Chapter 5

"Of course I am not," Hermione snarled, her voice sounding defensive even to her own ears. "I'm just heading down to breakfast early. I want a coffee. Not that I need to explain myself to you, Nott."

Nott smiled at her in a way that made her heart do an uncomfortable flip.

"There's a kitchenette here in the dorm Granger. You don't have to go all the way down to the Great Hall for coffee. Come on." He walked away from her and she was horribly tempted to use that moment to slip away from him, but Hermione refused to let him think that she was afraid of him.

He was already pouring her a cup of coffee before she joined him in the kitchenette as though he had assumed that she would follow.

"Cream? Sugar?" Nott asked, looking at her expectantly. "I'll remember after this,"

His concern gave her a warm feeling inside that made her feel uncomfortable.

"Cream. One sugar."

Nott prepared her coffee and Hermione couldn't help, but watch his hands as he mixed and scooped. His long fingers with their rings made her bite her lip. His face was concentrating on his task, and with his beard and sparkling eyes, he was so attractive. He made her feel things that no one else had - not even Ron.

He handed her the cup and smiled at her. "There you are, Granger. Have a good morning now."

He walked away. And she stood there in the kitchen, perfect cup of coffee in her hand, not sure what to do.

She had been trying to escape him and now he'd just left. She'd thought she would have to argue with him or … something to get him to go.

She drank the coffee and stared off into space where Theodore Nott had been moments before.

...

Theo watched her across the Great Hall as she read a book ignoring all the other lions that surrounded her. They were truly leagues beneath her and somewhere inside her, Hermione Granger had to know it. She was the cleverest and bravest of them by far.

He was impressed as she wandlessly levitated her book so that she could continue to read while she fixed herself another cup of coffee just the same as he had made for her this morning.

He knew that she could feel his eyes on her, but she was fighting the urge to look in his direction. She had a very strong will. Theo liked that about her, he liked a lot of things about her if he was being honest with himself, even before his Veela nature came out.

Draco was still subdued next to him, despite Theo's reassurances. At this point Theo would almost prefer a good strop compared to the bland and noncommittal way that Draco responded to everyone's attempts to draw him into conversation.

Greg was waxing poetic about Millie's better qualities and Blaise was trying not to roll his eyes. Daphne hadn't bothered to get up in time for breakfast and was probably applying her twentieth beauty charm back in her dorm room.

Pansy was pretending to eat, but hadn't done more than sip her weak tea. Theo was starting to get concerned. This wasn't like her. She was fiery and sometimes rude, but never hopeless. Pansy's eyes were flat as though the reason for her being alive was gone. He knew that her father had gone to Azkaban, but so many of theirs at the Slytherin table had that it wasn't any sort of a big deal. He watched her carefully and her eyes were on the Gryffindor table again.

Who was she looking at?

...

The morning started for the eighth years with double potions, those that had scored high enough on their OWLs anyway. Because there were so few it was a combined class with the seventh years of all houses. So Ernie McMillan and Luna Lovegood along with Michael Corner and a couple other Ravenclaws that Draco didn't care about sat towards the front on the right.

Dead centre was Granger with the seat next to her empty for some reason.

Who wouldn't want to be Granger's partner? She was second only to him in Potions.

Thomas and Weaslette were behind her. How that crass little cow had become Head Girl Draco couldn't understand. If his father had still been on the Board of Governors…well his father was to blame for a great deal of this mess, wasn't he?

The Hufflepuff contingent was only Abbott and Bones, no surprises there and Abbott had barely squeaked in.

Theo was sitting next to Blaise already as Draco stood in the doorway and Pansy was next to Greg which had Daphne in a tizzy, forcing her to sit next to Millie. Daphne was being bloody awful so Draco could understand why Pansy didn't want to sit by her. The glee Daphne had gotten out of Astoria's loss of the marriage contract was a bit sickening. To be fair, Draco was pleased as punch that he didn't have to marry Astoria, he hadn't been particularly enamoured of the idea, because of Theo for one, but also because he just felt nothing when he looked at her. Shouldn't you feel something for your future wife?

There was only one witch who had ever really stirred his blood and she was sitting up in front without a partner.

Draco caught Theo's eye. Theo subtly gestured towards the empty seat up front.

Draco gathered his courage and walked forward sliding onto the stool next to Granger. She narrowed her eyes at him, but didn't say anything uncivil when he nodded in her direction in greeting.

When Slughorn entered and announced that their table mate would be their potions partner for the term, Draco could not find it in himself to be sorry. He didn't look at Granger's face though. He didn't think he could stomach the revulsion that must have been there.

...

Potions partners with Draco Malfoy. No Head Girl post. Dealing with Ginny and her rude little petty insults. And whatever the bloody hell the business with Nott was, he had watched her eat breakfast for Merlin's sake.

Hermione wasn't sure what she had done to deserve all this now that she was back at Hogwarts. She missed her mum and her dad. Sometimes she wished that she had gone out with them that night in Australia, then she wouldn't have had to live without them.

She felt adrift. She wanted more than anything to have this school year over and settled.

So she did what always made her feel better, she went to the library. Madam Pince was overjoyed to see her and that felt nice. It was early enough in the year that no one else was haunting the library yet.

Hermione asked about books on post Hogwarts careers and sat down with a few guidebooks on choosing a magical career that had been written in the last few decades.

By the time Hermione came up from her research bubble she realised that she had missed lunch. Hermione had dismissed becoming an Auror, Magizoologist, dragon rehabilitation healer and four different branches of the Ministry as being too dangerous. Her mother had only asked that she choose a career that wasn't going to get her hurt or killed. Hermione was determined to honour that last request no matter what. It was really the least she could do.