Shades of Gray
Chapter Nine: The Reaction
"So that should wrap up the meeting. Are there any questions on hallway patrolling? Assigned times or procedure?" When no one raised their hand, Hermione nodded at Draco. He rose quickly from the seat that he had been relaxing in.
"Alright, if you come up with questions later, even though you should have been quick enough to remember them now, you may approach Granger or perhaps me at a later time." The icy tone of his voice when he presented himself as an option left little doubt to the rest of the prefects as to who they would be asking. Hermione sighed. She was getting a bit used to his personality. The truth was, all Slytherins seemed to be a little unapproachable. But she had never considered any of them witty. Draco certainly was. Their arguments over the past week hadn't been quite as heated, and were leaning towards debates on important subjects. Just last night they had argued on the uses of dragon's blood. Hermione believed that all twelve should be accepted, but Draco thought the seventh wasn't tested quite enough to get trustworthy results. Both vehemently defended their sides for the next hour, before coming to a stalemate. And by the end, Hermione had been actually enjoying herself. It's not as if she could argue over this with Harry or Ron. They would just try and relate the twelve uses of dragons' blood with the twelve most popular quidditch offensive strategies.
As the prefects filed out, Hermione
slumped down into her blue padded chair and rubbed her temples. She had
foolishly volunteered to help tutor first years for the beginning of this year.
The immature kids were driving her insane. They seemed to want help without
being criticized! Draco fell into the chair next to her.
"I know, those sixth years are so incredibly slow. I can't believe they made it
through their first year. Honestly, when that Hufflepuff asked if they were
allowed to use magic in the hallways while patrolling, I almost screamed. But
then again, that's a Hufflepuff for you." Hermione snorted and then her head
sank into her hands.
"Ahhh!" she screamed frustratedly.
"Whoa! What happened? The question wasn't that bad!"
"No, it's just that I can't stand tutoring these first years! They are so annoying! I hope I wasn't as stubborn as them." Draco smirked.
"You were worse and still are just as stubborn." Hermione gasped, outraged.
"I am not!"
"Are too."
"I am not!"
"Yes, you are."
"No, I am not, and don't you dare respond!" A small length of silence followed before,
"Are too." Hermione opened her mouth to respond before sighing again.
"Oh, this is hopeless."
"I know. Fighting a Malfoy is completely futile." Hermione jumped up and stormed out of the room, shouting behind her,
"You are so arrogant!"
Draco looked impassively at her before a smug smile stretched lazily across his face. I am the only one to get her so angry in so little time.
Draco swept out of the room and walked superiorly down the hallway, until he heard the most dreaded sound known to all men.
"Drakkie-Poo!" He cringed and his head whipped back and forth, searching desperately for any means of escape, but there was no way out. He braced himself and turned slowly around. He was immediately hit with the body of Pansy Parkinson as she wrapped him in a hug. Draco coughed as her very very strong perfume in the scent of Seductive Sirens flooded his nose.
"Oh, I missed you so much!" Draco gently pushed her away.
"Pansy, I've been gone for an hour."
"Yes, and it was one less hour I got to see your face." Draco grimaced. Pansy had been trying for years to get her claws into him. Her family wanted her to marry well, and he was a Malfoy. But it seemed she was stepping things up this year after he inherited the entire fortune. She seemed to be lurking around every corner, and ended up sitting by him at every single meal!
"Look, I would love to chat, but I've got some Head duties to attend to." He desperately tried to make his escape.
"But of course, darling. I always love a sense of responsibility in a man." Draco darted around a corner and hurriedly sauntered to his portrait. He had once again slipped away from the horrible grasp of a gold-digger.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hermione sighed and slumped into her favorite chair in the library. This was her haven from the chaotic mess her life had succumbed to. But lately, her peace was being disturbed by random people who had never took notice of her before. And acting very strangely, she might add. One Ravenclaw boy whom she had never met directly, but knew from her Ancient Runes class asked if she would tutor him in Charms. This may be normal for a Hufflepuff, but Ravenclaws would rarely ask for help in schoolwork. It was a matter of personal pride tot hem. Besides the fact she knew he was doing just fine in that subject. She turned him down because she had too much already on her schedule, but was puzzled even further when he lingered at her table after her dismissal. After her solitude was disturbed twice more by girls and boys from different houses introducing themselves and the like, she was through. Seizing her books, she scurried down the hallways and out into the open, fresh air and pushed away the melancholy thoughts of her parents that had begun to creep into her mind.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Draco swept into their common room and knocked on Hermione's door. Waiting a few minutes, he decided she must not be in her room. He quickly exited the portrait hole, completely ignoring the sounds of Hera sobbing and weeping in the portrait, and sauntered down to the library. Besides the Gryffindor common room, that was the most likely place for Hermione to be. He had forgotten when they were to patrol, and he wanted to know if he needed to start his Potions research homework. He pushed open the heavy doors and checked every aisle. After all, Hermione loved practically every subject, besides Divination of couse. She could be studying anything. After his search proved fruitless, he decided to attempt his homework just the same. However, encountering Pansy was a frightening possibility, and she would think to look in the library. She may have been deficient in school, but underneath her deceiving exterior was a cold manipulative girl whose status in life depended on her marriage. The Parkinsons were not as wealthy as they seemed to be, as his father had informed him of. Pansy's father had invested a lot of money in a new idea of the Dark Lord's that never succeeded and was eventually dropped. The Malfoys had invested to show their loyalty, but not to half the extent the Parkinsons had. Though still reasonably well off, the Parkinson's accumulated wealth was largely gone, and it was up to Pansy to bring money back to the family, being the only child. So as not to throw suspicion on himself, Draco strived to be himself. He didn't want Pansy's prying eyes seeing differences in his behavior to report back to his Deatheater father. Thinking about Pansy's father reminded him of his own. Every so often, Draco found himself looking over his shoulder or wondering about his father. He knew that Lucius wouldn't lay hidden for long.
Draco headed out into the wide expanse of sweeping green with his bookbag casually swung on his shoulder. He stopped as his eyes fell on the one person he had been looking for. Hermione was working on her homework underneath one of the many trees situated by the lake. He strode over to his fellow Head and dropped his bag down. She jumped a bit, startled, and looked confusedly at him as he sat on the ground next to her.
"What are you doing here?"
"I happen to be putting my brilliant mind to work. I'm smart by nature but some practice is necessary to sustain my high level of intelligence," he said jokingly. She laughed casually. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. He continued in a more serious tone.
"I was going to ask you if we patrol tonight, and I wanted to inform you that I, once again, escaped the dreadful clutches of Pansy Parkinson," He sighed at his last comment, " This time, it got too close." He always favored theatrics.
Hermione glanced up from the book she had been concentrating on.
"Did you now? Fascinating."
"So, are we patrolling?" he asked a bit curtly. He didn't like being disregarded by a muggle-born, even if Hermione wasn't as hard to get along with.
"Yes, though you should know that. We assigned the times together. Paying attention must be very difficult for purebloods if they completely forget something as important as that." He smirked and answered her smoothly.
"Why would I try and remember something when there are Mudbloods like you to remember them for me?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ron turned quickly away from the stained-glass window, and faced Harry once again.
"How can you be so calm about this? Malfoy and Hermione are voluntarily spending time together! We must act now!" Harry sighed. Ron was once again overreacting. Though he was a bit puzzled about Hermione, he trusted her. But Ron was shaky and very insecure when it came to Hermione.
"Ron, Hermione can take care of herself. She's taken care of herself and us many times." Ron slumped, but his determined look never faded.
"Harry, we have to. She's our friend!"
"No," answered Harry simply. But Ron's stubborn Weasley nature leapt to his throat, and his fierce eyes bore into Harry's.
"I'm going to do something, whether you help me or not."
Harry sighed. He knew he would eventually give in, so he might as well concede to Ron's demands now.
Both young men walked away from the window, not seeing Hermione slap Draco with an outraged hand.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A part of Hermione grinned smugly inside as Draco reeled back from the force of the blow. However, all sense of satisfaction was far surpassed by her anger and hurt. Instead of raging at the boy in front of her, Hermione jumped up and sprinted into the towering castle. Draco leaned back and touched his still stinging cheek with amazement. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't summon up any feelings related to anger. All he could think, was…
Wow.REVIEW-REVIEW-REVIEW-REVIEW
I absolutely adore encouragement but criticism and advice is appreciated even more. I can't improve on something if I don't know I'm doing anything wrong!
A/N I AM SO SORRY! My computer broke and was gone for the longest time. I tried to work on it on a different computer and on paper, but it didn't go nearly so fast. I got it back a bit ago and got this out as quickly as possible. Before I thank my positively fabulous reviewers, here are the options for next chapter. I don't always fulfill the options that I put out if I don't think it flows with the direction the story is going when I'm writing it. But reviewers input does sway me! I also got two reviews from some people so I just listed them separately.
1. Patrolling the hallways...at night!
2. Hermione has a clumsy moment
3. Draco has a clumsy moment
4. Fight between Draco and Ron
THANKS SO MUCH TO MY REVIEWERS…
Darkening Sky—My whole computer was horrible. It had to be fixed—my apologies
Countess Katook
Vinnyvampie—lol, I never take anything personally. Don't hold back!
Natyslacks—thanks! I love your reviews
Queenanneus—good idea about jealous eyes. I'll keep it in mind.
Amber Lee1
Meg—never fear, a fight is near! Shoot me before I keep rhyming. Anyways, I will include a fight soon, but it can't be at the wrong time. However, I will spend extra time on it to actually make it seem realistic
Countess Katook- I don't think I'm going to focus on attention from other guys because I don't want this fanfic to be one where Hermione suddenly turns into a goddess and every guy falls madly in love with her.
Dea Lorn- Thankyou so much! The glimpse of Lucius I think needs to be at the perfect time, and I don't think it's happened yet. I mentioned Lucius a bit so noone forgets him though!
Sailor Ppearl
Vinnyvampire- Hermione doesn't say Merlin once in this chapter!! I took your advice and I really agree with it. Thanks!
Natyslacks- thanks! I think I'm going to keep the guy attention to a minimal, because I don't want that to be the focus of the story. I'm avoiding making this fanfic into one where Hermione suddenly turns into a gorgeous girl and all the guys worship her. Those bug me.
