Hermione was breathless as she rounded the corner, and collapsed against the wall feeling close to hyperventilation. Raising trembling fingertips to her still swollen lips she took a deep breath and let a small smile creep onto her face. OH, she had wanted to do that for a long time. She skipped the whole way to Arithmancy.
Putting down her quill, Hermione enjoyed the satisfaction that comes from finishing a whole page of advanced algorithms and still finishing before everyone in the class, most of whom were Ravenclaws.
'Although that last one was a bit of a bitch,' she mused, raking her hand through her now-untidy hair.
Stifling a yawn, she handed her sheet into Professor Vector, who gave her an approving smile, and sat down heavily in her seat. She kept replaying the kiss with Malfoy over and over in her head. Slight smile - Lean - KISS - Exit. A slow, dreamy smile, uncurled across her features as the loop reran for the fourth or fifth time. Hermione mentally shook herself and dug the heels of her hands into her eyes. HARD. Good Gods, What was she doing?! She had *kissed* Malfoy!
Fearing it to be a sign of the apocalypse, she excused herself from class and made her way to the bathroom. A surprised yelp escaped her as she splashed icy cold water on her face. She stared at herself in the mirror, as if there would be some outward sign of her mental turmoil.
"What is going on with you?" She questioned her reflection who, thankfully, did not appear to be inclined to answer of it's own accord. "It's like you've been re-sorted. Gryffindors just don't DO these sorts of things. Slytherins, yes, even the occasional Ravenclaw. But not Gryffindors."
"Even when you do have a thing for a Slytherin boy?"
Hermione spun round quickly, wand in hand, gripping the basin for support. "MYRTLE! You scared me half to...." She trailed off. "You startled me!" She amended hurriedly.
Moaning Myrtle narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Hermione.
Hermione, therefore, decided it was time to change the subject. "Have a crush on one, did you Myrtle?"
The ghost paused in her retort and blushed, becoming slightly more opaque before fading back to her original pale silver colour. "N-no...Why do you ask?!"
Stifling a grin, Hermione continued nonchalantly. "Oh, just wondering. Some of them are VERY good looking though, wouldn't you agree Myrtle?"
Myrtle sighed dreamily. "Yes, rather..."
"Who in particular?" She murmured in as coaxing a manner as she was able.
"Tom..."
Hermione's brow furrowed. "Tom who?" she asked in puzzlement, more to herself that to the ghost, who was staring off into the ether.
"Tom Riddle, he was head boy you know and just so amazin-"
"VOLDEMORT?!" Hermione's head spun. "You had a crush on the dark lord?! Dear GODS Myrtle! What on earth were you thinking?!"
The ghost looked affronted. "Well," She began. "It's not as if I could very well do anything about it. Other than watch him take a bath.." Myrtle grinned like a Cheshire cat "..and he *was* terribly charming."
Hermione took a deep breath. "Right. Goodbye, Myrtle." And with that Hermione turned and dashed back towards her class which, by her estimation, was close to over. When she thought about it, Hermione realised it was all a matter of perspective. After all it was one thing to consider a Slytherin good looking, (and a Malfoy at that!) but when compared to the Dark lord, Draco Malfoy looked about as intimidating as a paper bag full of feathers.
But then he always seemed to delight in proving her wrong, didn't he?
Skidding to a halt, Hermione windmilled her arms in an attempt to compensate for the sudden stop. A warm, strong hand gripped her upper arm. "Watch it there Granger." Draco smiled almost civilly. "Wouldn't want you to fall down, would we?" With a slight nudge to her upper body, Hermione careened back into the wall with a muffled 'Oof!', stone scraping unyieldingly across her back.
"Define 'we' Malfoy." By this time a small herd of Slytherins were traversing the corridors between classes and several had stopped beside Malfoy, Hermione glanced up quickly, a sly and uncharacteristic smile spreading across her face. "Because I meant it when I said I don't want anything to do with you. Hence there being no 'we'. I thought I made that *clear* last night!" She yelled, attracting the attention of another dozen Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. "Now, if you don't move, I *will* be forced to take this to Professor McGonnagall." Draco moved out of her way from pure shock and Hermione sashayed past him on her way to her next class, which was, thankfully, without him.
Midnight found Hermione poking her way through the Restricted Section, trying to muffle her coughing with the back of her hand. Apparently even Madam Pince was loath to disturb some of the older, dustier and sometimes almost sentient tomes, despite both her love and respect of books and her near-pathological hatred of dirt in any form. Hermione tried to brush her hair out of her eyes while still keeping the lumos-illuminated strands close enough to read the slab of vellum - for it could hardly be called a book in its 2346 pages of glory.
"Bollocks." She swore under her breath as yet another book gave her little information and less hope of finding the information she craved tonight. Closing Sect or Society - Dark Wizards and their Influence on Early Modern Europe and sliding it soundlessly (in so far as a book that weighed over a stone could be quiet) onto the shelf. Rubbing her eyes, which by this time were bloodshot with fatigue and dust, she thumbed over the cracked and yellowed leather spines, hoping for a book which she was seeming less and less likely to come by.
An oddly new book jumped out at her towards the end of the row, and Hermione took a hasty step back, but the book was either unable or disinclined to move further. It was bound lovingly in terracotta suede, the parchment within just barely starting to yellow despite the many and varied protective charms placed upon books under Madam Pince's care. Engraved in ornate, barely legible court script on the cover was the title: The Life and Times of the Ivory Eloh's Cardinal-Mistresses. Hermione squinted. The tome spoke to her - possibly because it had, quite literally, thrown itself at her - but despite it's irrelevance to her search, Hermione made off with it quietly. She had learned to trust her instincts, particularly when it came to the library.
She was unworried about being caught with a Restricted Section book. For all Madam Pince pretended, there wasn't actually a list of all the books in that part of the library. She had read in Hogwarts: A History that most of that section had been destroyed in the aftermath of the war with Grindelwald, but her own observations suggested otherwise. Had there been a list, the ministry would be asking all sorts of difficult questions, and so Hermione felt her filching would go unnoticed. The librarian was the first and only anti-theft measure used by Hogwarts - she seemed to have a disturbing condition whereby she could find books by their smell and sound. Hermione and Harry had even gone so far as to test this, by moving a select collection of easily-overlooked books to different parts of the library, and lo, in half an hour, the books were nestled comfortably in their proper locations.
Hermione hugged the book close to her chest and made her way quickly out of the vault of books, resetting the complex wards before returning at a jog to Gryffindor Tower.
Each and every one of Hermione's reflexes had been honed and sharpened to a wicked point during the five years of her friendship with Harry and Ron, and each year's associated clash with Voldemort. And now, as she heard a whisper at the top of the stairs just before the portrait hole, it was as if every plate of her carefully honed armour fell into place to protect her.
Moving closer as soundlessly and as deep in the shadows as was possible, Hermione edged up the stairs.
"Remind me again why we're doing this, Ron?"
"Oh come off it, Harry. You know how strangely she's been acting this week. If she won't tell us what's wrong, we'll have to find out for ourselves."
"But, doesn't it seem rather… underhanded to you?" Harry treasured his friends as if they were blood relations, and would not dream of upsetting any of them.
Ron, who had grown up with 5 older brothers and a sister more fiendish than the lot of them, had no such qualms about invading Hermione's privacy, no matter how much he treasured his own. "Well, she knows very well that if she didn't tell us we'd find out sooner or later. Nothing stays secret for long in Gryffindor."
'Well!' thought Hermione 'Now I know who my friends are don't I?' her cheeks started to redden with anger. She advanced up the stairs towards the hidden conversation, while Ron and Harry continued towards the stairs at a snails pace, completely oblivious to the fact that they weren't alone in the hall.
"Harry, shove over! I can hardly move here!" Ron declared in a heated stage whisper.
"You're no better. And there'd be plenty of room if you didn't lollop about!"
"I don't lollop! You do!"
Their altercation had steadily increased in volume to the stage when Hermione thought it best to sneak past them while they were otherwise engaged. Better Ron and Harry get in trouble for trying to spy on her than the three of them. Hermione had to keep her nose clean if she wanted to become Head Girl. She frowned at her own thoughts, but continued regardless, slipping through the portrait hole with a whispered 'fortiter et fideliter', sneaking up to her dormitory without so much as a glance in her direction from the still-quarreling pair in plain sight. Hermione shook her head and toed off her shoes, falling asleep almost the minute her head touched her pillow.
The lavish book was still tucked close to her chest, under her robes.
Fortiter et fideliter means Courageously and faithfully. I thought it rather fitting for Gryffindors. 15 house points and a chocolate frog to anyone who can pick the BBC Pride and Prejudice quote.
I tried to make Hermione different enough that it's obvious she's going through some changes without making her completely OOC and unbelievable. I hope it was okay.
To all my lovely and patient reviewers: I cannot believe you've put up with me after how much I stuffed you around, for almost two and a half months, in fact.
Dreaming One: Your review gave me a lot to think about before I started writing again and I agree that Hermione was OOC. I tried to give an explanation of that, at least a little but I'm not sure it worked. As to the Chest, it will play a part later on.
ProfessorMirandaMcGuire and Avri: I hope you don't think I'm shunning either of you, I just really wanted to get this up. If any suggestions jump out at you after reading this, let me know? (that goes for anyone else reading this as well!)
Tainted black: I hope I lessened (if not fixed) the OOC-ness of my Hermione. And those are my curses, and I'm proud of them. *beams*
Also to fireguardian, RelenaS, Red of Rose, Fashiondiva, Becca, plastic, `div, Sila-chan and Tokyobabe2040: thank you for your reviews and, hence support. Seeing a new review every time I checked my email made me write a little more every time I thought about it.
