ChapterIV: Underthemistletoe

Although Zabini was haughtier with Draco than normal, he was careful not to criticize him for anything again. Crabbe and Goyle went through the halls representing the scene in which the first hit Benjamin Dewey with a bludger every time one of the Ravenclaws were close, but Draco was no longer amused. During Potions class, Draco got up on the pretext of looking for doxy powders because his were gone and on the move he got close to the side of Hermione's cauldron, & secretly threw a small pot of bubotuber pus that completely ruined her potion. It began to smoke in her pot with a foul smell & it became an unattractive khaki tone. Draco & Zabini openly laughed when Slughorn was very disappointed with the girl for not being able to make the potion and proposed Hermione his help during breaks if she wanted to pass her N.E.W.T.s. Even though Harry and Ron tried to explain to Slughorn why Hermione's potion had turned into a smelly mass, when they left the dungeon, Malfoy noted with satisfaction that the girl had tears in her eyes.

When he later went to the library accompanied by Pansy (which had invited herself to accompany him), Draco saw Hermione with Dewey on the same table as always. He laughed cruelly to see that the girl had to repeat each word five times so Dewey could understand, since it appeared that after the Bludger had hit him, he just listened with his left ear. Pansy pointed at them giggling as she sat next to Draco at a table near where the Gryffindor and the Ravenclaw were. Dewey had not heard their laughter, but Hermione looked at both disdainfully before returning her attention to the Ravenclaw.

"I don't know why Dewey is interested in her." said Pansy evilly. "It is pathetic that a pure-blood wizard as he is is interested in the most ordinary girl from school."

Draco remained silent, not knowing if Pansy's words made him feel understood or offended. Being a little puzzled he realized that irritated him, although he claimed to prefer to mess with Granger himself.

"Well, Dewey is not a big deal ... "He said with contempt. Pansy stared at him for a few seconds as if he had said something inappropriate for him, but then she smiled and looked at him with shining eyes.

"I know," she said looking at him tenderly. "I wasn't trying to say that Dewey had something special, in fact, he's not even good-looking. I do not find him attractive, and it shows he doesn't have enough brains to pass without the mudblood's help." she said with contempt and Draco knew that Pansy had thought he had said that because he was jealous of the comment she had done about Dewey. He decided not to say anything about her error & he shrugged indifferently, again setting his eyes on the Gryffindor.

"And she certainly is the most insignificant thing Hogwarts has. Adding it to being a mudblood, she is also very unattractive & dirty ... she notices it herself, one only has to look at her hair to know that..." Draco watched Hermione's tousled hair falling to the middle of her back. It was brown but the light coming through the windows of the library gave it a golden glow. Malfoy thought there was nothing wrong in her hair and her face. "... With those teeth that came to her chin and her huge mouth." Pansy continued. Draco set his eyes on the girl's mouth, her teeth that for years had been too long for her mouth, no longer protruded from her lips which she moved sharply hoping Dewey understood what she was saying. The lower lip was a little thicker than the top and when he smiled at Dewey, Draco found she had a beautiful smile. Draco wondered if he had ever seen her smile before, probably yes, but he could not remember that he had ever liked her smile.

"...Too long. Draco? Draco, are you listening?"

Pansy's voice irritated him out of his thoughts and jerked from the Gryffindor to look at his companion. Pansy watched him a little offended and suspicious unusual in her.

"What were you thinking? Were you looking at her?" she asked accusingly.

"Who? The mudblood?" He replied with disgust. "Only someone who received several blows to the head with bludgers could find her interesting. She only disgusts me." When he saw that Dewey stroked the girl's cheek, he stood up abruptly closing his book "In fact I find so pathetic and a disgusting spectacle." he said loudly and making sure that Hermione & perhaps Dewey could hear him perfectly. "I'm going hoping not to vomit."

Even Hermione gave him an expressionless look, but Pansy seemed very satisfied when she followed Malfoy out of the library.

"Guys, I'll come back in a while." She said while posing her pen with which she had been writing her translation of magic runes and rising from her chair where she sat with her friends in the Gryffindor common room.

"Where are you going?" Ron asked with suspicion. "Are you going to see the dumb guy again?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. Ron had started to call Benjamin "the dumb guy" for the hours she spent helping him in spells and transformations.

"No, and do not call him like that again." she said closing the bottle of ink with a distracted air.

"So where are you going? You spend many hours with the dumb guy that we barely see a tip of your hair." Ron continued with the same tone. Harry looked very focused in his Defense Against the Dark Arts book.

"Do not talk nonsense," Hermione said. Ron made her tired; they had had this conversation a million times. "I just help him a couple of evenings a week, the rest of time I spend it with you so I do not think that what you say is true."

"What if Harry or I need you to help us?" Ron countered, unwilling to accept the arguments of his friend.

"I think the two you can live without me a couple of hours a week." she started saying. "Besides, I never complain when you two spend hours at Quidditch practice or talking about them.

"That's different," Ron looked very angry.

"And what about Ginny or Lavender? I never tell you anything when you spend whole evenings with them." Hermione said looking at Ron with narrowed eyes. "So I can spend my free time how and with whom I want."

And with that she left the Gryffindor common room, with dignity. Ron was the most unbearable lately with everything having to do with Ben and last but not least, Malfoy would not let her alone. From the day of the Quidditch match he had done everything that could upset her, insulted every time they passed through the halls or in the dining room and spent the classes Defense Against the Dark Arts messing with her in a low voice and causing Pansy stupid giggles, Snape without saying anything.

Malfoy had always hated her, but this year he seemed to surpass his own limits. Every time he saw her & Hermione didn't do or say anything, not even look at him, which seemed to further increase his hatred for her. He spent at least one afternoon a week in the library to mess with Dewey& her and even seemed to have lost interest in getting to Harry. Most of his cruel jokes were for her and a few for Ron, but Harry seemed to have lost any meaning for him. In fact, it seemed that his greatest enemy was Dewey. She knew that Draco hated her for being a mudblood, because he considered her inferior, but Dewey belonged to a famous family of pure-blood and the Ravenclaws and Slytherins were not particularly enemies. He had no reason to mess with Dewey much beyond the fact that he was her friend. But this reason seemed a little shaky and lame. It just didn't make sense.

When she turned a corner towards the dungeon, which Hermione was directed to talk to Slughorn about the potion Malfoy had ruined, she found him leaning against a wall with Pansy very close to his face. Hermione could not have been absolutely sure, but she had the impression that Malfoy had seen her from the corner of his eye before putting his ear to whisper something to his roommate that provoked in Pansy a nervous and unbearable giggle.

"What are you doing here Know-it-All?" Pansy asked, turning to her, linking her arm through Draco with a look of pride. "Did you come crying to Slughorn because you ruined your potion?"

Draco watched as the girl looked at them distantly and without giving them greater importance. He pursed his lips, annoyed, and passed a hand over her waist to get Pansy closer to him and looked at Hermione waiting for a reaction. She stared at him, her face completely blank.

"At least I have enough talent to take potions, Parkinson." Hermione said with dignity. Draco had to suppress his laughter at seeing the look on Pansy's face, for the previous year she had been very upset by not being able to study potions like him.

"You got talent?" the Slytherin replied looking like a filthy cockroach "you're only a bookworm with no charm.

Hermione gave a mixture of laughter and a contemptuous snort.

"My time is too important to waste it with you, Parkinson." and then she lifted her head far away from them, with dignity. But Draco did not miss the detail that she had her fists clenched tight.

Christmas was approaching and with them, snow in early December that covered all school grounds and froze the lake surface. The castle was wearing its traditional Christmas decorations and the halls here and there hung bunches of mistletoe. At the entrance to the library leaves of mistletoe were particularly visible, although Mrs. Pince noticed that with displeasure from her table.

Students secretly flew around the bunches of mistletoe waiting for the person they loved to pass under them, to approach and ask casually if they realized where they were, but Hermione was oblivious to all that. She was too hysterical by the proximity of Christmas, because that meant that every time they were closer to the N.E.W.T.s. She spent most of her hours in the library, either helping Ben, or her friends, or simply just studying alone.

Draco went to the library from time to time but she was not sure why. It had simply become a kind of ritual; he passed by a couple of times a week to mess with Granger. As the days passed, she could no longer ignore him. She replied harshly to the Slytherin's insults and when she was with friends or with Benjamin, she did her usual attempts to calm things down, just stayed on the sidelines, because she was already tired of it. Draco enjoyed teasing her and watching her explode, but the truth (and most disturbing) was that when he tried to realize why, he discovered that he used to go to her when he knew she would be with Dewey. Draco sat on a table from where he could see them and watch them stealthily without considering the reason. He just couldn't read a word knowing she was a few tables beyond, flirting with that stupid Ravenclaw. Since the establishment of the new Christmas decorations, Malfoy had seen in more than one occasion as Dewey passed under the mistletoe with Hermione, and he looked desperate, but finally he did not dare say anything, because the girl was too immersed in reviewing the lessons, or even to realize. Malfoy had laughed to himself and had imitated the scene to Pansy until she started to look at him in a way that he did not like.

But there he was again, watching the fool and the mudblood. He realized that day, Dewey seemed to have been taken time to get ready in the morning. He wore a spotless robe and he had combed his hair decently which made his hair darker and glistening. Draco had the feeling that that day he would dare to kiss Hermione. And with a mixture of derision and something he could not identify, he was at a table where he had a good view out of the library.

Hermione walked immersed in her book, & Dewey was watching her. She looked distracted and she was muttering under her breath, so Draco had the impression that she was speaking to herself and not to the Ravenclaw.

"Hermione." Dewey muttered weakly. She stopped right under the mistletoe and looked at him after she had finished reading the paragraph.

"Yes?" she asked, failing to see that Dewey did not seem willing to say anything despite him calling her.

"Well ... I ... you ..."the boy began but hesitated, twisting one of the sleeves of his robe "Well ... you ... have you seen where we are?"

Hermione looked at him as if she was seriously concerned about his mental health, but then she looked in the same direction as Dewey's nervous eyes and saw the mistletoe hanging over their heads. Even from his position, Draco could see her blushing deeply. Dewey interpreted the gesture as a silent nod, and slowly, nervously he leaned towards her, who stood still watching him with wide eyes. Draco felt his guts twisting when he saw Dewey as he placed his mouth over the Gryffindor's and unconsciously ripped a page from his book of potions. Draco was forced to focus his eyes on something else instead of in the scene that was in front of him. He had a very unpleasant sensation and could not give it a name because he had never felt anything like that. It was disgusting, not envy. ... It was more profound and disturbing. When he finally looked at them again, he saw how Dewey ran away & Hermione was just frozen under the door frame. Draco picked up his book, closing it abruptly and rose from the table determined to get out of the library. When he approached the Gryffindor he thought of something hurtful to say but his mind seemed to have been strangely devoid of any word, it had only one image set: Dewey & Granger kissing. He shook his head violently and then he saw Hermione, who was watching him and looked very puzzled. Unable to speak, he passed her, pushing her body and then went away at full speed.

When there was a week left for the Christmas holidays, Hermione decided that this year she would go home, but what she had originally planned was to stay at Hogwarts because that would be her last year there. But the picture that presented itself was not very flattering. Ron spoke to her just after he heard what Hermione was telling Ginny about what had happened in the library with Dewey.

Dewey on the other hand, after kissing her, he had run out without a word, Hermione had grown tired of waiting in the library without his appearing. And when they met in Charms and Transfiguration, he had passed her, not daring to look. Hermione had tried to talk with him, but whenever she did, Benjamin argued to have something very urgent to do.

Malfoy was already a case apart. Hermione still did not understand why he had looked that way in the library that day and had turned away as if very angry with her. Also he had not reappeared in the library and Hermione had the strange feeling that he avoided her .When she saw him in class, he was quiet and off, without his usual insults and snide comments now responsible for Parkinson lavish. And the few occasions when he met her gaze, he seemed to look deeply at her. Hermione did not know how to describe the look, but she knew that nobody had ever looked that way at her before.

A/N
That was all.I hope you liked it:) What do you think of Dewey? Why does he avoid Hermione now?What happened to Malfoy that he was pissed off so much to see them kiss? Why Pansy looks at him that way he doesn't like? What will happen before the Christmas holidays?(I'm asking so many questions)

Theories are accepted. I think you'll like the next chapter, or so I hope but I cannot publish it until I've had at least 10 reviews. SO PLEASE REVIEW! Pretty pretty please with sugar on top

I want to thank Tiani for being my first and only review. C'mon guys, you can do better!

-Mischief Managed