Chapter 7 - Year 2, Part 1
September 1st, 1992
Running through the wall between platforms 9 and 10, Hermione felt just as queasy and nervous as she did last year. The only difference was, that this time she knew where she belonged, and she knew exactly what she was running into.
She followed close behind William and had grandma hot on her heels.
On the other side, they were once again met by the incredible look, that was the Hogwarts Express. It was standing there waiting for them, as red and regal as it had been for the past three years that she had gone here to either leave for herself, or to see her brother off for his own school years.
Above them, a clock showed 15 minutes to 11.
"Bye grandma, I'll see you at Christmas! Love you!" Wills called and quickly gave their grandma a large hug and a kiss on the cheek, before running off in the general direction of Max.
Hermione noticed the Blacks and the Weasleys arriving behind them and she and grandma moved further into the platform so as to make more room for the newcomers.
Grandma chuckled lightly; "My sweet boy is all grown up. Soon, he'll be embarrassed to be seen by my side and will be running after the girls instead. Oh well." She shrugged, with the ghost of a smile still on her lips.
"Don't worry grandma, I don't think he will ever not want to be by your side." Hermione answered reassuringly. She didn't think grandma meant anything bad about it, but that didn't mean that Hermione couldn't reassure her.
"You're so kind, my love." Rhea said and pulled her in for a large hug, where Hermione quickly let her arms fall around the older woman.
"I don't have that from strangers, grandma. At least, that's what dad always says." Hermione's voice was a bit muffled from where her mouth was leaning into the thin jacket that her grandma was currently wearing. The comment made grandma laugh a bit harder, and hug Hermione a little bit tighter.
Hermione basked in the comfort of home, before having to leave it once more. Looking around she noticed that she couldn't see Harry and Daniel, but only Neville who was just boarding the train. Maybe they had already boarded?
"You don't. You really don't, my love. Now run along and find your friends, and I'll see you all soon enough." Grandma said and patted her cheek softly.
"I love you grandma. See you at Christmas!" She beamed and waved as she made her way for the door that Neville had just walked through, dragging her trunk behind her.
"Hi, Neville! Good summer?" She asked when she sat down in front of him after she had found him. Fortunately, she hadn't walked very far before finding the nearly empty compartment. The train jolted to a start, just as she pushed the last corner of her trunk under the seats.
"Yeah, it was good. Went to see the Chudley Cannons and just relaxed at home. Grandma's allowed me to expand the greenhouse, so that's exciting!" He said proudly and she felt so excited for her friend.
"That's so great for you! How much are you expanding it?" She asked, wanting to hear more about his summer project. Having had such a bad and awkward first year, it felt so good to have a part of her old friend back once again, and hearing him talk about his passion was always great.
He spent the next 30 minutes or so telling her about the plants that were already there, plants and trees he wanted to plant and projects he was planning on doing over the next couple of years.
"Your parents had started growing more things, too, right? I'd love to see it next summer when we get back home." He said, suddenly realizing that he hadn't even been to her place that summer.
"Yes - though they haven't added much this year. They've done a lot of research into livestock this summer."
It continued easily from there. With grandma's help, her parents were trying to make their farm self-sustaining like hers. Their ultimate goal was that they would be getting all fresh produce from themselves, baking bread from their own wheat, eating meat from their own animals and so on.
"Oh, I just remembered - dad started making some sort of alcohol that's based on honey. Mead? I think it's called mead." She said, frowning deep in thought as she tried to remember her dad talking about it. "Apparently it takes months until it's finished." She exclaimed exasperated and how long it would take to make something to drink.
"Beats me - I've no idea what that is." He shrugged and took out his herbology-book for the year, going from page to page apparently in search of something specific. If she knew him right - and she often did - she knew that he had probably bought the book as fast as possible from getting the book list, and had probably already read it from start to finish.
She fished a book out of her back and swung her legs up across the seats, leaning up against the window.
She then noticed that something was missing?
"Do you know where Harry and Daniel are? I didn't see them on the platform." She said, trying to remember if she had seen someone that might have been them, but couldn't come up with anything.
"Huh?" His face said it all when he looked up at her in question. Obviously, he hadn't heard what she'd just said.
"Harry and Daniel. Have you seen them today?" She tried again, looking at him intently, starting to get worried.
"I haven't seen them. I thought they boarded after you?" He lowered his book and gave her his full attention. He must have seen the look on her face as he closed the book quietly and smiled at her. "I'm sure they jumped onto the train at the last minute and just found the candy-trolley quickly and decided to empty it for cauldron cakes before anyone else should get the opportunity. Why don't you go look for them?" He smiled at her and went back to his book when she immediately nodded and stood.
She walked from their middle compartment to the right, all the way to the end of the train without any trace from them. None of their fellow classmates had seen them or even seen them on the platform. She passed her and Neville's compartment, noticing that he had his nose full on down in the book, and continued walking on.
She made it some ten compartments down when she met Draco walking towards her. She quickly looked over her shoulder, noticing that there was no one in the hall she turned back to him - a large smile on her lips. She lifted her hand to wave at him, his name as a greeting just at the tip of his tongue, when he shook his head and scowled at her, before opening a compartment-door and walking in - the door snapping shut.
Hermione froze where she stood, her arm falling to hang by her side and her smile leaving her face.
She knew. She damn-well knew - but that didn't make it hurt any less.
Now completely ice-cold on the inside, she walked on, peeking into all compartments on her way except for that one and tried to ignore the sadness once she passed it. Some time later she arrived back in her own compartment having found no trace of her friends and no one having seen them.
"What if they didn't make it onto the train?" She asked Neville who looked up in question when she walked in.
"Then I'm sure someone will help them get to Hogwarts - people don't normally get expelled from missing the train."
"Are you sure?" She knew she could trust every word he said, but she still found herself unsure.
"I'm going to say four words, okay?" She nodded, "James Potter. Sirius Black."
She laughed out loud at that, because of course the two of them would have missed the train at some point, and Sirius had made it a point many times that the two of them had somehow managed to graduate from the wizarding school. "I'm sure you're right." She said, removing a stray tear and leaned back, now much more comfortably than before.
…
"Now that I have tried it, I can truthfully say that I prefer the carriages over the boats. Though, the view of the castle is a whole lot better from the lake." She finished as she and Neville were walking through the large doors that lead to the great hall.
"I wonder how they move when there's nothing pulling them... But yes, the view from the boats was pretty amazing." He smiled back at her, though she could see the nervousness starting to return.
She was looking around the great hall and they walked on, filling in with the rest of the other students sitting down at Gryffindor-table, when Neville suddenly drew her attention back when he exclaimed: "Mate! When did you guys get here?!"
Her eyes whipped to where he was looking at the table, where two heads of unruly black hair, sat waving at them.
"More like how did you get here?" She inquired as she sat down opposite them
"We came by floo just before noon. We couldn't pass through the passage to the platform, so we waiting for mum and dad to come though, and they floo'd the school asking what we should do." Daniel said, looking too smug to be up to anything good. Beside him, Harry mirrored his expression.
"What's up with the looks?" She asked, looking from one to the other and back. Their looks of smugness were now moving on to grins, and she was starting to get scared all over again.
"Well, you see… We weren't the only ones locked out: so was Ron and Seamus." Harry added, not giving much information that she could use to anything.
"So? Come on guys, just spit it out already." Apparently, Neville had had enough before she had.
"Well… Ron decided that it was so important for him to get up here, that he stole his parent's car. A flying car, might I add."
"I can't wait for the howler that he'll receive tomorrow. His parents were FURIOUS!" Daniel added, trying hard not to laugh at it all.
She would have chastised him if she hadn't been so Happy that he would be getting such a large berating - because honestly, she was sick and tired of his bullying.
"He did what?! Damn I need to be up early tomorrow to listen in on the howler!" One of the Weasley twins laughed a little way down the table, probably having overheard their conversation.
"What if they throw him out? And what about Seamus?" Dean Thomas added in from across the twins.
"Dunno. That's all we saw and heard before we went home to call the school." Harry shrugged and moved his attention to the front of the room where McGonagall was settling in with the hat and the new first year's.
…
As predicted, the Howler had been glorious, but the most miraculous thing was how much appraisal Ron and Seamus received afterwards. Apparently flying a car to school, being seen by multiple muggles and thereby almost breaking the statute of secrecy, making it to the front of the Daily Prophet and nearly getting kicked out of school was worth it, as long as everyone knew that it was them that had done it.
It was sickening to look at.
"Let's head to Herbology - shall we?" Hermione asked and stood up, Neville, Daniel and Harry quickly following along. By the looks on their faces, it looked like she wasn't the only one annoyed by the display.
"I'm so glad we waited for mum and dad." Daniel mumbled to the group as they made their way down the lawn and out towards the greenhouses where a bunch of other students were already waiting for Professor Sprout.
The head of Hufflepuff house suddenly came down the lawn towards them with a hard scowl hard in place instead of the warm smile she was usually wearing. What she was also wearing - was bandages. And she was wearing a lot of them for some reason. Just behind her, trailed none other than Gilderoy Lockhart.
Once they arrived, he quickly told them how he had happily been there to show Professor Sprout how to best care for broken branches of a Whomping Willow.
Over their shoulder, Hermione could see the Whomping Willow standing where it always did, yet now it was wearing multiple slings and looking like it was hanging a little more to the side than it usually did.
"Greenhouse 3, If you please." She said and opened the door that would lead them inside, and, if Hermione hadn't seen it completely wrong, stared at Ron with very narrowed eyes. Sprout held the door open to each and everyone, until Harry and Lockhart were the only ones left. Hermione, being just in front of him, looked back, only to see Lockhart with a hand on his shoulder trying to pry him to his side and away from the greenhouses.
Sprout, though, wasn't having it. She quickly shooed Harry inside and slammed the door shut right in Lockhart's face, grumbling loudly about having 'never liked that man…' all while having a steady, guiding hand on Harry's shoulder.
…
The classes that day had been everything from exciting to horrible.
Neville had as always, enjoyed Herbology, and Hermione had really enjoyed watching him take charge as the two of them were paired up to repot Mandrakes. They had been the perfect combination of teamwork where he dug his fingers into the dirt and she made all the appropriate notes.
In transfiguration the students had to turn a beetle into a button, all with various degrees of success. She had succeeded quite quickly, while Harry at her side, had spent most of the time chasing after the beetle with his wand, as the creature did everything in its power so as to not be transfigured.
"Uuugh," Harry groaned loudly, while lying face down on the table. "I hate Mondays. Thankfully we didn't have to have potions this morning, but why do we have to have him on the first day back?"
She didn't need Harry to elaborate who 'him' was. Harry had been very vocal about his dislike of this year's DADA-professor, and having the man trying to pull him away from class this morning didn't help his case.
"Maybe he'll be better once he has to actually teach us anything?" Hermione tried with a half-hearted shrug, but quickly realized that she might be the only one believing in it, as all surrounding eyes zoomed in on her in different extents of disbelief and horror.
"Don't bother, Nene, dude's as stupid as a brick wall." Her brother added in a passing as he walked by her and sat down with his friends. In response, she turned around on the bench and faced him.
"And how would you know that? As far as you told me this morning, your first DADA isn't until tomorrow." She inquired, steadfastly trying to figure how he could know that without having had the man.
"I know that, Nene, because I just overheard some of the guys from my house moaning loudly at his ability of spending an entire lesson, doing nothing but staring at his own reflection. Good enough for you?" She didn't answer him but instead chose to stick her tongue out at him, before turning around and back to her lunch.
"Always a pleasure sparring with you!" William called behind her which ended in him laughing uncontrollably when she called back and told him to shut up.
She was trying her absolute best to not smile at the friendly batter, when she heard someone face vomiting down the table. Unfortunately, she made the mistake of looking in the direction, and saw Ron pretending to vomit while glaring at her.
"Looks like lunchtime is over." She huffed and stood from the table, leaving the room without looking back at the redhead who she still didn't know how she had offended.
…
Unfortunately, the madness didn't end there.
Harry had followed her out of the Great Hall and the two of them had then been stopped by a first year Gryffindor, asking Harry for a signed photo, stating that he knew everything about Harry. Hermione would have been terribly annoyed, if she hadn't been so mortified on Harry's behalf.
"So, you're telling me, that the very fact that I survived a raving lunatic who killed both of my parents before turning on me - makes me famous enough for you to get a picture of me which I might then sign… So that you can brag about having met me?" Harry stated quickly while eyeing the first year with a mixture of indignation and hurt.
Obviously, Harry had known about his parents and the circumstances of their death, from a young age. But knowing didn't make it any easier when people came up to him and demanded his attention, over something he deeply wished had never happened.
"Fame's gotten to your head, Potter? Can't even bother signing a damn photograph to someone who's obviously way ahead of you in social standing." Zabini sneered as he passed them in the hallway. Behind him, she could see Malfoy, doing everything in his might to not look her in the eye.
What in the world?
"Why don't you talk to someone else about being ahead, since you're at the bottom of the food chain Zabini." She countered with a raised eyebrow, and a look of total indifference.
A snort sounded from behind him and Zabini turned with a growl, eyeing Draco who stood with his hands raised in capitulation, but with an obvious smirk on his face. The blond snorted once again while he turned around, completely and obviously ignoring Zabini who was eyeing him in what looked like treason.
Draco's departure made Zabini's focus turn back to Hermione. "I wasn't talking to you, mudblood."
Gasps echoed off the walls.
In front of her, Zabini was smirking like someone had just told him what a great job he had done.
"Say that again." Hermione said calmly, her full attention on the dark-skinned boy in front of her, as his smirk grew and Harry grabbed her arm trying to drag her away from the incoming confrontation. She wasn't letting him.
"I said; "I wasn't talking to you, mudblood." He sneered, though he might as well have laughed her right in the face.
It was practically the same thing anyway.
"Yes, I thought I heard that correctly." She started, walking closer to him so very slowly, "But you see, this just confirms to me, that you're one hell of a piece of shit, Zabini."
SMACK!
Her fist hit his jaw with a sound reminiscent of a thunderclap on a silent night. Then his shoulder hit the floor, his mouth hanging open in shock.
"Ms. Granger!" A voice boomed behind her made her step out of her attack-position - her hand still fisted hard into a ball and slightly outstretched. "My office, now. And 20 points will be taken from Gryffindor for hitting another student." Harry was already turning on their professor in her defense, but a single raised hand from Snape silenced him. "Mr. Zabini, Infirmary, now. 20 points will be taken from Slytherin house because of such foul language against a fellow student."
Crabbe and Goyle each tried to take their side of zabini, helping him up, but were pushed away when the boy stood up himself. He quickly hurried up the stairs for the infirmary.
It was with great pleasure and a very sore hand, that Hermione noted that a bruise was already starting to form on his jaw.
"Don't you people have places to be?" He lightly sneered before turning around and guiding Hermione down the stairs for the dungeons.
Once inside his office, he turned his wand to the door and a soft sounding buzzing told her that he had silenced the room.
"That was very stupid, Ms. Granger." He said, while rummaging in his cabinets.
"Maybe, but I won't stand quietly while he bullies me and my friends." She responded, maybe a bit too harshly considering that the man in front of her was now gently guiding her to sit down in what looked like an extremely comfortable reading chair.
"And you shouldn't - But there ought to be a better way of defending yourself. Fighting in the hallways isn't very civilized, and frankly, for a person with your intelligence - I expected better." He sat down on a puff in front of her, gave her a vial of something that she guessed to be a pain potion, and started spreading out an ointment on her aching fist. Bruises mirroring the ones on Zabini's face were slowly showing up on her hand.
"I'm sorry." She said in a low voice, feeling properly chastised.
"I mean this in the best way, Ms. Granger, but you have detention with me tonight. Let's make the best of it, yes?" He smiled warmly at her, and at that very moment, Hermione was having great difficulties figuring out what that man was doing in Slytherin.
"Yes, Sir." She answered and went to leave the door once he had moved from his seat. Her hand was on the door handle when he spoke again; "I know he deserved it, but please refrain from fighting in the hallways again. If your hand starts to hurt any worse, go to Madam Pomfrey. Anyhow, I'll be looking at it again tonight."
She turned around to answer him, and found him with his back turned to her, packing away what he had just used on her hand. She smiled to herself as she opened the door. "Yes, Sir."
And professor Snape hadn't been lying when he said that they should make the most of it. She had spent the night clearing a few cauldrons, and then continued to show her how to perfect some of the potions they had already been working on the previous year.
…
The day wasn't getting better from there.
Charms had been okay - nothing out of the ordinary.
But Defense Against the Dark Arts had been… Interesting, to say the least.
It had started out with Lockhart having a heart-to-heart with Harry in the middle of the classroom, his voice low enough to pretend like he didn't want to antagonize Harry, yet loud enough for the entire class to know every single word being said between them.
Apparently, the lunatic that was their new teacher, had the amazing thought that maybe he had been a bad influence on Harry by meeting him in Flourish and Blotts, and maybe - just maybe - the attention of having been seen with the Great Gilderoy Lockhart, had pushed Harry ever so slightly over the edge and into a fame infused insanity, where the only thing that mattered was Harry Potter.
Through their teacher's ramble, Harry stood impassive and indifferent, with his arms crossed and just out of reach of the man. When Lockhart made to reach out for Harry, he would simply take a step back.
"- you must understand Harry, I never meant for it to go this far." He finished apologetically, showing off as much more sympathy than Hermione believed for him to have in his entire body.
"Are you quite done?" The raven-haired boy then asked their teacher, when the man had been looking at Harry for an inappropriate amount of time. The awkward silence in the room had obviously started seeping slowly into the man that now started looking a bit uncomfortable in his skin.
Who was now having some fame induced insanity?
"Do-done? I beg your pardon?" the man stammered.
"Are you done pretending to be the smart one in the room, or should I go get Professor Dumbledore so that he can teach us some proper Defense Against the Dark arts?" Harry looked utterly bored as he looked at Lockhart.
Something must have clicked inside the man, and he did a total 180, both literally and mentally, when he turned around with his robes billowing all around him, and made his way to his own table where he picked up a stack of papers. "Seats everyone! We'll be starting today out with a test - just to see where your basic-knowledge is, of course!"
Hermione was one of the first to receive the quiz and looked at it, gobsmacked. "I feel like I'll be getting dumber instead of smarter this year." She whispered to Daniel by her side who nodded his agreement in return.
By the end of the class, the Professor had found his favorite students and held full focus on them. Lavender Brown seemed especially proud of the attention, as she sat up straight from the first complement and until she left class flauntering and giggling with Parvati close by her side.
"How far up his arse do you think she will be before we leave in June?" Daniel whispered back to her when Lavender made an obnoxiously high sigh, after a particular praise.
"All the way, I'm sure." Harry added from behind them. Hermione snickered, yet said nothing of the question even though she was entirely on their side.
…
"You can't be serious, Hermione! It's Saturday and you're going to the library?" Daniel groaned loudly while staring at her.
They were standing at the top of the stairs where going down would mean going in the direction of the great hall and the doors leading outside, and going to the right would mean going to the library.
The first month of classes had already passed, and everyone (including herself) were waist high in homework
"Yeah, well, I'm not volunteering to overhear Wood going off about how you lost the Quidditch Cup last year. You both know that he'll try blaming it on Harry being unconscious, and I will not be listening to that by my own free will." She groaned back at the prospect, her hand running down her tired face for emphasis.
"Just come, already. You're not one to turn down a good yell." Harry said, holding his hand out for hers. Apparently, he was preparing to drag her down the moving staircase.
Just then, a set of stairs arrived just behind Daniel and Harry, bringing Draco Malfoy directly into her line of sight. Their eyes met instantly, before he quickly looked down and away from her.
She felt her insides shatter a little bit…
He quickly walked around the boys, doing just about everything to not be noticed. But she noticed him. Maybe he had a note for her? "But WHY?!" She moaned loudly, drawing attention to herself while flaring her arms out to the side and only just touching Draco's hand, before he pulled away from her.
He didn't pass her a note.
Her arms feel lifeless to her side as Daniel and Harry looked at her in mirth. Behind her, Draco made his way directly to the library doors, and she could almost see her heart visibly tumbling down the stairs in front of her.
"Come on. I brought candy." Daniel said while walking forward and looping her arm around his, not dragging her as hard down the stairs as he would have possibly had to do mere minutes ago.
With the prospect of being around a person that couldn't even look her in the eye, suddenly, her urge to go to the library wasn't quite as pressing...
…
"You've been… what? I'm sorry, I'm not following." Hermione said, very confused at what Harry was telling her. What in Merlin's name was-
"A Death day party. It'll be 500 years since Nearly Headless Nick died, and he wants me to come." Harry explained, almost like he was talking to a small child about how to put two and two together.
"But why… and, why?" Hermione scrunched up her face hard as she tried to understand his reasoning. It didn't make any sense at all.
"Why, why, what?" Harry inquired, now being the one who looked very confused.
"Well, it's not like you're dead - though I guess two unsuccessful attempts on your life probably equals the same - so why would you be invited? And why would he even celebrate dying in the first place?" The roles were flipped and she suddenly found herself on the side, talking to a small child about addition and subtractions.
"Do you want the long and precise version, or the short and not so precise version?" Daniel asked slowly. What on earth was with this parent-child talkative perspective.
"Will I like the reasoning?" She asked, already knowing exactly what version she would be told.
Harry eyed the chocolate covered piece of toast in her hand and answered tentatively, yet with a small shrug, "Probably not."
"Go on, then. This day already sucks." she muttered, and took a bite of her toast.
"Well… Neville lost his toad so we went to help look for it and ended up at Hagrid's, but then we realized that it was past curfew so we left - but Filch found us just by the Grand staircase -" Harry started, almost too quickly for Hermione to follow what he was saying. She was almost losing her breath just from listening.
"- And he went to interrogate us about why we were out of bed, but he wouldn't believe that we were just looking for Trevor -" Daniel continued, but in a more comfortable tempo.
"- But then something crashed outside and he left, but there was a letter on his table from the Kwikspell Company, and I went to look at it, and he's a squib, Hermione!" Somehow Harry found the audacity to write someone's personal mail, only to whisper their secret while smiling like it was the best-kept secret in the world. She didn't know if she should pat him on the shoulder or be very, very cross with him.
"But he suddenly came back in, and saw Harry with the letter and threw us out of his office! He even threatened Harry to never tell anyone about it!"
Wonder how good that went, Hermione thought sourly.
"But apparently it was Nearly Headless Nick who threw down some cabinets from the seventh floor to get us out of trouble, and as a thank you he wanted us to attend his party." Daniel rambled on when Harry stopped to breathe.
"And he celebrates dying, because it's something about 'celebrating a new life's beginning, by the end of another' or something like that." Harry finished.
"So let me sum this up; Trevor's gone (they nodded), Filch might be a squib and you think it's funny (they nodded again, though not as brightly as the first time around), a ghost tricked you into attending his party by throwing something from the seventh floor (they were starting to look confused), and ghosts celebrated dying (they nodded again but weren't looking too certain at that particular moment). Does that cover it?" she asked, after having been pointing at each of her fingers in turn as she listed the boys's night out.
"Yes." They answered in unison. She had the oddest thought, that if anyone who didn't actually know them, saw the two black-haired boys answering in unison and finishing each other's sentences, they might think that that the boys were twins.
"And I'm guessing you want me to attend with you?" She asked as she took another bite of her toast.
"Yes." The twin-bullshit again. This was getting tiring.
"When?"
"This… Saturday." Harry was looking at her, clearly uncomfortable. He knew damn right how she hated to be dragged into other plans, especially with such short notice. For a person who color-coded her reading schedules and planned exams multiple months in advance, two days was nothing. Absolutely, ridiculously, nothing.
"Fuck it. I'm done." She suddenly growled, drawing the attention of multiple people from all four house-tables, as she dropped the remnants of her chocolate-covered toast to her plate, stood up with her bag over her shoulder and walked out of the room.
She could feel her hair buzzing and frizzing with angry magic, as she made her way down into the dungeons, muttering angry obscenities to herself.
This day wasn't getting any better, and she damn well knew it.
"Are you okay?"
She didn't know how much time had passed while she stood outside the potions-lab waiting for the doors to open, when she suddenly found herself face to face with Theo.
"Do I look okay to you?" She retaliated with a single eyebrow raised in annoyance.
"Frankly, Hermione, you always look okay - I was thinking more along the mental lines of 'okay', but now you're looking like you want to kill me so I'm guessing it's a 'no'."
Hermione suddenly found herself going through an entire emotional rollercoaster, all the way from embarrassed and flustered to angry, and then hurt and miserable.
"Okay… So, I'll just change my question. what happened?" He took a step closer to her, and for once she didn't want to run away from the proximity.
"Apart from the fact that one of my best friends has right out ignored me for the past two months; people are making plans on my behalf that I don't want to be a part of, and that same person thinks that it's fun to laugh about squibs when their best friend's dad is one." She listed out her current issues, not including the fact that she had overslept after having been tossing and turning all night, she had written about half a dozen notes for Draco and crumbled up each and every one of them since he hadn't taken any of the others she had offers, she had run out of painkillers and her best shampoo which meant that her hair was mess and her cramps were killing her. "Honestly, I just want a Mars-bar and a nap. That's all I'm asking."
"What's a 'Mars-bar'?" Theo questioned, his head lolling a bit to the side and his eyebrow crunched up as he thought hard about what it could be.
"It's a muggle chocolate-bar." She shrugged.
"Oh! Hmm… I don't have any chocolate on me… How about a liquorice wand?" He asked as he started rummaging through his rucksack. A short while later he drew out a couple, handed her one and put another directly into her back.
"Thank you, Theo, you're the best." She said honestly as she unwrapped the treat and started munching on it slowly. She instantly felt a bit calmer when the salty candy hit her tongue.
"Regarding your problems; the first friend is an idiot if they're ignoring you, but they might have their own stupid reasons? The other friend is also an idiot if they're making plans for you, and I'm guessing the squib is your dad? (She hummed and nodded) I thought you were a muggleborn? Apparently, Draco doesn't tell me everything."
Her heart sank a bit again at the mention of her… friend. "Technically, I'm a half-blood. Mum is a muggle and dad is a squib born from two purebloods. But sometimes it's easier to just pretend to be a muggleborn… It lowers the expectations that people might otherwise have."
"Oh." He said, as students were starting to come barreling down the stairs.
"Oh, indeed." She muttered and walked into the class as Professor Snape opened the door to welcome them in.
