(A/N: LOOKLOOKLOOK! I blended the short chapters again! Now…. IT’S A LONG CHAPTER!
And yes, you have to review again)

(A/N: I have a messenger bag *grin* I dunno, I suppose that’s just what came to my mind when Harry burst

Cedric’s bag and all the other fun descriptions of it… Plus, I also picked up that the class periods are more
on the hour-and-a-half-long side, so I thought their schedule was: Two classes, lunch, put books away, two
classes, end of day. *shrug* And I know how bad it is to have to carry too many books in one of those things…
mine can’t handle more than three, so I guess that’s why they’re getting by but Herm was having trouble in PoA)

Change of Season

by Jiwwy
 
 

Chapter 5
Friday at Potions
 

Harry twitched and shook his head as Ron sat down, glaring ferociously across Harry’s desk to

Hermione, who gave Harry a pleading look. He was getting quite sick of having to be the mediator
in their squabbles. Really, it was just Hermione’s business who she went out with. And it wasn’t
like she was flaunting her boyfriend in their faces or anything.

At that very moment, Malfoy sauntered to the back of the room, where all the Gryffindors tried to

cluster as far away from Snape as they could for the first Potions class of the year. Harry rubbed
his temples and pleaded to the gods that he would not dare talk to Hermione in front of Ron.

“Hey,” he murmured to Hermione, and then he gave a nod in Harry and Ron’s general direction

before kneeling in front of her desk to mutter to her. Harry very discreetly reached to grab a bit of
Ron’s robes to stop him from pouncing on Malfoy’s head.

“Harry, why does she have to do that?” he asked quietly, his teeth gritted, but his eyes a little sad.

“She had to know I… liked her, right?”

Harry let go of his robes. “I guess not, Ron. I mean, it wasn’t like you weren’t obvious or anything—”

Ron straightened up, glaring, “—but she really doesn’t pick up on… people well.”

Ron sighed and set to rubbing his dirty cauldron with his dirty sleeve. “You don’t think they’ve…

you know…” He leaned in close… “done anything, do you?”

Harry snorted as Malfoy straightened and Snape swooped in. The professor’s eyes immediately

went to Ron and Harry’s cauldrons, ready for anything wrong they could possibly be doing, but then
he saw Malfoy and Hermione.

Malfoy, who didn’t seem to notice Snape’s entrance, glanced to the front of the room with a small

smirk at the Slytherins only slightly before leaning in and kissing Hermione’s cheek.

Snape looked, at first, rather taken aback; his demeanor changed in record time to more deadly

than the poison he had stashed in his desk— just in case. He coughed and Malfoy jumped, and
then coolly went back to his seat. Snape rapped his fingers on the desk twice, and then turned to
Hermione. “Granger… Malfoy, public signs of affection are prohibited. Five points from Gryffindor.”
His mouth twitched. “And Slytherin.”

The Slytherins, who, for the most part, had not noticed where Draco had been, all turned towards

him and stared, open-mouthed.

“What?” He snapped.

***

Draco sat unruffled for the rest of class. He and Hermione had actually done it— because of course,

they had planned for Snape to subtract points from Gryffindor, although they were surprised he’d
had the nerve to take them from Slytherin. Hermione had been royally pissed at him for lying to the
Slytherins, but there was no way to go back on a lie like that, so they’d just pretend he’d never said
anything and go back to their original plan— normalcy.

“Draco.” Goyle threw a note over Draco’s cauldron and onto his desk. Draco twitched, surprised

that Goyle took the time to write a note, but immediately noted it was from Pansy.

 


Draco,

What on Earth were you thinking!
I know you must keep up apeerances, but really!
You must have known you’d get points taken away!

--Pansy

He stared.

 

Pansy-

It’s spelled “appearances”, and of course I knew I’d get points taken.
I mean, this way she thinks that I’d sacrifice stuff for her. You know,
I’d go against my house and stuff. Then I’ll have her trust.

-Draco
 

He passed it to Goyle, then right after, mentally slapped himself. It’s. Just. A. Normal.

Relationship. Draco.

He sighed and started slicing his four leaf clover petals. Damn me, I suppose, he thought

with a visible shrug.
 


***

After potions, the Slytherins had Transfiguration and the Gryffindors had electives— Divination for

Harry and Ron, Arithmancy for Hermione.

Hermione shrugged her messenger bag onto her shoulder and winked at Ginny as she left the class.

Ginny was visiting with Colin Creevey and Thalia Akers, waiting to be let in, but excused herself and
went over to Hermione. “What’s going on with the upperclassmen?” Ginny asked. “You and Malfoy
sneak in the supply closet for a little private time?”

Hermione blushed. “Well, actually—”

Ginny gaped. “No way!”

“No, I don’t mean we snuck in the closet! We did kiss.”

“Hermione, you rebel.”

“What?”

Ginny grinned. “I dunno. I expected him to put on the moves or something. Show off for his friends.”

“In the middle of potions.”

The younger girl grinned. “You never know with a Slytherin.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “What, they have specially developed libidos?”

“Libidos? Who uses that word? And anyway.” She added, eying a boy Draco just happened to

be talking to with the slightest twitch of a smile on her face. Jared Harpe. He was fairly cute with
thorny brown hair and silver eyes, not so different from Draco’s, but warmer. Both girls stood for
a few seconds, indiscreetly checking him out. “They are… different…”

“Okay, I’ll set you up with Crabbe if you have such an interest in Slytherin boys.”

The redhead grinned cheekily.


***

Ginny said goodbye and went into the classroom when Snape let the door open. He eyed their class

warily and his fears were confirmed when Claire Perth waggled her fingers in hello to him mockingly.
He glared. Ginny snickered.

In this class, too, the Gryffindors tried to cluster to the back for all they were worth, but this year,

Claire, Java, Jared, and Jared’s friend Mandel were in the Gryffindors’ seats. Ginny looked over at
Thalia, who’d very calmly taken a seat next to Colin in the second row.

“Excuse me,” Ginny said sweetly to Java, the sweetest of the group, save Jared, who Ginny really

didn’t want to talk to, for fear of the Weasley Blush©. “I’m sorry, but don’t the Gryffindors usually
sit here?”

Java gave her a secretary’s smile. “Fall into a rut and you’ll never get out, Ginny.” She answered

serenely. Ginny cocked an eyebrow to show her how stupid that had been, but nodded, as she really
didn’t have anything else to say. She stalked up to where Colin sat, but the seat was taken. She
sighed and went up to sit in the front row. (Throughout this, her cauldron had followed her anxiously
down the rows, wondering where it should be set.)

Ginny kept glancing back at Thalia, waiting for a note or something, because the only way they’d

made it through Potions for the last three years was whispering to each other about how cute Oliver
or Cedric or Harry or Draco or Jared was. Thalia just sent shrugs her way.

Class was depressingly uneventful, save a small explosion in the back of the room about halfway

through class that involved Claire screaming made-up curse words to her cauldron and bawling that
Jared was dying, while he yelled back to her that his glasses had just been knocked off, calm down!
Snape had to put a muting charm on Claire to get her calmed down. She had hiccupped continually
from then on.

Finally, near the end class, Ginny froze. There was a note on the floor. It didn’t have a name on the

front, like Thalia always put, but it had to be from her.

Ginny picked it up inconspicuously and read through it.

 


***

“Ron.”

“Ronald.”

“Weasley.”

Harry poked him with his fork.

“Ow! Harry, what was that for?” Ron rubbed his hand, but continued staring at Gabrielle Delacour,

as he had been all throughout supper.

Hermione was disgusted. “Ron, she’s eleven. You’re fifteen. Knock it off for another, oh, seven

years, will you?”

Ron’s eyes gleamed. “Yeah… She’d be eighteen…”

“Harry!” She wailed.

Ginny was more quiet than she usually was in Harry’s presence. “Gin? You okay?” Hermione asked

quietly once Harry had gotten Ron into a Quidditch discussion.

The redhead smiled sullenly, and then gave a note to Hermione. Hermione took it. It was from Pansy

to Draco. Hermione scanned it, then groaned and jumped up, on her way to the Slytherin table.

Ginny stared. There were different ways she’d have thought Hermione would have taken this, but this

wasn’t one of them.

 


***

“Draco. Aidan. Malfoy.”

Draco turned around to see Hermione, looming over him with a scowl. Uh oh.

“Why are you lying to them?” She said, as loudly as possible, so that most of the Slytherins were

now looking her way.

“Herm…”

“You know you like me. Why is it so hard to tell them?”

Draco glared evilly at her. She didn’t react, just stood there behind him with her hands on her hips

and her lips pursed. “Er…”

“Tell them!”

He cringed and turned to Pansy, then pointed to Hermione. “She… I… and… yeah…” Pansy’s lip

quivered. “Oh fuck it, I love Hermione. I lied to you because you’re really pathetic and prejudiced,
and I am too of course, but beneath all the know-it-all bookishness and Gryffindor stuff, she’s a great
girl. So. Yeah.”

And then, for the first time in his life, Draco Malfoy fully blushed. Hermione lay her hands on his

shoulders and leaned in to kiss his cheek.

“That was actually sweet.”

“I hate you.” He mumbled conversationally.

“I love you too, Draco.” She kissed him again.

He turned and glared. “Get out of my sight, Gryffindor scum.”

“Mmkay!” She said chipperly, and then skipped away. Draco tried with all his might to glower, but

ended up laughing.

He turned back to the Slytherin table to see Jared, Crabbe, and Goyle gaping; Pansy bawling onto

Millicent Bulstrode’s shoulder; and Java and Claire giggling and clapping. He bowed his head in their
general direction, with much flourish.


***

Back at the Gryffindor table, the reaction was rather the same. Ginny, Ron, and Harry were gaping

and Parvati, Lavendar, and Thalia applauded.

“Hermione, that was so cool! I wanna go out with a Slytherin!”

Hermione raised an eyebrow, but smiled down at her plate as Parvati stood on the bench to check

out the Slytherins. Ginny smiled too, shaking her head.

“So he was pretending, right, you guys really like each other?”

“If he’d like to keep his liver, we like each other,” Hermione answered very quietly.
 
 
 

Whee!
I’m lazy so  I’m not saying thanks to you people! Ha Ha Ha hardy Ha!
… NO! You still have to review!! *staples reviewers to computers* I’m just not recognizing you at all. Hmph.
Okay, I will next chapter.
Even though taking in all the effort I’m using to write this out, I might as well have just listed your names.
Oh well.
I like Doritos. I’m all out of them though.
My betareader has gotten a life and so the grammar in the last few chapters hasn’t been corrected.
Soooda.
GAH! Just review. I promise I’ll shut up.
 

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