The Wisest Mind

Author's Note: This one's especially for Becky, for being so all-around fab! Thanks to Cadiliniel for suggesting some names.

Hermione waved goodbye to Harry and Ron as they headed up the stairs to Divination, and turned to make her way to her Arithmancy class. She couldn't help smiling a little as she walked. This would be her first Arithmancy class of the sixth year, and she was excited to see what the NEWT level course would be like. She wondered who else had carried on with it - she had been the only Gryffindor in the OWL class last year, along with seven Ravenclaws, four Slytherins and five Hufflepuffs.

When she got to the classroom there was nobody there, but Hermione wasn't concerned. Punctuality was important to her, and she often found that she arrived several minutes before anyone else, including Professor Vector. She sat down in her usual seat and began to take out her charts, laying them in a neat pile in front of her. She took out a fresh piece of parchment and laid her brand new quill on top of it.

The door opened and Draco Malfoy came in. She ignored him. He ignored her. He was always quieter in Arithmancy classes, because Crabbe and Goyle didn't take it. He took his usual seat, as far away from her as possible, and began to get his things out.

For lack of anything else to do, she found herself watching as he got out his things. He took out his charts, and piled them neatly on the desk. He got a fresh piece of parchment. He took a quill from his back and unwrapped it from its protective packaging before putting it on top of the parchment.

He looked up and saw her watching.

'What are you staring at, Granger?' he asked, sneering.

'Nothing, I'm sure,' she shrugged, and turned to look out of the window.

He made a little huffing noise, but didn't comment any further. The door opened again and Professor Vector came in, looking a little ruffled and hurried as usual, and carrying a large stack of books which she dropped with a loud thud on the desk.

'Afternoon, class,' she said. 'Did you both have a good summer?'

'Yes, thank you,' Hermione and Draco both responded.

Professor Vector took several charts out of her bag and started sorting through them. She looked up, suddenly.

'You know,' she said, 'since there are just the two of you taking Arithmancy this year, perhaps it would be nice for you to sit together.' Hermione and Draco exchanged looks of horror. 'Having the two of you on opposite ends of the room like this is just going to make me dizzy. And this way you can discuss the problems if you like. Mr Malfoy, why don't you just move over there and sit by Miss Granger?'

And with a flick of her wand she moved Draco's things over to the space next to Hermione, so that he had no choice but to move over there. He scowled as he made his way across the room and sat down. Hermione moved her chair so that she was pressed right against her edge of the desk. Draco did the same.

'That's much better, isn't it?' Professor Vector said with a smile. 'Now, have either of you managed to look at your new textbooks yet?'

'Of course,' said Hermione and Draco at once.

Draco glared at Hermione, and she clicked her tongue irritably. It was going to be a long year.

* * *

'And she made us sit together on the same desk!' Hermione cried, as Ginny, sitting opposite, nodded sympathetically.

The two girls had met in the Great Hall to do a little homework before dinner, but, unusually for Hermione, very little work was actually taking place.

'That sounds dreadful,' said Ginny.

'And what makes it even worse is that he kept answering before me! What does he think he's doing? Malfoy never answers in class!'

'Maybe he was too shy before,' Ginny smirked.

'Well, whatever it is, it's bloody irritating and I wish he'd stop it!' Hermione growled. 'Oh, and I was so looking forward to Arithmancy this year! And now it's just ruined!'

'Oh, Hermione, I don't...'

Hermione shushed Ginny urgently as Harry and Ron entered the Great Hall.

'What's up, Hermione?' asked Ron. 'You look pissed off...'

'It's nothing,' Hermione said, hastily. 'Just girl stuff, nothing for you two to worry about.'

Ginny stared at her friend, but Hermione just shook her head and started asking the boys about their homework, so Ginny decided to let it be for the time being.

* * *

'What was all that about before dinner?' Ginny asked Hermione later as they sat in Hermione's dormitory, brushing Crookshanks.

'What was all what about?'

'You know... not telling Harry and Ron why you were cross?'

'Oh... yes.'

'What was that all about? You know they'd have agreed with you - they're always first in line to have a go at Malfoy.'

'I know...'

'So why didn't you tell them?'

'Well, because... I don't know, okay? I just didn't want them to know that I'm taking Arithmancy with Malfoy. They'd probably want me to spy on him for them or something, and it gets on my nerves the way they always want to pick fights...'

'Tell me about it...'

'So you see why I'd rather they didn't find out. They'd just get all het up and I'd never hear the end of it.'

'Hmm...'

'So you won't tell them?'

'Yeah, okay, I'll keep quiet about it. But won't they ask you about it?'

'Ron and Harry? Ask me about my classes?' Hermione looked incredulously at Ginny.

'Oh... yeah, I suppose you're right. Insensitive gits that they are...'

'Boys,' sighed Hermione, brushing Crookshanks a little harder than strictly necessary.

* * *

The next Arithmancy lesson came around much too quickly for Hermione's liking. She arrived early, as usual, and arranged her things tidily in front of her on the desk. Draco skulked in a few minutes later and sat on the opposite end of the room again.

'Professor Vector said that we should sit together,' Hermione reminded him as he opened his bag.

He didn't answer, resolutely setting out his things. He only moved when Professor Vector came in and said:

'Goodness, Mr Malfoy, did you forget? I'd like the two of you to sit together.'

Once again, she sent his things across the room, and once again he had no choice but to go and sit beside Hermione.

The lesson proceeded just like the previous one. Hermione and Draco sat as far apart as was possible on one double desk, and raced to answer first every time Professor Vector asked a question. At the end of the class, she asked for their homework. They had been assigned a foot-long essay, so Hermione had done a foot and a half. Draco, with a smirk, handed in two feet. Hermione's mouth fell open in an O of indignation as Professor Vector smiled at him before gathering up her books and leaving the room.

'How on earth did you write two whole feet?' Hermione demanded, as Draco calmly put his things in his bag. 'Your handwriting is even smaller than mine! You couldn't possibly have written that much!'

'Well I did, Granger, and you should just get over it. You're not the only clever one in the year, you know.'

He gave a little laugh and slung his bag over his shoulder before exiting swiftly. Hermione stared after him, shaking her head.

* * *

It wasn't until three weeks later that Draco deigned to sit next to Hermione before Professor Vector had to move him.

'Fancy seeing you here,' Hermione said sarcastically as he sat down and started to get out his books. 'What happened to your silly silent protest?'

'I feel I've made my point,' Draco said with dignity. 'And it would be ridiculous to carry on further with it when it clearly makes no difference.'

She raised an eyebrow. 'Shame. It was always so amusing watching you have to follow your things as they flew across the room...

Draco bit back his reply as Professor Vector entered.

'Ah, Mr Malfoy, I see you remembered at last!' she smiled. 'Now, shall I take the homework in first? A foot on the magical properties of the number four, I think it was?'

'I was so fascinated by the topic that I wrote four feet!' said Hermione a little breathlessly, handing over the tightly rolled parchment. 'Not including footnotes!'

'Three and a half,' Draco said, with a scowl. 'But my writing's smaller than hers.'

'It isn't a competition, you know,' said Professor Vector. 'Quality is more important than quantity. And both of you hand in work of a consistently high standard. I'm very pleased with both of you. But I do have to ask...'

'Yes?' Draco and Hermione said.

'Have you been working together on your homework? The two of you drew some very similar conclusions on your last essay...'

'No!' cried Hermione.

'Of course we haven't!' said Draco, scowling.

'Well, alright then,' said Professor Vector. 'So long as I know.'

The lesson proceeded as normal. Hermione rested her hand on the desk lightly, and it twitched whenever Professor Vector spoke, and flew into the air with prodigious speed whenever she actually asked a question. Over the years, Ron and Harry had managed to temper her impulses somewhat, and she usually now restricted herself to a more leisurely gesture; but Draco's strange behaviour was exciting all of her old instincts. She had to be first, she had to put her hand right in the air, and she had to know the answer in such clear and precise language that it could have come straight from the textbook. Draco was beginning to lose out in the question-answering stakes, since he seemed to consider it much too undignified to rush putting his hand in the air. Hermione smiled smugly at him as she answered yet another question with accuracy and clarity. He glared back.

At the end of the class, Professor Vector left with her usual briskness, leaving Hermione and Draco to pack up their things.

Hermione watched Draco stand, put his chair under the desk and put his things neatly into his bag. Conflicting impulses raged within her. One half of her felt as though she could perfectly happily never speak to him or see him in her life again. The other half of her... wanted to ask him about his essay.

He was doing up his bag. If she was going to ask him, it had to be now. She stood up.

'Malfoy?' she said.

'What?'

'I was wondering... could I have a look at your essay?' At his puzzled expression, she ploughed on. 'You see, I thought that my conclusions were rather unique, but apparently we both had similar ideas, so I'd like to see just how similar they were.'

Draco frowned, considering.

'I suppose so,' he said, after a moment. 'But only if I can look at yours too. I was wondering the same thing.'

'Fine,' she said, taking the essay out of her bag and handing it to him. He took it, and passed her his.

'You only got thirty-seven out of forty,' she noted, airily.

'I intend to talk to Professor Vector about that!' he said, angrily. 'She marked it unfairly because she's biased in favour of the late-Renaissance research on the subject, when it has clearly been invalidated by the later work of Hathaway and Vercongetorix!'

'But Hathaway and Vercongetorix's experiments were conducted without sufficient controls or recording - their results shouldn't be accepted until more studies have been made.'

'But it makes so much more sense!' Draco cried.

'Where would we be if we just accepted theories without question because they made sense? There has to be a procedure! Here, look...'

And she grabbed her essay back from him, sat on the edge of the desk, unrolled the parchment and stabbed her finger at a paragraph some way down.

'You see? This is the procedure that Sackville used when he was doing his research - can't you see how much better it is that the Hathaway and Vercongetorix method?'

Draco snatched back his own essay, joined her sitting on the desk and hurriedly found his own paragraph, before leaning over her to check it against her essay. They sat there for some ten minutes, arguing, passing their essays back and forth, pointing out paragraphs, snatching essays back and reading passages out, taking their textbooks out of their bags, summoning the thick reference works from the shelf at the back of the room...

The clock outside chimed the quarter-hour.

'Oh, Merlin!' cried Hermione. 'I have another class now!'

And she gathered up her things, stuffed them into her bag and ran, without another look in Draco's direction.

It was only after she had run all the way to Charms, breathlessly apologised to Professor Flitwick, slid red-faced into her seat and got out her things that she realised she had just had the closest thing to a real conversation she had ever experienced with Draco Malfoy.

That in itself was not particularly worrying. The worrying thing was that she had rather enjoyed it.