Time flew by without Hermione realizing it. Classes kept her occupied, her additional spellbooks and research filled her free time, and her friends kept her feeling less alone than she'd ever felt before. Now that she'd 'officially' consorted with Blaise Zabini, he frequently joined her, Tracey, and Millie, though he practiced flirting outrageously with them all. They would play Exploding Snap together in the common room, or, very rarely, hide in an abandoned classroom and do their homework.
"You can't ever let people know you have to work on something," Blaise told her, very casually. "The best wizards are just naturally capable, and having to do work is something servants do. We all know we have to do work, but we can do our best to hide it for as long as possible."
Hermione had held back a retort. The fifth year O.W.L. students certainly didn't seem to care about hiding their feverish studying anymore.
The three-headed dog was a Cerberus, Hermione discovered. In Greek mythology, he guarded the way to the underworld, and he had only been passed a few times in history. Once was by Heracles, who seemed to defeat him with brute strength, and once was by Orpheus, who had sung to the beast while playing on his lyre, lulling the monster to sleep.
If she was ever going to try and get past the giant dog to win this obstacle course, she would probably need to go the music route. Hermione doubted she'd be able to get her hands on the creature's lead before it ate her.
Hermione was also gradually expanding her network of acquaintances, though she wouldn't quite call them friends. Ernie and Hannah caught up with her after class to chat about lessons, and Terry Boot had asked if she wanted to study with him for Defense a time or two. The other Slytherins seemed suspicious of this – they by large kept only to themselves, only having friends inside Slytherin house – but Hermione was eager for any connections she could get.
Ernie had also given her a set of the photos from the photo shoots, both the broom one and the one in the library, and Hermione had been pleasantly surprised. They'd turned out much better than she'd expected, even the ones on the broom. The animation of her smirking and flying off was brilliant, and a bit surreal, if she was honest with herself. She'd kept a set for herself and sent a few to her family, wishing them a happy Halloween.
When Halloween finally arrived, Hermione had a low level of excitement running through her all day. There was to be a feast at dinner, and Hermione felt a magical sort of anticipation, as if something was going to happen.
Breakfast was wonderful, her classmates sharing in her excitement, no matter how much they tried to hide it. Theo was even publicly talking to her, mentioning his family's Samhain traditions and how Hogwarts' celebrations were more low-key. Draco kept looking over at her, as if he wanted to say something, but he kept it to himself, and Hermione felt a twinge of disappointment as he turned to talk to Pansy instead.
In Charms class, Flitwick announced that they were ready to start making objects fly, to the great excitement of the class. He paired them up, settling Hermione with Blaise, and instructed them to try and levitate the feather on the top of their desk.
Hermione raised an eyebrow and gestured for Blaise to go first. She'd mastered this charm months ago, and though it had been a hard-won victory, she could levitate a small stack of books now. A feather would be nothing.
The rest of the room struggled with it. Hermione watched with amusement as Pansy prodded her feather and accidentally set it on fire, Daphne slapping it with her textbook to put it out. Most of the feathers barely moved.
"This is stupid," Blaise muttered, gritting his teeth. She smirked, and he glared at her. "Oh, don't laugh. You do it if you're so special."
Hermione rolled her eyes, produced her wand, and gave it an elegant swish and flick.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
The feather flew, and with dexterous control, Hermione sent it after Blaise, tickling his nose until he sneezed and laughed.
"Oh! Look! Miss Granger's got it!"
Flitwick beamed with pride, and Hermione felt embarrassed for a moment, for him to be proud of her doing something so simple.
"You're even controlling its path," Flitwick said proudly. "Five points to Slytherin. Well done."
Hermione settled the feather back onto the table, giving Blaise a look. Blaise sighed and took up his wand again, resuming his efforts.
"For the rest of class, why don't you try to levitate your quill?" Flitwick suggested. "It's quite a bit heavier than a feather, so-"
Her quill was in the air before Flitwick had finished speaking, and she gave him an expectant look. Flitwick blinked.
"Ah- your inkwell?"
Her inkwell joined the floating quill, and Hermione could see real excitement in Flitwick's eyes.
"Your spellbook?"
Getting the spellbook to float while already holding two other things aloft was harder, but Hermione managed it, careful to keep a calm smile on her lips as she did, not letting anyone else see her struggle. When she sent all three to circle Flitwick's head, he clapped his hands with a laugh.
"Oh, well done, Miss Granger! Twenty points to Slytherin, for sheer skill! Why don't you help the others – you've obviously got the hang of it!"
He went off to help Tracey, who was glaring at her feather as if it had personally offended her, and Hermione allowed herself a moment to feel smug.
Turning, she caught Draco's eye. He was staring at her, his face inscrutable. With a pause, still flush with pride, Hermione carefully stood and made her way to the higher tiers of the class.
The others were too busy trying to float their own feathers to notice, but Draco's and Theo's eyes tracked her all the way up. She started moving toward them, making both of their eyes widen, before she stopped, next to Crabbe and Goyle.
Goyle was trying to make his feather fly by blowing it into the air as subtly as he could, while Crabbe had given up and was coloring his feather in with ink. Hermione gestured toward them wordlessly and raised an eyebrow at Draco, and saw as comprehension crossed his face.
To her annoyance, he looked torn, and Hermione felt a rush of rage. Still, he doubted her? Just because of his weird hang-ups about the cleanliness of her blood? Counting to five in her head, Hermione took a slow breath in, held it, and let it out.
"If they're holding Slytherin back, does it really matter who helps them?" she said quietly, holding Draco's eyes with hers. "Are you really so set on your baseless judgement of me that you'd let them suffer? Let the whole house suffer?"
Draco bit his lip and glanced at Theo, who inclined his head, demurring comment. Hermione watched as an internal struggle waged itself across his face, before, with a dramatic sigh, he waved at her, granting her permission.
"I suppose tutoring from you couldn't make them any worse," he said, with a sneer aimed at the two boys. "And it could very likely help matters at least a little bit."
Hermione inclined her head back to him, the only grace she could manage in her irritation.
Prat.
Vincent and Greg looked confused when she sat down between them, but amenable enough once she explained she was going to help them. The first thing was making sure they had the proper wand movement down; the second was realizing they had accidentally swapped wands.
By the end of the class, Greg was able to do the proper wand movement and pronunciation, and Vincent was able to do the proper swish and flick. It wasn't much, but when only three people in the class had managed to do the spell at all, it seemed like progress to Hermione.