Little Secrets

Chapter 5

Hermione hadn't meant to do be late to DADA.  She'd gotten up early just to double-check her essay and finish breakfast with time to spare.  Unfortunately, a first-year had been too frightened to walk through the dungeons to potions, telling her a third-year Slytherin had bullied her all the last week.  Hermione hadn't thought twice before walking the young girl to class and glaring at the bully the girl pointed at.  By the time she'd checked the time, she knew she was going to be late to the other Carrow's class.  She'd sprinted anyway, arriving just in time for Amycus Carrow to glare at her so fiercely she felt like withering up.

"That's detention, Granger,"  he said, grinning like the idea of spending three hours on Saturday with her was the greatest thing he'd ever heard of.  For a moment, she worried it was.  "Find your seat, Mudblood,"  he snarled.

A few of her classmates sucked in a breath, but Hermione ignored the jab and took her usual seat in the middle of the classroom and laid out her books.

After that, it only got worse.

Amycus seemed to have it out for her the whole morning and Hermione found herself narrowly dodging more detention punishments.  Thankfully, the rest of the class seemed more than ready to defend her and jumped to her aid whenever Amycus directed a particularly pointed statement at her.

When DADA was finally and she'd learned more than she ever wanted to about "Mudbloods and the history with dark magic", she was almost too exhausted for Arithmancy.  It was one of only two periods she shared with Draco and she knew she could easily get the assignment from him if she skipped, but the last thing she wanted was for him to worry about her all class.  He knew she had a Carrow class right beforehand, so to not show up would probably send him into a panic.  With a sigh, she turned to walk to the Arithmancy classroom.

The classroom was already half full when she arrived and one of the other students had stolen her usual seat.  Trying not to be too annoyed, she spotted Draco in the back corner and made her way toward him.  She knew he didn't have a table partner as no one wanted to be around him after the Dumbledore rumour so she didn't feel bad about dropping her book bag on the table and falling into the seat beside him.

"You look miserable,"  Draco muttered, pulling a parchment out for notes.  Hermione just groaned and copied him.

"I'll tell you all about it later,"  she promised.  During class was not the best time to talk about her detention with Amycus Carrow as she was sure it would not brighten either of their moods.

When Arithmancy ended and her next thing was lunch, she took the time to retreat up to her room and switch out her books.  She grabbed a granola bar from her closet and wandered to her next class, skimming over one of the books she'd grabbed from the library.  So far, she hadn't had much luck in finding a different solution to the detention problem for younger students and now she wouldn't have spare time on Saturday to keep researching.

She was almost to the end of the hallway when she ran smack into someone much taller than her.  She stumbled backward, catching herself right before she hit the ground and looked up to see Blaise Zabini looking at her curiously.

"Is Draco in his dorm?"  Blaise asked, not seeming to care if she was alright.  Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I haven't seen him since last class,"  she answered.  She stepped around Blaise but he reached out and grabbed her arm, effectively stopping her from moving forward.  She took a deep breath to keep herself from getting too angry but didn't look at him.

"I told him before being friends with you is a huge risk,"  he said quietly.  Hermione's eyes darted up to make sure no one else was in the hallway.  This was definitely not a conversation she expected to have with Zabini and it wasn't one that should occur in a hallway.