SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE : c h a p t e r one ;; The tainted harmony

by elisandra

"Can you believe that summer is already over, Crookshanks?" Hermione asked her ginger haired cat, and as a reply to her stroking, he let out a soft purr.

"Yeah, I can't believe it either!" Hermione sighed as she scanned her room.

She was now sixteen and entering her second last year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hermione changed over the years, her dangerously bushy hair turning sleek and shiny. Her figure changed gracefully and a hint of makeup could be noticed on her graceful face. Despite her look changing over the years, her brimming heart and good nature was still evident within her.

She glanced around her room. The ceiling was covered in infinite amounts of stars, accurately depicting the constellations, along with some that she made of her own. Hermione looked at her desk. A magical picture laid against the wall, revealing the usual gang at Number 12, Grimmauld Place.

"Sirius looked so happy…so did the others." Hermione snapped back to reality when Crookshanks moved slyly, wanting to attack a fly on the outside of Hermione's bay window. She laughed.

Soon I will be back.

Little did she know that her life will take a different pathway during her final year at Hogwarts.

Hermione's eyes moved towards the letter with the familiar "Hogwarts crest" stamped across the top, revealing that she will be a prefect for her sixth year at the Witchcraft and Wizardry school. Beneath this letter, was the original Prefect letter she had received in her fifth year at the school. The letters leaned against the mirror, and they looked pleasing, as the paper was navy blue with stars dotted in the corner, the paper being as soft as silk. Lying on the other side of her mirror was her favourite Muggle perfume, "Very Irresistible" by Givenchy, which was given to her as a birthday present.

Her books lay neatly next to her closet along with her other school supplies that were purchased from Diagon Alley a few weeks ago. "Well Crookshanks, I guess this is it! Tomorrow, we're going to Hogwarts, I can't wait, can you?" The cat gave Hermione a perplexed look and meowed.

Hermione, all ready to step onto Platform 9 ¾, just said farewell to her parents. Her mother and father, both dentists, ensured she had many sugar-free snacks for her journey to Hogwarts, insisting she not take any of that "sugar infused nonsense" that is provided on the train. She also had an excess of floss packed into her bag, although Pavarti and Padma never understood this concept of "Muggle floss". She wore blue jeans with a red turtleneck, and as a finishing touch, a gold necklace from her parents. Her hair had some sleek curls, rather than a bushy nightmare which she sported during her previous years at Hogwarts.

She casually strolled onto Platform 9 ¾ without causing any interest. When she made it to the other side of the wall, she was ambushed by Harry and Ron, who were evidently excited to see her. Since Hermione took a long vacation to France this summer, she did not have the opportunity to visit Ron and Harry at the Burrow. They all shuffled into a compartment, along with Ginny, Neville, and Luna.

"Hey Hermione, I heard about you becoming a Prefect again! I knew you were going to get it, Hermione!" Harry exclaimed as he gave her a friendly hug. "There couldn't be any other one else more perfect for the job than you."

"Yeah, but she may be busy studying all the time Harry…" Ron poked into the conversation.

"Oh shut it, Ron." Ginny replied. "Congrats, Hermione. So, do you know who the other Gryffindor Prefect is?"

"You know what? I'm not too sure, actually. Harry…" Hermione glanced at him questionably, "are you?"

"Of course not, Harry here wouldn't be up to that kind of responsibility!" Ron retorted as he dodged a chocolate frog from hitting his head, coming from Harry.

The train compartment erupted into laughter, except Hermione was more interested in reading the table of contents of each of her new school books, but managed to laugh in between Common Apparition Mistakes and How to Avoid Them and Protecting Your Home and Family Against Dark Forces.

"Would you mind keeping it down?" A cold voice came chilling in. "Well, well…look who we have here! Mudblood, The Weasels, Pothead, Loony Luna, and Captain Forgetful. What a joyful year I will have!"

The six looked up to see a young man in a black cloak. He had gracious blonde hair, along with a pale face and dark grey eyes. These eyes darted to Harry as he broke out into a sneer. It was none other than Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy.

"Be careful, as it might be your last." Harry replied coolly.

"Oh Drakey-kins, come back. I miss your dreamy eyes already…" Pansy Parkinson came draping in, as if she was lost in space, missing her Draco even though they were separated for a mere five minutes.

Hermione looked up to the gaping Pansy and retorted, "Why would you miss someone so arrogant and ignorant?"

"Well," Pansy played with her hair and spoke to Hermione as if she was a toddler, "maybe us Purebloods have better taste than no good Mudbloods. Have you ever thought of that?"

The rest of the gang in the train compartment looked as if they wanted to attack Pansy.

"You know what, I think you two should leave before something happens." Harry replied, with the anger in his voice rising.

"Tut, tut, Potter. I don't want to have to take points away from you," Draco pointed to his Prefect's badge. He sighed and faced Pansy, "Pansy, we're leaving. It's not worth wasting my precious life on this trash." The two left the compartment afterwards.

"That just reminded me, I have to go to the Prefect's meeting!" And with that, Hermione left the compartment, leaving Neville, Ron, Luna, Ginny and Harry behind.

The rest of the trip to Hogwarts was as high-strung as it was five minutes ago. Rain was pattering against the glass windows. The sky was dark and grey, pouring out buckets of rain. The train also stopped a few times due to "technical difficulties".

"What a wonderful way to start off the year, huh?" Hermione snarled sarcastically while she lifted her bags off of the train and placed them into a carriage driven by the thestrals. "Oh, and the other Gryffindor prefect is Seamus. Would you ever consider him as a Prefect?"

"I'm wondering why that bloke never told us before…" Harry replied, looking puzzled. "Umm, Hermione…" He said, glancing at her makeup. Harry, not obviously encountering many muggle "make-up" items in the past few years (except for Aunt Petunia's vanishing cream that really didn't make her vanish) awkwardly pointed out to Hermione that her "mascacara" was "falling off".

"It's mascara by the way," She laughed, "Thanks." She quickly added when Harry gave her a funny look, "And I don't wear much by the way, if you were wondering". Harry laughed as she removed some of the makeup underneath her eyes.

There was a weird pause as they all entered the carriage. Ron broke the pause. "So, you say those Thestrals are funny looking? Anything like that stupid git, Percy?" They all laughed during the remainder of their journey to Hogwarts.

After a few minutes, the large and beautiful castle was right in front of them. Hogwarts looked very much the same as the past five years. Peeves was snooping through the luggage that has now formed into something like a mountain.

"Okay everyone, move along!" Professor McGonagall parted the sea of students to the Great Hall and passed at the three, "Congratulations, Hermione, for becoming a Prefect again!" She paused, "Oh dear!" She turned around to see the first years coming through the enormous doors, dripping wet from head to toe.

"Congrats, Hermione!" Neville exclaimed at the Gryffindor table, but in the process, knocked over his goblet. Hermione, in this reaction, helped Neville clean up, while the others laughed at the pumpkin juice spilled all over his robes.

Malfoy casually strode by the table and asked, "does Neville need a bottle?" The entire Slytherin table burst out into laughter. Although Hermione looked as if she wanted to attack him, she settled for muttering, "If I ever would be stuck with Malfoy for a project or anything, I think I would die!"

Yeah, like that would ever happen.

Dumbledore, catching his eye to this incident, finally stood up, and the loud chit-chat was silenced. "Good evening everyone. Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…."

And the speech went on, regarding banned items and forbidden places on the grounds.

The sorting ceremony flew by quickly. And then, at that moment, Dumbledore mentioned the Prefects. "And now to recognize this year's Prefects…" The list went on, not forgetting Draco's and Hermione's names.

"These are this year's Prefects." He motioned to them, "they will be here if help is needed or rules are broken." Dumbledore smiled and looked at the trio. "They'll be working together on many events occurring this year at Hogwarts." With a twinkle in his eye, he raised his right arm towards the tables, and magically, infinite amounts of delicious food appeared on the once bare house tables. "Enjoy!" He replied.

"Don't worry Granger," Malfoy sputtered after the dinner, "I will make your life a living hell."

"Just don't try too hard."

"Good morning!" Hermione walked down the spiral staircase leading from the girls' dormitory. She paused at looked at Harry, "Is everything alright?" She placed her books down on the table and sat on her usual chair by the fire.

"Yeah, but just looking at this timetable…" Harry replied and Ron grimaced.

"How will you fit in Quidditch into that schedule?" Ron asked while he realized that his sixth year of Hogwarts will be a living hell, due to the many classes scheduled and their sheer difficulty. Ron was still the tallest one of the three, and it looked as if he was still growing. Harry felt sorry for him and offered him a new set of robes, as his were up to his ankles already.

Harry pondered. "I don't know."

"We better go for breakfast, or we'll be late." Hermione said as she picked up her bag and headed for the Common Room exit.

Harry followed. The teenager still sported jet black hair that could not be tamed, and grew a couple of inches during the summer. This was evident, as like Ron's dress robes, his also were around his ankles. This meant the dreaded "shopping" at Hogsmeade for new clothing for the both of them.

They all headed to the hallway near the Great Hall, when nonetheless but Draco Malfoy came out of nowhere, pointing to his badges, as if he was the most important person at Hogwarts.

Draco, over the years, grew to become strikingly handsome. His luscious blonde locks hugged his pale, but gracious face. His pointed face appeared to compliment his looks.

"Malfoy, the Inquisitorial Squad doesn't exist anymore." Harry pointed out bluntly.

Malfoy turned abruptly. A smirk rose onto his face. "Potter, you're just jealous that you weren't loyal to Umbridge." He glanced at his robes and spat, "looks like Dumbledore made the Mudblood a prefect. What a mistake."

"Shut it, Malfoy!" Hermione replied coldly. "You just became a prefect because you're a kiss-up!"

"Now, now Granger." He replied, pointing to his shiny badge, ignoring Hermione's badge, "don't make me take off points now…" And with that, he turned around and walked away.

Breakfast passed, and the rest of the day seemed to be going by so slowly that Ron thought time was going backwards, rather than forwards.

"Seriously! How much homework can they swamp us with all day?" Ron groaned. However, when he saw Hermione in the Common Room, he no longer complained. They could barely see her beneath the tower of books.

"Hermione," Harry asked as he sat down next to her, "exactly how many NEWT level classes are you taking?"

"All of them." She looked up and smiled.

The day went by again, at a turtle's pace. In transfiguration, Ron had trouble turning a beetle into a quill. On the other hand, Hermione had enough quills to last her the entire school year. History of Magic was dreadful; Professor Binns talked in a monotonous voice during the whole period, successfully putting half of the class to sleep.

The rain pounded down on the giant glass windows, creating a gloomy atmosphere. It seemed as if the rain would never pass, and that sunlight was never going to appear again. On a positive note, the weekend approached. Everyone except Hermione were looking forward to this.

"I have so much homework to do though!" She complained and stuffed some food into her mouth during the Friday night dinner.

"So," Ron replied, eating potatoes, "are you trying to set a record for the most amount of classes taken in one year?"

"Ron," Hermione answered, "I'd be quiet if I were you – you just may qualify for the least amount of classes taken!"

Harry sighed deeply. He tried for the next twenty minutes to get them talking again, but there was no luck. After some final remark that Ron made that Harry wasn't paying attention to, Hermione stood up abruptly, and left the Great Hall without any further conversation.

"When will you two ever stop arguing?" Harry muttered.

Hermione picked up her pace when she was nearing the library. She was grumbling things about Ron under her breath. The library – the library was her safe haven. Opening one of the giant wooden doors, she looked inside at the massive amounts of books on the shelves and felt immediately comforted.

She picked up a book, titled Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy, and sat down at her usual table. When she was putting her bag down on the table, a shiny disc fell out onto the table. She glanced at it; it was her favourite Muggle disc, by "the tainted harmony". She placed it back into its case and hid it safely in her bag, so that she would not lose this disc. Despite being at Hogwarts, Hermione felt comforted by some of the Muggle items brought from home, like her music, her iMusic (which sometimes didn't work, due to magical interference at the castle), and her favourite Muggle teen magazines.

Everything was peaceful; not too many people walked through the doors due to the fact that it was a Friday evening. Flipping through the pages, and pretending to pay attention, she glanced out the window adjacent to the table. It looked as if the rain had stopped pouring and small amounts of sunlight were trickling through the massive clouds.

Laughing, people were laughing, having fun; nothing to worry about. She sighed heavily when she saw Harry and Ron emerge from the Entrance Hall doors. "It's not that I don't like them, it's because I'm different. Their idea of fun is quidditch, and mine are books." She thought, and continued to glance out the window.

The wind began to pick up, in reaction; all of the students' robes began to ruffle. Ruffle like the black veil…

Hermione was brought back to reality when a chilling voice behind her asked,

"Needing this?"

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

SOURCES: encyclopedia – check it out! It's very helpful! 

http/ I don't own Harry Potter, all of these characters belong to JK Rowling, blah blah blah….

I decided to put them all as prefects in their sixth year because I felt like it. :P According to HP lexicon, they still aren't sure if you can become a prefect in sixth year too, so I went off on my own tangent and made my fanfic!

As for the "Very Irresistible" perfume reference, I thought the perfume was called "Simply Irresistible" at first – hence the story title! I was wrong though…turns out it's called "Very Irresistible"…anyway, it's a good scent!

When I took a look at this chapter title…and the "harmony" reference, I thought of…H/Hr shipping at first, but I wrote this waaaay back in the day before I even heard of "harmony" being used for that purpose. Weird, huh?

Thanks for reading, and reviews would be appreciated!

elisandra (I heart the oilers )