Disclaimer: I don't own Harry potter, sad I know. If I did I could sign all of you an autograph
Summary: Just another story about Draco and Hermione making a potion in Snape's class that goes horribly wrong; and yet, this time they aren't trapped together until they fall in love. They are, in fact, rather….split. Dhr
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Split
Chapter 1: Admired…but not Admirable
Hermione trudged slowly to class. The truly sad thing was that she was walking faster than her two best friends, Harry and Ron, who were reminiscent of a turtle trudging through peanut butter.
"Test today" said Harry, as though the second coming was ascending and he hadn't prayed last night, "Test today"
"Test today"
"We know!" said Ron, frustrated. The two, though best friends, were extremely different. When Harry was nervous and unprepared he acted like a newly procured Inferi. Ron just acted like an ass and turned bright red every other ten minutes.
Hermione, however, was prepared (shocking, I know).
Her reasons for dreading the upcoming class were thus:
One: Snape was a jerk and always paired her with someone she didn't like
Two: She was paired with Draco Malfoy
Malfoy had skipped with joy at finding out his newfound partner was Hermione. That was the only good thing that had happened in potions class in 5 years; Malfoy's confusion that day.
Hermione remembered it like it was yesterday.
"Alright" said Snape, bored "you will stand to the sides and I will tell you your partners"
Potter, Parkinson
Weasley and Goyle
………..
Malfoy and Granger
Hermione's groan was soon cut off by Malfoy jumping for joy and smirking.
What?
Hermione sighed thinking whatever was wrong with him must be a cynical plot. Whilst she thought that everybody stared at Malfoy as though he had just declared to the world that he wanted to become a Muggle policeman when he grew up.
This memory was funny to Hermione because after Malfoy had jumped for joy, he had moved to his assigned seat and, seeing Hermione was sitting there, told her to get the hell out of his partner's seat. He had mistaken Hermione's name for 'Greengrass' (his muse at the time). Malfoy had spent the rest of the day telling anyone who would listen that it was a mistake, and that he wasn't happy to be sitting by Hermione at all.
And then he spread a rumor that Hermione had gone around telling everyone Snape had breasts. Needless to say this got her in….trouble.
'Which I shouldn't have' Hermione thought, 'because everyone in the free world knows I would never do such a thing'
Malfoy soon got over his disgust at having her as a partner, however; when he discovered that Snape gave him points for Hermione's hard work, whilst giving Hermione bad marks for Draco's carelessness.
This new behavior of Snape's leads to her third reason for dreading potions; Hermione, after great deliberation, had decided to not work on the potion, thus forcing Malfoy to work on it instead.
Yes, Hermione knew she might fail, but that is one of the things that few people know about Hermione, she put her principles first. And it was wrong for Malfoy and Snape to abuse her hard work.
She looked back, only to find that Harry and Ron had stopped to talk to a few Ravenclaw friends. They rarely told her anything anymore, it was like they didn't need her. So she went on without them.
Hermione opened the door and moved over to her designated seat, which was signified by cards that were placed around on the rickety black tables.
She saw the intricate set up of potions; the strange thing was that no potion bottle looked the same. On her and Malfoy's table were two round bottles, both red, 1 square bottle that was green, 2 tall purple vials, one vial that was round but pitch black, and finally one clear orange bottle that was rectangular.
The strange thing was that over on Harry and Pansy's table were completely different colored and shaped bottles. She knew they would fail miserably.
She now knew the specifics of the test; they didn't have labels on the bottles, so they had to identify the ingredient inside by smell, texture, and color. And after they identified the bottles, they would place the proper proportions into their potion, and make the very well known Klon-Trank potion. The Klon-Trank potion made clones of the drinker, and Hermione knew they would probably be forcing animals to drink the potion to test its correctness, as testing this potion on humans was illegal.
Hermione, nervous, snuck a look around the classroom. As usual she was the only one early, Snape wasn't even there yet, and so she set to work. Hermione sneakily grabbed up each bottle on her table and identified them with ease, this way she could catch Malfoy in his mistakes, but not help him identify.
As Hermione finally identified the pitch black vial, she moved to the last two she had not yet identified; the purples. Hermione sniffed one, and recognized with ease; Gillyweed water, apparently Snape had put in ingredients that weren't used for this potion at all, Gillyweed being one of them.
But before Hermione could reach the second purple vial, Snape walked in and eyed her suspiciously. She couldn't very well sniff it now. She also couldn't very well help Malfoy with it, because then he would get praised for recognizing the substance. Snape turned as Harry and Ron entered, and sent them a bored look. While Snape was distracted, Hermione hurriedly leant forward and sniffed the other purple potion, it was cadmium, she was sure of it. Clever of Snape really, to add two ingredients that weren't needed in the potion.
Hermione watched as Draco sauntered into the room with his pack of Slytherins in tow. She hated them. They walked like they owned the school, and because they walked that way, they did. Because people are easily influenced, and Hermione knew that. She knew that the people who admired their group couldn't be helped, but she still hated the ones that admired the Slytherins, and the Slytherins themselves.
"Hello Granger" said Malfoy snidely, sitting down, "you're looking positively horrid today"
Hermione didn't answer, she knew if she did it would be what he wanted, and she never liked giving Malfoy what he wanted.
"You know, Mudblood" he said as if giving helpful advice, "I think Im going to do you a service for this upcoming Christmas"
"What," said Hermione before she could stop herself, "actually do your head duties"
"No" said Malfoy, unbothered by her response, "Im going to bend you over your desk and……" Malfoy smirked as the whole room drew in a sharp breath "…pull that stick out of your arse"
A relieved breath swept through the Slytherins, he had not been saying what they thought he had been saying, their king was still pristine. Even Hermione was relieved, his real insult was far better than the one she had originally thought he had meant.
Hermione angrily remarked upon his comment. He had not only said that to make her feel uneasy, but also to test his own Slytherins. It was like he had said it to make sure they still understood that he had no boundaries. That he was neither rising nor falling to anyone's expectations, because they weren't allowed to demand things of him. Like subject cannot demand things from a king, they can only beg on bended knee.
And that was what Hermione hated most about their little group, it was a dictatorship. And they all followed that horrid bastard like sheep and drank in his every word. She hated people like that. She hated people who were admired but not admirable.
Draco Malfoy had not done a heroic deed, he was not overly clever, he had never helped anyone but himself, he had never shown loyalty (Shit, he couldn't even stick with the same woman for more than a week!) And that's why she hated them, because she hated the idea of a person who never had to work to become admirable, but was generally admired.
Hermione looked up; apparently they had all been making jokes at her expense whilst she was in her reverie. She found happiness that she had been too deep in thought to hear them; they only would have hurt her more.
She watched as Snape stood and waited for silence. Which was strange, because the moment Snape stood, he received silence, maybe he only waited for his imaginary silence to make the students uncomfortable. Ah, the mysteries of an overgrown crow without wings.
"These are the rules" he said quietly, making everybody uncomfortable, "you will identify the ingredients, and then place them in the potion. After you have done so we will test them on the over-abundance of frogs that have graced the lake as of late. It is then we shall find out if your potion was successful. Begin."
He then sat down, and stuck his crooked nose in a book.
Then horrible silence enveloped the classroom. Hermione hated this kind of silence; she would take noise over dead silence any day. She could hear herself breathe, and wondered if the rest of the class could also. Everyone moved slowly as to not make any noise. And when a rare brave Gryffindor dared to accidentally clink his vial against another, the whole class heard him. It wasn't that he was being loud; it was just Snape's way. Hermione couldn't wait until she graduated and didn't have to deal with him anymore. Him and Malfoy.
Malfoy was leaning back in his chair, looking at her expectantly. Hermione remarked upon the fact that the only people in that class that didn't seem bothered by the silence were Snape and Malfoy.
Hermione reciprocated, leaning back in her own chair, and raising her eyebrows. She nodded at the potion vials and gave him a look that seemed to say, 'well, you bastard, you had better get started.'
Draco's eyes widened, and then became two angry slits. He looked on her meaningfully, trying to tell her that he would severely harm her if she didn't get started quickly. She smiled, leaned back farther, and made like she was going to sleep.
It worked.
Draco angrily vaulted forward on his chair, making crash onto the floor loudly, and began grabbing and sniffing vials irritably. Several students looked up at him, and then back to their potions.
Hermione loved this sort of power. She just sat and watched him make the potion gleefully; he had done the same to her many times. He shot her nasty looks every few minutes as he set up the cauldron. But she knew she had to watch him like a hawk, she wouldn't put it past Malfoy to make the potion poorly so they could both fail; that whole sort of 'Harm yourself to spite a foe' thing.
But Draco surprised her; he made the potion beautifully by adding the right proportions and colors. She had to stop him a few times, to his irritation. But compared to Harry, Ron, or daresay Neville, he was doing well.
Until the purple bottles.
It seemed to be in slow motion as Draco grabbed the Gillyweed water and the cadmium, as if making to pour both in the potion. Hermione breathed easy when he set the Gillyweed down. She thought he would set the cadmium down but...He didn't.
He tipped the bottle upside down, and made to pour it in the potion.
Hermione jumped from her seat and went to grab the bottle from him desperately, she didn't know what would happen if he added the wrong ingredient, but she didn't want to find out.
But it turned out that she would find out. She grabbed the bottle, and when he saw her do so he pulled back. They both pulled the bottle toward themselves, like a foolish tug-o-war, and cracked the bottle. The cadmium seeped out all over their hands, and into the potion, which exploded in violent sparks of red, with green smoke.
Then Hermione felt a funny feeling. Like a piece of her had been ripped out and then put sloppily back in.
She heard the coughs of fellow students, she heard Snape yelling a spell to clear the air.
And what Hermione saw after the air had cleared almost made her faint. She saw herself. And another herself. She saw two perfect clones of herself. And yet they were…different. The oddity of it was most visible to Hermione. She had made two copies of herself, and she could somehow tell the difference in the two copies.
The first copy of herself looked stern. Almost McGonagall like. This first Hermione's hair was pulled back in a half ponytail, it was straight and almond colored; Hermione didn't like it. This girl was dressed haughtily, her tie was in perfect place, her skirt was pressed, her shirt tucked in, properly covered by her immaculate robes. her shoes were perfection. Everything about her screamed order…and intelligence.
The second Hermione seemed almost exact opposite of the first. Her hair blazed about wildly, her thick curls were a dark, romantic chocolate. And her eyes sparkled like a child's. She wasn't even wearing her robes; they were nowhere to be found. Her shirt was crinkled and untucked, her tie loose, her skirt lopsided. She was stunning. She didn't look much different from Hermione, but something about her screamed excitement, intrigue, sentimentality, innocence, Adventure.
Hermione felt her breath leave her as she stared at these two women, who were herself. But not.
Then she looked around, and found three Malfoy's, almost the exact same. And yet, she knew which one was the real Malfoy. Not because the real Malfoy was staring in wonder at his counterparts, but because she could just feel it. And when he looked at her, she knew he could tell the real her from her counterparts. And she didn't like it, this connection with him.
Hermione broke eye contact with him to look up at Snape. Who was studying their clones that somehow weren't clones.
He soon stopped, looked up at Draco and Hermione, and said, "We need to see Dumbledore"
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The End of Chapter 1.
I would like to say to all of you that this is my first long story. I only did oneshots for a reason, I don't like commitment. I will try to post chapters regularly, but this story doesn't have a plan, it just came to my mind after watching a birth control commercial D