(A/N) I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update - I'm doing year 12 at the moment so school work can sometimes take over, but here's the next chapter, thanks for your reviews - enjoy!
The next morning, being a Saturday, Hermione shoved her usual weekend gear of jeans and sweaters back into her drawer and opted instead for a pair of grey skinny leg's, a black skivvy and a white cardigan that she left open. That Backstreet Boys song yesterday had put her in a good mood and she wasn't about to waste it.
She tied her hair up in a messy ponytail (something she hadn't done in what felt like years) and applied a thin layer of natural make up before slipping downstairs so as not to wake the other girls.
Downstairs in the common room she met Ron and Harry, and together they went down to the Great Hall for an early breakfast. Both boys were oddly quiet and Hermione was forced to carry the conversation, resorting to Quidditch in an attempt to hear their usual chatter. When they reached the first floor, Harry turned to her.
"Hey, Hermione, um, what's going on?" he asked awkwardly.
It took her a moment to realise, but Hermione quickly discovered he was talking about her appearance. "Oh, I just, you know, felt like a change. I mean, if I keep wearing that blue sweater it's going to develop some serious holes."
"Oh, right."
After that, both Harry and Ron launched into a play-by-play re-enactment of their last Quidditch match against Hufflepuff where Ron made quite a spectacular save and Harry caught the snitch in record time, leaving Hermione to her thoughts. As she reached the bottom of the staircase that opened onto the Entrance Hall, a bunch of Slytherins came through the doorway leading to the dungeons. At the head of the pack was none other than Draco Malfoy.
Immediately, the words 'If you want it to be good girl, get yourself a bad boy' swam through Hermione's head. She watched Draco glide across the Entrance Hall, admired the way his hair tossed when he laughed and the way his clothes showed off his defined Seeker's body.
"Hermione!"
It was only then that she realised she'd been standing there staring, mouth slightly open, at Draco Malfoy of all people. She blushed, glancing at Ron and Harry who were giving her curious looks before turning her attention to Draco and his posse who had stopped walking and were also staring at her.
"What's wrong, Granger? Never seen someone as good-looking as me before?" Draco called across the hall to raucous laughter from the Slytherins. It was then that he noticed the way she was dressed and he slowly took this different Hermione in, eyes wide.
She blushed even deeper, if possible, at his words, but raised her head high. "Actually Malfoy, I was staring in shock at the idea of you having friends. But we can't expect a heartless ferret like yourself to understand the difference between emotions, can we?" she said in a voice much braver than she felt. Having said that, she turned and followed Harry and Ron into the Great Hall where she collapsed onto a seat shaking.
"What on earth was that about?" Ron demanded, sitting down across from her. He slid some bacon onto his plate followed by a large serving of eggs before looking up expectantly at her.
"I don't know, I – I just got lost in a daydream, I guess, and Malfoy happened to walk into my line of sight," Hermione lied through her teeth, avoiding both her friend's attention by spreading a piece of toast with jam. She took a bite and was relieved to hear Harry grumbling about his homework; she got away with it this time.
Lavender walked past the trio, humming the Backstreet Boys song lowly. Just hearing the tune was enough to drag Hermione's eyes away from her breakfast so that they could lock onto the one person at Hogwarts whom she should not be associating this song with.
Draco sat facing her, picking at the buttered muffin he had in front of him. Around him, the other Slytherins chatted away and ate, yet he remained silent and seemed content to listen to the conversation Pansy Parkinson was currently having with Blaise Zabini.
"It's going to be wild!" Hermione heard Ron distantly exclaim to Harry.
I bet Malfoy's wild, she thought to herself. Unbidden lyrics from the night before flowed through her mind – 'If you want it to be wild, gotta know just who to dial baby'. Shut up, she scolded herself, it's just a stupid song.
She seemed unable to tear her eyes away from her sworn enemy, so in the end she jumped to her feet, knocking over a pitcher of pumpkin juice and little Colin Creevey who happened to be passing by at that moment in the process. She announced something about urgent Head Girl business she had just remembered and rushed through the doors of the Great Hall where she ran smack into Parvati Patil.
"Oh, Hermione, I'm sorry!" Parvati said breathlessly. Her eyes were shining and her cheeks were tinged with red. "You'll never believe what just happened! I was walking down the stairs and I passed Dean Thomas and suddenly that song from last night, that one by the Backstreet Boys, came into my head. And now…now I just can't stop thinking about him."
"What?" Hermione couldn't help exclaiming. Hadn't this been exactly what had happened to her earlier with Draco Malfoy?
"It's just so weird," Parvati continued as if Hermione had never spoken, "I mean, it's not like a song can make you just like someone. Anyway, is Lavender in there? I need to tell her about this!" And she hurried off without even waiting for an answer.
Parvati's right, Hermione thought to herself as she ascended the staircase, a song can't make you like someone…can it? She was snapped out of her thoughts by a scream and a loud crash in the corridor ahead. She ran towards the source of the noise and found herself face to face with Susan Bones of Hufflepuff. Susan was white as a ghost and at her feet lay, what used to be, a box of glass objects.
"Susan?" Hermione asked tentatively, "Are you ok?"
"There was a – a man here!" Susan whispered, "He was just standing there, in the corner, I came out from the hidden staircase when I saw him. He looked at me, but I couldn't see him, it was like his hood was empty."
Hermione's first thought was Dementers, but surely someone would have noticed all the happiness being sucked out of the castle had this been the case.
"And then he just disappeared, like a ghost. But he was solid, I'm sure of it," Susan continued. By now she had some colour back in her cheeks and she was able to speak normally.
It didn't take a genius to know that Dementers couldn't just disappear at whim and nor were they completely solid. "I think I need to take you to the Headmaster, or at least one of the teachers," Hermione said, moving into responsible-Head-Girl mode, "You need to report what happened in case it happens again." She pointed her wand at the broken glass on the floor, muttered reparo, and a dozen potion vials zoomed back into their box.
As she led Susan back towards the Great Hall where the teachers and, presumably, Dumbledore were still breakfasting, Hermione couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. And the stare which she felt on her back was distinctly familiar. Its piercing cold-heartedness screamed only one name: Malfoy.
(A/N) I thought the story would seem too smutty if it was purely about a sudden physical relationship between Draco and Hermione so I thought I'd ease them into it by introducing a parallel story - this weird 'ghost' patrolling the hallways of Hogwarts!! Hope you liked the chapter, I promise I'll try and update asap!