All You Want

7) His World Will Go On Turning

If Hermione could have hidden in the Gryffindor tower forever, everything might have seemed fine. Unfortunately, she had a week's worth of homework to catch up on and a conversation with Malfoy to be had. McGonagall sent a note with Ginny after lunch, informing Hermione that Malfoy did not regard himself as having been assaulted by her. Well—Hermione thought that was what the note said. McGonagall was rather unhelpfully vague.

"Miss Granger,
I spoke with Mr Malfoy to ensure you have no cause for concern regarding to him."

Hermione read the words ten times and felt like the Headmistress could have expounded slightly more.

Unlike the rest of the Alphas in the Great Hall, Malfoy had looked distinctly unenthused by the sight of a Hermione. She suspected that, despite McGonagall's reassurance, Hermione probably owed him an apology.

Her chest felt tight and she glanced at the note again. Then she jutted out her jaw and squared her shoulders. She needed to speak to him about their Arithmancy partnership anyway, there was no point in avoiding it.

She gave herself an hour to review the assignments from her missed classes, then she checked the Marauder's Map that Harry had given her, and sallied forth from Gryffindor Tower with determination.

The moment the portrait door opened she was struck in the face by a cloud of Alpha pheromones. There were three boys standing outside the door. Anthony, Selwyn (whose first name, according to the map, was Peter), and someone named Phineas Borgin whom Hermione was not surprised to discover was a Slytherin.

They were all posed awkwardly about the hallway, studying portraits and suits of armor and generally trying to appear like they had some business being there. When they looked over and saw it was Hermione walking through the portrait hole their pretenses vanished. They all turned and glared at each other resentfully.

Hermione stared back at them, feeling irritated. Three classmates, two of whom had never given her the time of day during their previous six years of attending school together, were waiting outside of the portrait hole for her.

She kept herself at a wary distance that she hoped would keep them from smelling Malfoy on her.

"Yes?" she said after a minute.

"I didn't get to properly introduce myself earlier," Peter Selwyn said. "I'm Peter Selwyn, we take Advanced Ancient Runes together. I thought you might like to borrow my notes for the class you missed. Professor Babbling covered quite a bit of material not included in the syllabus. I'm a bit obsessive about note-taking, so I have a transcript as well as my own personal notes, if you'd be interested."

Hermione cocked her head to one side and re-evaluated him. She still found him generally annoying but she was willing to credit him with coming prepared and knowing her well enough to have a good excuse.

"That's very considerate of you," Hermione said. Anthony and Phineas both grew visibly annoyed.

"Not at all," Peter said, his eyes gleaming slightly. "I have notes for Transfiguration and DADA too, although I know you have housemates in those, so you might already have gotten notes for them."

Hermione quirked an eyebrow. Any notes she could get from Gryffindor would be well-nigh useless. She'd be lucky to get a general idea of what had been covered in class. The glint in Peter's eye told Hermione that he knew that.

"Funny, Selwyn, I thought you had a rule against sharing your notes," Anthony said in a telling tone of voice.

"Sharing notes with someone who missed class is different from sharing them someone who didn't bother to take any when they were there," Peter said.