Left to you

Chapter 13- An Enchanting Concoction

                  

As the next week came around, Hermione sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes. She was desperate for that night to be a dream. Only if. She glanced at her male room mate's bed where he was sleeping soundly before swinging her legs out of bed and heading to the bathroom. As she turned the shower on and waited for it to heat up, she pondered what had happened that night.

She knew it had been foolish, to respond to such kind of letter, but she really was a hopeless romantic and was willing to follow any path to love. Maybe that why you attempted to marry someone you didn't love, said the small and annoying voice in the back of her head. But she pushed it aside by putting her head under the water. Hermione grabbed her favourite vanilla cinnamon shampoo and squeezed some into her palm and began to lather it into her hair.

A few moments later she was nearly finished in the shower just shaving her legs, when the door suddenly opened and someone entered. That someone was very sleepy, barely awake Draco Malfoy. She suppressed a scream and casted a quick muffilato on the room. Despite him not seeing her immediately, she frantically attempted to cover herself with something in the shower and the largest thing she had was a loofa. If I just stay in here and make no noise, I'm sure he'll just leave, she thought as she heard the tinkle of liquid falling into the toilet and averted her eyes.

It had been a few a minutes and a few yawns but he had finally finished his business. The Ravenclaw turned to see her. His eyes widened. Then they became squinted as he smiled, a smile of what, in Hermione's eyes was a smile of pure wickedness, but was really a smile of pure ecstasy. Before he could open his mouth to say whatever snide comment he was going to say, she let out a bloodcurdling scream.

"GET OUT OF HERE YOU BLOODY FERRET!"

~

Soon Hermione was sitting at the Ravenclaw table by herself with a look of pure resentment in her eyes and a cheese and bacon melt in her hands. Well, she wasn't really by herself, Cho and Luna were sitting across from her but didn't attempt to utter one word to Hermione. They were making nervous conversation between each other and eating bowls of cornflakes.

As she finished her sandwich, she gulped down her glass of milk, setting it down on the table and picking up the book that had been sitting beside her. Hermione stood up abruptly and was about to leave, until she saw the injured expressions of the two girls sitting in front of her.

"So you guys having a good time being back here?" Hermione asked, sitting back down at the table.

The girls' faces brightened up again and they pushed away their cereal, glad to finally get a word out of their friend. It was Luna who spoke first.

"It's wonderful being back here, there so much magic in their air!" She said. The girls giggled at her response before turning to Cho.

"It's good to be back, you know, meeting people and stuff." Cho said with a blush and a smile. After turning her attention to Hermione.

"So what about you Hermione? You having a good time?" She asked reluctantly.

It took her a moment to think. She knew her time here hadn't been too bad so far, but she had many days to go.

"Yeah, it's been okay," She started. "Being away from my friends is hard, but I'm getting used to it."

The girls nodded in agreement, but their attention was quickly drawn away, by a certain red haired boy on crutches. He was hobbling over to the Hufflepuff tower when he suddenly stumbled and fell.

Neville immediately stood and went to help his friend up, and Hermione couldn't help but feel a pang in her heart as one of her dearest friends winced in pain as he was being pulled up from the ground. She really hoped that one day, maybe soon they could go back to being good friends again.

Almost everyone in the Great Hall was staring at the two men. The hall was almost completely silent, aside from a few mutters or whispers. A sudden clang made Hermione and a few other students jump. As Hermione turned towards where the noise came from, she saw Professor McGonagall, transfiguring a pair of cymbals back into two glasses.

"Hurry along, class starts in fifteen minutes!" She tutted, then promptly stood from the table and began walking out.

Almost all of the students were in the hall at the time, so it was unfortunate that almost all of them stood up and were attempting to leave the hall at the same time.

Hermione stood slowly and joined the crush of people pushing against each other to get out of the hall and to classes.

~

Draco was in potions class, again. Another class with Granger. Another class that was more difficult than usual. Another class with that forever clingy girl. Pansy Puggington. He shuddered. Luckily, no-one had seen her all day. Probably with that git Nott, he thought. That kid was a slick one, he'd give him that. But he was good guy, and they had become much closer during and after the war. Draco glanced at the very familiar bushy haired girl. She had bounced back to her old self pretty quickly from her break up. She was currently avidly listening to the teacher's words and jotting down notes. He forced himself to focus again to his teacher's lecture.

"So now that I've explained the task, I'll partner you up for this task." He said as he pulled out a list, of partners he had already written, perhaps last night.

He stood up and began reading the list. He went through many pairs, and soon a pattern became evident. Each pair was in the same house. Draco gulped. He knew what that meant.

"Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy." He read in his usual jolly way, as he looked up from the list to smile at Hermione.

She stood up, and slowly walked over to Draco. The girl folded her arms and quickly sat beside him. They sat in awkward silence as the rest of the partners were being read out. Others were avidly chattering about the task and getting to know each other.

It felt like an eternity, but the professor finally finished droning on about partners. Draco dreaded what came next. He had been doing his best to avoid her this past week, aside from this morning's little incident.

"So are you going to get the ingredients or what?" Hermione said without even glancing at him. He was shocked she was say something like that. It wasn't rude or anything, but she was so prim and proper all the time, a sentence like that would throw anyone off.

"How can I do that," He began, putting his feet up and pausing. "If I have no idea what we're even doing?"

Hermione sighed. Yes, he thought. Now I've got her. She stood and pointedly stared at him.

"Fine, I'll get the ingredients." She said standing and walking to the storage.

And just as he thought that he'd be making a potion that he wouldn't even know the name of the potion he was going to be making, she stopped and turned to look over her shoulder at him.

"Amorentia."

Then she walked into the shelving.

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A/N

Surprise! Update! I've been at camp and doing a lot of exams so it's been difficult to work on this but I managed somehow! Love you guys so much. Also there might be some updates here and there as I sometimes go back to double check chapters and find a few mistakes.

love,

ash

xoxox