"Did you hear?" Blaise plopped down on one of the plush armchairs of the Slytherin common room, throwing his legs over the side of it lazily. Taking a bite of the apple he'd stowed away at breakfast he looked at Draco, who was working tirelessly over his Transfiguration assignment. The new Professor, the boy Langdon, had ripped him a new one over his last essay. "Earth to Drake," Blaise took another bite of his apple noisily. ", I asked you a question mate." Draco ground his teeth as Blaise to him through a mouthful of food. He hated that. Blaise knew that he hated that.
"Did I hear what Blaise?" Putting his quill down, Draco finally looked up at his friend, irritated to see the smile on his friends face. Oh yes, the boy knew how annoying he could be.
"Potter and the Weaselette are getting married. He proposed to her this morning. She of course, told the Boy Wonder yes. According to the grape-vine." Blaise of course meant the gossip vine that happened to be his secret girlfriend Padma. "They are to get married in June." Draco rolled his eyes a part of him knew that he should be happy for Potter, they had a sort of truce going on, but he really could care less about Potter and the girl getting married.
"Speaking of Padma, have you solved the issue with her parents yet?" Draco couldn't help but enjoy the shocked expression on Blaise's face. He hadn't been expecting Draco to ask about Padma, that much was certain. Blaise swallowed the bite of apple in his mouth before it fell out of his mouth. Blaise cleared his throat, three times, fidgeted with his pants, before finally looking up at Draco again. It didn't help that Draco's smirk had only grown while waiting for him to answer.
"We are formally going to meet her parents this upcoming weekend. Padma wants her family to stay in her life, I won't deny her that, nor do I want her to be disowned. I'm going to make my intentions with her parents very clear. It helps that I'm not affiliated with any particular religion. Better to have no religion than to be Jewish, or Christian." Blaise didn't seem happy about it, Draco did feel sympathetic for him. He understood wanting something that seemed unreachable.
"Come on mate, let's get to class. Slughorn will give us hell if we're late." Draco clapped his friend on the shoulder. He had no good advice for his friend at the moment, but he did know someone who might. After all, he was having to jump through hoops himself to court Astoria, even if he was a pureblood.
Hermione dreaded potions, just walking into the room made her nauseous, despite the potion that Madam Pomfrey had given her. On top of that Hermione was tired, so tired even though she had slept a good ten hours. After finishing her rounds the night before, Hermione hadn't bothered to do any studying, instead she'd flopped down on her massive bed, kicked off her shoes, and gone straight to sleep. Sitting down behind Harry and Ginny Hermione blanched at how cuddly and cute they were being. They couldn't help it though, they'd be married in eight months.
"Good morning ladies, gentlemen! What a lovely day this is, or it's about to be I can assure you all." Gesturing to the cauldron in front of him he looked at his class proudly. "Now, I know that a good majority of you should be able to name the potion in front of me," He shot a look at Harry specifically. ", so anyone? Can you tell me what it is that we're looking at here?" Hermione barely gave a glance to the cauldron beside Professor Slughorn. After a moment of silence, the flabbergasted Professor spoke again. "No one? Mr. Potter?" Harry opened and closed his mouth before shaking his head. "Miss Granger?" Slughorn's voice hit high, incredulous notes.
"Professor, excuse me for interrupting but." Ginny had grown tired of stargazing and had worked tirelessly to catch up and be put in the Advanced Potions class. "If this is a potion that you've already shown to most of the class why is it that you're showing us again?" Ginny knew what the potion was, remembering well when Harry had given her, Hermione, and Ron each some. Ginny was positive that it had saved her life the night the Death Eaters had invaded the castle.
"Ho, ho, ho! I've always enjoyed your fierceness Ginvera, I really have."
"Because he has nothing better to teach us." The grumbled from the back of the room could be heard by all, Hermione's eyes followed the voice, though she couldn't be sure who said it.
"Fifteen points from Slytherin." Professor Slughorn knew his students when they spoke to him, that much was sure. That'd been Blaise Zabini's voice, he didn't doubt that in the least.
"Professor?" Ginny brought the man's attention back to her, determined to have it answered.
"Ah yes, my apologies Miss Weasley, and congratulations are in order I believe on your upcoming nuptials. Soon I'll have to address you as Mrs. Potter when we meet." The students who didn't know that Harry and Ginny were engaged whispered furiously among themselves, shooting glances at Ginny's left hand. "Now, why am I showing you this potion? It is what you will be brewing for the remainder of your time in my class. Now, the potion takes six months to complete, as it can be disastrous when brewed improperly, it will take us a bit longer. I will oversee this carefully." Slughorn assured them all.
"Excuse me Professor?" Hermione lifted her head, paying attention for the first time. Even though she'd been hearing the conversation, none of it had seemed important until that moment. "We will be brewing Felix Felicis?"
"Ah Miss Granger! Glad to see I've caught your attention finally, though that doesn't speak well of you at all Miss Granger." Slughorn clicked his tongue at her. "To answer your question yes, we will be brewing Felix Felicis, liquid luck."
"B-b-but Professor!"
"No need to worry Miss Granger! With my expert ability you will all be able to do it adequately." Hermione stood up, despite the wave of nausea that hit her. "Miss Granger?" Slughorn blinked as she stood, never had the girl shown such emotion in his class.
"Just what do you expect us to do with this potion Professor? Sell it? Take it? You'll have half of the Seventh year walking around feeling giddy, untouchable, who knows what." Slughorn immediately began to laugh understanding why she was so upset. He waved his hands ushering her to sit.
"Sit, Miss Granger sit. There's not reason to get so upset. You will be doing both actually. I will give you all enough for one day, one perfect day. The other we will sell to Mr. Fred Weasley, I believe you all know of him. While I will coach you to make sure that your potion isn't disastrous, this is your final grade, I cannot guarantee you will all pass." Hermione sat with a hmph. She still didn't like it.
"Now, if you will carefully take notes, I will begin to write out the exact way to brew this potion without devastation. Please, no deviations." The look he shot at Harry made the boy laugh.
"No deviations." Harry assured Slughorn with a nod. Slughorn gave Harry a last stern look before flicking his wand speaking the instructions as his the chalk on his board began to write in fluidly, yet somehow rough, cursive. Hermione sighed, she hadn't wanted to take down this many notes today, briefly she wondered if she could get away with not taking them down at all.
"Now, be aware that this is the only day that these instructions will be on the board. Tomorrow, there will be a different set of instructions. Same thing goes for Friday. Monday of next week I will begin explaining each of the ingredients, despite whether or not you know them, and how they go together, what makes them work and work makes them turn into a melting pot of danger." Hermione gave another sigh and pulled out a roll of parchment, followed by her quill, quickly taking down the notes that flowed across the blackboard.
Draco couldn't help but watch Hermione out the corner of his eye. She looked tired, her skin though, her skin practically glowed. He'd never seen her looks so appealing. Draco licked his lips as he watched her, she didn't seem into class today. Hadn't even jumped to answer Slughorn's question. Something had to be wrong with the girl. Was she sad? She didn't look sad. Maybe she was just upset.
Had the actions of that night weighed upon her? They certainly had upon Draco. In fact he thought of it every night since then. Each day he wanted to touch her more. Wanted to feel her skin against his. More importantly, he wanted to rush to her, kiss her, admit to her just who he was. Every day had been the same though. Hermione showed no sign of having sexual relations with anyone. In fact, she had spoken to Draco on more than on occasion. Had been polite even when they had done rounds together.
They had been working together quite well in Animagus training. They had it every other day. On the days Professor Langdon didn't go through simple exercise training with them, first turning their hands to paws, claws, hooves, and the like, she led them on their way to choosing careers. It seemed to Draco that most of the Gryffindor men wanted to be an auror of sorts. Ravenclaw, scholars, Hufflepuff various odds and ends, Slytherin's? Most of them were quiet.
"Now class." Draco's head snapped up at Professor Langdon's voice. He couldn't even remember when they'd arrived at her class, but they had. His thoughts had been focused on Granger. "Today we are going to attempt to make the full transformation. I trust that you've been practicing on your own time." A rumble of groans escaped the class. Professor Langdon smiled despite it. "Need I remind you all, that animagus registration does not take place if you don't complete the full transformation by Christmas break!" Hermione hated to admit it, but she had been among the few who hadn't been doing their training. The last week or so, she'd been too tired to do any training.
"What happens if we can't complete the transformation before Christmas break?" Hermione stiffened at the voice from the back. Ron. She hadn't spoken to Ron in about a week. Not because she was avoiding him, not, instead because she'd simply not run into him. As of late he'd been too preoccupied with Daphne Greengrass, who he was openly seeing now. Professor Langdon's gaze shot to Ron, she glared darkly.
"If you do not complete the transformation before Christmas break you will not be allowed to register to be an animagus this year, you will be forced to cease any attempts at becoming an animagus until next year." Hermione threw a casual glance over her shoulder, not at all surprised to see the shocked look on the boys face. Yes he should be frightened indeed, Ron wasn't very good at studying on his own, Hermione knew that personally. Not that Daphne was forcing him to study.
"When exactly will the Registration Committee be here?" Hermione spoke up, her voice a little higher pitched than normal. She didn't want to seem worried but, she was. Hermione had been unsure about becoming a wolf, especially after the horrible encounter with the actual wolves. Now she couldn't see her life without the ability to transform into a wolf.
"The Registration Committee will be here January 20th. You're to have fully, successfully, transformed three times by December 15th." Landon informed them. Hermione swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. She would have to train, despite wanting to sleep all the time. "Now, if everyone will please, let's move on desks to the side and begin the transformation process. Do not fret if you don't transform completely the first time around."
"What should we focus on?" Neville's voice didn't sound nervous. If Hermione didn't know any better she would have said that it was simple curiosity.
"Lately we've been fueling on focus on hands, feet, and legs. This time I would like you to focus on your torso's and faces. Those are the hardest parts of the transformation process. We will work on that for the remainder of November." With a clap of her hands Langdon waved them off, leaving them to do as they wished. Spouting out simple, yet handy instructions every now and then.