A/N: First ever fanfic people! Infact its first thing I've ever written aside from essays back at school! So..um..please don't judge too harshly, although constructive criticism is always welcome. But to be honest I prefer reading to writing. I've already written most of it the old fashioned way – yes, in ink and paper- and I'm a lousy typist, which means updating will take some time. And oh, disregard HBP and DH, some facts though remain the same.
Summary : One of my favourite clichés of Dramionedom, Malfoy and Granger – the new HeadBoy and HeadGirl – being forced to share a dorm! Needless to say, tempers flare, egos clash and may be something else brews…a little bit o' love…
Disclaimer : JKR, along with whoever she has sold the rights to, own HP and all the beloved characters. I can just borrow them for a while and play with them a little…sigh.
Chapter One :
"-so Tuesdays and Fridays then, is that ok for you? ...Ron? Ron! Have you even been listening to what I was saying?" Hermione said , pointing the fork in her hand dangerously at her would be victim.
Ron who had been busily shoveling food into his mouth and giving his whole attention to his gastronomical need, turned to look at her, the fork alarmingly close to his nose.
"Wha- what?" he asked hastily, edging away to put some distance between his nose and the prongs.
"You weren't listening, were you?" Hermione said, glaring at the redhead.
"We- well..," Ron stuttered again, casting about for an excuse. "So ,um, what were you asking me about?" he tried meekly.
"If you weren't paying attention then why should I bother!" she snapped angrily, withdrawing her weapon from Ron's face. She speared the pea on her plate and thrust it into her mouth.
Ron turned to his other side to look at Harry, as Hermione chewed on the offending pea noisily, gnashing her teeth. Harry just shrugged and turned his attention to his own plate, deciding to keep out of the fight if he wanted to keep his head intact.
Frowning at his unhelpful friend, Ron turned back to Hermione, who was currently staring at her plate and muttering furiously under her breath, "..the nerve- always ignores- pig- well certainly eats like one!.."
He opened his mouth uncertainly- to apologize or to ask why she had knickers in a twist – perhaps she got banned from the library? Ok scratch the second part if he didn't want his nose punctured by a fork, he decided, watching the weapon.
Hermione waited for him to speak, then slammed the fork onto the plate, got up with a "humph!", marched to the other side of the table and sat down beside Lavender and Parvati.
Ron's eyes widened and he turned to look at Harry, who looked a bit shocked too.
"What was all that about?" he whispered hoarsely.
"Dunno, mate," Harry said, looking at Hermione staring moodily at the dessert that had appeared. "But before she was asking if Tuesdays and Fridays would be ok for your Prefect patrol duty, I kinda asked her to schedule them, so it wouldn't clash with our Quidditch practice."
"Oh", Ron said, "that's ok, I s'pose. But seriously, what's up with that hissy fit she just threw?"
Harry just shrugged again.
"She was alright on the train, until that meeting with McGonagall about Head duties, and she's been snapping at everyone ever since," he said frowning. "Wonder what McGonagall must've said to upset her this much"
"Yeah", Ron said. "I was thinking may be she got banned from the library or something!" he was smirking.
"Mate, if that'd had happened she would've burnt this whole castle down!" Harry said grinning.
Hermione shot them a death glare from across the table and they hastily straightened their faces looking scared.
Just then luckily for them, Professor Dumbledore got up from his seat at the staff table to give his customary "Welcome to the School" speech and everyone turned their attention to him – including Hermione.
Ron quickly got bored. He was pulling at a stray thread from his sleeve, when Dumbledore reached the end of his speech.
"And now, congratulations to our new Head Boy and Girl, who happen to be the top students in school," he said and everyone applauded, looking around for the new Heads.
Hermione got up at the Gryffindor table and gave a tight smile. No one seemed surprised, but some were definitely shocked (which included Harry and Ron) when they saw the new Head Boy, who was standing and looking lazily down on lesser mortals (in his opinion) around him, smirk firmly in place, acknowledging the applause like he had just been appointed the Ruler and Master of the entire living world and beyond.
Yup, you guessed it right.
"Draco 'the Ferret' Malfoy! Head Boy! I think I'm going to be sick!" Ron said looking horrified. He indeed looked a bit green when Malfoy sat down ultimately, his expression the height of smugness.
" I know! I thought Ernie would be Head Boy, or even someone else, but not Malfoy! When has he ever followed rules?!" Harry said incensed, turning his back to the still cheering Slytherin table. "Well that certainly explains Hermione's bad mood."
Ron didn't answer, he seemed to be still in shock.
Hermione looked over at her best friends' and sighed. This was the reason she hadn't told them who she saw when she went for her meeting with McGonagall. That was quite a nasty shock for her, seeing him smug with the Head Boy batch pinned to the front of his robes and smirking evilly (his trademark, she supposed) at her. She sighed again. Ron and Harry looked shocked and angry, well not as much as she felt anyway, 'coz now she had to actually spend time with the git.
Students were rising from their seats and she hastily got up to lead the younger students to their Houses and direct all the other prefects to do the same. Chaperoning a bunch of Gryffindor First years, she saw Ron walking up to her. He gave her a sympathetic smile and she smiled in gratitude for understanding her predicament, her earlier anger at him disappearing. Soon however he was busy leading students out of the Hall.
"Granger," she heard the dreaded drawl and turned around, then quickly jumped back as she found him standing so close that their noses almost brushed.
"Malfoy!", Hermione said indignantly, "what the hell-!"
"Language Granger, language," Malfoy said raising one of his pale eyebrows, looking down at her. "McGonagall wants to speak with us, so I suggest you stop staring googley eyed at Weasleby and come to her office."
He turned around with his nose in the air and walked away towards one of the doors leading out of the Hall.
Hermione looked at the First years gathered around her.
"Hey. It's ok. I'll take them to the dorms. You go meet McGonagall."
Hermione turned to see Harry walking towards her, who had luckily stayed behind.
"Thanks Harry!", she gave him a big smile, "and sorry about earlier, I was just so- so.."
"That's ok. I'd be cranky too if I had found out I was going to be working with that snarky ferret."
Hermione laughed and then waved at him and headed out the door through which Malfoy had exited.
She reached McGonagall's office and knocked on the door and entered. She found that the git was already sitting in a chair (or was he lounging?) idly inspecting his fingernails. He didn't even look up when she came in. She noticed that McGonagall was still not there and took the seat beside Malfoy after making sure to drag it away from him as far as was possible.
Five minutes went past and still no sign of McGonagall. Hermione was staring straight ahead to avoid looking at Malfoy. She was expecting something nasty from his mouth at any second and so, she was preparing a list of comebacks (equally nasty – by Hermione standards anyway – 'coz the prat deserved them and more) that would hopefully sustain her before she lost her patience and sanity and tried to throttle him. Where was McGonagall anyway? Hermione thought fidgeting in her seat, didn't she know that she was alone in the room with Satan Jr. himself? Hello! Didn't anyone care for her poor Malfoy-threatened life? If McGonagall doesn't come soon enough to rescue her then she'd have to resort to swear words – but they were the last resort in her book, 'coz Hermione Granger didn't do swear words, thank you very much. Though, she made the exception for Malfoy.
So, she was sitting on the edge of her seat, building up her defenses and preparing a bit of arsenal too, when she heard him yawn widely beside her. She turned to look at him irritated – no manners at all! does he want her to get his germs or whatever, especially the ones that made him act like stuck up jerk? His legs were outstretched and his arms resting behind his head. He was looking at her lazily. She turned back to stare ahead of her, her brow furrowed, thinking furiously to complete her list before the ambush began.
"What, inconstipation , Granger?" he drawled.
She turned and shot him a glare and slid farther back into the chair and folded her arms tightly across her chest. Then she continued to stare in front of her. Though, she could see from the corner of her eye that Malfoy was still looking at her with stupid smirk still firmly in place. He suddenly straightened up in his chair and leaned close towards her.
"Malfoy!", she cried in alarm, "What are you doing?!"
"Oh, I was just wondering what was so intriguing on that wall you were staring at," he answered calmly looking at the wall in question. His face was so close that she could feel his breath on her cheek. Yikes! Serious cooties alert! Didn't anyone know what a personal space bubble was, these days?
"Malfoy!", she shrieked again, "move away from me!". She jumped up from her chair and backed away towards the door.
"Hmm," Malfoy continued unperturbed, still looking at the patch of wall Hermione was apparently staring at. "For a second there I thought that was Weaselby's butt! But, I guess that's just a wall with a crack."
He smirked widely at her.
She narrowed her eyes and sent him a glare that she whole heartedly hoped would banish him to fiery depths of Hell – if he hadn't descended from there in the first place.
Just then the door opened and Professor McGonagall entered the room. Seeing Hermione standing nears the doorway she frowned.
"Miss Granger, I thought I asked you to be present here twenty minutes ago?" she was looking at her sternly, as only she could. The hypocrite! Hermione opened her mouth to explain, but she raised her hand continued, "Well, I called you here to show you to your new living quarters. There was a delay as Professor Dumbledore insisted in certain extra security measures to be applied to the Heads' Quarters". Hermione looked curiously at her Professor. Why would they need extra protection? Surely the security for the Head's rooms were just as much as their old dormitories had provided them, she wondered as McGonagall continued, "the measures won't cause any inconvenience to either of you, you can invite your school mates to visit you at any time you want. And if you follow me, I'll lead you to your rooms", and she walked back out the door as they both hurried after her.
She led them to the third floor and Hermione was having a horrible feeling of deja vu as she remembered the three headed dog that had once guarded the end of this corridor, she felt she was again walking to her doom – surely sharing a dorm with Malfoy constituted a much, much horrible fate than being chewed up by a massive three- headed beast. But McGonagall led them to the opposite side of the corridor then turned left through a narrow hallway which led them down some steps. At the bottom was a plain wooden door – the one that seemed to lead to broom cupboard.
"To anyone who doesn't know your password, this door will open to a broom closet," she said and stopped in front of the door and turned around to face them. "So I suggest you agree on a password, then inform the door first before inviting anyone inside, if you want your guests to find your rooms. Your luggage has already been transferred to your respective rooms. Also there is a library cum reading room for your perusal", she informed and then seemed to hesitate a bit, "and since you'll be living together this year, I expect both of you will put aside you differences and maintain camaraderie and work together as Head Boy and Head Girl of this school are expected to", she said sternly, her mouth already stretched to a thin line. "Well then, I'll be heading back to my office now. Goodnight to you both," with that she ascended the steps and disappeared from view.
"'camaraderie'," Hermione muttered under her breath as Malfoy roughly pushed past her and examined the door. Yeah right! If that'd ever happen, I might as well then snog Malfoy and marry him!
Wait! WHAT? Did she just really think that? Ewww…! Snog?! Gross!
Its just the stress Hermione, she placated herself, your brain is a bit whoozy, that's all.
And then she actually thumped the top of her head with her fist. Ow! That hurt! But it certainly destroyed the image forming into her head which had her and Malfoy in a compromising position. Bad brain! Very bad!
"Draco Malfoy is the greatest and most handsome wizard in the World."
"What?" she asked raising her brow, while still gingerly rubbing her sore head.
OoOoOoOoO
Howdy, folks!
So didya like it? Or loathe it and wish that I'd stop with my novice writing this instance and go stuff myself or something?
Either way, I'd like to hear from you peahpul!
So, go ahead press that alluring Review button and stroke my inflated ego (hey! Not as much inflated as our dear Draco's!) or er .. prick it and stomp all over it .. ouch!
