Pride and Polyjuice Potion

Chapter 31

Hermione Granger was once again studying late in the library, as she used to do so often. The mascara she had applied that morning was now smudged all around the circumference of her eyes, and her hair had returned to its original wide state. She knew it wouldn't remain straight for long.

For some reason she couldn't quite explain, she felt that if she worked hard this evening, it would atone for how poorly she had spent the evening before. Hopefully this right could cancel out the wrong.

Nose deep in ink-saturated parchment and leather-bound hardcover books, she felt at home and at one with herself. It was a feeling she had been slowly losing hold of; it was constantly slipping through her fingers as they reached to grab onto the next stage of her life. But it wasn't something she was willing to let go. It was more something that was being taken from her, and here she was: adamant to reclaim it.

The first stage of this was to check out a book that she always used to read, and now hadn't for quite some time. Except, she couldn't exactly do that because it was past 8pm and the library had closed, so she simply picked the book off the shelf and took it back to her desk.

Staying in the library after Madame Pince closed it up was one of the very few rules her younger self allowed herself to break. It seemed ridiculous that in a school of magic, the library wasn't open at all times.

She lifted up the cover, to look at the library card where she remembered writing her name on many occasions. And there was Draco Malfoy's name, directly below her's, written slightly to the side, as if to avoid touching the letters of her name entirely.

If he had really wanted to avoid contact with her, why borrow the book right after her at all?

And then she remembered a conversation she had had with him, a long time ago, all the way before this turn of events had even been fathomable to her.

"Are you nearly done with that book, mudblood?" Malfoy snarled at Hermione, as he approached her unwillingly in the library.

The name had made her shiver a little, but she pretended not to be affected by it. Hagrid had told her it was the only way to deal with bullies.

"I've finished it twice already, but I'm allowed to keep it for two weeks, you know. I'm planning on returning it in five days time, thank you very much," she replied with an attempt at a cold disinterestedness.

"You're hogging it."

"There's no rule that says I'm not allowed to-"

"My father will be hearing about this," he spat as he turned around and stormed away.

How young and naive they had been! They were full of knowledge but so foolishly lacked understanding. They may have seen the whole world, they may have read every book, they may have learnt every secret of the universe, and still they would have understood nothing.

But she would do anything to go back to that blissful ignorance.

"Thought I might find you here."

Startled, Hermione spun around to find herself staring up at the same blond wizard - whose name she had just read on the library card - now towering over her seated position.

"Here to fight me over this book again?" she asked, eyes squinted at him.

It took him a second to understand quite what she meant.

"You still remember that?" he asked, his eyes wide and expecting.

"I'd forgotten all about it until I just pulled off the shelf now," she replied, before taking a deep breath and continuing more quietly: "You signed your name just beneath mine, as far away from it as possible, of course."