So That's What They Do
Class
“And Hermione, you’re partnered with Malfoy.”
“What!?”
“What?!”
The two exclamations occurred simultaneously. Both were spoken with a mixture of disgust and abhorrence.
“Hagrid, no! Why…”
“Wait till my father hears about this!”
Hagrid walked towards them as the rest of the class either giggled or looked aghast.
“T’night you can both take the first watch and try feeding our skwerts exactly at moonrise. We’ve tried different kind of food, now we’re going to try different times of the day, to see if they are nocturnal or something. Tomorrow it can be Ron and Blaise at sunrise. And...well, I’ll think of the rest of the partners later and let you know.
Hermione reached up to tug on Hagrid’s rough brown coat.
“Please, Hagrid. You can’t be serious.”
The huge professor took Hermione by the arm gently and led her slightly apart from the others. He spoke quietly.
“Come on now, Hermione. Y’know Dumbledore, he’s on me burying the hatchet (so to speak), when it comes to yon bleached ferret, asked me himself, ‘e did, to bring Draco around, y’know, to humanize
him a bit and, if’n I can, to even encourage a bit of friendship between houses. Y’r a sensible girl, brightest witch in y’r class, in the whole school! I can trust you to help me out.”
She looked up at him, agog.
“You do know,” she spoke slowly, “that Draco and his family consider me to be unfit to join the wizarding world and go to school here. In fact, I think, meaning no disrespect of course, that this assignment is…. (she wanted to say something more extreme, such as ‘insane’ but erred on the side of caution) unwise.”
“But y’r the one! It’s gotta be! Dumbledore tol’ me himself. That you were the best choice. He believes in you! So do I!”
Hagrid walked back towards the group, brushing aside Malfoy’s complaints with a few choice words involving Professor Moody and leaving behind a very bemused witch.