11/6/99

Hermione,

I didn't want to overwhelm you with too much the first time so I left these memories out. We studied together quite a bit. These are just a few more of the many but they were conversations that I thought you should see or might enjoy. It was never easy to get you to talk about anything but our classes when we first began really studying together. I had to get to know you better to know what topics I could bring up that would get you off topic and sometimes the conversations were accidental. Either way it was that last few months of fourth year when we became friends which amazed me. It was at that same time that I began to fall for you more and more each day. I never thought it would move beyond friendship but I guess I got lucky. The Hogwarts library was a refuge for me, for us really, for two years. It was a place we could be together and not be seen or if we were it could be explained away as we were in the same classes. That library will always be a place I think of fondly.

There are three memories in the vial this time. I had thought about sending something with stronger emotion to see if it triggered anything in you but maybe I'm just not ready for that, so here are a few benign conversations and one more serious one. This time I'll let them speak for themselves other than to say

Remember me Hermione

Always yours,

Draco

She was sitting cross legged on the yoga mat near the wall. Harry stood in the doorway waiting for her to invite him in as this had become as much her private space as her bedroom in number twelve. She looked up at him after reading and nodded. He met her at the table where she placed the parchment, and waited while she picked up the vial at eye level studying it before pulling out the cork and pouring them into the Pensieve. He said the spell over her, they joined hands, and once again fell into the past.

The mists swirled around them and they landed on the second floor of the library in a back corner with only one table near a set of books so old and dusty it looked as if no one had touched them since they were first placed on the shelves. At the lone table sat the young bushy haired girl, though the hair was somewhat restrained in a braid. Immediately to her right sat the blond boy. They faced out into the stacks that led to the main area of the library each occasionally looking up from parchment or book as if they had heard someone approaching. While the adults watched Draco began to pull things out of his satchel, dropping them on the table as he went. Young Hermione just sat and watched as the pile grew: an extra quill, sugar quills, bottles of ink in various colors, a button, bits and pieces of parchment, chocolate frog cards. Her eyes grew wide she reached into the pile and extracted the button.

"I should have known you'd have one of these," she complained waving it in his face.

He pulled back to see more clearly what she was holding, "Have one?" he laughed, "who do you think made them?"

"You?" she asked incredulously then nearly yelled, "You did this?"

"Shh," he said, looking around to see if they had drawn any attention, "really when it flashed to Potter Stinks you didn't figure out that it was me? I thought you were smarter than that."

She humphed at that and crossed her arms defensively, "I knew you had to to have had something to do with it. You were much too smug about it."

"Yes, well it was childish I know," he admitted looking a bit sheepish.

"But you loved it," she charged.

He nodded feeling no need to be anything but honest, "That was before the tournament actually began."

"Before Cedric told everyone to knock it off."

"Well that and after the first task. Aggravating as it was even I had to admire the way he handled that damned dragon," he whispered.

She peered at him from the corner of her eye as she watched the button change, "I thought you said you knew it was me that helped him with that.

"I did," he replied, "but the way he handled the broom, that was all him. It's amazing and infuriating how well he flies. I'd like to beat him the bloody Snitch just once."

"You still have three years to do it. It might happen," she said generously.

"You don't really believe that," he said.

She shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. I really don't pay as much attention to Quidditch as everyone else seems to."

He looked insulted, "How can you not like Quidditch?"

Again she shrugged, "Not everyone likes everything. I never cared much for any Muggle sports either."

"You'll have to tell me about Muggle sports sometime," he suggested.

"As if you'd really be interested," she scoffed.

It was his turn to shrug, "I might. I like Quidditch but not Gobstones and if what I hear is right there are many more Muggle sports."

She didn't say anything just looked at the button and back to him again, "This was just jealousy wasn't it?"

He cringed but nodded, "Mostly, more than anything else. It's not that I wanted to enter. I know better than that. For all my talk I was relieved that they set a minimum age. Don't tell anyone I said that."

She cocked her head to one side, "And who would I tell? This really was childish."

"I said that already," he reminded her, irritated.

"Don't snap at me when you're the one that acted like a brat," she admonished him.

"Fine," he sighed rolling his eyes.

Neither of them said anything as he began collecting his things and putting them back into his bag. She sat looking at the button, moving it back and forth in her hand. He put out a hand to take it from her and put it away again. She placed it in his hand and said, "It is a pretty clever piece of charms work."

He turned his head slowly to look at her, "You mean that?"

"Yes," she giggled, "it was even funnier as people in the house tried to make it say something else. You had to have planned for that eventuality."

His cheeks flushed pink at her praise, "I knew someone would try. I kind of hoped it would be Weasley."

Her lips twisted, "You had something special for him if he did?"

"I might have."

"What would it say?" she asked.

He grinned at her, "How badly do you want to know?"

She looked at him suspiciously, "Why? I won't do anything illegal or against the rules you know."

"Like you haven't broken any rules? How again did we end up in detention together in the Forbidden Forest first year?" he taunted.

"You being a right prat," she shot back.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah and you being out of your dorm after curfew."

"With good reason," she insisted.

"So you will break the rules," he pointed out.

"But not to find out something this silly."

"Then I guess you'll never know, unless you can con the weasel into trying to change it," he laughed.

"Don't call him that!" she snapped.

He held up both hands in front of him, "Ok, I won't."

"Just like that?" she asked suspicion again shining on her face.

"Just like that," he replied.

"I don't understand," she said.

"You asked," he answered as if it was obvious.

"I still don't understand but I'll accept it."

"So," he cocked his head to one side, "are you going to make him try it?"

She laughed, "No. I think I can live without knowing."

He shook his head and laughed with her.

"You know," she said, "If you'd put the amount of time into your schoolwork that you did making this thing, you would be top of the year."

He shook his head, "Didn't take me that long, besides I think it would take more than that to be better than you."

"You don't really mean that."

"I really do."

She sat and stared at him for a moment, "It's almost time for dinner we should go."

He nodded, stood, picked up his satchel, put it over his shoulder, and said, "Same time tomorrow?"

When he saw her nod he turned and walked away.

Mists swirled around them and the scene changed just slightly. The stacks of books on the table grew on either side of them, the rolls of parchment were longer, quills and empty ink bottles strewn among the rest. Both huddled over the table writing furiously, one or the other occasionally muttering to themselves or frantically grabbing a book and flipping through the pages. This carried on for a few moments before Draco dropped his quill, sat back, stretched, and said "Done."

She sighed, "How do you do that?"

"You have to remember I've been writing with a quill since I could write, and with Lucius looking over my shoulder to make sure I did it well and quickly. It was good motivation."

"Motivation? Interesting word choice," she rolled her eyes and turned back to her essay to finish the last few lines.

He leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs, feet on the edge of the table, hands behind his head, "Are you done yet? I think it's time we take a little break."

"We don't have time for a break we have three more essays to write. I've done all the research for each I just need to write them but I barely have time to get it all done," she ran a hand over her hair, feeling the pieces that had escaped from her braid she took a moment to let it all down and just pulled it back in a hair band at the nape of her neck.

He dropped his feet to the floor and sat forward, "Speaking of time-"

"Which we don't have enough of," she interrupted.

He began again, "Speaking of time, there's something I've been wondering for awhile now."

"Well keep wondering," she said, "I have to work and so do you."

He pulled the quill from her hand and slid the parchment she had been about to write on out of her reach along with the others nearby, "That stack of books there to your left was bigger last year wasn't it."

"What?" she asked as she reached for both her quill and parchment, then giving up on getting them back and not bothering with the rest on the table, she rustled in her bag for replacements of each.

"You took more classes last year than this year right? I know you were in all of my classes. Everyone in school heard about you taking Divination and dropping it, but you also took Muggle Studies too didn't you?"

The question stopped her digging and had her looking at him, "How do you know that?"

"Granger, what do you think I was stalking you?" he scoffed.

"No just Harry and I usually happened to be with him," she retorted with a grin.

"Oh you're amusing, less than you think. but you're amusing," he replied winking at her.

"Same to you Malfoy," she smirked.

"Seriously Hermione, you should know almost nothing is a secret in this school. Students talk, ghosts talk, portraits talk, hell I'm sure even the professors talk. Word gets around. Never did understand why you, a Muggle born, would take Muggle studies though, you're not the type to take a class just for an easy O. So why take it? And how in the bloody hell did you take all of those classes. Some of them are scheduled at the same time. Did you never sleep last year? Did you do a separate study alone with the teachers? You didn't take the classes with other houses that would have gotten around. So how?"

She sat back in her chair, "Why? You wanna try out whatever it was I did?"

He laughed harshly, "Not likely, I'm just hoping that's one thing my father won't hear about or he'll make me do it. Anything to maintain the family honor," he rolled his eyes.

"I thought your family's honor meant something to you," she commented.

"It does but not when it comes to grades. I'm not failing. I'm not even an average student. The only one beating me is you and that only matters to Lucius. Who else even knows or cares? I'm not even sure how he knows but he e on we both need a break let's get away from the library, or at least go somewhere else in the library.

She hesitated, "Three essays," she insisted.

"You'll get them done," he said, "And knowing you probably with time to spare."

She sighed, "but there's not enough time already. There's never enough time!"

"That's it! You need a break. Stress just makes it seem as if there's less time than there actually is. Come on," he said as he pulled out his wand and aimed it at the table sending books and parchment flying into satchels

Her eyes opened wide, "Did you just do that non-verbally?"

He cocked his head to one side, "Yes I did it non-verbally. You have to have tried it. You can't convince me you haven't."

"Of course I've tried it," she replied.

One eyebrow raised, he looked at her not saying a word but the question was clear on his face.

She shook her head, "Fine yes, I've done it; and yes it worked. I don't understand why they make us wait until sixth year to learn it. Once you know the theory behind the spell and the motions it's not that hard. It's also obvious even to any Muggle raised witch or wizard that not every spell can be said aloud. What would be the point? And it becomes even more obvious when you spend any amount of time in the home of a magical family."

He stood and walked away from the table gesturing for her to follow all the while. "They just want to be sure that everyone can do it verbally first. I don't think they think about the fact that some of us are better than others and that we should be able to move faster in the area that we're better in. Some of us should be given more challenges and some of us need things slowed down. I know we all get split up after the OWLS next year but that's not the same thing. Why shouldn't we be able to spend more time developing the skills we're good at. Or maybe less time on those and more on the basics we struggle with. I mean even Longbottom is better at something. He does really well with plants. Someone has to be or those of us good at potions would really have trouble getting them made."

She followed him wondering just where they were going.

Adult Hermione and Harry followed the the teenagers also wondering where they were going.

Young Hermione spoke again, "You actually know that Neville's good with plants?" the shock was clear in her voice, she had clearly forgotten that she herself had told him that not that long ago..

Draco stopped in front of an alcove with a large window out over the grounds, a curtain in front, and worn old sofa, "Here," he said.

She looked around. They were still out of the main area of the library. There weren't any other people around. Yet to her this area seemed much more exposed than their table back in the corner, "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Here," he pulled her over to the sofa, "Just come in here."

The curtain shut leaving them out of sight, "I'll just use a temporary sticking charm and silencing so no one can hear us," he said.

Adult Hermione wondered what would have happened if Harry had chosen this moment to try and find her on the map. She could see that thought cross the face of her younger self was sure she could almost hear the girl's thoughts in her own head. If he saw her sitting with Malfoy he would surely come running, bringing Ron along with him. Yelling and causing a fight. No, that wouldn't do. Her grades were even better now from studying with Draco than they had been previously, something no one had thought possible. There had to be some way to prevent it. There had to be some way to hide from the map. Some charm she could cast on themselves or a room or maybe even just this are. The Marauders weren't geniuses, at least not all four of them. Remus was clearly incredibly bright and James was no slouch nor was Sirius. Peter? Well who knew. Still would they have ever thought of someone trying to hide from the map. She would guess not or Pettigrew would have used it the year before. Of course he had no way of knowing the map was still around, still being used by students, not to mention what living years as a rat could have done to his brain. Sirius did seem to have dog-like tendencies that showed themselves in the short amount of time they'd spent together. It was definitely something she would have to think about. She was lucky that this year Harry was so preoccupied by the Tournament that he hadn't been watching the map. Should she tell Draco about the map? He could help her come up with a way to hide them. Between the two of them they certainly could outwit the Marauders right? But what would he do if he knew? Was there a way to tell him without telling him? Could she get him without telling him why? Was there some other excuse she could give? She watched the young girl worry at her lip as all of the thoughts rolled through her mind.

"Knutt for your thoughts," he said watching her intently.

She shook her head, "Just thinking that I should be writing an essay instead of sitting here doing nothing.

He rolled his eyes, "Really you have to learn to relax. Besides, you owe me a story. Tell me how you attended all of those classes last year. That one part of the story somehow never made the rounds of gossip."

She turned again and gazed out the window at the familiar landscape. Students sitting by the lake trying to get the mermaids to come to the surface and talk, a team practicing in the air off in the distance, off to the side she spotted the Whomping Willow and the events of the previous year replayed in her head. Again the adult Hermione could hear the younger girls thoughts in her head. What would she tell him? How much? She couldn't say anything about Sirius obviously but what could she tell him? If he knew about the time turner would he suspect the she had somehow set Sirius free. Would he tell anyone? She chewed her lip again.

He let his gaze follow hers out the window but seeing nothing of interest turned back and instead watched her, watched her mind work.

"Need I say it again? Knutt for your thoughts or perhaps you'd prefer a sickle? Whatever it will take to get you to talk," a silver Sickle was now dancing it's way across his knuckles from pointer to pinky and back again.

She turned back and looked at him consideringly, then outside again, and finally spoke, "It was McGonagall really."

"McGonagall?" he leaned back against the arm of the couch and waited.

"The first day back last year, well really the first night," she said, "as soon as the feast was done she called me to her office. She had noticed as she was preparing schedules that I had signed up for almost every possible class. She asked me how I thought I would manage schedule and told me she knew I was capable of all of the work that getting to each class was going to be an issue. She wanted to know if I had a plan for how to get the information if I wasn't able to attend class. I told her I didn't know I didn't actually expect to be assigned all of the classes. She reached into her drawer and pulled something out. At the time I didn't know what it was. She had gone to Dumbledore and talked to him about my schedule and my wish to take so many classes. Together they had gone to the ministry and explained my level of responsibility.." she paused unsure if she should continue.

He watched her through half closed eyes. She could see his mind at work. A slow smile spread across his face, "Time Turner," he muttered at first, "a time turner, why didn't I think of that before?"

She nodded. "I'm honestly surprised you didn't come up with it before. I wouldn't have but I didn't even know they existed. It's not like we have things like that in the Muggle world; no matter how often people wish they had something similar."

He shook his head, "No I would never have thought of that. They can be dangerous after all."

"I would think that's exactly why you would think of it," she remarked.

"Don't you know by now Slytherins don't take unnecessary risks. Danger isn't something we take lightly. Seems to be more you Gryffindors. Acting without thinking first is more your speed. We like to think things through a little bit more look at all sides of an issue, determine if the danger is justified then act or not. Impulsivity seems to be a Gryff trait as much as courage and bravery.

She shook her head, "I think you're thinking of Harry," she said, "not all Gryffindors are like that."

He raised one eyebrow again and commented, "Oh that's right. You've never done anything impetuous right? Let me think.. saving a dragon, fighting a three-headed dog, wandering the castle at night after hours, petrifying a housemate, chasing off after a troll," he ticked each item off on his fingers as he listed them, "and that was just first year."

"I didn't go after that troll," she replied indignantly.

He leaned forward, "Do tell me more."

She looked out the window. Maybe this story would distract him from the Time Turner; if nothing else it was worth a shot.

"Ron had said something awful about me after class without realizing I was right behind him," she said.

"Something he no doubt would have said even if he had known," Draco interjected.

"Possibly," she said unwilling to fight about it, "anyway I ran off to the girls room to cry, not a very mature thing to do I know."

"You were eleven," he replied, "everyone is allowed to react emotionally at eleven or should be allowed to anytime really. I don't know anyone without emotions or anyone incapable of showing emotions. Some people are better at hiding them than others. Some are better had hiding certain emotions. There are those who feel it is unbecoming to let anyone know they are human and react like anyone else. Merlin forbid we be just like anyone else. What a curse to be ordinary."

She watching him quietly a moment glad he had cast the silencing spell on their little alcove as without it his raised voice would surely have brought someone running to see what was wrong. His ducked chin and flushed cheeks told her he wouldn't want to talk about what he had just said so she went on, "Anyway, I spent the evening crying in the loo. As I didn't go to the feast I didn't actually know about the troll at least not until it was locked in with me."

He held up a hand, "No no, let me guess… Potter and Weasley right?"

She merely looked at him in reply and he nearly fell off the couch laughing.

"It's not that funny,' she insisted.

"And...you were...still friends...you still talk… you like them?" he could barely breathe.

Whipping out her wand she sent a first silencing spell followed quickly by a stinging jinx in his direction. He grabbed his rear where the jinx had hit tears rolled from his eyes as he laughed silently on the other end of couch. She looked back out the window watching classmates for at least good solid minute before he touched her arm. He looked pleadingly at her when she turned to face him once again and gestured to his mouth. She considered a moment longer before waving her wand once again.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"No," she replied. "I really can't blame you; it is funny now. It just wasn't funny then. It was terrifying."

"I can't even imagine. What kind of troll was it?"

"A mountain troll, I was in the bathroom finally calming down and planning on sneaking back to the dorm before everyone was done with the feast. I came out of a stall and there it was. It was huge and ugly and it reeked of I don't even know what. It saw me and began to lurch towards me knocking the sinks off the wall with this giant club. I was frozen when the door opened and in rushed Harry and Ron."

"At least they came back to rescue you after they trapped you together," he fought back another laugh, "How did those two manage to stop it, or was it you after all?"

"I never even got a chance," she responded, "they came in wands blazing-"

"Wands blazing? What does that even mean? What kind of spell did they know first year that would make their wands blaze?" he asked eagerly.

"Sorry, it's a variation of a Muggle metaphor. It means they came in fighting."

"Ah ha, Muggles have some funny sayings, what word would you use in place of wands?"

"Um guns," she answered, "You usually say guns blazing."

"Wands seems to make more sense. They can actually look like they're blazing, guns on the other hand..." he trailed off.

"You know what a gun is?" her eyes were wide.

"There have been wizards who have used them in the past though not as frequently as swords or wands. Takes too much time to load is the lesson learned from the few times you can find stories about them being used in battles or duels. They're loud and a good nonverbal spell is always a better alternative unless you're an excellent shot on the first shot every time. Anyway we're off topic. How did Potter and Weasley defeat a troll?"

She laughed, "It was really almost accidental."

"That does not surprise me," he cut in.

"So you want to hear the story or not?" she complained when he nodded she demanded, "then keep your mouth shut."

"Yes ma'am," he saluted her with his wand.

She rolled her eye and continued telling him about the pipe throwing, jumping on its back, wand up its nose, and finally the floating club. By the time she finished talking they were both laughing so hard they had tears rolling down their cheeks.

"Potter really has more luck than any other person in history." Draco remarked, "with Weasley coming in a close second. Sometimes I think if they didn't have you they wouldn't have lived through first year much less the next two."

"It's possible,' she replied, "we've been here awhile you know, we should probably get back to work."

He looked at her wryly, "You just don't want to tell me about the Time Turner."

She huffed more from being so easily read than for any other reason, "there's nothing to it. I went to one class, then turned it once to go back an hour and went to the next class. That's really all there is to it,' she tried not to sound defensive and raise his suspicions.

"You never tried anything else with it?" he asked.

She clenched her jaw not wanting to outright lie but he continued "I know you're mostly a rule follower but you never used it to give you more time to do your work. You're so worried now about getting those essays done you didn't use it just to give yourself a little more time for that then?"

"I may have, once or twice," she admitted, keeping her relief to herself, "but Professor McGonagall had gone out on a limb for me to help me and I didn't want to take advantage and as she had spoken for me it would put her reputation on the line. I wouldn't risk that."

He nodded, "I can see that. She is one of the best professors here even if she is the Head of Gryffindor. I wouldn't want to do anything to make Severus look bad; it's one reason I help Crabbe and Goyle so much in potions. Life will be simpler in that class when those two can't take it anymore and that's still a year off."

"Why don't you get someone else to help them? Blaise and Theo are both good at potions as well aren't they?" she asked.

"We each take them on for a class. Even Pansy helps them out in charms. We look out for one another as all housemates do. But I'm the best at potions and since that's Severus's class I work with them. It wouldn't do for anyone in his house to fail his class but he has to at least show they have some proficiency at potions. He won't pass us if we don't deserve to, and he may not take points away or publicly assign detentions to his house members but he will do it in private."

"So what happens in Slytherin stays in Slytherin is what you're saying," she commented.

He nodded, "Much like Ravenclaw. You almost never hear about anything they do wrong either and it's not that Flitwick doesn't punish his students he's just quieter about it unlike Sprout or McGonagall."

"And you think that's a better way to handle it?" she asked.

"Not necessarily," he replied, "Sev means well but everyone already hates us and that just adds fuel to the fire. I respect that the other two won't hesitate to take points or assign detentions to their own students in front of everyone. It shows that they are truly fair minded when it comes to students. Makes it easier to relax and work in their classes."

"You keep calling Snape by his first name, why do you do that?"

"I don't even realize I do it most of the time. In class I have to think carefully if I'm going to call him by name. He's been around the manor since I was a baby. He and my father are, well I guess you could call them friends. They've known each other since their own time here. He's been teaching me potions since I was seven or eight," he looked out the window, "you're right we have been sitting here a while. It's getting dark, we should go."

She cast a quick Tempus charm, "An hour? Ugh, Malfoy if I'm late on any of my essays because of you I'm so hexing you the first chance I get."

"You can try," he smirked as he waved his wand to release the curtain and drop the silencing spell from the alcove, "you know we could probably fit a small table in here and just study right here. It would be more comfortable than those blasted wooden chairs. I work better when I'm comfortable, and it would be less likely for us to be spotted together."

She frowned at the suggestion, "You obviously wouldn't want to be seen studying with me maybe instead of hiding we should just stop meeting altogether."

He put a hand on her shoulder as she turned to stalk away, "I was thinking more of Potter and Weasley than my house mates or anyone else. I can explain it away as wanting to see how you study or that I'm trying to trip you up so that I can pass you in class. People will believe that about me in a second. Even Father would praise me for my sneakiness. You on the other hand, after the way I've treated you in the past no one would believe that you would voluntarily study with me."

"No they wouldn't," she admitted.

"I've never apologized," he said quietly, "and I should have, especially for…' his voice trailed off.

"I know what for," she responded, "you don't have to finish that sentence."

"But I should actually say it," he insisted, "I really am sorry."

She bobbed her head once in reply but didn't look back at him, "so here same time tomorrow?"

"Yes."