Trials Of Love!

Title: Trials of Love (4/?)
Author: granger2malfoy
Pairing: D/Hr, B/G
Rating: Teen, unless so marked
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from HP verse.
Genres: Drama, Romance
A/N: Not HBP compliant. This is sequel to The Given Choices. Thanks to my beta, wafball.
*~*~*~*~ Chapter Four - Getting to Know You ~*~*~*~~*
Hermione, Ron and Harry walked down the corridors toward their second class of the first day, which was the first they shared together. All students were anxious and excited for their class with the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Meadows. Harry opened the classroom door and held it open for Hermione and Ron to pass him into the room. Over the last six years, the classroom seemed to change styles with every new professor and not one had lasted over a year. The last professor’s disappearance had been rumored to involve some vampires in South Africa.

The class looked to consist of Gryffindor and Slytherins, not always a safe combination for the subject matter. Hermione and Ron took the first seats to the right as Harry sat next to Neville right behind them. Across from her table, Blaise and Draco placed themselves in the front row also. She glanced around the room thankful not to see horrible sneak-o-scopes or pictures of famous, smiling wizards beaming down at them. Nothing appeared on the walls or on the desk at the front of the classroom and the professor had still not arrived. Once the bells outside rang, all students took their seats and waited for their class to begin and meet the mysterious early-thirties witch, who had entered Hogwarts with such a grand affair during the Arrival feast.

At the top of the stairs in the front of the classroom, the door slowly opened and showed Professor Meadows step out on the small balcony as she smiled down on them. "Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts, seventh years. But first of all, everyone stand and hold all of their belongings in their hands."

Students looked from one to another as their followed her instructions as she walked down the stairs to the bottom. Once everyone was standing, the black-haired Professor waved her hand to shrink the tables and benches as they moved to the walls out of the way.

"As you know, my name is Professor Meadows and I have been asked by the headmaster to teach you what I can about defense against the dark arts. But first things first," she said and turned back towards the stairs and raised her open palm to the direction of the door. An old leather, pointed hat came floating down to her and she turned back to the gathering of students. "You all have seen this hat used at the beginning of each year and wore it once yourselves seven years ago. Now, the sorting hat remembers each of you and I have asked it to do me a favor because it knows you better than I do. Each person is going have a responsibility partner. You will support, assist, study, and challenge your partner, as they will do the same. The people will see you at your worst in these class and raise you to your best."

Professor Meadows summoned her desk chair and placed the hat on it as she continued, " I have asked the hat to match you up with the person who will best compliment your abilities, weaknesses, and fears. Oh, I also asked that each pairing to be one of each house. Let’s begin."
The hat moved on the wooden seat as it turned to look at the seventh years, whom did not look at all sure about the situation. "Ah, yes, I see the students are here and ready. I’ll will do my part to help inter-house relations within this fine school. Now, for the pairings."

"When the sorting hat calls your name, please step over to me. I want Gryffindors to my left and Slytherins on my right and in the order you are paired at," the professor instructed from her spot at the front of the room.

After a few, long moments, the hat called out, "Harry Potter will be paired with...."

Harry gave a nervous look to Hermione and Ron as he took a spot to Meadows left side. Then the hat announced, "Draco Malfoy."

A few gasps came from the crowd and she almost spoke up to protest but had a feeling it would not do any good. Matching scowls came from the two boys as Draco stepped up to the young woman’s right side.

"Ronald Weasley will be partnered with..." and her friend gave her a worried look as he headed towards Harry as the hat finished, "Pansy Parkinson."

Hermione heard a few words of hatred hiss from the female Slytherin’s mouth as she took her spot behind Draco.

"Hermione Granger is to be with..." she walked up behind Ron and wished with all her might that it would be Blaise and crossed her fingers till she heard the hat finished, "Blaise Zabini."

A smile formed on her lips as her friend appeared across from her and she silently thanked Merlin for small favors. Ron leaned back and whispered, "I’ll trade. He may be dating my sister but its better than her."

"No way, the hat did it for a reason. Maybe her bark is worse than her bite, Ron."
She snickered when he replied with a soft, "Not bloody likely."

The rest of the class began to step into their lines as Neville became paired with Millicent, Lavender with Nott, Pavarti with Goyle and Dean with Crabbe. Once all were teamed up, Professor Meadows turned around and smiled brightly at them as she instructed, "Okay, I want you all to form a circle and stand next to your partner as you stand Gryffindor, Slytherin, Gryffindor, Slytherin and so on to make a complete circle. Then I want you to take a seat on the floor and get comfortable. You can take off your robes if you like."
Everyone silently moved into a large circle seated on the floor but she smiled to herself as Draco set himself down on the other side of her and Blaise took her left side. They sat Pansy, Ron, Blaise and herself then Draco, Harry, and Millicent. No the boys were not happy to say the least. Actually, most looked rather unsatisfied with the arrangement except her and Blaise.

Professor Meadows stepped in the middle of the circle and she spoke, "Now, I know you are not exactly happy about this setup. Having once been a Gryffindor, I am well aware of the tension between the two houses. But I, myself, have close friends that are from Slytherin. Both houses need to look past the red and the green to the people who are there. Actually since this your last class of the day, I do not want to see your robes on you in this classroom. When you enter that door, I will have a row of hooks for your robes and ties. You may bring jumpers to keep you warm when you need it. But they can not be depicting a certain house.

"While you are in this room, there is no Gryffindors nor Slytherins. Only seventh year students who will be sharing a class, and have a partner who will watch their back as they will watch theirs."

Hermione raised her hand and asked, "Not that I doubt your motives, but how can you be so sure that we will truly watch the other’s back when most would prefer to hex the other."

Blaise leaned over and whispered, "Should I be worried?"

"Miss Granger, am I correct?" she asked and then continued, "Well, if anything should happen to one, let’s say the other will ‘feel their pain.’ There is a war going on and many different people will be on the same side."

Hermione heard Harry snort as he twirled his wand against his palm.

"Mister Potter, will you please stand?"

With a guilty look, her friend rose to his feet and stood from his spot. "I am well aware of your differences with Mr. Malfoy. But I promise you, you will never have his help if you want to pass this course as he will need you."

Harry raised an eyebrow, as he said, "I have nothing he has, nor do I have anything he wants."

The professor gave a sly smile as she stepped up to the young man and looked to his left at Hermione but then turned back as she replied, "I disagree and during this year, you’ll find out for yourself. Take a seat, Potter."

"I am not saying you have to become mates or even like each other, class," Meadows explained as she walked along the inside of the circle. "But during war, sometimes you can choose who will be with you to save you from the enemy and sometimes it is unclear who really is the enemy."

Her shoulders slouched and she sighed, "Look, this is your first day with me and I don’t want this class to regret stepping into this classroom. But for now, I ask all of you to trust me.

"Now, let’s get this back to a more relaxed level. Let me start by telling some about myself and then I want to start to get to know all of you," the professor said as she nudged herself in between Neville and Pansy on the floor. "First, is there anything you want to know about me?"

Blaise raised his hand and asked, "What have you been doing before you came here that Dumbledore asked you to take this position?"

Professor Meadows tilted her head and raised her eyebrow as she commented, "You mean what are my qualifications to teach this course?"

"Yes, basically if you don’t mind because you are younger than any of our other professors," the Slytherin stated as he leaned back on his hands.

"I’ll take that as a compliment. Well, first of all, my mother was once in the Order of Phoenix and I have simply followed in her path. I have been, I guess what you could call, studying the techniques and practices of defending against the dark arts since I was thirteen but solely concentrating on it since I left Hogwarts. Anything else?" she asked as she shrugged off her outer robes to be more relaxed in her purple jumper and blue jeans underneath.

Her smile brightened as she saw the surprised looks from most of the students to see a professor basically out of uniform. "I can truly appreciate the way Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape run their classrooms. But I am not them as I explained to the headmaster before taking this position. While in my classroom, I make the rules. So, we can go without robes and ties, if I say so and I will not act all prim and proper if you guys get to relax a bit, then so can I. Now, I want to get to know all of you but in a different way. I want you to introduce the person to your left. All of you have been in the same year for seven years now. Unless you have lived under a rock, you must know at least one thing about everyone in this class. If you cannot think of anything, I will make the both of you spend a detention with me as you ‘get to know each other’ as you scrub the floor."

The professor faced her left, which Ron was sitting next to her and she said, "Luckily, I paid attention to the hat. You are Ronald Weasley and you have at least two older brothers named Bill and Charles."

Ron nodded and replied, "Yeah, but Charles goes by Charlie."

"Oh well, I must still be the only one who calls him Charles. We were in the same year together. Now, introduce us to the person on your left."

"Right, well. This is Blaise Zabini," the redhead stated as he turned to face her partner, "And he is currently dating my only sister. If he breaks her heart, he will not live to his next birthday."

Professor Meadows laughed as she said, "It’s nice to meet you Blaise and good luck. You’re next."

Blaise smiled as he turned to her and spoke, "This is Hermione Granger and her favorite snack is the chocolate-chunk brownies her mother sends to her but she refuses to share."

"Well, I can understand that. It’s hard to separate a girl and her chocolate. That was a nice introduction, Mister Zabini. Miss Granger, you’re next."

"This is Draco Malfoy," she said as she faced the man next to her and she silently thought of what I say about him. Something truthful but nothing too revealing of their special, secret relationship. "Draco’s most prized possession is his broomstick, which he rides every chance he gets."

The professor nodded as she replied, "Yes, I did hear that our Head Boy was also a Seeker for his team."

Draco straightened his shoulders some as she turned to Hermione first, "Well, its not my most important possession but close enough."

Hermione could see in a quick look in his eyes, he probably was referring cryptically about her and his love for her. But his eyes left hers as he turned to Harry and said, "This, as everyone knows, is Harry Potter."

Professor Meadows cut in as he paused and she commented, "Something nice or at least, not rude."

Malfoy rolled his eyes and appeared to think for a moment, which meant what he planned to say had not fit into her criteria. "Potter is one of the founding members of the DA."

The professor’s brows furrowed as she asked, "I’m sorry but what is the DA?"

Harry replied, "Well during our fifth year, our professor for this class was less than remotely helpful in learning the fight against the dark arts. So, Hermione, Ron and I decided to form a sort of club for teaching, training, and practicing to make up for what we weren’t learning in the classroom."

Professor Meadows smiled and then asked, "How many in this class were in the DA, raise your hand?"
Every Gryffindor raised their hands as the Slytherins just sat there. "I see. Was this just a Gryffindor club?"

Hermione spoke up, "No, we had Ravenclaws and a couple Hufflepuffs. Its just ... most of the Slytherins seemed to agree with that woman."

Blaise cleared his throat, "Not really agreed with, but more like found an opportunity to be on someone of power’s good side. Ambition is a trait of Slytherin."
She began to open her mouth but the professor spoke up, "Well, that is the past. Let’s move on. There are plenty of other students I need to be introduced to."
They continued around the circle until they came back to Professor Meadows, who said, "Well, we only have about ten more minutes. Why don’t we just call it a day then?"

The students got off the hard ground rubbing various sleeping limbs and grabbed their things as the professor asked, "Potter, Malfoy, Zabini, and Granger, can you stay behind for a moment?"

The four got their robes back on as Professor Meadows stated, "Potter come up to my office for a minute, you three stay put till we’re done."

Draco, Blaise and Hermione talked in low voices about their new professor till Harry came back down the stairs with Meadows right behind him. "I will see you later, Harry. Thanks, you guys, for waiting me."

She began to set the classroom right as Harry headed to leave the classroom and nodded to indicate to Hermione that everything was alright. Once he left them alone, Professor Meadows took her seat behind her desk as she placed a silencing spell on the back of the door and said, "Albus has informed of the special talent the three of you and Miss Weasley have over the elements of nature. Actually, that is one of the main reasons for him giving me the position of professor because of my specialty in those matters. I have been given instructions to take charge of all teaching about your powers from this moment forward, beginning tonight. I want the four of you to meet me after dinner here to start the next level of your training."

"Yes, professor," the threesome answered as they looked from one and other.

"Have a good day and I will see the four of you tonight," Professor Meadows dismissed them and headed back up the stairs as the small group left the classroom.

Hermione’s mind began to go over all they had learned about their new professor that afternoon and she now seemed to have more questions at the moment than before the class started. Maybe some of those questions would be answered that night. She reached within her pocket to pull out a carrot she saved from lunch and began to nibble on it as she thought. Blaise turned to her as the sound of her chomping and chuckled, "You seem to have gained that appetite you lost over the summer. But that’s a good thing because you were looking too thin when you came back from Grimmauld Place."

She shrugged her shoulders as she continued to eat her snack.
~*~*~*~* To Be Continued ~~*~*~*~*~*~*