Left to you

Chapter 14- A Neglected Congregation

                  

Hermione returned to the table with her arms full of bottles to see Draco propping his feet up on the table next to the cauldron full of bubbling water. At least he did something while she was gone. She gave her arms a rest and carefully placed all the ingredients on the table, forcing Draco to remove his feet from the table as he scowled at her.

She was following the recipe by pouring and stirring when Draco finally spoke up.

"So, are we going to talk about what happened last week?" He said, leaning forward, putting his elbows on the table.

Hermione was so shocked she nearly dropped the spoon right there. She was not ready for this conversation, and so she did not reply and only caught the spoon and resumed making the potion.

"I know you heard me Granger." He said, and she just knew there was a sly smile on his face.

It had come to the point in the recipe where you were supposed to wait. And waiting meant not doing anything. And not doing anything meant having to talk to Draco. She sighed.

"So what is there to talk about then?" Hermione said, turning directly to him and sitting down in one swift movement.

It was obvious he was not prepared for the conversation to continue and so she waited as he thought of an answer.

"Well if you didn't send me a letter, and I didn't send you a letter, then who did?" He finally said.

They both sat back in their chairs, taking time to think. Hermione continued staring as she thought. Who would've thought she would have been able to sit next to Draco Malfoy for as long without grabbing the nearest thing and impaling him with it?

"I bet it was Blaise!" Draco suddenly said, slamming him hands on the table. "That little shit probably set us up for a laugh!"

Hermione nodded absent mindedly. It was a plausible reason, but I didn't seem right to her. And then it occurred to her.

"I know!" She nearly shouted. Many people in the class spun to give her a funny look. She turned to look at Draco and explain.

"You know how Ginny was yelling at me a few days ago?" She asked him, eager to explain.

He nodded and she took that as a prompt to continue.

"Well, I think she's still mad at me, and set us up to get me flustered." She said, suddenly calm. "She knows our history."

Draco nodded in agreement. This reason had more finality. Even though Blaise was really an idiot, he wouldn't do it for no reason. Well, at least that was Hermione's view on the matter.

She was so deep in thought she didn't notice that the cauldron was bubbling over. It wasn't her who noticed first, it was her fellow housemate sitting beside her.

"Hermione!"  He yelled.

She snapped out of it and quickly muttered the spell to extinguish the fire and let the water settle.

She glanced at him oddly and noticed he was looking away, cheeks red. Did he really just say my first name? She thought. This had never happened before. Now Hermione's cheeks too reddened. Awkward.

But the moment was over quickly, as their potion was done meaning that Professor Slughorn could approach at any minute. And so he did. Noticing that the potion was no longer boiling, he called the rest of the class over.

Hermione stood as the rest of the class approached, and noticed the peculiar smell of the potion. She had made it once before, but this time it smelt different. She shrugged it off.