She went to see Mme. Pomfrey, after they parted, she insisted that he come, but he wanted to heal his wounds himself, and she respected that. She wanted to go straight to McGonagall to report the incident, but Mme. Pomfrey didn't let her out of her site. She had become more fragile after the war and was extra weary when people got injured. Hermione assumed that it was because she had witnessed a lot of casualties that she didn't want to see anyone get hurt anymore.
Hermione woke up feeling lighter for once. She looked at her newly healed arm and slowly twisted and turned it. She could perform all necessary motions, but it still ached a bit. Mme. Pomfrey gave her a week's worth of vials to drink every morning. Hermione thanked the old lady and went straight to the dorms to drop the box of remedies off and change. She was still wearing her torn clothes from yesterday and smelled like a harem of skunks.
Ginny wasn't in the room, which meant she probably slept over at Harry's. She quickly hopped in the shower and got ready. Somehow the roughness in her face that she had carried for a long time had vanished, and she looked rejuvenated. Maybe the key to staying young was routinely exposing yourself to a near-death experience. She wondered if yesterday's events had the same rejuvenating exposure on Malfoy's complexion as well. She quickly dismissed the thought of him and tried to distract herself with possible questions or things she would talk about with her therapy partner. She wondered if she should tell him what happened, but it would probably blow her cover, considering the fact that McGonnagal would share what happened to the whole school and expose the captors.
Just when she was about to step out the door, she decided to fetch the stone from her jean pocket. She was indecisive about whether she should shove it in her drawer or carry it with her. But why would she do such a thing? She didn't know, but she still shoved it in her robe's pocket.
"Come in," McGonagall called out when she knocked on her door. She entered the room and took a seat.
"Miss Granger," she voiced in a warm tone, "to what do I owe this visit?"
"Good Morning, headmistress," she didn't know how to start. Should she be bold or talk all over the place? She went with the latter. She couldn't bother with pleasantries, "As you are aware, Mr. Malfoy," a strange look pierced in her eyes at the mention of his name, "has a fair share of people that despise him."
"Yes," she nodded.
"Well, three students tried to drown him in the Black Lake yesterday. If it weren't for my last-minute intervention, he would have lost his life," she decided it was better to leave out the part where she was going to die as well, and how if Ron wasn't such a brat, both of them wouldn't have suffered this much. She hated that she still covered for him, even when he didn't deserve it one bit.
The elderly witch didn't look as surprised as she would've imagined. She supposed the war really did change everyone.
"Who were the students?"
"I don't know. They all wore masks," she responded, crossing her arms, "You can check everyone's wands," she offered.
"That's what I had in mind. But, students who would risk committing such a crime could easily get rid of their wands."
Hermione agreed; she didn't think they would be that stupid not to get rid of their wands, "They would need a wand eventually; you could ask Mr. Olivander to report back to you if any students pay him a visit to purchase new wands."
She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, "That's a good idea, Miss. Granger, I'll let him know. I'm also going to contact the ministry for them to report back any suspicious wand activity. Around what time did the incident occur?"
"I think somewhere between seven and nine in the evening," she replied.
"Thank you, Miss Granger. I only ask you not to tell anyone about the incident in case our investigation reaches the ears of the captors."
"Of course," she nodded, rising to her feet.
"Oh, and could you please warn Mr. Malfoy as well," McGonagall voiced when her hand was about to push on the door handle.
"Sure," she smiled and left. Classes were going to start soon, so she didn't have time to find Malfoy, but then she remembered that she had Potions meaning that he would be there. Her anxieties cooled down, and she fetched an almond croissant and stuffed it in her mouth while walking to class.
Only Angelina sat at their group's table, "Hi," she greeted enthusiastically. Hermione merely smiled and took a seat next to her. She took out some parchment and her quill.
"The group project's due soon," the blonde expressed.
"Oh, really, when was the deadline?"
Angelina's eyes bulged in surprise. Usually, Hermione always knew the exact date and time the assignments needed to be handed out a year in advance. Now she realized how useless it was, "Two weeks from now."
"Ah," she initially thought it would've been much sooner, "There's plenty of time till then," she said in a relaxed tone. Angelina gave her an odd stare, "I guess, yeah," the blonde looked up when she saw a herd of students enter at the last minute. Theo and Malfoy were the last ones to enter.
Theo had an apologetic look on his face. He took a seat across from her, and she wondered if Malfoy had told him or if it was because of the library incident. Malfoy's eyes were cast downwards while he traversed from the door to their table. He slowly dragged out his chair and took a seat. Her eyes were still on him, but he hadn't met hers yet. She wondered why that was, or was it because he didn't want to seem like he was associated with a member of the golden trio? Right before she was about to spiral in her thoughts, he placed both hands on the table, discreetly flashed the stone in his hand, and finally looked up at her.
His facial features didn't look rejuvenated at all. The effect of a near-death experience looked quite the opposite to him. He looked worn out, and the dark circles under his eyes had grown more apparent.
She did the same by carefully retracting hers and placing it on the table, twirling it with her index finger for a moment while neither of their teammates was looking. An archaic smile traced his face for the briefest moment before his cold stare was back again. She put the stone back in her pocket.
She didn't know why, but she enjoyed sharing a sneaky little secret with him. There was something so childish about it, which made her attachment to the stone stronger since all of her good childish memories had vanished from her mind.
Somehow it didn't bother her that Malfoy was the one she shared this secret with. Their acquaintanceship being more on the forbidden side made the secret even more exciting since it arose the same feeling of committing mischievous crimes that she was told not to do by her parents.
He didn't glance in her direction again for the next thirty minutes until Slughorn assigned each group to fill out the correct words on the parchment he distributed. It resembled a crossword puzzle. She would've thought they would be way beyond crossword puzzles in their last year of school, but oh well.
Theo took charge, claiming he was really good at it, but Angelina still wanted to check if his answers were correct, so she switched sides with Malfoy and sat next to Theo.
Malfoy took a seat next to her. It was the perfect opportunity to let him know about McGonnogal's request. She discreetly wrote it at the bottom of her parchment.
Don't tell anyone yet .
She slowly dragged the paper towards him. Angelina saw her gesture but ignored it, continuing to argue with Theo about how his guess was wrong.
Malfoy squinted his eyes to read it and extended his hand for her to give him her quill. She placed it in his hand, and he carefully wrote right under her text.
Wasn't planning on it.
He handed her the parchment from under the table. After reading, she erased their writing with a flick of her wand and placed the parchment back on the table.
Well, at least now she knew why Theo had given her an apologetic look.
"Is that what you fools call subtle?" Theo scoffed, eyeing both of them. She quickly glanced towards Malfoy and then looked back at Theo, trying to keep a composed face.
"I don't know what you're referring to," the blond wizard dismissed.
Theo jabbed his tongue on the inside of his cheek, "Yeah, right," then resumed filling out the crossword puzzle. Angelina shot Hermione a confused look but didn't say anything.
Theo was the first to hand the assignment in, enabling their group to leave ten minutes early.
"We're going to smoke if you'd like to come," Theo proposed, and she couldn't really think of anything better to do at the moment, so she went with them.
They walked to the farthest point of the courtyard and weren't visible to others due to a large column blocking them. The place was too strategic to be stumbled upon; she figured this was their usual smoking spot.
He removed a silver cigarette case from his robe's pocket and placed a cigarette between his teeth. He offered her one as well, which she politely declined, and she could see the blonde subtly shake his head. He handed one to Malfoy, and the latter took out his wand to light both of their cigarettes.
They operated and divided their tasks like each other's yin and yangs. Their friendship was too perfect that she suspected there might be more to it. But she didn't want to judge them, so she let go of that thought. If there were something going on between them, one of them would soon enough reveal something that she could catch on to if she paid close attention.
Malfoy's subtle amusement at her declining Theo's offer irritated her. She knew that it was very Hermionesque of her to decline, and she didn't like that she was that predictable to others. She appreciated Theo giving her the benefit of the doubt and still offering her without assuming what her reaction would be.
If she was going to start being more mysterious, it was better to prove herself to the Slytherins first since they were harder to persuade, "Actually, can I have one as well?"
If the blonde was surprised, he didn't show it. Although him looking at her immediately after she asked kind of gave his shock away.
"Sure," Theo handed her one and lit it with the top of his wand. She didn't even know how to hold it properly and didn't want to look like a fool among them, "Is it your first time?"
"Maybe," she said in a bored tone and tried to summon her limited memories of the old movies she watched, specifically to remember how elegantly the women held their cigarettes. Malfoy watched her every move as she dragged the cigarette to her mouth and took a whiff. It took everything in her to resist her dying urge to cough. She could feel her eyes become watery and quickly looked to the side to hide her struggles from both of them.
"Are you okay?" Theo asked in a concerned tone.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be," she dismissed his worries and eyed both of them again. As she had previously imagined, the taste and scent were awful, and she hated it.
Malfoy leaned on the railing and exhaled his smoke to the side. He looked deep in thought, and she couldn't decipher anything he might have been thinking about. Why was she obsessed with him and his approval all of a sudden? She didn't like it one bit and tried to shy away from her intrusive thoughts. Just because they shared somewhat of a special moment yesterday—if you could even call it that—didn't mean anything.
So, Hermione, stop thinking about him. You don't care about him. Think about your therapy partner. The riddled man that you cannot wait to solve. Thinking about the enigmatic nature of her therapy partner rejoiced her, and what the blonde thought became the last of her worries. She took another whiff before lightly tapping the ash away with her index finger.
"That Angelina girl is starting to get on my nerves," the dark-haired wizard expressed with an irritated voice.
"She's insecure and has a superiority complex," Malfoy said, gently tapping his cigarette.
"When did you become such an expert therapist?" she quipped, and Theo scoffed in response.
"He probably doesn't know what that is... Do you?" They both eyed the blonde expectantly.
"I don't," he stated nonchalantly. She was surprised that he was so casual about admitting not knowing something, or it could just be a front, of course. She definitely thought the latter was the case.
"Okay. Do you want me to explain it to you?" Theo offered, and the blonde shook his head no.
The dark-haired wizard didn't insist. Instead, he continued talking on their initial topic, "I can't comment on the insecure part, but the superiority complex, oh boy. She breathed down my neck the whole time. It was so frustrating. You won't snitch on me if I skip the next group meetings, would ya?" He stared into her soul with the puppy dog eyes, and she obliged. Even if he hadn't, she would've still obliged, "You have nothing to worry about," she reassured him, taking her last whiff before putting off her cigarette.
The sound of students roaming around signaled them to head off to their next classes. They parted ways, and she went straight to the bathroom to rinse her mouth. She could not handle cigarette breath for the remainder of the day and flicked a spearmint flavor of gum into her mouth.
When she thought about it, she could never pick up cigarette breath from either Slytherin. Malfoy either seemed to have peppermint breath or a watermelon-induced one. Theo's, on the other hand, was always consistent; ever since she knew him, he had strawberry breath. She couldn't really decide on which flavor scents were better. However, she recalled cinnamon breath to be really erotic from when she was dared to kiss a guy on a family resort trip in Portugal. His kissing style was floppy but the cinnamon scent made up for it.
She had successfully avoided seeing Ron for the whole day until they crossed paths during dinner. He sat across from her at the Gryffindor table, and she didn't look at him. Not even once. Although, she saw him glance in her direction every now and then from her peripheral vision.
Ginny was indulged in never ending tirade, talking about the new strategy she developed for quidditch and how she would apply it this weekend in her game against Slytherin. Hermione tried to listen and seem interested but zoned out halfway. At least one thing had never changed was how little she cared about the damn sport.
She glanced at the Slytherin table and saw Malfoy reading while Theo was too caught up explaining something animatedly to a group of Slytherins and waved at her. She waved back, and her hand motion caught Harry's attention, making him look toward him as well. He observed the Slytherin for a while, and a hint of a smirk edged on his lips before he resumed eating his toffee cake.
"When 16 goes to my right, I'm going to get under him, and—"
"Are you seriously ignoring me because of that tosser?" Ron cut off Ginny mid-sentence. Everyone's attention shifted to the pair. Hermione shot him a severe look for him to shut up.
"Why do you even fucking care?" he insisted, his knuckles turning white from how tight he gripped his fork. She pressed her lips forcefully and took a deep breath, "Can't we not do this here?"
"You've gone mental," he barked, "You've changed. You're not the same Hermione I once knew. She would've never sided with that snake!" he exclaimed, bending his fork. It took every inch of her being and mental resilience to keep her calm. She tried to detach herself from his words and treat them like daggers that turned into dust before reaching her. His face had turned scarlet, and he kept throwing rageful words at her, but she couldn't hear anything.
Looking past Ron, she noticed Malfoy's seat was empty. She hadn't seen him leave amid all the chaos. She refocused on Ron, who was still on a roll. If she hadn't known better, she would've assumed he was reciting a monologue—not that she thought he could ever have the mental capacity to learn one. She knew the thought wasn't nice and that making fun of someone's level of intellect was very cheap of her, but she couldn't care less.
Suddenly, the ginger stopped, and his eyes focused on something above her. She turned around and saw that Malfoy was standing right beside her. He bent down and whispered, "Come with me," into her ear, and she swore Ron was about to jump him when Harry intervened last second and held him down by pressing on his shoulders.
She followed him outside the Great Hall, and they turned a corridor, "What are you trying to do?" she asked suspiciously.
"I got you out of a conversation you clearly didn't want to have," he leaned against the wall, his hands buried in his pockets.
"I don't need your saving," she said matter-of-factly.
"Then why did you come with me?" he teased, with an amused look stretching across his face. She didn't know why she did. She wasn't really thinking at that moment. Her mental wall against Ron's piercing words had emptied all of the rational thinking out of her.
She brushed off his question, leaving it unanswered "Why did you whisper? You could have just told me normally."
"I know. Thought it would enrage him even more," he shot her a lazy smile. Her lips pulled into a grin that she tried to suppress but failed to do so. She burst out a laugh, and her hand shot up to her mouth to hide it. He watched her with his head slightly tilted to the side, an intrigued expression.
"It's just his face. He looked so—" she continued to laugh, and he watched silently. It took her a couple of minutes to fully cool down, her stomach spasmed from the laughter, and she sighed, leaning next to him, "Well, it was a success," she commented when she heard Ron's distant voice bickering with someone until it faded away.