Marked

The Parallel

Chapter 36: The Parallel

Ron and Harry were late; no surprise there. Hermione drummed her fingers absentmindedly on the desk, simultaneously bored and anxious. As much as she disliked being late, she especially disliked tardiness in others.

She glanced up, biting the inside of her cheek as she narrowly avoided the direct blow of Professor Snape's signature scowl. His eyes darted quickly from her to the empty seats beside her, and she shifted uncomfortably to avoid his sullen glare.

It was happening again, she thought, blinking away a strange feeling that she couldn't quite place.

Hermione was given to vague, opaque metaphysical shifts at times, not that she had ever told anyone about them. They were nothing more than feelings of déjà vu, she supposed, though that was more a muggle term for the sensation; nothing alarming, of course. Just instances where she would hear a familiar voice in her head - whispering to her, consoling her, like a conversation from a dream; or she'd see a bright, pale flash in her mind that would momentarily tear her attention away from whatever she was looking at or thinking about.

She attempted, as always, to shake the feeling, still averting her gaze. Perhaps she was permitting herself to indulge in some kind of meaningless whimsy, but she had an inexplicable feeling that if she were to meet Snape's eyes - however innocently - she would surely tumble into one such distracting recollection.

"Not minding Potter and Weasley quite so successfully this term, are we, Miss Granger?" Snape drawled lazily. "Perhaps the Christmas holidays have had a detrimental effect on their ability to travel through space and time?"

She heard a snicker behind her and she turned sharply to glare at Theo Nott and the Slytherins that made up the minority of the class. As soon as she did, she regretted it; she should have known that the simple act of acknowledging Nott's derision would have been fuel enough for his usual taunts.

"Temper, temper," Nott mused condescendingly. "Or are you upset that Gryffindor's golden boy and his weasel boyfriend have finally chosen each other and left you on your own?"

She felt it again, the strange jolt at his words that she hadn't been expecting. The sentiment itself was void and worthless as far as she concerned; neither Nott nor any other member of his house, frankly, were worthy of her time or attention. She was troubled, though, by the strange internal shifting she seemed to be experiencing yet again - the odd, ringing haze, as though she'd had this precise dream before. Even the way Nott's green eyes flashed seemed somehow eerily familiar, which didn't make sense. As far as she could fathom, they'd rarely spoken; and if they had, it would have been wholly unremarkable.

Surely she would have remembered a dream featuring Theo Nott, wouldn't she?

It was only at the sound of Nott's intolerable snicker that she realized she was staring.

"Hit a nerve, have I?" Nott mused, garnering the appreciative jeers of his fellow Slytherins. As he turned to the seat next to him, however, his haughty face twisted in surprise to find that its usual occupant – his teammate in pathetic sneering and derogatory heckling – was absent.

"Malfoy not so perfect either then, Nott?" Hermione scoffed, turning her back on him decisively. She grinned slightly to herself then, relishing in the moment. She didn't expect much wit from Theodore Nott, and was pleasantly surprised by the ammunition of Malfoy's absence.

She had had just about enough of Malfoy this year; his absence was out of character – he had, after all, come close to her performance in his O.W.L.s and seemed to find a bit more value in academia than did her two best friends – but Harry simply would not stop talking about him since their run-in on the train. Hermione found Harry's preoccupation with Malfoy utterly laughable; at his best Draco Malfoy was competent. Maybe intelligent. Possibly – and this was already a major stretch - skilled in some areas of wizardry. But capable of carrying out serious damage to anyone, particularly while under Dumbledore's watchful eye?