Hermione

Hogwarts

December 21st 1996

Even though Hermione had already faced Ginny and Harry in the direct aftermath of what happened between her and Malfoy, she still had to brace herself for the next morning.

It felt like the biological makeup of her body had fundamentally changed, and it was only a matter of time until her friends began to notice that something major had shifted for her.

"Hermione, you're walking weird," Ginny commented offhandedly over her shoulder as they walked to breakfast.

Hermione slowed the pace of her uncomfortable gate, now realizing that she perhaps had forgot how her limbs worked.

"No I'm not," Hermione answered dumbly, hoping that would be enough to deter Ginny.

The red head held her look for a second longer before shrugging, then turned back and continued her walk towards the Great Hall.

Covertly, Hermione let a sigh of relief release from her lungs.

As they neared the Great Hall, Hermione shook the nerves out of her hands as the thought of him being there built up a feeling of anticipation in her system. She reasoned though that It was likely he was already gone. Most students had already left for the break.

She vaguely shuddered at the realization that she would be more just a little let down if he had already departed. Her body was still adapting to the fact that she craved seeing the Slytherin.

Upon entering the Great Hall, with Harry and Ginny paces in front of her and none the wiser, she cast a surreptitious look towards his house table.

A sense of relief flooded her when she found him sitting next to Theo Nott, aimlessly pushing food around his plate as Theo spoke at him. The blonde Slytherin looked less withdrawn that morning than he had in the past few weeks, Hermione noticed with a lightness of heart. He still had that brooding, unpleasant look about him, but there was color in his face, and his eyes looked bright.

At some point, Hermione noticed that Ron and Lavender had fallen in line behind her, and were trailing in her wake to the Gryffindor table. Their egregious PDA was at disgusting level with each leaving for break later that day.

"Won won, I'm going to miss you so much," Lavender cooed, grabbing at Ron as they approached the Gryffindor table.

Hermione eyed the two carefully as she took a seat on the opposite side of the table from the couple, and noticed that it no longer bothered her that Ron flaunted his new girlfriend in her face.

Harry's eyes were on Hermione as she watched the couple like zoo animals. Her friend's expression looked like he felt sorry for her, but after a second, Harry seemed to pick up on the fact they did not bother her much. When Harry rose a brow in question, Hermione merely shrugged and turned her attention back to breakfast.

With the illusion that she was fascinated by her eggs, she let her mind linger to what was threatening to consume her.

In retrospect, it was probably not the best idea for Hermione to stay alone at Hogwarts that holiday break, especially with everything that had happened in the past 24 hours. The original plan was to go to the Burrow, but she had no interest in that after everything that happened between her and Ron.

Weeks prior, she considered telling her parents that she would join them on their trip to France, but she dreaded the thought of spending any time with them. It was all but confirmed in her mind that she would need to strike their memories of her soon. Deep down, she was not sure she had it in her to spend that time with them knowing it would be their last holiday together.

Her thoughts strayed to the present, and she found she could not hold back any longer. Her soft brown eyes flickered up from her plate over to the Slytherin table. On the other side of the room, Draco was sitting casually enough, with Theo still directing a line of dialogue at his profile.

Was it possible that Malfoy would be in the castle over the holiday break? Hermione tried to temper her expectations. It felt very far fetched that he would forego a holiday at the Manor to stay here. Still, him being at the castle would be a welcome relief. She needed to talk through all of this with him; to put a plan in place and prevent her brain from descending into some type of madness.

The familiar flap of heavy owl wings filled the room as the daily mail run came through, deterring Hermione's current line of thinking. She noted that the volume of deliveries was significantly lower than normal, what with half of the students already on their way back home.

Hermione spotted the Daily Prophet owl making its way towards her, which was a substantial relief. Given that it was highly unlikely Malfoy would stay, she could at least stay occupied with daily news.

The newspaper landed in front of her with a soft thud. Then, a second bird drafting behind the Prophet owl dropped a scroll near her breakfast plate.

Ignoring the Prophet, Hermione went straight for the parchment to inspect. Unrolling it, she found it to be completely blank.

She tipped her head inquisitively, flipping it over to see if anything was on the other side, but there was nothing.

Then, neat even hand writing started to materialize on the thick parchment.

I grew impatient waiting for you to figure something out

She pushed the self writing parchment away from her out of instinct, thinking immediately of the Tom Riddle diary that had behaved just like this years ago. While she watched the paper warily, new writing began to form.

With you being top of the class and all, I assumed you would have had a five point plan on how this would all work waiting for me before breakfast.

Her eyes flickered up to seek out Malfoy. At the Slytherin table across the hall, he still sat next to Theo, but now with a quill in hand. His soft blonde hair was tumbling over his forehead as he looked down on something in front him.

She quickly fumbled for a quill in her book bag to respond.

Who is this? She wrote, wanting to be absolutely certain it was who she thought it was. One could never be too careful with enchanted writing parchment, Hermione thought solemnly.

Across the room, she saw Malfoy look down at something and smirk. His eyes cast up to hers briefly, sending a jolt down her spine, then he shifted his posture and began to write.

How can you eat with Weasle and Lavender going at it like that?

Hermione looked up to see that Lavender and Ron were now snogging directly in front of her. Ginny looked nauseous.

Amateurs really. Should we show them how it's done?

Hermione felt strong patches of red break out all over the plains of her face. She put a hand to her forehead to block the evidence of her reaction and cool her rising temperature.

Malfoy? She finally wrote back, taking in a slow, even glup of breath.

Should I be aware of any one else you're snogging?

An involuntary laugh escaped her. Harry looked up, eyeing Hermione and the parchment in front of her.

"Just getting ahead on some assignments," Hermione lied shakily as a tratiorish blush creeped up her neck.

Harry hesitantly turned back to the others at the table.

Hermione looked back to the parchment. She noticed that as each new line was written, the previous lines would fade away. She marveled at the magic that went into the piece of paper.

I would have come up with something Hermione wrote, smiling to herself. It hasn't even been eight hours though.

Well I couldn't wait any longer.

Looking up at him once more, she saw that Draco chanced a glance in her direction. His look was cool and gave away nothing.

Will it go to your head if I say that this is very impressive magic?

Yes

She stifled a laugh to not draw attention.

I've never seen anything like this. How does it work?

Hermione checked her surroundings to make sure no one was watching her. Ginny had begun to ignore Dean at the table, having moved all of her attention onto Harry, which seemed to infuriate Dean.

It's a collection of spells. I used a protean charm, which I know you used for the DA coins last year

She smiled, not having realized he knew it was her behind that advanced piece of magic.

My mother taught me a charm when I was younger that would send messages from wand to parchment. Apparently it was all the rage in her finishing school.

His writing paused for a moment, then resumed.

You won't care for this, but I did use bits of the spell Umbridge used for her punishments last year. Combine those three to get a two way parchment.

When did you do this? Hermione wrote back, simply in awe of the ability it took to accomplish the work that went into the deceptively plain piece of parchment.

As soon as I got back to my room last night.

An intense thrum of emotion panged at her chest. It was hard to believe he could feel anything close to what she was beginning to feel. With a response like that, though, she dared to hope.

Are you staying at Hogwarts over break? He wrote

Yes, I am. I imagine you're going home later today then?

I'm staying at Hogwarts

Excitement jolted through her. He continued.

Do you know of anyone staying behind?

Hermione thought. Only Luna. You?

Theo. He wrote back simply. Hermione nodded.

"Hermione," Her focus was pulled back to the Gryffindor table where Ginny was staring at her, apparently having called her name several times by that point. "We're going to go finish packing before heading out. You want to come with?"

Hermione coughed awkwardly and positioned the parchment closer to her, blocking the contents with her forearm.

Hermione chanced a glance across the hall only to find Malfoy laughing at her.

"I'm just going to finish up with this, my, uh this thing. I'll see you before you leave though!" Hermione rattled off, watching as her friends began to disperse.

Very smooth Granger