Stay by my side

Chapter 1: Physical connection

Authors note: I don't own anything, everything belongs to the lovely J.K. Rowling. I do however own my mistakes.

"Harry Potter and Pansy Parkinson," Professor Flitwick read out loud from his parchment in front of him.

"Ronald Weasley and Blaise Zabini," the list went on.

"Daphne Greengrass and Dean Thomas," Hermione looked around, blocking out the professor whom enumerated pairs of names while she was wondering whom she might get paired up with.

With hopeful eyes she scanned the Gryffindor group, her best friends were already taken but she saw a few people whom wouldn't be too bad if she got paired up with them.

But all of those thoughts went away when she heard her name, "Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy" her mouth dropped slightly open and her eyes widened.

Her eyes drifted from the Professor to Malfoy, and judging by his face she saw that he wasn't happy with this at all either.

She waited a few minutes and only stared at him, waiting for him to come to her. When it finally became apparent that he wasn't planning on coming to her, she pushed away her dignity and picked up her spellbook along with her schoolbag and walked over to him. Just one simple thought repeating itself in her head like a mantra, It's only practicing, no big deal, there will be no harm.

When she relucantly sat down she felt his ice cold stare burning through and she let out a frustrated sigh and turned to face him. "Look, Malfoy. I am not happy about this either, but let's just get it over with, the faster we're done, the faster we can go our own way – far away from each other." Hermione said, emphasizing the last sentence.

Hermione picked up the work sheet that was laying front of a simple wooden block and she held the parchment in front of her face, seeing in the corner of her eye that Draco was reading along with her.

Basically what the parchment said was that they were supposed to do a Disillusionment Charm. The spell would – if pronounced right – hide the object that was laying in front of them.

The parchment said in big letters at the bottom of the sheet: "Warning! Practice the pronounciation without wands thoroughly, or the consiquenses will be severe."

But, both of them were way too eager to get rid of each other, and therefore didn't read further then the task at hand.

They both gave a quick glance at the sheet for the right sentence and they both looked at each other, "I'll count down." Hermione said, the annoying undertone clearly obvious.

"3.." she said, gripping her wand confidently.

"2.." she said a bit faster.

"1.." and her eyes were strictly focused on the object in front of her.

Both counting the last second in their head, they said at the same time: "Contraria contrariis curantur."

Without even having time to think, they both were thrown back out of their seats and Draco landed on top of Hermione, him helding both her hands above her head with his own hands.

At this moment the whole classroom fell quiet and they all stared at the couple laying on the floor.

Draco looked disgusted as soon as he realized in what position they were in and was about to let go of her hands and stand up, but the high pitched voice of their professor stopped his actions by nearly screaming in shock, "Don't!"

Both Hermione and Draco gave him a questioning an confused look, but all he said was, "You two should see Professor Dumbledore immediately, and don't you dare letting go of each other!" He warned them, the shock fading and anger replacing.

The two teenagers were grumbling while trying to properly get up. "Can we at least let one hand go?" Draco asked annoyed.

The professor hadn't even be able to give them a proper nod and the teenagers had already let go of – in Hermione's case – her left hand and – in Draco's case – his right hand.

Hermione and Draco both picked up their schoolbags and hurriedly made their way out of the classroom, away from the prying eyes, and mostly hoping to end whatever this was very soon.

After what seemed like endless walking they finally arrived at the third floor and were now standing in front of the gargoyle. Hermione was glad that she still rememberd the password from when she was here only a week ago with Harry.

"Cheetos," she said, mentioning the muggle food. The gargoyle stepped aside and they were now walking to the moving stone staircase and waited until it made it's way fully up.

They now stood in front of the big wooden door and Hermione lifted her hand up and knocked eagerly on the door.

A cheerful male voice said, "Come in," and both teenager burst in as soon as he finished those two simple words.

Professor Dumbledore raised his eyebrow slightly when he saw the entwined hands and a questioning look, but that was soon replaced with curiosity when he saw their flustered and above of all, frustrated faces.

"How can I help you?" He asked with a friendly smile on his face.

Hermione spoke first, "We're not allowed to let go of each other. We have no clue why."

"What happened?" Dumbledore asked, leaning forward in his chair, quite eager to hear more about this.

This time it was Draco's turn to speak, "We were in Charms, we probably pronounced a spell wrong, and before I knew it I was laying on Granger." he said with a disgusted face.

Dumbledore nodded, "What spell was it? And what did you two say?"

"It was a Disillusionment Charm, and I believe that we said, 'Contraria contrariis curantur'" Hermione said.

Dumbledore sunk back in his chair and shook his head. "Before I'm going to say anything further, I am going to inform you that what you two said, is incorrect. You should have said 'Contraria contrariis curan.'"

"But, why are we like this? We only pronounced one simple thing wrong." Hermione asked, confused.

Dumbledore gave her a surprised look, "What led you to not read the warning at the bottom of the sheet?" he asked curious.

Hermione's eyes widened when he mentioned a warning, she hadn't seen any. "Um.. I-I just wanted to.. um.. be done with it so I um.. could get away from Malfoy." she stuttered, realizing her mistake.

Dumbledore nodded, "Maybe it is good that this happened," he mumbled really soft, not audible for the two teenagers, whom were standing three feet away from him.

"Well, let me give you some answers." he said, and made eye contact with each of the students.

"What happened is that you two are now physical connected, and mostly these charms have a duration of an entire year before it subsides." he spoke, and watched their reaction closely: Hermione's was puzzled, horrified and anxious, Draco's was confused, disgusted and angry.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something but Dumbledore held his hand up, silencing her. "There is however no cure. So you two have to pay the consequenses for your foolish actions." he said.

"Now, let me tell you what the consequenses are if you let go of each other: letting go of each other for even a simple second will cause limb loss and health problems." a few gasps were heard.

"I understand that this will be a problem with sleeping, since you won't have any control over your body. And I might not be able to help you with curing this, but I can guide you through it, so I have a proposal: I am willing to magnetically charm you two so that you two are forced to stay together, even if only your toes are touching." He looked at them, waiting for them to give him an answer.

Hermione looked at Draco and a few seconds later he met his eyes, then he looked at Dumbledore. "Do it." he said, his voice full of irritation. He realized that he had to be tied to this mudblood for at least a year.

The professor nodded and made their way over to them, coming to a halt when he was in front of them. He muttered a spell and the teenagers felt the charm becoming stronger.

Dumbledore took a few steps back so he could have a better look at his students. "I advice you to only use your toes and fingertops when necessary. It is a risky position, because holding this for more than a half hour, will weaken the magnetic charm and it will still infect your health. And longer than a hour might cause limb loss. So be careful." he warned them.

The students nodded and so did Dumbledore. "Are there any questions?"

Hermione was the first to speak, "How about our class schedule? And where do we sleep? And in which house are we in?" she hurriedly asked, eager to get the answers.

Dumbledore chuckled softly and gave her a smile. "For the first half year you two will follow mr. Malfoy's schedule, and the other half year you two will follow miss. Granger's schedule. Furthermore, for now you two will sleep in Gryffindor, seeing that will be the best option. I will try to organize something else for both of you, but for now you have to wait. And you two will still be in your respected houses."

Hermione nodded and Draco just gave a frustrated sigh, until a thought struck him.

"What about Quidditch practice?" he asked.

"Yes, I understand that will be a slight problem. I do however have no intention to keep you two from doing what you like, even with the complication. I also trust that you both will figure out the obstacles along the way and make the right decisions. But seeing as this is a major one, I'll make it." Dumbledore looked at his students and saw two hopeful faces, the only difference was that Hermione hoped that it would be cancelled for as long as they were bounded, and Draco hoped that it wouldn't be cancelled, even if it meant having to drag the mudblood with him on his broom.

"You two will both attend Quidditch practice." he said, having made his conclusion.

Hermione grumbled annoyed and Draco gave a triumphant smirk.

"Now, if that was all you two can go. Do not hesitate to find me if there is anything unusual happening between you two because of the bond. And neither if you two have any questions." he said and sat back in his chair.

They both nodded and made their way out, still holding hands.

When they were walking on the third floor Hermione spoke up, "Let's go to the library. I want to be sure if there is any cure or not."

Normally the thought of going to the library didn't struck him, but today was an exception. He was more than willing to do everything it took to get rid of the mudblood next to him, so he nodded and they both made their way to the large entrance that wasn't too far away from them.

As they entered, Draco briefly wondered where the hell to look, since there were ten thousands of books.

But Hermione being the bookworm, she knew exactly where to be and thus walked over to the Reference section – dragging Draco with her –, knowing that this section covers counter-curses quite well.

Her eyes scanned the book shelves and after endless of searching she couldn't find anything. There were a lot of counter-curses books but none included anything about a physical connection.

They both let out a frustrated sigh, knowing that they just wasted forty-five minutes of their lives.

"Malfoy?" Hermione asked uncertain and cursed under her breath for her human needs.

"What?" Draco hissed, clearly still extremely annoyed, and hearing her voice didn't make anything better.

"I really have to go to the toilet.." Hermione murmured.

Authors note:

Contraria contrariis curantur is Latin for The opposite is cured with the opposite

Contraria contrariis curan is Latin for Contrast of subject

Although, don't hate me if I might have translated something wrong, I'm only human. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it, let me know!