Chapter 1: Black, Black Heart
She could feel it upon her - steel and cold just as his heart probably was. They were roaming all over her body in fervent fury. They were light silver orbs filled with hatred. Uncomfortable all over, she looked up and stared into them.
Draco Malfoy, the silver-blonde Slytherin, stared back at her with yet the still icy, cold, hoary eyes. It was as if a challenge was being held between them. But she couldn't take it. The boy was just too unfeeling and remote - she wasn't like that. She was warm and tender and so unlike him. She couldn't bear looking into those silver spheres knowing that within them lay void darkness – nothing but a black heart. She looked down – pride washed away. She lost their little game.
But as she twirled her chestnut curls around her fingers, she could feel his icy glare still upon her. She squirmed in her seat.
"You okay, Hermione?" asked her best friend Harry Potter, seated beside her in the Gryffindor table inside the Great Hall that evening. "You look a bit pale."
"What?" she said absentmindedly.
"Are you alright?" asked Ron Weasley, her other best friend who was seated across her, as he shoved a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
"Yeah, I'm alright," she muttered quietly as she took a tiny sip off her pumpkin juice.
Harry and Ron turned to look at one another dubiously, obviously not believing her answer. But sensing that she wanted to keep it private, Harry and Ron said nothing (for now).
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Draco frowned despite his obvious victory against the mudblood, Hermione Granger. It was a new year at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was his seventh and last year. But even though it was a new school year, things seemed to be as they always been – ancient. And frankly, Draco was getting quite tired of it. He was sick and tired of Crabbe and Goyle, the two very loyal members of his entourage. He was just as sick and just as tired of Pansy Parkinson, the whining Slytherin witch. He was tired of the same old school, same old classrooms and same old stupid teachers. But most of all, he was sick and tired of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley And Hermione Granger.
He hated the way they laughed, he hated the way they smiled at one another, and he hated the way the talked. So every year, since the day they all arrived at Hogwarts, he tried his best to make it a living hell for them. And he nearly succeeds at doing so every single year. But even as he torments and taunts the three Gryffindors, he found no satisfaction, for he realized that he even hated the way they cried, they way they shouted and the way they were tempted to hurt or kill him. There was no escape.
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Hermione licked her lips as she finished the food on her plate. She was about to ask Harry if he had done some advance reading for the new term when Professor McGonagall tapped her glass goblet with her spoon. Hermione looked up just as the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, said, "Announcement, students." Hermione decided to postpone her question for Harry, but then again, knowing how Harry and Ron was she decided against asking the question at all, they probably didn't even touch a book during their summer vacation.
"As we all know," Professor Dumbledore continued. "A new term calls for a new Head Boy and Girl. And after a tough and grueling debate we, the other professors and I, have come to a decision as to who our Head Boy and Girls would be.
"Our new Head Boy is a smart and witty seventh year. An excellent student, he specifically excels in Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, and Flying. In fact, he is one of the best Quidditch players Hogwarts has ever seen, thought not the best.
"Our new Head Girl, on the other hand, is intelligent and brave. One of our top students in Hogwarts, she does extremely well in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Tranfiguration, Arithmancy and Charms, if not all of her subjects. She is one of the smartest we have ever seen for ages.
"Students, our new Head Boy and Girl are Mr Draco Malfoy and Ms Hermione Granger, respectively. Draco, Hermione, please come to my office after settling in for some instructions.
"Now that that has been said, and you all have been filled with food and drinks, I wish you all the luck in this new term, and so flittlewack, gibberlatt, and fwank."
As Dumbledore said his last words, he and the professors tidied themselves up and headed for their quarters, although some stayed behind to watch over the students and catch up on summer news.
All around the Great Hall friendly chatter resumed as the students finished off the last of their meals and started to drift around greeting friends they haven't seen over the break. But for Harry, Ron and Hermione, it was as if the world had been halted to a dead stop. They just stared at each other, agape. It took much of their energy to digest the news. Hermione was Head Girl. That was good, it was even perhaps, expected. But Draco Malfoy, Head Boy? What was the world coming to? But worse, how was Hermione to handle the Slytherin boy who thought himself to be above everyone else. The same lad who had been emotionally torturing Hermione for the past six years. It was just too much to bear.
Then they heard someone speak from behind them. "Don't think I'm not in shock, too," Malfoy said in his usual drawl. "Wait till my Father hears about this - a mudblood, Head Girl? Tsk, tsk tsk."
Ron swiftly stood up, knocking over his empty goblet, and shouted, "Sod off Malfoy or I'll…"
"You'll what Weasley?" Malfoy asked menacingly. "Knock me over in the head with your Shooting Star? What your family's still too poor to afford even the old Nimbus 2000? Not even a Cleansweep 7?"
Ron was red with anger and embarrassment as well. He was on the edge, the fervor inside him enough for him to hurt Malfoy enough to make him unconscious. But Harry held him back.
"And you, Potter, think about it," Malfoy drawled as he turned to glower at Harry. "You could have been my ally. We could have ruled the school. But no, you're too stupid to face reality and face power, so you chose these pitiful people instead. How dumb can you get?"
"I don't need an ally Malfoy. No one does, except in war," said Harry. "But there is no war. Not right now. And right now what I need are friends. Something you've never had, and something I doubt you'll ever find. And if ever I do need an ally, I won't go looking for that in you either, that be like looking for good in something of total evil. You're void of everything clean and nice. There is no ally in you."
"You'll regret you ever said that, Potter," Malfoy whispered forebodingly. Then he left in a light swagger with his entourage in trail.
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