Hello again! Earlier today, I realized that I misplaced my file for the first chapter of this story and I replaced it with some other story! Thank you so much, Monica04 for pointing it out, I owe you! So sorry! I'm actually hitting myself on the head for acting like such a bimbo! :(
Last time :
Hermione and the rest of the Year 6th and 7th students are the subject of the Ministry's newest experiment, aka the love amulet. Every single 6th and 7th Years get one and it will show one who is compatible. It will reveal 3 compatible people for one person each, and when one of the three people are close, the amulet will connect itself with the compatible person's amulet. Hermione has found out two out of three compatibles for her and they are Harry Potter, one of her two best friends, and Draco Malfoy, the boy who has tormented her ever since they met each other.
Disclaimer : If I did own the wonderful world of Harry Potter and everyone who inhabits it, would I be writing fanfiction? No. So let's put 1 and 1 together, shall we?
Chapter 2 : Berries and Peaches
"Psst, did you hear? Hermione Granger in compatible to Draco Malfoy!"
"Lucky her, he's good-looking."
"What are you talking about? It's Malfoy who's lucky! Granger's hot!"
"Her amulet also connected with Potter's!"
"I've noticed that they are close."
"Malfoy and Granger are in different houses!"
"Some sort of twisted version of Romeo and Juliet."
Hermione sighed as she struggled to ignore the whispers and odd looks from the other students. The amulet's mortifying connection had happened just last night at dinner and somehow, the whole school knew about it. And they chose it to be their gossip topic for today.
She glared at some first years who were whispering loudly about her love life including a rather annoying ferret. They ran off in fright, the Head Girl was not someone to be messed with. She could hear rapid footsteps behind her and in a matter of seconds, an arm was draped on her shoulder. She turned and looked at the messy haired boy and he shot her a grin.
"Harry. Get your hands off of my shoulder." Hermione groaned as the volume of the whispers escalated. She didn't have to strain her ears to hear the students making up lies about the so-called triangle she, Harry and Malfoy were in.
Harry sent her a curious look, but an expression of realization dawned on his face and he removed his arm from her and put it at his side. He continued to walk besides Hermione stiffly as Ron caught up to them.
"Mate, I think my amulet's defective." Ron looked down at his amulet in disgust. "It just connected with Luny Lovegood's." He wrinkled his nose.
Hermione stiffled a giggle as she thought about the nargle-obsessed girl. Ron glared at her playfully, but he turned serious again. He wove a tale of how the worker had confused the ingredients for his amulet with eyes of newt and what-not. He claimed that that was why his amulet was attracted to amulets belonging to weird people.
"If it connects with Bulstrode's, I'll throw it off Gryffindor tower." he said solemnly.
Hermione realized that her amulet was glowing in a eerily way. She looked at Harry's gold one and found that it was glowing, too. She knew why they were doing that, of course. She had researched this particular amulet last night and found out some other facts that Headmast McGonagall did not mention. One of these facts was that it would glow when it was close to a compatible, it would connect itself only on its first time. She alerted the two boys and they nodded their heads in acknowledgement.
"So yours will be lighting up quite often, no?" Ginny asked. She had heard the three's conversation and was eager to participate in it as well. She waggled her eyebrows at Hermione and was met with a look of confusion.
"Because you spend a lot of your time as head girl with the head boy, who is Malfoy. And you spend most of your free time studying and hanging out with us, Harry, Ron and me." Ginny explained with a knowing smirk. Hermione scowled.
Hermione hastily changed the conversation. "What's our first class today?" she asked.
"Double Potions with Slughorn." Ron answered. He groaned as he reminded himself that his partner was none other than Pansy Parkinson. He complained that his amulet would be lighting up the whole time. Harry refused to feel bad for Ron and reminded him that his partner was Millicent Bulstrode. They both started arguing about who's partner was worse.
"Parkinson complains that her hair is weird!"
"Bulstrode doesn't do anything!"
"Parkinson messes everything up!"
Hermione rolled her eyes. She loved Harry and Ron like family, but sometimes, they were too immature to be worthy of talking to her. She waved bye to Ginny as the redhead turned left at a corner. Hermione walked off on her own, Harry and Ron not even realizing that she had deserted them.
As she was about to turn right at the corner, an invisible force drew her close to someone. She bumped into him and fell to the ground, which made the boy fall, too. Hermione turned her head to look at the boy. He was a fellow 7th year, from Ravenclaw. He had brown hair and enchanting blue eyes. Hermione apologized and tried to stand up, but discovered that she couldn't. She looked at the object that was preventing her from getting to her feet. It was her amulet. It had connected with the boy's blue one.
"Hi." Their eyes met and he smiled at her. He was good-looking. Hermione racked her brain to remember his name. "Hermione Granger, right?" he asked. Hermione nodded. "We should say it." he gestured to their amulets. They said the two magic words and the amulets separated themselves.
"I'm Evan Brooks." he grabbed her hand and pulled her up. "I'll see you around." After flashing her a crooked grin, walked away. Hermione stared at his back for a moment, then made her way to Potions. So her compatibles were her best friend, her enemy, and a cute boy.
She walked into the Potions room. She said a polite hello to Professor Slughorn and he smiled at her, then reminded her of their weekly Slug-club gathering.
"More like Harry Potter fan club meeting." she thought as she recalled a particular memory of a meeting involving Slughorn badgering Harry about how he saved the wizarding world. Someone plopped down on the seat next to her and she grimaced when she came face to face with Draco Malfoy. He looked at her and sneered, shortly after, he became aware of the light protruding from his green amulet. Hermione sensed his alarm and told him the reason for its glow.
"No one asked you, Granger." he drawled as he sent her a dirty look. She happily returned his expression. When was Malfoy going to be civil? Hermione had low hopes for this improvement that was not going to take place anytime soon.
Harry and Ron came into the room and sat down in their seats. Harry looked pissed while Ron had a triumphant smile on his face. Hermione suspected that Ron won the small fight with Harry.
Slughorn announced that class was in session and the students who weren't in their seats quickly sat down. He told the class which potion they would be brewing, which turned out to be Amortentia. He asked the class about its properties and Hermione raised her hand up in the air. She recited the answer and smiled when the professor awarded the Gryffindor house 5 points. Ron flashed her a thumbs up.
Draco rolled his eyes, what a show off. But he had to admit that she was intelligent, she practically lived in the library according to rumors. Still, he would never admit that he aknowleged her intelligence, it would be a disgrace to the Slytherin house.
He laid back in his chair, Granger probably memorized the whole potions book, he had no doubt that she could brew this potion by herself, no matter how complicated it was. One thing led to another and Draco was soon imagining what Hermione's hair would feel like. It had been so bushy up until this year. Now it was this dark caramel color in soft curls that reached to the middle of her back. His eyes traveled lower and lower, and his eyes landed on her slender legs. She really did have nice legs, and she had a great figure.
Hermione was aware of Malfoy eyeing her. Normally, she would have told him off, but she had the strange urge to stare at him, too. She recognized this as a symptom of a love potion. The amulet did that, but it was not strong, so she could fight it.
Draco did not know that it was the amulet that he had hanging on his neck that was provoking him into admiring Granger's body. He mentally hit himself, why was he ogling Granger? He blamed it on the ugly Slytherin girls that made him desperate enough to stare at Granger.
Hermione stopped paying attention to Draco's wandering eyes and focused on brewing. After about an hour of intense brewing, the potion was at its last stage and Hermione was pleased to find that their potion, more like her potion, was the farthest along. She let it simmer for a moment and leaned in to inhale its scent.
"Mmmmm," she moaned. It smelled heavenly, it had the smell of grass and new parchment and her favorite toothpaste. But it had another smell to it. It was very subtle, she could have easily mistaken it, but she didn't. Its scent was familiar, but it was nice. She back away from the potion and pushed it towards Malfoy. Even though he didn't do a single thing, it was still their project, so she allowed him to smell it.
He sniffed it and he could feel himself relaxing. It smelled of the cookies his mother would make him when he was young and it also smelled like the air after a storm. He smelled something new, also. Something he had not detected since the last time he had smelled it. It smelled of berries and peaches? Huh. That was weird. It was Granger's smell. Probably her shampoo. He accidentally leaned in so close that his amulet made contact with the surface of the potion. He was alarmed for a second, but he shrugged it off. It's not like it was a human being, it wouldn't do anything. He wiped it with his robes and chose not to think about that matter. He turned his attention back to the potion. Why was the smell familiar?
Draco leaned in to sniff Hermione's hair before he could stop himself. Hermione froze when she saw Malfoy leaning into her. He sniffed her hair and then, sniffed the potion. He tried to tell himself that the smell was different, yet it was not. The smell added to his urge to hold her. He looked at her and saw that she was staring right back at him with a bewildered expression on her face. He realized what he did. He had inhaled her scent. He knew it and she knew it.
"That never happened, agreed?" he held out his hand. She took it and agreed. They made a silent pact to never talk about it. The two heads' amulets glimmered under the lights of the room, which only added to their glow.
Unfortunately, they weren't the only people who was aware of Draco Malfoy's accidental slip. Ron and Harry were aware, too. They had grown used to watching Hermione, mainly because she had the answers, but also because Malfoy was close to her. There was no telling what he would attempt to do to Hermione. It took all of Ron's willpower to stop himself from hexing Malfoy, and Harry had this weird feeling in his chest and it was not pleasant. It told him to march over there and punch Malfoy. Harry did not give into its order to hurt Malfoy, he would love an excuse to take points off Gryffindor.
Hermione raised her hand and told Professor Slughorn that she was finished with the potion.
"We are finished with the potion." Draco corrected with a smirk. Hermione glowered at him. He had done nothing! He had no right to be included! She barely managed to restrain herself from choking Malfoy and she smiled sweetly at him.
"Sorry, wasn't aware you were there." she shot back. Slughorn raised his eyebrows and checked to see if the potion was correct. He declared it 'superb' and Hermione glowed at the complement.
There was a loud boom. Everyone turned to where the noise had come from, and Neville was looking at the floor guiltily. "Sorry." he said meekly, when Professor Slughorn frowned at the odd substance splattered on the floor. His partner, Elizabeth Burke, hit his head and Neville winced. Malfoy snickered and Hermione rushed to help Neville. With a swish flick of her wand, Neville's shirt turned clean and she made the mess on the floor disappear. Neville muttered a thanks to her and sat down on his chair sheepishly.
After Slughorn dismissed them, Hermione turned to the door to hurry to her next class. She was walking down the moving stairs to Transfiguration when a hand latched on to her shoulder and spun her around. She found herself looking into Draco Malfoy's grey eyes. And with one swift motion, he put his lips on hers.
Thanks for reading! If you have any ideas on what should happen, or what you want, please feel free to leave a review! Or you can just leave a review. Oh great I sound like one of those needy writers. Sorry :) 'Till next time!