I know my updates have been a bit slow lately, and this is because lately I've been feeling a bit uninspired. Put some spirit into these fingers of mine, you know what to do!
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Ps. Excuse me if my take on Hagrid is a bit off, I've been dreading writing his accent.
Chapter 7: Hogsmeade
As cliche as it seemed, the week, Hermione could not help it as the week flew by like a blur. Before she knew it, Saturday came, and they were all headed off to Hogsmeade. Hermione was standing in front of her floor length mirror in her room.
She was currently looking at what must have been her tenth outfit she had tried. The clothes she had discarded were now forming a small mountain on her bed.
She'd woken up early, showered and gotten her hair and face ready, but her indecisiveness had slowed down her progress. She could either go casual, and maybe wear some jeans and a shirt, or she could go for something more formal. At the moment she was dressed in a pair of well worn jeans and one of her favourite t-shirts. She looked in the mirror and growled in frustration, she was too underdressed. She didn't want Ron to think this was just another day out with friends.
In the end, she decided on something that suited the wonderful weather they'd been having; a sundress that ended just below mid-thigh. It was modest and not slutty, though it showed slightly more skin than she'd hoped. What made up for it was how utterly comfortable it was. The material was so light and flowy that it felt like silk on her skin. She opted for some matching ankle boots with a hidden heel that Ginny had given to her as a gift, hoping that they would make up for some of the height difference between her and Ron.
She messed around with her hair for a while, before she gave up and just left it down.
She walked out of her room, just as the bathroom door opened and Malfoy stepped out. He looked as if he hasn't slept, Hermione didn't doubt that he hadn't been. No matter how much she despised him, you'd have to have been blind to see that something was off about him. Though she would never tell a soul, she had found herself watching him occasionally, and she knew that he was lonely. He obviously tried to hide it, but something was going on behind the scenes that he apparently couldn't tell even his Slytherin friends. At one point, Hermione had even tried guessing what was making him so distressed, and had come up empty handed.
Whatever it was, it seemed to have changed his character quite dramatically, and at the same time none at all. In most ways, he was exactly the same, and it has taken her quite a long time to realise what was different about him. No matter how well staged his mask was, he could not cover up the fact that everything about him seemed hollow. His cruel remarks nowadays were almost halfhearted, as if he were just saying them for the sake of it, and not meaning it. From her hatred of him, grew an emotion that she had never once considered associating with Malfoy, a tenderness, or a soft spot. Tiny as it was, it still existed.
That's why it wasn't uncommon for her to say what she said next. "Morning Malfoy."
He seemed to still be thinking of something, or something was distracting him, as he unexpectedly replied. "Morning." He may not have realised what he was saying, but it was the first time he had actually said something back to Hermione when she greeted him in the morning. He usually just ignored her, or glared at her before continuing in his way.
He walked to the portrait door and opened it before stepping through and shutting it behind him. He was probably going to Hogsmeade as well.
She was puzzled by his behaviour; he hasn't even said the customary half hearted rude remark. She shook it off, literally shaking her shoulders, before grabbing her bag and heading out as well.
Malfoy wasn't that far ahead of her, his stride slow. Hermione tried to keep her pace slow as well, but soon found herself caught up to him. She was only a few paces behind him, and was now stuck with two choices, the awkward, super slow pace that meant she stayed behind him, or the speed walk to get past him. She tried the super slow walk for a bit, but found her strides quickening on their own. She ended up walking at the same pace as Malfoy, and beside him. He didn't even seem to notice her walking pace dilemma, he just kept on walking, staring ahead at nothing. She soon just gave up and strode alongside him. He didn't make any remarks on it, and the rhythmic click clack of their soles actually calmed any lingering nerves for the 'date'.
The moment they stepped outside, the warm rays of the sun hit her skin, and she sighed happily. After summer had gone by without having actually arrived, everyone, including her, had been feeling a bit deprived of good old vitamin d. This sudden clear day was a random occurrence, but no one was complaining.
They made their way out of the doors silently. Maybe not the most comfortable journey, but at least he wasn't insulting her.
She saw a familiar bright head of hair at the same time he saw her. Ron waved at her, smiling, but it faltered, presumably from seeing who she was standing next to. He stalked towards them, his face suspicious and alert. As if Malfoy was going to go and try to hurt her in broad daylight.
When Ron got in earshot, Hermione went to greet him, but he spoke first.
"What's he doing here?" His tone biting.
She stated plainly, "He's just going to Hogsmeade as well."
"Then why are you two standing so close?"
Hermione looked to her left, and was surprised to see that Malfoy was indeed standing extremely close. Their shoulders were touching. The odd thing was, if it had been with anyone else but her, Hermione would have said Malfoy's stance was almost protective, but then again, he was Malfoy, and she was, well, her. Had they been standing this close before? She was sure they hadn't. Had they subconsciously moved closer? No, of course not, why would she do that?
It seemed similar thoughts were running through Malfoy's head, and without warning stepped well away from her, not before Hermione saw him flinch.
A knot formed in her throat. She ignored it.
Without another word, Malfoy walked away from them. From the corner of her eye, she saw Pansy run up to him and latch on his arm. She grit her teeth. Ron, on the other hand, visibly brightened up after he left.
He grinned at her, "G'morning Hermione."
She found herself smiling back, "Morning Ron."
"Are you ready?"
She was going to state that it would have been extremely inconvenient of her to not have been ready, but she decided to spare him the lecture. "Yep."
They made their together to the carriages, where Miss. McGonagall what talking to some students, looking quite frazzled. They had to tap her on the back to get her attention.
"Oh hello miss. Granger, mr. Weasley. How many of you are there today?"
"It's just us Professor, and may I ask, what's going on?" The scene in front of was a buzz of motion.
She gave a weary sigh before answering, "Some fifth years thought it'd be funny to nick all of our carriages the day before the Hogsmeade trip. We have searched everywhere but have not located them in time. These were old ones that we found, but unfortunately, we only found a few. Would you mind sharing?"
"We're perfectly fine with it."
"Oh good. Just in here." She swept her arm and directed to the carriage to the left of her. They made their way towards it.
"I hope you find the carriages soon." Hermione added as an afterthought.
The old Professor regarded her with a tired tone, "I hope we do too. These pranks always make things so convenient. Her face was stern but Hermione saw the amused glint in her eyes. This was taking her mind off certain bad things going on at the moment. Time away from it all did everyone some good. Hermione started to wonder whether or not she should punish the people responsible, or thank them.
They headed towards the carriages, which looked about as old as McGonagall. They reached the one that she'd pointed to, and Ron stepped inside when Hermione heard him groan. She was going to ask what was wrong when she stepped inside herself and saw the other two people in the carriage. One the left, was Malfoy, and clinging to his side was Pansy. At that moment, Hermione decided that she looked uncannily like a leech. Hermione sat down next to Ron, biting her cheek to keep from commenting on it.
Pansy was giving her a death glare, albeit she ignored, though if looks could kill, Hermione wouldn't doubt that she'd be lying cold on the floor. Malfoy seemed expressionless, but he actually seemed to be showing small signs of relief. She must have been imagining it; weren't him and Pansy betrothed? Rumours had been circulating around the school about it. What average, hormonal teenage boy didn't want to be alone with their future fiancée?
The carriage jolted forward, beginning the dreaded journey ahead.
Pansy decided to break the silence first. "Oh looky who we have here; Granger and Weasley out on a widdle date. Scraping the bottom of the barrel with her aren't you Weasley?"
Hermione felt Ron tense beside her, so he grabbed his arm to stop him from doing something irrational. She continued to look out the window of the carriage, as if she hasn't heard any of it.
Pansy was obviously not satisfied with this lack of response, and unhappy about being ignored, kept talking. "I guess it's for the best, wouldn't want any mudbloods like her running around contaminating any respectable pureblood lines, though I doubt any but the likes of you would even touch such filth."
Hermione felt her blood run cold. Without having to look at Ron, she knew that his face would be bright red. If Pansy were not a girl, Ron probably would have pounced on her by now.
"You-!" He was cut off when Hermione clamped her hand over his mouth. She was not going to let someone as pitiful as Pansy rile her up and spoil what was supposed to be their first date.
"Insulato." The soundproof barrier cut off anymore insults that Pansy was bound to make. "Ignore them."
It took her a while, but Hermione got Ron to completely ignore them. They spent the rest of the ride to Hogsmeade as if it was only the two of them, talking and laughing.
When the carriage came to a stop, they hopped off first and went on their way.
"So where to first?"
Hermione found that she was really enjoying Ron's company. When Harry was there, and it was the three of them, it was still nice too, but being alone with Ron felt different. They walked around, and talked and laughed while eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. The first ones that they'd eaten were actually quite pleasant, Hermione got mint while Ron got gravy. As the day wore on though, the flavours they picked out kept getting more and more disgusting. Ron got phlegm while Hermione got earthworm which promptly made her gag. After this she politely refused when Ron tried to offer her more. He just shrugged his shoulders and she watched as he got dog food, cinnamon, chilly powder and onion, but he eventually stopped too when he got an old sock.
They went around and Hermione shopped for some stationary she needed. She finally got some of the new self inking quills she'd been wanting to get since last Christmas.
She'd not so subtly hinted that she had wanted them to Ron on more than one occasion. After a week of saying how tiresome it was to have to constantly have to dip the end of a quill in ink to write, Hermione had thought that he'd gotten it, but a week later, when Christmas came by, it turned out that he went and bought her a writing journal, so she could write in it. The journal itself was actually really exquisite; leather bound and was lined with a golden rim, so of course she'd still been happy to receive it. Not quite what she'd been expecting, but she had been happy none the less.
Hours went by; hours of laughter and silliness. By the end of it, Hermione felt as if her smile wouldn't come off her face. When it was nearly time to leave, Hermione suggested they split up so he could go to the quidditch shop while she headed off to the book store. He was reluctant at first, but gave in when Seamus and Dean went by and told him about some guy and how he and some other had guy had done a triple something. Of course he hadn't said that exactly, but quidditch talk really did just go straight past her head.
She made her was towards the bookstore, taking extra care, walking the long route. She glanced behind her and watched Ron disappear from her sight before she ducked inside the shop. She quickly went straight to the section she wanted, since she knew the layout off by heart.
She strolled past the A's, then the B's, unable to resist sticking her hand out and running her hand over the spines of new books. She urged herself on as to not waste time, but as usual, found her eye caught on the title of a random book, Building a strong Relationship.
She knew what was going to happen, she would get side tracked and leave the shop hours later when in fact she'd come for specific books. She went to put the book away why new shiny letters of the spine caught her attention; limited addition. This pretty much made up her mind for her. Normally she would has scoffed at the idea of such a book, but she was definitely in need of it at the moment, besides, it gave her something for light reading. She tucked the book in her arm and kept on walking, refusing to glance side ways in case she got distracted again.
She stopped at the section of C's, curses and cures. Once upon a time, she would have searched in the divination section, or the marks section, or even the relationship section, but she knew it now for what it was; a curse. Of course if you did manage to find your mate, it was not one, but if you weren't so lucky... the rest was history.
She grabbed three on the subject that looked promising. Normally she would have gotten more, but today she was downsizing.
From the corner of her eye, she thought she saw movement, and she looked to her sides. Nothing but stacks of books. Was she imagining things now?
"What's with the secrecy Granger?"
The voice was low and whispered in her ear. She involuntarily shivered. Hermione tensed, but otherwise didn't react much to Malfoy sneaking up on her. Still, she was unhappy that he caught her off guard, she thought she had been careful. Obviously not careful enough. She quickly tucked the book about curses at the bottom of her pile. She closed her eyes and gathered herself before slowly and purposefully turned on her heel to face him.
She kept her tone neutral and said with what she hoped had some conviction, "What secrecy? I was just getting some books for light reading."
He looked at the stack of books in her hand, and Hermione breathed an imaginary sigh if relief that she's had the hindsight to hide the books about curses. They would have been hard to explain, and she was not that good of a liar.
He narrowed his eyes at her, and Hermione started to get worried. It wouldn't take him much longer to realise that she was in the curse section and see something was up.
She blurted the next thing that came to mind, "Why are you following me?"
His face quickly went from suspicious, to blank. She kept her eyes on his face, and watched his mask appear again. This time, it was spiteful.
"Who said I was following you? This is a public place, is it not?" He gave her another impassive smirk.
She opened her mouth to retort, when her gaze slid past him and onto the time that the clock on the wall was showing. It must have not been working; there was no way it was already that late. To her horror, this thought was immediately expelled when she saw that it ticking along in perfect working order.
"The time! You've made me late!" Inwardly, a voice chided that her lateness was actually mostly due to her stalling, but she pretended not to have though it.
She quickly packed up her stuff and rushed to the counter and paid for her books. She looked at the clock again, biting her lip at how close they were cutting it. She tried to mentally assure herself that they wouldn't all leave without them.
She rushed back to the carriages as fast as her legs would carry her, where Hagrid was waiting.
"I'm sorry I'm late! The time completely slipped my mind!"
"It alright 'ermione. I don't mind wait'in, though I'm afraid there's only one carriage left."
She looked past Hagrid and saw that there was indeed only a single carriage.
He leaned in closer to her and whispered, "I'm afraid ye gonna hav'ta share with him." He jerked his head in the direction of Malfoy, who was looking at them with a bored expression. "Sorry 'bout that."
Determined to be undeterred, she smiled up at him, "It's alright Hagrid. It's my fault for being late anyway. If he tries anything funny, I'm always perfectly capable of defending myself."
"I know ye are. Don't 'old back either, 'cause I didn't 'ear a thing." He winked at her. She only smiled back in response.
Malfoy didn't try anything. In fact he sat straight and and immediately busied himself by looking gloomily out of the carriage window. If it wasn't for the rattling of the carriage, it would have been awkwardly silent.
Hermione wished that she were alone, as then she could start reading her books, but she wasn't. She closed her eyes and sighed.
