The Bachelor Chapter 10

Hermione threw her stuff messily into the brown suitcase, unhappy that she had to change roommates now that Millicent was gone. She trudged down the hall with the heavy suitcase to Hannah's room. Hannah's roommate Lavender had also been eliminated, and Parvati was in a very crabby mood.

"Hey, Hermione," Hannah said, looking up from perfectly painted pink and polished nails.

"Hello, Hannah," Hermione gasped, dragging the heavy suitcase into the room. Stupid clerk had been wrong. "Fun and sexy" wear was by no means light.

"You know, Hermione," Hannah said seriously. "There are four of us left. This is where it gets real."

Hermione nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah," she grunted, finally heaving the suitcase and dropping it with a sickening plop onto her new bed.

"It's hometown dates for the next four days."

Hermione's listening magically came back to her as Hannah said the words. "Hometown dates?"

"Yeah," Hannah said condescendingly. "Blimey, Hermione, don't you know what hometown dates are?"

Pouting because indeed this was yet another thing she didn't know, Hermione shook her head and snapped, "No. What are they?"

"Well," Hannah said, hopping off her bed and making her way over to her make-up table, even though she already had a not-so-subtle amount on, "Draco gets to visit each of our hometowns, you know."

"Hometowns?" Hermione asked weakly.

"Yes, Hermione. Where you grew up? Mine's Manchester. Where's yours?"

"Er," Hermione said intelligently as she tried to process the hefty amount of information. "London but did you say…you said he comes and visits our homes?"

"Oh, yes. You can take him round London all you want. And you can have dinner with your parents and see if they'll like him."

Hermione visibly shuddered. Draco was beginning to grow on her but what would her mum and dad say to him? How many summers had she vented about his absolutely childish pranks? Oh dear. She could picture them sitting around the table right now.

"Hermione," her mother would say cheerfully. "Do introduce us to your handsome friend!"

Hermione's father would grunt unappreciatively and Draco would say, "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Granger. I'm Draco Malfoy."

Hermione's father would look up suddenly from the roast beef and her mum's wrinkles would arrange themselves into a frown. "Draco Malfoy, did you say?" she'd ask Draco.

Draco would nod.

Then her mother would turn to Hermione and say, "But darling, isn't this the boy you'd complained about all through your years at that lovely boarding school of yours?"

Hermione would swallow the soggy mashed potatoes she'd been holding in her mouth to keep herself from talking during the awkward conversation. "Erm, yes. But didn't you know he was the candidate on that Bachelor show and I've actually made it to one of the last rounds."

Heavens, no.

Hannah gave Hermione an off sort of smile. "Are you all there, Hermione? You're eyes are all glazed over."

"Oh. Just thinking about good old London. Pleasant weather, isn't it?" Hermione babbled.

Hannah shot her another look but nevertheless changed the conversation to head in a more selfish direction. "I can't wait to show Draco my favorite ice-skating rink. It's just north of our flat. Hope you have fun in London…but not too much fun. I'm going to get him, after all," she said easily, sliding out of the room to converse with the other two girls.

Hermione stared after her and frowned. The girls did view her as serious competition. Interesting. Very interesting. Shaking her head she followed Hannah out.

Parvati was looking rather dismal now that Lavender was gone. "I was hoping," she said sourly, "that Lavender would get to stay. We had so much fun discussing every aspect of Draco."

"Every aspect?" piped up sex-crazed Blaise Zabini. "Oooh, tell me!"

Parvati swatted at Blaise. "Oh, shut up. You can probably describe that aspect better than we can. None of us has seen him, have we?"

Hermione left the conversation. It was really getting silly and she was getting rather tired of it. She decided to take a walk in the garden. The show was quite a debacle of course, but she had been enjoying it. However, she craved a much-needed break from health-crazed, sex-crazed, and overall crazy girls.

The garden was every bit as spectacular as she'd hoped the first day she'd come around. Marble statues spewed water out in a trickling fashion creating a very peaceful environment.

She breathed in lilac scented air as she walked around, for the first time in true peace, wearing plain old robes and boring brown flat shoes, her hair a messy thing of frizz piled unceremoniously on top of her head. Now this was life. She didn't care about looking great; comfort was absolutely key.

"Hermione," someone drawled behind her. She spun around, the frizzed hair whipping her in the face as she did so.

"Ouch," she muttered as she took in the sight in front of her. Of course the blonde that blocked her view was none other than Draco. "Hello, you," she said off-handedly, in what she hoped was a friendly-but-not-kind voice. If such a thing existed of course. She wouldn't want Draco to go and get the wrong idea, would she?

"What are you doing down here?" he asked conversationally, strolling past her with his arms behind his back, looking like a right little professor. A professor…now, an intellectual man was one who was truly handsome. But of course, that didn't apply to Draco.

"Could say the same to you," she replied casually, although suddenly butterflies seemed to swarm the air. Or were they just in her pitter-pattering heart? Pitter-pattering? What was she, an old woman who heaved a gigantic bosom every now and then?

Oh, dear.

"I love botany," he said as he inspected a rhododendron with ease. "Especially these non-magical plants. They're enchanting, aren't they?"

"Hilarious," she replied, smiling at his small joke. "I was just taking a walk, getting some air…having a bagel or two," she said, pulling one out from her robes.

"A bagel?" he asked, evidently confused.

"I'm not allowed to eat bagels in there," she replied distractedly as she tore off the wrapping viciously.

He looked at her, those pointy blonde brows raised in consideration. Hermione could almost see his mind working; wondering if she was joking or if she was actually serious. She decided to help him out just a tad little bit. "Well, er, girls these days are rather health conscious and bagels aren't healthy enough for them. Bagels with cream cheese, that is."

The corner of Draco's mouth began to twitch and it looked like he was refining an odd little smile. Bit of a difference from the ever-present smirk that could be seen on those pink lips. "Interesting," he managed. "Quite interesting."

"I thought so," Hermione replied awkwardly with a small smile. She dove into the bagel, cream cheese and all, remembering a little too late that she was behaving far from lady-like in the least, with white cream cheese splattered across her mouth and bagel crumbs down the front of her robes.

She looked guiltily over at Draco who was alternating between looking at the different flowers and at Hermione's newfound accessories. Hurriedly she wiped her mouth, sticky residue from the cream cheese staining her hands.

He laughed. "You're really a klutz," he teased. "Now what would Hannah say if she saw you in such a predicament?"

Hermione grinned sheepishly. "She'd pound my head into the pavement."

He was intrigued. "Is she vicious?" he asked hopefully.

It was Hermione's turn to burst out laughing, in her usual half-snort half-giggle half-uproarious laughter sort of noise. It was unique, her friends told her. She was not in the least embarrassed by it, but right now, she did not want to giggle. Yet, once again, she felt this awful, awful urge to just let free and let those damn giggles come. Who bloody giggled? Fighting the urge, Hermione managed to say with a straight face, "You're a moron."

"Ah, Hermione. Never too old for those types of things," he acknowledged. "Don't worry, beaver-teeth, I'm the same way."

"Oh, shut up," she said, mock-haughtily, but what seventh-year Hermione would have Jelly Legged for, twenty-three going on twenty-four Hermione smiled and horrendously giggled at.

Draco turned to observe some violets, and Hermione ambled around the garden, sneaking looks at him every now and then and appreciating his wonderful sense of learning. Now, she really did like a man who knew his plants.

Heavens! Hit with sudden realization, Hermione stumbled towards him and muttered a sudden, "I'll see you later but I must get dressed," or something just as inane as that. She couldn't believe…oh, bloody hell, no…when in the world had she started seeing "Draco" instead of "Malfoy"? When had that happened? Why hadn't anyone told her?

Stupid brain, she cursed. Now she was getting a little too close for comfort. Much too close, actually. She hurriedly left the garden behind her.

Inside, Parvati was packing for the hometown date. "It's overnight," she informed Hermione gleefully.

Hermione could not take news like that at a time like this. Overnight! Overnight, did she say! Barely even mumbling a "hell!" to Parvati, Hermione stomped into her room, where Hannah was looking at a British Vogue, making comments such as, "ooh, those muggles do know their fabrics," and "my, my, Blaise, it's satiny! Perfect for lingerie, no?"

Hermione, instantly bored, wandered back out to Parvati, taking deep breaths to calm her frayed nerves. "So, what are you packing?" she asked, out of lack of anything better to do.

"Oh, a mag or two for the ride up—I'm meeting him there, we're not going to be able to go up together, unfortunately… and of course, my make-up kit, a toothbrush, hairbrush, hair pins, my new lemon v-shaped robes, and most definitely my sexiest black lingerie. It's lacy, too."

Hermione nodded, trying in her mind to figure out what in the world she was going to pack. Flannel pajamas came to mind instead of lingerie…after all, she didn't keep sexy, black, lacy, or see-through in her wardrobe. Just wasn't going to happen.

"Well, you have fun," she said warmly. "Where are you from?"

"Liverpool, actually. I'm a bit worried though. I share a flat with Padma, and what if Draco likes her better than me? After all, Padma is so much smarter. It's very depressing," Parvati sniffed, falling back into her doleful mood.

"Oh, cheer up," Hermione replied warmly. "He'll love you."

But somehow cheering up the girls and reassuring them that Draco was indeed quite fond of them wasn't as uplifting as it had been once. Somehow it had lost all of its charm and she didn't want to tell them lies. She didn't want them to think that Draco fancied any of them.

Maybe he did, though.

Parvati departed that afternoon before lunch, and the girls waved her off, sporting fake smiles of happiness while the second that Parvati's back was turned, it was quickly replaced by a jealous frown.

"Don't worry," Hannah said placidly. "We'll all get a turn."

Hermione looked at her in surprise. Hannah had just taken her role as mediator of the group! Well! That was news, indeed, and she wasn't so sure that she was very pleased with it. "Yes, of course we will," she said quickly, looking pointedly at Blaise, who was still frowning.

"You know," Blaise said angrily, "I'm the one who gave her that black lingerie."

Hermione laughed. "You mean you bought it for her?"

"No! We both went down to Risqué, the expensive witches' lingerie shop off of Hogsmeade's corner? You can't even see it unless you're eighteen, you know. They don't want second years wandering 'round in there. But I did."

Hermione was appalled. Breaking rules at Hogwarts! Well, she had to, but only because she had to save the world! And that was because Harry and Ron had forced her to. "How'd you get in?" she asked, disgusted with herself for being fascinated. But she never could resist a chunky nugget of knowledge.

Blaise smiled distantly, as if she was  remembering the…happy times, so to speak. "Oh. Amazing little spell, actually, that you perform upon yourself—let's you see the world through adult eyes. Bit dangerous."

"What's the spell?" Hermione asked quickly, before she could mentally berate herself for such dirty thoughts crossing her mind.

"Visitasum Synsosium. Bit dirty, too."

"Dirty!" Hermione said, absolutely enthralled by this point.

"Yep. Gets you thinking that older men are sexy and all of that rot. But it's okay. The shop was awfully fun."

"Oh, get out of here, Blaise!" Hannah interrupted, laughing. "You nasty-minded thing!"

Blaise smiled provocatively. "What can I say? I was a quick learner."

Hermione shook her head but a small smile did grace her features as she excused herself from the uproarious two—they'd moved on to topics Hermione didn't care to discuss. She didn't care that dragon hide sweatpants were now the hottest thing since bread.

She was tired. She'd been on the show too bloody long to really care that the cameras were following her everywhere, but right now, that stupid dwarf with a mullet that was coaxing her ( "Hey, baby, give us a smile for the camera…yeah, there we go, let's see those pearly whites…shake that arse when you walk…shake it, shake it…sway, babe, you can do this!") sleazily was really beginning to bother her. And she was absolutely itching to use some magic. Literally.

As the night progressed, the other girls could mildly hear her enraged screams and a couple of explosions here and there, maybe a flash or two of jet purple light. Rumor had it, later, that the cameraman quit.

After taking care of business, Hermione walked into her room, dead tired and more than ready to call it a day. Of course, there was still that tiny chore of packing for a hometown date, maybe planning ahead on what to do in London. Bugger. Maybe she should just tell Drac—Malfo—whatever!—that she should just bloody leave the show already. He didn't need her help, and right now she was getting a little too involved for her own tastes.

But right now she was too tired. It could wait till tomorrow.

A/N: Excillian- you are amazing! I loved your reviews so much—they were so fabulously long and wonderful and specific! As for the girls…I know, it does get annoying after a while, even to write it. But my reasoning is, they're not really going to change after the first five chapters, but if you notice, it's toned down because there are only a few of them left now.

If you're one of the many people that asked when there would be romance…I say, look closely. It's been there. I love all of you that saw the subtle changes in Hermione—so I'm not being too drastic with this chapter. But if you think I am, don't hesitate to tell me.

If you're on of the few people that felt bad for Millicent, I'm with you! I loved Millicent and I wouldn't have gotten rid of her unless I absolutely had to for the plot. Which unfortunately I did.

Anyhow, if you want an e-mail update, just leave your e-mail add in the review. Speaking of, please do, they are all so amazing.