The day didn't feel special. She woke and performed her morning ablutions, dressed, joined the boys for breakfast, and attended classes. As it was Thursday, she had double Charms first thing. She brought her parchment to Professor Flitwick without prompting and the small man beamed at her in gratitude; her classmates treated turning in assignments like getting a tooth pulled.
Hermione had expected… well, something. There had been no morning mail for her, not even from Lady Narcissa, and her guardian had never failed to acknowledge her birthday before.
She's busy working on getting that nasty law repealed, she told herself.
It was still a little disappointing.
After Charms was a short break during which the boys dragged her to the courtyard for some light.
"It won't be sunny forever, you know," Harry told her. "You should enjoy it."
And she did. She laid in the grass beneath a tree and let the sun warm her body. She'd missed it so much during the time Lucius had kept her. Even in the rare moment he allowed her outside, it was rarely morning or afternoon.
Harry sat by her head, Draco sat on one side, and Ron on the other.
"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" Harry was playing with a snitch. He'd had it for as long as she knew him— it was apparently his father's, and it had started slowing down in its advanced age.
Hermione hummed and adjusted herself until her head was squarely in his lap. Usually, she reserved this kind of thing for Draco, but Harry was also one of her best mates now. He smiled down at her. "It is." If this was all she did for her birthday, that was alright; there were more important things going on in the world.
He stashed away the snitch and tangled his fingers in her hair. "It's softer than it looks."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she huffed.
Draco laughed. "That sometimes you look like you're a walking storm cloud."
"Storm clouds aren't soft?" she retorted.
"Sure, if you like lightning," was Ron's reply.
They all laughed.
"That's our Hermione, alright: a lightning storm waiting to rage."
She gave Harry a wry look. "Because I'm soooooo fierce."
"You are," Draco agreed in earnest. "You can be right terrifying about school work."
"That's only because this lot is a bad influence on you," she said. "You never slacked so much in our first year."
"Oi, don't blame us. He's a grown arse man."
"Language, Ronald. And he is not, not until the summer." She smirked up at Harry's smothered laughs.
"Ah, yes, Hermione Granger is now a woman grown, my friends. She is magnanimously gracing us lowly children with her presence. All hail Queen Hermione." Only Draco would mock her in that way. She reached out and batted his knee. "Ow!"
"Oh, like that hurt, you git."
"Language, Hermione," said Ron.
She huffed to contain her giggles. "You're impossible, all of you."
"You love it." Harry's eyes gleamed behind his lenses. "You love us. "
"Yes," she replied. "I do."
Their next class was her favorite, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Their little group entered, Hermione took her usual seat up front, Draco beside her and the other two choosing a spot closer to the back, where they might goof off a bit.
Tom was already sitting; he'd honed in on her the moment she came into the classroom, and she could read the smile in his eyes.
Could anyone else? She wouldn't have known it was there during her first few years at Hogwarts. It was only last year, when they became closer, that she'd figured it out.
Tom stood and rounded his desk to lean upon it as the last student made it to their seats. "You all feel confident in your shield charms now, yes?" Some of the students murmured their assent or nodded, others squirmed in their seats. Hermione was the former, of course. "Good. Because we'll be dueling today and tomorrow."
The students broke into murmuring excitement at the announcement, and Tom allowed them to talk amongst themselves a moment before clearing his throat. He'd always had such command over the classroom, but it was less out of intimidation, like Professor Snape's class, and more out of respect.
"If you would all stand by the walls. Thank you." Once they were out of the way, he Banished the desks from the room, so the middle of the room yawned wide.
Hermione had forgotten just how big the room was; it had been so long since she'd seen it set up this way. She, Harry, Ron, Neville, and Draco all stood together. Interestingly enough, Theo Nott was beside Draco. The reticent young man had been talking to her best friend more often of late. Draco thought he might be trying to reignite their childhood friendship. And beside Nott was Blaise Zabini.
This meant their little group lacked only a Ravenclaw, though she knew both she and Nott had been considered for that house as well. Between the two of them, they might as well count.
She wondered how the two snakes felt with a handful of Gryffindors and a Hufflepuff. She also wondered, Why now?
"Do we have any volunteers to start?" Unsurprisingly, both Harry's and Draco's hands shot into the air. She couldn't help but chuckle. "Very well. Potter and Malfoy, take your places."
The two boys strode to the center of the floor. Harry wore a crooked smile and Draco was determined. Ron leaned toward the Slytherins. "Two sickles says Harry wins."
Nott's brows rose. Zabini grinned and said, "I'll take that bet. Malfoy's been trained his whole life."
"And Harry hasn't?" she interjected, eyes still on her two boys. Zabini seemed to have forgotten Harry's father was an Auror. Draco certainly hadn't.
"You both know the rules by now, yes?" They nodded at the professor. "Good. Bow and you may begin."
Harry got off the first spell, a standard expelliarmus , but Draco deflected it with ease and sent his own stunner. The Gryffindor cast a shield; the red sparks bounced and fizzled out of being.
The two competitors stared one another down more out of thoughtfulness than antagonization. There had been moments of the latter throughout their acquaintance, but Harry was so laid back it was hard for him to dislike people. Once someone made that list, however…
A tickling charm rushed toward Draco. Hermione had barely seen the abbreviated wand movement, but Draco was tuned in.
He dodged and sent aguamenti simultaneously, drenching Harry with cold, gushing water.
The Gryffindor hadn't cast the impervious charm on his glasses, and his hair now fell over his face. She groaned. Draco knew his propensity for ignoring basic charm work; how many times had she cast it for him before a Quidditch match? Now he was paying the piper.
He was quick on his feet, though, and cast protego and a drying spell in quick succession. Draco's disarming charm hit the shield and dissipated; Harry must have reinforced it.
The shield dropped and Harry mumbled a long string as he flicked his wand. Her eyes narrowed, flitting from his lips to his wand to make sense of it. A tickling charm, a stunner, another stunner, and—
Draco's shield shattered and he was knocked onto his backside. He managed a stunner, himself, but at the expense of not dodging the disarming spell. His wand flew toward Harry only to drop to the ground as the other boy was stunned. Draco scrambled toward his wand and threw himself at Harry, raising both sticks toward the sky in triumph.
They'd dueled several times over the years, and only one in three victories belonged to Draco.
Tom led the class in a brief clap, and he sent a reviving spell at Harry. "Five points to Hufflepuff." The Gryffindor grumbled sheepishly as Draco handed his wand back to him, but they shook his hands. "That was quick thinking."
"It was the only opening you gave me the whole duel," Draco replied.
"I won't make the same mistake next time."
Ron groaned and told the Slytherin he'd have to wait until later in the day to collect his winnings. He should not have bet at all, but Hermione knew when to harp on him for it and when not to. Besides, she was hardly the only prefect in their group. Nott hadn't gainsaid either.
Zabini volunteered next, paired with another Slytherin whom he wiped the floor with.
"What about you, Hermione? Are you gonna duel?" Harry nudged her.
She shrugged. "I hadn't decided, though I suppose we all will by the end of next class period."
"Is there anyone you want to go against?" asked Draco.
Hermione wasn't sure; she didn't enjoy dueling in the same way as the boys. Whereas they truly saw it as competition, she considered it a necessary evil. It was a skill with which to protect oneself.
She studied her peers and considered what dueling against them might be like. Certain among the Slytherins would use the darkest spells they could get away with; while Professor Riddle was more lenient as long as the effects were easily reversible, they had stretched even that allowance in the past. Among the Ravenclaws, she thought Padma Patil might be the best; Hermione was fairly certain she'd beat her, though it would be a good, clean duel. Susan Bones would be a challenge. The Hufflepuff was almost as ambitious as a Slytherin, though her kindness easily overshadowed that.
"Hermione?" She jolted from contemplation, face searing as she turned to her teacher. "It is your birthday, after all." Her classmates tittered.
"Er, alright," she agreed, and stepped forward.
It was interesting, seeing which hands rose in offering to duel with her. Harry and Draco both despite already having dueled. Ronald was just raising his hand, trying to hide it. Padma and Parvati both volunteered, and so did nearly half the Slytherins, to include Theo Nott.
Tom considered offerings. "Nott."
The Slytherin gave her a friendly smile and they bowed to one another, and then she went into her ready position.
Nott had been in the Defense Club last year, and his form was good. She eyed him for weaknesses. His shoulders squared, turned to the side to present a smaller target, his wand held aloft and at the ready. He watched her just as she did him, waiting.
Very well, Hermione thought. Let's begin. Her lips flattened and she thought with all the force she could as she murmured, " Stupefy ."
Nott barely had his shield in place when her spell reached it, and it shattered with enough force he rocked on his heels.
His lips moved in the phonemes for, " Expelliarmus."
It was strong enough her wand wanted to fly to him despite her good grip and deflection. She crept forward and flicked another stunner and a minor hex while whispering their incantations. Nott countermoved to her, shielded, deflected as the hex burst through the shield and returned a jinx.
He wasn't going to let her out of his sight, not unless…
As they circled a few steps, she considered her plan, sent a weak stunner, and thought, nebulous .
A thick fog blanketed the room and dampened the white noise of whispering students. She dodged to the left with her gaze pinned where she'd last seen Nott, and sent a barrages of stunners and disarming spells, one after another after another, though the wand was in her hand as the second left her lips.
A burst of wind cleared away the fog and Nott, misty from her spell and looking quite shell-shocked, glanced to his empty hands and then to Hermione, who was smiling.
"Well done! Ten points to Gryffindor for displaying one of the principles of dueling in the field: control your environment." Tom Laid a hand on her shoulder, warm and heavy and familiar, and she beamed up at him. "This is what I expect out of you from now. Think creatively when you duel; basic hexes and disarming spells are well and good, but they are not nearly the only tools to have in your repertoire."
Her cheeks burned from the praise.
Nott approached to shake her hand and take back his wand. "I suppose I focused too much on my front, yes?"
"Yes, exactly," she murmured in return. He didn't seem put off by his loss. If anything, he was thoughtful.
He nodded and went back to his spot between Zabini and Draco.
Notes:
/freafallenwip
Early chapter to celebrate my first ever podcast attempt