Next chapter! This is going to be the last one for a while, as tomorrow I'm setting off on a trek to climb Macchu Pichu (!) to raise money for charity. I won't have internet access and won't be back for at least two weeks, so the next chapter won't be up until September 14th at the very very earliest. Special thanks to bluebook1496, resina, Brigitte Nons, snapplexo, Marion Hood, InsaniumArtisan, kvance and my guest reviewer for leaving feedback - as ever, it is always appreciated :) enjoy!
All too soon, exam season was upon them. Prefect rotas, internship applications, the perpetually sulking Charlie Jackson and her ever-growing mountain of fan mail had all faded away – in Hermione's mind, there was only room for one thing.
The Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests.
She would be taking seven of them, in almost exactly the same subjects as Draco: Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Herbology. It was one more than most seventh year students, but she hadn't been able to bear the thought of choosing between Arithmancy and Ancient Runes when she had returned to school in September and had begged Professor McGonagall to let her do both.
Now, she was regretting it.
Her every waking moment was spent frantically revising. She still kept up her sessions with Draco in the Room of Requirement, but these days it seemed more like he was teaching her. He really was doing very well, and she confidently expected him to pass his NEWTs with flying colours.
What happened after that was another matter.
The feeling had been creeping up on her for some time, and now, on the night before her first exam it was more powerful than ever. She lay on her bed in her office and stared at the ceiling, her head still half-brimming with Charms incantations, and thought of Draco Malfoy.
After the exams were over, he would have no reason to see her any more. He'd made this very clear. He'd never said anything, but Hermione knew from the countless times he pulled away – shrinking back as if she'd burned him – that he would not seek her out after the exams had finished. He wouldn't need her any more.
The thought frightened her, just a little.
He would stroll out of her life without a backwards glance and for some reason, the thought of her former enemy turning his back on her made her eyes water.
She wanted him to need her.
She wanted him to throw caution to the winds and come chasing after her, to scoop her up in his arms in front of everyone, to prove – somehow – that all the hours they'd spent together and all the time that they'd shared hadn't meant nothing. The way he looked at her, his grey eyes gleaming, a smile playing around his lips when he thought she couldn't see – no, Hermione thought, that had to mean something.
She rolled over and groaned into her pillow.
The feeling had been creeping up on her for some time now, so slowly that she hadn't even noticed. The lines between enmity and friendship had blurred into each other, like ink bleeding through water, until it was impossible to say where one had ended and the other had begun. But before she'd even had time to reflect on how strange it was to be friends with someone who only months before had gone out of his way to insult her, something else had crept up on her, creeping into her mind and taking hold with a grip of steel.
She took a deep breath, and allowed herself to think it.
She was in love with Draco Malfoy.
Hermione took another deep breath, her hands shaking, and made her decision.
And – after the exams, of course – she was going to tell him.
The NEWTs passed in a blur, and the only thing that Hermione was really certain of was that she had failed everything. She'd mistranslated one of her runes, forgotten to work in Golpalott's Third Law into her Potions essay and hadn't made the comparison between the treatment of Dementors and Inferi that came to her just after she'd left the Defence Against the Dark Arts written paper.
She was fully expecting Professor McGonagall to take her aside and say that there was no point in her sitting her last exam – the Charms written paper – because she had failed the others so badly. Then, Professor McGonagall would probably snap her wand in half and tell her to go and get a job at the nearest Burger King.
She had told Draco all of this, and he had laughed for five whole minutes.
They were in the Room of Requirement, studying for the Charms paper, and as he read over his notes Draco could not stop looking up at her and sniggering. Hermione didn't know what he was laughing about – it had taken a good few minutes to explain the concept of Burger King to Draco in the first place – but it was incredibly distracting. She'd only had time to memorise the Charms incantations, wand movements and underlying principles three times, instead of four, because of all Draco's laughter.
Eventually, the clock chimed ten and they both stood up to leave. Draco held out his hand for her to shake.
"Well," he said, avoiding her eyes, "I suppose this is it."
She took his hand and butterflies exploded in the pit of her stomach. "Yes."
"Thank you for all your help. I couldn't have done it without you."
"Yes."
As soon as the words were out of her mouth she blushed. She sounded so arrogant, she thought, he probably thinks I'm a total pig now…
"Well, goodnight."
He took his hand from hers and it was like someone had fired up a switch in Hermione's brain. She started forwards and grabbed his wrist.
"Wait!"
He turned towards her and raised his eyebrows expectantly.
"Um, can I talk to you after the exam is finished? I'll be waiting underneath the big beech tree by the lake."
For a split second, she thought she saw a smile flicker across his face.
He nodded. "Sure."
Hermione stood underneath the beech tree by the lake, panicking. She hadn't seen Draco in the Great Hall as he was sat several rows behind her, but she'd only been able to catch a glimpse of his white-blond head as the students left the exam hall. He'd been heading for the Slytherin dorms, and she had half a mind to run back inside before anyone could see her waiting.
The grounds were quiet now, and almost completely deserted. Draco and Hermione were one of a handful of students who had finished early, as most of the seventh years still had their Astronomy exam to come, and so most of the castle was stuck inside the library. All she could see was the mirror-still surface of the lake, a couple of lazy Thestrals swooping overhead, and a faint plume of smoke issuing from the Potions dungeons. She supposed it was Professor Slughorn experimenting again, and guilt prickled at the back of her neck. He'd checked his store cupboard thoroughly after she'd asked him to keep an eye on the ingredients for Polyjuice Potion – and his face had gone so white as she'd asked – and he'd sworn on his mother's life that nothing had been taken from the store cupboard. He'd wagged his finger and told her not to make him worry about things like that again, and then he'd made her promise to come to the next Slug Club supper.
Hermione sighed. Now that her exams were over, she really had no excuse not to skip it.
A faint rustling sound was coming from over her shoulder.
She turned and stared into the depths of the Forbidden Forest. Even in the bright sunlight, she could barely see more than a couple of feet into the forest because the leaves were so dense overhead. She squinted.
A dark shape was moving in the trees.
She took a step closer, her wand held high, but saw nothing. There was no sound, no movement, only the black press of leaves and tree trunks pushed tight together.
She was close to the forest now, barely feet from the closest tree trunk. She could feel the cold on her skin and smell the damp earth, and she shivered.
She took one step closer.
A hand lunged out of the darkness and before she had time to so much as flinch, it had snapped her wand in half. The dirty, hairy hand clawed at her wrist, the long fingernails scraping across her skin, and Fenrir Greyback's grinning face loomed out of the darkness.