Struggling Through New Beginnings

Chapter 12

Hermione put down her glass and continued to scan her schedule as she ate her breakfast. For most of the morning her table had been almost silent. At first the other students had talked with each other about their new rooms, and all the other changes. But, each time they tried to ask either Blaise or Hermione a question, they were ignored or spoken to tersely, respectively. The tension between the two finally got to everyone, and they simply stopped speaking.

Hermione had seen Draco almost run from the hall. She briefly wondered where he could be headed, but when her eyes met Blaise’s her anger at him made her forget Draco all together. With a harrumph she picked up her paper and blocked his face from her view.

One of the first year Slytherins at their table cleared his throat softly and almost whispered, “Um, Hermione? Is Professor Hooch a good teacher?”

Hermione heard the fear in his voice, and wondered if it was because of her actions all morning, or his fear of flying. She closed her eyes and took a breath to calm herself down. It wasn’t right of her to take her anger at Blaise out on the rest of the people at the table.

“Yes, Kevin, she is from what I remember. I only had her my first year. What else do you have today?”

xxxxx

You only had her first year, because you can’t fly worth a damn, Blaise said peevishly in his head.

He finished his fry-up and looked down at the schedule resting at his elbow. He knew without looking what classes he had been scheduled for, because they were the ones that would fulfill his future Ministry job requirements. The only real question that remained was who else would be in his classes. He knew Greg and Draco would be in many of them, as the requirements for a Ministry job were in a lot of ways similar to those of an auror and Potions Master. But, he wondered about Theo and, even as his stomach jumped a bit at the thought of her name, Pansy. With Theo’s law aspirations and Pansy’s still undecided plans, he wasn’t sure he would see as much of them.

With a small grunt he acknowledged that he should probably try to talk to Pansy. He’d never seen her that angry, or heard her say the things she’d said to him. Spat at me more like.

He turned to see if she was still in the hall and his jaw fell open. She appeared to be quite fine and happy as she talked with Blaise’s fiery co-head and her boyfriend. His eyes closed into slits as he watched Potter say something that made both woman laugh, and he wondered how Pansy could so easily turn traitor in only one summer. Turning back to his table he frowned at the now more relaxed conversations taking place.

When he heard Hermione laugh at the antics of one of the younger children, he almost found it infectious and felt the urge to smile, but fought it back. She was the cause of all the troubles he was having. She had turned Pansy against him somehow. She had also done something to Draco, of that, he was sure. It just wasn’t like his friend to act the way he had been acting. Theoretically, he knew it was the things Draco had suffered and the lessons he’d had to learn all summer that were really to blame, but Blaise needed something solid to blame. Hermione Granger.

She and her kind had insinuated themselves into the magical culture and acted as if they belonged. In the past it had been so much easier to hate her, as they waited for her façade to crack. She was a blight on society, a freak of nature, a smart, pretty, witty, friendly, powerful witch, who shouldn’t be all those things. Knowing in his heart she couldn’t be real, he settled on the fact that she was a fake, a fraud. She wasn’t possible because she was not from a magical family and she would break. She wasn’t as good as he was because she was a muggleborn. Simple. If she had been born to the right family, then maybe she would have been considered someone to admire, but…Pansy’s words from the previous evening washed over him once more and he grimaced.