Moonlight Serenade Ch. 7

All standard disclaimers apply.

Hermione hummed to herself as she made her way down the hall. She could've looked back at Malfoy, but she decided that he could suffer for all she cared. After all, he was still the same little ferret. Just... a little bit more approachable. Hermione, against her better judgment, took a glance back. All she saw was the back of his very blond head. His friends had caught up with him, and they were chatting about something or another. She turned away, but not before she saw his head turn slightly to look at her.

Well, maybe not the same ferret. Maybe he was a bit different, maybe a bit more... easy on the eyes. Hermione winced at her own thoughts. 'Easy on the eyes'? She shook her head, and kept walking.

She was thinking about her Ancient Runes quiz when a hand reached out, grabbed her robe, and tugged her violently inside a nearby broom closet. "What the---" She was cut off by a warm hand around her mouth.

"Hermione," said a familiar voice. "Whatever you do... don't scream." Harry looked her in the eyes, and then slowly let go of her mouth. "Harry, what the bloody hell is going on?" she practically shrieked at her friend. Normally she would have kept some sense of calm, but this had overstepped her bounds. What was he doing? Kidnapping her?

"'Mione," said another voice, this one a bit stiff, "We have some questions for you. Harry?" said Ron, snapping his fingers twice. Harry stood there, staring at Ron blankly. "Harry!" said Ron urgently, "Remember, you were supposed to turn on the lights when I snapped? We've gone over this more than ten times!"

Hermione thought she saw the outline of Harry's head nodding, but she was too angry to care. "What. Is. Going. On." she managed to sputter out. Neither Harry or Ron payed any attention to her; they were both fumbling for their wands.

"Where is it?"

"I think I put mine over here."

"No, idiot, that's the switch for the bloody fan!"

A whirring sound filled the cramped broom closet as the fan was turned on. None of the three teenagers took any time to wonder why there was a fan in a small broom closet, instead focusing on the matter at hand. "Found it!" cried Harry. The room was illuminated by the dim glow of both Harry and Ron's wands.

"Hermione," said Harry, "We've called you here to ask you a few very important questions." He glanced over at Hermione for what was pretty much the first time. He blanched, seeing that her face was bright red, and a glower was fixed on her face.

"Well, to put it bluntly... well... er, we were..." Ron broke off, and straightened his tie nervously. He too had seen his friend's face.

"You fancy Malfoy, don't you, Hermione?" said Harry, staring at her fiercely.

Hermione's patience reached it's end. "You trapped me in a broom closet to ask me if I fancied Malfoy??" she hissed, her face color rivaling Ron's hair. "I can't believe it! You bloody idiots, you--"

She was cut off by Ron's hand in front of her face. "Harry, my wand, please?"

"If it's the only way she'll listen, I guess we have to do it."

"Petrificus Totalus!" Ron cried out.

Hermione stiffened, and fell into Harry's waiting arms. Her face was still red, and her eyes glared fiercely into Harry's.

"We've called you to this... well, I guess it's a meeting, what do you think, Harry?"

The young wizard thought for a bit. "I'd say it's more of a confrontation... But we can call it a meeting, if you'd like."

Ron nodded, and began again. "Well, we called this... thing to tell you the real facts about Malfoy. You see, we've gone undercover."

Hermione furrowed her brow, a great accomplishment due to the fact that she was immobilized. What sounded like a groan escaped from her motionless lips.

"It was hard, I'll admit," said Ron regally, "but we have done it. We have found out what Malfoy truly is!"

Harry smiled at Hermione's motionless body, and nodded eagerly. "He's what we'd like to call a Stubborn Tyrannous Uppity Dick-head."

Harry glanced at Ron, who was looking confused. "Do you even know what tyrannous means?" said Harry, a bit incredulous. Ron looked at him, and looked away. "Aw, Ron...you're not serious, right?" groaned Harry. "Good God, don't you ever read? Wait, what am I saying? I shouldn't be asking stupid questions."

Ron, however, was no longer listening to Harry. "Uh, Harry?" he said, looking a bit disturbed.

"What?"

Neither of them had noticed Hermione's look of concentration. She had been listening for the fun of it, but now that she heard the ridiculousness of their ideas, she decided it was time to get out. Thinking the counter spell hard, she broke free of the spell.

"You idiots." she screamed. They paid her no mind, they were engrossed in their own idiocy. "Harry, that won't work," continued Ron, oblivious to the shrieking harpy in the closet with them. "That spells "stud"..."

"Bloody hell, what were you thinking?" she screeched, still red as a tomato, "Can't you accept that I don't like him? He's an idiot! …Though less so than you two!"

"Stud?" said Harry disbelievingly. "No, that can't be right..."

"Spell it out for yourself, that's what it says!"

Harry looked up at the ceiling, mouthing the words to himself. "Blimey, it really does spell stud. Wonder how that happened... Huh."

They stood in silence for a second while Hermione filled the silence with the sound of her breathing, which was labored with the task of not ripping the heads off of the two morons in front of her.

"He's the dick?" she said, "He's acting a lot nicer than you two are!" she said, finally catching their attention.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. We should have chosen something that didn't spell out stud. We'll try better next time." They both hung their heads.

Hermione threw up her hands in disbelief. "You two are unbelievable." she managed to spit out, and then left the room. "At least Draco is nice to me." she said as she left.

Harry and Ron stood in the broom closet for a moment, a bit upset. "... Did she say Draco?" said Ron, glancing at Harry. "She did," said Harry, "She most certainly did. And she said he was nice to her." Harry rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Their eyes met with understanding. "This is more serious than we thought..."
Hermione threw open the doors to the Great Hall and stormed in. A few people glanced up, but after the day before, they had become a bit more accustomed to their Head Girl's strange outbursts. She stormed over to the Gryffindor table and flung herself down in a chair. Ginny glanced over at her. She had noticed that the poor Head Girl had been stressed lately, and she wanted to help.

"Hermione?" she asked tentatively, "Is everything alright?" Hermione met Ginny's eyes with her own. Ginny might as well have asked if Hermione liked the way her hair looked in the morning. "No, everything isn't, Ginny. But it's not your problem." Hermione stirred her bacon with her fork, her anger slowly giving way to a bit of self-pity and sadness.

Ginny reached over and patted her hand. "It'll be okay." she said, though she didn't know what would be okay. The redhead was about to ask when a noise stopped her.

"Students!" cried the sharp voice of McGonagall, "February is approaching, and almost upon us. I realize that most of you are caught up in your homework and tests, as well as midterms and essays, but let us take the time to acknowledge a particular event. St. Valentine's Day is coming." A few whoops from some of the first years, but silence otherwise. McGonagall cleared her throat, and continued, "The staff has decided that you students need a break. Thus, we have scheduled a dance for this celebrated event. We have voted on the name, and have come up with "Cupid's Love Dance"." She smiled at the students, a rare occasion.

There was a bit of tittering at the strange name, but the idea of a dance gradually overcame the horrible naming choice. Soon, the Great Hall erupted into chaos.

"I know exactly what to wear."

"Do you think he'll ask me?"

"No, I don't think I'll go. I'll only look like a cow in the clothes I have, and no magic can fix that..."

"But... no... not so soon!"

Prof. McGonagall cut off the talk with a few sparks from her wand. The attention was brought back to the podium, and the murmurs subsided. "Oh, and one more thing," she said, "Our newest class will be performing at the Cupid's Love Dance. Our very own singing duo, and Head Boy and Head Girl... Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy!"

The Great Hall fell into shock. The Head Boy and Girl sang? Together? It was preposterous.

Hermione's jaw was wide open when the gossip began.

"I hear they sleep in the same bed."

"I knew it all along, you could tell by the way they act together,"

"Ugh, I hear she sucks at singing."

Hermione's head whirled with the whispers, and she looked up unconsciously to meet Malfoy's eyes. He was looking back at her, with a hint of... was it concern in his eyes? Hermione blinked, and it was gone. His eyes were the steely gray that they always were, and he was the same old Malfoy.

Hermione closed her eyes and tried to ignore the noise. Still the same Malfoy. Still the same, just the same old Draco. Her eyes flew open with the unconscious use of his given name.

Yeah, right.


A/N: So sorry that this took so long (Damn, I seem to be saying that a lot), but if you didn't know, my computer terminated... and it took this chapter with it. (it had been completed, and a lot better than this one) I got a better beta (not too hard, since I didn't have one before, but...), and she's my bud. Thank you so much, CC, for catching my evil little mistakes. (I hate grammar)

Anyhow, I'll update sooner this time, and in the meantime... enjoy!

Su-Su