Hey readers here's the new chapter! I hope you all like it; thanks to all of those that reviewed they help me so much! Anyways on to the new chapter!
Chapter 2
Hermione sat at the traditional welcome back feast starring at her food not really hungry. How can anyone eat when you have twiddle d and twiddle dumb making goo goo eyes at each other just down the table? It made Hermione sick to her stomach to look at them. But she couldn't let it show, that would be the opposite of what she wanted people to think. She wanted them to think that she was ok and could be just fine with out Ronald Weasely.
She looked over at Ginny and Harry. Ginny nudged her head toward Ron and Lavender; she rolled her eyes putting her finger in her mouth pretending to throw up. Hermione couldn't help but give a small laugh. Ginny laughed glad to see Hermione smile. She could even see Harry secretly smiling while he drank his pumpkin juice.
She was still laughing silently shaking her head at Ginny going back to her food when something caught her eye. She looked between the heads of other Hogwarts students toward the Slytherin table.
Hermione caught Malfoy starring at her with an emotionless face. Her smile slowly faded as she waited for malice to spread across his face like every other time there eyes met. But it never came this time; instead it was as if he was trying to look past her.
Hermione slightly blushed but she couldn't look away for some reason, it might have been because she finally noticed that Malfoy was getting better looking every time she saw him… wait did she just think that?
Before she could do anything else a dark haired girl slid next to Malfoy bating her eyes at him as she talked a million miles a second. Hermione usually was disgusted when Pansy through herself at boys like that, it didn't give girls a good name nor did it make boys respect them. But she found herself mostly amused by Malfoy's reaction of repulsion. He looked at her annoyingly as his eyes found his way back to Hermione's. She instantly felt sheepish for still starring at him so she quickly looked away back to Harry and Ginny.
"You done yet Hermione? Me and Harry were just about to head back up to the dorms for the night," Ginny asked getting up with Harry by her side.
Hermione was just about to say yes when she heard Satan's voice.
"Oh we were just about done too, we'll join you! if that's alright of course," Lavender said with a smile getting up with Ron still trying to eat a roll, "I've been dying for you to do my nails again, we can have a girls night,"
Ginny gave her a forced smile, "Yeah ok, Hermione you coming?" She said her eyes pleading for her to say yes to save her from a tormenting night with Lavender.
But Hermione didn't want to deal with this right now.
"It's ok I'll catch up with you guys later I want a slice of this mint brownie cake before I go to bed," Hermione said with a fake smile of her own.
Lavender shrugged her shoulders as they all got up to leave.
Ginny glared daggers at her as she started to walk away behind Harry, "You better hurry up," She whispered to her.
Hermione watched them leave feeling slightly sorry for Ginny but she couldn't stand to be near Lavender let alone be forced to paint each other's nails with her.
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"Hey look Granger's sitting all alone," Blaise said nudging Malfoy with his elbow.
Malfoy looked to see Granger indeed sitting alone with the no Weasely or Potter in sight. This was a first.
"So?" Malfoy said pretending to be indifferent.
"So?" He scoffed, "So this is the perfect opportunity to talk to her," Blaise said running his hands through his hair making sure he looked good.
Malfoy's eyes bulged out in shock.
"You're kidding right? This is Granger the mudblood were talking about," Malfoy said exasperated.
Zabini looked at Malfoy almost disgusted.
"Come on Malfoy no one cares about blood statuses anymore. That went away when the war was over," He said not caring about Malfoy's opinion, "Hermione's smart, gorgeous, and available. Why wouldn't I want to talk to her?"
Blaise suddenly smiled, "Watch me as I work my magic," He winked as he slapped Malfoy on the shoulder getting up.
Malfoy still couldn't believe that his friend was doing this as he watched him make his way toward the brunette. A pang of jealousy went through him as he watched Zabini, but Malfoy would never admit that in a million years.
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Hermione sat eating her last bite of cake feeling slightly better, she gathered up her courage to go back up to the Gryffindor common room when she felt someone watching her.
Hermione looked up to see Malfoy looking intensely at her like she did something terribly wrong to make him angry. Her eyes furrowed in confusion as to why he was starring at her this way.
Suddenly out of the corner of her eye Hermione saw someone coming to sit by her.
It was Blaise Zabini.
"Granger long time no see," He said giving her a big smile, "How was your summer?" grabbing a roll.
Hermione froze, not really sure what to think. Blaise Zabini was sitting next to her asking how her summer went like the world had been turned upside down. She fumbled for words when she realized he was waiting for her response.
"Oh, um, pretty good actually how about yours?" Hermione said not able to make her voice believable.
"It was boring," He said dully, "But I broke up with my girlfriend if that counts as something exciting?"
Hermione's eyes furrowed, "Who was your girlfriend?"
"Pansy Parkinson," He said shrugging indifferently, "I found out she was still not over Malfoy,"
Hermione heart went out for sympathy for him; maybe he knew what she was going through.
"Oh I'm sorry I didn't know," Hermione said.
"I hear that Weasel did pretty much the same thing," Zabini stated not questioning.
Hermione flinched at Ron's name.
"I'm over it," Hermione said pretending to be indifferent.
Hermione finally took a step back, what in the world was she doing having a heart to heart with Blaise Zabini who was from Slytherin for heaven sakes? For all she knew he could just be looking for a way to hurt Ron or herself.
She cleared her throat.
"Well I think I'm going to head up to the dorms now," Hermione said putting down her fork getting ready to leave.
Blaise acted quickly.
"I could walk you to your dorms?" Zabini said standing up offering.
But Hermione shook her head.
"No that's alright I think I can find the dorms just fine by myself," Hermione said giving him a small smile, "Thanks anyways, it was good talking to you."
With that Hermione hurried and walked away a little weirded out. What in the world just happened?
Curious looks surrounded her as she left Zabini starring after her. Students were whispering finding it that one of the Slytherin bad boys was talking to the Gryffindor princess civilly.
Hermione could still feel a familiar stare as she left the great hall.
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Hermione made her way down the stairs quickly this mornings looking and feeling refreshed as she told herself that she could do this. That it was the start of a new school year and that she would be able to get back to being herself. She looked good and she knew that, but she didn't know if she felt that great. Though she knew that in time, that she would feel just as good on the inside as the outside, she just needed time.
She rounded the corner to her first class that consisted of potions, with the Slytherins, gag me she thought. Did they always have to have that class with them? It was her least favorite subject aside from Divination and it just had to be the first class of the year. Hermione took a deep breath, stay positive Hermione you can do this easier if you just stay positive.
Hermione walked in and gave a sigh of relief that their professor wasn't here yet, but most of the students were, even the usually tardy Slytherins. Hermione grew nervous that she might not have a seat by Harry. She made eye contact as Harry as he threw her a guilty look. He was sitting next to Ron and next to Ron was Lavender; the only open seat near them was right next to Lavender… great.
She took a couple of steps down the isle and not really sure of what to do. She suddenly spotted another open seat, but there was another problem, that seat was right next to Malfoy. She mentally groaned, are you serious right now? Couldn't there be one seat open by a nice person?
She would have to pick her poison against to evils. She looked to the seat next to Lavender then back to the one next to Malfoy. She took a deep breath, here it goes.
Hermione slide next to Malfoy smoothly making sure that she didn't make eye contact with him. But she could feel his glaring eyes on her as she got out her parchment and quill, she tried to ignore him but his stare wasn't going away. She turned to face him with an exasperated look on her face.
He was starring at her with a, what the hell are you doing? Look.
Hermione raised her eye brows darning him to say something.
"Granger what do you think your doing?" He said annoyed but his voice didn't ring of malice like it usually did.
"I'm sitting in class Malfoy what does it look like," Hermione said wishing he would just ignore her.
"What are you doing Granger?" A high pitch female voice said over her head.
Hermione closed her eyes wondering how she could be so stupid to forget who usually sat next to Malfoy, it was Pansy Parkinson.
She quickly opened her eyes and looked up to find her glaring at her waiting for a response.
"Go find another seat Pansy," Malfoy said shocking both Hermione and Pansy.
Parkinson looked like she got slapped in the face.
"What did you say to me?" Pansy said with a fire growing in her eyes.
Malfoy looked at her squarely in the eyes like she was retarded, "Go. Find. Another. Seat." He repeated.
Hermione waited for a banshee to explode from the look Pansy was giving Malfoy, but she did nothing for a moment just giving Malfoy the look of death. She finally turned away and stalked off.
Hermione gave out a big breath she had been holding in as she ran her hand through her soft curls.
"You're welcome," Malfoy said soft and ignorantly just loud enough for Hermione to hear.
"Excuse me?" Hermione said her eyes furrowing.
"I just saved your life from Parkinson," He said still not looking at her flipping through his potion book scanning it.
"You call your girlfriend by her last name?" Hermione asked taunting.
Malfoy suddenly stopped flipping through his potion book as his eyes snapped to Hermione's. His eyes grew dark and serious.
"She is not my girlfriend," He said looking at her hard.
Hermione didn't say anything as Malfoy went casually back to scanning his potion book.
Hermione shook her head unbelieving.
Finally the Professor came through the door making the class go silent. He made his way to the front of the room and started class, apologizing for being late the first day. He told them what they would be doing for the rest of the school year the cautions they needed to take when mixing potions, etc. Hermione listened intently keeping her mind focused on what he was saying instead of Ron and Lavender's whispers in the other side of the room.
"And now for the potions assignments, this is how it will work," The professor explained, "You will work with a partner for each potion assignment and write down your measurements as you put them in your cauldron. This will help you find out what you did wrong if you put an ingredient out of order," He paused for a moment, "I would like you now to turn to the person your sitting next to and introduce yourselves to each other… you just met your partner for the rest of the year,"
Hermione and Malfoy looked at each other with fear; you've got to be kidding me.
"To start off let's start out with a simple potion to practice with. You will not be scored this time remember it's just practice, but if you do happen to make it correctly, you may just get twenty extra house points," He said with a smile writing the instructions on the board, "The potion is on page six, you may start,"
The classroom was suddenly filled with exited voices as they all scrambled to get there ingredients.
Hermione however was not as excited; she had just got pared with Malfoy for the rest of the YEAR.
She put her hand to her head and groaned, but she did have to remember she was lucky. She could have been pared with Lavender for the rest of year. She shuddered at the thought.
"Don't look so down Granger," Zabini voice said coming up to their table, "Malfoy's not so bad at potions,"
Hermione looked at Malfoy as Malfoy rolled his eyes getting up.
"I'll go get first set of ingredients," Malfoy said to Hermione flatly as he made his way to the front of the class.
"You could always be my potions partner," Blaise said with a grin.
Hermione's stomach did a flip flop as she got the chills from the look he was giving her.
"Thanks but I think I'll stick with Malfoy," Hermione said, "I think that he's better at potions than you," She said with a smirk.
Blaise barked a laugh, if only he knew that Hermione was mostly serious.
"You might be right on that one," He said with a smile.
Hermione felt a little uneasy about his smile, it was like he was hiding a secret that only he knew about. She wasn't sure if she wanted to find out his secret.
"Good luck with your potion," Blaise said with one last look at Hermione, he then left to go back to his partner.
Hermione let out a long breath that she didn't know she had been holding.
Finally Malfoy came back to their desk with the first set of ingredients. He set them gently on the table and flipped open his book to where Hermione was.
"Let's get this over with," Malfoy mumbled.
Hermione ignored his comment as she started to read the instructions.
Class went by fast for the first part. She and Malfoy could at least be civil and work on there potion without causing a scene, if you could call civil not saying a word to each other. They only said one or two word sentences if necessary. Hermione found him to be a good potion maker, just not a very good social person, but she already found that out a long time ago.
"I'm gonna go get the second set of ingredients," Hermione said as she got the list that had the obscure names written on the small piece of parchment.
Malfoy said nothing in response as Hermione left to the back room to get them.
She entered the small storage room and found that she was the only one in the closet. They must be farther along than the others than she thought. This made Hermione slightly happier as she looked at her list and picked out the things she needed. She was just about to get her last ingredient when she heard a foot steps coming from the door. She looked up to see who it was.
It was Ron.
Hermione looked away as if she was board and searched for her last ingredient with more ferocity than before.
Ron came over to her not stopping to chit chat.
"You picked Malfoy as a potion's partner, really Hermione?" Ron said getting right to the point.
Hermione glared at him.
"Ronald you know as well as I that I didn't know he was going to be my partner," She said grabbing the last ingredient sealing it into the plastic bag.
"I just thought you'd at least have the sense to make me jealous with someone better," Ron said.
Hermione gave a harsh laugh, "Oh is that what I'm trying to do now?"
"You don't have to resort to Malfoy he'll a Slytherin not to mention a former death eater," Ron said ignoring her comment.
Hermione was silently fuming, the nerve of him.
"For your information I'm not trying to make you jealous Ron, I'm simply trying to get my potion done," Hermione said trying to make her way toward Ron, "And what makes you think that I want to make you jealous?" She said getting closer to his face, "I wouldn't take you back if you were the last wizard in Hogwarts anyways," She shoved his shoulder as passed him toward the door but he wasn't stopping at that.
"Your just jealous cause I found someone else," Ron said, "I was just trying to look out for you but I guess your to proud to notice help when it's offered!" Ron said rasing his voice.
Hermione was about to yell back when she heard footsteps coming in, it was Malfoy.
"Weasel can you keep your voice down everyone in Hogwarts can here what you're saying," Malfoy said lazily as he turned to Hermione, "I came to see what's taking you so long," He snapped at her.
"I was just on my way back," Hermione said trying to leave again.
"We're having a conversation Malfoy so why don't you get back to your slut Parkinson and leave us alone," Ron said his face growing red.
Malfoy's face grew dark.
He took a couple of steps towards Ron so that they were face to face.
"If you want to talk about sluts Weasely we can always talk about your precious Lavender," Malfoy said as a smirk grew on his face, "Although she's kind of a step down don't you think?" He scoffed, "But then again this is you we're talking about isn't it?"
He could tell he had hit a nerve as Weasely went to pull out his wand, but Malfoy and Hermione drew their wands before Ron could blink.
Malfoy looked over at Hermione as his eyes furrowed slightly. Hermione's stomach dropped when she realized what she had just done. She couldn't believe it, she didn't even think about it until now.
She was standing with her wand pointed at Ron.
She had sided with Malfoy.
"Hermione what are you doing?" Ron asked pointing his wand at Malfoy then at Hermione then back at Malfoy.
"Maybe she's seen the light," Malfoy said smirking.
"That's enough from you Mr. Malfoy," The Professor's voice rang as the three of them jumped in surprise.
Ron hurried and put his want in his robes before the Professor could see him.
"Granger, Malfoy why are your wands drawn? Detention for the both of you," The Professor scolded.
Hermione's heart sank.
"But Profes-" Hermione tried to defend herself.
"Just drop it Granger," Malfoy said so only she could hear him, but he kept his eyes on Ron, his eyes burning with hatred.
"Report to McGonagall's office tonight," The professor barked, "Now get back to work, all of you,"
The three did as they were told as they stepped out of the storage closest. The whole class was starring at them as they walked out, whispering about what had just happened.
Hermione felt Ron shove her shoulder as he passed her to go back to his seat.
Ron smirked at her strutting away proudly.
Hermione glared fiercely at him. This was war.