QLFC ROUND 7
POSITION- CHASER 3
PROMPT- Write about a witch or wizard attempting to smuggle (one or more) Muggle technology into Hogwarts.
ADDITIONAL PROMPTS-
15. (dialogue) "What do you mean, these pictures don't move?"
6. (setting) movie theatre
7. (word) confusion
WORD COUNT: 2,970
BETA- Flye Autumne, Aima D. Duragon, Moonlight Forgotten, Ragweas.
Summary: Everyone but him knew about this new phenomena happening at Hogwarts. So Draco chose the best option available- get Granger helps.
Would Hermione look past the bulling he did in the first three years and led a helping hand?
A/N: I have shifted the story timeline. Taking Harry Potter generation to be born in the 2000s and with no Voldymoldy. But the blood prejudice has been there.
MUGGLIZATION
. . .
"If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me,One day I'll know, if I go there's just no telling how far I'll go!"
Draco smiled indulgently as he watched Hermione sing along with the song. He was sitting in the dark Room of Requirement watching a movie with his friends along with Hermione's friends nonetheless.
He couldn't help but think back to the events that brought him to this point.
Dear Merlin, it all began with the black market that had taken root in the school…
. . .
Draco was busy taking notes in the Astronomy class. It was an infuriating task of trying to pin the stars and planet locations in par with Sinistra. Draco griped his quill tightly cursing the heavens for the stupid class when he saw something move from the corner of his eyes.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
The scratch sound was way different from the usual scratch of quill over parchment; it sounded rather softer. He turned his head only to spot Tracey Davis handing very, very thin sheets of parchment to anyone who handed her a couple knuts. His classmates were using that thin parchment to write on.
'What was so special about those sheets of parchment anyway?' Draco wondered.
Sinistra pointed out another new star in the constellation and in his hurry, Draco put excess pressure on his nib. It cracked and ink spattered all over his laboured work. He snapped his quill and looked around to spot who had written the whole thing.
Granger and he locked eyes and he pointedly looked away. After the teasing he had done to her back in second year, he couldn't possibly ask for her notes.
Later, Blaise gave him his notes only for Draco to find the markings on a writing paper that was printed with fine, crisscrossing lines that came together to make an evenly spaced grid.
"What the hell is this?"
"It's a freaking graph paper, mio amico idiota," Blaise explained.
"Who are you calling an idiot?!"
Blaise clutched his head in his hands and began in a deep voice, "Mind it, Draco. there's a wave coming in that'll change the way to see everything."
"Keep your idiota to yourself," Draco snapped while Blaise chuckled.
. . .
That change did come on a fine Sunday morning. It was three weeks shy of Halloween and already the air had turned nippy. Draco adjusted his scarf when he spotted Granger checking if the coast was clear and then she made a run past him. It wasn't like he was hiding in an alcove, but Granger not seeing him in a plain wide corridor was something he hadn't encountered.
He decided to follow her to see what was so important that she had blatantly ignored him!
Following her, he found her meeting up with Dean Thomas, who was sitting on the ground near the Black Lake pulling items out of his bag. Hermione smiled at him and at one time even squealed on finding something from the pile that Thomas had pulled out.
Draco sighed in frustration, wishing he brought his Omnioculars along. He watched as more and more people gathered around the two of them and soon the pile dwindled down.
Hermione had something indistinguishable in her hands. She gave Thomas some galleons and with a skip in her step, she joined Potter and Weasley, who had been waiting for her only a short distance away.
'What the hell was going on in the school?'
Later that day, he decided to approach the only person he thought could give him some answers: Granger. She was a person with a large heart. She would certainly find it in herself to forgive him for his illogical tauntings he had done in his early years. Wouldn't she?
Draco steeled himself and approached Granger, who was sitting on a wide windowsill in the second floor corridor. She appeared to be enjoying the view.
Draco coughed lightly. "Granger, a word?"
She didn't respond.
Draco coughed a little more loudly, but, again, she didn't respond.
'Is she ignoring me?'
Draco took a deep breath to collect his thoughts. Yes, as an ex-bully he can attest to the fact how difficult it is to talk to one's victim civilly. She could hex him or worse curse him. She was capable enough. That nose breaker punch had shaken his confidence.
Ever since that incident, he had retired from bullying. Boy-pulls-the-hair-of-the-girl-he-likes theory doesn't work. He could confirm that. Yes, he didn't actually pull her hair, but words hurt enough.
This way was better. Gather courage and speak to one's object of attraction. Civility is a way to friendship. It can later turn into something more-depending on—Merlin! He was rambling to himself.
Draco let out his breath slowly and began, "I was...uh...wondering-" 'So articulate of me,' "-wondering if you could tell me what's going on? I mean...those thin pieces of paper that Davis was selling and then...that crowd around Dean Thomas today. I saw you, too. I wasn't stalking you or anything but if…" He drifted off, his rambling coming to a halt.
'Is she still ignoring me? How dare she! After I spoke to her so civilly too!'
Draco stepped towards her and placed his hand on her shoulder, shaking her. Hermione gasped and turned to face him, placing her hand over her heart.
"Malfoy! You startled me," Hermione said as she took deep breaths to calm down. Draco noticed that there was something in her ears that had red thread attached.
Hermione pulled out two budlike things out of her ears. "You wanted to tell me something?"
Draco nodded; his surprise on finding this new equipment quelled his ire. "What is that thing?" he pointed at the thread attached to small buds,his curiosity getting the better of him.
"This," Hermione pulled out a small rectangular thing attached to those threads, "is an iPod. You listen to music on it. These are wires," she pointed to the threads, "and these are the earbuds. You put them inside your ears and listen to music. I altered them a little so that the magic doesn't harm this gadget."
"Those are a sure way to become deaf early in life. These buds are too close to the ear drums."
"If I listen on a loud volume for a long time, then in the long term, yes. It's at a reasonable volume right now. Come sit by me. Listen to it yourself. Experiencing is believing," Hermione invited Draco.
Draco sat down beside the Muggleborn and spent an unlikely hour listening to music that was made by Muggles and liking it.
That was the day when it seemed to Draco that Hermione had forgiven his faux pas towards herself and began the relationship anew.
. . .
Then there was that Ball event with a ridiculous name called Prom that was taking place during the Halloween of their sixth year. Taken from Muggle school idea, the school board of governors had decided it would be a nice idea to incorporate some Muggle ideas to allow the students to let down their hair.
But it felt like Yule ball all over again with the added effect of wearing costumes. As soon as Draco heard the rumour about the Prom, he made sure that Hermione knew that he was interested in asking her out. He didn't want a repeat of the disastrous affair of Yule Ball of 2014.
Hermione had looked rather surprised when he had asked her out, but after recovering from the shock, she'd agreed. This time, Draco Malfoy would be the object of every boy's envy. He was taking Hermione 'Gryffindor Princess' Granger out for this event.
Happy as a lark, he waited outside the Gryffindor tower dressed as the Goblin King whose picture Hermione had shown him.
It was a classy costume where all he had to do was wear ruffled off-white shirt with glittering night sky blue jacket, tight leather pants of the same colour, shimmery makeup on his face (Pansy and Astoria hadn't stopped laughing well after the moment he told them what he wanted) and a hair lengthening charm on his fabulous hair in a messy style.
He knew she was punctual as anyone could be, but today he wished she was fashionably late because wanted her to be the center of everyone's attraction! And she was.
Wearing a shimmery ivory princess gown with a corset body covered glittering embroidery, Hermione walked gracefully down the stairs. Draco couldn't shift his eyes from her, especially her bare shoulders.
'Did her skin always look that milky?'
She was a vision in ivory. Walking down in those sparkling silver heels, Draco thought there couldn't be anything sexier than someone like Hermione. Her voluminous hair was held back with sparkling leaf-like hairband.
He gave a smile unlike his usual smirk and held out his gloved hand for her.
"You clean up well, Granger," he complimented her.
Hermione smiled knowing it was his way of praising her. "You look fine too."
Draco smirked at that now. He turned around only to be accosted by the photographer brothers.
"Pose for the camera, please," the taller one requested.
Hermione looked up at Draco. "A picture?" she asked him with a smile.
'Vixen,' Draco thought fondly.
Draco nodded and stood with his arms around Hermione's waist. The taller one directed them to a nice pose and then clicked a photo with a blinding flash. The shorter one came forward and waved his camera in front of Hermione saying "Pola-something".
Hermione nodded and excitedly looked at the shorter Creevey brother's camera and smiled. Draco copied her and smiled politely.
The contraption gave a loud whir and a small piece of something came out of it.
The boy held the edge of it and shook it vigorously. Hermione looked absolutely giddy as the boy handed it to her. Draco looked over her shoulder and found it was a picture of them. But, surprisingly, it wasn't moving.
"It isn't moving," Draco commented.
"It's a Polaroid, Malfoy. These pictures don't move," the shorter Creevey replied.
"What do you mean, these pictures don't move?" Draco asked in surprise.
"Us muggles take non-moving pictures with our cameras. This camera here is a Polaroid camera. It makes the pictures as soon as the picture is taken," the taller Creevey explained.
Draco nodded. Picture instantly made. That was magic of a different kind. Maybe, the wizarding folks were wrong about them.
"Make three copies of this. I want to send one to my parents," Hermione instructed the shorter Creevey.
"And the other copy?" Draco asked.
"Why? You don't want one?" Hermione asked cheekily.
He gave her hand a slight squeeze. Hermione watched as his lips, unknowingly, curved into a lopsided smile.
That night was spent wonderfully. He spent more than a couple songs just dancing with Hermione. And then the rest of the evening saw them walking leisurely through the brightly lit gardens talking about their lives, likes and experiences.
When it was time to bid each other goodbye, Draco couldn't resist and leaned down to place a kiss on Hermione's cheek.
But she moved in the last moment and his lips landed on hers. He was surprised, sure, but he wasn't one to let an opportunity go.
When Hermione didn't protest, he deepened his kiss. He felt her respond enthusiastically. Draco felt it was totally out of character for Hermione to act rashly but who was he to complain. Draco took a chance and ran his tongue over her bottom lip asking permission.
Draco would never accept this but he actually jumped a little when Hermione responded by tasting his lips tentatively. Soon, their kiss got more intense.
Draco ran his hands over her gown, which he found was rather thin, and in-turn felt Hermione's small hands trace his back. They got lost into each other, regardless of the time that passed by.
Merlin, wasn't that one of the best nights of his life!
. . .
Soon after that night, Draco had asked Hermione to be his girlfriend with a bouquet where the outer ring was made of red carnation, followed by a ring of violets, then yellow roses and a single dark rose in the middle of the bouquet. She did take her time and asked him about the flower arrangement. It was only after that did she say yes.
Hermione was a wonderful girlfriend. She didn't nag him or didn't cling to him like a baby monkey. That doesn't mean he didn't pull her into isolated alleys or the empty broom closets.
During once such personal time, Draco heard footsteps and put Hermione behind him giving her time to take care of her flustered state. He, then, noticed that Gryffindor Muggleborn guy -some...D...Dean!- walking suspicious past the abandoned alcove where Draco and Hermione had been making out.
'Why is that guy walking like that?' Draco thought.
Draco came out and placed his hand on Dean's shoulder from behind.
"What are you doing here? It's nearly after curfew."
"Doin' ma business, bro," Dean replied without turning to face Draco.
"What?"
But before Draco could get an explanation from Dean, a crowd of students surrounded him.
"A graph book!"
"I need three ink pens."
"Batteries. I need at least two pairs. One for me and one for Ginny." This came from Hermione.
"Wait! What?" Draco asked his girlfriend who was now part of the crowd.
"Ginny likes listening to music," Hermione told him jumping from one feet to another waiting for her turn to get her items.
"That doesn't explain why she needs batter-eyes," Draco argued.
Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "Batteries run the music player, remember? I gave you one too. I was getting a pair for mine so I thought to take one pair for Ginny too."
Draco didn't mention that he had ruined that music player. After it stopped playing music, he had casted a spell on it to make it play music again. That pesky thing just exploded into pieces.
'It seems it must have run of batteries,' Draco realised. "What's this boy doing?" Draco asked instead pointing out to Dean who was taking the coins and giving his 'customers' what they wanted. He would deal with that device later.
"I call them Smuggleborns. They smuggle muggles stuffs into the castle for their customers. And provide them at places like this."
"Why?"
"Dean gets a kick out of the whole cloak and dagger thing. It makes him feel important. Wait—let me show you something," Hermione said turning towards Dean who didn't have any customers lurking now. "Hey, Dean. Draco's very new to this. So, could you introduce yourself?"
Dean flashed Hermione a smile and held out his hand for Draco to shake.
As soon as Draco shook Dean's hand, Dean said, "The name's Born. Smuggleborn."
Draco looked at his girlfriend for clarification. But he found her sporting a wide grin.
"But your name is Dean Thomas," Draco stated.
"Well then. The name's Smuggleborn, Dean Thomas Smuggleborn. It was a pleasure meeting you but now I GTG," Dean replied as he slowly slinked into the shadows and walked away humming an oddly catchy tune.
"What. Was. That?"
"You just watched the black market in action, Draco," Hermione replied.
"That notorious black market that sells those thinner than parchment things with grids!" Draco exclaimed.
"They are called graph papers, Draco! Gods, hasn't anyone introduced you to the muggle things that available in Hogwarts?"
"What's G T G?"
"Got To Go," Hermione replied.
"Go where?" Draco asked in confusion.
"G T G. Dean said that. It means Got To Go," Hermione explained, smirking at him.
"There is something large going on in Hogwarts that I have no idea about, right?" Draco questioned her, defeat colouring his tone.
"Draco," Hermione cooed. "Don't worry. Your Muggleborn girlfriend shall teach you everything. And we are going to start with Disney movies."
The glint in his girlfriend's eye made him wary. But he trusted her enough.
. . .
Friday nights turned into movie nights. Hermione used the Room of Requirement as her personal movie theatre.
The Room turned into a cosy place with a loveseat and a wide screen to show the movies. She managed to turn yet another Muggle device magical interference resistive.
In the beginning, she made him watch children's movie. She vehemently told him that Disney movies were for every age but come on… a story about a baby deer living in a forest? Yes, it was a nice story. Yes, even he was saddened by the death of Bambi's mother. But it essentially was a children's movie.
Despite that, did it stop his girlfriend? Of course not! Draco wasn't nearly that lucky.
Now after going through a month of movie night, Draco found his favourite genre- the action fantasy genre.
Today, Hermionedecided to invite their friends too. It was a conglomeration of all students regardless of their houses. Hermione had selected the latest movie they hadn't seen yet.
This one was another Disney movie given many of their friends hadn't seen a movie before and Hermione loved following her movie traditions.
Draco would never accept it but even he liked watching those children's movie. What he liked more was watching Hermione mouthing those sappy songs.
She fiddled with all those…rope like things called wires and set up those devices that will project the movie on the big, white screen. His girlfriend was a genius.
Watching his girlfriend look so happy was worth sharing their special time with their friends.
Draco was positive he heard Blaise, Pansy and Potter sniffle when Moana's grandmother died. Hell, even Hermione had tears running down her face making him feel like an unfeeling jerk.
Even then, it was worth getting facing Mugglization. After all, he had a wonderful girlfriend who would guide him through this fun ride.
. . .
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