Today was the first day of school. Today the stress that was so dreadful, but addicting to me would start all over again. And even worse this year since it was our last one. As soon as Harry and Ron had joined us for breakfast Professor McGonnagal gave out our schedules for our seventh year in Hogwarts. This schedule would be my life for the next ten months.
"Oh man we have double Potions with the Slytherins first thing in the morning. Hex me now." Ron moaned.
"But Defense Against the Dark Arts afterward! That's good news!" Harry added. "I can live with this schedule."
Ron groaned. "I can't."
Usually this would be the time for me to scold him and say that he has to take responsibility and he has to suck it up, but I was busy trying to figure out a study plan around the new schedule.
After the two were done eating and I wasn't even halfway done with my plan we went downstairs into the dungeons. We were a little late, so when we arrived almost all of the seats were already taken. Malfoy sat next to a skank. Harry and Ron immediately claimed the table that still had two open seats, so I was by myself. And the only free seat was next to a Slytherin, right in front of Malfoy's table. Blaise Zabini. Best friend of Draco Malfoy. I sighed and sat down next to him.
"What do you think you're doing?" he snarled.
I raised my eyebrows. "Sitting down on the only seat that is still free?" I replied matter of factly.
He raised his eyebrows too. "I don't think so."
He turned around to Malfoy and said "Hey, let's switch partners!"
"No way, I already have to live with her!" he grumbled.
"But I don't want her." Blaise answered.
"Hello! She can hear you!" I murmured.
"She will get you good grades!" Blaise tried to convince Malfoy.
A smug smile appeared on Malfoy's face. "I don't need the help of a Mudblood to get good grades!"
The skank next to him laughed. Malfoy looked at her with a weird expression on his face. Then he bent forward and whispered so that she couldn't hear him.
"I just realized that if I lay that chick and we will still have to be Potions partners... God, that would suck. I like clean breaks."
I rolled my eyes.
Blaise kept a straight face. "So then don't lay her."
Malfoy thought for a second. "But she's really hot!"
I couldn't believe that I was listening to a conversation like that.
"So do you want to switch partners then?" Blaise asked happily.
Malfoy nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, I definitely never want to lay Granger."
Pain shot through my heart as if my Head Girl needle had drilled itself through my skin.
"Excuse me, but I am not a piece of meat that you can just pass around." I said indignantly.
They ignored me of course.
"Baby, could you please switch places with the Mudblood?" Malfoy asked her. I snorted a little. He called her baby. He probably didn't even know her name.
"Why?" She asked huffily.
He sighed. "Listen, I don't want this either, but I'm doing this for my friend. He has a way lower tolerance level then I do."
She made a not-so-hot face and picked up her stuff. I, figuring I should just go along with it, did the
same thing and sat down at the table behind me. Just then Snape finally arrived.
Perfect timing. I thought sourly.
With one wave of his wand instructions were written on the blackboard and he told us we should work in partners. Great.
"I'm going to get the ingredients from up front and you start to boil water, okay?" I took the initiative.
He shrugged and did as I said. Surprisingly.
We worked silently and concentrated. And to my own surprise I wasn't stuck with doing the majority of the work, we both worked equally. I never had noticed that he was so good at Potions. When we were done the potion was a bright blue, exactly what it was supposed to look like.
"That was the quickest I have ever finished a potion." I said, watching the others still fight with different ingredients and each other while the two of us were already done.
He shrugged. "What, you thought that you were the only one that could brew a potion in this class? Happens that I am a rockin' Potions master!"
I couldn't help but smile at his words. A rockin' Potions master, huh?
We remained quiet and I watched Harry and Ron fighting over whether they should stir clockwise or counterclockwise. I watched them with a feeling of frustration, but also smiling to myself. After a while Snape noticed that we were done and came over to our table.
"Nice work, Mr. Malfoy." He said approvingly after having looked in our cauldron. "Miss Granger."
I was slightly amused by the fact that Snape didn't give Slytherin any House Points for our achievement, knowing that then he would have to give Gryffindor the same amount of points as well. We heard a loud BANG coming from Seamus' and Neville's cauldron and Snape ran fumingly towards them, yelling "What did you do now, Longbottom? 10 points from Gryffindor!"
"You know, maybe you're right." Malfoy said after a while. I looked at him questioningly. "Maybe we should try to be civil. It's our last year in Hogwarts. We want the memories to be good memories, right? Not fighting all the time."
I eyed him impressed. Always a surprise in his sleeve, that Malfoy.
I nodded. "Malfoy, I don't think I was ever the one that caused the problems between us."
He bit on his lips, which looked incredibly hot. "Yeah I know..." was all he murmured. A couple of seconds passed, without us saying anything.
"You shouldn't yell at me, or call me a Mudblood, or make fun of my friends, or make fun of me for that matter..." I was going to continue, but he interrupted me.
"Hold your horses, Granger. I'm not going to just change my whole opinion of you over night. One step at a time."
"You're right. How about you just try to not call me a Mudblood anymore?"
He thought about that for a second. "Yeah I think I can manage that."
I smiled and he turned away from me. One step at a time. That sounded really good.
After Potions I went to the Great Hall to get some lunch and continue working on my time table for homework. Then we had Defense Against the Dark Arts. With the Slytherins. Again. Mondays would be all Slytherin-days. Great. As soon as I opened the door to the classroom I realized that I had no idea who the new teacher was. I hadn't even thought about it until that moment. I sat on a chair next to a Gryffindor girl, called Lissa.
Slowly more students streamed in and took their places. Then, finally, the door to the office opened up and out came the last person I ever thought would work as a teacher.
She had fire-red hair and a piggy nose, but looked beautiful as always. I heard a moan come from the left side of the class room and realized it had been Malfoy that had moaned like that. Oh yeah, he was related to her, wasn't he? What was she, his cousin?
"Morning, guys!" Tonks chirped and sat down on her desk. "What's up?"
None of the students answered, everybody just stared at her unbelievably. She grinned widely at the class and in the next moment her hair turned a deep blue color. People all over the classroom ooohd and laughed. They had probably never seen something like that before. Then her nose became big and crooked. It kind of looked like Dumbledore's nose. Again people laughed.
"We are going to learn something about Metamorphmagi and it just so happens, that I am one of them."
I didn't really know what Metamorphmagi had to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts, but I didn't complain. I was still shocked that Nymphadora Tonks was a teacher. That would be an interesting year.
"Just for your information, I am not your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Your teacher is engaged today, but will be joining you tomorrow. I am only substituting for today."
I breathed a sigh of relief. As much as I loved Tonks, I doubted that she would teach us a lot. And that was what we were here for after all.
The rest of the class we spent watching her make faces and change her looks, some people like Dean and Seamous yelling in what she should do.
After class then Harry, Ron, and me stayed behind only to see that Malfoy walked right up to Tonks and whispered furiously.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing here?" He hissed when we were within earshot.
She shrugged. "Draco, I do not know what the big deal is. I am only staying here for today, it's no biggy. You might see me in school more often now though."
"The big deal is..." Malfoy began, but Tonks shushed him.
"I am not gonna tell anyone your little secret." She said calmly. Harry flashed me a glance. A secret? In that moment Malfoy saw us and turned around. "Fuck." was all he said under his breath.
He turned to Tonks once more. "You better not." he said before he practically ran out of the class room.
Tonks saw us too and a huge grin appeared on her face. "Harry, Ron, Hermione! It's so good to see you!"
After we all had hugged her I asked her "So why exactly are you going to spend more time here in Hogwarts from now on?" I thought I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it from her.
"Remus is the new DADA teacher and I of course need to spend time with him."
Harry and Ron smiled wildly and let out a small shout of joy.
"That is great news!" Harry finally said and laughed.
"I figured you'd like that." was all Tonks said. Then a baby cried behind the office door.
"Is Teddy in the office?" I asked confused.
Tonks nodded. "Yeah I didn't know what else to do. Snape was so close to being the substitute for today, and I didn't want anyone to go through that. Teddy was taking a nap in there, but I guess now he woke up. I better take care of him. It was good to see you though!"
We said goodbye to her and she ran off to the office.
"Lupin is going to be back." Harry murmured happily as we left the classroom. As happy as I was about that, one thing stayed in the back of my head for the rest of the evening. Malfoy had a secret and Tonks new about it. And obviously he didn't want anyone else to know.
A/N: Hey guys
Another chapter's up, what do you think about it? It's way over 300 hits now, yay! And loads of people have the story saved as their favorites or alerts. People are actually reading this! That makes me so happy! And then I see that it still just has 2 reviews and I'm thinking... why? Review please! :)
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ShayleeRae