Forget Me Not (Draco/Hermione)

Chapter Eight- The Never Ending Night

Five minutes to eleven and Hermione was already on the point of losing her head. 

"Astoria!" she roared, snatching the mop from the girl's hands. "The string part. It goes on the floor. You hold the stick!" The pure-blooded little madame sniffed huffily in reply, whsipering under her breath where she would rather shove the stick. Hermione pretended to ignore her and swept across the room to a seventh year Ravenclaw. "Chris. You know how to use a dustpan and brush, right?" The boy looked at her blankly. "You're a Ravenclaw! Shouldn't you know this stuff?"

With just an hour before they were on duty, Hermione was on the verge of nervous collapse. It did not help when a calm-looking Draco swept into the Entrance Hall, followed by his team of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. The pair had not spoken properly since their little... fight. Tonight though Draco seemed perfectly at peace. His pale face showed little emotion apart from the usual bored, cocky expression that he wore a lot.

"Evening, Granger," he yawned. "Past your bed time?"

"Malfoy, now's not the time." Hermione checked her watch. "Have you given your team the itinerary I owled you?"

"I handed them out to a few of them but most of them know their way around Muggle cleaning products. You pulled the short straw, Granger, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor is full of half-bloods and muggle-borns. They're used to this. Most of the Slytherins and a good few Ravenclaws-" He gestured to Riley Smith who was running around with a mop bucket on his head as his friends took turns smacking it with a broom handle. "-Grew up with house elves. This shall be... educational for them." He added with a smirk.

"Educational for you as well," Hermione sniffed. "Have you ever even seen a mop?"

"No but I took the time in reading your little pamphlets. My particular favourite was the one how to make a bed. You like your little details, don't you? I would never have thought to have added how to plump a pillow as well."

Hermione was about to snap back a sarcastic reply when she realised Draco Malfoy had actually complimented her. Struggling to comprehend this, she just curtly nodded in reply and moved quickly away from him, calling for order amongst her team. Several of her team shot her dirty looks. Staring wistfully after the friendly and familiar group of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, who Draco were leading down towards the dungeons, she took the register quickly. Everyone was present, she was relieved to hear apart from one Slytherin girl who had ingested her potion during class that day. Though apparently an accident, Hermione was more than a little concerned when she overhead a sixth year commenting that the girl had said she would rather "be a poisoned mess than being bossed about by a buck-toothed Mudblood." Even after the war, some long-lasting views were difficult to change.

"Right team. I believe we can get started with the Gryffindor common room. After that, we shall adjourn to the Hufflepuff common room in the basement. By then, we should still have a few hours before dawn to begin preparations for breakfast-"

"Breakfast?!" An angry-looking girl standing next to Astoria growled. "I don't even eat the shit. Why should I make it?" 

"Because I decided." Hermione wanted to scream when she heard the collective groan. "Once breakfast is washed away, we can crack on with the dormitories and then- THEN!- we can rest until we're needed again. Malfoy's team are doing lunch and we won't be needed to help with making dinner until at least late afternoon." 

Some of the Ravenclaws at least seemed to appreciate her logic. Leading her team up the Great Staircase to the Gryffindor Tower, she was secretly pleased to see Daphne smack the girl around the head with a feather duster. 

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Cleaning the Gryffindor common room was easier said than done. Hearing that a troop of Slytherins (and Ravenclaws but "mostly Slytherins) had to clean up after them that night, the Gryffindors had shown some team initiative and had trashed the common room. Sweet wrappers, tissues and old homework was strewn all over the floor. Someone had smeared ink up the stone stairs and Hermione prayed fervently that the brown gloop in the corner of the room was a melted Chocolate Frog and not what she guessed it to be...