Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, they are the brilliant works of the marvelous J.K.Rowling. I also do not own Coldplay or To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.
CHAPTER 14
The next few days were an awkward blurr. Dumbledore had asked them both to attend a meeting in his office concerning Head Persons business, but an hour before Hermione sent an owl explaining that she was a little under the weather and would not be able to make it. Draco was there fifteen minutes early in the hope of catching her to apologize, but she did not show. She had been avoiding him, and though they shared living quarters, she was quite good at it. In the mornings, she had made sure to slip through the Common Room unseen, to meet Ginny outside her door and walk to breakfast. Then afterwards, she would drink a liquidation potion and it would last her until she got to class, where she had left her books the evening before so she would not have to carry them. No one suspected anything; she always showed up to class on time and Harry and Ron figured that she was just having too much fun with being liquid to stop. She hadn't told them what happened between her and Draco.
Draco noticed that Hermione did not use the potion after class, but walked with whichever friends shared that period. There was one subject that just the two of them shared, without Ron and Harry being there. It was one of her elective classes. There was this one girl, he did not know her name, but her and Hermione often walked from class together. It was in Second Period, and Draco knew that if he was going to talk to Hermione any time soon, he had to get to this girl.
It was in breakfast that he decided to make his move. It would not be harsh; he just had to give her something that would make her sick enough to keep her out of class until the end of second period. Sitting in his usual spot, Draco looked over to the Huffle Puff table to where the girl was sitting with friends. Getting out his wand and whispering an incantation no one else would hear, a thin whisp of purple smoke left his wand and disappeared into thin air. Within five seconds another thin, almost unseeable whisp of the same purple smoke could just be seen entering the girl's goblet. Draco watched it nervously for a moment, but no one noticed anything.
"Stupid Huffle Puff's" he mumbled to himself as he was watching and waiting for the girl to take a sip. He sat motionless for three minutes and then finally when she lifted the cup to her lips, he continued on with his breakfast. The effects would not be sudden, and would likely not raise suspicion. In the background he could hear his name being called, but he was too far into a trance to hear them. He was staring at Hermione. All the while he could hear these words floating around in his head.
Hermione was a little shocked to find that Melanie, a HufflePuff and her only friend in the class was not there. She had been fine at breakfast, hadn't she? So Hermione endeavored to sit by herself. But it didn't last long. As if there was no bad blood between them, (A/N ooh! Double meaning! Gosh I am oh so smart! Lol) Draco glided in and sat next to her. She could smell his cologne but tried to ignore it. Once the class was set to individual work, she saw out of the corner of her eye Draco writing a note. He scrunched it in a ball and threw it in the air, a dove landed on her desk and turned back into the scrunched note. She stared at it a second before picking it up and throwing it toward the bin. The bird flew elegantly across the room and landed in the trash. She continued on with her work.
The next period Hermione was back with her friends, and before lunch she darted off to her room to put her books away. In front of the door lay a beautifully wrapped gift with a card attached with ribbon. She walked straight past it, muttering,
"Probably just something paid for with his Father's filthy money". Though, on her way out the door, she did stop. Not to open the gift, but simply to add something to it. She took the necklace from her pocket (she had not warn it since that day) and placed it on top of the box. She continued on to lunch feeling better.