A/N: This is my newest fic, which I will be concentrating on over the summer holidays (which have for me just started!)
I have already written the first three chapters and will post one a week, whilst I write the rest of it.
I have rated this fic a 'T', however there is quite a bit of swearing in the first few chapters, but it will probably either die down soon, otherwise, i will increase the rating.
I would like to thank very much my friend 'encrypted pseudonym', my beta reader, who has been my extra inspiration, my walking dictionary and spelling checker. Could not have done it without you, you great great person!
Please review and give me any thoughts and comments as they are much appreciated.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Draco Malfoy. Draco fucking Malfoy. The stupid, arrogant, self-absorbed bastard had gone to far this time. Too bloody far. Never in all her seventeen years of life had Hermione been as down-right furious as she was that second. Normally, she thought herself a pretty level-headed girl; she managed to keep her cool most of the time, and hid her anger reasonably well… well, not this time. Infact, presently, Hermione would have enjoyed nothing more than the corpse of Draco Malfoy laid before her, so she could spit on it.
She stormed down the corridor furiously, her hands shaking with fury and her eyes, instead of their normal chocolate brown colour, seemed to be ablaze with fire. She marched down to the dungeons where the Slytherin common room was situated, ready to kick the shit out of that lame excuse of a human being, which went by the name of Malfoy. She spat out the password venomously and entered the Slytherin common room. Being head girl gave her such privileges (if you could call being in the Slytherin common room a privilege that is) as being able to enter the common room of any of the four houses. Usually, she would avoid doing so, but tonight, quite frankly, she couldn't give a fuck. She was too damn pissed off, and wanted to kill the little bastard, tear him apart limb from limb, hex him to oblivion, cut out his vital organs and shove them up his-
"Granger," drawled a smooth voice from behind her, "what a pleasant surprise".
She took a deep breath and turned around to face the blond boy, the anger unmistakable in her face; she glared at him, and yet managed to resist attacking him… 'Perhaps' she thought to herself 'we can settle this in a civilized manner'.
He smirked down at her, clearly amused at the look of ferocity, which had nestled its way into her features, somewhat distorting them.
"Something the matter… you look a little stressed out?" he asked innocently.
'Okay, fuck civilized!' came that little voice from inside her head again.
She curled her fingers in to a fist visibly seething with anger. Taking a few quick strides forwards, until she was only a few inches away, she raised her arm and swung it forward with all her might. Her fist connected squarely with his jaw and he went reeling backwards eyes widening in shock.
"What the fuck did you do that for mudblood!" he spat, glaring at her with that signature Malfoy glare, that could make even the bravest of people cower before him; Hermione however went unaffected, infact, if anything, she just looked angrier than before – if of course that was even physically possible.
The other Slytherins seemed to be watching in a mixture of outrage, and perhaps mild amusement. None had even considered helping out the blond boy, for they knew he was too proud; it was common knowledge amongst Slytherins, that Draco Malfoy fought his own battles. No question about it. So instead they regarded the two students in silence.
"Don't think you'll get away with it Malfoy," she shouted, whipping her wand out and pointing it squarely at his chest in a threatening manner; "you think your so funny… well I'm not laughing you fucking arsehole!"
"Incase you hadn't notice," he snarled, "neither am I".
But Hermione continued as though she hadn't heard him, and perhaps she hadn't, "you think just because you're Head Boy you can abuse your power… well let me assure you, you are mistaken. Who do you think you are anyway? Despite what you may think you arrogant bastard, you are no better than me!" She paused for a second, taking a deep breath, and once more opening her mouth to continue; but he was too fast for her, in a second, his strong hand had pressed up against her mouth, leaving her unable to talk. With the other hand he pushed her hard against the wall, and in a deadly tone, began to speak.
"Listen to me you infuriating mudblood," he growled, "I don't know what exactly your bleating on about this time, and I don't know what the fuck I did to deserve that punch, but now I am going to give you two choices, either you piss off, or you calmly, and without fists tell me what your bloody problem is." He looked about ready to release her, however as an after thought added, "I may not believe in hitting girls Granger, but trust me, you're pushing it".
He was unable to tell what exactly it was which flashed through her eyes at that moment, but for a second, he could have sworn he saw fear in those large brown orbs of hers or perhaps it was surprise; either way, it was gone just as quickly as it had come, and her eyes were once more contorted with a burning rage which masked the usual beauty of the brown it had replaced. Her eyes flashed over to where she had previously punched him, and she was somewhat pleased to see a red mark marring his usually unblemished pale skin. After a brief pause, in which the Slytherin common room had fallen into complete silence, Draco took a step back, releasing the girl from his grasp.
The second her lips were free, she resumed her previous tirade, "My problem Malfoy, is that I thought that now you had become head boy, you would perhaps at least try to be civilized towards me-"
"Hey, it was you who came in here a few minutes ago fists flying and babbling like a madwoman, I think in comparison, I am the civilized one here" he reminded, however the girl continued right on, ignoring his comment.
"-I have feelings too you know Malfoy. Usually I ignore your comments, let them wash over me, but this time, you went too far! How do you think it felt walking into my dormitory to find it in that state?"
"What state?" he asked in a tired voice.
"Don't act all innocent Malfoy," she bit back, "I'm talking about the paint on the wall. What you think its funny defacing one of my bedroom walls with something like that! I can't even get it off with any spells".
Draco was now listening in much interest, "what did it say?" he asked casually.
"You know what it said you bastard, it said that I was a 'filthy mudblood'. Well let me tell you Draco, I will not stand for it I-"
"No Granger, as accurate as the phrase is and as entertaining as it would be to daub it on your walls to piss the hell out of you, I was not your culprit" he muttered, leaning against the same wall he had previously used to push the 'head girl' against.
"I knew you were a low down dirty scum of the earth but I never thought even you would sink so lo-" she trailed off and her eyes widened with realization as Draco's words penetrated through to her mind. She gaped at him for a few seconds mouth opening and shutting like a stranded fish before a small "Oh" escaped from her lips. For once she could think of no more to say.
The head boy lifted a blond eyebrow, "perhaps Granger, you should check, before you make such fast assumptions" he sneered.
The bushy haired Gryffindor blushed and looked up at Draco sheepishly. It was only then that she realized two things. Firstly she was in the middle of the Slytherin common room, and secondly, every single pair of eyes were upon her. She looked around the room nervously, and said in a quiet voice, "well I best be off then, erm, sorry about, you know… punching you" and without bothering to await a reply, scurried away as quickly as possible. It was only once she was safely away from the Slytherin common room that the girl let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
She inwardly cursed herself as she practically sprinted back up to her room where the offending words had been scrawled. A red tinge had worked its way up her cheeks and the anger, which had been burning within her like a fire, now morphed into something closer to embarrassment. It was only once she had calmed down slightly that something occurred to her; if it hadn't been Draco who had defaced her wall with such cold words… then who had?
It made no sense, the only ones with access to the Gryffindor chambers, except for head boy, were of course the students of Gryffindor house, and the thought that any of them would do such a cruel thing was absolutely preposterous. Her eyebrows knitted together in concentration, and little crease lines appeared on top of her once perfectly smooth forehead, as she tried to solve the mystery.
She took a step into the 'head girl' bedroom, and glared at the red, which stained her wall. Her previously pale cream wall paper was ruined by the profanity that now covered a good portion of the wall and try as she might, even with her advanced knowledge of charms and her capacity as head girl, she was not able to remove it. She had tried every cleaning charm she could think of and even briefly tried scrubbing at it with a tissue in frustration, but to no avail, all she had managed to dowas slightly smudge the 'f' in 'filthy'.
She cursed aloud and sank down onto her bed trying to think clearly, yet failing miserably because she was distracted by the bright insulting words that seemed to taunt her. She had considered going to McGonagall, however decided against it… she didn't want to give the culprit any such satisfaction; and instead chose to do the one thing she was best at. Whenever Hermione Granger was confused or lost, she would turn to books, for the answers she was looking for, were almost always encased in one of the many volumes in the library; she felt confident that this time, would be no different. She stood up determinedly and left the room without a backwards glance; only pausing briefly once outside the door to check her wand was tucked safely in her pocket. She had almost made it to the portrait when a voice cut her short in her tracks,
"Hermione, wait up," called the Weasley boy, "are you going down to dinner?"
"No," she rushed, "to the library, I need to look something up".
"More homework?" he asked quirking a brow, "you realise it's Friday night… you have the whole weekend to work!"
"It's not work," the girl said nonchalantly, "I just need to look up a spell that I…err…" he eyes darted around nervously, as though looking for a suitable excuse, before finishing a little lamely, "… read about".
Hermione smiled briefly as she recognised the expression which had nestled its way unto the boys features… it was a look which clearly stated that he thought she had finally gone mad. "But… it's Friday!" he repeated, as though the extra study would be detrimental to her heath, on one such evening.
"I'll be quick," she promised, "you go with Harry, I'll meet you down there later okay" and, without bothering to await a reply, she fled through portrait and down the corridor; leaving behind a bemused looking Ron, who had resumed his muttering about working on a Friday night.
Upon walking through the doors of the library, Hermione automatically felt calmer, for the library was her sanctuary. It's where she went to escape the chaos and drama of everyday life; it was where she went when she needed answers, and it was where she went when she wanted to be alone. It just so happened, that on this particular occasion, the girl wanted all three of these things.
Having spent much of her last seven years at Hogwarts, scanning the shelves of this very library, she knew exactly where to look for 'cleaning charms' and strode over to the shelf purposefully; she ran her fingers gently over the spine of each volume until she stopped at the one she wanted; thus pulling it from the large bookcase and taking it to a small table at the back of the room, where she felt confident, she would not be disturbed.
Expertly, the girl flicked through the pages until she came to the one titled, "advanced cleaning charms, section II" she skimmed the page silently, cursing aloud in irritation as her search so far, had been a futile one; the charms indicated in the book were of no use, she had tried them all already, advanced charms, a first year could do most of these! Climbing out of her chair and traipsing once again over to the shelf, she scanned it a second time for a book which could help her; this time, searching also for books, which may contain 'masking spells'. If the worse came to the worse, she could charm it invisible, until she was able to properly remove the words, which stained her wall.
Taking a deep breath, she once again began to wade through each page, slowly but surely making her way through the large pile of books, which were stacked neatly in the corner of the table.
Infact, she was so engrossed in her task she didn't hear the figure creeping up behind her as quietly as possible, not that is, until the said person began to speak. "I don't see why you're bothering to conceal the damn writing…I don't imagine you entertain any male guests in your room, so its not like any one will see it anyway" drawled a voice from behind her, a voice that could only belong to Draco Malfoy. Draco fucking Malfoy.