The Taming of The Viper

Chapter 4: Hermione's Great Idea

Harry's face looked like a watercolor painting, varying shades of blue and purple, bruised from the fall he'd taken earlier that day. Particularly on the bridge of his nose, which Madam Pomfrey had to set back in place. The porkchops and jacket potatoes on his plate remained untouched, as Harry was too busy scowling and murmuring curses in Malfoy's direction all throughout dinner. The groups usual seating arrangement had changed for once. Typically, the boys sat on one side of the table and the girls on the other. Now Amicia found herself bumping elbows with Ron as she reached for a second helping of fried sausages whilst dodging knowing glances from Hermione sitting across the table.

"What are we going to do?" Harry said, bubbling with disdain. The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall matched his mood, darkened with clouds that held the threat of a storm. Amicia shifted uncomfortably watching the clouds crowd together overhead, praying that there wouldn't be thunder. She hated thunder.

"About what?" Hermione asked dully. It was evident on her face she wasn't looking forward to the answer.

Ron leaned over the table and spoke in a secretive whisper, "About Malfoy! We can't let him keep getting away with, well-" he gestured to his and Harry's beaten up faces "-this. I swear nothing bad ever happens to him."

"It's always us," Harry slumped his shoulders with a defeated sigh.

"Ugh-" Amicia downed the remainder of her pumpkin juice "-thanks for the reminder. I still have to find a way to return this tie to Malfoy. Just wearing it makes me feel like a criminal. Perhaps I'll just leave it in the common room and whatever happens, happens."

No one responded to her. Instead, everyone was now looking at Hermione, who practically had light bulbs flashing over her head.

They knew that look all too well.

"Well, come on then, spit it out!" Ron encouraged her.

Hermione's shifty eyes darted up and down the dining table and she huddled them closer for privacy, "Amicia, what was it you had said about yourself at lunch?"

"I don't remember, 'Mione," Amicia rested her chin on her hand, "Was it that I'm brilliant? Hilarious? Ridiculously good looking?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, fighting back a smile, "And on top of that, you're also invisible to Malfoy."

None of them seemed to grasp whatever it was that Hermione hinted at. Their faces remained blank while they awaited for her to spell it out for them.

"And?" asked Harry, growing impatient. "What is it you're getting at?"

"Look, I know this sounds mad," Hermione prefaced, "but just think about it, alright?"

The three of them nodded and urged Hermione to get on with it. They were eager to hear what she had brewing in that brilliant head of hers.

"Amicia is like Switzerland," Hermione started as though she were giving a lecture. "She's neautral ground."

That wasn't at all what Amicia had expected her to say. Looking just as confused as Harry and Ron, she cocked her head, "Am I? I wasn't aware."

"You are where Malfoy is concerned. You said so yourself, it's like he doesn't know you exist. He knows next to nothing about you, you're in his house, and most importantly, he doesn't hate you."

Starting to feel a sneaking suspicion that this wasn't going to end well, Amicia pulled back from the huddled circle, her eyes clouding with concern, "I don't think I like where this is going, 'Mione..."

But Hermione disregarded her friend's unease and continued.

"What if she were to become friends with Malfoy?" Seeing the look of horror on everyone's faces, she clarified, "She'd be pretending, of course."