The next morning, Hermione woke up from a wonderful night of sleep. She looked at her watch which indicated that it was 7:07 AM. She walked over to the bathroom door and remembered to knock this time. She didn’t want last night’s event to occur again. When there was no answer, Hermione walked into the bathroom and locked both doors. It was a beautiful bathroom. The toilet was in one corner and two sinks on a marble counter were lined against an entire wall with a mirror over the counter. A small glass standing shower stood in the other corner. In the centre of the bathroom was the enormous bathtub that Hermione had seen Draco Malfoy in last night. She could not wait to use it, but for the time being, she decided to take a shower instead.
Once Hermione finished getting dressed for her first day of school, she decided to head down to the Great Hall and join Harry for breakfast. By the time Hermione arrived, it was only 7:45 AM. Since classes started at 9 AM, most of the students were still in their rooms either getting dressed or still sleeping. Hermione was not surprised to see that the hall was almost empty. There were only three other people in the hall: a sixth year Ravenclaw student that Hermione did not recognize, Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy, who were both sitting at the Slytherin table. Hermione was quite surprised to see Malfoy of all people to be up this early. She had always imagined him to be the type to get up at the last minute and rush to his classes. Although Hermione did not realize it, she was staring at Malfoy who just happened to look up right that moment and see her gazing at him. Hermione snapped out of her gaze and decided she might as well continue reading her Arithmancy textbook since she only had one chapter to finish from yesterday.
Half an hour later, the hall began to fill up as more and more students came in for their first day back at school. Hermione greeted many of her past classmates who had also decided to return to Hogwarts. Not long afterwards, Harry arrived at the table looking as if he had not slept at all the night before.
“Good morning to you too, sleepy head. Didn’t you get any sleep last night?” Hermione said to Harry as he took his seat at the table, yawning.
“Not a lot. Neville and I stayed up talking until about four in the morning,” Harry answered.
Hermione gave Harry a knowing look. She knew that Harry and Neville had no doubt stayed up discussing Ginny. It was known all around the school that Neville had fancied her and that Harry and Ginny had been an official couple.
“So when am I going to get a tour of your new dorm?” Harry asked eagerly.
“I’m not exactly sure if I’m allowed to let you see it,” Hermione slowly responded. Upon seeing Harry’s disappointed look, however, she decided to say, “But then again, I am Head Girl and the least I can do is show you my room.”
“Thanks, Hermione,” Harry grinned.
Just as Hermione had given her consent, Professor McGonnagall handed Harry and Hermione their schedules.
“No problem. What’s your schedule like?”
“Transfiguration, then Potions, a spare period, and finally Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Harry said as he read his schedule.
“Yeah, I have the same, except that I have Arithmancy while you have a spare. How about I show you my dorm after Defense Against the Dark Arts?” Hermione asked. Harry nodded in agreement.
When Harry and Hermione had finished eating their hearty breakfast, they headed to the Transfiguration classroom. Once they arrived there, they noticed that there were more desks and chairs than usual. The classroom was only half full which allowed Harry and Hermione to take their seats in the front of the classroom. A few minutes later, the entire classroom had filled up and it turned out that the reason for the extra desks and tables appeared to be the fact that every single 7th year student who was taking Transfiguration was in the classroom.
As soon as the bell rang, an unfamiliar man walked into the classroom. Hermione assumed he was the new Transfiguration teacher because not only was he not wearing a uniform, but also because he was too old to be a student.
“Good morning, students. My name is Professor Guildwood and I will be your Transfiguration professor for this year. Please put away your wands and take out your quills and parchment as we will start off by taking notes today,” Professor Guildwood instructed.
The class silently did as they were told.
“This year, as you can see, there are going to be more students in the class. Since there weren’t enough students for two classes, we decided to put all the seventh years into one big class. Now, I know there is some rivalry between the different houses, like there always has been, but this year we are going to work hard to overcome that rivalry as much as possible.” He said this in a very cheerful yet serious voice. There was an uneasy silence in the class room because the students were all hoping that their new professor was not going to suggest what they were thinking he was going to suggest.
“I have decided to make a seating plan. Everyone is going to be sitting with someone from a different house because as I can see right now, if it were up to you, you would rather sit with your classmates from your own house.” Professor Guildwood waved his wand on the chalk board and a top view of the classroom started drawing itself on the board, the names of the students printing themselves on the seating chart.
He continued to say, “This will be your seat for the rest of the year. Do not even consider complaining; I am not going to change my mind because of anything you say.”
Once he noticed that the class had still remained motionless he said, “What are you waiting for? Please find your new seats. Thank you.”
After he said this, a murmur broke out throughout the students. They could not believe that they were being put through this in their seventh year. They could not believe that they may have to share desks with people they weren’t very fond of and that this would definitely affect their grades.
Hermione looked up at the board and saw her name printed on the right seat of the desk right in front of the teacher’s desk. She was not surprised to see that she had been assigned the exact desk that she was currently sitting at and was even less surprised when she saw who her seat mate would be for the rest of the year. She turned around to see none other than the Head Boy making his way over to her desk.
“Well then, now that we’re all settled, could I have my Head Boy and Girl stand up please?” Professor Guildwood requested.
Hermione reluctantly rose from her seat. Although she took pride in her position, she did not like the awkward attention it caused her to receive right at that moment. She glanced over at Draco who stood up in his seat without any hesitation and stood there in front of the entire class without any sign of embarrassment or any other sort of emotion. He just had a blank expression on his face. Hermione could not help but admire his ability to be composed at all times.
“These two are the students who will be setting the example of what to do in my class this year. If I am out of the classroom, you are instructed to turn to Miss Hermione Granger or Mr. Draco Malfoy for any sort of assistance. Are there any questions?” Professor Guildwood asked. The class was eerily silent again and Hermione could not help but blush at what the Professor had just said.
“Good then. Heads, I need you two to do a demonstration for the class,” the professor instructed.
After many chantings of various spells, the class had finally finished and Hermione could not be happier to get away. She had always wanted to be Head Girl, but that kind of attention was uncalled for. She hated the way all eyes were on her throughout the entire time she and Malfoy were performing various transfiguration spells. What she hated even more was the fact that she knew she was turning tomato red while Malfoy could not look any more confident and relaxed.
“If you had turned any redder, you’d have been rivaling Weasley,” Draco said to Hermione as they were leaving the classroom.
Hermione spun around. “How dare you talk about him like that? Is that all you can do, Malfoy? Insult people? Well, if that’s so, keep it to living people. The deceased don’t deserve to put up with your immaturity any more than they already had!” Hermione angrily hissed at Malfoy.
Malfoy saw the look in her eyes and knew he had gone too far. He tried so hard to change, but sometimes he just couldn’t help himself. Now that he thought about it, he knew he had been wrong to talk about Ron like that. The Weasley had died during the war after all, and every one knew that there had been something going on between him and Granger. Malfoy almost considered apologizing to Hermione, but seeing as she was no where to be seen, he decided to ignore it and walked to Potions.
Hermione could not believe that Malfoy had the nerve to talk about Ron in that way. After everything Ron had done during the war, he did not deserve to be mentioned in that ungrateful way. Also, no one had mentioned Ron around Hermione for the past month and for him to be remembered this way only brought back the harsh truth about him. Ron was dead, Hermione told herself. He was dead and he was never coming back and she knew it. Why was it so hard to get used to? Yes, Malfoy shouldn’t have talked about him like that, but she shouldn’t have let him get to her. Even though Hermione hated Malfoy for being so heartless, she hated herself for being so weak.
“Hermione! Wait up!” Harry yelled down the hall as he tried to catch up with her. “Hermione, what’s wrong?” Harry said as he noticed Hermione’s eyes were looking rather red.
“Nothing, Harry. I’m fine, really.”
“Malfoy said something didn’t he? I saw him talking to you,” Harry informed.
“It doesn’t matter, Harry. He’s just an ungrateful prat and he always will be. I shouldn’t have let him get to me.”
“Will you please tell me what happened? It’s not like you to break down this easily, especially over something Malfoy said,” Harry explained.
Hermione told Harry exactly what Malfoy had said. Harry’s reaction was anger at first, but then he turned to comfort his best friend. He knew how much it had hurt her that Ron had died during the war. Everyone had thought that Hermione and Ron would get married after the war, but ever since that very unfortunate event, people wondered if Hermione would ever be able to get past her grief. Harry hugged the sobbing Hermione as she cried into his shoulder. Her tears had leaked through his robes and he could now feel it on his skin. He could not express the amount of sadness he felt for Hermione and his deceased best friend. Once Hermione’s sobs slowly calmed down, they made their way to Potions, glad that Professor Merrybone, the new Potions professor, did not require the Head Boy and Girl to sit together.
Open Doors Closed by MidnightJewel by MidnightJewel
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Disclaimer: J.K Rowling owns everything and I do not.