This is a revised version of my first chapter of my first story on ff.n. :)
Looking back, I see a lot of stuff I want to cut out. But there's nothing I could cut out without having to alter every chapter, so I guess I'll just have to deal.
And, my friend Paige (namesake for...well, Paige) got all pissed at me when I told her I based a character off of her. It was funny, but she told me I'm not allowed to do that anymore. So now I just use the name, because, you've got to admit, it's a cool name.
"Hello, students, and welcome to a new year at Hogwarts!" Professor Dumbledore greeted his students.
"Before our feast begins, I ask you to spare me a few moments. First, I would like to let you all know that we are starting a new assignment." Hermione Granger straightened a little in her seat, trying to hear Dumbledore clearly. Ron noticed this and rolled his eyes, grinning.
"Trust 'Mione to get off on a 'new assignment'!" Ron whispered, causing Harry to snort into his plate, and Ginny and Paige to collapse in silent giggles. Paige threw her an apologetic look, but didn't stop laughing. Ron glanced at Paige and looked slightly please with himself.
"Ha ha, you guys. I'll sit by and laugh when you all fail!" the girl hissed back, and turned back around, aware they were still laughing behind me. I huffed and went back to listening to Dumbledore, who was almost finished explaining the project.
"—and you will have to write this person at least once a week. They will be your Pen Pal and mentor for this school year, and hopefully you will be of use to each other. We will be assigning you an owl that knows each of your locations, so you will not recognize the owl of the other person. It is your choice if you would like to meet this person, but you must first go a month being anonymous. That is all I ask. Oh, and there will be no pairings in the same house. On a less graded note, we are considering holding a few dances this year. Now, without further ado, your meal…" he said, and the gold platters suddenly filled with food. Ginny, Paige, Ron, and Harry had all filled up their plates and were stuffing their faces, but I was still thinking about the project.
Hermione groaned. It wasn't even educational!
"So, Hermy, whaddaya think of the new project?" Paige asked.
"Ja! Uh funk ut go we fin!" Ron said, spraying them all with food.
"Ugh. Gross," Ginny said, wiping her face with her napkin. Ron swallowed his fist-sized bite of spaghetti and gulped down some pumpkin juice, wiping his mouth with his fist.
"This is going to suck!" Ron said. "What if I get paired with, like, Malfoy or something?" Harry laughed.
"Yeah, or Parkinson!" he said, glancing over at the Slytherin table. Malfoy scowled at them, and Parkinson whispered something in his ear and pointed at them, laughing shrilly before pulling his face towards hers. She attacked his mouth like a slobbering beast, and the Gryffindors turned slightly green and turned away quickly.
"Pansy, get off! You kiss like a mudblood!" the boy said, pushing her off his lap and wiping his tongue on my napkin, smirking at the jeers and grins his comment received.
He stole a glance down the table to see if anyone wasn't laughing. Which, predictably, they all were.
"So…" he started. "Anyone gonna tell me what's been going on?"
They all knew that he was just going to tune out, but just in case he decided to listen for once, they all started talking at once. Draco let his eyes wander over the Great Hall, looking at all of his peers, the other students, people he'd known and picked on for years.
His eyes came to a rest on Granger. Same old bushy hair, same old eager expression as she listened to the headmaster. But there was a kind of...light in her eyes, if you will, that she hadn't had before. A happiness, a sense of self. It was intriuging.
He tore his eyes away from her and looked at the person next to her.
Ah, of course. Paige and Hermione had been best friends--it was them and Potter and Weasley--since their first year. He smiled. Paige had always been good looking. When his father discovered that her parents weren't Death Eaters, which he had assumed they were because they were extremely wealthy, he had forbidden Draco to hang out with her. But before that, they had been best friends. She was constantly looking for adventure and getting in trouble, and he loved to be the rescuer, so they fit perfectly. Her parents had often had him over for dinner, or the weekend, when his parents were out of town on "business".
He inwardly laughed when he noticed her hair-she was a metamorphmagus, so she constantly changed it. But she usually just changed the color, and she had a rule against changing her body parts. Of course, she never had to worry about that. Her features were delicate, but had a distinct edge to them at the same time. She had hazel eyes flecked with a deep green. He nose was small and had that little boop at the end of it. She had a few freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks, and her lips were full and shaped like a dolls. At the moment, her hair was short and choppy, with blonde bangs and the rest her natural, pure black.
She was tall and lean, muscular from Quidditch. She was as good a beater as the Weasley twins put together, and she played with all she had. She was prone to screwing off, but not when it came to Quidditch.
She was smiling and laughing with her friends, as if everything were perfect. As if she hadn't lost her best friend only a few years previously.
'Bitch.' Draco thought. OK, so maybe he was a little bitter over the fact that she seemed to want no attachment to him after all they had done together.
He used to think he had a crush on her, when he was about nine, but he soon realized that they were better as friends. He'd loved her, that was for sure. He'd loved her like a sister, though, not like a, well, lover. He still did, and he knew it in his heart, but he refused to admit it. He didn't want to get a beating for holding on to something from the past. So he ignored it when he got the sudden desire to go hug her and be friends again.
'What a lame project. Curse house-unity. Knowing my luck, I'll get paired with one of the Slytherins!' the Gryffindor girl thought. She turned around in her seat, looking over the rest of the hall. No one had really changed all that much. Ernie MacMillon, looking as stiff as ever. Cho Chang-the new head girl? No way! And the Slytherins…
'Wow, Pansy's face has kind of…desquashed? She's actually not bad looking…'
She kept moving along the table. There was Malfoy-
'Merlin...' she thought, blushing. He had changed--his face, which had already lost it's rat-like quality, had grown slightly more chiseled. His white blonde hair way pushed back out of his face, but lacking gel. He actually looked...good.
'Did I just think that?' the girl thought, blushing even more. She could tell even from across the hall that he had nice, broad shoulders, and had grown taller. She blinked, suddenly. 'What am I doing?' she reprimanded herself, and turned back to her friends.
"Hemmo?" Paige asked. "Why are you blushing?"
Hermione rolled her eyes, trying to focus on her friends.
"Why do you guys insist on calling me such weird names? It's Her-My-Oh-Knee. Not Hemmo. Not Hermy. Not Mione," she said, taking her frustation at herself out on her friends. Ron laughed.
"What's up your ass? And you didn't seem to mind Darling Vicky calling you those names, did you?" he said loudly, looking mock-offended.
Hermione sighed and stood up. Ginny did too, and, after a severe look from the younger girl, Paige got up too, with one last, sad look at her pumpkin pie.
As they were walking out of the hall, Hermione saw Paige give Malfoy an almost undetectable little wave, and Malfoy smiled a little back.
"Wow, Malfoy's looking decent this year, isn't he?" Ginny said into her ear once they reached the common room. Hermione felt the heat creep up into her cheeks and looked away, trying to hide it.
"Erm…if you like that whole 'evil git' type thing, I guess," Hermione said, still looking away. Ginny laughed.
"No way! That's why you blushed during dinner! You fancy Malfoy! Oh Merlin! Wait till Paige hears this!" Ginny said, smirking. Hermione, blushing scarlet, turned back around towards Ginny.
"Ginevra Weasley, you will not say anything to anyone! Especially Paige! And I do not like him! Am I not allowed to appreciate what satisfies the eye, though?" she said, her eyes darting around the room for people who might be listening. She glanced over at Paige anxiously. Luckily, Paige was too busy snogging Seamus to listen to what they were talking about.
"Wow, Paige always manages to bag the hot guys. Or the not hot guys, and make them look hot. I'm so jealous!" Ginny said, 'appreciating' Seamus for the first time. His floppy chestnut hair had golden sun streaks from being outside all summer, and he was tall and muscular. He even managed to make his freckles work.
"I never knew he was so…fanciable…" Ginny breathed. "That's one of Paige's recyclables I'll take advantage of. But I'll bet he's not good enough for you. Nothing short of Malfoy, resident Adonis of Hogwarts, will work for Hermione. Lucky bitch, you could probably get him."
Hermione shook her head.
"What are you talking about? Malfoy would never be into me. Not that I would want him to be," she added quickly. Ginny nodded.
"Uh huh, sure. We'll see."