disclaimer- since i forgot last time, not mine. if it was, it wouldn't be here. only own Autumn and Raven.
A/N btw, if you don't really like anything about gays, i warn you now to leave. there is no girl on girl action or guys doing stuff or any of that sort, but it does get implied about people liking each other. no action, but there's still that attraction. oh, and thoughts are in italics.
A/N thanks to jessierose85, Aussie Panda, adalis and all you others for putting my story on story alert. thanks jessierose85 and Aussie Panda for reviewing my story. OK----- sideways person!
Chapter Two New Surprises
"Firs' years, over here," Hagrid's voice boomed out. Harry, Ron and Hermione all beamed up at him and walked to where the carriages were.
"Hey Hermione," Lavender squealed. Hermione looked back and saw Lavender running towards her and the Patil twins were following behind. "You boys don't mind if we steal her?" Lavender asked. They shook their heads but she was already dragging Hermione away.
"Don't know why she asked," Ron muttered. Harry shrugged and said something that sounded like 'girls'.
Hermione, Lavender and the twins sat in another carriage.
"So," Lavender's eyes were glowing in excitement, "Guess what the Patil twins heard?" she asked Hermione.
"I don't know," Hermione shrugged.
"Well, they heard from Susan Bones, who heard from her aunty that there's going to be a Yule Ball this year," she squealed in excitement.
Hermione looked at them, surprised, and then all four girls started squealing in excitement.
"Are you serious?" she laughed. Lavender nodded her head and Hermione laughed. "This'll be fun."
They got to Hogwarts and hopped off, walking into the Great Hall. The younger of the Patil twins waved goodbye and headed off to the Ravenclaw table while the rest went to the Gryffindor table.
When Harry and Ron got there, they sat down across from them and tried to keep up with what they were saying. After two minutes of laughter they gave up.
Ron looked over to the Slytherin's table and watched Draco watch Hermione.
Is he, he looked closer, is he really smiling?
At that moment, Draco looked at him, scowling. His eyes were the same steely gray that they always were.
Naw, must've been my imagination.
"Boot, Terrence," Professor McGonagall called out.
Oh wow, when did they start? Ron thought to himself.
"RAVENCLAW!" the hat called out. "Bott, Marie,"
"HUFFLEPUFF!" The Hufflepuff table cheered for their new addition.
The list went on.
"I swear the kids are getting shorter every year," Ron said to Harry after Pritchard, Graham (Slytherin) was called.
Harry smothered a laugh.
"I wish they would hurry up," Ron moaned, "I'm so hungry I could eat a hippogriff."
Dumbledore finally stood up and a silence swept across the Great Hall.
"To all the old students, welcome back. To the new ones, welcome. Now I have some surprises for you," he smiled and then suddenly, a door to his right opened and out walked the strangest man anyone had ever seen.
"This is his new job?" Hermione heard George whisper to Fred.
"Ah," Dumbledore smiled at the man and looked back at his students. "Everyone, please join me in welcoming this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." His clap echoed around the hall, seeing as how the staff clapped very politely and the students just sat there staring at him in wonderment and shock.
The man had an electric blue eye that was apparently made of glass and seemed to look around everywhere and then one normal blue eye. His nose seemed to be missing chunks from it and they could hear the dull *thunk* of his peg leg.
"Merlin, is that Mad Eye Moody?" Ron asked.
"You bet," the Weasley twins laughed.
"Now then, where did I leave off?" Dumbledore said. "Ah yes. I have some surprises in store for you. First, let us give a warm welcome to two students who have transferred here from Beauxbatons. Miss Autumn Malfoy and Miss Raven Zabini. They are both in their third year and I hope that you will show these lovely girls around."
Everyone clapped, a bit surprised, as the two girls walked to the Slytherin table. Their hairs were matching lengths, reaching to mid-back, and one was a platinum blonde while the other had a Snow white black.
"Give you two guesses as to who's Malfoy and which one is the Zabini," Ron snickered softly.
"My next surprise is that this year we will be visited by two other wizarding schools," a murmur rose up at this and Dumbledore merely held his hands up. "Uhp uhp. I cannot tell you as of now why, but it will be the illustrious Beauxbatons Academy and the notorious Durmstrang students." Some of the teens snickered at this and a few rolled their eyes. "As the events that shall occur because of these two schools, it has come to my attention that there is a possibility that many of you will stay at the school. If that becomes the case, we will have our very first Secret Santa exchange."
At this, several of the half bloods and muggle born witches and wizards gasped in surprise and excitement. The Slytherin table groaned at this unexpected turn of events, having a brief knowledge of what this muggle activity was. The rest of the students on the other hand, merely looked around confused.
Dumbledore smiled and put his hands up, causing the Great Hall to die down. "More of this shall be explained later just in case our guests choose to participate in them. And now, let us eat!" He waved his arms and the tables were soon filled with food.
"Finally," Ron sighed and seemed to attack the food, scarfing things down quickly.
"It's like he's completely barbaric," Hermione whispered to Harry as they watched their friend easily polish off two plate serving of food. Harry laughed and scooped some food onto his plate.
"Better hurry up before he finishes everything," he told Hermione. With that, she laughed and took a little bit of the roast.
The hall was filled with the sound of children of all ages laughing and talking. Draco looked around and sighed mentally. Everything seemed so much lighter and wonderful now that he had Hermione back in his life. Having his sister at his side was a pleasant surprise, but he just hoped that Raven would find someone other than her to hang out with. All Autumn could do was break peoples hearts and Raven was to special for that. She needed someone who could match her eccentricity and also bring out her fun side whenever she was down.
"Let's go," Autumn said, getting up and others following her. Draco shook his head slightly and got up reluctantly. He felt a warm pressure in his head and he looked over to where Hermione was. She smiled at him and a slow smile crept up on him.
"Come on lover boy," Raven giggled and tugged him away.
Harry had just finished explaining the concept of Secret Santa to the Weasleys and Ron groaned in horror.
"If you ask me," George said, "I think this could be a very pleasant way of getting the person you like to notice you and to get them to fall for you."
The girls heard this and they collapsed into a fit of giggles.
"Well, everyone," Dumbledore's voice boomed across the hall, "I hope you have eaten and drunken to your hearts content. And in so, I bid you all a good night. Don't forget to come get your schedules tomorrow in the morning."
At this, the prefects stood up and called out to the first years so that they would follow them out to the dormitories.
Hermione, Parvarti and Lavender got up together and walked away, leaving the boys behind.
"Hermi-" Harry cut Ron off.
"Just let her go," he told him. Ron sighed and muttered something under his breath, but resumed walking.
"I can't believe this," Lavender squealed. "Fred or George or whichever one it was is so totally right. Of course, if we get that one guy we like, we can totally make them fall for us."
Hermione smiled as she watched the two witches squeal, but inside, she couldn't help but feel slightly crushed. Who would ever like her? Bookworm Granger? Guys liked girls like Lavender or Parvarti or even Ginny who focused on their looks. Was it her fault that she wanted to have a good life and get the top grades so that all the doors would be open to her? Of course, she couldn't really blame them. It wasn't her fault that most boys' bodies and brains at this age was completely hormone driven. Of course they would want to have some piece of meat in front of them to drool over. Because that's all the girls were pretty much to them. Pieces of meat.
She sighed and took out her pajamas from her trunk.
"Hey Hermione, who would you want to get you as their person that they would have to give presents to?" Parvarti asked her.
"Oh, um," she looked around and thought furiously about the guys that she knew. Nathaniel would be a bad choice since they had gone out before and that hadn't really worked out very well for them. It hadn't helped that she had spent most of her time with Draco and Nathaniel had gotten extremely jealous over their friendship. But maybe now… she shook her head mentally and cast that thought aside. "I really don't care. I mean, there's no one I really pay attention to or that would like me."
Parvarti snorted lightly and Lavender rolled her eyes.
"Hermione," Lavender said, flopping down on her bed, "maybe if you opened your eyes, then you would see that you are your own beautiful. One that puts the other girls looks to shame. Maybe, if you let us do some light make up, we could make something of you yet."
Hermione smiled and shrugged.
"If you guys want to, of course," she told them. At this, the two girls gasped in amazement and then threw themselves into Project: Hermione. Hermione smiled briefly at them and then went back to her trunk to get her books, parchment homework and school bag out.
Somebody knocked on the door and Hermione looked up. She could tell already that the other two witches were simply going to ignore it and so she got up and went to open it.
"Hey Mione," Ginny stood there.
"Oh, hullo Ginny," Hermione said, smiling.
"Um, I think there's someone waiting for you outside the portrait." Ginny told her. "I couldn't see who was standing because they're just standing in the dark away from all the portraits so, nobody has a clue it is."
"Oh," she simply said and then quickly grabbed her cloak and headed out the door. She ran down the stairs and passed by the common room. She stifled a giggle at Ron's face.
"Hello," she whispered once she got out of the portrait and slowly walked towards the shadows. A hand shot out and pulled her in even further. She gasped and then she felt herself get pressed tightly to the other person.
They stood there for awhile and she didn't move much.
"Come with me," he whispered and Hermione relaxed mentally when she recognized Draco's voice. He slinked his arm around her waist and she leaned on him slightly. They walked up the stairs, making sure that no one would catch them and soon they were in front of the room of requirement. Draco thought to himself we need somewhere to be alone. A door appeared and Hermione tugged on Draco's robe. He opened his eyes and they walked in. inside was a beautiful room with plush beanbags, couches and loveseats.
"Really Draco?" Hermione giggled at the sight of the loveseats.
"I said we wanted to be comfortable," he muttered, embarrassed that the room had taken his request a little further than he expected.
"I'm very flattered," she teased and sat down on one of the bean bags.
"You wish," he laughed and pushed her off.
"Hey!" she exclaimed and rolled back up. She tackled him down and a mattress came out of nowhere and broke their fall. Draco then proceeded to tickle her mercilessly. Finally, after two minutes, Draco let her go and got up.
"I miss this," she said.
Draco rolled his eyes and looked at her.
"You miss sneaking around your friends' backs just so you could hang out with me?" he snorted. "And breaking curfew just so we could get some time to get away from everyone else?"
Hermione looked at him, gasping as if she were insulted and hit him lightly on his arm.
"Draco Malfoy, are you questioning my statement?" she asked, feigning hurt.
"Why Miss Granger, I do believe I am," he smirked. Hermione grabbed a pillow off of one of the couches and threw it at him. Draco had been looking around and didn't see it coming at him until it hit him. The next thing he knew, pillows everywhere were flying towards him.
"AHH!" he screamed and jumped off the bed. Hermione laughed as she watched him run around. He then ran right into her and all the pillows plummeted down towards them.
"Draco!" she screamed in surprise and tried to move before the pillows fell, but Draco had her pinned down. Finally, after the dust settled, a huge portion of the pillows flew up in the air in an explosion. Draco's hand was in the air, wand in hand.
He got up and helped Hermione up. They both couldn't stop smiling and walked to the couches sitting next to each other.
"I missed you, you know," he said. "It frustrated me, not being able to talk to you. And you know, by the way, that punch really hurt my nose. I think you almost broke it."
"Well, you had to be brought down a notch," Hermione laughed. "I didn't realize how egotistical and heinous you were going to become without me reminding you that you aren't all that."
Draco rolled his eyes and pushed her a little.
"We still can't really be friends, can we?" she suddenly asked, her voice dropping.
"No, not quite yet," Draco told her, grabbing her hand. "But it's more for your safety than anything else. Imagine all the hate mail that witches and wizards everywhere would send you. All the glares that you would get from everyone in here. So no, not when you are Hermione Granger. But perhaps, maybe by the end of this year?"
"Yes, merlin's pants, of course. Because then, everyone will know I'm a pureblood, not a muggle born witch." she grinned mischievously. Draco laughed and leaned back on the couch.
"Why didn't you tell me that Raven and Autumn were transferring here to Hogwarts?" she asked.
"Merlin, woman, you switch topics so bloody fast. How do you expect me to follow you?" he asked. At this, Hermione burst out laughing and couldn't stop for two minutes. "Anyways," Draco continued, "last time I had checked, nothing had been official." he looked up at the time and sighed. "Well, we better go. Wouldn't want to see goody good Granger get in trouble for breaking curfew."
At this, Hermione stuck out her tongue childishly and Draco smirked. He stood up and pulled her up along with him. They quietly made their way to the Gryffindor tower, but made sure to avoid as many portraits as they could.
"Bloody hell, this is becoming more difficult than necessary," Hermione muttered as they stood in the shadows.
"Yeah, well that's what you get when you're friends with the notorious Slytherin prince," Draco snickered.
"Well, I'm glad that we're friends again," she said quietly.
"Me too," Draco reassured her and hugged her tightly before letting her go back to her dormitory. "See you tomorrow," was the last thing she heard as the portrait closed.
Everyone was already asleep and so Hermione walked back to her room as silently as she could in the dark.
The next morning, as everyone stumbled around, getting ready for classes, Ron shuffled over to the bathrooms to wash his face. What had happened on the train kept playing over and over in his mind. Malfoy, tickling his Hermione and pinning her to a corner as if he had any right to be near her. How Hermione could even stand that slimy git's touch was beyond him. Ron shook his head and scowled at his reflection before heading out where Harry and Hermione would be waiting so they could go eat breakfast.
Harry realized that Ron wasn't exactly himself as he walked down the stairs and stared at him.
"Hey Ron, you okay?" he asked him.
"Peachy," he muttered and walked past them. Harry looked at Hermione and she shrugged. With that they followed after Ron and went to the Great Hall.
As they sat there waiting for their schedules, Hermione was jabbering away with one of the sixth year Gryffindor about whether or not she would be ready for the O.W.L.s. Ron noticed that her eyes would flicker to the Slytherin table and then a light pink tinge would travel across her face and she would have to maintain her composure so nobody would notice her smiles.
Finally he got sick of seeing her pretend to cough so no one would see her laugh and turned around to look at the Slytherin table to see what she kept laughing at. When Draco's eyes met Ron's, they became a steely grey and all the warmth drained out of them. Ron simply scowled at him and turned to look at Hermione. She had stopped talking once the Gryffindor had left and was merely looking around the hall.
"If you're done flirting with that piece of scum," he jabbed his thumb behind him in Draco's general direction, "here comes professor McGonagall with our schedules."
Hermione glared at him and then turned around to get her classes. She looked over the paper and nodded before standing up.
"I'll see you later Harry," she said. As she left, she threw a final glare at Ron before leaving.
When she was gone, Harry finally smacked Ron over the head.
"Ow," Ron muttered. "What was that for?"
"You git Ron. Do you want Hermione to hate us?" Harry asked, exasperated. "Remember that she and Malfoy have been friends for quite some time. If you keep insulting him in front of her, what makes you think that she'll stay with us? After all, I'm pretty sure if push comes to shove, she'll choose him over us."
"Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter, your schedules," they turned and saw Professor McGonagall standing behind them. They took the papers in her hand and she tapped them. Instantaneously, their schedules appeared and Harry was pleased to notice that he had the mornings off on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.
"All right, we're in all classes together," Ron said.
"Of course we are," Harry laughed, "the only one who would choose so many classes is Hermione."
They got up and headed to the Gryffindor tower. When they were almost there, Ron groaned in dismay. Harry looked down, thinking that his friend had gotten stuck in one of the steps. When he saw that he didn't, he looked up at him.
"What?" he asked him.
"We have double potions today. And it's with the bloody Slytherins," they sat down once inside the dormitory and Ron kept talking. "You'd think that Dumbledore would quit lumping us together at any given chance. I think he just wants to see which House tries to kill the other first."
Harry laughed at this and nearly choked when he swallowed the wrong way.
"I still can't believe that Malfoy is really not fighting with us or bothering us," was all Harry could say, because that was honestly all he could think about.
"Who cares," Ron scowled, "that's just one Slytherin. We still have to deal with all the other ones. Plus, he's only being nice to us so he can get on Hermione's good side. They say that they're just friends, but I can tell that Malfoy wants more."
"Ron, you're starting to sound like a jealous, overbearingly, protective boyfriend," Harry said, "and no it's not cute."
"Well so sue me," he muttered lowly so Harry wouldn't hear him.
"I'm just going to go get my stuff and then we can head over to Herbology," Harry said and ran over to the boys' rooms. Two minutes later, he came back and they made their way down to Greenhouse three. As they walked over, two things kept intruding his mind. First was that he was wondering if Sirius was okay and whether or not he had received his last letter. Second, he couldn't help but think that Malfoy's truce was some awful trap that the Slytherins had set up to lower his guard.
Really have to see if Malfoy is being 100% honest with us. But I also have to do it when Hermione isn't around or she's going to think that I'm questioning his word, he sighed and then realized that everyone was handing in the homework that had been assigned to them over the summer. Harry dug around his bag, looking for it.
Hermione sighed and summoned with a flick of her wand. Harry grinned sheepishly and took it. She simply rolled her eyes, but Harry had caught her small smile. She turned and kept talking to Lavender.
Outside, coming out of the castle, a few 7th year Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors made their way to Greenhouse three to help the 4th years. Cedric was talking to his friend Liam, who then jabbed his elbow into his side and pointed at the girls once they got in. He scowled at him, but his friend was watching the girls. Cedric rolled his eyes and was going to say something about his friend's stupidity until one of the Gryffindor girls caught his eye. She had wavy hair that was slightly frizzy and yet bouncy nonetheless. She turned around, so that she was now facing him and he felt his jaw drop.
The gorgeous 4th year was none other than Hermione Granger. Professor Sprout paired them up and he found himself partnered with Hermione.
'Hello," she said when he was next to her, "I'm-"
"Hermione Granger," Cedric said. "I know you. We met briefly at the World Cup."
"Oh that's right," she laughed.
"Okay everyone," professor Sprout said. "In front of you are Bubotubers. They need squeezing and you will collect the pus-"
"What?!" said Seamus, sounding disgusted.
"The pus, Mr. Finnigan," she said sharply. "It's extremely valuable, so don't waste it. You will collect them in these bottles, oh and wear your dragon hide gloves. The pus can do funny things to the skin when undiluted."
With that, she let them begin and they started squeezing the pus out.
"So, how did you like the World Cup?" Cedric asked Hermione.
"Well, apart from the attack, it was quite enjoyable. Ginny and I walked around the campsite and hung out with some friends that we saw there. You?"
Cedric laughed, "Well, I hung out with the Weasley twins and Oliver Wood. Lost a fair amount of my money to them."
"Why?" Hermione asked, confused.
"Well, we made a bet and I really thought I could've won. Especially with the outrageous bet that the twins made, but," he shrugged his shoulders.
"Oh," Hermione said, everything making sense now and they both started laughing. Professor Sprout headed over to them and exclaimed, "Mr. Diggory, Miss Granger, stop this infernal racking and finish what you're doing."
Cedric winked at Hermione and looked up at his professor.
"We just need one more," he told her, and with that, Hermione squeezed the last Bubotuber and Cedric caught the pus. Professor Sprout merely threw her hands up in defeat and walked away.
She clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.
"On oct 28th, your reports on the uses of Bubotubers' pus will be due," she told them. And with that, they were dismissed. The 4th year Gryffindors headed towards Hagrid's hut and the Hufflepuffs headed back to the castle.
"So, I guess I'll see you around," Cedric said, waving bye to her. Hermione nodded in agreement and went over with her friends.
Ron and Harry both were waiting for her, Ron looking a bit frustrated and red in the face. She smiled at them and ignored Ron's annoyed look. They went over to their spot and waited for the Slytherins to come from whatever class they had been in.
"Who was your partner, Mione?" Harry asked her.
"Yeah, you two looked real chummy in there," Ron snapped. Hermione glared at him and answered Harry's question.
"Cedric. We met him and his father in the summer when we went to the Worlds Cup," Hermione said.
"Oh yeah, that's right," Harry nodded. "Well, I got this guy, Liam. He seemed pretty cool."
As Harry finished talking, all the Slytherins passed them, being led by Draco. When Draco passed Hermione, he flashed her a quick smile and she looked down, smiling. Ron glared at him and Harry simply pretended not to notice anything. Before Ron could explode at them, Hagrid came out.
"All right, I've partnered you lot up, Slytherins and Gryffindors. I don't wanna hear no complain or nothing," he said. "Bulstrode, Potter. Weasley, Zabini. Crabbe, Patil. Goyle, Thomas. Parkinson, Finnigan. Greengrass, Longbottom. Malfoy, Granger," he continued down the list. Draco headed over to Hermione, Ron went over to Blaise and Harry sat next to Millicent. Draco began talking lowly to Hermione, occasionally making her smother a laugh so no one would notice.
"You'd think he's in love with her," Ron said, revolted at the thought. Blaise glared at him.
"You know nothing," he hissed at Ron. "You've never seen what they went through. It hurt him to know that he couldn't talk to her anymore," he muttered something that Ron didn't catch.
"What?" Ron asked.
"Nothing," Blaise snapped. "Just shut up and don't talk about what you don't know."
Ron just gaped at him, his mouth opening and closing, making him look like a fish. He then scowled and resumed watching Malfoy and Hermione. Then he felt a punch on his shoulder.
"Bloody hell, what was that for?" he asked.
"We're supposed to be feeding these stupid, useless things, and you're just standing there like an idiot," Blaise growled. Ron glared at him and picked up an ant egg and threw it at the…
What did Hagrid say these were called? Ron thought. Suddenly about 5 people started screaming.
"Ergh, Hagrid, the end just exploded," Lavender screamed.
"Oh, well, what d'ya think they call 'em Blast ended Skrewts for? It ain't for nothing," Hagrid told her. "Anyways, some of 'em got a sorta sucker thing to try and suck your blood. I reckon those are the females. I guess the males are the ones with stingers."
By the time the lesson ended, every student went running off to their next class as fast as they could.
As Ron and Harry went towards Divination, Hermione waved goodbye and headed towards the library.
"This can't be good," Ron murmured. Harry turned in time to see four Slytherins following her. They were Draco, Blaise, Autumn and Raven.
A/N i might not be able to upload everyday, but i'll try to keep it close together. hope you liked this chapter. OK]8