September 8, 1998
He was already in the library by the time she arrived.
Pervaded with anticipation, Hermione stood motionless several book stacks away from where he sat. He had placed himself at the table she typically occupied across from her usual seat of choice. From where she stood, she could see a wide array of books splayed out on the table in front of him. It was refreshing to witness him as an average student as opposed to the tyrant she typically saw him as.
Shortly after she stumbled upon him, it suddenly dawned on her that they never discussed a specific area or section to meet in the substantially sized space. Without giving it a second thought, her instinct had told her to head for her usual spot in the library. This brought forth a slew of new questions.
Why didn't they think to discuss something as simple as selecting a spot?
Did he know this was her preferred spot the first time he sought her out?
Was she so transparent that even he as someone who detested her knew where to find her?
...why was she still hiding behind a bookshelf?
In hopes of ceasing the exponential build up of apprehension, she took a breath to calm herself and walked up to the table with the residual adrenaline. She set her bag on the chair across him, keeping focus on unpacking her items so as to not let her eyes drift to the other occupant only a few feet away.
"You're late," she heard him say flatly.
Hermione had just set down her notebook when she finally jerked her head up to look at him. He hadn't made any movements or changes in posture. His head stayed down as he continued to jot down notes with what appeared to be a brand new quill.
Deciding it would be best to refrain from any witty remarks, she went with the safer approach. "You said 'after dinner,'" she said simply as she resumed unpacking her items. The hall wasn't even half empty when she left it.
"I did," he said simply. "Had I known you were the slowest eater in the school, I would have designated a time instead."
She held her tongue as she tried to conjure up a proper response but her brain wanted to pull focus elsewhere. Now that she thought about it, she did not recall seeing him in the hall during dinner. With his robe hanging on the back of his chair along with the growing pile of used parchment by his feet, she came to the conclusion he had been here a while.
Hermione knew she should have settled into her seat to partake working on their assignment but she couldn't help but let her curiosity take the lead as her eyes trailed along his form. While taking in his appearance, recalling when she noted earlier that he wasn't quite as thin as before. Now that he was clad in an oxford shirt and trousers, she could see he was still considerably slimmer than she recalled him being when they began their sixth year. The fact that he had grown significantly taller in the last few years didn't do him any favors. His lanky build seemingly made him tower over her even though he was a little over half a head taller in reality—
"You can gawp later Granger, we have work to do." he stated crudely, a hint of a smirk in his tone as he finally looked up to acknowledge her.
"How long have you been here?" She blurted, her mind suddenly on overdrive and too unsettled to feel the least bit embarrassed by her blatant staring. She could see his eyebrows furrow with uncertainty.
"A few hours. What does that—"
"Have you eaten anything?" She asked.
He snorted, an act far unlike a gentleman. He paused his writing and looked back up to meet her gaze. "You're serious."
When she placed her hands on her hips with a raised brow, he let out a deep, impatient sigh.
"No, I haven't," he answered.
She opened her mouth to argue but was quickly cut short.
"—not that it's any of your concern." He said dismissively and resumed writing, though slightly more aggressively.
"It's an innocent question, Malfoy. You don't always have to be on your guard."
He scoffed, "I came straight here after class and lost track of time. Any more nonsensical questions?" He knew he was going to regret his words as soon as they left his mouth.
She always had more questions.
"Now that you mention it, I was curious about something." She pretended to contemplate while eyeing a bright green object on the table.
He rubbed his forehead to smooth his brow, clearly exasperated. "Spit it out, then. I don't have all evening."
"I wanted to know what all you were planning on having for dinner." She asked plainly.
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Why?"
Hermione shrugged apathetically, deciding to play aloof to his defensiveness. "No particular reason."
He raised a brow at her, unconvinced.
She carried a light expression, "I was going to suggest, perhaps you should consider eating more than an apple. You're probably starving." Her eyes flickered to the one sitting on the table in front of him before continuing to shuffle through her bag.
He flushed as his stomach grumbled. Vaguely amused, Hermione watched as he reached for the apple to tuck it into the pocket of his robes. She heard him clear his throat uncomfortably, "If you're done criticizing my eating habits, I think we should begin. Seeing as we need to pick up the slack from you being late—"
She gasped as she remembered something, "Hang on a moment. I need to see if the library has a book I've been looking for."
He watched her incredulously. "Now?"
"Yes! Professor Grubbly-Plank's essay is due at the end of this week and I need that book."
Malfoy looked at her quizzically. "Her essay isn't due until next Friday."
"Not the one on fairy dust, I completed that one this morning." She flushed as he continued to stare at her. Likely because that essay in particular was assigned only yesterday. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "I'm talking about the extra credit assignment. I've been checking periodically for a novel on dragon's blood but it's still not available."
He continued to blink at her and opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by her nervous rambling.
"I know it's not required reading but given the topic, I felt it would be beneficial to provide answers the class's textbook is unable to. The size section dedicated to dragons is rather futile."
"You're wasting your time." Malfoy said sharply, leaving only the sound of him shuffling around in his satchel to fill the otherwise silent library.
"I only need a few minutes to see if the book is available—" He shook his head, interrupting. She stopped mid-sentence when he pulled out a book and slid it across the table to her.
Her eyes fell to read the title:
The Composition of Dragon's Blood
She merely stared at the book before flickering her eyes back up to him. He watched her expectantly with his arms crossed. "It's what you're looking for, is it not?"
She sat still in disbelief. "I...yes, it is..." she said, slowly.
"Well? Are you going to take the damn thing or not?" he snapped.
Immediately, she went to grab the book and marveled at it. At least she found the culprit who had been reserving the supplemental readings before her.
She eyed him carefully as he continued to research the potion, as if the last five minutes had not occurred. "Can I thank you for this?"
His lips twitched as he began to read an opened textbook in front of him. "You can try."
"Thank you for the book. That was very kind of you." She said, soft-spoken and sincere.
"Don't mention it." He said curtly before continuing to read, ultimately ending their conversation.
As she put the book away and finally took her seat, Hermione considered the scenario presented to her. It would be quite an impressive and remarkable feat for the two of them if they were able to overcome their differences, even if only to concoct this potion. Not to mention if they were actually successful in making one that worked. She already knew he was capable academically and was currently proving himself to be devoted to his decision. If witnessing him as an ex-death eater had taught her anything, it was that he didn't take the choices he made lightly. He accepted the challenges that were ahead and dealt with them accordingly as part of the process.
It was everything she could want in a partner.
Maybe they had a chance after all.
"Alright," she began. "We'll need to find the reference on the first time it was successfully made—"
"Here." He tapped on the spine of another text while his eyes stayed focused on his current reading.
She eyed him warily, grabbing the book without another word. They read together in silence as they collected information from their respective books. Hermione flipped through the first book, only finding a brief analysis on the significance of each ingredient. She moved on to the next book. The ingredient list was consistent, though this time the entry emphasized the efficacy of commencing in autumn with its cooler evenings.
What convenient timing, she thought.
She jotted down several notes from each of the attempts. She also noticed they all consistently had a quote placed in the beginning:
To produce a potion of purity and light, one must begin on the darkest of nights.
By the time she finished with the seventh entry, Hermione had a stack of parchment comparable to his. Surveying the collective information she had obtained, she spoke up as she did the math.
"So we'll need to start with a petroleum base and a French copper cauldron. With our current atmospheric pressure, we need melt it at a low heat of 38°C followed by the addition of eagle owl feather fibers and moly petals—"
*clink*
*clink*
He had deposited two vials in front of her. One containing two eagle owl feathers and the other a moly, freshly picked.
She looked at them, disbelieving.
"You were taking too long." He shrugged his shoulders, sounding quite pleased with himself.
She huffed, unsure of whether she should be annoyed or impressed. "Clearly you've done your research. What do you even need me for?"
"The eighth entry," he said, contempt as he handed her the textbook. "It has the most information of them all but it would take me weeks to read because it's entirely encoded in numbers." His eyes gleamed with something when she showed a hint of delight. "Rumour has it you actually fancy arithmancy."
"It's my favorite subject," she clarified as she began the decoding process.
He looked utterly repulsed. "What an awful thing to say."
"What do you have against arithmancy?" She knew most did not favor the subject but she had mostly heard from Harry and Ron of their displeasure towards most all of their classes. She couldn't help but wonder about his thoughts on the class.
"It's a useful subject in cases like this but whoever willingly subjects themselves to such a tedious and repetitive technique has too much time on their hands. Even muggles have those ridiculous...button-y devices for convenience."
She whipped her head to him. "You mean calculators?"
"Yes. Such strange contraptions..." he mumbled.
Wide brown eyes stared at him in shock. "How do you know about—"
"We should find a good location to start," he briskly interrupted her. "Can't imagine Madam Pince would appreciate us lighting a fire in here."
She looked at him strangely. "Probably not."
His attempt to avoid the subject completely didn't go unnoticed. She decided to go along with it for the moment since he brought up a fair point. It was definitely something worth inquiring about at a later date.
"Did you have a place in mind?" She evaluated the script she had already decrypted from the first page. This wizard in particular made note of the increments of time between when ingredients were added. First, the gap was two weeks. Then it was four weeks in the following additions.
How odd...
He shook his head. "Not yet. But the sooner we start, the better. This entire operation is going to take up a considerable amount of time."
Hermione observed him as he began to collect his belongings, deducing he fully intended to leave the library to find a more suitable location to start their potion.
"You want to start now?" She asked, bewildered.
"Why not? It's raining tonight. I'd say it's about as dark of evening as we'll get." He stated evenly.
Also a fair point.
"But—we don't even have a cauldron!" She argued.
"I have one," he said, gesturing to his bag. "I asked Professor Slughorn for one earlier. How long will it take for you to decipher that book?" He asked seriously. His face was devoid of humor, awaiting for her answer. Her mouth was slightly agape at his eagerness. She did say she would uphold her part as long as he was willing to do the same. Who was she to disagree on getting an early start?
"Not long," she admitted while flipping through the pages. Thankfully, there weren't too many. "An entire evening at most."
"In the meantime, we should discuss an area to set up. We'll need someplace quiet where we won't be disturbed."
Hermione thought over his words meticulously before her lips curved into a smile. "I might have a place in mind..."
He saw the glint of mischief in her eyes and instantly knew what she had in mind. He groaned. "No. Absolutely not."
Hermione sat cross-legged as she melted the petroleum base in the heating cauldron while Malfoy paced back and forth.
"Would you sit down? You're making me nervous," she sighed, frustrated.
"How do you expect me to be calm about this? I'm in the middle of a girl's lavatory," he retorted smartly.
"You're being ridiculous. No one ever comes in here so would you stop worrying and prep the ingredients like we agreed?" She insisted as politely as she could manage while focused on keeping the petroleum from burning.
"Fine." He hissed, conceding. He prepared samples of the feather and plucked a few petals of the moly, dropping them into the cauldron as she stirred.
Once he added in the ingredients, he settled into a spot by a stall to resume where she left off in the decoding process. Hermione continued to stir constantly until the fibers and petals disintegrated. Once the sediment had dissolved, she paused in her stirring and read the next instruction written in her sloppy penmanship.
-After adding first ingredients, colors should leak. Gain a silvery hue-
She looked back into the cauldron to observe the solution which was still clear. A few more minutes passed. Still nothing. Perplexed, she jerked her head up to inquire Malfoy, feeling a heat rise in her cheeks when she found his steely eyes already fixed on her.
Shortly after they arrived, she had put up her hair in a messy bun, something she commonly did before brewing. She had shrugged off her robes, her sleeves rolled up and shirt untucked when she sat down. Here, she was at ease. Except his eyes on her made her anything but.
"What is it?" she asked sharply, hoping she didn't come off as too defensive.
But he didn't flinch, "you've done this before—in here, I mean." He commented before turning his attention back to the parchment in his hand. "Explains how you got away with making Polyjuice potion all those years ago," a knowing smirk present on his face.
She frowned as she was suddenly thrown back to their conversation from yesterday. Hermione replayed it in her mind until she reached the point that stood out to her.
Hardly sounds like a challenge for someone who successfully brewed Polyjuice potion their second year.
The year her and her friends tried to infiltrate and interrogate him by impersonating his loyal companions. The night they tried to get information regarding the chamber of secrets, believing him to be the heir of Slythern. The night that landed her in the hospital for a week coughing up hairballs. The night they failed...and he knew about it.
"You knew," she whispered.
He remained unphased.
"How?"
He rolled his eyes at her. "Why do you and your friends act so surprised when people figure out what you're up to? You're not exactly discreet."
"But you knew even then?"
"I had my suspicions. Goyle was wearing the same, dumb glasses as Potter and Crabbe nearly tore my face off for insulting you. I wasn't sure how you did it until I learned about Polyjuice a few months later."
Hermione contemplated his words. That led to the question of how he knew they managed to brew Polyjuice. It was a potion they weren't even supposed to learn until they had reached the advanced classes.
"And yes, I know you brewed it. Aside from the fact those two oafs couldn't brew a potion successfully to save their lives, a little birdie confirmed the details for me. I spoke to Elizabeth rather frequently sixth year," he revealed.
Hermione wrinkled her nose. "Elizabeth?"
Malfoy grinned triumphantly. "Ah, yes. I believe you lot are more familiar with 'Moaning Myrtle'?"
"Oh, Moaning Myrtle. I haven't heard from her in a while." She pondered.
"She migrated to the prefect bathroom our fourth year. She held quite the fancy for Potter, did you know?" he stated with a slightly amused smirk.
"I-no, I did not."
"She apparently has a soft spot for him," he continued. "Something about being attracted to bad boys who disobeyed the rules. I suppose it's befitting."
"If that's the case, it surprises me more that she didn't have a thing for you," she admitted, ignoring the subtle heat arising within her when she caught a hint of amusement in his eye.
"Take me to be a bad boy, Granger?" he drawled.
"Undoubtedly. But don't worry, Malfoy. Bad boys aren't really my type," she stated, a flicker of teasing in her tone.
A haughty laugh escaped him. "Coming from the girl who let Viktor bloody Krum take her to the Yule Ball."
She blushed furiously, "It was a phase! And he was nothing but a gentleman all evening," she said, stubbornly.
He spoke dismissively as he turned his attention back to the parchment in his lap. "I figured as much, given the fact that you decided to settle for the safest option of them all."
His words hit her harder than she expected. She knew he didn't mean it in the way she took it but she couldn't help it. She felt her suppressed anger beginning to accumulate.
"Stop talking," she whispered softly.
"I was only kidding," he began, completely apathetic. "Who cares if you're with a simpleton—"
"I said shut up, Malfoy." she hissed aggressively.
Promptly, he closed his mouth and looked up from his notes to examine her. At this point, Hermione was fuming. The curls of hair that didn't make it into her bun lazily caressed her cheeks, highlighting her display of fury.
He had made it this far without insulting her friends but even he could tell this was much more than that. This was something she had been avoiding to acknowledge for weeks and here he was, throwing it in her face, reminding her of her failed relationship and potentially broken friendship. It was too soon.
Far too soon.
She knew that in a way, he was right. She would've been on the verge of settling for her best friend if she hadn't come here.
We both know you want more than what I can give you.
But that was besides the point. She knew Ron loved her and in the end, that should have been enough...right?
"I have to go." She stated as she threw her belongings into her bag, refusing to break down in front of him.
He narrowed his eyes at her frantic movements and her sudden acts of defense. She quickly stood and made way to bolt out the door, only pausing when she heard the low rumble of his voice.
"Whatever it is...you will have to accept at some point."
She breathed deeply and walked out with her bag and robes in tow, leaving him behind without another word.
Meanwhile in the background, their once clear potion had turned black.
September 11, 1998
"Hermione, if you don't work with him, your grade will suffer."
"Leave it alone, Ginny. I will deal with him when the time comes but right now, I need to figure out what went wrong with our potion," Hermione stated firmly as she flipped through the medley of books.
The brunette had returned to the lavatory the following day only to find their potion in an obsolete stage. Determined to uncover what went wrong, Hermione continued the process of decoding the eighth entry, hoping it would supply helpful clues or answers. Similarly to what she originally told Malfoy, it only took her a few hours to decode it but it didn't provide as much assistance as she hoped. It mainly restated what they already deduced with an emphasis on an "untangible ingredient".
Thus bringing her back to the library in the middle of her free period with Ginny currently reprimanding her for avoiding her potions partner whenever possible. She decided she was not ready to face having to explain the reason for her sudden outrage to him and she certainly wasn't ready to explain it to Ginny.
Her tired eyes shifted along the text, reading the same words for the third time today.
"What's going on?" Luna asked as she approached the table with her homework.
"Hermione refuses to talk about why she's upset at Malfoy."
"Because it's not important. I told you to leave it alone." Hermione snapped.
Ginny held her hands up in defense. "I'm just saying. Maybe it didn't work because you two still have animosity towards each other. Professor Slughorn did say the point of this potion was to show how having two people would impact a potion."
"I'm well aware of that, Ginny and I've already told you, I know that was a factor. But before that, we were fine. For once, we weren't hostile towards each other. After we added the first ingredients, it was supposed to transition into a silver hue and it never did. We did something wrong."
There has to be a pattern, she thought critically. She took location into account.
The information provided only stated where the majority of brewing took place and was completed. The first and third were brewed on the rooftops of abandoned buildings. The second and fifth were done on balconies. The fourth, sixth and eighth were done in average rooms. She flipped open her notebook to where she recorded the dates:
September 6th, 1945
September 11th, 1950
September 26th, 1973
Nothing was adding up.
"Don't worry, Hermione. I'm sure it will all work out in the end." She heard Luna comment reassuringly. Hermione knew they were trying to be helpful but what she really needed at the moment was for them to let her concentrate.
"Luna, I really appreciate it but—" She froze.
Luna.
She looked for her notes regarding the latest successful brew dated in 1978. Much like the others, the author's entries were vague and lacked detail but unlike the others, this one included inquiries where after several years of trial and error, the author concluded the potion required an ingredient that was intangible. Hermione initially believed it was the selflessness it took to construct such a potion but now that she thought about it, that may not be the case. At the end of the entry, the same quote was repeated:
To start with a potion of light, one must begin with on darkest of nights.
Then it clicked.
Since they were conveniently located in the reference section, Hermione stood and walked a few feet over, her eyes searching the shelves.
"Hermione—" she heard Ginny speak followed by a shush from Luna.
"Give her a moment," she heard her say quietly.
Hermione smiled to herself, grateful for the welcomed silence. Her eyes continued to graze until she found what she was looking for. She pulled a book from the shelf and walked back over to where Ginny and Luna sat. She flipped open to various pages, her alert brown eyes fluttering back and forth between the dates and the reference pages. By the time she finished, she was beaming.
"I have to find Malfoy." She grabbed her papers with urgency.
Ginny was incredulous while Luna smiled. "Really? That's all it took?"
Hermione ignored her and continued to shove her books in her bag. "I need to discuss the assignment with him. I know why our potion failed."
She paced down the hallway after glancing after watch. It was just after three meaning he would be finishing up with Divination, his last class of the day. She walked around the large group of students as they poured out of the classroom. She brushed past every one of them until she found who she was looking for. A bright blond head...walking in the other direction.
"Wait!" she called as she broke into a sprint. "Malfoy, wait!"
He turned around just in time to see her halt a few feet in front of him to catch her breath.
"I have somewhere to be. Surely this can wait—" he began.
"I only need a few minutes. I think I know why our potion failed." He looked at her with peaked interest as she handed him a sheet of parchment and the newly acquired book. "It said we need to start the potion on the 'darkest of nights.'" She could see the gears turning in his head when he looked at the text she placed in his hand. It was a book containing dates of the moon phases. "The quote is referencing the eve of a new moon," she added.
He looked at her as he thought carefully, the early stages of astonishment threatening to appear on his face. "Then the timeline—"
"It's not random. The potion will take six months to complete because we need to factor in six full lunar cycles: three to construct the potion and three to let the potion rest."
"And the time increments."
"After the potion is commenced on the eve of a new moon, the other ingredients must be added on the eve of a full moon. "
Two weeks from the start, and four afterwards.
"We'll need to make alterations to our dates of when to meet. I suspect you can make it tomorrow night without getting distracted again?" He tested.
She rolled her eyes. "I have free time at the moment. Why not meet up now?" She offered.
He pursed his lips and took a deep breath, "as considerate as that is of you Granger," he enunciated with impatience. "I'm afraid I have...other obligations at the moment," he bit out.
Hermione blinked at him. For the first time today, she looked at him head on and all she saw was exhaustion. Before she could press any further, someone had rounded the corner and latched onto his arm.
"Draco! I've been looking everywhere for you." He winced at the painful, shrill tone.
She unknowingly narrowed her eyes at the familiar brunette clinging tightly to him. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there at the moment.
"I told you I was going to be a minute." he said, clearly disgruntled.
"You were taking too long. Had I known you were going to be catching up with—" she trailed off when she fixed her eyes on his company, her eyes widening slightly.
"Granger. This is Astoria." His eyes never leaving hers. "Astoria, this is—"
"Hermione Granger. Nice to see you again." Astoria grinned.
The curly haired witch cleared her throat uncomfortably at the beady silver eyes currently casting her an accusing glare. "Yes, em...we met briefly. On the train."
"I see." His glare grew suspicious. "Anyways, we'll have to make other arrangements if tomorrow can't work."
"Tomorrow night's fine." She admitted.
"You just said—"
"I offered tonight as an alternative. I never said I couldn't do it tomorrow night," she replied easily.
He scoffed in annoyance, "must you always be such a pain in my ar—"
"I wasn't aware you were friends with her." Astoria quipped to effectively cut him off as she eyed Hermione up and down.
"Friends is a bit of a strong word." He drawled. He turned his attention back to Hermione. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have my other obligation to attend to."
"I'll see you later, alright?" he spoke to Astoria softly. Hermione furrowed her brow when he darted his eyes at her last minute. Astoria didn't seem to notice and smiled at him regardless as he walked off rather quickly, leaving the two women alone in the corridor.
"He always acts like he has something important to do."
"He has been training rather diligently for Quidditch, lately." Astoria offered. "Tryouts are next week."
Hermione knew that, of course. That was why Ginny was pressing so hard on her in the library. The stress of tryouts had not been easy on her, as of late. She mentally reminded herself to apologize to Ginny later, for only one topic occupied her thoughts at the moment.
"I wasn't aware he had a girlfriend."
"We aren't together officially just yet. Draco insisted on waiting and for me to focus on my education first. I thought it was sweet."
Hermione shook her head, puzzled. "He wants you to focus on his education before dating? That's...quite noble of him."
Astoria tilted her head at Hermione. "You misunderstand. Draco and I are to be betrothed once the school year ends."
A/N: Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be happy with me before the story ends! Stay safe, everyone! - E