A/N: Hello again! Just a quick thanks to Whispering-Lestrange, acast, and for reviewing. Reviews always make my day and prod me to update faster =)
Disclaimer- I own nothing. I am a starving artist in training with nothing but my plot bunnies to keep me company.
Chapter Nine- It's good to be back
The morning of September 1st, Hermione rose with the sun. Her heart was pumping erratically and she felt unnaturally giddy as she thought of returning to school.
School! Her mind was whirring. She could get out of the manor with its strict rules and etiquette. She could wear whatever she wanted without Pansy breathing down her neck. She could laugh raucously and not care what her mother would say. Most of all, she could see Harry and Ron again. The lack of her two best friends had been a gaping hole in her heart over the past two weeks.
Still, she thought, the past two weeks hadn't been hell on earth. True, it had been pretty close to that at some points, but as time wore on, the pain had subsided into a dull ache. Somehow, she had managed to find a friend in Pansy. It was strange for the lioness. She was so used to being with boys all the time that it was almost a relief to have a sister. Sometimes, boys were just far too clueless.
Hermione opened her door cautiously, wanting to muffle the click it made, but sure enough, a quarter of the way open, a creak echoed down the hall. She flinched slightly, but slipped out anyway and made her way to the bathroom. The first thing she did was start filling the tub. When home, she was usually a shower person, finding it much quicker and easier, but she decided since she had plenty of extra time, she would treat herself.
Slipping in to the ever warm water, one of the many perks of living in a magical manor, she let her mind wander again.
As much as it surprised her to admit, Pansy wasn't the only one she had found a connection with. Their mother was frankly, a sane Bellatrix Lestrange, but she had a sense of humor and Hermione liked seeing her verbally spar with their father. Also, their father at least cared about their wellbeing. As for the three boys…
Hermione wasn't quite sure what to think of them. She really enjoyed the company of Blaise. He was nothing like she would expect a Slytherin to be. A small smirk appeared on her face. Maybe that was why so many girls were falling for him left and right. He was suave and funny, with a perfectly placed smile. He was calm and always laughing and kissing girls on the cheek. Hermione blushed slightly at the latter. Being the perfectly British girl she was, seeing the customs the half African/half Italian boy was different, but extremely interesting.
Her mind switched to Theo. Unlike Blaise, he was quiet and reserved. He didn't smile often, but when he did, it lit up the room. He was impressively smart, maybe even up to her standards of the word, and had a glimmer in his eye whenever he was curious. Which, Hermione noticed, was most of the time. Of the three, Theodore Nott was the closest thing to being a mystery and the lioness was determined to figure him out. She would have plenty of time to if he was going to teach her occlumency like Voldemort had mandated.
As for Draco Malfoy… Hermione scowled darkly. There weren't many changed feelings there. He was still a stuck-up, bigoted, purist, UGH! He messed with her mind so much that she, Hermione Gr-Parkinson, couldn't even think of adjectives to describe him. She sighed. Why hadn't she thought of him first? Then she could've enjoyed the remainder of her bath in peace, but no, he had to ruin her peaceful state of mind. She had to shake herself out of it. Starting that very night, she was going to have to live with the git.
She got out of the tub and got dressed in a black, knee-length skirt, white blouse and red vest. She was head girl, so had to show Hogwart's spirit to the brand new first years. It was a fairly generic ensemble, but it was still appropriate for someone of her position.
"Hermione! Get your ass out of there. You're not the only one living here, you know."
Pansy's cynical voice cut into the previous silence of the bathroom.
"We have two other bathrooms, Pansy, why do you want this one?' Hermione called back.
"Because I have all of my hair supplies in here. Speaking of which, we aren't leaving until you look pristine."
"Is that why you're up at," Hermione paused to look at a clock, "Six-thirty?"
"Yes, and you should be thanking me. Now, get out," Pansy growled.
" Someone's not a morning person," Hermione mumbled under her breath.
"I can't believe you haven't figured that out by now!" Pansy exclaimed, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
The Gryffindor opened the door and rolled her eyes as Pansy swept in. "Good morning to you too."
"This is no time for pleasantries, Hell Cat. This is our last first day of school. We have to look stunning. Speaking of which, you look… passable. Except the skirt has to be changed."
"Worry about it later Pansy. Don't you still have to pack?"
"Yes. But it takes me half-an-hour at the very most. I've already separated what I want to take."
"Procrastinator."
"Yes, now go brush out your hair. I'll be out in… 35 minutes. Shoo!" Pansy closed the door in Hermione's face.
"You're hopeless," Hermione said through the wood.
"I've been told."
Four hours go by quickly when you have someone who's fawning over your every action, and so it was for Hermione. She couldn't deny that all of Pansy's hair pulling, wardrobe modifying, trunk stacking, make-up fussing hadn't paid off. She did look good. Extremely good, according to Pansy.
Hermione took one last look at herself in the mirror. Pansy had redone the darkening charm on her hair and curled it magically. She had also done a light makeup charm on her face. The most drastic difference, though, was her clothing. Pansy had struck again and this time with a skirt that was shorter. Hermione didn't like it, but there was little she could do. Pansy was a whizz with charms and a master of hemming. Every time she came back out with a new skirt, Pansy would whip out her wand and before Hermione could utter a counter-spell, it would be about three inches shorter than it had been the moment before.
She waved her wand in the direction of her trunks and they shrunk. Kneeling down, she scooped them up and she put them in the pocket of her cloak.
The gryffindor took one last look at her room before apparating away.
Hermione landed on the edges of the frantic bustling that was Kings Cross station. It seemed everyone was there from the seventh years who looked like they owned the place to the tiny first years who were staring around in amazement.
She appeared by a first year who was dawdling at the edges of the crowd. He was obviously muggleborn from the glances he was casting at the magic that was happening all around. When Hermione had apparated in, he had jumped up and squealed.
"Y-Y-You came out of nowhere!" He exclaimed looking at Hermione incredulously.
She smiled down at the cute little boy. "I'm sorry if I scared you. Can I assume you're muggleborn?"
The little boy looked confused and she remembered that she hadn't understood at first either.
"Do you have two normal parents or is one of them a wizard?"
"They're both normal. But how did you do that? You came out of the wall!"
Hermione chuckled. "It's called apparating, you'll learn it when you're seventeen. So, what's your name?"
"Nathaniel Potts, miss."
"I'm Hermione Granger, your head girl. It was nice meeting you Nathaniel. I hope you have fun at Hogwarts, it's an amazing place."
She left the little blonde boy on the outskirts of the crowd and dove in. She had to find Pansy before they got on the train. The dark twin had forgotten one of her trunks in the jewelry Room and Hermione needed to give it back to her.
"Hey Hell Cat, over here."
Pansy's voice rose over the crowd and Hermione felt herself involuntarily smile as she fell into her place at Pansy's side, where she'd been for the past two weeks.
"Do you have it?" Pansy asked, eyes wide.
"Have what?" Hermione said, forgetting her mission momentarily. "Oh! Your trunk. Yes, I have it."
She pulled the shrunken object from her pocket and handed it to Pansy who enlarged it almost immediately. She set it with her ten other trunks.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Pansy, everyone knows you're filthy rich. You don't have to keep all of your trunks enlarged just to show the fact."
Pansy smirked deviously. "That's beside the point. The real question is why aren't you following my lead? You're a -"
"Parkinson, social elite. There's no need to be stringent," Hermione finished for her twin. "I've heard it a thousand times, Pansy. But, my common sense prevails in that aspect. I don't need to have a bunch of poor boys carry my things around for me if I can just shrink them."
"Oh! But having them carry our things around is the fun part."
Hermione chuckled. Taking advantage of Pansy's audacity, she sat on one of the massive trunks, her legs dangling off. Her sharp brown eyes searched and searched for two certain people, but she couldn't find them anywhere. She assumed they were probably running late again. She hoped that they wouldn't miss the train as it would leave within the next five minutes. She looked over at Pansy who had a similar look of searching worry on her face. None of the Slytherin boys had appeared yet either.
"Boys. What are we going to do with them," Hermione chuckled, turning her eyes back to the crowd.
Pansy only made an intelligible noise then said. "Hey Hermione."
Hermione didn't turn toward her sister. "Yes?" she answered absent mindedly.
The Slytherin continued, "Just because we're twins doesn't mean that anything at school will change."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Frankly, I was hoping you'd say that. I, for one, would hate to be expelled for fighting."
"Good."
"Good."
There was silence between the two.
"And 'Mione…"
"What, Pansy?"
If Hermione had looked at Pansy, she would have seen a mischevious smirk creep onto the darker twin's face.
"No matter what, you'll always be a bitchy know-it-all."
The Head Girl's head snapped around to see a full blown smile directed at her.
"And you'll always be a histrionic pug."
Pansy snickered. "I'm glad we understand each other, Hellcat."
Hermione laughed. "Ditto, snakey."
"Snakey? Wow Hermione. People give you too much credit in regards to your intelligence."
The very end of Pansy's sentence was interrupted by a loud screech of joy from Hermione. The Gryffindor twin leapt down from the trunk in such a rush that it fell over, gaining a hiss from Pansy.
But Hermione didn't notice. Her eyes were glued on two figures that had just appeared on the platform.
"Harry! Ron! Harry! Ron!" She didn't even care if she was making a scene highly inappropriate for a Head Girl to make. She hadn't seen her two best friends for more than a month and hadn't talked to them for two whole weeks. The hole that had been in her heart was suddenly filled again. She rushed the two boys and jumped them.
Harry was the one who caught her and he started laughing. Hermione had her head buried in his shoulder. "Merlin's beard, Hermione. It hasn't been years, you know."
She pulled out of the embrace and said, "You have no idea how much I've missed you."
She attacked Ron next with another giant hug. The tall redhead chuckled. "Well, I think we know now. By the way, 'Mione, if you were so desperate for us, why didn't you owl or come visit? And how come we didn't see you in Diagon? I would've thought for certain that you would've been there."
Hermione decided she was done strangling the boys and stepped back a little. "Well, it's kind of a long story. I can tell you once we're on the train. Speaking of which, we should get going."
She grabbed each of their hands and led them like two little children to where Pansy was. She remembered she had left her cloak lying on one of the trunks. By that time, Blaise, Theo and Draco were already there helping Pansy shrink her belongings back down.
Not even thinking about it, she let go of Harry and Ron's hands and ambled over to hug Theo and Blaise, the latter returning her greeting with a kiss on the cheek. She only gave Draco a tiny nod. "Pansy? Have you seen my cloak? I left it lying here somewhe-"
Suddenly, Ron's incredulous voice rose over hers. "What the hell is going on?"