AN: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters.
Elvish Babe: I thought hard about what you said, and although it would be funny if George played for another house team, it wouldn't go over to well with what I have planned.
I hope you all enjoy this chapter. RR.
Cheers
Chapter 5: Miscommunication
George's dorm room was filled with the various belongings of his other roommates. The room that had traditionally fitted five had been changed to fit seven of them. He lay on his bed looking up at the burgundy fabric framing his four-poster bed. He always enjoyed the look of the dark woods against the burgundy bedspreads; they always seemed to radiate warmth and comfort no matter what mood he was in. He just lay there looking around the room, seeing how everyone was already perfectly unpacked, their stuff pinned and displayed properly.
Seamus had pin-ups of beautiful witches from the various Witches Monthly Magazine, Neville, Ron and Harry had put up all their Quidditch memorabilia, and Dean put up his football posters. Ron had also set up his own little art studio by his bed. His paints were spread out on his dresser. He was currently working on a painting of two dragons intertwining in knots; one was red and obviously female, the other was a dark burning green. The former almost stood off the canvas; the presence of the green dragon was captivating and mocking, and it was eerily familiar, but George could not connect the passion behind the painting to anything in particular. He just knew that it was tearing him to look at it.
He turned his attention over to his twin's area. Fred had set up shop in his corner, his alchemy set perfectly placed on his desk. All his ingredients were perfectly labeled and placed in the glass cupboard in order of potency. Charts had been placed around his desk with various recipes for some of the new tricks they had come up with. Everyone seemed to be at home with all their stuff. They had built themselves a self-haven.
George looked around at his possessions sprawled out in front of him. Unlike his roommates, he had not unpacked yet, and figured that now was as good a time as any other. He had spent his first week back at Hogwarts checking out all of his hiding spots and seeing if anything new had popped up. Harry had also reminded him of the Room of Requirement, something George was very happy to remember. He looked back at his belongings, and put all of his Quidditch stuff back into his trunk. He took his guitar out of its case and stared strumming the much-used strings. His mother had introduced him to the instrument when he was a young child. She had figured that it would help keep him occupied for a few minutes so that she could try and keep track of him for more than the average one-hour a day.
He looked at the other things that were spread out on his bed. A pair of extendable ears, some fake body parts, blood candy, and hair-gain pills (he had realized that summer that he could also sell these pills to balding wizards and not just use them on the unsuspecting female who would wake up with some extra body hair the next day.) He also had his songbook, the pages filled with some of his original work.
He looked at the clock and saw that it was dinnertime but decided that he wasn't feeling hungry enough to go eat. If he was hungry later he could just sneak down to the kitchen and get something from the house elves. He decided that he'd go walk around the grounds instead, maybe even stroll down to Hogsmeade, since 7th years were allowed to go down on weekends whenever they felt like it; plus he wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, not after being humiliated by Ygraine that afternoon at Quidditch tryouts.
* * *
That night in the Great Hall, a lot of the 7th years were absent from the dinner tables, most of them picking a restaurant in Hogsmeade for their dinner instead of what was being served to the rest of Hogwarts. Ginny, Fred, Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting at the long Gryffindor dinning table munching away on chicken wings lavished in honey garlic sauce, chips and various vegetable sticks.
"I do hate how these wings make me so sticky." Hermione said, sauce smeared across her cheek and adorning all of her fingers. The group was to amused to see Hermione so unlike her clean self to tell her about the sauce that spread almost from her mouth to her earring clad earlobes. "There really should be some sort of charm to keep food of one's face, don't you agree?"
"Yes, they really should think of inventing some sort of charm, some people really need it." Harry said as he let a smirk sneak through at the irony of his best friends situation.
"Well, well, well. I see the Weasel family is here for dinner. What, your mother couldn't afford to let you all eat at Hogsmeade? Well, I guess having 12 children does get a little expensive." Draco said as he came and took a seat right beside Hermione. Everyone was looking at him open mouthed as he made himself comfortable, grabbing Hermione's glass of pumpkin juice and taking a gulp. Some students from the Hufflepuff table were even looking over and whispering over the presence of Draco Malfoy at the Gryffindor table.
It was a good thing that Ron was on the opposite side of the table, across from Draco, because he looked ready to jump at his throat. "That's an interesting observation you've made there Malfoy, but it appears that you are eating here in the Great Hall as well. Did your daddy reduce your allowance since losing the War? You know, budget cuts and all to the Dark Side. Not to mention Voldemort not being around to sign your father's pay cheques. And there are only seven Weasley children not twelve; I thought your math skills were better than that, Malfoy. Tisk, tisk." Hermione said, staring at him right in the eyes.
Draco appeared a little shocked at first from Hermione's statement and couldn't quite figure out what to say to her quick defense to Ron, until he noticed her cheek. "Granger, although a good defense, how can one take you seriously with all that chicken sauce spread across your cheek?" Some pink flushed across Hermione's cheeks as she glared at her friends, then looked back at Draco. But before she could say anything, Draco had taken his thumb and passed it over her cheek clearing the sticky sauce away, leaving everyone who was watching in shock, most of all Hermione.
It wasn't the fact that Draco had touched her that was shocking her. It was the thrilling jolts that passed all over her body when he did. The butterflies that started tying knots inside of her stomach, the flush that passed all over her skin, the actual feeling of her breath being taken out of her lungs. It was all of those elements that left Hermione in shock. Why had she felt like that with just the simplest touch? She didn't want to know the answer. She had to break the silence that had spread over half of the Great Hall.
"Malfoy, why are you here?" Hermione demanded wiping her face thoroughly with her napkin, getting rid of any essence of Draco Malfoy and the honey garlic sauce.
"I came over to let you know that Dumbledore wants to have an emergency meeting with us this evening at eight, after he has a discussion with some students." Draco said as he glanced over at Fred, who was trying to slip something into his drink. "You better be careful there, Weasley. Don't think because you're older means you can get away with things. You're still a student here and seeing as I'm Head Boy, you'd better respect that or you'll have to suffer the consequences." Draco started to get up, leaving the Gryffindors shocked from his visit. As he turned away and started to head down between the rows of tables, Fred was stricken with a case of verbal diarrhea. "Oh and what are you going to do, ya kiss-ass mama's boy?" and with that he chucked a chicken wing straight at Draco's head, hitting it with a giant splat, the garlic sauce oozing into Draco's blond hair.
As fast as he could, Draco turned on is heals and looked straight at Fred. "One hundred points from Gryffindor. That's what! Enjoy the rest of your meal, Weasel Senior." And he went back to the Slytherin table as he zapped away the gooey mess that everyone in the hall was looking at.
"Oh the nerve that fucker has! If I knew I could get away with it, I'd totally punch his pretty-boy face in." Fred said as his gaze followed Draco back to his seat, then flipped him the bird.
"Well Fred, you did kind of hit him in the head with a piece of chicken." Ginny stated as she reached for some more carrot sticks.
"Yes well, he deserved it. I mean, he knows we don't like him. So why does he feel he can just come and sit with us?"
"Fred, you're starting to act a lot like Ron."
"- Hey!"
"Sorry Ron, but it's true. Malfoy said that he had just come to tell me that we have a meeting with Dumbledore tonight. That's all. No hidden agenda." Hermione said looking around the Great Hall.
"Speaking of Dumbledore," Harry said, "where is he?"
Just at that moment gasps were heard through out the Great Hall, then the sound of muffled laughter followed by bursts of laughter began as Dumbledore entered.
"Bloody Hell! Look at Dumbledore." Ron said as he pointed towards the teachers' entrance to the Great Hall. Dumbledore had walked in, looking perfectly normal except for his bright florescent pink beard, which hung down the front of his robes, and his bright blue hair falling down his back. He did not appear to be mad, rather he seemed quite pleased with the situation. Every student and teacher was looking at him in amazement. Dumbledore just walked through the Hall and as he passed the teachers to arrive at his spot at the head of the table, they would turn to get a closer look at the punked out professor.
"Albus, I know you wanted to speak to the children this evening at dinner, but you just have to ask for their attention, not go to these lengths to get it." Dumbledore looked at professor McGonagall and smiled at her, McGonagall smiled back.
"Don't worry Minerva, I don't think I'll be keeping this look for to long. Hopefully this is just for the night. I will be talking with the Weasley twins later this evening about their behaviour this past week. I do enjoy their originality, but I don't quite appreciate the new look." Dumbledore looked out into the crowd and focused his eyes on Fred Weasley who was in the middle of charming his carrot sticks to do a little dance on top of his brother Ron's head. Much to Ron's dismay, he could not swat the sticks off. Dumbledore just looked on and continued to talk with the other professors.
* * *
"Can you believe that Dumbledore didn't say a word about his hair in his lecture this evening? You'd think the man would explain something like that to his students." Ron continued on down the hallway towards the Fat Lady who was waiting patiently to let the group of students in.
"I'm sure it's none of our business, Ron, what Dumbledore does with his looks." Hermione slipped past him, gliding her hand along his lower back as she did so. She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. "Reflections in the mist." Hermione said, and with that the Fat Lady let the trio along with Ginny into the common room.
They took their seats on the sofas in front of the fireplace. A light drizzle had started earlier that evening, making the castle damp and cold, but the light of the fire brought warmth to the Gryffindor common room. Seamus, Dean and Neville walked over from the dorms entrance to join the group in front of the cozy fire.
"Hey guys, didn't see you at dinner. Where'd you go and eat?" Harry asked as Seamus made himself comfortable on the sofa next to Ginny.
"Ah, we went to Hogsmeade. Thought we should go check out the Cauldron, get a round of drinks to celebrate my victory of making the team. Couldn't 'ave done it without ol'Ginny here." Seamus said patting Ginny on the thigh. Harry glared at him as Ginny blushed at Seamus and smiled back at his touch.
"I tried to buy George one, but he wouldn't let me. Said he wasn't in the mood for socializing and moved on as soon as Ygraine walked in. She let me buy her a drink. I'm thinkin' George was a little upset with the outcome of today's tryouts. But Ygraine, wow! That girl can fly, not to mention, she's quite the looker."
"Yeah, she's bloody amazing. For someone who's been home schooled, she's a pretty good beater." Ron said.
"That's probably because she had a good teacher. Her mother is Hilary Marcum." Hermione pointed out as she folded her left leg under her, propping herself up into a more comfortable position in her chair.
"Really? Her mother is The Hilary Marcum? The one who is credited with over 3000 bludger hits? The Hilary Marcum that was the biggest weapon the Oldham Miners has ever had in History? The Hilary Marcum is Ygraine's mum?" Dean said sitting on the edge of his seat, practically panting at the thought of knowing someone famous in the Quidditch world.
"Yes. Hilary Marcum is Ygraine's mum." Hermione said rolling her eyes at the looks the boys were giving her.
"How did you find this out? Did Ygraine tell you this? She didn't tell any of us, and you sure don't follow Quidditch." Asked Ron.
"No, I haven't seen Ygraine since tryouts. I actually learned this from Draco Malfoy."
"Malfoy!" Both Harry and Ron shouted. "You learned this from Malfoy? How often do you converse with our favourite enemy?" Ron asked, obviously shaken at the idea that Hermione may be on regular terms with one of the biggest catches in the school. Ron knew how all the girls would drool over Draco. But everyone also knew how big of a prat he was, and yet all the girls still went for him. He prayed Hermione didn't fall into the category with all the other girls at Hogwarts.
Ron had always known Hermione was different from all the other girls, but her talking civilly with Draco Malfoy had him questioning her at the at moment, not to mention was causing the bubbling rage that was boiling in the pit of his stomach.
Everyone in the common room stopped what ever they were doing to listen in on another one of the infamous Golden Trio arguments, and this time it was obvious what the subject of discussion was – Draco Malfoy.
"Yes, I was talking with Draco Malfoy. And I'll be talking with him later tonight. Do you have a problem with that?"
Everyone turned and looked at Ron and Harry, waiting for their response.
"Of course we have a problem with that. It's Draco Malfoy. Why in the hell would you want to talk to him?" Harry and Ron both looked at her, standing up, trying to look intimidating.
Everyone focused on Hermione. All the Gryffindors knew that now that the War was over, that Draco Malfoy was Harry's number one enemy, and that Ron just didn't like the guy. Plus, you normally didn't hear about a Gryffindor hanging out with a Slytherin. Hermione looked at her friends. Standing up from her chair, pushed the non-existent wrinkles from her pants away, looked at the rest of the students in the common room and started to walk away towards the dorm rooms. "Apparently all of you people have forgotten that Malfoy and myself are Head Boy and Girl; we HAVE to talk to each other. And it's not like I enjoy it."
Everyone in the room bought her excuse, except for Ron, Harry and most of all, herself. She did enjoy talking to Draco Malfoy. Although she hated to admit it, Draco had a presence about him, something she couldn't find in either Ron or Harry, or so she felt at that moment. There was just something about him this year that had slightly changed her view of him.
'Ah, it's only because he hasn't been overly rude to me this year, but he's still arrogant and he's still him.' Hermione continued up the stairs to her bedroom.
When she had first learned that she wasn't going to be sharing a room with anyone that year she was a little disappointed, but right at that moment she was happy that one of the benefits of being Head Girl was to have her own private room.
Her room was filled with books, most of which were hers, but some of the shelves held books she had borrowed from the library. Her room radiated warmth with the use of wood in the furniture. The stone walls barely even peeked through all of the bookshelves that were in the room. Her desk was already piled high with parchments, her golden feather pen lying on her latest work of fiction she was writing. She loved sitting at her desk with her silver candelabra glowing with light from its five candles, her music playing lightly in the background; these things would always put her in the mood to write. She also enjoyed the fact that she could listen to her Muggle music along with the music she would find in the wizarding world, because Sony had invented a player that would take both types of music. Hermione was quite pleased to have found out that Sony was a wizard company.
She had just taken a seat at her vanity when a knock came at her door. "Hermione?" She turned to look at her door. Both Harry and Ron's heads were sticking in looking at her.
"What do you want?"
The two boys slinked into her room, closing the door behind them. They both took a seat on her bed.
"Wow, your room is brilliant. You have so many books in here – how do you find the time to talk to the ferret with all this reading?" Ron asked as he got up to look at some of the books that lined her shelves. Hermione glared at Ron, she was just about to say something in response to his comment when Harry caught her before she said anything stupid.
"Hermione – what I think Ron meant to say was that we're both sorry for making something out of nothing. We know there is nothing going on between you and Malfoy, we just get a little over protective when he comes into the scene with our best friend." Hermione looked at Harry who had made his way over to her, then she looked at Ron who was sitting on her bed, facing the door with his back to her.
"Yeah, Sorry. I just don't like him. Don't know why you'd want to talk to that prat anyways. He only has two things to talk about, himself and how poor my family is." The three of them were quiet. Harry and Hermione just looked at each other, not sure what to say. Harry just shrugged his shoulders. Hermione got up from her chair and slowly headed towards her best friend sitting on the corner of her bed. She'd had conversations with Ron that were serious, but he had never brought up his feelings so openly about the status of his family or how the words Draco said affected him. Everyone knew that he'd get angry and try to hit Draco whenever he would comment on Ron's family, but they never figured the hurt actually stayed within him.
Hermione placed her arm around him and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Ron, Malfoy only says those things to provoke you. He doesn't really mean them, and even if he did we know it's only because of the way he was brought up. He's just a sad, pathetic guy who is jealous of how wonderful and loving your family is. He just wishes his family were as rich as yours."
Ron leaned his head down onto Hermione's and took his hand and caressed her cheek with it. "Thanks, Hermione, but do you really have to talk to him?"
Hermione sat up and looked at Ron, then looked at Harry for support, but Harry had decided to leave this issue to the two of them.
"Ron – I'm Head Girl, he's Head Boy. We have to talk to each other. Even if we weren't, I'm allowed to talk to whomever I want – and that's that. You and Harry should both know that the only relationship that I have with Malfoy is completely professional."
Hermione was standing up at this moment, trying to calm herself down. "Now, if you two don't mind I have to get back into my uniform for my meeting with Dumbledore." Her two best friends walked out of her room and back towards the common room. Hermione closed the door and sank back into the pages of her fiction.
* * *
George returned to the Gryffindor common room in time to find out from his brother that they had a meeting with Dumbledore. Fred had told him that this "appointment" was apparently about their behaviour this past week at school. The boys had no idea what Dumbledore meant, and when they found out, they weren't too pleased.
"Honestly Professor Dumbledore, Fred and I haven't done any of those pranks."
Dumbledore had listed off a bunch of events that had transpired over the first week at school. There had been, for starters, the disappearing Hogwarts Express, the break out of purple freckles, the mysterious trip up in Snape's classroom, which professor Snape was not slow at telling Dumbledore about, the furniture in the teacher's lounge that had sprung to life anytime someone would take a seat or touch it, and not to mention Dumbledore's new look.
"Now boys, I understand that you run a joke shop, and I applaud you for all of your accomplishments and inventions, but when they start to disrupt the school and the teaching of the students, I can't say that I quite appreciate them. Professor Flitwick has mentioned that he wishes you two could do as well on your charms in class as the ones that you perform for your pranks. If another joke occurs I will have to put you in detention. Am I clear?"
"But Sir-" Fred broke in.
"Am I clear, Fred and George? No more mishaps. I'd hate to see two of my more inventive and smarter students leave Hogwarts a second time because of their extracurricular activities."
The twins looked at each other and mumbled under their breath, "Yes Professor."
* * *
Outside the entrance to the headmaster's office Draco Malfoy leaned against the giant griffin protecting the door. He stood as though nothing in the world mattered but himself. His hair had fallen over his blue eyes; he looked at his meticulously clean fingernails and paid little attention to his surroundings. His other hand that was not being adored by its owner was shoved into his pants pocket with his school robes tucked behind it, exposing the fact that his crisp white shirt was not tucked in properly. Although appearing perfect in almost every manner, Hermione Granger was happy to see that here was still a flaw to this boy's looks.
She had been watching him from the shadows around the corner. At first she didn't feel like talking with him after the conversation she had just had with Harry and Ron. She could not forget the warmth that she felt from her friend Ron; even if he was upset with her, she could still feel his friendship and loyalty to her sink through his tough outer shell. She smiled to herself. After a few seconds of standing back from a possible conversation she had started to look at Draco Malfoy. To be able to see him when he wasn't talking to anyone, being by himself was interesting to Hermione. She saw, that even on his own he was still arrogant and full of himself, making sure that his hands were perfectly groomed. Hermione secretly giggled as she thought of how silly she was at how she could have possibly been in the slightest bit attracted to the young man. 'It was only because he was beautiful,' Hermione though, 'There is obviously nothing else to this guy but his looks; even when alone he can't get rid of the typical Malfoy air around him.'
Then much to her surprise, from inside his pocket he pulled out a little book that he zapped to become larger and began to read as he waited. Hermione looked on and studied Draco from afar, watching as he would lick his finger to turn the dry pages, how he used a bookmark instead of dog-earring the pages, how he would laugh to himself when he read something funny within the pages. Draco just leaned on the griffin and continued to read, not knowing that someone was admiring him from the shadows of the hallway. The griffin turned and surprised Draco as he fell to the ground, hitting his backside hard.
"Need a hand?" Hermione stepped out of the shadows and put out her hand to help the fallen student up. Draco hesitatingly raised his hand and placed it in hers.
"Proposing already Malfoy? Thought the Head Boy typically waited to the end of the school year to propose to the Head Girl?" George said as he and Fred made there way down the stairs to a kneeling Draco with his hand in Hermione's. She quickly helped him up.
"No, I was just getting up, thank you. And you don't have to worry about Granger and myself. We will not be the stereotypical Head Boy/Head Girl couple if Granger has anything to do with it." Draco let go of Hermione's hand. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Weasels, I have an important meeting with the Headmaster. Granger?" And he pushed himself past the twins and made his way up the stairs.
"Not a word of the to anyone, boys. Especially Ron and Harry. We just got in an argument earlier this evening regarding Malfoy. I honestly don't know why though, there is nothing going on between myself and Malfoy and the boys have it in their heads that there is." Hermione headed up the stairs after Malfoy as the twins turned and headed back towards the Gryffindor common room, not believing a single word Hermione had just said.