The Other Side

Chapter Twenty One

The last month was a blur. With the appration lessons and classes, they didn't have a lot of time in their hands. The concept of Apparition seemed very vague at first, but Draco soon got the grip of it, slipping into it as he'd slipped into Occlumency and Legilimency. He had managed to apparate into his hoops, and Hermione had as well.

Harry wasn't doing particularly great, and neither was Ron. He was occupied with Quidditch practices as well, and his insomnia had become a lot worse.

The week had been exhausting, and the professors were assigning them a lot of homework. He was stressing over the memory that he was yet to obtain from Slughorn. He didn't want to care about the memory. Or Voldemort.

But Dumbledore had insisted. Insisted that he should let bygones be bygones, and that he shouldn't allow his anger towards the headmaster interfere with the war.

Ginny was losing her patience towards the others. There were murmurs, and constant glares if she was seen with Luna. She didn't appreciate the fact that Luna was exceptionally calm about it. Harry had tried to explain that she shouldn't let the other drive a wedge between them but he had barely convinced her.

Ron didn't want to get in the middle of this, but he had held his wand to Collin's throat and he had let him off with a warning. Draco was impressed – But Harry knew that Ron had vented out his own frustration towards Lavender Brown.

"That's it," Harry said, sighing in exhaustion. "I'm going to fail appration and classes as well, because I don't have your level of determination, deliberation and dedication. Why is it, that you both ace everything?"

"Because we have a level of determination, deliberation and dedication." Draco said, skimming through another book. He frowned at the page, and passed it over to Hermione. "Why is it, that you torment us for being smarter than you and then copy off us?"

"Besides," Hermione said, lifting her gaze from the book. "You're supposed to be glad that we allow you to copy our homework."

"Yes, yes." Harry said, raising his hands in retaliation. "God, you must've been the worst fourth-grader ever."

"I was at the top of my class." Hermione said, shutting the book with a loud thud and then lowered her voice as Madam Pince sent her a glare. "I was actually leaning about the laws of motion for a project in fourth grade."

"You – We don't cover that in muggle studies till sixth or seventh grade!"

"In my defense, I was curious." Hermione said, with a soft chuckle. "Besides, I received an excellent score on the project. It was once my ambition to be a physicist."

"By covering topics ahead of your – You're impossible."

"It isn't that difficult. Newton's first law of motion –

"Is that a body at rest, wants to stay at rest and have an excellent sleep without being disturbed by an external force."

Hermione arched an eyebrow at him. "I would've been impressed, if not for the presence of humor in that."

"I'm going to ignore everything that you said," Draco said, slightly shaking his head at the two of them. He reached out for another book, and gave him a sneer. "Just jump off a cliff and do us a favor, Potter."

"I will, provided that one of you jumps off a cliff first," Harry said, with a smirk as they gave him a frown. "You would do your due diligence regarding the height of the cliff, the depth of the water, and the angle of entry. If you jump off the cliff then by all means – I will jump off a cliff."

"He isn't wrong," Hermione said, biting her lip to suppress her laugh. Draco narrowed his eyes at them, and the corner of his lip twitched. "Well, we can leave. Don't you have plans with Won-Won?"