Hermione turned round the corner when she collided into something very hard. The papers in her hand went flying and her bag slided down her shoulder and she guessed the only thing holding her up was a pair on strong hands. One on her waist and the other holding her back, she gasped and lifted her gaze to meet steely gray eyes. Maybe in another universe she would have loved to be held by these pair of arms but in this era she hated it. She quickly pulled herself away from them and bent down to pick up the papers. Someone from behind her opened the huge oak door and a huge gust of wind blew in sending papers into the air again. She jumped up to catch one that blew above her head and cursed the person who had opened the door when she didn't catch it. She landed back on the ground only to see that all her papers were missing. She was just about to look for them when a hand thrust the papers into hers.
" You are supposed to be the brightest witch of our age for Merlin's sake, Granger" the cold voice drawled.
She gulped and said a very forced and formal "Thank you" before turning around and heading to her Muggle Studies class. It was after the war and Voldemort was gone for good! She had rejoiced so bad that she had ended up kissing Ron Weasley-her best friend. Harry Potter hadn't said a word about it but had taken his chance to kiss Ginny. Ron had seen it but hadn't said a word. Over-all, it had lasted 4 months until he had cheated on her. They had broken up after that, deciding to be just friends. It had worked out better than she had thought. She slid into her seat looking around to see people like Lavender Brown, Parvati and her twin Padma gossiping together at the back of the class. She saw Dean Thomas looking sullenly at Padma while Ernie McMillan shot her pleading glances. Hermione chose to ignore those. He had asked her out a few days ago but she had declined telling him that she just did not like him that way. He had walked away but sent her notes during their lessons together. She saw a few more Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's sitting together. She saw a few Slytherin's much to her surprise. Daphne Greengrass and Blaise Zabini sat together while Astoria's sister Astoria and Theodore Nott sat behind them whispering in each other's ear causing the girl to giggle and blush promptly.
She stopped staring and whipped her head to the front of the classroom when she saw him saunter in. Suspicion clouded her mind and she wondered what he was doing in a Muggle studies class. Malfoy's didn't take muggle studies she thought. She looked away quickly when his gaze landed on hers. Those gray eyes seemed to communicate with hers but her brown cinnamon ones did not want to pay him the slightest of attention. She pulled her gaze to her desk when she heard their professor enter the room. Professor Winter was taking their lessons now that Charity Burbage had passed away 'more like murdered' Hermione thought.
"Well class, now that we have finished studying about the music in the muggle world it is time to study their books, literature and form of art! Since this term is all based on the arts we will be doing the most basic thing called a play. Now, who can tell me the exact definition of a play?" the professor questioned. No doubt, Hermione's hand was in the air the minute the professor had finished.
" A play is a dramatic composition/piece or performance staged in front of an audience based on a theme where people act out characters that have been written by a writer." Hermione explained.
"Very good miss granger! 10 points to Gryffindor." The Professor said pleased, "Well, since Christmas is around the corner, we will be putting up a play based on Shakespeare's most famous Romeo and Juliet. Now, here are these books, let us decide on our characters!" the professor beamed excitedly. She sent their books flying onto their desks and moved on telling them in short of how Romeo and Juliet's story. Hermione listened to the story even though she knew it by heart. She saw people enticed by their story. At the end of it, she saw Lavender stare hard at the professor. Hermione knew she wanted the part of Juliet.
"Well, do you get it? Its like how some purebloods hate muggleborns. So, I have decided that this year's part will go to a muggleborn and a pureblood! Also, the other parts of the play are open to anyone else," the professor stated.
"But there is only one Muggleborn in this room!" Lavender exclaimed and Parvati and Padma nodded furiously. Professor Winter raised her eyebrows and Padma inserted, " Hermione is the only muggleborn in this class and she-" Padma broke off not sure what to continue with. Lavender continued for Padma "she can't be Juliet," she said scoffing "Hermione is not even interested in makeup and well, Hermione wouldn't even dare. She's too prissy." Hermione's eyebrows shot up and she retorted " I am not Prissy!" Professor Winter now looked in amusement as the two girls shot daggers at each other. She looked up and down at Miss Granger, she soon realized that she would really make the perfect Juliet. Miss Granger was even good at memorizing things and hence would be able to do the lines well, then she observed her face, she was even more pleased as the girls expressive features would be very good for their play.
"Well, I doubt miss Granger would mind being Juliet," she exclaimed. Hermione's eyes widened in surprise and Lavender's narrowed in malice. Padma and Parvati guffawed and the boys downright laughed. " Please Professor I doubt anyone would turn up now that Granger is Juliet" Draco said trying to control his laughter.
"Mr Malfoy, you are pureblood aren't you? And your family doesn't like Muggleborns! What a perfect fit. Well class, I think we have found our Romeo," Professor Winter said beaming. Draco's eyes widened, he playing Romeo to Granger as Juliet! That was bloody impossible.
"um..I..HE..Professor..We…um.." Hermione sputtered.
" We cannot play that part together" Malfoy half screamed.
"Both of you really! You are 18 grow up! You both will act this part together if you do not want to fail!" The bell rang as if on queue to dismiss the class. " I wish to see Mr Malfoy and Miss Granger after this," professor requested.
Hermione scowled and Malfoy sighed. 'Just my luck' he drawled.
"Both of you can act like teenagers now! You will perform this play with each other unless you want to fail. Here are the scripts. I expect to see you both working towards it," she scolded and left them together in a room hoping they would really work on what she hoped. She walked down to her quarters to draw up the rest of the roles for the other students to fit their characters.
Hermione picked up her script and made her way to the door intending to leave Malfoy in the room all by himself. Instead, she found her feet planted to the floor as if she couldn't move them at all. She was perplexed, how could this happen? Why couldn't she move? She saw Malfoy smirk and her lips turned into a thin line. She put her hand inside her robes and reached for her wand and undid the spell easily and walked out the door. She left him and wandered into her Head Girl dorm and pulled into the covers over her head and fell into a dreamless state of sleep.
When Hermione woke up the next day, she did not bother looking at the bright prospect of her life like she usually did. 'Well, this term is as good as its going to get!' she told herself. She dressed and went down to the Great Hall to see Harry and Ginny sitting so close that she could be sitting on his lap. Ron sat across from them and scowled at the sight of seeing his sister with a boy. She snorted and seated herself beside him and said "Get over it, Harry is better than any other boy isn't he?" He nodded furiously and began eating his toast and jam. She helped herself to muffins and pumpkin juice as she went with the conversation happening at their table inserting her opinions when needed otherwise just nibbling on her muffin. Ginny soon excused herself from the table to go to her class. Hermione looked with jealousy as she pecked Harry on the cheek. No, hermione did not love harry. For him it was just brotherly love and she was jealous of the fact that she did not have someone to love her that way. She wanted someone to think of her as the most beautiful person in the world although she was far from it. She sighed and Harry looked at her with a raised eyebrows. She shook her head and gave him a small smile. Ron continued eating without a care in the world. She rolled her eyes at his stuffed mouth and announced that they were late for class. She stood beside Harry and they made their way to Transfiguration. As they stood outside the class, Harry and Ron continued to question Hermione about where she had been last night. Honestly, Hermione had been in the prefects shower taking a long shower to rid her mind of the fact that she would have to become Juliet. That was not the fact that bothered her; the more pressing issue was that her Romeo was going to be Draco bloody Malfoy. She sighed and told Harry that she was busy working. Ron looked at her skeptically but she ignored it. He no longer had that right to question her over what she did. She entered Transfiguration and let her mind wander over to other thoughts as the teacher asked them to read the first two chapters of their textbook. Hermione didn't bother, she had read through the entire book once and the first two before she came into class. 'The benefits of reading ahead,' she thought as she doodled around on a piece of parchment. Her thoughts were no longer coherent as the class droned on.
Hermione walked to the great hall in tow as Ginny Weasley-girlfriend of Harry Potter- was filling her in on what she had missed by not attending yesterday's reunion party at the Griffindor tower. She smiled at ginny as she slid into her seat at the table. Immediately grabbing a pineapple tart of the tray and popping it into her mouth. She smiled and nodded, 'mhm' and 'ahh-ed' at correct points of the story as she piled food on her plate and began eating. Her attention span immediately lost when she felt a very steely gaze on her from across the hall. Her eyes snapped towards the pair of stormy gray eyes and she immediately recognized them but somehow, she could not pull away. It was like a staring contest, if she lost then it would immediately put her beneath him so instead she pulled herself together and stared back at him with as much malice possible. That's when she felt it, it was like a little finger poking at the inside of her head. Her head throbbed with pain but she couldn't let whatever was doing that win and she was pretty certain it was Malfoy. She didn't break the eye contact but built up her own shield against him and the little headache no longer bothered her. Ginny leaned across the table and waved infront of hermione causing her to loose focus.
"Earth to hermione!" ginny sang. She let her eyes wonder over to Ginny's deep blue ones and apologized with a sorry.
"Its ok, I was trying to see what you were thinking, but you blocked me out," Ginny muttered. Hermione was shocked, "That was you?"
Ginny nodded and popped a treacle tart into her mouth and raised her eyebrows as Hermione took one too and then shook her head. She got up from the table and waved goodbye to the red-head promising to meet her later. She smiled in return and Hermione made her way to her last lesson for the day- Muggle Studies. She groaned when she realized she would have to try and persuade the professor not to make her Juliet. She sighed loudly and stepped into the classroom to see all the other students crowding at the back of the classroom staring at the wall. She made her way to her seat and set her bag down upon the bench and walked over to the back. She saw Lavender and the Patil twins giggling among themselves and throwing glances her way. She decided to ignore them and looked at the thin piece of parchment on the wall. She soon realized it was the list of all the characters. She grimaced and read down the list.
Character List.
Romeo- Draco Malfoy
Juliet- Hermione Granger
Friar Lawrence- Graham Pitcher
Paris- Ernie McMillan
Nurse- Lavender
Tybalt- Seamus Finnegan
Capulet- Dean Thomas
Lady Capulet- Padma Patil
Montague- Blaise Zabini
Lady Montage- Daphne Greengrass
Benvolio- Blaise Zabini
Prince Escalus- Justin Fletcher
Friar John- Marcus Belby
Balthasar- Miles Bletchey
Sampson- Capper
Gregory – Terry Boot
Abram- Harold Dingle
Rosaline -Parvati
Narrator-Astoria Greengrass
Mercutio- Theodore Nott
Dear students, please sit with your partners. I have put no spacing between the partners so you will know who your partners are. I wish to see you in this arrangement when I come to lesson. Thank you.