The next morning, Hermione slouched over her third cup of coffee. Her eyes were swollen from lack of sleep and her head felt heavy upon her shoulders. Red bruises formed overnight on her spine where Malfoy slammed her into the railing.
"Hermione, what were you up to last night?" Ginny asked with a suggestive eyebrow raise and a conspiratorial grin as she sat down next to her.
"Nothing like what you are trying to imply," Hermione mumbled, cutting her eggs benedict with machine-like precision. Harry paused in his Quidditch conversation with Ron and looked at her.
"Alright, Hermione?" He asked, readjusting his circular glasses. His emerald eyes scanned across her face, pausing on the circles under her eyes.
"C'mon Ginny you know she was just studying for O.W.L.S. Hermione would never." Ron muttered absentmindedly through mouthfuls of toast. Her jaw clenched.
Hermione hadn't had the chance to tell any of them the "arrangement" she and Malfoy had been forced into last night. Harry had a new sort of anger he carried with him since Cedric Diggory's death, an irrational type that Ron tended to enable. She worried that he might do something impulsive.
She planned to tell them eventually, but she wanted to make sure Harry and Ron wouldn't storm up to McGonagall's office and ruin her only shot at maintaining her prefect badge. Or worse, punch Malfoy and then get expelled.
That being said, Ron's passive-aggressive dig tempted Hermione into exposing her late-night extravaganza.
"And what do you mean by 'she would never?'" Ginny said, eyes narrowing. Ron's face heated and his fist clenched around his fork.
"Just that she's not that kind of girl." He mumbled.
Since the Yule ball last year, Hermione realized Ron put her in a metaphorical box. Inside this box were books, school, rules. There was no room left for anything stereotypically feminine or sexual. When her behavior no longer fit "the box", he became angry and confused.
It was frustrating, to say the least.
"Not that kind of girl!" Ginny exclaimed in indignation. Hermione was too tired to reprimand Ron, this type of conflict had become quite frequent since her brief relationship with Viktor last year.
"So are you just going to repeat everything I say now? Or am I allowed to finish my breakfast?" Ron snapped. Harry cringed in his seat next to him. At least one of them had the common sense to know one just does not get away with talking to Ginny Weasley like that, let alone her own brother.
Ginny's freckled face held a fierce glare, Ron paled.
"You'll be pleased to know then, that Hermione was out past curfew last night for hours," Ginny said smugly, dragging out the final word.
Hermione sucked in a breath. Ginny must have woken up when she stumbled back to bed. Harry looked at her in shock. Ron's eyes widened.
"What the hell 'Mione! What were you doing?" Ron said angrily.
"Funny Ginny should bring this up right now, I was just getting ready to tell you all about it!" Hermione tried to force a chuckle, waving her butter knife around in a nonchalant gesture. They looked unconvinced. She described the previous night's events in a carefully edited fashion. She summarized their physical fight with a simple: "We started arguing very loudly and it woke some of the portraits up".
This was to prevent an outburst from the other ⅔'s of the trio.
She did not tell them about the Astronomy book Malfoy brought with him. Or how his nimble fingers had danced through her hair while she was still in the shallow depths of sleep.
And she most certainly did not tell them about the way his electric, ocean colored eyes dropped to her lips more than once.
Hermione then explained the task Professor McGonagall gave them.
"That's ridiculous. I'm talking to Dumbledore right away." Harry said resolutely, preparing to jump out of the bench.
Hermione grabbed his wrist, "This is why I waited to tell you. I don't want you to do anything about this. It's the only way to keep my prefect badge."
Ron eyed her hand on Harry's wrist. "Harry, c'mon, don't make this harder on her. We can keep an eye on Malfoy and make sure he doesn't do anything."
She was lucky to have friends that protected her so fiercely despite how overbearing it could be.
She gave them a weak smile and turned back to her breakfast. Just before she looked down, her gaze locked onto pale blonde hair and silver eyes at the Slytherin table.
He had already been staring at her when she looked at him. His passive gaze morphed into a vicious glare and his pink lips mouthed 'Mudblood'.
Ginny walked Hermione to her Transfiguration class. She apologized profusely for snitching on Hermione. She had just wanted to put Ron in his place.
Hermione loved Ginny, she was a fiercely loyal friend. Sometimes it felt like she might be one of the only people in the world that understood the intense rage she occasionally felt.
A rage that festered and bubbled up in her chest when she raised her hand in class, only to hear a snickering group of boys behind her saying, "The Mudblood needs to be put in her place".
When she was younger, she assumed every other girl in her dorm could relate to this feeling. She assumed that when she talked of the dismissive way Harry and Ron regarded her presence, Lavender and Parvarti would share her annoyance. When she told them of how the boys acted like she was a walking library, property only capable of intellectual intelligence and useless with anything else, they would sigh in sympathy.
She was disappointed when they told her that she needed to lighten up, that was just how boys act.
It was then that Hermione realized sometimes it was easier to accept a blow than try to catch the hand dealing it.
When she became friends with Ginny Weasley, it was like a breath of fresh air.
Ginny, who grabbed the neck of her six-foot-tall brothers' shirts, and threw them out of her way like it was nothing.
Ginny, who when told she came off too intimidating to find a boyfriend, laughed.
And Ginny, when told by Ron that she wasn't allowed to have a crush on his friend Harry Potter, stomped on his favorite Quidditch magazine.
Hermione would forgive Ginny for just about anything.
She spotted pale golden hair entering the class. "Ginny, it's alright. I know you didn't mean anything by it. Honest. See you for lunch!" She waved her off, following behind him.
Throughout the class, Hermione avoided Harry and Ron's questioning glares. She may have 'forgotten' to mention the purple and red bruise blossoming on Malfoys jaw.
She kept her head strictly pointing to the front of the classroom.
"Hermione!" Ron kept whispering, trying to get her to explain.
"Hermione, did you do that?" He nudged her.
" and , if you are done, I would love to continue teaching the class." Professor McGonagall stared pointedly at them. Snickering came from the Slytherin's side of the room.
Ron's face flushed, Hermione felt her cheeks heating, "Sorry Professor McGonagall." They both said.
The day passed too quickly for Hermione's liking. Harry had tried to walk her to Professor McGonagall's office after potions but she shooed him away. The last thing Hermione wanted was for a fight to break out in front of her office.
Despite coming from the same class, Hermione did not walk with Malfoy. She made sure she left the classroom before him.
For all of the effort she put into avoiding him, Hermione somehow managed to make the tension worse. She could hear the sharp clicking of his expensive shoes on the stairs behind her. She began to hyper-fixate on her walk, feeling the force of his stare on her body.
She breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Professor McGonagall's tall, curved, wooden door.
As soon as she raised her fist to knock, Professor McGonagall opened the door.
"Quickly then, come in, come in. We don't have all day." Professor McGonagall said. Even in the comfort of her own office, she wore a black witch hat and emerald robes pinned by a jeweled brooch.
Everything Professor McGonagall did these days seemed to be in a rush.
They both sat down in the same leather armchairs from hours earlier.
"Put these on." Professor McGonagall hastily handed them each an amulet of a shrinking potion bottle. Inside the glass vial was an onyx black potion dotted with white specks. It reminded Hermione of stars in the night sky.
Malfoy reluctantly shrugged the necklace on. "What is it and what is it for?" Hermione questioned.
"It's a potion devised to repel those that wish you harm in the forest. The glass has been charmed to be unbreakable but also charmed to allow any nearby predators to smell it. Rest assured , you will not be reduced to a human sacrifice." She said with a sarcastic ending. Malfoy gave her a saccharine-sweet smile in response.
While she sorted through the piles of parchment on her desk, woven baskets with wooden covers floated to each armchair. They reminded Hermione of the picnic basket her mother used for summer outings.
"Ha! Here it is." Professor McGonagall exclaimed to herself. She handed Hermione what looked like a list of potions ingredients.
40 Valerian
20 Speckled Robin Red Mushrooms
30 Pungous Onion
48 Gurdyroot
"Unfortunately due to a lack of exploration in the forest," Malfoy scoffed at this, "I can only offer you a tentative map of where various plants may be located". Professor McGonagall finished, shoving a piece of parchment at Malfoy.
"Don't worry Professor, I'm confident we will be able to find them," Hermione said, scanning the list and recognizing the names from her reading.
"Alright, go change into outdoor clothes and then get to it." She huffed, shooing them out the door just as she earlier that day.
"So, meet by Hagrid's hut in fifteen?" Hermione said, clutching the list in one hand and the basket in the other. Malfoy stormed off without saying anything in response.
"Alright, see you then ferret!" She called after him sarcastically. Suddenly, he turned around and started marching back towards her.
"Filthy, little Mud-" She started jogging towards the Gryffindor common room before he could finish. The ends of her lips curling in a self-satisfied smile.
Hermione leaned against the side of Hagrid's hut. She missed him terribly. He was a kindred spirit, always willing to indulge her passionate curiosity in magical creatures. She hoped wherever he was, he was enjoying himself.
Her shiny, forest green rubber rain boots sunk into the mud. She wore a black windbreaker, a grey jumper that belonged to Harry, and jeans to combat the cool breeze. Due to a lack of sunlight filtering through the trees, the forest was much colder than the Hogwarts grounds.
She fiddled with the amulet Professor McGonagall gave her. Malfoy was ten minutes late. During this time she had french braided her hair, drew circles in the mud with her foot, and stared at the uninviting forest entrance.
He appeared at the top of the hill leading down to Hagrid's hut. He wore a black cloak and a black jumper underneath. His feet were covered in expensive-looking dragon leather boots. His usually pale face was covered in a light flush, not the type brought on by a pretty girl but instead by the kiss of the wind. As he drew closer she could see that the breeze caused his eyes to water, the blue-gray color standing out more than usual because of it. The bruise on his sharp jaw shined against his pale skin.
She wondered how much it hurt.
She could admit that he was objectively beautiful and not think he was a good person. Hermione would rather kiss Voldemort than tell Malfoy she thought his eyes reminded her of A Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh, or that his hair looked like it was spun by Rumpelstiltskin.
"Let's just get this over with." He muttered, charging past her and straight into the looming forest. She reluctantly followed behind.
Apparently, she was walking too slowly for him because he turned around, grabbed her arm, and dragged her behind him. She tried to yank her arm away only for his grip to tighten.
"What's wrong Malfoy? Too scared to walk on your own?"
"I'm only worried some beast is going to mistake that monster you call hair for a bird's nest. I don't really fancy fighting off a giant Hippogriff this afternoon." He said, marching them forward through the lush foliage.
"You would be afraid of a Hippogriff, wouldn't you? Bad blood there if I remember third year correctly?" She snarked back at him, looking pointedly at the arm she guessed he "broke". Hermione paid the price for this comment when she tripped over a tree root and he had to yank her back up.
She snatched the map sticking out of his basket. "Alright, that's far enough. We need to know where to look for this." She traced a finger over where she estimated their location to be, "We should head west to collect the Valerian, it says there should be a patch over that way." She pointed to the left.
She led them through the trees. The gnarled, twisting branches and gray mist had once made her spine prickle in apprehension. But today, the sound of heavy boots trampling leafs and twigs behind her chased away any previous fears.
In the distance, she spotted the pearly white blossoms of the Valerian plant.
"Look there, Malfoy!" She d pointed. They each took set to work pulling Valerians from the soil. She instructed him to make sure to get all of the roots to which he sneered and said he wasn't an idiot.
It wasn't until after they'd finished collecting that she'd realized he'd dumped all of his roots into her basket, meaning she would have to carry all forty of them. He smirked down at her after she'd noticed.
They located the Pungous Onions and Gurdyroot quickly. Malfoy correctly predicted which environments the magical plants would favor within the forest.
Almost an hour passed. Her arms ached from carrying the heavy plants. She couldn't cast a shrinking charm since the plants were extremely sensitive to magic. The last thing she wanted to do was alter the healing properties of the Gurdyroot, and then have to come back an extra day to make up for it.
Malfoy was getting more irritated than he usually was. His stony, unpleasant demeanor worsened with impatience. She hadn't thought he could manage a worse disposition than his usual one, but she was proven wrong when he began to mumble swear words under his breath.
"Can you stop fucking stomping?" He finally snapped.
"I'm walking at a normal rate!"
"Well, then why do I feel like your feet are screaming?"
"My only guess would be brain damage due to your family's years of inbreeding." She snapped back without a second thought. He purposefully shoved his shoulder against hers.
It was strange, having to be alone with Malfoy outside of school. Without an audience, he lost a lot of the bravo that he usually swaggered about with. She almost didn't recognize him as the boy that bullied her for years.
Suddenly, Hermione spied a cluster of red and white speckled mushrooms under a willow tree, "Malfoy, look!" Hermione nudged his arm and pointed. He turned his head in the direction of the mushrooms. The faintest resemblance of a smile crept across his features, she smiled back at him on reflex, cheeks reddening. A wolf howled in the distance, breaking the spell. Both stumbled away from each other, looking pointedly to the ground as they hurried to collect the mushrooms.
Her foraging partner was neither Harry nor Ron; she was acting with an uncomfortable level of familiarity with Malfoy. This was the boy who introduced her to the word 'Mudblood'. One that believed in blood superiority.
How could she forget that?
She cast a spell to show the way back to Hogwarts. They trudged through the mud and thick fog silently. Her arms were weighed down by her overstuffed basket.
The walk back to Hagrid's hut took nearly an hour. She had no idea they'd wandered so far into the forest.
As soon as they emerged from the trees, Malfoy set off at a faster pace. He didn't want to be caught next to the Mudblood, even if it was for an assigned task, Hermione thought. She walked slowly to the Gryffindor common room, legs sore and feet blistered.
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of crimson sofas and a warm fireplace. She checked the time with a quick tempus, she still had a few hours before dinner. As she sunk into the plush cushions, she was embarrassed to admit she wanted to skip dinner and fall asleep right now, at nearly five-thirty in the evening. Hermione couldn't remember the last time she'd exercised that much.
