The Half-Blood Princess

          Hermione hadn’t seen much of Draco lately, only spotting him in classes, giving him sideways glances when Snape, Harry and Ron all weren’t looking. That wasn’t very often. She had begun bringing her parchment with her to Professor Binns’ class as well for something to do. Draco had Trelawney at that time and could get away with anything due to her short sighted-ness. He mentioned meeting up once or twice to study but the DA was in full swing now, meeting almost every night. Harry was easy to get away from now that he knew about her dad, but Ron was growing uncommonly observant.

          Hermione did manage to slip away one Saturday afternoon for lunch. The inquisitorial squad had hit them pretty hard the night before so the DA had decided to postpone that night’s meeting until Tuesday night in a hope to throw filch and his lackies off. She slipped into the great hall, wrapped several sandwiches into a napkin and told Ron and Harry she was going to the library to do some ancient rune homework for most of the day. She made her way out of the castle, where Malfoy was leaning against the brick wall waiting as planned.

          He followed a few paces behind her as she walked toward an empty area of the grass. Draco heckled her as they passed a few first graders. Soon the group had passed and Hermione was able to set up the sandwiches in peace. Draco lounged on the grass like he owned the place. He pulled two bottles of butter beer from his bag and Hermione’s book.

          “I finally finished the book,” He said, grabbing a sandwich.

          “Took you long enough. I could have brought you the third book if you had told me.”

          “Ah well, I guess we’ll have to have lunch again later.” He open the bottles and passed one to Hermione.

          “Definitely, I’m just so busy lately.”

          “I guess Harry keeps you pretty busy teaching dark arts to the little Gryffindors.” Draco started peeling the label from his butter beer.

          Hermione sighed and layed on the grass. “Can we not argue today, I’ve been arguing with everyone lately.”

          She laid next to Draco and let the sun fall on her face.

          “Who’s everyone?”

          “Harry found out about my Dad, and he’s furious I didn’t tell him earlier. Dad’s furious at me cause I told him at all. Which wasn’t even my fault, Harry saw us hugging one night after dinner and flipped out, what else was I supposed to say?”

          “You’ve still got Ron.” Draco said.

          Hermione ignored the sarcasm in his voice. “Ron and I are probably arguing about something, or else we’re about to start arguing. We’re always mad at each other.”

          Hermione stretched her arms behind her head and relaxed into the grass. Draco passed her and sandwich and they ate in silence for a minute. Hermione finished and closed her eyes. The sun fell onto her face and her hair, shining a little more golden. “I always feel like a cat when it’s sunny out, I just want to curl up and nap.”

          “Go ahead.” Draco sat up and got another sandwich out.

          Hermione laughed. “No, I’d feel weird.”

          “I don’t mind.” Draco said, “It’s probably the last nice weekend we’ll have before it starts getting cold. You nap, I’ll stay on lookout, and finish off the sandwiches.”

          “Well, wake me up in fifteen or twenty minutes.” Hermione said.

          She rested deeper into the still green grass. It was like being back on summer vacation. Draco almost forgot they were at Hogwarts, surrounded by hundreds of people, probably none of which would support how they felt. Blaise might, if he knew Hermione wasn’t a mudblood, but he couldn’t tell any of his friends that either. He looked around to make sure no one was there. They were sitting in a little grassy valley near the whomping willow, so it was likely no one would be showing up. He turned back to watching Hermione, her eyes closed, her lips slightly turned up in a smile. The most amazing thing Draco found about Hermione was that she wasn’t actually all that pretty. She wasn’t particularly skinny or voluptuous, and she had inherited just a few too many traits from Severus to be conventionally attractive. She was no Millicent Bullstrode, but she wasn’t going to turn any heads either. She didn’t even try to be pretty, a bit of lipstick on her thin, colourless lips. Some foundation to cover up a few blemishes, some attempt to control her hair. No, Hermione didn’t even try to be attractive. It made everything that much more confusing for Draco. If she was beautiful, it would have been only natural for Draco to be attracted to her in some way. But she wasn’t, and he was more than a little attracted to her.

          Hermione opened her eyes. “I can’t sleep if you keep staring at me.”

          Draco turned a little red. “That’s your problem, not mine.”

          Hermione laughed. Her whole body shook, her lips spread to a smile and her eyes shone in the sunshine. Draco should kiss her again. He should kiss her right now, he thought.

          Voices carried over the hills, two people arguing with each other, coming closer. Hermione sat up in a jolt.

          “It’s Fred and George.” She went pale, stood up and grabbed Draco’s hand.

          Together they ran, leaving the napkins from the sandwiches and the empty bottles behind them. Hermione pulled him up in the opposite direction of the tree, up a hill and behind a rock to hide.

          “What are they doing out here?” Hermione said out loud, peaking around the rock.

          Draco was still holding her hand and pulled her back to him. He held her to his chest as they listened to the twins pass. They were arguing about some new spell they were trying for their sweets. They came to the bottles and the footsteps stopped. They joked about breaking up someone’s weekend snogging party.

          “Oi, you can have the grass back in a minute,” George called, “We’re just passing through.”

          “They probably can’t hear you,” Fred said, “Continued on somewhere else I bet.”

          They laughed and continued walking. Their voices died away behind another hill and Hermione rested into Draco’s chest with relief.

          “You were really worried about them finding us, weren’t you?” Draco was scowling.

          “Of course I was, they’d probably think you’d used some spell to get me here. They’d attack you or something.”

          Draco’s jaw hardened. “I could take them.”

          “Stop being so moody, you’d be just as worried if it were a couple of slytherins on our heels.”        

          Draco’s scowl dropped into a frown. He pulled Hermione closer to him. “We’re never going to be able to be friends in public, are we?”

          Hermione sighed and slid her arms around to hug him back. “We should get back soon.”

          Draco didn’t let go. He leaned his head on the rock and tried to seal the rest of this afternoon into his memories. He wished he had a pensieve to hold all the moments he didn’t want to forget. Then he could go back and sit with her whenever he wanted.

          On Wednesday night, Hermione was getting ready for the DA meeting when she got a message from Draco. “Come see me tonight.”

          “I can’t” Hermione wrote back. “I’m busy. Tomorrow?”

          Draco wrote back. “Don’t go tonight.”

          Hermione stared down at the paper, eyebrows scrunched.

          “What is it?” Harry asked from across the common room.
          “Nothing.” Hermione shoved the paper into her bag. “Are you ready to go?”

          They left the common room and started heading toward the room of requirements for the meeting. When they had gotten down the first set of stairs, a Slytherin Hermione vaguely recognised from potions began following them. They took a few turns and twists and lost them for a while, only to meet up with Draco, Crabbe and Goyle harassing Neville.

          Crabbe laughed and grabbed Harry and Ron’s arms to stop their escape. Draco met Hermione’s gaze then dropped his eyes to the ground. Goyle made to grab Hermione and she slapped him.

          “Don’t you touch me!”

          Then, Filch cam around the corner smiling. “What have we caught here? Good work boys.”

          “Let us go, we haven’t done anything.” Harry shouted.

          “Out this late, big group of you having a meeting are we? You wouldn’t happen to be part of Dumbledore’s Army, would you?”

          “What? Never heard of it.” Ron said.

          “We’re studying potions together.” Hermione jumped in. “Preparing for our OWLs.”

          “I’m sure you know that Professor Umbridge has disbanded all student groups, including study groups. So unless you have teacher permission...”

          “We do.” Hermione cut in. “Professor Snape has agreed to chaperone us in the potions lab so we can get more practice brewing potions.”

          Ron jabbed her in the ribs with his elbow. Neville looked like he was going to be ill. The inquisitorial squad just stared at her.

          “We’ll soon see about this.” Filch dragged them all down the hallway, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle following behind all of them. They went down to the dungeons and into the potions room where Severus Snape was marking papers at his desk. He looked up, shocked at the eight bodies in his room.

          “What is it, filch?”

          “These students have said you are chaperoning their study group tonight.”

          Snape stood up. His eyes darted from Harry and Ron looking deflated, Neville who was still cowering, to Hermione’s pleading eyes.

          “And I can only assume that you and your squad are the reason I’ve already wasted twenty minutes waiting for them, Filch.”

          Filch flinched, “I’m sorry Professor, but they were wandering the halls and it’s my job to check these things.”

          “Let’s not waste any more of my night, Filch.”

          “Yes, professor, I’m sorry.” Filch turned and left, pushing Goyle, Crabbe, and Draco along with him. He closed the door behind him and apologized to Snape again.

          Snape heaved a sigh and sat back down. “You four are lucky that the only thing I detest more than your little group is Professor Umbridge.” He folded his thin fingers on his desk and glared at each of them individually. “The next time you wish to pull a stunt, I suggest you leave me well out of it. I expect a roll of parchment from each of you about the importance of organization and planning ahead. On my desk by tomorrow’s potions class.”

          The four of them stared back at him.

          “You’re excused.” Snape gestured to the door then went back to marking.

          They snuck back to the Gryffindor common room.

          “That was a lucky break,” Ron said, “What do you think is wrong with Snape.”

          Harry looked from Ron to Hermione, who was frowning. “Maybe he was telling the truth.” Harry said, “I mean, maybe he just hates Umbridge that much.”

          “It is possible.” Neville said, “She is that unlikable.”

          “You’re the one who made us go see Snape, Hermione.” Ron said. “I think it’s only fair you help us write these papers.”

          Hermione snuck into the boys’ dorm while they were still down in the common room. She took the marauder’s map from Harry’s trunk and found Draco on it, sitting in a corner of the library.

          Hermione slipped away from everyone else, getting quite good at it by now, and found Draco in the library. No one was around so she sat across from him.

          “What is your problem?” Hermione asked.

          “I told you not to go tonight.”

          “I can’t believe you’re helping Filch, all we’re trying to do is get a bit of learning actually done in this school. What’s wrong with that?”

          “Yeah, fine for your friends” Draco leaned back and crossed his arms.

          “What’s that supposed to mean?”

          “Is there a single slytherin in your group?”

          “Draco, you don’t exactly get along with everyone else.”

          “But there aren’t any slytherins. You go on and on about how unfair it is we can’t be friends, how no one will understand, but you’re just as bad as everyone else.”

          Hermione stood up and took a step back. “You didn’t have to join Umbridge against us.”

          “Hermione, come back. We’ll talk.”

          Hermione walked back to the common room and went to bed.