One More Year

Chapter Seven

Hermione's day sped by in a blur. She felt rusty after not being in school the previous year and spent extra time in the library during her free periods and studying alone in her room that night to try and make up for it. On top of getting all her coursework done, Hermione was still researching any possible antidote for her parents' memory charm and Hermione also decided to start reading all the Daily Prophets she missed during the summer to find out what other news she had missed in the wizarding world. She had checked out the first weeks' worth of newspapers from the library and was slowly trying to sift through them. As she expected there were a lot of articles to read in the first few weeks following Voldemort's defeat, with the news being reported changing from day to day.

Hermione finally decided to put aside the papers and to write a letter to Ron. Hermione stared blankly at the paper for a few moments. She dipped her quill in ink and wrote "Dear Ron," before putting her quill back down. How could she write a four foot long essay on the challenges of transfiguring human body parts into plants with ease but not know what to say to her boyfriend who she had been best friends with for the last seven years.

She sighed and rubbed her eyes. Their relationship was complicated. She had liked Ron for years but had always been unsure about his feelings towards her. There were times where she had been certain he returned her feelings but then did something like date another girl. To this day that made her blood boil. She had also been terrified that if she acted on her feelings it would ruin her friendship with not only Ron but also Harry. Things had started to slowly progress in the last year while they were hunting horcruxes but living in a tent with next to no food was not really the scene she had imagined when she thought of romance. Between the wizarding war and everything that had happened this summer, her and Ron had never actually discussed their relationship. Yes, he had joined her in the quest to find her parents and they had shared a bed every night but their relationship had never progressed past a little making out, that Hermione hadn't even really been into since she was so distracted. The summer had been an emotional roller coaster full of stress and sadness and really hadn't set the mood for their relationship to progress any further.

It really shouldn't be this hard to write Ron a letter, Hermione thought angrily. She had written him many letters when they were just friends with absolutely no problems.

Hermione wished she could speak to her mom about this, which brought on an overwhelming wave of sadness. Her mother and father had a fantastic relationship and her mom was always willing to lend an attentive ear while being nonjudgmental. As Hermione had grown more and more accustomed to the wizarding world the gap between her and her parents had grown as they had less in common but discussing relationships, whether they were friendships or romantic relationships had always been an easy way for her and her mother to stay connected.

She took a few deep calming breaths and decided to try and write Ron a letter like she used to. She told Ron about the eighth-year dormitory, how she had a room to herself and all about her classes on the first day. She decided to omit the part about Theo trying to be her friend as she still didn't understand what was going on and knew that if Ron found out he would overreact. She finally finished her letter and paused on the signature. She used to sign all her letters to both Ron and Harry with "Love Hermione" but now that her and Ron were in a relationship she knew those words meant something more and didn't want to use them inappropriately. Finally, Hermione decided on signing the letter with "I miss you and can't wait to see you again soon. Hermione". The letter completed she climbed into bed and fell asleep almost immediately.

Hermione awoke early the next morning, so she would have time to visit the owlery to mail the letter before heading to breakfast. She quickly got ready and left her room. She was surprised to see that Draco was already awake and sitting on one of the couches reading a copy of the Daily Prophet. He glanced up at her, but she ignored him and left the dormitory.

Hermione mailed the letter before joining Ginny for breakfast who was in the middle of writing her own letter to Harry. Hermione noticed with a pang of jealousy that Ginny didn't seem to be having any issues coming up with things to say to Harry.

Hermione ate her breakfast and left Ginny to her letter before making her way to the dungeons for her first potions class of the year. She arrived a few minutes before class was to start and was surprised to see that the entire class was already assembled. "Ah, Ms. Granger lovely to see you again," welcomed Professor Slughorn warmly. "Please find yourself a seat."

The classroom was divided into tables with four chairs at each table. There were four other seventh year Gryffindors that she recognized but they were already sitting at a table together. Ernie was sitting with one other Hufflepuff and two seventh year Ravenclaws which left only one table with a free seat. She groaned inwardly as an enthusiastic voice rang out, "Princess come join us!" Hermione begrudgingly made her way to Theo, Blaise and Draco's table and took the empty seat. "I knew that after you got to know us you just wouldn't be able to stay away," Theo joked. Blaise rolled his eyes and Draco remained completely silent as he had been since they returned. Hermione wondered at Draco's uncharacteristic behavior. He usually would never miss an opportunity to make fun of her or make a comment about her blood status but so far this year he seemed to be just ignoring her completely. Overall Hermione considered it a vast improvement over previous years.

Professor Slughorn started the class and immediately put them to work, in pairs, on one of the most technical potions Hermione had ever had to brew. The potion included forty-six different ingredients all prepped in different ways, all added at different times and would take a fortnight to brew. They would have to visit the class in off hours just to continue the correct brewing of the potion. Hermione started working with Theo on the potion and tried to be grateful that at least she wasn't working with Draco. They got their ingredients together and started prepping. Hermione watched Theo's work meticulously. She hated working in pairs as she was dependent upon her partner to also do good work. She was surprised to see that Theo's preparation of the ingredients were near perfect. She snuck a glance at Draco and Blaise's potion and was even more shocked that theirs also seemed perfect. Hermione was so used to Ron and Harry asking her countless questions in class that she felt uncomfortable working in silence with her table. Theo must have been really concentrating as he wasn't trying to talk to her. They continued to work in silence until the class ended. All four of them stood up and stretched after leaning over their ingredients for the last hour.

"We will have to come back and work on our potion tonight," Hermione started, "I really don't mind coming back alone to get the next part done."

"Don't be silly Princess. We're partners. We'll do it together."

Hermione looked baffled at Theo's response. Theo and Blaise laughed at her expression. "What did you expect Granger? That you would just do all the work?" questioned Draco seriously. Hermione hesitated not wanted to admit that was exactly what she had expected.

"No of course not," she tried to recover, "I just thought it may be easier if only one of us returned."

"Don't worry about it Princess. We will all meet up after dinner and work on the potion together." Theo said enthusiastically. Hermione tried not to feel disappointed at having to spend more time with them.