Pure Happiness
Chapter 2-
Disgusting Ferrets
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Back in the Gryffindor common room, Hermione plopped down into a nearby squishy armchair and closed her eyes in frustration. She kept thinking about the fact that her archenemy- with the exception of Lord Voldemort being her overall enemy- was Head Boy. To her, it was an outrage; he was a disgrace to the very job that was awarded to him.
'How could Professor Dumbledore have been so… well, stupid?' was the main thought racing through her complex mind. 'Well, I can't say that he hasn't done anything to deserve this, because he is top in all of his classes, as much as I hate to admit it. But he's so mean! He's got the personality of a troll!' She leaned over to the couch adjacent to her and snatched a golden pillow away from it. She put it to her face and screamed into it with all the passion of hate that she could. When she lifted her head off of the pillow, she saw a grinning Seamus staring at her.
"Need to talk?" he inquired. Hermione sighed deeply and put the pillow on her lap. Seamus walked over to the scarlet couch and plopped down on it.
"Well… I don't know," she said. Seamus feigned being hurt by putting his hand over his heart and making a sad face. "No, no, Seamus, it's not that I don't trust you or anything… it's just I don't know if I want to really talk about it yet…."
"Well, if you ever need a shoulder to cry on…," he remarked, standing up and starting for the staircase that led to the boy's dormitories.
"I'll be sure to find Ginny!" Hermione exclaimed, snorting. She knew it was a corny joke and all, but only because Seamus rolled his eyes and raced upstairs. Hermione had to admit that she was a bit puzzled as to why Seamus started caring about her problems. Tired and fatigued, Hermione shrugged it off and went off to bed.
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Draco Malfoy was amused. The year had hardly begun and everything was already working out quite smoothly to his advantage. Goody-Goody Granger was clearly upset as to the fact that he had obtained the position of Head Boy, and Scarhead, as he was so affectionately called, had been almost pushed into the lake.
Of course, there was still the Slytherin plan to get all of the Gryffindor losers. Pansy, Blaise, and Theo Nott were still laying the idea out. But the three of them, he had to admit, were very good at blackmailing, backstabbing, and generally being Slytherin. A different fellow Slytherin was worried that the Gryffindors would find out about the plan and make a plot against them, too. However, Draco scoffed at the chance of that occurring. They were too… ah… noble to sink that low.
Entering the Great Hall for breakfast, Draco smirked at everyone he passed by…. That was, of course, with the exception of those who looked too happy, of whom he scowled angrily at. When he opened the huge doors to enter the Hall, a giant wave of chatter hit him hard. He stepped back, unsure why there was an excess amount of talking going on. He shook his head and strutted over to the Slytherin table. He sat down next to Pansy Parkinson, and she shrieked with glee. Draco knew Pansy fancied him… yet they still acted just as friends. Draco grabbed a particularly juicy looking apple and leaned over to Pansy.
"Is the plan complete yet?" he hissed. He ran a hand over his sleek platinum hair and bit the apple quite noisily.
"Not quite. But it should be ready soon…!" she replied, eyes glittering. Draco sat upright once again and smiled- and smiling for him was rare- to himself. He looked over at the Gryffindor table. They were so pathetic. It was all he could do to not strangle them all with his bare hands. He spotted the Golden Trio… yet today they looked different than usual. Harry and Ron were throwing food at each other, but Hermione sat leaned on the table, hands supporting her chin, eyes unfocused.
Up at the Teacher's table, Professor Dumbledore stood up and clinked a knife against his goblet. "Students!" he boomed across the Hall. The chatter died down and Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Thank you. I hate to interrupt your breakfast, but I must announce that everyone must be present tonight at dinner… especially the seventh years. This is because the school has closed the deal on our… ahem… surprise. Have a good first day back, everyone…." He sat back down and turned to Professor McGonagall, and they immediately started discussing the pros and cons of using magic for discipline.
Back at the Slytherin table, Draco turned to Blaise Zambini. "Oy… Blaise! What do you think the surprise is?" Blaise pushed his dark auburn hair out of his deep blue eyes and sent Draco a skeptical look.
"Please, Malfoy. It's probably just some dumb contest thing like the Triwizard Tournament," he said, full of doubt. Goyle, who had been stuffing a ridiculous amount of pancakes in his mouth, looked confused.
"But that was thing was cool!" he mumbled. Blaise rolled his eyes and left the table. Draco was still curious, though. What on earth could that surprise be?
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The seventh year Gryffindors' first class that day was Divination. Hermione, of course, had dropped that "pointless" class and had Arithmancy instead. When she entered the empty classroom, she sat in the very front row, in the middle seat. She reached into her bag and pulled out a perfectly sharpened quill and her book. She lay them down neatly on the desk, and enlaced her fingers on the desk, ready for class.
Draco entered the Arithmancy classroom, and to his utter disgust, found Hermione all set and ready in the front row. He scoffed at her… perfectness, and slouched to a seat in the very back of the room. There, he flung his bag on the ground and slumped far down in his hard wooden chair. Extremely bored already, he watched and analyzed Hermione in the front row.
'Hmm,' he thought. 'She looks almost exactly the same every single bloody year. You'd think she'd actually do something about her frizzy hair. It's so unattractive… Viktor Krum must've been on drugs to have taken her to the Yule Ball.' Yet when he thought that, he remembered back to that very day.
Flashback
Draco was in his dormitory, gelling his hair to perfection. When he was satisfied, he pulled on his expensive black dress robes with the high collar. When he thought he looked alright, he strutted down the stairs to find Pansy Parkinson waiting for him by the Portrait hole. When she spotted him, she hurried over to him, clutching a camera similar to Colin Creevey's.
"Good evening, Pansy. You look… er… quite nice tonight," Draco said hesitantly. Of course, it wasn't his choice to bring Pansy as a date. It was their father's idea. They would've loved to have a nice Pureblood marriage between the two. Pansy and he were just friends, and they had decided last year (third year) to stay that way. Yet Draco thought it was appropriate to comment on her wardrobe.
"Right, Draco…" she giggled. "Listen, if we wish to convince our parents that we were having a great night together, let's owl them a picture of us… SMILING." Draco scowled while Pansy grabbed Blaise. "Blaise, be a dear and take a photograph of us," she said. Blaise smirked at Draco and took quite a few pictures of the two. Draco remained the same in all of the pictures, smiling forcedly. Pansy, however, posed in each one. There was one where she looked like she was laughing at one of Draco's jokes, one gazing at him, one applying lipstick… it was all one big photo shoot.
When Blaise was finally done taking the mickey out of Draco, they all set out for the Great Hall. Pansy grabbed Draco's arm and led them over to a table with smoking punch. It was when Pansy was pouring drinks that Draco saw Hermione.
'Wow…' he thought. 'I wonder who she is? I doubt I've seen her before. Well, she's gorgeous.' He was contemplating asking her to dance when Pansy glided over to him with the drinks. She sneered in disgust when she saw Draco looking at the girl in the bright periwinkle robes.
"Draco… what are you doing?" she hissed. Draco faced Pansy, completely puzzled.
"What are you jabbering on about?" he asked. Pansy looked at him and shrieked,
"That's the Mudblood Granger you're staring at!" Draco's jaw nearly hit the floor… and he found he couldn't say one bad thing about her appearance. Her hair was sleek and shiny, up in an elegant knot. Her smile was a tad bit different; he couldn't place his finger on the difference…. Altogether, she looked… quite lovely.
End Flashback
Hermione turned around slowly and saw Draco staring at her. She quickly faced the front again, afraid to ask him why he kept looking at her. Though she was nervous, she was more curious as to the reason why. She cautiously turned around and grabbed the back of her chair.
"Malfoy," she exclaimed, pronouncing the word quite clearly. "Would you stop staring at me? It's making me nervous." Draco sat up and smirked at her. "Don't you smirk at me, Ferret. What do you want?" His smirk left his face at the word "ferret".
"Oh, do shut up, Mudblood. Why the hell would I want to stare at you, anyhow? You're so ugly that I think I may regurgitate if my eyes linger on you for too long," he spat. Hermione was outraged. She stood up and raced to the back of the room. She raised her hand to slap him, but he grabbed her wrist. "Please. I just took a shower, see, and your filthy hands may dirty me up a bit." Tears raced to her eyes, and she wrenched her hand away from his tight grip.
"You're disgusting," she whispered. She walked back to her desk and sat down, regaining her pride. "Breathe in, breathe out," she repeated to herself quietly. Feeling calmer, she opened her eyes, and Professor Vector walked in chatting with a couple of other students. Seeing his favorite student ready for class, he clapped his hands and walked over to her.
"Ah, good morning, Hermione!" he cried exuberantly. "I trust you're ready for an invigorating hour of Arithmancy, no?" He winked at her, and it was all she could do to send him a shaky smile.
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And so ends Chapter 2. I didn't get any reviews… ah, well. Please review!! I'd love to hear some feedback.