Born to be down
I've learned all my lessons before now
Born to be down
I think you'll get used to it
And you just don't get it
You keep it copacetic
And you learn to accept it
You know it's so pathetic
Hermione was bored. She hated to admit it, but there she, sitting this October morning in the Gryffindor common room, absolutely, positively bored. She'd already completed a week's worth of homework, and would've started next week's. She didn't want to though. She picked at the cuff of her red sweater, staring into the fire.
The common room was quiet, as the Quidditch team was out practicing for a game against Ravenclaw this weekend. Even fantasizing about Draco had lost its appeal. She smiled. She couldn't go find him; he was probably entertaining another girl in his room. She didn't mind, really. Better if it didn't get complicated. And jealousy always made things wonderfully complicated. Hermione sighed and got up, deciding to go watch the practice. Ginny was out there, she knew.
It was a pretty informal practice, Hermione found. Harry was running a drill with the new Beaters, a third year boy and fifth year girl. The other players were goofing around, tossing the Quaffle back and forth. Hermione took a seat next to Ginny. A while later, Harry flew over on his broom, Ron behind him. Hermione had an idea, and asked Harry if she could ride his broom for a bit.
"You can ride?" Ron asked, unbelieving.
"Don't be daft, Ron, of course I can ride! I'm not too bad, either."
Ron chuckled, and Hermione gave him a sharp look. "Sorry, I thought you were kidding." He said, turning pink at the ears.
"Why don't you go play with your broomstick, Ron." Hermione spat, irritably. A few other team members laughed at this, and Ron turned outright red, as Hermione had used the term "broomstick", not referring to his actual broom.
"Alright then, Granger," Ron started, "I'll race you to where the Forbidden Forest starts and back again."
"Loser jumps into the lake?" Hermione said with a malicious glint in her eye.
"In their knickers." Ron finished, looking slightly nervous.
"Deal." Hermione said. Harry watched all this with interest. Hermione was a different person from two years ago. A) Normally she'd be in the tower studying than out here. B) She'd be going on and on about how many rules they would be breaking in this race. C) She'd never participate in something that could end up in someone being injured.
Hermione and Ron borrowed two of the Chaser's brooms, both Nimbus 2001's. The whole Quidditch team gathered to count down.
"On your mark...Get set...GO!" Hermione and Ron took off, neck in neck. Ron gained a few feet, but Hermione stayed focused. Just as they reached the Forest and were above the trees, Hermione tried to force Ron to move out of the way by doing a complicated turn in mid-air. All that happened was that Hermione was knocked off her broom into the trees bellow. Everyone watching back at the stadium groaned in unison.
"Hermione!" Ron yelled out, and he flew down into the tree's looking for her. What did she think she was doing? She could be really hurt!
Ron expected to find her angry, swearing even. Instead he found a laughing Hermione, sitting on a particularly large branch. Her robes were ripped, and she had a few scratches on her, but she was laughing as if someone had charmed her with a strong Laughing Charm.
"Hermione?" Ron said tentatively. "Are you alright?"
She kept laughing, but stopped long enough to gasp out, "That was great!"
Ron just smiled to himself, before helping her onto his broom. Everyone gathered around Hermione as they landed back at the stadium.
"What the hell were you thinking, Hermione? That was a really dumb thing to do." Harry said angrily. She was still laughing. Everyone else just shrugged it off with a smile and started to leave, disappointed they wouldn't get to see either jump into the lake in their knickers.
"Err, she doesn't have a concussion or anything, right?" Ron asked awkwardly.
"Nah," Ginny replied, "But maybe you should keep an eye on her for a while. You know, maybe accompany her to the ball?" she hinted mischievously. Ron muttered something about "idiot sisters" and turned red while Hermione just laughed again.
"Common, we'd better get back upstairs." Harry muttered as the Slytherin Quidditch team began to form. Draco looked over at Hermione and made a movement as if to walk over. He thought better of it though.
Back in Hogwarts, Hermione went upstairs to change her robes. She wrote a quick, teasing note to Draco before grabbing a book and going back to the Gryffindor common room.
Sexy - I'm fine, thanks for asking! Be seeing you at the ball where you'll be dying to dance with me...
She signed it was a little picture of a lion's head.
Back in the common room, Hermione took a seat next Ron on a couch facing the chair Harry was sitting in. Ginny was perched on his lap. They were discussing graduation and what would happen afterwards, a conversation Hermione tried her best to avoid.
"Why do we even need to think about that now?" Hermione asked.
"Hello to you, too." Ron replied. "That reminds me, Mum owled and wants to know if you and Harry'd like to spend the Christmas holidays with us at the Burrow?"
Harry agreed immediately, as did Hermione. Her parents would be in Italy anyway. A few minutes later, Harry said he needed Hermione to look over a Potion's assignment for him, would she? Hermione agreed and he went upstairs to get it.
"Hermione, I was wondering," Ron began, "if you go to the ball with me?" Surprisingly, only his ears were pink. She smiled.
"I was kinda planning to go on my own, Ron. Would you maybe save me a dance, though?" Ron seemed happy enough with this, and the rest of the night continued without incident.
It was the morning of he Halloween Ball. The entire student population was in the Great Hall, and the mail was just arriving. There was a note for Ron from Mrs. Weasely saying how pleased she was both Harry and Hermione were coming. Dumbledore announced that the Great Hall would be closed for the rest of the day, until seven thirty, when the ball would begin. Lunch would be served in the Common rooms.
Hermione spent the afternoon in the Gryffindor common room, eating lunch with her friends. Neville asked her to the ball, and she gave him the same, sweet reply as she had Ron. Lavender, Ginny, and most of the other girls left to change at four. Hermione didn't leave to go to her dormitories until five, telling everyone not to wait for her.
There was no sign of Terry anywhere, thankfully. She went upstairs, feeling devious already.
She went into the bathroom and locked the door. She took out some back hair-dye she'd bought secretly at Hogsmeade, wizard dye that was only removed with a certain charm so it would last as long as she wanted. Within twenty minutes, she had long black hair, darker than Harry's. She blow dried it flat, and pulled it loosely into a bun. It was so loose that most of it fell out. Hermione had taken her white dress, and messily cut off most of the bottom until the end was above her knees. It was higher in the front, where as it hung down almost to the floor in the back. She was wearing jeans underneath as well, jeans that were made more of spandex then of denim. They fit her tightly, and were light blue. She charmed children's play fairy wings onto the back of her gown, so that they fluttered every so often. Next, she made convincing fake cuts on her forearms, as if she had cut herself many times. They looked scary even to her. Hermione was naturally pretty pale, and her new, black hair made that stand out even more. Still, she powdered her face a little, then rimmed her eyes with heavy black liner and put blood red lipstick on. She looked in the mirror, feeling unnerved. She hardly recognized herself. Still, something was missing. Aha! She took some wire that was lying around, and bent it into a circle. She placed a glowing charm on it, then one to make it levitate over her head. She smiled. Operation: Fallen Angel was complete.
Anyone walking down to the Great Hall right then would've taken two looks at Hermione, then wondered who she was for the rest of the night. Hermione was pleased to see she was late enough that the halls were pretty much deserted. Those students she did see she didn't know. She could hear music before she even reached the Hall, and as she opened the doors, she was amazed at how loud simple conversation and music could be. Hermione didn't expect the looks she got as she entered, most everyone figured out who she was after a second look. Draco looked over, a girl on each his arms. He deserted them to walk over to her. Correction, he walked near enough to her that she noticed him. As she looked over, he slipped a mask over his face. The mask was half white, half black, and the mouth was split as well. Half was smiling, the other half frowning, Hermione found it very symbolic. He wore white robes, completely different from his usual black ones. Oh, well, it was Halloween, she reminded herself.
Ron and Harry saw Hermione walk by, but he head was turned.
"Who's that?" Dean whispered beside them. Ginny's mouth hung open. She seemed to float with her little white slippers.
"Probably a Slytherin whore." Ron spat, half jealous of her date, half disgusted. Her costume was too...dramatic for him.
"Ron!" Ginny and Harry yelled together.
"Try not to be your usual, charming self tonight, Ronnie," Ginny said, "Let's all try to get along?"
Hermione spun around when she heard Ron's name yelled. Harry looked back up at the girl, and was shocked to see Hermione's face under the black hair and make-up.
So was Ron. "Hermione?"
She grinned widely and floated over. She spun around once before she reached them. "What do you think?" she asked uncertainly.
"Love it. You surprised us, right, Ron?" Ginny said forcefully as she hugged Hermione. Harry nudged Ron not so gently with his elbow, until Ron remembered who he was looking at.
"Right! Sorry, Hermione. Would you care to dance?" he asked, bowing slightly. She agreed and they walked off.
Ginny watched them go. "She looks wonderful, doesn't she?" Harry shrugged, then bent and kissed her neck. She laughed and pushed him away.
"What? Aren't we supposed to be vampires?"
"Just dance with me, Harry."
Much later, after everyone had eaten, Ginny and Harry were dancing again. A boy in a black and white mask tapped Harry on the shoulder, and asked if he could cut in. He looked to Ginny, who nodded. Harry walked back towards Ron, who was sitting at a table talking to Neville. Hermione was off at the other end of the Hall, talking to a group of Hufflepuffs.
After they'd been dancing for a minutes, Ginny reached up and pulled the boy's mask off to rest on the top of his head. He made no movement to stop her, and she was shocked at who she found underneath.
"Good evening, Ginny. Sorry if I surprised you." Draco said quietly.
She resisted the urge to shove him away. After all, he hadn't given her a reason to. Yet.
"Good evening, sir," she replied jokingly.
Harry noticed as soon as the boy took his mask off. He immediately began to walk over, avoiding dancing couples. But before he reached them, they broke apart, and Draco found a new partner. Ginny turned and found herself face to face with her date.
"Harry!" she exclaimed and wrapper her arms around him to dance. He began to walk away, towards Draco, but Ginny held him.
"Don't," she said, "He didn't do anything." He began to protest, "He didn't, Harry. C'mon, it was a good example to set, that's all."
Indeed, Draco was dancing with a Hufflepuff now, then a Gryffindor fifth year. Harry, as well as many others, noticed there were a lot of inter-house couples dancing, especially Slytherins.
"I guess everyone's trynna put the crap behind them." Ginny said later. "Graduation isn't that far away, you know."
"Yeah, I know," Harry replied. "I guess you're right." A moment later, Harry gasped and said, "Ginny, look over there. You won't believe your eyes!"
She spun around to see Pansy Parkinson dancing with Ron. "Whoa. Was not expecting that. Trust him to do something like this when I'm camera-less."
The evening was drawing to a close, and Ginny was elated to find out that someone was walking around with a wizard camera, and had taken a photo of Ron and Pansy, Hermione was standing with Harry and Ron when Draco approached them.
"Might you do me the honor of dancing with me, Miss Granger?" he asked, adding on, "With your permission, of course," To Harry and Ron.
Hermione stepped forward before they could agree. "I don't need their permission. But thanks." They walked onto the dance floor and Hermione put her arms around his neck.
"Smooth, Draco, very smooth." Hermione whispered.
"I know," he said, "And I do it all for you." They laughed, and kept dancing. A minute later they broke apart to dance when a fast pace song came on.
Lavender came over with Dean to sit with Harry, Ginny, Ron, and the Patil twins. They sat quietly, tired, and watched the dancers, making comments about who went well with who. Lavender said, "That girl, the one dancing with Draco? She's quite pretty." The rest nodded, assuming they knew who she was. "They've slept together, those two." The girls at the table burst out laughing, while the boys looked horrified. "What?" she continued. "I know these things."
Ginny was laughing particularly hard. "Oh? Tell us Lav, how do you know?"
"Well, look at the way they look at each other! And how the move, they already know what the other person is going to do. And how they touch each other, they're very comfortable, see?" The table quieted down, watching Draco and Hermione.
Ron finally burst out laughing. "Draco and Hermione? Right, Lav."
There was an uncomfortable silence as his laughter died down.
I've learned all my lessons before now
Born to be down
I think you'll get used to it
And you just don't get it
You keep it copacetic
And you learn to accept it
You know it's so pathetic
Hermione was bored. She hated to admit it, but there she, sitting this October morning in the Gryffindor common room, absolutely, positively bored. She'd already completed a week's worth of homework, and would've started next week's. She didn't want to though. She picked at the cuff of her red sweater, staring into the fire.
The common room was quiet, as the Quidditch team was out practicing for a game against Ravenclaw this weekend. Even fantasizing about Draco had lost its appeal. She smiled. She couldn't go find him; he was probably entertaining another girl in his room. She didn't mind, really. Better if it didn't get complicated. And jealousy always made things wonderfully complicated. Hermione sighed and got up, deciding to go watch the practice. Ginny was out there, she knew.
It was a pretty informal practice, Hermione found. Harry was running a drill with the new Beaters, a third year boy and fifth year girl. The other players were goofing around, tossing the Quaffle back and forth. Hermione took a seat next to Ginny. A while later, Harry flew over on his broom, Ron behind him. Hermione had an idea, and asked Harry if she could ride his broom for a bit.
"You can ride?" Ron asked, unbelieving.
"Don't be daft, Ron, of course I can ride! I'm not too bad, either."
Ron chuckled, and Hermione gave him a sharp look. "Sorry, I thought you were kidding." He said, turning pink at the ears.
"Why don't you go play with your broomstick, Ron." Hermione spat, irritably. A few other team members laughed at this, and Ron turned outright red, as Hermione had used the term "broomstick", not referring to his actual broom.
"Alright then, Granger," Ron started, "I'll race you to where the Forbidden Forest starts and back again."
"Loser jumps into the lake?" Hermione said with a malicious glint in her eye.
"In their knickers." Ron finished, looking slightly nervous.
"Deal." Hermione said. Harry watched all this with interest. Hermione was a different person from two years ago. A) Normally she'd be in the tower studying than out here. B) She'd be going on and on about how many rules they would be breaking in this race. C) She'd never participate in something that could end up in someone being injured.
Hermione and Ron borrowed two of the Chaser's brooms, both Nimbus 2001's. The whole Quidditch team gathered to count down.
"On your mark...Get set...GO!" Hermione and Ron took off, neck in neck. Ron gained a few feet, but Hermione stayed focused. Just as they reached the Forest and were above the trees, Hermione tried to force Ron to move out of the way by doing a complicated turn in mid-air. All that happened was that Hermione was knocked off her broom into the trees bellow. Everyone watching back at the stadium groaned in unison.
"Hermione!" Ron yelled out, and he flew down into the tree's looking for her. What did she think she was doing? She could be really hurt!
Ron expected to find her angry, swearing even. Instead he found a laughing Hermione, sitting on a particularly large branch. Her robes were ripped, and she had a few scratches on her, but she was laughing as if someone had charmed her with a strong Laughing Charm.
"Hermione?" Ron said tentatively. "Are you alright?"
She kept laughing, but stopped long enough to gasp out, "That was great!"
Ron just smiled to himself, before helping her onto his broom. Everyone gathered around Hermione as they landed back at the stadium.
"What the hell were you thinking, Hermione? That was a really dumb thing to do." Harry said angrily. She was still laughing. Everyone else just shrugged it off with a smile and started to leave, disappointed they wouldn't get to see either jump into the lake in their knickers.
"Err, she doesn't have a concussion or anything, right?" Ron asked awkwardly.
"Nah," Ginny replied, "But maybe you should keep an eye on her for a while. You know, maybe accompany her to the ball?" she hinted mischievously. Ron muttered something about "idiot sisters" and turned red while Hermione just laughed again.
"Common, we'd better get back upstairs." Harry muttered as the Slytherin Quidditch team began to form. Draco looked over at Hermione and made a movement as if to walk over. He thought better of it though.
Back in Hogwarts, Hermione went upstairs to change her robes. She wrote a quick, teasing note to Draco before grabbing a book and going back to the Gryffindor common room.
Sexy - I'm fine, thanks for asking! Be seeing you at the ball where you'll be dying to dance with me...
She signed it was a little picture of a lion's head.
Back in the common room, Hermione took a seat next Ron on a couch facing the chair Harry was sitting in. Ginny was perched on his lap. They were discussing graduation and what would happen afterwards, a conversation Hermione tried her best to avoid.
"Why do we even need to think about that now?" Hermione asked.
"Hello to you, too." Ron replied. "That reminds me, Mum owled and wants to know if you and Harry'd like to spend the Christmas holidays with us at the Burrow?"
Harry agreed immediately, as did Hermione. Her parents would be in Italy anyway. A few minutes later, Harry said he needed Hermione to look over a Potion's assignment for him, would she? Hermione agreed and he went upstairs to get it.
"Hermione, I was wondering," Ron began, "if you go to the ball with me?" Surprisingly, only his ears were pink. She smiled.
"I was kinda planning to go on my own, Ron. Would you maybe save me a dance, though?" Ron seemed happy enough with this, and the rest of the night continued without incident.
It was the morning of he Halloween Ball. The entire student population was in the Great Hall, and the mail was just arriving. There was a note for Ron from Mrs. Weasely saying how pleased she was both Harry and Hermione were coming. Dumbledore announced that the Great Hall would be closed for the rest of the day, until seven thirty, when the ball would begin. Lunch would be served in the Common rooms.
Hermione spent the afternoon in the Gryffindor common room, eating lunch with her friends. Neville asked her to the ball, and she gave him the same, sweet reply as she had Ron. Lavender, Ginny, and most of the other girls left to change at four. Hermione didn't leave to go to her dormitories until five, telling everyone not to wait for her.
There was no sign of Terry anywhere, thankfully. She went upstairs, feeling devious already.
She went into the bathroom and locked the door. She took out some back hair-dye she'd bought secretly at Hogsmeade, wizard dye that was only removed with a certain charm so it would last as long as she wanted. Within twenty minutes, she had long black hair, darker than Harry's. She blow dried it flat, and pulled it loosely into a bun. It was so loose that most of it fell out. Hermione had taken her white dress, and messily cut off most of the bottom until the end was above her knees. It was higher in the front, where as it hung down almost to the floor in the back. She was wearing jeans underneath as well, jeans that were made more of spandex then of denim. They fit her tightly, and were light blue. She charmed children's play fairy wings onto the back of her gown, so that they fluttered every so often. Next, she made convincing fake cuts on her forearms, as if she had cut herself many times. They looked scary even to her. Hermione was naturally pretty pale, and her new, black hair made that stand out even more. Still, she powdered her face a little, then rimmed her eyes with heavy black liner and put blood red lipstick on. She looked in the mirror, feeling unnerved. She hardly recognized herself. Still, something was missing. Aha! She took some wire that was lying around, and bent it into a circle. She placed a glowing charm on it, then one to make it levitate over her head. She smiled. Operation: Fallen Angel was complete.
Anyone walking down to the Great Hall right then would've taken two looks at Hermione, then wondered who she was for the rest of the night. Hermione was pleased to see she was late enough that the halls were pretty much deserted. Those students she did see she didn't know. She could hear music before she even reached the Hall, and as she opened the doors, she was amazed at how loud simple conversation and music could be. Hermione didn't expect the looks she got as she entered, most everyone figured out who she was after a second look. Draco looked over, a girl on each his arms. He deserted them to walk over to her. Correction, he walked near enough to her that she noticed him. As she looked over, he slipped a mask over his face. The mask was half white, half black, and the mouth was split as well. Half was smiling, the other half frowning, Hermione found it very symbolic. He wore white robes, completely different from his usual black ones. Oh, well, it was Halloween, she reminded herself.
Ron and Harry saw Hermione walk by, but he head was turned.
"Who's that?" Dean whispered beside them. Ginny's mouth hung open. She seemed to float with her little white slippers.
"Probably a Slytherin whore." Ron spat, half jealous of her date, half disgusted. Her costume was too...dramatic for him.
"Ron!" Ginny and Harry yelled together.
"Try not to be your usual, charming self tonight, Ronnie," Ginny said, "Let's all try to get along?"
Hermione spun around when she heard Ron's name yelled. Harry looked back up at the girl, and was shocked to see Hermione's face under the black hair and make-up.
So was Ron. "Hermione?"
She grinned widely and floated over. She spun around once before she reached them. "What do you think?" she asked uncertainly.
"Love it. You surprised us, right, Ron?" Ginny said forcefully as she hugged Hermione. Harry nudged Ron not so gently with his elbow, until Ron remembered who he was looking at.
"Right! Sorry, Hermione. Would you care to dance?" he asked, bowing slightly. She agreed and they walked off.
Ginny watched them go. "She looks wonderful, doesn't she?" Harry shrugged, then bent and kissed her neck. She laughed and pushed him away.
"What? Aren't we supposed to be vampires?"
"Just dance with me, Harry."
Much later, after everyone had eaten, Ginny and Harry were dancing again. A boy in a black and white mask tapped Harry on the shoulder, and asked if he could cut in. He looked to Ginny, who nodded. Harry walked back towards Ron, who was sitting at a table talking to Neville. Hermione was off at the other end of the Hall, talking to a group of Hufflepuffs.
After they'd been dancing for a minutes, Ginny reached up and pulled the boy's mask off to rest on the top of his head. He made no movement to stop her, and she was shocked at who she found underneath.
"Good evening, Ginny. Sorry if I surprised you." Draco said quietly.
She resisted the urge to shove him away. After all, he hadn't given her a reason to. Yet.
"Good evening, sir," she replied jokingly.
Harry noticed as soon as the boy took his mask off. He immediately began to walk over, avoiding dancing couples. But before he reached them, they broke apart, and Draco found a new partner. Ginny turned and found herself face to face with her date.
"Harry!" she exclaimed and wrapper her arms around him to dance. He began to walk away, towards Draco, but Ginny held him.
"Don't," she said, "He didn't do anything." He began to protest, "He didn't, Harry. C'mon, it was a good example to set, that's all."
Indeed, Draco was dancing with a Hufflepuff now, then a Gryffindor fifth year. Harry, as well as many others, noticed there were a lot of inter-house couples dancing, especially Slytherins.
"I guess everyone's trynna put the crap behind them." Ginny said later. "Graduation isn't that far away, you know."
"Yeah, I know," Harry replied. "I guess you're right." A moment later, Harry gasped and said, "Ginny, look over there. You won't believe your eyes!"
She spun around to see Pansy Parkinson dancing with Ron. "Whoa. Was not expecting that. Trust him to do something like this when I'm camera-less."
The evening was drawing to a close, and Ginny was elated to find out that someone was walking around with a wizard camera, and had taken a photo of Ron and Pansy, Hermione was standing with Harry and Ron when Draco approached them.
"Might you do me the honor of dancing with me, Miss Granger?" he asked, adding on, "With your permission, of course," To Harry and Ron.
Hermione stepped forward before they could agree. "I don't need their permission. But thanks." They walked onto the dance floor and Hermione put her arms around his neck.
"Smooth, Draco, very smooth." Hermione whispered.
"I know," he said, "And I do it all for you." They laughed, and kept dancing. A minute later they broke apart to dance when a fast pace song came on.
Lavender came over with Dean to sit with Harry, Ginny, Ron, and the Patil twins. They sat quietly, tired, and watched the dancers, making comments about who went well with who. Lavender said, "That girl, the one dancing with Draco? She's quite pretty." The rest nodded, assuming they knew who she was. "They've slept together, those two." The girls at the table burst out laughing, while the boys looked horrified. "What?" she continued. "I know these things."
Ginny was laughing particularly hard. "Oh? Tell us Lav, how do you know?"
"Well, look at the way they look at each other! And how the move, they already know what the other person is going to do. And how they touch each other, they're very comfortable, see?" The table quieted down, watching Draco and Hermione.
Ron finally burst out laughing. "Draco and Hermione? Right, Lav."
There was an uncomfortable silence as his laughter died down.