Disclaimer: Again, anything to do with the HP world is unfortunately not mine and belongs to the queen herself, Miss J.K. Rowling
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Chapter Two: The First Day
The start of term feast was probably Hermione's favourite thing about Hogwarts, walking through the doors to the great hall was like receiving a welcome back hug from the castle. As she walked over to her seat on the Griffindoor table she noticed that a lot more people were staring at her and whispering, was it because of what happened in the Ministry? Ginny pulled her to sit down and she soon forgot about the staring and whispers when Dumbledore started to speak.
"Welcome back students of Hogwarts, before we can start diving into our wonderful feast, we must view the sorting. Professor McGonagall if you would please bring forth the first years," Dumbledore announced and went back to his chair at the heads' table.
"Fucking hell they are small!" Ron whispered loudly, "Harry, surely we were never that small, right?" Harry just laughed at him whilst Ginny told her brother to shut up.
A lot had changed for Hermione since her sorting, she came to the school with no friends and the disadvantage of being muggleborn, because apparently stupid things like blood purity matters to some people. Those people including Malfoy, the prick. As she thought of this she looked at the blonde headed snake and found him looking back, and instantaneously smirked at her, this was a different type of smirk, this smirk she had only seen once and that was after she punched him in their third year. It was a revenge smirk, and holy fuck she was scared.
She gave him the most disgusted face she could managed, it wasn't hard as she was still appalled with what he said on the train. This however did nothing as he just laughed at her to Blaise Zabini.
Ginny saw who she was looking at and went into angry mode again.
"Fucking ferret. Who the fuck does he think he is. Will fucking end him, Mione." She was saying this under her breath towards Hermione but it was clear the circle of friends sitting around them also heard parts as they looked confused to what Ginny was swearing about.
Harry was the funniest about it, as he looked a mixture of scared, confused and amused. He didn't know it yet but he liked Ginny way more than a friend, and probably wouldn't find out for a while. She loved him but damn he was slow.
Before Hermione knew it, McGonagall had just called out the last name meaning that she was too busy looking at Malfoy and silently laughing at Ginny to even notice the sorting.
"How many for Gryffindor this year?" she asked, just to the table as she knew Ron and Harry would have no clue.
"Only five this year, out of thirty! I swear it gets lower each year, Hufflepuff got the most so that's not too bad at least the snakes didn't get them all like the last two years," Neville said with a sigh.
Hermione thought about this for a while, and didn't understand why they weren't split up evenly so that every house could get a few first years, but then there were only three girls in her year in Gryffindor and five boys.
Again, she missed what Dumbledore had said and was awoken out of her thoughts by the sound of Ron grabbing food.
"You are disgusting you know that right? People with have thought you were raised by wolves!" Ginny yelled towards Ron as he started to pick things up with his hands. Hermione and Harry just laughed, they were so used to Ron having no table manners, she would have thought Ginny was used to it by now.
"Shu' up Gin" he replied and he spat out food as he spoke. The look Ginny gave him was priceless, and Hermione and Harry couldn't stop laughing for a good five minutes straight.
After the feast, McGonagall came up to the Gryffindor table and started handing out timetables to each student, she got to the section where the four of them were sitting and stopped and looked at them.
"Potter, as captain of the quidditch team I expect great things from you, however it may mean that your studies are put aside, and if they do I will take the captaincy off you, don't give me that look Mr Weasley, you rightly know that your education comes first. Miss Granger, please keep the boys in line, you have done well with them so far. Yourself and Mr Weasley need to remember to also take the first years to the dormitories, the password is Mimbulus Mimbletonia, I will send a message tonight regarding the prefect's bathroom password if you could pass it on to the other prefects" she left with a small smile as everybody knew that Hermione was one of Professor McGonagall's favourite students.
"Why did Ol' Minnie McGee start saying things like that! She wouldn't take you off the team! She probably cares more about that fucking cup than us!" Ron exclaimed.
"We know that Ron, she probably just has to say it so that Harry doesn't go off the rails and not do any of his work, but that is where good old Hermione comes in" Ginny smiled, thinking that was a compliment she just gave to her friend. However, it really pissed her off when people keep asking for help or just expect that she was going to help, even McGonagall. Harry was probably the only one that knew how she felt and never came to her unless it was dire or if he needed someone to practice spells with. This year though she wasn't doing it, she was doing things for herself and wasn't going to help her friends with schoolwork.
She gave this new-found resolution a week.
As they left the table, Hermione and Ron started to round up the five first years that they got this year, "Over here Midgets!", Hermione slapped Ron on the arm, "stop calling them that Ron, they are not midgets!", "First years follow us! This way to the Gryffindor common room!" as Hermione said this to the scared first years she caught Malfoys' eye and scowled at him, and he smirked back.
"Fucking prick", she said under her breath, but one of the first years though that she was talking to him and he looked even more scared than before.
After entering the common room, her and Ron split up the boys and girls and showed them to their dorms. She still couldn't believe that there were only two girls to this dorm, hopefully they would be good friends or else it's looking like they will either be loners or find older friends. As she thought this though she saw them holding hands and smiled.
"Now as there is only two of you, you get the entire dorm to yourselves, meaning you have more space to put your clothes, trunk and anything else you need. Boys are not permitted to come into your room and there are enchantments to prevent it from happening. If you need anything at all, everyone in Gryffindor is lovely especially the girls but if it's a more serious matter you can come to any one of the prefects including myself."
She left them with a smile and let them get to know each other. She started to think back to when the prefect took her to her dorm on her first day, with Parvati and Lavender and how she tried to make friends with them, and successfully failed at doing so. She thinks she went with the wrong approach by talking about how she memorised the entire reading list. All the other two wanted to do was talk about the cute blonde boy they saw at the sorting. They did all weigh in saying that he was cute and how they wished he was in Gryffindor so they could be friends with him. The cute blonde however turned into Malfoy, and Hermione was instantly put off by him shortly after that conversation with the two girls.
When she went back downstairs she saw that Harry, Ginny and Ron had claimed the comfy sofas by the fire and she went and joined them, as she sat down she ended up leaning against Harry and he put his arms around her to accommodate the new seating position. The looks the Weasley siblings gave them was almost laughable. Both faces were filled with jealousy, more so from Ron as she knew he couldn't hide his emotions well. Ginny knew the relationship between Harry and Hermione was nothing more than a family like love, but she would always want Harry. Even now when she was seeing Dean from Hermione's year, it was like a reflex if anyone came near Harry. However, Ginny would catch herself doing it and go back to her normal self.
Ron on the other hand, would make it obvious that he was jealous of Hermione and Harry's relationship. Not that Harry had any clue. And it pissed her off. Ever since second year Hermione knew that Ron had fancied her, she thought it was obvious and Ginny thought so too. But she just didn't feel the same way about Ron. In her eyes, he was like a brother to her, like Harry was.
The worst time though was when Hermione was going out with Fred Weasley in her fourth year until the end of her fifth year. Fred was honestly the first person she truly loved, but Ron ruined it with his jealousy. It was one of the factors that broke them up. But it was mostly the fact that Fred and George had moved on in their lives and gotten their joke shop, Hermione and Fred had tried to maintain a relationship but it was difficult with him being all the way in Diagon Ally and her at Hogwarts, they never saw each other and both decided that it was easier if they weren't together. Even now they still talk often, with her helping him with spells and potions for their product and him sending her free products, mostly sugar quills as she tended to chew on her real ones. There was a time where their separation really took its toll and she would cry for hours on end, almost every night when she was at the Burrow she would find herself at the door to his room, and before she would knock he would open the door to come out to get her. George would have already dissaperated to another room in the house so that the two of them could spend the night together. Mrs Weasley would have castrated Fred if she knew Hermione was sleeping in their room never mind what they would get up to when she was in there. Thankfully the only people who knew were herself, Fred, George and Ginny. Ginny found out by noticing that Hermione would be gone in the middle of the night and come back in the very early hours looking "recently fucked, and the way that you're smiling you were fucked good" Ginny said and Hermione blushed. There came a point though when she would go to his room and he would answer before she could even stand in front of the door and instead of fucking each other senseless, they just talked and they managed to get past being sad and upset, as they both knew it would be too hard to continue as a couple and make a silent agreement that from that night onwards they would most likely be nothing more than good friends. As it had ended on good terms Hermione and Fred's relationship became a strong friendship like the one she had with Harry or George and ever since then they have both been with other people and are both happy.
Before they broke up, Ron's jealousy had put a strain on the relationship because he wouldn't talk to either of them and when he would he would end up causing arguments. Causing a massive rift in the Weasley family where Hermione would feel uncomfortable in even going to the Burrow to see them all. This is where Mrs Weasley had put her foot down and argued with Ron saying that Hermione wasn't his to mope around after and that he should have just accepted it. He became more civil after that as he didn't want to feel the wrath of Molly Weasley again. However, when Hermione and Fred did eventually breakup he became ever so closer to Hermione again and he was back to his old self.
Hermione was soon brought out of her thoughts about Fred and the Weasleys by Ron's voice, "I still cannot believe that Dumbledore has given Snape the Defence Against the Dark Arts job! The old coot has lost it I'm telling you!"
"Even I have to admit that I'm not looking forward to D.A.D.A. now that Snape is the Professor…" Hermione admitted quietly and Harry and Ginny nodded their heads in agreement.
The conversation picked up after that as they started talking about quidditch and the next Hogsmead trip and soon enough the four of them were laughing about things from over the summer.
As it started getting late, everyone decided that they would all go up to bed. As the two girls turned off to go to their dorms, they said goodnight o the boys and as soon as they were gone Ginny gave Hermione a look that said "you're staying in my dorm tonight, we need to talk" and Hermione gulped and followed her into her dorm room. Ginny lived with two other girls in her year, like Hermione did and it was quite often that they would sleep in each others room, a simple engorgement charm and a silencio charm on the beds to stop nosey girls from hearing the conversations they would talk about together.
"You were thinking about Fred again weren't you?" the younger girl asked as soon as they both got into her bed, sitting at the opposite ends of the bed so that their feet were at each other's head.
Hermione sighed, Ginny was convinced that Hermione was still stuck up on Fred, even though she had tried to tell her that she wasn't, she half expected that Ginny wanted the two of them to get back together eventually. Ginny didn't understand that two people could be friends after a breakup, Hermione knew it wasn't common but still.
"I was, but it's not what you are thinking. I ended up on him from looking at you and Ron getting all bothered at me and Harry" this is where Ginny went red and started to try and defend herself.
"Gin, you don't have to defend yourself, I know how it is you can't help it"
"But I love Dean" she replied, a bit too fast.
"I know you do"
It went quiet for a bit then, not an uncomfortable silence, just so that Ginny could compose herself as Hermione knew she was going through a hard time with Dean at the minute.
After a while though Ginny moved onto a different topic, "We need to get revenge on Malfoy" this startled Hermione as it wasn't the topic she was expecting.
"What?" she questioned the redhead, "why?" she had completely forgotten the whole train incident by this point.
"Why?! For what he said to you 'Mione! The bastard! And we both saw him in the great hall, I know that smirk and that means he also wants revenge for what I did to him, and knowing him he will take it out on you". Hermione thought about this and knew she was right.
"What are we going to do?" she asked, a little bit scared as the younger witch had a nasty side to her.
"I have a plan"
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Draco had discussed the train incident with Blaise and Theo and they were more than willing to help him get revenge. The three of them combined made a dangerous combination, as they were all crazy smart and equally as devious as each other. As they hung back from getting off at the platform they were watching the four Griffindorks and got in the carriage behind them and started to devise a plan.
"So…" started Blaise, "are we going for Weaselette or Granger?"
"Granger" the other two said at the same time, "she will get hurt by it more and the ginger isn't in our year meaning I can't beat her academically" Draco finished off.
"You need to make it clear to her that you are after her, she will be on edge every time she sees you then," Blaise said with a wicked smile on his face, "and then you need to make her see you often throughout the castle, how many classes do you have with her?" the olive-skinned boy asked.
"I'm in all her bloody classes, but the ones where she isn't with Potter or Weasley is Arithmancy and Ancient Runes" Draco replied.
"What are we gonna do?" Theo said, directing himself more to Blaise as he was always the planner when it came to pranks and mischief.
"I say we make it go hand in hand with Draco's fathers request of him keeping his academics up, means you can't get too much of a bollocking then, Drake" they all nodded in agreement.
"You will need to sabotage her work, if its permanent ink pots being spilled or switching ingredients at first just to get her on edge, but make sure you do not get partnered with her Drake as then you'll just be sabotaging yourself, it'll be easier in potions cause shell go with Potter or Weasley but in the two you have together you need to find someone else or pray there is no partner work," Blaise directed this last bit just to Draco, with Granger and himself being some of the better students in the year, they normally got put together because they normally did better work that way. "Then its moving onto hallway jinxes, nothing that will get you in trouble if you get caught but enough so that she is terrified if you are around," Blaise continued and all the boys were smiling by this point and knew that starting small was best, to test the waters of how much Granger could take.
They pulled up outside the castle and started making their way to the great hall, the opening feast was still one of Draco's favourite things about Hogwarts, one of the reasons meant that he didn't have to go home until Christmas and could enjoy himself here at Hogwarts. They took their places at the Slytherin table and the three boys adjusted themselves so that they could see Granger and make her uncomfortable from here.
"Fucking hell Drake you could have said he got hot!" Blaise said in a rather loud whisper, "Look at them legs! She scrubs up pretty well, and I know the robes are shit at checking out sizes but if my calculations are correct, she is a definite D-cup" all the boys found themselves looking at her now and Draco had to shake himself out of it.
"Guys this is Mudblood Granger we are talking about, no one would go near her," Draco whispered so that no one else could here who they were talking about.
"Everyone but Fred Weasley, remember they were a pretty serious thing last year, and from my sources, Granger isn't a virgin anymore" Blaise responded and the other two Slytherin boys had opened their mouths in shock as no one would have thought that Granger had popped her cherry yet.
"Plus, it's completely obvious that Weasel over there has a thing for her," Theo started, "well duh," Blaise responded, "everyone and his owl knew that, it's not like he hides it".
Draco had to agree here, and made a mental note that he could probably inflict some emotional pain on Weasley if he played around with Granger a bit, the thought of her not being a virgin anymore kind of made him think how good she was in bed. But he would never tell that to anyone, including Blaise and Theo.
"Bet she's right naughty," Blaise said with a wink to the other two, Blaise wasn't bothered if someone was muggleborn or a pureblood, if he could shag it he would.
"Have some standards Blaise" Draco responded with a look of disgust on his face.
The next thing the boys knew the first years were walking up and all Draco could think then was how small they were. He remembered when he was that age, acting like he already owned the school and looking at everyone as if they were beneath him. This was the time where Draco really looked up to his father. How times had changed since then. He found himself looking at Granger and not long after she turned to look at him, he nudged Blaise and sent her his most menacing smirk he could muster, and it must have worked because her eye went wide and she started to bite her lip. It didn't last long though as her face turned to look at him with disgust, he and Blaise just laughed at her then, as she had no idea what was coming for her. Unfortunately, the Weasley girl saw and looked like she was going to hex him again. He could see the two Gryffindor girls talking then and Grangers attention got taken away from him.
After that she didn't look at them again, even during the feast, she was too busy with her friends to notice now. Draco soon forgot about it too as he was eating probably one of the best meals he had ever had during his time at Hogwarts, they seemed to have all his favourites surrounding him and within an arm's reach, however it was the dessert that really made Draco feel as if he was at home again. Treacle tart with custard was honest to Merlin the best thing on the Earth.
After desert, Draco would have given anything to have just gone bed and slept for a week, but lessons started the next day. As he thought this Snape came across the Slytherin table to start handing out timetables to each student, as he got to the three boys he stopped.
"I hope this year you three will be performing as adequality as you have over the past few years," then he looked at Draco, "I have been told by some parents that they are not permitted to go home if they do start to slack," Draco gulped at this, his father had obviously contacted Snape then.
"You'll be happy to know that now that you are in your sixth year, the work load gets harder", the three boys looked at Snape in confusion, happy that work is getting harder? No thank you.
"Which means better material to be taught in lessons, and now that I am the Defence against the Dark Arts professor, more practical methods will be taught, mostly in pairs. I do believe you will enjoy the classes, a warning though as most teachers will partner you with someone of your skill ability and interhouse relations are being encouraged by the headmaster," Snape drawled out, he was definitely sending a message to the three boys. Did he know about their plans? He knew Snape was a fantastic at occlumency, did he read their minds? Before Draco could ask however Snape continued, "Draco remember to take the first years down to the dungeons with Miss Parkinson, the password is Parseltongue and the prefect bathroom password is Founders" Snape obviously didn't care if Blaise and Theo heard the password as he knew Draco let them use it anyway.
"Do you think he knows?" Theo asked with a slight scared tone, Theo was the more sensible one out of the group and even though he would probably knock you out if you said it, he was a bit of a scaredy cat.
"Naa, he just wanted to hint to us what we would be doing really without giving it away, you know what he's like, he'll do anything for Draco as he's his favourite" Blaise responded and Draco had to agree with him being Snape's favourite, but he swore Snape had read his mind or something.
As they got up Pansy bounced over to them, she had forgotten the way Draco had treated her on the train and tried to hold onto his arm. He tried to shake it off but wasn't succeeding. By the time he did manage to shake her off he caught the voice of Granger and thought he'd start the plan of getting in her head, and when she caught his eye he sent her one of his smirks. He could just about hear her say "fucking prick" and a little first year thought she was talking to him. He knew it wouldn't be hard to mess with Granger if a smirk could make her swear. He smirked at Blaise and Theo as they saw what happened. This was going to be a fun year.
After taking the first years to the dungeons, Draco had shooed the third years off his favourite spot by the fire and the three boys had settled themselves in for the night. It wasn't long however when Pansy came over with Daphne and intruded in on their conversation. They had to stop talking about the plan as they didn't want anyone else to know. Daphne had perched herself next to Theo and he blushed slightly, Draco was the only one to know that Theo had fancied Daphne ever since first year, but never had the courage to do anything about it, he would have made a shit Gryffindor. Draco chuckled at that thought, but no one noticed.
The five of them had been laughing about their summers, mostly at Blaise and his ability to be a man-slag. And Draco felt happy at this point, this is where he belonged, with his friends laughing, not worrying about what they would be doing after Hogwarts, most of them would probably end up where their parents were, serving the Dark Lord. Draco knew for a fact that he was not going to be one of those people. If his parents were going to force him he was moving to a different country.
Draco looked at the clock on the mantle and yawned, it was getting late and unfortunately, he had double Ancient Runes at half eight the next morning, as he got up everyone took that cue to also go to bed. They said goodnight to the girls as they made their way to their dormitory. Draco loved the dormitory at Hogwarts, as it was so warm and comfortable he got undressed and into bed, luckily his bed was in the middle of Theo's and Blaise's meaning that they could briefly talk about the plan a bit more before they nodded off to sleep.
"They are going to have a plan you know", Blaise stated, not caring about Crabbe and Goyle listening as they were fast asleep and snoring.
"What do you mean?" Theo asked as he was getting changed into his pyjamas, "surely they can have a clue what we are planning?"
Draco was thinking the same thing and was waiting for Blaise to carry on.
"Mate, the look you gave Granger was your 'you're gonna pay' smirk, and her and Weaselette are gonna know to expect something, plus it's not like you to just leave things when something happens to you like that" Draco had to contemplate this and agreed.
"What do you think they will do? It not like they would risk getting into trouble, is it?" Draco asked not sure where this conversation was going.
"Well if I had a brain like Grangers and the nerve like Weasleys I think I could pull off something of worth," Blaise responded to his blonde headed friend.
Draco got to thinking then, if they were expecting it, then they needed to take a different tactic to scare her shitless.
"I say we hold off on anything deliberate, freak her out, she won't start anything until we do, get her paranoid I say" Draco uttered quickly, excitement getting the better of him.
"If we do anything we must make her wonder if it was us, so messing with her stuff but not doing anything with it, she'll be too scared to go near it. But we have to make sure she knows we are there constantly, she'll be so freaked out she may not even go to classes, meaning I end up on top for once" Draco ended the last bit more to himself than to the other two as he was still annoyed that a muggleborn could be so damn good.
"In Ancient Runes tomorrow, Drake, you need to sit right behind her, freak her the fuck out, I'm in it too so we can both do it, it's not like we will be going over much, the first week is always just an outline of what we will be doing throughout the year." Blaise started.
"But if Snape is right with interhouse partners in class then there is a high chance you'll be stuck with her," Theo finished. All the boys thought about this then as it could cause a massive problem later on in their schemes.
"It's not like I'll be paired with her in each class, they wouldn't do that surely?" Draco asked the other two boys but they were staying silent.
"Let's just hope for the best, if worse comes to worse you could always shag her, imagine that, having the Gryffindor princess under your belt," Blaise said with a wink.
"Mate you really are disgusting" the blonde stated and Blaise just laughed at him holding his hands up to admit it.
"Not gonna lie though, I wouldn't be angry if I had a naughty dream about Granger tonight, bet she's wild" Blaise said with another wink and Theo laughed with him whilst Draco just looked at them with astonishment.
"Mate, stop looking at us as if we are crazy, anyone would be mental not to at least want to shag her, we saw all the lads look at her today and I bet they are all having a cheeky go on their pogo sticks tonight thinking about it" Blaise said a little bit more seriously, "not all of us hate muggleborns like you" this is when Draco looked up and saw that his mate definitely wasn't joking now.
"I don't hate them, I'm not my father" Draco started, "I just hate her and Potter and the rest of them". Theo and Blaise just looked at each other as Draco had slide down his bed and that was the cue that the conversation was over.
"Please cast a silencio before you start Blaise, I don't want to wake up to you moaning all over Granger, you to Theo" Draco said with a huff, and he could hear the other boys chuckle and cast them over their own beds as they drew the curtains on their four poster beds. For good measure, Draco cast his own silent silencio around his bed before he went to sleep just in case the other boy's ones wore off.
It wasn't long in the night when Draco woke up from a dream he was having, which started off as him shagging a seventh year that he would occasionally bang if he needed a shag, but it soon turned into the face of Granger and when he woke up panting out of shock he mentally cursed Blaise from putting the thought in his head and made a mental note to charm his toothpaste into curdled milk the next morning.
The worst thing was that he enjoyed the dream. This was going to be a long year.
