Chapter 10: Potions and Detentions
“Oh my gosh! I can't believe that NEWTS are tomorrow! What if I fail, I'll have to stay at Hogwarts and study for another year,” Hermione was walking back and forth her dormitory common room, a book in her hands.
“Will you just rest for a while. When you've gone and graduated from Hogwarts, I'll have stay for another year.”
“You won't fail Harry. As long as you try your best of course.”
“That's encouraging,” Harry said huffily.
“Well, it is true.” Hermione checked her watch, there was only three minutes until Arithmancy. “ I have to go to Arithmancy. Bye Harry, see you in Potions.”
Hermione ran along the corridor to Arithmancy. She made it just in time.
“Hello class! You're NEWTS will be tomorrow, and Arithmancy is one of the hardest subjects. Many people were unable to pass the OWLS, but I'm sure you will all do very good in your NEWTS. Seeing that there is no point starting a new topic just before the NEWTS, we shall revise the work Professor Vector and myself did with you this year.”
Elaine is such a good teacher! Hermione thought as she opened her book.
(*)
“Ron , you're doing it wrong again. You're supposed to add wormwood, not nutwood. Honestly, you're going to fail the Potions exam if you do this during the exam. This is the most important potion in the Potions exam, and the Potions exam is very important, especially if you want to be an auror.”
“Okay, okay! It's just a wrong ingredient.”
“It's not just a wrong ingredient. If you put in one wrong ingredient, you're Cure for Pimples, will actually do the opposite effect.”
“Which is....”
“You get more pimples,” Hermione said simply.
“Uh oh. Um, I already put in some nutwood before you stopped me. Didn't Malfoy say that she was going to drink the potion afterwards to test if we've done them correctly?”
“And she also said that we should all do it correctly, seeing we were able to pass the OWLS. And if we don't do it correctly, we lose twenty house points, and if we do it correctly, we get twenty house points,” said Harry, who made the same mistake as Ron, but he put in munnwood.
“Great, we're dead.”
“What are we going to do?” Harry groaned.
“You know, it's lucky, you apologised Harry, because, I know what to do to fix up your problem.”
(*)
“Potter, your turn now. Bring a sample up to me, and I'll drink it.”
Harry ladled some potion into a flask, Hermione wished him good luck (Ron was too nervous to say anything, and Harry took it up to Narcissa Malfoy. She took it from him, and smirked at him. Harry tried not to look at her smirking face. It nerved him a lot but he couldn't help not looking at her drinking down the potion.
When Narcissa drank the last drop of the potion, Harry and everyone else in the room stared attentively at her face. Slowly, the pimples Narcissa Malfoy conjured on her face, started popping, no blood came out, and the scars faded. The Gryffindors whooped, as the Slytherins groaned.
“Weasley, bring yours up now.”
As Ron put his sample into the flask, Narcissa conjured up new pimples on her face. Ron slowly walked to the front of the room, and handed Narcissa his sample. Once again, everyone stared at her face once she finished the potion. The popping noises once more filled the room, which meant Ron had succeeded too.The Gryffindors applauded as Ron sat down. The Slytherins merely scowled at him. Other students went up one by one. When Narcissa Malfoy drank Neville's potion, her face grew more pimples than ever.
“Twenty points off Gryffindor, you add fairy wings, not pixie wings,” she snapped at him. “Now, Miss Granger.”
Hermione picked up the flask she already filled, and walked up to Narcissa. She took it from her hands, and drank it. Instead of the normal popping noise, there was no sound; but all of the pimples were growing smaller, smaller, smaller and finally gone. All the Gryffindors cheered, but the Slytherins, who thought she had failed, were groaning.
“Ten points off Gryffindor.” Immediately, the cheering and groaning ceased. “You were told to do the basic one, not the extensive one.”
The Slytherins were cheering, but one.
“That's unfair. Any reasonable teacher will give her points and not take away points if somebody in their class does the extensive way of doing something.”
The Gryffindors and some of the Slytherins gaped at Draco Malfoy. Never in their life had they dreamed of Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin Prince, would ever stand up for the Gryffindor Princess, also know to him, ‘the filthy, little Mudblood'.
“You always listen to the teacher. The teacher tells you to do the basic potion, and you do the basic potion. The teacher tells you to do the extensive potion, and you do the extensive potion. You never do the opposite to what the teacher tells you to do,” Narcissa snapped at her son.
“Even so, it's not fair. I've read the book, and the extensive potion for the Cure of Pimples is extremely hard. Many fully qualified wizards fail to do it.”
“If you say anything once more, I'll have to put you in detention Draco,” barked Narcissa. Her face had the pink tinge Draco had when he was embarrassed.
“Then put me in detention. I welcome detention.”
“Don't make me Draco.”
“Go on! Put me in detention!”
Everyone could see that Narcissa was battling between whether or not she should put her precious son in detention. Finally, she made up her mind.
“You shall have your detention tonight at 7:00 in my office.”
Five minutes later, Hermione chased after Draco. With Harry and Ron lagging behind.
“Draco! Draco!” He turned around. “I'm so sorry I landed you in detention. I didn't mean to. It's just-”
Draco cut her off.
“It's not your fault. I was just being fair.”
“No, it is my fault. If I did the basic potion and not the extensive one, you wouldn't have to go to detention tonight. I'm such an idiot.”
“Hermione, you are not an idiot.”
“I am. You must really hate me now-”
“It's just detention.”
“Just detention? Yeah, but from your own mother. You probably do hate me no-”
“You know Hermione, you're perfect and all, but the thing I hate most about you is that you go ranting on and on about something,” Draco said, slightly annoyed.
“Oh I'm so sorry, I don't mean to, but it all just sort of comes out and then-”
“And there she goes again.”
“Erm Hermione, can we go to lunch now. I need food!”
Hermione jumped. She nearly forgot that Ron and Harry were still with her.
“Oh okay. Should we go together?”
“Um...” Hermione could tell that Harry's hesitation was because of he and Draco's 'past'.
“Come on Harry. Draco isn't going to just whip out his wand and hex you or something. We're just going to lunch together.”
“If you're thinking that I'll be sitting with you guys,” said Draco seeing Ron's expression, “the you're wrong. Of course I want to sit with Hermione, but the holidays are over, and if you haven't noticed, I've got friends as well.”
“Right.” Harry and Ron said in unison.
“Er, should we go to lunch now? I thought you needed food Ron?”
“Yeah lets go.”
As the four entered the Great Hall, many people stared at them in alarm. It was pure knowledge that Slytherins and Gryffindors never got along. Especially Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. And now, they were walking to lunch together.
“Bye Draco. See you later!” Hermione gave Draco a peck on the cheek (which received even more alarmed looks from people who weren't here in the Christmas holidays) before going to sit down with Ron and Harry, who had left without saying goodbye.
“You guys are really polite. Going without saying goodbye.”
“Why would we want to say goodbye?”
Hermione was saved by Ginny.
“Hey! So made up with each other have you?”
“Yeah, just about,” Ron said.
“What do you mean 'just about'?” Ginny asked sharply.
“Well she's forcing us to say goodbye to that git now.”
“Ronald! I am not forcing to say goodbye. And he is not a git!”
“I think that's a bit hard to prove. Remember when he said bad things about Hagrid? Remember when he gave nasty, little interviews for Rita Skeeter?”
“Yeah well, that doesn't mean he won't change.”
Ron opened his mouth to retort, but Harry spoke first.
“That's true Ron. He said he will change for Hermione.”
Seeing defeat, Ron shut up.
(*)
Draco knocked on Narcissa's door.
“Come in.”
Draco opened the door and sat on the chair without being told to.
“So, may I ask you Draco, why you stood up for that Mudblood?
“It' s just the simple fact that I'm going out with her and I love her.”
Narcissa raised her eyebrows disbelievingly.
“Okay, I have to admit, at first it was just a dare from Blaise. He said I was too cowardly to go out with someone that isn't pure blood. So I chose Hermione. She gave in very easily, and I thought this would be a hell lot easier, but turns out it isn't.”
“Details.”
“Well you see mother, all the time I was with her, saw that behind the nerd and Gryffindor Princess, I saw that she needed true love. She's not as brave as she looks when it comes to love. I also noticed that she not like all the other muggle-borns. All those muggle-borns, don't even act like a wizard. They just go talking about their stupid muggle life. But Hermione doesn't do that. In fact, she told me once, that she doesn't like being in a muggle family at all. Since she came to Hogwarts, she asks the same question pure blood wizards ask: how do muggles live without magic?”
“You've changed Draco. You've understood what is love. Before you use to just hang out with a different girl each week, and now you've changed so much for Miss Granger.” Narcissa started sobbing with joy.
“Mother, can you calm down?” Draco was very alarmed, but when his mother didn't stop, “MOTHER! CAN YOU STOP CRYING!” His mother ceased, and stared at him.
“It's just that, didn't you once mention, that you can do something for someone you truly love. Just say, you can change your attitude or that they don't like you, and like someone else, you can give up on that person, or help that person so they can be with the person he or she likes?”
“Oh Draco, it's like you've suddenly gone from twelve to seventeen.”
“Don't start crying again! And I am seventeen! Can I go now?”
“Certainly!”
Draco went out of the office. He lied to his mother. True, he loved Hermione, true, he will change for Hermione, but Hermione did like living with her muggle parents, some muggle-borns did act like wizards. Sometimes Hermione didn't act like a witch and Hermione never asked the same question the pure blood families asked. Draco only lied to his mother, because he didn't want his mother to know, that he, Draco Malfoy, had fallen in love with the muggle-born girl he had been tormenting since the first day at Hogwarts, Hermione Granger.