When Hermione returned to the common room it was nearly ten o'clock, and she found herself in a very good mood. For some reason fighting with Malfoy always left her invigorated and lively. She did not even notice that she had walked past Harry and Ron until Harry spoke.
"Where were you so late at night Hermione?"
She turned around, completely forgetting that she was supposed to be angry and that she was not talking to Ron or Harry. "I was with Malfoy."
At this Ron blurted out several words he would not have dared to say in front of Mrs. Weasley. "Look Hermione," he said in a rather serious tone, "I know your mad at me, but that's no excuse for you to go around cavorting with Malfoy!"
When Ron said this Hermione could not help but burst out laughing. "Cavorting? Cavorting, Ron?" she said between bouts of laughter. "Do you even know what that word means?" Ron did not aswer but his ears turns a deep shade of crimson. "Well, don't worry," she said as she got her laughter under control. "Malfoy and I were not cavorting."
"Well what were you doing then?" asked Ron as though he still did not believe her.
And with a perfectly straight face Hermione replied, "Making out in the library."
Harry and Ron did not even have a response for this. They both just stared at her wide eyed and mouths open, not moving at all.
She broke out into a smile as she said, "I'm kidding!" Deep sighs were emitted from both boys. "Jeesh, you two have no sense of humor."
"No, it's just that yours is really sick and twisted," said Harry
********************************************
The next morning, Hermione's previously invigorated feeling had left her, and she left for the Great Hall feeling groggy and lethargic. Recently she had begun to realize she was almost always tired and bored. School just did not have the same effect on her that it used to. She still cared about her grades and doing well, but now it was only out of habit and for fear of what people would say if "the super-smart Hermione" suddenly began failing all her classes. Actually it almost made her laugh out loud when she thought of it. Ron would probably have a heart attack. But if Hermione would be honest with herself, she would have admitted that she no longer felt the sense of accoplishment she used to when she got a 111% on a Charms test, or was the only person to get a 10 out of 10 in Potions. She had a hard time telling Harry and Ron they could not copy her homework because it was wrong, when she could not have cared less if they wanted her homework word for word. She only said no because that was what the regular Hermione would do.
"Where've you been?" asked Ron, when she sat down at her usual spot at the Gryffindor table across from the two boys.
"Sleeping. I was up late last night finishing my Potions essay," she lied. The Potions essay that was due in three weeks she had not even started yet. In reality, she had spent the morning finishing her Charms essay that was due first class, but that just was not like her, so she could not tell them that.
"Hermione! That Potions essay isn't due for three weeks! Why on earth would you finish it now?" cried Ron.
"Ron, there is no sense in putting something off that you have time to finish early. Besides, you never no what could happen in the next few weeks. We could get piles of more homework due the same day, or we could be kidnapped by You-Know-Who. Then you'd be happy you already finished your essay."
"Hermione, I think that if You-Know-Who kidnapped us we'd be able to turn in our essays late."
"Really? Our Potions essays? Some how I doubt Snape would be sympathetic."
"She has a point," Harry interjected. Ron scowled. He hated being wrong. "But we better get going. Charms starts in 10 minutes."
The three got up from the table and began walking towards Charms, a class they had with the Hufflepuffs. They took they're usual seats, Harry in the middle, Ron on his right, and Hermione on his left. But istead of Lavender sitting on the other side of Hermione as per usual, Justin Finch-Fletchley smiled at Hermione and sat beside her.
"Hi, Hermione."
"Hello, Justin," Hermione replied with a smile. "How are you?"
"Why are you sitting here and not with your Hufflepuff friends?" asked Ron sharply. "Come to copy homework off Hermione? Well you can just forget it. She won't let you, so you might as well go back to your usual seat."
Hermione was about to say something nasty back to Ron, but Justin replied first.
"I don't need to copy off Hermione, I've already done my homework."
"Well, at least someone other then me cares about grades," Hermione interjected with a meaningful glance towards Ron. Again, Justin continued before Ron could respond.
"So, Hermione," Justin sayed, drawing Hermione's attention back towards himself, "did you hear there's going to be a Hogsmeade trip ths weekend?"
"Yes, I did."
"Are you planning on going?"
"Of course."
"Good. Then maybe I'll see you there? We can have butterbeer together or something." And with a smile Justin got up and moved back to the side of the room where the rest of the Hufflepuffs were.
A/N: I wanna thank my reviewers who I haven't already...
Cassie: I'm glad you like the story =) Hope you liked your update...
sugar high: Yea, I think I had an easier time with characterization since I changed to 3rd person POV. It was hard when it was just Hermione's POV. Hope your having fun at Yale, and please do update your fic ASAP!
Grinning Purple Cheshire Cat: Hehe, the fights b/w Draco and Hermione were one of my fav parts to write. I was trying to liken it to the fights b/w Ron and Hermione to show that there could possible be a friendship building, and just a lil (okay maybe a lot lol) of sexual tension building
Icewing: Hehe, thanks, the idea for the project kinda popped into my head on a whim. I'll tell you the truth...I didn't even know what Hermione's 'plan' was until a few sentances before I actually had her tell Draco.
Evie DuGrey: Hmm, well idk if there was any HR/D romance per se, but it will come. I want to make sure to build up to it, because so many stories are just all of a sudden Draco's all over Hermione, and that's not really anywhere near to true with the books, and even if Draco and Hermione wouldn't get together in books, it should still be as real as possible.
I also wanna tell ya'll that I have another Harry Potter fanfic posted on FF.net now. It's called "How Can We Go Back?" and it's a post-Hogwarts (five years in the future) fic. I know the whole post-Hogwarts falling in love thing has been done to death, but I promise this story is different. It much more angsty, and actually has a plot having to do with Voldermort. There's gonan be a tiny back drop of romance though for a well rounded story. I hope ya'll will check it out, though I should warn you...it's gonna be R/Hr shipping only because I felt that was the right way to go with the plot, and because I've never written one and I felt I should branch out. But hopefully you'll give it a chance. There is only one chapter up as of now, and I think that if you read it you'll like it =)