(A/N): As you are all reading this, I have obviously not lost my enthusiasm for Diary of a Songbird like I said I might in the last chapter. Of course, my story is not really based on canon from the series (unless Voldemort really is already dead and I missed something?), but we all knew that when we started this story didn't we? And after reading Half-Blood Prince, I've decided to keep going with Diary of a Songbird as I had intended in the beginning, which means that the canon from Half-Blood Prince will not change the story much in any way. I am not going to change my story to fit the death in the book or...well, Snape's...ah, position. I do have to say that I pathetically mourned Snape more than...the person who died and was severely disappointed by those turn of events (concerning Snape). Heartbroken may be the better and more pathetic word for my emotion during that part of the book actually. As for what Malfoy did throughout the book, I was not really surprised or disappointed. But it was an excellent book and when I went up to the table to pick up my copy to purchase, my heart was beating erratically and my hands were shaking almost uncontrollably. I can imagine that you all felt the same way. As I started to read HBP I could hardly believe I was really reading it and almost thought I was reading another fan fiction. Yeah, pathetic, I know. Anyway, despite everything that I didn't want to happen happening, I still really enjoyed the book. I even read it in 15 hours, not including bathroom breaks and sleep. I hope all of you enjoyed the book as well.
I would also like to say that I am sorry this has taken a while to be updated. I had almost finished typing the chapter before I went on my trip then I finished it on the trip but I couldn't post it until I could copy and paste the chapter into a Word document (since my grandma's computer doesn't have Microsoft Word and I only feel comfortable submitting the chapter on that program). I just got back from my trip yesterdayand because of all of the time I spent writing while I was in the States, chapter 13 will be finished very soon so that should be up in a few days as well.
PrincessPotter: Amazing...wow...I don't think anyone's described my story like that. Aw, you brought tears to my eyes...I'm sorry about your femur (I can't remember if that's an arm or a leg...I think it's a leg), I hope you feel better soon. Last October I broke my finger and had a hard time writing and typing for a month. But thank goodness that was before I started to write this story! Thank you for your review! You're sweet and it really means a lot!
My-Chemical-Romance-Fan: I did mention in the first chapter of DoaS that I would reply to reviewers. It is very polite to thank someone if you appreciate him or her. I appreciate all of my reviewers so I thank them, even if I don't have much else to say. So, thank you!
anonomousXoXo: Oh, wow...you think I'm funny? That's good, the last chapter was supposed to be funny...Thank you for your review!
mrs. skywalker: I have never considered writing a Star Wars fan fiction. I don't think I would be very good at it because I don't know a lot of the characters and even if I did, the only reason I wrote this story was because a plot came to me. If I start to get an inkling of a story for a Star Wars fic, maybe I will consider writing it. Thanks anyway!
(A/N): I would also like to thank my other reviewers: HazleoceanMIDNIGHT-PIXIEa kid, and Babiblue754. But on with the story already!
Warning: Be careful...there's a VERY angry Draco in this chapter...he might bite your head off if you're not careful...Read with caution...I mean it...there is more obscene language in this chapter than any other so far, so don't read it if you are offended easily...
Disclaimer: Ah...no. Not mine. Easier done than said...My heart breaks...
It's Your Fault:
When Draco next awoke, his first thought was, Ooh, that cloud looks like a Hippogriff! And his next thought was, CLOUD?
To say Draco Malfoy was confused was an understatement. Sitting up and looking around he recognized where he was but had no idea what he was doing there or why he had been lying in the middle of the Quiddith pitch. Memories swirled in his head just out of reach until he saw his broom on the ground beside him. Pulling a note off of the handle, he read aloud in a soft whisper, "Hugs and Kisses...Hermione?" Reading the name out loud seemed to break the dam in his mind that held his memories. He remembered seeing Granger on a broomstick at least thirty feet in the air (which he still couldn't believe he hadn't imagined) and how he had flown to her side to taunt her. Then she was hanging from the broom and had hexed him. Draco could still feel the terror he had felt as his limbs stiffened to his sides, unable to stop himself from falling. Thank the gods that Granger wasn't out to kill him and that Weasley did know how to use a wand or he would be dead for sure.
He couldn't remember much after that. Potter, Granger, and Weasley had stood around him for a bit before Granger had put another spell on him. Did she make him go to sleep, or had he done that on his own? Draco stood up and dusted his robes off before grabbing his Nimbus Two Thousand and One and heading back to the castle; the fun had been taken out of flying when he fell from his broom.
In the entrance hall, Draco met the Golden Trio plus the Ginny chick as they left the Great Hall. Was it lunchtime already? How long had Draco been outside? Draco stopped in front of the quartet and sneered at them before Ginny Weasley burst out laughing, causing the other three to start laughing too. Now Draco was really confused. How dare they laugh at him? And what were they laughing about anyway?
Colin and Dennis Creevey came out of the Great Hall next, examining a camera that Colin held. The brothers both looked up at the group assembled between the marble staircase and the doors leading into the Great Hall. They too had a hard time controlling their laughter as they looked at Draco. Colin held his camera up to snap a picture, thus nearly blinding Draco as well, who was starting to get extremely angry and annoyed. What the hell was wrong with everyone? What were they all laughing at?
The Creevey brothers continued to the marble staircase, the weasel, Granger, Potty, and the weaselette following them. Draco headed for the doors leading to the Great Hall to get some lunch still with his broom perched on his shoulder, but just before he could successfully close the doors all the way, he heard Ron Weasley cry out, "Oy, Colin! How much do you want for that picture?"
As he walked towards the Slytherin House table, the majority of the students throughout the hall began to talk in hushed voices. Some people were staring, laughing, or pointing. Blaise Zabini stopped Draco before he had reached the table, turning him away from the other tables and placing an arm across his shoulders. Draco's eyebrow quirked as if to say, you dare touch me? but Zabini ignored his pointed look.
"What are you trying to pull, Draco?" Blaise asked Malfoy Junior as he walked him back to the door.
"Trying to pull? What are you talking about?" Draco said. Really, had everyone gone mad? What was wrong with him that everyone was laughing and Blaise needed to confront him?
"Listen, Draco, I know your father isn't around anymore, but do you really think going gothic is going to make your family look any better? I mean a Death Eater father and a gothic son? People are going to talk..."
"What in the hell are you talking about, Blaise?" Draco asked the tall black boy through clenched teeth. He wasn't even sure what gothic meant and wait a minute...Was that how Zabini saw the Malfoy family? As a bunch of losers or something? Now if Draco wasn't mad at everyone's stupid behavior, he was mad at Blaise for what he said about the Malfoys. "What are you getting at?" he asked through clenched teeth with renewed anger.
"I think you'd better come with me," Blaise answered as he pulled him out of the doors to the entrance hall and led him towards the marble staircase.
"What's this all about, Zabini?" Draco asked suspiciously as he jerked his person out of Blaise Zabini's grasp.
Blaise didn't say anything as he continued to lead the mistrustful Slytherin up the stairs until they reached the second floor where Draco was dragged into the boys' toilet.
"Wha—? Zabini!" Draco continued, outraged at being rough handled. Him! A Malfoy!
But Blaise just pushed him towards a sink and a mirror. Draco looked back at the other boy skeptically as he neared the sink and peered into a mirror. His eyes widened in shock at what he saw, and he had to say that he was a little disturbed by how skeletal he looked.
Except...
Except that his face was now pink and sore with sunburn from lying in the middle of the grounds for nearly three hours.
He had large, round, black circles around his eyes, making him look as if he had been severely punched. His nose was completely black as well and for the first moment that he looked in the mirror, he had panicked that his nose had disappeared. His mouth was also completely black reminding him of a Muggle mime or a dreary clown on a bad day. If that wasn't the worse thing of all, he had writing on his face—which was written in a way that he would be able to read it upon looking in the mirror and which must have looked like rubbish to the people he passed in the Great Hall.
"'WHAT NOW, DICKHEAD?'!" he screamed angrily at his reflection, completely overlooking the less insulting 'LOSER' scribbled backward across his forehead, and making Blaise jump in surprise. Only one person could have done this to him. The very last person he had seen and insulted...
"WHO THE HELL DOES SHE THINK SHE IS?"
"So you didn't do that to yourself?" Blaise asked with increasing intrigue.
"NO, I BLOODY WELL DIDN'T DO THIS TO MYSELF!" Draco continued to scream as he pointed to his face and flecks of saliva flew from his mouth. His loud voice echoed throughout the room, deafening the only two occupants and Blaise flinched.
"Who is 'she'?" But Blaise knew that he was starting to press his luck. Draco just stared at him, blinded by rage. Blaise flinched again at the angry young man's next obscene words.
"THAT BITCH IS GOING TO PAY!" Draco stood there seething, his breathing harsh and livid, before he stormed out of the bathroom to stomp back to his common room. The one he shared with Hermione Granger...
Yes, Granger is going to pay dearly...
Before long, he stood in front of a yawning Elizabeth and sneered at her.
"Iunctum Inimicus," he said with sarcasm, ignoring the calculating and almost bewildered look the young girl gave him as she revealed the portrait hole and he climbed through into the common room.
He took a good look around the serene room and wondered for a brief moment whether Granger was in her rdorm at all. Standing at the bottom of the right staircase, he noted that her door was closed, but then again, she always kept it closed. Without even thinking that she might be in the Gryffindor common room, he trumped up the steps and pounded on the smooth wood shouting words that were less likely to coax her out of her room and more likely to scare her off.
"GRANGER! GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"
After encountering Malfoy in the entrance hall, Hermione had headed off to her own room planning on meeting Harry and Ron for dinner. She hadn't had the chance to write in her diary since after retiring from drawing masterpieces on Malfoy's face, Ron had subjected her to playing chess ("You still need to work on being bad at something...and I like to win..." Ron had said.).
Seeing that confused look on Malfoy's face as Colin snapped his picture and the six Gryffindors laughed at him was another memory Hermione added to her collection of 'Malfoy in Humiliating Circumstances Gallery of Memories', as she had dubbed it in her last entry in her diary. But she couldn't help but feel the slightest bit of remorse. Yes, he had deserved what he had gotten for all the torture of six years; for causing (though he was most likely unaware of that as well) her need in confessing to a diary, and for those perverted remarks on the Quidditch pitch. But she still felt as if she wouldn't want to have been treated in that way so she shouldn't have treated anyone like that. The situation reminded her of James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and Severus Snape. Back in Harry's dad's day, James, Lupin, Pettigrew, and Sirius had tortured Snape just because he existed and was interested in the Dark Arts. While Hermione did not condone dabbles in the Dark Arts, she did notice that just because of Snape's background, he was mistreated.
But Malfoy is different...she thought, though she couldn't really convince herself, and if she couldn't convincer herself, then no one else would believe it either.
Like teachers.
Hermione suddenly felt the full consequences of what would happen if Malfoy snitched to his beloved Snape. She could get expelled or at the very least, lose House points and earn detentions. McGonagall would not be kind to Hermione for how she had humiliated Malfoy, Snape would be even worse in Potions class, and Dumbledore...oh, Dumbledore would be so disappointed that she and Malfoy couldn't become friends or something as wildly absurd as that.
What did he expect? Malfoy hates me...he's shown that today when I did nothing to him...I had to defend myself...
One thing was for sure though, if Hermione was turned in for her negative actions towards Malfoy, she would not allow Harry or Ron to take the blame. Hermione had done it all on her own; she had jinxed Malfoy, put him to sleep, drawn all over his face, and left him to bake in the sun.
And what had he done to her?
He'd merely called her names, made some very crude remarks, and knocked her from Ron's broom though she hadn't fallen so there really was no harm done. So really, Malfoy had not been justifiably attacked, at least not for his crime that morning. Hermione contented herself with saying that that one action (plus the slap in third year, plus the punch in the Leakey Cauldron...) was pay back for all six years of his torture.
Again, she hadn't entirely convinced herself...
All of this, of course, had been written in her diary; all of her doubts, fears, niggling notions, the days' events... She was just in the middle of recounting the experience on the Quidditch field when she heard the portrait slam closed down in the common room. Her body tensed as her quill froze mid-word and her blood seemed to run cold. Only one person ever entered the common room and she knew he would be extremely angry with her by now.
Loud stomps could be heard as Malfoy angrily made his way across the common room, up the right staircase then silence as he paused at her door. Hermione stood from the bed and silently made her way to her door, pressing her ear against the hard wood and being careful not to touch the door with her hands. All of a sudden, an explosion of sound could be heard through the door, and Hermione jumped back in surprise. Her heart was pounding in her chest at the rush of adrenaline from the fright and she started to register some of the words being yelled.
"—HERE RIGHT NOW! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"
Hermione scrambled backwards a bit before there was more pounding.
"DAMNIT, YOU! GET OUT HERE, NOW!"
Before completely thinking about it, Hermione knocked on the door three times with her knuckles. The noise on the other side paused, and Hermione knew that Malfoy had to be confused as to why she was knocking on her own door. Tentatively, Hermione placed her palm flat on the door and pushed it open slowly. The sight before her was not an enraged Malfoy; it wasn't even the top of the stairs leading to her common room. She now stood in a doorway facing a round circular room with comfortable squishy armchairs by a warm, roaring fire. The Gryffindor common room.
Several students were mingling around the fire, sitting at various tables doing homework or reading. Pulling the door to her bedroom closed behind her, Hermione entered the common room, searching the armchairs for Harry's raven or Ron's copper head. Finding them in their usual chairs by the fire, Hermione made her way over to them and sat on the floor at Harry's feet, leaning against the front of his chair. She pulled the Evening Prophet off of the coffee table and pulled it in front of her face, not really reading it, just hiding her face from view.
Harry noticed that the newspaper was upside down and looked at his friend curiously. He eyed Ron who had also noticed and said, "Your newspaper is upside down."
"So it is," she said casually as she looked at the paper, then at Harry. Then she flipped the paper the right way and hid her face again, muttering, "Malfoy's awake."
Harry and Ron immediately sympathized with Hermione and left their chairs to sit on the floor on either side of their once-bushy-haired friend.
"It's your own fault he's mad now, you know," Ron said tactlessly. Hermione rolled her eyes at him and just stared into the fire in the grate. Hermione's mind was racing and she realized how funny the whole situation would be when she finally wrote about it in her diary. Her eyes widened and her arms slackened as she also realized exactly where her diary was. The newspaper fell from her hands and her mouth fell open. Harry and Ron looked at her curiously again, wondering what could be wrong now.
"Oh, my God... MY DIARY! I left it on my bed!" she screamed as her hands clapped to the sides of her face.
"Oh, no," Ron groaned. "Does this feel like deja vu or what?"
Hermione jumped up from the floor and ran to the door leading to her room. The door swung open and she ran in. To her horror, Malfoy was sitting on her crimson bed, her diary was opened in his hands and his pink and black face was submerged in the pages.
Draco Malfoy was reading Hermione's diary.
Knock, knock, knock.
For a second, Draco stared at the door in confusion. Why was she knocking on the door? Did Granger expect it to open for him? But to his surprise, the door did open. Draco peered into the room but finding it empty, stepped inside. Just as he stood in the middle of the room, scrutinizing the decor, the door closed behind him. He jumped in surprise, realizing that he wouldn't be able to get out of Granger's room until she came back and touched the door; then realizing that she would find him there. Draco wondered, not for the first time either, whether Dumbledore had done everything in his power to 'unite' Gryffindor and Slytherin, and he wondered what he had done to deserve being stuck in a Mudblood's room.
Though, he thought the Mudblood in question would have been able to list quite a few things.
Draco noticed that Granger's room looked exactly like his own except that everything that was crimson in her room was green in his, everything gold was silver, gold lion statuettes were substituted for silver snakes, and Gryffindor tapestries were substituted for Slytherin tapestries. Besides all of that, Draco's room was turned around opposite Hermione's. While her bed jutted from the center of the right wall and the bathroom door was situated on the left, in his room the bed jutted from the left wall and the bathroom door was situated on the right.
Suddenly, a thought came to Draco that he hadn't thought of before. He knew Granger had been in her room when he had been pounding on her door, but she had disappeared to somewhere. As far as he figured, she wouldn't return to her room for a while yet since she would try to escape his anger for drawing on his face. While he was stuck in her room, he had the opportunity to dig around for dirt to make the "Gryffindor Princess" look bad.
He rummaged around her wardrobe for a while but only found clothes Hermione Granger would wear--like blouses, long skirts, a dress robe, and a couple of Muggle dresses--and a few things he thought that he would like to see her wear--like tank tops, short T-shirts, denim jeans and even, to his surprise, denim skirts. When Draco tried to open Granger's trunk, the clasps wouldn't budge and he figured she had locked it. Looking up from the trunk sitting at the foot of her bed, he spied a book open face up on the crimson duvet.
Standing from his kneeling position, he walked around the side of the bed and sat down. The book was lying open face up and at the first glance he could tell it was a diary or a journal of some sort. Tiny loopy writing written in purple ink flooded the two pages that he could see. Sitting on the bed, Draco lifted the book and flipped through the pages, finding that most of them were covered with purple ink speckled every once in a while with black inked paragraphs.
Draco turned back to the page he had found the book on. Getting comfortable on the bed, he read:
... strangest feeling sitting on Ron's broom. As soon as I had sat down I had been afraid of falling off and I never even thought of going higher. It was funny, too, how comfortable it was to sit on the broom. That was obviously the work of a Cushioning Charm worked into the wood during manufacturing. But now I can see why the boys like Quidditch so much. I mean, I was going as fast as the Cleansweep would let me and it was exhilarating. But I don't think I will ever try Harry's Firebolt. Way too fast for me. Then Malfoy had to come out and ruin everything, but I got him back big time. The look on his face was priceless! Oh God, I...am so dead. If Malfoy tells McGonagall or Snape I think I might as well pack my bags...
Draco smirked as he read that. He hadn't even thought of how much trouble Granger would get in if he told Snape what she had done. He skipped to the last paragraph in the entry.
...but seriously, Malfoy is going to kill me when he finally sees his face. Seeing him look so confused in the entrance hall had been hysterical, and Colin said he would give me a copy of the picture for a small kiss (when Ron had to pay, and Harry had to give another signed picture). But when Malfoy gets a hold of me...I don't even want to think about it. I can already imagine having another reaction. And I had been doing so well. It's been a little over a week since the last o--
Draco didn't have time to wonder what a 'reaction' was because at that moment, Hermione Granger had burst through her door into her room. She stood in the doorway, chest heaving, her eyes wide as she noticed what he was holding. His eyes met hers and he sneered at her.
"Looking for this?" he asked, waving the diary tauntingly.
Hermione swayed on her feet for a second before falling over backwards in a dead faint.
Draco slid off of the scarlet bed and stood beside Hermione's limp form. Against his better judgment, he couldn't help but wonder if she had hit her head when she fell. He kneeled down beside the Head Girl and pushed her wavy light brown locks away from her face.
This is the perfect chance to get her back, Draco... a small voice in the back of his head said. Do to her what she did to you...
Looking around, Draco could see Muggle writing utensils, quills, and wells of ink all over the room. He could easily use any of them to draw on her face like she had done to him. Grabbing one of the pens off of the bed, Draco uncapped it and positioned it above her face. But taking a look at her pale, creamy skin, her full lips, her lean body lying there helpless on the floor... he couldn't do it. For some reason that frustrated him, Draco Malfoy couldn't take revenge on the Mudblood he hated most of all.
Draco threw the pen against the wall and stood up to pace angrily around the bed and the room.
Damnit, Draco. Hex her or something! You didn't have a problem trying to hex Potter with his back turned in fourth year, and you didn't have a problem breaking his nose while he was stunned in sixth year...She's a girl, and she's unconscious. Just draw on her face! Do something
But he couldn't. Maybe being turned into a ferret by Imposter Moody had taught Draco not to hex someone when they were in a formidable position. Just the thought of that being the reason would have made Draco laugh, even if he never laughed at the memory of being a ferret. That nasty voice reared its ugly head again at the back of his mind, and he tried to stifle it to no avail.
Maybe, you like the little Mudblood...Maybe you're becoming a blood traitor like those disgusting Weasleys... The voice sent a shiver down Draco's spine. He couldn't help but realize that the voice sounded exactly like his father. Even dead as he was, Lucius was still out to make Draco's life miserable.
Resolving to end that fight with himself, Draco sighed in anger and kneeled down next to Hermione again. Slipping one arm under her shoulder blades and the other under her knees, he stood with her body cradled against his chest and deposited her onto the bed. He cleared away all of the writing implements that littered the duvet and sat on the side of the bed by Hermione's unconscious body. Barely registering what he was doing, he again moved her hair away from her face and was surprised at how smooth it felt. Being a Mudblood and all, he would have thought that her hair was brittle and dry. Almost with complete concentration, Draco stroked her cheek and was again surprised that she felt as soft as she looked. Her skin felt like the lightest velvet; warm; and pale from fainting. He left his hand resting against her cheek as he studied her unblemished skin. So submersed in his study of her face was he, that he didn't even notice her eyes flutter open and the horrified look she gave him.
Hermione jumped out of bed as fast as she could, giving Draco an incredulous look, before flying to the bathroom door. Draco grabbed the scarlet diary and rushed to the bathroom as well, before the door closed and he was trapped in the Gryffindor's room. At the doorway, he avoided looking at the mirror at his sun burnt and black face but he needn't have even tried to avoid looking. Something else had caught his attention.
Granger had just fallen to her hands and knees in the middle of the bathroom, her head was bent and Draco knew that she was throwing up. Even with her body hunched over as it was, he could still see the puddle of blood on the white tile floor. To his amazement, (the third time in five minutes, too) Granger's blood was a bright crimson red and not the muddy, polluted color his father had always told him it should be. Hermione Granger's blood was exactly the same color as Draco's the day he had fought with Potter and Weasley in Diagon Alley; the same pure, scarlet, red color.
For a second, Draco wondered if maybe Granger wasn't Muggle-born, but he quickly dismissed this idea because she had always been proud of her parentage and Draco had seen her parents before. It was quite a shock to Draco to find that after everything his father had told him about Mudbloods, about their inferiority and their dirty blood, they were exactly the same. He had sort of just proven that as he had studied Granger unconscious. Her hair could shine like any other's, her skin could feel as soft as the purest blooded person, her blood looked exactly like everyone else's. There was no difference between Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy except for the obvious male, female, personality and family differences that every single person was unique with.
Hermione muttered a quiet Scourgify to clean the blood. Sitting up, she noticed that Draco was in the bathroom with her. She also noticed that his mouth was hanging open and he looked like he had gotten the shock of his life. He was also staring at her.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" she said through clenched teeth angrily. "Your door is right there, you can leave now! You don't have to be stuck in a Mudblood's room anymore." Draco didn't move, though he had wiped the shock of his epiphany from his face.
Standing up, Hermione began to rant.
"What's this now? I would have thought that you of all people would have been running back to your room. I know you read my diary and I know you saw my blood. Aren't you afraid of becoming contaminated? Being so close to my dirty blood and all?" Draco still did not move but he opened his mouth in anger to say something, unsure of why he was even angry, but Hermione beat him to the punch.
"Just go away, Malfoy! This is your entire fault anyway! Just leave me alone. Go wash your face and get a potion for that sunburn. You're an eyesore!"
Draco's anger flared enormously at being called an eyesore. He had always found that he was a fairly good looking bloke, but to be called an eyesore...
"Now wait just a minute you filthy little—," but even though he was going to say 'Mudblood', he didn't think the word fit anymore. He knew from then on, he would never call Hermione Granger a Mudblood, but as for other Muggle-borns, he couldn't make any promises. "—know-it-all, it's your own damn fault that I look like this and I didn't do anything to you!"
"You've done plenty to me! That's why I gave you a makeover, because for six years, you have done nothing but torture my friends and me. You were being a pervert this morning so I got back at you, and you deserved that and more for everything you've done to me. So don't give methat, oh, I'm so innocent,thing because it won't play with me! You don't even know what real emotional pain is!"
The whole time she talked, Hermione had stepped closer and closer to Draco until she was poking him in the chest and looking up into his startled face. Draco watched as her scowl was quickly replaced with a far away look. Then she dove to the other side of the bathroom and just had enough time to lift the toilet lid and seat before emptying her stomach again.
Draco thought that throwing up blood was so completely disgusting but he couldn't help but feel sorry for Granger. But before he got all sappy with her predicament (Not that that would happen, Malfoys never get sappy.), Draco started to get angry. Why would she say that he caused her little problem? Had he really always been the one to make her throw up like that? Did it happen when she was mad at him?
No matter what she says, it's not my fault, he told himself. He steeled his facial expression and stance and tried to appear cold at her situation. Starting towards his room, Draco remembered the diary he was still holding in his hand and as he passed the toilet, he tossed the leather book onto the floor at Granger's side. She looked up at him, he was startled to see, with tears in her eyes and coursing down her cheeks. Without speaking, they both knew that Draco would not tell anyone about Hermione's reactions, though neither knew why he was willing to keep her secret.
As soon as the door leading to Malfoy's room had shut, Hermione glared at her diary and picked it up. In a wave of anger at her life, she threw the diary across the bathroom where it struck the mirror and shattered the glass. Glass showered over the countertop and onto the floor and the diary fell onto the counter between the two sinks, glass covering it.
Tears continued to run down Hermione's cheeks as she stood up to rinse her mouth with warm water from her sink, ignoring the glass that covered the counter. Once the water that she spit out of her mouth was not tinted pink with blood, she tapped another cupful of water three times with her wand and transfigured the clear liquid into minty mouthwash. Conjuring a washcloth now, she ran it under some hot water and cleaned her face, holding the cloth to her eyes to try to get the red and puffiness out from crying. Lastly, she brushed her teeth and rinsed her mouth again with mouthwash before turning to go back to her room.
As she reached her door, she remembered the damned diary and turned back to retrieve it. With a quick Reparo spell, the mirror fixed itself and Hermione went back to her room, clutching the diary to her chest. She collapsed onto her bed still clutching her diary as if she were trying to switch the diary with her heart in her ribcage and was soon asleep from exhaustion.
She dreamed about Malfoy's eyes again, like she usually did on most nights. But the usual dream of just staring into Malfoy's eyes quickly escalated to her crying and Malfoy wiping away her tears with the light touches of his fingers, holding her face with gentle hands. He leaned down and Hermione's eyes fluttered for a second in surprise before closing as his lips met hers. Hermione took a step closer to her longest enemy, wrapping her arms around his neck and trying to meet his kiss. Malfoy's hands were warm where they touched her waist and lower back. The small kiss also escalated to something else as Malfoy ran his tongue along Hermione's bottom lip, asking for entrance to her mouth. Without hesitation, she parted her lips and allowed his tongue to enter. The kiss was passionate but gentle and left Hermione's knees weak and her heart begging for more.
When she woke up for breakfast the next morning, Hermione didn't remember the dream at all. She dressed in her school robes and like usual, put her shrunk diary and a pen in her robe pocket along with her wand. As she entered the bathroom to brush her teeth, she didn't look at the toilet and avoided stepping on the spots of the floor that she had thrown up on even though they were already cleaned. Then she made her way down stairs finding Malfoy standing at the bottom expectantly as if waiting for her.
That's crazy. Malfoy hates me. He isn't waiting for me. Besides, we usually spend our time avoiding each other.
She passed him up without a word or a glance and made her way to the portrait hole, but she felt his presence as he followed her out of the common room. She could still sense him as she walked through the corridors. Now she started to wonder what he wanted but it was breakfast time so he was just going to the Great Hall, same as her. So instead of heading for the Great Hall, Hermione made sure to walk in the opposite direction toward the library. At the door she found that Malfoy was still following her so she turned on him.
"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? WHY ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?"
Malfoy sneered down at her while he answered. "I wanted to see how long you lasted before you finally blew up."
Against her better instincts, Hermione's anger began to take control.
"THAT'S IT?" she seethed.
Malfoy looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well...no. Why is it my fault that you can't keep your blood where it's supposed to be?"
"What makes you think that I am going to tell you what Harry and Ron don't even know? You are not my friend, in fact, you have been my enemy since first year, and you are not privy to such information," she said angrily. Her hands were made into fists at her sides and her teeth were clenched. Draco wondered if this was her battle stance.
"If it has to do with me then I think I am entitled to know," he countered.
"I don't think so," Hermione scoffed as she turned to go back down the corridor to breakfast.
Malfoy grabbed her arm and shoved her against the stone wall, angry since he was not used to being dismissed so easily. As he looked into Hermione's brown doe eyes, his teeth clenched angrily as well, he thought he saw fear and anger hidden in the depths of her pupils. Without even thinking, he crashed his lips to hers in an angry kiss completely different from the kiss Hermione had dreamed about and didn't remember.
At first, Hermione was shocked. She didn't respond to the kiss and instead pushed him away from her roughly. Her mind told her to walk away; to go to breakfast and pretend the little scenario had never happened but her body wouldn't move. Finally, her curiosity won over and she asked, "What in the name of Merlin did you do that for?"
Malfoy was speechless for a while, not sure of how to respond since he didn't know the answer to the question himself. He didn't have to worry about answering anyway since he heard Granger's voice penetrating his disbelief.
"I see you got that stuff off of your face," she said with a sneer, momentarily forgetting about that harsh kiss.
Quick with a comeback, Draco countered, "I see you didn't." He smirked and left down the corridor for the Great Hall.
Hermione stood motionless for awhile trying to figure out if he meant what she thought he meant. She rubbed her face as if trying to feel for an extra eye or nose and took off down the corridor as well for breakfast. Taking her seat across from Harry and Ron, she said before they could even say 'good morning', "Is there something on my face?"
"No," Harry said after a glance to her face.
"No," Ginny, who now sat beside Harry at meals, agreed.
Ron turned his head this way and that as he studied Hermione's face as if trying to see her in different lights. After nearly five minutes of his scrutiny, Hermione was becoming impatient.
"Ron! Well, do I or don't I?"
"Oh! No. You don't have anything that isn't normal," he said, startled out of his reverie.
"So, there's nothing on my face at all? Nothing that I don't usually have? No spots or pimples or anything?" she asked again.
"No," her three friends said in unison.
Hermione searched the Slytherin House table, two tables ahead of the Gryffindor one, for Malfoy's platinum hair. When she found him, he was staring directly at her, sneering. She glared back at him and flipped the bird, which she would never have usually done. Harry and Ron exchanged shocked looks and turned around to find out who she was directing the profanity at and finding Malfoy glaring at the three of them, shrugged their shoulders and continued to eat.
"Ms. Granger! I must say that I am surprised that our Head Girl would do such crude things! Ten points from Gryffindor for such behavior!" Hermione flinched as Professor McGonagall deducted points and glared at her with her mouth set in a grim, thin line. Another glance at the Slytherin table told her that Malfoy was now laughing at her.
This time she opted just to stick her tongue out at him.
(A/N): Whoo! So what do you think? Things are definitely moving up! I am just a little unsure of how exactly they will fall in love. It will be a lot easier to make them friends. What did you think of the kisses? It was very hard to describe that first one and while it was easy for me to picture it in my head, it was extremely difficult to write. I've never been kissed so how would I know what it's like? I would love to know what you thought about it. I already know it wasn't wonderful and I think it's kind of funny how Hermione and Draco's first kiss (in reality) happened.
The scene in the bathroom has been in my head since the very beginning and was the inspiration for me to include a diary into the story. As I was thinking Diary of a Songbird up, (before I came up with the title, obviously) I hadn't thought about making Hermione have a diary but the story does make more sense with it in there.
Ah, writing this story is so much more fun than I thought it would be. I remember after getting the first chapter typed up that I was so excited that I could hardly wait for the three day waiting period for starting an account on FanFiction dot net to be over so I would be allowed to post it. And I was so excited getting those first reviews! I seriously had thought no one would read the story. But now look at me! Twelve chapters in and 64 reviews. It's amazing! I hope y'all enjoyed Half-Blood Prince and I hope y'all also enjoyed this chapter!
