Harry was eating a lovely looking stack of pancakes the next morning, Hermione wolfing down waffles beside him, when an owl dropped two letters into their laps- well, mostly in their laps.
"Oh-" Hermione says in surprise as the letter drops into her pumpkin juice. She pulls it out, groaning. "Scourgefy!"
The paper dries up, smelling faintly of pumpkin juice, and opens it wide. Harry reads his aloud. "Dear Mr. Potter- your detention will take place tonight at seven o'clock, which you will be spending with Professor Trelawney, cleaning the glass balls and tidying up the Divination classroom." Harry groans, leaning over to look at Hermione's letter, resting his chin on her shoulder and grinning a bit when her hair tickles his cheek. "What'd you get?"
She frowns. "Detention with Slughorn- cleaning the potion pots... but he isn't here, remember? Professor Slughorn left for a meeting with the Minister-"
"You'll be spending the detentions with me." A voice says from behind them, and they both jump. Harry pulls away from her and looks back at the person, Malfoy, anxiously,
"Why you?" Harry asks rather harshly, and Malfoy flinches at the harshness in his voice, but covers it quickly. Harry had tried to be friends with Malfoy, but it was hard- it was easier to just be... not enemies.
"McGonagall says that I'm responsible enough to watch over Granger when she's cleaning out the cauldrons... seeing as I've been made a prefect in the past."
"And Hermione was a prefect, and now she's Head Girl too." Harry says indignantly. "Seems as if she could watch over herself."
Hermione tugs on his sleeve and whispers into his ear "Harry, why are you so against Malfoy overseeing my detention?" she says.
"Because, I'm afraid he-" He breaks himself off, afraid she's going to laugh at him. He was still worried that people would try to take Hermione from him- and he couldn't afford to lose the girl that he's wanted for a while now. "I'm still afraid he'll try to get you to fancy him instead of me."
Hermione grins, shaking her head. "As if that'll ever happen- have you seen yourself? You're quite the stud." She throws him a joking wink, and he laughs before she turns back to Malfoy. "I'm coming to detention, but no funny business- I have no intention of talking to you about what you did." She says, and Malfoy frowns, his cheeks turning a light pink.
"If that's what you want." He says softly. "Detention will be for an hour- and if you don't want me to talk to you, I won't, only to tell you the instructions." He looks at the ground. "We don't have to be friends if you don't want to be." He adds quietly before turning and leaving them to sit there in astonishment.
~~~~~
The clock stroke seven eight o'clock, and three different clocks set off, clanging like they did everytime an hour passed. Harry was mistified at how they even worked up in Trelawney's office- most clocks and devices didn't work in Hogwarts- but at the same time, Collin had a fully functional camera just clicking away when he was younger.
Harry glances up at Professor Trelawney, who had been giggling while scribbling a letter for the first ten minutes of his detention. The rest, she had been talking to him and just thinking out loud.
"I do wonder why they call it wisdom teeth? I mean, they don't make you any wiser, and all they are is trouble- they should call them Stupid Teeth. Useless Teeth maybe."
Harry recalls asking Hermione why they even had wisdom teeth a while back, to which she gave an explanation about why they were there. "Hermione told me that a long time ago, before we were cooking and preparing food, our jaws and bodies sed to be shaped different- our jaws were longer and leaner, and they could fit more teeth, so the wisdom teeth came in handy." Harry says to her, scrubbing furiously at the white glass orb. Trelawney had said that he wasn't to have a speck of dust on the orbs, and he couldn't leave until all fifty were cleaned.
Trelawney looks down evenly at him for a moment. "I wouldn't be so sure that that information is correct, my boy."
"And why not?" He scrubs the orb harder.
"Because that information was given to you by Miss Granger- she is very unrelia-"
Harry slams the rag he had used for cleaning on the table, making her jump. "Just because Hermione doesn't believe in the rubbish that you teach, doesn't mean she isn't reliable. She uses facts, and is actually a genius. So don't talk about her that way."
Trelawney raises her eyebrows. "Ah, yes, I forgot that the two of you were dating- nice to see that you're loyal. No matter. Your relationship will end soon enough."
Harry glares at her, his eyes seeming like they're shooting daggers. "What makes you think we're breaking up?" He questions through clenched teeth.
Trelawney shrugs, getting to her feet and stretching. Harry hears her back crack. "All young couples do- none of them make it."
"Some do." Harry says indignantly. "And Hermione and I aren't that young anymore- Hermione has already turned nineteen, and I'll be nineteen this summer."
Trelawney chuckles, shaking her head. "Listen, my boy- that girl is nothing but trouble. She didn't believe in predictions or the things I taught, and someday that will cost her dearly. The things I say are true."
A chill runs up Harry's spine in memory of her prediction that Harry would be the one to kill Voldemort. "Hermione and I will make it. I know we will."
The speck of dust was gone now, and Harry sets the orb down. He only had one more orb to clean and then he was done. "And how are you going to keep your relationship after you graduate Hogwarts? Hmm?"
Harry frowns, scrubbing the glass fiercely. "Maybe I'm going to move in with her." He sets the orb down, finally done. "Maybe, after I move in with her, I'll marry her. And then maybe, we'll ave kids, kids who will come to this school, and I will tell them not to be in this class, simply because you can't keep your nose in your own business! And maybe, our kids will grow up, and we'll have grandchildren, and then we'll both die happy, buried next to each other." He says indignantly, and she raises her eyebrows as he stomps towards the trapdoor. "Hermione and I's relationship is real." He adds, and then slams the trapdoor shut.
~~~~~
"The instructions are simple. We have approximately twenty spare cauldrons. Your job is to clean them, and the tables, and organize the potions room if you have enough time." Draco says. "And of course, I won't speak to you unless you'd like me to."
He sits down on the wooden stool perched in the corner and leans back against the cool, stone wall. He watches as she moves towards the cauldrons, cleaning them out with a filthy rag and then make sure they're completely clean by using her wand. She works in silence, and doesn't say a thing- she had no intention of speaking to him.
He had told Harry that he liked her- and even though it ended with the two of them dating, she was still frustrated with him. She had put in a lot of work to sever any angry and negative ties she had with him and start over- she had forgiven him and been his friend, which had honestly been hard, because they had had a terrible past. And then she had told him her secret- that she fancied her best friend. And then he just up and told him.
"Hermione."
"I thought we had an agreement."
He falls into a reluctant and sad silence. Hermione bites her lip and almost tells him that she wants to talk to him but it was his own fault, but instead she stays quiet and moves on to clean the lab tables. Finally, she can't take the silence anymore- it felt like it was crushing down on her, suffocating her even.
"What were you going to say?" She asks quietly. Draco looks up hopefully, but she was staring down hard at the table that she was cleaning, avoiding eye contact with him.
Draco looks up at the ceiling instead- at least it didn't look like it would kill him if he didn't word his sentences right. "That I'm sorry. I know, it must have been hard to become friend with me even after everything I said, all of the mean things and the hate and the bullying, but you did anyway and then you told me a secret and I screwed it up and I'm sorry but I just wanted to rub it in Potter's face that you had liked him this whole time-"
"Draco. Breathe."
She doesn't say it in a calming way like she does with Harry and Ron. She says it as if it's a mere suggestion and she didn't care whether he did it or not. It feels like someone stabbed him in the heart and he stares down at his pale hands. "Okay."
"I honestly don't know what to do- I'm just ticked, is all. And ask Harry and Ron, I'm terrible with keeping grudges."
"So am I."
"Well mine are worse."
"Want to bet? I hated and was a jerk to Potter for his whole life just because he didn't want to be my friend." Draco spits out, and Hermione glances up, but there's no pity on her face- it was cold and blank.
"That's quite stupid." She puts the rag down. "Look. We can be acquaintances. And if we ever work up to it, maybe we can be friends again."
"Thank you-"
"Also, my hour is up." She moves past him and brushes against him by accident when passing through the door. "Good night Draco."
~~~~~
Harry was sitting in the common room when she got back to the tower. He was angry, his hands clenched in fists, and Hermione was quite positive she looked the same way. Everyone else was in bed, and Harry glanced up when she comes in, rushing towards her and giving her a hug.
"Woah, Harry, what crawled up your bum? You looked really mad." Hermione asks, squeezing him back. He releases her.
"You don't look much better." Harry responds, pushing her down lightly to sit on the couch, and then plopping down right next to her. "What happened in detention?"
"Malfoy apologized, and I somewhat forgave him- even though I didn't want to. I'm still ticked." She pauses. "What happened with you?"
"Trelawney said she thinks we're going to break up." Harry says. "She says young relationships never work out."
"We aren't that young, I mean a little, but we'll make it-"
"Exactly!"
Hermione frowns. "Honestly I feel like the war has strengthened our understanding of what's important and what's not. What will work out and what won't."
Harry leans over, smiling. "Yeah." He murmurs softly, pressing his lips swiftly against hers.Her eyes close and her eyelashes brush his cheek. His hand moves up to cup her cheek. She smiles and they move their lips in a steady rhythm, but eventually that's not good enough for him. He pulls her to her feet, not breaking their lips apart, and spins her in circles playfully for a second. Then he rotates her around so that her back is pressed against the red common room wall.
He kisses her harder, opening his mouth wider and pressing his body closer to her. Their stomachs touch, and his hands are cupped on her face, hers latched around his neck. His fingers move from her face, starting to twirl her hair, and then moving down to her waist. She moves her hands up to his hair and tangles them in his black locks, while he tries to pull himself closer to her, which wasn't physically possible.
"Hermione." Harry says, pulling away and pressing his forehead against hers.
"Hmm?"
"I... I'm very careful with the word love but... I think I'm in love with you, Hermione."
"I think I'm in love with you too."
Okay so I have no idea if you guys like a little bit of romance in there or not... let me know. I hope you do because I don't mind writing it, but I'm not going to go too far, mind you...
Anyways, I hope you liked this little chapter.
No matter who's reading this- I love you and care about you.
Have a pleasant day loves.
Magisky