The End's Intent

Chapter 4

Draco only had four of his nine classes with Hermione. Of all the years to not be able to keep an eye on her, this one had to be the worst. He was lucky enough to have potions with her, but Dark Arts—which had replaced their regular Defense class—was one that he badly wished was spent with her. Alecto Carrow was ruthless and while Draco knew Hogwarts must have some regulations against student abuse, he hadn't seen any evidence of it so far.

Watching Alecto teach a class mostly full of Slytherins was hard enough; he hated to think how she treated the other seventh year class that was filled with Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors. Clearly Snape was allowing the Carrows to have free reign and as he watched Amycus verbally assault Hermione during potions, Draco considered just how good his odds of killing Amycus and getting away with it were.

When Amycus finally ended his seemingly unending flow of insults, he abruptly turned and began assigning homework as if Hermione wasn't teary eyed beside Draco. In an attempt to comfort her silently, Draco slipped his hand into hers under their table and squeezed it tightly. She gripped his hand back even tighter and used her free hand to discreetly wipe her face.

"—while the two Mudbloods have 35 centimeters," Amycus said, underlining the essay topic twice on the chalkboard. Draco scowled down at his cauldron. "I expect you'll also have perfectly completed potions to show tomorrow."

Beside him, Hermione deflated slightly. They had a prefect meeting that night and Draco happened to know she'd already been assigned twice as much homework as him.

"I'll brew it for you," he promised as they walked out of the classroom. Hermione gave him a look and opened her mouth to argue with him, but Draco wasn't having it. "You planned the entire prefect meeting and have twice as much homework already. Let me brew it and give you some."

"Oh, alright," Hermione agreed, stumbling slightly as Montague shoved past her roughly. Draco held out a hand to steady her, but she didn't take it. "But this is a one time thing, okay?"

Draco just smiled before they parted ways and Hermione disappeared in a swarm of students. He walked out to the green houses with Blaise, admiring the morning fog that was finally clearing up and reviewing the steps for brewing the potion they'd been assigned. If he remembered correctly, it took six hours to brew then needed to cool down in the cauldron slowly which typically took another four hours. Once it was perfectly room temperature, he could safely pour it into potion glasses without it combusting. He'd need to start it during lunch to have it done in time.

"Montague's been a right arse, have you noticed?" Blaise asked as they stepped down the rocky path. "It's almost as if he's trying to take your spot as first place douchebag."

Draco scowled at Blaise who just smirked. Draco stuck his foot out and Blaise stumbled, his smirk falling with him as he tried to keep himself from landing on top of a passing fourth year. When he finally righted himself, he glared at Draco.

"Nevermind," he said haughtily. "No one could replace you."

"Montague's all talk. He's not a threat," Draco replied, walking into the greenhouse. Montague looked up at the sound of his name and sneered when he spotted them but when Draco gave him a hard look, Montague looked away.

Herbology went by slowly and when Draco was finally trudging back up the hill for Charms, he was tempted to skip class and start brewing the potion. He successfully bribed Blaise into answering when his name was called during check and managed to slip through the students unnoticed. He already had the ingredients as he'd snagged them from Amycus's supply closet after class, so all he needed was to summon his cauldron and begin brewing it.

As he crushed a dung beetle and sliced an earthworm in diagonal pieces, he found himself thinking about the rest of the school year. England was already unstable and the Dark Lord had obvious control of the Ministry. In all honesty, Draco didn't think they would reach the end of the school year without the War breaking out. Of course, if that happened, he'd likely be summoned by the Dark Lord to fight.

The thought hit him like the Hogwarts Express. If he was called to fight by the Dark Lord's side, he'd likely fight against his classmates. He'd stand against his professors and have to watch Hermione fight for Potter. Merlin, could he do that? Here he was, brewing a potion so she'd pass potions tomorrow. Was it possible that next week he could be fighting her?

"Draco?"

He was abruptly pulled from his thoughts at the sound of Hermione's voice. He looked up to see her standing in the doorway, one hand wrapped around her forearm as she stared at him.

"I thought I'd get started early," he explained, gesturing to the cauldron that was beginning to boil. "I've finished the recipe. All it needs now is to brew for six hours. I'll watch it though."

Hermione nodded, kicking the door shut behind her as she walked into the dormitory. Draco watched as she started up the stairs, one hand still covering her arm, and frowned.

"What happened to your arm?" he asked. Hermione paused. She looked down at her arm as if she'd only just noticed she was holding it but didn't let go.

"Nothing," she answered unconvincingly. "It's just a stinging hex. I can fix it myself."

She hurried up the stairs and disappeared into the bathroom before Draco could say anything. When she came back down the stairs, her arm was covered in cream and the angry welt on her arm was slowly beginning to disappear.

"Who hit you with a stinging hex?" Draco asked, stopping her before she could leave. He glanced down at her arm to see a pattern of three welts and frowned.

"Some Slytherin fourth years have become extremely devoted to Voldemort's cause," she answered. She pulled her robe sleeve over the welts and smiled up at him. "They have rather good aim, though, so I suppose they can defend themselves well enough."

Draco just nodded and let her go. Beside him, the potion gurgled and Draco glanced at it.

"Oh!" Hermione said, poking her head back into the dorm. "Blaise said to tell you he won't cover you in Transfiguration and if you don't show, I'll make sure McGonagall knows you're missing."

"Did you add the last part?" Draco teased.

Hermione just grinned and shut the door, leaving Draco to scramble for his book bag and rush after her. He wasn't particularly excited about facing McGonagall after skipping her lesson.