"I'm sorry," Hermione looked sheepishly over at Ginny. Her head was pounding, but luckily with the help of some electrolyte-filled potion Ginny concocted for her, the pain was fading.
"It was no problem!" Ginny said, and hooked her arm through Hermione's as they walked down the hall, "Actually, you were barely awake for a minute before I tucked you in."
Hermione had woken up less than twenty minutes prior, and all she could feel was her headache and a pang of embarrassment about her behavior from the night prior. She'd had alcohol before, but usually small amounts with family and friends. Luckily, Ginny had waited on her that morning so that they could head down for breakfast together. By the time she was ready to go, most of Gryffindor house had already left.
When they finally reached the Great Hall, it was bustling with activity. Hermione glanced subtly across the room to where the Slytherins sat. There was a pang in her chest when all she saw was a sea of mostly dark hair. She and Ginny went to sit across from Ron and Harry.
"Sounds like you had an interesting night Mione," Harry said behind his copy of the Daily Prophet.
"Why? Not really," Hermione sputtered.
Ron laughed, "Often have problems with imaginary creatures following you 'round?"
Hermione's nerves calmed a bit, but her brows drew together in an otherwise blank stare. Ginny, noticing her look, elbowed Hermione lightly, "He means the Heliopath-repelling potion Luna gave you last night?"
She vaguely recalled Heliopaths from some conspiracy theories that had popped up recently. The Quibbler had published several articles about how some people believe the death eaters to be using these mythical beasts to track members of the order. Hermione still had no clue how they were supposed to be connected to her, but not wanting to raise questions, she nodded in feigned recognition.
"Hello Gryffindor table," Luna sang from behind them, before fluttering down next to Harry and turning to stare at Hermione.
"Luna erm, thanks for helping me back to the common room last night."
"Oh, it was no problem! It was the least I could do after you helped me test that potion. I do believe it works now. In fact, I brought more here if any members of the order might want some," she whispered the last sentence, with an entirely unsubtle wink. The four Gryffindors looked at her warily as she set a small glass cup on the table. It was filled with some kind of thick dark brown liquid and smelled suspiciously like sulfur.
She then skipped away leaving the cup right next to Harry, who was beginning to look a little green. Ginny grimaced, grabbed the glass, and stated, "I'll just go give this to Professor Slughorn. I'm sure he'll know what to do with it," and headed off toward the professor's table, holding the stuff at arm's length.
Once the two of them were gone, Ron looked back at Hermione with a grin, "Nevermind all that, you should hear what Harry did this morning!"
"Oh Ron-" Harry tried to stop him with a smack from the paper, but Ron ignored him and barreled into telling his story.
"So this morning right? I was dead asleep. Everyone was. Except apparently Harry. So all of a sudden, I'm awake, and dangling in the air by my ankle! Of course, I think the Death Eaters have got hold of me right? Like they'd broken in the way Sirius did in third year. So I scream! As I'm dangling there, screamin' my bloody arse off, I see Neville fall out of bed, everyone lookin' around, wondering what the bloody hell's going on! Then Harry just goes, 'sorry!' and undid whatever spell it was. And there I am, back on my bed- a little startled mind you. But now I'm laughin' my arse off with the rest of 'em."
Hermione glanced open-mouthed between a shrinking Harry and enthused Ron as he continued, "Think about it! We could use this on the younger students all the time!"
Her startled look quickly turned into a glare, so he clarified, "Not that we'd hurt them or nothin'. Just like little pranks! That'd be a riot!"
Hermione continued to glower but turned her gaze over to Harry.
"It wasn't meant maliciously, Hermione. The guys all laughed," Harry began cautiously.
"It's not funny Harry, that spell could've done anything. You can't just test things out like that before you know what they're for. Especially random spells you've never tried before."
"Why do you assume it was a random spell?"
"Because I've never heard of any spell that does that. I mean levitation surely, but dangling from one's ankle? It's not in any of our regular textbooks. And let me guess, it's from that dodgy potions book you have?"
Harry sighed, "Yes."
"You're just jealous the Prince is better than you at potions Hermione!" Ron said sternly, pointing a half-eaten sausage at her from across the table.
"That has nothing to do with it!" She hissed. But just the mention of potions made Her think of how Malfoy had always been the one student to beat her in that class. And despite herself, the memory of being carried by him the night before came bubbling back to the surface of her mind. Causing her to go beat red.
Before anyone could continue, Ginny walked up again, "Hey Harry?"
"Yeah?" Harry looked up at her expectantly, as she handed him a slip of paper.
"I was told to give that to you."
Harry opened and scanned the parchment, "It's my next meeting with Dumbledore!"
Ginny half-smiled at his enthusiasm, then looked over at Hermione, "Hey Mione, mind if I go sit over there?" she gestured at Lavender and the Patil twins who were working on throwing a students-only Halloween party in the Gryffindor common room.
"No problem, I've got to get going anyway." She replied, packing up her few books, and pulling her legs out from under the table as Ginny left. Before heading off, she looked earnestly at Harry, "Please don't use those spells anymore. I have an awful feeling about them."
Harry said nothing, but Ron sighed through a mouthful of potatoes, "Oh shove off Hermione, stop being a wet blanket."
The comment caused a lump to form in her throat, and with a huff, Hermione stomped out.
She sat alone in the library for the rest of the morning, fuming over her conversation with Harry and Ron. She was right about this. Harry shouldn't be messing with unknown magic, and Ron shouldn't be encouraging him. Of course she was right. She is always about these things.
As she thought, she wrote a letter to her parents. They enjoyed hearing about her school classes almost as much as Hermione enjoyed being there. Part of her desperately wished Hogwarts had some sort of parent visit day so that she could introduce them to her teachers and show them in person all of the magic she'd been practicing over the years.
Dear mum and dad,
I'm doing well! And I am very glad to hear that Mrs. Cobb is finally off her crutches. Give her my best!
Things are going well in my classes. I've received all Outstandings in my work so far, and expect to keep it up. But I won't get lazy! Nonverbal spells have been proven to be quite tricky, though I'm catching on now. And there's another Transfiguration paper due soon.
The main difference this year is being a prefect. I now have to patrol the school on designated nights for hours. Though they're quite understanding of all of our schedules, it can still be tiring. The professors say there is nothing to fear though, as Hogwarts is entirely impenetrable, so this is mainly as an extra precaution and to help calm some of the fears around you-know-who's return. But the halls are as quiet as ever.
Please let me know how you're doing, and what's been going on outside. We don't get much muggle news outside of the mail you send me, and most wizarding papers are more concerned with their own problems.
Love you tons!
Hermione
Hermione looked over her letter approvingly before sealing it nicely inside its envelope and heading towards the owlery.
Just before entering the tower, she heard a scuffling inside. Peering from her spot on the sunlit stairs into the unlit room she noticed Malfoy standing near a window. In one hand he was fumbling with that package she'd seen him with earlier, and in the other, he was lifting a large eagle-owl with a letter tied to its leg toward the window. For a second it turned its head and stared at her with its imposing orange eyes before darting out of the window.
Hermione gripped the envelope tighter, deciding that she would not be embarrassed at all about her behavior, and strode into the room, looking for an owl to strap her letter to. But as she spotted one tawny owl and began trying to tie the string around its leg, she could feel a pair of cold eyes on her back.
"Feeling all right this morning?"
"Of course," she said quickly, trying to stick to her plan. She turned to let the owl out of the window, and it took its cue, flying out the closest window off to Hermione's home. After watching it glide away for a moment, Hermione looked curiously again at the parcel Malfoy was holding.
Shifting his jaw casually, he held out the package, "It's from home. My mother sends them about once a week."
Curiously, she took the parcel, realizing it was more solid than expected. She glanced up at Malfoy once before unwrapping the paper to reveal a small well-designed silver tin containing almost a dozen biscuits.
"You were expected something more sinister?"
"Oh- no it's not that," she said, not entirely convincingly.
With a roll of his eyes, he said, "It's fine, take some. I never eat them all anyway."
So there they were, half an hour later, standing in the owlery eating Narcissa Malfoy's homemade biscuits. Hermione had begun talking cautiously about her muggle family at first but relaxed a bit once it became clear Draco's responses were more questioning than judging. They stopped the conversation briefly once, when a first-year who vaguely resembled a chihuahua walked in to deliver their own message, then quickly scampered back out.
At some point, they started discussing classes, specifically potions class and how much Slughorn has changed things. This quickly reminded Hermione of her frustration with Harry's recklessness that morning, causing her to grumble unconsciously.
"He's so infuriating,"
"Hmm, I thought you would be one of the ones to like Slug seeing as he was chosen by Dumbledore," Draco mused darkly.
"What? No, I mean, it's Harry. He's been using this special potions book. It tells him all these tips for class, and has a bunch of extra spells I've never heard of,"
"Oh, is that why he's suddenly top of the class? I had assumed it was just favoritism."
Hermione took another bite out of a piece of well-decorated shortbread before saying, "Wouldn't you think it dangerous to try out a spell you'd never heard of on another person?"
"Of course..."
"Exactly!" She said almost in a whisper while nodding to herself, an idea beginning to form in her mind.
Hermione looked back up at Draco apologetically, "Thank you for the, erm, this," she gestured at the now half-gone tin. She then straightened her bag on her shoulder, turned, and proceeded to step quickly out of the tower. In this frenzy of determination to figure out who this half-blood prince was, she left Draco standing startled in the middle of the room.
Hey, it's the author here, I took a break, but am trying to pick back up where I left off. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!
