Hermione and Draco get started on their potions project, and a few secrets are revealed.

Chapter 2

Hermione never thought that she would step foot in here again.

"Why exactly are we in the girls' lavatory?" Malfoy asked, his nose twitching as he stood at the door.

"Because we need a work space."

She sat down on the floor next to the sinks, the same spot where she, Ron, and Harry brewed the polyjuice potion last year. She didn't fear the basilisk because she knew it was dead down there in the Chamber of Secrets, the entrance to which was the sinks. Malfoy came and sat down in front of her, a small cauldron in between them.

"You're mental, mudblood," he said under his breath.

She attempted to not let that bother her, and just got out the ingredients to the potion from her bottomless red beaded bag that she had. She cleared her throat, and she read silently from the potions book. It was too awkward just sitting there with Draco, a small black cauldron between them.

"It's going to take the whole three weeks to make this, so we need to get started right away," she said.

"What if somebody comes in?" he asked, double-taking the door they entered through.

"Nobody will come in."

He slit is eyes at her. "How can you be so sure?"

"Moaning Myrtle."

Malfoy's face suddenly drained of what color was there, matching his hair. Hermione couldn't help but smirk at his reaction.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of ghosts, Malfoy?"

"Afraid?" he spat. "Yeah right."

At that moment, a light blue see-through girl with glasses and long, straight pigtails appeared behind Hermione. Malfoy yelped and jumped back.

"What?" Hermione asked, then looked at Myrtle beside her. "Oh, hello, Myrtle."

"'Hello Myrtle?'" Malfoy repeated incredulously. "Are you mad?"

Myrtle floated near him, and he scooted backwards on his rump, his blue eyes wide, staring at her.

"Nice to see you again, Draco," said the ghost girl. "It has been a while since I saw you balling like a child in here before."

"What?" Hermione let out, a smile on her face. "Balling? About what?"

"Shut up!" he shouted, his cheeks turing pink in embarrassment.

Myrtle snickered her nasally laugh and floated above the both of them near the sinks. "I just remember a small blonde boy crying about a lost quidditch match two years ago. He was so sad that he didn't even realize that he went into the girls' lavatory."

Malfoy's face flushed a deeper red. "I said shut up!"

Myrtle laughed again, as well as Hermione. Hermione added unicorn hair to the white concoction in the cauldron. Myrtle turned on her.

"What is that you're making?" she asked.

"A healing potion," Hermione responded. "It's for our potions class." She looked at Malfoy, sitting cross-legged, and pouting. "He's my partner for the project."

"Oh. I was wondering why you were working in here with a Slytherin. It was because of a Slytherin that I died."

"I thought the basilisk killed you," Hermione said nonchalantly as she added a clear liquid to the potion, making it billow yellow steam.

"It did. But it was a Slytherin's pet." She cocked her head. "Speaking of Slytherin, does he know about the polyjuice potion from last year? You fooled him, I remember." She smirked.

Hermione's eyes went wide, and Malfoy eyed her. It was Hermione's turn for embarrassment. "Fooled me?" Draco asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, you don't know?" Myrtle asked him. "This girl and her two boyfriends made a polyjuice potion last year." She laughed, and Hermione tried to silence her, but failed. "She turned into a cat and stayed locked in a stall, but the boys turned into those bodyguards of yours. Yes, I pay attention." She gave Malfoy a suggestive look.

Malfoy stared at Hermione. "Crabbe and Goyle? Potter and Weasely changed into…them?" He looked at Myrtle. "When?"

"They needed information on the Chamber of Secrets," Myrtle said. "You had no clue it was them." She laughed nasally again.

Malfoy glared at Hermione again, and his eyes widened in realization, then turned to ice. "I knew I saw orange hair that time."

"Smart boy," Myrtle commented, and Hermione stayed silent, stirring the bubbling yellow goo. Leave it to Myrtle to reveal everyone's secrets. The ghost girl flew elsewhere in the bathroom, and Hermione kept stirring.

"I can't believe this," Malfoy muttered.

"It's already done," Hermione said. "No need to brood over it now."

He stayed silent, but heard a clank—Hermione hit the cauldron lightly with the stirring stick, then set the stick off to the side. "We have to wait to put in the next ingredient," she said.

"Until when?"

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? I have to sit in this putrid place tomorrow?"

"For the next three weeks if you want good marks on this project."

He huffed through his nose and looked off at the sinks again, scowling. Hermione guessed that he was both irritated and embarrassed. She smirked, thinking about a little crying Malfoy.

Malfoy snapped at some first year boy for running into him by accident in the courtyard the next day during the lunch hour. Hermione winced at the scene as she was sitting with Ron and Harry on a stone bench as. A thought came to her as the autumn sun warmed her forehead and the wind played with her wavy light-brown hair.

She needed to get to the bottom of why Malfoy is the way he is. She's genuinely really curious.

"So, what are your hobbies?" Hermione asked as the two were sitting in the lavatory after classes. The room was Myrtle-less.

"Hobbies?" Malfoy asked, furrowing his brow.

"Yes, hobbies. Like, things you like to do."

He stayed silent.

"Don't tell me you don't have any hobbies?"

"Why do you want to know?"

She stirred the light blue goo in the cauldron. "Well, Professor Snape said that we need to get to know our partners, and that's what I'm trying to do."

"Like I want to get to know you, Granger," he spat.

She huffed through her nose. Keep going.

"Well, okay. I'll just say mine, then. I love to read, practice new spells, spend time with Harry and Ron, as well as my family when I'm around them… What?"

Malfoy was giving her a look, his nose twirked. "Typical."

"What about you?"

He huffed through his nose. "Well, I don't like to read, that's for sure."

"But what do you like to do?"

He stayed silent again. Does he really not have any hobbies? That is the saddest thing she's ever…

"Chess."

Hermione blinked. "What?"

"I like to play chess. Happy?"

Now that Hermione wasn't expecting. Malfoy and Ron have something in common! She thought for a fleeting moment of Malfoy and Ron battling each other at wizard's chess this Christmas.

"Wipe that look off your face, Granger," he said, and her smile vanished.

"How long have you played?" she asked.

"Since I was five."

"Wow! You must be really good by now. Do you play here?"

Malfoy eyed all the bottles and other ingredients on the stone floor. "Sometimes."

He asked what to put in the potion next, and she told him, and went and put it in. They had to cover their noses.

"Blymee, what is that?" he asked, arm over his nose.

"I told you, wolf wart," she said with her sleeve over her nose as well.

"Why does it smell that bad?"

"It's mingling with the other ingredients."

The smell went away, and they could breathe again. Hermione saw him wiggle his nose from the smell. Draco Malfoy plays chess. Who would've known?