Rivals Ch.5
A/N: Man, you guys… it's been almost 3 years since I last updated this. --;; I'm sorry! It's just that video games got in the way of me sitting around writing all day Now, the movies have come out and OoTP (wow, that took forever, didn't it) hit before I finished this… For the sake of the people who read this before or read it in the future, I must finish. xx;; (Hey kids: An Easter egg in this ch. Find it and get some Bertie Bott's :D) I know it's short but there are at least two more chapters up the pipeline (one slashy! Yay!) And maybe a spin-off of this.
The ride back to Hogwarts was just as uneventful as the ride to Hogsmeade. But, if anything was different it was the atmosphere; it seemed much lighter now that not one, but two secrets were out in the open. Hermione had been reading her new Hogwarts: A History aloud (Ron feigned death, falling onto the floor in an overly exaggerated way), when Harry asked Cho what the wrapped book she was holding was.
"Um…" Cho looked down at the floor, blushing. Ron, still lying on the floor, looked up at her face curiously before turning to look at Harry.
" 'Oy, Harry. I don't think it's something we want to know about, looking at the two of them." He got back into his seat, and smiled mischievously. "Don't forget to use a sound-proofing charm on the room. Looking at the size of that book, you'll be there quite a while!" Harry sighed in mock annoyance, and ruffled Ron's hair.
Hermione scowled. Cho laughed at the exchange between the two, having recovered from the awkwardness of Harry's question. Hermione looked at her. "And, what is so funny, hmm?" she asked, putting an arm around the still giggling Ravenclaw, and kissing her lightly on the cheek.
"Who'd have guessed? Hermione Granger with hormones!" Ron said, looking at the two. Harry smiled.
"You know, Ron, I don't think it's that. It's just she's a lot less overt than you are."
Ron rolled his eyes and stage whispered to Hermione and Cho. "And this is coming from the guy who couldn't keep his hands off me not just an hour ago!" Harry elbowed him jokingly.
Eventually they arrived back at Hogwarts. Emerging from the train, Hermione was the first to speak.
"So, what should we do now?" Ron looked at her in disbelief.
"Obviously, we go to Dumbledore, Hermione. " he said in an exaggeratedly slow way, as if she wouldn't understand otherwise. "So he can sort that wanker Malfoy out." Turning slightly, Hermione could see Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle walking not too far from them. Malfoy saw her looking, sneered at her, and blew a kiss to her. Crabbe and Goyle snickered.
Resisting the urge to use a hex on him, she turned back to Ron. "Well, we can't just stroll into Dumbledore's office. We'll have to go through Professor McGonagall."
"And why, Mr. Weasley, do you insist on seeing the headmaster? What could be so urgent that it can't wait until after dinner?" McGonagall asked, her lips pursed in the same severe line it always was.
Having Ron ask McGonagall wasn't the best idea on hindsight, as his courage was shaken by the teacher's icy tone. Cho spoke up before Ron came up with something stupid to say.
"Professor," she started, trying a small smile, hoping to help convince the woman to help them. "We need to talk to the headmaster because Draco Malfoy is trying to blackmail Harry here into throwing the first Quidditch game!"
McGonagall, who had only been halfway paying attention to them, looked up quickly from her paperwork when she heard the words blackmail and Quidditch in the same sentence. Her lips pursed even more.
"Well, Ms. Chang, I believe you've just won me over. Very well, I shall escort you to Professor Dumbledore's office."
"Aw, Harry, Draco's going to be so pissed when he realizes what's going on at the game!" Ron exclaimed happily, sitting down at the Gryffindor table for dinner.
"You're talking too loud, Ron. Don't want to give away the surprise, do you?" Harry asked, sitting next to him. Cho and Hermione sat down across from them.
What Ron was talking about was Dumbledore's response to the entire story of Draco's manipulation of the group, and his plan to make Draco think that everything was according to plan up until the Quidditch match. But they themselves were told to keep quiet about it, lest someone were to overhear them.
"So Ron… have you told anyone in your family about you?" Cho asked while passing him a pitcher full of apple cider. He shook his head.
"No, no. I can only imagine what they would say. I'm sure Mum won't mind. She'll just be happy she won't have to take care of another Weasley anytime soon." He poured a glass of the cider for himself and Harry, and continued. "What about yourself?" Cho explained her family situation.
Harry nodded sympathetically. "I imagine that's how it would be with the Dursley's. I'm already not normal to them, I think telling them that would put me below, oh the level of a slug to them. Hermione?" He turned to her, and she looked up from her transfiguration book she had brought down from the dormitory to read.
"I don't know Harry. I mean, they're pretty open-minded, I mean they adore Boy George.." Harry laughed, while Ron and Cho looked puzzled. Hermione realized they wouldn't know who that was and continued. " Muggle musician, very good. But, even so... I don't know how well they'd take the news that their pride and joy played for the other team."
The rest of dinner went by quickly, no notable incidents occurring other than Neville Longbottom turning blue. Hermione sighed, pulled a quill and a small scrap of parchment out of her robe pocket, and wrote the twin's names down for one night of detention.
After dinner, Ron and Harry went back to the common room to finish their project for Binn's class. Hermione decided to walk Cho back to the Ravenclaw tower.
Arriving at the painting covering the Ravenclaw tower entrance, they stopped. Cho turned to Hermione. "So, this is it for tonight?" Cho pouted. "You said you'd show me what you were dreaming about."
Hermione reached up and stroked Cho's cheek. "I will, I will. I just can't tonight. I think Ron's going mad over this project he has to do."
Cho smiled. "They're lucky to have you, you know. They'd be lost without you."
Hermione moved in and kissed Cho quickly. "I could say the same about you." Cho grinned, and hugged the younger girl. "Mmm, we have to stop, or else I won't make it back before Ron falls asleep.. It's nearly impossible to wake him up."
Cho broke away from Hermione. "Fine," she said, before saying the password to open the portrait. "But, you owe me big time."
Hermione smirked. "Don't worry. I'll pay you back with interest." She waved to Cho, who waved back before disappearing into the doorway. The portrait swung back over the entrance.
Now at the Gryffindor portrait, Hermione was about to wake the Fat Lady up, when she felt the presence of someone lurking behind her.
"What is it, Draco?" she asked irritably, turning around to look at the blond boy.
"Aw, what's the matter, Granger? I'd think you'd be happy after coming back from seeing your girlfriend off to bed. Or.." he questioned, his normal drawl becoming nastier by the second, "Are you just mad because you couldn't join her?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Yes, Draco, that must be it. You're so perceptive, you know?" she replied tiredly, running her hand through her hair.
Draco's face fell from its smirk into a glower. "You know, you should treat me a little better. I am keeping your disgusting little secret after all-" he noticed a bracelet on Hermione's wrist. "What's that? A little gift from your girlfriend? You'd think she could afford better than that. She's not living in a rubbish bin like Weasley."
It was a wide, dull silver cuff, with no markings. It looked more like a watchband than a bracelet. The closest thing to it would have been an ID bracelet.
Hermione let the insult to Ron and Cho go. "Well, it's the thought that counts, Draco. Do you have anything actually useful to say, or are you going to sit here and annoy me all night?"
"Hmph. You think you're funny? We'll see about that. Just remember our agreement." With that, he walked down the corridor, disappearing behind a corner
Hermione absently mindedly rubbed the bracelet against her robe front, cleaning a bit of tarnish off. Then she told the barely awake Fat Lady the password "chocolate toffee" and went inside to help Ron and Harry finish their project, of course having finished hers last night.