A/N Sooo, how was the last chapter guys? I want to know what you think. If you're reading this a year or so after this was published then I'm thrilled that you're enjoying the story so far and I'll still acknowledge your reviews of course. HUGE thank you to Nikhil Malfoy, who's reviewed most of my chapters through the story. I'm sure your all sick to the teeth with what's going to happen next but it needs to happen. SORRY GUYS! I also think you'll like the twist.
Chapter 19 - The Suspicion of Pansy Parkinson
She lay in bed, wondering why she felt so giddy and sad all at once, and why she was awake before her alarm went off. She lay there, trying to remember, and then it came to her. Her parents, Crookshanks, the talking, the tears, the admissions, the kiss. She flung herself out of bed. There had to be a mistake. How could he ever like her. Was he just playing on her emotions like Ron had? This was not good, not good at all. Running to the door, she swung it open and went in the bathroom for a shower.
Beep. What the -? BEEP! What was that -? BEEP! "Oh," he thought - it was her alarm cl- BEEEEEEEP!
"HERMIONE!" Draco yelled. Why the hell was she in the shower before her alarm. Surely she was meant to get up when her alarm went off, then go for the shower. He would never understand Granger Logic, but then, he was probably better off without it. BEEP! "HERMIONE!"
"I'M IN THE SHOWER!" She called back. Like he didn't already know. BEEP! Draco growled and turned over, pulling his pillow over his ears. Ah... Now that he couldn't hear that dratted - BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! "RRRRRRH!" Draco yelled and jumped out of bed with half a mind to blow up her alarm clock. Instead, he went out with nothing but a comfy pair of black trousers on, and walked over to the coffee jar. BEEP!
"Godric," she mumbled, as she wrapped a towel around herself and hurried to the door. The handle was very slippery and that mixed with the fact her alarm was ringing as loud as possible, it was no wonder really that when she opened the door she let out a short squeal as she saw Draco sitting on the sideboard topless. She hurried into her dorm, very annoyed and very embarrassed. She flicked her wand at her alarm clock and it at last went quiet.
When she came back out, changed and bag shouldered, she noticed that Draco had gone in for his shower. She too made herself a coffee, sneaking a shot of Draco's fire whisky in to wake her up properly. And collapsed on the sofa, spilling her coffee across her lap. "Fiddles!" She cursed, and flicked her wand, cleaning up the scolding coffee and cooling her leg with a cooling charm. She drank the rest of her coffee in silence, thinking about last night.
5 minutes later, Draco had come out of the bathroom, fully dressed and clean. "Morning," he smirked. She flushed scarlet. "Hey," he spoke, walking over and sitting next to her. She shuffled up to make room, although there was a whole half of the sofa next to her. He smirked and she looked determinedly in the other direction. "She's so bloody frigid," he thought. She looked increasingly nervous as he looked at her. He knew exactly how to pull this off though. "Well," he began, smirking, "Seeing as your alarm clock woke me up ridiculously early, I think I'm going to go down to breakfast and come back up afterwards. See you down there Hermione." And he swivelled to face her, bent his head round, kissed her lips, smirked and hurried off to the door laughing. She was bright red, absolutely flabbergasted at what he'd just done. She sprinted to the door with her bag and ran to catch up with him. "You damned ferret Malfoy," Hermione cursed loudly. He stopped and looked at her.
"Oh please, we both know you enjoyed that last night," he chuckled, eying the corridor, nobody else it seemed was up yet. Hermione shuffled her feet. "Either you admit you liked it, or you admit you were drunk. Personally I'd prefer you to say the first option because otherwise I've really made a fool of myself," Draco smirked. He knew she hadn't been drunk and she knew he knew that. He also knew she couldn't admit to either without persuasion. "Do you still want to go on that date," he whispered in her ear. She blushed again. Merlin she really needed to control this. Then she straightened her back and said tartly, "I'd like to see the Draco Malfoy pulling off a really nice date."
"Well I was able to pull a really nice date," he murmured softly, "She just hasn't said yes yet."
"You have not pulled me, Draco Malfoy," Hermione shot back.
"Of course I haven't," Draco said with exaggeration. Hermione glared. Draco kissed her on the cheek and walked off.
"Hey you can't do that in public, you'd be in more trouble than me!" She called after him, trailing along behind.
.
Breakfast. Who would have thought that it could have been as cheerful as it was. Hermione walked over to her seat, where Ginny, Neville and Luna had already seated themselves, with a new spring in her step. He really thought that she, Hermione bushy haired Granger, was attractive. It was a great feeling. She sat down happily and spotted Draco from the corner of her eye talking with Blaise and Theo. Ginny and Neville both eyed her oddly. Luna however was in her own little world. Once Ginny seemed to have decided that there was going to be no explanation, she asked, "Well? What's got you in such high spirits?"
Hermione smiled, "Nothing." And spooned scrambled eggs onto her plate. Ginny looked at her expectantly. "What?" Hermione added. "You haven't asked yet!" Ginny said excitedly.
"What?" She repeated.
"I'M ON THE TEAM!" Ginny beamed. Hermione then realised why Ginny was just as happy as she was and gasped.
"Merlin that's amazing! Who's your captain?"
"Malfoy, but - well - he's alright. He seems to be taking the whole thing seriously and doesn't care who he's got as long as they can play."
"Who else is on the team?" Hermione asked, excitedly. She'd never been so excited about Ginny. She was just in such a good mood.
"Us," Seamus grinned, as he and Dean walked passed and sat next to them.
"And me," Neville grinned nervously. Hermione stared. "Don't look so shocked, I managed to catch the ball at least three times, and Malfoy says he'll make me better. I still don't trust him though." He added.
"Wow," Hermione thought, "Draco really is being good to others."
"Zabini and Nott are on the team too, they're really good luckily," Ginny continued, "Malfoy's seeker, obviously, Neville, Dean and I are chasers, Zabini and Nott are beaters and Seamus is our goalkeeper." Hermione nodded.
"And the other team?" She asked.
"Well," Neville spoke up, "I know people have reserved Harry for the team captain and seeker, and Ron has a reserved space as goalkeeper, Hannah Abbott, Tracey Davis and Parkinson are the chasers, and Michael Corner and Zacharias Smith are their beaters. They have a reserved reserve seeker and goalkeeper but I don't know who they are. Unfortunately Parkinson, Davis, and Hannah are surprisingly good chasers. They surprisingly work well together, even though it's a mixture of Slytherins and a Hufflepuff."
"I don't think they currently have a captain, but Parkinson is taking control quite well for now," Seamus said.
"How did they choose their team then?" Hermione asked.
"After Malfoy picked his team, since he was the only one signed up for captain, the other people who'd signed up to be in the teams voted on two people who were good at quidditch to take charge for now, Parkinson and Zacharias were chosen. Zacharias was Hufflepuff's quidditch team captain for some time, so he's alright at it, but Pansy took charge and to be honest, she's actually quite good at being captain," Dean answered. Hermione nodded, and took a bite of bacon and egg.
"Now Hermione, as you've not been picked to be on the quidditch teams, why in the name of Merlin have you still got that grin on your face," Ginny inquired. Hermione blushed and smiled. She'd agreed with Draco that no one else should know except them, in case it got out. "I'm just happy for you," she tried.
"Nonsense!" cried Ginny, "You just spent ten minutes talking about quidditch! Something is wrong with you."
"Nothing is wrong with me."
"Come now Ginny," Luna spoke dreamily, "Isn't it obvious?" Ginny shook her head. Hermione swore Luna was a psychic, and she shook her head and widened her eyes warningly. "I wasn't going to say anything 'Mione, they'll figure it out though," Luna continued. Neville stared at his girlfriend. "Ginny," Hermione began, breaking the silence at their table, "Can I go up to your dorms later on today?"
"Of course," she replied.
"Thanks."
The rest of breakfast was surprisingly very cheerful, and as Hermione departed, she said her byes and positively skipped to the library. Not even Lavender shoving her at door from the great hall sneering, "Mind your step," could have dampened her spirit. Draco MALFOY had asked her out last night! Draco frigging Malfoy! Was that terrible or absolutely amazing? What would she say? Her immediate reaction was hell yes he's so sweet, but then he was a death eater. But he'd proved himself not to be a loyal death eater, or was this part of some scheme. She frowned slightly, letting the cogs of her mind work. Nope, he was being genuine. He had to be.
A band of younger students walked past, one of them saying to her friends, "Mum was so worried about sending me here, she only sent me because of Terry." The word 'mum', stuck in Hermione's brain. She recognised the girl as one of the first years who'd been sorted at the start of the year. She was Terry Boot's younger sister, Jessica. Mum. Hermione slowed to a dull walk. She was already missing her parents and she'd only lost them yesterday.
She thus reached the library in a less happier state than she was during breakfast. Walking into an isle at random, she scanned the books, found a pretty large volume on Arithmancy, and brought it over to her table. This had been her table since third year, when she'd decided to engrave her initials into the wood. She'd sat there throughout most of first and second year too though. Madam Pince wasn't in yet, she was clearly having breakfast still, so Hermione had the entire library to herself. She opened the window a crack, and flicked through to the contents. Although it seemed stupid, she did still have homework after all. Reaching into her bag, she deposited a blank scroll of parchment, a quill, and a bottle of black ink onto the table and unscrewed the ink. Dipping her quill in, she wrote: 'Hermione Granger, Arithmancy Homework, 15th November 1997' at the top of her parchment.
No sooner than she'd started, she was writing lines upon lines of formulas and tricky equations, trying to finish her essay by the lunch bell. Half an hour later, her tiny neat handwriting had taken up a foot of the parchment, and it didn't stop there. Hermione was still deeply immersed in her studies, flicking through the book every so often to copy down tables and formulas. She didn't even notice Draco, who came in to get out a book. Instead, he spotted Hermione and took out a scrap of parchment, wrote a short message inside, and folded it up into a bird. With a subtle flick of his wand and a glance round the room, the bird was flying into the air towards Hermione and landed lightly on her hand. He watched her gasp and unfold the note. She smiled, looked up and Draco smirked at her. Hermione's smile widened and she nodded and carried on with her paper.
However Draco did notice Pansy walk into the room and he quickly looked away from the pretty head girl. Pansy, apparently oblivious, walked into an isle to do whatever she came here to do. Draco quickly left without turning back. Hermione however, looked up and smiled at his retrieving back.
.
Pansy was not oblivious, she had snuck into the first isle she could when she saw the two make eye contact, and silently fumed when she saw Hermione smiling at him. Was she flirting with him? What was this?! She had to find out. Pansy was a respectable woman and she could not deal with a mudblood flirting with her ex-boyfriend - moreover, the person she was engaged to! At least she was sure Draco wouldn't like her back. Or at least she would have been sure last year, but it was all so different now. Maybe they did like each other! "I have so got to find out about what the hell is going on!" Pansy muttered furiously.
The bell for lunch went just as Hermione was writing her conclusion, and Pansy irritably checked her watch, wandering why the mudblood was such a nerd. Finally the Slytherin saw the know it all packing up her stuff and shouldering her bag. She waved bye to Madam Pince, and left the library. Pansy followed. She watched as Hermione walked down the corridor and through a tapestry, down a flight of stairs and along another corridor. Pansy kept close to the wall in the shadows, ready to duck back if the head girl turned. Unfortunately for Hermione, she didn't.
Just when Pansy had had enough of stalking, especially since a Slytherin sixth year had looked at her weirdly, and felt like they were far enough away from anyone, she sped up. Hermione suddenly felt someone yank her collar and she gasped for breath, reaching for her wand. "Parkinson?!" Hermione choked. Pansy had her pushed up against the wall and didn't plan on moving. "Parkinson what are you doing?!"
"You," Pansy breathed hard, "Are going to tell me exactly what is going on between you and my - and Draco." Hermione goggled at her. "You can't be serious?" Hermione exclaimed, and straightened herself, wand out.
"Oh I am deadly serious, mudblood," Pansy snarled, backing away with her wand pointed towards Hermione's chest, "I saw you in the library - flirting with him." And to Pansy's utter surprise, Hermione doubled over, laughing.
"Flirting?!" Hermione choked through laughter, "With a Malfoy?! Merlin Parkinson I thought you were smarter than that!" Pansy just narrowed her eyes, and held her wand more threateningly, as if to say she wasn't joking. "Parkinson I'll have to deduct points from Slytherin if you keep -"
"Shut up, mudblood. I know you like him. He's mine, hear me? MINE!" Pansy hissed. Hermione stopped laughing.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Hermione stated firmly.
"Rubbish!" Pansy shrieked. Hermione was on the verge of hexing the girl when Pansy stepped forward and shrieked, "Tell me what's going on! Now! Or Salazar help me I will hurt you more that your pathetic ex did!" Hermione raised her wand ready to block whatever was coming, but said nothing apart from, "Parkinson I don't like the ferret anymore than you like me, so -" but Pansy had had enough. "Incendio!" She yelled, setting alight to Hermione's robes, but after a short scream, Hermione set it out with a jet of water, which she then sent towards Pansy's face. "Erugh! You stupid mudblood!" She screeched through sopping wet hair, "Locomotor Mortis!"
Hermione dodged and yelled, "Stupify!"
"Pertrificus Totalus!" Pansy yelled back, dodging.
They began to move, dodging and leaping away from curses. The pair of them shot spell after spell whether it be defensive or offensive, until spells were ricocheting off of the walls. "Impedimenta!" Hermione shouted, but Pansy was getting bored. She wanted answers and she wanted them now. She may not have looked violent but hell what Pansy wants Pansy got. "CRUCIO!" Shrieked the Slytherin and a loud scream filled the hallway. Hermione fell to her knees and soon was on her back, writhing in pain. Pansy took a step closer, gulping inwardly. This was the first time she'd used an unforgivable, and it was on a student. The screaming worsened as Pansy shouted, "Tell me!" But Hermione couldn't, wouldn't say. She tried to remain still, remain quiet but the agony intensified.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!" Hermione screamed, and Pansy's expression hardened.
"Tell me what's going on!"
"NOTHING! PLEASE JUST STOP!" But Pansy persisted.
.
Meanwhile down in the great hall, Neville asked, "Gin have you seen 'Mione?"
"Nah, probably studying though, not unlike her to miss meals," she replied, biting into a turkey sandwich.
"Draco, you seen Pans?" Asked Theo on the other table and Draco looked around. It was unusual for Pansy to miss meals. Draco then glanced up at the Gryffindor table - or the table where most the Gryffindors sat, anyway - and noticed Hermione not at lunch either. He'd written to her, on a scrap of parchment, asking jokingly if she'd finish her homework before lunch and she'd nodded. Where was she then and, more worryingly, where was Pansy and how much had she seen in the Library. "Yeah, I saw her following that mudblood down the corridor, wasn't going to interrupt, looked like she was on a mission," joked one of the Slytherin sixth years. Draco quickly turned to the sixth year to his left and leaned past Theo to see him. "Who?" Draco snapped and the sixth year blanch and said quickly, "Pansy Parkinson."
"Where?" Draco snapped slightly worried.
"Um... Second floor corridor..." Draco leapt up as subtly as he could and sped walked to the door, trying not to make a scene. Blaise and Theo followed. The sixth year looked oddly at the trio and continued his conversation with the boy next to him.
Once outside the hall, Draco sprinted up a flight of stairs and dashed through a tapestry, hearing distant screams up ahead. "Oh Salazar Pansy what have you done?!" He thought, his heart pounding in his throat. Neither Blaise nor Theo could keep up with Draco, but they didn't mind. They just wanted to see what was going on. Draco tore through another tapestry and met a sight he could never have prepared himself for. Pansy was standing above Hermione, who was writhing and screaming through gritted teeth on the floor. After a second of realisation, he yelled, "Pansy what the hell are you doing?!" Whilst sprinting over to stand to the right of his ex, staring at her completely calm face. "PANSY STOP!" He yelled at her. She didn't.
"What does it matter to you, Draco. She's a mudblood," she said back calmly.
"What?! She's the head girl! This will get you expelled and in Azkaban!"
"Only if I get caught. There are no witnesses."
"PANSY THIS IS MADNESS!"
"Is it?! Draco she was blatantly flirting with you and you let her!"
"Wha -? Pansy she wasn't! Just let it go Pans!" By now Blaise and Theo were standing by a pillar in the corner, shocked and staring.
"She's worthless!"
"PANSY I SWEAR TO MERLIN I WILL - EXPELLIARMUS!" He roared, but she only flicked it away and turned to glare at him, cruciatus curse still on the girl. And then, Pansy just smiled sadly, and strengthened the curse and Hermione let out an ear splitting shriek and Draco, with only one thought in his head, jumped in front of Pansy's wand, shielding Hermione. "DRACO WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Pansy screamed. Draco just glared at her, embracing the pain. Pansy lifted the curse and yelled, "Well now I've seen it all! What the hell is going on between you too?!"
"PANSY IM TRYING TO HELP YOU! YOU USED AN UNFORGIVABLE ON THE HEAD GIRL GOD DAMN IT!" Draco thundered.
"YOU'RE STANDING UP FOR HER!" She retorted back.
"I'M HELPING YOU!"
"Liar!" Pansy spat, a tear leaking out of her eye but she swatted it away like a fly.
"Pansy please! I may not love you but you're still my friend! I don't want to see you in Azkaban!" Draco pleaded.
"Your father will hear about this!"
"My father will not hear about this!"
"I'll tell him!"
"You dare!"
"You like her don't you!"
"Pansy she's muggleborn!"
"Say it'"
"What?!"
"Mudblood," Pansy hissed. Draco froze.
"I'm just trying to help you," Draco tried, but Pansy stormed forward and slapped him hard across the face.
"I never loved you Draco!" She yelled, another slap, "But my mother wants me to be with you, a pureblood from a rich family. I never wanted this! But I tried!" Another slap, "I don't want to end up disowned!" Another slap, and she stopped and slouched against the wall. "You don't understand!" Draco stared from Pansy to Hermione, who was shaking.
"Pansy -" Draco tried, "I never knew."
"It's not fair!"
"Pansy you need to cool down."
"You're sticking up for her?" Hermione muttered from the opposite wall. Draco looked down at her. What was he meant to do?
"As I've said," Pansy muttered, getting up, "I've seen enough." And she stalked off. Draco hurried over to Hermione and hauled her up, hugging her. "Please don't be pissed at me," he muttered, and Hermione just stood still, shaking slightly. People always said the cruciatus curse was like hell, now Hermione knew they were wrong. If Pansy's curse was that bad, then she dreaded to think what a skilful one was like. Theo and Blaise watched from the corner, grinning.
A/N honestly guys I had to include that little scene, you'll understand why next week! Please review, see you next Tuesday! By the way, if I haven't said this before - The alarm clock will appear a lot as it's just simply the best thing ever.