Charms

The next day Hermione awoke to the giggles of her room-mates, Parvati and Lavender. Ginny was already gone.

"It's so romantic...does it say who they're from?"

"No...who do you think it could be?"

"Harry...Ron...?"

"No, both of them have girlfriends...oh, maybe they've realised that they have been in love with her all this time..."
"Yeah, they could be trying to win her over!"

"Both of them!?"

Bleary-eyed, Hermione pulled back the curtains of her four-poster and looked over at her room-mates, who were facing away from her, bent over something.

"What are you two doing?"

Parvati and Lavender whirled 'round, each with a delighted and slightly predatorial (AN: is that even a word?) grin on their faces.

"Hermione! Wait till you see what was waiting for you this morning!" squealed Lavender. Parvati proudly thrust a bouquet of roses towards her.

"Look, 24 red, 1 white...and a note!"

Hermione took the roses in a daze

"Who would do such a thing?" she asked.

Bouncing up and down with delight, Parvati and Lavender both squealed

"Read the card! Read the card!"

'To my Darling Hermione-

You wouldn't get a partridge from me, and anyway a pear tree would surely die in this weather.'

Sure enough, outside Hogwarts was enveloped in a blizzard.

'However, I felt that you needed something to celebrate the first day of Christmas with.

From your 'True Love'.

PS: they have an everlasting charm on them, so will last as long as my love for you.'

Parvati and Lavender looked as though they were going to burst with delight and suspense.

"Do you know who it could be, Hermione?"

Hermione just stared at the gorgeous roses, lost in her own thoughts. **Who could it be?**

**********

Draco looked over to the Gryffindor table during breakfast, his grey eyes zeroing in on one person in particular.

**She looks better today** he noted. She was laughing with 3 other Gryffindors, 2 he knew by sight and the other was the female Weasley. He sighed as she tossed her wavy hair over her shoulder, her gorgeous cinnamon eyes twinkling at the joke that he did not hear. He shook his head to clear it of such folly.

**Hmm, I have enough time to stop by the kitchens on the way to Potions...** Draco quietly slipped from the Slytherin table and out the door of the Great Hall, off to visit his old house elf.

**********

Snape swept into Potions, late as always.

"Settle down, settle down. Now, for the next month we are going to be working on making a Polyjuice Potion. This potion is extremely complex and difficult to make, and I doubt that many of you have the ability-"

At this, Ron and Harry shared a grin as Hermione smiled softly into her lap.

"-To make it. As this potion takes a full month to prepare, you will be working in pairs on a written essay and a verbal presentation on the history and usage of one of the potions we will be covering, or have covered this year while we wait for the potion to be prepared. I have paired you up into partnerships according to...skill, for lack of a better word, although almost none of you have any. Longbottom & Crabbe, Brown & Parkinson, Weasley & Goyle-"
"He thinks I'm as bad as that idiot?!" Ron exclaimed.

"Actually he's quite good...he just doesn't show it." replied Hermione. Harry didn't look convinced.

"-Potter & Zabini, and finally, Malfoy & Granger. Please come up to the front to collect your assignments and Polyjuice instructions, and get started."

**Like we need instructions** thought Ron, Harry and Hermione, as they fought to hide another grin.

**What are they smiling about?** wondered Draco.

**********

As they had already prepared the initial ingredients quickly, Hermione and Draco were sitting beside each other, wondering how to go about the next stage of their project. As top of potions (Draco in front (AN: ha! Found it!) of Hermione by 1%), Snape had given them an even harder project: Describe the relationship between a family of potions.

**Well, maybe this won't be so bad. Malfoy is good at this subject, and he wasn't too bad just then...he didn't even call me names or anything. Just...Granger.**

**Okay, you idiot, you've made it this far. Oh god, don't stuff up now. Don't think about her beautiful hair, her gorgeous eyes, her melodic voice...aargh! Snakes! Snakes! Think snakes! For god's sake think snakes before you have to stand up...**

"Sooo...what family should we do?"

"Huh?!" jerked Draco. He shook his head, and quickly focused on Hermione, who was looking rather shocked at the fact that Malfoy had just lost his composure...without being injured, or turned into a ferret. He quickly shook it off, and resumed his normal cold expression.

"What. Family. Should. We. Do?" repeated Hermione, as if she was speaking to a toddler.

"Oi! Don't speak to me like I'm the Weasel. How about mind control potions?"

"Um, no, no Death Eater potions thank you very much."

"I'mnotaDeathEater," mumbled Draco, "and anyway they were used tons by the Ministry..."

"Oh yeah, like the Ministry knows everything..." muttered Hermione, who was wondering what Malfoy had mumbled.

"Dream potions?"

"Shape-shifting potions?"

"Love potions?"

"Invisibility potions?"

A band was heard as Neville exploded his 14^th cauldron that term. Draco smirked.

"Co-ordination potions?"

Hermione looked affronted, then slowly tried to repress a smile, and eventually covered her mouth and started giggling softly, her eyes shining with mirth.

**Ooh, I made her laugh...she looks so pretty...I wish she would smile more around me. I wonder...**

"-and if you keep this up, you shall not pass!" finished Snape infront of a cowering Neville and Crabbe. At this, Hermione lost it and started laughing hysterically. So did most of the Muggle-borns in the class.
"What? What is so funny?" Snape whirled around and glared at the students.

"It's just...well...sir..."

"Sometime this century, please Ms. Granger..."

"Well, that line, "You shall not pass" is from a Muggle film...and you see, you are just so different from the wizard who said it..." with that, Hermione collapsed, laughing. Snape swooped down on her.

"And why would that be, Ms. Granger?" he hissed, his voice full of venom that a Gryffindor student would laugh at him in his own dungeon.

Hermione struggled to stand upright and face Snape. "Firstly, there is nothing about you that would suggest you could be called 'Gandalf the Grey'; you wouldn't go and do simple conjuring magic for Hobbits; and you most certainly wouldn't sacrifice yourself by leaping off a cliff after Balrog in-order to guarantee that Frodo could get to Mordor and destroy the One Ring!"

At this, all of the non-Muggle students looked thoroughly confused. So did Snape.

"I see...and where is all of this from?"

"Lord of the Rings, sir. It's a trilogy, kind of, but it's really six books, but it's just referred to as one book. I've never read it, but it's supposed to be really good. They have made it into three films: the first two have been released, the last one will be released next year, sometime."

At that point, the sand in the timer on Snape's desk ran out, signalling the end of class. Most of the students rushed to gather their stuff, as Snape looked at Hermione, who had started to pack up her stuff. His gaze slid to Draco, who shrugged and started to pack up also. Snape turned, and glided bat-like to his office at the front of the room.

"He-Granger, we still haven't decided on what to research."

Hermione caught her bottom lip with her teeth before replying. "How about we meet in the library after dinner tomorrow?"

Draco nodded, and was flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, and swept out of the classroom at the front of a wave of Slytherins.