Darkness Falls

Eight

1992- First Year

Hermione woke with a sore neck to find that she was still sitting on the window seat in the hideaway. She rubbed her eyes and stretched as she got up off the seat, disturbing Draco in the process.

"Morning sleepy head," she smiled.

Draco stretched his back and winced, ruining his yawn. He grunted something that resembled 'morning' to her as he got up and putt his shoes on.

"Not a morning person then?" She laughed.

He finished putting his shoes on and pulled out his wand whilst making his way over to her.

Hermione froze and stared at him, "I was joking, jeez."

"Hermione, shut up and let me perform the Scouring Charm so you look at least half decent when you leave this room."

She fell silent and observed as he whispered the spell.

"Scourgify."

She looked down at her once creased robs in amazement. She was going to have to learn that one.

"It mustn't have worked properly," Draco said to her with a puzzled expression.

"What do you mean? Of course it has."

"But your hair is still a mess."

She giggled and hit him playfully in the arm, shortly after he performed the spell on himself.

"Where did you learn that spell?"

"Me and Blaise used to get told not to play outside in the rain when we were younger. Of course we still did, so we thought it best to learn how to clean ourselves so we didn't get caught."

Hermione nodded as she tried to imagine a smaller Draco and Blaise playing like normal children, jumping in puddles and getting muddy. The thought made her chuckle.

"Right. Better head to breakfast, I'll go first," he told her whilst he gathered his belongings, "See you later Granger."

"That's not what you called me before," her words stopped him in his tracks, but he didn't turn to face her, he just paused.

"When you told me to stop talking before you cast the spell.. you called me Hermione."

He glanced over his shoulder to look back at her, to read her expression-which was blank.

"Hmm. So I did." He said before he carried on walking out of the door, just before he left he shouted back at her, "Bye Hermione!"

Her grin stretched from ear to ear and a few moments later she began to make her own way to the great hall.

~x~

Hermione walked with Harry and Ron back to their common room, she found herself listening once more to Harry's reasoning behind their need to investigate the trapped door as they turned the corner and bumped into Professor Snape.

"Now, what would three young Gryffindor's such as yourselves, be doing inside, on a day like this?" Snap asked as he eyed each one of them suspiciously. Hermione started to stutter as she scrambled to think of an excuse.

"Careful, people might think that you're... up to something," he finished with a glare at Harry before he turned and walked away from the group.

"Of course!" Harry whispered to himself. Ron gave Hermione a confused look and turned to nudge Harry.

"I was convinced that Snape let the troll out over Christmas, he was the only one who didn't look concerned when Quirrell ran into the hall and he was missing for a few moments before the feast. And now he's limping, like he's been bitten of scratched by something, something big."