As the students reached the castle from the Hogsmeade Train station, they were encouraged to leave their belongings in the main corridor and proceed directly into the Great Hall. Hermione was shuffled along with the rest of the student body as she left her things in a neat stack, and led into the Great Hall. She had a sense of what this was going to be about.
Headmaster Dumbledore stood at the other end of the hall, behind his podium. Hermione sat down in her usual seat at Gryffindor table. The other students all clamored around her as they also reached their seats. Headmaster Dumbledore waiting until everyone was in a spot and the doors were closed.
"I have grave news to greet you with. As many of your parents work in the Ministry, I am sure you are already aware of a fraction of the situation, the same goes for those that subscribe to the Daily Prophet. What I am going to tell you is not pleasant, and for many it will be hard to accept. Yet, students, the truth is still the truth, no matter how hard it is to hear it. The Minister himself is blinded by the difficult and seemingly impossible nature of the situation we now find ourselves in." He paused and ran his hand down his beard, causing the little bells to sing out. "Lord Voldemort was returned to his body the night of Christmas Eve. A man by the name of Barty Crouch Jr. assisted him. Professor Lockhart was held prisoner by Crouch Jr. who used his hair for a Polyjuice Potion. We have yet to discover when it was that Crouch switched with the real Lockhart. Professor Snape will teach Defense Against the Dark Arts for the rest of they year, and a man by the name of Horace Slughorn will continue on as Potions Master." Professor Dumbledore didn't seem to pull any punches as he told the students and ripples of shocked and scared conversation began to pick up.
Dumbledore let this proceed for a moment before he raised his hands, "In times such as these, we must remember what is important. Love your friends and family. Do what it is you do to enjoy yourself. Make no mistake that things will certainly be different, but if we turn our backs on what makes us happy...it would be a terrible shame." Dumbledore walked around from behind his podium, "I feel very sorry for those who cannot except the severity of the situation we find ourselves in, but know that Lord Voldemort was stopped once, and will be again. That is my promise you to. You may return to your dormitories now." Dumbledore dismissed them with a twinkle in his eye. Hermione pulled herself to her feet with a slow motion. She knew everything that he had said, by the letters she received from Draco, yet hearing him admit to it made it all the more real.
Hermione was making her way up to the Gryffindor Tower when she spotted her favorite blond head waiting in the archway of the fourth floor. She nudged herself between a few younger Hufflepuffs and ran to hug him. He caught her in his arms and spun her once, laughing faintly. "I've missed you so much, Granger!" He said in her ear. A few Ravenclaws hooted at the two of them as they passed them in the archway and he made a rude gesture back at them.
Hermione saw the gesture and scoffed at him, but kissed him sweetly on the lips. "I missed you too. I am so glad everyone is safe." A silent for now hung between them for a moment before Draco hugged her tightly again.
"I refuse to let anything bad happen to you," he whispered. "Do you mind coming with me for a minute before you go up to bed? I've something to show you." He seemed embarrassed so she nodded and allowed him to take her hand and lead her down the hallway. He gestured for her to enter an empty class room and when she walked in, she saw a blanket thrown out on the floor with a few candles lit around it, with a basket of what looked like chocolates. Hermione couldn't help the grin that broke onto her face. She looked at Draco, to see him gauging her reaction. He seemed relieved, but she still sensed his embarrassment. She took his hand again.
"This is so adorable." She told him, causing him to blush. "Well I missed you, and thought this would be okay, because we hadn't done something like this before, and we can just be with each other for a minute." He looked at his shoes when he spoke and she nearly giggled. She tugged him towards the blanket and they both made themselves comfortable.
"I don't think I've ever been inside this classroom before," Hermione said quietly as she looked around. The blackboard had been wiped clean of text so she had no guess as to what it was.
"Muggle studies I believe," Draco said around a bite of a pumpkin pasty. Hermione grinned and got one of her own.
"So besides the uh...well how was the rest of your Christmas?" Hermione asked, skirting around the Dark Lord returning to power. Draco gave a small shrug.
"Hung out with Harry quite a bit, actually. Besides keeping the rest of the guys entertained." Draco and Harry were friends but they always seemed to be competing against each other, they managed to work well over the break because they were working together to solve the Map dilemma, and after Neville was nearly killed they kept him distracted with Quidditch as much as they could. Lily had sent Rose and Harry several pictures of their new baby brother and Draco had congratulated Harry about the new addition to his family. Harry almost had Draco tear up because he replied, 'James Jr. is basically your cousin. You are family too.' Harry hadn't meant for the comment to effect Draco so much, but the fact remained.
Draco had a family, and it was moments like that when he truly believed it. Sybil and Sirius were his guardians and Cissa was his baby sister. Harry and Neville were his cousins, and Rose and James' Jr. were too. Of course, Rose would hate that dynamic but there was no way Draco could reciprocate her feelings.
"Well I'm glad the two of you were getting along." Hermione replied lightly, sensing a deeper play of emotions from him, yet she did not press it. She nibbled on her treat and they lapsed into a nice silence for a moment.
"So how was your Christmas?" Draco asked her, his head swiveled around to look at her. Hermione smiled for a moment and then launched into the story of her Christmas. She first noted how much tension there had been when she had first arrived, because her parents were still ticked off because of her detention and injury. Hermione explained as nicely as she could about how it was all timed badly, and eventually her parents came around. She skipped over the self-defense training. She just wasn't ready to tell him (or the others) about it yet, lest they tease the hell out of her for it.
"My parents got me a lovely new stationary set and a few books from Flourish and Blotts. It seems my parents have become quite used to traversing Diagon Alley, even by themselves." Hermione grinned faintly at the image of them standing in line buying books surrounded by witches and wizards in their extravagant robes, while the two of them were in their work scrubs.
"A sight to see, I'm sure." Draco couldn't hardly picture them amid the wizarding culture. "And thank you for the tie pins, they were very fetching." He smiled at her and she shrugged.
"You're a hard person to get presents for," she admitted. The tie pins she had gotten as a last ditch effort. They came in a set of five, that she had picked out individually from a catalog from Madame Malkins. Some were Quidditch Themed, others Ravenclawesque. He smiled and shrugged.
"You don't have to get me anything, you know. How about this?" He asked leaning towards her with an arch of his eyebrow, "you can just kiss me instead of buying me presents. It's much more precious that way, and comes from the heart." He lifted his eyebrows encouragingly, causing her to laugh.
"You just don't like me spending money on you. And you get kisses all the time, so it isn't like they hold a certain type of significance," she waved her hand at the matter but he caught her hand and held a serious expression.
"Your kisses are definitely significant, Hermione." He vowed, "because you aren't a super affectionate person so when you do something like that, I know there is a lot of meaning behind it. Besides, how many people that you are related to that you have kissed?" He asked with a satisfactory smirk. Hermione blushed at his observation about her affections and looked at her lap, it was so true it was painful.
"Fine." She responded quietly. "But I'm still going to be getting you presents, maybe if you weren't so stoic I could pick something out better."
"Me? Stoic?" Draco schooled his features into a blank slate, "why, Hermione it's like you don't know me at all." Hermione gave his shoulder a little push and rolled her eyes.
"Of course, that was the wrong word. I have never met anyone so dramatic before in my life." Draco gave a little gasp and put his hand over his heart.
"Why, Hermione Granger, that is just uncalled for." His flamboyant display caused the two of them to delve into laughter. It brought life into their cheeks and after exchanging a heated look the two kissed passionately.
Hermione pulled away first, her chest heaving from the emotions and the fact that it's hard to breath while snogging.
"Let me escort you back to Gryffindor Tower?" He asked, so he could have that much more time in her company before they had to call it a night. She glanced at the watch on her wrist and nodded faintly. She helped him extinguish the candles (they made a race out of it with Draco winning with a lead of two candles), and folded up the blanket. He had a shoulder bag that he stored the items in (after the melted wax solidified) and after he linked her arm with his, he literally escorted her up to Gryffindor Tower.
After a promise of meeting for breakfast the two exchanged a hug and a chaste kiss and then parted for the night.
Inside the Gryffindor common room, Hermione found Harry and Neville in a game of Exploding Snap. She watched from the doorway for a moment, her heart welling at the sight of Neville. She rushed over to him and hugged him tightly.
He was alarmed at first because he hadn't expected it, but when he realized who it was, he hugged her back. "Hey Hermione," he said around her hair. "Nice to see you." He laughed faintly. She squeezed him tighter.
"I'm so glad your safe!" She said after she pulled back, "and you're okay?" She asked looking him over again. Harry put down his hand of cards as he realized their game was most likely over for the time being. Hermione turned and smiled at Harry, acknowledging him before she looked back at Neville.
"Oh yes, I'm fine. Never setting foot inside the forest again, mind you, but fine." He lifted his arms into strong pose for emphasis. Hermione nodded knowingly with his comment, as she also had no intention of ever going back inside.
"Good." She replied with a sigh as she sat down. Harry tapped his fingers on his pants for a second. "I'm fine too," he answered the question she didn't ask. "Excited about my little brother, but you know I won't be able to see him until Easter holiday." Harry linked his fingers behind his head and Hermione turned to give him a little glare.
"I didn't realize everything was about you," Her reply was harsh but the grin she wore revealed that she was kidding. Harry started to reply but she pushed his shoulder and hugged him, one-armed. "Yes, how are you, Harry? I am so interested." She stared intently upon him. He rolled his eyes.
"Draco's rubbing off on you, Hermione," he said dryly, "you already know how I am, how was your Christmas? How was the muggle world?"
"Splendid, after my parents stopped yelling at me, of course." Hermione smiled impishly for a moment. She looked down at her hands and the calluses that had formed on her knuckles, and then she folded them and placed them in her lap, "I spent a lot of time with them, really. I also read ahead in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy." Harry rolled his eyes at than but didn't say anything. He hadn't noticed her look at her knuckles, apparently.
"Something called the Internet has become very popular, my mother has told me." Hermoine shrugged as she hadn't had much experience with it herself. Harry and Neville exchanged a glance and shrugged. There was a lot of things they didn't understand about the muggle world, and the internet would just be another one of those things.
"Well it's no surprise that you have worked ahead." Neville spoke up as he ruffled his hair. Hermione stifled a yawn as she shrugged.
"Yes well, I can only watch so much TV before I lose my mind. I am going up to bed. I'll see you both in the morning." She waved at them and then trotted up the stairs.
"Has Dumbledore spent too many years inside Hogwarts? What? Are they mad?" Hermione glanced over at the paper Draco was reading, she rolled her eyes.
"Rita Skeeter is a horrid person. Her articles are vapid and lack any real information." Hermione buttered her toast while she spoke, "she wrote all sorts of rubbish over the holiday about..." she trailed off as her eyes flicked to Neville, "and none of it was true. She writes nothing but lies."
"Yes but people somehow believe it. That's the problem." Draco thumped the picture of Dumbledore on the cover of the Daily Prophet. He was behind his desk but glaring at the camera. The article was about how senile he had become and how he actually believed a man that has been dead for ten years has come back to life. Hermione glared at the article as she read over Draco's shoulder and she shook her head.
"No one could possibly believe that rubbish," she reasoned as she started looking around. She could easily see those that were reading the Prophet, and could also see their skeptic expressions. Dumbledore had his own copy of the newspaper at his place in the back of the room but Hermione couldn't quite see his face.
"I wonder what he will do about it," Harry mumbled, his eyes on the man also, "I mean he can't just let this woman ruin his name with lies, right? Everyone knows he is right." Harry looked between his friends who also looked up at him. Ron was the first to reply.
"She's got a following similar to You Know Who. They drink up her words like religion." Ron seemed oddly nice, "It doesn't matter what she says, even if it is absolute lies, the people who like her believe it." He had a scowl about his face.
"What makes you say that?" Hermione asked him. He glanced her way, his face barely twitched into a scowl.
"Mum. She reads all she can from Rita Skeeter. About anything and everything. When I was six Skeeter published an article that Quidditch was actually too dangerous to play and should be discontinued and my mum tried to get Bill and Charlie to quit the team that year." Ron was looking off into the distance as he thought about it. Hermione had never met Bill or Charlie, but she had heard them mentioned before by him, Fred, or George at one point or another.
"And that wasn't well received?" Hermione pressed, and Ron only nodded.
"I don't know how she does it, but once Skeeter says something, people start believing it. Headmaster Dumbledore will have a lot of people starting to question his position as headmaster now that she has said something."
"Which is no doubt coming directly from Cornelius Fudge," Harry spoke up, his eyes landed briefly upon Ron, who was being oddly social, and then glancing back towards Headmaster Dumbledore.
"Yeah." Ron replied, he glanced at Hermione and then back at his plate of food. Hermione nodded as she mulled all this over.
Breakfast had been pleasant up until the post arrived and Draco looked over his copy of the Daily Prophet-it was what spawned the entire conversation. Hermione was trying to think of something to change the subject, and her eyes flicked to Ronald's, who was looking between the five of them around him.
"How was your Christmas? You went to Romania, right?" Hermione asked Ron. He looked surprised and then nodded.
"Y-yeah. We visited my brother Charlie. He works with dragons."
"Isn't that dangerous?" Hermione asked, genuinely interested. She had come across a book a year or two ago about dragons and their dangerous natures (one of the most dangerous creatures in the world currently).
"Yeah. He helps capture and relocate dragons that migrate too close to cities and also helps try to train them. That doesn't really work though. There has been this rumor that soon they will-"
"Hermione, you said something about the Internet earlier? What is that?" Draco interrupted Ron with a smile at Hermione. Hermione glanced between the red and blond headed boys. Ron glared at Draco and then focused on his breakfast, so Hermione slowly replied to her boyfriend.
"Yeah. It is...well it is a difficult thing to explain. It is a electronic device that allows people from all across the world communicate, like-gosh this is so hard to explain." Hermione lapsed into silence as she tried to word it, "well think of the owl mailing system, okay? Muggles have a way of communicating instantly with email, via the internet. It is an electronic place that can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection." The boys looked -no gaped- at her description.
"I'd have to show you," she finally responded with a wave of her hand. She was about to ask Ron what he had been saying before, but he dismissed himself from the table and stormed off. She glanced at Draco and told him with her expression that what he did was rude, but he played it off like he didn't understand what she was saying.
Harry and Neville dismissed themselves eventually, as they wanted to get to Potions early to get a good seat.
Naturally when it was announced that there would be a new Potions master, the Slytherin's were upset and all of the rest of the school was glad that there wouldn't be anymore biased grading-yet Hermione had never really experienced that before. Professor Snape always seemed fair.
Professor Slughorn, however, was an unknown variable. Hermione checked her watch for the time and realized she needed to go as well. She kissed Draco chastely on the cheek. "Time for Potions," she said, to which he nodded.
"Fun. I have Herbology with the Hufflepuffs." He seemed super pleased. Hermione ruffled his hair at his sarcastic expression and then made her way down into the dungeon.
She was equal parts curious and excited about this new potions professor.