Disclaimer: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…
Placing:Mid of fourthyear.
Comment:
Oddly enough I'm always ask when this story starts to be dramione. I always thought the answer was in the summary… O.o
Did I misunderstand what the word 'compliant' in 'canon compliant' actually means?! Maybe I need an explanation for that word if I used it wrongly…
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sSsSsSsSs
THE SLYTHERIN WAY
PART X: Behind The Scene, Act II
sSs
My dear Granger,
Forgive me for my horrid actions of the past.
I will endeavour to not mention your impure blood in your presence if you just agree to go to the Yule Ball with me.
Sincerely
Draco L. Malfoy
Heir of the Malfoy Estate
sSs
"Huh," Neville said and swallowed the bit of toast he had been chewing on before. He was looking over Hermione's shoulder to see the letter she had gotten this morning. "Maybe I should have stopped organizing those people harassing him about you and him a bit earlier," he said frowning. "Seems like Dobby broke him."
Hermione turned and raised an eyebrow at Neville.
The normally timid boy shrugged.
"What?" He said innocently. "Just because I don't have true friends in Gryffindor doesn't mean I don't have friends at all. Theo and I always got along splendidly."
Hermione's eyebrow was raised further.
"I also met Dobby last year. The elf is cute – and helpful, you know?" Neville added, his eyes huge and his face as innocent as he could make it. "It's not as if I planned to make Malfoy barmy. I wanted him to suffer a bit – not to break him, truly!"
Hermione snorted and rolled her eyes.
Then she pulled out a pen and scribbled one word beneath the letter before sending it back to Malfoy with the owl that brought it.
"No," she wrote.
"You're evil," she commented and added some more scrambled eggs to her plate. "Absolutely evil, Neville. I had no idea you had it in you!"
Neville looked at her innocently.
"I learned my lesson in confronting idiots directly in first year," he said, smiling sweetly. "I ended up in a full body bind back then, you remember?"
Hermione snorted in amusement.
"No," Neville added. "This is the safer way – and the more entertaining one as well."
He paused.
"Even if it led to Malfoy going barmy," he added thoughtfully and then shrugged. "Oh, well – first try and all that. The next time I'll do better."
The next time he would organize the DA against the Carrows. Unlike with Malfoy, he didn't care then if he drove them barmy or not…
xXxXxXxXxXx
Dear Granger,
Please accept my invitation to the Yule Ball. I promise you that you will have a perfect time at the ball and I won't ignore you even if I am from superior standing compared to you.
Sincerely
Draco L. Malfoy
Heir to the Malfoy Estate
sSs
"What've you got there, 'Mione?" Ron asked, his mouth filled with his breakfast.
Hermione grimaced at his table manners, but answered anyway.
"A letter from Malfoy," she said calmly.
Ron's eyes widened.
"Bloody hell!" He exclaimed. "Why's that ferret writing to you?"
Hermione shrugged and cleaned up some of the table that Ron had spewed on while talking with a full mouth, a disgusted expression on her face.
"It's the second letter I've got from him," she said.
Ron's eyes widened further and he spluttered and opened his mouth to say something more.
"Don't," Harry said, stopping him before he could actually utter a word. "If you say something she'll sell you to Slytherins for 'lessons how to woo a girl'. Believe me, it's not worth it!"
Hermione looked at Harry amused.
"But it helped, didn't it?" She asked him. "You asked out Cho, after all."
Harry frowned.
"Well," he said slowly. "Ron asked out Fleur as well – and he didn't have those lessons…"
"Ron asking out that girl was a disaster from start to finish," Hermione pointed out reasonably. "I don't think your learned ability to ask out a girl was ever that bad."
Harry winced while Ron blushed.
"No," Harry admitted reluctantly. "I guess the lessons did help even if I was rejected."
He didn't look too happy with that revelation and Hermione decided not to point out that Ron also had been under the influence of vela allure. Like it was now, Harry had at least gained a grudging respect for all the other Slytherins with the exceptions of Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle.
But then, it would be very cold in hell if Harry would have changed his views on Malfoy just because him meeting another Slytherin…
"You're not the only one who ever was rejected," Hermione said and rolled her eyes. "You should just continue asking others!"
Harry frowned and sighed.
Hermione grimaced and resolved to speak to Parvati. If she remembered it correctly, the poor girl hadn't found a date yet.
Then Hermione's eyes wandered to Ron and she actually sighed.
Maybe she should ask if Parvati knew someone else without a date as well…
"But why is the ferret writing you?" Ron piped up in that moment, reminding Hermione of the letter in her hands.
She shrugged.
"Because he's a moron who snapped after a bit too much… Neville," she said amused while pulling out a quill and adding one word to the missive before giving it to the owl to return it to the sender.
"No," she wrote.
Harry and Ron exchanged a confused glance.
"I can't remember Neville blowing up a cauldron and dosing Malfoy in his potion, can you?" Ron asked Harry.
Harry shook his head, as confused as his best friend.
Hermione snorted in amusement and added some bacon to the scrambled eggs on her plate.
Boys.
It would take years until Harry and Ron would find out what Neville had done to Malfoy…
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My dearest Hermione Granger,
Please accept my invitation to the Yule Ball. I will even make sure that you will have a dress befitting for a girl going out with the Malfoy Heir.
Sincerely
Draco L. Malfoy
Heir to the Malfoy Estate
sSs
"Miss Granger!" Hermione snapped to attention when her potions professor spoke up from behind her.
She turned around and saw the man frowning at the letter in her hands.
"Yes, Professor?" She asked, wondering if he would give her a detention for reading her mail at breakfast instead of eating.
The professor sneered at the letter in her hands and then looked her in the eyes.
"Meet me in my office after breakfast," he said with distaste in his voice.
"Yes, sir," Hermione squeaked while wondering what he wanted from her.
"And bring this… letter," her teacher added.
Hermione nodded.
"Yes, sir," she said, still a bit fearful and confused.
Whatever she had expected, she hadn't expected her teacher to take the letter and read it over the moment she entered the office.
The dour man's face darkened further.
"This is unacceptable," he said coolly. "If you wish, Miss Granger, I will talk to Mr Malfoy and correct his behavior again. It seems that he didn't listen to me when I explained to him how to grovel to a girl."
Hermione did a double take at that exclamation.
For a moment, she was actually tempted to say 'yes' to the professor's offer, but in the end, she shook her head.
"No, thank you, Professor," she said while trying not to think of her professor lecturing Malfoy on 'how to grovel to a girl'. She would have burst into laughter otherwise. "I will manage it myself."
"Of course," Snape said sourly. "Just don't forget that Slytherins often decide to ignore things that aren't written with respectable manners. Mr Malfoy, as badly as he's acting, is one of those who insist on proper manners especially in writing."
"Thank you for the advice, sir," Hermione replied while Snape handed back her letter.
That evening she composed her answer before sending it off with a school owl.
sSs
Dear Malfoy,
No.
Sincerely
Hermione J. Granger
Heir to the Granger Practice
sSs
Hermione would never find out that Snape locked himself away the moment she had left his office so that he could laugh about Malfoy's letter without being seen by anybody.
Of course, Snape was well aware that Malfoy had just started to write those letters because of his lecture – but then, somewhere you had to get your amusement from, didn't you?
xXxXxXxXxXx
Dear Hermione J. Granger,
Would you please go to the Yule Ball with me? I mean, I know, you have a date and I have a date, but if it pleases you we could stand them up and go together. I even promise you, that I won't insult you for the whole evening even if I have to hex myself silent.
Sincerely
Draco L. Malfoy
Heir of the Malfoy Estate
sSs
"This sounds as if Draco Malfoy wishes you to enter an affair with him," Luna remarked after plucking the letter from a gawking Hermione's numb fingers. "Very unsettling, I understand."
Luna crooked her head at the letter.
"Maybe he's affected by wrackspurts?" She mused. "That could explain his odd behavior over the last weeks."
She frowned.
"I will have to ensure that they can't get to him anymore," she said, still frowning with a dreamy expression on her face. "I guess I have to bring my spectrespecs to our next meeting to ensure that I can see how bad he's affected by them."
She nodded to herself.
"Yes," she said. "That seems like the best course of action for now."
Hermione blinked and then frowned at the girl in Ravenclaw attire.
"Excuse me," she finally said. "But what are you doing at our table?"
Luna blinked at her and her dreamy eyes basically looked through her.
"Oh," she said airily. "Your pudding is so much better than the Ravenclaw one. I always come here for pudding, you know?"
Hermione blinked, but in the end slowly nodded.
"If you think so," she said skeptically.
Luna just smiled at her and then pointed at the letter.
"Won't you answer this?" She asked interestedly.
Hermione looked back at the letter, rolled her eyes and then pulled out a quill.
Respectfully – wasn't that what Professor Snape had told her?
Well, Malfoy could have respectful if he wanted to.
Hermione nodded in resolve and started to write her answer.
sSs
Dear Malfoy
No. Never.
Sincerely
Hermione J. Granger
Heir to the Granger Practice
sSs
She would never know that Luna watched her write before slinking away to the dungeons.
In Luna's eyes, Hermione had been formal enough to appease the potions professor of Hogwarts and his wish for formal interactions even between students when it came to written work.
xXxXxXxXxXx
My dearest Hermione J. Granger,
Please excuse my poorly worded letters until now.
I want you to tell you, that the red of your school uniform fits splendidly to your plain brown hair. Your corrected front teeth also look quite passable after Madam Pomphrey shrunk them for you.
I know, we have had our differences in the past, but please consider to stand up your date so that you can go to the school ball with me.
Sincerely
Draco L. Malfoy
Heir to the Malfoy Estate
sSs
"Malfoy…"
"… Has still…"
"… A lot…"
"… More than a lot…"
"… To learn," The twins commented after removing Malfoy's newest letter from a laughing Hermione's fingers.
"Seems that he didn't heed our advice at all, brother dear," one of them said and the other nodded gravely.
"Seems he did, brother," he agreed.
The twins looked at each other and then pondered what to do next.
Then one of them shrugged and turned the letter so that they had some space on the parchment.
The other twin's eyes lit up.
"Splendid idea, brother dear!" He said. "Absolutely splendid idea!"
And while Hermione was still fighting her laugher, the twins started to compose a letter.
"Dear Malfoy," one of them dictated the other. "Regretfully, after such a letter, we have to decline your invitation to the Yule Ball on the behalf of one Hermione J. Granger. We assure you, that we recognize your try, but we are also quite disappointed that you thought you could get away with a try via letter. No self-respecting girl should even think about accepting an invitation like that if the boy in question is just on the other side of the hall.
With the offer of further instructions on how to woo a girl.
Sincerely,
The Weasley Twins."
Then they handed the letter back to Hermione who was still snickering.
She read through their answer, laughed again and then added her own answer.
sSs
Dear Malfoy
No.
Sincerely
Hermione J. Granger
Heir to the Granger Practice
sSs
She would never see the gleeful faces of the Weasley twins when she handed them back the letter.
Later that evening a howler would shout down the whole Great Hall, giving Malfoy his answer verbally.
xXxXxXxXxXx
My dearest Hermione J. Granger,
I apologize for accosting you with my letters. I also apologize for asking you to give up your date for the Yule Ball. I understand, that you know it would be difficult for me to reject my date now that I already declared my intentions of going with her.
I will crease to ask – especially in letters.
Sincerely
Draco L. Malfoy
Heir to the Malfoy Estate
sSs
Luna leaned back into the shadows while watching the Gryffindor girl roll her eyes at the letter.
"Should I stop harassing Draco Malfoy now?" She asked the shadows behind her.
"Not yet," was the dour answer. "He hasn't yet understood that he can't have everything. I can't stand his temper tantrums and I have no intention of suffering further ones just because I refused to give him some of my expensive ingredients to muck around with. The moment I have my revenge and he'll ask out Granger, you can stop."
"As you wish, Professor," Luna replied dreamily. "I'm glad that I don't have to stop immediately. I still have some plans for Draco Malfoy."
The smile on her face was creepy enough that even the professor felt a shiver running down his back.
He didn't want to actually know how many 'how-to-woo-a-girl's the Malfoy heir would still have to suffer within the last days to the Yule Ball.
For a moment he wondered if recruiting the crafty Ravenclaw girl to torture the Malfoy heir had been a mistake, but then he reassured himself that the girl had started to do Malfoy's teaching on her own and that he had just edged her on to continue until he said that it was enough.
This would be the last time the Malfoy heir would dare to have a temper tantrum because a detention in front of him!
sSs
"Maybe we truly should stop sending people at Malfoy to show him how to ask out a girl," Neville said concerned to the boy next to him while watching Hermione reading the Malfoy heir's newest letter. "I'm afraid that we drove him crazy already…"
Theo shrugged.
"Crazy or not crazy," he said evenly. "With Malfoy, there's no difference anyway."
Neville raised an eyebrow at the other boy.
"So you want to continue?" He asked amused.
Theo shrugged.
"Until the Yule Ball," he said. "After all, you have four years of aggravation to work of and I have several months of payback to admitter. There's no way that we will be done before the Yule Ball."
"Well, you're right," Neville said nodding. "But what about Hermione? It might give her some trouble if we continue…"
Theo waved it off.
"I talked to her," he said. "She doesn't mind and she knows that I'm on it. She didn't know about you, but she knew about me all along."
Neville nodded.
"Alright," he said before hesitating. "Still," he said slowly. "Adding the Weasley twins and the house-elves to the chaos was evil. Ingenious – but pure evil!"
Theo grinned, baring his teeth at Neville.
"You were the one who added the house-elves," he reminded Neville.
Neville just shrugged.
"I had to trump the Weasley twins after all," he reminded his partner in crime. "I couldn't have done so without the house-elves."
Theo nodded.
"True," he said amused. "Too true, my friend."
Then his grin turned feral.
"And now let me hunt down some Ravenclaws who owe me a favour," he added. "We wouldn't want our dear Prince of Slytherin to believe that he has succeeded in ridding himself of his new enthusiastic advisors, after all!"
sSs
Hermione meanwhile just smiled at the letter, her grin as feral as Theo's.
"I just hope that the boys and Luna don't drive Malfoy crazy for real," she said to herself. "I'm quite sure that even Madam Pomphrey can't heal crazy."
Then she shrugged.
"Oh, well," she said to herself. "It's Yule Ball in three days. He will sure survive until then!"
With that she folded the letter and stood up to hunt down Parvati.
"Hey, Parvati!" She called. "I heard you don't have a date for the Yule Ball!"
Yep, after Hermione was done with the Malfoy Heir, said boy would never even dare to come near her again when she was alone…
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Just a little gaze behind the scene…
Hope you liked it
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