Time for a Change: Before the Break

Time For a Change
Chapter Sixteen
By: Lori Finnegan
2007

 

The day dragged on for Draco. He was confused, and frustrated, and most of all, angry. He couldn't understand what was going on, and it was driving him crazy. In fact, he was almost looking forward to a quiet Christmas holiday at the castle. He'd be free from all of his friends and have a chance to think things through without being interrupted.

And he was still wondering what Granger had to do with his troubles. All he knew currently was that her presence annoyed him greatly. So when he arrived two minutes late to Arithmancy, and the only seat left was next to her, he didn't hide his displeasure.

Professor Vector shot Draco a look and then pointed to the seat next to Granger. “Please take a seat, Mr Malfoy,” she insisted.

Draco reluctantly sat down in the seat next to Granger and pulled his charts out of his backpack, flopping them onto the table.

“As I was saying before I was interrupted,” Professor Vector went on, shooting a pointed look at Draco. “I would like to know which students are staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas break. Will you please raise your hands?”

Draco looked to the other side of the room to see one Slytherin hand rise into the air. And next to him, Granger raised her hand halfway.

“Excuse me, Professor,” she said. “But I'm only staying for part of the break.”

“That's just fine, Miss Granger. Please keep your hand raised.”

Draco looked away from Granger and raised his own hand. In front of him, two Gryffindor hands rose as well.

“Hmm,” Professor Vector pondered as she counted the hands. “Just six of you this year...”

Draco turned slightly to see Millicent Bustrode in the back of the Slytherin side with her hand in the air.

“I'd like you to pair up,” the professor went on. “I have a special project for the six of you over Christmas break. And I know that some of you may not be overly excited about having extra work over your holiday, but there are great rewards.”

Draco stared at her, almost suspiciously. He wondered what kind of rewards she was talking about.

“Yes,” Professor Vector said in an excited voice. “The pair that has the best report will join me for a conference in London where we will meet up with other top students and discuss many complex Arithmancy problems.”

Even though Draco wasn't looking directly at Granger, he could tell that she was having trouble containing her excitement. This was the kind of thing that bookworm lived for. He, himself, wasn't all that excited about it.

“So, who would like to participate?”

Granger's hand was the only one that shot up. Most everyone else, including Draco, raised their hands reluctantly. The only reason Draco would consider such a nuisance was the fact that his father would be impressed. After being kicked out of Malfoy Manor for the Christmas Holiday, he wanted to prove to his father that he was worthy.

Draco was so busy planning out how he would tell his father about going to such an impressive Arithmancy conference, that he didn't realize that everyone else had already paired up. And when he looked around him, he realized that the only other person who didn't yet have a parter was Granger.

“I guess we'll have to be partners,” she told him softly.

Draco glanced over at her and then focused his eyes back at the front of the room. “Whatever,” he muttered. This was going to be one Christmas break from hell.
______________________________________________________________________

Harry and Ron were sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall eating lunch alone. They had both gotten out of Divination early and instead of waiting in front of the Arithmancy door for Hermione, they had opted to go straight to lunch as both of them were starving after such a long morning of studies.

“You think it's weird that Hermione's staying here for her first week of break?” Harry spoke up when their conversation about the Quidditch game that was coming up that night had ended. “I would imagine she'd want to come to the Burrow again.”

Ron scooped up some corn on his fork. “You know how she is with her bookwork. She's absolutely nuts when it comes to that kind of thing. Besides, it's her loss for missing out on Mum's homemade cooking.”

Harry sighed and went back to his food. He still couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was different between the three of them... and he didn't think it was about the kiss that he and Hermione had shared the week before.

Then again, maybe he should talk to her about it... just in case.

______________________________________________________________________

“It's completely ridiculous,” Draco told Pansy and Blaise across the room at the Slytherin table. “Not only do I have a ton of Arithmancy homework as it is over break, but now Professor Vector paired me up with that mudblood, Granger, and we've got to work on an extra project over the holiday.”

“Aw, man,” Blaise sympathized. “You've been having the worst luck lately, mate.”

“Tell me about it,” Draco groaned. “Instead of going to my first Malfoy Christmas Eve party, I'll be writing Arithmancy charts with Granger.”

“Oh, it can't be all that bad, Draco,” Pansy told him, giving him a pat on the back. “It's not like you'll be spending your whole break with her.”

“You're right,” Draco agreed. “I won't have to spend all day with her. In fact, I should suggest each of us doing the project on our own and then combining our efforts later on. That way I'll spend the minimal amount of time with her.”

“You're so pathetic,” Pansy grumbled as she stirred a lump of sugar into her tea. “What makes you think that studying with Hermione is going to be so horrid? She is the smartest girl in our class, after all.”

Draco turned and looked at her sharply. “And since when are you on a first name basis with Gryffindors?”

Pansy looked back at him, unflinching. “What does it matter?” she asked. “You are so immature sometimes, Draco. Honestly.”

“Maybe,” he admitted. “But you're not the one stuck here for two weeks. Do you realize how bored I'm going to be?”

“Find a hobby,” she suggested.

“You could work on your flying,” Blaise put in. “When Potter comes back from break after no practice, you'll completely kick his ass during the next game.”

This intrigued Draco. He would give anything to beat Potter on the Quidditch field. He'd done it before, but somehow, no matter how much those Gryffindors lost, they all still worshiped the ground that Potter walked on. It was incredibly annoying to Draco.

“You're right,” he told Blaise. “I'll make the best of my time.”

Blaise nodded with a smile, and Pansy rolled her eyes. But Draco didn't care. He'd show them all... and Potter would be crying like the big baby he was when all of it was over with.

______________________________________________________________________

Hermione rushed into the Great Hall hoping she had made it in time to eat at least a little of something for lunch. Instead of going straight to lunch after Arithmancy, she had instead stayed after class to ask Professor Vector a little more about the the report that they'd be working on over the break.

As she approached the Gryffindor table, she saw that Harry, along with several other Gryffindors, where the only ones left eating.

“There you are,” Harry said, looking up at Hermione as she sat down besides him. “I didn't think you were coming.”

“Where's Ron?” Hermione wondered.

“He had to grab some books from the dormitory,” Harry explained. “He said he'll meet us in class.”

“Oh,” she replied as she quickly filled her plate with all of her favorites. “Are you excited for the game tonight?”

“A little,” he shrugged. “We're playing Ravenclaw tonight. Everyone's pretty confident we'll win.”

“I'll be rooting for you,” Hermione replied, giving him a warm smile.

It was silent for a moment while Hermione quickly ate her lunch.

“You know,” Harry said after a few minutes. “There's something I want to talk to you about.”

Hermione looked up at him. “Oh? What is it, Harry?”

Harry looked down at his empty plate, and Hermione could see a slight blush in his cheeks. “Remember last week, when we decided that everything would go back to normal?”

Hermione's eyes widened as she stared at him. Back to normal? The only thing that she knew that wasn't normal was the fact that Pansy was pretending to be her during that week. What could have possibly happened?

He glanced up at her. “Things have just been a little awkward lately, so I want to make sure that everything is still okay,” he said.

“Awkward?” Hermione echoed. “How so?”

“After what happened,” Harry went on, “And with Ron not knowing... I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Hermione was still completely confused as to what he was talking about. “I'm just fine,” she told him, playing along. She would definitely have to ask Pansy about this later.

“It's not the reason why you're staying here for the first week of the holiday instead of coming to the Burrow with us, is it?” Harry asked, glancing over at her carefully.

“No, not at all,” Hermione told him. “When I said that I wanted to work on my homework, I really meant it. And Professor Vector just piled on an even bigger workload.”

“Oh,” Harry said, finally meeting her eyes and looking relieved. “Well, I'm glad you're not upset about anything. It makes me feel a lot better. I just couldn't have spent the whole break knowing that you had chosen to stay here because of me.”

“That's not the case at all, Harry,” she said, smiling at him gently. “Don't worry about me. You just go have fun at the Burrow and everything will be just fine when we're all back here.”

Harry smiled back at her. “Thanks, Hermione,” he said.

______________________________________________________________________

During Potions, Hermione leaned towards Pansy. “Anything happen between you and Harry last week?” she whispered.

Pansy's face turned red as Professor Snape tapped his wand loudly against his desk. “Miss Parkinson, Miss Granger, if you have something to say, please share it with the whole class,” he demanded.

Hermione shook her head and Pansy froze.

“Then I suggest staying quiet for the remainder of the class,” Snape told them.

After Snape's attention was off of the two of them, Hermione pulled out a notebook and wrote a big question mark on the first several lines of the paper and slowly pushed it in Pansy's direction.

Pansy took her quill and wrote, 'Why?'

Hermione wrote, 'Because he's been asking me if I'm okay with what happened last week. I have no idea what he's talking about!'

Pansy's quill hovered above the paper for a moment before she wrote, 'Hate to break it to you, but Harry's got it bad for you. Last week he told me. So that's probably what he's talking about.'

Hermione's heart felt like it had fallen into the pit of her stomach. After she collected herself, she grabbed the notebook back and wrote, 'Are you serious?'

Pansy wrote, 'Dead serious. But the two of you decided to forget about it so that everything could go back to normal. I had the impression that it was done and over with.'

“Pay attention,” Snape said in a loud voice, loud enough to snap Hermione out of her thoughts, if only for a moment. She stared at the front of the room while Snape wrote several ingredients on the board. But all she could think about why Pansy hadn't told her about this earlier.

______________________________________________________________________

That evening, Draco, Pansy and Blaise, along with Crabbe and Goyle trailing behind them, took a seat in the Ravenclaw side of the field. It was a known fact that all Slytherins always rooted for the team that was playing against Gryffindor, as the two teams have always been longtime rivals... especially when it came to Quidditch.

“This game better be exciting,” Pansy complained as they sat down on a vacant bleacher near the top of the stands. “I better be seeing some blood.”

“Just relax,” Draco told her. “If Gryffindor loses this game, then we play Hufflepuff next. And we all know how easy they are to beat.”

Pansy propped her chin up on her hand and leaned forward on her knees. She wasn't even going to pretend to be interested this time.

A few minutes into the game, and she was already overly bored.

“I'm going to go walk around a bit,” she told Draco and Blaise. “I'll be back in a little while.”

Blaise nodded, and Draco was too busy yelling obscenities at Gryffindor players as they zoomed by on their brooms. Pansy rolled her eyes and stood up from the bench, pushing past the cheering Ravenclaws until she got to the stairs. She was walking past the large tents that the teams got ready in and as she turned to look at them, she collided right into something hard. Luckily, she was able to catch her balance before completely falling to the ground.

“Would you watch where you're going?” she yelled to the person who was on the ground in front of her feet. “I could have fallen in the snow.”

But that was when she realized that it was Ron Weasley that she had just plowed into.

“Me?” he exclaimed, pulling himself to his feet and brushing the snow from his pants. “You were the one who walked right into me!”

Pansy frowned at him. “I didn't see it was you,” she told him.

He looked at her for a moment, speechless, and then opened his mouth. No words came out.

“Maybe we should both watch where we're going,” she concluded when he didn't say anything for several moments.

“Fine,” he spat out. “What are you doing out here, anyway?”

“Draco dragged me to the game with him,” she replied. “He's rooting against you guys, as usual. I was just so bored out of my mind that I had to get away.”

“I wasn't bored, exactly,” Ron admitted. “I just needed to get some air.”

“Looks like we had the same idea,” Pansy agreed. “Hey, you wanna walk around the grounds with me?”

Ron lit up. “Oh,” he said. “Sure.”

“No one will see us,” she put in. “Everyone's at the game.”

Ron brushed off a little more snow from the sleeve of his coat and followed Pansy along the path behind the Ravenclaw stands. “So,” he said, after they had walked in silence for a few minutes. “You're going home for the Christmas Holiday, right?”

Pansy nodded. “Yeah, it's no big deal. My family is pretty small so usually it's just me and my mum. Sometimes my great uncle comes over and a few of my cousins, but that's only on Christmas day.”

“That doesn't sound all that fun,” Ron commented.

“It's not really,” she confirmed. “But you gotta love your family, right?”

“Right,” he agreed. “You're right.”

They walked past the north side of the castle and into the field that led to the Forbidden Forest. The sky was the same color white as the snow, and the only thing that stood out were the tree branches. Together, they walked along the well beaten path along edge the Forbidden Forest.

“I was thinking,” Ron spoke up. “That maybe you'd like to come out to the Burrow for part of the break. There's always room for one more, and since Hermione isn't coming this year, it won't be a problem at all.”

Pansy's eyes widened at his sudden invitation. “I'm not sure that's such a good idea,” she said immediately. “Don't you think your family and friends might be a little suspicious?”

“Maybe,” Ron admitted. “I was just thinking about you being alone for most of the break...”

“Don't feel sorry for me,” she interrupted. “This is my life, and I'm perfectly used to it.”

“I didn't mean it like that,” Ron said, and he met her eyes for a moment. “Okay, so maybe we're not best friends or anything, but... after last week... I just look out for people I care about. That's all. Really, that's all.”

Pansy felt herself smiling at him, and she patted him on the back. “It's okay, Ron. Thanks for the offer, but I should really go spend some time with my mum.”

“Thanks though,” she said, and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. However, it didn't quite turn out the way she had planned. Just as she was about to press her lips to his freckled cheek, Ron suddenly turned his head slightly, and her kiss landed right on the corner of his mouth.

They both jumped away from each other quickly.

“Why did you turn your head?” Pansy demanded.

“Why did you kiss me?” he countered, his face turning bright red.

Pansy's eyes were wide. “I meant to kiss your cheek,” she told him. “If you wouldn't have turned...”

“Well, I'm sorry,” he said quickly. “I was going to tell you that if you changed your mind, you could owl me.”

“Oh,” she said, looking away. “Right. Maybe we should go back to the stands. We're pretty far out as it is.”

Ron nodded, and they turned around and made their way back to the Quidditch field in silence. When they were once again behind the stands that they had literally run into each other, Ron stopped walking and Pansy turned to look at him.

“I'll owl you if I change my mind,” she told him. “Who knows how boring it'll get.”

Ron smiled at her. “Sure. See you later on, okay?”

“Yep,” Pansy smiled back, and then turned around, heading back for the Ravenclaw stands to meet up with Draco and Blaise. And when she squeezed into her seat between them, she could see Ron's red head on the other side of the field, climbing up the stairs into the Gryffindor stands.

She stared at him as she leaned against her knees. And no matter how many times she ran the scene through her mind, she couldn't possibly believe that she had shared a kiss with Ron Weasley, no matter how accidental it was.

______________________________________________________________________

“You were sure gone for a long time,” Ginny mumbled as Ron took a seat next to Hermione in the stands. “I thought you said you were going to get a drink. Where is it?”

Ron shrugged. “I drank it.”

“Oh.”

Hermione looked over at Ron. “It's pretty chilly out today,” she said, changing the subject and wrapping her scarf tighter around herself. “I hope Harry doesn't get frostbite.”

“Madam Pomfrey has a quick draft for frostbite,” Ginny chimed in. “Don't worry about him.”

“You okay, Ron?” Hermione said, trying again. “You're being awfully quiet today.”

“I'm fine,” he assured her, but when Hermione followed his gaze, she could see it was focused somewhere in the Ravenclaw stands. He must have been pretty distracted if he was staring like that during a Quidditch game.

“Oh, look, Ron!” she exclaimed, clutching his jacket. “Harry's caught sight of the snitch!”

Ron's eyes were finally pried away from whatever it was he was staring at, and he looked up as Harry chased the snitch across the sky. “Go, Harry!” he yelled, and Hermione smiled, glad that Ron was out of his daze. For the time being, anyway.

______________________________________________________________________

“Harry, you were awesome out there!” Dean Thomas called as the Gryffindor players were pulled into the Common Room by the crowd. Hermione followed them in, keeping her distance from the noisy pack. Instead, she watched Ron and Ginny climb through the door, cheering along with the others.

Once everyone was inside the portrait hole, well, everyone besides Hermione, she looked down the empty hallway and thought about tomorrow, when the whole castle would be even more empty. Part of her was excited for the change, but even so, she would miss her friends.

Hermione shrugged and made her way through the portrait hole and into the party that was ensuing within.

Ginny grabbed her arm immediately and pulled her through the crowd to the other end of the room. “Are you okay, Hermione?” she asked. “You seem a little dazed.”

“I was just thinking,” Hermione admitted as she looked over at Harry and Ron who were holding large glasses of Butterbeer and chatting excitedly with their house mates.. “How things have changed.”

“What do you mean?” Ginny wondered. “Everything looks normal to me.”

Hermione gave her a look. “I know it seems that way,” she said. “But ever since... things have been, you know, back to normal, I haven't really felt as though they have been normal.”

Ginny flopped down on a couch at the back of the room. “Don't tell me you miss being a Slytherin,” she said, as though the answer was obviously no.

Hermione thought about for a moment. “Well, not exactly,” she told Ginny. “I just feel so... unresolved.”

“You're going to have to be a little more specific. I have no idea what you're talking about.”

Hermione fell against the chair opposite from Ginny with a sigh. “Don't think I'm crazy, okay?”

Ginny narrowed her eyes at her. “Well, that depends. Does this involve Malfoy?”

Hermione groaned and leaned against the arm of the chair. “He is so messed up, Ginny, you have no idea.”

“Oh, no,” Ginny said, and Hermione opened her eyes to look at her friend. “You're not trying to save Malfoy, are you?”

“He is a miserable, miserable person...” Hermione went on.

Ginny crossed one leg over the other and looked over at Hermione, unamused. “You got that right,” she said. “Miserable, indeed.”

“It's just that I've never met someone who was so... lost and... pathetic.”

“Hermione,” Ginny said, suddenly leaning forward. “I have some advice for you.”

Hermione looked up at her cautiously.

“Stay away from Malfoy. I know you like to help people, but he's definitely out of your reach. Besides, he doesn't even know it was you pretending to be Pansy for a week or so. He's just going to think you're crazy, and you're the one who's going to get hurt.”

“You're right,” Hermione sighed. “But it's going to be a little hard to stay away from him since we're doing an Arithmancy project together over break.”

“Just pretend you never discovered this other, even more miserable side of him. He's still the same jerk that you've always known... and not even you can change him.”

Hermione nodded, but Ginny hadn't seen him without his guard up. She didn't know how he really was. And yeah, maybe he was a jerk, but he couldn't be as bad as Ginny thought he was.

“I have detention at eight,” she said, looking down at her watch and then standing up from her seat. She gave Ginny a small smile. “Don't worry about me. I'm not going to turn into a Slytherin or anything. Well, not again.” She laughed slightly when Ginny frowned at her. “Tell Harry I said congrats... and if anyone asks, tell them I went to bed for the night.”

“Will do,” Ginny said with a wink.

Hermione walked towards the girls' dormitories and then, right before the entrance, she weaved her way back into the crowd and went towards the door. She looked over her shoulder once more before slipping out, and to her delight, not one person was watching her.

______________________________________________________________________

It was getting late and Harry decided to leave the party that was still raging in the Common Room and turn in, when he noticed that Hermione was no longer around. “Hey,” he said, nudging Ron, who was on his fourth Butterbeer. “Did you see where Hermione went?”

Ron shook his head. “Ask Ginny. I saw her talking with Hermione earlier.”

Harry nodded and pushed his way through several other Gryffindors until he made his way to where Ginny sat talking with several other girls. “Hey, Gin,” he said, and she turned to look up at him. “Did you see where Hermione went?”

Ginny pointed to the girls' dormitories. “She went to bed. She told me to tell you congrats, though.”

“Oh, okay. I'm gonna head to bed too, actually. Have a good night, girls.”

Lavendar and Parvati blushed as they gave little waves to him, and when Harry turned around, he rolled his eyes. He took the steps up to the dormitories two at a time. He opened the door to his dormitory and shut it securely behind him before let down his guard.

No matter how many times he tried to convince himself that he didn't have feelings for Hermione, he simply could not make them go away.

But there really wasn't anything he could do.

Right?

______________________________________________________________________

Friday morning, the last day of fall term before Christmas break started, Draco quickly filled in the last few spaces on his Arithmancy chart as he sat in the Slytherin Common Room and waited for his friends to emerge from their rooms.

He didn't have to wait long. When he was at the second page of his Arithmancy charts, Pansy stepped out of the girls' dormitories and walked up to him. “Arithmancy...” she mumbled as she looked down at his papers. “Looks confusing. I'm glad I dropped that class last year.”

“It's not so bad,” Draco shrugged. “If you follow the formulas, it's actually pretty easy.”


Pansy stretched out over the a chair and looked up at the ceiling as Draco watched her. “Where were you last night after the game?” Draco wanted to know. “You ran off before Blaise and I were even out of the stands.”

“I had a lot of homework to do,” she said, not bothering to look at him. “Besides, you know that Quidditch isn't exactly my favorite past time.”

“You sat through most of the game,” Draco pointed out. “Well, besides that time you got up and left for like thirty minutes. What were you doing?”

Pansy turned her head to look at him sharply. “What is this, twenty questions?”

Draco met her eyes for a moment and then looked back down at his homework. “Just curious,” he told her. “We haven't really talked much lately, is all.”

Pansy blinked at him. “Sorry, I've just been a little busy,” she told him. “We'll catch up after Christmas break, okay?”

Draco nodded. “We better.”

Pansy gave him a quick smile.

______________________________________________________________________

Harry put his parchment on Professor McGonagall's desk and turned around. He went back to his desk and gathered his things, noticing that Hermione was just finishing up her last essay on the exam. So when he was outside of the room, he waited in the hallway until she emerged.

“That was more challenging than I expected,” she told him. “It's a good thing I reread the chapter several times yesterday.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed, even though he didn't think he'd gotten through the entire chapter once. “Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“What is it?” Hermione asked as they walked down the hallways towards the greenhouse for their Herbology class together.

Harry took in a deep breath. “Are you sure you want to stay here for a week?”

“Harry,” she sighed. “I've already told you that I have several projects to work on while I'm here. I've already committed myself to them, and I can't back out now.”

“I just feel bad,” Harry said. “I feel like it's my fault that you're staying here.”

“Don't be silly,” Hermione told him. “I was going to go visit my parents this year anyway before I found out about their dental conference. And when this Arithmancy project came up, I jumped at it. It has nothing to do with you, trust me.”

Harry looked over at her and studied the side of her face, trying to tell if she was sparing his feelings. “If you're sure,” he said. “I just had to make sure myself that I wasn't the reason you weren't coming.”

Hermione gave his shoulder a little shove. “Honestly, Harry, if I say I'm sure, I'm sure! Why would I lie to you?”

Harry smiled at her. “You wouldn't,” he said.

______________________________________________________________________

Draco had paired with Blaise for the final Herbology project before Christmas break. Together, they sat at the end of the long greenhouse table with their plants in front of them.

“If you ask me,” Blaise said, pointing to one of the small plants. “This one is the one with the healing property.”

“Hey,” Draco mused, not hearing a word he was saying. “Have you noticed that Pansy is acting a little... strange lately?”

Blaise put down his notebook and looked over at Draco. “This is a test,” he said. “Would you pay attention?”

Draco leaned forward over the table, his chin in his hand. “I am paying attention,” he insisted. “It's just that I think she's keeping something from me. I've been suspicious of her for several weeks.”

“Draco...” Blaise sighed. “Nothing is going on with Pansy. If she was having some sort of trouble, don't you think she'd at least tell one of us?”

“You would think,” Draco contemplated. “But now I'm not so sure.”

“Eh hem,” Professor Sprout cleared her throat as she walked by the two of them. “Are you finished with your test?”

Blaise looked up at her. “Not quite,” he said.

Professor Sprout looked down at her watch. “Twenty more minutes, boys. Hurry it along,” and then walked away from them.

“Trust me,” Draco whispered to Blaise. “Something is going on.”