My Father's Daughter

CHAPTER EIGHT

Page count: 6

Hogwarts

Hermione had spent her time during breakfast as quiet as possible, keeping herself to herself and ignoring the stares she received from the confused students of other houses, and the glares of students from her own house. As soon as she'd finished her breakfast, she'd made a retreat from the great hall and headed back to her dorm in order to prepare her school bag for the coming day.

Once she'd packed everything she needed, placed her beautiful Slytherin rose in a transfigured vase filled with water and checked her appearance one last time, she left her dorm and headed to the first lesson of the day, potions.

As usual she was the first one there and she spent her time contemplating what the new potions' professor would be like, wondering if he'd be as strict as Snape or as useless as Lockhart. Soon enough other students arrived and lined up outside the classroom, gossiping in their groups and Hermione thought she did well to ignore their comments and stares.

As soon as the door opened, the students filed inside and Hermione waited until last as she didn't want to be knocked into as everyone tried to squeeze through the door at once. As she entered the classroom, she was aware that is was mostly filled with students taking their seats, but there were still a few that had yet to arrive.

Making her way to her usual seat, she squeezed past students that stood in the middle of the aisles and removed her bag from her shoulder, placing it on the workbench and pulling out her stool, sitting down in-between Harry and Ron, who had somehow snuck into the classroom without her noticing.

"Morning, boys," she said cheerfully, pushing her dislike and anger aside and adopting her usual chirping tone she had on the first day of lessons. She had a job to do and she wouldn't fail because of her own thoughts and feelings. "I hope you both slept well, please tell me you didn't stay up late like you usually do. This is the start of our NEWTs and the syllabus is going to be so much more demanding than previous years." She looked to them each in turn, seeing their disgusted looks but she dutifully ignored them. "I wonder if this new professor will live up to Snape's previous standards," she mused. "Anyway, I trust you enjoyed breakfast, Ronald, did you have chance to try the new rhubarb jam? I wasn't too sure on it at first, but it certainly tasted delicious after adding whipped cream onto the waffles."

She looked to the redhead, keeping a friendly smile on her face despite the fact she wanted nothing more than to hex him for the current look of loathing he was sending her way. She looked down to her school bag and removed her new potions book, placing it on the workbench in front of her.

"Is everything alright, you're awfully quiet this morning? Oh, do you not feel well? Maybe you should go to the hospital wing, do you have a temperature?" She said worriedly, a slight frown pulling at her face.

She lifted her hand in order to gauge his temperature by pressing it against his forehead, but he leaned back from her, almost falling off his stool in the process. She kind of wished he had.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you!" Ron demanded, not bothering to keep his voice quiet and attracting more than a few glances from other students.

She frowned in confusion. "I don't know what you mean. I feel completely fine, it's you I'm worried about."

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked from beside her.

She turned to look at him. "The same as you, of course, waiting for the new professor to arrive so we may begin the lesson, silly," she laughed lightly, shaking her head and giving him a smile.

"What are you doing sitting here?" He rephrased. She frowned once more. "You're a Slytherin," he spat the word as if it left a horrible taste in his mouth.