From Venice with Love

Thank you so much for the reviews! Here's Chapter 17.

The next day went fairly quickly for Hermione. She had a lot to keep her mind busy as she went through her morning classes. She barely had time for lunch and grabbed only an apple from Harry before running back to her room to work on the patrol schedules.

By afternoon, she had only her Potions class left to get through. Only Harry had progressed to N.E.W.T. level potions, so they walked to class together while Ron had a free period.

“I’m dreading this class,” Harry muttered as they made their way to the dungeons.

“It’ll be fine,” Hermione said. “Not many students, I’m sure. Even if the teacher is Professor Snape, we should learn a lot.”

They reached the classroom and took a seat as the other students came in. There was Ernie, of course, as well as Hannah Abbott, Padma Patil and Terry Boot. When Snape came in he was followed by Draco and Blaise Zabini.

“Great,” Harry whispered to her. “I was hoping no Slytherins would make it.”

Hermione shrugged and tried to focus on what Snape was saying. Her necklace warmed as she sat there and she glanced at it as slyly as she could. “You didn’t answer me last night,” it said.

Hermione resisted the urge to glance to the back of the room and looked sideways to see what Harry was doing. He was furiously writing down what Snape was saying so Hermione answered. ”I’ve been busy,”

“You’re not mad?” came the reply.

“No,” she answered.

“Hermione, what did he say?” Harry’s voice broke into her thoughts. “I didn’t get that.”

“What?”Hermione snapped to attention.

Harry looked over at her parchment. “You haven’t written anything! What are you doing?”

“Potter! “ Snape was upon them. “While I’m sure you believe you are too good to listen to my lectures, I assure you that you are not. Five points from Gryffindor. And Ms. Granger,” he sneered, looking at her blank parchment. “Too good to take notes? Another five points!”

Harry groaned softly as the Slytherins behind them sniggered. Hermione put her head in her hands and tried to concentrate on the rest of the lecture.

Finally, the class was over and students began to file from the room. “Ms. Granger,” Snape snapped at her. “As Head Girl you are to set an example. Never let that happen again.”

“Yes, Professor,” she answered. She had 10 minutes to meet Ernie to review the schedules, time for a quick dinner, and then back to the common room for the prefect meeting.

She bid farewell to Harry, then walked quickly through the hallways to reach her common room. As she reached the common room portrait, she felt a hand go over her mouth and pull her into an adjacent corridor.

“Don’t scream,” said a voice she immediately recognised as Draco’s.

She relaxed in his arms as he let go of her mouth and she turned around to meet his eyes. “What are you doing?” she whispered. “Anyone could come by!”

“I wanted to see you,” he said petulantly. “You never even look at me.”

“That’s because if I do all I see is a nasty look on your face,” she snapped.

“You are mad-I knew it!” he said, backing away from her slightly. “What did you want me to do?”

“I don’t know!” she wailed. “But I will not feel like I did yesterday every day for the rest of the year!”

“How did you feel?” he said quietly, moving closer to her again.

“Like, like someone crushed me and I couldn’t breathe,” she confessed. “Then, Ernie said he couldn’t find you and Pansy during the whole train ride.”

“Well, that’s true,” Draco said. “We were with Crabbe and Goyle and Zambini playing Exploding Snap. Ask them if you don’t believe me,”

“I believe you,” she said. “People just think that you and Pansy-“

“I didn’t know you put so much store in what people think.” Draco said coldly.

“I don’t. Oh, this is just hard. And it’s only the first day!”

Draco put his hands on her shoulders. “You need to not get so upset over things,” he said. “I didn’t ask you why you and Macmillan were alone in a carriage.”

“You know that Ernie is dating Hannah Abbott, that’s why.” Hermione replied. “Don’t turn this around on me.”

Draco pulled a hand through his hair, exasperated. “Would you rather we cast a cheating charm on each other?”

“A what?”

“If either of us cheats, then the guilty one will get a horrible rash. Would that make you feel better?”

Hermione thought about it a minute, then sighed. “No,” she said. “This will never work if I can’t trust you.”

“I don’t know any other way to make you do that.” Draco crossed his arms and looked at her.

Hermione hung her head. “I guess it will just take time.” She looked back up at him. “I missed you today.”

He smiled at her. “I missed you too,”

“I have to go,” she said, picking her bag back up. “I’m already late- Ernie will come looking for me,”

Draco looked around quickly and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll see you at the meeting,” he said, and left the corridor.

Hermione waited a minute, the left herself and went into the common room. Ernie was already hard at work at one of the long tables, making her feel bad.

“Sorry,” she said. “Professor Snape held me back.”

“You really need to watch that” Ernie replied. “He was right; you need to set a better example.”

Hermione nodded, and joined him at the table. “Here’s what I have so far,” he said, showing her the schedule.

Each prefect was scheduled a time, partner, and location. Hermione noticed Ron was paired up with Lavender Brown. She stifled a laugh thinking of her talking his ear off the whole hour.

“After their disappearing act on the train, I think we should separate Parkinson and Malfoy,” Ernie said. “One of us should go with each. I thought I’d go with Malfoy and you with Parkinson.”

“I think the other way around would be better,” Hermione said quickly. “Malfoy’s an arse but he’s not stupid. He wouldn’t dare hurt me. Pansy, on the other hand, isn’t as bright.”

“I guess you’re right,” he said and Hermione smiled to herself. She’d bought herself an hour a day.