A/N: things may get a little wacky from here on. You have been warned.
Chapter 3- Vulnerable
On the Friday that is now known as "The Final Stand of the Sane" Hermione lost it, cracked, came undone, got hit with the crazy stick, went round the bend, went up the wall and lost all sense of reality. It was a typical potions lesson, well, for that particular week it was. Hermione would be ignored by the Gryffindors, Snape would be merciless in his punishments of the Gryffindors and the Slytherins would incessantly tease Hermione, the teasing went supposedly unseen by Snape. But that theory got crushed as pretty much the whole class saw Snape chuckle at a slur that Malfoy threw at Hermione.
But this had been going on all week and seemed like the longest week of school ever for Hermione. Ron and Harry were not talking to her for some reason unknown to Hermione, and the same applied to the entire house of Gryffindor. The insults from the Slytherins were nothing new, but without friends to brush the insults off with it were quite taken to heart. So this leads us to Hermione, sitting in double potions, the last class of Friday after a week of hell feeling as if anything would be better than school. Mind you, this was quite a revolutionary thought for Hermione, the infamous book worm.
Hermione was sitting up the front of the class and to the left, all by herself and in front of everyone's favourite Slytherins, Malfoy and company. She dealt with the taunts of the Slytherins by drifting off into Buffy land, where she fought the good fight, got to pash Spike through some weird tweaking of the Buffyverse by Hermione and got to have tea and biscuits afterwards with the Scooby Gang. Needless to say that it was heaven for the stranded-in-hell Hermione. It was now expected that Hermione would drift off into her own fantasies and no one paid any mind to her, except Malfoy.
Malfoy picked up that Hermione was at her weakest in her fantasy state, though she appeared to be unaware of her surroundings, she actually was. But Hermione's downfall was that even though she was aware, she was unalert. Basically it worked like this, Hermione knew that she was in class and that she was supposed to be learning, but if you said anything to her she would not show any sign of having heard you. Malfoy, being on of those evil genius people who only knew how to use their knowledge for bad figured that if he threw something at Hermione, she would snap back to reality and then he could throw insults at her while she tried to get back into her fantasy state.
And it worked. Over and over again without fail, "So, mudblood, what are you thinking about today? The day that you finally can brush your hair?"
The pattern continued with Hermione continually turning around and ignoring Malfoy. Until the insults got the better of Hermione, "Well, here sits little mudblood, all alone and so forlorn. What on earth could be wrong with her? Did you finally find out that your friends aren't really your friends? Because it damn well looks that way doesn't it? The minute you stop your little know-it-all act they don't want to hear about anything you have to say. Now the question is, what do you do now that you don't have friends and school work isn't your life? I want to know why you, being a mudblood and all, are still here. You obviously don't like school any more, that is taken for granted. So, I figure that for you, anywhere but here would be better for you, anywhere."
After this barrage of insults Hermione turned around to look at the smug Malfoy and his sniggering friends and she looked at them. She blankly stared at them while she processed properly exactly what Malfoy said to her. The bushy haired girl finally came to a conclusion and said to Malfoy, who was no longer looking to smug anymore, "You know what Malfoy? You're right, anywhere is better than here." Hermione sullenly and slowly turned around to face the front of the classroom with a blank look on her face as Snape took twenty points from Gryffindor because Hermione was distracting the Slytherins. This earned Hermione many a glare, but, unlike before, she didn't blush, didn't look back at them, she didn't even mouth an apology, this time she sat facing the front of the classroom with a blank face as she slowly drifted into her Buffy fantasy.
The class continued with Hermione not once moving from her position facing the front of the classroom, not once changing the expression on her face and not once turning around as Malfoy and his friends tried to catch her attention over and over again. Instead Hermione was somewhere else entirely.
A/N: sorry it's short; I can't finish it off at the moment. I have other things to attend to (noooo! I'd rather write fanfic). And I won't be updating for at least a week because I'm going away (a tear falls from the author's eye as she thinks of a world without fanfic and the net. As soon as I get back I'll update. I'm sorry it's taking so long to get to the actual plot part; I have this habit of making stories go slow.
Chapter 3- Vulnerable
On the Friday that is now known as "The Final Stand of the Sane" Hermione lost it, cracked, came undone, got hit with the crazy stick, went round the bend, went up the wall and lost all sense of reality. It was a typical potions lesson, well, for that particular week it was. Hermione would be ignored by the Gryffindors, Snape would be merciless in his punishments of the Gryffindors and the Slytherins would incessantly tease Hermione, the teasing went supposedly unseen by Snape. But that theory got crushed as pretty much the whole class saw Snape chuckle at a slur that Malfoy threw at Hermione.
But this had been going on all week and seemed like the longest week of school ever for Hermione. Ron and Harry were not talking to her for some reason unknown to Hermione, and the same applied to the entire house of Gryffindor. The insults from the Slytherins were nothing new, but without friends to brush the insults off with it were quite taken to heart. So this leads us to Hermione, sitting in double potions, the last class of Friday after a week of hell feeling as if anything would be better than school. Mind you, this was quite a revolutionary thought for Hermione, the infamous book worm.
Hermione was sitting up the front of the class and to the left, all by herself and in front of everyone's favourite Slytherins, Malfoy and company. She dealt with the taunts of the Slytherins by drifting off into Buffy land, where she fought the good fight, got to pash Spike through some weird tweaking of the Buffyverse by Hermione and got to have tea and biscuits afterwards with the Scooby Gang. Needless to say that it was heaven for the stranded-in-hell Hermione. It was now expected that Hermione would drift off into her own fantasies and no one paid any mind to her, except Malfoy.
Malfoy picked up that Hermione was at her weakest in her fantasy state, though she appeared to be unaware of her surroundings, she actually was. But Hermione's downfall was that even though she was aware, she was unalert. Basically it worked like this, Hermione knew that she was in class and that she was supposed to be learning, but if you said anything to her she would not show any sign of having heard you. Malfoy, being on of those evil genius people who only knew how to use their knowledge for bad figured that if he threw something at Hermione, she would snap back to reality and then he could throw insults at her while she tried to get back into her fantasy state.
And it worked. Over and over again without fail, "So, mudblood, what are you thinking about today? The day that you finally can brush your hair?"
The pattern continued with Hermione continually turning around and ignoring Malfoy. Until the insults got the better of Hermione, "Well, here sits little mudblood, all alone and so forlorn. What on earth could be wrong with her? Did you finally find out that your friends aren't really your friends? Because it damn well looks that way doesn't it? The minute you stop your little know-it-all act they don't want to hear about anything you have to say. Now the question is, what do you do now that you don't have friends and school work isn't your life? I want to know why you, being a mudblood and all, are still here. You obviously don't like school any more, that is taken for granted. So, I figure that for you, anywhere but here would be better for you, anywhere."
After this barrage of insults Hermione turned around to look at the smug Malfoy and his sniggering friends and she looked at them. She blankly stared at them while she processed properly exactly what Malfoy said to her. The bushy haired girl finally came to a conclusion and said to Malfoy, who was no longer looking to smug anymore, "You know what Malfoy? You're right, anywhere is better than here." Hermione sullenly and slowly turned around to face the front of the classroom with a blank look on her face as Snape took twenty points from Gryffindor because Hermione was distracting the Slytherins. This earned Hermione many a glare, but, unlike before, she didn't blush, didn't look back at them, she didn't even mouth an apology, this time she sat facing the front of the classroom with a blank face as she slowly drifted into her Buffy fantasy.
The class continued with Hermione not once moving from her position facing the front of the classroom, not once changing the expression on her face and not once turning around as Malfoy and his friends tried to catch her attention over and over again. Instead Hermione was somewhere else entirely.
A/N: sorry it's short; I can't finish it off at the moment. I have other things to attend to (noooo! I'd rather write fanfic). And I won't be updating for at least a week because I'm going away (a tear falls from the author's eye as she thinks of a world without fanfic and the net. As soon as I get back I'll update. I'm sorry it's taking so long to get to the actual plot part; I have this habit of making stories go slow.