Hearts Combined
~* Well, I still haven't been able to post up all these chapters, so I'm writing another one to keep me occupied. There's two things that I'd like to say quickly before I start the chapter: 1. Would anyone like to be my BETA (e-mail me please, my e-mail address is in my bio), and 2. Can someone please tell me how to put italics/bold/underline in my fictions? Thanks heaps guys. *~
Disclaimer ~ Anything that you recognise as being J.K Rowling's work in this fiction, I don't own. Everything else I made up myself.
Chapter 4 ~ Anything Can Happen From Here
Draco had moved the Wizard Chess Set from their new Common Room up into his and Hermione's room. He had strategically placed the Chess Set directly on the wall opposite the door, right where the red met the green. Hermione sat on the red side while Draco sat on the green side.
The pair of seventh years had played a total of four Wizard Chess games, and Draco had won all of them. He had admitted to playing Wizard Chess since he was a small boy, and the only experience Hermione had in her years of being a witch, was the Chess Game in their first year while Harry was trying to save the Philosopher's Stone.
After that fourth game, Hermione layed down her King for the last time, and accepted defeat. She held out her hand across the board. Draco eyed it nervously, before taking it, and shaking Hermione's hand. They both smiled warmly.
'Thank you for the games Draco.' Hermione said, watching the Wizard Chess Pieces mend themselves and set themselves up in their positions.
'Anytime Hermione, all you have to do is ask.' He said. Hermione liked the new Draco. Well, she was sad for him about his mother, but since she had died, he was a new person, a nice person, and Hermione liked it. She liked not having to worry about being Head Girl while he was Head Boy. She liked waking up in the morning knowing that Draco wouldn't tease her, but most of all, she liked having a new friend. It wasn't like Draco had replaced Harry, but Hermione felt that she needed more friends to surround herself with so that she would be able to live her life without mourning over Harry every day.
Hermione smiled at Draco, who returned the smile. He went over to his bed, and lay down. Hermione walked over, and Draco motioned for her to sit down too. She plonked herself down on his bed, and they had a few moments silence before Draco finally spoke.
'When I was little, I used to leap off my lounge chairs into the air and pretend I was flying.' He said, and burst out laughing. Hermione joined him in the laughter. Draco Malfoy was actually opening up to her, Hermione Granger.
'I used to try to hold my breath underwater for a long time when I was little. I liked to pretend I was Superwoman; a Muggle Cartoon Hero who could do anything.' Hermione said, and the pair laughed again. Hermione lay down so the she was facing Draco. They lay in silence for about ten minutes, just lying there, looking at each other, until Draco finally broke the silence.
'I miss mum.' He said softly. Hermione put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. 'I miss the way she used to yell at father when he got angry with me.' Draco continued.
'How did she die?' Hermione asked gingerly, not wanting to upset Draco further. Draco however, seemed relieved that finally he had someone to talk to.
'We were out at a Wizard Fair, soon after Voldemort and Harry died. Well, father wanted to celebrate that he finally didn't need to follow Voldemort anymore. Anyway, we shouldn't have gone, because a sniper was waiting on a high building. I guess he was aiming for father, because mother had done nothing to anyone, but the sniper hit mother, killing her instantly.' Draco finished, he sat up, trying not to cry. Hermione sat up, and wiggled over next to him.
'I'm so sorry Draco.' Hermione said, hugging the pale Slytherin. He blinked, not used to being hugged by anyone but his mother, and Pansy, trying to get his attention.
Hermione and Draco stayed there, embracing each other for a few minutes before Hermione finally broke loose.
'I should probably get going to Quidditch, I mean, us Slytherins need time to train too.' Draco joked. Hermione batted his head playfully, and dashed down the staircase into the Common Room, where she flopped onto her loveseat.
Draco came down the staircase soon after, with a large smirk on his face. Hermione looked at him, and burst out laughing. She flopped backwards onto her loveseat where she continued to laugh. Draco walked over to her.
'You think I'm funny do you?' He asked playfully. Hermione looked at him and nodded, still laughing. Draco smiled evilly, and pounced on her, tickling her wildly.
'Hahahaha! Stop! Stop!' Hermione squealed. Draco stopped momentarily.
'You still think I'm funny?' He asked playfully. Hermione nodded again, and Draco continued to tickle her.
'Ahh! Okay, okay! You're not funny!' Hermione squealed between laughter. Draco looked phoney offended.
'Oh so I'm boring? Is that what you're saying?' He mocked. Hermione smiled at this. Harry and Ron had never been this fun, or playful. With them it was always trying to save the world, but Draco was different somehow. . .
'Or corse you are boring!' Hermione said slyly, and jumped up before Draco could start tickling her again. She scurried up the first ten steps up to the Gryffindor Prefect's Rooms, and Draco tried to follow her. The staircase turned into a slide, and Draco slid down. Hermione slid down and landed right on top of him.
'What the?' Draco muttered, amused about the staircase incident. Hermione just laughed at him.
'Only Gryffindors can go up there!' She said. 'Not big, bad, Slytherins!' Hermione batted her eyelids at Draco, and got up off the floor. Draco got up as well.
'Thank you for entertaining me Hermione.' Draco said playfully, 'But I've got to get to Quidditch.' He finished, giving Hermione another hug, before slipping out of the Portrait, and down the corridor.
'Bye Draco!' Hermione called after him.
~***~
When Draco got out onto the Hogwarts Grounds with his Nimbus 2003, he noticed that the Gryffindor team, and the Slytherin team were standing on the ground of the Quidditch Pitch, seemingly having an argument. Draco hurried over to the bunch of Quidditch Players.
'You've had the Pitch for long enough Weasley.' Said Joel, the Slytherin Prefect, who was also the Keeper of the Slytherin Quidditch team, and a very good one at that.
'Yeah Gryffindors, get off the pitch!' Leanne Brayshaw, another 6th year Slytherin shouted. She was a Chaser, and had scored many goals over her years on the Slytherin team. Slytherins had finally allowed for a girl to play after Marcus Flint had left Hogwarts.
'Not likely Brayshaw, we haven't had nearly enough time to train our new players.' Draco heard Ron say rudely to Leanne. Draco stepped between Ron and Leanne.
'What's this Weasley? I hear you picking on a girl?' He said, not nastily, but harshly. Ron frowned at Draco.
'She started it Malfoy.' Ron snarled.
'I do believe, Weasley, that Gryffindor has had the Pitch all morning, and that it is Slytherins turn to train.' Draco said fairly.
'And how would you know that Gryffindor has had the Pitch all morning, Malfoy?' Ron asked mockingly.
'Because I have been watching you train from the window in mine and Hermione's bedroom all morning.' Draco said smugly. Ron looked furious.
'You're lying! There's no way Dumbledore would let you and Hermione share a room.' He burst out.
'You want to come visit us sometime?' Draco asked.
'No I most certainly do not.' Ron bellowed. 'Hermione has a separate room to you. She was telling us Gryffindors about her room this morning at breakfast. There's no way she'd agree to share her room with scum like you.'
'Okay. You believe that.' Draco said calmly, not letting himself get angry at Ron. 'But now it is Slytherins turn to have the Quidditch Pitch.' He said. Ron didn't like Draco's calmness, because at that moment the red haired Gryffindor lunged at Draco.
Quick as a flash, Crabbe and Goyle, the Slytherin Beaters, stepped in front of Draco. As seventeen year olds, Crabbe and Goyle were huge. Ron simply bounced off the large Slytherins, and fell to the ground. Ginny helped Ron up, and convinced him to let Slytherin have the Quidditch Pitch for now.
'We'll come back to train later, Ron.' Ginny said soothingly. Ron glared at the Slytherins, but left, letting his sister lead him and the other Gryffindors away.
Draco turned to the bunch of Slytherins that were trying out for the spare positions on the Slytherin Quidditch Team. There were a lot of 6th years and 5th trying out for the first time this year. Draco pulled out a list of players and their positions from his robes. He had asked that all new players trying out to write down their name, year and preferred position on the piece of parchment.
'Okay, to everyone who has put down positions other than Chasers, I would like you to leave, because we already have players to fill those positions from last year.' Draco said, eyeing the parchment. About ten players grumbled, and walked off. 'Okay, now when I call out your names, I want you to try to get the Quaffle past Joel, working as a team.' Draco said. 'This year, I want no unfair play on the Quidditch Pitch.'
Lots of people looked at Draco questionable. Slytherin was famous for unfair play on the Quidditch Pitch. It must have been Draco's change over the Summer after his mother dying that had caused him to want to play fair.
'Drew Fairgood 6th year, Scott Crabtree 5th year, and James McKenzie 5th year.' Draco called out. The three boys mounted their brooms, along with Joel, and they flew into position.
~***~
After an hour and a half of trials, Draco had finally made up his mind on which Chasers worked best together, along with Leanne, who was a Chaser from last year. He cleared his throat to make the announcements.
'As you all know, the players from last year are myself as Captain and Seeker, Joel Reiley as Keeper, Leanne Brayshaw as a Chaser and Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle as Beaters. There are two Chaser Positions that I have filled this afternoon. They go to James McKenzie and Josh Manser.' Draco said. James and Josh walked out to collect their Slytherin Robes proudly.
Everyone else looked quite upset and tired.
'To everyone else who came, thanks for trying, and better luck in future years.' Draco finished, and dismissed everyone. He walked back up to the Castle with Joel and Leanne.
'Weasley has some nerve, talking to me like that.' Leanne huffed. 'I should hex him, I have the right to hex him.'
'No violence Leanne.' Joel said, mimicking Draco, who shoved the Slytherin Prefect lightly into the wall. The three walked silently to the Slytherin Common Room to drop Leanne off.
Draco couldn't help but think about that morning with Hermione. She had been so carefree. He couldn't understand why, I mean, he HAD been the one who had been horrible to her for the past six years at Hogwarts. Why should she be his friend now? There must be more to it.
'Thanks for walking me to the Slytherin Common Room boys.' Leanne said, kissing them both on the cheek. 'You're both gentlemen.' She joked, as the stone door concealed in the stone wall slid shut, causing Leanne to vanish from view.
'Let's go. We've got a long walk from here to our Common Room.' Joel said, turning to walk away.
The two boys chatted about the Quidditch Trials that they'd gone through that afternoon as they walked up to their Common Room. Joel also told Draco about his new girlfriend, Bronwyn Stokes, in fifth year. He told Draco about how her long, straight brown hair rustled in the wind, and that her brown eyes were enough to make Joel go weak at the knees.
'Hey! I think I saw her at Quidditch Trials.' Draco said suddenly.
'Yes. She wanted to be a Seeker.' Joel said.
'But we already have a Seeker, me.' Draco said.
'I know that, but Bronwyn insisted on coming anyway, just in case.' Joel replied. 'She has a Firebolt.' He added.
'A Firebolt? Wow. I've always wanted one, but father wouldn't buy me one. He says that I have a perfectly good broom.' Draco muttered.
'That doesn't sound like Lucius at all.' Joel said suspiciously.
'I know, he's, um, changed a bit lately.' Draco said, and refused to continue the conversation, leaving Joel puzzled.
~***~
Up in the Prefects, Head Boy and Head Girl Common Room, which Hermione had nicknamed the Hogwarts Common Room, because of it's use of the Hogwarts colours, Hermione, Ginny and Phillip were sitting on their loveseats, talking happily about Quidditch. Allison and Mitchell were up in their rooms, Samantha was reading a book on her loveseat, and Luna and Tony were listening in on Hermione, Ginny and Phillip, occasionally giving an imput to the conversation.
'So Ginny, who's on the team?' Hermione asked her friend.
'Well, there's Ron, who, as you know is the Keeper and Captain, the Chasers are Boyd, Dean, and a fifth year Adelaide Summers, she's nice. Um, the Beaters are Tye Willson and Bob Hardy, they're both fifth years, and me, the Seeker.' Ginny said. 'I think we have a pretty good team.' She added.
'Great!' Hermione said. 'I was watching the Slytherins train, and they look pretty tough.'
'Oh come on Hermione, you know that we always beat Slytherin anyway!' Ginny said playfully.
'I certainly hope so.' Hermione replied.
'Good luck in beating my house team this year.' Samantha looked up from her book. 'I know the people who tried out, and if Draco's smart, he would have put in James McKenzie and Josh Manser. They're both excellent.' Samantha looked smug.
'No matter who Malfoy's put in, we'll still beat Slytherin.' Ginny huffed.
'No fighting guys.' Hermione said sternly.
'I heard the Chaser Leanne Brayshaw's a real Slytherin nasty girl.' Tony Waters said. 'She's in some of my classes, but I've never really talked to her. I know from some Gryffindor friends of mine that she's really nasty and horrible. A true Slytherin.'
'That's right Tony! She's always one of the most horrible Slytherins in class!' Ginny said, and Phillip nodded in agreement.
'Why do Slytherins have something against Gryffindors? They aren't too bad to us Ravenclaws.' Luna asked curiously.
'If you don't mind, talking about my friends like that. I'd stop if I were you.' Samantha said, as if warning them to shut up about her friends.
'Samantha, you are a Prefect, you should discourage that sort of behaviour.' Hermione said sternly. Samantha cast the Head Girl a dirty look, and went back to her book.
Draco and Joel walked into the Hogwarts Common Room at that particular moment. Samantha jumped up and hugged Joel, who looked surprised.
'Hi Samantha.' Joel and Draco said in unison.
'Come on Joel, there's something I want to show you.' Samantha led Joel up the staircase that led to the Slytherin Prefects rooms before Joel could utter a sound of disapproval.
Draco and Hermione's eyes met for a small moment, before he walked over to their staircase leading to their room, and disappeared up the stairs. Hermione's eyes didn't leave Draco as he walked up those stairs. Ginny and Phillip looked curiously at Hermione, as they had seen her watching Draco with intent.
'What's with you Hermione?' Ginny asked.
'Yeah, why'd you look at Malfoy like that?' Phillip added.
'Huh? Oh, nothing, just something he said to me last night.' Hermione said, as if nothing was wrong, although she knew there was something wrong.
Hermione hadn't felt this way since fourth year, when she liked Viktor Krum. It was at that very moment, that Hermione realised what was wrong. She liked Draco Malfoy. Hermione couldn't find how this was wrong, though. She liked him, and this wasn't a problem because, well, Draco had changed over the Summer. He was pleasant now, fun to be around, nice, not a bully. Hermione was hooked.
'Then he said that he didn't feel that we were right together, Hermione, Hermione! Are you listening?' Ginny said impatiently. Hermione snapped out of her thoughts.
'Oh, I'm sorry Ginny, what were you talking about? I was just in the middle of some thoughts then.' Hermione said, blushing slightly.
'I was just telling you about my break up with Dean. I suppose you don't care, because you weren't listening.' Ginny said. Hermione looked like she'd been slapped.
'I'm so sorry, or corse I care!' Hermione said, worried that her friend was mad at her.
'Don't worry about it.' Ginny said haughtily, and walked up her staircase to her room. Hermione looked at Phillip sadly.
'Don't look at me, Hermione, I think she's just a little moody these days, and we'd best be careful around her.' Phillip said.
'Oh.' Hermione managed to say. To make herself feel better, she waved her wand over the fireplace, and a large banner appeared. It read "Hogwarts Common Room", and the banner was all the colours of Hogwarts: Red, Gold, Green, Silver, Blue, Bronze, Yellow and Black, each of the house colours.
'Wow, Hermione, that's beautiful!' Allison said, coming down from her room in time to see Hermione make the banner.
'Thanks Allison.' Hermione replied.
'But why "Hogwarts" Common Room?' Allison proceeded to ask.
'Well, there's all the Hogwarts Colours in here, and they're all plentiful.' Hermione answered simply.
'Oh, cool.' Allison said. 'I just came down to ask Tony something.' She said, walking over to Tony.
'Hey Allison, what's up?' Tony asked.
'I was just wondering if you made the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team?' Allison asked, and Tony gave her a skeptical look. 'Okay, okay, Mitchell was wondering if you made the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team?' Allison said, looking slightly humiliated. Tony laughed.
'I thought as much. He's so competitive, that Mitch.' Tony said, chuckling.
'So, did you make it?' Allison asked again.
'Actually, I'm quite surprised that us Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs even had time to do trials, what, with Slytherin and Gryffindor hogging the Pitch all day.' Tony said, half joking around, half serious. Allison laughed at this.
'Come on Tony! Mitchell wants to know if you're on the team.' Allison pushed.
'Oh fine. Tell Mitchell to come and ask me himself next time, and you can also tell him that I am on the team.' Tony said, but he quickly added, 'So he'd better watch out!'
'Ha ha.' Allison said sarcastically. 'We'll beat you at least once this year Waters.' She joked, which made Tony crack a smile.
'Look at us, we're acting like a bunch of Slytherins and Gryffindors!' Tony laughed, Luna and Allison quickly joined him. Phillip and Hermione looked at the three sternly.
'Awww, the big bad Gryffindors can't take a joke!' Allison said in a baby voice, joking of corse! She liked Gryffindors.
'I'm off to bed.' Phillip said looking at his watch and seeing that it was 9.30.
'Aww, Phillip, don't leave me with these mean Ravenclaws and Hufflepuff!' Hermione joked. Everyone laughed at that.
'Sorry we're so mean, Hermione.' Tony said, inbetween laughter. Luna gazed dreamily at the banner that Hermione had created. She then gazed aimlessly around the room, and screeched.
'What?' Hermione asked.
'The timetables! We forgot to hand everyone out their timetables!' Luna exclaimed. Everyone looked over to the desk that Luna was looking at, and, sure enough, all the timetables for every student in Hogwarts, were sitting in neat piles on the desk.
'Wow, they're pretty.' Hermione mused over the timetables. Gryffindors Timetables were red, with golden writing, Slytherins Timetables were green with silver writing, Hufflepuffs Timetables were yellow with black writing, and Ravenclaws Timetables were blue with bronze writing.
'Allison, go get Mitch, um, Hermione, go get Ginny, Phillip and Draco.' Tony said.
'Why do I have to get Draco?' Hermione asked.
'So he can get Samantha and Joel.' Tony replied. Allison, Luna and Hermione went up their separate staircases. Tony walked over to the desk to sort out the Timetables.
A few minutes passed, and everyone was down in the Hogwarts Common Room. Those Prefects, and Draco, who hadn't seen the banner Hermione had made, mused over it.
'What are we all doing down here?' Samantha asked grumpily.
'We forgot to hand out everyone's timetables.' Tony said, shoving a bundle of Slytherin timetables into her hand, some into Joel's hand, and the rest into Draco's hand. He then gave half of Hufflepuffs timetables to Mitchell, and half to Allison, distributed Gryffindor Timetables between Ginny, Phillip and Hermione, gave half of the Ravenclaw timetables to Luna, and kept half for himself.
'Right, let's go.' Joel said impatiently, heading for the short corridor which led to the entrance of the Hogwarts Common Room.
'Why don't we just go through these portraits?' Luna asked dreamily, gazing at the two portraits on either side of the fireplace.
'Oh yeah!' Joel said. 'I forgot about them.'
The Slytherins and Ravenclaws went through the Portrait with a raven and a snake on it, while the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs went through the Portrait of the lion and badger.
Hermione walked with Ginny, Phillip, Allison and Mitch, until they came to a small room, with two portraits on the wall opposite to the corridor they had come through. One Portrait was of Godric Gryffindor, and the other was of Helga Hufflepuff. Both Hogwarts founders waved.
'I see you three are Gryffindors. I know who are not Gryffindors, and who are Gryffindors.' Godric said, and swung his portrait open to let in Hermione, Ginny and Phillip. They said a quick goodbye to Allison and Mitchell, who were trying to convince Helga that they were indeed Hufflepuffs.
The three Gryffindors walked up many stairs, Hermione counted them, 164 stairs in total. By the time they'd reached the top, all three were tired, and did not feel up to handing out lots of timetables.
There was a small door at the top of the stairs. Hermione opened it, noticing that it was one of the few doors in Hogwarts which didn't need a password for it to open. She suspected this was because of Godric's Portrait down the stairs.
The three Gryffindors walked cautiously into the Gryffindor Common Room. It was mostly empty. The few people out of bed were Ron, Dean and Julia (who were looking rather wrapt up in eachothers arms), Seamus, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Marcy, Matthew, Boyd, Melanie Gerber, and Sabrina New, who were both in fifth year. Also, there were four first year boys huddled in the corner, who's names Hermione did not know.
'Hi Hermione, Ginny, Phillip.' Ron said, greeting the three. 'Where'd you guys come from?'
'See that door?' Hermione said, motioning to the door they had just came from.
'Yeah, we've been wondering where it goes, but it would never let us through.' Ron said, puzzled by the door.
'That door leads right to our Common Room, which Hermione here nicknames the Hogwarts Common Room.' Phillip said, Ginny was still in a bad mood from earlier, and seeing Dean and Julia did not help her mood.
'Cool.' Said Ron.
'Cool.' Seamus echoed.
'Cool.' Said Dean.
'Cool.' Julia agreed.
(A/N ~ hahaha, that was taken from one of my all time favourite fictions, All For A Bag Of Almonds, by A Bit Of Old Parchment! So very funny!)
Hermione raised an eyebrow.
'Anyway, we've come to give everyone their timetables.' Hermione said, gesturing to the timetables in her hand.
'Oh, excellect. We were wondering when we'd get those.' Seamus said in his heavy Irish accent.
'Just leave them on the table, and we'll get everyone to collect them in the morning.' Ron said, motioning to the desk on the wall of the Gryffindor Common Room.
'Just to be sure.' Dean said, finally letting Julia go, he went over to the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room, and wrote, using his wand, on the back of the portrait: "Gryffindors, collect your timetables from the desk in the Common Room."
'Good thinking Dean.' Ron said, reading Dean's writing.
'We'd better get going then.' Ginny grumbled, and disappeared out through the door.
'What's wrong with her?' Dean asked.
'She's annoyed at something, don't quite know what though.' Phillip said, and followed Ginny out the door.
'You staying Hermione?' Ron asked her.
'I'd better not, I need to get some sleep tonight. Didn't get much last night.' Hermione said, giving Ron a quick hug before she too went out the door and down the long staircase.
~***~
Up in Hermione and Draco's room, Hermione lay in her bed, thinking about Draco. Samantha, Joel and Draco hadn't gotten back when Hermione walked into the Hogwarts Common Room. She wondered if Slytherins stayed up later than Gryffindors did. Hermione heard a small click, and looked at the portrait of Harry, but he was still asleep. She peeked out of her curtains, and saw that Draco was back. He was being as quiet as possible, obviously not wanting to disturb Hermione. She watched as he crept into his bathroom, and came out in his pyjamas a few minutes later.
As Hermione watched him, she saw Draco coming over to her side of the room. She gasped silently, lay down and pretended to be asleep, closing her eyes. He pushed back the curtains that surrounded Hermione's bed, and gently sat on the edge, next to Hermione.
'You're beautiful you know.' Draco said, and he gently stroked Hermione's hair. She took extra care not to move. 'I'm sorry for every mean thing I did to you in the past six years.' He continued. 'I don't know what it is about you, but Hermione, I think I'm in love with you.' Draco stroked Hermione's hand, and got up, pulling the curtains back to their closed position.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
~* Okay everyone, I want your opinions! Do you like? Do you hate? Should I keep going? Please review. Thanks! Man that was one long chapter. . . he he he, longest one I've ever typed, over 4400 words! I'm hoping to get this fic up and running by Monday. I hope I explained why Draco's OOC clearly, it's because of his mother dying, and his father not bullying him because of all that's gone on: Voldemort's death, and Narcissa's death. Wooh, lots of people die in this fic. . . sorry to all the Harry lovers. . . *~
~Gryffindor Gal~
~* Well, I still haven't been able to post up all these chapters, so I'm writing another one to keep me occupied. There's two things that I'd like to say quickly before I start the chapter: 1. Would anyone like to be my BETA (e-mail me please, my e-mail address is in my bio), and 2. Can someone please tell me how to put italics/bold/underline in my fictions? Thanks heaps guys. *~
Disclaimer ~ Anything that you recognise as being J.K Rowling's work in this fiction, I don't own. Everything else I made up myself.
Chapter 4 ~ Anything Can Happen From Here
Draco had moved the Wizard Chess Set from their new Common Room up into his and Hermione's room. He had strategically placed the Chess Set directly on the wall opposite the door, right where the red met the green. Hermione sat on the red side while Draco sat on the green side.
The pair of seventh years had played a total of four Wizard Chess games, and Draco had won all of them. He had admitted to playing Wizard Chess since he was a small boy, and the only experience Hermione had in her years of being a witch, was the Chess Game in their first year while Harry was trying to save the Philosopher's Stone.
After that fourth game, Hermione layed down her King for the last time, and accepted defeat. She held out her hand across the board. Draco eyed it nervously, before taking it, and shaking Hermione's hand. They both smiled warmly.
'Thank you for the games Draco.' Hermione said, watching the Wizard Chess Pieces mend themselves and set themselves up in their positions.
'Anytime Hermione, all you have to do is ask.' He said. Hermione liked the new Draco. Well, she was sad for him about his mother, but since she had died, he was a new person, a nice person, and Hermione liked it. She liked not having to worry about being Head Girl while he was Head Boy. She liked waking up in the morning knowing that Draco wouldn't tease her, but most of all, she liked having a new friend. It wasn't like Draco had replaced Harry, but Hermione felt that she needed more friends to surround herself with so that she would be able to live her life without mourning over Harry every day.
Hermione smiled at Draco, who returned the smile. He went over to his bed, and lay down. Hermione walked over, and Draco motioned for her to sit down too. She plonked herself down on his bed, and they had a few moments silence before Draco finally spoke.
'When I was little, I used to leap off my lounge chairs into the air and pretend I was flying.' He said, and burst out laughing. Hermione joined him in the laughter. Draco Malfoy was actually opening up to her, Hermione Granger.
'I used to try to hold my breath underwater for a long time when I was little. I liked to pretend I was Superwoman; a Muggle Cartoon Hero who could do anything.' Hermione said, and the pair laughed again. Hermione lay down so the she was facing Draco. They lay in silence for about ten minutes, just lying there, looking at each other, until Draco finally broke the silence.
'I miss mum.' He said softly. Hermione put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. 'I miss the way she used to yell at father when he got angry with me.' Draco continued.
'How did she die?' Hermione asked gingerly, not wanting to upset Draco further. Draco however, seemed relieved that finally he had someone to talk to.
'We were out at a Wizard Fair, soon after Voldemort and Harry died. Well, father wanted to celebrate that he finally didn't need to follow Voldemort anymore. Anyway, we shouldn't have gone, because a sniper was waiting on a high building. I guess he was aiming for father, because mother had done nothing to anyone, but the sniper hit mother, killing her instantly.' Draco finished, he sat up, trying not to cry. Hermione sat up, and wiggled over next to him.
'I'm so sorry Draco.' Hermione said, hugging the pale Slytherin. He blinked, not used to being hugged by anyone but his mother, and Pansy, trying to get his attention.
Hermione and Draco stayed there, embracing each other for a few minutes before Hermione finally broke loose.
'I should probably get going to Quidditch, I mean, us Slytherins need time to train too.' Draco joked. Hermione batted his head playfully, and dashed down the staircase into the Common Room, where she flopped onto her loveseat.
Draco came down the staircase soon after, with a large smirk on his face. Hermione looked at him, and burst out laughing. She flopped backwards onto her loveseat where she continued to laugh. Draco walked over to her.
'You think I'm funny do you?' He asked playfully. Hermione looked at him and nodded, still laughing. Draco smiled evilly, and pounced on her, tickling her wildly.
'Hahahaha! Stop! Stop!' Hermione squealed. Draco stopped momentarily.
'You still think I'm funny?' He asked playfully. Hermione nodded again, and Draco continued to tickle her.
'Ahh! Okay, okay! You're not funny!' Hermione squealed between laughter. Draco looked phoney offended.
'Oh so I'm boring? Is that what you're saying?' He mocked. Hermione smiled at this. Harry and Ron had never been this fun, or playful. With them it was always trying to save the world, but Draco was different somehow. . .
'Or corse you are boring!' Hermione said slyly, and jumped up before Draco could start tickling her again. She scurried up the first ten steps up to the Gryffindor Prefect's Rooms, and Draco tried to follow her. The staircase turned into a slide, and Draco slid down. Hermione slid down and landed right on top of him.
'What the?' Draco muttered, amused about the staircase incident. Hermione just laughed at him.
'Only Gryffindors can go up there!' She said. 'Not big, bad, Slytherins!' Hermione batted her eyelids at Draco, and got up off the floor. Draco got up as well.
'Thank you for entertaining me Hermione.' Draco said playfully, 'But I've got to get to Quidditch.' He finished, giving Hermione another hug, before slipping out of the Portrait, and down the corridor.
'Bye Draco!' Hermione called after him.
~***~
When Draco got out onto the Hogwarts Grounds with his Nimbus 2003, he noticed that the Gryffindor team, and the Slytherin team were standing on the ground of the Quidditch Pitch, seemingly having an argument. Draco hurried over to the bunch of Quidditch Players.
'You've had the Pitch for long enough Weasley.' Said Joel, the Slytherin Prefect, who was also the Keeper of the Slytherin Quidditch team, and a very good one at that.
'Yeah Gryffindors, get off the pitch!' Leanne Brayshaw, another 6th year Slytherin shouted. She was a Chaser, and had scored many goals over her years on the Slytherin team. Slytherins had finally allowed for a girl to play after Marcus Flint had left Hogwarts.
'Not likely Brayshaw, we haven't had nearly enough time to train our new players.' Draco heard Ron say rudely to Leanne. Draco stepped between Ron and Leanne.
'What's this Weasley? I hear you picking on a girl?' He said, not nastily, but harshly. Ron frowned at Draco.
'She started it Malfoy.' Ron snarled.
'I do believe, Weasley, that Gryffindor has had the Pitch all morning, and that it is Slytherins turn to train.' Draco said fairly.
'And how would you know that Gryffindor has had the Pitch all morning, Malfoy?' Ron asked mockingly.
'Because I have been watching you train from the window in mine and Hermione's bedroom all morning.' Draco said smugly. Ron looked furious.
'You're lying! There's no way Dumbledore would let you and Hermione share a room.' He burst out.
'You want to come visit us sometime?' Draco asked.
'No I most certainly do not.' Ron bellowed. 'Hermione has a separate room to you. She was telling us Gryffindors about her room this morning at breakfast. There's no way she'd agree to share her room with scum like you.'
'Okay. You believe that.' Draco said calmly, not letting himself get angry at Ron. 'But now it is Slytherins turn to have the Quidditch Pitch.' He said. Ron didn't like Draco's calmness, because at that moment the red haired Gryffindor lunged at Draco.
Quick as a flash, Crabbe and Goyle, the Slytherin Beaters, stepped in front of Draco. As seventeen year olds, Crabbe and Goyle were huge. Ron simply bounced off the large Slytherins, and fell to the ground. Ginny helped Ron up, and convinced him to let Slytherin have the Quidditch Pitch for now.
'We'll come back to train later, Ron.' Ginny said soothingly. Ron glared at the Slytherins, but left, letting his sister lead him and the other Gryffindors away.
Draco turned to the bunch of Slytherins that were trying out for the spare positions on the Slytherin Quidditch Team. There were a lot of 6th years and 5th trying out for the first time this year. Draco pulled out a list of players and their positions from his robes. He had asked that all new players trying out to write down their name, year and preferred position on the piece of parchment.
'Okay, to everyone who has put down positions other than Chasers, I would like you to leave, because we already have players to fill those positions from last year.' Draco said, eyeing the parchment. About ten players grumbled, and walked off. 'Okay, now when I call out your names, I want you to try to get the Quaffle past Joel, working as a team.' Draco said. 'This year, I want no unfair play on the Quidditch Pitch.'
Lots of people looked at Draco questionable. Slytherin was famous for unfair play on the Quidditch Pitch. It must have been Draco's change over the Summer after his mother dying that had caused him to want to play fair.
'Drew Fairgood 6th year, Scott Crabtree 5th year, and James McKenzie 5th year.' Draco called out. The three boys mounted their brooms, along with Joel, and they flew into position.
~***~
After an hour and a half of trials, Draco had finally made up his mind on which Chasers worked best together, along with Leanne, who was a Chaser from last year. He cleared his throat to make the announcements.
'As you all know, the players from last year are myself as Captain and Seeker, Joel Reiley as Keeper, Leanne Brayshaw as a Chaser and Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle as Beaters. There are two Chaser Positions that I have filled this afternoon. They go to James McKenzie and Josh Manser.' Draco said. James and Josh walked out to collect their Slytherin Robes proudly.
Everyone else looked quite upset and tired.
'To everyone else who came, thanks for trying, and better luck in future years.' Draco finished, and dismissed everyone. He walked back up to the Castle with Joel and Leanne.
'Weasley has some nerve, talking to me like that.' Leanne huffed. 'I should hex him, I have the right to hex him.'
'No violence Leanne.' Joel said, mimicking Draco, who shoved the Slytherin Prefect lightly into the wall. The three walked silently to the Slytherin Common Room to drop Leanne off.
Draco couldn't help but think about that morning with Hermione. She had been so carefree. He couldn't understand why, I mean, he HAD been the one who had been horrible to her for the past six years at Hogwarts. Why should she be his friend now? There must be more to it.
'Thanks for walking me to the Slytherin Common Room boys.' Leanne said, kissing them both on the cheek. 'You're both gentlemen.' She joked, as the stone door concealed in the stone wall slid shut, causing Leanne to vanish from view.
'Let's go. We've got a long walk from here to our Common Room.' Joel said, turning to walk away.
The two boys chatted about the Quidditch Trials that they'd gone through that afternoon as they walked up to their Common Room. Joel also told Draco about his new girlfriend, Bronwyn Stokes, in fifth year. He told Draco about how her long, straight brown hair rustled in the wind, and that her brown eyes were enough to make Joel go weak at the knees.
'Hey! I think I saw her at Quidditch Trials.' Draco said suddenly.
'Yes. She wanted to be a Seeker.' Joel said.
'But we already have a Seeker, me.' Draco said.
'I know that, but Bronwyn insisted on coming anyway, just in case.' Joel replied. 'She has a Firebolt.' He added.
'A Firebolt? Wow. I've always wanted one, but father wouldn't buy me one. He says that I have a perfectly good broom.' Draco muttered.
'That doesn't sound like Lucius at all.' Joel said suspiciously.
'I know, he's, um, changed a bit lately.' Draco said, and refused to continue the conversation, leaving Joel puzzled.
~***~
Up in the Prefects, Head Boy and Head Girl Common Room, which Hermione had nicknamed the Hogwarts Common Room, because of it's use of the Hogwarts colours, Hermione, Ginny and Phillip were sitting on their loveseats, talking happily about Quidditch. Allison and Mitchell were up in their rooms, Samantha was reading a book on her loveseat, and Luna and Tony were listening in on Hermione, Ginny and Phillip, occasionally giving an imput to the conversation.
'So Ginny, who's on the team?' Hermione asked her friend.
'Well, there's Ron, who, as you know is the Keeper and Captain, the Chasers are Boyd, Dean, and a fifth year Adelaide Summers, she's nice. Um, the Beaters are Tye Willson and Bob Hardy, they're both fifth years, and me, the Seeker.' Ginny said. 'I think we have a pretty good team.' She added.
'Great!' Hermione said. 'I was watching the Slytherins train, and they look pretty tough.'
'Oh come on Hermione, you know that we always beat Slytherin anyway!' Ginny said playfully.
'I certainly hope so.' Hermione replied.
'Good luck in beating my house team this year.' Samantha looked up from her book. 'I know the people who tried out, and if Draco's smart, he would have put in James McKenzie and Josh Manser. They're both excellent.' Samantha looked smug.
'No matter who Malfoy's put in, we'll still beat Slytherin.' Ginny huffed.
'No fighting guys.' Hermione said sternly.
'I heard the Chaser Leanne Brayshaw's a real Slytherin nasty girl.' Tony Waters said. 'She's in some of my classes, but I've never really talked to her. I know from some Gryffindor friends of mine that she's really nasty and horrible. A true Slytherin.'
'That's right Tony! She's always one of the most horrible Slytherins in class!' Ginny said, and Phillip nodded in agreement.
'Why do Slytherins have something against Gryffindors? They aren't too bad to us Ravenclaws.' Luna asked curiously.
'If you don't mind, talking about my friends like that. I'd stop if I were you.' Samantha said, as if warning them to shut up about her friends.
'Samantha, you are a Prefect, you should discourage that sort of behaviour.' Hermione said sternly. Samantha cast the Head Girl a dirty look, and went back to her book.
Draco and Joel walked into the Hogwarts Common Room at that particular moment. Samantha jumped up and hugged Joel, who looked surprised.
'Hi Samantha.' Joel and Draco said in unison.
'Come on Joel, there's something I want to show you.' Samantha led Joel up the staircase that led to the Slytherin Prefects rooms before Joel could utter a sound of disapproval.
Draco and Hermione's eyes met for a small moment, before he walked over to their staircase leading to their room, and disappeared up the stairs. Hermione's eyes didn't leave Draco as he walked up those stairs. Ginny and Phillip looked curiously at Hermione, as they had seen her watching Draco with intent.
'What's with you Hermione?' Ginny asked.
'Yeah, why'd you look at Malfoy like that?' Phillip added.
'Huh? Oh, nothing, just something he said to me last night.' Hermione said, as if nothing was wrong, although she knew there was something wrong.
Hermione hadn't felt this way since fourth year, when she liked Viktor Krum. It was at that very moment, that Hermione realised what was wrong. She liked Draco Malfoy. Hermione couldn't find how this was wrong, though. She liked him, and this wasn't a problem because, well, Draco had changed over the Summer. He was pleasant now, fun to be around, nice, not a bully. Hermione was hooked.
'Then he said that he didn't feel that we were right together, Hermione, Hermione! Are you listening?' Ginny said impatiently. Hermione snapped out of her thoughts.
'Oh, I'm sorry Ginny, what were you talking about? I was just in the middle of some thoughts then.' Hermione said, blushing slightly.
'I was just telling you about my break up with Dean. I suppose you don't care, because you weren't listening.' Ginny said. Hermione looked like she'd been slapped.
'I'm so sorry, or corse I care!' Hermione said, worried that her friend was mad at her.
'Don't worry about it.' Ginny said haughtily, and walked up her staircase to her room. Hermione looked at Phillip sadly.
'Don't look at me, Hermione, I think she's just a little moody these days, and we'd best be careful around her.' Phillip said.
'Oh.' Hermione managed to say. To make herself feel better, she waved her wand over the fireplace, and a large banner appeared. It read "Hogwarts Common Room", and the banner was all the colours of Hogwarts: Red, Gold, Green, Silver, Blue, Bronze, Yellow and Black, each of the house colours.
'Wow, Hermione, that's beautiful!' Allison said, coming down from her room in time to see Hermione make the banner.
'Thanks Allison.' Hermione replied.
'But why "Hogwarts" Common Room?' Allison proceeded to ask.
'Well, there's all the Hogwarts Colours in here, and they're all plentiful.' Hermione answered simply.
'Oh, cool.' Allison said. 'I just came down to ask Tony something.' She said, walking over to Tony.
'Hey Allison, what's up?' Tony asked.
'I was just wondering if you made the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team?' Allison asked, and Tony gave her a skeptical look. 'Okay, okay, Mitchell was wondering if you made the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team?' Allison said, looking slightly humiliated. Tony laughed.
'I thought as much. He's so competitive, that Mitch.' Tony said, chuckling.
'So, did you make it?' Allison asked again.
'Actually, I'm quite surprised that us Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs even had time to do trials, what, with Slytherin and Gryffindor hogging the Pitch all day.' Tony said, half joking around, half serious. Allison laughed at this.
'Come on Tony! Mitchell wants to know if you're on the team.' Allison pushed.
'Oh fine. Tell Mitchell to come and ask me himself next time, and you can also tell him that I am on the team.' Tony said, but he quickly added, 'So he'd better watch out!'
'Ha ha.' Allison said sarcastically. 'We'll beat you at least once this year Waters.' She joked, which made Tony crack a smile.
'Look at us, we're acting like a bunch of Slytherins and Gryffindors!' Tony laughed, Luna and Allison quickly joined him. Phillip and Hermione looked at the three sternly.
'Awww, the big bad Gryffindors can't take a joke!' Allison said in a baby voice, joking of corse! She liked Gryffindors.
'I'm off to bed.' Phillip said looking at his watch and seeing that it was 9.30.
'Aww, Phillip, don't leave me with these mean Ravenclaws and Hufflepuff!' Hermione joked. Everyone laughed at that.
'Sorry we're so mean, Hermione.' Tony said, inbetween laughter. Luna gazed dreamily at the banner that Hermione had created. She then gazed aimlessly around the room, and screeched.
'What?' Hermione asked.
'The timetables! We forgot to hand everyone out their timetables!' Luna exclaimed. Everyone looked over to the desk that Luna was looking at, and, sure enough, all the timetables for every student in Hogwarts, were sitting in neat piles on the desk.
'Wow, they're pretty.' Hermione mused over the timetables. Gryffindors Timetables were red, with golden writing, Slytherins Timetables were green with silver writing, Hufflepuffs Timetables were yellow with black writing, and Ravenclaws Timetables were blue with bronze writing.
'Allison, go get Mitch, um, Hermione, go get Ginny, Phillip and Draco.' Tony said.
'Why do I have to get Draco?' Hermione asked.
'So he can get Samantha and Joel.' Tony replied. Allison, Luna and Hermione went up their separate staircases. Tony walked over to the desk to sort out the Timetables.
A few minutes passed, and everyone was down in the Hogwarts Common Room. Those Prefects, and Draco, who hadn't seen the banner Hermione had made, mused over it.
'What are we all doing down here?' Samantha asked grumpily.
'We forgot to hand out everyone's timetables.' Tony said, shoving a bundle of Slytherin timetables into her hand, some into Joel's hand, and the rest into Draco's hand. He then gave half of Hufflepuffs timetables to Mitchell, and half to Allison, distributed Gryffindor Timetables between Ginny, Phillip and Hermione, gave half of the Ravenclaw timetables to Luna, and kept half for himself.
'Right, let's go.' Joel said impatiently, heading for the short corridor which led to the entrance of the Hogwarts Common Room.
'Why don't we just go through these portraits?' Luna asked dreamily, gazing at the two portraits on either side of the fireplace.
'Oh yeah!' Joel said. 'I forgot about them.'
The Slytherins and Ravenclaws went through the Portrait with a raven and a snake on it, while the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs went through the Portrait of the lion and badger.
Hermione walked with Ginny, Phillip, Allison and Mitch, until they came to a small room, with two portraits on the wall opposite to the corridor they had come through. One Portrait was of Godric Gryffindor, and the other was of Helga Hufflepuff. Both Hogwarts founders waved.
'I see you three are Gryffindors. I know who are not Gryffindors, and who are Gryffindors.' Godric said, and swung his portrait open to let in Hermione, Ginny and Phillip. They said a quick goodbye to Allison and Mitchell, who were trying to convince Helga that they were indeed Hufflepuffs.
The three Gryffindors walked up many stairs, Hermione counted them, 164 stairs in total. By the time they'd reached the top, all three were tired, and did not feel up to handing out lots of timetables.
There was a small door at the top of the stairs. Hermione opened it, noticing that it was one of the few doors in Hogwarts which didn't need a password for it to open. She suspected this was because of Godric's Portrait down the stairs.
The three Gryffindors walked cautiously into the Gryffindor Common Room. It was mostly empty. The few people out of bed were Ron, Dean and Julia (who were looking rather wrapt up in eachothers arms), Seamus, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Marcy, Matthew, Boyd, Melanie Gerber, and Sabrina New, who were both in fifth year. Also, there were four first year boys huddled in the corner, who's names Hermione did not know.
'Hi Hermione, Ginny, Phillip.' Ron said, greeting the three. 'Where'd you guys come from?'
'See that door?' Hermione said, motioning to the door they had just came from.
'Yeah, we've been wondering where it goes, but it would never let us through.' Ron said, puzzled by the door.
'That door leads right to our Common Room, which Hermione here nicknames the Hogwarts Common Room.' Phillip said, Ginny was still in a bad mood from earlier, and seeing Dean and Julia did not help her mood.
'Cool.' Said Ron.
'Cool.' Seamus echoed.
'Cool.' Said Dean.
'Cool.' Julia agreed.
(A/N ~ hahaha, that was taken from one of my all time favourite fictions, All For A Bag Of Almonds, by A Bit Of Old Parchment! So very funny!)
Hermione raised an eyebrow.
'Anyway, we've come to give everyone their timetables.' Hermione said, gesturing to the timetables in her hand.
'Oh, excellect. We were wondering when we'd get those.' Seamus said in his heavy Irish accent.
'Just leave them on the table, and we'll get everyone to collect them in the morning.' Ron said, motioning to the desk on the wall of the Gryffindor Common Room.
'Just to be sure.' Dean said, finally letting Julia go, he went over to the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room, and wrote, using his wand, on the back of the portrait: "Gryffindors, collect your timetables from the desk in the Common Room."
'Good thinking Dean.' Ron said, reading Dean's writing.
'We'd better get going then.' Ginny grumbled, and disappeared out through the door.
'What's wrong with her?' Dean asked.
'She's annoyed at something, don't quite know what though.' Phillip said, and followed Ginny out the door.
'You staying Hermione?' Ron asked her.
'I'd better not, I need to get some sleep tonight. Didn't get much last night.' Hermione said, giving Ron a quick hug before she too went out the door and down the long staircase.
~***~
Up in Hermione and Draco's room, Hermione lay in her bed, thinking about Draco. Samantha, Joel and Draco hadn't gotten back when Hermione walked into the Hogwarts Common Room. She wondered if Slytherins stayed up later than Gryffindors did. Hermione heard a small click, and looked at the portrait of Harry, but he was still asleep. She peeked out of her curtains, and saw that Draco was back. He was being as quiet as possible, obviously not wanting to disturb Hermione. She watched as he crept into his bathroom, and came out in his pyjamas a few minutes later.
As Hermione watched him, she saw Draco coming over to her side of the room. She gasped silently, lay down and pretended to be asleep, closing her eyes. He pushed back the curtains that surrounded Hermione's bed, and gently sat on the edge, next to Hermione.
'You're beautiful you know.' Draco said, and he gently stroked Hermione's hair. She took extra care not to move. 'I'm sorry for every mean thing I did to you in the past six years.' He continued. 'I don't know what it is about you, but Hermione, I think I'm in love with you.' Draco stroked Hermione's hand, and got up, pulling the curtains back to their closed position.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
~* Okay everyone, I want your opinions! Do you like? Do you hate? Should I keep going? Please review. Thanks! Man that was one long chapter. . . he he he, longest one I've ever typed, over 4400 words! I'm hoping to get this fic up and running by Monday. I hope I explained why Draco's OOC clearly, it's because of his mother dying, and his father not bullying him because of all that's gone on: Voldemort's death, and Narcissa's death. Wooh, lots of people die in this fic. . . sorry to all the Harry lovers. . . *~
~Gryffindor Gal~