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Hermione, Harry and Ron trudged down to the dungeons. They weren't really looking forward to Double Potions seeing as Snape is their teacher. They all entered the dungeon and sat on a table with Ron on the left, Harry on the middle and Hermione on the right near the Slytherins. They prepared their Advanced Potions book, quills and rolls of parchment. It is Hermione's habit to browse through her books before the lesson started so she opened her Advanced Potions and flipped through the pages.
Hermione's day is already starting bad and then Draco I'm-a-two-faced-bastard Malfoy snorted and said, "Really Granger, do you really have to bury your face and bushy hair of yours to every book you see. It's strange because not all people are in love with books. Ha! You were already strange from the start then aren't you?"
Hermione felt the heat go up to her cheeks but said, rather calmly, "Shut the hell up and sod off ferret." She looked up from her book and saw Malfoy smirking at her. He looked to the left and Hermione followed his gaze.
"That'll be 10 points from Gryffindor for bad language Ms Granger. And I cannot believe that the Headmaster made you headgirl, "a cold voice said and Hermione suddenly felt angry and afraid at the same time.
Draco looked at her and smirked. He liked it when she looks like that. She almost looks vulnerable. Draco shook his head. It must have been the heat. Yeah. As if he thought. He turned back to Snape and the Golden Trio. Watching Snape torment them is his favorite pastime. Hell yeah. He actually enjoyed this more than going inside a girl's pants/skirt. It's almost like Dudley whose favorite pastime is to watch his dad torment Harry.
He watched hopefully as Harry struggled from keeping Ron from humiliating and getting himself a punishment. Honestly, Draco would give anything to witness that. At last, as if reading Draco's mind, Ron slid out of Harry's grip and said, "So, it's alright to deduct points from bad language is it? But when students from your house say some, you even compliment them. Dumbledore must have gone nutters when he appointed you teacher."
Snape paled and said, "That'll be 50 points from Gryffindor. Mr. Weasley, you will meet me after class to arrange your detention. Let's start with our lesson. " He walked to the board and tapped it with his wand. Instructions in thin and slanted handwriting appeared. "Today you will make," he tapped the board again, "the wolfsbane potion. You'll only have to follow the ingredients and procedures. You may begin."
As Snape sat down on the teacher's desk, Hermione leaned near Ron and said, "Ron! You shouldn't have said anything. You just gave him an excuse to put you in detention."
Ron looked at her in surprised. "He insulted you! He didn't even think twice before deducting points." Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Well of course he won't. When he looks at you and finds out you're not from his house, he won't think twice about deducting points from us. We've had him as our potions teacher for six months and you still can't get used to it?" she replied.
When Harry couldn't concentrate because of Ron and Hermione's bickering he said, "You won't get used to it if you loathed him that much." When Hermione opened her mouth to retort he added, "Okay. Just stop won't you? I don't want to fail this lesson." Hermione and Ron both sighed and gave Harry a look of defeat.
Hermione squinted her eyes and read the instructions. She had never seen a potion as complicated as this. She quickly gathered the ingredients that contained a rat's tail, wood thorn twigs, a piece of a goat's liver and other disgusting stuff.(A/N Some of the ingredients are invented so please bear with me.) Hermione can't take it anymore so she got her gloves from the bag and started working.
After an hour and a half, she looked expectantly at her cauldron. Her potion looked like a deep shade of green while Harry's is murky brown and Ron's potion was giving off a smell of what looked like rotten fruits. She looked at the board again and read instruction number five: Stir counterclockwise for seven times and then clock wise once. Do this until the concoction turns the light shade of green. "Now, your potion should be in a deep shade of green," Snape said and Hermione smiled, delighted
She stirred her potion on the counterclockwise direction. She was counting under her breath when Snape walked toward their desk. He looked at Hermione's and finding no fault, turned his attention to Harry's. "Potter, are you sure you've done what the procedures on the board said? Stand up and read instruction number two."
Harry stood up and Malfoy looked up to watch yet another scene on where Snape would torture Harry. "Stir counterclockwise five times and clockwise thrice. Then add moonstone and a frog's paw, "he read. Harry's inside lurched. He forgot to add a frog's paw. He looked down to the desk and saw it near his pocket knife, looking slimy and forgotten. On his left, Draco snorted and Snape's thin mouth curved into a victorious smirk.
"Didn't it say that you should add a frog's paw Potter?" Snape said sneering. Harry scowled and replied, "Yes, sir."
"Then why does it lay forgotten on your desk?" Snape asked obviously enjoying himself. Draco looked from Harry, Snape, the board and Harry's cauldron.
"Because I forgot to put it, sir," Harry muttered scowling in Snape's direction. Snape turned his back on Harry and walked to the front of the class.
"Because you forgot Mr. Potter. What an excuse. You fail on this potion which means zero for today, "he said turning to the class, "You will all conjure a flask with an example of your potion and pass them down to me. For homework, you will write a two foot essay on the properties of moonstone. Mr. Potter, you needn't hand it in. I always give you low marks anyway," In this statement, all of the Slytherins laughed and Snape's sallow face curved into a smile.
Hermione gaped at Snape and told Harry and Ron, "It's not just fair! Crabbe's potion smelled like rotten eggs and Goyle's was sending out sparks! Why doesn't he give them low marks?"
Harry looked at Hermione and snorted, "As you said, they belong to his house. Of course he doesn't care if their potions blow up half of the classroom!" On his side, Ron nodded.
Hermione's mood did not lighten up until lunch when she finally remembered the dare. She reached for the piece of parchment inside her robe and read it again. She decided to do the second one since patrols are always late at night. Talk with him in a friendly way. Talk with him in a friendly way. She said it over and over inside her head and during lunch, she felt that she was ready.
Hermione decided to do it when Malfoy gets up from the Slytherin table. After about five minutes, she saw in the corner of her eye a certain blonde get up from the Slytherin table. She quickly gulped down her pumpkin juice, said goodbye to Harry and Ron and headed to the exit.
She took the corridor to the left and found him walking about ten feet in front of her. "Malfoy!" she called. He turned around, saw her, sneered and walked again. Hermione fumed.
"Hey! Malfoy! Wait up!" she called again, a little louder that some people actually looked at her. Luckily, this time, he turned around and walked up to her.
"What do you want?" he asked half-confused and half-annoyed. Hermione looked solemn. The look on her face made the hairs on Draco's back stand. He couldn't stand not to look at her beautiful and brown eyes. Draco mentally slapped himself on the back of his head for thinking about her like that.
"I just want to discuss something. You know, head duties and who's gonna patrol tonight?" she asked trying not to sound too bossy and too shy. Draco looked even more annoyed. She called him just for that? He then remembered that his father valued his position as headboy so he also acted civil towards her. Besides, why would he act so annoyed when he liked her presence so much? Wait a minute. What the fuck? What was he thinking? This woman must have done something on his mind when he looked at her eyes, those beautiful and glorious eyes. Holy crap! It happened again. He pushed this to the back of his mind as he turned his attention back to the discussion.
"Oh yeah, well we should meet after dinner and to be fair, we can patrol together tonight," he replied without really thinking about it. Hermione looked shocked but nodded in acknowledgement. She couldn't believe it when he also tried to complete a civil conversation with her.
"Yeah, sure. See you later then," she said turning around and heading for the library. She shook her head and wondered whether she was daydreaming or Malfoy did have a conversation with her. A civil conversation that is!
Draco watched her hips sway as she waved a hand and took one final look at him before fleeting away to the library. Draco was shocked that he managed to hold a civil conversation with Granger. What bothered him is why Granger was even talking civilly to him. It was a good reason to be bothered with because they have been enemies for six years and counting. But Draco just shrugged it off and headed to the Slytherin common room.
Hermione was sitting in the library and she got out a piece of parchment from the inside of her robe. She got a quill and ink and crossed out number two. It wasn't really a friendly conversation but at least they didn't swear or say bad words to each other or hex each other. She decided to do number one tonight. Oh yeah. Get ready for some seducing Hermione she told herself.
Before dinner on the Slytherin common room, Draco was sitting with Blaise, Nott and Pansy. He was really in a good mood since the conversation with Hermione and now, Pansy's ruining it. He growled when Pansy moved closer towards him.
"Drakie-poo, why do you look sad and tired. Maybe some relaxing might help," she said grinning.
"No thanks Pansy. I have some head duties to do," he replied massaging his temples and trying to keep his thought nowhere near Hermione.
"Aw, Drakei-poo. You don't even spend enough time in the common room because of head duties," she said. And for the first time in his life, Draco agreed with Pansy. His excuse is always head duties here head duties there. He only does this to keep away from the annoying Pansy. Of course, Pansy is his friend but Pansy thinks different about that. She thinks that they're lovers which is a disgusting idea for Draco. Nonetheless, he still loves Pansy as a friend and wouldn't want to hurt her.
"I'm sorry Pansy. It's just that I'm very busy. I'll see you around," he said bidding goodbye. He stood up and went out of the Slytherin common room. He passed by a group of first years and used the chance to make fun of them. It just so happened that Hermione was there and witnessed everything.
"Malfoy! What on earth are you doing?!" she said walking towards him. She was panting and Draco couldn't help but smirk. Hermione fumed. "Don't smirk at me like that ferret, and to think you were made headboy." She was now so red from anger that you can compare her face to Ron's hair. Draco smirked wider.
"C'mon Granger. There's nothing wrong with a bit of fun," he said in an innocent voice. "Besides I'm so preoccupied with head duties that I'm starting to have dark circles on my eyes. It's hard not to follow my beauty sleep. It harms my complexion you now."
"Oh. So you're telling me that hexing every first year you see and sleeping continuously is part of your so called "head duties"?" she said sarcastically and rather loudly. She can't believe that after a civil conversation, she'll be arguing with him again.
"Look let's just forget this and discuss the next Hogsmeade weekend Okay? I don't want to get into another fight," Draco said looking at the brunette. He scratched his head and added, "Let's go to dinner then we can discuss about that later." Hermione looked at eyes, smiled then nodded
They entered the Great Hall together. At once they crossed the threshold; people near them stopped talking to examine the odd couple that entered. At the Gryffindor table, Harry and Ron gaped at Hermione. On the Slytherin table, Pansy was pointing a finger at them and was looking shocked and angry at the same time. Some people just shook their head in amazement. Both Draco and Hermione wondered what's wrong when they noticed that they were holding hands. They quickly withdrew their hands and blushed.
Hermione walked to the Gryffindor table ignoring the stares and managed a weak smile at Harry, Ron and Ginny. She sat near Ginny and got herself dinner.
"What was that all about?" Ginny asked looking excitedly at Hermione. Hermione grinned. "Is it something about the dare?" Ginny asked. Hermione nodded.
Something more than that thought Hermione.
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