Hermione was late to potions class, she had overslept and no one had woken her; as Hermione walked gingerly into the classroom almost every pupil eyeballed her as she walked to take the only spare seat in the room...next to Malfoy "great" she muttered to herself; With Ron now in Romania, Lavender Brown was taking every opportunity possible to be close to Harry. It had been nearly a week since Hermione's last meeting with Draco in the astronomy tower, where she heard her name float effortlessly off his lips. She shook her head before taking her seat next to Malfoy; she shouldn't be having these thoughts about someone as vile as Malfoy.
The lesson continued...
"And with the person sitting next to you, you're to follow the instructions exactly as written to create and test your own love potions; if done correctly, the potion will only last for a few minutes, however, if the instructions aren't followed exactly as written" Professor Slughorne paused before continuing "the effects will last substantially longer or they could have the reverse effect and cause severe hatred" the professor chuckled to himself while looking toward Neville; he as well as the rest of the class knew that it was more than likely that Neville was going to muck this one up.
"Well Granger, at least if you muck up we know which effect it'll have on us, and to be clear, it'll be the severe hatred" he snickered
"Huh, would you look at that, beyond Draco Malfoy's hatred, lies even more hatred and no heart. Who would have guessed?" Hermione chuckled, bemused by her own comment.
Draco just glared at her but she paid him no attention
Hermione was down to the last ingredient needed for the potion. She was trying to concentrate however that was virtually impossible with Seamus blowing his potion up every 10 minutes, Harry and Lavender constantly asking for help and Draco humming rather loudly and obnoxiously in her ear "Maybe if you stopped humming and gave me a hand we could get this done quicker" Hermione snapped at Malfoy "Great, now you've made me lose count you halfwit!"
Draco chuckled "you were on 3 or maybe 4, what does it matter anyway? Did you know that you count out loud and your voice is truly annoying? Are all mudblood's this annoying or is it just you Granger?"
Hermione disregarded his insult "It matters Draco because if you put one too many rose thorns into the potion or not enough, one of the two side effects will occur" she mumbled in annoyance
"Well you better get this right Granger" Draco spat
"Or what? You'll hex me?" Hermione retorted
"Watch it Granger, you and I both know what I'm capable of" Draco warned as he leaned forward on his chair and simultaneously looked at her still healing wrist and rounded his pale hand around his wand. Hermione sat in silence as she added 2 more rose thorns, hoping that Draco was right and that she had only added 3 to the potion.
"Right everyone" the professor piped up "it's time to test your potions; now, depending on how strong or weak they are and whether you followed the instructions exactly as written, some of you may feel the effects straight away others will take some time. Now with that said; drink up!"
Hermione handed Draco the potion and without a word spoken between the two, they both watched each other as they downed their potion, they waited and when nothing happened Draco rolled his eyes "Great witch? You can't even create a simple love potion. You're pathetic Granger!"
With that statement Hermione grabbed her book bag from besides her and fled from class before anyone could see her cry. Hermione ran straight to her dormitory and cried herself to sleep missing the rest of her lessons that day. Very un-Hermione like.
3 days after Draco's insults, they had potions class again. Hermione didn't feel too well, she had thought about seeing the medi-witch but didn't want to waste her time, she had probably just caught a cold when she had walked in the rain last week, that coupled with virtually no sleep was probably the reason she felt so ill.
Hermione Joined Ginny, Harry and the twins for breakfast in the hall, before reaching the table she spared a glance at the Slytherin table catching Draco's eye. An indescribable feeling stirred inside her when she caught his cold grey eyes looking back at her; she turned away and took her seat, and hoped on Merlin's beard that this wasn't the potion at work.
"Are you alright Hermione?" George pitched up as she took her seat
"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" Hermione asked
"You just look a little off; maybe you should see the medi-witch? Harry and I will take you, won't we Harry" Fred said
"Uh, yeah. We'll take you" Harry offered
Hermione chuckled, before coughing "I'm fine, honestly. No point wasting with medi-witches time; it's nothing more than a cold" Hermione offered a small smile to reassure them that she was fine, but the truth was she felt dreadful.
"I've got a free period first, what about you?" she directed the question towards Ginny, however the twins and Harry answered instead; "Well, we've got a free period but we're going to practice for the quidditch match next week, you're more than welcome to watch us practice"
Ginny giggled "Well, I'll come and watch you practice" Ginny replied. "Why would we want our sister watching us practice?" the twins scoffed in unison. "Who said I was going to watch you" Ginny retorted with a wide grin on her face; with that she left the table and made her way out of the hall.
"Great" Fred mumbled. "She has a thing for someone on the team, who do you think it is Harry?" they both looked at him in curiosity.
Harry gulped "Don't know boys, could be anyone really" Harry turned to Hermione, changing the subject as quickly as possible. Fred and George had no idea what was going on between Harry and their little sister, however, Hermione just caught on. "So are you coming to watch our practice?" Harry asked.
"Uh, no. I still have that essay to finish for history of magic, so I'll be in the library" Hermione replied with a small sniffle.
"Okay, we'll see you in potions class then" Harry stood to leave "Are you sure you're alright? You've not touched breakfast and you never ate yesterday" Harry asked. "I'm fine Harry. Now go, or you'll be late for practice" Harry frowned at Hermione before joining the others and leaving the hall. Hermione sat on her own for a few moments before following her friend's actions and leaving the hall.
Draco had heard their conversation, and for reasons unbeknownst to him, he was worried about Granger; he left right after Hermione and noticed that she wasn't heading for the library like she had told Potter. She was heading up with staircase to the owlery. Draco paused before following her; when he reached the top of the staircase he noticed her book bag leaned up against the wall. He walked in and found Granger sitting against the wall with her head arched up looking at the ceiling, she looked like she was ready to pass out; but why did he care?
"Anything interesting up there Granger?" Draco asked
Hermione was startled by his presence; she hadn't heard him walk in. Her head snapped in his direction "what do you want Malfoy" she sighed, she was too tired to argue with him right now
Hermione just wanted to be alone. When Draco didn't answer her she got up a little bit too quick and became extremely light headed.
Draco had noticed her momentary pause before her leg buckled, with one quick stride he slipped his arm around her waist to prevent her from falling. She didn't push him away and he didn't let her go, instead they stayed there; he was still holding her up as he looked down at her, their bodies brushed against one another with their lips only inches apart, the air between them palpable. Draco reached up with his free hand and pushed away a few stands of stray hair that had fallen over her face when he had caught her. This action caused Hermione to come to her senses; she placed a gentle hand on Draco's chest and pushed herself out of his grasp. "Thanks" she breathed out, before walking around him to grab her book bag.
"You should go see the Medi-witch, you're not well" Draco stated staring down the staircase
"I'm fine" she replied to his statement
"You can barely hold yourself up. Even potter is worried" Draco sneered.
"I just got up too quickly, I'm fine and what do you think you're doing eavesdropping on other people's conversations? Didn't your parents ever teach you that it was rude to do that?" Hermione snapped back.
"Who are you trying to convince? Yourself or me? You've said that you're fine twice in the space of mere minutes." Draco said in annoyance "And my parents taught me many things, doesn't mean I listened or learned".
"well if people stopped asking me if I was okay then maybe I wouldn't have to say 'I'm fine' all the time" Hermione shouted in frustration; she instantly regretted shouting as her hand flew to her temple as a shooting pain bounced through her head.
Before Draco could say anything more, Hermione took off down the staircase leaving Draco in the owlery. Hermione found herself back at the tree that she had sat under in the rain; she only had 15 minutes left until potions class started, so she sat under the tree and watched people walk by. Hermione started to get cold so she wrapped her robes around her and hugged them tightly, her eyelids became heavy and she welcomed the darkness that followed.