Chapter Fourteen: I Was Expecting You

Word Count: 1,031

Hermione felt herself being pulled into the gut wrenching swirl of side-along apparation. They swirled around and around, and then were dropped down onto the ground with a thud. She lost her footing and started to stumble, but was held up by the strong arms of Malfoy. He pulled her up and started walking right away, not even bothering to stop and brush themselves off.

"Why did I never think of this before? If only I had, it would have saved us so much trouble..." she heard him mumbling as he pulled her along, making her stumble occasionally. As they walked a bit, she could see Hoqwarts up ahead. It was a beautiful castle, so elegant yet rugged at the same time.

"Yes, why didn't I think of it? I can understand you not thinking of it, but me..." Hermione replied to his rambling, earning her a glare and a sharp tug on her arm.

"Ow! Dang, Malfoy, you can let me go now!" She said while wrenching her arm out of his grip.

"Sorry." he muttered, not sounding sorry at all. He reached back and grabbed her luggage from her, muttering about how stupid they were again, and slung it over his shoulder so that she would be able to keep up. After about 15 minutes of walking in a hurry, they reached the steps leading up to the entrance. Malfoy never stopped once, continuing up the steps to the door. It was barred shut, and Hermione could feel the wards around it. Obviously, he could too, because he raised his fist and banged on the door. After a minute, heels clicking against marble floor could be hear very faintly from the other side of the door. The door opened slowly, and from behind it appeared a apprehensive and then shocked Professor McGonagall, who was holding her wand at the ready.

"Mister Malfoy? Miss Granger? What in merlins name are the two of you doing here? And why are you together?" she said, opening the door all of the way. With a shrug, Malfoy pushed his way into the castle and dropped her luggage off of his shoulder.

"Can we see Dumbledore?" he asked McGonagall, ignoring her question. Hermione walked in after him, giving her Professor a smile. McGonagall shut and warded the doors again, and then gestured for them to follow her.

"Yes, yes, come along." she said in an agitated voice, leading them down a few corridors. When they arrived to the entrance to his office, McGonagall gave it the password.

"Lemon Drops." it opened and the three people stepped onto the stairs, allowing themselves to be raised up. When they reached the top, the Professor got off and walked to the set of doors. She pulled them open, and walked in.

"Professor Dumbledore, two of our students wish to see you." she said to the old man sitting behind a desk. Hermione and Malfoy walked in, the latter still carrying the formers luggage.

"Ah, Miss Granger and Mister Malfoy! I was expecting the two of you to drop by soon." he said with great mirth, standing up and walking around his desk. Hermione shot a confused look at Malfoy, only to find that he was looking just as baffled as she was.

"You were expecting us, sir?" she inquired politely, wondering how it was possible that he knew they were coming. But then again, it was Dumbledore. It was very, very possible that he had known.

"Oh, never mind that. Why don't you let us know why your here now? Oh, and please do take a seat." he said, gesturing to the seats in front of his desk while going around to sit in his chair behind it again. Malfoy and Hermione went forward to sit in the afore mentioned chairs, the former leaving both her luggage and his bag. After they'd sat down and made themselves comfortable, Malfoy launched into the story. He started at the very beginning, even telling him about them meeting at her youth group. He chose, thankfully, to leave out some small details, including the kisses and the sleeping issues. For that she was extremely grateful, because if he hadn't she would have been mortified. When he got to the end of the story, finally telling the two Professors who were listening intently about the attack that had happened earlier, he closed by saying,

"And, so, we decided to come here, finally. Because Granger was too butt headed to think of it before." this earned him a death glare from Hermione, and chuckles from the Professors.

"So, Nott, you say? Interesting, no wonder we received word from his family that he wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts this year, saying that it was for reasons of the personal nature." Dumbledore said speculatively, stroking his beard with his thumb and pointer finger. "Well, no worries, you shall be perfectly fine here. Hogwarts has wards that are nearly impossible to break through, not to mention that Nott didn't even finish his seventh year." McGonagall nodded in agreement, also stating that the wards were very well put up and had hundreds upon hundreds of years of renewing. Hermione smiled, she had been hoping they'd be allowed to stay here until next school semester started.

"With new semesters beginning in only two short weeks, we have started sending out our yearly letters. If you two would have been at home to receive yours, you would have realized a important fact. This fact should make your stay undoubtedly easier until all the other students come." Dumbledore stated, gaining their attention. Malfoy raised one of his blond eyebrows in question, and Hermione cocked her head.

"It has been decided by most of the Professors here at Hogwarts, that the two of you shall be Head Boy and Girl this semester!" Dumbledore informed them cheerfully.

A/N:

Okay, so I decided to put the authors note down here this time. Don't ask me why, I just felt like it. xD Anyways, how was this chapter? (: Took me longer than expected, but hey, life gets hectic. I still have not decided what length chapters I'll do, but I'm leaning pretty strongly toward shorter chapters and faster updates. P: Um, so yeah, please review! From now on, I'm going to start replying to reviews.

(=

Oh, and, I almost forgot. THANK YOU GUYS, for giving me my ten reviews. I actually got I think twelve, and they all made me happy. 8D This time, however, I'd really like 15 or twenty reviews. ;D And I only need that many more to hit a hundred reviews! If y'all could make that happen, I'll try and post a super long chapter next time. Anyways, hope you enjoyed!