Chapter One: Half Asleep
Hermione Granger was in a bad mood. No doubt about it.
You'd think she'd be bouncing off the compartment walls of the Hogwarts Express with excitement since, after all, the trio was heading back to Hogwarts for their final year of school.
But no, if she had been stressed during their fifth year, she might as well ask Dumbledore to move her new Head quarters closer to the infirmary. She would probably be spending most of her time in there anyways with a mental stress problem.
"Come on Hermione. Have something to eat," said Ron, holding up his loot of Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, which were overflowing out of his hands and falling onto the compartment floor.
"No thanks Ron," she said, pushing away the candy, making a disgusted face as he bent down and began to eat the sweets that had fallen on the floor.
"Is something bothering you?" asked Harry leaning forward with his fingers laced.
"No," replied Hermione as she gazed out of the compartment window.
"Tell us Hermione," Ron said, through a mouthful of Chocolate Frogs mush.
"Yeah Herm. You've been looking really down lately," Harry said, concerned.
"Can we just drop it?" she asked, irritated.
She wasn't about to admit to that the great Hermione Granger was nervous for once in her life about going back to Hogwarts.
"But Her-" began Ron.
"Just drop it ok?"
She fell back into the cushiony seat and stared out the window with her arms crossed.
Ron and Harry exchanged worried glances before Ron shrugged and began stuffing his face with some Pumpkin Pasties.
Harry looked at Hermione, trying to decipher the look upon her face. Her brow was furrowed slightly as if she was thinking with her eyes squinted.
He sighed and began to read the book Lupin had gotten him for his birthday as the train dragged on.
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Draco Malfoy sat in a compartment, his tall body stretched out across several seats and listening to Crabbe and Goyle fight over which one of them Pansy Parkinson liked better.
Blaise was busy flipping through several magazines he had stolen from Millicent Bulstrode. As he puts it, the best way to give girls what they want is to know what they want first. It really wasn't a bad idea. But with Blaise, who knows…
Even though Pansy cared for neither Crabbe nor Goyle, she would love to play with their brains.
"She fancies me. Not you," said Goyle defensively.
She fancies everyone.
"She told me she likes me better," retorted Crabbe.
No she didn't.
"Prove it,"
"I will."
And how are you going to do that?
"So where's your proof?"
"I'm still thinking!"
"Well think faster, you toad!"
"Shut up,"
"No you shut up."
Oh dear me…
"Face it you two. She fancies every boy in our year. I'm surprised she even considered both of you," interrupted Blaise smoothly.
You've saved the day Blaise!
Crabbe and Goyle stared dumbfounded at Blaise. Neither said a word.
Content with their reaction, he returned to reading his magazine with a pleased smile on his face.
Draco smiled to himself slightly and closed his eyes momentarily, only to be awoken by the sudden jolt of the train stopping.
"Hogwarts… whoopee," said Blaise.
He could hear the instant rustling of his three other compartment mates moving around to collect their possessions. Once everyone had left he'd get his things.
"Draco, you coming?" asked Blaise as he leaned against the compartment doorframe with his trunk.
"Yeah. I'll be there in a minute."
For now, he would just like to lie there in peace. Even if he was quite popular, he always felt a strange emptiness in the pit of his stomach, surrounded by so many people who would love to be him. But the thing is, he'd love to be anybody but himself. It was these times when he would like to just be alone and think.
"Oh Drakie, did you fall asleep?"
So much for peace…
"No."
He opened his eyes to find Pansy Parkinson looking down at him in a sickening sweet way.
Grunting, he got up slowly and reached out to grab his trunk from the luggage rack.
"I haven't seen you in forever. I missed you so much!" she squealed.
"I saw you when we got on the train," he said with a bored expression.
"But that was so long ago!"
"Can I ask you a favor, Pansy?"
"Anything Drakie!"
Pansy slipped her arm around his instantly and clung on like a leech.
"Get off me, will you?"
She stuck her lip out and pouted at him, batting her eyelashes a little too much.
"But it's so cold," she said, gripping his arm more, adding a fake shiver.
"It's September,"
"Isn't September the month when it starts to snow?"
"No. That's December,"
"Ooh,"
"So will you please get off me now?"
"But Drakie!"
"I told you once before and I don't want to again."
"Fine!"
Pansy threw him a deadly look and walked over angrily to a group of Slytherin girls getting into a nearby carriage.
Thank god.
He spotted Blaise easily (he was standing in between two huge rocks… or two boys that looked like rocks) and followed after them.
"Oi, Draco! We thought you were right behind us," said Blaise once he had caught up with them.
The four climbed into an empty carriage and sat in silence as it swiftly took them up to Hogwarts.
"I saw Pansy all over you." Blaise said as they walked up the steps to the Great Hall.
This immediately captured the attention of Crabbe and Goyle.
Draco shot him an angry glare before continuing to walk up the stairs.
Upon reaching the Great Hall, and taking seats among the other Slytherins, Blaise decided to bring up another Pansy related question.
"So what's the deal with you and Pansy? You two going out?" he asked loudly so Crabbe and Goyle could hear above the noise of the other students.
"No, Blaise. Pansy and I are not going out and never will go out," said Draco, frustrated.
Blaise, like Pansy, also loved to toy with the minds of Crabbe and Goyle. There was never one conversation where he brought up Pansy and Draco around Crabbe and Goyle to make them jealous. But he had learned to live with it. They were best friends after all. They had the same classes, shared the same dorm, even had the same girls crazy after them… well that ones partly true…
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Hermione looked across the room at the Slytherin table and gave a loud groan.
"What are you looking at, Hermione?" asked Harry as they sat in the Great Hall, everyone occupied with the sorting of the first years.
Ron followed Hermione's gaze with his own eyes and landed upon the Slytherin she was staring at.
"MALFOY? What are you looking at him for?" exclaimed Ron, glaring across the table at Malfoy who didn't appear to have heard Ron's words.
"Look." Hermione pointed at a tiny gold object on his chest.
"Malfoy's Head Boy." Harry was not surprised. Maybe his father bribed the ministry into forcing Dumbledore to make him Head Boy.
Ron said nothing but continued to glare at Malfoy with a jealous look on his face.
Blaise Zabini soon found Ron's glaring at the Slytherin table. Nudging his fellow Slytherin friend to turn around, Draco did as he was told and found a smirk instantly spread across his face. Harry was sitting in the middle of Ron and Hermione, his expression bored and tired. Ron on the other hand, looked wild and furious, and poor Hermione looked absolutely flabbergasted.
"What are you three staring at?" he spat.
Harry was the first to speak. He obviously was the only one not in a jealous rage or completely upset.
"The pretty little badge on your robes. And how did you get Head Boy again? Did your father use a bribe?"
Draco looked somewhat taken back by Harry's words but recovered with a simple smirk.
"I'm perfect Potter, if you haven't noticed. I've got good grades, good looks, good blood too," he finished the word 'blood' harshly and looked over in Hermione's direction, "Who'd be better for the job than me?"
"Anyone but you." Hermione glared back.
"Touchy, touchy, I see your Head Girl. How predictable," he said in an annoyed tone, looking at her own badge.
"Well unlike you I worked hard to become Head Girl,"
"Granger, how many times do I have to tell you, you don't have to be jealous because I'm so much better than you,"
"That's only what you want to think,"
"You sure?"
"Oh why don't you just shut up already?"
"Well I'm not the one staring at my good looks,"
"I wasn't staring at your good looks. I was staring at that badge on your chest that you must have stolen,"
"But you admit that I do have good looks,"
"No I didn't,"
"Sure you did."
Ron couldn't help but feel the slightest bit jealous that Malfoy was accusing her of thinking he was good looking.
"Shove off, Malfoy. No one was talking to you in the first place,"
"How sweet, Weasley is sticking up for his girlfriend."
Hermione felt a finger taping the back of her shoulder.
"What?" she shouted furiously.
"Er… Hermione," Ginny Weasley began, "Professor McGonagall said to tell you she expects you and Malfoy to join her for a tour of your new rooms."
Hermione blushed at how rude she'd been to Ginny but told her thank you politely and went back to listening to Ron and Malfoy bicker.
"…if anyone's told you this Weasley. But your so poor that to keep you fed and clothed, your family has to rely on the profits of your brothers' stupid joke shop," teased Malfoy.
Ron's hands clenched tightly into fists and both Hermione and Harry had to hold him down before he leaped across the table and tackled Malfoy.
"Look at that. Your stupid friends have to keep you from hurting me? That filthy mudblood and the boy-who-lived-but-should-have-died-cause-it-would-have-been-better-here-at-Hogwarts," Malfoy smirked.
Right now, Hermione and Harry were ready to let go of Ron and let him actually attack Malfoy. To Harry, he thought it would actually be quite interesting to watch. But they were interrupted by the sound of chair legs scraping across the floor and they looked up to see Professor Dumbledore walking towards the golden podium.
"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts," came Dumbledore's calm but booming voice from across the Great Hall, "I am pleased to say that our new professor Mr. Hillgide will be teaching a new class this year for the seventh years. The class has been added to your new schedules so there will be no need to keep us all waiting from the wondrous feast we are about to eat." He finished his short speech and clapped his hands together.
Ron forgot all about trying to knock the living daylight out of Malfoy and let out a squeal of excitement as their plates filled with mounds of food.
Hermione once again, found herself not hungry as she viewed the plate before her. Over the summer she had lost her appetite and spent most of her days studying for N.E.W.T.s… Yes. It was pretty pathetic but there was no way she'd get anything under an 'O' in every one of her classes. Considering 'O' is the highest you could get anyways.
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Draco Malfoy had just finished eating his meal as he watched Professor McGonagall approach Hermione.
"Mr. Malfoy," came the Professor's voice from beside her, "I have taken the opportunity of showing you two to your new rooms."
"You mean rooms as in…" asked Granger nervously.
"Together?" I asked, finishing her sentence.
"Why, yes."
I guess McGonagall didn't get the point.
"But I thought we'd be staying in our regular dorms," she said.
"As Head Boy and Head Girl, you both represent unity…"
I blocked her voice out of my head. Did McGonagall really expect Granger and I to share living quarters? Because I would not and will not ever reside on the same floor as her let alone a common room and who knows what else.
"…I will not tolerate any inappropriate behavior between you both."
I shuddered and turned to glare at the mudblood, only to find she was already glaring at me. For several seconds we sat there in silence, my temper almost fuming and ready to lash out at the next thing she said.
"Is there a problem?" asked McGonagall raising an eyebrow at the two of us.
I immediately opened my mouth to throw and insult at Granger only just realizing it was McGonagall who had spoken. Granger of course, being the overachiever that she was, chose to speak in a deadly polite tone.
"Of course not," she said, clenching her teeth slightly.
"Mr. Malfoy?" McGonagall asked, turning to face me.
"Everything's just peachy," I replied with my eyes reduced to glaring slits.
"Well then, if you two would just follow me…"
I slipped out of my seat noisily and stormed out of the Great Hall. Glancing back I found Granger doing the same but with an airily fashion added to her walk.
"Students these days…" muttered Mcgonagall as she watched us stalk out of the hall.
"Professor?" came Potter's voice from his seat next to Weasley.
"Yes Mr. Potter?"
"You might want to make sure they aren't hexing each other right now."