Halloween was coming and Hogwarts was gradually transforming into a haunted interior. The decorators, who Hermione diligently reminded everyone, that they were overworked, underpaid House Elves, took extreme care to detail. She entered the Great Hall for breakfast, just barely missing the bats that zoomed her past her head. Sitting next to Hermione, she couldn't help but stare in disbelief at the giant pumpkins that had come from a man's garden named Hagrid.
"Speaking of which, we should take you to meet him." Hermione added.
"Where does he live?" She asked curiously, thinking that perhaps he lived in a cottage in Hogsmeade. They wouldn't be able to leave the castle until the scheduled trip in mid-December, right before the Christmas holidays.
She smiled patiently, "Haven't you ever noticed the little hut where we sit and do homework by?"
She frowned, deep in thought, but couldn't recall any such building.
"Well, I'm sure you'll recognize it once we go down there. We'll visit him after classes. He teaches Care of Magical Creatures, which we've taken in the past, but with N.E.W.T.'s coming up this year, it was important that the three of us got the classes that would really prepare us...and well, his wouldn't be one, I'm afraid. Oh, please don't say anything!"
"I won't," She reassured her, "I promise."
***
Ashley was taken aback when Hermione plopped into her seat next to her, her face red in anger and embarrassment. The peppy Hermione from earlier this morning had completely disappeared, a disheveled appearance replacing it.
"Hermione?"
"Slimy git." She cursed under her breath, ignoring Ashley's inquiry as she sat down, taking out her books and parchment.
"What happened?"
Hermione shook her off, opening a random page in her Transfiguration book to distract herself from Ashley's quizzical looks. "It's him, that's all."
"Draco?" Ashley asked.
"Of course! Who else would it possibly be?" She shot, her eyes narrowing.
"What happened?" She asked, brushing aside her misplaced anger.
"He just comes out of nowhere with his Mudblood insults and how I shouldn't even be allowed in here!" She whispered, her face growing redder, "You're right, totally someone who might have a trace of humanity in them. Good choice in friend."
Ashley was stunned into silence. There wasn't much she could offer to console her friend. Fighting for Draco's arrogance and malevolence wasn't going to win her points either.
"Settle down, so we can begin, please. Mr. Finnigin, I told you not to transform Miss. Patil's quill into a garden snake...thank you." Professor McGonagall said, walking up the middle of the rows, her robes swishing and swaying after her, "Now..."
"Why does he do it?" Hermione whispered to her, focusing on McGonagall's scrawling script that her wand was waving on the board, "Attacking another's friends is a stupid strategy in gaining friendship of another."
"He knows how to push people's buttons, you know that," Ashley responded, absent-mindedly taking notes, "He's sore because I'm the only one that's bothered to let him know I don't think he's the best thing that ever happened."
Hermione sighed a breath of relief, "It's nice to hear another girl say that. All I hear is 'He's so handsome' or 'he's so-''
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Slytherin's angel
FanfictionIt had all come down to this. He had left the one thing that had made him happier than anything else...for this? But there was nothing he could do. He couldn't go back, knowing that this was his fate. He had left her. And now, there was no way to...
