Sorry for the delay in updating, I've been having writer's block, suddenly getting an onslaught of ideas and now school's started but
I'm very thankful to you guys who're still reading this :)
I got stuck on a few parts of this chapter but I hope everything is okay, enjoy!
"Interesting... So this mudblood's /the/ smartest witch of her age?"
Two boys opened their mouths to answer but decided against it as the owner of said voice raised his hand, his lips sneering down at them in the dark, musty room, hissing a low, "don't even say a word". "Yes, my Lord", they replied simultaneously. One blond and another jet black. Both kneeled in front of the 'mystery man' before them, heads lowered to face the ground. Just the way he liked it. He could see and feel, hear it even, the fear in their hearts, the look of submissiveness in their eyes and posture, the crazily beating hearts running a mile a minute, scared and worried for what he would do next, torture them? Dismiss them? Oh, the pleasure he felt, he loved it! He always did, he loves it still, and always will. He was, the 'domanting' type of man―sadistically, psychotically―and very much masochistically.
He knows it and everyone in the Wizarding world knows it. He was, none other than the famous Lord Voldemort, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, You-Know-Who and all the titles he gained from the years of pain he had presented them with, to show who was in control, who was the most powerful wizard known to wizards and witches alike! And just because he was 'defeated' by Albus Dumbledore does not mean he's dead. Dumbledore, that bastard does not deserve the title as 'Savior of the Wizarding world' or the 'strongest Wizard' or whatever they deemed fitting.
The man's face crumpled up in disgust, he is Lord Voldemort, he is unstoppable, invincible! No one can defeat him! /He/ was the one supposed to reign the wizarding world where simply everyone listens to him and only him!... That was his thoughts anyway and by the looks of it, people are very much afraid of him to not even speak his name. After all, he was also known for vicous killing. His heart cold, unmoving from even the slightest whimper, the smallest yelp of a 'please don't kill me!' 'Spare my life, I have a family' or whatever his victims would say before their untimely deaths.
His musings stopped short when he realized where he was, in front of his two 'underlings' as he calls it, some blokes in the Slytherin house in Hogwarts, barely fifteen years old to be exact. They were still in the submissive trance as before, now already subtly glancing at the magical watches strapped to their wrists from time to time, probably some 'in' item wizard and witch teens are into nowadays, he had to catch up with the fashion these days if he wants to come back- heh. As if! He snorted to himself before grunting a dismissal for the two weaklings, who stood up silently and left as quickly as they could, probably terrified of him.
"Now, where was I... Oh yes, that stupid Mudblood would be very entertaining to Nagini and I.. Delicious too.. Hm.." And with that, he started to device his plans with every single detail planned out perfectly, even down what to do if the plans backfires, nothing will go wrong now.. Nothing.
"Are you sure this is going to work perfectly?" Hermione for the nth time that morning, no doubt worrying of getting caught, there are just an ample amount of things that Dumbledore tolerates and she doesn't think pranking is one of them and the fact that she was 'new' to this pranking gig makes her kick in to 'Miss Know-It-All' mode though the reason they were doing this was partially due to her outrage two days ago.
Harry rolled his eyes and nodded, "Hermione, let's just not worry about that for now and just observe how the Slytherins are going to react to this".
Defeatedly, she sighed and nibbled at her food in anticipation as more and more of the Hogwarts students roll in, adding to the buzz of people chatting, laughing and eating.
The Weasley twins, Fred and George were seated rather closely to the two, muffling snickers as they exchange glances and nod in confirmation, dispelling the charm on the prototype of their latest inventions and soon enough, the Slytherins' side of the Hall practically blew up and discarded a horrid smell, and all of the Slytherins, each and every one, had their hair color dyed to neon brights' and other bizzare shades of green, purple an blue.
Silence fell upon the room, adults and children alike too stunned to do anything. Fred and George perfectly acted surprised and everyone was groaning in protest of the stink yet laughed at the ridiculous hair dyes the Slytherins were wearing.
Headmaster Dumbledore, Professor McGonagal and a few others called for order and had the Slytherins stay cooped up in their dorms during the time of investigation, which was the whole day― only those unaffected were free to join classes as per usual. They stank so bad that barely any spells the professors used did anything stop the stink, so for the meantime, every class Slytherins joined would have a force around them that stopped the stink from being smelt by others.
As for the hair.. Oh, the hair! Nothing was working and Professor Snape, the Potions master, concluded that the dye would wear out by the end of two weeks. Some had the audacity to resort to wearing muggle-wigs to at least cover up the Bad Hair Days.
Hermione's face turned red, her lips pursed and kept in her laughter. The laughter from everyone around them was deemed contagious the minute she started giggling, slowly turning to hard laughter she looked like she was crying. Harry laughed along, relieved that she was cutting some steam.
"That was hilarious!" Harry chuckled, Hermione nodded in agreement, smiling. "As expected", George smirked, looking at his twin. Fred nodded patted Hermione's head as they started to leave for their classes. "See you guys later", the twins waved, walking to the right of the hall while Harry and Hermione went on the left to get their books for Herbology and head to the greenhouse.
"So, are they going to pull that off on Rita?" Hermione asked, glancing sideways to her buddy Harry. Harry nodded without glancing at Hermione, lips curving upwards, "yeah, but they're going to adjust it a few more times before actually doing it on the second challenge next week".
"Is that so? Have you figured out the clue yet, Harry?" Hermione asked, curiousity had gotten the best of her. "No, it still screams like some horrible beast out to get me", Harry sighed, running his fingers lazily through his hair.
"What about Cedric and the others?" Hermione pressed on, taking her seat at a table next to Harry's, coincidentally sitting with Blaize Zabini. "Like I would know, I'm not even close to them", Harry answered, turning his full attention to the lecturing Professor, Hermione did the same with a worried sigh.
The whole hour and a half, Hermione spent it daydreaming and doodling on a piece of parchment, barely even trying to look like she was paying attention. The professor was telling them the differences in three potions that are related to each other, Hermione remembered going through that just last week.
Her mind wandered to a certain redhead asshole instead and her face fell, what happened to him? He wasn't that possessive over her, heck he barely even notices her because of his narrow minded thinking that consisted only of Harry, Quiddditch and oh so very subtly, how to get in a girl's pants.
It wasn't very obvious but they were teenagers, and teens of course have raging hormones.
Another sigh slipped past Hermione's lips, catching the attention of her seat mate. "Will you stop sighing, it's getting on my nerves and making me depressed", the agitated male whispered, his hair colour dyed pink. Hermione threw a heated glance his way and almost fell off her stool with the image he provided but kept her ground and snorted, "excuse me for trying to clear my head".
"Do that another time, you're not even listening to Professor", he scolded, eyes trained onto the aged woman's actions as though talking to himself. The said woman was oblivious to everything as she went on about man-eating plants.
The brunnette scowled and glared at the Zabini heir for a moment before she too let her eyes follow the giddy woman walk around the greenhouse up and down the students' tables while Hermione ignored the black-now pink haired boy.
It was pretty much the same thing, and then came Friday. There was only six weeks left before the second challenge commenced on Sunday, and Harry still didn't get the clue. Hermione was concerned but there was a more pressing matter. Ron was healed. She was stressing over the two choices she had; ignore him like she had been the whole time he was hospitalized until he starts the conversation or just go up to him and apologize.
Hermione didn't want to bother Harry since he had his plateful of people mocking him and the tournament. She wasn't that close to Ginny even though they were friends and she obviously had no other.. Friends. God, she felt terrible, it just dawned to her, after years of not minding that she had not that many friends, she was practically lonely.
Hermione left the Gryffindor dorm and made her way to the library, seeking solace in what she called her second home. She was on her own now that Harry was off somewhere in the school grounds, probably with Ron. She shrugged the thought away and sat at a table a bit secluded from the others and began her reading, relaxing at the familiar smell of yellowing books and her shampoo, peppermint and― wait, peppermint!
Hermione looked around to find where the smell came from, only to find the Malfoy standing with his back facing her, hands gliding over the spines of books he was considering to read. She remembered she was sitting near the potions section and turned back to face her books, thinking that he wanted to study or something.
She carried on reading when a thought crossed her mind, why isn't his hair colored? I thought the professor's didn't find the cure yet? He probably wasn't there when it happened, then.
She turned to look at the blonde, he was now poring over a book a few feet away from her and didn't seem to want to pull any offending pranks on anyone at the moment. She took this time to study his features, spacing out.
His hair was forever in that slicked back style he wore even as a kid, maybe all Malfoys have to use that hairdo? Not a strand of hair was out of place. Hermione was taken aback when she noticed he was wearing eyeglasses. The fact that he was using a Muggle contraption was one thing, but that he looked absolutely gorgeous in one was an understatement.
Hermione's stare lingered for a minute too long before she turned away, the same time Draco decided to look her way. She didn't know that though, she was too busy hiding her face from his view. Her nose buried deep in one of the thick books she brought, cheeks pink in embarrassment.
Draco smirked, he knew she was staring, but he didn't think that he would get her to blush of all reactions possible. If he was still the bastard just a few weeks ago, he'd be disgusted and call her names and whatnot. Now, he just felt like taking it as a compliment and brush it off―no, hold it close to his heart. He paused in his thoughts, just what had she done to him in the span of what, a fortnight?
He turned his attention to the object of his thoughts and relaxed, if you call neglecting your homework and subtly staring at a girl who you kept 'bullying' as a kid as relaxing. A few minutes pass and Draco decided to continue his homework, bored out of his mind now he lost his will to study.
He eyed the preoccupied girl and casted a spell on his books to poof back into his room before deliberately taking the seat right next to the said girl, taking precaution not to be spotted by others, "what are you working on?"
Hermione wrote on her parchment as though he was not there, taking a moment before curtly replying, "Potions" and still not looking at him. Draco nodded and kept his eyeglasses in its case, tucking it in his pocket. He propped up his elbow and rested his chin on the hand, looking straight at her, "So, did you know who pulled the prank?"
Hermione stopped her work and raised a brow at him incredulously, "no, and stop trying to talk, this is the library, Mal―" Draco sent her a look, Hermione sighed "―Draco". He shrugged, leaning against the wooden chair nonchalantly, "are you done with your work?"
Hermione felt like punching the smug look off the blonde's face but decided against it, she had done much assaulting this whole year, and nodded. "Why?" she said, collecting her things and standing up. Draco followed like a shadow, "no reason".
Hermione squinted her eyes at him, scrutinizing; trying to find just simply anything that could give away what he was thinking. She found none. "Are you ill or something? You're being too nice", she voiced out her thoughts, walking away from the table and out of the library. "I can be nice whenever I want", the blonde retorted, still trailing after her.
"Oh really, how am I supposed to believe that?" She challenged, past thoughts of her feeling lonely and indecisive long forgotten. Draco smirked, "you know I can do it".
"Alright then, I dare you to be a gentleman for the whole week next week, no bullying or pranking", Hermione grinned, in her head, she was screaming at herself for making such a demand, he wasn't even a friend.. Right?
Draco scoffed but but accepted the challenge, "oh you're on, Granger". The infamous smirk appeared on his face, eyes showed that he was determined to win the challenge. Hermione hugged her books closer, determined to know that next week was going to blow the socks off everyone.
Finally some Tom action, well, Voldemort, but still the same dude. How was it? Leave a review please and thank you :)