the scene at the end of this chapter was inspired by a tiktok I saw on 28/10/2021 by dreomione

Hermione

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"Hermione, you look completely exhausted. How did you manage to do all this?"

She ate one of the small cookies Hagrid had prepared to avoid answering the question. Her file on Buckbeak's trial was finished, and Hermione had spent her evening at Hagrid's explaining the final details before he went to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, which was due to take place the following week. When she took a sip of tea, she saw that Hagrid's eyes were still on her, waiting for an answer.

"I've been working quite a bit." she said evasively.

"You're pushing yourself too hard, Hermione." he said in his gruff voice. "I don't deserve all this, especially with all the work you have on the side."

"Are you sure I can't come with you?" she asked, pointing to the blue pouch she had placed on the table.

Hagrid shook his head sharply:

"No, out of the question. You've already done too much, I don't want to involve you in this again."

"But I'd love to!" cried Hermione. "I'm sure I could ask Professor McGonagall for permission, she likes me a lot, she'd grant it! I could go to London with you and Buckbeak while the others go to Hogsmeade."

Hagrid frowned his bushy eyebrows:

"Why don't you want to go to Hogsmeade?"

"I didn't say that, I'm just saying it..."

"Ron and Harry still not talking to you?"

She sighed slightly. Hagrid had a knack for understanding how she felt, even when she didn't want to talk about it.

"No..."

"I'll talk to them."

"No! Hagrid, please. It's all right, I promise. The fact that I had an argument with Ron has nothing to do with my wanting to go with you to the Committee. I'm sure I could help you prove Buckbeak's innocence."

As if to back up his words, Buckbeak gave a little cry from Hagrid's bed where he lay. The gamekeeper looked affectionately at his hippogriff, but shook his head a second time:

"No, I can't, Hermione. But I'm very touched by your offer."

He shifted his gaze to her, and she did not hide her look of disappointment. Hagrid's face softened even more:

"You really do look exhausted, Hermione." he repeated, softly. "Aren't you sleeping well?"

"Not really."

"Did you hear what happened to Ron yesterday?" asked Hagrid.

Hermione shuddered at the memory of Ron's horrific scream last night. Hermione hadn't been able to sleep since then, she'd been awake for almost two days.

"Yes." she said glumly. "Sirius Black."

"He's safe now." Hagrid said, placing a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder. "You don't have to be afraid anymore."

Hermione wasn't sure if he meant Ron or Harry, but either way, she was grateful that he was reassuring her in this way. Hagrid was one of her favourite people from Hogwarts, he was the one she turned to when she needed a parent. Whenever she was with him, she felt less alone and no longer felt ashamed to confide in him. But she could see that he was unhappy too. During his explanation of the hippogriffs, he often turned to Buckbeak with shining eyes and a slightly quivering mouth. She hoped with all her heart that he would be able to defend him during the trial.

Around 3 o'clock, Hagrid poured her some more cinnamon tea as a break. Hermione put down the paper on the trial of yet another creature that she had been reading to Hagrid and took a long sip to warm up. Hagrid stood up and showed her several outfits he could wear to the trial:

"I can't wear this one, because there's a hole in the suit jacket."

"What about this?" she asked, pointing to a shirt that was hanging down.

"No, not serious enough. I do have this lovely tie lying around somewhere, though..."

While Hagrid rummaged through his wardrobe, Hermione gently rested her head against her arms to give her tired eyes a little rest. Five minutes, she told herself, before sinking into the restful sleep she had been looking forward to for weeks.

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Draco

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"Dracooooo!"

Draco turned his head towards the stands of the Quidditch pitch where Theo stood, arms in the air, desperately trying to get his attention. Draco waved to the Slytherin team and headed down to join his friend:

"What?" he asked as he put his foot down on the stands.

"Well, I've been calling you for the last ten minutes!"

Theo was probably in a bad mood. Draco knew why, Theo was very chilly, so even though he'd put on three layers of clothes and a blue beanie on his head, his nose and cheeks were red from the cold.

"Sorry, I can't hear anything in the wind." said Draco.

"A letter, for you. Your father."

Draco took off his gloves to unroll the parchment Theo was handing him. The latter jumped up and down as they began to read, probably in an attempt to warm his legs, chilled by the icy wind. At first, Draco couldn't read because it was so dark, so he took his wand out of his Quidditch robe pocket and lit it:

Dear Draco,

I'm writing to you from London, where the trial is being held tomorrow. I ran past Hagrid in the corridors of the Ministry and he wasn't looking too good. Pathetic. I think he knows that he has no chance of winning his case. I spoke to the head of the Commission, Backwood, and let him know what I thought of that hippogriff. It seems we've already won the case before it's even started.

Cornelius Fudge himself has turned up, and as he's a good friend, I think the executioner can polish his axe and chop the wretched creature's head off right now.

I'll let you know what happens tomorrow, when the trial finishes. I hope you're working hard to make your results more convincing than they were last year.

Until tomorrow, then,

Lucius Malfoy.

At the end of his reading, Theo had arched a questioning eyebrow:

"How can he be so convinced that he's going to win against Hagrid?" he asked.

"My father has a lot of influence. Besides, I said I'd had my arm immobilised for three months. But I still have my doubts... Granger helped him prepare his defence."

Theo raised his eyebrows even higher:

"How do you know that?"

"I ran into her when she was coming out of Hagrid's dump."

"I didn't know you two were chatting." Theo pointed out with the shadow of a smile.

"We're not chatting, I just told her that... Oh, never mind." he assented when he saw the amused look on his friend's face.

The floor of the stands creaked a little and Draco turned his head: Pansy was coming towards them. She had tied a long black scarf around her neck, with only her eyes and fringes sticking out.

"Pansy? What are you doing here?" asked Draco.

"I came to look at you." she replied simply, taking a seat on one of the benches.

Draco didn't hide his surprise: she hadn't looked at him from the stands for months. In fact, she had drifted away from him for some time, but he knew Pansy well enough to know that she was going through a phase of distancing, and that she would quickly tell him what was on her mind when she was ready.

"Huh?" exclaimed Theo, who was still dancing in place to keep his body from going cold. "But you're going to be freezing."

"No, I'm fine." she replied simply. "Do you want to stay with me?" she asked Theo, patting the spot next to her.

"I'd rather die than stand still in this cold. I can't feel my toes already. See you later!"

And he walked quickly away down the stairs of the stands.

"What's that?" asked Pansy.

He followed her gaze and saw the letter he was still clutching in his hand. He put it back in his pocket with an absent expression.

"Nothing, just my dad giving me an update on the hippogriff trial. Are you sure you want to stay? I'm happy you came to watch me train, but you'll really freeze to death if you stay."

"No, I'm fine." she repeated.

Now that she was sitting opposite him, Draco could clearly smell the now familiar scent of cold tobacco that followed Pansy everywhere. Unlike the smell of her cigarettes, it wasn't disgusting and was strangely soothing. Unfortunately, she immediately took a black packet out of her coat pocket and removed one of the cigarettes, then made a small fire with the end of her wand to light it.

"Ah, so that's why you've come, really." Draco scoffed.

"What's the problem? It's warming!" she protested, taking a drag. "Do you want some?"

"For the thousandth time, no."

"Hey, Draco!" shouted Marcus Flint from across the pitch, still in the air. "You think one of us is going to catch the Golden Snitch? Stop flirting and hurry back to the game!"

Draco rolled his eyes at this. Pansy was smiling. He straddled his broom, promised Pansy he'd be back soon and took to the air again. He climbed as high as he could to get a clearer view of the pitch, and tried his best not to confuse the Golden Snitch with the tip of Pansy's lit cigarette a little further on.

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Hermione

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Hermione had preferred not to go to Hogsmeade, so that she could study in the Library all day. She didn't even go to lunch, and so spent long hours catching up on the week's homework at her usual table in the Library. She took a break to write two long letters to her parents and to Danny, whom she hadn't heard from in too long. Once she had finished, she continued with her Herbology essay, which she absolutely had to finish.

She was in the middle of rereading an important definition when she heard a clattering noise beside her. Hermione raised her head a little too sharply, unused to being disturbed in the Library on a Saturday afternoon. She realised that it was in fact a black owl tapping on the window pane. It was already dark and she could hardly see the owl on the windowsill. It was holding a letter in its beak.

Hermione's blood ran cold as she realised who it was from. She opened the window and let in the owl, which ruffled its frozen feathers and bent down to take a few drops of Hermione's cinnamon tea while she opened the letter.

There was a large tear stain on it, which had made the paper transparent in places, and difficult to read:

Dear Hermione,

We lost. I've been given permission to take him back to Hogwarts. The execution date will be set soon. Buckbeak loved London very much. I won't forget all the help you gave me.

Hagrid.

Seeing Hagrid's trembling handwriting, she stifled a small sob. They had lost. Hermione felt as if a huge weight had suddenly fallen from her stomach, the disappointment hurt so much. She packed her things into her bag, still holding the letter in her hand, and stomped out of the Library. She couldn't bear to sit in the same place after reading this, she had to tell Ron and Harry, or whoever.

She remembered that the boys might still be in Hogsmeade and vaguely considered telling Ginny the whole story to let off steam, before bumping into someone at the corner of a corridor.

"Sorry, I didn't..." she began.

She looked up at the person she had just bumped into and came face to face with the person she least wanted to see at that moment: Malfoy. He was accompanied by Theodore Nott.

"Hey, watch where you're walking, Granger!" he exclaimed.

"Proud of yourself, Malfoy?"

Malfoy glared at her, as if she carried a disease he could catch at any second. She showed him the letter she had clenched in her fist, well aware that she had tears in her eyes and that she must look like a madwoman flailing around like that in front of them:

"We've lost! A poor animal is going to be killed, because of you, just for a whim! Don't you even feel the slightest bit of guilt?"

For a second, Hermione thought she swore she saw surprise on Malfoy's face, which he quickly wiped away to put on his famous infernal smirk:

"Did you honestly think that drunk Hagrid was going to win his case? He probably can't even read."

She lunged at him, enraged, and he recoiled briefly.

"Stop it! You don't even know what you're talking about!" she shouted. "You feel important because your father has contacts at the Ministry, but I'm sure he paid off the people at the Commission! You've got nothing to be proud of, Malfoy! If I had a father as rotten as yours, I'd stop strutting around the Castle like I owned it!"

He was about to retort, but Theodore Nott stopped him:

"Okay, let's both calm down. Come on, Draco, let's go to the Common Room."

He grabbed his arm and they walked around Hermione to continue on their way.

It was the first time she'd heard Nott's voice outside of his few interventions in class, and it was surprisingly much softer than Malfoy's. But she was ranting far too much to analyse it further, so she stamped her foot angrily, then left to join Ron and Harry.

She climbed the stairs to the Gryffindors' Common Room. Since Sirius Black's intrusion into the boys' dormitory, the Knight of the Cadogan had been sacked, and the Fat Lady had agreed to take over his role. Just as she was about to say the password, she heard Ron's voice behind her, coming up the stairs:

"It was me who encouraged you to come. Lupin's right, it was stupid. We shouldn't have done that..."

She approached them and Ron frowned fiercely when he saw her:

"Come to have a good gloat?" he said. "Or have you just been to tell on us?"

"No." she replied piteously. "I just thought you'd like to know... Hagrid has lost his case. Buckbeak is going to be executed."

She handed them the letter, which they both read silently, then Harry exclaimed:

"Surely they can't do that. They couldn't. Buckbeak is not dangerous!"

"Malfoy's father bullied the members of the Commission." Hermione explained without hiding the anger in her voice. "You know what he's like. There's a whole bunch of old geezers in there and they got scared. There's going to be an appeal, of course, there always is. But I don't see any hope. Nothing will have changed."

"Yes, it will." cried Ron. "This time you won't have to do the job alone, Hermione. I'm going to help you."

She felt a deep sense of relief at these words, and all the injustice she had felt since receiving Hagrid's letter brought tears to her eyes. She threw herself at Ron to hug him:

"Oh, Ron! I'm so, so sorry about Scabbers."

When she pulled away from Ron, his cheeks were flushed and he had a shy little smile on his lips:

"Oh... Well, he was old. He wasn't much use. Now, you never know, maybe my parents will buy me an owl."

Hermione was so happy to have her two friends back that her disappointment and anger at Malfoy had almost dissipated.

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Hermione

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Hermione was so overwhelmed with work that March flew by in a matter of seconds. She was used to the jolts of the Time Turner by now, but her rhythm was as unstable as ever. She only slept a few hours a night and drank five coffees to wake up every day. She was now studying hard for her exams, which were due in June, unlike Ron and Harry, who hadn't even glanced at their marks for the year.

On the first Monday in April, Hermione made her weekly diversion to the Transfiguration room before going to breakfast, to check the latest results that were posted there. She walked over to the door where they were hanging and looked for the list of third years. She was first overall, as she had been every Monday since first year. Hermione then slid her finger along the list of results by subject, and suddenly stopped at the Charms list:

1- Draco Malfoy, Slytherin

2- Hermione Granger, Gryffindor

3- Theodore Nott, Slytherin

Hermione blinked and reread the list several times. But no matter how many times she read, the list was always the same. Draco Malfoy was first. She immediately turned her head to either side, as if to check that no one had noticed the list.

He had already beaten her a few times in Potions. Theodore Nott had also got better marks than her in some tests, which annoyed her every time. But Malfoy had never placed higher than her in such an important subject. How could he have done so well?

She had no excuse. Flitwick had never favoured the Slytherins, and she hadn't felt like she'd failed any of her recent homework. He'd simply been better than her, this time.

Hermione turned on her heels to go to lunch, her mind muddled. If she hadn't had so many options, perhaps she would have done better. Had she put aside her core subjects? Or had Malfoy simply been working hard?

When she reached the Great Hall, she automatically looked at the object of her reflections, at the Slytherin table. Of course, he was already seated and gloating. He knew, he'd seen the rankings. His little satisfied smile proved it. She hated it, this feeling of being somehow inferior to him, that he could boast about it, in her own field.

She sat down furiously at the Gryffindors' table and received a curious look from Harry.

"What's the matter with you?" he asked.

"Malfoy. He beat me in Charms for the first time. And he's looking at me like he's saved the wizarding world, with that little smile that I can't stand." she growled.

Harry turned to look for Malfoy in the crowd of students, and when he found him, Malfoy gave him the most insolent look he could muster.

"How do you know he passed you?" asked Ron as he ate his bowl of cereal.

Hermione turned to him, dumbfounded:

"I saw it on the student ranking sheet."

"The what?"

"The student grades ranking. It's in the Transfiguration room, updated every Monday morning. Didn't you know that?"

"No." Ron replied simply, shrugging. "How would I know that?"

Hermione shook her head disapprovingly. She didn't understand how one could ignore this kind of vital information in third year.

Behind Harry's shoulder, she could see the faces of Theodore Nott and Draco Malfoy, on the other side of the Great Hall, and one of them was obviously intent on proving to her that he knew this ranking very well.

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Draco

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Draco now understood why Theo was so invested in his studies. It was an incredible feeling to be ahead of Granger in something. He had chosen to persevere fully in one subject, Charms, in an attempt to pick up points here and there without her realising. After a month, his hard work had paid off, because he had managed to come first in the subject's rankings, just above Granger who had been relegated to second place.

Since then, he had spent his time pointing this out to Granger whenever she came near him. He took great pleasure in seeing her face contort in anger when he referred to her place in the rankings. He knew it wouldn't last long, so he enjoyed his moment of glory as much as possible.

Sometimes she would turn to him, her face hard. Once, in Arithmancy, she had even reacted to his spike by answering him in the same tone, much to his delight. He loved to tease her until she couldn't contain herself and exploded with insults and sharp retorts. On the other hand, he had realised with regret that she was starting to talk to Potter and Weasley again, and every time she was accompanied by them, she completely ignored Draco, almost pretending not to hear him bragging about his grades. It was annoying. She never wanted to talk to him when she was surrounded by her two stupid friends, and he wasn't even allowed a glance from her in those cases.

The icy weather was replaced by a much sunnier April, but it was still a dreadful experience to go to the Care of Magical Creatures class. Ever since the hippogriff accident, Hagrid hadn't dared show a single creature that looked remotely interesting, and was simply teaching them about Flobberworms, the most boring animal in the world. After an hour of walking the Flobberworms around the Hogwarts gardens, Draco headed back up towards the Castle with Crabbe, Goyle and Blaise. Ahead of them they could hear Hagrid's quavering voice complaining:

"This is really terrible. Lucius Malfoy has this commission in the palm of his hand. All I can do is try to make Buckbeak as happy as possible in the time he has left. I owe him that much at least..."

The gamekeeper walked away as Granger, Potter and Weasley had gathered at the bottom of the stairs. Draco let out a loud laugh to get their attention:

"Look at him blubber!"

Crabbe and Goyle laughed too, but Draco noticed that Blaise had wandered off too. He certainly didn't want to take part in this kind of conversation. Draco continued in the same mocking tone:

"Have you ever seen anything quite so pathetic? And he's supposed to be our teacher!"

He looked at Granger as he said this. When she heard him, she turned sharply towards him. He'd never seen her so tired and angry in his life. Her hair was even more messed up than usual, and her eyes were red and bloodshot from an obvious lack of sleep. Suddenly, she crossed the courtyard in long strides, heading straight for him. Not expecting such rage, he simply stood there, watching her come like a fury:

"You! You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!"

He almost laughed at this childish insult, but avoided it, because he was really afraid of the dark look Granger was giving him at that moment. She stopped a few inches from him, and without him expecting it, drew her wand and pointed it at his exposed neck. He vaguely heard Weasley exclaim:

"Hermione, no! He's not worth it!"

They stared into each other's eyes. She looked determined, driven by a fury he never thought he'd arouse by saying that. She really did have a great affection for the half-giant, he had never heard her defend anyone as fervently as she did.

Then she withdrew her wand and turned to join Potter and Weasley. Draco let out a sigh that had been stuck in his throat. Then, Granger suddenly turned round again and slapped him across the face with all her might.

He staggered under the force of the blow.

She hadn't done that.

She hadn't just hit him like that. He'd been dreaming. No ?

A hand on his cheek confirmed that it wasn't a dream: it was sore and already swollen. Hermione Granger had just punched him.

Crabbe and Goyle were looking at him stupidly, not knowing what to do. His vision was blurred, but he could clearly see Granger's silhouette walking away, and the victorious grins of fucking Potter and Weasley.

Then he felt the worst wave of anger he'd ever had. She had hit him. He'd never thought she could do that, cross that forbidden line. No matter how many insults they'd hurled at each other over the last three years, Draco would never lay a hand on her. This was no game, this was completely outside their 'rules', their twisted agreement that they had unwittingly established.

Draco felt the familiar burn of anger rising inside him, multiplied tenfold. It was almost paralysing him, preventing him from breathing, squeezing his ribs. He was so furious that he felt like breaking something, anything. Or better still, he felt like taking it out on her, pouring out his hatred in the form of the words he always aimed just to knock her off her feet.

Without realising it, he sped away from Crabbe and Goyle. He wanted to leave, to escape this place and try to get his heart rate down. But no matter how much he walked, the rage continued to rage inside him like a demon. He hated her, he hated her, he wanted her to pay for what she had just done.

"Draco? What the hell are you doing here?"

He stopped as he heard Pansy's voice. She was sitting on the floor, alone, leaning against Herbology greenhouse number three. She was wearing nothing but a simple white shirt and a black skirt, revealing her long legs.

"Aren't you cold?" he asked.

"What's wrong with your face?" she asked at the same time.

He looked around. He hadn't realised he'd walked so far. There was nobody around them, the whole courtyard was empty. They heard the bell indicating the start of lessons, but neither of them took any notice.

Draco suddenly sat down next to Pansy and ran his hands over his trousers several times to try and calm the whirlwind of emotions that was still gripping his gut.

"I'm furious." he muttered, avoiding looking at Pansy.

She must have seen it, it was pretty obvious he wasn't fine. She stuck her hand into her skirt pocket and pulled out a black packet.

"Here."

He looked at the open packet and took one of the cigarettes. Pansy didn't seem surprised that he gave in. She lit the end of the cigarette with her wand, and Draco stuck it between his two slightly swollen lips.

While Pansy helped herself, he took a long breath. At first he coughed, and the smell of the smoke made him nauseous. Then, after several puffs, he began to feel his muscles relax and his breathing slow down a little.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" said Pansy, smoking her cigarette in turn. "It's calming. I think there's some sort of addictive in it."

Draco suppressed a laugh. Of course there was an addictive, Pansy couldn't live without it. He'd seen her smoking all the time lately. Now that he'd had a taste, he understood why she liked it so much. He had never been able to calm his anger so quickly. His rage was over, he didn't feel like hitting anything any more, he just kept repeating his breaths without speaking.

They sat there for a good hour, smoking cigarette after cigarette without a word. Pansy seemed to be immersed in her own thoughts and only took a few puffs of smoke from time to time, which she calmly spat out. Draco, on the other hand, was as angry as ever, even if he felt less so. When the bell rang again and a few pupils came out into the school playground, Pansy crushed the rest of her cigarette against the ground and put it back in her pocket. Draco, for his part, had his eyes fixed on a point in front of him.

"I promise," he began, his voice dry from so much smoking. "I promise I'll make Hermione Granger suffer. Worse than that, I promise I will destroy her."

.

Hermione

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She felt someone gently nudge her and she opened her eyes. Hermione tended to wake up a lot like this lately, completely slumped over a book. She adjusted to the brightness as she tried to work out where she was.

It was the Gryffindors Common Room, but she didn't know which day. It was Harry who had woken her up, he looked worried, as did Ron who was right behind him looking at her in the same way as when she had turned into a cat the previous year.

She realised at that moment that it was Thursday and that she had just gone back in time. She stood up abruptly:

"Wha...? What?" she asked. "Is it that time already? What class do we have now?"

She tried in vain to place herself in her morning, but she was unable to tell where she was supposed to be at the moment, and she felt dizzy.

"Divination." replied Harry in an alarmed tone. "But that's in twenty minutes. Hermione, how come we haven't seen you in Charms class?"

"What? Oh no, I forgot to go!"

She scrolled through her morning again. Care of Magical Creatures, Malfoy's slap, the Time Turner... She'd wanted to study a chapter, but had fallen asleep, and now she couldn't go to Charms class, because Harry and Ron hadn't seen her there! How could she have been so thoughtless?

"Forgot?" said Harry in astonishment. "But you were with us until we got to the door!"

"I just can't believe it. Professor Flitwick must have been furious with me! It was all because of Malfoy. He made me so angry I didn't know what I was doing!"

"You know what Hermione?" said Ron quietly as he observed the messy table. "I think you're overworked. You're doing too much."

If she'd had a Galleon for every time someone had said that to her since the beginning of the year, she'd probably be richer than Malfoy.

"No, certainly not!" she protested, rising to her feet. "I was simply mistaken, that's all. I'll go and see Professor Flitwick and tell him I'm sorry... I'll see you in Divination."

She passed through the portrait and hurried to Charms class. She couldn't believe it, she'd just missed one of the most important classes of the year! For a nap! She couldn't even remember when she had fallen asleep. Her back was shattered from bending over her book while she slept, and her head was still spinning, as if she was still going back in time. The corridors whirled around her as if in a spiral, and she nearly fell several times.

"Professor Flitwick!" she called as soon as she saw him, coming out of his classroom.

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"I'm so sorry I missed your class, I had a... a clock malfunction." she said in a small, high-pitched voice. "It won't happen again, I promise, and I'll make sure I catch up on the lessons from tonight."

Flitwick looked at her in astonishment. She knew that many students skipped classes, but she couldn't help but want to explain the reason for her absence.

"Very well, Miss Granger. Don't worry, it happens to everyone. Just ask Mr. Potter or Mr. Weasley about next week's homework, you'll need to know how to do a Cheering Charm, though I have no doubt you already know how to do them. Good day to you, Miss Granger."

Hermione closed her eyes as she heard this, dejected that she had missed such an important class as Cheering Charms. She didn't have time to catch up on that, she already had to finish her History of Magic essay, and her study session with Neville had to be about Transfiguration, they wouldn't have time to study Charms again... Unless she went up the Time Turner again, to have time to practise...

She turned back, but this time she felt much more dizzy than before. Her head wobbled and she fell backwards, fainting.

When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see that she had been caught by someone. And that someone was looking at her with the same expression of shock that she must have had on her face at the moment.

Blaise Zabini.

"Granger." he said in a calm voice.

He pulled her to her feet and she steadied herself, still keeping her eyes fixed on Zabini's impassive face.

"Sorry, I fell."

She mentally slapped herself for this perfectly idiotic reflection. Of course he'd seen it, she'd just fallen on top of him. He shook his head a few times, and his lips stretched into a small smile:

"If I knew you any better, Granger, I'd say you were exhausted. So, Theo was right."

She had no idea what he meant, but she was far too embarrassed to ask him to explain further. He simply shrugged and walked away, but just before he turned back, he whispered to her:

"And well done for the slap this morning."

She just stood there, speechless, as he walked away into the crowd of students.

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Could this day get any worse?

Apparently so.

Hermione arrived at the spiral staircase of Divination class, her least favourite class. The scent of dried tea leaves she could smell as soon as she stepped into the stuffy room gave her a headache.

There were several crystal balls laid out all over the tables. Harry, Ron and Hermione took a seat at one of the small round tables, and then Professor Trelawney stepped out of the shadows like a spectre:

"Good morning to you all!" she said in her most guttural voice.

Lavender and Parvati shivered in their chairs, which annoyed Hermione even more. How could they be so impressed by this kind of shoddy performance?

The professor began to explain the science of crystal balls, which Hermione found perfectly ridiculous. She was sure she couldn't see anything in there, apart from the milky fumes curling up inside.

After giving a whole speech about the Third Eye and possible predictions, Professor Trelawney encouraged the students to look at their spheres and keep quiet during the exercise. Hermione didn't even pretend to be remotely interested. She rested her chin on both hands and stared at the crystal ball, sighing loudly.

What a waste of time! There was nothing in those balls. She had never doubted magic since she was at Hogwarts, but she was convinced that this course was a fraud.

She was thinking dreamily about the price of the crystal balls Trelawney must have bought at the market as she stared at the transparent ball. Suddenly, the white shapes changed, as if forming a pattern. Hermione blinked several times, convinced she had been dreaming. But no, there was something in her crystal ball. She looked sideways at Harry, who was trying hard not to fall asleep, and at Ron, who was laughing as he watched the teacher stroll between the tables with her shawl around her shoulders.

Hermione turned back to the crystal ball. She could clearly see something now. Her heart raced.

It was a boy. At first, she didn't recognise him. He was crying, not so much from sadness as from despair. As if each sob tore a little more from his soul. There was something familiar about that face, but it was so distorted by crying and white smoke that Hermione couldn't make it out.

The boy wiped his eyes with his shirt sleeve, and Hermione saw a large black mark on his arm, like a skull. He opened his eyes again.

They were grey, steel grey, cold grey.

Hermione stifled a small scream.

It was Malfoy.