When the news broke the very next morning, Hermione and Draco were the center of attention the very next morning at the Slytherin table. Draco retold the events of both trials in dramatic fashion throughout the day, and Hermione would add in bits and pieces here and there. About halfway through the day, when Hermione was walking by herself to meet her friends out by Black Lake, she passed Potter, who looked melancholy.
Hermione thought for a second, before speaking up. "What's got you all upset, Potter? Your godfather's out of Azkaban."
"Well I'm not sure I want him to be my godfather," the boy mumbled.
"Why? That makes absolutely no sense. He was a Gryffindor, if that's what you're all worried about."
Potter kicked a pebble on the ground, "Ron says he's from an evil family."
"The Blacks are a bit dark yeah," Hermione conceded, "But are you really going to take Weasley's word for it?"
Potter scowled, "Yeah, why not? They're related to the Malfoys and a bunch of other Death Eater families."
Hermione's eyes flashed, "I'd be careful what I was saying if I were you, Potter. There are things about Aunt Cissa and Uncle Lucius that you don't know about and it's not your business to know."
Potter looked confused. "You call them Aunt and Uncle but say you're not related to Draco. Is he like adopted or something?"
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Dear Merlin, Potter, are you stupid? They're my godparents. It's no wonder you weren't sorted into Ravenclaw with that spectacular deductive reasoning you've got going on there." And with that, she turned on her heel, leaving Potter behind to meet her friends for a picnic lunch on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
It was halfway through November when it was decided that Cheddar would make his official debut to the other Houses as the official Slytherin House Pet. Draco volunteered to hold Cheddar part of the day because, as he put it, he would make Weasley blow his top the most.
Hermione was going over to Gryffindor table to talk to Neville, Draco was using it as an excuse to antagonize Potter and Weasley, and Blaise came along, as he was in the habit of doing at that point, probably because it annoyed Draco to no ends.
"Hey, Neville!" Hermione slid into the seat she would normally take when she'd visit Gryffindor table. As she fell into an easy rhythm of conversation with Neville, she kept her eye on Draco and Blaise, who were sitting on the side of her closer to Potter and Weasley. After a couple of minutes, Weasley was distracted from his food.
"Malfoy! Zabini!"
"We're just sitting here with Hermione while she talks with Neville," Draco said offhandedly.
"Fine," Weasley grumbled. Professor McGonagall had reprimanded him a month into the school year over him fighting with Draco and Blaise everytime the Slytherins visited the table, and although it had taken a few more times-and threats within a few inches of his life-Weasley had finally conceded. It didn't stop him from shooting glares at the Slytherins, although Hermione was sure he wanted to do much more than just glare.
But he wasn't going to do anything about it. That was until he saw Cheddar.
"Malfoy!" he shouted, "You've got Scabbers!"
Draco and Neville looked up, and Hermione made a show of burying her face in her hands.
"Weasley," said Draco, "I don't know what you're on about, but this is Cheddar. He's the new House Pet of Slytherin. One of our Prefects found him ages ago, and we've not really taken him out yet."
Weasley scoffed, "Sure, that's a likely story. That's Scabbers right there! You stole him!"
Hermione sighed, "Weasley, why would we steal your pet rat? When would we have even done this?"
"How'm I supposed to know what dirty tricks you sneaky Slytherins come up with?"
Neville sighed, "Ron, knock it off. None of them stole Scabbers. Hermione, guys, can I walk you back to the Slytherin table, and we can eat there?"
"No!" Ron shouted, "That's my rat that they stole!"
Hermione drew out her wand, before anything could escalate. "I swear upon my magic that Cheddar is not the stolen rat Ron Weasley used to own. So mote may it be." She cast a lumos, which lit up the tip of her wand. "There you go. Cheddar isn't Scabbers." She looked around the table. Everyone looked somewhere between impressed and horrified.
"Bu-but," Ron sputtered.
Potter spoke up for the first time. "Did you fake it?"
Blaise scoffed, "You can't fake swearing upon your magic, dumbass."
" Thank you, Blaise."
"Yeah, well that we know of!" Weasley burst out, "It could be some Dark Spell you used that nobody good would use!"
"All this to steal a rat that I didn't even know existed?" Hermione laughed, "Thanks Weasley, but I don't think I have that kind of time. Plus it's not like I've got any real reason to hate you to go out of my way to do something like this." Hermione saw Neville tense up in the corner of her eye, and smirked internally. "Come on, Nev, I'm done."
When she turned around, Weasley lunged at the group of Slytherins from across the table. Draco intercepted him, cutting him off from Hermione's path, and it quickly turned into a fistfight. Potter joined in to help Weasley out, and so Blaise jumped in as well. Hermione was pulled away by Neville as the brawling worsened, blows landing on each person. Less than a minute after the fighting started, Professors McGonagall and Snape were right there, holding all the boys apart.
"What do you think you're doing?" shouted the Deputy Headmistress, her Scottish brogue thick in her anger. When the boys started to sputter out answers, she cut them off. "Miss Greengrass, Mister Longbottom, you were here when the fight occurred?"
"Yes ma'am."
She nodded briskly, "Severus, should we take this to my office, as it's closer than yours?"
"Of course, Minerva. Mister Longbottom, Miss Greengrass, please come along to help shed some light on the situation as unbiased third parties."
Weasley scoffed, "Unbiased? That's a load of dragon-" he was cut off by a wave of Snape's wand.
After one very tense, although thankfully quick, walk to Professor McGonagall's office, Hermione found herself sitting in a chair. Neville was in the other chair, and Professors McGonagall and Snape sat on the other side of the desk. As the only seating left was one couch, the remaining two Slytherins and Gryffindors were squeezed in, exchanging glares.
"Miss Greengrass, can you explain what led up to the events of the fight?" Snape asked.
Hermione widened her eyes to make herself look as innocent as possible. Professor McGonagall seemed to buy into it and Professor Snape was hiding a knowing smirk. This was a face she, Daphne and Draco had used often to get out of trouble.
"Well, I was over at the Gryffindor table, because sometimes I like to stop by there to talk with Neville. Neville always has really interesting things to say about Herbology and plants. Draco and Blaise will come over with me, 'cause they don't want to let Weasley say anything about me. I mean he's said some pretty mean things, which hurt I guess, so I appreciate what the boys are doing, but honestly I don't want to have any bad blood between Weasley and I," she started fiddling with her hair, "Well, anyways, Draco and Blaise were sitting with me and Draco brought the Slytherin House Pet, Cheddar, who Carrine, she's a fifth year prefect, found a while back in a courtyard. He was a perfectly nice rat and he seemed really tame, so we cleaned him up and took him to Professor Snape to get him registered in the Ministry. We haven't taken him out of the Common Room yet because we wanted to make sure he was used to all of us before we started introducing him to new people. Anyways, Weasley thought that it was his pet rat, and started getting into an argument with us. I wanted it to stop, so I swore a magical oath that Cheddar wasn't Ron Weasley's stolen pet rat."
Professor McGonagall gasped, "My dear, you shouldn't swear your magic upon something so trivial!"
Hermione started thinking of how Sirius Black had looked so haunted and lonely at his trial to get her tear ducts working. "I know, but I just wanted the fighting to stop! And my magic still works, so I'm fine, I just won't do that again." She wiped away a leaking tear. "And we didn't steal his rat! If it was his, it would've registered as such when it got registered at the Ministry."
"Scabbers wasn't registered! We found him in our lawn!" Weasley burst out, "Who registers their pets at the ministry?"
Professor McGonagall sighed, "For your parent's sake, I'm going to pretend that you didn't say that. Whenever you adopt a pet, of any kind, you have to get it registered at the Ministry, if it was not bought at a Pet Store. If not, there is a fine of at least a hundred galleons, varying by how dangerous said unregistered pet is."
Weasley paled. "A hundred galleons?"
The Scotswoman nodded. "Miss Greengrass, please continue."
Hermione had gotten her tears working up steadily. "I didn't even know he had a pet rat before today, so why would any of us steal it? I told him that before I turned around and next thing I knew, Draco was blocking him from almost tackling me. I don't hate him! Sure, he can say really mean things to me, but he hasn't done or said anything that makes me hate him!"
Neville tensed again.
"Mr. Longbottom, do you have something to say?" Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow.
Neville shook his head shakily, but Draco spoke up. "Neville, if you're not going to tell her, I will."
"Tell me what?" Hermione asked.
"Well, Ron was the reason you and Hannah were in the bathroom," said Neville quietly.
"Yeah," said Hermione, "But I mean as long as he felt bad about it! It's not like he said that he wished that the troll had killed us!" Inwardly she smirked. Although she did feel bad that she was manipulating Neville in this way, Ron deserved what he got. She decided she'd make it up to Neville with getting him a Wiggentree seed for Christmas, a particularly rare plant he'd often talked about wanting to have but being unable to find. Hermione counted to three before looking around at the pale faces of Neville, Potter, Weasley and Draco. "He didn't...right?" she asked. When nobody answered she allowed her tears to turn into sobs.
"Mr. Weasley?" Professor McGonagall's voice was cold.
"I didn't say that!" Hermione was almost impressed. He was lying to a furious McGonagall and Snape. That took guts. Or the distinct lack of a brain.
Neville completely emotionally wrought. "Yes, Ron, you did," Neville mumbled.
Hermione burst into another wave of sobs. "Mr. Potter?" Snape asked.
Now this had Hermione intrigued. Would Potter save his own skin or lie? "Yeah, you did, Ron," Potter said sheepishly. Interesting.
"So what if I did?" Weasley's temper turned on a flash, "She should've died! One less evil snake in the world, and if Abbott hung out with them anyways, she might as well've been a Slytherin too!"
"Mr. Weasley!" Professor McGonagall admonished, and Hermione buried her head in her arms on top of the desk. "There there, Miss Greengrass." She looked up through tearful eyes to see Professor McGonagall wrapping her arms around her. "Mr. Longbottom, do you have anything to add to Miss Greengrass's story in the events leading up to the fight?" The boy shook his head. "Severus, can you please handle the rest of this? I'm going to find Miss Greengrass's sister and have her take them take the day off of school so Hermione can emotionally recover and have her sister to help her so she isn't alone."
Weasley started arguing loudly before he was silenced by a spell, courtesy of Professor Snape.
"Professor, I'm not sure if-" Hermione began to protest weakly.
"Nonsense. You're an incredibly bright girl, you can take the day off." The Professor stood up, and led Hermione out the door. When they were outside of her office, Professor McGonagall looked like she wanted to say something. Finally, she gave in. "Miss Greengrass, you said that Mr. Weasley has said some rather mean things about you before?"
Hermione nodded, "Well there's him calling me evil and slimy because I'm in Slytherin, but that doesn't bother me as much as the others. The worst one was back when he asked Draco which one of his 'slag cousins'-" Hermione whispered the word slag-"he was betrothed to-Daphne or me." Hermione wiped away a tear. "We're not even related for ten generations! And I'm n-Daphne's n-neither of us are what he said , Professor!" She looked up at McGonagall with wide, earnest eyes.
"I know, my dear," she said, trying to comfort Hermione.
They arrived at the Charms classroom, where Professor McGonagall went in and came out with Daphne in tow, quietly explaining to her the situation as they walked to the Slytherin common room. Daphne ambushed Hermione with a hug before they reached the common room. When they reached the common room, it was completely empty when they stepped in. When the wall closed behind them, Hermione wiped away the tears, smirking. She and Daphne had learned how to cry on cue as a backup for just about anything ages ago. It did tend to come in use.
"And Draco said I wouldn't be able to get you out of class for the day as well. He owes me ten galleons!"
On a cold, December morning, Hermione woke up to the sound of whispers and bumping noises. She sleepily opened her eyes to be greeted by the faces of her friends beaming down at her.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" they shouted and Hermione started laughing sleepily.
"Did you really have to do this this early?" she asked.
Pansy bounded over from Daphne's bed. "Of course we did. Daphne's an early riser so we had to catch her too."
Hermione glared at her sister, who was also struggling to wake up, although without heat. "This is all your fault." Daphne stuck her tongue out.
After a frenzy of getting ready, the group of first year Slytherins made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. They were the first ones there, except for Hannah, who was sitting at the Slytherin table. Also sitting at the Slytherin table was a mountain of gifts waiting in front of where Daphne and Hermione normally sat. Hermione flushed and glared at her friends. "You didn't need to do all this!" she said as she sat down.
Pansy laughed, "Yeah well, we did. So shut up and open your presents!"
Hermione and Daphne took turns opening their gifts one by one, and by the time that they were finished, the Great Hall was buzzing with the activity of a typical Thursday morning. Hermione had gotten various rare books from her friends, a small plant from Neville, a basket of her favorite candies from Blaise, and some family jewelry from her parents. But the gift Hermione loved the most was from Draco, a beautiful dark green cloak made of velvet. When she had opened the box, she threw her arms around Draco. "It's absolutely gorgeous, Drake."
Daphne had gotten various gifts as well, but what had her over the moon was her first courtship gift from Theo: a decorative golden hair comb adorned with pearls. She had kissed Theo full on the lips in front of everybody, to the sound of whistles and clapping from the table. She then had shyly asked Theo to put it in her hair for her, both blushing furiously.
It was a Thursday, so that meant that they only really had classes during the morning. The downside of that was that two of the three classes they did have were with- ugh -Gryffindor. But Hermione was determined to not let that get her down. She was not about to let Weasley and Potter ruin her day.
Professor Quirrell's lesson was on the Knockback Jinx, and when they paired up to practice, Blaise, Hermione and Draco took turns hitting each other-Blaise being in their group because there were an odd number of students in that class.
When Draco got knocked onto his behind and cursed, Hermione realized that Quirrell hadn't put up Cushioning Spells. She quietly shared the revelation with Draco and Blaise. "I probably should put some up around the room," she said.
Blaise shook his head, smirking. "No, do it just around the Slytherins."
Draco grinned, "I like how you're thinking, Zabini. Hermione, it's your birthday, so you can be the one to hit them if you want."
Hermione shook her head, but she was laughing. "I wouldn't take that away from you two. We can stand in a triangle, and you boys can aim at Potter and Weasley, just make sure it doesn't look like you were trying to get them, in case Professor Quirrell is watching."
A few minutes later saw two angry Gryffindors rubbing their backsides and groaning after being knocked into the floor. Although Potter had landed the jinx on Weasley already, the same couldn't be said the other way around, and the jinx from Potter wasn't strong enough to make Weasley fall over, so they hadn't really discovered the lack of cushioning charms.
Hermione thought it was safe to say that the two Gryffindors had finally learned of the distinct lack of said charms, as Weasley let out a long thread of curses.
"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Zabini asked, smirking.
Potions went about just as well. They were brewing a Calming Draught, which was one of Hermione's favorite easy potions to brew. She and Draco were able to knock one out in almost record time and spent the rest of class working on their Charms Homework together and enchanting quills to do little dances on their desk. The true highlight of the period, though, was when Professor Snape took one look at Potter and Weasley's potion and said, "Your Calming Draught resembles sludge from a swamp and would strike fear into the heart of any pour soul who was told that this was something they would have to drink. In fact, this would be excellent at counteracting a Calming Draught, but I suppose any person unlucky enough to have to take any potion either of you ever brewed would be just as effective at counteracting a Calming Draught." He vanished the contents of the cauldron, and gave them a 'Dreadful' for the day.
Herbology was with the Ravenclaws, so it was a fairly quiet class, so Hermione and Pansy decorated their already completed notes with drawings of ivy creeping across the parchment, keeping themselves busy while Professor Sprout lectured about Bouncing Bulbs. As they headed out of the greenhouses, Blaise pulled out a deck of Exploding Snap. So they all spent the rest of the afternoon in one of the courtyards, playing Exploding Snap, where Theo, like usual, absolutely decimated everyone else. Hannah joined in the game about thirty minutes in, after finding them after History of Magic. The game ended with Draco slightly singing his eyebrows, Hannah sucking on a finger for a small burn, and Theo wearing a smug grin after defending his title as reigning Exploding Snap champion.
At dinner, Hannah and Pansy left early, each wearing suspiciously large grins, and Draco and Theo ate as slowly as they could. Hermione and Daphne exchanged glances. "What's Pansy and Hannah setting up that you guys are stalling for time for?" Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"You weren't supposed to catch on!" Draco complained.
Daphne laughed, "You guys aren't very subtle. Plus would've left half an hour ago if it was a normal night. I don't think sloths eat this slowly!"
"Oh come on!" Theo said, "We always all eat pretty fast, but most of the other tables are still full."
"How much longer are you supposed to be stalling for?" Hermione asked.
Draco checked his watch. "They said they should be done by now."
As they walked towards the Slytherin common rooms, Daphne asked slyly, "So are you going to give us a hint?"
"We actually don't know anything," Theo said, "They just said it was a girls-only night. We were just told to do our parts by stalling you long enough for them to do whatever they needed to do."
Hermione and Daphne walked into their dorm room, and saw banners, streamers and balloons all across the room. Pansy and Hannah sat on Pansy's bed, with twin smiles. Hannah was allowed in the dorms as she had been voted to be able to the second day of school.
Pansy pulled a radio out from behind her back and tapped it with her wand. Suddenly, The Weird Sister's new song started blaring out. Daphne squealed and ran to her dresser, grabbing a hairbrush and started singing along loudly. " Move your body like a hairy troll !"
Pansy and Hannah joined in, and motioned for Hermione to follow. She rolled her eyes before also grabbing a hairbrush and singing along to the nonsensical lyrics, when Daphne pulled her up onto her bed, and they started dancing about, jumping bed to bed.
That night, Hermione fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, smiling. She truly had the best friends in the world.