Hermione

Hogwarts

September 1996

"Detention," Snape drawled from the back of the classroom, "Miss. Granger."

Hermione's hands clenched and unclenched by her side. Each knuckle of her right hand tingled. The feeling could be interpreted as pain, but for Hermione, it felt like relief.

In front of her stood Gregory Goyle, his dopey face looking even more perplexed than usual because Hermione Granger, the Golden Girl, had just punched him in the face.

"Miss. Granger, can I ask why you felt it necessary to use physical force in my classroom?" Snape questioned sardonically, having moved from the doorway to now stand over her.

"Sir," Hermione began, her voice feeling as if it would betray her ever-racing heart. "Goyle approached me aggressively. I did not have enough time to draw my wand for a nonviolent defense."

Goyle looked as if he was about to protest. His mouth, slightly reddened by the impact, opened and closed like a trout. Professor Snape raised a hand and silenced him before he could speak.

"I find it hard to believe that Gregory Goyle could have caught anyone unaware in an attack," Snape quipped, causing Goyle's face to redden.

Snape wasn't wrong. Goyle was a dolt. She shouldn't have let it get to the point of physical violence. Though, she couldn't convince herself that she should not feel vindicated in her actions against a dim-witted, brainwashed, ignorant pureblood.

Still, Hermione could have made better choices. Perhaps she could have avoided the altercation all together. Every decision appears clearer on the other side of it.

Just moments before being issued a detention, Hermione had entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom ahead of Ron and Harry. The two had hung back with Seamus to talk about the upcoming Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts, which she was simply exhausted from hearing about. It was the second week of sixth-year classes which meant there was already an unspoken seating arrangement, so Hermione simply made her way to their table.

She had walked down the aisle between the long tables, avoiding the students that were haphazardly standing about before class started, which was in approximately 4 minutes, she noted, checking her watch as she passed the others.

She had to pass the Slytherin table, which was always at the back of any classroom. Walking near them was her least favorite part of every class. Each time she braced for what they may say to her, and as of late, she found it more and more difficult to just 'ignore them', which had been her typical strategy. Take the high road and all of that. After the events of the year prior, though, Hermione's tolerance for ignorance had been rubbed raw. Dolores Umbridge could do that to a person.

Slytherin beliefs were pure lunacy, but by and large, the silver and green house was made up of smart individuals. How could they all fall in-line with rhetoric that was so flimsy? They really believed that muggle-borns stole magic from witches and wizards. As babies! It made no sense, yet they were fully on-board with it and let it shape their entire lives with hate and fear.

More than anything, Hermione had become fixated on the perplexity of their beliefs. Not to mention, she was wary of how the Slytherins would act now that it was well known that Voldemort was back and that some of their parents had been apprehended at the Ministry break-in just months prior.

So Hermione began to watch the Slytherins. She took to observing their behaviors among one another, with purebloods of other houses, and then with those they deemed outsiders: blood traitors and muggle-borns.

In fact, the reason this entire altercation happened was because Gregory Goyle, of all people, happened to notice that she had been watching them since the start of the year. Hermione was only relieved that Goyle had not mentioned that, for the past week, she really only focused on Malfoy.

After her first week of covertly watching the Slytherins, she concluded that they generally fell into two camps: wait-and-see or ready-and-willing.

The wait-and-see Slytherins were the majority. These students appeared more reserved than in previous years, almost quiet, but they were watching their surroundings just as Hermione watched them. To Hermione, it felt like they were biding their time before making a decision as to which side they would join.

The ready-and-willing group was unnerving. From what Hermione could see, they radiated pure excitement, like they knew a party was about to begin and couldn't contain themselves. Strangely, they were more subdued in their outright attacks of those they didn't like. Instead, they would give muggle-borns this look. It was a look that felt as if you were being marked as first-to-go when the war began.

And then there was Draco Malfoy.

At first, he looked like the same old slimy git that he had always been, but then she saw that something was drastically different this year. Yes, he had grown taller since fifth year, and his pointy features had balanced, becoming angular and strong. However, that wasn't what Hermione had, specifically, noticed, though she did scold herself when her eyes would linger too long on the way he had physically changed. No, the way his behavior changed was almost to the extent that Hermione couldn't help but feel concern for him.

Malfoy was disengaged from everything and everyone. Sometimes he would put on a front, one that gave the impression he was engaged in a conversation, or paying attention to something someone said, but there was nothing behind his eyes. When he wasn't acting, his expression was vacant, lost. Like he didn't care about anything.

On rare departures from this act, he would lash out. The victims of his tirades would be random, and not even fellow Slytherins were spared from his wrath. Malfoy had turned into a walking tea kettle, only returning back to dormant once the steam was released.

Despite Harry's insistence that Malfoy had become a Death Eater, Hermione couldn't buy it. If Malfoy were to have taken the mark while still in school, he would likely act with bravado.

Yet she kept watching him, and, on a less regular basis, she would continue to watch the other Slytherins. She was convinced that knowing their behaviors now would be a gauge for the opposing side's motivations, but watching them was an addiction. She found herself consumed with feelings of frustration and anger towards the Slytherins. Their evident hate and ignorance only propelled her to watch them more, because she knew her side, the side of good, had to win.

Which brought her back to Gregory Goyle, the dumbest Slytherin that ever was, having spotted Hermione's prying eyes and called her out for it in front of the entire class.

The incident had started innocently enough. Gregory Goyle grunted something in her general direction as she had walked by their table. She could not imagine for the life why Gregory Goyle would need to speak to her, so she didn't even cast him a glance.

"Granger, I'm talking to you," Gregory Goyle grumbled, taking a step out from behind the Slytherin table.

Hermione was caught off-guard by him directly addressing her. She turned slowly to look at him, and the first thought that crossed her mind was, 'how was he even admitted to this class?' followed by, 'I thought Snape had standards'.

"What could you have to discuss with me, Goyle?" Hermione responded, sounding exasperated as she placed her book bag down on the corner of the Gryffindor table. She noticed her intolerance of Slytherins creeping into her tone.

"Why are you watching us?" Goyle continued, taking a step or two closer to Hermione.

Hermione feigned ignorance, deciding to play dumb. "I beg your pardon?"

The Slytherin table was now watching their interaction.

"I've seen you," Goyle said in a menacing voice, "watching us."

Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed. "And why would I do that?"

Goyle grunted in frustration. "That's what I'm asking you!"

Others in the room began to watch, and Hermione noticed a flush creeping up into Goyle's neck and then to his cheeks. Goyle appeared embarrassed that a muggle-born was making him look foolish.

And that was why Hermione was now receiving detention: she embarrassed a pureblood wizard, and, in his anger and embarrassment, he decided to take deliberate and aggressive steps towards her. She should have had her hand on her wand the moment Goyle started talking to her, but she had been distracted, and he had approached her quickly. So she punched him. Hard.

"Sir, I could not get to my wand and Goyle approached me quickly after a verbal altercation." Hermione said through a strained voice, replying to Professor Snape after a pause.

"Goyle was going to attack her!" Ron shouted from the back of the classroom. Ron and Harry must have entered right before Professor Snape did to have seen what had happened.

A sinister smirk materialized on Professor Snape's face. "Two detentions. Miss. Granger."

Hermione had been expecting repercussions when she was caught punching a fellow student, but she did not predict to be inflicted with additional punishment due to Snape's distaste of Harry Potter and all of his friends.

"That's not fair!" Harry shouted, standing side by side with Ron. Hermione whipped her head around to her two friends, shaking it frantically side-to-side, desperate to stop them from going any further.

"Three detentions," Snape decided, salivating on the word three. "Miss. Granger."

Hermione mouthed the word 'No' at her friends who looked as if they could mutiny out of their skin. Reluctantly, they shut their mouths.

Professor Snape gave it a moment or two, hoping to tack on more detentions if he could. To Hermione's relief, Harry and Ron remained quiet.

"Right then…" Professor Snape finally said, slowly turning and walking to the front of the room to start class.

Ron and Harry carefully made their way to the table they shared with Hermione while Snape had his back to them. But as they passed the Slytherin table, Malfoy could not help but comment, apparently needing to blow off newly built pressure.

"Too bad," Malfoy drawled, louder than a person who feared repercussions for their actions would. "Looks like you couldn't save your precious little mudblood this time, Potter."

Hermione's glare settled on Malfoy's smirking face, and, after a moment, his eyes connected with hers. She felt a bubbling rage build low in her stomach as she looked at him, and she could see the feeling was being reciprocated by how he stared back at her.

"Detention, Mr. Malfoy," Snape snapped abruptly.

Malfoy looked like Goyle did after being punched by Hermione.

Professor Snape resumed his walk to the front of the room, never even having turned around to issue the detention. Malfoy pushed out the stool he was sitting on out behind him, sending a metallic squeal into the air. "What? For saying mudblood?" he shouted into the expanse of the room.

This time Snape stopped, turning to face Malfoy. "Three detentions," he said, now giving Malfoy a steady stare, "Mr. Malfoy."

"What!?" Draco Malfoy erupted, spewing pure, unadulterated fury.

"With Miss. Granger," Snape concluded, turning back and continuing his walk to the front of the room.

Hermione whipped her head first to Professor Snape, then to Malfoy, who was already staring her down. Hermione felt a pang in her stomach as her indignation for this poor excuse for a wizard looked back at her with malice.

She forced herself to look away from Malfoy to locate Harry and Ron, who both had their mouths open, ready to retort.

"No," she whispered desperately.

Harry and Ron each worked their lips, as if they were fighting back the urge to speak, but slowly dipped their heads, confirming that they would say nothing more.

She didn't dare look at Malfoy again. She couldn't trust what she may say or do if she did. The raw feelings she got while looking at him were already making her feel unbalanced with anger.

How in Merlin's name was she going to be able to survive three detentions alone with Malfoy?

A throat clearing at the front of the room derailed Hermione's thoughts of her impending doom.

"Today, we'll cover protection spells," Snape declared, with a ghost of a smile on his lips.