Underneath the Mistletoe

ChapterTen

Hermione's POV
FirstYear-Back from the Holiday's

Steam rose from the potion Hermione was brewing. Green, it was too green, the mixture was meant to be a light turquoise. Frowning she struggled to control her hair, which had expanded from the potions humidity. Pushing back her sleeves some more Hermione first checked her burner to be sure it was still on a steady simmer before resuming her clockwork stirring.

Behind her there was a tremendous clatter. She and the rest of the class whirled around to see Harry and a mess that was his melted cauldron and what was left of his potion, only it was pink and frothing! Hermione was aghast.

"Oh Harry" She groaned under her breath. This wasn't the first time an incident like this had occurred. Only yesterday in charms class her friend had accidently exploded the desk he'd been sitting at into splinters. Multiple people, including Harry himself, had needed to receive attention from Mme Pomfrey in the hospital wing to carefully remove the wood that had gotten lodged under their skin.

"Well, well," Hermione's heart sank "What have we here?" drawled the greasy voice of Professor Snape. No one said a word, though a few Slytherin's snickered.

"Don't just stand there gaping Potter" the potions Professor said testily. "Clean this mess up and 25 points will be deducted from Gryffindor for your clumsy foolishness." He began to move away from the scene but seemed to change his mind as he turned back "Oh and Potter, you'll also have detention with me for the next week." Hermione caught something nasty gleaming in his eyes before he departed.

"Profesor!" Hermione blurted before she could think better and bite her tongue. "Harry should go down to the hospital wing. He spilt his potion all down his front and seeing as we used-"

"Ms. Granger are you the teacher in this class?" Professor Snape asked icily.

Obviously not she thought but instead replied "No sir, but-"

He cut her off "Well then why are you telling me what to do?"

Hermione's mouth fell open but no words came out. The sound of bubbling potions and shuffling feet filled the pregnant silence. The Slytherin's laughs grew louder. "Professor I didn't- I wouldn't-" she stuttered.

"That will be 10 points from Gryffindor Ms. Granger, would you like to keep talking?" Professor Snape's voice lilted with a deep unpleasantness .

Hermione shook her head ruefully, her face down turned, cheeks blushing a deep scarlet.

"If that's it..." he paused as if waiting for more Gryffindors to intervene so that he could take away even more points. When no one did he went on "Back to work all of you, you specifically Potter."

This time Hermione let The Potions Master walk away.

-x-

That evening at dinner Hermione and the boys sat a bit apart from the rest of Gryffindor table. As Ron spoke she noticed that although Harry was with them physically his thoughts were elsewhere.

"-just horrible!" Ron finished his rant on their Potions Professor and Hermione saw him look hopefully at Harry. The bespectacled boy remained staring off into space. It was something he had been doing quite a lot Hermione remarked. Clearly disappointed with his friend, Ron hunched over and stared glumly at his plate and beat at his mashed potato's.

What was going on? Hermione thought to herself watching Harry who gazed off into nothing. But wait, she almost dropped her fork in realization. Harry wasn't staring at nothing, he was staring at the Slytherin table. (Or more particularly Draco Malfoy!)

A week's worth of memories reeled back to Hermione and her eyes doubled in size as her thoughts churned. She almost hit herself she was so upset she had not seen it sooner. Ever since the start of second term Harry had been acting strangely. All the accidents, staring into space, not eating much, (and seeing the smears of purple under his eyes Hermione thought it fair to assume that) he had not been sleeping much lately either. She had at first pinned it to the assumption that he'd had a bad Christmas(it had after all been spent alone) but now she thought there might be a better explanation.

Hermione now saw a pattern that she had not before. Each of Harry's "accidents" happened in class, a class Gryffindor shared with Slytherin, or more importantly a class Harry shared with Draco Malfoy! Hermione's thoughts were racing as she connected the dots.

"Helloooo! Earth to Hermione?" Ron half sang as he waved a hand in front of her face.

"Pardon?" she blinked and focused her attention on him.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head "I was just asking what you thought our next step in discovering the identity of Nicholas Flamel should be" Ron said stabbing a piece of sausage.

"Oh er-" Hermione tried to clear her head but she was blanking 'Um," panicking she said "I was about to ask Harry if he double checked the books in row one of section c" she supplemented taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.

Ron turned to Harry, who wasn't paying attention. Ron's frustration rolled off in waves as he picked up his dinner plate "Seeing as the both of you have your heads in the clouds and don't seem to care come find me when your feet are solidly planted back on earth" and with that he trudged off to sit with Dean and Seamus who were roaring with laughter together at the other end of the table.

Hermione breathed a sigh through her nose, Ron was right, She and Harry hadn't said a word to him. In a gentle voice she said "Harry?"one or two tries later he came out of it.

"Sorry, did I miss something?" He looked around them and confused asked "Where's Ron?"

Biting her lip Hermione gave Harry a pitiful look. Something had definitely happened over Winter Break and she planned on figuring out what.

-x-

I know, I know, this is a horrible way to end First Year but hush<3 Wonderful things are in this fanfictions future.

SOS guys I have sooo many tests within the next week and I just don't want to do them *sobs because it's only going to get harder from here* So to procrastinate studying for these tests guess who will be updating this weekend(hint:ME!) Please vote and comment!