Hindrance
By: SociallyDriven
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Part 1 of 3
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"You have a crush on whom??" A bushy-haired girl exclaimed at her companion, stopping midway through making a full step.
"Oh you heard me. Now shush!" The other girl whispered rather loudly, grabbing her best friend's arm, her thick ginger hair cascading down her shoulders.
"But Gin, that git? He's a total jerk!"
"I know, okay. It's just that … oh I don't know! Maybe my heart just decided to fancy him out on a whim!"
The two girls were already climbing the stairs towards the seventh floor where their cozy common room is located. After the exhausting ascent, the redhead took a sharp turn as her best friend was dragged along, still looking baffled at the shocking secret Ginny Weasley had just told her. Hermione Granger has heard so many shocking things about every possible subject (seeing as this is a ginormous institution) but never in her life had she been so … well, for the lack of a better word: shocked.
She heard Ginny uttering the password to the Fat Lady ("Jammy") and when they entered the common room seeing nobody in sight, her best friend sighed in relief. "No one's around. I guess the password has given us some of its luck."
The two of them sat themselves down at the two most comfortable chairs in the room, positioned strategically in front of the common room fire.
"So," the redhead started, looking at Hermione. "what do you think? Am I going crazy?"
The girl took a moment to answer. "Well, I know people tend to get a little barmy when they're in their early love stages but in your case Gin, I'd say it's pretty weird." The receiver of the answer grimaced. "You see it's just that … I mean him? I thought you hated him!"
"I still do! But now the hate is slowly getting mingled with chaste affections." Ginny smiled at this, carrying a slightly dazed-off look. She was so dazed off that she didn't see her best friend rolling her eyes. "Anyway, now I officially declare him as my number one love!" Ginny squealed as Hermione looked on with an incredulous look.
"You have to validate that he's your crush?"
"Of course. I'm a girl and I keep changing my mind on matters such as crushes. It's like everyday I have a new boy to fancy." She said all of this in a matter-of-fact voice.
There was a slight pause. Hermione, not understanding what the girl sitting in front of her had just said, furrowed her eyebrows and questioned, "So?"
"So, that means that I really don't take my crushes seriously. But I have a gut feeling that he's gonna be a keeper." The redhead nodded fervently at her best friend.
The bushy haired girl looked at her keenly. "Riiiiight."
"I'm serious! I mean to be honest, I've never had such a long crush on anybody before."
"Except for Harry." Hermione added.
"Except for Harry." Ginny confirmed.
"And for how long have you fancied him?"
"Oh I don't know. A little over a month now I guess."
"And you tell me this little secret of yours just now?" Hermione exclaimed, slightly offended.
"I wasn't sure of what I really felt for him –"
"Riiight."
"Hey! And knowing that I fancy a guy like him, well, that isn't really an acceptable thing to tell to the public now, is it?"
"Exactly." Hermione replied, tersely nodding. "For a moment there I thought your brain wasn't already functioning." That remark earned her a pillow on the face. "Ouch! No potential flying objects are involved in this conversation."
"There soon will be if you won't stop your quips." Ginny folded her arms to her chest, daring Hermione with a stare. Hermione, giving up, slouched her shoulders and leaned back into the soft armchair.
"Fine. I'll stop with the sarcastic remarks."
"Good. I'm quite done telling you all of this anyways. I've got to go and finish my essay in Charms. Ugh." Ginny stood up and smoothed her robes.
"Hey Gin." Hermione stood up too, wanting to ask another question that has been nagging her ever since the thought of her best friend having a huge crush on a guy like him sunk in and registered on her brain.
"Yeah 'Mione?" Ginny replied, looking at Hermione expectedly.
She asked so bluntly: "What do you like about him?"
"Well," the redhead started, quite startled at her best friend's question, "I guess it's just the way he acts. I just seem to notice him more these days whenever I go to the library to talk to you."
Hermione kept silent, looking at the fireplace as if in a trance. It seemed Ginny was in a trance too, trying to remember every detail of her crush.
"If he's not sitting down and scribbling away, he'd be leaning in a bookshelf reading a book. In those times, he doesn't look so evil. No, not at all. He just looks so …"
"Solemn." Hermione replied, still gazing at the crackling embers.
Ginny smiled at the word. "Yes. Solemn."
"Hmmm."
For a moment they stood there in silence, lost in their own thoughts. Ginny was the first to collect her senses.
"Well if that's all you're gonna ask, I'm going upstairs now." She said slowly, still having a lagging feeling.
"Okay." Hermione said. She gave her best friend a smile. "I'm glad you told me."
There was a light pause and then,
"Oh 'Mione!" She rushed towards her and hugged her tightly. "I'm so happy too that I told you." After a few seconds of Hermione gasping for breath, Ginny let go of her. "Oh you don't know how agonizing it is to keep such a thing as big as this to myself. It feels so good to let it out!"
"Glad to be of help." Hermione replied. She was still taking in deep breaths.
"Okay then, I'm going now. See you tomorrow at breakfast okay?"
"Sure." Hermione sat back down, shifting the armchair a bit closer to the fireplace. And when she was nearly out of sight, Ginny turned around and said, "Hey 'Mione!"
Hermione turned her head towards the staircases. "What is it?"
There was a slight pause before her cheerful voice was heard. "Thank you." Puzzlingly for an outsider, Hermione frowned at this, knowing her best friend couldn't see her.
"Anytime Gin." She replied, successfully cloaking her voice with fake happiness. After that, she heard her best friend's footsteps making their way to the sixth year dormitories.
Hermione looked at the window, watching the sun making its glorious descent. Their were hues of red and orange mingled with a touch of blue and a pint of purple splashed smoothly along the vast canvas of the skies.
What had just happened, what her best friend has just told her … it just made her world a little more complicated.
It's not because Ginny Weasley was in love with Draco Malfoy. No, it isn't that.
The problem is … She's in love with him too.
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"I wonder what his favorite color is."
"Probably green and silver. You know, Slytherin." But I know it's black. He told me that before.
"How about his favorite food?"
"Don't know." Anything with white chocolate in it.
"And he's always reading a book. I bet he has a huge private collection of tomes and scriptures and old books … that kind of stuff."
Well duh, he does.
"What do you think is his favorite book to read?"
Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. "How should I know? Want me to go over to him and ask? He is just a few meters away from us, you know."
"Stop it!"
"I'll stop when you'll stop."
"Fine. I'm stopping now."
"Thank Merlin." Hermione said, still trying to concentrate on reading the chapter on the 1805 goblin rebellion. They were currently in the library, sitting at a table near a mosaic-glassed window. She had about ten minutes of cherished silence when once again Ginny interrupted.
"So 'Mione …"
"Hmmm?" came a reply from the redhead's best friend, still concentrated on the material she was reading.
"Go to Hogsmead with me next week."
"What for?"
"Gonna buy myself some perfume. You know, the one Padma's been talking about."
"Oh yeah. The spiked one."
"It is not spiked!"
"Yes, it is. It has a small concentration of pheromone potion in it." Hermione replied smartly. "So basically the perfume is spiked so that its wearer can appear more attractive to the opposite gender for a limited period of time." She said all of this while still looking down at the practically ancient book.
"You are such a party pooper."
"Am not. Just merely stating out the truth." She closed the book and finally looked up to see Ginny's pouting face.
"Meanie."
"Hey, beats being a seducer." A shocked expression from her redheaded friend was seen as the reply. Without any reaction, Hermione gathered some of the books spilled all over the table and stood up.
Ginny leaned in on the table and hissed, "I am not a seducer!"
"Sure you aren't." came the retort. "You're just planning on using a perfume spiked with love potion to attract a certain blond. Now we all know that's completely different."
And with those parting words, Hermione took off into the sea of high bookshelves with the mission of returning the books into their proper places.
Or so Ginny thought.
The bushy-haired girl was walking around quite comfortably considering that she's carrying four very heavy and thick books. She knew the system like the back of her hand and didn't have a problem at all in finding the right bookcase for the book at the topmost pile.
"Here. Let me help you with that." A golden-haired boy, almost a head taller than Hermione, walked into her line of sight and just suddenly took the heavy burden from her straining arms. He was wearing a white shirt with the Slytherin crest stitched neatly onto its breast pocket. His sleeves were rolled up until the elbow.
"Thanks." She murmured. "Here, the first one goes at the top left." She was about to get the book on top of the pile when a pale hand, his hand, took it first and put it in the void exactly where she said it should be.
The boy looked at her and smirked. "Where should I put the next one?"
"Um, just below the first one." He nodded and placed the other book, slightly thicker than the others, in between the two loosely placed volumes.
"I can take care of the others. Here, give it to me." She already had a hold on the books but the boy wouldn't let go. "I said I can –"
"Granger," Hermione stopped tugging and stared into his eyes. Grey … silver. "let me do it."
"But –"
"We've talked about this before Granger, now let go." They looked at each other fiercely, trying to scare the other with his or her "silent-but-deadly" stare. In the end, the boy won.
Hermione sighed. "Fine." His smirk grew wider.
"Where to next?" he asked.
"The other shelf." She started walking towards another towering shelf, hearing his brisk walking behind her. She turned around a corner and stopped in front of the designated place. "Just place the books at the very right."
He followed wordlessly. Once he was book-laden no more, he turned towards her and leaned against the wall beside him.
"Hi." He started.
"Hello." There was a moment of silence between them. He was looking at her; she was looking at the floor. And then, she broke the stillness. "Ginny told me her secret yesterday."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
There was another moment of stillness as he watched her watching the floor. "Well, what is it Granger?"
She looked up, her face contorted slightly with hurt. "She says she really fancies you Draco."
He scoffed at this. "There goes another member of the fan club."
"Please don't take this too lightly." She said abruptly. "After hearing that I … I felt like such a traitor." She looked down at the floor, eyes slightly furrowed and lips pouting. "She's my best friend Draco. And here I am, pretending that I have no interest in her love life whatsoever as she goes on doting on thoughts of you." She sighed in frustration.
"Hearing her talk about you all the time, it's making me feel frustrated and guilty all at once." She looked at his face, it was impassive as always but she could see a trace of confusion in it. "I just don't know what to do now Draco. I feel like I'm betraying my best friend."
She had been holding it in ever since Ginny told her about her feelings back in the common room. But now, she couldn't hold it in any longer. She could feel the tears ready to fall.
"Granger." She heard him say, and then she felt his arms envelope her. He placed her head at the crook of his neck and just embraced her.
Hermione's eyes widened. Apparently, Draco Malfoy had never done this.
"To be honest, I really don't know what to say to you." His deep voice resounded throughout his chest and she felt every vibration of it. "Just don't cry Granger, okay? It doesn't suit you."
She smiled a bit at this. And then, she replied, her voice muffled. "I thought the great Draco Malfoy doesn't do hugs?" Draco loosened his grip on her and looked at her face, a tear making down its way across her cheek. He brushed it away.
"Now who told you that?"
"You." He smirked. She smiled. Then his smirk slowly transformed into a lopsided grin.
It was always like this every time they see a glimpse of each other during the day. During classes, in the hallways, at the Great Hall … it was quite a cute thing to witness for an outsider, if only they would notice.
"Hermione?" said a voice. They turned their heads towards the sound.
Hermione recognized it in a second. It was Ginny.
"Uh-oh. I've got to go." She said, kissing Draco on the cheek. "Bye." And before Draco could say a word, she vanished between rows of bookshelves and only the whiff of her strawberry-scented shampoo remaining.
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a/n: And there goes the first installment of my trilogy. I hope you like it.
HAPPY HEARTS DAY!!
Please review. Please?
SociallyDriven
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