Hermione walked quickly into the Potions classroom, pulling out her textbook and the ingredients she had set aside earlier that day during class. She walked over to the Potions cabinet and began taking out her ingredient stash. "You really need a new hiding place for those, Granger," a voice whispered over her shoulder, causing her to jump out of her skin. She whirled around, wand on his throat.
"Malfoy! What are you doing here?"Hermione seethed, pushing the tip of her wand deeper into his jugular.
"I'm here to help on our potion," he replied, smirking at her. He knew that it was not a good idea to be on the receiving end of her wand, but he did not have his. "I'm unarmed Granger, so if you'd put that away, we can finish this bloody sleeping draught and be done with it," Draco informed her, stepping backwards.
"This is my potion, not ours. I suggest you leave," Hermione hissed, turning back around to continue grabbing her ingredients.
"Snape assigned both of us to do this potion, and I cannot afford to fall further behind you, Mudblood," Draco stated haughtily. He walked up right behind her and reached around her shoulder, grabbing the last ingredient Hermione would need, which was the first that needed to go into the potion.
"Give me that!" Hermione shrieked, clawing at his hand.
He simply held it away from her and smirked, saying, "Can't resist me, Granger? Resorting to jumping me in empty classrooms now, are we?"
Hermione took this opportunity to lunge at his arm, wrenching the bottle away from him and sending it sprawling across the room. "Drat!" she shrieked as the bottle shattered and the salamander blood evaporated, leaving a giant burn mark on the ground.
Snape took that moment to enter the classroom. "Detention. Both of you. Tomorrow night, 8 o'clock, my office. Don't be late," he drawled, scourgifying the ground where the salamander blood had spilled. Hermione flushed red enough to rival a Weasley but said nothing. Draco shot Snape a pleading look, but his godfather continued on his way, pulling the door shut loudly behind him.
When Hermione was sure he was gone, she rounded on Draco. "Now look what you've done, Malfoy! Not only do we have detention, but we are out of salamander blood and the potion will be ruined by the time we have a replacement!" she shrieked, pulling at her hair in exasperation.
Draco scoffed at her and walked past like nothing had happened. He simply went over to Snape's office, pulled open the door and walked in like he oned the place. Hermione watched dumbfounded as he returned with a fresh, full bottle of salamander blood. He walked over to the cauldron, looked down at the book, and put in the required five drops. The potion began to turn a funny shade of translucent green like it was supposed to, and he continued to work on the potion.
Hermione watched in amazement. Since when did Malfoy get so good at Potions? He barely lifted a finger, let alone thought about working on an extremely difficult sleeping draught.
He was finished within a few minutes and set the cauldron to a low simmer like the instructions stated. "Am I going to do everything on this potion, Granger, or are we both going to be working on it tomorrow?" he questioned, breaking Hermione out of her thoughts.
"Ummm, yes. I'll be here to help. See you tomorrow then, ferret," Hermione smiled cheekily, finally regaining some of her wit. She quickly gathered her things and scurried from the classroom, not stopping until she reached the Gryffindor common room. What had gotten into her? Why was she so shocked? Wasn't Malfoy second in their year? He wasn't directly under her for nothing, but this was the only time she had seen him trying something remotely school-related, other than Quidditch.
Draco watched her leave, wondering why she hadn't tried to help him on the potion. He was beginning to gather his things when he noticed a battered copy of Hogwarts: A History on the floor where Granger's bag had been. It had to be hers then, he surmised. Opening it, he began flipping through the pages, noticing all of the margin writing she had done, writing little notes to herself. One of them was on Slytherin House. She had scribbled several of the Pureblood family names in the margins, including Nott, Zabini, Malfoy, and Black. She had then put a giant question mark and listed a page number. Turning to that page, he discovered a section on the Hogwarts grounds. That couldn't be right then: it must not be a page number. Curiosity getting the better of him, he scribbled down the number and where he found it in the book on a piece of parchment and shoved it in his pocket for a later date, promising himself that when he saw her the next day he would ask her when he returned the book.
Hermione entered the common room to find Harry and Ron engaged in a game of exploding snap while Ginny flipped through a copy of Quidditch through the Ages. "Ginny, can I talk to you upstairs?" Hermione asked quietly, hoping not to catch the attention of Harry and Ron.
"Sure, Hermione,"she replied, smiling, but her eyes held a quizzical look in them.
Hermione rushed up the stairs to the girls'dormitories, only to find Lavendar Brown and Parvati Patil chatting away about Dean Thomas in her room. She whirled around and mouthed to Ginny to go towards her dormitory instead, which was thankfully empty. "What's up, Hermione? You seem a little out of breath," Ginny stated, jumping right to it.
"Malfoy! He landed us both in detention tomorrow night! I have detention with him!"Hermione groaned, flopping down on Ginny's bed.
"What did he do?" Ginny questioned, hoping to find a reason to use her Bat-Bogey Hex.
"He snuck up behind me in the Potions classroom and scared the wits out of me, literally! Then he took the salamander blood I needed to work on our potion for Snape and was holding it out of my reach and letting our potion get ruined! I lunged for it, and he sent it flying in the air when we both slipped and it shattered. And Snape chose just that moment to walk in and give us detention," Hermione explained, frustrated.
"What happened to your potion?"
"He simply got a new bottle of the blood from Snape's office and finished the next part of it! So now not only do I have detention with him, but I get to spend my Saturday afternoon working on this potion with him instead of studying like I had hoped!" Hermione ranted, her frustration building until the end.
"Malfoy's a git, Hermione. I'm sorry you got stuck with him. If he gives you any more trouble, hex him! Or punch him in the face again; I'm sure he'd love that. In the mean time, you might as well catch up on the studying you're going to be missing out on," Ginny stated calmly, completely opposite of what Hermione had expected from her. Hermione was hoping that she and Ginny could put up a picture of Malfoy's pretty face on a wall in her wardrobe and practice some of their spells on it.
Sighing at her lost hexing practice, Hermione gathered her things to go back to the common room, seeing as it would be quite some time before Lavendar and Parvati had quit their chatting and actually fallen asleep. She sat down on one of the sofas next to the fire and pulled out her journal and began to write about her extreme loathing for Malfoy. She then, in order to calm herself down before returning to her wonderful four-poster, reached in her bag to feel for her familiar battered copy of Hogwarts: A History. No such battered binding was felt.
Hermione did a double take. She pointed her wand into her beaded bag and said, "Accio Hogwarts: A History!" When no book came flying out of the bag, she began to panic. Where had she left it? In the Potions classroom? She remembered that some of her books had fallen out when she tackled Malfoy in an attempt to get the salamander blood back, but she didn't remember seeing her favorite book fall out. Panicking, she began frantically searching for her book, emptying the contents of her school bag.
"Hermione, what's wrong?" Harry asked, finally noticing Hermione's near-panic.
"My copy of Hogwarts: A History! I can't find it!" She cried, still searching frantically through the empty bag, hoping it would appear out of nowhere. She then quickly stood up to leave and search the Potions classroom for the book, but Ron stopped her.
"Hermione, it's just a book! And besides, you know just as well as I do that going out to look for it right now will just land you in another detention!" He reminded her.
"Ron! I think that's the most sensible thing I've ever heard you tell her!" Ginny teased, snickering.
"I've got to find it!" Hermione said irrationally.
"Not right now, Hermione! Go sleep, and you can get up early in the morning and look for it before breakfast. You'll pass out in the corridors from lack of sleep before you find it anyway! We can look for it tomorrow!" Ron scolded, blocking her exit.
"I think that someone switched their brains," Ginny said, chuckling.
"Alright Ronald! Let me go!" Hermione shrieked, finally getting too frustrated with him to take it. She huffed and stomped up the stairs to her dormitory where Parvati and Lavendar continued chatting away despite her noisy entrance. She cast a quick Silencio on the two girls' beds and shoved her head under her pillow, robes still on, begging Merlin that Malfoy did not find her book. She wouldn't know what would happen to her if he did find it.