Chapter 5---Guess Who’s Back?
“I think the Mandrake Draught is coming along very well, Professor,” Draco said before excusing himself.
Why’d you tell that old dingbat everything? Now Higgs is expelled and you won’t be able to do anything! You just had to be the good kid, didn’t you, Draco berated himself.
Upon reaching the Slytherin common room he told Andy everything. “Where’s Higgs now?”
“Left. During lunch, according to Adrian,” Andy said.
“Damn. That guy almost ruined my reputation…me hanging out with that Mudblood Granger, can you believe it? Embarrassing, not to say disgusting…I cannot believe I did that…and missing her! Can you believe such nonsense?”
“Ah, forget it,” Andy said. “No one noticed.”
* * *
“Where’s Professor Binns?” Hermione asked worriedly.
“He quit, remember?” Ron said disbelievingly.
“He did? Oh,” Hermione said.
Ron sighed. Hermione had been very out of it recently. She forgot homework, lost her timetable, didn’t go to the library…very un-Hermione, Ron decided. The worst part of it all was he didn’t know why she was acting like this.
Ron gave a snort as Draco Malfoy sauntered into the class, a smirk plastered all over his face. He sauntered over towards Ron, Harry and Hermione. Ron was sure Draco had an insult ready.
He was wrong.
Draco’s confident look had evaporated when he saw Hermione. Instead of insults, Ron heard a quiet “Hi, Hermione,” before Draco walked past them to sit behind Crabbe and Goyle.
Hermione turned pink. Harry choked.
“What was that?” Harry asked.
“Malfoy saying ‘hi’ to Hermione?” Ron said blankly. “I think he likes her.”
Harry laughed so hard he almost fell off his chair. “Malfoy? Like Hermione? Since when?”
“Since he was so nice,” Ron said in a disgusted tone. “Urgh, that slime ball. . .what do you think is worse, Malfoy good or bad?”
“Wait a minute---if Malfoy liked Hermione then, why does he still like her now? Unless it’s genuine…” Harry doubled over, laughing again.
“It is genuine,” Hermione sounded rather distressed.
“It is not,” Ron said. “Don’t tell me you’re falling for him again, when he’s himself this time---“
“Falling for him again?” Harry interjected.
* * *
“Can I ask you a question?” It wasn’t a request. “What the hell were you doing just now?” Andy demanded.
Draco buried his face in his hands. “I don’t know.” His voice came out muffled.
“I thought you didn’t like her.”
“So did I,” Draco groaned. “Maybe the stupid Draught doesn’t cure completely---“ he tried without much hope.
“Nope. Face it, pal, you like her,” Andy said. “It’s obvious.”
At that moment a tall, slim lady entered the room. She was fair, with deep blue eyes and long golden hair. Instead of the robes the other teachers usually wore she had donned a long elegant blue almost-white gown. Andy’s jaw dropped.
“I am Professor Sharpe,” she said. “I will be your new History of Magic professor.” Her voice was like a tinkling stream and clear as water. “I am sorry I am late, I was held back by something. Now, where was Professor Binns when he left?” Hermione’s hand shot into the air. “Miss Granger?”
Hermione told Professor Sharpe that they were just starting the fifth chapter an that a report was due. Normally Andy would have groaned, “She just had to say that,” but, oddly, he did not. Odder still was the distinct mutter Draco heard of Andy saying that he had to redo his report.
Professor Sharpe then proceeded to teach. Draco noted that Andy had been silent the whole lesson, an absolute rarity. Most of the time Draco had to tell Andy to shut the hell up. However, had Andy been talking during the lesson it would not have made any difference---Draco seemed to have trouble concentrating.
When the final bell rang the professor swept out of the classroom. Draco turned to talk to Andy about Hermione again but Andy had a dreamy look on his face. “She’s gorgeous,” he sighed.
Draco could not get anything out of Andy for a long time.
* * *
Andy can’t be right, Draco thought frantically as he paced the fireplace. I can’t have fallen for that stupid Mudblood…okay, well, she’s not exactly stupid, she must be pretty smart because---good God, what am I thinking? You’ll be saying she’s not a Mudblood next…
Draco paced the fireplace for a good hour and a half, and then realized he had yet to finish his Charms essay. Draco magicked his half-finished assay to him, and then sat down to finish it. The problem was, his mind kept drifting to Hermione. In the end Draco rubbish on his essay, with the hope that the top part would prevail over his sloppy ending.
The next day Draco woke up early and after breakfast went for Transfiguration. Draco was determined not to think about Hermione, but, as it always is when you are trying not to think about something, Hermione kept popping up in his thoughts.
“Blasted Charms again!” Draco groaned. “My essay’s damn crappy.”
Draco and Andy rounded the last corner. Crabbe and Goyle were talking about something. Hermione, Harry and Ron were there too, walking down the corridor towards Draco and Andy.
Draco felt a tinge of pink appear on his cheeks as he caught sight of Hermione. “Go b that way, I don’t want to meet her…”
“Look at Malfoy! He’s blushing!” Harry laughed. “I didn’t know you had that effect, Hermione.” Harry had gotten the full story of Hermione and Draco’s little library stints from Ron the day before.
Crabbe and Goyle lumbered up to Hermione.
“Mudblood,” Goyle said. “She’s a Mudblood, right Crabbe?”
“Right, Goyle,” Crabbe said.
Draco leapt in front of the two. “She is not a Mudblood! Plus, who in their right minds would go ‘right Crabbe’ ‘right Goyle’? And you are using my lines. No one uses Draco Malfoy’s lines.” Draco suddenly realized how stupid he had been. No one---
“No one argues with Crabbe or Goyle,” Goyle thundered. “Right, Crabbe?”
“Right, Goyle,” Crabbe cracked his knuckles. “Shall we?”
“No, wait!” Draco was frantic. Then his expression changed and he became angry. “Think about it, you big dumb blob! You’ll lose points for Slytherin, you dumb oaf! You’ll get deten---”
Wham!
Draco’s nose was bloody and broken. A very sensitive part of his body was agony. Draco dropped to the ground and a second later he had a black eye and what felt like a broken ribcage. Draco must have blacked out, because the next moment he was opening his eyes in the hospital wing. Andy’s concerned face swam into view.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
Draco grimaced. “I feel like shit,” he muttered.
“Goyle bruised your ribcage, I think that was the term Madam Pomfrey used.”
“It’s gonna hurt for days. Trust me to go against the two guys I trained to be the two not to go against.” Draco sighed, and then winced. “Ouch. At least they didn’t break anything, the bastards.”
“Actually, I think they dislocated your shoulder,” Andy said.
“Well, whatever they did, Father’s going to have a say in this.”
The door to the hospital wing opened and Hermione entered. Andy got up, winked at Draco and left. Draco groaned.
“What are you doing here, Granger?” he drawled.
Hermione did not answer. Instead she asked Draco how he was feeling. Draco gave her about the same answer he had given Andy.
“Thanks for. . .standing up for me,” Hermione said.
Draco snorted and immediately wished he hadn’t. “Ow. Don’t worry, it won’t happen again. Liking you has a very high price.”
Hermione’s heart plummeted. “Then that means. . .”
“Father would have a fit if he found out,” Draco continued. “Plus my reputation would go straight down the drain. Damn you Mudbloods. Everything always gets so mucked up with you people around.”
A smile tugged at Hermione’s lips. “Well, if you’d rather have Pansy Parkinson. . .”
“Absolutely not!” Draco feigned horror. “She’s a non-stop chatterbox and she has a brain from Mars. If she even has a brain. I would much rather have you, thank you very much. I can’t believe I just said that.”
“So you do like me then.”
Draco rolled his eyes. “Obviously. To my absolute horror, it had to be you. Not that I mind so much now, but. . .” A thought occurred to Draco then. “Wait a minute. I won’t have to hang out with Potty and the Weasel, will I? I can’t stand them---”
Draco did not continue. He let himself fall into the sweetest kiss he had ever had in his entire life.
Reversal by Fain Oakenbringer
Chapter Notes: Here's the final installment! Hope you like!
Completely uncanon-compliant, first finished in 2003, and my first HP fanfic. I do apologise for only finishing updating it here now - there really is no excuse, so I'm not giving any. Let's just say I'm older and wiser now, and know more about the frustation of unfinished fics. Any future fics I put on mugglenet WILL be updated till the end - and if they are abandoned, I'll say so.
Thanks go to the reviewers, for being patient and reading and reviewing despite the huuuge difference between publish and update dates.