She arrived early at the office in order to gather her notes and thoughts before the meeting and was surprised to find Lucy already there; the girl was notorious for arriving the minute her working day began and leaving the second it ended.
"Lucy! What are you doing here so early?"
"I knew you would be and I wanted a chance to talk to you before your meeting," Lucy replied, an apologetic expression on her usually happy face.
"Oh, okay. What's wrong?"
"I just wanted to clear the air between us, you left in a hurry after the party and I-"
"Clear the air?" Hermione interrupted.
"Yeah, you know, after the Draco thing? I honestly didn't lead him on, him flirting came out of nowhere! And I promise I don't even like him that way, I mean-yeah he's got a nice bum and he's not bad looking but-"
"Lucy. Stop," Hermione interrupted for Lucy was now turning a little res from lack of taking a breath. "I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at him and not for flirting with you either. He can flirt with whoever he wants, why would that bother me?"
"Oh. Good," she breathed a sigh of relief. "Hang on then, why are you mad at him?"
"Because he was a drunk idiot who thought it would be perfectly acceptable to kiss me and-"
"HE KISSED YOU?" Lucy yelled. "Why didn't you say something?"
"Will you keep it down?" Hermione hissed. "I haven't spoken to you since the party to tell you! I heard him calling me a boring bookworm so decided to walk away before I hexed him. After he was done making a fool of himself with you, he followed me and grabbed me then he kissed me so I slapped him."
"Sorry. I'm still confused though, why did that make you mad? Isn't that what you wanted?"
"Absolutely not!" Hermione said, appalled.
"But, I don't understand. I thought you liked him?"
"Hardly," Hermione scoffed. "I mean, yes I consider him a friend now which is a huge step up from our time at Hogwarts but I have absolutely no romantic feelings for him. At all. Not even a little bit."
"Hermione, judging by the amount you just protested I think you might be lying," Lucy smirked.
"Come on Lucy, why on earth would I lie to you?"
"Not to me, boss. To yourself," she winked.
"Don't be ridiculous. I really don't have feelings for Draco Malfoy and I really don't have time for this," Hermione busied herself gathering parchment from her desk and headed to the door, "I'm late for my meeting."
With that Hermione left the office, ignoring Lucy's giggles, and headed down the corridor to the meeting. As she was walking past the door that led to Draco's office it swung open and he stepped out, straight into Hermione.
"Sorry, I-" he began. "Oh, it's you."
"It's me," Hermione said curtly.
They stood awkwardly for a couple of moments before Draco broke the silence.
"Well, er-shall we go to the meeting instead of standing here?"
She nodded and they continued wordlessly down the corridor.
The meeting with Duggen was extremely uncomfortable, she and Draco avoided all eye contact and both spoke to Jarvis rather than each other. Hermione was distracted; much to her own frustration, she couldn't help but think of her earlier conversation with Lucy. Had she really given the impression that she felt that way towards Draco? It certainly wasn't intentional if he had. Was that why he kissed her? She assumed he had done it just to annoy her: now she wasn't so sure.
After what felt like hours, Jarvis dismissed the pair and Hermione couldn't leave the room quick enough, she was desperate to get away from the uncomfortable tension.
"Hermione?" a barely audible voice came from behind.
Hermione turned to see Draco closing the door to Jarvis' office. She looked at him, waiting for him to speak again.
"I just wanted to apologise for what happened at the party. I was so stupid, I drank too much and behaved like an idiot. I don't want things to be awkward between us so can we just forget about it? I know I'd like to, it wasn't my finest hour."
"You were an idiot," she said simply.
"I was."
"And you insulted me."
"I did?" he asked, clearly unsure of what he had said.
"Yes. You called me boring and a bookworm," she said indignantly.
"I'm really sorry. Please forgive me?"
"Fine," she conceded after a minute of thinking. She still had to work with him every day and there was no need for it to be uncomfortable. "Consider it forgotten. I'm definitely going to have to start getting these apologies in writing though."
"Looks like they will have to wait," Draco rolled his eyes. "Seems we're going on another fun trip down memory lane. Wonder where we're off to now?"
Hermione braced herself, not phased by the bubbling in her stomach anymore, and prayed that the new memory would be a good one; lately they had been awful and caused Draco a lot of stress, creating unwanted tension between him and Hermione.
When the scene evolved, Hermione found herself standing in the potions classroom at Hogwarts. They had arrived in the middle of a lesson by the looks of things; fires underneath the cauldrons were burning and vapour was rising out of them. She looked around and saw Draco, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle as usual, but she could not see herself, an empty cauldron stood at her usual desk. A glance at the board told her they were making a Babbling Beverage and Hermione realised where she was. She had missed making this potion in second year due to being in a petrified state in the hospital wing.
"What memory is this?" she asked Draco.
"No idea," he replied. "Why aren't you here?"
"This is second year, remember? I was one of the ones who was petrified by the basilisk. I wonder if we'll get to see me, I always wondered what I looked like petrified..."
Draco rolled his eyes and laughed at her. They watched Snape walk slowly around the class, inspecting cauldrons and pulling faces that plainly expressed his dissatisfaction with the potions inside. He reached Draco's cauldron and smiled, prompting Draco to speak.
"Sir, why don't you apply for the Headmaster's job?" he said, loudly enough for the whole class to hear.
Draco cringed at his younger self. "Was I really that much of a kiss-arse?"
"Yes!" Hermione laughed, enjoying his embarrassment.
It seemed twelve year old Draco wasn't quite finished; he was now telling Snape that if needs be, he would tell his father that Snape was the best teacher at Hogwarts. Now even Hermione was cringing in between giggling at both Draco's.
"Oh dear, you really outdid yourself this time didn't you?" she teased.
"I'm not even going to disagree," Draco replied shaking his head in shame.
Hermione shushed him so she could listen to what Draco was now saying, wondering, and hoping a little, if he could possibly embarrass himself more.
"I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now. Bet you five galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger..."
A scuffle broke out at his words but Hermione paid no attention to it; she did not see her two best friends defending her; she could not see past the tears threatening to spill from her eyes. It had been a long time since someone had called her a Mudblood and it stung every bit as much as the first time. What hurt more was that Draco had actually wished her dead. She knew they had a mutual hatred for each other in school but she never would have wished that upon him.
"Oh, god, Hermione. I am so sorry. I don't even remember-" Draco began.
"You don't remember?!" Hermione said, her voice raised. "The most awful thing that anyone has ever said about me in my entire life and you don't remember? Does wishing death on people come so naturally to you that it just slips your mind when you do it?"
"No, that's not what I-" he said hurriedly but Hermione would not let him finish.
"I guess it's not surprising, coming from a Death Eater."
Draco recoiled at her words. They stung but he knew she was saying them out of anger and tried his best not to rise to it.
"That's unfair Hermione, you know that's not what I am anymore," he said calmly.
"Unfair? I'm unfair?! No, Malfoy. Unfair is wishing death on a twelve year old girl who never did anything to you before you decided to hate her just because of her parents."
They were now in the corridor outside of Duggen's office door once again. Hermione, realising they were back, immediately turned away from Draco and stormed down the hall. Draco followed, jogging a little to keep up with her furious strides.
"Hermione, wait," he begged.
"Leave me alone," she hissed
"Hermione, please-"
"No, Malfoy! Please nothing! I can't believe I actually saw a human side to you after that last memory. How could I have been so stupid to forget that is what you're really like?" she had stopped walking now and pointed back down the corridor to where they had left for the memory.
"That's not-"
"Don't you dare say that's not who you are anymore or that you've changed Malfoy. I don't believe it for a second. You say there's this big secret reason but you won't tell anyone, it's quite clear that there isn't one. Just leave me alone."
Hermione entered her office and slammed the door in Draco's face, locking it with her wand for good measure.
"Oh dear-" Lucy began in a teasing tone but was interrupt by Hermione.
"Just don't, Lucy. Don't, okay?"
"Sorry. Are you alright?"
"No."
"Want to talk about it?"
"Not really, did you send those owls for me?" Hermione asked, changing the subject.
"Yep, all done. Are you sure you don't want to-"
"No."
A/N The quotes "Sir, why don't you apply for the Headmaster's job?" and "I'm quite surprised the Mudbloods haven't all packed their bags by now. Bet you five galleons the next one dies. Pity it wasn't Granger..." belong to JKR, from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, page 267.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, it's a little shorter than the last few but that's because the memory wasn't particularly long. You might be glad to know the next chapter is a biggie, Draco's secret is about to be revealed in a big way! Please let me know your thoughts.