Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters remotely connected to the ones invented by JK Rowling. They all belong to her.
Browneyedtook- I'd be scared if there was a war too! Thanks for reviewing!
Loony bout Lupin- Thanks for the encouragement
Bumblebee1- I tried to add a bit more detail in this chapter, thank you SO much for the advice- it really helps
Dracosgurl_chrissy- I updated as soon as possible, this is my longest chapter yet, and I hope to make them all this long. Thanks for reviewing.
Sabrina- There might me a few sappy scenes, but not too many. Thanks for reviewing!
Pendragon- Thanks for the airport information! I used it, and I'm definitely going to use that bookstore thing later in the story!
Prowling Wolf- Thanks for the criticism even if it was a little harsh. I tried harder on this chapter, and I hope that you like it better. Please keep reviewing and giving me advice; it helps a lot. Much more will happen in the next chapter.
Crazy_gurl- Wow. All I can say is thank you, even if it was harsh. Basically read what I wrote back to Prowling Wolf, and it goes for you too.
This Chapter is dedicated to lana_la_banana my amazing beta and friend! Everybody read her story New Worlds, New Views—it's great!
First of all I would like to thank all of the reviewers that criticized me (Prowling_Wolf and crazy_gurl) - I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to help make me a better writer and to improve my story. After all, I can't get better if I don't know I'm doing something wrong! I would appreciate if you gave me some ideas for upcoming stories. I have a lot in mind, but there's always room for more. I'll try to edit my stories more carefully in the future. Lana_la_banana and I discuss our stories together, so if there are some similarities between both of our stories, it was not intentional.
In the last chapter…
When the seventh years were finally called, Hermione walked smoothly to the front of the hall. She spotted a glance of platinum blonde hair, and headed towards the bright color. Draco turned around and saw Hermione. He did a double take. His mouth slowly dropped open, and gray slate eyes widened to an incredible size. He just stood and stared at Hermione, not moving, until Blaise Zabini nudged him. He cleared his throat in embarrassment and turned to talk to the girl in front of him.
"Hermione, I, uhhhh…"
Embrace The Darkness
Chapter Four
Draco, quickly catching his mistake, changed his tone of voice to cool and collected.
"Well, Mudblood, it's about time you showed up. What took you so long? Oh, I know. You were thinking up new ways to save the word with the Weasel and Golden Boy!" Hermione scowled, but decided not to answer him. //I'll just pretend that he never called me Hermione. All he did was make a mistake. I'll tease him about it later. //
"Let's just get to the front, Malfoy. I really don't feel like standing here, listening to you insult me." Hermione huffily pushed her way to the front, ignoring Draco the entire way. She lined herself up behind the line that was quickly growing, with a multitude of students swarming their way to the front. Hermione tried to push her way through the crowd, but only succeeded in getting pushed down onto the ground. Growling under her breath, she pushed herself up. The Head Girl braced herself and began shouting,
"Head Girl coming through! Move over!" Draco, who had been standing behind her laughing, sighed in exasperation at her pathetic attempts.
"Granger, I don't have time to wait for you to make a fool of yourself once again, however entertaining it may be." He walked suavely to the crowd, and tapped seventh year on the shoulder. When the Hufflepuff turned around, terror flitted across his face.
"Move." How that single word inspired fear, Hermione would never know. But it didn't matter anymore when a space opened up to admit Draco in the time span of less than a second.
"I don't even want to know how you got that kid so scared," said Hermione, all the while pushing herself next to Draco before the small confined space closed up. After waiting in silence for about twenty minutes, they finally reached the front of the line. Hermione and Draco were each given two packets of information from Professor McGonagall. The strict teacher leaned forward.
"I expect you two to act according to your positions as Head Boy and Head Girl." She leaned back and motioned the next partners forward. Hermione turned around and her face lit up as she saw her two best friends struggling through the crowd. They each gave her a huge hug.
"If he ever treats you worse than usual, owl us and we will both be there as soon as possible." Said Ron fervently.
"Seriously, Anytime, anywhere. Just ask. We'll miss you." Harry smiled at his friend. Hermione smiled back.
"I'll miss you both as well. You two have fun. I know that I'm going to try and have some! Bye!" Hermione saw Draco climb into the carriage, looking almost jealous. // Curious. I've never seen him look like that before. //
Hermione climbed into the carriage waiting for them. She sat down on the black cushioned seats and carefully opened her package.
"Las Vegas! What? I can't believe we got Las Vegas! The one place in the world where there is barely anything to do for kids our age! And we're using muggle transportation." A look of confusion slowly spread across Draco's face. Knowing that Draco would never admit to not understanding something, Hermione answered his silent question.
"Las Vegas is a town in Nevada consisting of basically casinos. And you have to be 21 to gamble. So basically we can't do anything." Draco snorted.
"What are you talking about? All we have to do is magic up some fake Id's! Some people are so ignorant." Hermione gasped in shock.
"What am I talking about? What are you talking about! I wouldn't be surprised if you did that, but I can't believe that you expected me to use magic improperly. The very thought! Besides, if I'm going to break the law, I don't want to do it with you!" Draco turned away from Hermione.
"Fine." She was puzzled. Draco never just let something like that go. He looked almost, well, hurt. Hermione leaned back, and studied him. The possibility that Draco might actually care that Hermione didn't want to do something was almost inconceivable, but the look on his face proved otherwise. Hermione sat down and thought. //If I'm going to be spending so much time with Draco, I might as well try and get along with him. //
"I'm sorry I spoke so harshly, Malfoy. I'll think about it, but don't count on it. And I might break the law with you. But only because you're so skilled at it there would be no chance of getting caught." Hermione stated, cringing from having to apologize to her nemesis.
"Like I would care, Granger." Draco kept his head turn, but Hermione saw the corners of his mouth tilt slightly upward.
The carriage pulled over to the side of the road, and a long black limousine pulled up alongside. Their luggage floated out of the trunk of the carriage, revealing Draco to be the possessor of the most suitcases and trunks. Hermione furrowed her brow as she gazed at her trunk. It seemed, different, somehow. Suddenly it hit her. The trunk she had packed had had a gold lock clipped on, and this one had a more modern looking silver one. Hermione slowly stepped closer, with growing concern on her face. She stopped the trunk of the car from closing and levitated her trunk out onto the grass. She pulled out her key and opened the trunk, only to reveal a completely different interior than that of her own.
This trunk had all of her books and base essentials, but the wardrobe was different. Completely different. In place of her old and comfortable clothing were the trendy outfits from her cousin. Hermione's panic began to steadily grow, then her eyes lit upon a piece of white paper.
Hermione,
Hey!
I know that you are probably, hyperventilating right now, but just chill. We, like, just took your old clothes and put in your fashionable ones. You have to totally impress everyone! All of your other stuff is still there, and you'll have so much fun.
Luv,
Parvati and Lavender
//I can't believe they write the same way they talk. //
"No, no NONONONO! This cannot be happening to me! Why would they do this?" Hermione took deep breath, only causing her anger to build up and resulting in a shout of,
"I am going to hex those two to hell!" At those words, she stalked determinedly past the puzzled, yet amused, figure of Draco into the carriage, and demanded that it return her to Hogwarts at once. Draco's eyes widened.
"Granger, no! You can't do that! We'll miss our flight! We have to get going." Hermione glared at him, defeated. She exited the carriage and transferred her body to the limo. Malfoy slid into the limo after her, sitting right across from her.
"What went wrong over there? You looked even more stressed than usual, though it was very amusing to see you lose your temper for once." Hermione's head snapped up. She was in a bad mood already, and there was no way she was going to take any of Malfoy's backtalk.
"What do you mean by that, Malfoy?" She said indignantly.
"Nothing, it's just that you always ruin a good fight. Every time the Weasel is about to retaliate, you have to be sensible and stop him. Haven't you ever been spontaneous or impulsive once in your entire life?"
"As a matter of fact, I have," responded Hermione defensively.
"Oh, really. What was it? Did you buy a new version of Hogwarts; A History?" Draco was mocking Hermione once again.
"You have no idea about who I am, Draco. No idea whatsoever. There is much more to me than reading books and studying. You would have already known that if you had ever taken a little bit of time to get to know me, instead of writing me off the first week because I am muggle-born. You DO NOT know me." Draco, a bit taken aback, pressed on.
"So what did you do?" Hermione looked at him, and saw that through his mask of indifference, he seemed a bit intrigued.
"For one, I traveled to Venice, spur the moment." Draco leaned back, as his eyebrows raised a bit more.
"There's more, Granger?" A mischievous smile slid onto Hermione's lips.
"What if there are, Malfoy?"
"Tell me," demanded the Slytherin.
"Those are for me to know, and for you to never find out."
The limo finally arrived at Heathrow airport, and Draco and Hermione loaded out of the vehicle. The chauffeur handed them their luggage, and they manually dragged their luggage through the sliding glass doors. The two had made an unspoken half-truce. Jabs and minor insults seemed to be acceptable, but they had both eased up on full-frontal verbal attacks. They pulled their luggage into a line that stretched the length of the airport and wrapped back again. The lady in front of them fluffed her long mink coat and sprayed on some more perfume. The smell was sickening. After about twenty minutes, the lady pulled out the perfume again and was poised to spray. Draco leaned forward and said,
"Excuse me, but please do not spray that. I think that I'm allergic to your perfume, though it smells wonderful." The lady, though much older, seemed to brighten under his compliments, even though he was telling her to stop her incessant spraying.
"Oh, well, young man. I understand. Of course I will desist at once. You are so kind." She then smiled, almost flirtatiously at the young man, and turned around in a way that she must of thought of as seductive. Hermione almost reeled back in disgust, and was equally appalled when Draco smiled back at the lady politely. They slowly mad their way to the spot in front of the small computer. After checking in their baggage, the two students entered the terminal. Soon the lady in the mink coat appeared near Draco, and initiated a conversation. Draco smiled back, but this time it seemed a bit forced. Hermione laughed inwardly and announced to the two,
"I am going to the restroom, Malfoy. I'll meet you outside of our gate." Draco flashed an arrogant smirk at her, saying,
"Are you sure you can make it, Granger? It may be confusing for someone with your IQ."
"I think I can handle it, thanks." The girl then glided off to the nearest restroom.
After exiting the smelly room, Hermione looked around and started off to the left. After walking around for a little bit, Hermione realized something. She had no idea where she was.
Hermione Granger, Head Girl of Hogwarts, was lost in an airport.
Everybody, PLEASE REVIEW! I really appreciate encouragement, but criticism and advice is best. I don't mind being flamed.
OPTIONS FOR NEXT CHAPTER
Draco gets locked in the plane bathroom Hermione's heel snaps off and Draco has to catch her (providing a close and awkward situation!) Tonks is the ministry official to show them to the hotel Hermione decides that she will help magic up fake id's Draco thinks he might have seen LuciusHELP ME OUT! Pick one! Thank you!