Hermione
September 2
The Schedule: The 8th years
Mondays-
Before lunch: Tranfiguration, Muggle Studies/DADA, Herbology/Care for magical creatures
After lunch: Charms, History of Magic/Divination
Tuesdays-
Before lunch: Potions, Ancient Runes
After Lunch: Alchemy, Arthimancy
Wednesdays-
Before lunch: History of magic/Divination, Muggle studies/DADA
In the evening: Astronomy
Thursdays-
Before lunch: Arthimancy, Tranfiguration
After lunch: Charms, Potions
Fridays-
Before lunch: Alchemy, Herbology/Care for magical creatures
After lunch: Potions
The day started off with Transfiguration with McGonagall and Hermione walked there with the Gryffindors and Padma since she accompanied Neville. Everyone from their house in eight- year took Transfiguration since their previous Head of house thaught it.
They arrived at the classroom only a couple of minutes before the lecture started and everyone else was already there. As usual the eating was arranged so they would sit in pairs. The only problem with that was that since the war and so many deaths had happened there was not anyone for Hermione to sit with. Usually she would have sat with Lavender or one of the Patil sisters but now Lavender and Parvati was gone and Padma sat with Neville. She looked to the other Gryffindors. Harry sat with Ron and Dean sat with Seamus. Once again she was alone.
She started looking around for the empty seat, hoping it wouldnt be "him", and finally found it. It was next to Daphne and the girl poshly but kindly waved her over. Todays lesson was a theoretical one and they would not be using their wands. Daphne was a good bench- mate since she as Hermione took notes of the lecture and didnt talk like the Gryffindors. She noticed that none of the Slytherins did. The Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors always seemed to talk about something but in the back with the five Slytherins were only a comfortable silence. She could not help but feel a little jealous that it was like that in their house while she had had to endure years of chatter and distractions, not that she would let herself get distracted.
Multiple times during the lesson she caught McGonagall looking over at her in the group of Slytherins and smiling. Well if the year continued like this, house unity would be a given. But Hermione was certain that it wouldnt. They still had the law to worry about.
After the first class the day went by fast and after History of magic she went with Padma to meet up with Luna and Ginny and go to Pomfreys lecture. They walked and laughed until they arrived at the portrait of Severus Snape where he gave them a once over and insisted on hearing the password one more time quite rudely before finally letting them in.
Inside everyone was already gathered and Pomfrey exclaimed "There you are" when they arrived. They quickly went to stand in the half circle formed around Pomfrey.
-"So since everyone has arrived I see it best to start this lesson. It is of great importance you listen since it would be unfortunate to have your education come to an abrupt end because you failed a Counteraptive Charm. So you may ask why we do this. And the answer is that since you are to be married in less than a year it is a big possibility that some of you decide to really get to know each other."
There were snickers from the other side of the room- where the Slytherins stood and Nott said with a smirk adorning his face "Oh you meant to get to know each other. For a while I almost thought you meant fucking, but that would be highly inappropriate of course." Hermione found herself struggling not to laugh and saw that at least the Slytherins seemed to have the same problem. The others, though. They went bright red and half of them seemed as if they wanted to sink through the surface of the earth and disappear.
As she tried to stop herself from laughing she met Pansys eyes from the other side of the room and her task became even harder. She still managed to smile slightly and the girl returned the sentiment.
The mediwitch seemed unbothered and continued. "There are two different types of this charm. One for females and one for males. You can perform the charm on each other if you make sure to use the correct charm. The charms work better if both of you are adorned with one and are to be used before any particular encounters between your body parts." She paused and the others already red faces seemed even redder. Hermione was certain she looked the same. The only ones who didnt seem affected was the Slytherins with the exeption of Daphne who was hiding her face on Malfoys shoulder.
Pomfrey then started showing the spell, the wand movement and the other counterparts. Everyone repeated her words when told them to and copied her wand movements after she went through them one more time.
-"Now" she said. "I want you to go to your partners so you can practise the spells, you will have to come to an agreement by yourself about how you go about it." She clapped her hands. Hermione felt dread pooling in her stomach. She would have to talk to him for the first time since recieving the news.
It wasnt that he was so bad, he had seemed okay on the train and she had forgiven him. He also seemed to be a good friend from what she had seen and what Pansy and Daphne had told her. Also he was the head boy and she was the head girl which meant they would have to set and example. Hermione saw that not that many had made their way to their partner so she decided to do just that.
As she walked felt her hands shaking but tried to keep her face neutral. She looked up at him when she stood about a meter away from him and saw that he was already watching her. His face was neutral and his chiselled features fit perfectly with his light skin and tall, strong build. With her hands clasped in front of her she tilted her head up to look into his eyes. They were a stormy grey, etheral like molten silver. She got lost, but she couldnt really complain. Hermione was gone to the world because at that moment the world started, continued and ended with him. He was the stars and the moon, he was the midnight sky, he was the galaxy with all its colours. No, Draco Malfoy was not perfect, but was anyone really. And to her, Merlin, he looked pretty perfect to her.
-"Hello, Granger." he said in his deep voice and it snapped her out of her contemplations. She quickly looked away from his eyes and busied herself with taking out her wand and trying to come up with a plan. It didnt really go to plan though as what she intended on thinking came out as rambling.
-"Well, we should go through the pronunciations a couple of times and repeat the wand movements. Then of course we need to decide the order. Maybe I could start on myself and you on yourself and then we can try each other. But maybe we should do each other first because usually it is harder to use a spell on yourself and they are pretty similar. Also we should take into consideration.." She didnt get any longer because he cut her off with a hand on her shoulder and she almost jumped from suprise.
-"Granger, you're fine. Relax, please." She couldnt, all day she had held in all her feelings, the dread, the sadness, the stress, the hopelessness, the feeling of despair at all the memories, but she hadnt realized that everything would emerge from this lecture. But she just couldnt and so she knew she was hyperventaling in front of all her classmates but she couldnt bring herself to care. Her life had once again been taken from her, she was reminded of the hell of last year all the time, her friend didnt understand her, she held everyone up, everyone came to her when they were broken and needed someone but she had no one. No one to hold her, no one to lie to her and tell her everything would be okay. Of course Ginny and Harry were her best friends but they didnt really get her, they were just the best of the alternatives and she had grown up with them. She could feel the tears building in her eyes and she had a harder time breathing.
Hermione could feel the hand leaving her shoulder and missed the touch immidiatly but couldnt bring herself to ask herself why. Instead she felt the arm wrap around her back and suddenly she was lifted into the air. Now sobbing she pressed her face to his shoulder and inhaled his scent. He smelt of parchment, mint, firewood and something incredibly soothing. She liked it, his smell, it was calming, not enough for this though.
Soon she was put down on a couch and she felt him sitting down on his knees in front of her. He put one hand on her cheek so she would look him in the eyes and the other at her waist. "Breathe Granger. In 5, out 5. Can you do that for me?" he said soothingly while rubbing circles at her waist with his thumb. She couldnt speak so she just nodded. He looked deep into her eyes and started counting slowly "Breathe in, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Breathe out, 1, 2, 3, 4,5." He continued rubbing with his thumb and searching her eyes. She focused on him, not the others in the room that had refrained from practising to watch. In the corner of her eye she saw that the other Slytherins, Harry, Ginny and Luna stood blocking the sight from the rest of the room.
After a while her breathing was finally under control but she still felt like crying. She felt Daphne and Pansy sitting down on either side of her while Draco still sat infront of her. "You will be okay Granger" he said softly. "No one is okay, not yet. All we can do is try. But what I do know is that you will never be alone, Slytherins protect their own and you are one of ours now" Pansy wasnt the soft type but she still tried and that meant a lot "Granger, Hermione, you should know that me and Daphne declared you one of us before you got matched with Draco. We will be there, all of us." Pansy put an arm around her shoulder and so did Daphne from the other side.
Draco still sat there as if he knew that the lot of them was the only thing that kept her from breaking down. Nott and Zabini then sat down next to Daphne and Pansy and her other friends on the opposite couch. Pomfrey had left with the message that she would come back next week to teach them the charms.
After a couple of hours in quiet Hermione had finally calmed down and wasnt on the verge of crying anymore. She dried her tears with the sleeves of her shirt and Draco stood up from his position on the floor. "Sorry" she mumbled and immediatly the Slytherins started protesting. Her other friends had left long ago when they realized no one was going to talk.
Then Pansy said "I know that maybe this is going pretty fast and you havent been introduced to all of us yet but you fit in with us. We just know it. And ignore the law, this has nothing to do with that. This is about you needing better friends and us wanting to be that for you. Dont protest and say you have good friends. You fought a war with them and they still cant comfort you, they abandon you all the time. Like just now or almost every single class when they didnt sit with you. I am not saying that you should stop hanging with them, just that you need this and then we can help you confront them when you are ready for that step." Hermione nodded because it was definetly true. Before this she would have never even considered becoming friends with the group of them but now? She just knew that she wanted this.
Daphne then continued "We want to get to know you, be there. Become your friends, the people you can turn to." But then she abruptly changed direction and she got a teasing tone to her voice which forced a smile out of Hermione. "So now, these two arseholes that you need a proper introducing to should do just that" She sounded so proper and demanding that she started laughing happily and she heard a chuckle from Draco who sat on the couch in front of them with the other boys who had apparently switched to that sofa.
Ingoring the others the dark boy, or maybe they were men now, said "My name is Blaise Zabini, pleasure to formally get to meet you Hermione" Then the light boy at Dracos other side playfully said "I am Theodore Nott, please call me Theo, and we have gone to school together for about six years. It truly is amazing to meet you again Hermione"
-"Well nice to meet both of you again, my name is Hermione Granger. Please do refrain from calling me 'Mione, I really dont like that nickname." Draco chuckled at that and Theodore was quick to add "As long as you dont call us something humiliating we will keep that promise. But if you break that agreement we get to call you that to rile you up" Hermione only nodded thoughtfully while the others chuckled.
They all talked for a while before agreeing to take meals together the next day and retiring to bed.