Friends, Lovers, or Nothing
Chapter One: Your Body's a Wonderland
Hermione sat at her desk, loosing herself in a book called "No Acceptance of Witchcraft Discrimination". Interesting…ah-ha!... fascinating… I never knew that. So when a wizard approaches me and says…I'm supposed to respond with…That makes sense, Hermione thought to herself. She was so distracted by a woman's description of her experience with witchcraft prejudice she paid no mind to her mother's voice coming from the first floor.
"Hermione." Her mom called, then yelled," Hermione, dear? HERMIONE!" Hermione unglued her eyes for a moment just to respond with a habitual 'yes.'
"Sweetie, can you stop reading for just a second and put your trunk and bags in the car. Don't forget Crookshanks! Oh, and the owl. Also the wand, soap, shampoo, conditioner..." her voice trailed off as she made her way into the kitchen. Hermione laid down her book and took out a bag. She gazed around the room…at her book shelves to be exact. Which ones should I take to Hogwarts this year? I want to take all of them but I can't. This shouldn't take too long, just narrow it down to five books, Hermione, five. She walked around and around the room. After a full hour of indecisiveness, the genius picked "The New Generation of Plants and Animals", "All about Our Solar System, "Outdoors? What Fun!", "Germ Multiplication", and "The Thing about Our Skeleton is...", and slip each one delicately into what little space remained of her backpack. Suitcase in the palm of her hand, backpack on shoulder, Hermione walked down the stairs to the front door and out to the car.
"Here Dad," She handed her dad her bag and case to put in the back trunk. Her mom came out and got in the front passenger seat and her dad in the driver's. The car went down the driveway almost two seconds later her parents said in unison, "Did you forget anything, the parchment, ink..."
"Coat, gloves..."
"Scarf, cloak..." After about three rounds of "Did-You-Forget-This," Hermione just tuned out and wondered into a maze of random thought bubbles. I can't wait to see Harry, Ginny, and Ron! I want to tell them about all the new books I got!...and so on, so forth.
-ABOUT AN HOUR LATER
I wonder how old Dumbledore is this year...
"Here we are! Now, Hermione get the pulley and you, the luggage," Hermione's mother ordered her and her father. Hermione did just that without another word. When Hermione pushed her pulley to platform-nine and three-quarters, she bid good bye to her parents and found an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Later, Ron and Harry slid open her compartment door and took a seat across from her. For a long moment which seemed to drag on longer than necessary, not a word was shared among the three friends. Suddenly a blond haired figure disturbed the silence of the compartment by knocking loudly on the sliding door. Hermione's usually elegant face wrinkled into a frown when she spotted the golden hair through the glass of the door. Her mind raced as she prepared herself for the dreaded insult this boy spat at her on a regular basis. She went through many brilliant comebacks that she locked away in her mind throughout the years to pick the right one when the time came to use it.
She slid the door open while saying, "Yes, room service? I would like three packs of Malfoy to go." The lean, tall body of Draco Malfoy stepped through the door. His face was as gorgeous as any professional model's and the look of irritation was clearly peering through his eyes. He rolled his eyes in annoyance but painted his heartbreaking, signature smirk onto his lips after.
"Making up jokes are we this year, Mudblood? Finally all grown and matured." Draco calmly threw his words back at her which simultaneous laughter followed from behind where Crabe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson stood like little minions.
"She asked for a Malfoy to go. So go…please." Ron defended awkwardly. Harry got up and slammed the compartment door shut in the unwelcomed guests' faces. He smiled cockily as the figures disappeared from behind the cloudy glass.
"That's how you get rid of unwanted diseases." Ginny Weasley entered and placed herself between Ron and Harry. She flashed a quick glance towards Harry and when their eyes locked, they both shyly blushed. She slid a little closer to him. Her brothers, Fred and George came in not long after. The young witches and wizards chatted endlessly to catch up on missed happenings. Not a moment of silence and relaxation was allowed, not even to take a breath because all of them were extremely excited to be able to finally see such dear friends again. Their chatter went from Hogwarts to relationships to hated enemies to sad deaths to professors to newly arriving professors to Quidditch to good/bad games and finally to…Draco Malfoy. Just the mention of that cursed named caused Hermione's blood to boil.
"Remember the punch back in the third year. I'm sure he could still feel that." Harry said. They all laughed.
"I loved the look of Hermione's face. She could have killed him!" Fred added. Hermione smiled self-consciously with all of the abrupt attention.
"You should do it again soon because Malfoy will be even more unbearable later if he starts off the year like this," Ron suggested with an adoring look to Hermione.
"I wish I could have seen that! I can't believe I missed the red mark on his pale, muscular skin…"Ginny chimed in, but then letting her mouth run away with her thoughts, she mumbled to no one in particular, "He has really nice eyes. They're like orbs. Have you seen him shirtless before? Nice abs let me tell you." There was no stopping Ginny when she goes on a mindless rant about how attractive Malfoy is. The uncomfortable feeling sprang up in the pit of Harry's stomach again and it occurs each time Ginny mentions another man. Ever since they shared their attraction for each other at the end of last year, neither of them gained the courage to ask the other out. Secret messages, hidden glances, and the few exchanges of words that transpired through the summer moved things along slowly for the two. Everyone already treated them like they were a couple and no one would be surprised when the time actually came for them to date. Lately, Ginny's veiled messages for Harry to hurry up and ask her out came from complimenting other men. Obviously, Harry was not very pleased.
"Ginny! Stop it before you make us all puck in disgust!" Hermione practically screamed. Why do I agree with most of what she said? I don't even like him. I can't believe after all these years I never noticed these little details before, Hermione thought to herself. All the men felt the tension rise up as they glimpsed at Harry's troubled face.
"Hold up there, Gin. Getting a little too personal. Not cool." Fred whispered to his little sister. Ginny hated being interrupted; it made her think she has been talking all day, which she was not the case. Ron's face turned a shade of green as if he was going to puke, but Harry was green in a different term.
"Girls. All they ever think about are boys." George teased, leaning towards. Hermione, asking, "What about you? Have a crush on bad boy Malfoy?"
Hermione put her hands up as if she had been caught robbing a bank. "I despise that full-blooded prick with all my heart. So, what do you think?"
"I want to rip out my ears" Harry said in pain and threw Ginny a frustration look. A triumphant smile stretched across Ginny's lips.
"Good, you better not, Hermione," Ron gave her a weird stare and quickly turned to the next conversation about Professor Snape and Professor McGongall possibly having an affair.
Hermione rested her head back on the wall of the crowded compartment, wondering about the little details that Ginny mentioned until the train reached Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Dear readers,
First of all, I do not own anything related to J.K. Rowling or the Harry Potter book series. Secondly, thank you all for reading. This is my second attempt at my first fanfic. The first time I began to write this story, I had an idea in mind but didn't know where to go with it. I'm the type of writer that goes with the flow. Whatever comes to mind, I write it, reread it, and revise it to make it sound the best it possibly can. After getting involved in too many extracurricular activities in school, my schedule crowded and my thought process did not receive the amount of time it needed to evolve with this story. Also...after unexpectedly finding the story in a Word Document file just yesterday, I read over the eight chapters I had written nearly four years ago and realized how awful my English, spelling, and grammar was. It still is pretty horrid, but my excuse was that I had just moved to America from Asia. After being in Honors English and Literature for three years straight, I have run out of excuses. Pardon me if my writing skill is not as good as it should be. Just understand that everything I type, I proof read at least five times before posting. It's become an unbreakable habit of mine after those dreaded English classes ha ha. Hope you do continue to follow this story. It will be long, I guarantee it. Remember, I put in words whatever comes to my mind when thinking about the next chapter. Reviews, comments, thoughts, suggestions (of any kind-good or bad) are welcome with open arms. Please enjoy
-G. M.
PS: I love, LoVe, LOVE John Mayer and could not think of anything else at the moment to re-title the story with. It seems to fit with the plot. Being part of the entertainment industry, I've come across many great musicians/songwriters, but NONE as talented and brilliant with words as John Mayer. Yes, I'm using propaganda in this paragraph! If you haven't heard of him, it's worth your life to check this dude out, I promise. Feel free to discuss his continuous amazingness with me.