Hermione hadn't talked to Draco once since Ron had poisoned and their Hogsmeade trip had been postponed. Furthermore, she had now resumed talking to her friend the weasel, and Draco could not help but feel jealous. Both of her and the weasel king. Hermione had real friends. Real friends who would talk to her and listen to her. Draco had...Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, and Blaise, the worst group of idiots that existed. And his father and mother...he wondered if they really loved him, if he'd ever be enough. Ron...though he was a Weasley, he had friends too, and a family to love him as well, and plenty of admirers. And worst of all, he had Hermione. He and Lavender had at last broken up with each other. His one last hope, his one last happiness, his one last source of comfort was gone. And they belonged together, Draco thought. He hated it, but it was true. Perfectly, indescribably, undeniably true. They had been together the longest. And he didn't even know if his relationship with Hermione counted as a relationship. Hermione had confessed that it was for Lavender that she asked to be with him. And how long were they together, even, exactly? A day? Two? In any case, even if Hermione did prefer him over Ron, his family would prevent them from ever being together.
Draco's grades were steadily dropping. Especially Transfiguration, even Potions. Hermione had stopped tutoring him.
"Mr. Malfoy, a word please," McGonagall called to him after a long and hard double Transfigurations lesson.
Great. He had done it. He had blown it over. Just when he had thought things couldn't possibly worse, he had been taken from Transfiguration. The subject that had brought him together the most with Hermione, now was abandoning him.
"Mr. Malfoy, what's happened? One day you are acing every test and question and the next you have a Troll on the most important paper of the year," McGonagall showed him his latest test paper. Draco winced.
"Don't tell me you need lessons again. For goodness sake, what a thing to happen right before your end-of-year exams! Miss Granger had enough on her mind, no thanks to you."
A lot on her mind? If only McGonagall could see the inside of his mind. Then she would know who had a lot on whose mind.
"Yes, professor," Draco said wearily.
"You seem depressed. Well, pull yourself together. It's nearly summertime! You should be out enjoying the sunshine, not inside moping all day long. Or studying, if you have nothing better to do. Especially at these times...." McGonagall blinked.
"Dangerous times, Mr. Malfoy."
Draco didn't get the message she was trying to convey him.
"Well, Mr. Malfoy? Do you accept or not?" she prompted him after a slight pause. Professor McGonagall straightened her glasses and narrowed her eyes at him irritably.
"W-what? Accept?" Draco snapped out of his daze.
"Do you? Have you been paying attention at all, sir! No, I suppose not. You sit here at my desk and you think about whatever it is you are thinking about. Well, you have been thinking all class period, Malfoy. Now it is time to listen." McGonagall straightened her papers on her desk. "Do you need tutoring lessons with Miss Granger again? I daresay you do!"
Draco's eyes widened. "No!" he cried a little too quickly. McGonagall looked very affronted and agitated.
"You do not?"
"No, I don't!"
"Malfoy, you have gotten a Troll! A troll! On the most important test paper of the year! Do you understand what this means, Mr. Malfoy?"
Draco hesitated, watching his Transfiguration professor shaking with anger and fury in front of him.
"Can't it at least be you, Professor?"
"No," McGonagall sighed and wiped a tear from under her spectacles. "We all have something to do these days."