Chapter 10: Routine

Classes fell into a routine, and it was one that Hermione loved.

Her studying over the past year had obviously paid off - she was at the top of her classes, and it was with little effort on her part, as she'd already mastered these assignments months ago. Some of her teachers like Professor McGonagall would quietly offer her a challenge to keep her engaged, and Hermione enjoyed these opportunities to try something unexpected and new. Most professors, however, just beamed and awarded Slytherin points, which the competitive side of Hermione enjoyed all too much.

Herbology was going better than expected, somehow. Hermione had memorized the important identifiers and plant diagrams from the textbook, but still, just doing as she was told seemed to be how Herbology worked. When each student was given an Amanello plant for repotting, however, it was fairly obvious to see that while most of the plants were struggling to stay alive, Hermione's was flourishing. She wondered if she'd just gotten lucky, or if there was something else to it, but she was happy either way - Professor Sprout was pleased, and it seemed like only one other plant from the first years was doing as well as hers, so she was ranked in the top again.

Charms was a positive experience. Flitwick had been so charmed upon meeting her ("The first Muggleborn in Slytherin in centuries!" - she hadn't bothered to correct him) that she could do no wrong in his eyes. It helped that his lessons so far were following the structure of the textbook to a T, the early chapters of which she'd long since mastered.

Potions continued to be a delicate balance angering and impressing Snape. As the Potions Master stalked around the room, castigating those who failed to perform according to expectations or failed in reading the instructions, Hermione deliberately ignored sections of instructions, experimenting to see what would happen. She and Theo had taken to brewing in two cauldrons - one, with the potion done exactly as the instructions directed, and another where they made slight alterations to see if they could get the potion to come out better. Hermione was relieved a few times, after she caused the experimental potion to begin emitting sparks or turn into a brown sludge, that she and Theo had a backup to ensure they wouldn't fail. After class, Snape would quiz them on the changes they made, sneering at her attempts that failed and criticizing her minimal understanding. Reading between the lines, though, Hermione could tell where they had gone wrong and what he suggested they should have done instead - making it so she learned even more from her failures than her successes.

Her slowly-growing acquaintance with Theo was nice, too.

History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts both continued to be a joke. Hermione freely ignored both instructors, not bothering to take notes, and she read books in class without penalty. She got a couple horrified glances in Defense, but as Quirrell never bothered with practical exercises or asking questions of the class, she was never caught. In History, it seemed that no one paid attention - it was a frequent place for catching up on other homework or taking a power nap. Hermione was somewhat disgusted by the situation - shouldn't the teachers at one of the best magical schools in the world be the best? The situation allowed her, however, to study ahead, and Hermione admitted to herself that the extra study time was probably more helpful than an actual lesson would have been.

Magic classes were amazing, in Hermione's opinion, but there was something even better.

For the first time, she had friends.

Not counting Theo, who was sort of a tentative ally, Hermione had Tracey and Millie, who didn't hesitate to talk to her and share a smile or a joke. They had no interest in getting homework answers from her, and they laughed and seemed to appreciate her dry comments about their teachers, classes, and course material. Hermione, in turn, felt like she could feed on Tracey's enthusiasm, and Millie was always helpful, quietly explaining the idea behind odd pureblood customs that Hermione didn't quite get.

Even more, Hermione had solidified her friendship with Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. Despite the House difference, both Harry and Neville were happy to have a friend, and Hermione was happy to call them friend back. She enjoyed working on homework with them - in Slytherin, it seemed no one studied together, as everyone worked carefully to maintain the image that they just always somehow happened to know everything - and she didn't mind answering their questions. She'd been horrified at discovering their first essay marks, and, upon reading their essays, had quickly discovered why - no one had taught them how to write . After a crash course in essay-writing, paragraph structure, and sentence structure, she was pleased to see her friends' marks rise accordingly, and they were incredibly grateful for her intervention. Neville's grandmother had even sent him a gift - a wizarding camera - for him to send home photos of his friends and Herbology plants.

Ron Weasley, however, Hermione continued to have problems with. Ron seemed obsessed with the fact that she was in Slytherin, and he took her house as a sign that she would betray them at the first available opportunity. Disgusted, Hermione had asked exactly how she was supposed to betray them, when all they did was spend time together studying, but Ron had looked away, muttering that "they'd all see soon enough." Ron had also forgone the essay-writing lesson, saying that he didn't need help from a slimy Slytherin, and Hermione had let him storm from the library without further comment, hiding her hurt with a raised eyebrow. She took a sort of twisted satisfaction that Ron wasn't doing as well as his friends in his classes, now, and that his marks within a couple more weeks were quite bad. She knew it was wrong to take pleasure in someone else's failure, but in the face of his constant meanness, it felt good to know she was doing so much better than him.

In the evenings, Hermione had taken to trying to completely drain her magic before going to sleep, in the hopes that doing so would prompt her 'magic reserves', as she imagined it, to grow accordingly. She'd begun with Transfiguration, but that hadn't really worked - either she got it or she didn't, and when she didn't, all the power from the failed transfiguration simply flowed back. Hermione had finally found a winner with a simple charm: levitation. She'd started by levitating a pencil until she could do so no longer, then a book, then a lamp. She timed and tracked her progress, and Hermione was pleased to discover that it seemed that every couple nights, she was able to levitate the item for just a little longer, or something just a little heavier instead. To think she might soon be trying to levitate her entire nightstand for a period of time, just to train… ! Hermione was excited at her progress.

The worst part of Hogwarts, however, were her housemates.

Hermione had known, to some degree, that she would be isolated from her house. She'd known that by going into the core of blood prejudice, she'd face the most ostracization and the most prejudice. She'd known that. But she'd also known that, however subtle, blood prejudice was everywhere, and that she'd be better off fighting against it from the very start.

She still thought her plan was good, but it was awfully hard to care about how good her plan was when the rest of her house ignored her.

Word had leaked out that Hermione had grown up with Muggles, and though the rumor of her being some kind of special "new blood" was slowly percolating through the house, it was ignored and disbelieved. There was a Muggleborn in Slytherin. It was unheard of. The older students ignored her, bumped her, hissed derogatory things in her ears as they passed her in the common room, and subtly ostracized her from the rest of them. Outside of the Slytherin dorms, no one would ever know it, as Slytherins stuck together, but inside… Hermione was having a hard time.

Her year-mates were little better.

Though Tracey and Millie talked to her, Theo only really talked to her directly in Potions, which Hermione understood - he couldn't jeopardize his own position with the other Slytherins by talking to her. And the other Slytherins didn't talk to her.

Draco Malfoy seemed to be the leader of the first years. He bossed Vincent Crabbe and Greg Goyle around, and they obeyed without a second thought. Blaise and Theo, he would talk to, as he would with Daphne and Pansy. Occasionally, he'd deign to speak to Millie or Tracey with a sneer on his face, but he didn't talk to Hermione at all. She didn't even merit a sneer from him - she was simply and completely ignored, as if she didn't exist.

Pansy, on the other hand, was worse. When in the girls' dorm, Pansy's snide remarks never stopped until sleep, and Hermione felt like she had to be constantly on her guard to defend against them. Hermione enjoyed seeing Pansy angry and irate when Hermione managed to parry her remarks with seeming ease, but Pansy's constants insults and belittling were hard to ignore. It was only by her constant, continuing improvement with magic that Hermione had the inner strength to remain confident and not start believing the things Pansy hissed at her. How could she not belong at a magic school when she was the best in their year?

Hermione kept her chin up and didn't let Pansy see any reaction from her remarks. In the wild, large snakes would eat weaker snakes with utter disregard, and living in Slytherin was no different.