Sorting Priorities (a Romione/Dramione Fic)

Chapter 17 • Tangled Relationships Are SO Last Night

Hermione sat down warily at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. She saw Draco looking curiously at her with a concerned expression on his face, from across the hall, but she didn't meet his eyes. She didn't want it to seem as if she was patching things up with him just to break it all off.

She smiled wanly as Ron joined her, turning to him and Harry, striking up a light conversation as if the night before hadn't even happened. She could practically feel Draco's eyes burning disappointed holes into her back though. She could feel her own disappointment, also in herself, burning a hole in her heart. She let out a little sigh, and shut her eyes.

When she counted to three, she would move on. One... Did she really want to leave Draco behind again? Two... Was this really right? Would Ron still feel the same? Would she still feel the same? Three.... She let out the breath she had been holding. Her problems were over. Taken away with the morning post. Gone. Over with. Draco was no longer a facet of her personal life. As she felt her soul mend itself, Ron turned to her, recapping a joke from yesterday's Herbology lesson, mimicking Harry's failed attempts at mandrake potting, and for the first time in weeks, Hermione cracked a true smile.

That afternoon, Hermione nervously sat down in her double-period of potions. She took her seat by Harry and Ron, sitting safely in the middle, and rehearsed what she would to Draco when class began. I know things got out of hand last night, and I know it seemed like things would finally come together between us, but it made me realize who I really want.... Did that make her sound presumptuous? Did she even have to back herself up? What if he argued and tried to convince she belonged with him? The more she thought about all the possible scenarios, the more she found herself doubting the whole idea of mentioning it to Draco. Wouldn't he just get the picture if she stopped talking with him? If she reverted back to calling him Malfoy instead?

Malfoy.... The name sounded foreign, wrong, and cumbersome on her lips after so many months of Draco. Malfoy seemed like a name reserved solely for enemies, which she certainly hoped she and Drac--Malfoy (or was it Draco still?) were not. She licked her lips and sighed, reaching up to run a hand through her hair.

She let out a small 'oh!' of surprise. Her hand had caught in her bushy, untamed, uncharmed hair, and she growled in frustration. She turned to Ron.

"Why didn't you tell me my hair was so bad today? I forgot to charm it!" she said exasperatedly. She pulled out her wand, ready to perform the charm again, but Ron gently caught her wrist, bending it away from her head.

"Because you're beautiful either way to me, silly," he teased, leaning over to peck her cheek. Harry turned away,m pretending to retch, but Hermione blushed. It had been too long since she'd playfully flirted with Ron; it was a welcome reprieve from Draco's heavier, more heartfelt professions. Almost as soon as Draco came into her thoughts, though, she felt guilty. She could just make him out from the corner of her eye, and he was glaring forlornly at her. Snape, however, walked into the room a second later, and Hermione turned back tot the front.

"Today, we shall be reviewing concept covered in our poisons unit this winter. Throughout the week, I will assign a potion for you to prepare, a vial to be turned in at the end of class. These shall function as a final test of your poison-and-antidote-making abilities. Today, your potion will be the antidote to most poisons, which can be found on page eight-hundred and thirty-three. Hermione flipped to the page, groaning inwardly at the long, complicated list of ingredients. She set up her cauldron, then took the book over to the store cupboard, pulling out boxes of ingredients, looking for squid hearts and ravensweed. Unfortunately, Draco was there too.

Hermione tried to avoid eye contact, but she knew that she'd promised herself she would talk to him about...what they did or didn't have. Her heart raced as several possible scenarios flitted through her mind, and her fingers fumbled around a box of dried beetles, spilling the contents across the floor.

"Hmm, pity," drawled Snape. "That'll be...oh, let's see...one point from Gryffindor for each spilled beetle, miss Granger." A thin smile curled his lips, but his eyes remained cold as ever. Hermione glanced at floor. There had to be at least twenty beetles on the ground. She slowly bent over, her cheeks burning, and picked them up. She had been struggling to pick one beetle up for a whole minute until Draco, who had been dutifully searching the cupboard as well, took pity on her, and magicked the bugs into their container. Hermione's cheeks grew hotter. Was she brain-dead today? She should have used magic.

"Thanks," she muttered, sticking her hand into the squid heart box, grabbing a slimy organ at random. The blood squelched around her fingers, and she steeled herself. It was time to tell Draco that they couldn't see each other. "Draco," she whispered. he didn't hear. Hermione cleared her throat. "Draco." He turned around, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"Yes?"

"I--um--I know that--that things got a little, er, out of hand last night," she began, clenching her fists. "But, er, it made me realize who I really want, and--" she looked down, suddenly realizing she was squashing the squid heart--and probably Draco's, too. She set it on top of the Ravensweed. "Well," she continued, more quietly. "It's--it's Ron." She looked down and counted to three. letting it all go. Then she collected her things and sat back down.

Ron looked at her strangely as she sat back down. "I heard what you said back there," he told her, reaching out and taking her blood-soaked hand. "It was the right thing. I'm glad." He gave her hand a squeeze and turned back to his potion, which was shaping up to be a tar like, pork-scented conglomeration of grass and an unidentifiable liquid.

"Ron, you used regular grass, didn't you?" Hermione asked exasperatedly, pulling his cauldron over. She vanished his mess, then separated her ravensweed, handing him half. "Here. If you restart now, you should be able to whip up an okay potion by the end of class. And here--" She grabbed his hand and waved her wand over it, siphoning off the squid blood. "If any of that gets in too soon, it'll ruin it. Again." She repeated the gesture on her hand, then began work.

As she referenced the book's description of a pale orange, opaque mixture, she could see Draco quietly simmering amid a group of his Slytherin friends. While his companions were joking merrily and laughing at lighthearted mockeries, he was silently stirring his potion, occasionally throwing a sad glance in her direction. Hermione, however, quickly swallowed the guilty feelings welling up in her throat. She was already past this. She had made her choice--Ron. And that was that. She turned away. Nothing could ruin her day today. Absolutely nothing at all.