much I was going to catalogue and reorganize the Potions library, which wasn't so bad. But then at the end he just looked up and said to me, 'You're dismissed Miss Granger. And by the way, Malevich is not who he seems to be. Consider yourself warned.' He wasn't angry, just as if he was commenting on the weather or something."
"Why would Snape say that? Malevich is with Slytherin! He's from Durmstrang! They should get along just fine." Ron was perplexed, unsurprisingly.
"I dunno—I need to do some research. Harry, you said that the Maleviches were an old pure-blood line, right?" Harry nodded in response to Hermione's question. "I need to go to the library."
"Now?" Harry and Ron asked simultaneously.
"Yes, now. Harry, can I borrow your invisibility cloak?"
"Uh, sure Hermione. Just a second." Harry dashed upstairs and grabbed the cloak out of his trunk and handed it to Hermione.
"Thanks," she said and disappeared without another word.