Title
Among the Serpents
Chapter 2
By
Adrienne Black
Seven years had passed since the night of Hermione's sorting, and we find the young woman in bed at six o'clock in the morning. She awoke with a startle as she heard a door slam, just outside her own. "Damn it Potter" she grumbled, placing her bare feet on the cold stone floor. She and Harry Potter, head boy and head girl, shared a dormitory. Wonder boy Potter was her bloody roommate. She was still revolted by the idea. Hermione got herself fully out of bed, with every intention of getting dressed and giving Potter a piece of her mind when she heard a few girlish giggles.
Gagging, Hermione pulled out her emerald and silver robes and began to get dressed. They were extremely unorthodox, instead of the cute little school girl uniforms Hogwarts originally required, her al-fit was entirely too short and much too low, baring most of her chest. She smirked while slipping it on, it attracted an uncalled for amount of attention. First was the green and black pleated skirt, which ended six inches above her knee, next the emerald stripped button-up blouse, top four buttons undone with a black bra underneath, then the silver and emerald tie which she couldn't very well alter much. Then on went a black blazer, covered with patches and writing she had done to modify it a bit. It fit her much better now. The Professors wouldn't dare say anything to her, after-all she was top of class and it didn't harm anyone.
Hermione would, well could, never tell anyone how smart she really was. It just wouldn't be accepted in her case. Sure, other Slytherins could be the head of the class and no one would think twice, but not her. She wasn't entirely sure why she felt the need to be secretive about her grades, but she did nonetheless. She didn't tell people a lot of things, but probably the most important one is that she was a 'mudblood' as so many called it. She often tried to tell herself they wouldn't care, but she knew better. She had been in the Slytherin house to long to trust the people in it. Sometimes, Hermione would catch herself wondering if the sorting hat put her in the correct house. Perhaps she would have been better suited for Ravenclaw? Or, she hated to think it, but Gryffindor even.
The witch walked across the room, her bare feet meeting a plush white carpet. She took another quick look at her sleeping quarters. It was the most gorgeous bedroom she had ever seen. It was decorated in green, white and silver, her house colors. Her king size, four poster bed was made of an astonishingly rare white wood she could not name, it's sheets were a silver silk with a butter like green comforter. The curtains she could close around the bed were also green, but with an silver elfish swirling design embroidered on them.
She moved her gaze to the other piece of furniture present in her room. There was a breathtaking vanity made of the same white wood. There were three floor length mirrors, with leaves carved into the top section of all three. Attached to the outer mirrors were two tables that served to hold things, each with an assortment of drawers and cabinets. In front of the middle mirror was a stool with green velvet upholstery. Not too far down the wall was another white piece of furniture, this one an enormous wardrobe, with carved designs matching the ones on the curtains and the mirrors. Other furniture included a flat-against-the-wall water fall, a comfy green velvet couch, loveseat and easy chair, and a couple of white tables. The best part about the room, in Hermione's opinion, was the French doors leading to an ancient vine covered balcony.
She made her way to the vanity and swiped on some mascara and eyeliner, throwing a bit of blush on her pale complexion. She wasn't naturally pale of course, nor was her hair naturally straight and black. She used a few quick spells to adapt her appearance to the stereotypical Slytherin, being a fairly advanced witch it wasn't that complicated for her to make them permanent. She tossed her shiny ebony hair a bit in the mirror giving it a sleek messy look, and headed out to deal with Potter.
There was the filthy Gryffindor, snogging some red-haired girl going by Ginny in the middle of the hall. Hermione rolled her eyes and cleared her throat. It really was rather rude to be practically shagging someone in public. The two hormonal teenagers either didn't hear Hermione or decided to ignore her. Either way, she was frustrated.
"Oh
enough, get a hold of yourselves, honestly," she spat. Sure enough,
that got their attention and they stopped. The girl shot pure daggers
at Hermione.
"Oh don't you have a tea party to attend? Well,
off with you!" The girl gave one last loathing look at Hermione
before kissing Harry and scampering off.
"That wasn't rude at all."
"Oh, and waking people up with your obnoxious snogging is?"
Hermione shoved passed Potter, down the spiral staircase and into the spacious Head girl/boy's common room. Harry followed her in a silence that didn't last long.
"It doesn't concern you what I do in my own quarters, and I'd appreciate if we kept it that way," Harry stated firmly.
"Your right it doesn't concern me, or at least it wouldn't if you'd do it in private"
"Why? Don't like to see me with someone else, is that it? Jealous?," He said rather cockily advancing toward Hermione, pinning her against the wall, one arm on either side of her neck.
"Oh please, that was a pathetic attempt even for you," she started, pushing him off of her, or at least trying to push him off of her. His seven years of quidditch made Harry very toned, and very strong. She snorted in frustration and brought her icy glare up to Potter's gaze. "I think you should get off of me" she continued, making sure to sound threatening. Although this sounded easy enough, at the moment, so close to Potter with his scent filling her nostrils, it wasn't quite that easy.
Potter paused for a second, obviously thinking over her open-ended threat and apparently decided not to risk it. He moved back, grabbed his bag and exited the room, leaving Hermione with her back against the wall.
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"What in the hell is taking her so bloody long?" Drawled the annoyed voice of Draco Malfoy, Hermione's boyfriend, well maybe you wouldn't exactly call it that, it was much to complicated for a label.
"Relax, Draco, she'll be here," came the nonchalant voice of Blaise Zabini.
"Oh shut up Zabini," snapped Malfoy, taking his comment as an order, something that didn't fair well with Malfoy.
Blaise shrugged, apparently accustomed to this treatment, and went back to his book. The two boys had been waiting in the Slytherin common room for Hermione for ten minutes. What was taking her so long was a mystery to them. Blaise suggested on several like occasions that they could just go down to the Great Hall without her. Draco however, disagreed.
Draco, although he would never admit it, was practically in love with Hermione. She had some strange hold over him, this sickened Blaise and further fed to his hatred of the manipulative tramp. Malfoy was also an extremely jealous man, and knew that Hermione was the most wanted girl in Hogwarts. His extreme jealously was the cause of their being late to class, any meals, Hogsmead visits or any other social events, for he didn't want her to be off alone doing 'God knows what, with God knows who', as he explained to Blaise so many times.
After another five minutes Hermione entered the common room, kissing Draco and sneering at Blaise. However much Blaise hated Hermione, she hated him three times more.
"There you are Hermione, well it took you a goddamned lifetime to get down here. Was snogging Potter keeping you or something?" At Blaise's comment he received horrifyingly dark looks from both Draco and Hermione, he didn't much care though.
"Blaise you say one more thing and I'm going to.." Draco started but was cut off by Hermione.
"Oh don't worry babe, he just wishes it was him," she replied, smirking.
"I think snogging a decaying moose would be a little more pleasant."
All she did was smirk as Draco draped an arm around her shoulders. He hated that about her. He hated that she knew exactly when keeping quiet would piss him off the most. He glared at her, receiving only a sickeningly sweet smile in return. God she was annoying, if only Draco could see that.
They walked out of the dungeons together and in silence made their way into the Great Hall. As they entered almost all eyes turned to them, it was 6:45 am so needless to say, not too many students were there. It was clear who they were looking at, and Draco was no idiot. He slid his hand down to Hermione's waist and pulled her closer to him. Blaise thought this to be a rather over-protective thing to do, but he didn't dare say anything. They sat down in their usual seats in the middle of the Slytherin table near Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson, who was insanely jealous of Hermione. As soon as they sat down, Pansy began to fawn over Hermione saying things like "Wow Hermione you look great this morning" and "Do you want my crème puff, it's the last one?" Hermione barley acknowledged Pansy and focused all her attention on running a hand up and down Draco's thigh.
"Pansy, why don't you just pluck one of her hairs and take some Polyjuice potion, then you could just masturbate to the fucking mirror!" Blaise finally spat with disdain toward the girl. She cringe and looked on the verge of tears, looking down at her plate muttering "I was just trying to be nice…" When Hermione said nothing in her defense she sulked away, leaving more than ¾ of her food untouched.
"Was that really necessary Zabini?"
"Yes Granger I found it very necessary"
"Why because she didn't spew insults at me whenever I looked at her?"
"No because she worships the ground you walk on, and it's bloody fucking annoying!"
Hermione simply rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Draco.
