The Bachelor Chapter 4
Hermione tossed and turned all night, but her dreams were constantly haunted by a smirking Malfoy handing her rose after rose.
In the early hours of the morning, Hermione realized that there was no way she was going to have a decent amount of sleep and resorted to staring at her ceiling and imagining she was at home, watching this on TV instead of actually being in it.
She watched her room mate, Millicent Bulstrode, sleep peacefully. Millicent was probably having dreams about Malfoy too, except they were fantasies instead of nightmares. Hermione shuddered. It was quite disturbing, really, the way all these girls lusted after him.
Around seven, Hermione arose from the bed and took a quick shower. She heard noises from the bedroom near hers and peeked in to see Lavender Brown agonizing in front of her closet. Hermione sighed as she herself pulled on an old robe. She'd brought fancier clothes, but that was before she knew that the bachelor was Malfoy. Malfoy didn't deserve nice clothes. He deserved a smock.
While she waited for breakfast, Hermione pulled out an interesting novel and read for the next hour or so, while Millicent bathed. Her concentration was broken, however, by a large sound that droned out any thought. It was Millicent's blow dryer.
Hermione marched up to Millicent and yelled, "Could you turn it down a notch, please? I'm trying to read!"
Millicent either did not hear her or pretended not to have heard. She continued to blow dry as Hermione watched, open-mouthed, until her hair had formed into tiny ringlets.
She switched the dryer off and turned to Hermione. "How do I look?" she asked.
For the first time, Hermione noticed Millicent's attire. Millicent was wearing a low-cut, baby pink, lacy, skin-tight…thing. It did not even resemble a robe.
"It's…unusual," Hermione told her. "Malfoy will be sure to remember it." Hermione nearly snickered but used great control to keep her laughter at bay.
Millicent practically glowed from what she thought was a compliment. "Really!" she said happily. "I hope I get a date with him today."
Hermione frowned as she remembered the outline of The Bachelor. Of course. Dates! She shuddered at the thought; a date with Malfoy was a torture session. Her body shook further as she remembered that one girl out of every group of girls was picked to go on an individual date. Gods, she thought unhappily, please, let my luck be a little better than that.
Breakfast was a quick affair and soon the girls were light-heartedly chatting about Malfoy's stunningly good looks. "He's so handsome," one of them swooned. Another chimed in. "He's so sexy," she said. Yet another giggled. "He's my dream man!" All the girls let out a sigh of hope and fantasy.
Hermione wanted to scream.
Around mid-afternoon, Lavender Brown ran into their quarters shrieking like a woman in delivery. "Oh my gosh!" she screamed, and all the girls looked up from whatever they were doing, "A date box! Girls, we've got a date box!"
Everyone abandoned everything at once, except for Hermione, who was just at this most interesting part in her book. Lavender soon put a halt to that.
"Hermione, we've got a date box! And I'm not opening it until everyone's paying attention," she said slyly. Hermione quickly put down a book before she was swarmed to death by a horde of angry girls.
A date box was really a letter that told which girls were going on the date and who got the individual date, along with many details. Lavender picked up the letter and began to read in earnest. "It's for…ooh, Parvati, Xandy, Trinity, Lauren, and Millicent!" she said excitedly.
"Who gets the individual date?" Millicent demanded. Hermione snickered, thankful that she wasn't on the list. It would be awfully fun to imagine Millicent on an individual date with Malfoy. He'd admire her pink thing (she referred to it as "the latest in robes!").
"Parvati!" Lavender said happily. Parvati beamed. "All of you guys get to go to a Quidditch match with Draco," Lavender said dreamily. "Afterwards you'll all have snacks and then Parvati will go to dinner with him!"
Everyone ooh-ed for Parvati, who looked like she'd just won the Nobel Prize.
Even Hermione congratulated her friend. After all, she was excited about it, and she took the spot of at least one individual date. Hermione hoped that out of the remaining two individual dates, neither would be for her.
Soon afterwards, the girls going on the date departed, leaving ten girls behind. The girl named Rose Hoffman soon suggested a round of the ever popular waste-of-time game, also known as Truth or Dare.
"But," she squealed happily, "We'll make it truth or truth!"
"What?" someone asked.
"You'll see," Rose said, her eyes sparkling. "I'll go first. I pick Hermione."
Hermione nearly snorted. Like she had any secrets these girls would really care about. "Fine. I suppose I'll have to pick truth."
"Okay. First rule of this version of the game is, all the questions have to be about our bachelor!"
Hermione groaned. Here she was, surrounded by bubbly girls that were all obsessed with Draco Malfoy! How she hated her mother!
"My question to you is…do you really hate Draco?" Rose asked innocently.
Hermione pondered the question. Did she really detest Malfoy with every fiber of her being; did she really want to beat him to a pulp and leave him to die; did she really hope that he'd be found guilty of something or the other and be sent to live in Azkaban for the rest of his life? Unfortunately, all the answers turned out to be no. Sure, she hated his guts, his attitude, but not…him. Hermione didn't hate people.
"Well," she said, trying to explain her thought process in the most accurate way possible, "I don't really hate him, you see, it's mor—"
But she was suddenly cut off by a shriek from another girl. "Oh my gosh, girls!" Hannah Abbott cried. "Hermione doesn't really hate our man! It's a tactic!"
Before she knew it, Hermione was being patted on the back by the girls, who were all saying, "Wow, you're so smart, playing hard-to-get right from day one!" and "Wow, you are so shrewd!" and "That's a great tactic, Mione!"
Hermione's jaw dropped. "What tactic?" she said hotly. "I swear I can't stand him! I just said I don't hate him because I don't hate anybody!"
Of course, none of the girls believed her. Hermione wanted to melt into the floor. This was going from bad to worse.
The girls did not lay off their congratulations until the other four returned from the date. "How did it go?" Blaise demanded.
Millicent smiled broadly. "He commented on my outfit!" she said. "He said it was really bright!"
Hermione, once again, expressed great self-control and did not laugh. The other girls, too, shared their special moments. Only Xandy didn't say anything. She just smiled mysteriously until someone questioned her.
"Xandy! What happened between you and Draco?" asked the girl named Trinity excitedly.
Xandy's smiled broadened. "He kissed me," she said lightly.
All the girls gasped. "Oh my gosh!" yelled Hannah. "Really!"
"Yes. We were saying goodbye and he kissed me!"
Everyone cheered for Xandy, although Hermione noticed a lot of the girls sported frowns. Jealous, Hermione thought lightly. Already.
Soon Parvati came home as well. "Guys," she exclaimed. "It was positively lovely! We talked about everything! And he kissed me good night," she said happily. Everyone sighed dreamily.
The next day, another date box arrived. This time it was Blaise who intercepted it, and she screeched in a manner similar to that of Lavender. "I'm reading it, girls," she yelled, "So you better listen up!"
All eyes were drawn to her as she read the letter. "Okay, this date is for Albany, Hannah, Hermione, Kate, and Rose!" While the other girls called grinned wildly, Hermione's face considerably dropped.
"Who got the individual date?" asked Kate worriedly.
Hermione shut her eyes and hoped to Merlin that it wasn't her. "It's Hermione!" Blaise screamed.
Hermione sighed. She half-expected it, almost. Anything that could go wrong was going wrong.
"You will all be going to a spa with Draco!"
Hermione didn't really listen until she heard Hannah shout, "We get to see Draco in his swimming trunks! Yes!"
Only then did she realize what a day she was in for.
A/N: Gosh, I'm so excited I'm actually getting a few reviews for this fic! A special thanks to everyone who didn't give me a one-line review, I LOVE you people! That is, Sylvan Tears, Jocelyn Padoga, invisible2u, tom4eva, Raven Mizt, Morgan, Lady Jade Green, Λ__Λ, LMTran. Thank you so much. I'm sorry I'd list you all but I don't have the time; I appreciate every review so please keep them coming!