HP: The Unchosen One-(Malfoy SI)

Chapter 10

HERMIONE GRANGER

The mood in the Gryffindor common room was somber. It was unlike anything she had ever seen, with all of them just sitting there, not saying a word.

It had been quite the opposite earlier in the morning, and everyone was excited for the match, even her. People were dancing and laughing. Now no one was even talking.

Harry, she had not seen her friend so dejected ever since his first year, and she plopped down beside him as she whispered softly.

"It's just one match, Harry. We still have the entire tournament left to play," she added and he nodded.

"It's over Hermione," one of the Twins added from the side as they jumped in.

"I don't think any team is beating the Slytherin if their Seeker rides a damn Firebolt," they finished, and that may be true.

"This has to be cheating! It has to be!" Ron's voice came from the side as he entered the dorm with Seamus and Lee Jordan.

"We have to take this to Dumbledore. We have to," Ron added, and Jordan shook his head.

"That's not going to work. I talked to McGonagall, and she said that there are no restrictions on which broom a player can use," and there were not. She had read the rulebook as well.

"That's unfair. How the hell is anyone supposed to compete against a damned Firebolt!" he asked, and no one had an answer.

"Well, Malfoy money strikes again! That git is using his money to make up for his skills," Seamus added as he began to remove the paint and the other badges he was wearing as Ron ran towards Harry.

"I have an idea," he said as everyone turned towards them both.

"You can do it Harry. Use the Gold in your vault to buy yourself a Firebolt as well," and thankfully it was said in a whisper, and the lack of a reply from Harry made her cut in.

"No!" she said as both Harry and Ron turned to face her.

"We are still in our Third Year. Your parents left you that money so you could get through Hogwarts, not so you could waste it all on one broom stick," she added, hoping Harry would see sense.

"You still have four years of Hogwarts left. You cannot use it all like this," she added.

"Of course he can," Ron added as the Common Room began to empty out, with people going out once again, or heading to the library to study.

Half a day had already passed, and they all had classes tomorrow.

"He cannot. He should not," she argued and Ron's face twisted.

"You would say that, wouldn't you? What are you even doing here, pretending to be friends with us? Why aren't you and Malfoy celebrating this victory?" he taunted, and her lips thinned.

"Cassius is in Ravenclaw," she corrected him as Ron scoffed.

"But he was cheering after his brother wasn't he," and he was, but what did it matter? In the end it was just a game.

"He must be quite Happy seeing us all lose by cheating," and she shook her head.

"I hate losing as much as you, but this was not cheating. Professor McGonagall herself said so," she added as he pointed towards Jordan.

"Yeah! Yeah! No one's talking to you traitor!" and Hermione could take no more of this.

"That's it!" she jumped to her feet as she roared with all her fury, her patience had long run thin with Ron's antics.

"I have had enough of you! I am going to library!" and he made a face at her as she looked at Harry for one last time.

"And if you waste your entire fortune on one damned broom, then you would be an even bigger idiot than him!" she pointed at Ron, who gasped at her.

"Who are you calling an idiot?" but she was long gone by then, having walked out of the room as she walked towards the library.

She much work to do, given that she had spent her entire day yesterday practicing the Patronus, and while it was not on the syllabus she did not think it a waste of time given that she had learnt quite a lot about casting and magic during that lesson that she wondered if she would ever have learned from books or their teachers.

Cassius, more so than Daphne and Tracy, was far more instinctual about magic than her. His wand work, his casting, he ignored the norms and tried to do the impossible, and when asked of it his answer had really surprised her.

'It's called magic for a reason. Its supposed to be magical isn't,'  and she had never thought like that, just what magic meant.

But still, he was going to help her catch up with them one spell at a time, and so she still had to look up the disarming charm once again. As she entered the library, she headed towards her usual place and, to her surprise, found the seat besides her empty.

Daphne and Tracey were there, already with their stack of books and homework and Hermione joined them as well after a small greeting. Though few minutes into the session her eyes continued to grift towards the empty seat besides her.

"He is not coming," the answer came from Daphne, who did not even look up from her book as she continued to scribble away her Transfiguration essay.

"Why?" she asked, as the girl finally looked up and answered.

"Because its a Sunday," and it did not make sense to her as Tracye explained.

"Cassius often takes Sunday afternoons for himself, he says its for a project of his and he likes to work at it by himself," she added and Hermione nodded.

"He will be back tomorrow," she finished and they all got back to their work, not understanding just what kind of project, he was working on.

"Speaking of that we have Hogsmeade next week right?" Tracey added and she nodded.

"Yes, after the second match," she added.

"And its between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. It will be Cassius's first time playing," and indeed she had learnt that he had joined the Ravenclaw Quidditch team this year.

"Aren't you excited for it, Daphne?" Tracey asked, and she had learned that the girl was simply a Quidditch enthusiast, unlike Greengrass, who cared little for the sport.

"It will be interesting," she added.

"Why?" she asked.

"Well, let's just say Cassius is not what you call a simple player...."

0000

HERMIONE GRANGER

Neither Daphne nor Tracey had explained what they had meant by Cassius 'not a simple player', and she would have to wait for the match next Saturday to find out.

The fight between her and Ron had gotten to the point where neither of them talked to each other, with her spending most of her time in the library trying to do all the homework assignments and as she found herself swamped by work day in and day out, she began to question her choice of taking all the electives.

Muggle Studies and Divination were proving themselves to be quite useless, with Professor Trelwaney often taking joy in simply predicting death, and otherwise ominous events, while giving very vague descriptions.

It had gotten so bad that she had walked out of the classroom, yesterday and was thinking of finally giving up the subject.

However, she was not the only one swamped with work. Cassius seemed affected by the workload as well, as he found himself stretched thin between his rather secretive project, homework, and Quidditch practice.

She had not seen him use the map he had obtained from the Twins, and she was still curious about what it was and why he had gone so far just to get it? And then there was his secret project for which he vanished for hours, often skipping their library sessions altogether, something which she really missed.

As they sat there on a Friday evening, with the Quidditch match fast approaching, she took out her wand and flicked it down as she cast the modified silencing charm taught by her.

"Muffliato," she chanted, and it was a rather unique piece of magic that she had not found in any of their charm books.

"Can I ask you something?" she began, and it was only them in the library today, with both Daphne and Tracey taking the day off to rest, and he glanced towards her and nodded.

"Sure," he said as he closed the book.

"What was that piece of paper that you took from the Twins? The Map?" she asked, no longer able to keep her curiosity at bay.

She saw his lips turn up as he raised a brow.

"Why? You want to get me into trouble again?" he teased, and she rolled her eyes as he chuckled.

"No," she answered as she felt her face flush in embarrassment.

"Will you ever let that go?" she asked, and much to her dismay he shook his head.

"Nope, I will remember it till the day I die," he relied and she punched his arm, and she had never thought that a day would come when she would be bantering with a Malfoy.

Though, he rarely made it feel as such.

Cassius behaved more like a Muggle-born than a Pure-blood, even Daphne and Tracey, lovely as they were seemed to find some of her words and references odd, often having trouble explaining things to her, or understanding them when she would explain to them.

But he had no such trouble, easily understanding her explanations while she often found herself surprised by his own depth of knowledge regarding muggle subjects, sciences, and culture.

And he was not even taking Muggle Studies.

"You are an oaf," she chided, and he shrugged.

"At least you have finally accepted that I am not Slytherin's heir," and she groaned as he added.

"Just imagine if I was, and you, in your wisdom, stole ingredients from Professor Snape's office to make Polyjuice Potion, to confront me about it directly, alone in my dorms," he gasped. And that was not her proudest moment.

But it had made sense!

"Merlin! Do you have any idea how dangerous it could have been?"and she shook her head.

"It made sense at the time, but you are not answering my question," she tried to steer him away, and he raised a brow as he looked into her eyes.

"You really want to know," he asked, and she nodded.

Then he reached into his pocket, took the piece of paper out, and placed it on the table, and once again, it was empty.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone else about this," she nodded as he placed his wand in the center and spoke.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," and she saw texts appear on it as she read.

"Padfoot, Prongs, Moony, and Wormtail proudly present to you the Marauder's Map," she read, not recognizing the names at all.

"This is a one-of-a-kind artifact. Years ago, four Hogwarts students got together and created this map to help them with their pranks," he read.

"Pranks?" she asked, and he nodded as he unfolded the piece of paper. Her eyes widened as she saw a magical map of their school unfold infront of her, with several steps and dots moving all around.

"This is..." she did not have any words as her mind began to race, trying to imagine just what kind of charms and enchantments were at work here.

"The entire school. Of course, the map shows sections, but you can move it around" and as he moved his wand, the map moved, as it showed sections it previously could not because of lack of space.

She saw him reach the library part and tap two dots sitting there, and immediately both their names appeared, sitting there as the names of students sitting around them all appeared as well.

"Impossible," she gasped, and he shrugged.

"With this, you can move quite easily through the school, avoiding the teachers and the prefects. It is the perfect instrument for a group of Pranksters," he replied, but she knew it could be more than that.

A lot more. But she did not voice it out, knowing how it would sound.

"And what are you using it for?" she asked, and he answered without looking up.

"My secret project," he answered, and she raised a brow.

"And what is that?" she asked.

"You will know of it when it is ready," and then he placed his wand on the map and spoke once more.

"Mischief managed," and she saw the map vanish as the map folded itself, and he pocketed it once more.

"Is that why you have been so tired these days?" she asked, and he seemed surprised by her observation. But Hermione had noticed the growing dark circles and the occasional yawns and how he seemed more tired than usual.

"Perhaps," he was cryptic in his answer again, and she did not know what to think about that.

"You are not in any trouble, are you?" she asked, having never thought about what it would have taken from him to stop his brother. Or what their friendship entailed for him.

Through Tracey and Daphne, she begins to get an insight into the Pureblood culture and realizes more about why Draco is the way he is.

It all made Cassius even a bigger anomaly than he already was.

"Of course not," and then he looked at her.

"Are you worried about me?" he asked, and for some reason, she felt her face heat up at that question as she thought about what to say.

"You are my friend," she answered after some deliberation.

"Shouldn't I worry about you," he was silent for a few seconds, and she felt Ron's words reverberate in her mind as her eyes dropped to the floor.

And she berated herself in her mind for those words, as she felt a sharp pain on her head and looked up as she rubbed her head.

"How naive are you," he teased as her heart skipped a beat as he looked into her eyes.

"Befriending Slyhterin's heir, you, Hermione Granger, are a disgrace to all..." and she did not let him finish as she slapped him on the shoulder.

"You git!" she screamed. The dark thoughts all vanished, and they both began to laugh.

"But you shouldn't worry, I am fine," he said as they both stopped laughing, and she nodded.

"Good," she said as she wiped her eyes, and then his eyes landed on the stack of books infront of her.

"You still are taking all the classes," he asked, and she nodded.

"I am, though I did walk out of Divination's class yesterday," she replied as her shoulders dropped.

"Good. Drop it, and drop Muggle Studies as well," he said as he looked at her.

"Three is already too much. Five is just absurd," he replied, and it was beginning to feel like such as well.

"But..."

"No, buts. Talk to McGonagall and put an end to this," he suggested.

"If you are still interested in them, you can simply sit their exams," he was right, but she did not want to disappoint the Professor. And she did not want to think just what would happen to her, after all the trouble she had gone to into getting her that time turner.

And then he leaned forward and pointed towards her neck.

"And if you are worried about that," and she stilled at those words.

"Don't be," he finished as he opened his book once again.

"She will understand," she gulped nervously as she chose to deny it.

"I don't know what you are talking about," she said, reaching for her neck to see if any part of the time turner was still showing. No, it was not.

He looked at her, with a frown.

"Please, there is no need to lie. I know about the time turner," and her eyes widened.

"How?" she asked, and he shrugged.

"You forget what my second name is," and it was her first time hearing him mention that, and she must have guessed that.

"Plus, it was not that difficult to figure out, given that you were attending both Divination and Arithmancy classes, both of which take place at the same time," and her face reddened at that.

He was definitely more preceptive than Harry and Ron.

"You knew," she asked and he shrugged.

"Ever since the first class," and that was even before she had begun to join them.

"Then why didn't you say anything," because if he was to complain about it, she was sure that he could have caused her a lot of trouble.

"What was there to say?" and she knew he was not blind to it all.

"Just think about it, Muggle Studies and Divination wastes time. You could be using all that time more productively. Magic is a lot more than what you see in these books. There are a thousand avenues that you could explore and research rather than wasting time with storytelling and Muggle Studies," and as she thought about it, his words made sense.

"Like Duelling?" she remembered Tracey's words and saw his head snap towards her in surprise.

"Yes," he replied, surprised by her words.

"It is one of them, warding is another, alchemy and spell crafting are there as well," he listed a few.

"I will think about it," she replied as she began to reconsider it seriously.

"So, are you going to be at the match tomorrow," he asked, and she nodded.

"Of course...."

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