Chapter Three- A New Partnership
The Golden Trio had double potions with the Slytherins and walked slowly towards the dungeons with frowns on their faces. "What's worse than double potions with Slytherins early in the morning?" Ron asked as they reached the door to the dungeons.
Hermione smiled and pushed the door open. "What in the world?" All the students were standing up in the class and Snape was standing at the front of the room, a large smirk planted on his face. Hermione, Ron, and Harry went to stand next to Neville. "What is going on here?" Hermione asked Neville as they watched the last of the students come in.
"I don't know, but something tells me that it won't be good." Neville saw the Slytherins talking with each other; frowns and worry on their face. As the bell rang and Snape closed to door with his wand, Hermione started to wonder what was going on.
"All right," Snape said with a sneer, "we have a new policy that I have been told I must enforce. In order to help with inner-house unity," the Slytherins sighed and Snape sneered, "I am forced to assign a project that requires two partners. One must be a Gryffindor and one must be a Slytherin."
Hermione saw all her classmates groan and moan but she stayed quiet. 'This is actually a good idea. I wonder why Snape has decided to go along with it.' Hermione raised her hand and Snape sneered at her.
"What Miss Granger?" Snape asked acidly.
"I was just wondering what we were going to do." Hermione said.
Snape smirked. "A potion Miss Granger, this is after all Potions class." The Slytherins snickered. "Each pair will be assigned by me and the potion they must complete. I will give no instructions; you must research the potion, brew it, and then bottle it and bring it to me. Each pair will be given a two week time period, except for one potion which requires double the amount of time. A schedule will be posted to work in the lab and you can also work in an empty classroom if so needed." Snape smirked. "Since Miss Granger decided to show some interest in this project, you will be the first to be paired up." Hermione didn't move or say anything. "You will be brewing Wolfsbane, a complicated potion that requires four weeks of work. It is a highly complicated potion so to unsure that you don't mess up and blow something up, your partner will be Mister Malfoy."
The whole Slytherin class stood shock, their mouths open wide to match the Gryffindors shocked expressions. The only two people who didn't move, who didn't talk, or who didn't even seem to be phased were Hermione and Malfoy. "Hermione, are you okay?" Ron whispered.
Hermione sighed. "I'm fine," she whispered. "It's just a school project, as long as we don't try to kill each other, we will be okay."
"I think that is the problem." Harry said as Snape started naming off other partners.