'We have Charms first thing' Draco moaned, his face plastered to the Charms book 'I hate Professor Flitwick's squeaky voice so early in the morning'
'Maybe you wouldn't hate his voice so much in the morning, if you didn't stay up playing cards with Blaise all night long' Hermione reprimanded. 'You have had two late nights in a row-'
'Would you stop with the lecturing for the morning, at least' Blaise moaned, his head drooping slowly onto his plate.
'You two are incorrigible. How are you to pay attention in class if you are going to be asleep?'
'We will pay attention...just not to the lesson' Blaise chuckled, waking up slightly 'At least Malfoy will'
'What am I missing?' Hermione asked, dully, not liking where the conversation was going but intrigued all the same.
'Draco has this obsession with his textbook' Pansy laughed, joining in on the conversation.
'I simply admire the author's good work at creating such an amazing book that is-'
'Obsession' Theo laughed causing Draco to roll his eyes.
'Hey, Hermes. You grew up in France. Have you heard of Hermione Granger?' Blaise asked 'Maybe you can introduce her to Draco-?' Draco cut him off with a harsh glare.
'Hermione Granger?' Hermione asked, hoping her voice didn't appear too squeaky. She coughed subtly. "What do you want with her?"
'She is the author of our Charms textbook' Blaise showed her the name at the bottom of 'Charms for the Seventh'. Hermione traced her fingers over the name, a glimpse of pride fluttering through her. Hogwarts had chosen her books to teach their students charms. A smile flitted across her face.
'She went to Beaxbatons with me' Hermione answered tentatively, returning to her breakfast and tearing her eyes away from her name.
'Oh, that is fabulous!' Pansy laughed mockingly 'You can set her up with Draco'
'I'm not sure about that...' Hermione started only to find the boys distracted by the many owls circling overhead. 'Saved by the post' she muttered.
A newspaper landed on Blaise's head along with three baskets of sweets.
'Ow!' he exclaimed, as Theo scrambled to help himself to as many of the fallen sweets as he could carry.
'Oi, half of them are mine. You owe me from that bet we had during the summer' Draco said, as Blaise fumbled with the newspaper.
'You bet on sweets' Hermione asked incredulously. "You're seventeen years old"
'They are crazy about sweets. It is a wonder that they stay fit,' Pansy chuckled.
Hermione simply nodded, frowning at the number of sweets spilling onto the table.
Being the first ones there, Hermione walked into Charms brightly, accepting the Charms book that Flitwick handed her.
'Why do you guys sit at the back?' Hermione asked in a furious whisper, as she made her way to the front row.
Feeling sorry for her, Blaise took the seat next to her and soon the rest of the Slytherin gang had piled up next to and behind them.
Stares and whispers erupted as the rest of the class piling in noticed the Slytherins' new seating arrangement.
'Been naughty have you?' Harry sniggered as he passed Hermione. Blaise looked ready to jump at the offender but Hermione held him down muttering 'Ignore him. Ignore him'
'Today, class, we're going to be learning about the FiendFyre charm and watching it being performed. No practical today' Professor Flitwick announced once the class was settled. 'So does anyone want to start us off?'
Hermione's hand shot into the air. Everyone looked surprised at the boy's eagerness.
'Yes,' Flitwick smiled at her.
'The FiendFyre is a considerably tricky spell that requires a great amount of concentration and magical skill. It is supposed to create an untouchable fire that refuses to cease burning until the caster believes so. Without skill, the skill can go terribly wrong and has murdered and maimed its casters at countless events.' Hermione recited, not pausing to breath.
The Slytherins looked incredulously at Hermione while the Gryffindors sneered.
'Memorised word for word from 'Charms from the Seventh'' Flitwick congratulated. 'I think we have ourselves a prize student here. 50 points to Slytherin'
Harry's jaw fell open.
Hermione sniggered.
'Does anyone else want to add anything?'
Ron stuck his hand up in the air.
'Yes, Mr Weasley' Flitwick nodded.
'Fiendfyre is a fire that looks like...ummm...uhhh...its orange...and...' Ron fumbled, his ears turning bright red.
'Good try' Flitwick frowned. 'Anyone else?'
Draco stuck his hand up in the air, smirking
'Fiendfyre is an orange-coloured fore that takes the shape of predatory animals in an attempt at scaring the victim or victims to submission' Draco answered smugly.
'Well done' Flitwick beamed 'Another 30 points to Slytherin' Ron looked like he could strangle Draco.
The lesson continued to favour the Slytherins and by the end, the whole of Gryffindor was absolutely beside themselves with jealous anger, while the Slytherins were grinning madly.
Hermione was heading to the common room with her friends after classes when she was roughly pulled into a nearby classroom. She made to scream but when she saw who it was, stopped instantly.
'Warn me next time, will you?' Hermione breathed, adjusting her robes 'I was nearly scared to death'
'Sorry,' Ginny apologised sheepishly 'But I wanted to congratulate you on showing up Harry yesterday. That's one really good verbal combat you have.'
'Thanks' Hermione smiled 'I simply couldn't stand there and let Weasley believe he had the upper hand. His smirk annoyed me so much that I just snapped and let it all go.'
'Well done' Ginny smiled. 'I'll have to warn you, though. Harry and Ron are planning revenge with Lavender and Parvati against you Slytherins. Be careful where you step'
Hermione thanked Ginny before bidding goodbye to her friend and rushing down the corridor to catch up with her Slytherin friends, who had noticed her absence.
'Where did you vanish off to?' Pansy asked, clutching onto Hermione's arm the moment she appeared.
'I got stopped by someone' Hermione answered vaguely 'Anyway, what are you guys doing tonight?'
'I thought we could all play some Quidditch' Draco suggested.
'Yeah, I've been wanting to play a game the whole summer' Blaise agreed.
'I'll sit in the stands and get some homework done' Pansy nodded. They all looked at Hermione.
'I don't know how to fly' Hermione admitted, looking slightly sheepish.
'We can teach you' Draco said.
'It won't take long' Theo nodded.
'All right, but I warn you. I've got no past experience at all' Hermione warned.
'We'll work with it' Draco smiled.
'This is impossible!' Draco exclaimed three hours later 'You just cannot fly!'
'I warned you' Hermione chuckled.
'Why don't we take you on a ride?' Blaise offered.
'Good idea' Theo nodded.
'A ride?' Hermione squeaked, staring worriedly at the brrom.
'Yeah, that's an idea' Draco nodded. 'I'll do it' He grabbed his broom and pulled Hermione onto it swiftly before she could argue
Hermione, surprised into submission, held on tightly to the stick of wood as Draco kicked off from the ground.
The wind rushed through her ears, as they ascended and for a split moment she swore that she'd felt herself slip marginally towards the end of the broom.
'We're flying' Hermione squeaked, winding her arms around Draco's waist instinctively, squeezing her eyes tightly shut.
Draco smiled, not minding in the slightest at their close contact.
'We aren't even fully in the air, yet. You will love it when we are up there' he promised.
'I will?' Hermione laughed nervously, tightening her hold on him.
Draco chuckled warmly, his diaphragm vibrating. "Of course" He let himself relax into Hermione's embrace, as he brought the broom to a halt, still midair.
"Are we down yet?" Hermione asked, opening her eyes a margin before realising they weren't and shutting them tight again.
"Hermes, there's no point coming all the way up here and not even opening your eyes to enjoy the view" He nudged Hermione gently in the ribs. "I'm sure you'll love it"
Hermione shook her head and buried her head into his shoulder without thinking, breathing in his intoxicating smell. He smelt of expensive shampoo and cinnamon. She liked it.
"Please..." Draco tried, nudging Hermione again "For me?"
Hermione gulped. Those words beckoned out to her and pleaded with her more than any of the others had. She obliged. "Okay"
She opened her eyes.
It was beautiful. The castle was still tall and imposing, but from up here, it looked like something out of a fairytale with fluffy clouds, dyed pink by the sunlight, clustered around its larger turrets. The lake glistened with an ethereal sheen and everything on ground level seemed tiny, insignificant. "Wow"
"Lovely, isn't it?" Draco agreed, breathing in deeply.
'Hey, Draco!' Blaise called, snapping them out of their reverie. 'Have you guys fallen asleep?'
'As if, Blaise' Draco called back, pointing the broom downwards and descending.
The moment Hermione hit the floor, she stumbled away from Draco, the warm of the embrace vanishing suddenly.
"That wasn't too bad?" Draco asked.
Hermione shrugged. "I'm still not getting on that thing on my own"
'Okay,' Draco chuckled.
'Maybe another day' Blaise offered.
'In your dreams, Blaise' Hermione muttered, following them back up to the castle.
A/N: I didn't really know how to end this. I'm probably going to brush up on this last scene soon. It really isn't my best. Well, you can't blame me. It is midnight over here. I just really wanted to update. This probably didn't meet your expectations. Sorry guys. Still review, please, even if you don't like it.