Chapter Thirty Eight
Harry thoroughly enjoyed the lesson. It was easily the best Care of Magical Creatures lesson he'd ever had, despite his bad mood. He had great fun cheering on his Niffler as it dove into the ground.
They moved through the ground as though it was water and they were just going swimming. Harry was very happy to have a large pile of gold resting at his feet as his Niffler once again ran to the pile of mud.
"These things are great!" Ron beamed, "I could do with one everyday!"
Harry was too annoyed at Ron for mocking Hermione for being hurt to agree with him, "Yeah, well your family really could do with one." he spat.
Draco sniggered, "Not sure even the best of Nifflers could help that lot."
"Shut up Malfoy." Ron shouted, causing several students to turn and look at them.
"You're right, even Nifflers can't find good manners or common sense." Harry grinned, Ron getting more and more annoyed.
Hermione arrived just before the end of the class. She walked over to where Harry and Draco where waiting for their Nifflers to return again and gave them a wave. Her hands were heavily bandaged and she looked like she was still in pain.
"Hermione!" Harry said, "How are you?" he asked.
"Righ' I think you got all of 'em now. Count 'em up. 'Nd there's no point tryin' tae take any, Goyle, it's only Leprechaun gold, it'll disappear in an hour or two." Hagrid told them.
Hermione sat on the ground with Harry and Draco to count their coins.
"I'll all right." Hermione shrugged, "Neville was right, it was Bubotuber pus. Madam Pomfrey needs me to go back everyday to have my hands re-bandaged. It did a lot of damaged but nothing that should have a lasting effect."
Draco smiled, "I'm very glad."
"You lot look like you've had a good lesson." Hermione said, as a Niffler climbed onto her lap.
"Yeah it was great fun." Draco smiled.
Hermione smiled and stood up to go and get the lesson notes from Hagrid.
"Fifty nine." Harry mumbled, his pile was a fair bit smaller than some of the other students. From the look of things Ron was going to win.
"Seventy three." Draco smiled, "Here give me some of yours."
"Why?" Harry asked.
"So we can win. Split the chocolate between the three of us?" Draco said.
Harry nodded, "Yeah, I think Hermione could do with a treat."
"And we don't want Weasley to win." Draco smirked.
Harry could definitely get on board with not letting Ron win and happily handed over all but a couple of his coins while no one was looking.
" 'Ow many yeh got?" Hagrid asked.
"Three." Harry smiled, "Kept cuddling it rather than letting it go find the coins. They're just too cute!"
"One hundred and twenty nine." Draco said, smiling pleasantly.
Hagrid looked impressed and jotted it down, "Picked a good'en there."
"I'm sure you didn't have that many coins while I was here before." Hermione said, looking unimpressed, she went to cross her arms and flinched, "And Harry had far more."
"You must be mistaken Hermione." Draco said, waving his hand dismissively, "Bit of chocolate?"
Hermione frowned at them before reaching to take a bit, she grimaced, "I can't grip it."
Harry jumped up and popped it into her mouth. Hermione smiled and mumbled a thank you.
"So wha' you do tae yeh hands?" Hagrid asked, collecting up the Nifflers.
Hermione explained about the hate mail and the letter filled with Bubotuber pus. Hagrid shook his large head.
"Sorry yeh had to deal with all tha'." Hagrid said, "I go' a load when she put out the article abou' me Ma. Told me I should be drowned in the lake, shouldn' of ever been allowed to work around kids and the like."
"Really? That's terrible." Hermione gasped.
Hagrid shrugged, "Always goin' tae be sad and bitter people. Best just to ignore 'em."
Hermione smiled and nodded, "You're right."
Hagrid patted her on the back and finished tidying up from the class. Harry, Hermione and Draco helped Hagrid settle the Nifflers back into their crates before they walked slowly back up to the castle, filling in Hermione about just how brilliant Nifflers are.
"Harry!" Ron called, "Wanted a quick word."
Harry gritted his teeth, "Nope."
"Just a minute!" Ron said, running up to him and grabbing his arm.
Harry pulled his arm free and glared, "Fine. I'll catch you guys up."
"We'll wait." Draco said crisply.
Harry wondered slightly down the grass with Ron and a couple of other boys from Gryffindor.
"What do you need?" Harry said, he wanted this conversation to last as little time as possible.
"You don't need to hang out with her any more you know." Ron said, glaring at Hermione.
Harry looked very confused at him, "What are you talking about?"
"She's playing you mate." Ron said, holding up a copy of Witch Weekly, "Everyone knows about it."
"Firstly, you are not my 'mate'." Harry told him firmly, "And secondly, Hermione is my friend. We've never been a 'thing' and she's not some whore who goes around causing trouble and playing with people. She's a good person and I am proud to call her my friend."
"Really?" Ron said, looking rather unbelieving, "I mean she's only a… well you know."
"Only a what?" Harry demanded.
Ron blushed, his ears turning red.
"I'm going to leave now." Harry told him, turning round and walking, head held high, back to Hermione and Draco.
"What did he want?" Draco asked.
Harry shook his head, "Trust me, it doesn't matter."
At dinner, everyone it seemed, was talking about the Harry, Hermione, Viktor love triangle. Harry ignored the stares and sympathetic looks, moving to his seat and sitting down, smacking his hand down on his table.
"Chill Harry." Pansy said, sitting next to Daphne opposite him, "They're all looking for a response."
Harry knew that they were and that just made him even more cross. He forced himself to take several deep breaths and calm down.
"Like I didn't have enough attention anyway." Harry said through gritted teeth.
Hermione walked over, "Mind if I sit with you? Neville is with Thomas today and, well, everyone else is either staring at me or ignoring me completely."
Harry nodded and patted the bench next to him, "Of course you can."
The golden plates in front of them filled with food and they all filled their plates.
"I can't wait until the holidays." Daphne said, "Mama has said we can go to the lake district for the first few days, back in time for the party of course."
"I'm hoping my hands will be better by then." Hermione said, struggling with her knife and fork.
Draco leaned over and put a spoonful of mash potatoes on her plate, Hermione smiled gratefully.
"It should be good." Draco smiled, "Mother and Father are very pleased to have a different theme this year."
"I can't do this!" Hermione cried out. She clutched at her clearly very painful hand, tears in her eyes, "I'll just… I'll eat later."
"I wouldn't worry Granger, you could do with missing a few meals." Gemini said nastily.
Hermione stood up and wiped her face. She picked up her bag and left the room quickly.
"I'll go." Pansy said, picking up Hermione's plate and following her out of the Hall, "Hermione! Hermione slow down."
"I don't want to slow down!" Hermione said turning around, her cheeks wet with tears, "I… I just need to disappear for a moment, I'm sorry."
"You need to eat." Pansy said softly, "I bet you haven't eaten all day?"
Hermione nodded.
"Come in here." Pansy said, holding up the plate and pointing to an empty classroom.
Hermione smiled gratefully and followed her in. Pansy placed the plate down on the nearby table and lit the lamps before pulling out a chair for Hermione. Hermione wiped her eyes again and sat down, letting Pansy tuck her in. Pansy sat opposite her and loaded mashed potatoes onto a fork.
"I'm assuming you don't want broom stick noises while we do this?" Pansy smiled, guiding the food into her mouth.
"Thank you." Hermione said, rather mumbled through her food, "This is really sweet of you. You don't have to."
Pansy shrugged, "You would do it for me."
Hermione nodded, "That doesn't mean that I'm not grateful. The other Gryffindors talk about Slytherin like it guaranties you're bad people. You lot of always been really nice to me."
Pansy smiled gently, "Well, there are a lot of misconceptions. Hufflepuff actually boasts the least amount of dark wizards or witches on record, although that might just be that they are better at hiding it."
Hermione smiled, "I can't imagine you ever being mean."
Pansy let out a snort, "You didn't know me when I was younger. Harry and Draco had a very calming influence on me. Well, mostly Lily really, she's a very kind person, it rubs off after a while."
"You really want me to believe you weren't always like this?" Hermione grinned.
Pansy laughed, "I really wasn't. My parents are both very successful people, they work as part of the government. It gave me a lot to live up to and when I was younger; I thought the best way to show I could also suck up to people and be bossy was to, well suck up to people and be bossy."
"Ah so that's how governments work." Hermione said.
Pansy rolled her eyes and grinned, "Well, I know it's not the case now, things are very strange when you're three. They got me to leave my private tutor when I was about seven and go to school with Draco, Harry and Neville… and their private tutor once a week. Mrs Ijewsky was great, she's so down to earth and strict but in a good way. And so I grew out of my 'I'm better than most people and those I'm not better than I need to suck up to' phase."
"Well I'm very glad you did." Hermione grinned, "Thank you so much for helping me."
"Don't worry about it." Pansy said, "May I suggest that you don't open any more letters from people you don't know?"
Hermione nodded, "Don't worry, I've learnt my lesson. I thought I would have wanted to know what was in them at least but from now on they are just going straight into the bin."
Pansy nodded, "Wonderful idea."
Pansy picked up the plate and pulled out the chair for Hermione.
"Are your services free for breakfast tomorrow as well?" Hermione asked.
Pansy nodded, "Yep. Come sit over at our table and we'll help. Do you want any pudding or anything else?"
Hermione shook her head, "No I'm full, thank you." She picked up her bag and sighed, "Not sure how I'm going to be able to get all of my homework done."
"I think Neville got given a Quick-Quotes quill by his Grandmother last year for Christmas, something about it freeing up some of his time and working on his 'awful hand writing'." Pansy said, putting on a fake posh accent, "I'm not sure if he has it with him but it's worth an ask."
"Is his grandmother really all that bad?" Hermione laughed.
Pansy weighed up her hands jokingly, "No, not really. Well… I mean she loves him… and that's the main thing but… he's just never good enough. His father was this amazing Auror and Neville is just as talented but she can never seem to see it. She was very harsh when raising Neville's father as well I think. She's… old school, a very traditional pure-blood witch."
"Really?" Hermione said, "She did glare at me last Malfoy dance."
"She tries her best not to be anti muggle but it's in there." Pansy shrugged, "I think it's pretty ingrained for a lot of pure-blood families. We're trying though."
Hermione smiled, "Well I think the fact you let your own food go uneaten so that I wasn't in pain or going hungry earns you a few brownie points."
Pansy looked confused, "What's a brownie point? Why would brownies be giving points? Brownies are nasty."
Hermione bit her tongue to stop herself for laughing, "We can walk and talk."