A/N: After a tough beginning of the week with math homework, quizzes, a seminar, a presentation and an essay I reward myself to write in the middle of the week, so I hope that you will enjoy the chapter!
And thanks to my lovely friend, co-trainer and beta FreakyElla!
The day after the arrival Hermione woke up excited. It was today the classes began! She got up, got dressed in a black just above the knee dress. She enjoyed the last day that she could dress as she liked before having to dress in the Institutes dress code. When she was done brushing her teeth she walked into the common room and found Blaise waiting there for her.
"Shall we head down to the Great Hall?" He asked instead of greeting her Good morning.
"Sure, did you sleep well?" Hermione asked as they walked out from their section.
Still talking they walked into the Great Hall to see that it was almost empty. There were a few students from Aradia in the Hall and only one from Hogwarts. The platinum blond hair was not hard to miss and when Blaise started walking towards his best friend Hermione quickly followed. As they came closer, Malfoy looked up and greeted them with a nod.
Hermione took a seat next to Blaise at the four seat table and looked at the menu in front of her. She could choose between a mixed omelet, yogurt with berries or muesli or, pancakes and a sandwich with optional toppings. She saw the omelet Malfoy ate, and then spoke loudly, and said
"A mixed omelet" Five seconds later, they omelet stands before her.
"So are you excited about the classes?" She asked
"Err, no?" Blaise said "It's the same ones that we have at Hogwarts."
"Expecone." Malfoy said with his mouth full.
"Sorry didn't catch that?" Blaise said.
"Except one" Malfoy said, after swallowing. "Gabryel, my mentor" he explained. "Told me yesterday that they have all the classes we have except one. They apparently have one class here called 'Survival class'"
"What do you do in that class?" They heard a girl's voice behind them. They all looked up and saw Olympia Watson standing a few meters away from their table, giving Hermione evil glances. "Why are you sitting here Granger?" She continued very rudely.
"Watson, if you don't want to sit with Hermione, you could just sit at another table" Malfoy said, explaining Watson's two choices for her. Hermione was so surprised that Malfoy had called her Hermione that she ignored Watson and just stared at him. Did he really call her by her first name? Blaise seemed a bit shocked too, but then repeated Watson's question.
"Apparently you learn about the surrounding nature and how to survive of it. Sometime in the course, most commonly in the winter, you get paired up with someone from class and then kicked out in the cold for a whole weekend where you are supposed to remember what you have learned and survive in the wilderness." Draco answered
"Oh no, that seems totally horrific!" Watson shrieked. Herself, Hermione thought that if you got paired up with the right person, it could actually be quite fun! She had always liked the camping life and had camped a lot with her parents before she went to Hogwarts.
When she had finished her breakfast she excused herself and started to walk towards the table were Ellie sat and they decided that Ellie would meet her outside the Great Hall in 30 minutes and walk her to Potions. "Potions." Hermione thought "Would probably be a lot more fun here when Snape wasn't the teacher!"
ooo
After a long day with classes Draco was totally drained. If he could decide, he would take a long bath and then go to bed and maybe read something. But Gabryel had ordered him to get to the Foxes common room at 8 pm . So that was where he was headed at the moment. After telling the password to the painting he walked in to the common room and searched for his mentor.
"Draco, over here!" He heard his mentor call from across the room. "I'm glad you came!" He said with a big smile. "I'd like to introduce you to some of my friends. Draco, this is Philemon and Joel." Draco greeted each of them with a nod.
The biggest difference between Hogwarts and Aradia was not the language, the surroundings or the classes, it was the fact that here in Sweden, everyone called each other by their first name, even the teachers called students by their first names. So it was not a surprise to him when Phillemon and Joel started calling him by his first name.
"So Draco, you might wonder why we asked you here tonight." Phillemon said. "I and Joel are in the exchange program as well, and our exchange friends will come here soon." he said at Draco's glance "We have decided to play a little game tonight." he finished with a leer.
"And here comes our friends" Joel said, looking at the door. Through the portrait Anthony Goldstein and another Rawenclaw came, looked around and then started walking toward their table. When the three mentors had explained their plan to the other boys Draco asked;
"And what exactly are we playing?" Draco asked, always in a mood for a good game.
"We had planned to play a muggle game called truth and dare" Draco who had played the game before wondered if there would be some girls joining or otherwise he would defiantly not be playing. But he never got the chance to ask before Gabryel spoke again.
"And here comes the girls" Draco looked at the direction Gabryel looked and saw that the girls were Ellinor, Hermione, Tracey Davis, Parvati Patil and two other girls that must be Tracey's and Patil's mentors.
"Welcome ladies!" Gabryel announced when they stood by their table. "Are you ready for some Truth and Dare?" He asked?
"Ellie!" Draco heard Hermione shriek. "You told me that we were just going to play cards!"
"Well, I lied, or otherwise you would never have come." Ellie said with a little smirk. Hermione gave Ellie an angry look before she sat down next to Draco.
"Are we going to play here?" Tracey asked, looking a bit uncomfortable.
"Nope" one of the two girls that Draco did not know the name of said. "We are going to play in my and Ellie's room, so let's go!"
15 minutes later the game had got passed that awkward few truths and dares and everybody started to loosen up. At the moment Patil had just made her dare and looked around in the room to chose someone to ask truth or dare too.
"Malfoy" he heard her say. "Truth or dare?" He thought about it for a while and then decided for dare.
"Okay" Patil said with an evil smirk. "I dare you to sneak in to the Head Mistress room and bring a pair of her knickers back with you."
"Ohhhhhh" he could here the other say and looked up and caught Hermione's glance. She looked like expected. Amused and a bit concerned.
"Just one problem there, Patil… I have no clue where Mrs. Nord has her quarters, and I doubt that I know the password." Draco said, feeling a bit angry at himself that he had not come up with that dare earlier.
"Oh I think I can help you with those two small trifles." Joel said.
"You can?" Gabryel asked shocked.
"I matter of fact can. I was there earlier today… "When he had said that, a lovely magenta color colored his cheeks"… I had some things that I needed to talk to Mrs. Nord with." He explained to the group. "I'll take you."
After walking in five minutes of silence Joel stopped in front of a small statue of a beautiful woman that Joel said were Aradia and then said clearly;
"Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment."
Apparently it had been a password because a hidden door next to the statue opened and showed a small dark hallway.
"Go straight forward to the common room and then the first door to the left is her bedroom."
"Okay, thanks" Draco said, remembering to ask Joel exactly how he knew where his Head Mistress bedroom lay.
He walked into the dark room and tip toed into the common room. He did not see the Head Mistress but he assumed that she was in here somewhere. When he looked around he saw that the room was cozy with a rounded ceiling and a fireplace. He saw the first door to the left, looked around properly again before quick walking to the door and peaked inside. Empty. He opened the door to her bedroom and heard the sound of the shower and guessed that that's where Mrs. Nord where. Walking fast through the room towards her chest of drawer and opened the first of four drawer only to found Mrs. Nord's collection of t-shirts. In the second drawer he found pants, in the third one he found socks and bras but no panties. "Merlin, where does she have her fucking knickers?" he thought for himself when he opened the fourth drawer only to found nightgowns.
He stepped away from the chest of drawers and looked around. That was when he heard Mrs. Nord turn of her shower.
"Fuck, he could not get caught now!" Quick, he rushed over to the bed and threw himself underneath it. Lucky for him, her covers almost touched the floor. Five seconds after he'd placed himself under the bed, Mrs. Nord came out from the bathroom with only a towel around her. For being 30-40 years old, she did definitely have good legs! Mrs. Nord walked first to the chest of drawers, picked a purple nightgown and then headed towards the beds bedside table and picked out a pair of panties.
"That's where she's hiding them!" Draco thought. Still in her towel, she walked over to her desk and started writing at a parchment. When something rubbed itself to his left arm, he had to use all of his willpower not to shout out in surprise, but couldn't help to let out a little sound. He quickly looked to his left and saw a big, fluffy cream colored cat look at him with its big blue eyes and then he looked back to Mrs. Nord who looked suspiciously around the room.
"Orion?" She asked. When Draco did nothing to the cat, it lost it interest in him and walked towards its owner when it heard her call its name. "You scared me Orion!" She said, picking up the cat.
Much to his pleasure she took her clothes from the desk, dropped Orion and walked into the bathroom and closed the door again.
Quickly, he crawled out of his hiding place, grabbed the first pair of knickers that he could find and then rushed out to the corridor where Joel where waiting for him. He showed Joel the pair of knickers and them they both walked happily back, Draco telling him about his adventure.
When he opened the door to Ellie's room he had in mind that the others would be interested in hearing why it had taken so long time. But he soon discovered that they had continued playing the game as if he hadn't left at all, and no wonder why.
Draco froze in his tracks. Right in front of him Gabryel and Granger were in full snogging mode while the rest of the crowd cheered them on.
A/N: The quote that is used as password for Mrs. Nord's quarters is from Lao Tzu.
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