1
Suffering
Hermione awoke from her sleep. Her hair was covering her face, she imagined her appearance to be similar to some swamp ghoul or this girl from a muggle movie called, The Ring. Hermione swept the brown tangled strands off of her pale face. She sat up in a proper manner; she glanced over at the pale skinned boy who was dozing off in front of her. Her eyes soon diverted at the scenery behind the mist covered window. It was extremely dark, and there were some faded and some fresh raindrops on the window. Hermione shuddered, it was freezing in the compartment, and to think, she thought that there would be heating in the Head Boy and Head Girl compartment.
Yes, she was in the Head Boy and Head Girl Compartment. She alone, had even been surprised that she was chosen for Head Girl. Head Boy was Draco, a Slytherin. She sighed softly, as he was still asleep. Malfoy was the last person she wanted to share a room with, and unfortunately, there he was in front of her, his head pressed against the window. Hermione took out her mirror and a pencil of eyeliner. She lined her eyes charcoal-black; she managed to do it carefully, without screwing it up. Hermione grimaced, as she tried to pull out her trunk from the top of her seat on the rack. She struggled with it immensely. After her long argument with the space between the trunk and the ceiling of the train, Hermione managed to pry it out. She suddenly heard some rustling and bustling coming from behind her, she had woken Draco. She grimaced and turned around.
"Could you try not to make so much noise, Mudblood?" asked Draco, slightly annoyed at Hermione.
"Well, who said you had the authority to tell me what to do?" snapped Hermione, her expression perturbed. Draco gave her a dirty look and smoothened his hair, looking at his own reflection from the window. He was the vainest boy Hermione knew; it was almost pathetic hearing that a boy was vain.
Hermione sat down and placed her slender legs over the trunk. She could see Draco's eyes following her every move. Hermione shuddered in the cold, she stared back at Draco, and his eyes didn't move away, she couldn't stare him out. Her lips were glued shut; she wouldn't say a single word to him.
"What are you looking at, Mudblood?" taunted Draco, still staring at her with his silver eyes. Hermione assumed he expected a reply, but she didn't say a word. But she just had to.
"Well, what do you expect, Ferret?" she asked. "I have to spend," she paused, "45 more minutes in this compartment with you!"
"Honestly, you ought to just simplify what you mean to say into: I hate you." suggested Draco with a sinister smile.
"Oh shut up, you arse." grumbled Hermione angrily. "I don't like this anymore than you ever would."
"Well, actually, I do quite enjoy this set-up, considering the fact I get to spend time with Potty's girlfriend. And make him jealous." said Draco, smoothening his hair once again.
"Oh Gods, how many times must you smoothen your hair to get the right amount of gravity to flatten it out!" complained Hermione, exhausted from switching choppy remarks back and forth. She twisted her hair into a bun and secured it with a jeweled chignon. Hermione fiddled with her silver locket. She entwined it in her fingers and pulled on it gently.
"Is that from Potter?" asked Draco, growing interest in the star shaped locket.
"Well, isn't it obvious?" remarked Hermione. "Who else would it be from?"
Hermione stood up and walked to the compartment doors, all the way down the end of the train where she hoped she could find Harry. She walked into compartment 315 without knocking; Ron, Seamus, Luna, Neville and Dean were chatting and didn't really notice her. Hermione sat herself next to Ron.
"Hey you guys." greeted Hermione. She was greeted with a bunch of hello's, hey's and hi's. She was still curious to know where Harry was. She was about to ask her question but Luna spoke.
"Hermione, what are you doing here?" asked Luna, with wide eyes.
"Why?" answered Hermione, unsure.
"Because Harry left an hour ago, saying that he was off to meet you." said Neville. Hermione's heart was racing, her eyes blinked consciously, and they slowly began to water.
"With Ginny." finished Dean. Hermione's heart slowly sank, she felt like it had been disconnected. She grew angry and pained, she was dumb-struck unaware of what choice she would make. Her eyes began to water, but the tears clung to the edge of her eyelids, she wouldn't let them fall.
"Hermione, I need to talk to you." said Ron, suddenly, out of the blue, slowly catching on.
Hermione and Ron stood up and walked out of the compartment. Hermione's back was against the wall and Ron stood in front of her, they looked at each other awkwardly. They looked at each other in silence. But there was a sound that was familiar to Hermione's ears, the sound was very eerie at this moment, but to those producing it, it was a strapping sign of passion. Hermione stared at Ron.
It reached his ears and Hermione judged, by the look on his face they both knew, something wasn't right. Something that was so unexpected that both of them were taken aback. She dawdled over to him, pausing when she reached close to him. She could sense his nervousness, but she couldn't take it any longer. She buried her head in his shoulder. Her tears slowly fell, and leaving minuscule splotches on his robes that were barely noticeable. His warm, soft hands fit onto her neck.
"Do you think..." asked Hermione, pulling away from his progressing embrace.
"I swear to God, if he were with Ginny... I'd kill em' both... Literally." answered Ron. Hermione tried her best to laugh, tried her best to show she was fine. But a voice broke her thoughts suddenly.
"What in Merlin are you doing with my girlfriend?" asked an irritated voice, coming from in front of them. It was Harry, he looked like a mess, his hair was windswept and he looked drunk.
Hermione gave him a smile and Ron stared at her in awe. Wasn't she just practically sobbing awhile ago? , thought Ron. Hermione walked over to him with a hopeful expression for the wish that Harry and Ginny were not together. Then her smile became an angry face lost in the darkness "I was-" that was all she managed to get out as rage poured from her lips. She could smell J' Adore, the perfume she had previously given to Ginny last Christmas.
"How could you do this?" screamed Hermione to Harry, right before she slapped him across the face. She walked off, enraged by Harry's behavior. She ripped the locket from her neck and threw it on the ground. She sobbed uncontrollably and paused before reaching the compartment. As she grew closer and closer to the compartment doors, a smutty looking girl came out of the compartment, Hermione guessed it was Slytherin's Resident slag, Pansy Parkinson.
Hermione's eyeliner had gone down in two dark tracks as she saw her reflection in the window. The surroundings outside was still dark, it felt like it was already midnight, but by the judging of her watch, it was only half past seven in the evening. Hermione could feel Draco's piercing eyes watching her every move. She reached into her bag for a tissue and her make up kit. She rubbed away at the eyeliner and started out on her clean lids. Draco watched her trace her eyes ever so flawlessly. She looked up from her mirror and stared back at him.
"What happened, Mudblood?" asked Draco, still trying to maintain his snobbish attitude and probing behavior. Hermione closed her eyes and opened them again.
"Nothing that concerns you." snapped Hermione, annoyed that she would have to tolerate Malfoy's probing questions for a whole year in a room alone with him.
"I'm just trying to make conversation with you, Mudblood. I mean it wasn't my choice to, considering the fact I have to endure a whole year with you in one damned room." remarked Draco, with his smirk.
"Argh." replied Hermione. She brushed her hair and applied some sour flavoured lip gloss of some sort onto her chapped lips. She grimaced as she could see Draco sniggering. "What's so funny now, Ferret?"
Draco's laughter disappeared into a straight line. He was always annoyed whenever she used that bloody nickname that he earned by what happened in fourth year. "What's so funny" replied Draco, agitated, "...is that you were crying, and I am supposing that you aren't aware of how you look like when you've had a fit, do you?"
"Well? What do you think? Do you think my eyes can see inside out, honestly, Malfoy!" replied Hermione, exasperated.
"Temper, Temper, Granger." smirked Draco. He loved seeing Hermione angered by his witty remarks, in which he thought pestered her, but instead gave her the clear image that Draco Malfoy was a snob rich boy, just like any other.
"Draco, what is it that gives you the impression that I even care what you have to say about me?" answered Hermione. She took a long, deep sigh that lasted into a silence that Draco couldn't even interrupt.
"Well you see Granger, the fact that you try to come up with sharp little remarks that annoy me so, is evidence that you do care about what I have to say about yourself." grinned Draco victoriously.
Hermione crossed her legs and peered out of the window. It was still pitch black. Hermione could see Draco's eyes following her every move again.
"Honestly Malfoy, if you wanted to snog me, it wouldn't happen. So your diminutive petty games!" said Hermione, with a look of displeasure. The train bolted to a stop. Hermione rose from her seating position and with great frustration, she pried out her trunk through the cabin doors. Draco smiled to himself, as it was only the start of a new year.