~ The Soul Connection ~

Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters and settings belong to J.K Rowling.

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Chapter 3

Hermione awoke the next day with the same headache she had from the spell Malfoy had cast on her. On top of that, she also felt a general sense of irritability. She couldn't tell whether it was irritability from the headache, from Malfoy in general, or from the spell. Regardless she tried to ignore the feeling and went about her day as usual, whilst plotting ways to get back at him. She figured that he must have been doing something in the Room of Requirement for a long time, to have found Harry's textbook. She planned on taking Harry's invisibility cloak and having a look in the Room of Requirement if she had time, and as long as Malfoy wasn't going to be there.

"I wonder what he's up to. He's got my textbook, he's been going to the Room of Requirement all year. He isn't talking to the other Slytherin's, not even Parkinson, which means he's hiding something even from the people he trusts," Harry was saying quietly as he played with his breakfast at the Gryffindor table. He and Ron were both staring across the Great Hall at Malfoy, who was sitting at the very end of the Slytherin table and not socialising with anyone at all.

"Harry, will you stop? Commentating his every move isn't helping things," Hermione snapped in annoyance.

"I'm not commentating his every move, I'm problem-solving," said Harry.

"That's not problem-solving, Harry. That's just stating facts," Hermione responded, taking a sip of her fruit juice.

"Alright then since you're so smart, what's the ferret up to?" Ron managed to ask through a mouthful of porridge.

After wrinkling her nose in disgust, Hermione responded, "The Room of Requirement is one of the best hiding places in Hogwarts, perhaps he isn't hiding something, maybe he's hiding himself, what with You-Know-Who returning and all."

"No. He's probably hiding something for You-Know-Who, not from him. I know he's up to something bad," said Harry darkly, his eyes not leaving Malfoy for a second.

"You can't just make a claim with no evidence, Harry! If you think he's up to something bad, give reasons," Hermione demanded. Ron, Neville and Seamus' listened on in fascination as Harry thought long and hard before speaking.

"He's a Malfoy, he's on You-Know-Who's side so he wouldn't be hiding from him. Even if he was, Snape could easily find him. He's old enough now to join the Death Eaters, and he hasn't been trying in any classes except Potions because he got my textbook, which means he doesn't have any need for school because he's becoming a Death Eater. If whatever he's hiding is important enough that he won't tell anyone, it has to be bad."

Hermione thought about it for a moment, and then shook her head. "None of that proves he's becoming a Death Eater or that it's bad, or even helps pinpoint what it is at all."

"Exactly, we don't have enough information to prove anything. That's why we need to investigate," said Harry in determination, getting a nod of eager agreement from Ron.

"Oh no, you are not going to investigate anything. You tried investigating on the Hogwarts Express and he broke your nose and left you paralysed there. You tried investigating in the bathrooms and ended up cursing him and nearly got yourself expelled," Hermione began heatedly, completely forgetting about her breakfast as she turned on him.

"If I'm right Hermione, I need to stop him from doing whatever it is that he's trying to do!" Harry hissed, his voice rising slightly.

"You need to focus your attention on what Dumbledore wants you to do, Harry. Dumbledore isn't stupid, if Malfoy's up to something I'm sure Dumbledore knows about it. If he hasn't mentioned it to you, I'm sure it's not a big deal, or he already has it under control," said Hermione, with a hint of irritation in her tone. Her headache was still bothering her, and the more she argued the more it seemed to hurt. She knew that her last sentence had won Harry over though, because he sighed in resignation and dipped his spoon into his porridge, looking away from Malfoy at last.

"I guess you're right. I'm going to ask him about it again, though," he said. Hermione shrugged in response, knowing that Dumbledore's answer would be the same as it'd been all year: don't worry about Malfoy, focus on Voldemort's horcruxes. While Hermione absolutely agreed with Dumbledore that Harry needed to focus on the bigger picture of defeating Voldemort and not worrying about some schoolyard bully, she did wonder what Malfoy was truly up to. A lot of what Harry said made sense and could even be true, she just didn't admit that because she didn't want him ending up in another duel. As breakfast ended Hermione looked across the Great Hall and watched as Pansy approached Malfoy tentatively and tried to speak to him, but he cut her short and left with surprising speed and apathy. As much as she hated Pansy, Hermione still felt a pang of sympathy as the Slytherin girl burst into tears. Hermione decided while walking to her first class that she would visit the Room of Requirement when she got the opportunity, with Harry's Invisibility cloak.

"I'm not sitting next to you."

"Maybe if you weren't late you would've been able to sit with your friends. Oh wait, you don't have any," Hermione snapped dismissively. He stood next to the empty seat beside her, the only empty seat left in the Charms classroom. Harry and Ron sat together like they always did, and so in every class with rows of two seats Hermione ended up by herself and sometimes nobody sat next to her. She supposed it was due to her unpopularity and tendency to zealously answer every question asked, but regardless, she'd gotten used to it. After a moments deliberation, Malfoy sat with an audible groan, as though this pained him beyond imagination. Professor Flitwick had the classes attention, demonstrating what they would be learning that lesson by casting the Cheering Charm on Neville, who was smiling goofily at the front of the room.

"I don't have any friends? That's rich coming from the bookworm that nobody wanted to sit next to," Malfoy responded, his voice laced with menace. Hermione rolled her eyes, knowing that she wouldn't beat him in a contest of insults.

"At least I don't make my friends cry," she said, focusing her attention on Flitwick.

Malfoy scoffed, "And who have I made cry now?"

"Your girlfriend, are you blind?" said Hermione, turning to look at him. He raised an eyebrow and glanced across the room at Pansy, who surely enough had red eyes and looked as though she'd been crying.

"She's not my girlfriend, that lasted like a month in third year so you're a little behind on the gossip, mudblood," Malfoy said flatly, folding his arms and looking at the front.

"You don't feel bad?" Hermione asked, exasperated.

"Why should I feel bad? It's not my fault," Malfoy responded.

"She cried because you said something to her in the Great Hall," said Hermione.

"All I said was, 'Stop trying to talk to me', if she overreacted to that it's her problem. Clearly you've been spying on me," Malfoy said in annoyance.

"I haven't been spying on you, everyone saw it. And it's not an overreaction if you tell your supposed friend to stop trying to talk to you," Hermione argued.

"I don't care, mudblood."

"How can you not care?"

"Because I just don't care. It's simple really. Now shut up."

Hermione felt an overwhelming surge of anger and opened her mouth to retort with a very vulgar two-worded statement starting with the letter 'F', but decided against it at the last moment. She refused to let him provoke her. Glaring at him felt like glaring at a brick wall, it was pointless because it accomplished nothing. He was still looking towards the front.

"You shut up," Hermione responded. She didn't care how childish it was, she needed to have the last word.

"How mature of you," Malfoy said sarcastically.

"Whatever."

The two of them sat there, not looking at each other, silently fuming. While Malfoy would usually smirk at shutting someone down with a witty comment, he just stared at the front with an air of annoyance. While Hermione would usually be annoyed with Malfoy's responses and that she had to sit next to him for an entire lesson, instead she just felt upset. Upset at the entire situation, more-so than normal. Her headache was fading, but something else had taken its place. It was as if the physical pain of the headache was fading, but a different pain remained, a pain that wasn't physical or tangible. But it was there, and she felt it without knowing what it was. They realised that everyone else in the class had already began practising their Cheering Charms on each other, and there were a few laughs and giggles here and there. Hermione glanced at Malfoy, who gave her a look of utter dismissal.

"Come on, we need to practice the charm."

"No. I'll never use this stupid charm in real life, so I'm not practising it," snapped Malfoy.

"You put me in a shitty mood, the least you could do is try the damn spell," Hermione said with uncharacteristic anger.

"I couldn't care less what mood you're in, mudblood, did I not make that clear?" Malfoy mocked her, his arms still folded.

"Why the hell did you enrol in Charms then if you have no interest or motivation to actually study it?" Hermione demanded.

"It's none of your business, why do you care?" Malfoy growled. Hermione decided that she'd had enough of talking to him, he seemed to be infectiously negative, so she drew her wand and pointed it at him.

"Don't even think about it!"

"Vola beatudinem," Hermione pronounced the charm clearly and performed the spell perfectly. There was a brief pause, but absolutely no response from Malfoy.

"I will literally find you after class and hex you if you try it again," Malfoy growled, but Hermione ignored him. Rarely did her charms not work, she'd learnt this charm in their third year, and practised it on Harry and Ron whenever they were feeling down. Her Cheering charms always worked.

"Vola beatudinem!" Hermione repeated with more emphasis. She felt a flash of annoyance flow through her. "What did you do? My charms always work, you've done something!"

"Evidently they don't always work, mudblood. You're kidding yourself if you think you'd ever be able to make me laugh," said Malfoy, with a reluctant smirk. She never thought she'd be pleased to see him smirk, but her eyes definitely brightened when she saw it and she opened her mouth to repeat the spell a third time.

"Don't-"

"Vola beatudinem!"

"I smirked because I insulted you not because of your shitty charm, you suck at charms," Malfoy spat, pulling his wand out as if to defend himself against her attempts to make him cheerful.

"I'm the best charms student in Hogwarts right now, literally, you know it, so why the hell is this charm not working? Harry and Ron are in uncontrollable hysterics if I do it just twice," Hermione said furiously. Her hand was almost shaking with anger. "You actually have no idea how annoyed I am, tell me what that spell you used on me last night did."

"Merlin Granger calm the hell down," Draco snapped.

"I'm going to keep trying until you laugh," Hermione warned him.

"If you think for one second I'd let anyone see you make me laugh, you're kidding yourself," Malfoy snapped. She opened her mouth as if to try again, so he quickly went on, "I'll try the spell on you. But you're not trying it on me."

There was a pause and Hermione felt as if her entire body was oozing with anger, frustration and confusion. She knew that she was annoyed because her charm didn't work, and that was pretty normal because she was a perfectionist and hated not being able to perform a spell. But there was something else making her angry but she didn't know what it was, which only made it worse. She sighed and, wanting some sort of release from how she was feeling, said: "Fine, do it on me. But if it doesn't work, I won't stop following you until I figure out what that spell you used did."

"Vola beatudinem," Malfoy said, pronouncing it carefully. He watched as the Gryffindor girls frustrated expression relaxed slightly, and her eyes actually fluttered a bit. He felt a small tug of an emotion he hadn't felt in an incredibly long time: cheerfulness. It shocked him.

"Well, at least it works on me," said Hermione with a smile, clearly experiencing a complete shift in attitude. Malfoy stood up abruptly and grabbed his bag, causing her to raise her eyebrows in surprise. "Where are you going?"

He didn't answer and simply strode from the room as quickly as he could. A few heads turned to watch him leave, but most of the class were already too inebriated from the Cheering Charms to notice him. Hermione felt incredibly confused and considered following him for a moment, but decided against it. Even though she already knew how to cast Cheering Charms, class was more important to her than following Malfoy. The fact that her charm hadn't affected him though, made no sense: it was magic. Magic worked regardless how much people disliked each other, his charm worked on her, so why had hers not worked on him?

She still couldn't help but wonder what was truly going on with him... an overwhelming sense of confusion seemed to flow through her. Then, suddenly, she heard someone else's voice ask in her mind: What on Earth just happened?

What on Earth just happened? Draco thought to himself as he walked swiftly from the Charms classroom. He still felt tiny amounts of cheerfulness flowing through him, but it didn't feel right. It felt like it was coming from outside of him, from some foreign realm which his body felt uncomfortable with. Within moments he had returned to his usual melancholia, and he decided to head straight for the Owlery to see if Borgin had replied to his letter. As he walked throughout the halls of Hogwarts, every few minutes he would feel small bursts of cheerfulness, which would fade almost as soon as they had began.

After he had arrived at the Owlery, he realised that the feelings stopped coming and he was left deeply confused as to what had caused them. He knew that Hermione's Cheering Charms had little effect on him because nothing seemed to have any effect on him anymore. He had grown used to the emptiness. There was no denying that the happiness he felt happened the moment he cast the Cheering Charm on her... but why? Could Cheering Charms backfire? These questions swirled in his mind as he looked for his owl. At last he caught sight of it: a magnificent eagle owl, chocolate brown in colour, with deep, coal black eyes. While it's true that Draco had little love for House Elves and hippogriffs, he had cherished this owl ever since his first year. His name was Nox. He sighed with relief when he saw that it had a letter attached to its leg. Hopefully Borgin knew how to fix the Vanishing Cabinet and if so, Draco could finally make some progress on his mission.

That Charms class was potentially the strangest class Hermione had ever experienced. As she left the classroom early, giving the excuse of needing to help Professor McGonagall with something, she reflected on what had happened. First, her Cheering Charm didn't work on Draco, which had never happened before. His Cheering Charm worked on her, yet the moment she felt its effects he left, and then after he left the cheerfulness ebbed away unnaturally fast. She partnered up with a few other students and practised with them: Harry, Ron, Parvati, Neville, Seamus. Her Cheering Charm worked on all of them. And their charms worked on her, invoking cheerfulness but only for a very short period of time, after which she returned to feeling a strange... emptiness and dissatisfaction. She couldn't seem to shake the strange, internal pain that the headache from Malfoy's spell had manifested into. Ever since that odd spell she had felt different.

But that wasn't all. The thing that caused her to leave Charms early was something else altogether. She had a vivid, dreamlike image of an eagle owl clearly in her mind. She was almost certain that the owl was Malfoy's, yet as she hurried towards the Owlery she couldn't help but admit that it was a very beautiful owl. She felt a strange fondness for it even though she'd never paid any attention to it previously, apart from when it used to deliver chocolates and presents to him constantly in their first year. When she at last arrived at the Owlery she heard footsteps inside and the ruffle of feathers, and knew that Malfoy was there.

"Do you fancy me or something, mudblood? You seem awfully interested in everywhere I go," came his mocking voice when he saw her.

"What did you do?" Hermione demanded, ignoring what he said. He glanced at her, looking up from a piece of parchment that he was reading. He almost looked nervous.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh yes you do, ever since you used that spell on me everything has been different. My charms didn't work on you when they should have," Hermione began to say.

"If this is still about your bloody Cheering Charms: they work, just not on me, so drop it," said Draco in annoyance.

"Well they don't exactly work on me either any more, so I'm not dropping it! That spell obviously did something!" said Hermione, raising her voice.

"Let me guess, Weasley couldn't get the charm right because he's as thick as a troll? I really couldn't care less, I'm busy."

"I came here because I saw your owl. I literally saw it in my mind, Malfoy," Hermione blurted out. There was a long silence.

"Perhaps you should see Madam Pomfrey, hallucinations aren't a good sign. Perhaps all the studying is making you lose your marbles," he said mockingly, but there was a hint of surprise in his expression which told Hermione that he too was aware that something was going on because of the spell.

"I saw it in my mind at the same time you saw it in real life, right here," Hermione snapped. She took a few steps towards him, and he took steps backwards wearily, "My Cheering Charm didn't work on you, and every time someone did it to me, it worked for a few seconds then just... ebbed away to nothing. That spell in Harry's textbook must've been some kind of curse, and I'm not stopping until I know what it was."

"I haven't got the textbook on me, and besides, you imagined my owl: big deal. You've seen my owl a thousand times since our first year. It's a fucking owl, who cares. You think you had some prophetic vision? Go enrol in Divination, they love that sort of thing," Draco ranted as he rolled up the parchment and threw it in his bag. Truth be told, he was in denial even as he was saying these things. The spell did something, but he didn't have time or energy to concern himself with it. He had to stay focused on Voldemort's mission.

"This has nothing to do with Divination, that subject is a joke. And you're downplaying this but you know I'm right," said Hermione. She tensed slightly as he walked up to her angrily.

"I don't have time for this. I'm not giving you any more chances, mudblood. If you follow me again, you'll regret it," he growled, shoving past her.

"'What on Earth just happened?'" Hermione repeated the voice she'd heard in her mind as he reached the Owlery door. She watched as he froze where he stood. He seemed to hesitate, like he might turn around. But then he was gone.

Thank you for reading! If you liked this chapter, please feel free to review and add to your alerts/favourites! :)

Check out my other stories!

Draco and Hermione - s/5661111/1/Draco-and-Hermione

The Soul Connection - s/9868543/1/The-Soul-Connection

The Time-Turner Division - s/12337018/1/The-Time-Turner-Division