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Chapter Four
The Weight of One Word

Hermione sat on the front steps of the castle and cried for several minutes, before finally realizing she needed to get to class. In perfect Hermione form, she straightened up and controlled herself. She wiped her face clean of tears and put on a solid expression. The only things left that might give her away were her puffy eyes and scratchy voice.

She walked back into the Great Hall and grabbed her book bag, which was still sitting on the bench next to her where she'd left it. A few minutes later she walked in the door to Transfiguration and went to her seat. She plopped down next to Harry and sighed quietly. Harry had a worried expression on his face but she pretended not to notice. After a few minutes of this, Harry gave up and began staring at the door. Ron still hadn't shown up.

As it turned out, Ron didn't show up at all. Hermione didn't know what to do about him. Part of her wanted to scream at him and tell him how stupid he was and part of her wanted to run to him and cry in his arms until he understood. It was such a mess.

Hermione stared at her hands and felt tears welling up in her eyes. It stung horribly the more she tried to fight them. Her face remained expressionless as tears spilled over her lower lids and down her face. But she kept her breathing even and quiet. Nobody had to see this.

"Miss Granger," said Professor McGonagall's stern voice.

Hermione looked up, startled.

When McGonnagal saw Hermione's face, a look of concern swept over her own.

"Are you all right, Miss Granger?"

God, how awful. This was all she needed, attention drawn to her.

"I'm fine," she answered tonelessly. She heard a rasp in her voice and hoped nobody else had. She reached up and wiped as many tears from her face as she could in one motion and stared straight ahead. For the second time in the last hour she felt a silence and wished someone would fill it.

Harry came to her rescue.

"So, what's in store for us this year?"

McGonagall followed his lead and said, "This year is going to be very difficult, Mr. Potter. I can only hope that all of you are up to it," - McGonagall looked the room over, as though appraising the group – "I'll be pairing you up this year. Most of your assignments will be practicing human transfiguration and obviously, it's safer to have a partner."

At this, the rest of the class began to talk amongst themselves quietly, no doubt discussing why exactly having a partner would be 'safer.'

Hermione was glad the silence was broken. She let out a shaky sigh that was only noticed by Harry.

"That will be quite enough talking," said Professor McGonagall shortly.

The class fell silent.

"This year the partners will be as follows:" She began to read names in pairs off a parchment.

"Weasley - Parkinson."

An indignant female snort was heard from the back of the classroom. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Thomas – Goyle" - More snorting.

"Finnegan – Bullstrode"

"Patil – Longbottom"

"Brown – Crabbe"

"Zabini – Potter"

That left…

"Granger – Malfoy."

Hermione froze.

Oh God…

She turned around and fixed her eyes on Malfoy, who looked absolutely poisonous. He gave a look that said, 'drop dead.' And she returned it.

She faced forward again and slumped in her seat. Harry patted her on the back and took this opportunity to ask her where Ron was.

She told him what had happened, leaving out the finer details and finished by saying, "Will you talk to him, Harry? He's really upset and I don't know what to do."

"Don't worry about it Hermione. He'll get over it."

Hermione wasn't sure how she felt about that…

"Splendid," barked Professor McGonagall. "Pair up."

Hermione didn't think there was anything in world she'd rather do less.

She sighed again and stood up. Harry gave her another sympathetic look and said, "Good luck."

"You too…" she mumbled as she walked to the back of the room towards Malfoy, resigned to the worst.

-

Draco settled himself down in the back of the room with his arms crossed and his face set in a scowl.

"What's with you?" Zabini said blankly.

"Piss off, Blaise," he muttered irritably.

He stared straight ahead for several long minutes, waiting for the bell to ring and class to begin. After a while the door opened and Granger walked in. Draco looked away quickly and examined his fingernails.

Stupid Mudblood and her precious Pothead…She was probably up there day-dreaming about Weasley's tongue in her mouth.

"Miss Granger."

Draco's head snapped up. He noticed Hermione's did the same.

"Are you all right?"

Why the hell was McGonnagal asking that?

"I'm fine," he heard Hermione answer.

His body stiffened. She'd been crying. He could hear it in her voice. Pansy sniggered next to him. She'd obviously noticed too.

Several minutes went by. Draco listened halfheartedly to what McGonagall was saying about pairs. He wondered vaguely who his would be. And then she began to read names.

He listened as Pansy's snigger turned into an angry sneer when it was announced she would be the Weasel's partner. Draco couldn't blame her.

More names…
More names.
And then…

"Granger – Malfoy."

He felt loathing well up inside him and then her eyes met his. He did his very best not to notice how red and puffy they were as he shot daggers at her.

She turned away and he bit hard on his lip.

"I'm sorry, Draco," purred Pansy, "I'll make it better later."

"Shut up, Parkinson," he said, irritated.

"Pair up."

He looked up and saw Hermione walking toward him. Good. At least she had the sense to know he wasn't go to budge an inch to get any closer to her. At least she knew who was in control here.

Pansy got up and headed towards the teacher's desk – Draco could only assume this was to complain about Weasley's truancy, and Weasley in general.

Hermione plopped down next to him, glowering at nothing in particular. She looked how he felt, but all be damned if he would let her know it.

"Looks like this is your lucky day, Granger," Draco jeered. "It's not every day you have a legitimate excuse to get that filthy skin this close to mine."

She turned and glared at him. "You didn't seem to mind my skin so much earlier when it was on top of you."

That was below the belt.

"Fuck you, Granger. You don't know anything," he spat nastily. "You are nothing but an ugly mudblood slag and if you ever touch me like that again, I will hurt you."

"Is that supposed to scare me, Ferret Boy?" she shot back. "You keep your hands off me and my possessions or you'll see just how ugly I can get."

Damn her. Why wouldn't she just cower like a normal mudblood?

Instead she continued her verbal assault.

"Though I'm quite at a loss as to why you would want my book anyway. Aside from it being written by a 'filthy muggle' and belonging to an 'ugly mudblood slag,' I didn't know you knew how to read," she ridiculed.

"Get off your high horse, Granger," he scoffed. "You think you're better than me? The blood in my veins is worth a thousand times more than yours."

He glared at her and she had the audacity to glare back. It was infuriating.

"Oh Lord. Here we go with the Pureblood thing again," - She threw her hands into the air exasperatedly - "Get over yourself Malfoy. You may have noticed that your blood didn't earn you better marks than mine. Your bedroom is not bigger that mine. There is nothing special about you. The only thing you have that I don't is a crush on yourself."

Draco scoffed again. "I have no doubt that I could fit twelve of your house into my Manor, Granger."

"I don't even know how you fit your ego into your 'Manor,'" she said, laughing derisively.

Merlin he hated her.

"As much as I hate to break up this display of tenderness, I would appreciate it if the two of you would get on with today's assignment," McGonagall said tartly from above them.

"Sorry Professor…" mumbled Granger.

Draco kept his mouth shut until she was gone and then turned again on Hermione, expecting her to be glaring back fiercely, ready to pick up where they'd left off.

She wasn't. She was staring at the blackboard at the front of the class, copying down instructions.

"Okay…" she mumbled to herself, tracing the wand movements she would need to make in the air.

Draco just stared at her. How dare she ignore him when he wanted to wring her annoying neck?

After a moment he turned and read the instructions too. Fine, if she wanted to play the good girl…

Skimming along…it said they were to practice on each other. Draco grinned evilly. He was going to have an excuse to point his wand at Granger…and if something went wrong, he could call it an accident.

He stood and turned to face her. She looked up, almost daring him to make a move toward her.

"Well if we're practicing on each other…" he said scathingly, grinning, "I'll go first." He reached for his wand.

"Don't," she said menacingly.

There was an astounding amount of weight in that one word when she said it. She stood and faced him, looking fiercely into his eyes.

"I've said it twice now and I'm going to say it one more time. You stay the fuck away from me."

Draco's mouth snapped shut as he watched her turn her back on him. She cast the assigned spell on herself and in one try it was perfect. McGonnagal had seen her do it and gave her a proud smile.

Draco felt physically sick.

Hermione slung her bag over her shoulder and walked out of the classroom without so much as a backward glance.