Chapter VI
The Third Movement
The rest of the year was pretty normal (as far as eighth years in Hogwarts go). Hermione and Draco soon realized that they had many classes together. These classes included Defence Against the Dark Arts, Basic Wizarding Law, Advanced Charms, and Advanced Potions. And, of course, lessons on how to play the niopa. Hermione soon learned that the niopa was an instrument almost like a Muggle keyboard. Except, the keys were brown and red, and there were 3 rows of keys. The first row had exactly 14 keys and were all brown. The second row had exactly 15 keys and all of them were red. And the last row had 13 keys and all of them were brown. And they all made different sounds. Hermione was doing horribly in niopa. This was a new sensation for her because she had always excelled in everything she had every tried to do. She had nearly memorized every book accessible about how to play the niopa. She still couldn't get it right. So the teacher, Miss Antoinette Darling (yes that's her actual name), signed Hermione up for Peer Tutoring. Hermione was humiliated. Her first session was next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, on Draco's side of the river, he was back at Hogwarts for more and was hating every minute of it. The Hufflepuffs were unbearably good and nice about everything. And the Slytherins treated Blaise Zabini like a king and at the same time, treated Draco Malfoy like the dirt on the bottom of their shoe. It seemed Draco was failing at everything now. Pretty soon, I'm going to have to start forging my grades so my parents don't know how badly I'm doing. He thought. The Advanced Charms teacher, Professor Flitwick, even had the nerve to sign Draco up for some Peer Tutoring sessions! His first session was the next Friday! He was so embarrassed, he considered skipping. But he decided that that decision would ultimately get him into more trouble than failing old Flitwick's class would.
So both students have a Peer Tutor now…
When Wednesday finally came, Hermione decided that being all huffy about it wouldn't help her at all. So she decided to walk in, head held high, and not letting pride get the best of her. The walked into her Peer Tutoring class after dinner in the assigned room and almost tripped. Draco Malfoy was sitting in the middle of the room! She was not told who would be her Peer Tutor! She should have asked! He turned around when he heard the door open.
"Why are you here?" he asked.
"Sorry, I must have the wrong room." Hermione apologized.
"See, I'm supposed to be going to..uh...peer tutoring." she spoke her last words so quietly so that Malfoy wouldn't hear her.
"What was that? You're headed to Peer Tutoring? What for?" he asked, slightly surprised. Hermione was shocked. He wasn't gloating. She wondered why.
"For...uh...niopa." she said. A look of surprise flitted over Draco's face.
"Then you're in the right place." he said indifferently.
"Lets get started." he said as he waved his wand and a niopa slid out of a nearby wall.
"Sit." she sat. He then asked her to play some scales for him. Even Hermione could tell that they were really bad. He stopped her halfway through.
"It seems we have some work to do." he said, rubbing his forehead. They spent hours trying to improve everything, from hand positioning to note accuracy. By the time they finally made some progress, it was almost dinnertime. Hermione gathered her belongings quickly and hurried to the door. She paused and turned around.
"Thank you." she said, knowing how stressful and hard this was for Draco.
"I'm just doing my job Granger. Don't think that knowing how to play the niopa a little better makes you less of a mudblood." he said, a tinge of his familiar sting returning to his voice. The words should have made Hermione hurt, but they just didn't. In fact, she felt even worse for Draco Malfoy. Or, more accurately, the shadow of Draco Malfoy, devoid of everything that had originally made her hate him.
When Friday rolled around for Draco, he was exhausted. Between late-night studying to beat the mudblood in his classes and being bullied around by Blaise and his goons, Draco just couldn't put up with any more nonsense. So he really didn't want to go to his tutoring session. He was tired, irritable, hungry (he'd skipped lunch to avoid the "Zabini Worshippers"), and just wasn't in the mood to be ticked off even more.
He slammed the door of the assigned classroom and was shocked to see Hermione Granger sitting at a desk in the otherwise unoccupied classroom, reviewing the spells to go over. She looked shocked as well. For once in her mudblood life, Hermione Granger was speechless.
"Well let's get started then." he said, trying to force some bite into his words.
"I didn't come here to sit around and waste my time!" Draco's sharply edged words jarred Hermione out of her shock.
"Right-well if you could sit down-" Draco pulled up a seat at the opposite end of the desk and struggled to pay attention as Hermione explained the fundamentals of casting the Shrinking Charm.
