A/N: This was a really fun chapter to write! Thank you for all the reviews on chapter ten; I hope that everyone enjoys the drama that you're gonna get in chapter eleven!
Hermione, well aware that Harry didn't have Felix Felicis and therefore couldn't pretend to slip Ron any of it, wasn't too worried the morning of the Gryffindor versus Slytherin match.
Ron also didn't seem to be too concerned about the match, either, likely because the pressure wasn't solely riding on him now that there were other Chasers to help.
"Good luck," Hermione offered with a smile directed at Ron and Harry as they left to go get dressed in their uniforms. She sat next to Luna, who had her Lion hat and waited patiently for her to finish her breakfast before joining her, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan in the Quidditch Stands.
"Coming through, coming through!" Seamus yelled, pushing his way past the first years. "Friend of the Captain's; no, Creevey, fifth years can't sit here."
Hermione thought that was a bit ridiculous but didn't say much. They were relatively early so they watched as the teams warmed up a bit. Ginny and Harry were talking to each other before Harry yelled something irately.
"Sick?!" Hermione could hear him shout.
Ginny shrugged before walking off. When the game started and Draco was nowhere to be seen, Hermione realized that they must've been talking about his absence. Hermione knew where he was, however.
Working on the Vanishing Cabinet.
Zacharias Smith, a thin and blonde boy, announced the start of the game, which was met by thunderous applause from both sides. Ron managed to make a few goals and McLaggen blocked a good number of Quaffles.
The game went on, with Gryffindor in the lead by a hundred points or so, and Hermione started to wish that she'd brought a book after forty minutes of watching.
Suddenly, Harry and Harper were racing against each other. It looked like Harper was about to catch the snitch when Harry shouted something to distract him and closed his hand on the small golden ball.
Gryffindor cheers erupted and the sea of red and gold supporters waved their flags and scarves supportively.
Hermione trudged down to the Pitch to help congratulate her team, but couldn't help feeling a bit uneasy, knowing what originally happened later that night. But there was no Felix Felicis to make Ron angry with her, right?
"Ron! Ron!" Everyone was chanting Ron's name in the Gryffindor Common Room later that night during their celebratory party. Wrapped around Lavender, the tosser still kissed her, despite not really having a reason to be mad with Hermione.
Although Hermione had already seen this scene unfold before her, Hermione couldn't help the tears falling down her cheeks. She thought that since she knew that Ron would kiss Lavender, the pain in her chest wouldn't be as intense, but it was actually worse this time. She had been perfectly pleasant to Ron that morning, yet here he was.
Pushing past a few fifth years cheering Ron on, Hermione strode toward an empty classroom a bit down the hallway. Wiping the tears from her face, Hermione wasn't looking where she was going and ran into someone with a dull thud.
"Sorry," she muttered as she looked up to meet their eyes. Of fucking course. Draco Malfoy was staring back at her, raising an eyebrow with interest.
Awkward. They hadn't seen each other since Friday, when their explosive argument ended in Draco apologizing.
"What…" he trailed off, gesturing to her teary eyes and angry expression.
"Ron," she snapped. "It's Ron's fault."
"Well, can you blame him?" Draco asked, leaning against a wall they stood near. "He isn't the brightest."
"You don't even know what he did," Hermione complained, "You just hate him and are happy to agree with me about it."
Draco nodded, "Yes. And?"
"I don't know why I even bothered talking to you," Hermione shook her head and pivoted on her heel to enter an abandoned classroom.
Draco, the annoying git, followed her in. She perched herself on the edge of the teacher's empty desk, facing the blackboard, and Draco trailed behind her, sliding himself into the large desk-chair stationed behind the desk.
Hermione tilted her head down to glare at him, "What do you need?"
Draco drawled, "I don't understand your choice in boys. Krum, McLaggen and Weasel-bee?"
"Don't you start about that, too!" Hermione snapped, sick of being ridiculed about Viktor by Ron and now Draco, too.
Draco put his hands up in fake surrender. "Fine, fine. But, honestly, what happened with you and him?"
Hermione tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and explained, "Ron, all year long, has been fighting with me on and off again. He knows how I feel about him," she blushed, not enthralled to be telling this to Draco Malfoy, of all people, "and tonight, after Gryffindor won, he and Lavender Brown were snogging each other."
Draco smirked, "Really, Granger? You're sad over that? She-"
"I shouldn't have even bothered explaining it to you; I knew you would just tease-"
Hermione's interruption was cut off by Draco's interruption.
"Slow down, Granger, don't get your panties in a twist," she glared at this but Draco continued, "I was saying that Brown doesn't have much on you. Of course, you're both annoying sodding Gryffindors, but she's not exactly the brightest."
Hermione ignored his insult hidden in his compliment and smiled. "That might just be the nicest insult you've ever thrown at me."
Draco rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, don't expect any more compliments."
Hermione grinned and wiped the tears from her face. She flicked her wand, producing small yellow birds that flew merrily around her. Draco frowned slightly at them but Hermione paid no attention to him.
Giggles faded closer to them until Lavender Brown, breathless, and Ron, blushing fiercely burst into the room, hand in hand.
"Oh," Lavender giggled, noticing Hermione sitting on the desk, facing Draco, who was seated in the Professor's chair, his legs crossed and his ankle resting on his kneecap. "This room's occupied."
"Hermione?" Ron asked, noticing the two students sitting near each other. His face turning purple, he glared at Draco with intense contempt.
Ron stared at the odd couple. Hermione felt her anger grow and she whispered, "Oppugno."
The small yellow birds whizzed speedily toward Ron and attacked him, their beaks puncturing his skin and their claws scraping his clothes. He ran off, shouting, as Lavender tried to help him.
Draco smiled at the sight and turned toward Hermione with a glint of satisfaction in his eyes. "Nice."
Hermione pushed herself off the desk and brushed off her skirt, quietly replying, "Thanks."
After a moment of silence, she decided to go.
She exited the room, but stopped before she was out the doorway, grabbing onto the doorframe with her hands and saying, "Thank you, Draco."
He nodded and watched as Hermione left, feeling an odd sense of comfort.
Hermione was no longer talking to Ron, and vice versa, for what felt like the hundredth time this year. She was hurt that, even without doubting his Quidditch skills as she had in the first timeline, Ron kissed Lavender when Hermione felt she had made her feelings toward him pretty obvious.
November had arrived at Hogwarts, and Hermione could see the Christmas festivities nearing. Hagrid was growing a few trees by his hut that were well on their way to towering over everyone and the snow was progressively accumulating.
After finishing an Ancient Runes study session with Draco, which was filled with banter, teasing and Gryffindor-bashing (yet nothing blood-related, which Hermione had a feeling wouldn't happen again), Hermione set off to have lunch with Harry and Ron.
Following his kiss with Lavender Brown and his insult to Hermione during Herbology while discussing the Slug Club Christmas party, Ron was not on the best terms with Hermione. So, when Hermione took a tentative seat across from Harry and Ron, she was unsure of what to expect.
Not seeing Lavender, Hermione felt slightly more assured; perhaps, in this timeline, Ron and Lavender wouldn't date despite their very public snog.
She said her good mornings with a relatively cheery smile and looked away to grab a sandwich from the platter. When she looked back up, Lavender had sat down beside Ron, much to the obvious discomfort of Harry. Hermione felt her eyes narrow and she angrily took a few bites of her sandwich.
"So, Hermione," Lavender said, her hand intertwined with Ron's hand on the table, "Wasn't that match just brilliant yesterday?"
Hermione forcefully smiled and swallowed her food, nodding. "Yes, Harry was a positively superb Seeker."
Harry smiled, nodding at Hermione in thanks.
Ron slightly furrowed his eyebrow, and added, "Yeah, but it's too bad McLaggen did such a lousy job Keeping."
Hermione glanced at Harry, who was staring longingly at the door, obviously wishing he could leave them. She contradicted him, "Well, I don't think it was too horrid. As a matter of fact," Hermione stood up, grabbing the remaining bites of the sandwich to leave, "I think it was rather wonderful. If you'll excuse me, I will be-"
"In the library, we know," Ron rolled his eyes.
Hermione shot Ron a dirty look and turned to Harry, "Bye, Harry."
She walked away, feeling miffed at the sight of Ron and Lavender. She knew that while technically, Lavender hadn't done anything wrong, Ron was likely only dating her to annoy Hermione after their repetitive fights and quarrels.
She was about to enter the library, but stopped, wondering where Draco was. She had enough of having to spy on him and tiptoe around every time she wanted to check his progress. She was going to go into the Room of Hidden Things without any sort of invisibility cloak or spell today.
She took a deep breath when she arrived in front of the Room of Requirement's wall. Crabbe and Goyle, luckily for Hermione, were not standing guard and she quietly entered the room. Not trying to conceal her footsteps, Hermione slowly moved toward Draco.
She could hear him muttering the incantation, obviously in deep concentration. He didn't notice when she was a only a meter or two away, and Hermione cleared her throat quietly to draw his attention.
Draco spun toward her, pointing his wand threateningly in her direction. He saw that it was Hermione, and, keeping his wand pointed toward her, relaxed slightly.
"Draco, I-"
"What the fuck are you doing here, Granger?" he snarled, putting force behind each bitten word.
Hermione took a deep breath, lying on the spot, "I was trying to get into the Room of Requirement to work on Runes, but this door appeared instead of our usual," Draco cringed at hearing her say 'our', but Hermione didn't notice and continued, "I opened it and found this room, where I heard you muttering."
Draco lowered his wand, sneering, "Go away."
Hermione stepped toward him, glancing at the Vanishing Cabinet. "Is that a Vanishing Cabinet?"
His mouth gaping, he shook his head, "Why do you know what that is?"
"Borgin and Burkes."
"I wouldn't have pegged you for the type to shop there, Granger," Draco tried to insult her, but he was obviously distracted and unnerved by her presence.
"You're fixing it?" Hermione feigned ignorance, disregarding his last comment.
"How did you know it was broken?" Draco took an involuntary step toward the large, black cabinet.
Hermione tentatively sat down on the couch, waiting to gauge his reaction before she reminded him, "Don't you remember Montague?"
Draco's jaw was tense and he glared at her. Their words overlapped as Hermione and Draco both continued speaking.
"Granger, get out and keep your irksome trap closed about this-"
"Draco, I'm not stupid. I think I know why you're doing this-"
The two shot nasty glares toward each other. Hermione spoke first.
"I'm not leaving. Draco, and you can try and play dumb, but I think I know why you're doing this. Your family is… notorious for their allegiances with Voldemort," Draco widened his eyes when he heard his master's real name come from Hermione's confident mouth, "so I don't think it takes a genius to add together the facts that you haven't been eating, you look miserable and you're secretly fixing a Vanishing Cabinet. You're working for him, aren't you?"
Hermione, of course, had known this from the start of her mission, but had to play dumb to sell her act.
Draco turned from her, took a deep breath and replied, "I-I don't know what to say. You're not wrong," suddenly, he pivoted to face her, "but I swear to fucking Salazar, if you tell Potty or the Weasel that I'm in here, doing this, I'll kill you."
Hermione stood up, walking toward Draco with apparent hesitation. She was in line with him, nearly shoulder to shoulder, but Draco had his eyes closed, and paid no attention to Hermione.
"Draco," she began, "let me help you. Please."
His eyes shot open, full of suspicion, and he turned his head toward Hermione, standing next to him. "Why would you want to help me, Granger?"
Why did she want to help Draco? That was a good question, and a question that Hermione should have figured out the answer to before entering the room.
"Because this mission of yours is obviously eating you alive, and I can't have my Runes partner dead by the end of the term," Hermione improvised. There was an eerie amount of truth behind that statement.
Draco clenched his jaw and sighed. "What's the alternative?"
"There is no alternative. You need help. I want to help you. End of story," Hermione smiled with empathy that Draco hadn't experienced since the start of fifth year.
He scoffed, "Yeah, right. You're probably here because Potter and Weasel-bee forced you to spy on me."
Hermione placed her hands on her hips. "Draco, please. I want to help. You could use the brains," she added in a teasing tone, but her expression quickly abandoned it's light breeze, switching back to its bleak look of concern for him.
Draco walked over to the couch, deep in thought. He weighed his options for a moment before looking up to Hermione, who was nervously biting her lower lip.
Draco nodded. "Okay. You can help."
Although he obviously wasn't thrilled about Hermione's proposal, he had agreed, meaning that Hermione's chances of growing closer to him, and possibly saving him, were only continuing to go higher.
Hermione felt herself smile a bit and joined him on the couch. Propping her feet up so that she was sitting with her legs in a crisscrossed way, she turned toward Draco. He was staring doubtfully at her, but she asked, "Can you summarize what your mission is?"
Draco looked slightly scandalized, "Granger, Crabbe and Goyle don't even know what my mission is. The chances of me telling you about it are microscopic, to say the least."
Hermione shook her head, brushing his comment off, "Crabbe and Goyle don't have the mental capacity to understand that you have a mission, to begin with. Besides, they aren't helping you fix the cabinet, are they? I can't help you if I don't have the proper information to start off with."
He rolled his eyes, drawling, "Only you could make a death eater mission sound so terribly clinical."
Hermione frowned slightly, "I don't think you're a death eater."
Draco raised a skeptical eyebrow and gestured toward the cabinet.
"A death eater wouldn't stop calling me a mudblood. A death eater wouldn't apologize for years of suffering that they induced. You're not a death eater. You're just a teenage boy being used by some sort of psychopath to help him win the war. In his eyes, you're expendable."
Draco looked away, a slight blush in his cheeks. Hermione started to lift her hand up to comfort him, but stopped herself, placing the hand back in her lap.
He cleared his throat when he turned his head back toward her, replying, "All you need to know is that I'm supposed to fix the cabinet to help them do something terrible."
Hermione sighed.
"Okay. I'll read up on Vanishing Cabinets in my spare time and come check in here when I can. We could have our Runes meetings here," she said, referring to the couch they were sitting on, "If that makes things easier."
Draco nodded slowly, "Okay. Fuck, this is weird."
Hermione offered him a small grin as she fiddled with the hem of her robe. "Just think of it as an acquaintance helping out another acquaintance."
"Is that what we are?" He asked, looking doubtful, "Acquaintances? I thought we were sworn enemies. You know, Gryffindor-Slytherin, Muggleborn-Pureblood, Annoying-Charmingly witty, and all that."
Hermione felt the corners of her mouth lift up slightly, but she responded, "I think we stopped being enemies after our argument in our mini-library. Besides, I'm sure that you know more about me than you think."
Draco let out a half-laugh, half-exhale as he said, "This is still fucking bizarre. Hermione Granger," she raised an eyebrow upon hearing her first name come from his mouth, "is helping me, Draco Malfoy, fix a cabinet under the direct orders of the Dark Lord. Never saw this coming."
Hermione laughed at the absurdity of their situation and checked her watch curiously. There was less than five minutes until lunch was finished and it was time for Double Potions.
"Come on," she urged him. "We have Potions."
Draco's teasing expression quickly turned somber as he changed his gaze to the Cabinet. "I think I'll stay here and work on the cabinet-"
"Draco, I'm helping you fix it. I honestly doubt that you would accomplish anything in the two hours that you would be spending in Potions," Hermione placed her hands on her hips.
He groaned to himself but begrudgingly stood up.
When the bell rang, and Hermione realized that they would have to walk with each other down seven flights of stairs, she nearly rolled her eyes but forced herself to contain her annoyance.
They left the room and Hermione walked considerably closer to Draco than usual. Of course, it was nothing that would concern any students walking by them, but they were a few centimeters closer than their usual fifty-centimeter distance.
If Draco noticed this slight change, he said nothing.
They walked in silence, reflecting on their conversation. Hermione, for one, was terrified. She had just volunteered herself to help Draco Malfoy get Voldemort into Hogwarts to kill Dumbledore.
Draco, on the other hand, appeared calm, cool and collected. Hermione could tell that was all an act, by the occasional clench of his jaw or furrow of his brow.
When they arrived in the Dungeons, most students were already inside the Potions classroom, Harry, Ron and Lavender included. Harry watched as Hermione entered the room behind Draco, and his face told Hermione that he was wondering if they had walked together.
Hermione joined the three Gryffindors with a forced smile, not acknowledging Ron and Lavender's intertwined hands or the way Ron was leaning slightly forward into Lavender's body.
"Hermione," Harry asked in an unsure tone, "were you with-"
"Good afternoon, class!" Professor Slughorn entered the room with impeccable timing and Hermione let out a sigh of relief. "Today, we will be brewing Wit-Sharpening Potion."
Hermione was about to alert Professor Slughorn that they had brewed that last year with Professor Snape, but noticed Harry shaking his head and thought better of it.
"If you will all turn to pages 56 of your textbook, you will find the recipe, ingredients and properties behind this potion. You have until the end of class when I will be grading everyone's potions," Slughorn explained. He clapped his hands together and looked around the room, "Good? Right, then, off you go."
The students disbanded, and Hermione went straight for the supply cupboard to retrieve her potion ingredients. While she was searching for Armadillo bile, Hermione saw Draco enter the cupboard from the corner of her eye.
She finally spotted the potion, but it was out of her reach. She rolled her eyes dramatically, grabbed her wand, and was prepared to levitate the ingredient down when Draco stepped beside her, reached up and grabbed the potion for her.
She opened her mouth, ready to give her thanks, but he offered her the smallest of smiles and left the room before she could express her gratitude. Hermione felt the corners of her lips twitch upward and she also left the small storage area, a flask of Armadillo Bile in her hands.
"Hermione," Harry tried again, brewing the potion with the Half-Blood Prince's instructions, "would you do me a favor?"
Hermione continued stirring the Ginger Root in, waiting for the potion to turn lime green. "Sure, Harry."
Harry, adding twice the amount of Ginger Root but stirring counter-clockwise, asked in a quiet voice, "Could you tail Malfoy for me? Find out where he's going?"
Hermione frowned at Harry. "Harry, Draco Malfoy is not a death eater."
The two of them turned inconspicuously toward Draco, who was shaking his head at something Blaise said. Harry stopped stirring to add some Armadillo Bile to the Potion as Hermione shook her head.
"Does he look like a Death Eater?" Hermione copied Harry.
Harry grit his teeth, "Look, Hermione. I don't know how to explain it, but I- I just know. Please?"
"Absolutely not, Harry! You're reading too far into this. Just let him be; I'm sure he's just being his usual-annoying-self."
Harry frowned but didn't mention it again. The rest of Potions was spent in silence as they brewed their potions, Draco Malfoy and death eaters on their minds.