One More Year

Chapter Eleven

"Good morning Ginny." Hermione greeted her with a tentative smile. Ginny glanced up at her taking in Hermione's happy demeanor. For the first time in weeks Hermione had slept the entire night. She had woken the next morning feeling happier and more hopeful, then she could recall feeling recently.

"Well aren't you in a wonderful mood today. Any special reason? We don't have a test do we?" Ginny joked.

"I'm just in a good mood," she smiled warmly in return. "I want to apologize for how I've been acting. Ginny I'm so sorry for everything."

Ginny returned her smile and held up her hand to stop her. "Hermione, I understand. You're going through a lot with your parents. Just realize that you don't have to do everything alone. There are a lot of people willing to help you. I would gladly spend every night in the library with you if it would help," she grimaced with an exaggerated expression on her face, her lips still smiling. "Or if you need some space I'll begrudgingly give you that. But I'll be here when you're ready."

Hermione nodded, not trusting her voice, as she was suddenly overcome by emotion.

"So, about this weekend," Ginny continued, motioning for Hermione to take the seat next to her while gracefully changing the subject. "I know you usually visit your parents but it's a Hogsmeade weekend. Why don't you return early or visit them on Sunday instead? Harry's coming down so we can all spend the day together. It'll be just like the summers. Is Ron coming?"

"I don't know. He never mentioned it," Hermione replied slowly as her smile faltered. "I know he works a lot of weekends so probably not," she recovered lamely. How long had it been since she had received a letter from Ron? She also needed to smooth things over with him. She resolved to send him a letter as soon as she had a chance apologizing for her behavior. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and focused on repairing her relationship with Ginny.

Ginny started filling Hermione in on all the school gossip. Hermione was always shocked about how much Ginny seemed to know about everyone in the school. They were briefly interrupted as the post arrived and with it was Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet. She had taken out a subscription when she had returned to school. She put it in her bag without glancing at it and continued speaking with Ginny as they rose out of their seats and started to make their way to class. Ginny chatted the entire way to Charms. Hermione listened attentively as they walked, glancing back and forth between Ginny and their path. Each time Hermione scanned the hallway she would catch a glimpse of a student giving them strange looks and a few classmates who usually greeted her in the hallway completely avoided making eye contact. She ignored it, wondering if she was imagining things or perhaps her recent behavior had isolated her even further from the rest of the students then she would have thought.

Hermione finally took her seat next to Ginny at the back of their last class of the day, Transfigurations. "Alright class, who can tell me what is involved in human transfiguration?" began Professor McGonagall.

Hermione's hand shot up. The only other person to raise a hand was Draco.

Draco had never really volunteered answers in previous years unless he was trying to suck up. Professor McGonagall wasn't a teacher that you could suck up to and Draco sensing this had never volunteered answers in her class before. However, since the start of the term Draco had been answering questions and volunteering to help in every Transfiguration class. Hermione hadn't noticed this behavior in any other classes that they shared. At first, she had assumed it was because Professor McGonagall was the new headmistress but Draco seemed so sincere that Hermione was starting to doubt whether he had ulterior motives or not.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy."

Draco answered the question correctly and Professor McGonagall turned to the board to write some instructions down.