Against All Odds
Chapter Two
Koneko-chan says!
Hi again, thanks for the reviews, I appreciate them. And the one about me putting comments in the middle? You're right, it is a better idea to put in my AN's, I could actually write something in them. But who reads those anyway? Not me most of the time. Anyway, second chapter, third one coming out soon. And you who said Hermione was coming on to Ron? That wasn't happening, she was trying to prove something to the both of them. Don't blame me if Ron is the only one who isn't in love with anyone (we all know J.K. Rowling made Harry like Cho) and the sudden instinct to pair them up pops into your brain. I meant her to prove to both of them that she was a girl not just 'you know, her, our friend, the bookworm, etc. I think Ron was a little idiotic in suddenly saying "hey Hermione you are a girl!" Well duh. All I can say is, go Krum for noticing!
~*~*~*~
September first. The first day of the last year to Hogwarts. Draco's lip curled into a horrible visage of a smile as he looked at the date on the calendar. The scantily clad women on the borders winked and blew kisses at him, but they didn't distract him, he was still lost in thought about what was coming this year.
It was his last year, and therefore, it would also be Harry Potter's. This would be the last year that the Dark Lord would have a chance to dispose of Harry before he became a fully trained and fully licensed wizard. Draco smirked; he still stood by the opinion that Harry was a bastard who was so special and so popular because of a stupid scar on his head.
And then there was the hated Weasley who'd managed to weasel his way into Potter's ridiculous little clique, as pathetic as his family was. It was against the natural order of things… wizarding trash like that should never have found their way into the ranks of the popular in Hogwarts.
Lastly there was Granger. She was a stuck-up, know-it-all smart-ass who flaunted her brains like Pansy Parkinson flaunted her cleavage. But all that couldn't assuage the fact that he held her in something akin to respect. She was not one to be toyed with, nor did she fall so easily for all the many tricks of the Malfoy trade that others had. And he respected that, twisted as other people might think him. She had intelligence, and common sense with it. After all, it would have normally been impossible when in the company of Potter and Weasley's whose ideas of a smart comeback was a "Stuff it, Malfoy!" But he'd been given enough flak by his father because of the fact that he'd made a steady second place in all previous years while she continued to get first place in every class she had ever attempted (except Divination, he recalled with a twisted grin).
"Master Draco, Yoku wonders if Master should get out of bed before Master's father comes." The nervous squeaking of their house elf (who'd come shortly after Dobby had been set free thanks to Potter's meddling) Yoku came from the door and he sat up to look towards her, glaring. "I'm already up, Yoku." He told her dismissing her offhandedly, and watched her squeak in surprise. "So sorry, Master, Yoku is already packed all things for Master Draco for trip to Hogwarts." He waved her away again, impatiently this time, and looked at himself in the mirror. "So, Master Draco… another year at that school, I suppose?" the mirror asked as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
"Yeah. Last one." He headed straight for his closet where there were a few sets of Muggle clothing that he owned for the few times he traveled in the Muggle world. Pulling out a white T-shirt and a pair of faded jeans, he headed to the bathroom for a quick shower before he left off towards platform 9 ¾.
There was one thing to be said about Muggle clothes… one could always be sure to show off their well-toned body in them better than robes. And as the mirror told him, he did look damned sexy.
~*~*~*~
"Wormtail!" snapped the master, red eyes glowing stonily at the cringing man in front of him. Despicable, but he had his uses. "You are to take Nagini to the train and appear to be her guardian… do you understand me?" he added, as he watched the man fall to his knees trembling, and muttering incoherently.
"B-but s-sir! What if they recognize me?! Harry P-Potter will be there… and so many of the teachers t-too. They'll c-catch me!"
"If they do, you shall rot in Azkaban for the rest of your stinking, miserable life." His master replied him dismissively, giving him no pity. "You are going with Nagini to keep appearances up. Go disguised if you must. One would imagine that you would have thought of it first, being one always to hide yourself." He turned back to stare at the fire.
The girl standing behind them both with a trunk full of spell books, robes, and other miscellaneous items on the list the school had sent her. A cage with a tawny-colored owl she'd named Rio, and the wand hidden in the pocket of the hated Muggle clothing that had to be worn in order to 'keep up appearances'. As the two of them turned to leave, she walking ahead while Wormtail dragged the heavy trunk and cage, a voice came from the chair still facing the fire. "Remember Nagini. You know the consequences of your failure."
She smiled in such predatory satisfaction that one had to wonder how she would manage to appear to be human. "Failure is unacceptable… both to you and to me." She replied, saying the now-familiar human speech that issued without her translating from her mouth. Her master was great indeed.
~*~*~*~
"Baby? It's time to get up, sweetie. You're leaving for school, today." crooned the person by her bed. Hermione moaned something like "two more minutes" before turning over in her sleep. "Come on, honey, you'll be late for your train and I have no idea where that school is so I won't know how to drive you there." That made Hermione spring up out of bed, narrowly missing cracking heads with her mother who sprang away just in time. "Well, that certainly got you up. Now hurry, your dad's already dragging your heavy trunk into the car." Hermione was already at her closet, rummaging through it again, trying to find something to wear. Her mom, who was about to leave the room, sighed, turned and walked back in, plunking herself down beside her daughter and nonchalantly choosing something for her daughter to wear while Hermione was in an all out hellfire scrabbling through the different fabrics in the closet.
Soon enough, she appeared out on the driveway in light blue spaghetti-strap tank and white denim shorts. Her father raised an eyebrow but said nothing, especially when Hermione's mother shoved an elbow in his side, effectively silencing whatever 'fatherly concerns' he had over her choice of clothing. The way to the station wasn't very far away, but it was extremely crowded and Hermione guessed, that a lot of these people were off to wizarding schools, the same as she was. She stroked her cat, Crookshanks, smiling when she noticed a car with a caged owl pass their car. When they'd finally reached the station and walked towards the very middle between platform 9 and 10, she saw Ron's mother, the last of the Weasley family enter in through the invisible barrier. She smiled, remembering the fright her parent's had had the first time they'd try to get in.
"Come on then." She muttered, bringing herself to a fast walk, not afraid anymore of crashing into the wall. And with a rush of wind, she was through, dragging her parents along with her. The crimson steam engine puffed noisily and the scripted letters of the sign with 'Platform 9 ¾' on it were all the same, and very familiar. "Made it again, dear." murmured her mother faintly as she looked back behind her at the seemingly solid wall, her father just shrugged and ruffled Hermione's hair before helping her with the cart towards the train. She looked right and left, but she still couldn't find Ron's family, which she was sure she'd seen just before her. Nor could she see Harry at all and wondered how he'd managed to get to the train station this year. He'd had a different way each year, once involving a certain missing Hippogriff. It had become almost an unofficial Hogwarts tradition.
"Well, look here, if it isn't the little Mudblood." purred a voice from the side of them, and Hermione whirled at the sound of the unpleasant obscenity. It was none other than Pansy Parkinson, the Slytherin girl who had the unsettling reputation of going too far with too many guys. Sabrina Granger had no idea what this girl had called her daughter, but it hadn't sounded at all pleasant and she frowned. "Excuse me? What did you call my daughter?"
The girl eyed her, sizing her up and down with a smirk on her face. "I called her a Mudblood you old hag." She sniffed, "Wasn't the barrier supposed to keep Muggle trash off the platform?" Hermione looked ready to pummel the hard-faced Slytherin girl for her rude comments to her mother and to herself.
"And here I thought you two would be offering to drink tea with the Queen of England." drawled a familiar voice behind them. Hermione groaned; she did not need the two Slytherins teaming up on her when she was trying to wrestle her trunk onto the train. He appeared, the crowds amazingly parting for him. He took everything in one glance, "I guess not."
"Oh Draco." simpered Pansy draping herself on the broad shoulders of the blond Slytherin Seeker. He looked at her in distaste before saying, "Get off, Parkinson." Hermione's mother whispered into Hermione's ear, "Is he going out with her?"
"Not that I know of…" She replied and turned back to the task of pushing her trunk up the steps, which involved a lot of heaving and shoving and getting absolutely nowhere, "But then again, I don't know, nor do I care to know a lot about much Slytherin gossip." She kicked the trunk in frustration and shrieked in pain grasping her foot, which was wearing nothing more than a sandal with a lot of straps.
Pansy laughed derisively as Hermione's mother and father bent to see if she was all right, she replied quite easily that she was. Draco had meanwhile been working Pansy's death grip of his shoulders and was currently working her other hand off his chest. "Parkinson, get off me!" he growled, finally shoving her off him. "But Draco!" she whined, indignant over his obvious rejection.
"Be quiet, I don't need to talk to you."
"I don't see you saying half as much to the little Mudblood or her trash folk!"
He glared at that, "I can decide when I insult other people, and I don't need your help telling me when those times are." he replied bitingly. Pansy blinked and backed away slowly, her face was a mask of confusion. "But… Draco…"
"Listen Parkinson, just get out of my sight." He growled before continuing away from both of them, Pansy (in her black tube top and black leather micro-mini and simply standing there looking pretty) and Hermione (wearing a tank top and shorts heaving a trunk about as long as she was tall up the stairs of the train). "What a strange boy, wouldn't you say so, dear?" asked Hermione's dad, Anthony Granger to his wife. "Darling, I never pry too much in my daughter's school/private life, everything's much more simpler." she replied before helping her struggling daughter with the trunk as a stunned Pansy Parkinson walked away to join a couple of Slytherin seventh years who'd just walked past.
Hermione collapsed into the compartment of the train that they always used and flopped onto the seat. Her mother took a more dignified position opposite her for the last few minutes of talk with her daughter. Mr. Granger came in a few seconds later, seating himself beside his wife. "Well 'Mione, you're off again." Her mother said wistfully, she'd miss her daughter. That was the thing about boarding schools… and hers was a magical one at that! "You'll do fine this year, just like you have before. You'll make us proud." Her father told her gruffly, he hated showing so much emotion. A warning call sounded from the front and the three of them stood up unwillingly. "Well… goodbye dear."
"Goodbye 'Mione." Her father said as they shared a group hug before her parents disappeared out the door. The sliding door slid shut and Hermione was left alone waiting for Harry and Ron. She wasn't disappointed, both of them came rushing, making Crookshanks leap up from off top of her side as she'd been lying down since her parents had left. She smiled up at them from her spot on one of the two couches, as if daring them to tell her to get up and move. "I take the full seat this year." She announced before Crookshanks, walk delicately (though he had to waddle slightly, as he was a tiny bit bowlegged) to Pigwidgeon and Hedwig's cages, sat himself down, and began cleaning his paw as he meowed to the owls. The three of them seemed to be in a conversation or more like a conversation between Crookshanks and Hedwig with a lot of exclamations about nothing in particular from Pig.
"Well 'Mione… how have the last few weeks been?"
"Absolutely dull, there's nothing to do. And this stupid git kept following me every time I left the house." She muttered, "I got absolutely no sleep last night 'cause he turned up and began throwing stones at my window! Crookshanks actually attacked him!" Crookshanks turned from his conversation with Hedwig (at least… it looked like a conversation… they didn't know animal speech too well… at all…) and gave her an I-had-enough-of-him look. She grinned, reaching over and patting his head, before he turned back to Hedwig, both of them trying their best to ignore Pig who was fluttering like mad around his cage.
Well, most of the train ride consisted of Harry and Ron playing chess (Harry won! Cheers for him! Although… there are suspicions Ron let him win…) and Hermione napped, one of her Hogwarts robes draped over her like a blanket.
~*~*~*~
Nagini was extremely annoyed. In fact, more than extremely annoyed. When out of her lord's manor, Wormtail had suddenly seemed to lose most of his cowardliness and tried to lord it over her. She had promised her lord that she would not eat this insufferable rat for her supper and to appear to mind him. He was not helping. She was not very knowledgeable in the ways of humans, but she did not believe for a moment that a guardian was supposed to be touching her in this way. And Wormtail was touching her, saying in a sneering whisper, "Be silent you stupid snake and everything will seem all right." She had more than half a mind to change into her real form and bite his head off. She shoved him away, "Don't touch me. At all." She snarled, disgusted, and by the looks of everyone else, they were with him as well as he sat there gaping.
"Excuse me miss… is he bothering you?" asked a young man, several years older than human form (which was 17) getting up from his bed on the Knight Bus. She was heading for the train station to Hogwarts. "Yes. Please, get him away." She asked, glaring at Wormtail who was looking at her shifty-eyed in his despicable way. The man's face hardened, "Now see here, this girl—"
"I am her guardian and I can do whatever I damn please!" Wormtail shouted, frightening an old witch in the bed across from them that had been trying to hide behind an ancient-looking carpetbag. "That does not include sexually harassing her!" replied the man in a more calm tone. The two people in the front, Stan and Ernie were beginning to look suspicious of Wormtail. Nagini bared her teeth in her own feral way. Her people showed their teeth only when trying to threaten another serpent. These bizarre beings meant something completely different when they smiled. And she was going to have to learn not to take offense whenever someone did smile. And, another way of knowing this was because her master had often told her such things, he being a… human for lack of a better word, himself. "Your stop miss… and you sir. 'Ope you 'ave a good time down at 'Ogwarts." Nagini nodded, as Wormtail, giving a last glare at to the man who'd been trying to keep him away from her. He grabbed the trunk and scurried after the billowing robes of the girl in front of him, muttering obscenities under his breath.
She might have to inform Lord Voldemort just how loyal this despicable appetizer was. She licked her teeth in anticipation of a feast; her master would surely let her crunch this man's bones beneath her teeth as she devoured him whole when she gave him Harry Potter. "Leave me now." She commanded as soon as he'd slunk onto the train and shoved her trunk into place in a compartment and stood there, looking around nervously, probably for Harry Potter. He growled several rude words about her but she let them slide as he shuffled off the train and disappeared into the crowds. That was one thing she knew he was good at. Hiding like a stinking rat. She leaned back on the seats of the train compartment. She busied herself in looking at her hands… they were unfamiliar to a creature that had lived several hundred years as a serpent. She preferred this 17 year-old body to that a hundred-year-old one might look. She would never have gotten close to that little boy if she looked like an old crone. She would have fooled no one if she had wanted to pass as a student.
"Come on you two bloody idiots, get in there." A voice was just outside the sliding door and one of her hands slid into the pocket of her robes for her wand in preparation as she stared at hard at the door, waiting for whomever it was to pass. The person didn't. Instead, he slid open the door and she found herself staring at a tall, fat, but strangely muscled and bulky figure. Another, just the same but slightly shorter was right behind him. It took them both a minute to process the fact that there was another human presence in their nearest vicinity. "Hey there's a girl in here!" yelled the first boy after a moment, to someone in the back behind the other boy, and he looked at her stupidly as if she might Disapparate on the spot.
"Fool…" she hissed in serpent-tongue, though the words for her ears only. He wouldn't have understood it anyway, and if he could, without given directions, he could do nothing but block the doorway with his enormous bulk and stare.
"May I help you?" she asked coldly. This boy reminded her of a certain Death Eater that had been one in Lord Voldemort's circle. "Well walk in and quit staring!" the voice yelled from behind again and the two boys shuffled slowly forward, still staring at her. She finally caught sight of the boy behind them, a tall boy with white-blond hair. He also reminded her of someone she'd seen in Lord Voldemort's circle… the smug, egotistical smirk on his face…
"What're you doing in 'ere?" asked one of the fat boys and she raised an eyebrow, faintly surprised he knew how to string the words together to make a sentence. "I chose a compartment to be in during the wait to Hogwarts." The boy with the white-blond hair raised an eyebrow while the other two busied themselves with pushing the three trunks into the compartment and out of the way. The boy stepped around them and sat down in the seat across from her. "Who are you then?" he asked, "I haven't seen you in Hogwarts… ever." This last was accentuated.
"No you wouldn't have seen me, I am just transferring this year." She told him archly, her tongue running along her teeth out of habit as she spoke, she kept missing the feeling of her fangs.
"What's your name then?" She frowned at that one, momentarily forgetting the name her lord had given her. But she quickly remembered and breathed a small sigh of relief as soon as she did. "Nagini. Nagini Whetlyn."
The boy nodded and held out his hand with that I-am-God smirk still on his face. "My name's Malfoy. Draco Malfoy… You wouldn't happen to be Muggle-born now would you?"
She raised her eyebrows. "Muggle-born? Me? Of course not."
The train began to move at just that moment, but the two of the boys still standing were fighting over who was going to sit beside her, and who was going to sit beside the Malfoy boy. Malfoy… Lucius Malfoy… that was where she'd seen the resemblance. Well, like father, like son.
"Good. This is Crabbe and that's Goyle." He pointed at them with his thumb before turning and glaring as they continued to stand there, swaying with the slight rhythm of the train. He got up and sat down beside Nagini, who edged away, not used to human contact, but only just. "Now sit."
They sat.
She pursed her lips. How like a pair of trained monkeys… or would that be a pair of gorillas?
Her tongue ran along her teeth again. So they were the sons of those Death Eaters she'd remembered from her Master's circle. Their fathers were just like them. Fat, dull and slow, but with enough brawn to seem intimidating. This boy sitting beside her however, interested her. He held the same iron-will command that she'd recalled Lucius Malfoy having over most of the Circle.
And he answered her probing questions so nicely… his eyes were such a nice cold gray-blue and sparked with such viciousness. She liked that.
And he might be helpful in the days ahead, in Hogwarts.
There were others who were closer to the Potter than this one, she was sure… but he would be useful. A girl had more needs than the need to serve her Master, and it had been years since she'd last met up with a serpent like her.
And as for the others… she could snare them just as easily as she caught the mice for her breakfast.
They would all fall before her, and through her, they would fall before the Dark Lord.
~*~*~*~
Hermione woke up to find Harry shaking her shoulder. "Hey, Hermione, we're going to get there in five minutes. Ron's just been up to the front. I thought you'd need to change and we're willing to step out and let you uh, you know." He turned pink and she laughed at him. "Tsk, tsk. Hasn't Ravenclaw taught you anything over the course of the summer?"
He grimaced, "Not to mention such a thing as a phone to her."
"The Ron Incident?"
"All over again." he confirmed.
"Well then she has an apology to make I'm sure. Out." She noticed as he exited that he was already dressed in his school robes. And she also knew that he was right… the professors would be a step short of murder if they found out that she was wearing something "so indecent" beneath her robes. It would be so easy for them to find out too… all they needed to do was look down at her feet and see them enclosed in sandals without any pant leg showing, or even a glimpse of a school kilt/skirt.
Perhaps they would cross the line to murder if they saw her.
~*~*~*~
Draco yawned internally. This girl was gorgeous it must be said, and that had been what had kept him from throwing her out of their train compartment. She was all right as most girls go, and she had kept up rather well with their conversations, often the two of them leaving Crabbe and Goyle in the dust (as it was to be expected), and there were a few interesting bits of information that she held. Mostly about snakes (which he'd always had a fascination with after being accepted into Slytherin) and he'd been fine with filling her in on the miscellaneous happenigs in Hogwarts.
But for all the talk, it was all becoming rather dull, especially with both Crabbe and Goyle in the compartment, and the inability to send them away too far. He finally stood up and announced that he'd just go for a little tour around the train by himself, and Crabbe and Goyle leapt at the chance to ask her more questions about snakes (which she'd already repeated the answers to several times). Several of these included, "Why do they have scales?"
He strolled out of the compartment, and then continued on down the corridor towards the Golden Threesome, in which he figured he would most likely insult them again. He knew what would happen… they would react by keeping that confounded Weasley from jumping at him to attempt to kill while he made a snide remark and Granger would answer him with a cold reply and close the door in his face. He'd always gotten into her face about it. It had become something akin to a tradition now, starting since first year.
Without even knocking (as was his way), he slid the door open and walked in. Only then did he notice the only person who was in the compartment other in himself, was Granger, just in the act of pulling off her shirt, her shorts already lying on one of the seats. He just stood there; frozen for the second it took for the shirt to fall from in front of her eyes, look up and shriek, grabbing her Hogwarts robes to cover her. "YOU! You, you, PERVERT!" she shrieked, pulling the black robe around her.
He was amazed that no one down the corridor heard. But he calmly shut the door behind him. "Nice daisies, Granger." He said calmly, referring to the daisy print on her underclothes. She turned red and growled, "Shut up Malfoy! I don't need any more of your snide comments."
"No need to get all worked up, Granger, it's not like I saw anything worth seeing." The implied insult to her body was too much added to the embarrassment. "GET OUT!" she finally yelled, and in the back of her mind she wondered mildly why no one else had heard and come running.
He didn't move however, and no one came. He then had the audacity to sit down on one of the two seats, lean back, cross his arms across his chest, and smiled that slow, drawling smile he'd perfected very early on. "Continue doing whatever you were doing Granger, I won't make a sound. In fact you might even forget I'm even here…" His rough smile made her go red again. She grabbed at his shirt collar, yanking him upwards, but she had not the strength to lift him up off the seat entirely. "Get out of here or else I'm going to make sure you'll never see Graduation Day."
"Say that when I make Head Boy this year."
She froze, she didn't hear right did she? "You… you made Head Boy?"
Had the Head Boy and Girl already been informed? Had she really not been made Head Girl? And she'd worked so hard at it… her parents had been so proud of all her accomplishments… she'd made Prefect…
"No, we haven't been told yet, have we Granger… but oh, I can guess." He smiled, noting her hand still fisted in the front of his shirt.
"And if my guesses are true… well, I'll know what you wear to bed at night too." He had that sexy, but completely infuriating smile on his face again.
She wanted to hit him.
~*~*~*~
There is more than a little problem for our resident smart one isn't there? Well you'll all found out what happens (hell, I'll found out what happens, I don't know what's going to happen yet) but the next chapter will soon be out. Bye for now!
