Not Backing Down
After two hours Malfoy appeared once again in the library with a pice of paper in his hand. Without saying anything he handed her the paper and when she unfolded it she saw at the top of the page the name of her group and as she looked down, the names of the people she would be working with in a row on the page. Draco Malfoy. Pansy Parkinson. Blaise Zabini.
"Really you named the group 'Green and Gold'"
He smirked. "I thought it had a bit of a flair to it don't think, it's a little bit mysterious."
She rolled her eyes."I'm surprised you don't have Crab and Goyle on your team as well Malfoy."
"No, the less people on the team the better because I don't want people to find out you are on my team, especially Potter."
"Then why are Pansy and Blaise on the team?"
"Come one Granger, wouldn't it look a bit weird if I was to win it on my own."
"Fine I get it."
"I'm going to be putting it straight in the bowl so if you want to back out, now is your time."
"I told you earlier, I'm not backing down." With that Hermione grabbed her quill and scribbled her name down on the paper, the neat scrawl neatly at the bottom of the page. As soon as she finished Malfoy snatched the pice of paper from her hand, folded it and placed it in her pocket.
"Thank you Granger." He sneered and stormed from the library without a sound.
It didn't take long for him to get to the main hall. He was stood in front of the podium, the gold bowl glinting slightly as he placed the paper in the enchanted snow and watched as it disappeared.
Hermione instantly regretted her decision. She hated Malfoy, she couldn't even stand being in the same room as him and now she had agreed to be part of his team. What was she thinking. In a short amount of time she had began to pace in the library and soon after she had come to the conclusion that she was delusional and probably needs psychiatric help.
Suddenly there was a voice behind her saying her name. "Hermione."
She turned quickly and saw that it was Ginny.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm pacing."
"Why?"
"I've done something I shouldn't have."
"What is it, what did you do?"
"I...I can't say." She didn't want to lie to Ginny but she couldn't exactly tell her the truth either, she didn't even think about what her other friends would say about her being on Malfoy's team.
"Is this about Ron, he told me about your argument." She was so thankful that she had mentioned that instead, at least she could change the subject now, even if that subject was still a bit uncomfortable to talk about anyway.
"He told you?"
"Well it was more of Lavender complaining about you to him while I was trying to talk to him and then he obviously had to explain himself. Why didn't you tell me."
Hermione walked over to the old leather armchair and sat down, Ginny also sat on one of the other chairs.
"Ginny you are great and amazing but I think that sometimes there are battles that I need to fight on my own, and I think you're brother is one of them."
She sighed, "Oh gosh, I completely understand, I'm so sorry, because it's Ron I never stopped to think about what you might be trying to do."
"No Ginny, I still need you, you are my friend and I probably wouldn't still be in Hogwarts if it weren't for you. You and Luna are my best friends and I am always going to be grateful for what you do."
Hermione leaned forward and gave her a hug.
"If you ever need to talk to anyone I'm always going to be here for you."
"Thank you."
"So, do you want to go down to the hall for a bit of a change in scenery."
"Yeah, sure why not."
As it got later and later in the day, more and more people began appearing in the hall to place a pice on paper in the large gold bowl of snow. Ginny and Hermione sat talking at one of the tables, and waited as it got closer and closer to eight o'clock and people started to flood into the hall.
Suddenly as Ginny was taking, Hermione caught a flash of white out the corner of her eye and instantly turned her head to look. She watched as Malfoy and is friends walked into the hall ad sat at the Slytherin table and she watched him, he must have notice because he too turned his head and met her gaze, his grey eyes boring staring straight into her own. He then turned his head away and seemed to smirk to himself.
It was then that the teachers started to walk into the hall and the head mistress walked to the bowl of snow.
"Welcome back students. As you can see it is just about to turn eight o'clock."
Everyone was silent as Professor McGonagall pulled a brass pocket watch out of her robes and looked down at it. Suddenly the snow in the bowl started to melt leaving a bowl of water, the liquid so crystal clear it looked as if there was nothing there.
Then out of nowhere the water burst into flames and as the smoke rose in the air the team names started to appear in the bewitched night sky, written with the stars. Hermione couldn't help skimming through all of the team names and found her team. 'Green and Gold'. Then the stars disappeared into the clouds and pieces of parchment began to fall.
"On these pieces of paper is written the first clue, and please don't become obsessed with the mystery, people have become insane trying to find the answer. Anyway, good luck and enjoy the feast." McGonagoll waved her arms wide and food appeared on all of the tables.
While Hermione's friends started to dig into the food she picked up one of the small bits of paper and stared down at it. She instantly realised that this was going to be far harder than she thought.