The Marriage Decree

A birthday kiss (Book 1 Ch 4)

Author's Notes: This is a refined chapter!

As eighth-year students, they had considerably fewer rules than the rest of Hogwarts' students. They didn't have to adhere to curfews or lights out, could visit Hogsmeade whenever they liked (outside of school hours), and could eat their meals in their common room.

Draco took full advantage of these rules. He split his time between his classes, the library and their common room, avoiding the Great Hall and Hogsmeade as much as possible.

Hermione took her mother's words to heart. Even though she spends most of her time outside her classes in the library, she also makes sure she spends time with her friends by eating at least one meal daily in the Great Hall and joining them on a Friday night in Hogsmeade.

After the Christmas Holiday, all professors jumped back into their curriculum without pausing for students to settle back into their timetables. Most students tiredly dawdled from class to class, with only their next free period keeping them going.

Hermione prefers it this way, knowing exactly how many days there are left until the NEWTs exams, how many lessons remain before their study break in May and how many hours in the library she'll need to achieve the best grades possible in each exam. In the library, Hermione focuses on consolidating all six years of previously learnt material, which is easy considering she still has her meticulously written notes. Her friends aren't so organised or don't care as much, so she rarely saw any of them studying in the library. She knows some of her friends are waiting to ask her for her notes closer to the exams. Hermione isn't a pushover these days, but she's more than happy to point them in the right direction of the library to conduct their research.

Draco and his friends came up with a productive study system at the beginning of the year, in which they share the notes of their favourite subjects around the group, ensuring the four of them have accurate, well-written notes to study from. However, Draco is usually alone in the library after dinner, peer-reviewing his friends' notes and researching for his exams, while they enjoy meals in the Great Hall or hang out in the common room. For Draco, there would be time for fun and hanging out after their NEWTs exams.

The weekend before the last week of February, Headmistress McGonagall announced that all seventh and eighth-year students were being granted a study break, where all their lessons were cancelled so they could catch up with the large amount of homework, practice questions and study that was expected from them.

Hermione follows her study schedule strictly and doesn't understand why her friends don't use their time more wisely. She loves her friends dearly, but they've already got their careers figured out. Harry and Ron have already proved themselves to the Ministry. They would probably be offered a place in the Auror Training Program, whatever their grades. Also, Ginny constantly reminded them that she would rather spend her time practising Quidditch than practising for her NEWTs, as she planned to try out for every Quidditch team that would let her after graduation. Neville is the only one of her friends who seems to be taking their NEWTs seriously. Still, all he cared about was Herbology, and Hermione had dropped that subject after her OWLs.

Draco is the only one of his friends taking NEWT-level potions. Since this was the one area of magic that he needed to excel in for the sake of his hopeful future career as a potions master, he found himself prioritising this subject above the rest. Potions is the only class where he feels comfortable despite being alone. Draco had purposefully arrived late on the first day of class in September, hoping the other students would have partnered up already. Luck had been on his side as Professor Slughorn had told Draco that he had no concerns with him working independently. Slughorn is the only professor who treats him the same way he did before the war, with preferential treatment. It didn't matter to Professor Slughorn what Draco had done; it only mattered what he believed his students were capable of going on to do, and Slughorn had great expectations for him. That's not to say his other professors have given up on him or treated him poorly; if anything, they go out of their way to include him in class discussions and call on him for answers (as if proving to themselves that they're good professors for treating their students equally).