Story: New Events
Author: LadyLissaLight
Summary: "The Tri-wizard Tournament is to be held again" - "I could get any girl." "Even Granger?" "Yep." "I dare you to seduce her." "Done." - "Hermione, who are you going to the ball with?" "... Draco Malfoy." "WHAT?" Please read!
Hermione slept late the next morning, missing breakfast. Apparently a lot of people had, or at least that's what Anthony had said when she finally awoke and went into the common room, to find him sitting there reading one of the books she'd bought him.
She'd showered, dressed and made her way to the Dining Hall, finding that Anthony was right. There was still a large amount of people scattered at various tables, even though it was 10.30 and breakfast finished at 8.
She spotted the familiar black hair and dark skin of Blaise over at a table by himself, and headed over. "Hey" she said, sitting down and helping herself to the plate of bacon and eggs that appeared in front of her.
He glanced up, "Hey Granger. Draco's still sleeping, the lazy ass." He grinned. She smiled. Apparently Draco loved sleeping in.
Halfway through breakfast, the blonde haired boy sat down at their table, interrupting their argument over the Hogwarts secret passageways. Hermione couldn't remember how they'd gotten onto that subject, but she stopped mid-sentence when Draco sat down.
His hair was shaggy, falling into his eyes, and he was wearing a green collared shirt and black jeans. His eyes met hers and a secret smile twisted his lips, making her insides tingle. But he started eating with a casual "Blaise, Hermione."
Blaise grinned. "Hey Drake, there are, er, 5 secret passages in Hogwarts, right?"
Draco frowned, "Yeah…"
Blaise turned triumphantly. "Ha!"
"If I had the marauders map with me, you'd both be proven wrong," she said primly, laying her knife and fork down.
Both boys grinned, "Sure." Blaise said.
It struck her how much things had changed, all of a sudden. Before they'd left to hunt Horcruxes, this would have been her with Harry and Ron, them needling her and the three of them laughing. Harry would be the one who was like a brother to her, while Ron was the one she thought she had feelings for.
And now she was sitting with two Slytherins, both of them smirking at her. Two Slytherins that she would either have not looked twice at, or curled her lip at the sight of, not two years ago. One of them was no her best friend, close to brother, and the other… well, she was yet to determine what Draco was to her yet.
The three of them finished her breakfast and left the hall together, Hermione in the middle and flanked by the two boys, one dark and one light. They passed Ron and Blanche as they left, and Hermione was immediately dragged over to a corner by her dark haired friend.
"You and Draco! Tell me everything!" Blanche shrieked quietly.
Hermione blushed. "Come to my room in an hour."
Blanche nodded and headed off with Ron, who was looking disgruntled at being left out of their whispers. Draco and Blaise waited, both looking impassive, for Hermione to return to them and they continued on to the boy's room.
Hermione and Draco sat side by side on Draco's bed, while Blaise grinned at them from his. "So Drakey, can I see your arm?"
Draco easily slid up the left sleeve of his shirt to reveal his perfectly blank arm. He gave Hermione another grateful look, and she smiled.
"Wow. How'd you do it, Granger?"
She shrugged. "Simple Potion. Easy for me, Blaise." She gave him a cocky grin.
He laughed and winked. "Trust you to show off your assets in a room with two purebloods."
Draco rolled his eyes, till Hermione nudged him in the ribs. He smirked.
"Is anyone else still really tired from last night?" Hermione yawned, slumping.
"Goody two-shoes," Blaise said. "Just because you've never partied before, Granger."
Draco smirked. "Yeah Hermione. The rest of us got out a lot on the holidays, while you're at Weasel's."
She blushed. "Just because I choose to further my friendships and education rather than my number of sexual partners." She retorted.
Draco and Blaise looked briefly shocked, before bursting into laughter.
Hermione crossed her arms haughtily, looking away. The door opened suddenly to reveal Ernie McMillan, who looked completely shocked and stared, open-mouthed at Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy… laughing.
Their amusement died immediately. "What are you doing here, Macmillan?" Draco snarled, rising.
"Yeah, beat it." Blaise curled his lip.
Ernie's gaze snapped to Hermione, who was sitting on Draco's bed with her arms still folded and shaking her head, before raising his eyebrows and shooting another frightened look at the Slytherins, mumbling, "Sorry wrong room" before he left, closing the door.
Hermione was overcome with surprise as Blaise and Draco settled back down. She realised she'd forgotten who they were and who they weren't. They were Slytherins, with all that entitled. They were nasty, kept to their own house and were sneaky, devious and mean.
They weren't Harry and Ron, they weren't going to be nice to her friends, and they weren't going to not mind if Ernie Macmillan walked into their room accidentally.
"What?" Blaise asked her, and she realised they were both staring at her.
"Er, nothing," she muttered.
How had she ended up here? Within the Slytherin's inner circle. Best friends with two of the meanest, cruellest, wanted Slytherins. They'd let her into their exclusive little group and treated her like one of their own.
"You look funny," Draco commented.
"It's nothing, really," she said. After checking her watch, she got up, "I have to go and meet Blanche, see you later boys."
She hurried from the room, going back to her own common room. Blanche was already waiting, sitting on one of the sunken couches. "Hermione, you are late!" she cried. "Anthony let me in," she added.
She pulled Hermione down onto the couch next to her, jabbering excitedly about her night with Ron, until she stopped and said, "Okay now you tell me all about you and Draco!"
"There isn't much to tell," Hermione lied.
"Liar!" Blanche said immediately. "Did you not see ze way which 'e was looking at you when you came down ze stairs last night? Of course something 'appened!"
"We kissed, then," Hermione offered briskly, looking at her hands.
"Oh!" Blanche cried. "Did you express your love for him?"
Hermione gave a short laugh. "I don't love him, Blanche. And If I did, I wouldn't tell him. He's Draco Malfoy!"
"Bah! I thought you were finished with all ze ''e is Draco Malfoy' nonsense! Who cares! 'E likes you!"
"Maybe he just likes kissing me," she offered. "And it means no more to him than that."
"If zat is true then I will… Break up with Ronald!" Blanch declared. "I am zat sure!"
Hermione sighed. If this was Harry or Ron, or really, anyone but Draco, I'd believe it… but it is Draco. So."
There came a knock on the door. Hermione got up and went to open it and found Mason standing there, surprising her.
"Mason?" she asked, confused.
"Hey Hermione," he gave her a cheeky grin. "I reckon you promised me a date a couple o' days ago. I've come to collect now. Go to the village wif me in a couple o weeks?"
She rolled her eyes, having totally forgotten about her promised date. "Alright then."
"Great," he gave her a wink and strolled off.
XXXXXX
Hermione arrived at lunch after her almost too long chat with Blanche about Draco, to be ambushed by Draco himself, accompanied by Blaise. They seized her arms and dragged her over to a table with Terrence and Millicent.
Millicent took one look at Hermione stood up. "What the hell do you think you are doing bringing her over here? One was bad enough. Don't you remember, she's a filthy little mudblood, Malfoy! A year ago you wouldn't have touched her with Dragon hid gloves on, and now your best friends and sitting together? Who would have thought, a Malfoy a blood traitor?"
Draco's already pale face lost all of its colour. He stood up too, towering over the chunky Slytherin. "How dare?" he hissed, eyes narrowed with rage. "The war is over Bulstrode and you need to get with the times. And after all, everyone can see you're just jealous because Hermione here has spent more time with Blaise than you have in 7 years. And for what it is worth, she is with me. I don't think there needs to be any other reason, do you?"
He sat back down, face totally calm, looking entirely composed. But his eyes flashed dangerously and Hermione realised how much weight the Malfoy name must carry in Slytherin circles, for Millicent shrank back and fled.
Blaise eyed Draco, and Draco flicked his eyes at Blaise. They looked at each other, and for a second, Hermione thought Draco was going to snap at his friend, but then a broad grin appeared on the darker boys face, and the two fist pumped.
She shook her head confusedly. "I will never understand Slytherins." She muttered.
XXXXXX
"Hermione?" Draco's voice interrupted her thoughts. They were back at the boy's room.
"Hm?" she asked.
"You left awfully quickly this morning," Blaise said. "Did we do something wrong?"
"Like be mean to Macmillan?" Draco supressed a snigger.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You didn't do anything wrong… I was just, I don't know, thinking about how different this," she gestured to the three of them, "Is from my friendship with Harry and Ron, but how it's also really similar."
"Well yeah, they're the Gryffindor losers, and we're the Slytherin sex gods," Blaise said cockily.
"You forget I'm a Gryffindor loser," she reminded him.
"Oh yeah… I don 't really think of you as a Gryffindor anymore," Blaise shrugged.
"That's my point. I don't see you two as Slytherins either. And this morning, with Ernie, I was just kind of reminded that you are."
"And that's a bad thing?"" Draco inquired, his tone slightly icy.
"No," she assured him.
A bird knocked on the window suddenly, interrupting her. She recognized it immediately. Errol. Blaise snatched up the animal, and coughed, "I'm er, going to go read my letter," he quickly left the room.
Hermione felt the atmosphere change, almost unnoticeably, as Blaise left. She and Draco were alone now, and she had no idea what was about to happen.
She stared at her lap. "So, Blaise was very eager to get that letter, don't you think?" she said into the silence, slightly awkwardly.
"He left quickly because I asked him to," Draco replied, his eyes boring into hers.
"Oh." She mumbled.
Then suddenly he was sitting right next to her, his grey eyes alight with a kind of fervour, his blonde hair falling across his forehead. He looked so ridiculously good, her stomach did a flip. "Hermione," he said urgently. "I haven't' been able to get you out of my head. Please say I can kiss you."
She nodded dizzily, already lost in his eyes. His lips brushed over hers ever so lightly, but it was enough. Grabbing the back of his shirt, she pulled him back towards her, kissing him hard. Her mouth moulded to his and she fisted her hands in his hair as he pulled her onto his lap.
His tongue traced hers and she opened her mouth willingly, giving a little moan of pleasure. His hand slid up her leg to her upper thigh, his thumb tracing circles that gave her little jolts. Then his mouth moved away from hers, and an involuntary whimper came from her. He met her eyes and sent her his most Draco-ish smirk, before lowering his mouth to kiss her neck, peppering little kisses from the base to her collarbone.
Her hands slid under his shirt using his shoulders to pull him closer, and then his hand drifted up to touch the bare skin where her shirt had come untucked from her skirt. His hand slid up the back of her shirt, and Hermione felt herself flush with hear. He put his mouth on hers again and kissed her hard, before pulling away.
They were both breathing heavily, panting, and Hermione's eyes met Draco's, disappointed at the finishing.
"Hermione… I…" Draco's expression looked uncomfortable, and he seemed speechless for once.
"You don't need to say anything, Draco." She told him, surprising herself.
He nodded and they both looked away, equally glad that for a while, they could put off the jump from the cliff into the unknown.
Her brain told her this was the right thing to do. She was being sensible and not letting her emotions take control of her. She was staying where she was safe. Friendship was one thing, anything past that was quite another. And he was Draco Malfoy.
But her heart felt like it had been stomped on, and she suddenly fought the urge to cry. She pushed the feelings away.
XXXXXX
He glanced at her, seeing his necklace hung around her neck, and felt his heart contract. The necklace was not something he could take back, and the connotation that went with it couldn't just be forgotten either.
He met Hermione's eyes and did the only thing he could think of. He smirked. She rolled her eyes and elbowed him, and it seemed like everything was alright again.
"Well, in other news," she began ruefully, "I have a date with a guy named Mason in two weeks."
An overwhelming surge of anger came over him at the thought of this 'Mason', as well as a few other emotions. Disbelief, hurt… jealousy. "What?" he asked, keeping his voice level. "You should have told me you already had someone waiting before you let me kiss you."
Hermione looked horrified. "Oh no! It isn't what you think. Mason is the one who smuggled me out of Beauxbatons to get to the Apothecary's in the village so I could get the ingredients for the potion. In return, he made me promise him a date."
For him. She was dating this guy for him, technically. He wanted to growl and say she couldn't go, but less than five minutes ago he'd given up any claim to say that.
"I see," he nodded curtly.
She sighed, linking her fingers together. He was about to open his mouth to apologise when the door opened and Blaise came back in.
"Blaise, finished writing your love letter to she-weasel?" He drawled.
Blaise gave him a cocky grin. "Damn right."
A/N 62 FREAKIN REVIEWS! YOU GUYS ARE INCREDIBLE! I nearly cried with happiness when I checked my page every day and discovered the numbers going up. I'm SO GLAD you liked the chapter, and I'm ecstatic I got that many reviews! I can't thank you all enough, you are amazing.
On the actual chapter: It was a filler, because sorry ;), I'm not ready for them to be a couple yet, and I figured Hermione wouldn't just jump into things anyway… Sorry if it was a little boring, next one will be better!
Lissa