Chapter 11
Okay, this was maybe a mistake. Hermione thought as the water level reached her chest. Clutching her wand in her hand, when she took her next step, she found the bottom of the lake was no longer there, dropping instantly, her head submerging.
Well fuck, Hermione waved her wand, quickly realizing she'd forgotten her bubble head. Luckily, non-verbal magic was something she excelled in and the charm cast without a hiccup. As she took in a deep breath of fresh air, coughing out the water she'd inhaled, she felt a pair of arms wrapping around her waist.
When she looked up, she saw Draco was the one holding her and Theo was floating next to her, his wand pointed at her. When he saw that she could breathe, he instantly sheathed his hornbeam back in its holster.
"What the fuck was that, Granger!? How could you forget to cast before you got in the water?" Theo asked, his chest heaving, trying to calm himself down.
When Draco began to release her, Hermione clung to him, looking down, not able to see the bottom of the lake. Just a void of darkness below her. Her confidence was sorely misplaced, heights and apparently the depths of any body of water were not her specialties. "You can't swim, can you?" Draco deadpanned as Hermione scurried to his back, wrapping her arms and legs around his torso.
"Not exactly," she confessed as she buried her face into his neck. "Just for transparency's sake, I also can't fly either."
"And why, pray tell, did you not mention this to Snape before coming out to the lake?" Theo asked, as he and Draco began to swim.
"Well, I thought I could figure out a way to not embarrass myself. I assumed he would remember, but obviously his confidence in my mother making sure I learned was misplaced. That or he's just a prick." Hermione explained, her death grip on Draco not loosening in the slightest.
"Why would Snape know you can't swim? Didn't you just meet him a month ago?" Theo asked, sounding as if he were close to her.
"No, I've known him since I was a little girl. He's best friends with my stepmother, Lily, you know, Harry's mom." Hermione said, peaking out to look at Theo. Both boys stopped moving, hovering in the water as the information hit them.
"You're Potter's sister?" Draco asked, as if trying to figure it out. "Seriously?"
"Well, yeah…I thought everyone knew that by this point. Why do you think I spend so much time with Harry?" She asked, looking between the two boys.
"I honestly thought you had a bit of a crush on him," Theo said, shrugging his shoulders. When Hermione made a disgusted face at the thought, he couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, apparently not, I just, I didn't know, alright. Anytime he showed up at your table your face would soften a bit and you wouldn't look as annoyed with him as you do everyone else."
Hermione shook her head, her long curls floating around her face. "And you?" She asked, poking Draco in his side, making the blonde squirm.
"The boy wonder thrives on attention and saving everyone. I assumed he saw you as someone who needed his help, if you had a crush on him, Pansy would have decimated you at the start of term." Draco stated, going back to swimming towards their destination. "However, going forward, jumping into the lake for detention is probably not the best idea. That, or you need to learn how to swim."
Hermione rolled her eyes, tucking herself back into Draco. Theo led the way, with the tip of his wand lit until they reached their destination. As Hermione listened to Theo speak with the farmer, who accepted the payment Theo gave him for the merkelp, she realized that the more time she spent with the two Slytherins, the more she found herself drawn towards them.
Just maybe, Hogwarts wouldn't be so horrible after all.