It was 6th Year and the war was right around the corner, whether people knew it or not.
Hermione was hurting, and everyone knows that when you hurt you make mistakes. Some you regret and some you don't. Some you wish you could take back because the...
Hermione yanked the chair out from underneath the table rather forcefully and rather ungracefully threw herself into it, crossing her arms and glaring furiously at the Malfoy boy sitting opposite her.
"Someone's a bit moody, aren't they?" Malfoy mused, raising an eyebrow at the raging girl.
"What on Earth do you need my help with, Malfoy? Because of you I've had to miss the train home!"
"Boo hoo." Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Just apparate out from Hogsmeade."
"Just apparate out from Hogsmeade." Hermione mimicked. "What else do you think I'm going to do?"
"Stay at Hogwarts over the holidays." He suggested.
"Unlike some people, Malfoy, my parents actually like having me at home for the holidays."
Malfoy narrowed his eyes at her. "It was my choice to stay here, Granger." After a beat, he then observed that Hermione had brought nothing with her. "Where are all your books?"
"You didn't tell me what we were looking at so I decided to not bring anything as most of the books I have would probably be useless, and well, they're already packed in my trunk." Hermione reasoned.
"You could have at least brought something!" Malfoy exclaimed. "A quill for example, or some parchment!"
"Can we get this over and done with?" Hermione picked off a stray hair from her jumper and tossed it aside. "What have you forced me to help you with?"
"I didn't force you, I merely suggested that it was in your best interests to help me." Malfoy smirked at her, while Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. "Anyways... I need you to help me fix something."
"Fix something?" Hermione was taken aback, she was sure the research would involve a curse of some kind, or at least something evil and illegal.
"Yes."
"Is that it?"
"Yes."
"What do you need to fix?"
Malfoy paused, knowing that he should tell her because then she'd know how they need to fix it, but also wondering if the Dark Lord would punish him for telling her or giving her a hint to his plans.
"Well?" Hermione prompted.
"A vanishing cabinet."
"A vanishing cabinet?" Hermione asked, wondering what on earth the Dark Lord would need that fixed for.
"How many times do I have to say 'yes'?" Malfoy groaned.
"I'm just a bit surprised." Hermione defended. "I expected you needed help with curses or poisons and more illegal stuff."
"Whatever. I just need to fix this. Every time I've put something in the vanishing cabinet it gets trapped in the limbo between the two cabinets."
"Have you tried a simple mending spell?" Hermione asked.
"Of course I've tried it! Do I look like Weasel?" Malfoy asked, insulted. "I'm not one of the idiotic guys that you hang about with."
"Just double checking." Hermione raised her hands in surrender, not wanting to anger the Death Eater too much. "I'll see what I can find." Hermione slid off her seat and started to wander through the library, taking her sweet time looking for anything that could help Malfoy.
It was around 11 o'clock at night when Hermione finally made her way back towards Malfoy, only to find him fast asleep in the same seat he had been hours ago. She slammed a few books down in front of him, causing him to wake with a start.
"What?" Malfoy asked rather groggily. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times. "Have you found anything then?"
"Yes. No thanks to you however." Hermione replied.
"Well, what did you find?" Malfoy payed no attention to the comment Hermione had flung his way.
"I read through and skimmed several books, many of them being useless, to then find these four books." She indicated at the books she had slammed on the table. "They all seem to point to the same thing, which is to use Harmonia Nectere Passus, an incantation of a spell used to fix complicated magical objects and perfect its performance."
"Brilliant! I'll be done in no time." Malfoy looked very pleased and there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
"Actually..." Hermione started, suddenly not really wanting to rain on his parade.
"What?" Malfoy groaned.
"It might take a bit longer than that. Harmonia Nectere Passus is a very complicated spell, and everything indicates that it requires tremendous and repeated efforts." Hermione explained. "Somehow I doubt you'll have the vanishing cabinet fixed before the end of the Christmas holidays. It'd be more likely to happen towards the end of the year."
"I'll live as long as it's done before the end of the year." Malfoy muttered bitterly, but Hermione still managed to catch it.
"Maybe I've missed something in these books. You might be able to find something to speed up the process." Hermione suggested.
"Why would you care if I got it done faster? You fight for the other side."
"I may fight for the other side, but you obviously don't want to be in this situation. Maybe call it a weird Gryffindor trait, a really weird mood, or perhaps a natural human emotion known as sympathy, but I pity you being in that situation, Malfoy. No one deserves to live in fear."
They were quite for a few minutes before Malfoy spoke up. "Whatever. You may leave now." Malfoy waved one of his hands in dismissal as he gathered up the books Hermione had collected and walked out of the library.
"What a git. I do all the work and then he leaves with it without so much as a thank you." Hermione said to herself as she made her way out of the library and towards the Gryffindor tower to collect her luggage.
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Another chapter :) I should have another one up soon, I've already started writing it so you won't have to wait another 2 months for it
Sorry about the wait!
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