a/n Thank you so much to my two reviewers stunt101 and Sugar'N'SpiceRin! You are the reason I kept on writing this story!
The next few days seemed to fly by with out a hitch, in other words I hadn't seen Malfoy. Yet Wednesday brought around some unwanted things, Malfoy and Advanced Double Potions with Snape and the Slytherins. Lucky me no?
Harry and Ron grumbled all the way down to the dungeons, what babies! They only had to worry about Snape! I had to worry about Snape, Malfoy and the livid Slytherins who didn't like the fact that I took a swing at their main man (Malfoy). Yet I could see why Harry was complaining. Snape had decided to pair us into partners; well that is what the other classes said at least. Partners for the whole year. Now Snape doesn't really like Harry, now that I think about it he doesn't like anyone except for Malfoy, but anyway… He doesn't like Harry, Ron or me, so we know that we are going to be paired up with someone horrible. The fact was that there were only about five Gryffindors in Advanced Potions.
My personal enemy Pansy Parkinson is most likely going to be partnered with me. So I have come up with a brilliant plan to make sure that this partner thing goes as smoothly as possible.
It is a well known fact that Pansy is failing Advanced Potions, how she even got in I have no idea. So I simply say let me do the whole potion and you can either hand me things or do whatever you want. That way she stays out of my hair and I let her share the good mark. Perfect!
We waited outside the Potions room waiting for Snape. The Slytherins glared at us from across the hallway. Sometimes I think Snape is late on purpose so that we start going at each other and he has an excuse for taking points from Gryffindor. Today though it just seemed like the Slytherins were content to glare evilly at us. Something else happened though, something very out of the ordinary.
"Zabini shut the hell up!" Malfoy's voice rang across the hallway and everyone went silent and stared at him. Blaise Zabini a tall and rather good looking Slytherin was leaning against the wall anger blazing in his eyes.
"Don't tell me what to do Malfoy," Blaise retorted and everyone gasped. No one and I mean no one ever talked to Draco Malfoy that way, except for the occasional Gryffindor and me, Harry and Ron of course. No Slytherin ever talked to him that way, definitely no Slytherin ever dared to talk to the Slytherin Prince that way.
"Why you," Malfoy hissed whipping his wand out of his pocket.
"Bring it on Malfoy," Blaise said grabbing his own wand.
"Boys!" Snape yelled coming around the corner. "You are both Slytherins. Slytherins do not fight Slytherins," he looked over at the Gryffindors. That was an obvious 'they fight Gryffindors.' "This is your only warning. If I ever see you two fighting again…"
"Sorry Sir," Malfoy said. "You will never see us fighting again."
Snape raised his eye at Malfoy's phrasing, but really what could he do about it? He swept around and opened the door as the only five Gryffindors hurried into the room.
"Now I will be partnering you up with the person you will be working with for the rest of the year," Snape's voice was barely a whisper, but we all heard it. His voice was like its own spell weaving a deadly tune so it you weren't paying attention he knew and you were a target.
"Zabini, Potter," Snape began. "Parkinson, Weasley," I opened my mouth wide. Who was I with then? "Malfoy…" God please no, not me, not me! "Granger." Wait rewind back track!
"Malfoy, Granger," Snape smirked.
That is what I thought he said. My fate is sealed, I am officially dead. It isn't like Malfoy is a bad Potion maker, he is anything but. In fact his grades are second only to mine in all of our classes. How else would he have gotten Head Boy over Ron and Harry? I don't even know how Ron got into Advanced Potions!
Snape finished pairing up the rest of the students while I sat next to Harry and Ron. We were all scowling and looking at each other as if the other could fix this wrong doing that Snape had bestowed on us.
"Go sit next to your partners," Snape said and I looked to the front of the room where Malfoy sat. He looked pointedly back at me and I knew I would have to move up next to him. "Now," Snape began as I took my seat next to Malfoy. "For the rest of the year, you will be doing the potion that I will assign to you. Together you and your partner will make this potion perfect; it will take a matter of two months to make one potion. I have given you the whole school year because each potion must be perfect or you both fail. This means working together after class and in class as well." Snape smirked and glided to the front of the room.
Suddenly a folded piece of paper appeared on the desk in front of me. I quickly picked it up and opened it. Inside of it was the potion that we were doing, my mouth opened wide.
"What did we get?" Malfoy scowled.
"Pace ed unità," I replied and Malfoy went white. "Peace and unity in a bottle," I murmured to myself.
"You have to be kidding me! The only one to ever even make Pace ed unità was the founder of the potion Piflilus Lefter and he didn't even make it as well as it should have been! Anyone who ever tried either failed horribly or ended up mentally collapsing under the amount of power that the potion draws from you," Malfoy rattled off and I was impressed.
"But I'm sure Snape would never give us something that he thought we couldn't do," I said lost in thought.
"I'd never thought I'd ever say this, but Miss Granger is right Draco. I gave this particular one to you two for the same reason I paired you up. You both are my top students and with you two working together I can be sure that at least one potion is done correctly." Snape said looming over their empty work bench.
"Yes Sir," Malfoy said and he opened his book to where the potion's ingredients were.
"Professor," I said suddenly looking down at the potion. "This potion takes a full year to make."
"Yes, I am aware of that Miss Granger. That means that you only have one chance to do this, do not mess up," with that he swept away leaving me and Malfoy very very pale.
"When do you want to start Granger?" Malfoy said after a while.
"Snape gave us all the ingredients so we should read and re-read the instructions for this first class and then we will start it the second part of class," I said taking a deep breath. This was big and not only that, it was dangerous as well.
"Ok," he grunted and we spent the last part of class reading and re-reading the instructions in silence.
By the second class we were both nervous and shaky. I took a deep breath before beginning to set up to cauldron. Malfoy set up the ingredients neatly in a row. He looked a little pale, paler then usual that was. His hands were steady though as he finished laying out the final ingredient. This potion would take a year and we would have to make it perfect. I could honestly say at that moment I really hated Snape.
"Granger where is the fairy root?" Malfoy scowled at me through the heavy mist that our potion was giving off.
"To your left," I said busy cutting up the beetles.
"Not the plant roots, the fairy roots," he sneered.
"Here let me get them for you," I shoved them into his hand. They had been right to the left of him. "You are such a…"
"A what? Please enlighten me Granger," he sneered adding in more fairy root.
"A lazy, spoiled ferret," I said and he scowled.
"Where is the unicorn hair?" He asked and I glared at him.
"Find it yourself," I scowled going back to chopping up the beetles, each on with Malfoy's head on it. He muttered some words that I won't repeat and then he managed to hit his knee on the table.
The bell rang and happily and cleared the table and put away the ingredients. Freedom yes! I felt like singing! YYYEEEEESSSS!
"Granger, we have to figure out a time to meet again," Malfoy grunted and I was brought back down to earth. Stupid Malfoy ruining the moment.
"Tomorrow night?" I asked. "Here?"
"I can't do it tomorrow," he scowled and I glared at him. "I'm not wasting a Friday night with you either. We'll do it Saturday morning, eight o'clock her," with that he swept out of the room.
"Hermione," Harry said tugging at my elbow. "Come on let's go to lunch."
"I'm going to hex him to oblivion one of these days," I seethed. I must have looked pretty angry because Harry and Ron both took a small step away from me.
"Why do you think Snape hates me so much?" Harry asked quickly changing the subject. "Besides my father," he added.
"Maybe he…" Ron began, but stopped.
"What?" I asked looking over at Ron.
"Well I was going to say maybe he fancies you Harry," Ron chocked out and a horrid picture of Harry and Snape kissing came to my mind.
"Ron that is disgusting," I said making a face. "Uh! Now I can't get the image of Harry and Snape kissing out of my mind! That is something that can cause nightmares!"
"I think I am going to be sick," Harry said glaring at Ron. "Ron why would you even think about something like that?"
"Oh well…" Ron began and Harry glared at him. "Fine I'll tell you! I saw to blokes kissing when I was doing Prefect rounds and I have been thinking about it all day. So naturally I just thought…"
"Me and Snape," Harry said angrily.
"Ron your logic makes no sense," I said sitting down at the Gryffindor table.
"Mmmm, food," Ron said piling the food on his plate.
Now I think that I should just state here that as you know Ron's atrocious eating manners is what drove me to my first mistake. I am really thinking about sending him to a finishing school or something, or to my Aunt Mary's house. She used to take away our food if we put our elbows on the table or reached across someone to grab something. Ron would go a lot of nights with out food wouldn't he?
Well as I watched Ron eat I knew I had to get out of there again. Many of you will ask why I even look at him. Why not just avoid looking at him? Well let me tell you why… It is impossible to not look at him. He makes all these weird noises that he passes off for the English language. Then there is the fact that he is sitting right across from me and when I look up to get my drink I have to look at him. Then I freeze like a dear looking at headlights, it is something that I will have nightmares about forever.
So I did the sensible thing and got out of there. I practically ran out of there and into my sanctuary, the library. Yet as soon as I got settled into my corner, who should walk in but Malfoy. This day just isn't going my way is it? I drew deeper into the shadows as he sat down at a table and took out a book. I had to get out of there before he saw me. Carefully I replaced my book and began to creep out of the shadows.
I was almost out of the library when I dropped my bag. My books, parchment, quills and ink went flying in every direction. Quickly I bent down, grabbed all my belongings and shoved them into my bag. I was about to leave thankful that Malfoy hadn't seen me when I noticed that my favorite quill was missing. It had rolled underneath all the tables and came to rest right by Malfoy's foot.
Harry had given me that quill for my birthday. It also happened to be the only quill I had left. All my other ones had somehow disappeared. Something else I had Ron to blame for…
I couldn't just accio my quill to me either. Madame Pince had a new rule stating that no magic could be done in the library. Gritting my teeth I placed down my bag and got on my hands and knees. I began crawling through the shadows toward Malfoy. Only when I looked up again he wasn't there and neither was my quill.
I was suddenly yanked up by the back of my shirt and was spun around. I was face to face with Malfoy. He was holding my quill a smug look on his face.
"Looking for this Granger?" He asked sticking the quill into my hands.
"Yeah," I said meekly.
"Oh, I just thought you liked being on the dirty floor. You being dirty blood and everything," he smirked and I scowled at him.
"Malfoy," I threatened.
"Watch your back, you aren't safe yet remember?" He whispered into my ear and then like that he was gone. I blinked before running over to my bag and shoving the quill in.
I was still shivering when I got to History of Magic. Malfoy had a smirk on his face and stared icily at me. I have to admit, for the first time in my life… I was afraid of Draco Malfoy.
a/n Tell me what you thought about it please!