Disclaimer: all characters and the wider wizarding world belong to J. K. Rowling.
A/N: Sorry for the delay, 2020 not turning out to be the best year…
In the week after Hermione's birthday party, Harry and Ron had prefect duties - as Harry was new to the role, Hermione had given him easy partners for the first term. As they walked the familiar route to the potions classroom, they heard voices from the hall by the Slytherin common room. Ron was ready to dock some points, but Harry was more cautious - if the war had taught him anything it was to be prepared.
They crept forward in the shadows, casting a quick muffliato to silence their movements, making sure to keep from being seen but close enough to hear every word around the corner.
"But Drakie, I just don't understand whyyy!" a familiar female voice whined.
"Pansy, why did you drag me out here - you dumped me, remember? Isn't Blaise waiting for you?"
"Drakie, don't be stupid, it doesn't suit you," she replied curtly, the whine suddenly gone from her voice. "Blaise is fun, but you know as well as he does, I just did that to get back at you for leaving me in the dungeon during the battle. I wanted to be a part of it, to be with you."
Draco laughed mirthlessly.
"Pansy you are fucking deranged!"
Harry and Ron heard a scuffle and peeked around the corner to see Draco pinning Pansy against the wall of the hallway. They drew their wands, just in case, but Harry didn't think Malfoy was about to hurt the witch, just wanted to get her attention and signalled to Ron to wait it out.
"It was a battle you daft witch!" He hissed. "People died - Vince fucking died! And you shagged one of my best mates to make me jealous for leaving you down here, safe and sound? You're insane!"
"But Drakie, don't you see, you can stop making nice with the Gryffindorks now. I saw you looking at Granger, making nice with her on the first night, and that thing with the snitch? You've made your point, so stop it now. Just come back to me and everything will be fine."
"You're not listening Pans," Draco scoffed. "I'm not doing it to get back at you. This was never tit-for-tat - if I'd known you were with Blaise to annoy me, I could have told you not to bother. Blaise and I were like brothers growing up, same with Theo. I wouldn't begrudge them anything." He paused for effect, loosening his grip on her. "Even you."
"Then why?"
Harry grimaced at the high-pitched whine. At that moment he felt sorry for Malfoy for being so close to it.
"My mother told me something before my trial, Pans, would you like to know what she said?" She rolled her eyes, but he continued. "She said honesty is the new currency and the Malfoys - and the Parkinsons too, and any other old family you can think of - are in debt. And I don't like being in debt.
"If honesty is the new currency, well then the Malfoys shall be rolling in it before the year is out."
Pansy laughed then and a grimace crossed Malfoy's usually impassive face.
"So, you're using her? You sneaky bastard!"
Harry had to physically restrain Ron as he lunged forwards, wand drawn.
"What the hell, Harry?" He spluttered. "You heard him - he's using Hermione!"
"No, Ron, that's what Parkinson said. I want to hear Malfoy's side of it before I attack him while on patrol."
"He didn't deny it though, did he?" Ron grumbled. "If he so much as looks at her funny-"
"Yeah, yeah, ok," Harry said as he heard Pansy's heels retreating down the hallway. He inclined his head in their direction and Ron reluctantly went back to listening intently.
"So, are you going to break up with Blaise?" Malfoy yelled after her.
"Why would I do that?" She giggled. "He's under no illusions. I'll keep him around until we get bored or until you're done sullying yourself with Granger to clean up your reputation. Ciao, Drakie!"
Harry grabbed Ron's shoulder again, and the red head shrugged him off. It seemed he was no longer intent on attacking Malfoy for Parkinson's statements. They both stiffened as a new set of footsteps approached.
"Merlin she's dim," the newcomer groused.
Malfoy chuckled and Harry shifted so he could just see the two figures slide down the wall to the floor.
"That she is, Theo, but she gives great head."
"I did not need to think about that," Theo groaned. "How do your lot cope with that? All that drama, all that whining, all that high-pitched bullshit. Makes me glad I'm flying for the other side."
Malfoy chuckled again, as Harry's eyebrows reached his hairline. He looked at Ron who made a face and shook his head. So, it wasn't just him in the dark about Nott's preferences. He would definitely have to remember to tell Ginny this latest tidbit, she loved a bit of gossip.
"So, was she right? Are you going to shag Granger to clean up your name?"
"Fuck, Theo," Malfoy exclaimed as he punched his friend in the arm. "I may be a right wanker, but do you think my mother would stand by while I used a woman like that and tossed her aside?"
"So Narcissa Malfoy is now in the business of defending mudbloods-"
"Don't," Draco snapped. "Don't say that, I've had about as much of that word as I can handle from Pansy."
He dragged a hand tiredly across his face.
"Not sure about actively defending them, but my mother and I no longer believe in all that blood purity crap. And I think you're in the same boat."
Theo's silence was answer enough.
"Besides, I'm not interested in her like that, it's just that, she's the only one who - it's like we're drowning and she's the only one trying to keep us above water."
"Uh-huh"
Draco smacked his friend on the arm again.
"Don't 'uh-huh' like that with me. I mean it, I don't see her like that."
Theo studied his friend and nodded before dragging himself up and dusting off his trousers and walking off, leaving Malfoy sitting alone in the corridor.
"Potter!"
Harry was stunned by the sudden summons, especially as they were still in the shadows and had cast a muffliato. He exchanged a surprised look with Ron before stepping out of the shadows and into the dim light of the hallway.
"You shouldn't listen in to people's private conversations, you know. It's very rude."
Ron stepped out of the shadow in a rush.
"And you'd know all about rude, wouldn't you? Not so nice to be on the receiving end, is it?"
Harry managed to calm his friend and persuade him to leave the hallway so they could talk. Ron grumbled something about staying close by just in case before disappearing round the corner.
"If you shout with a muffliato, it negates the effect," Draco continued, as if there had been no interruption. "It's not designed to be used like that, it's just for covert conversation. As soon as Weasley - I'm assuming it was Weasley who shouted," Harry nodded. "As soon as Weasley shouted I could hear you scuffing your shoes on the wall trying to get a better view."
Harry had the sense to look sheepish being caught listening in, especially considering the personal nature of the discussions. He slumped down the wall opposite Malfoy and the two sized each other up.
"Did you hear enough?"
"I heard a lot of things, Malfoy," Harry countered. "But if you knew we were listening why should I trust anything you said?"
Draco smiled - that was almost Slytherin logic. He was reluctantly impressed.
"Too true, Potter, but Pansy and Theo were unawares. They said things they'd probably rather didn't leave this corridor. I could piss you off to the point that Weasley goes and spills their secrets over breakfast, or I could use them as bargaining chips."
"Bargaining chips?"
"You have dirt on two of my friends. You can hold that over my head to make me behave, especially where Granger's concerned."
Harry scoffed.
"I don't have anything on you, though, Malfoy. It wouldn't be the first time a Slytherin sold his fellow housemates out."
"True," Draco conceded, "but I meant what I said about Theo - he's like a brother to me. We take care of each other."
Harry nodded; he was all too familiar with that kind of friendship. Perhaps not the same, he suspected Draco Malfoy had more acquaintances than friends, but his concern for Theo seemed genuine, and that admission had been before they'd given away their snooping, so it seemed legitimate.
Harry picked himself up off the floor, dusted off his trousers and held his hand out for the blond, who stared at it for a moment before using it to pull himself up from the floor.
"Thanks, Potter."
"Don't mention it, Malfoy. Just remember, I'll be watching you."
Ron and Harry were being unusually protective. Ordinarily she wouldn't have noticed, they hung out a lot together, but when they offered to come to the library with her to study, she knew something was up.
"Ok, that's it, I've had enough. Why are you following me around like I need a bodyguard?"
"Why 'ione? D'you fin' y'nee'one?"
Harry and Hermione looked equal parts confused and disgusted as Ginny threw a piece of toast across the table at her brother. He swallowed and tried again.
"I said, do you think you need one?"
"No, Ronald, I do not need a minder. It was funny for a while when you thought Theo was going to attack me in Arithmancy and I know I basically forced you to socialise on my birthday but I do not need you to protect me in school. In case it passed you by, I managed to survive a war, I do not need wrapping in cotton wool."
"What's cotton wool?" Ron asked Harry when she had gone back to her book.
"Women's stuff, for all their creams and lotions and stuff," he answered, earning a glare from both Hermione and Ginny.
Both boys were silent for the remainder of breakfast. When Hermione got up to go to the library, she gave them both a stern look and they both sat down again until she'd left.
"Do you think we can sneak in, maybe use your cloak, Harry?"
"You're both idiots, Theo Nott isn't going to attack her on a sunny Sunday in the library. Besides, from what Harry told me, she's not his type."
The boys shared a look, that did not go unnoticed by Ginny. So this wasn't about Theo Nott, then? Intriguing, and Ginny did love a bit of gossip. She would have to get it out of Harry later.
The library was nearly empty. She breathed in the familiar scent - although the library had sustained damage in the battle, most of the books had been recovered and the library still maintained that old world smell, borne of old books and years of students hunched over these desks. Even if many of the desks were new or repaired, the history clung to this room all the same. Hermione felt at home here.
She nodded to Madam Pince and made her way straight to her favourite table, only to discover it was already occupied. Theo Nott was leaning over pointing something out to Draco Malfoy, of all people. Hermione was so stunned for a moment - Theo was clever, yes, but Malfoy had been on her heels from first year. Why did it look like Theo was tutoring him?
"This is pointless, Theo!" Draco exclaimed, throwing down his quill, earning a harsh shushing from Madam Pince. Looking up in the direction of the stern librarian, he saw Hermione stood next to their table, caught awkwardly half-staring, half-trying to leave.
"Can we help you, Granger?" He drawled.
"Ignore him, Hermione, come join us," Theo waved his wand and a chair slid out in a clear invitation to sit. "He's just frustrated by some of the advanced Arithmancy homework Professor Vector set him and he's taking it out on everyone."
"But Professor Vector hasn't set any homework this week." Hermione screwed up her face in confusion as she got out her books, parchment, and quills.
"Draco here is a special case-"
"It's sixth year stuff," Malfoy interrupted, throwing a look at his so-called friend in the process. Turning back to Hermione his eyes flashed a challenge. "Not all of us were totally focused on our studies in sixth year."
Hermione swallowed. Theo was watching intently, even if he was trying extremely hard to look nonchalant. The Slytherins had been behaving so well Malfoy was likely to be the one driving it all and he was challenging her to upset the apple cart. Well, she wasn't going to bite.
"I can well imagine," was all she said. "Perhaps if I knew what you were looking at, I could suggest an alternative text-"
"I don't need your pity, Granger."
Hermione's eyes flashed and the colour rose in her cheeks. She bit her tongue and started her work in earnest. Eventually the two boys started their study group again.
"Honestly, Draco, I don't know why you can't see that the sum of those is the root you're looking for!"
"There's no explanation for the leap from this step to the expression here," Draco hissed in response. "The text just skims over it, like I'm supposed to know!"
Hermione tried not to listen, really, she did. She never felt comfortable eavesdropping, even with Harry and Ron under the invisibility cloak. But from all the whispers she'd caught, and Theo's outburst, she had gathered that Draco Malfoy was stuck, and she knew exactly why. She had written Professor Vector a lengthy diatribe on the fact that the text she had set didn't cover all the steps but assumed that the reader would be able to make the logical leaps themselves. She had argued that while she shared Professor Vector's aptitude for Arithmancy, as she had with muggle mathematics, not everyone in the class would be able to keep up. She had received a tellingly short written response recommending a different text - by someone Hermione had discovered was in Professor Vector's Year at Hogwarts - which covered these steps in much more detail.
Hermione was struggling to concentrate on her own Transfiguration essay with all the huffing and whispering going on. She got up, walked to the Arithmancy section of the library, selected the reluctantly recommended text, and flicked to the relevant page as she walked back. She interrupted their hushed squabbling with a polite cough and slipped the text in front of them, obscuring the textbook and stunning them to silence.
"I think you'll find Winnifred's explanation more to your liking, Malfoy."
With that she sat back at the far end of the table and continued with her essay.
Theo and Draco sat in awe for a moment, before Draco pulled the text towards him and studied it, then furiously began scribbling notes with his quill.
"Thank you, Hermione."
Both Draco and Hermione's heads snapped up at Theo's words. Hermione blushed prettily and waved him off, smiling. Theo kicked his friend under the table.
"Ow!" Draco hissed. "What the hell, Theo?"
Sometimes his friend was the most suave character in all of wizarding Britain, and sometimes he was a clueless teenager. Theo tilted his head in Hermione's direction and saw the angry flash of his friend's eyes when he caught his meaning.
"Yeah, thanks Granger," he mumbled as he returned to his text.
Hermione noted the slight pink tinge to his usually alabaster cheeks. It seemed humble suited Draco Malfoy, however strange it was to see on his arrogant, pointy face. Who knew Draco Malfoy could blush?
"Well, if you'd just told me, I mean, I told Professor Vector that text jumped too much, and, well-" she stopped as two pairs of eyes, one blue, one grey, fixed on her. "Um, well, you're welcome."
Theo was intrigued. He'd never thought of Hermione Granger other than Harry Potter's Mudblood friend, and when he'd been old enough to notice what she looked like he'd realised he preferred looking at the boys than the girls. Draco had teased her mercilessly, and the war had taken that to a whole new level of awful - the papers had been fairly explicit in their coverage of the Malfoy trial and the torture of one muggleborn war hero in their drawing room. But as his oldest friend and Hermione Granger - his newest friend, he suspected - both blushed further and returned to their now fascinating texts, he wondered if the constant teasing had more to it. Theo smiled to himself and made a note to talk to Blaise about it later.
