Choices

Chapter Four: Operation D.L.M

Hermione and Elkara made it to Defense Against the Dark Arts less than ten seconds before their new professor; which was good because Professor Malfoy was in a foul mood. He stormed into the classroom, blond hair flying and a scowl on his normally stonelike face. The girls sat down quickly and silently, not wanting to be the target of whatever fury was driving him. The two Gryffindors had fortunately gotten the table right behind Harry and Ron, so they would be able to communicate if they had to.

"I will have absolute silence in my classroom. No one will speak unless given permission by me. You will not help each other with homework assignments" a direct look at Hermione, "if you do, I WILL know about it and you will be punished accordingly. As this is your seventh and final year of Defense classes, you will be pushed to and beyond your perceived limitations. You will be learning to defend yourself against the darkest of curses, spells, charms, potions and poisons. It is not my desire to teach you these things, I do it out of necessity. If any of you have a problem with anything that I have just said, you know where the door is," Lucius delivered his little speech to the class, then glared at them, as if daring any of them to move.

Elkara tapped Hermione's elbow and pointed at Lucius' left leg, which had become partly visible as he walked around the room. Hermione looked and saw what her new friend had seen. Lucius Malfoy had bandages wrapped around his ankle. Hermione's brain began working furiously, trying to figure out if that was the cause of his temper, or if it was simply his deep loathing of having to teach. The blond man noticed the young girl staring in the general direction of his feet and decided to teach her a lesson about staring, the lesson being; if you're going to do it, don't be obvious about it.

Hermione was too lost in her own thoughts to notice her newest teacher moving closer to her table. She nearly fell out of her chair when he slammed his hands down on the table and said," Miss Granger, would you kindly pay attention? I know that I'm the finest example of a pureblooded wizard that you will ever see, but there's no need to stare like that."

Hermione blushed a bright pink and tried to think of a good retort. She settled for glaring at him, as the Slytherins in the room laughed at her.

"Professor Malfoy, may I have permission to speak, Sir?" Elkara asked, seemingly innocent.

He looked at the dark-haired girl, wondering what she could possibly have to say to him, knowing it wasn't going to be anything nice. He weighed his options and finally said, "You may not, Miss Shidu. Now, if there are going to be no further interruptions, I want you all to read the first chapter of your book, and I want a complete and detailed summary next class."

Both girls glared at their professor, but decided that the best course of action would be to beat him at his own game. Using an enchanted piece of parchment, the girls began to hatch their plot for revenge.

Finally, class was over and Phase One of Operation D.L.M. was about to begin. While all of her classmates were filing out of the room, Hermione "accidentally" dropped her book bag and spilled the contents all over the floor. She immediately burst into tears and dropped to her knees to begin picking up her things. She didn't notice that the room was empty, except for Lucius Malfoy and herself, until the door slammed shut. Hermione looked up in alarm as her professor stormed over to where she was still kneeling on the floor.

He grabbed her and said, "Just what the Hell do you think you're doing?"

"I-I'm sorry, P-p-p-professor," she stammered, her tears falling faster. "I dropped my bag."

"I can see that," he said, coldly. "But why are you crying, girl?"

Hermione grinned on the inside. On the outside, her lower lip trembled and the tears continued to fall. She explained, "Sir, I'm just under so much pressure right now. I-I-"

"You don't know how to handle it. When you dropped your bag, it was the final straw," he said softly, almost as if he cared and understood.

She looked up at the man through her eyelashes and nodded. She whispered, "Yes, Sir."

He moved like he was going to hug her, then suddenly pushed her away. "Get out of my classroom."

Hermione stared in shock as the blond man stormed away, his hand pressed to his forehead. She quickly gathered her belongings and ran out of the room to tell Elkara what had happened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~