tw : references to sex
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Draco
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She was annoying, infuriating, nosy and irritating.
But Draco couldn't take his eyes off her.
In front of her books that she put on jugs to read while she ate, or bent over scrolls in the Library, or laughing with Weasley, or eating while listening to Longbottom speak, or walking through the corridors in a hurry...
He still felt this irritation when he saw her, but it wasn't the same kind of anger as with Potter or Weasley. They were just annoying, they made him want to take revenge so they would pay. Her, it was more of an observation, annoyance at seeing her so studious.
She pissed him off because she was a Mudblood, a Know-It-All, a girl with strange friends, a Gryffindor.
He studied her as if she were a scientific problem he had to solve, she was so emotional and at the same time so closed, she was both mysterious and at yet fragile. He loved it when she returned an insult, or a retort, when she gave him a little attention so he could feel that dose of adrenaline he couldn't control and which was strangely addictive.
He was... intrigued.
Intrigued by this strange girl who wasn't paying the slightest attention to him and was inferior to him in many, but not all, ways.
"What are you looking at?" blurted out Blaise in an amused tone.
Draco abruptly took his eyes off Granger who was frowning as she read a letter at the Gryffindors' table, eating her breakfast absentmindedly and using only one hand to hold the letter with the other.
"No one. Nothing." Draco said in a jerky tone.
He swept his gaze over the rest of the tables to show Blaise that he was watching everyone, not just her. Blaise was sitting next to him, eating his eggs.
Draco hadn't even realized he was watching her.
"Where's Pansy?" asked Blaise.
"She's still sleeping it off."
"And you were picking out the girl you were gonna sleep with, right?"
Draco turned, horrified, to Blaise who had a big knowing grin on his face.
"Huh? What? No!" exclaimed Draco.
"Stop it, I know that look. When you found out I slept with Sandra, I knew right away that you wanted to make it a competition. And since then you've been looking for the girl to ask, haven't you?"
Draco almost contradicted him, but then figured it was better to say that than to explain that he was watching Granger read, so he nodded.
"Yeah, you guessed it. Show me which one it is, Sandra?" asked Draco.
Blaise waved at the Hufflepuff table, and a blonde girl with curls answered him with a small smile. Draco raised his eyebrows:
"Oh yeah, pretty."
"You can ask her friend Effie, she's cool."
Blaise pointed to the girl sitting next to Sandra, she had red hair, quite pretty, but Draco nodded:
"Not a Hufflepuff."
"Ughh. You want a Slytherin?"
Blaise turned to the left to see his own table and thought for a few seconds before saying:
"Astra?"
"Astra?" repeated Draco, unable to tell who it was.
"Astra Taylor, seventh year."
He discreetly pointed to a girl talking at the other end of the table. She had a blonde ponytail and a very pretty profile, but other than that, Draco couldn't really see that far.
"Why didn't you sleep with that one instead of stooping to a Hufflepuff?" hissed Draco.
"Who says I didn't sleep with her too?"
Draco spat out his pumpkin juice and turned to Blaise, horror-stricken. He was laughing his ass off.
"Yuck, Blaise, don't tell me you're going to start recommending girls you've already slept with!"
"No, I'm just kidding. I like Astra, but she wasn't necessarily interested in me so I didn't ask her."
"What makes you think I would?"
"Nothing. You'll have to work that part out for yourself. I can't do everything for you."
"Is she a Pureblood?"
Blaise rolled his eyes:
"Why, do you want to go and tell your father afterwards?"
"Ew, Blaise! Fuck!"
"So what do we care about her blood status? She's not a Muggle-born, anyway. Go talk to her, rather than making excuses!"
Just then, Pansy came into Draco's line of sight and the scathing retort he was about to hurl at Blaise vanished before it could even be uttered. Pansy sat down heavily on the bench opposite and buried her head in her hands to wake up a little.
"Good morning you two." she said in a sleepy voice. "What were you talking about?"
"Nothing." said Draco hastily, who didn't feel like talking about girls he wanted to sleep with to Pansy this early in the morning. "You want some toast?"
He handed her the basket of bread and she took one. She wasn't wearing any makeup, which was rare enough, but she was pretty either way. Besides, Draco was sure she'd put on her makeup in a hurry before class using her pocket mirror.
"Is your arm okay?" she asked, pointing to his bandages.
He shrugged:
"Yeah. How about you, did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, great."
Draco had the feeling she was lying, but he didn't insist.
Hermione
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Hermione was so focused on her schedule that she had completely lost track of time. Her days were long and she could hardly keep track. So it was no great surprise that she didn't understand why Ron, Neville and Harry were waiting at the bottom of the dormitory stairs with big smiles on their faces:
"Happy birthday Hermione!"
The latter had just time to realise what day it was when she heard a loud "CRACK" to her right. She turned her head and saw the twins bursting large tubes of confetti that fell by the thousands into the Great Hall:
"Happy birthday!" they shouted in one voice.
"Thank you! I had... completely forgotten." she admitted with a smile.
"Here, you have time to open our presents before we go to breakfast!" said Harry as he rushed over to one of the sofas where a small pile of presents was lying.
He handed her five packages: Harry's contained a set of Astrology instruments he had found on Diagon Alley, Ron had taken a book on ancient Egyptian wizardry which looked fascinating, Neville had bought a white scarf, Ginny a notebook with golden pages and the twins a nice wooden box to store her tea bags. She thanked them all with a hug one by one, and then they all went down to the Great Hall to have breakfast.
But the surprises were still not over. She didn't even have time to pour herself some pumpkin juice when two owls threw something in front of her plate. There was a letter from her parents and a small parcel that contained a Muggle cat toy and the same blanket she had, only smaller, for Crookshanks. He'd slept in her bed between her legs for a few nights, but mostly he spent his time wandering around the Castle.
Her parents had also stapled a letter from Danny, which she put in her bag to read later. The other owl was holding a scroll which she recognized as Hagrid's handwriting:
Happy Birthday Hermione!
I'm sending you your present: pumpkin biscuits and some of those cinnamon tea bags you like so much.
Have a good day, and I'll see you this afternoon for the Care of Magical Creatures class.
Hagrid.
Hermione bit into Hagrid's handmade cookies, and although they were a little overbaked, she found them delicious. Then the twins and Ginny went in opposite directions to get to class, while Hermione, Ron, Harry and Neville hurried so as not to be late for Divination.
Despite the fact that they had left early, they only arrived at the top of the ladder in the farthest tower of the Castle five minutes late. When they entered the circular room, everyone was already seated. Out of breath, Hermione hurriedly sat down in the chair at the nearest vacant table, surrounded by Harry and Ron:
"Sorry for the delay Professor..." Hermione said.
"That's alright, I anticipated that you would be." Professor Trelawney replied in her melodramatic tone.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Take out your books, please, and all of you take a cup to start your tea leaf readings. I know you forgot your book, Mr. Finnigan..." cut in Trelawney who had seen Seamus' hand rise during his sentence. "You can share it with Mr. Thomas's."
As with every time she made a prediction, Ron looked at Hermione with wide eyes, as if silently asking her to admit that she had managed to guess the future. Hermione, as she did every class, argued:
"It was obvious he was raising his hand to say that. Simple deduction."
Trelawney then passed between the tables as Hermione poured hot water into the three cups.
"Oh, and happy birthday to you, Miss Granger."
Hermione stopped what she was doing for a second, confused by what she had just heard:
"Er... Thank you, Professor."
Ron gave her the same look and Hermione said in a low voice:
"Oh, Ron! She has access to all the student records, she knows I was born on the 19th of September."
"Oh yes, because Trelawney is often seen hanging around the student files. Have you ever seen her come out of her tower, Hermione?" asked Ron.
"No, but... she must have heard it from one of you."
Ron arched an eyebrow, amused that she couldn't quite explain this prediction. She preferred to change the subject:
"How about those tea leaves?"
Harry swallowed the last few drops of his cup, turned his spoon once in it, turned it over on its saucer to empty it, then handed it to Hermione.
She looked at the leaves, which looked more like a small pile of wet grass than anything else. She turned the cup around in her hand several times while Ron did the same with his and Harry watched Ron's, holding back a smile.
"I think I see a sickle..." said Hermione as she tried in vain to find any shape.
She turned the pages of the manual and read the description of the sickle:
""A major injury will hinder your plans..." It's always very optimistic, these predictions..." she commented.
"I'm getting used to it." said Harry, who suppressed a laugh. "What about you, Ron? Do you see anything for Hermione?"
"I think I see a cat..."
He searched the manual and read aloud:
"It is imperative that you separate yourself from your big, ugly orange cat that is threatening your friend's poor rat..."
"Ha-ha-ha. Very funny, Ron." hissed Hermione.
Harry was now laughing out loud and was trying to hide behind Ron's mug so Professor Trelawney wouldn't see him.
"I'm just kidding!" said Ron with a smile. ""The cat symbolises idleness and laziness that prevents you from doing your work properly."" he read.
"Yes, of course, that is so me." said Hermione, who was becoming increasingly annoyed with this pointless class.
"Your turn, Harry."
"Me... I see for Ron... A pillow?" risked Harry as he turned the cup around.
"That, you don't need the textbook to guess, I just want to take a nap." said Ron as he lay down on the table.
Hermione burst out laughing. She could see what he meant: the overpowering scent of the room had a way of making her sleepy too, as well as giving her a headache.
Eventually, the teacher arrived at their table and as she did every week, she grabbed the cup Hermione was holding and launched into a great dramatic speech about poor Harry whose life was about to end abruptly and in excruciating pain.
Draco
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Draco was leaning against the wall next to the Transfiguration class. Class was due to start in ten minutes, and as usual, Pansy hadn't done her homework. She tended to always do it at the last minute, copying Draco's or Theo's and leaning against the wall to write as quickly as possible. This time, she had stolen Blaise's parchment and she applied herself to copying the exercises without being seen.
Draco was a bit distracted. He wasn't listening to the conversation between Theo, Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle next to him, and wasn't interested in Pansy's homework. He was looking around the corridors when he saw Granger hurrying through the crowd of students. She looked in a very bad mood, almost pushing the first years and grumbling because they wouldn't let her pass as fast as she wanted:
"Sorry, sorry! I need to get through, please!" she squealed in her high-pitched voice.
Draco had noticed that her voice was getting higher and higher as her patience was tested. That's why he'd made it a personal challenge to get her as angry as possible to try and achieve the high-pitched squeak she made when she was really annoyed. He watched her pass down the hallway without noticing he was there and disappeared, turning left. Draco frowned: he thought the Gryffindors had Herbology class at this time of day, yet Granger wasn't heading towards the greenhouses at all.
"Here, Draco, hold this for me please..."
Pansy handed him a small jar of ink, which she asked him to hold halfway up so she could dip her quill in it as quickly as possible. After five minutes of copying, McGonagall opened the door and Pansy had just enough time to stuff the parchment into her pocket so she wouldn't see it:
"Come in." said the Professor.
They entered the classroom and, surprisingly, Pansy didn't sit next to Draco, but to Daphne. So he took a seat next to Theo and after McGonagall threw her usual "Accio" to get all the homework, she started her class. That day they had to change a lizard into a hair comb, which was particularly difficult. Draco waved his wand and repeated the incantation several times, but his lizard remained firmly seated on his desk. Theo, on the other hand, had succeeded in partially transforming it, resulting in a comb with scaly tips.
By the end of the class, Draco had managed to get a comb, but it was still green and far too big. McGonagall didn't comment when she saw it, just gave him a sharp look over her glasses.
They were on their way out of class when Draco saw Granger in the same hallway, which she was crossing in the other direction. Draco vaguely wondered if she was going to dinner when Longbottom joined her in walking beside her:
"Hey Hermione! So, how was your day?" he asked as he walked beside her.
Draco was right behind them, and he was trying hard to listen to their conversation over the noise of the corridor.
"Very tiring, and you?" replied Granger with a sigh.
"Tiring'? Really?" asked Longbottom.
"Yes... I've taken a few more options than you, so I have more classes."
"Ah that's a pity, an exhausting day for your birthday..."
"That's okay, I don't really celebrate it anyway. But thanks a lot for the scarf, I'll wear it this winter. I've got to run and meet Ron and Harry, see you at dinner?"
And she walked away, waving at him towards another hallway.
Was it her birthday? Draco had never wondered when it was. He noted in the back of his mind that it was the 19th of September. Longbottom had given her a scarf? What had Potter given her? And Weasley? He was sure she had asked for books. Or worse, that she hadn't asked for anything at all and had pretended to be surprised when she'd opened them this morning, and had repeated "but you shouldn't have!" a dozen times.
"Draco, potatoes?"
He looked up and suddenly realised that he was already sitting at the Slytherin table, and that his plate was empty in front of him. How long had they been there? He'd never daydreamed so much as he had since school started.
"Er, yeah."
He helped himself and really tried to get involved in the conversation so as not to appear too distracted. He had no idea what they were talking about, but from Theo's enthusiasm, it had to be about classes:
"...third in the rankings, and I'm trying to get ahead on homework by also doing Crabbe's and Goyle's when I have time to pick up some money, so hopefully I can get first in Transfiguration thanks to the homework from earlier..."
"Are you still helping Crabbe and Goyle?" asked Blaise.
"Yeah, they reimbursed me for last year's homework and I raised the prices this year."
"Is this a joke? You're helping them and not me?" snapped Pansy.
"Well that depends, how much do you give me?" asked Theo with a sly smile.
Pansy threw a piece of bread over the table. She always had the annoying habit of throwing the first thing she could get her hands on when someone made a remark she didn't like.
"I thought we were friends, 'and when we're friends it's free'?" she grumbled, imitating Theo's voice.
"First of all, I don't talk like that, and secondly, you never do your homework, if I had to do all of yours plus I'd never be first in the..."
Draco abandoned his attempt to follow the discussion. He didn't feel like talking about classes right after school, he heard enough of that during the day! He plunged into his own thoughts, and as if in an automatic gesture, he discreetly observed the Gryffindors' table.
Potter wasn't there, but there was Weasley across from Granger, who Draco could identify by his red hair from behind. Granger wasn't talking, she looked preoccupied. And now that he'd heard her, he had to say that she looked particularly tired...
He tore himself away from his contemplation of Granger by mentally slapping himself. He had to stop doing this, his father would be furious if he found out he was that intrigued by this girl. She was a Mudblood, for fuck's sake!
Instead, he turned his head and looked for Astra at the Slytherin table. There she was, talking with a seventh year boy. Draco began to formulate a mental plan to approach her, trying to keep Granger out of his thoughts.
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But Draco couldn't avoid Granger. Everywhere he went, he seemed to spot her, which didn't help his mind wander. Throughout October, he tried to pull himself together and stop wondering about this insufferable girl.
He made excuses, told himself that he was only intrigued by her because she was better than him in class, or that she hung out with the most famous boy in the wizarding world, his enemy, or that he wanted to find ideas to throw at her when he ran into her in a corridor to piss her off.
But deep down, he knew he was lying to himself.
On Halloween, he was delighted to be able to go for a walk in Hogsmeade. He had been there several times before with his parents, but that didn't stop him from being happy to go back for a change of scenery. Theo, however, was not nearly as thrilled:
"He'll see it right away, Blaise!" he said, walking slowly towards the courtyard.
Draco glanced over at him. He was wrapped in a huge green scarf and clutching his paper in his gloved hands, which were almost trembling with nervousness. Blaise had signed in place of Theo's father, but he was sure they would get busted and he would get a detention, which had never happened to him before.
"Theo, relax!" hissed Blaise for the tenth time that day.
"If he says anything, I'll accuse you." Theo warned. "Suppose he knows I got kicked out of my house? How can I explain to him that my father signed my permission form?"
"Because you really think Filch is going to tell you that? That Squib?" laughed Blaise.
They arrived in the courtyard and approached Filch who was checking every piece of paper.
"Blaise Zabini, I swear to you..." hissed Theo.
"If it works, you'll buy me a Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks to make up for your lack of confidence in me, okay?" cut in Blaise.
"And if it doesn't work, I'll stay here with you." said Pansy in a detached tone. "I don't really care about Hogsmeade."
"No, you don't! We're going to buy lots of stuff!" said Draco.
Pansy shrugged. They got in line, and Crabbe and Goyle arrived in turn:
"What are you doing here?" asked Theo. "Do you have any money left to spend?"
"Yes, we wanted to go to Zonko, and Honeydukes!" explained Goyle with a big smile.
Draco saw Potter a little way off, looking at Granger and Weasley with a disgusted look on his face, down the stairs a little way off. He called out to him:
"Are you staying here, Potter? Are you afraid to walk past the Dementors?"
As his only answer, Potter turned to go back to the Castle. Theo turned to him, looking panicked:
"What? Because we have to go past the Dementors, too?"
"I don't know, I just said that to piss Potter off. Relax, Theo! It's just an outing." Draco told him.
Theo nodded. Brown curls protruded from under his hat. When it was their turn, they showed their signed forms one by one, and Filch approved all of them, including Theo's. As soon as they climbed into the carriage, Theo let out a sigh of relief:
"I really thought he was going to see the fake signature."
"You owe me a Butterbeer, Nott." said Blaise simply.
The carriage set off and as they passed the school gates, Draco saw two Dementors guarding the entrance, but they did not approach. Soon, they saw the outline of the Hogsmeade houses before them.
Pansy asked Draco to accompany her to a clothes shop, where he reluctantly followed her and had to wait for her to try on half the racks before deciding on some jumpers and dresses. Then they joined Theo, whom they had to drag from the village bookshop to the Three Broomsticks. Draco was delighted to enter the pub, where it was much warmer than in the windy village streets.
They sat down at a table and Pansy ordered for everyone:
"Six Butterbeers, please."
The pub manager returned with six mugs of beer. Draco took one and sipped the vanilla foam over it.
"Oh, Blaise, stop drooling." scoffed Pansy as she caught Blaise's glance at the waitress.
"I'm not drooling! But you have to admit she's pleasant to look at, right?"
Draco looked around for the woman behind the bar, but as he swept his gaze around the room, he then saw Granger sitting at a table with Weasley. They looked like they were arguing about something, but he was too far away to hear anything. Granger looked deeply exasperated, and Weasley was getting carried away, swinging his hands around.
Then, the Weasley twins came in and sat down next to them, which stopped their argument immediately, but didn't stop Granger from sulking without speaking. In three years, he had never seen Granger get so angry at one of her friends. He wondered what Weasley had done to make her so angry. Usually, it was him she was angry with, him she reserved that angry look for.
Pansy was telling the latest school gossip. Crabbe and Goyle were strangely interested, but Draco had trouble identifying the people she was talking about, as he often did. He pretended to listen to her as he drank his Butterbeer, and when they had all finished, they paid and returned to the village.
They all walked together through the cobbled streets, stopping at a few shop windows and buying a few things. Draco stopped at Honeydukes to buy some sweets he liked, although he preferred the ones his mother sent him in parcels from time to time.
On the way back to the carriages, Pansy did something she had never done before: she slid her arm through Draco's as she walked, casually. At first he was a little surprised, but then he thought she was probably afraid of slipping on the wet leaves on the ground and didn't pay any more attention.
The Halloween feast was just as appetising as in previous years, but with all the sweets Draco had eaten on the way home, he couldn't eat everything he wanted. When they returned to the Common Room, there were already a few Slytherin students there. There was a party going on. There were parties every weekend in the Common Room, but as it was often the sixth and seventh years students who organised them, Draco and his friends had never stayed very long.
This time, he recognised Astra tapping the phonograph with her wand to start the music. When she saw him pass, she gave him a small smile, to which he replied.
"Go on, Dray!" whispered Blaise who had caught the exchange of glances between the two. "She just waved at you!"
"No, my arm..."
"Oh, give me a break. You haven't had a bandage on for a fortnight. You're just scared, that's all."
"No, I'm just setting the scene." Draco said as he entered the dormitory.
"Hurry up then, or Nott will win..." said Blaise in a whisper.
Draco arched an eyebrow and looked in the direction of Theo, who was quietly reading a book in the armchair in the room, his feet dangling from the armrest. He was wearing checkered pajama trousers and a white top that revealed the scars on his arms, and had positioned his book balanced against his lap so he could read without holding it.
"Not a chance." replied Draco with a laugh.
They ate some Honeydukes, including Draco's favourite, the ones that were honeyed and melted in the mouth. They were each seated in their respective beds, except for Pansy who was lying in Draco's bed, as she did most nights. She was already in her pyjamas and had tied her fringe back so that it was not in front of her eyes.
Blaise was just testing the new explosive candy, when suddenly, someone burst into the dormitory and turned on the lights, blinding the four Slytherins.
Draco turned towards the door and saw a Slytherin prefect he had only seen a few times patrolling the corridors. He must have been a seventh year, and was still fully dressed in his House colours. He scanned the room quickly, and stopped for a few seconds on Pansy. Pansy pulled the duvet tighter against her, perhaps hoping to hide in it and disappear. Fortunately, he did not comment on the forbidden presence of a girl in a boys' dormitory and said in an authoritative voice:
"Everyone go to the Great Hall, it's an emergency. Hurry!"
Draco exchanged a bemused look with his friends before hurriedly getting out of bed and heading for the exit. All the Slytherin students were coming out of the Common Room, some in their pyjamas, some still dressed.
"What's going on?" asked Theo half-heartedly.
"No idea." replied Blaise.
They were joined by the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students at the doors to the Great Hall. The Gryffindors were already there, all still dressed in the same way as at the Halloween feast. Pansy slipped away from the group, probably to gather information.
Eventually, some of the teachers closed all the exits and they found themselves stuck in the Great Hall, not knowing if they should sit at their tables or not.
"The professors and I must search the Castle." announced Dumbledore, who no longer had any trace of amusement on his face. "I fear that for your own safety, it will be necessary for you to spend the night here. I am asking the Prefects to stand guard at the doors of the Great Hall, and I am entrusting the Prefect and Head Prefect to arrange matters. Any incident should be reported to me immediately. You will ask one of the ghosts to give me a message if necessary.
He waved his wand twice and the four House tables suddenly lined up against the walls, and hundreds of sleeping bags appeared from nowhere on the floor.
"Sleep well." the Headmaster said before exiting the Great Hall.
Draco turned, dumbfounded, to Theo and Blaise. Pansy wove her way through the crowd of students who were all talking in an overexcited tone.
"Sirius Black." she said, her dark eyes suddenly animated. "He tried to get into the Gryffindors' tower, tore up the board guarding the entrance to get through. He probably wanted to kill Potter, but he didn't succeed."
"Too bad." muttered Draco as he looked around for Potter.
He found him in a corner of the Great Hall, putting on his sleeping bag and in deep discussion with Granger and Weasley.
"Always his fault!" complained Theo. "I'm never going to get to sleep here, I'll freeze to death!"
Theo was always very cold, he always had six tons of layers of clothes on him, even when the weather was nice. Pansy took out her wand and pointed it at one of the sleeping bags on the floor:
"Calefacere."
Her wand sent out a spray that lit up the bag for a few seconds.
"Heat charm." she explained in a jaded tone. "Are you really second best, Nott? You learn that in first year."
As Theo and Pansy went off into a childish squabble, Draco chose one of the bags and used his sweater as a pillow. Blaise and Pansy lay on either side of him, both a little worried.
"How did he get in?" asked Blaise. "There are Dementors patrolling around the Castle all the time!"
"Maybe he's indemnified against them? From being around them, maybe he's gotten used to them and doesn't feel the effects anymore?" offered Draco.
"Impossible." cut in Theo, on the other side of Pansy. "No one can get used to their magic, I've read that while trying to find a way to stop shivering whenever I walk by them."
"So he Apparated!" said Pansy.
"Impossible." repeated Theo. "No one is allowed to Apparate within the walls of Hogwarts, except Dumbledore. It's written in Hogwarts: A History."
Draco was at a loss for ideas. He didn't know how Sirius Black had managed to get into the Castle, and he was sure that Dumbledore and the others would not be able to find him. He'd been in Azkaban for so many years, he must have thought of his plan a thousand times. And yet he had carried it out on Halloween. Didn't he know there was a feast every year?
He turned his head and met Pansy's gaze, just before the candles went out and the room was pitch black. She was scared, he could tell by the look in her charcoal eyes. He was sure she was asking herself the same question he was: what if the Dark Lord their parents had been telling them about since they were children helped him?
Hermione
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Hermione hadn't managed to sleep all night. Partly because her sleeping bag had been awfully thin and so she hadn't found a position comfortable enough without hurting her back against the stone, but also because she had been worried throughout the night. As soon as she had heard the slightest noise, she had jumped to think that Sirius Black had suddenly infiltrated the Hall and was striding silently towards Harry.
Because of her insomnia, the Time Turner's already exhausting pace made her completely exhausted, and it wasn't even 10 o'clock. She forced herself to keep up with all the classes on her timetable and take notes, even though every stroke of the hourglass was painful, eagerly awaiting lunchtime to breathe a little.
By the third nine o'clock class, Arithmancy, Hermione had reached a level of fatigue that defied anything she had ever experienced. She was so out of it that she accidentally bumped into Ron, Harry and herself as they were leaving the Great Hall for Divination class. She hid in a cupboard at the last minute and, cursing herself for her forgetfulness, arrived in the Arithmancy class ruminating.
She sat down noisily at her desk and took her things out of her bag, which must have weighed the same as Buckbeack the hippogriff, and put down her notebook heavily.
"Grumpy this morning, Granger?"
Draco Malfoy's drawl was the last thing she wanted to hear. She closed her eyes, breathing in slowly to calm herself, then turned to the right, where Malfoy and Nott were sitting.
"Yes, a little." she said. "So I'd kindly advise you to leave me alone, Malfoy. I'm really not in the mood."
"It's because of Sirius Black, isn't it?" continued Malfoy without paying attention to her warning. "Don't worry Granger, he's not interested in you, only Potter. And hopefully he'll finally get rid of him for us."
"You don't even know what you're talking about, Malfoy."
"I think you're mistaken, Granger. I know things you don't know." Malfoy replied with a smirk.
"You do? What things?"
She met Malfoy's icy gaze, which had a glint of mischief in its grey pupils.
"Ah, you'll have to beg me to tell you, Granger..."
"Not in a million years. You don't know anything anyway." she said firmly, turning away.
Malfoy seemed stung by this reflection because he exclaimed:
"Oh yeah, are you sure about that? So, you know about the connection between Potter and Black, Miss Know-It-All?"