Chapter 2

Hermione awoke with a start, she had been having a nightmare about strange voices and shadows. But then she remembered the voice she had heard as she was going to sleep. Had it been real?

"No of course not" she thought and started to get ready for breakfast.

Hermione met up with Harry and Ron in the great hall.

"McGonagall asked me to give you this" said Harry handing over a roll of parchment

Hermione opened it

Miss Granger,

Please hold a meeting with Mr. Malfoy to decide on how you two shall separate your duties and inform me tomorrow

Minerva McGonagall

Headmistress

"What does she want?" asked Ron noticing the look on Hermione's face

"I've got to hold a meeting with Malfoy" said Hermione "about our duties"

"Well, he must be in potions with us, you can ask him then" said Harry and they rose for potions class in the dungeons

"Welcome back students" said Slughorn "i'm very happy to see most of you have decided to continue your education" he beamed at all of them

"Now today we shall be making Veritaserum" he said indicating a cauldron beside him which held the watery clear liquid "As it is a very difficult potion to make, i will be splitting all of you into groups of two. Now as i call out your groups, please move to stand with your group member"

He pulled out a parchment from his robes and began calling out their names in groups. Harry was grouped with Ron, and Slughorn winked as he called out Harry's name. Hermione was sure that Slughorn had only wanted to please 'the boy-who-lived' or as everyone called him now 'the-boy-who-defeated-Voldemort'. Harry knew it too as he gave Hermione a smirk.

"Hermione Granger" called Slughorn and she looked up "you shall be with Mr. Malfoy"

Hermione groaned. She did not want to be in a class with Malfoy and risk losing her grades because of his attitude. Nevertheless, she picked up her cauldron, nodded to harry and Ron who looked equally disapproving and went to stand next to Malfoy.

Malfoy did not even look at her as she put her cauldron next to his and pulled out her textbook to look at the ingredients. Slughorn was right, it was a difficult potion and she knew the work could not be done by one person alone. She started to collect the ingredients, not knowing how to ask malfoy for help.

"You cut the Rosemary and start brewing the mixture" said Malfoy and she looked up "i'll work on the other ingredients" he wasn't even looking at her, he had started his part of the work. Hermione quickly thought it through, his suggestion was fair and it would divide the work equally between them.

"Okay" she said unwilling to waste time arguing

As they worked Hermione noticed that Malfoy was very good in cutting and handling ingredients. He also knew when to add the ingredients and how much to stir the potion without looking at the textbook. She had to keep checking the book to see if he was doing everything right but eventually gave up, it certainly seemed like he knew what he was doing.

"Time's up!" called Slughorn when the two hours had finished. He passed over every table, when he reached Harry's he stopped

"Harry m'boy" he said taking a whiff of the potion "Not upto your usual standard today. But i guess even genius deserves a little rest eh?" Slughorn winked at Harry and moved on.

Harry grinned sheepishly at Hermione and she let out a barely audible giggle. Malfoy instantly turned his head to look at her. Hermione knew he was going to pass a snotty remark and beat him to it;

"What's the matter Malfoy?" she sneered "Not used to seeing a mudblood laugh lately?"

She waited for the retort but to her surprise, it didn't come. Malfoy just looked at her, in a way she had never seen him look at anyone before, his eyes boring into hers without any trace of arrogance. Hermione wanted to turn, to look away, but she was transfixed at the spot. His eyes betrayed pain and mourning, and she wanted to know why. She opened her mouth to say something but just then Slughorn broke the trance.

"Ah let's see what the two heads have for us today?" he said standing infront of malfoy who, to Hermione's shock had already looked away "Very nice you two,very nice indeed"

He looked down at their cauldron and smiled at them.

"clearly the best potion i have seen today" he said and poured some into a vial "Now if you two could test this for the class, we all would have a chance to see whether it works or not"

Hermione did not like the idea. She did not want to take the truth potion and start blurting out everything that was on her mind. What if she said something about Ron? That would really be embarassing. But Slughorn saved her the torment by handing the vial to Malfoy.

"Now Mr. Malfoy if you could take a sip" he said and Malfoy started to argue.

"But Sir" he said "I don't think that's a very good idea given my...my past"

"come now Draco" said Slughorn, patting Malfoy on the shoulder "we have all put the past behind us, and i am sure Miss Granger will ask you something very simple, just to demonstrate the effects of the potion"

Malfoy glanced at Hermione for a split second, and then took a sip of the potion.

"Now then Miss Granger, please ask Mr. Malfoy something"

"Err.." said Hermione not sure what to ask "What is your name?"

"Draco Malfoy" he said involuntarily

"Which house are you in?"

"Slytherin" he said in the same trance-like state. Hermione was unsure of what to ask next.

"Professor, what else do i.."

As Hermione looked at Slughorn for advice, she heard Ron's raised voice from the back of the class

"Why didn't you rat us out at Malfoy Manor?"

Hermione gasped alongwith the rest of the class, Slughorn instantly pulled out his wand to undo the effects of the potion but it was too late

"To save Hermione Granger"