Disclaimer:- I neither earn nor own anything from this story except my plot. Harry Potter and his world are the intellectual property of JK Rowling and her associates.
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A/N:- Thank you to LadyWinterlight, for her beta work on this chapter, and also thank you to everyone for their reviews and alerts, I hope you enjoy this next chapter.
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Chapter Three – First Term
After their first day of classes the next day, the Headmistress called the four Heads of House, as well as Hermione and Draco, to a meeting in the staff room to explain her plan for the school term.
"Good evening, everyone. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this meeting. I did not hold it before term commenced because I wished to include our new head girl and boy, as they will be having a significant contribution to this process."
She then turned to Hermione and Draco. "Welcome," and with another breath she launched straight into her chosen topic. "This term will certainly be stressful, I feel. Already we've had had a case of Gryffindor/Slytherin unrest on the train during the trip here." Minerva turned to Andromeda. "How is the girl in question?"
"Miss Gonzalez is settling in, just like the remainder of first year are," Andromeda replied. "However, for her sake I am pleased that you've matched Slytherin and Ravenclaw in classes this year, and not Gryffindor, since she is the lone first year."
"It seemed like the prudent thing to do in the circumstance," Minerva conceded, "even if it did mean quite a bit of reshuffling before timetables were handed out this morning."
"My students have complimented the change," Filius put in.
"Excellent," Minerva commented.
"As have mine," Andromeda added.
Pomona also agreed, but the new head of Gryffindor kept quiet. This was understandable; the woman had only just arrived; she was just finding her feet.
"So, to plans for this term," Minerva said, after enough of a break to allow the new Head to speak if she'd wished to, and she launched into their discussion, which mainly centred around ways to unite Gryffindor and Slytherin, as everybody agreed that those two houses were the seat of the problem. After all, they were also the one's who'd suffered the most from the effects of the war, as well as the aftermath of Tom Riddle's demise.
So it was decided that there would be special emphasis on projects which saw the two houses cooperating. Then the term would culminate with a yule ball, hosted by the headmistress and the head girl and boy. This was something that Hermione knew would not go down well with certain other people, but she kept her opinion to herself and simply sighed.
xox
Over the next few days Hermione happily settled into her accommodation, and was more than happy to learn that she would be helping to care for little Teddy when needed. She was also charmed by how well Draco managed him, and even more surprised at how accepting Pansy and Blaise were of the little boy.
Harry and Ginny were also often on hand to help, Harry being Teddy's godfather, and Ginny just being besotted by babies. It had been Harry and Ginny who'd had sat with Teddy the night of the staff meeting.
However, Hermione did not often see Astoria—and for that she was thankful—the witch was a truly unpleasant person. Hermione could not help but wonder what Draco saw in her; but she also kept this opinion to herself. It really wasn't any of her business, even though she got a strange feeling, something that could only be described as jealousy, when she saw them together.
Then a few weeks into term she was in the library and Ron turned up.
"Hey, 'Mione," he said, flopping down in the chair opposite her like nothing was wrong.
"Hello, Ronald," she replied, not looking up from her essay. "What can I do for you?"
"Really?" he questioned, like all his Christmases had just come at once.
"Seriously?" she snorted, finally looking up. "You think I'm just going to help you after your behaviour."
"Oh, geez, 'Mione. You've always helped me."
"Well, perhaps you shouldn't have acted like such a complete prat then," she hissed, glancing around the library to see if anyone was listening.
"Me?" he gasped. "You were the one hanging out with Slytherins."
"Truly. That's what you get from everything?" She sighed. "Look, Ron, I'm busy. What do you want?"
"I want you to do my Charms homework."
Hermione stared at him in disbelief, and this time she cocked an eyebrow. What nerve, and with not even a please or thank you, she thought, instantly bristling. "We are no longer a couple, and at this point in things even friendship is sitting on a very unstable footing. How dare you simply assume that I'd help you," she replied, picking up the work she'd just finished and collecting the rest of her things. "Good night," and she stalked off leaving him watching after her.
She arrived back into the head's common room with a savage scowl on her face. "The nerve of that guy," she growled, looking at Draco working on his homework while producing bubbles for Teddy to chase around his play area. "He cheats on me, ignores me, then treats me like…" She trailed off as she decided she couldn't swear in front of Teddy, "Hippogriff dung, and then without acknowledging his problem—or the fact that I broke up with him—he turns up just now and wants me to do… Not help with mind you, but do, his Charms homework."
Draco snorted. "Did you expect him to do anything different?" he asked surprised.
Hermione sighed. "No, I guess not," she replied.
"You knew he'd come crawling when he wanted something," he told her practically, and then he shrugged. "Tell him to go shaft himself. You don't need him."
Hermione's lip slipped between her teeth as her stomach suddenly felt like it was full of butterflies at his commanding words in her defence, but then she exhaled slowly. Regardless of what she felt they were only ever going to be friends. "Yes, I suppose so," she replied.
"Hermione, you're not harbouring thoughts of 'saving him', are you?" he replied, using air-quotes.
"Umm…. Maybe… No!" she answered, going to pick up Teddy as she noticed that he was getting tired and starting to rub his eyes. She paused and looked at Draco as the blond wizard added to what he'd said while shaking his head.
"Don't allow him to treat you as his convenient go-to."
"I'm not going to," she replied as she lifted the now-yawning Teddy from his play area, and she turned and shrugged at Draco. She opened her mouth to speak, but didn't know what to say to him, and she quickly changed the subject. "Where's Andromeda?"
To a greater extent, Draco was happy she had; he felt strange talking to her about Ron, even though he knew he had no right to, and he went with the subject change. "Up in the infirmary," he answered. "Smythe allowed Bexley to try and levitate him with a Wingardium, but the stupid dunderhead dropped him, so consequently Smythe now has a caved in skull."
"Will he be okay?"
Draco gave her a boyish smile. "Yeah, Madam Pomfrey patches the carnage from Quidditch matches back together, I shouldn't think that one idiot Slytherin with a crack in his skull will be a challenge for her."
There were those butterflies fluttering through her again in response to his smile. She did her best to ignore them. "Yes, good point, but they were monumentally stupid in any case," she replied, but when she then just stood there caught in his gaze she cleared her throat. "I'll get Teddy into bed for you."
Draco nodded, a small sigh leaving his lips. "Thanks," he said, glancing down at his work. "Night, Teddy," he called, his eyes coming back up to watch Hermione walking through the connecting door into Andromeda's sitting room with a sleepy Teddy cuddled up in her arms. The little boy was telling her which story he wanted her to read in between yawns and around his thumb in his mouth; Draco was charmed, especially when he spared enough time to call back to him.
"Night-night, Uncle Dwaco," he replied amongst his chatter.
Draco sat back, twirling his quill around his fingers as an unbidden image appeared on the screen of his mind: it was Hermione taking their own child to bed, and it shocked him. He then remembered his loathsome predicament, and his mother, and how she was stuck away in a place she should never have been placed, and his heart constricted. He couldn't think things like that about Hermione, because they had little to no chance of ever happening.
xox
It didn't take long for the term to take off at a cracking pace, and neither Hermione nor Draco had very much time to think about things that could never be.
Then there was Ron, and whilst Hermione didn't take Draco's advice where the redhead was concerned, she did not give into him once either. Instead she treated him with faultlessly polite contempt. However, things turned frosty with him again when it quickly became clear that Ron expected her to just fall under his spell and become one of his bimbos. That was simply not going to happen.
xox
As the term rolled on, Molly—who was coming backwards and forwards to collect Teddy on weekdays—noticed that something was not right. She often glanced through the connecting door between Andromeda's sitting room and the head girl and boy's quarters. It was usually open, and when she came back in the afternoons she often saw Hermione, Harry, and Ginny working on homework or talking. She often stopped to chat with them, and they regularly had three Slytherins with them. She recognised one of the Slytherins as the Malfoy boy and the girl as one of the Parkinsons, although she did not know the dark-skinned young man. But Ron was never present, and she wondered why.
This particular afternoon when she and Teddy returned the six young adults were working around the table on their homework, and she greeted them all with a quick hello and went looking for Andromeda. It was still strange to her to see Slytherins and Gryffindors working together, but she knew that Minerva was trying very hard to mend the huge rift between the two houses. It was one of the reasons the Headmistress had gone to so much trouble to secure Andromeda as the new head of Slytherin, completely aside from the fact that she had a mastery in Potions.
Molly snickered to herself as she knocked on the inner door of Andromeda's office. She remembered Minerva ranting about Slytherins years ago because she blamed Slytherins for a Quidditch accident she'd had while she'd been a student here. Now she was actively trying to get them to work together. My how things change, the redhead thought.
Andromeda opened the door, casting her wards on the outer door that led to the hallway. "Good afternoon, Molly," and she looked down at her grandson. "And how is my little man?"
"I is good, Nanna," Teddy stated, his adorable hair rippling blue. "Nanny Molly and me did garden things today. We planted seeds and Nanny Molly says we will gets veggies."
"Did you?" Andromeda said, lifting him up and smiling at him as he instantly wrapped his arms around her neck and hugged her. However, she looked at Molly and her expression turned serious. "Molly, have you got time for a cuppa?"
"Of course," Molly answered easily.
"Well, come on then, Teddy Tumkins, let's get you some dinner while Nanny Molly and I talk."
Once they were settled in the small kitchenette with tea and biscuits the elves provided at the same time as they brought Teddy's dinner, Andromeda sighed. "I wanted a word with you about your son. He isn't doing very well in my class, and he seems separated from Harry and Hermione."
"I was actually going to ask if you knew anything about Ron and Hermione," Molly replied. "They're supposed to be engaged, but every afternoon I see Hermione, Harry and Ginny, as well as three Slytherins studying together, but Ron's never anywhere to be seen, and I've noticed that she'd not wearing his ring either."
Andromeda was silent for a moment, but then sighed. "As far as I know Hermione has never worn a ring… well at least not an engagement ring, if that's what you mean," and she studied Molly for a moment before she added, "I overheard an incident last week, but I'm not sure if it will shed any light on the situation. Hermione was here alone. It was about ten o'clock in the evening, and Ron turned up. She let him in, but they soon got into a fight," and here she felt the need to quantify. "I hadn't meant to hear, but the door was open, and…"
Molly leant forward and patted her hand. "It's okay. What were they fighting about?"
"Molly, I say this having noticed that Hermione and Ron have not seemed to be even friendly at all this term."
"They haven't?"
"No, and it made what I overheard even more confusing." Andromeda took a deep breath. "It was obvious that he'd arrived on the prowl, so to speak," she said, ignoring Molly's gasp and glancing at Teddy as he placed his sippee cup noisily on his highchair tray. "Okay, Teddy?" she asked.
Teddy nodded and showed his empty plate. "Me down now," he said.
Andromeda laughed. "Oh, so you don't want any custard?"
Teddy grinned, and started chanting. "Tust-ard! Tust-ard!"
The two witches laughed and Andromeda called her elf, and soon she was feeding Teddy his dessert. Whilst he could feed himself solid food now, there was no way she was trusting that all his custard would end up in his mouth.
She spooned in a mouthful and then looked to Molly. "Where was I?" and she thought for a moment. "Oh yes. It was obvious to me that there was a problem, and even though Hermione was trying to be faultlessly polite, she was obviously had the end of her tether with him." She thought for another moment, and then added. "She didn't even sound like she wanted to be friendly towards him. In fact she sound more like a prefect admonishing a wrong-doer."
"Oh dear," Molly replied. "I feared that it might be something like this." But then she cackled. "Although, study really isn't Ron's thing, but I did still think that…" After thinking a bit longer she added, "Gin did write to me early on in the term telling me that Ron was still acting the fool."
"Yes, well he certainly is doing that," Andromeda agreed. "He is very much a jack the lad, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he is bedding multiple girls too. I've noticed that he seems to have a very wandering eye."
This was all news to Molly, even if she did know that her son had a tendency towards neglecting his studies. "Oh dear," Molly said. "Do you think it would be wise to intervene?"
"That's up to you, Molly, but Hermione handled him beautifully," Andromeda chuckled. "I'm pretty certain that he didn't even realise he was outside until the door shut."
Molly gave a half-hearted chuckle, but this worried her. She'd always thought that Harry would marry Ginny and that Ron and Hermione would follow. She excused herself soon after; she felt the need to discuss this with Arthur.
xox
That night in Hermione's bedroom—coincidentally as Molly and Arthur were sitting at their kitchen table discussing Ron—a very different conversation was taking place.
"So," Ginny said, sprawling across Hermione's bed on her stomach. "You and Malfoy. What's going on?" she asked, waggling her eyebrows.
Hermione blanched, and then stuttered, "N-Nothing! There is absolutely nothing going on!"
Ginny grinned slyly. "Pull the other one. Come on, spill," her friend commanded.
Hermione sat demurely next to her; they were having a girl's night. It was Friday , and it seemed like a great time to catch up. "I'm serious, Ginny. There is nothing going on," she stated earnestly.
"The sexual tension literally crackles around the pair of you! You can't tell me that there's nothing going on," she said, taking a swig from her butterbeer, and not giving up on her chosen subject.
"There isn't," Hermione insisted; the dog with his bone had nothing on Ginny Weasley when she wanted details. "Yes, there might be an attraction, but he's engaged."
Ginny scoffed. "Yeah, to the biggest bitch in sixth year."
"Be that as it may, he has his reasons for…" but she couldn't finish that thought, and she shrugged. She remained silent too. She certainly wasn't going to discuss Draco's private life without his consent.
"He's a fool if he marries that banshee."
"Gin, I don't want to discuss this."
"Have you told him you fancy him?" the redhead said, ignoring Hermione's wish not to discuss it.
Hermione sighed. "No…" and she seemed to be going to say more, but then shook her head.
"You know that Ron and you would never have worked, right?"
Hermione rolled over so she was on her stomach too. "Yeah, I know, but I mean what the hell happened? I went away for a bit and while I was gone he went berko. Was it Quidditch? Was it Lavender? Was he hit in the head with a bludger? Repeatedly?" Hermione asked, acting her last suggestion out theatrically.
Ginny laughed. "Truly; he's Ron. It could have been all of those things or none of them."
"Yeah, I guess you're right…" and she went silent. "So is anyone doing anything about his behaviour?"
"What can we do? I've been trying to feed Mum gentle hints about it, but she'll still not coping terribly well, you know?"
"Well, Ron's in for a nasty shock soon enough when the wizarding public moves on and doesn't want to play the celebrity game anymore."
"Yes, that true, and Mum has mentioned that more than once. I think she's concerned that he will go off the deep end. But 'Mione, you've got a sophisticated millionaire sniffing at your heels, why would you want my useless brother? Would you take him back if he suddenly turned back into a human being?"
Hermione sat up and counted off on her fingers as she spoke. "I do not… nor will I ever have Draco Malfoy 'sniffing at my heels', as you put it," and she used air-quotes to emphasis her point, but then she sighed, seeming deflated. "I don't know, I'm not sure if I'm still interested in Ron after all his antics," and she exhaled once more.
"So, you're not even thinking of giving him another chance? I mean we agreed that he's not the right one for you, right?" She took another swig from her bottle, but then she shook her head and sighed. "Mind you, you might have trouble convincing Mum of that."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, taking a chug from her own bottle of beer.
"Well, I do think that once everything's said and done Mum's counting on me to marry Harry, and you to marry Ron," Ginny said carefully.
Hermione huffed. "Something that Ronald seems to have conveniently forgotten," and then she took a deep breath. "Gin, there is a great deal of difference between wanting to do the right thing by Ron, and allowing him to stampede me. Do you know that last week he turned up here late on Friday night, angling for a shag? Good god, we're not even together anymore."
"What? The sleaze!"
"Yeah, you've hit the nail on the head," Hermione said, scowling. "I haven't spoken to him since. I honestly just don't know what to think anymore."
Ginny pulled her friend into a hug. "Geez, 'Mione, that's horrible."
"Yes, I know," Hermione agreed, but then she sighed. "Can we talk about something else now, please?"
"Sure, what would you like to talk about?"
Hermione thought for a moment, her eyes raised to the ceiling in an attitude of contemplation. "Oh, I don't know, how about, your wedding plans?" she said, a smile appearing on her lips. She was genuinely happy for Ginny and Harry, even if it still made her sad that she had no one.
"Ah, my favourite topic," Ginny said, grinning as they settled on the bed again.
"Yes, even if I cannot get my own happy ending, at least I can live vicariously through yours," Hermione laughed.
"Oh, 'Mione, you don't really believe that, do you?"
She sighed and shrugged. "Hey, I've got a stellar life planned, just you watch… I'll cure s-something important, o-or I'll become the sodding minister for magic." But tears had started to trickle down her face as she spoke, and she closed her eyes in the hope that it would stop them. She swallowed hard, and stuttered, "B-But I'd love to have a family too, a-and," but she couldn't continue.
"'Mione, love, you will have it all. I have decreed it," Ginny proclaimed, pulling her crying friend in for another hug.
"But you're right," Hermione cried, "I've realised that I don't want Ron… a-and that Draco is so completely hot… but just my luck, when mister perfect walks through the door…" and she sniffed, "What am I going to do?"
Ginny allowed her to cry for a time, but then rubbed her back and pushed her up straight. She ducked her head to catch Hermione's eye and she rubbed her arms in an attempt at comfort. "You know that he's only marrying that Greengrass cow because he has to, don't you? It will have been arranged when they were babies most likely."
Hermione blanched. "That's awful… Archaic!" she cried.
"But it's not going to last, 'Mione. It's not!" Ginny proclaimed adamantly. "And once an heir is produced they can go their separate ways…" Then she chuckled. "You know, having that cute little blue-haired mite next door," and she nodded in the direction of Andromeda's quarters. "It's making us all a little clucky I think. Well, I know it has me anyway. I can't wait to be Madam Harry Potter so I can have one or six of my own, and you will have all of that too, 'Mione. Just you wait."
Hermione wanted to say that she didn't think that she believed Ginny, but she appreciated the attempt to cheer her up, and she sighed. "Maybe… So enough drama. Let's paint each other's toe nails outrageous colours," and she dug into her bedside drawer, pulling out several little bottles of nail polish.
Ginny smiled. "Yes, lets, and we can talk about the dress fitting we're going to have during the Chrissie hols."
Hermione wiped her eyes and sniffed. She wasn't sure that would cheer her up, but she nodded and smiled. "Sounds like a plan."
