Hermione’s Third Year, trial and tribulations.

Third year started out with a bang.

Apparently, a murderer named Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban prison and no one seemed to know how he’d done it.

All of Diagon Alley had wanted posters plastered with the man’s face, screaming in rage.

It was a bit disconcerting.

Hermione sat on the train alone, as she had last year.

No one came in to join her, nor acknowledged her presence. She saw Malfoy walk by at one point, but he just stared at her morosely before moving on with his friends. So she decided to read a bit in her new DADA book, when the train stopped suddenly and the lights shut off.

Looking around in her compartment in confusion, she could feel the air getting colder, and could see movement just outside her window. She’d just considered peering out and investigating, when she saw a figure floating by her compartment door.

The figure stopped and paused, before moving on towards the next car.

Hermione wasn’t sure what was going on, but she sat there quietly for some time until the lights came back on and the train started moving again.

When she got to Hogwarts for the feast, she sat at the far end of the Slytherin table by herself per usual.

The first years were sorted, but once it was quickly known she was a mudblood, no one acknowledged her presence. Then Dumbledore made the announcement in regards to the new Defense Professor, a Remus Lupin, and everyone in the hall politely cheered for the man. He looked a bit worn and shabby, but overall seemed pleasant enough.

Then the Headmaster announced that the Dementors of Azkaban would be at Hogwarts, possibly looking for Sirius Black.

Hermione thought back to the incident on the train and realized quickly that the figure she saw outside her compartment was most likely a dementor.

It would seem that Harry Potter had a run in with one of the creatures, because Malfoy and his cronies wouldn’t stop teasing him about it for days after the incident. It finally came to a head on the first day of Class for Care of Magical Creatures with Professor Hagrid.

Hagrid had brought a Hippogriff to class and after Potter had successfully rode the beast, Malfoy decided that the bird wasn’t scary at all, and proceeding to insult the creature, getting injured for his troubles. It wasn’t a bad injury, but Malfoy milked it for all it was worth, getting Hagrid in trouble and Buckbeak sentenced for execution.

Hermione couldn’t have cared less about the Potter-Malfoy drama.

She made her way to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, like she had every full moon the year prior to meet Nagini. Thankfully, the snake was there and Hermione was overjoyed to see her friend. They talked a bit, Nagini telling her to be careful this year and to stay away from the Shrieking Shack during the full moon.

When Hermione asked why, the snake told her that a werewolf was being detained there during the full moon.

She was surprised that the Headmaster would allow such a thing, but Dumbledore did seem a bit barmy to her, allowing the sorcerers stone to be hidden at Hogwarts was probably not his smartest choice.

The first class in DADA turned out to be quite revealing.

Professor Lupin had decided to teach the class about Boggarts.

Hermione correctly identified what a Boggart was, earning 10 points for Slytherin and receiving caustic glares from her own classmates as well as the other third years. Professor Lupin looked at her questioningly, and she shrugged helplessly in response.

Because really?

What good would it be to speak up at this point?

When the class lined up, she decided to head towards the back, but of course Malfoy had to speak up, taunting the her about the fact she was too afraid to show everyone in the class her worst fear. Smirking at the blonde, she walked towards the front right behind one of the Patil Twins. When her turn came, the boggart shifted, as it tried to read her worst fear but she had been practicing Occlumency over the summer, and closed her mind to the creature.

The boggart kept shifting, becoming more agitated as it couldn’t get a read on her.

This went on for at least a couple minutes before Professor Lupin, giving her a curious look, dismissed her to the back of the class.

The entire class was whispering about the rare occurrence.

For a boggart to have no affect on a witch or wizard was simply unheard of, especially in one so young.

Hermione could feel Malfoy staring at her, but she ignored him, watching Potter take his turn.

Quickly the boggart turned into a Dementor and Professor Lupin pushed Harry out of the way, causing the boggart to shift to an image of a full moon.

Ah, so the new DADA Professor was the werewolf Nagini had warned her about.

Interesting.

The Professor dismissed the class asking each student to write a 20 inch essay on boggarts, their history and the origins of the counter-curse.

Hermione grabbed her bag and headed for the library where she could continue her studies in peace, not paying attention as an interested set of grey eyes followed her out of the classroom.

Thankfully, the majority of third year was quite uneventful for Hermione, but not for the rest of the school.

Somehow, Sirius Black had gotten into Hogwarts and caused such an uproar that all the students had to sleep in the Great Hall until the castle and grounds could be searched. She had done some research on her own, trying to figure out how a person could get inside the wards without setting off the detection spells. Over Christmas that year, her parents had gifted her with a large orange half-Kneazle named Crookshanks. She had wanted her own familiar, and Crookshanks was brilliant and clever.

Kneazles were well known to be able to sniff out animagus. When Hermione read that passage in her book after the holidays, she realized just how Sirius Black was getting in and out of the school. Hermione grabbed as many books on human transfiguration as she could and decided that she would become an animagus herself.

It seemed like a prudent thing to do under the circumstances.

Easter had come quickly and Hermione decided to stay at school over the holidays. All of her dorm-mates were leaving for home, a fact she was grateful for. She packed up her book bag and headed for the library as the rest of her house was leaving for Hogsmeade to take the Hogwarts Express back to London. As she made her way out of the common room she felt like someone was watching her, but when she stopped to look around she didn’t notice anyone. She made it to the library and set her bag on her usual table, taking out her books and parchment, deciding she might as well get a head start on her assignments, when she heard footsteps approaching her from behind.

She quickly whipped out her wand and turned into a fighting stance, when she noticed Malfoy casually leaning against one of the bookshelves, looking at her curiously.

“Not going home for the Holiday, eh Granger? Your parents not want you around either?” Malfoy smirked wickedly.

Hermione sighed and turned around, ignoring the blonde.

She had decided early on this year, that she wasn’t going to respond to the bigoted prat anymore, but that didn’t stop him from trying to get a reaction out of her.

When she moved to grab a book from the shelf in front of her, she felt him grab her arm, turning her to face him.

“I was talking to you, mudblood! How dare you turn your back on your betters. Perhaps you need a reminder.” Draco sneered in disgust.

Hermione just sighed and shook her head, looking askance at the hand on her arm. The two of them stood like that for several minutes, as she refused to break the silence.

She had absolutely nothing to say to the hateful boy.

She didn’t understand why he kept harassing her, it wasn’t like she purposely went out of her way to get his attention.

She avoided him like the plague.

Draco looked down at the little witch before him, with her riotous curls and impassive expression, eyes that were dead and showed absolutely no emotion.

For a fleeting moment, he wondered if she had anyone in her life that cared about her.

He’d made sure no one in their house gave her the time of day, and she had no friends from the other houses that he knew of. She was the smartest in their year by far, and he couldn’t help but be intrigued by her. He’d taunted her because it was the only way to get her attention, but she simply never responded.

He hated to admit it, but he was worried about her.

She rarely ate in the Great Hall and she spent all her free time buried in books.

She looked frail and thin, but he knew underneath the facade she was a brilliant, powerful witch.

Finally realizing that the little witch was not going to respond to him, he let go of her arm and saw red marks from where he’d grabbed her. To her credit she didn’t even rub them, she just looked at him with that dead expression and turned her back to him and walked away.

Draco just stared after her, feeling guilt and shame for the first time in his life, and he didn’t like it at all.

Hermione stood by the stacks waiting for Malfoy to leave, but he just stood there and watched her for what seemed like an eternity. Finally he sighed, turned and left the library, leaving Hermione alone.

She sat down at her desk, books strewn about and sighed forlornly.

Her parents had been distancing themselves from her ever since they’d told her of the adoption. She had no friends, except for Nagini and Crookshanks, and she didn’t know what to think about her real father. Everything she’d researched about him made her feel that if he did return, he wouldn’t want her. Nagini had told her what she knew about Tom Riddle’s childhood, which sadly, seemed worse than hers.

Hermione began to wonder if she would ever find someone who would truly care about her.

She didn’t realize that tears had escaped her eyes until she saw a couple drops fall onto the book she’d been reading. She felt her face in shock, holding out her hand in surprise as she looked at the evidence of her loss of emotional control. She shook her head sadly and breathed in deeply, closing her eyes and getting her breathing under control. She was so lost in her own world, she failed to realize that the blonde wizard hadn’t left the library at all, but was silently watching her.

Draco saw the tears from the little witch and instead of feeling happy at her obvious distress, he felt truly ashamed for the first time in his life.

He had never once thought about the vicious way he had treated the mudblood, she was filth after all.

But he had noticed after her fall last year, that her blood hadn’t been any different than his.

She also never asked for help for herself, but he had watched her at times, leave just the right book for someone in the library who seemed to be struggling with their homework. She helped Madam Pomfrey with restocking potions in her free time and worked out in the greenhouses with Professor Sprout when no one else was there. She was polite to the teachers, but didn’t engage the other students openly.

She truly had no one, and Draco realized belatedly that it was entirely his fault.

The emotionless look in her eyes bothered him, and he didn’t know what to do about it.

He left the library quietly and headed for Professor Snape’s quarters as the two of them were flooing directly to Malfoy Manor together.

He didn’t have anyone to talk to about these feelings, so he wasn’t sure what to do.

Perhaps he’d just leave Granger alone from now on.

Maybe if he stopped tormenting her, the rest of Slytherin House would follow.

It was probably more than she deserved, at least he tried to convince himself of that.