Draco/Hermione Moments for Order of the Phoenix
collected by Pixyzombie
These page numbers all correspond to the United States edition of OotP, so some countries may have different pages to look up. I've quoted all but one of the scenes we are examining.
Again, explanations are in bold red.
Page 194
Harry looked around; he had expected this but that did not make the sight of Draco Malfoy smirking at him from between his cronies Crabbe and Goyle any more enjoyable.
“What?” he said aggressively, before Malfoy could open his mouth.
“Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you a detention,” drawled Malfoy, whose sleek blond hair and pointy chin were just like his father's. “You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments.”
“Yeah,” said Harry, “but you, unlike me, are a git, so get out and leave us alone.”
Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville laughed. Malfoy's lip curled.
“Tell me, how does it feel being second-best to Weasley, Potter?” he asked.
“Shut up, Malfoy,” said Hermione sharply.
“I seem to have touched a nerve,” said Malfoy, smirking. “Well, just watch yourself, Potter, because I'll be dogging your footsteps in case you step out of line.”
“Get out!” said Hermione standing up.
Sniggering, Malfoy gave Harry a last malicious look and departed, Crabbe and Goyle lumbering in his wake. Hermione slammed the compartment door behind them and turned to look at Harry, who knew at once that she, like him, had registered what Malfoy had said and been just as unnerved by it.
“Chuck us another Frog,” said Ron, who had clearly noticed nothing.
Draco is here to gloat over Potter, now that he's finally managed to do something that The Boy Who Lived didn't. He doesn't back down in the slightest when Harry tells him to leave. He finally leaves after Hermione tells him to though. Once again, while never backing down for the boys, he backs down for our favorite Gryffindor witch!
Page 197
A short distance away, Draco Malfoy, followed by a small gang of cronies including Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson, was pushing some timid-looking second years out of the way so that they could get a coach to themselves. Seconds later Hermione emerged panting from the crowd.
“Malfoy was being absolutely foul to a first year back there, I swear I'm going to report him, he's only had his badge three minutes and he's using it to bully people worse than ever…. Where's Crookshanks?”
And here we find Hermione has possibly faced Draco again on her own. We never hear more of Hermione reporting Draco though, so she must not have really been that upset with him.
Page 258
She indicated a heap of twigs in front of her. Hermione's hand shot into the air. Behind her back, Malfoy did a buck-toothed imitation of her jumping up and down in eagerness to answer a question.
Perhaps, not all imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but we know where Draco's attention is directed rather than on his lesson. Also, notice that it's “behind her back” rather than to her face. Does he have a bit of a problem doing anything insulting to the boys to their faces? Not that we've ever seen.
Page 261
“Harry, don't go picking a row with Malfoy, don't forget, he's a prefect now, he could make life difficult for you….”
“Wow, I wonder what it'd be like to have a difficult life?” said Harry sarcastically. Ron laughed, but Hermione frowned.
Hermione knows full well that Harry has dealt with things far more difficult than Malfoy in his life. Is she thinking about the warning of the Sorting Hat and trying to find ways to avoid arguments? Has Miss Granger been considering taking the first steps to unify the houses?
Page 309
He smirked as Malfoy sniggered and said in a carrying whisper, “Some people got D's? Ha!”
Harry realized that Hermione was looking sideways to see what grade he had received; he slid his moonstone essay back into his bag as quickly as possible, feeling that he would rather kept that information private.
Ever feel like there is a separate way that Draco and Hermione communicate? It probably doesn't take a genius to know that Draco likes to insult no one more than Harry and Ron, but you've got to find it cute that as soon as Draco sets the barb Hermione is already figuring out what he means.
Page 334
“He said he was tipped off you were ordering Dungbombs? But who tipped him off?”
“I dunno,” said Harry, shrugging. “Maybe Malfoy, he'd think it was a laugh.”
They walked between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars and turned left onto the road into the village, the wind whipping their hair into their eyes.
“Malfoy?” said Hermione, very skeptically. “Well…yes…maybe…”
And she remained deep in thought all the way into the outskirts of Hogsmeade.
Hermione is always the one to be skeptical when Draco is accused. She doubted him being the Heir of Slytherin in book two and again she seems to have the measure of him better than to think that he did the dungbomb tip off. How much is she thinking about Draco here and how much about the dungbombs? At the very least she is trying to figure him out further.
Page 625
“Lording it over all the other teachers, the stupid puffed-up, power-crazy, old—“
“Now do you really want to finish that sentence, Granger?”
Draco Malfoy had slid out from behind the door, closely followed by Crabbe and Goyle. His pale, pointed face was alight with malice.
“Afraid I'm going to have to dock a few points from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff,” he drawled.
“It's only teachers that can dock points from Houses, Malfoy,” said Ernie at once.
“Yeah, we're prefects too, remember?” snarled Ron.
“I know prefects can't dock points, Weasel King,” sneered Malfoy; Crabbe and Goyle sniggered. “But members of the Inquisitorial Squad—“
“The what?” said Hermione sharply.
“The Inquisitorial Squad, Granger,” said Malfoy, pointing toward a tiny silver I upon his robes just beneath his prefect's badge. “A select group of students who are supportive of the Ministry of Magic, hand picked by Professor Umbridge. Anyway, members of the Inquisitorial Squad do have the power to dock points…. So, Granger, I'll have five from you for being rude about our new headmistress…. Macmillan, five for contradicting me…. Five because I don't like you, Potter…Weasley, your shirt's untucked, so I'll have another five for that…. Oh yeah, I forgot you're a Mudblood, Granger, so another ten for that….”
Ron pulled out his wand, but Hermione pushed it away, whispering, “Don't!”
“Wise move, Granger,” breathed Malfoy. “New Head, new times…Be good now, Potty…Weasel King…”
Wow, Harry and Ron both get nasty nicknames out of that one, but where is Hermione's? Surely Draco is enjoying getting back at them all for all the points they've earned for Gryffindor over the years. Yet he doesn't take nearly so many as he could have. This is the only time he does it to them too. The Mudblood line seems rather an afterthought, and it's probably about the nastiest thing he does to her in the entire book. (It's the only time he says the word at all in the book.) He seems less and less nasty to her all the time doesn't he? Especially, after we've seen him very publicly humiliating Ron and Harry all the time. No songs or buttons have come her way in five books now. He doesn't call her by nasty nicknames all the time. Curious.
Also, when Ron goes for his wand, Hermione again stops it from going into a fight. We could say that it was to protect Ron from losing more house points, but she's already warned Harry against fighting with Draco too. It seems that Hermione and Draco both understand the situation at the school on a level that the others don't, despite the different ways they approach it. Is that one of the reasons he doesn't feel the need to include her in his final warning to be good?
Page 742
Now this is the scene where the Inquisitorial Squad captures everyone in Umbridge's office. It's the one section that I'm not quoting because the section is quite long. Draco and Hermione don't have any direct interaction with each other, yet there are still some interesting D/Hr implications.
During the scene all his ire is trained on Harry and the Weasleys. He laughs at having a Weasley free school and looks on eagerly to see what Umbridge has in store for Harry. He doesn't do anything to Hermione though. Since Harry wasn't able to see it, we aren't sure if Draco was the one to disarm both him and Hermione or only Harry.
It's rather surprising that only Harry seems to notice the distinct lack of tears from Hermione. Perhaps Draco gets all his best hints from Lucius, but his constant baiting of the trio would lead one to think he'd be pretty observant. Especially as a master of faking! (Remember the Buckbeak attack?)
Perhaps, Draco is too overcome with all the excitement of the “weapon” or with Potter being expelled to notice. He certainly seems interested on accompanying Harry, Hermione, and Umbridge into the forest. He couldn't disguise the look of “eagerness and greed” fast enough for Umbridge, but what would he have had planned? Despite using Umbridge's agenda to gain power for himself, Draco probably would like her less than any of the other students. After all, now he's not even getting to learn about how to defend against the Dark Arts! And we all know about his fascination with the subject. Despite the fact that Draco would probably not be crazy enough to attack a ministry official in the Dark Forest, Hermione finds it easy to turn Umbridge against her own squad as a result by knowing the weaknesses of his character.
How cunning is that? Only Hermione is good enough to out-Slytherin the Slytherins. Once again we are finding that Draco and Hermione are deeply alike at the core of things.
