Chapter 12-Maturity

Hermione's POV:

I had decided something: I hated the wind. Hated it; end of discussion. It constantly got in the way of my everyday life. It made me cold. It sometimes made my eyes sting. It was even able to push me over on occasion. It blew my clothes about my body as if they were leaves in the wind; another of nature's belongings that it got to do as it liked with. And that was just rude. Not to mention that it didn't exactly help my already uncontrollable hair situation. I just hated it.

And right now, I wanted to curse the wind into oblivion as I trudged down the muddy path towards the edge of the black lake, clutching my cloak tight around my torso to shield myself as best as I could from my most hated enemy.

My stress levels were through the roof at the minute after another session with the DA. Today, Harry had insisted that he teach us the Confundus charm-a charm used to confuse your opponent in a duel. I had been a little wary-thinking that perhaps we weren't ready-and had made it known to Harry. But he had clearly been feeling overconfident at the time; his green eyes had sparkled and an eager grin had lit up his face when he heard that everyone else was up for learning it-naturally, I was ignored. So I had watched cautiously from the side of the room, listening to his instructions but also keeping a sharp eye on everyone. I knew all too well about Harry's tendency to get lost in the moment and focus on himself. He wouldn't have noticed if anything were about to go wrong. It irritated me sometimes. Harry was supposed to be the teacher; looking out for everyone and correcting his students. So how had it fallen to me to watch over them and make sure they weren't blasting each other to smithereens? But what had made things worse was that Harry had split everyone off into separate groups this time. Those who weren't so confident had been told to practise the spell on puppets until they could cast it, and those who felt more at ease with it had been put straight into a pair-aiming at their partner and instantly making the object of the exercise about speed instead of actually casting the spell correctly. This had caused a problem. No one had even attempted the charm before today-so those that had felt 'confident' were really just being ignorant to the level of skill that was required to cast it. And I was split into two; watching both groups do two different things.

In the end, Neville-instead of hitting the puppet that he had been aiming for-managed to cast the charm on himself. On the brighter side, he had done it successfully-he was completely confused when the spell hit him. On the not-so-bright but highly-stressful side, in his muddled state he had wandered in between two other 'confident' DA members that were in the middle of casting the spell at each other. And seeing the two jets of light heading straight for him, he had cast Confringo rather poorly to defend himself. The two girls had jumped out of the way so the spell hit a section of the floor near me and flames exploded upon it; leaping up into the air and clawing for oxygen to keep it sustained. It had been solved quite quickly with a flick of a wand from Ginny but a hot spark had still managed to leap free and singe the bottom of my skirt. It was a nightmare.

I had then been asked to stay behind with Neville in the room of requirements until he regained his ability to process his surroundings. Which wasn't as peaceful as I had thought it would be. He had just babbled on to me about literally nothing for fifteen minutes.

I sighed and shook my head, hoping to rid my mind of the memories. Because now I was heading down to the black lake for some girl time with Ginny.

In between organising meetings for the DA, lessons, homework and just readjusting to life in general I had found myself spending the majority of my leisure time alone in the library. It wasn't anything new; I had been doing it for my entire life. But I had never spent quite this much time doing it. As a result I had been neglecting my friends-Ginny in particular. And I'd be lying to myself if I said there wasn't a reason. I adored Ginny but she was always so…Giddy. And not in the good way. Perhaps she was just trying to make me feel more relaxed and keep my mind away from my family problems but she was being too happy-which is great; but sometimes people need to just be left alone to be sad.

And just from taking a glance at her as I approached the lake, I could already tell that she'd be no different today.

Ginny leapt up from her seated position by the lake edge as she saw me coming, hopping into the air and waving her arms about with a ridiculous grin; her bright fiery hair swished vigorously around her shoulders as if it was also greeting me. I smiled in return but I felt almost hollow inside. And that made me feel worse-guilty. I shouldn't react to my friend this way.

"Her-mi-o-neee!" She sang as I came to a stop in front of her and lifted a hand to wave.

"I hate the wind." I said in answer.

"Oh my dearie." Ginny cooed, raising a hand to paw at my hair in an attempt to smooth down my mass of windswept curls. "You're not having a good day are you?"

I gave no verbal response; simply shook my head. Ginny had been present for all of my unfortunate moments today-she needed no explanation.

"Well come sit down."

I allowed her to loop her arm through mine and lead me towards her former seat-a patch of dry grass at the foot of the tree that didn't look at all comfortable to sit on. And now that I thought about it, the tree itself didn't look comfortable either. Its roots were rising out of the ground in areas to twist through the air before burrowing back underneath the earth. And the whole structure seemed unsteady; the trunk had begun to arch over about halfway up so that it was almost horizontal, pressed down with the weight of the thick wood. Because of this, the branches and leaves of the tree hung downward like suspended green rain in a shroud around our area. It was pretty to view but I imagine it was torture for the tree to hold all of that weight up; it must be a lot of pressure.

I could sympathise.

When we were both perched on the floor-Ginny leaning back onto her extended arms and me pulling my knees in to rest my head on top of-she sighed.

"We were supposed to have Quidditch practise today but apparently it's 'too windy'. Dragon's droppings." She mumbled.

"That makes no sense. You have to practise no matter what the weather is so that the teams are ready for anything-that's what makes the sport so interesting. Or at least that's the only thing I find interesting about it." My eyebrows lowered in confusion. Surely the teachers wouldn't have given an excuse so idiotic. But I also was baffled by Ginny's disappointment of not being able to practise. I know she loves it but I just can't understand it. The only concern I give to Quidditch is when Harry or Ron want me to support them. Otherwise the sport is just absurd to me-but maybe that's only because I don't like flying.

"That's what I said!" Ginny jerked forward, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "But I suppose we can't have expected anything better than that kind of pathetic excuse from Snape."

"Oh Snape said it. Well that makes sense-what was he after now?"

"He probably just wanted to kick Gryffindor off the pitch so that he could get Slytherin some practise time instead."

I nodded in agreement as I turned my head to look out across the lake; its water rippling delicately in tiny rings where air brushed too harshly against its surface. Snape had been known to say stupid things to give his house an advantage.

But my thoughts were stopped in their tracks as I heard footsteps behind us; a sound that was misplaced in our peaceful spot of nature. Turning to check who had stumbled into our little area, I saw Blaise Zabini and Theodore Knott. They were strolling past us, side by side in their green Slytherin uniforms, and part of me expected them to say something cruel in passing to us. I had to stop and remind myself that they weren't Malfoy. And I then had to stop again to remind myself that Malfoy hadn't actually delivered a horrid comment for quite some time now. A strange, unfamiliar wave of something washed over me. Something that felt almost like relief but totally different at the same time. Maybe it was shock-or surprise most likely. But it felt odd and different.

Casting my gaze away from the two Slytherin boys, I turned back to Ginny.

"No Slytherin can't be practising-Blaise would be there otherwise." I mumbled, flitting my brown eyes upwards to ensure that he hadn't heard me. Neither of the boys gave the impression of having heard so I looked away again. Ginny on the other hand, twirled around in her spot to watch them. She even didn't flinch when Blaise glanced over and caught her eye accidentally.

Noticing this, I tugged harshly on the sleeve of her robes. So she let them escape from her stares.

"I haven't seen Draco with any of his friends recently." She muttered, examining her nails half-heartedly. "I mean, I know that he's been slowly drifting away from Crabbe and Goyle-who can blame him-but I thought that he and Blaise were good friends. And they haven't been around each other much in the past few weeks."

My eyes popped wide when I heard her mention Draco-and by his first name. Why had she slipped him into our conversation?

Tensing my jaw, I shrugged.

"I don't know. Maybe he's figuring some stuff out." I suggested, not meeting her gaze. I really didn't want to talk about the blond Slytherin boy with Ginny-or anyone really. But definitely not Ginny as the last time that we had she had mentioned that she found him nice to look at. That had been rather awkward and simply wrong. He was Draco Malfoy. He could have a body made out of solid gold but we couldn't think of him as attractive. That just wasn't the way it was. At all. No.

"Malfoy. Figuring stuff out." She scoffed. "What kind of problems could that spoiled little rich boy have that he needs to isolate himself for? And to be honest I don't think he's ever been to type to actually try to solve a problem. He probably just throws money at it and hope it goes away." She was grinning now, quite pleased with herself.

"I don't know. I think he's matured quite a bit over the last year." As soon as the words were out I regretted them. I hadn't expected them to have any drastic effect-but seemingly they did.

Ginny's head swung slowly round to face me, her eyes bulging and her jaw dropping comically. A soft red curtain of her hair fell forward in the movement.

"What? Have I actually heard you correctly? You-Hermione Granger-think that Draco Malfoy has matured. How do you even know how he's been acting? You don't talk to him…Do you? Explain. Now."

Panicked, I tucked my chin behind my knees, trying to hide, and shook my head.

"Whoa no. You have to explain now. You can't just leave something like that and run." Ginny gushed-seeming excited for some unknown reason-and shuffled closer towards me; her eyes practically gleaming.

"Well…he hasn't really said anything hurtful or idiotic to me in a long while. And like you said he's ditched Crabbe and Goyle-his worst friends that are more prone to bullying. And well…we've met in the library a few times-we spoke a little." I mumbled hesitantly, my friend's eager gaze making me slightly uncomfortable.

"Wait you did speak to him?"

"Yeah. I mean it wasn't like normal conversations that you'd have with normal people. He was still an arrogant prat and such. But he wasn't cruel. It was…civilised I suppose. I don't know." I finished with a slight lifting of my shoulders-a small shrug.

"Weird. Like seriously that is the weirdest thing I've ever heard. So you're not like mortal enemies anymore?"

"Well we're not best friends Ginny. But we're also not trying to tear each other's throats out. So yes it's weird. But it was probably just one-time things."

"Hermione, you can't have more than one 'one time thing'." She rolled her eyes and watched me sceptically.