Note: The snow melted. :( Anyway, this in an irregular update because the last two chapters have been rather short, but you still gave me wonderful reviews for them, so I feel you deserve it. So, my dear readers & reviewers, enjoy!

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Disclaimer: I still don't own "Harry Potter".

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The Founding of Pigwarts II – Cooking Chaos

Chapter 11: An Angry Lioness

Hermione considered herself a morning person. Of course, she was an evening person as well, and even a night person if the situation demanded it. But she loved mornings and waking up early. The grass still wet from the dew, the sun starting its journey across the sky, birds welcoming the new day with their song, everyone else still asleep. She loved the silence and emptiness of an early morning, loved to take a walk in the park without meeting anyone on her way, loved to have that one moment of peace and beauty for herself.

But today she had decided to pamper herself with a lie-in, feeling that she needed it. Having stayed late at work the previous evening to keep herself from thinking back, and having stayed up most of the night thinking back, she hoped a good long rest would make things easier. And at least she couldn't think while sleeping.

It was the most leisurely state of being half-asleep half-awake that Hermione was enjoying when all of a sudden two people stormed into her bedroom and began to yell. Not what she would have called a good start of the morning.

She tried to ignore them at first, but it wasn't too easy to dive back into the waves of slumber when two people were screaming at the top of their lungs three steps away from her. Angry at getting such a rude wake-up call, Hermione sat up on her bed and brushed the sleep away from her eyes, focusing on the intruders.

Figures. Who else would even think about coming to her apartment to scream their heads off at her?

"Good morning, Ron, Harry," she told them in a loud voice, sounding just as grumpy as anyone would upon having their two best friends disrupting their sleep with an incessant stream of yelling.

The boys stopped for a moment, taking in the fact of her being awake, then got back to their earlier activity. If she concentrated enough, she was able to catch words like 'enemy', 'evil', and 'pancake', but she wasn't that sure about the last one.

"All right, what is the fuss all about?" she asked at last when Ron and Harry were furiously mouthing at her, not letting the fact of being voiceless hinder them in the least. "And speak normally, and one at the time."

When the boys finally nodded after some good three minutes worth of silent yelling, she took the spell off, and let them speak.

"What is this, Hermione?" Ron demanded, waving something frantically in front of her face.

"It looks like the Daily Prophet to me," she answered calmly.

"Not the paper," Harry snapped. "The picture, Hermione, what is the picture about?"

"What picture?"

Ron waved the paper before her face again, until she finally grabbed it from him, and glanced at the front page. And glared at it for a while longer.

"Hermione?" Harry became impatient when she didn't answer.

"I think," she said slowly, weighing her words before saying them, "that you already know what this picture is about. Otherwise you wouldn't be here shouting at me right now."

But the boys could not appreciate sarcasm at a time like this.

"Hermione!" Ron reverted back to good old yelling. "Why is there a picture of you and Malfoy kissing on the front page of the Daily Prophet?"

"Because it makes the paper sell better when something scandalous is on its first page instead of seventh."

"But why is there a picture of you and Malfoy kissing in the Daily Prophet?!!!"

"Because it makes the paper sell better when there is something scandalous in it."

"Why is there a picture of you and Malfoy kissing in the first place???"

"Because someone took a photo."

Seeing Ron getting nowhere, Harry joined in.

"But, Hermione, why in the name of Merlin's earwax would you kiss Malfoy at all?"

Now that question wasn't so easy to answer anymore. Well, it was, but she knew better than to tell them that he had just looked so sexy in those chains and tasted simply delicious. No spell would stop their yelling then.

So Hermione thought quickly. She had to tell them an explanation they would believe and accept, but when the thing itself was kissing (and passionately, mind you) one of their greatest enemies, finding an acceptable explanation wasn't a piece of cherry pie.

"What was the article about?" she asked to buy some time.

Ron shrugged, clearly not having paid any attention to anything else but the photo.

"Some rubbish about a new and better world where enemies become friends, blah-blah-blah," Harry explained.

"So basically the same that Ginny's article?"

"Yes," Harry replied slowly, catching the drift of her mind. "But you can't tell me he simply ambushed you and took the picture. This kiss is nothing like the one between Ginny and Crabbe. This kiss is—" Harry shuddered, "—passionate."

But Hermione could have cared less about the suddenly greenish hue of Harry's face when most unwelcome thoughts speeded through his mind. She had just got an idea.

It was rather preposterous, but it could just as well work.

Didn't they say that the best lie was telling the truth? No, they didn't because that made no sense. But truth was what she had decided to tell them.

"It's revenge," she explained. "Malfoy took those pictures of Ginny and published them, now we took pictures of him in a compromising position and got them published. Not only does it take public interest and attention off Ginny's article, and let you two live in peace, it also shows Malfoy not to mess with us. So it might be a bit weird for me to be kissing my enemy, but think about what it would mean for him – kissing a Muggle-born Gryffindor?"

It took some time and persuasion, but at last Ron and Harry realized how much worse the situation was for Malfoy, and promised their full support to Hermione about the matter.

Uhh, that had been close. Now there was just one more thing to take care of.

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Malfoy might have been a white tiger, but this was an angry lioness glaring at her from the other side of table, Ginny thought.

She began to wonder why on earth she had agreed to meet with her very angry friend in the first place when hiding and ignoring seemed a much better idea; then she remembered she had been doing exactly that when Hermione had marched straight into her hiding place. Damn the girl was way too smart!

"Have you seen Ron today?" Ginny asked casually, trying to look as innocent as a little fluffy kitten with big round blue eyes (not a very easy thing to do when your eyes happen to be brown). "He left the breakfast table in such a hurry he didn't even finish his pancakes."

Oh, so that's why I heard pancakes being mentioned, Hermione thought, but didn't let herself get distracted.

"In fact, I did," she replied in a dangerous tone. "I was having a wonderful lie-in this morning when your dear brother and dear fiance came to my bedroom and started yelling at me."

"Oh," Ginny said, making a mental note to kick Ron's ass should Hermione kick hers. But no, Hermione didn't like violence. After all, who would need to get their hands dirty if they knew all those spells.

"I suppose I should have warned you," she admitted.

"Yes, you should have."

"I suppose I should have asked your permission first as well," she added.

"Yes, you should have."

"I suppose I should have never published those photos in the first place."

"No, that was all right."

"I suppose I should have… wait a second," she paused with a feeling of something being not right. "Did you just say it was all right I published those photos?"

"Yes," Hermione smirked. "You got your revenge. I don't mind that."

Ginny heaved a sigh of relief and silently thanked Merlin, Morgana, and great aunt Muriel for getting away alive and unhurt.

"You got me really worried," she smiled. "I mean, Malfoy might be a white tiger, but you looked a lot like an angry lioness just a moment ago."

"And I don't anymore?"

"Well, you said you didn't mind…" her smile died at the look in the lioness' eyes.

"I said I didn't mind you publishing those photos. But I never said what I thought of you taking those photos."

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From a lion's cave to the tiger cage, Ginny thought, knocking on the door of the tiger cage.

It swung open before her, but instead of a helpful house elf, she found herself face to face with the tiger himself. The angry tiger, mind you, who grew even angrier at the sight of his visitor.

Ginny tried to look cool and confident.

"Hello, Draco. Nice day, isn't it?" she asked with a smile.

"What do you want?" he growled.

"My, my, aren't we a bit grumpy this fine afternoon. I can't see why – the weather is warm, the sun is shining, the birds are singing… what a wonderful day of spring."

"I ask you again, what do you want, Weasley?" he didn't seem to be in the mood for subtlety. That was good.

"I was simply asked to deliver a message," she spoke, taking out the envelope and handing it to him.

He frowned but took it, frowned but opened it, frowned but read it through.

Then, without a warning, he drew his wand, and petrified her on the spot.

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"My nose itches," Ginny whined.

"Touch luck," Draco sneered and left the room.

Ginny tested the chains. They held.

A plate of cookies was placed in front of her, yet definitely out of reach.

Damn, she thought and wrinkled her nose, hoping to get rid of the itch.

Much, much later, when she felt bored to death, the dungeon door opened again, and in walked a rather miserable looking Daphne followed by a devilishly grinning Draco.

"You, too, eh?" the Slytherin girl shot her a knowing look.

Ginny nodded and watched her friend share her destiny.

Malfoy was still in the room, when the door opened yet again, revealing none other than Hermione.

"Hermione!" Ginny cried. "Get me out of here. Or at least, scratch my nose."

Hermione paused, and seemed to be considering that idea.

"I think not," she said in the end. "I think it would do you good staying here for a while."

"But… but…" Ginny was a bit too shocked (and itchy) to think right. "I though you forgave me. I mean the letter, and everything, and…"

"The letter, my dear," the lioness smirked, "simply gave my white tiger instructions of what to do with you. I had to make a detour to collect your other half, but now that you're both here…"

With that Hermione took a gizmo out of her pocket and placed it upon the cookie table.

"What's that?" Ginny asked with curiosity.

"A simple tape recorder," she shrugged. "Holds a message from your dear brother."

"Ron?" she frowned. "You mean he is together with you on this thing?"

"Of course not," Hermione said. "I had to convince him for half an hour this morning that there is nothing between Draco and me. Asking him to join us while we torture his sister doesn't really seem like a good idea."

Looking her victims over, the lioness swept out of the room, only to halt on the threshold and look back.

"Draco, take the cookies with you, all right?"

Ginny could not see Hermione's face while she said that, but she did see Malfoy blush, take the cookie plate, and hurry out.

But before the redhead could start to ponder about the strangeness of this, a loud voice boomed out of the gizmo.

"This is the song that never ends.
Yes, it goes on and on, my friend,
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was,
And they'll continue singing it forever just because,
This is the song that never ends.

Yes, it goes on and on, my friend,
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was,
And they'll continue singing it forever just because,
This is the song that never ends…"

The screams of Ginny and Daphne would have sounded to the ends of earth, had Hermione not been clever enough to Silence the dungeon.

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Disclaimer #2: In case you wonder, that never ending song isn't mine either.

Note #2: Liked the chapter? Were glad to get a glimpse of Ron? Are happy not to be in Daphne and Ginny's situation? Liked the revenge? Think I'm really, really evil? Well, whatever you think, tell me about it in your REVIEW