Hermione's first week back at Hogwarts seemed longer than usual… It was not because she wasn't enjoying her classes, or being back at the school, in fact, being back among the students and teachers made her more content than she had felt in a while. What made it feel longer was the differences to Hogwarts: the newly rebuilt parts of the castle sometimes made it feel like she was walking through a muggle shopping centre, with the high glass windows and wide open stairwells, it didn't always feel like Hogwarts; the abolishment of the house tables meant that most of the students were now spending time with friends from other houses during breakfast, lunch and dinner (which Hermione secretly hoped would improve the chances of interhouse co-operation); and the absence of Harry and Ron was also a prominent change, especially as many of the students had asked about them (particularly Harry) since she had gotten back… she had lost count of how many times she had been accosted by students, some of whom she had never seen before, who wanted to shake her hand or say thank you for being involved in the group that had brought down Voldemort, others who asked why Harry and Ron hadn't come back to school. She had a fleeting glimpse of what it must be like to be Harry, and she couldn't wait for these occurrences to die down. She wasn't lonely however, she had fallen in with Ginny, Neville and Luna, and they had made her feel instantly comfortable with them. She had noticed too that being back at school had removed the opportunity for her to dwell upon what had happened between Ron and her just before she came back to school. She had no time to go over the situation in her head, to re-think about it at all, and she was partly glad of this – but even when she did get a moment and the thought crept into her head, she didn't feel as aggrieved about it as she thought she would… For some reason, there was no regret or upset that accompanied the thought, which she took to mean that she had made the right decision…
When Sunday morning dawned, Hermione rose early and sat in the common room until Neville and Ginny joined her to go down for breakfast. The three of them sat at one of the tables in the great hall, they were some of the earliest to get to breakfast and it was relatively empty; they had chosen a section of the table with a space so that Luna could join them, but to Hermione's right there was a group of sixth and seventh year boys who she thought were from Slytherin. They seemed to be discussing something in great earnest, but Hermione paid no attention until a fleeting name drop caught her ear.
"You know, Draco Malfoy, the Death Eater." One of the boys was saying, with particular emphasis upon the last phrase. As inconspicuously as she could, Hermione turned her head and tried to listen into their conversation; the boys were leant in so they weren't overheard.
"What about him?" One of the boys with rather long curly hair asked, sounding disinterested, but leaning forwards all the same.
"He's in my dormitory, and every night this week he's either not been there at all or appeared at two or three in the morning stinking of booze." The boy who had attracted Hermione's attention continued; Hermione's heart sped up in her chest. "Gordon said he was going to lock the door so that he couldn't get in cause he always wakes everyone up… just shows you though, right?"
"Good choice for head boy!" The curly haired boy chipped in, snorting and filling up a cup of coffee.
"Hermione!" Hermione was recalled back to Ginny and Neville, who had been joined by Luna.
"What?" She asked quickly, trying to make it seem like she hadn't been listening into someone else's conversation. As she turned back she realised why Ginny had called her, a large brown owl was sitting on the table with its leg stuck out waiting for her to take the letter from it. She unwrapped the toggle which secured the sealed parchment onto the owl's leg, in doing so she recognized the non-joined up handwriting on the front.
"Who's it from?" Ginny asked, she was smiling and Hermione guessed that she, too, had recognized the handwriting.
"It's from Harry." She answered, as the delivery owl took off over her head, and she opened the letter.
'Hermione,
I hope your first week back at school has been a good one! Is it really weird being back? How is it being Head Girl? Have you got lots to do?
I don't have very much to report on about us. Ron and I have set off on our trip, we're in Romania with Charlie at the moment, he's been showing us around the town and his work. You'll have to pass on a message to Hagrid that Norberta is doing well!
It's been really strange without you with us; I want to hear everything that you're doing at Hogwarts!
I hope to hear back from you soon, with all the details of what's going on!
Harry.'
Hermione read the note quickly, with Ginny peering over her shoulder to read it also.
"You'll have to tell him about who's Head Boy." Ginny said as she finished reading. "That's the main topic of gossip at the moment… and what you're planning for all the houses – maybe Harry and Ron will have some ideas for things you could do!" She suggested.
"Yeah," Hermione agreed, laying the parchment down on the table top where it curled back into its position of delivery. As good as it was to hear from Harry about the beginning of her best friends' trip, her mind was still distracted by the conversation that she had overheard from the Slytherin boys, who had finished their breakfast and left during the time that she had been reading.
All throughout Sunday, Hermione found her mind wandering back to that conversation she had overheard at breakfast. Even when the four of them decided to sit outside in the sun, Hermione wondered about what Draco was doing… First of all, if what the boys had been saying was correct, where was he getting the alcohol? It wasn't like it was a readily available substance at Hogwarts, he must be getting it from outside the school… and if that was the case, why? She understood that it must be hard after last year, but surely his choice to come back to school was because he wanted to show some change in his outlook? But sulking, drinking, and withdrawing from the current student population wasn't exactly an indication of this.
"Hermione?" Ginny's voice broke into her thoughts again. "Are you with us?"
"Yes?" Hermione answered, suddenly realising that she had completely blanked out from the conversation that was going on. "What? Sorry…"
"Are you trying to think of things to talk to the prefect team about?" Ginny asked, and Hermione nodded, seizing this excuse as a reason. "When do you have a meeting with them all?"
"Uuh… I'm not sure, we haven't arranged one yet…" Hermione replied, and that was a new thought now entering her mind… she would have to, in some way, contact Draco so the two of them could arrange a meeting with the whole prefect team. Maybe that would give her a chance to check up on him…
"Good luck with that," Ginny snorted, "I'd like to see what Draco comes up with." She flicked her long hair over her shoulder, looking disapproving.
"Yeah…" Hermione said absently.
By the end of Sunday, Hermione had mentally decided that she would try to corner Draco after Potions the next day to arrange a time for a prefect meeting so that they could inform everyone of what they were going to be doing that year. Lying in bed, trying to think about what Draco might be doing now, she considered going back to Professor McGonagall and telling her that she couldn't do what had been requested of her; but she was sure that, after only a week, it wouldn't be considered that she had done enough to try… and the last thing that she wanted to do was let down Professor McGonagall after she had been chosen to be Head Girl. She would try to check up on Draco for the next week or two, then she would try to figure out what she could do…
Her plan, however, did not go as she had thought it would – as when she filtered into Potions class with Ginny and Ernie, Draco was nowhere to be seen. He didn't appear all through the class, and the space next to Ernie remained empty. Hermione tried not to let it bother her as they made a blood replenishing potion, but she was conscious that she wasn't paying full attention to her work. Where was Draco? Why wasn't he in class? It wasn't like he could have forgotten about the lesson; perhaps he was ill or something… it was all that Hermione could do to convince herself that this must be the case. Draco didn't turn up for Defence Against the Dark Arts either, and despite having tried to convince herself during Potions that he must be ill, alarm bells were ringing inside her head. But, apart from somehow forcing her way into the Slytherin dormitories and finding Draco, there wasn't really anything she could do… Running with the suspicion that Draco must be ill, she tried to stop thinking about it; it wasn't really her place to be worrying… Draco wasn't a friend of hers, it wasn't like it was Ginny, or Neville, or Luna… Although that would be easier because she wouldn't feel guilty about letting Professor McGonagall down…
Tuesday came and went with no sign of Draco; Hermione had been consciously checking everywhere she went, in the corridors, in the Great Hall at meal times, for any sign of him but it was to no avail. On Wednesday morning, she intentionally took a detour around by the hospital wing to see if Draco was in there… But again, it was fruitless. Hermione was beginning to feel desperate, she wasn't sure how she would be able to check up on him without involving a teacher… As their fourth class, Potions, rolled around the situation was resolved. For as she entered the outer dungeons, she saw Draco at the back of the queue waiting to go into class. She could have sighed in relief at the sight of him, despite not really knowing Draco, and for the first time in her life, she was pleased to see him.
She could feel her heart beating somewhere in the region of her throat as the end of class drew near; as the bell rang she muttered to Ginny to go ahead without her, as she shoved her books and ingredients haphazardly into her bag to catch Draco. She was inexplicably nervous as she followed about a pace behind him out of the class.
"Um, Draco…" She started as she caught up with him in the passage out of the dungeons; she was startled by how much he jumped when she said his name.
"Oh, hi…" He muttered quietly, looking back down at the floor.
"I was thinking about what Professor McGonagall spoke to us about, I thought that maybe we should have a meeting with the whole prefect team to talk about any ideas that they have." She continued; walking alongside Draco she was able to get a closer look at him than when they were in class. His pale face was drawn, and there were dark circles under his eyes – he gave off the appearance of someone who was ill.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea…" He replied rather unenthusiastically, not looking up as they climbed the stairs.
"Is there any day that would suit you better?" He shrugged his shoulders non-committantly. "How about Saturday evening, after dinner?"
"Yeah…" He agreed quietly.
"Alright, I'll let all the prefects know and arrange somewhere for us to meet." Hermione said, hoping for some kind of reaction, but all that Draco said was:
"Okay." By the time they had agreed this they had reached the entrance hall, and Draco was looking reluctant to continue walking.
"I'll see you on Saturday evening then…" She concluded, noticing his drawing back from the entrance hall where there was a large group of hovering students.
"Yeah…"
"Well bye…" Hermione suddenly felt awkward.
"Bye." Draco murmured, sidling off through one of the other doors, Hermione suspected that it must lead to the Slytherin dormitories.
Instead of relieving her concerns about Draco, the brief conversation she had had with him (if you could count one word answers as a conversation) had only made her more worried about him…
A/N: Thank you very much for reading :) I'd love to know what you think of this chapter/story so far :)