I realised a few minutes after posting the last chapter that I'm going to be on holiday next Monday. I was going to post it then, but I thought two updates in one day was a bit excessive. So, here is Chapter 3, early. Enjoy!
CHAPTER THREE
Blaise was standing by the entrance to the Room of Requirement. His pockets were full of the ingredients that he'd stolen from Slughorn's stores during his free period. He had to admit that Hermione was a good accomplice, Slughorn had walked right past the door while he was still in there, but she'd quickly got him to leave, suddenly full of questions about extra credit.
"You're late!" Blaise called as he saw her coming down the corridor, carrying the huge book in her arms.
"I'm sorry, I was helping Ron find his Charms essay. He'd somehow managed to put it at the very bottom of his trunk," she said, sounding exasperated. "Ready?"
"Yeah. I just can't believe I'm about to go into the Room of Requirement. With Hermione Granger. Alone," he snickered.
Hermione went red and punched him in the arm. "Shut up! That's disgusting."
"I meant as in, to make the potion and carry on our plan. Merlin, don't be so dirty-minded." Blaise said, grinning wickedly.
Hermione concentrated on the wall. I need a room to make a potion, she thought. The door formed on the wall, and she pushed it open. A cauldron was propped up on a table, surrounded by a variety of tools. Hermione placed the book on the table beside the cauldron, and Blaise rummaged through his pockets and unceremoniously dumped them onto the work bench. Hermione set to work immediately. Blaise helped by chopping some roots, but mostly left it to Hermione. He made an armchair appear for himself and dropped into it, propping his feet up on a footstool. Hermione worked solidly, the potion was quite simple to make, not dissimilar to the Polyjuice Potion she'd made years ago in method or objective.
"Granger?"
"Yes?" She turned around. Blaise was looking at her in a contemplating manner, having made a bowl of chocolate pudding appear.
"If the Room of Requirement can make anything appear, why did I have to rob Slughorn to get the ingredients?" He pointed the spoon questioningly at her.
Hermione cursed herself for not thinking of that. But this was a Slytherin, and she couldn't let on that her plan was anything less than perfect.
"That would make it too easy. And let's face it, you enjoyed thestealing."
"Good point, well made. Carry on," he started to eat.
Hermione carried on. She soon finished the work she could do that evening, as with Polyjuice Potion, they needed hair from the people who were going to drink the potion.
...
The next evening, they met outside the Room of Requirement again. They went inside, and Blaise produced a blond hair from a little bottle in his bag and placed it on the table.
"You have no idea how hard it was to get that."
"How hard could it be?" Hermione asked, getting the hair she had collected and also placing it on the table.
"I tried to get a hair from his brush, but not only does he hide the god-forsaken thing, he puts a protective charm on it, so no-one but him can use it!"
Hermione stifled a laugh. She'd realised that Draco loved his hair, but she didn't realise he loved it to that extent.
"So how did you get it?"
"I messed up the git's hair! Making sure I pulled out a strand, obviously. Although, if you see him coming towards me, help me run from him, he is royally pissed off."
Hermione couldn't help but laugh at that.
"All I had to do was pinch it off of Harry's robes," she giggled.
Blaise glared. "You'd better help me with Ginny, Hermione. Or so help me, I will set Draco on you by pretending you insulted his hair."
"Harry insults his hair all the time!"
"Somehow Potter gets away with it."
Hermione smiled to herself at that, and then realised something else.
"You called me Hermione!"
"Well, seeing as we'll need to work together a lot, I figured we should be on a first name basis, now," he shrugged.
"Yeah, I think we've reached that point." Hermione was touched that it had been Blaise's idea, even though she had thought of the Slytherins by their first names all the time. Except Malfoy, she never really liked him. But she was willing to try, for Harry.
Hermione took the strand of Harry's hair out from the glass phial and dropped it into the potion. It turned a vivid shade of crimson.
"Fitting for a Gryffindor," Blaise snorted.
Hermione stirred the potion until it turned colourless once again. Blaise dropped the strand of Malfoy's hair into the bubbling liquid, and it once again changed colour, this time a deep green.
"Fitting for a Slytherin," she mocked, stirring the potion again. Blaise stuck his tongue out at her.
"Same time tomorrow? The potion will be ready then," Hermione said, filled with glee.
...
The partners in crime met for the last time the next evening. Hermione was still giddy from excitement when she had poured the potion into two phials. She handed one to Blaise, who pocketed it. She slid the other into the front pocket of her bag.
"Blaise, I just want to say thank you for helping me."
"Don't get mushy. I haven't spiked Draco's drink yet, I can still change my mind."
Hermione waved a hand dismissively. "After all your efforts to get that strand of Ferret-Hair? I doubt you will."
"Whatever. I just hope this plan works. Draco could use some love in his life."
"I think the same about Harry all the time."
"I told you not to get too mushy."
"I'm not!"
"You are."
They carried on arguing until they came to the staircase that would lead them to their respective common rooms.
"Blaise?"
"Yeeees?"
"I think you and Ginny would be really great together."
Blaise grinned. "I hope we will."
...
The next morning, Hermione had the phial of the potion in her pocket as she made her way down to breakfast, with Ginny. She had to restrain herself from blurting her plans and about Blaise to her friend.
"Are you ok, Hermione?" Ginny asked, "You're looking slightly psychotic."
"Who's psychotic?" Harry asked, as the two girls sat down opposite him and Ron.
"Hermione," Ginny replied, shortly.
Harry raised his eyebrows and Hermione beamed at him.
"I'm just happy, is all."
Harry smiled in return. "I'm glad you're happy Hermione, Merlin knows everybody deserves to be now."
His tone made him sound years older than he was, but Hermione understood. They had been living in dark times. Voldemort was finally dead, and the Death Eaters had stopped their horrific rampages of terror. Harry had been at the centre of all of this, and was finally free of the shadows that had lurked in his past. The whole wizarding world now knew him as a hero.
"It's all thanks to you, Harry," she said, sensing an opportunity (and meaning it at the same time.)
Hermione leaned over the table to hug him, subtly holding the phial in her sleeve. As she pulled away, she let the potion fall into Harry's cup of pumpkin juice. Thankfully, no-one seemed to notice and the Weasleys started talking about Quidditch with Harry, making it even less likely for her to be caught. It was as if they were part of the plan, even though they knew nothing of it. Hermione's mood was lifted even higher. She could always count on her favourite gingers.
...
On the other side of the Hall, at the Slytherin table, Blaise was trying to work out when to put the potion in his friend's cup. He saw Hermione from across the Hall pour it in while distracting Potter with a hug, but he somehow doubted the same technique would work on Draco.
He took the jug of pumpkin juice and poured himself some.
"Oi, Blaise. Leave some for me," Draco said.
Blaise smirked, having been handed the perfect opportunity, as Blaise prided himself on his acting skills.
"Sorry Draco, I used up the last of it! I'll go and get you some more from another table."
He grabbed the jug, which was still full of a perfectly adequate amount of juice to fill one cup. He got up from the table and walked around, pretending to go over to the Hufflepuff table to ask to get juice, in case any of his friends were watching. He stealthily grabbed the phial and tipped the contents in, shoving the empty glass into his pocket. He made his way back to the Slytherin table, sliding the jug over to Draco, who peered into the jug, and didn't hesitate to pour the entire contents into his cup.
"Is that all you got?" Pansy asked, an eyebrow raised. "We might want some too."
"It's all they would give me. You wouldn't believe how stingy they were for Huffly-Puffly's," Blaise said, in his peripheral vision waiting for Draco to take a sip.
Pansy only raised her eyebrow higher.
Blaise held up his hands in mock-surrender. "Go and ask them yourself if you want juice that badly. Quit biting my head off."
Theodore Nott grabbed a jug from some second years and slid it down to their part of the table, which mollified Pansy. Draco only gave them an amused look over the brim of the cup as he took a sip of the juice. Blaise waited with bated breath, and could practically feel Hermione doing the same from across the Hall. Nothing strange happened. He continued to drink as if it was just juice. Blaise was suddenly even more grateful to be Potions partners with Hermione, if this was anything to go by.
...
Hermione relaxed as she watched Harry drink the potion-laced juice. He didn't react, so she'd obviously brewed it right. She'd also watched Malfoy do the same, and reminded herself to congratulate Blaise on getting him to drink the potion. Now, until the potion would kick in at midnight, all she could do was wait.
I loved your responses to why you ship Drarry, and here is mine!
I love how there's so many contrasts between them, (Gryffindor/Slytherin, Order/Death Eaters, black hair/blond hair) but if you don't think of that, they're actually very similar. Also, I love that Harry used Draco's wand to defeat Voldemort, I think that would create a bond between them and I will definitely be using that in this story! I just love these two together! Agh!
The question for this chapter is:
What songs remind you of Drarry? (and why?)
I hope you liked this chapter! Please review as I love to hear feedback! I even updated early...pretty please, review? Now, I'm off to watch Deathly Hallows Part 2 and cry my eyes out.