Title: The Carriage Ride
Summary: On a stormy night, The Golden Trio is stuck in a carriage with a grumpy Malfoy and a few odd people. Unfortunately, fate seems to be laughing as Hermione suddenly has three boys fighting...over her?
Previously on Chapter 10- Not Going To Choose…
Pull yourself together, she said to herself sternly.
And so with great difficulty, Hermione looked back at Harry, not liking the fact that her face was still red.
Ron's eyebrow twitched noticeably. The vein bulging from the side of his head didn't fail to capture people's attention.
"So you won't mind if I beat him up if he says that again?" asked Ron, eyeing the blond Slytherin as though he was an ugly bug he dearly wanted to step on.
Hermione couldn't help but frowned upon the act of violence while Harry cheered the redhead on. Her frown deepened as Draco let out a dirty comment about her, him and a French maid dress.
A/N: I'm back!!!! Once again, huge, huge, HUGE thanks for all the people who reviewed the previous chapter!
Chapter 11- A Little Crowded
Hermione couldn't help but frowned upon the act of violence while Harry cheered the redhead on. Her frown deepened as Draco let out a dirty comment about her, him and a French maid dress.
The Hufflepuff boys were unsuccessfully in trying to look inconspicuous as their eyes would travel and land on Hermione's figure, obviously using their imagination to envision the so called French maid outfit.
Feeling several pairs of eyes landing on her simultaneously, Hermione turned to see the very young teenage boys, their eyes glued to her chest. Scowling angrily, she deliberately crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes shooting daggers. Looking dejected of having their view blocked, the Hufflepuff boys looked up to meet Hermione's furious glare and quickly became interested with their fingernails, a deep red staining their cheeks.
Amanda, on the other hand, wrinkled her nose in disgust and slightly turned her head away from Hermione as though she had smelled something foul. Amidst all the commotion, Luna had her fullest attention on her little scavenger's hunt in her dragon purple bag, searching for her cleaning equipment for her musical instrument. Head bent low, her large turban was sliding dangerously low towards her eyebrows.
But it was Draco's suggestive comment that gave birth to two viciously enraged reactions from two Gryffindor males. Harry's expression instantly transformed into an impressive scowl, his green eyes reflecting anger. He started advancing on the cheeky Slytherin, his hand searching for his wand in his pocket, his intention murderous.
Ron simply exploded.
In a flash, the redhead was suddenly on top of Draco with his left arm posed above his head. Completely dazed and caught off guard by his friend's quick action, Harry stopped midway. Hermione's burgundy eyes widened in shock at the sight in front of her, her mind telling her what was going to happen next. For three excruciating long seconds she stood stiff in shock before her limbs suddenly allowed her to move.
"Ron! Stop it! Get off of him!" she cried as she neared the two rivals. She hesitated, not knowing what to do.
Ron ignored Hermione's plea. It was obvious by his pose that he was thinking of punching Draco but suddenly thought twice. Instead, both of his hands came down and circled around the surprised blonde's neck and Ron started to throttle Draco. The look of pure outrage on Draco's face spelled trouble for Ron. Turning slightly red in the face, the Slytherin was anything but pleased. Quick to defend himself, he grabbed the redhead's nose with one hand and in the other, fisted it with Ron's long red hair. Not one to wait, Draco started to twist his grip on Ron's nose, turning left and right, thus making Ron cry out.
"You bloody idiot. Let go off my nose and fight like a man!" Ron yelled painfully as he tried to tighten his hold. Draco, unfortunately, was unable to give a reply since breathing had become a laborious process that required the majority of his energy thanks to Ron's large hands squeezing his wind pipe.
Finding that he wasn't very successful in throttling his opponent, Ron quickly switched tactics and grabbed Draco's collar. He raised the fallen wizard before purposely pushing him against the ground again. Draco's head bounced with the impact and started coughing. Once able to breathe properly, he began swearing violently. Having his head smacked against the ground, Draco silently swore to himself that Ronald Weasley would not walk away from this unharmed. He was far from achieving his revenge. Draco smashed his elbow against Ron's ribs while verbally comparing him to a donkey.
"Stop it this instant!" yelled Hermione.
Witnessing one of the most embarrassing and idiotic fights in her life (in which her friend was of the losing party), Hermione fought the urge to kick the two on the head. To say that she was annoyed was an understatement. It never occurred to her that her male friends- especially a certain redhead- would seriously consider to be the first to use violence as a method of silencing the arrogant Slytherin, consequences be damned.
Draco was far from achieving his revenge. With his other hand, still bunched up with Ron's hair, Draco pulled down, this time making Ron's head hit the ground. A long thin cut slowly oozed blood on his forehead as Ron's face turned red.
"Blood! Blood! There's blood," cried Amanda frantically, her eyes transfixed on Ron's forehead.
Amanda gave a shrilly scream while covering her face. "They're going to kill each other!" she screamed in panic.
"Stop it! Stop it right now!" continued the ignored Hermione. She grabbed Ron's shoulders, pulling him away from Draco. Now that Ron's grip on Draco's tightened collar slackened thanks to Hermione, Draco took the opportunity to punch the redhead in the stomach. Ron doubled over, hugging his middle as his face started to turn red, a long cut slowly oozing blood.
At that point, Hermione's patience with the blond wizard's antics ended in pieces.
"How dare you?" she hissed dangerously, her tone promising trouble ahead. Meanwhile, Ron was whizzing out incoherent words.
Draco's victorious face looked up to meet the young witch's blazing eyes. His smirk faltered for a moment, seeing the seriousness etched in her face. Although he would never admit out loud, Hermione certainly looked frightening when pushed to her limits. And Draco had done just that. He had pushed all her buttons and now he was about to pay for it.
Quick as lightning, Hermione's hand hit Draco's cheek. Draco's head turned from the impact of Hermione's slap. The silence in the carriage was deafening except for Ron's coughing and Harry quietly telling his friend that "he almost had him." Everyone's eyes were glued on the motionless Slytherin. He slowly turned his head and stared up at Hermione. His smirking face had dissolved into a murderous glare as he silently wish great harm on the Gryffindor witch, the only person in Hogwarts who had ever slapped him. Twice.
"What exactly was that, may I ask?" he said, his voice barely over a whisper.
"I've had enough of your little comments, " said Hermione angrily. "How dare you make these disgusting, suggestive comments with not even a grain of truth in it?!"
"Do you honestly think you have the right to touch me, let alone slap me?" Draco yelled as he got up from the ground.
"If you had at least acted as a mature student you should be, none of this would have happened!" accused the red faced witch, Ron and Harry forgotten at her feet.
"Don't try to act superior to me, Mudblood," sneered Draco nastily, secretly pleased seeing the flash of hurt passing through Hermione's surprised eyes.
The moment the insult left his mouth, Draco vaguely wondered if she was going to slap him once more.
"Then why don't you leave?" asked Hermione, pointing her hand to the door.
In just a few seconds, others too were asking the same thing.
"Yeah, go away!"
"Leave us alone."
"Get lost loser!"
"Would you like to repeat that one more time?" asked Draco dangerously, getting his wand out of his pocket. He had eyes only for one Hufflepuff boy who seemed to regret opening his mouth. "I didn't exactly catch what you said."
"The very moment you came inside, you've been causing a lot of trouble. Since everyone hear is inferior to you, I suggest you take your leave," said Hermione coolly as though she was talking to a slow person. Ron, unable to help himself, made a very rude gesture behind Hermione's back, his goodbye present solely for the annoyed blond.
Slowly the corners of Draco's mouth moved upwards, forming into his notorious smirk.
"I don't think you really mean that," he drawled, his eyes focused at the other side of the carriage.
"And why is that?" snapped Hermione unkindly.
"Well for one, who else would tell you that your hideous cat just ate the goat's only eyeball? It seems to be enjoying itself," explained Draco with disgust. His eyes were fixed behind Hermione's shoulder, his gray eyes mimicking the utter seriousness Hermione had shown him moments ago.
Oh no! I'm smarter than that, thought Hermione, tempted to laugh out loud.
"Do you honestly think I'd believe anything you'd say? Especially when you said that Crookshanks had drowned outside?!" Hermione practically snarled, her voice saturated with anger, her hands curled into fists by her sides.
"Yes," answered Draco bluntly, his eyes challenging. His tone insisted that it was the most obvious answer and that Hermione would be a fool not to listen.
"Of course I'm suppose to believe you," agreed Hermione sarcastically.
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the arrogant Slytherin in what seemed like the millionth time that day.
"Ew! Look, the cat jus swallowed the rest," whispered one of the Hufflepuff girls, nudging her friend. The two young girls openly wore expressions of absolute disgust, mimicking Draco's.
Hermione's heart sank before suddenly racing at a furious beat. Hearing those words brought little help to the brown haired girl's inner dilemma. The girl's remark repeated in Hermione's mind over and over again.
No, thought Hermione, inwardly shaking her head. Crookshanks would never do something like that. He's a smart cat.
A small but doubtful voice entered Hermione's thoughts.
But he was hungry before we left the train…
The Gryffindor's glare faltered for a moment and Draco could see a flicker of uncertainness. It battled against her anger as Hermione's expression slowly changed into confusion.
Hermione's features reluctantly softened as her anger drifted away. She nervously bit her lip, wondering silently at her current situation. Hermione was sorely tempted to look behind her, hoping to see Crookshanks as far away from the goat's head as possible. But that would ultimately mean that Draco was right. It would mean that Hermione believed he was telling the truth.
The brown haired witch couldn't stand it any longer. She swallowed her pride and turned her head. She caught a glimpse of Draco's triumphant smirk out of the corner of her eye but wisely decided not to act upon it.
Her suspicions were found to be true as her eyes widened at the sight. Crookshanks was indeed close to the goat's head…a little too close for Hermione's liking.
Hermione's eyes looked for the one eye. Dread washed over the Gryffindor girl as she found that both eyes were missing. Color drained from Hermione's panic stricken face.
"Cr-Cr-Crookshanks!" she cried, her voice coming out high-pitched.
The Gryffindor ran towards her grumpy but satisfying looking cat. Crookshanks lazily stuck out his pink tongue, bringing the small drops of blood into his mouth. Hermione grabbed the eyeball eater and started to shake the poor oblivious animal.
"Spit it out! Spit it out!" yelled Hermione hysterically. Draco raised his eyebrows at Hermione's back.
I wasn't expecting that, he admitted silently to himself.
Truth be told, he did see Crooksanks chew on the fallen eyeball. It was out of generosity on his part (and maybe to taunt her as well) that Draco had even pointed that out. Revenge was fresh on his mind but he didn't even dare to ask for his "thank you", seeing Hermione's reaction.
Not yet, that is.
He had always imagined that the bookworm stayed calm during situations like these and it would be her bodyguards who would be crying and fainting like the idiots they were.
"She's going crazy," muttered one of the younger boys.
"They're all crazy," answered his friend just as quietly matter-of-factly.
Draco looked around, realizing that no one was stepping up to help the crazed Hermione. Ron had practically ran outside to barf, the idea of his "favorite" cat eating a goat's eye making him quite sick. Somehow Harry's glasses broke and in blind attempt, the black-haired wizard was trying to repair his glasses. Luck certainly left him as his blurred vision proved difficult where to sit.
Of course Potter picks the best opportunity to go blind. And Weasley-well, he wouldn't have been any help to begin with, thought Draco, rolling his eyes. He threw a disgusted look towards the door, wishing that he didn't have to hear the barfing coming from the redhead. Draco concluded that many felt the same, their expressions speaking volumes.
Harry was yelling soothing words to his evidently distressed friend but Hermione's growing hysterics drowned out his voice.
Draco looked around, realizing that the only person who could help the bushy haired cat lover…was him. By taking only a swift glance, Draco could tell that the younger students were trying to stay as far away as possible. By their obvious body language, Hermione was now equivalent to a contagious disease.
A/N: For all the people who thought I disappeared because of my long absence, I must say I am very sorry. I haven't given up on this story, I will continue to post more chapters and with summer finally here, I'll have more time. I have to admit, I had a bit of writer's block with this story and Truth or Dare, but I've finally gotten some plot ideas and the stories are continuing. I was a bit hesitant with this chapter but I hope you'll like just as much as the previous reviews. I know on chapter 10 I had hinted that Fred and George would appear in chapter 11 but I changed things a bit. The twins will appear in the story, only later on. I'm hoping to post the next chapter this Saturday. Reviews would be greatly appreciatedJ. Thanks,
Blue sapphire lady