The Change in Hermione
A/N: I got this idea for a Dramione story from Impersonate by Ms. Louis Cordice Zabini, but in no way do I want this to be a copycat story.
Chapter 1 - Welcome Back
"Bye mum, bye dad!" Hermione said, giving her parents each a kiss on the cheek before hurrying off with her luggage to climb aboard the Hogwarts Express. She was repeating her seventh year, as were most of year group.
Professor Mcgonagall (the new headmaster - well, headmistress - of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry) had decided to allow all of the students in Hermione's year to return after the summer and repeat their seventh year, as it was affected by the war against Voldemort the previous year. Most of the students had taken up this offer and were returning (only 2 or 3 had chosen not to return).
Now at the doors of the train Hermione climbed on board, unable to contain her excitement. There were so many things that she was looking forward to, but the main things were: meeting up with her friends, she hadn't seen them much over the summer because her parents moved house and wanted her to help them, and taking on her duties of head girl. Towards the end of the summer holidays, Hermione had received a letter telling her that she'd been made head girl. She was so happy when she learnt this.
She was also curious as to who the head boy was; she hadn't been informed of that in the letter. She had checked with Harry and Ron but it was neither of them. She honestly had no idea at all who the head boy could possibly be, but she'd find out soon enough she thought.
Hermione walked along the carriages looking into each compartment to find her friends. Finally she saw them and practically ran into their compartment to greet them.
"Hermione!" Ginny yelled delighted, looking up from her boyfriend - Harry. Ginny gave Hermione a big hug. "I've hardly seen you all summer! I missed you so much and I've got loads to tell you. I couldn't just stick it all in a letter. We have like a lot of catching up to do." Hermione smiled at her red-haired best friend. She had missed her talks with Ginny over the summer, so was glad at this news from her.
"I missed you too Gin, but the catching up might have to wait till later. I have to go to the head boy and girl's compartment." Hermione said looking at Ginny who seemed to be slightly irritated at this but understood.
"Hey Hermione. Do we get hugs too?" Harry asked, jokingly.
"Well obviously." She laughed and gave Harry and Ron a hug, before turning and heading out of the compartment door to find the head's compartment.
After about 2 minutes she found it, and the head boy was already in there. She pushed open the door and walked in - but not very far. She had taken one look at the head boy and stopped dead in her tracks. What was he doing here?! Thought Hermione.
"Well well well. Granger. Ha, should've known they'd make Miss Know-it-all Mudblood head girl." Sneered Draco Malfoy. "Teachers can be very dim when it comes to making certain choices can't they, Mudblood."
Finding her voice again, Hermione scowled, "Don't call me that!"
"What? Mudblood?" Malfoy sneered again. "I'll call you whatever I want. Bottom line is: I'm a rich pure blood and you're not. You're nothing but a filthy little mudblood."
"I said don't call me that!" Hermione said beginning to lose her temper. "And anyway, you're wrong - bottom line is I helped defeat Voldemort and all you did was sneak off with mummy while no one was looking." She put her trunk on top of the luggage rack with the rest of her stuff and sat down on the seat opposite Malfoy.
He was shocked by her response and was momentarily at a loss for words. "HOW DARE YOU!" He yelled in a rage from being addressed in this manner, "How dare you say that!"
"Oh that's right. You also became a Death Eater; watched innocent witches and wizards - and muggles too for that matter - suffer, and die in some cases; not to mention the fact that your aunt almost killed me in your house… so yeah, my mistake."
Draco was left, once again, speechless and infuriated at Hermione's sudden outburst. He sat there with his mouth open and glaring at her, while she just smirked at him and took out a book. After what seemed like 5 or 10 minutes, Hermione glanced up from her book, noticing that he was still staring at her, and said "Stop staring at me Malfoy. It's annoying."
"I don't take orders from mudbloods. Especially filthy, curly-haired, weasel loving ones." He muttered, just loud enough for Hermione to hear.
Now it was her turn to glare, "Stop calling me that!"
"Why should I?" He smirked.
"Because it's horrible!"
"Oh, just like you then."
"Ugh, I give up. You're impossible to deal with. I don't know how the rest of your house puts up with you and your non-stop bitchy-ness. You have the worst attitude EVER! Although, it does go with your awful personality. You truly are a pathetic excuse for human being - woops, I mean ferret." And with that, she left to go and see her friends again, not turning back around to see the look on his face - which would probably have been priceless.
"OMG! You actually said that to him!" Ginny laughed, clutching her side with tears running down her face. Ron was on the floor in a heap of hysterical laughter, while Harry was lying across the seats with his hand on his forehead also in fits of laughter. "What did he say?"
"I don't know. After I said that I just kinda turned and left without looking back." Hermione smiled, she was telling Harry, Ron and Ginny what had just happened with Malfoy.
"His face - would have been - priceless!" Ron said between laughing.
"Can you imagine it! I'd have paid a LOT to see that." Harry said, calming down. "So you didn't wait to see his reaction? You just stormed off?"
"Not exactly 'stormed' but yeah."
"Next time you have a go at the ferret can you please tell me so I can be there." Ginny said, also calming down now. Ron, however, was still on the floor laughing.
"Haha, sure." smiled Hermione. "Actually Gin, I need to talk to you about something right now. If that's alright."
"Oh yeah, of course. You two," Ginny pointed at Harry, who had his arm around her, and Ron who was just managing to get off the floor. "OUT."
"Why?" They both said together.
"Because it's girl talk. If it wasn't, Hermione would've said what she needed to say by now. So... OUT!" The boys got up and left, grumbling.
"Ok, what was it you wanted to tell me?" Ginny asked turning to Hermione.
"Thanks for being so willing to listen. But first," Hermione quickly turned around, pulled out her wand and pointed it at the door and windows so they locked and the blinds came down. Then she uttered a silencing charm (so that there was no way for any to see or hear what her and Ginny were talking about). "There."
"Ready?" Ginny joked.
"Yeah. Ok, so what I wanted to talk to you about was Malfoy."
"Ok…" Ginny said drawing out the word.
"I know it's funny and all, me having a go at Malfoy and don't get me wrong - it felt great, but I don't want to have to do that constantly. It's exhausting. But I feel like that's what I'm going to end up doing, because he doesn't listen - he never shuts up. And I know I have to spend a lot more time with him than usual - actually, more time with him than I've ever spent or ever want to spend with him - and that is NOT a good thing."
"Wait, why will you be spending more time with the ferret?"
"Because I'm head girl and he's head boy, so we have a lot of meetings to go to together and stuff. Which means that I'll have to put up with a whole load of his crap - which leads to me shouting and would result in me eventually losing my voice."
"Yeah I see your issue, but I'm guessing that's not all you wanted to tell me because you would have said that in front of Ron and Harry, so continue."
"I can handle Malfoy and his snide comments, but not when they're happening on a daily basis, throughout the entire day! So… I was wondering… Could you please help me?! I don't know what I'm going to do otherwise."
"Of course I'll help you. That's what I'm here for. Now, what did you have in mind?"
"That's the other thing. I don't actually know." Hermione blushed.
"So you don't have any ideas?" Hermione shook her head. "Well lucky for you, I do. And it's not just any idea. It's a great one! You need to do something that will shock Malfoy, but not just for 5 minutes. Something that will shock him for days at a time." Ginny grinned before continuing. "What you need to do, Hermione, is become a Slytherin!"
"WHAT! Ginny are you insane! I can't become a Slytherin!"
"I don't mean literally," Ginny replied rolling her eyes, but in a friendly way, "I mean you need to act and dress like one."
"I still think you've gone mad. How am I supposed to do that and - more importantly - how is it gonna shut Malfoy up?" Hermione asked, hands on her hips.
"I'll help you, and trust me it will shut him up."
"I can't believe I'm saying this but ok. If it will keep him from constantly making rude, deceitful, snide comments then I'll do it."
"Yay! This is going to be so much fun!"