Chapter One
Hermione Granger flung her book bag ten feet ahead of her and happily climbed up on a rock that overlooked the sweeping lawns of the Hogwarts school castle. Classes were over for the week and she didn't need to express her relief - it was written clearly across her face. She was using the time-turner once again in order to get to her all of her classes that she was taking. She had always liked classes, but sometimes she thought that she had too many classes to take and she wasn't going to be excelling in every one of them. Arithmacy, Astronomy, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, History of Magic - and this was just today! She was even having special lessons with the Herbology teacher and there was even a new subject this year - Advanced Transfiguration that even reached to Animagi. This subject was potentially dangerous because they were doing extensive incantations that required much concentration and one slight mishap could be lethal.
If she thought about her classes, Hermione was sure that her head was going to explode if she wasn't careful. She had so many facts crammed in her head and so many homework assignments to keep straight that she had no room for a social life or any time to herself anymore, and she was sure that Harry and Ron didn't mind, because they didn't notice anything about her anymore. They had grown apart considerably since Harry and Ron had become "dating men" or "the hottest hunks" in Gryffindor, which Hermione didn't understand in the least, because there was nothing attractive about them dating forty girls in thirty days. In other words, they had found two girls that they liked and decided to dump five years of friendship with Hermione for a two day "fling". She didn't mind though because it gave her more time to herself - a rare treat that she hadn't had before and never thought that she would get.
Lately Hermione wasn't sure what or even who she wanted to be anymore. She had always thought that she wanted to lead a political campaign in protest of the house elves situation or something else that would help the lives of some creature. She had even tried to start her own campaign to save the house elves from misdemeanor and cruel treatment but that campaign never really took off. "S.P.E.W." she called it, but some people (not to point any fingers but - Fred and George) had pointed out that it was going nowhere and that it was, by far, the stupidest and extremely daft idea that she had come up with, and that was saying something.
Hermione was disconnected from everybody and everything, especially now a days. She was losing contact with all people that she had been in close relations with, be it either they lost interest in her or she lost interest in them, and she wasn't making any new friends to replace the gaps that were in her heart. Hermione was rarely seen in the company of somebody else and when she was, it usually had to do with classes or prefect duties, but even she had even been procrastinating with her prefect duties, which, to her, was a sin. The only thing that she really could concentrate on was her schoolwork and, even so, that wasn't going so well either. She was close to getting a below 100% grade in History of Magic and she only had a 105% in Arithmacy. The rest of her grades were slowly falling, but not by more that a tenth of a percent. By her standards, this was terrible.
Hermione drug her knees up to her chest and clung to them as she remembered happier years that had happened in her life, but it only made her feel worse. Harry, Ron and her had been best friends and they were almost inseparable, the inseparable trio, but then, when Harry and some girl in Ravenclaw had started dating, things began to fall apart. Hermione could tell that Ron was acting strangely and decided to confront him, which sparked something she didn't expect to happen. Ron burst out and told Hermione that he liked her, and a few hours later he dumped her and told her that he had moved on to Cho Chang, because, as he put it, she was somewhat of a mystery and she liked to take risks, both of which he told Hermione she lacked terribly. Both couples were happily dating and in love, leaving Hermione in the dust all alone.
It wasn't that she didn't want to have a boyfriend and be in a relationship, she had thought about it many times, but she didn't think she was what people would want to go out with. She wasn't "interesting" or, as Ron had told her, she wasn't a mystery or a taker or risks, so she was probably the most boring person on the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She also wasn't what people would probably consider desirable. She was a scraggly bookworm who voiced her opinion and didn't try to hide it, especially if she disagreed. She didn't enjoy dressing in suspiciously tight clothes or wearing make-up, two vital accessories in order to attract any kind of guy when you were a sixteen year old girl - witch or not.
She was still the muggle-born girl that everyone had knows for years, and, in her eyes, her appearance hadn't changed much, except for her hair. It had been frizzy and bushy, and now it was a mass of honey-colored, slightly curly hair that hung down to the small back. Other than that, she was still the same, boring, Hermione Granger that nobody did, or ever would like and she was growing accustomed to that fact, because it would follow her for the rest of her life.
Sighing Hermione brushed some wind-blown hair out of her eyes. She was a witch and, as most people thought, a complete geek. It was far better than at muggle school though, because at a muggle school she would have just been a total geek, maybe even with a side of freak show. At least here she was able to excel in something such as magic and be somewhat accepted.
She jumped and almost fell off the rock when a loud and magnified voice boomed over the vast Hogwarts landscape. Before it began speaking, Hermione plugged her ears by slapping her hands over her ears. After all, she DID want to retain even SOME of her hearing after the announcement was done. They REALLY needed to fix that, because it was extremely loud.
"Would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall." Hermione stood up, grabbed her book bag and hurried inside where the announcement couldn't be heard. That way she wouldn't have to hear the same message again, and again, and again, and. . . well, you get the point.
Rolling her eyes, Hermione grabbed her book bag and began trudging towards the Entrance Hall as she juggled her fingers in her ears trying to make sure that she would be able to hear something when she got to the Great Hall. That announcement was probably heard in the neighboring magic school, and that was roughly 350,000 miles away. Not TOO far.
Hermione tripped over a rock that she was sure hadn't been there a moment before, and had barely enough time to jump away from it when she saw that it was going to ignite. It caught fire and exploded, and she whipped around when she heard laughter. Fred and George Weasley were laughing hysterically and Hermione rounded on them, her hands shaking angrily.
"You TWO." She said, in what was a fairly good imitation of Mrs. Weasley, and made the twins pay rapt attention to what she was saying and killed their laughter instantly.
"THIS is the LAST time. I MEAN it too." She said, yelling at them with a steely death glare plastered across her face. Even though they were taller than her, they seemed to be somewhat worried about what she was going to do. She grabbed George's tie and drug him forward.
"DETENTION, Mr. I-Want-To-Push-All-Of-That-Hermione-Granger-Girl's- Buttons-To-See-When-She-Cracks-And-I-Was-Stupid-Enough-To-Go-This-Far- Because-Now-She-Is-Gonnna-Kill-Me Weasley." She then grabbed Fred's tie, that he had been trying to untie before she got to him.
"AND YOU!" she yelled as she yanked on his tie. He looked at her with a look of "don't hurt me" plastered on his face, but it receded when he saw how angry she was. She was making them walk forward with her, because if they didn't, their ties would tighten around their necks and strangle them.
"DETENTION, Mr. Hermione-Wouldn't-Dare-Punish-Us-Becasuse-She-Doesn't- Know-Who-The-Heck-She's-Dealing-With-And-She-Wouldn't-Want-To-Punish-Us- Because-We-Would-Get-Her Weasley." She stormed forward dragging the boys, who were two years older than her, behind her like dogs on leashes.
"I'M GONNA SHOW YOU!" She screamed at them and they nodded vigorously. They seemed to figure that if they agreed, then they would have a chance of being in less trouble.
"DON'T MESS WITH ME, GOT IT?!" They both nodded extremely quickly and she shoved them forward into Professor Snape, who was unlucky enough (or possibly not) to have been the first teacher that she came to.
"PUT THEM IN DETENTION!" She screamed at Professor Snape, who was almost going to object, but seemed to decide against it and smiled mirthlessly and led the Weasley twins to his cold office.
Still seething with anger, she stormed towards the Great Hall and didn't care that her hair had fallen out of its rubber band, and she didn't care that her robes were falling off of her shoulders, and she didn't care that she looked like she had been run over by a truck. She was too angry.
"Hey, Granger," said a drawling voice around the corner in front of her, and she didn't need to see the face to know who's voice it was. Draco Malfoy, the stupidest GIT in the world, Hermione thought angrily as she continued storming forward.
"Granger, Granger, the "I-just-exploded" club is down the hall." Hermione rolled her eyes as she ignored him, but it was harder to ignore the explosion of laughter that ensued.
As she turned the corner to the Great Hall, she saw the three last people she had ever wanted to see all in one place. Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Hermione paused, were Crabbe and Goyle IN Advanced Transfiguration? She was fairly sure that they couldn't control their own wands, let alone their own hands, which were always greedy for food or small first years to pound.
Frowning, Hermione walked over to the doors of the Great Hall and could hear part of Malfoy's conversation with Crabbe and Goyle. Actually, it couldn't be called a conversation because Malfoy did ALL of the talking while Crabbe and Goyle grunted or moaned in answer.
"So AS I WAS SAYING," he said loudly as though he was trying to get everyone in the area to hear him. "I agree with my father when he says that Mudblood scum shouldn't be allowed in Hogwarts, because they aren't capable of the kind of magic that the purebloods are. I THINK," he put heavy emphasis on the 'I think'. "That all Mudbloods should be slaughtered or left in their muggle homes, because, after, they ARE muggles anyway." Malfoy made a bucktooth impression of Hermione, even though her teeth were perfectly normal now, and Hermione ignored him, but it was harder to ignore the boom of laughter that came from the group around Malfoy.
Pansy Parkinson absolutely shrieked with mirth and delight as he said this, and Malfoy jumped slightly at the sound of her laughter, which would have made a banshee proud any at day.
Malfoy narrowed his eyes at her and rolled his eyes. Hermione totally agreed. Pansy annoyed HER and she wasn't even around her that often, and she wondered what it would be like if she was followed by her every single stinkin' day. Sometimes Hermione felt sorry for Malfoy, it must be hard for him to be a cocky, conceited, spoiled jerk all of the time, but then he would be extremely rude to her, and she would completely forget about trying to be nice to him. He got on her nerves all the time, and she didn't know how he did it. It was like he was put on this earth just to annoy her and say the right things to make her mad.
Rolling her eyes, Hermione walked towards the tight knot of Slytherins, many of whom weren't even going to be allowed to STUDY Advanced Transfiguration, yet they seemed to come anyway. Malfoy was like a magnet; he always had a group of people around him all the time and he was NEVER alone. She looked at the group around him and noticed that he was probably the only one that was going to be studying Advanced Transfiguration, and the thought made her want to throw up. She was going to have to work with Draco Malfoy for the rest of the year, and quite possibly the next year. She would make sure that he was nowhere near her when she graduated.
She walked right past the tight knit group and didn't acknowledge them in any way, which was bound to make Malfoy throw some type of insult at her, and she was perfectly ready for it when it came.
"Mudblood!" he yelled to her, causing sniggers from the group around him already.
Ignore him, she told herself and kept walking away from him as she tried to pretend that she couldn't hear him, but it really bothered her when he called her a mudblood. It made no sense to call someone something just because of the blood that ran through their veins - it was just like telling someone that they weren't allowed to eat tomatoes because their brain was pinkish, rather than purplish, nobody cared.
"Hey, Mudblood!" he said again, and she whipped around, pretending that It was her name and someone she liked had just called it.
"Yeah?" she said to him in a offhand tone, commending herself for appearing to not care what he said at all.
"I was just wondering whether your brain had leaked out into that scraggly hair of yours, because you wouldn't be able to tell. Are you hiding an owl in there or something, because it looks like a birds nest!" Sighing inwardly, Hermione rolled her eyes and turned around, prepared to ignore him, but she wasn't expecting what he said next and it threw her totally off guard.
"What about your parents?" he asked, and she narrowed her eyes, but didn't turn around. Her parents weren't something she generally liked to talk about. Her father had cancer and wasn't going to like more than another few years and her mother was already falling into depression, and he hadn't died yet. She had a little sister that had died from complications a year after birth, and their family had never been the same. Even though she had secretly been hoping that the cancer would disappear and her parents would decide to have another baby and their family would be happy again, she knew it would never happen.
She was snapped out of her memories by the cruel sneer of Malfoy as he continued to taunt her and make her angry.
"Are your parents as stupid as you are? And as ugly?" that touched a nerve with her because her father had been self conscious about himself ever since he had been losing his hair due to the chemotherapy. How DARE he? How DARE Draco Malfoy say such things about her family. She was almost about to whip out her wand and curse him, but she stopped herself, and not a moment too soon.
Professor McGonagall walked briskly in and called order, but there was no need. With the exception of Malfoy and his cronies everyone had fallen silent the second McGonagall opened the door.
"If I have not written your name on this list-" she rapped the list with her wand which made it glow. "-then I suggest you LEAVE, NOW." Nobody moved for about five seconds, then there was an immediate mad rush towards the door and most of the people were gone. It seemed that an alarmingly huge group accompanied everyone. Hermione was the only person that didn't come with a group surrounding her.
Hermione looked around and surveyed who was left. There were seven Ravenclaws -
No surprise, Hermione thought to herself, Ravenclaws are brilliant students with top marks.
One Huffelpuff -
Again, no surprises there, Hermione told herself as she continued looking at everyone there.
Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, and a Slytherin she didn't know were the people from Slytherin -
How did that COW, Parkinson get in here? Her grades surely aren't goo d enough to get into Advanced Transfiguration, are they? And who is that other person? Hermione asked herself as she looked at them. The person looked somewhat like Ron, because of their fiery red hair, but that was where the resemblance ended. The person had cold black eyes and seemed to enjoy glaring at people.
As she finished looking at who was here, Hermione realized that she was the only Gryffindor that was here, and she was sure that she couldn't be the only person that had high grades, but when she thought of Harry and Ron taking advantage of her and making her do their homework, she started to believe that she may be the only person with good enough grades.
"This is an Advanced Transfiguration class, and I will not allow any fooling around in my class. We will be covering some basics before launching into Animagi training, and anyone found to be unsuitable will be asked to leave. Are there any questions so far?" Professor McGonagall paused and waited for questions. When nobody voiced a concern, she continued talking.
"Any people found disrespecting the rules will be shunned from the program and if your grades fall, you will be asked to leave." Hermione noticed, with considerable satisfaction, that Pansy looked like she was worried about her grades. Perhaps she wasn't doing so well.
"That would definitely be a nice improvement." Hermione muttered to herself, in a hopeful stupor.
"You will be living in a separate dormitory because of the nature of this subject, so you will be packing your stuff from your house dormitory and bringing it back here. You will live here until you are asked to leave or you finish your training. Please go to your dormitories to collect your things."
Hermione's mind went completely and absolutely blank. She was going to live here? Here with the other people in the room. Here in this dormitory with MALFOY.
Hermione's hand shot up instantly and Professor McGonagall looked at her questioningly.
"Are we going to have separate rooms?" Professor McGonagall looked at her questioningly again, and then her expression softened and turned to a look that she only gave Hermione.
"Unfortunately, the rooms will have to be co-ed, at least until we can see about adding a room." McGonagall looked at her with a mixed expression.
"HOW MUCH co-ed?" Hermione asked, slightly panicking.
"Well, there are four people per dorm, and we are going to try to keep people from the same houses together, but some people may be mixed with people from the other houses." Hermione groaned and hoped that she wouldn't be stuck with someone stupid - she had more than enough homework without the added pile of someone else's work too.
"I am now going to tell you to go get your things, we will then spread out into the dormitory arrangements." Hermione walked out slowly as she hummed the funeral march under her breath - her life was over.
Hermione Granger flung her book bag ten feet ahead of her and happily climbed up on a rock that overlooked the sweeping lawns of the Hogwarts school castle. Classes were over for the week and she didn't need to express her relief - it was written clearly across her face. She was using the time-turner once again in order to get to her all of her classes that she was taking. She had always liked classes, but sometimes she thought that she had too many classes to take and she wasn't going to be excelling in every one of them. Arithmacy, Astronomy, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, History of Magic - and this was just today! She was even having special lessons with the Herbology teacher and there was even a new subject this year - Advanced Transfiguration that even reached to Animagi. This subject was potentially dangerous because they were doing extensive incantations that required much concentration and one slight mishap could be lethal.
If she thought about her classes, Hermione was sure that her head was going to explode if she wasn't careful. She had so many facts crammed in her head and so many homework assignments to keep straight that she had no room for a social life or any time to herself anymore, and she was sure that Harry and Ron didn't mind, because they didn't notice anything about her anymore. They had grown apart considerably since Harry and Ron had become "dating men" or "the hottest hunks" in Gryffindor, which Hermione didn't understand in the least, because there was nothing attractive about them dating forty girls in thirty days. In other words, they had found two girls that they liked and decided to dump five years of friendship with Hermione for a two day "fling". She didn't mind though because it gave her more time to herself - a rare treat that she hadn't had before and never thought that she would get.
Lately Hermione wasn't sure what or even who she wanted to be anymore. She had always thought that she wanted to lead a political campaign in protest of the house elves situation or something else that would help the lives of some creature. She had even tried to start her own campaign to save the house elves from misdemeanor and cruel treatment but that campaign never really took off. "S.P.E.W." she called it, but some people (not to point any fingers but - Fred and George) had pointed out that it was going nowhere and that it was, by far, the stupidest and extremely daft idea that she had come up with, and that was saying something.
Hermione was disconnected from everybody and everything, especially now a days. She was losing contact with all people that she had been in close relations with, be it either they lost interest in her or she lost interest in them, and she wasn't making any new friends to replace the gaps that were in her heart. Hermione was rarely seen in the company of somebody else and when she was, it usually had to do with classes or prefect duties, but even she had even been procrastinating with her prefect duties, which, to her, was a sin. The only thing that she really could concentrate on was her schoolwork and, even so, that wasn't going so well either. She was close to getting a below 100% grade in History of Magic and she only had a 105% in Arithmacy. The rest of her grades were slowly falling, but not by more that a tenth of a percent. By her standards, this was terrible.
Hermione drug her knees up to her chest and clung to them as she remembered happier years that had happened in her life, but it only made her feel worse. Harry, Ron and her had been best friends and they were almost inseparable, the inseparable trio, but then, when Harry and some girl in Ravenclaw had started dating, things began to fall apart. Hermione could tell that Ron was acting strangely and decided to confront him, which sparked something she didn't expect to happen. Ron burst out and told Hermione that he liked her, and a few hours later he dumped her and told her that he had moved on to Cho Chang, because, as he put it, she was somewhat of a mystery and she liked to take risks, both of which he told Hermione she lacked terribly. Both couples were happily dating and in love, leaving Hermione in the dust all alone.
It wasn't that she didn't want to have a boyfriend and be in a relationship, she had thought about it many times, but she didn't think she was what people would want to go out with. She wasn't "interesting" or, as Ron had told her, she wasn't a mystery or a taker or risks, so she was probably the most boring person on the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She also wasn't what people would probably consider desirable. She was a scraggly bookworm who voiced her opinion and didn't try to hide it, especially if she disagreed. She didn't enjoy dressing in suspiciously tight clothes or wearing make-up, two vital accessories in order to attract any kind of guy when you were a sixteen year old girl - witch or not.
She was still the muggle-born girl that everyone had knows for years, and, in her eyes, her appearance hadn't changed much, except for her hair. It had been frizzy and bushy, and now it was a mass of honey-colored, slightly curly hair that hung down to the small back. Other than that, she was still the same, boring, Hermione Granger that nobody did, or ever would like and she was growing accustomed to that fact, because it would follow her for the rest of her life.
Sighing Hermione brushed some wind-blown hair out of her eyes. She was a witch and, as most people thought, a complete geek. It was far better than at muggle school though, because at a muggle school she would have just been a total geek, maybe even with a side of freak show. At least here she was able to excel in something such as magic and be somewhat accepted.
She jumped and almost fell off the rock when a loud and magnified voice boomed over the vast Hogwarts landscape. Before it began speaking, Hermione plugged her ears by slapping her hands over her ears. After all, she DID want to retain even SOME of her hearing after the announcement was done. They REALLY needed to fix that, because it was extremely loud.
"Would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall. Again, would ALL students currently studying Advanced Transfiguration please report to the Great Hall." Hermione stood up, grabbed her book bag and hurried inside where the announcement couldn't be heard. That way she wouldn't have to hear the same message again, and again, and again, and. . . well, you get the point.
Rolling her eyes, Hermione grabbed her book bag and began trudging towards the Entrance Hall as she juggled her fingers in her ears trying to make sure that she would be able to hear something when she got to the Great Hall. That announcement was probably heard in the neighboring magic school, and that was roughly 350,000 miles away. Not TOO far.
Hermione tripped over a rock that she was sure hadn't been there a moment before, and had barely enough time to jump away from it when she saw that it was going to ignite. It caught fire and exploded, and she whipped around when she heard laughter. Fred and George Weasley were laughing hysterically and Hermione rounded on them, her hands shaking angrily.
"You TWO." She said, in what was a fairly good imitation of Mrs. Weasley, and made the twins pay rapt attention to what she was saying and killed their laughter instantly.
"THIS is the LAST time. I MEAN it too." She said, yelling at them with a steely death glare plastered across her face. Even though they were taller than her, they seemed to be somewhat worried about what she was going to do. She grabbed George's tie and drug him forward.
"DETENTION, Mr. I-Want-To-Push-All-Of-That-Hermione-Granger-Girl's- Buttons-To-See-When-She-Cracks-And-I-Was-Stupid-Enough-To-Go-This-Far- Because-Now-She-Is-Gonnna-Kill-Me Weasley." She then grabbed Fred's tie, that he had been trying to untie before she got to him.
"AND YOU!" she yelled as she yanked on his tie. He looked at her with a look of "don't hurt me" plastered on his face, but it receded when he saw how angry she was. She was making them walk forward with her, because if they didn't, their ties would tighten around their necks and strangle them.
"DETENTION, Mr. Hermione-Wouldn't-Dare-Punish-Us-Becasuse-She-Doesn't- Know-Who-The-Heck-She's-Dealing-With-And-She-Wouldn't-Want-To-Punish-Us- Because-We-Would-Get-Her Weasley." She stormed forward dragging the boys, who were two years older than her, behind her like dogs on leashes.
"I'M GONNA SHOW YOU!" She screamed at them and they nodded vigorously. They seemed to figure that if they agreed, then they would have a chance of being in less trouble.
"DON'T MESS WITH ME, GOT IT?!" They both nodded extremely quickly and she shoved them forward into Professor Snape, who was unlucky enough (or possibly not) to have been the first teacher that she came to.
"PUT THEM IN DETENTION!" She screamed at Professor Snape, who was almost going to object, but seemed to decide against it and smiled mirthlessly and led the Weasley twins to his cold office.
Still seething with anger, she stormed towards the Great Hall and didn't care that her hair had fallen out of its rubber band, and she didn't care that her robes were falling off of her shoulders, and she didn't care that she looked like she had been run over by a truck. She was too angry.
"Hey, Granger," said a drawling voice around the corner in front of her, and she didn't need to see the face to know who's voice it was. Draco Malfoy, the stupidest GIT in the world, Hermione thought angrily as she continued storming forward.
"Granger, Granger, the "I-just-exploded" club is down the hall." Hermione rolled her eyes as she ignored him, but it was harder to ignore the explosion of laughter that ensued.
As she turned the corner to the Great Hall, she saw the three last people she had ever wanted to see all in one place. Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Hermione paused, were Crabbe and Goyle IN Advanced Transfiguration? She was fairly sure that they couldn't control their own wands, let alone their own hands, which were always greedy for food or small first years to pound.
Frowning, Hermione walked over to the doors of the Great Hall and could hear part of Malfoy's conversation with Crabbe and Goyle. Actually, it couldn't be called a conversation because Malfoy did ALL of the talking while Crabbe and Goyle grunted or moaned in answer.
"So AS I WAS SAYING," he said loudly as though he was trying to get everyone in the area to hear him. "I agree with my father when he says that Mudblood scum shouldn't be allowed in Hogwarts, because they aren't capable of the kind of magic that the purebloods are. I THINK," he put heavy emphasis on the 'I think'. "That all Mudbloods should be slaughtered or left in their muggle homes, because, after, they ARE muggles anyway." Malfoy made a bucktooth impression of Hermione, even though her teeth were perfectly normal now, and Hermione ignored him, but it was harder to ignore the boom of laughter that came from the group around Malfoy.
Pansy Parkinson absolutely shrieked with mirth and delight as he said this, and Malfoy jumped slightly at the sound of her laughter, which would have made a banshee proud any at day.
Malfoy narrowed his eyes at her and rolled his eyes. Hermione totally agreed. Pansy annoyed HER and she wasn't even around her that often, and she wondered what it would be like if she was followed by her every single stinkin' day. Sometimes Hermione felt sorry for Malfoy, it must be hard for him to be a cocky, conceited, spoiled jerk all of the time, but then he would be extremely rude to her, and she would completely forget about trying to be nice to him. He got on her nerves all the time, and she didn't know how he did it. It was like he was put on this earth just to annoy her and say the right things to make her mad.
Rolling her eyes, Hermione walked towards the tight knot of Slytherins, many of whom weren't even going to be allowed to STUDY Advanced Transfiguration, yet they seemed to come anyway. Malfoy was like a magnet; he always had a group of people around him all the time and he was NEVER alone. She looked at the group around him and noticed that he was probably the only one that was going to be studying Advanced Transfiguration, and the thought made her want to throw up. She was going to have to work with Draco Malfoy for the rest of the year, and quite possibly the next year. She would make sure that he was nowhere near her when she graduated.
She walked right past the tight knit group and didn't acknowledge them in any way, which was bound to make Malfoy throw some type of insult at her, and she was perfectly ready for it when it came.
"Mudblood!" he yelled to her, causing sniggers from the group around him already.
Ignore him, she told herself and kept walking away from him as she tried to pretend that she couldn't hear him, but it really bothered her when he called her a mudblood. It made no sense to call someone something just because of the blood that ran through their veins - it was just like telling someone that they weren't allowed to eat tomatoes because their brain was pinkish, rather than purplish, nobody cared.
"Hey, Mudblood!" he said again, and she whipped around, pretending that It was her name and someone she liked had just called it.
"Yeah?" she said to him in a offhand tone, commending herself for appearing to not care what he said at all.
"I was just wondering whether your brain had leaked out into that scraggly hair of yours, because you wouldn't be able to tell. Are you hiding an owl in there or something, because it looks like a birds nest!" Sighing inwardly, Hermione rolled her eyes and turned around, prepared to ignore him, but she wasn't expecting what he said next and it threw her totally off guard.
"What about your parents?" he asked, and she narrowed her eyes, but didn't turn around. Her parents weren't something she generally liked to talk about. Her father had cancer and wasn't going to like more than another few years and her mother was already falling into depression, and he hadn't died yet. She had a little sister that had died from complications a year after birth, and their family had never been the same. Even though she had secretly been hoping that the cancer would disappear and her parents would decide to have another baby and their family would be happy again, she knew it would never happen.
She was snapped out of her memories by the cruel sneer of Malfoy as he continued to taunt her and make her angry.
"Are your parents as stupid as you are? And as ugly?" that touched a nerve with her because her father had been self conscious about himself ever since he had been losing his hair due to the chemotherapy. How DARE he? How DARE Draco Malfoy say such things about her family. She was almost about to whip out her wand and curse him, but she stopped herself, and not a moment too soon.
Professor McGonagall walked briskly in and called order, but there was no need. With the exception of Malfoy and his cronies everyone had fallen silent the second McGonagall opened the door.
"If I have not written your name on this list-" she rapped the list with her wand which made it glow. "-then I suggest you LEAVE, NOW." Nobody moved for about five seconds, then there was an immediate mad rush towards the door and most of the people were gone. It seemed that an alarmingly huge group accompanied everyone. Hermione was the only person that didn't come with a group surrounding her.
Hermione looked around and surveyed who was left. There were seven Ravenclaws -
No surprise, Hermione thought to herself, Ravenclaws are brilliant students with top marks.
One Huffelpuff -
Again, no surprises there, Hermione told herself as she continued looking at everyone there.
Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, and a Slytherin she didn't know were the people from Slytherin -
How did that COW, Parkinson get in here? Her grades surely aren't goo d enough to get into Advanced Transfiguration, are they? And who is that other person? Hermione asked herself as she looked at them. The person looked somewhat like Ron, because of their fiery red hair, but that was where the resemblance ended. The person had cold black eyes and seemed to enjoy glaring at people.
As she finished looking at who was here, Hermione realized that she was the only Gryffindor that was here, and she was sure that she couldn't be the only person that had high grades, but when she thought of Harry and Ron taking advantage of her and making her do their homework, she started to believe that she may be the only person with good enough grades.
"This is an Advanced Transfiguration class, and I will not allow any fooling around in my class. We will be covering some basics before launching into Animagi training, and anyone found to be unsuitable will be asked to leave. Are there any questions so far?" Professor McGonagall paused and waited for questions. When nobody voiced a concern, she continued talking.
"Any people found disrespecting the rules will be shunned from the program and if your grades fall, you will be asked to leave." Hermione noticed, with considerable satisfaction, that Pansy looked like she was worried about her grades. Perhaps she wasn't doing so well.
"That would definitely be a nice improvement." Hermione muttered to herself, in a hopeful stupor.
"You will be living in a separate dormitory because of the nature of this subject, so you will be packing your stuff from your house dormitory and bringing it back here. You will live here until you are asked to leave or you finish your training. Please go to your dormitories to collect your things."
Hermione's mind went completely and absolutely blank. She was going to live here? Here with the other people in the room. Here in this dormitory with MALFOY.
Hermione's hand shot up instantly and Professor McGonagall looked at her questioningly.
"Are we going to have separate rooms?" Professor McGonagall looked at her questioningly again, and then her expression softened and turned to a look that she only gave Hermione.
"Unfortunately, the rooms will have to be co-ed, at least until we can see about adding a room." McGonagall looked at her with a mixed expression.
"HOW MUCH co-ed?" Hermione asked, slightly panicking.
"Well, there are four people per dorm, and we are going to try to keep people from the same houses together, but some people may be mixed with people from the other houses." Hermione groaned and hoped that she wouldn't be stuck with someone stupid - she had more than enough homework without the added pile of someone else's work too.
"I am now going to tell you to go get your things, we will then spread out into the dormitory arrangements." Hermione walked out slowly as she hummed the funeral march under her breath - her life was over.