Exception Chapter 3: Good Job Granger
A look at Dramione behind the scenes of the Harry Potter Series
Draco knew he had no excuse this time. He'd already gotten his seat, and it was full. Still, that didn't stop him from walking around-with Crabbe and Goyle to lessen any suspicions, of course. When he finally found Hermione, he made a point not to notice her.
"Well, look who it is," he drawled. "Potty and the Weasel."
Malfoy tried his best to sneak glances of Hermione without her notice, but as her eyes were practically boring holes in him, he could barely even take in her bushy hair. He was so distracted that he barely even remembered the insult he gave Weasley, something about gold and his mother. However, when an odd noise made itself heard, Draco finally spotted the fourth person in the compartment. When he discovered it was a teacher, he immediately tried to back out as quickly as possible.
With one last look at Hermione, he, Crabbe and Goyle left.
"Why did you leave, Malfoy?"Crabbed asked when they were out of earshot.
"Obviously because there was a teacher. Do you expect me to get a detention the first week of school?" Draco explained in a strained voice.
"But he was asleep," Goyle said.
"And you don't think Weasley would get violent and would somehow wake up the professor?" Draco said, sighing at Goyle's severe lack of intelligence.
"Well, did you see that Mudblood Granger? You didn't say anything about her," Goyle said, the mention of Hermione making Draco's heart skip.
"Yeah, you always come up with the best things with her," Crabbe agreed.
"Maybe I don't care for talking to Mudblood filth like her," Draco said as casually as he could.
Crabbe and Goyle made similar grunts of disappointment. Fortunately for them, the fainting of one Harry Potter would be enough to amuse them for the whole year.
"…you great ugly brute." Hermione turned just in time to see Malfoy on the ground, red visible on his robes. She heard the scream he'd made and knew she would laugh about it later, but without knowing how badly Buckbeak had attacked him, Hermione feared for Draco's life.
In order to see the wounds better, Hermione ran to help Hagrid by holding the gate open. Looking towards the castle to hide her anxiety, Hermione waited patiently for Hagrid to pass. When he did, she was both relieved and angry to see that it was just a scratch. She glared at Draco before rejoining her classmates.
Pansy seemed on the verge of tears , and seeing this made Hermione get a very odd feeling in her stomach. Being the logical girl that she was, Hermione tried to figure it out, but came up blank. To hide her confusion, she returned to Harry and Ron, who were laughing at Draco's scream, as she predicted.
As they headed to their next class, Hermione kept thinking about all the blood on his robes. Maybe she'd seen wrong or misjudged the depth of the scratch. It could have been really bad.
Finally she had to ask, "D'you think he'll be alright?"
She realized when Ron mentioned Hagrid that she had been focusing on the wrong thing. And she also had the feeling that whatever caused this odd thought process was directly linked to that feeling she had about Pansy. She just had to figure out how to connect the dots.
Draco decided that if he was going to be wounded, he might as well milk it for all that it was worth. With this wound, he had effectively cancelled a Quidditch match, fired the oaf they called a teacher, and pleased his father all in one. Plus, with the ease at which everyone believed things in this school, Draco could still make the story into something that made him sound heroic and see where that got him. Yes, this injury was turning out to be a perfect opportunity.
Thursday's Potions class proved the injury even more beneficial than he thought. He had Pansy doting over him and he got Snape to torment Potter and Weasley. Not to mention, he could wallow in the fact that he knew more about Sirius Black than Potter did.
And something he would never admit was that the look in Hermione's face every time Pansy said a word and the fact that she was acting positively mutinous towards Snape by helping Neville made Draco happier than he should have been.
Hermione knew, without any doubt, that this would be her worst year at Hogwarts. There was just too much: too many classes with too much homework, the confusion of a time-turner plus the secrecy of it, Buckbeak's possible execution in weeks unless she did something about it, Harry's Grim problem, and to top it all off-Harry and Ron not talking to her because she'd tried to save Harry's life.
Okay, so if the Firebolt was completely safe, she wouldn't have necessarily saved his life, but she could have. Why couldn't they see that she had only been trying to help? Then, with Ron blaming Crookshanks for Scabbers's "death", Hermione had no one to talk to.
Now Hermione was forced to avoid the common room thanks to Harry and Ron, and she spent most of her days in the library, either doing homework, researching for Buckbeak, or crying in a hidden alcove. Occasionally she went to Hagrid's, but as she had hardly any information and those visits made her cry as well, she kept them to a minimum.
Hermione knew when the stress levels were way too high when she got a voice in her head that said, I really care about you Hermione. This voice was usually accompanied by a vision of Draco. Therefore, Hermione could only believe that when this happened, her stress levels were so high that they were making her insane. When else would she think of Draco saying he cared about her?
Coincidentally, Draco Malfoy would show up out of nowhere when she was crying. It wasn't every time, but it happened enough that she knew it was making him curious. Once, instead of just hurrying past, Draco actually sat down next to her.
"If you're here to pester me, you might as well leave," she said shakily. "I'm really not in the mood to deal with you."
"Actually, Granger, I wanted to know why every time I walk by this part of the library, you're in here crying."
"Why do you care? I'm just a filthy Mudblood aren't I?" Hermione spat.
"Well, while that's true, being a filthy Mudblood doesn't excuse you from causing me confusion," Draco said. "Now will you tell me, or will I be forced to spread the rumor that your boyfriend Weasley ended your relationship."
Hermione laughed. "First of all, Ron and I were never together, and second of all, part of me is crying over him. Him, Harry, schoolwork and Buckbeak-the hippogriff you've been trying to execute, if you didn't know."
Draco sounded offended when he snapped, "I have not been trying to get it executed."
"Oh yeah, then what's the point of keeping those stupid bandages on?" Hermione said, jabbing her finger at the sling on Draco's arm.
"To get Hagrid sacked of course, plus there's loads of other-"
"How dare you!" Hermione yelled, jumping to her feet angrily. "You don't even know him! He's the kindest, sweetest, most helpful person there is. But of course, you don't know what that's like, since you surround yourself with evil gits like Pansy."
"Pansy?" Draco said knowingly. "So she's worse than Crabbe and Goyle?"
"You know perfectly well what I-"
"I do know what you mean," Draco said, standing up so that he was looking Hermione in the eye. When grey met brown, Hermione felt like she was being sucked in, with no control. "You like me, don't you, Granger?"
"I-why-but-I do not!" Hermione spluttered, thinking too much of those grey eyes to think too clearly.
"You do," Draco said, taking a step toward her. "You think I don't notice how jealous of Pansy you are?"
"Jealous?" Hermione spat, though her heart was racing. They were much too close. "I am not-"
"Of course you are," Draco said with a grin. "Why wouldn't you be?"
"You're ridiculous!"Hermione cried, finally taking control of herself again. She grabbed her things and stormed out of the library, shoving traitorous thoughts that Draco was right as far away from her conscious mind as possible.
Draco watched Hermione go, feeling better than he had in days. Given, he had a tiny ball of guilt inside him, remembering his goodbye he'd made last year. He was completely going against everything he planned for, but he really could have cared less. He saw the truth in Hermione's eyes, a truth that mirrored his own.
Still, as happy as he was about it, he didn't really see the need to push it any farther. He'd act normally from now on, and just let that seed of truth grow in Hermione. That way, his father could have no reason to be angry at him until things culminated. After that, well, Draco would just deal with things as they crossed his path.
What Draco never could have prepared for, however, was Hermione slapping him.
Caught off guard, Draco staggered, his cheek burning furiously from the force of her slap. He had seen the look on her face, but he'd had no time to register what it meant. Now, as Hermione pulled her wand on him, Draco saw the pure, volatile rage that was on her features, and it was practically pushing him backwards. One emotion ran through him at that moment: fear.
"C'mon," he managed to murmur to Crabbe and Goyle before he hurried away from the enraged witch.
"How dare that Mudblood touch you," Goyle raged once they entered the castle. "You should have jinxed her."
"Exactly!" Crabbe exclaimed. "Who does she think she is, anyway?"
"Yeah, you're right," Draco agreed weakly, rubbing his cheek. He could still feel Hermione's hand on his face, and was sure there was a red handprint. He knew he should be angry at Hermione, but all he could feel was admiration. He never knew she was strong enough, never knew she would even do anything like that. He felt…proud of her for standing up to him, not just accepting his words.
All he could think was, Good job, Granger.
Hermione hardly paid any attention in her next class. She was too focused on the fact that she's just hit Malfoy. She wanted to feel bad, and in any other circumstances, she probably would have. But after that encounter with Draco in the library, for him to act as if she wouldn't react from another jibe at Hagrid was just asking for it. Plus, she knew that without all the stress of the year getting to her, she would never have been able to express her feelings quite as clearly.
All in all, Hermione was proud of herself. Still, rage was exhausting and she felt herself fall asleep soon after her class. She felt a nagging feeling of forgetting something, but she ignored it. That is, until Ron woke her up.
"I forgot to go to Charms!" she squealed, jumping right back into the stress once more. Only the closeness of exams kept her going, as she knew she would get to calm down soon after them.
Unfortunately for Hermione, a rat, a big black dog, and a werewolf would even ruin those plans for her…
Next Chapter
Draco knew he had no excuse this time. He'd already gotten his seat, and it was full. Still, that didn't stop him from walking around-with Crabbe and Goyle to lessen any suspicions, of course. When he finally found Hermione, he made a point not to notice her.
"Well, look who it is," he drawled. "Potty and the Weasel."
Malfoy tried his best to sneak glances of Hermione without her notice, but as her eyes were practically boring holes in him, he could barely even take in her bushy hair. He was so distracted that he barely even remembered the insult he gave Weasley, something about gold and his mother. However, when an odd noise made itself heard, Draco finally spotted the fourth person in the compartment. When he discovered it was a teacher, he immediately tried to back out as quickly as possible.
With one last look at Hermione, he, Crabbe and Goyle left.
"Why did you leave, Malfoy?"Crabbed asked when they were out of earshot.
"Obviously because there was a teacher. Do you expect me to get a detention the first week of school?" Draco explained in a strained voice.
"But he was asleep," Goyle said.
"And you don't think Weasley would get violent and would somehow wake up the professor?" Draco said, sighing at Goyle's severe lack of intelligence.
"Well, did you see that Mudblood Granger? You didn't say anything about her," Goyle said, the mention of Hermione making Draco's heart skip.
"Yeah, you always come up with the best things with her," Crabbe agreed.
"Maybe I don't care for talking to Mudblood filth like her," Draco said as casually as he could.
Crabbe and Goyle made similar grunts of disappointment. Fortunately for them, the fainting of one Harry Potter would be enough to amuse them for the whole year.
"…you great ugly brute." Hermione turned just in time to see Malfoy on the ground, red visible on his robes. She heard the scream he'd made and knew she would laugh about it later, but without knowing how badly Buckbeak had attacked him, Hermione feared for Draco's life.
In order to see the wounds better, Hermione ran to help Hagrid by holding the gate open. Looking towards the castle to hide her anxiety, Hermione waited patiently for Hagrid to pass. When he did, she was both relieved and angry to see that it was just a scratch. She glared at Draco before rejoining her classmates.
Pansy seemed on the verge of tears , and seeing this made Hermione get a very odd feeling in her stomach. Being the logical girl that she was, Hermione tried to figure it out, but came up blank. To hide her confusion, she returned to Harry and Ron, who were laughing at Draco's scream, as she predicted.
As they headed to their next class, Hermione kept thinking about all the blood on his robes. Maybe she'd seen wrong or misjudged the depth of the scratch. It could have been really bad.
Finally she had to ask, "D'you think he'll be alright?"
She realized when Ron mentioned Hagrid that she had been focusing on the wrong thing. And she also had the feeling that whatever caused this odd thought process was directly linked to that feeling she had about Pansy. She just had to figure out how to connect the dots.
Draco decided that if he was going to be wounded, he might as well milk it for all that it was worth. With this wound, he had effectively cancelled a Quidditch match, fired the oaf they called a teacher, and pleased his father all in one. Plus, with the ease at which everyone believed things in this school, Draco could still make the story into something that made him sound heroic and see where that got him. Yes, this injury was turning out to be a perfect opportunity.
Thursday's Potions class proved the injury even more beneficial than he thought. He had Pansy doting over him and he got Snape to torment Potter and Weasley. Not to mention, he could wallow in the fact that he knew more about Sirius Black than Potter did.
And something he would never admit was that the look in Hermione's face every time Pansy said a word and the fact that she was acting positively mutinous towards Snape by helping Neville made Draco happier than he should have been.
Hermione knew, without any doubt, that this would be her worst year at Hogwarts. There was just too much: too many classes with too much homework, the confusion of a time-turner plus the secrecy of it, Buckbeak's possible execution in weeks unless she did something about it, Harry's Grim problem, and to top it all off-Harry and Ron not talking to her because she'd tried to save Harry's life.
Okay, so if the Firebolt was completely safe, she wouldn't have necessarily saved his life, but she could have. Why couldn't they see that she had only been trying to help? Then, with Ron blaming Crookshanks for Scabbers's "death", Hermione had no one to talk to.
Now Hermione was forced to avoid the common room thanks to Harry and Ron, and she spent most of her days in the library, either doing homework, researching for Buckbeak, or crying in a hidden alcove. Occasionally she went to Hagrid's, but as she had hardly any information and those visits made her cry as well, she kept them to a minimum.
Hermione knew when the stress levels were way too high when she got a voice in her head that said, I really care about you Hermione. This voice was usually accompanied by a vision of Draco. Therefore, Hermione could only believe that when this happened, her stress levels were so high that they were making her insane. When else would she think of Draco saying he cared about her?
Coincidentally, Draco Malfoy would show up out of nowhere when she was crying. It wasn't every time, but it happened enough that she knew it was making him curious. Once, instead of just hurrying past, Draco actually sat down next to her.
"If you're here to pester me, you might as well leave," she said shakily. "I'm really not in the mood to deal with you."
"Actually, Granger, I wanted to know why every time I walk by this part of the library, you're in here crying."
"Why do you care? I'm just a filthy Mudblood aren't I?" Hermione spat.
"Well, while that's true, being a filthy Mudblood doesn't excuse you from causing me confusion," Draco said. "Now will you tell me, or will I be forced to spread the rumor that your boyfriend Weasley ended your relationship."
Hermione laughed. "First of all, Ron and I were never together, and second of all, part of me is crying over him. Him, Harry, schoolwork and Buckbeak-the hippogriff you've been trying to execute, if you didn't know."
Draco sounded offended when he snapped, "I have not been trying to get it executed."
"Oh yeah, then what's the point of keeping those stupid bandages on?" Hermione said, jabbing her finger at the sling on Draco's arm.
"To get Hagrid sacked of course, plus there's loads of other-"
"How dare you!" Hermione yelled, jumping to her feet angrily. "You don't even know him! He's the kindest, sweetest, most helpful person there is. But of course, you don't know what that's like, since you surround yourself with evil gits like Pansy."
"Pansy?" Draco said knowingly. "So she's worse than Crabbe and Goyle?"
"You know perfectly well what I-"
"I do know what you mean," Draco said, standing up so that he was looking Hermione in the eye. When grey met brown, Hermione felt like she was being sucked in, with no control. "You like me, don't you, Granger?"
"I-why-but-I do not!" Hermione spluttered, thinking too much of those grey eyes to think too clearly.
"You do," Draco said, taking a step toward her. "You think I don't notice how jealous of Pansy you are?"
"Jealous?" Hermione spat, though her heart was racing. They were much too close. "I am not-"
"Of course you are," Draco said with a grin. "Why wouldn't you be?"
"You're ridiculous!"Hermione cried, finally taking control of herself again. She grabbed her things and stormed out of the library, shoving traitorous thoughts that Draco was right as far away from her conscious mind as possible.
Draco watched Hermione go, feeling better than he had in days. Given, he had a tiny ball of guilt inside him, remembering his goodbye he'd made last year. He was completely going against everything he planned for, but he really could have cared less. He saw the truth in Hermione's eyes, a truth that mirrored his own.
Still, as happy as he was about it, he didn't really see the need to push it any farther. He'd act normally from now on, and just let that seed of truth grow in Hermione. That way, his father could have no reason to be angry at him until things culminated. After that, well, Draco would just deal with things as they crossed his path.
What Draco never could have prepared for, however, was Hermione slapping him.
Caught off guard, Draco staggered, his cheek burning furiously from the force of her slap. He had seen the look on her face, but he'd had no time to register what it meant. Now, as Hermione pulled her wand on him, Draco saw the pure, volatile rage that was on her features, and it was practically pushing him backwards. One emotion ran through him at that moment: fear.
"C'mon," he managed to murmur to Crabbe and Goyle before he hurried away from the enraged witch.
"How dare that Mudblood touch you," Goyle raged once they entered the castle. "You should have jinxed her."
"Exactly!" Crabbe exclaimed. "Who does she think she is, anyway?"
"Yeah, you're right," Draco agreed weakly, rubbing his cheek. He could still feel Hermione's hand on his face, and was sure there was a red handprint. He knew he should be angry at Hermione, but all he could feel was admiration. He never knew she was strong enough, never knew she would even do anything like that. He felt…proud of her for standing up to him, not just accepting his words.
All he could think was, Good job, Granger.
Hermione hardly paid any attention in her next class. She was too focused on the fact that she's just hit Malfoy. She wanted to feel bad, and in any other circumstances, she probably would have. But after that encounter with Draco in the library, for him to act as if she wouldn't react from another jibe at Hagrid was just asking for it. Plus, she knew that without all the stress of the year getting to her, she would never have been able to express her feelings quite as clearly.
All in all, Hermione was proud of herself. Still, rage was exhausting and she felt herself fall asleep soon after her class. She felt a nagging feeling of forgetting something, but she ignored it. That is, until Ron woke her up.
"I forgot to go to Charms!" she squealed, jumping right back into the stress once more. Only the closeness of exams kept her going, as she knew she would get to calm down soon after them.
Unfortunately for Hermione, a rat, a big black dog, and a werewolf would even ruin those plans for her…
Next Chapter