DISCLAIMER #1: not J.K Rowling... (Neither is Georgia)
DICLAIMER #2: this isn't my story... it's my friend Georgia's... I'm only posting it because her account stuffed up...
A/N: Oh and Georgia IS sorry for the lateness!
Chapter 4
For the second day in a row, fatigue made Hermione so tired; she could hardly concentrate on one thought.
Her walk with Harry had been a nice break from the confusion of the last few days, but she couldn't help but wish she had managed to get some sleep. Not that she could have though; unless she slept in Harry's room with the other boys, and that just felt wrong.
Her first period was Transfiguration and she would get to meet the new teacher. Hermione felt a small spark of excitement light up her insides. She loved meeting new teachers. She squinted at her timetable for her teacher's name. Prof. Roads, it stated.
Hermione felt sorry for Professor Roads and hoped that he'd be a good teacher because having a name that was an actual word, gave way too much purchase for ridicule. Heck, she was Granger and she was laughed at. People thought walking past her in the corridors and dodging out of the way saying "Stranger Danger, careful Granger!" was hilarious.
Hermione laughed at the memory. She was hilarious. She felt a rumbling in her stomach and realised that that late-night snack she had hoped to obtain had never been retrieved.
It was almost three hours till breakfast time in the Great Hall, and then she'd have to wait for it to fill with people. She groped in her pocket for the money she'd put in the night before to find it empty. Where had the money gone? Just great, I'm starving and it must have slipped out of my pocket while climbing the tree! Hermione realised. She felt anger swell inside her. Lavender was going to pay. But how was she going to do it?
Her growling stomach reminded her of her most pressing problem. She was so hungry and tired she would have to go visit the kitchens and be given tons of food. She felt bad using the house-elves like that, but Ron was always doing it, and she didn't think they'd mind much.
So she headed off to the kitchens, tickling the pear in the fruit bowl. She happily entered the warmth of the kitchens and was bombarded by swarms of elves offering her food. She accepted a warm mini quiche and let the elves sit her down and pile a plate high with little treats.
Then, her favourite house-elf of the lot came in. "Miss Granger!" she cried ecstatically.
"Hi Muli," Hermione said enthusiastically.
"Miss Granger hasn't visited Muli in ages! Muli was thinking that Miss Granger had forgotten Muli! Poor, poor old Muli," Muli cried rather dramatically.
"Muli, it's only been a day," Hermione reminded her.
"But you visited Muli on the first day for two years! And then Muli didn't see you for a whole year, and Muli; Muli was thinking that you'd been caught! And then Miss Granger's special friend with the orange hair, told Muli Miss Granger was safe, and Muli was so very happy," Muli said.
"Yeah, it's been a busy year so far," Hermione said and she told Muli all about her first day. Muli's eyes widened in disgust. "Horrid girl!" Muli said shrilly. "Miss Granger must learn to stand up to Brown-head!"
"Actually, Muli, you're right," said Hermione. "Let her tell her mum what she wants. She can't boss me around anymore!" And armed with an armful of biscuits and a strengthened feeling of vindictiveness, Hermione left the kitchen.
Stuffed to the brim with quiches, Hermione decided to skip breakfast, and headed up to her room, armed with a key to her room lent to her by Muli who was given it to clean Hermione's room.
Hermione opened the door and hurried over to the laundry chute, where she put the key down to where Muli was waiting to collect it. Then she turned around to face very disgruntled looking Lavender.
Hermione remembered that if Lavender's plan worked, she should have been stuck in here, but it hadn't. So she forced a triumphant smile on her face and said, "Good morning, Lavvy!" she said cheerfully.
Lavender looked even more upset. "What was that?" she asked suspiciously, pointing at a chute.
"Oh, you must have accidentally locked the door last night, I don't know, sleepwalked or something, and I had to borrow a key from a friend to get in." Hermione chirped.
Lavender frowned. "But how did you get out in the first place?" she asked.
"Sorry, Lavvy, that one's a secret," Hermione winked vicariously at her.
Lavender seemed to shake it off, and had obviously come up with a new plan of attack, because her tone was immediately as sweet as thick, syrupy honey, and her face was plastered with an angelic smile, which looked quite painful actually, from the way her forehead creased with concentration.
"Well, Hermy dearie, I'm so glad you managed such an incredible feat, will you do me a favour after dinner tonight and get me an icy-pole? I'll be a bit too busy to get one myself, you see, what with…stuff," she gushed and then deliberately paused as if Hermione would ask. Hermione snorted internally. Like she would bother asking.
Hermione thought she wouldn't be strong enough to defy Lavender openly, but decided that when Lavender got up from whatever she was doing-probably kissing that Ravenclaw boy she had a picture of on her dresser-she wouldn't find an icy-pole waiting for her. No, in small steps Hermione Granger was going to learn to get rid of Lavender Brown. Starting with a step as small as to refusal to get her an icy-pole.
Just then, there was a click as the door turned and Parvati, using Hermione's key, came skipping into the room, grabbed a biscuit that Hermione had dumped on the free-sample tray earlier, and plonked herself down on Lavender's bed.
"Parvati!" Lavender looked ecstatic. Hermione picked up her free-sample of pumpkin juice, and feeling really thirsty, started drinking it. Muli's lopsided face swam in her head, and suddenly, just as Lavender got up off the bed and knocked her hand, there was a big orange stain flowering outwards from Lavender's bedspread.
There was silence, and it was enough for Hermione to get her thoughts in order, work out what had just happened and then; Lavender gave a shrill scream.
"You awful girl! How dare you do this to me! How dare…my favourite bed sheet…you…you…" anger was making Lavender almost inarticulate with rage. She mouthed a few more words, but no sound came out of her mouth.
It was almost comical, except that Hermione instantly regretted her stand. That was a low thing to do, but Lavender had knocked her hand just as she was contemplating the idea, and so it had happened, without Hermione consciously making the decision herself.
"I'm sorry," Hermione said honestly, because she was, she felt that staining her room-mate's bed sheet was not in-line with what she believed 'right' behaviour, and although she could hear Ginny cheering in her head and begging for her to say something horrible that Lavender deserved, she knew that she really shouldn't have done what she had done; although inside she secretly was glad something was happening against Lavender.
"Oh, my goodness, Lavender, are you okay? What a horrible room-mate you have, I mean look at her just standing there! You would think she'd offer to at least help you or something," Parvati said soothingly and began trying to mop up what pumpkin juice hadn't soaked into Lavender's sheets.
"Ergh! Just clean up my bed sheet, don't make Parvati do it!" ordered Lavender and she flounced off, Parvati in tow, leaving a rather stupefied Hermione standing in the doorway.
"Honestly..." Hermione could hear from behind in the doorway.
Hermione stood there, empty glass in hand, mind still reeling. Once she had gathered her thoughts, she began the internal war in her head.
Just clean it up; you deserve the work for doing that to Lavender.
For some reason Muli and Ginny's voices chimed the response together; united.
She deserved it, just leave it!
No she didn't, not really…
YES SHE DID! SHE FRICKIN' LOCKED YOU OUT!
But I tipped a bucket-load of pumpkin juice down her shirt!
DON'T DO IT, HERMIONE!
Be sensible Hermione, it won't kill you to do it!
HERMIONE GRANGER YOU WANTED TO MAKE A STAND AND NOW YOU HAVE LEAVE IT!
Hermione sighed. She picked up the stained bed sheet and shoved it down the laundry chute. She quietly apologised to Muli for the extra work she was giving her, but for some reason, she felt if Muli found out why it had been done, Muli wouldn't mind.
Hermione collected her books for Transfiguration. Breakfast would end soon, and she wanted to be on time to give Professor Roads a good impression.
She wondered why Lavender hated her so much. I mean, it's not as if she loves Ron anymore, she's busy with that boy from Ravenclaw…Stebbins, wasn't it? She supposed it didn't matter much. Lavender just hated her, and that was that. She shoved the niggling worry at what Lavender would do when she found out that the icy-pole wasn't waiting for her, steeled her determination and walked out of the room, trying to persuade herself that it really wasn't her job to be Lavender's slave. It wasn't a job for anybody!
Hermione tried to change quickly into fresh robes, because she had just realised that her old ones were covered with pumpkin juice. She stuffed them through the laundry chute too. She really wanted to make a good impression and so she grabbed a comb and tried to tame her tangle of hair. It wouldn't hurt if Malfoy noticed a little too…
Hermione laughed at herself. She was really ridiculous! She finished with her hair, straightened it a little so her curls were manageable, and tried not to think of Malfoy as she inserted a pretty shiny plastic red clip to pin back her fringe.
"Don't think of that boy," she muttered, gritting her teeth. But saying it had just made it worse, and Hermione's overactive mind kept drifting off towards him…
Hermione picked up her books and closed the door, putting an Anti-Locking Spell on it so that Lavender couldn't pull any more stupid pranks. Then she headed off to Transfiguration on the third floor.
Hermione sat there and waited. Her other classmates were still finishing off breakfast and so she sat there very bored.
Malfoy waltzed towards her, grey-blue eyes gleaming with good-natured humour; an expression Hermione was only accustomed to from this year. Maybe it was his new freedom; ever since the Dark Lord had gone, the bags underneath his eyes had vanished. He smiled at her; another thing she wasn't used to.
"Hey, where'd you go after you stormed out in the library? Brown step on your toes or what?" he asked conversationally. Of course, Hermione had completely forgotten about the disrupted study time. And she had also forgotten…
"That essay Professor Halliwell set us!" she gasped aloud.
"Hey, don't be so excited over homework-geek," he said flicking her lightly on the shoulder.
"No, the essay, I completely forgot about it!" Hermione panicked, her voice rising. "I need to get it done-We have DADA next period!"
"Yeah, no sweat Granger, you can do it this period."
"But I need to make a good impression on Professor Roads!"
"Geez Hermione, you can copy mine," Malfoy sighed with exasperation.
"I couldn't do that, it'd be cheating!" Hermione said outraged.
Malfoy sighed yet again. "Look, you take mine, and as I studied all the facts yesterday and don't mind not paying attention in class, I'll rewrite mine this lesson," he said patiently.
"But how will I learn?"
Malfoy looked very irritated. "Look…" he began, but at that moment the door swung open and they were admitted into the classroom.
Transfiguration…There was no other word for it…it sucked.
Like literally. Hermione couldn't find one redeeming thing about it. Professor Roads had turned out to be a blustering, incompetent fool who couldn't even turn the desk into a pig. It grew just a curly pig's tail that was coloured green and Professor Roads couldn't even manage to Transfigure it back.
Hermione missed McGonagall's teaching more than ever. He didn't even set them homework, because the desk was snorting, and he couldn't get it to stop. In the end they had learnt nothing, and he dismissed them amid peals of raucous laughter from the class. As they were headed out the door, Malfoy leant against the frame and said; somewhat awkwardly:
"I heard about your trouble with Lavender, and…"
"You heard?" Hermione interrupted. "Who told you?"
"Harry." Hermione groaned inwardly.
"…and I was wondering if you'd like to visit my room after school and hang out there till you have your…" he smirked, "… 'sleepover' with Ginny."
He paused. "You know, my father still has some influence so I got a really well-furnished priority dorm, along with Blaise Zabini."
"Really?" Hermione hadn't even known there was such a thing as a 'priority dorm.'
"Yeah, come along and see," he suggested. Was it just hormonal me, or did his cheeks just flush? Hermione wondered.
"Well…" she said unsure of what to say.
"Sure, I guess…"