Wintersalad │ Disclaimer: I do not own "Harry Potter." │ Written: 7/15/12 │ Posted: 7/16/12 │ Last Edited: 7/16/12
by chance
This is a story about, what if, during that fateful first year where friends and enemies were made and forged, one muggle-born Hermione Granger saved one pureblooded Draco Malfoy from the rampaging of a wild troll. How will the Most Ancient and Noble House of Malfoy react to Miss Granger's call on that one life debt? And most importantly, how would the wizarding war looming ahead end due to her dissociation with one Harry Potter?
It would begin, perhaps, something like this:
.
Hermione sniffled, half in misery at her dismal situation and half in disdain at her own pathetic self. Really, why was she wallowing in the girl's bathroom on Hallow's Eve all by herself because of Ronald Weasley of all people? Why did she even bother trying to reach out to her peers when they never seemed to appreciate her efforts anyways? Why did she even care that they didn't after all these years?
Huffing, and finally having had enough of her self-pity, the tiny first-year grabbed a final wad of toilet paper and blew noisily into the thin material before flushing all the evidence of her unfortunate breakdown down the hole.
"Good," she thought, with a semi-forced tone of stern determination.
Smoothing her hands over her robes, she exited her stall and moved to the sink to freshen up. She self-consciously washed away the tear tracks and combed a hand through her unruly hair, hoping that by the time she walked back to the dining hall, the brightness of her eyes and the red on her cheeks would have mostly disappeared.
Taking a deep breath, because she was not going to sigh on top everything else today, she left the safety of the public restroom and made it a half-step towards her destination before she froze.
A troll.
A scream, all girlish and high-pitched, tore through her lungs and out her mouth before she could even register the thought. A troll. At Hogwarts. Inside.
She made to rush back into the bathroom, away from the large, towering creature, and back towards what had been her sanctuary for the last half-hour, when she caught a flash of silver out of the corner of her eye.
No, not silver. Blond.
What was Malfoy doing all the way all the way here? But she didn't stop to register that thought either, as she realized she hadn't been the only one to scream and Malfoy, unfortunately, was the one who caught the creature's attention.
She needed to get them away from here now.
Dashing faster than she ever thought possible, she ran around the troll's feet until she had an unobstructed view of her school-mate and yelled out the first thing that came to mind.
"Accio!"
As some ninety pounds of wizard flew her way, all Hermione could think was why that spell of all spells and just how much worse her day could get.
The two children slammed heavily into the ground, but Hermione was already scrambling to her feet, pulling a dazed Malfoy with her, and yelling out a frightened, "Run!" As the two ran hand-in-hand, neither dared look back at the troll bellowing in anger behind them. But perhaps, due to all the years of bullying she suffered through, Hermione had developed a heightened sense of danger as well as a sharpened observation, and so she noticed even while staring straight ahead towards the end of the corridor, the shadow of a fast-approaching club.
"Move!"
But even as she cried out the warning, she knew that they wouldn't be fast enough. And as if in agreement, her body reacted just as swiftly, shoving the boy by her side as hard as possible, away from where they stood.
And the world went black.
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AN: Hello! I'm not sure why, but I've been struck by a sudden urge to write. I've been working on many of my other works, some already posted and some not, and while taking a break, was struck by the inspiration of this little story and decided to write it down before it left me. It seems that this will be quite different from many of my other works so far, in writing style more than anything else. Hopefully, this doesn't equate to poorer quality of writing, but I'll most likely edit it later anyways, when I feel up to it.
Being such that it is, I hope you enjoy this.