Hermione woke the next morning with the scars of the night before glued to her face. Using a dampened handkerchief, she rubbed away the salty trails that marked her cheeks. She felt like a mess and highly suspected that she looked like one too. Her suspicions were confirmed moments later when she looked in the mirror and nearly jumped at the face that reflected back at her.
However, a quick brush of her hair and face wash later, she was encouraged to see that her visual appeal had been boosted from troll to goblin.
You've got to appreciate the little wins in life, she thought sarcastically.
It was at that moment that she remembered. Classes were starting in only a few hours. Her mood was suddenly lifted. Nothing excited Hermione Granger more than the prospect of learning. Needless to say, it put some purpose in her step as she walked down to breakfast with Ginny.
As Hermione tucked into a soft-boiled egg, she reviewed her class schedule. Arithmancy was her first class that morning. A perfect way to start the day, she thought, grinning. Defense Against the Dark arts was second, then lunch, followed by History of Magic. Her other days' schedule included Charms, Ancient Runes, Herbology, and Transfiguration followed by a free period before Potions.
In the weeks to come she buried herself in her work. All thoughts of the head boy and the complications he provided were kept safely stowed behind lock and key. That rickety bridge would have to be crossed at a later date. Now was the time for her to focus on her schoolwork.
Though her classes were just as stimulating as she remembered them, she found them more lonely than she ever realized they could be. It was wonderful to have her attention free to listen to her professors for once without constantly having to speak with the boys, but still, she missed their companionship. Classes nowadays she spent sitting alone, paying little attention to the other students, simply listening and responding to her professor's instruction.
Academically, she was doing quite well. She was keeping herself ahead by re-reading each of her textbooks at regular intervals. At the end of the year awaited her N.E.W.T.s tests, for which she wanted to be thoroughly prepared. Hours outside of class were spent doing homework and studying in the Library, though she spent a good amount of this time in the prefects' new study room. Hermione found it just slightly quieter than the Library outside and quite a bit cozier, not to mention the fact that it was usually deserted. It gave her a more private place to pour over her books than the common spaces available in the Library.
In a charms class during her second week she succeeded in casting a complex silent attempt at both the destruction and repair charms, managing to explode and repair her glass vase before Flitwick had finished explaining the process to them. And then with McGonagall, she had successfully conjured an entire sheep on her second attempt after mistakenly conjuring only the left side of a sheep on her first try; though still succeeding long before the others of her class had managed to do so. Nearly half of the year's Arithmancy assignments had been turned in by the third week and she was continuing to put out nearly-perfect potions with each class period.
As a hobby, she was also in the process of teaching herself wandless magic when she had time to spare outside of her classes. After a particularly disastrous first attempt at one of her best charms, she had since decided to go back to the basics and was now only attempting spells that she had been taught first year. So far, she had only been able to make a feather roll over once on her desk while attempting the levitation spell. It was tough work, but she was determined to master at least a few spells. She had checked out and read through all the books about wandless magic already and was referencing them regularly for assistance.
The social sector of her life left a little more to be desired. Despite sharing the same house, she and Ginny were finding it particularly difficult to make time together, though they still sat together at lunches and kept each other updated about what was going on. The latter of the two was exceptionally busy balancing classes, quidditch, and her duties as a prefect. In their most recent conversation, Ginny had been complaining about how she had originally scheduled tryouts for Tuesday of the second week, but had unfortunately been forced to cancel them last minute due to a particularly nasty rain out and would now have to start off the season later than planned.
Between Ron and Harry's absence and Ginny's busy schedule and popularity, it was not surprising that Hermione spent most of her time alone. Crookshanks would occasionally venture up between naps at his near-permanent residence in front of the Gryffindor fireplace, but for the most part slept the day away. He was beginning to show the signs of his age. Having already gotten him at the ripe old age of somewhere around seven years old, he was now close to twelve. Unless food was involved, he much preferred to spend his time taking naps, living out his days in the comfort of a cozy warm spot.
Though Draco was in a few of her N.E.W.T.S classes, she didn't have direct contact with him again until the end of their second week back, an arrangement she had been perfectly fine with. McGonagall summoned them to her office on official head boy and girl duty. They were in charge of the arrangement of several new after-school activities groups. These included a group for flying-lovers, a class for wizards wishing to learn the art of magical food preparation, a group for students interested in taking jobs at the Ministry, a nature group that combined the interests of both plants and magical creatures, and a club for game-loving wizards. Hermione thought that they all sounded like delightful ideas.
As head boy and head girl, McGonagall was making them responsible for tracking down and speaking with the students that had already been assigned to leadership positions in some of the groups. Each of these heads would need assistance scheduling times and areas to meet in and for making communication amongst their group's attendees easier. Hermione, having had good practice with that exact issue with the D.A. in fifth year, volunteered to organize a special medium of communication for each group. The headmistress also handed them stacks of informational fliers for each of the organizations and instructed them to post them in all the dormitories and in major rooms of the school.
As they exited the headmistress' office clutching their papers, Hermione shot a glance at her fellow head boy. She had shoved all thoughts of him far back in her mind after her miserable start to the year and hadn't gone near them since. As much as she loved and respected McGonagall, she still wasn't ready to speak amicably and work with the boy beside her. But there was business to be done, so she tried her best to swallow her disdain. She would behave if he would. Godric, like that'll ever happen, she thought bitterly.
"So…" she started hesitantly. "I guess it would be beneficial to divide and conquer to get this done. Since the cooking class and the Ministry's new club are both run by adults that leaves us with three students to talk to. Do you want to talk to the heads of the flying group? I can track down the nature group and the game group's heads. We both have copies of the Hogwarts schedule of events, so we'll see any changes the other makes to it…" she trailed off.
"Sure. I'll hang posters in the Slytherin and Ravenclaw common rooms and I'll go ahead and hang them in the major areas of the school too. I can also talk to the game group's head since you'll be busy organizing communications." Hermione was looking at him out the corner of her eye. For a second there it had sounded like he was trying to be considerate. He walked looking slightly down and away from her. Both his voice and expression were nondescript. She couldn't pin down any semblance of emotion.
I'll bet he's really seething on the inside, she thought callously. What do his mummy and daddy think about him working with the likes of Hermione Granger? At least he seems to be taking it somewhat seriously. Maybe McGonagall's managed to talk a small bit of sense into that thick brain of his.
"All right. It's settled then. I think I'll call a prefects meeting for this weekend, so please make an effort to show up." Neither of them spoke again and soon they split from each other, heading their separate ways to complete their tasks.
Hermione had no trouble tracking down the nature group's head. Iris Findlay was a tall Hufflepuff fifth year with curly sandy-blonde hair and bright hazel eyes. Though she had a bubbly personality that Hermione suspected many would find difficult to stomach, Hermione found her delightful. The girl was very understanding with her and was more than happy to change the dates of her group's meeting to fit the schedule when her first choice slot coincided with another event. When they were through, the girl thanked her, gave her a hug, and excused herself to go meet with a friend in the Hufflepuff house common room. Hermione smirked uncontrollably. Iris was probably the most stereotypical Hufflepuff she'd ever met.
Over the weekend, Hermione summoned the prefects, as intended, to a meeting in their study room in the library. It was a bit of a tight squeeze but as everyone arrived they managed a tight circle around the room, conjuring chairs as necessary. Though she did most of the talking, Draco wasn't completely useless. To her surprise, he seemed fairly alert and attentive throughout the meeting and even nodded to back her up a few times.
She discussed the new changes McGonagall was in the process of enacting. It would be important during the first few weeks to have prefects on duty, at the very least, checking up on meetings where no professor or adult was present. Later, she also shared a curious bit of information she had learned from McGonagall earlier that week. She had remembered to ask the headmistress about the unusually high number of prefects. The answer had been a simple one. McGonagall had strongly suspected that more prefects would be beneficial with double amount of first year students running around the castle. Hermione agreed wholeheartedly. Even more so because, as it so happened, their first years were not only numerous, but rowdy too.
When their meeting came to a close, Draco offered to organize a schedule for the first two weeks of "guard duty" and set about recruiting available prefects to oversee the activities at the various groups' meetings. Hermione felt like someone had hit her with a confundus charm. Draco Malfoy was actually being somewhat helpful.
Maybe he'd been hit with a confundus charm.
She had definitely seen something in him since their meeting with McGonagall. She was reluctant to call that something change, since she was under the impression that those bearing the surname Malfoy were allergic to that sort of thing. But she hadn't the foggiest idea what to make of his behaviour since then when she entertained the prospect of any other option.
Ginny might know what to make of it all. Ginny always seemed to have the answers.
Hermione would have to find time to ask her later though, because her textbooks were calling her name again and she had a twelve parchment-lengths paper to prepare for Ancient runes. After that was finished, she would need to get started on a medium of communication for all after-school groups. Then finally, only when all her other duties were completed, could she try to find time to talk to her friend.
A/N: As always, thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review!