Chapter Four
First day jitters
A pillow being thrown across the room to land on her face, was the first thing Hermione woke up to this morning. She groaned and threw the pillow back to it's sender, and she smirked when an oomph came out of the mouth of Alice Burke, a short haired brunette with blue eyes, who was one of Hermione and Lily's other dorm mates, after the pillow hit her. "What's with the pillow fight?" Mary McDonald asked as she sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Her mid length blonde hair was a mess of curls that she was batting away from her face.
"I wanted to wake Hermione up. Her snoring was driving me crazy." Explained Alice, with a sleepy smile. Hermione sat up and glared at Alice. "I do not snore." Lily looked at her best friend. "Yes you do Mione." Hermione raised a brow, and turned her head to the bed next to her. "Eh tu Lily?" Lily just giggled and Hermione simply rolled her eyes. Last night had been crazy exciting.
After Hermione had escaped the boys, she entered the girls dormitory and heard laughter coming from all her new roommates. They all looked at her, and smiled, as Lily pulled on her arm, to join in on all the fun. "So, you're a Black huh?" Mary cocked her head at Hermione, as if she was trying to find something underneath her skin, "Never shared a dorm with wizardry royalty after all."
"What do you mean by royalty?", Lily gave a confused look at Mary, "Hermione's not royalty, are you?" She turned to face Hermione, an eyebrow raised. "Way to go Mary." Hermione muttered underneath her breath. It wasn't that Mary wasn't being honest, Hermione did come from a well known wealthy wizard family, it's just that Hermione didn't want to broadcast it, and have people look at her differently, like Lily was doing now.
Hermione turned and faced Lily with an faint smile on her lips. "Royalty is just a relative term. In the wizard world, the Black family is just one of the prominent and wealthy families that is really well known. To be honest, it's just a big pain in the arse." All the girls giggled at the end of Hermione's sentence, and the laughter helped ebb the awkwardness away from the room. "To be honest Lily, my family isn't the only the world talks about. The Potters for instance. I mean even though the Potter's aren't talked about as much as my family, they went crazy about the gossip when James was born."
"Why? Not that I don't think he's nice and all, I just don't understand the fascination over him." Alice said. "It's because he was the last Potter born, since his father. Most families have more than one member being born within a few years, but with James and his dad, a few decades passed by." Hermione explained. "How do you know so much about Potter's family?" Mary took a bite of her pumpkin pasty, and waited for Hermione to answer. She just waved her hand nonchalantly, "Oh, you didn't know? Before James's mother married her husband, she was a Black. Because of that, my mother made me and Sirius promise to stay away from James and his family."
"Oh, well it looks like you and your brother broke that rule." Lily pointed out with a giggle. Hermione just shrugged and smiled at her red headed friend. "Yeah, well the old bat can't dictate who Sirius and I are friends with. And if she thinks that the two of us are going to stop being friends with James, and Remus for that matter, she has another thing coming."
"Speaking of Remus, he's cute." All the girls turned and looked at Mary, like she had a second head. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" " Nothing. It's just, I don't think I like that fact that you called one of my friends cute." Hermione said with a slight frown. It wasn't that she didn't agree, it's just that Remus was one of her boys. They belonged to her and only her. She wanted to make sure that none of them got hurt.
"Why? I think Sirius is cute." Dorcas Meadows, AKA Cassie, piped up. She had short black hair with green eyes, that mirrored a blade of grass in springtime. Hermione groaned. "uggh Cassie, that's my brother your talking about." Cassie gave Hermione a wicked grin that reminded her of a snake. "Well I could just switch to talk about James. After all, we all know who has a crush on him, don't we Hermione?" "I don't know what your talking about." Hermione denied.
"Oh sweetie, we all know that you do." Lily said in a condescending way that Hermione didn't appreciate. "Oh! Well Lily, I know that you think my brother is cute. You could not stop staring at him when James wanted to talk to me before the two of us came up here." So there, Hermione silently added. The girls could tell that Lily was blushing by the faint red in her cheeks, so they all silently agreed to drop the subject of boys for now. Pretty soon they were getting tired so they all climbed into bed, to dream about the adventures ahead.
That had been last night, and now all five girls were dressed and ready for their first day. "I'm nervous." Lily said, as she hooked arms with Hermione. The four girls looked at her, and nodded their heads in agreement. "I think we're all a little nervous Lily." Hermione told her best friend as they all made their way down to the common room. There were a few older teens lingering about, but the room mostly made of all the young first years, who probably didn't know what the hell to do.
As Hermione and Lily were about to go out the door, with the other girls in front of them, a blur came flying at them, and the next thing both girls knew, was they were being picked up by an overexcited James and Sirius. Remus was trailing behind, giving both girls apologetic smiles. Hermione looked at Remus, as James just held her. "What's with them?" She glanced over at Lily and her brother, and both seemed like they were wondering how this happened. Remus just shrugged at her, as he put his hands in his pockets, that were hidden beneath his school robes.
"They were just too excited I guess to learn magic today. Nutters, both of them." Hermione's lips quirked up in a small smile, that didn't go unnoticed by the boy who had hold of her. "What's so funny Mia?" She looked at him, and raised a brow. "You. Did you have any chocolate this morning? Because you are acting just like Sirius when he's on a sugar high." James just gave her a bright smile that was a little too innocent. "Nope. Not one bite." She looked at Remus, and he just smiled, and held up 10 fingers. Meaning that James had 10 pieces of candy. She trusted Remus to always give her the full picture.
"Let me down Jamie." "No." Hermione frowned and crossed her arms. "No? What do you mean No?" "It's exactly what It meant. I won't let you down. Not until you agree to do something for me." Okay. James had piqued her interest. "Okay. What do you want me to do?" He gave her a lopsided grin, that she was beginning to learn, was nothing but trouble. "Marry me someday."
Hermione froze. Did she just hear what she thought she did, coming from James's mouth? What was going on in that eleven year old's head? She raised her head, and noticed that all of their friends were
staring at her and James. Sirius had even put Lily down and stared at James like he had another head. "What did you just say?" He asked confused, as to why his sister was being proposed to.
James would have shrugged had he let Hermione down. "I asked Mia to marry me someday. It's not a big deal." "Put me down Jamie." Hermione whispered softly, talking only to him. James looked at her, and smiled softly at her, before setting her down on the floor. "You know, your being a bit presumptuous about this James. We just met only but a month ago, and yet you ask me something like that? WE'RE ONLY ELEVEN, YOU BLOODY IDIOT."
Hermione walked over to Lily, grabbed her arm, and dragged her away through the door. She missed Sirius and Remus asking what was wrong with James to act like that. As soon as the other girls caught up with Lily and Hermione, they quickly asked her if she was okay. Hermione slowed down, when they reached the doors to the great hall, and looked at her friends. "I'm okay guys. I just..."
She paused, wondering if she should expose her weakness right now. She felt embarrassed, like he was making fun of their friendship. Hermione never felt like the eleven year old she was. She constantly felt out of place. It was like she was a woman living in a girl's body. Her father always said that she was simply an old soul. Mary touched her arm, and Hermione looked up and saw the gentle smile on Mary's face. "It's okay Hermione. You can tell us."
"It's just even if James and I ended up together someday, my parents would never allow it. Simply because to them, James Potter is a blood traitor, born to a blood traitor family, and they will never allow a precious daughter of the most noble and ancient house of black, marry a blood traitor. It felt like, even though he didn't know, James was just throwing it in my face." Hermione looked inside the great hall where her friends were standing, and even though it felt warming, she never felt as cold and lonely as she did in that moment.
"I may be eleven, but the decisions I make from now on, have very real consequences should I go against my family, my blood, and the will of my parents."
