Chapter Four: The Coming of Harry and Ron
The game lasted until around five pm. Hermione and Draco slaughtered her friends, until that last part when they almost made a comeback. But it wasn't enough.
"You two should play pro! Your so good." Ray noted as they walked Doreen home.
"Yeah, that or teach us how to play, and we'll go Pro!" Doreen laughed. Hermione didn't know what happened when she was gone, but her friends suddenly seemed much happier then they were ever since she went away. Never question miracles. She thought to herself. And laughed along.
Draco, the mean evil Sythrin had seemed more, well, nice, today. Hermione didn't know why, but she was sure that, given the chance, he'd either stay like this for good, or morph back to his original self. She hoped the first came to pass. He wasn't half bad to know when he was being kind.
"Well here's my place, see you three later, oh yeah, and I'm helping my mom clean tomorrow so we'll have to hold off the rematch for another day. K well bye" and she went inside and shut the door behind her. Next was Ray's place. Which was a little further off then Doreen's.
"Hermione, today was nice, don't you think? WE haven't played tennis like that in ages!" Ray smiled, and Hermione grinned.
"Yeah it was." And they stayed quiet for a while. Walking they all just smiled, even Malfoy.
"It was nice getting to know you and Doreen, Ray." Draco stated breaking the silence. "I don't have to many friends of my own, most people just flaunt over me."
"Well it was nice to meet another friend of Hermione's." Draco turned cold, suddenly.
"I'm not, nor have I ever been her friend." He stated shortly, almost as if he had been offended.
"Yeah, if you say so." Ray grinned as she moved her arms so her hands were behind her back. Hermione had trouble keeping her self from laughing. If only Ray knew the Draco I do.
"I don't see what so funny, Granger. And what's is that supposed to mean Ray? 'if I say so' you don't believe me do you?"
"Not one bit." She shook her head as if to emphasize her point. "and this is my place, so I'll see you two around sometime, hopefully more sooner then later. Bye Mione, Bye Draco." And she ran up to her house and went in.
"Alright, do you need any help getting to your house?" Draco asked as if she were a three year old baby, and not a sixteen year old witch.
"No, but I would like to talk as long as we are heading in the same direction." She smirked. "you have a lot of explaining to do Malfoy."
"Fine, I guess it's my punishment for living behind you." He drawled as if he didn't care, but Hermione knew better.
"You do not live behind me. you live behind the field that's behind my house, you know, the only house that's separate from the others?" She smiled ever so sweetly in his direction. "Now first, why were you friendly today, when you had no reason to be."
"Yes I did." He said shortly as he copied Ray's stance with the hands behind the neck.
"Care to brief me on this reason?" She said kindly as she ignored the annoyed look he had on his face.
"I was bored, and if I was mean, you wouldn't let me play, then I would have had nothing to do. I was kind so I would actually have something to do today." Draco looked over at her as they walked down the road leading to her house. "And don't flatter yourself Granger, I wouldn't have been nice unless I some how gained, you should know that much by now. Also, don't expect to not see me again, I'm coming over tomorrow to discuss that picture you drew. After that, then yes, plan on not seeing me for the rest of the summer."
They approached her house, but Draco didn't stop. Instead, he continued up to his house. "Well, if it matters much," Hermione muttered as she watched him walk off into the sun set. "You were actually nice to be around today, I myself wouldn't mind repeating the experience." Then she remembered something, she'd have to see him again. "Hay DRACO!" she called, and watched as he stopped and turned to face her.
"WHAT MUDBLOOD?" he called back, and she grimaced as he used the insult yet again in the place of her name. she was really surprise at how much it hurt her to hear it now, when it had hardly bothered her for the last six years. But that didn't matter now.
"I'LL SEE YOU AGAIN, AT LEAST FOR THE REMATCH AGAISNT RAY AND DORA!" she called, and saw him smile
"I ALMOST FORGOT, THANKS! SEE YOU LATER GRANGER!" and he turned and continued on home.
"Sure, no prob." She sighed as she opened her own door and walked inside.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Hay Mione, how was your day?" her mom greeted her as she walked in.
"It was fun mom!" She smiled forgetting how cold Draco turned when Ray had mentioned that they were considered friends now.
"And I see you played with Draco too." her mom was getting to a point, Hermione didn't like.
"We needed another player," She shrugged. "and he was the only one around."
"Oh I see." Hermione noted how her mom seemed to not believe her, but let it go. "You got normal mail today, Mione, its up on your bed."
"Thanks." And she started up the steps.
But before she could get up them her dad popped his head out of the kitchen and stated "Dinner will be ready in an hour and a half so don't fall asleep."
Smiling, Hermione nodded and went up to her room. Hedwig was still there, like she was supposed to be. "Hay girl, how about I get you a message to send to Harry?" and Hedwig hooted approvingly.
Looking over at her bed, she saw a white envelope. Picking it up she noticed it didn't have a return address. Puzzling over this, along with the fact that that she never got mail, she opened it. Inside was a letter, plain as can be. It wasn't written on parchment, so she knew it was either from Muggles, or a witch or wizard who knew the Muggle world fairly well.
Dear Ms. Granger
We are proud to inform you that you have been accepted to Separious School of Art and Witchcraft, continued. This is a continued schooling that takes place after your regular seven year school in the arts. Please write us back with a reply, to whether or not you wish to join us. Attached are the forms you need to fill out, and a school supply list. We hope to see you on Oct. 1st after your seventh year.
Sincerely,
Mildred Thorns Deputy head mistress.
That was really odd. Was the thought flowing though Hermione's head. Then another letter flew in from the window, no two. One was from a black owl the other a regular brown. She opened the brown first.
"This sure has been my day for letters!" she stated a tad bit annoyed. "What can these be about?"
Dear Ms. Granger,
By now you probably have noticed Draco Malfoy along with his family is staying in your neighborhood this summer.
"No duh, how could I have avoided it?" and she read on.
Well, you see we could help it, if that helps any. We are however asking for your help. Lucius Malfoy has come down with a very severe case of Amnesia. No we don't mean he forgot everything, no, he just forgot who he was, his personality. Well, he started acting like the first person he saw, Dumbledore. Ironic huh? Well any how, he needs to stay around muggles for a bit so he can gradually change back, they seem to have no impact on himself.
Then we found out that the only place with the lowest population of wizards in where you live. So we figured to send you a letter explaining things, you mustn't tell his family, they must believe that Lucius bought the house on his own free accord, so they can help mold him back.
Yes, you are probably wondering why we would want him back to normal, a good Malfoy is a great thing right? Well, we don't want to send him to his grave if we can help it. If you know who found out about this, he would surly kill him very quickly.
That's where you come in. We would appreciate it if you stayed away from him, as you are the only witch for five miles, besides Mrs. Malfoy. This would help us out a great deal, and make our lives much easier. But we wont blame you if you are forced into a situation with Mr. Malfoy, just try to act very neutral, upon anything! Once again thank you very, very much!
Cynthia Cobble WPHD
"Well isn't that dandy!" She really couldn't tell why she was angry, but she had a very good guess at it. Her guess, had, of course, something to do with the fact that she was told to stick around as well as stay far away from the Malfoys, to help her mortal enemy's father recover from amnesia about his own personality.
"Well, time for the next one, Sorry Hedwig, but I have to see if I'm needing to write any more letters." And she opened it. It smelled sweet, like poppies. She unfolded the letter.
Granger,
I'll be coming over around noon, I expect you to prepare for a long questioning session. Also, I expect to see that book that I saw my picture in. All of it. Not just my picture. And granger, if you have been drawing me all over its pages, I highly expect you to see a therapist. Soon.
Malfoy
"Ok then, well, mom and dad will both be out by then, so I guess its ok." She sat down at her desk and scribbled 'see you then' on the back handed it back to the black bird. Then she grabbed another piece of parchment for her letter to Harry.
"Let's see, what to write." she snapped her fingers and started to write.
Dear Harry, and Ron if you're with him,
Don't worry about me, I'm fine, really! Plus I have something I have to do over here this summer I can't go to Ron's. Also, I haven't seen my friends for ages! So I would highly appreciate if you stopped sending letters and howlers to change my mind, it just won't happen ok? I'll write you often and update you on what's going on around here so you wont need to worry.
See you at kings cross on the first, or may be sooner,
Hermione
She rolled up the paper and tied it to Hedwig's leg. Hedwig chirped happily as Hermione opened her window and let the bird soar out. She watched until Hedwig was well out of sight before she shut the window and drew her curtains. Sighing, she turned off her light and headed down for dinner.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The next Morning Hermione felt as though an earthquake had just started. But when she opened her eyes, she realized it was something much worse. Harry and Ron stood over her apparently very angry.
"EEK! Harry, Ron, honestly! Couldn't you two have waited until like ten?" she glanced at her clock to see that the time was nine thirty.
"Mione, we got your letter." Ron said drearily.
"You had to come all this way, wake me up, before ten, just to tell me you got my letter?" she asked, very confused.
"We were worried." Hermione hit her head.
"Did you even read the letter?" she asked very seriously.
"We did, and Mione, we think we deserve a very long explanation as to what you have to do out here, that's so important that you'd risk being around Malfoy!"
Sighing Hermione stepped out of bed, her light pink pajamas looking as if they were designed for a house elf, a rather tall house elf. She walked over to her desk grabbed the letter about Draco's dad, then thought again, and hid it in her desk.
When she turned around, she saw something in Harry's hand. That something, was the last thing Harry needed to see.
"Hermione what's this?" and he was about to open it, when it was snatched out of his hands, by a very scared girl.
"Don't touch that!" she snapped at him. The look on her face, mixed images of scared and confused, made it appear as though she didn't recognize the two people in front of her.
"Mione what's wrong?" Ron had come over to see what was going on.
"I need to stay here, for reasons that if I could tell you I would. You two however are not aloud to be anywhere near this place! So go! Hurry before the ministry sees you here." She lied beautifully.
"Mione," Harry started very worried. "What's in that book?"
"It's none of your business Harry! Really now Go!" she was very angry, she knew that she shouldn't be this way with her friends, it was probably just making them doubt her wanting to be here along with her sanity. But she also knew, that the longer they stayed, the longer until Draco's dad was healed and the longer they would be staying here.
"Mione, give me the book." Ron said calmly.
"No Ron." And her eyes instantly darkened "Leave now, before I owl the ministry and tell them your messing with their plans."
"At the end of our fourth year, Mione, we stopped listening to the ministry. Remember?"
"This is different, this has to do with someone's life, you can't stay here, or you risk their life!"
"Mione, I don't believe you." Harry said very seriously. Hermione, shocked, turned her back on her friends.
"Then why are you still here? Go, now, before I soak you with one of my acne causing potions." * She felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Mione, Listen, we are just worried. What your saying makes no sense, please tell us the truth, you can trust us. Is Malfoy putting you up to this?" Ron stepped up to her, being the neutral in the argument.
"Which one?" she asked softly.
"Draco of course!"
"No, Ron he isn't putting me up to this, could you two leave now, I promise to write every day so you know I'm fine. If I need you I'll owl instantly, ok?" She smiled reassuringly. Smirking, Ron took her book from her hands and opened it quickly. "Hermes!" She shouted quickly, before Ron got a good look at anything, and the book shut shocking Ron. He dropped the book. She dropped to the floor and held it to her chest tightly.
"Go now. Just .GO!" she shouted nearly at the top of her lungs. Both Harry and Ron were very confused by they way Hermione was acting, but they knew by now, that if she got this way, best to high tail it out of there.
When they were gone Hermione put her book on her night stand and instantly fell onto her bed. Then when she was sure her parents were gone, she started to cry.
*~*~*~*~*~
*= Ok first of all, I believe that the use of potions, isn't really using magic if they brewed them at school, thus it isn't an offense.
AN:
So, how did you like it? I wrote this while very asleep and forgive me if there are any obvious errors. I Also like this chapter very much because it puts in a plot, if any of you don't like what I have done, tell me please, and may be I'll change it.
Also keep up those reviews! They are nice encouragement to continue writing.
Thanks Relena
The game lasted until around five pm. Hermione and Draco slaughtered her friends, until that last part when they almost made a comeback. But it wasn't enough.
"You two should play pro! Your so good." Ray noted as they walked Doreen home.
"Yeah, that or teach us how to play, and we'll go Pro!" Doreen laughed. Hermione didn't know what happened when she was gone, but her friends suddenly seemed much happier then they were ever since she went away. Never question miracles. She thought to herself. And laughed along.
Draco, the mean evil Sythrin had seemed more, well, nice, today. Hermione didn't know why, but she was sure that, given the chance, he'd either stay like this for good, or morph back to his original self. She hoped the first came to pass. He wasn't half bad to know when he was being kind.
"Well here's my place, see you three later, oh yeah, and I'm helping my mom clean tomorrow so we'll have to hold off the rematch for another day. K well bye" and she went inside and shut the door behind her. Next was Ray's place. Which was a little further off then Doreen's.
"Hermione, today was nice, don't you think? WE haven't played tennis like that in ages!" Ray smiled, and Hermione grinned.
"Yeah it was." And they stayed quiet for a while. Walking they all just smiled, even Malfoy.
"It was nice getting to know you and Doreen, Ray." Draco stated breaking the silence. "I don't have to many friends of my own, most people just flaunt over me."
"Well it was nice to meet another friend of Hermione's." Draco turned cold, suddenly.
"I'm not, nor have I ever been her friend." He stated shortly, almost as if he had been offended.
"Yeah, if you say so." Ray grinned as she moved her arms so her hands were behind her back. Hermione had trouble keeping her self from laughing. If only Ray knew the Draco I do.
"I don't see what so funny, Granger. And what's is that supposed to mean Ray? 'if I say so' you don't believe me do you?"
"Not one bit." She shook her head as if to emphasize her point. "and this is my place, so I'll see you two around sometime, hopefully more sooner then later. Bye Mione, Bye Draco." And she ran up to her house and went in.
"Alright, do you need any help getting to your house?" Draco asked as if she were a three year old baby, and not a sixteen year old witch.
"No, but I would like to talk as long as we are heading in the same direction." She smirked. "you have a lot of explaining to do Malfoy."
"Fine, I guess it's my punishment for living behind you." He drawled as if he didn't care, but Hermione knew better.
"You do not live behind me. you live behind the field that's behind my house, you know, the only house that's separate from the others?" She smiled ever so sweetly in his direction. "Now first, why were you friendly today, when you had no reason to be."
"Yes I did." He said shortly as he copied Ray's stance with the hands behind the neck.
"Care to brief me on this reason?" She said kindly as she ignored the annoyed look he had on his face.
"I was bored, and if I was mean, you wouldn't let me play, then I would have had nothing to do. I was kind so I would actually have something to do today." Draco looked over at her as they walked down the road leading to her house. "And don't flatter yourself Granger, I wouldn't have been nice unless I some how gained, you should know that much by now. Also, don't expect to not see me again, I'm coming over tomorrow to discuss that picture you drew. After that, then yes, plan on not seeing me for the rest of the summer."
They approached her house, but Draco didn't stop. Instead, he continued up to his house. "Well, if it matters much," Hermione muttered as she watched him walk off into the sun set. "You were actually nice to be around today, I myself wouldn't mind repeating the experience." Then she remembered something, she'd have to see him again. "Hay DRACO!" she called, and watched as he stopped and turned to face her.
"WHAT MUDBLOOD?" he called back, and she grimaced as he used the insult yet again in the place of her name. she was really surprise at how much it hurt her to hear it now, when it had hardly bothered her for the last six years. But that didn't matter now.
"I'LL SEE YOU AGAIN, AT LEAST FOR THE REMATCH AGAISNT RAY AND DORA!" she called, and saw him smile
"I ALMOST FORGOT, THANKS! SEE YOU LATER GRANGER!" and he turned and continued on home.
"Sure, no prob." She sighed as she opened her own door and walked inside.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Hay Mione, how was your day?" her mom greeted her as she walked in.
"It was fun mom!" She smiled forgetting how cold Draco turned when Ray had mentioned that they were considered friends now.
"And I see you played with Draco too." her mom was getting to a point, Hermione didn't like.
"We needed another player," She shrugged. "and he was the only one around."
"Oh I see." Hermione noted how her mom seemed to not believe her, but let it go. "You got normal mail today, Mione, its up on your bed."
"Thanks." And she started up the steps.
But before she could get up them her dad popped his head out of the kitchen and stated "Dinner will be ready in an hour and a half so don't fall asleep."
Smiling, Hermione nodded and went up to her room. Hedwig was still there, like she was supposed to be. "Hay girl, how about I get you a message to send to Harry?" and Hedwig hooted approvingly.
Looking over at her bed, she saw a white envelope. Picking it up she noticed it didn't have a return address. Puzzling over this, along with the fact that that she never got mail, she opened it. Inside was a letter, plain as can be. It wasn't written on parchment, so she knew it was either from Muggles, or a witch or wizard who knew the Muggle world fairly well.
Dear Ms. Granger
We are proud to inform you that you have been accepted to Separious School of Art and Witchcraft, continued. This is a continued schooling that takes place after your regular seven year school in the arts. Please write us back with a reply, to whether or not you wish to join us. Attached are the forms you need to fill out, and a school supply list. We hope to see you on Oct. 1st after your seventh year.
Sincerely,
Mildred Thorns Deputy head mistress.
That was really odd. Was the thought flowing though Hermione's head. Then another letter flew in from the window, no two. One was from a black owl the other a regular brown. She opened the brown first.
"This sure has been my day for letters!" she stated a tad bit annoyed. "What can these be about?"
Dear Ms. Granger,
By now you probably have noticed Draco Malfoy along with his family is staying in your neighborhood this summer.
"No duh, how could I have avoided it?" and she read on.
Well, you see we could help it, if that helps any. We are however asking for your help. Lucius Malfoy has come down with a very severe case of Amnesia. No we don't mean he forgot everything, no, he just forgot who he was, his personality. Well, he started acting like the first person he saw, Dumbledore. Ironic huh? Well any how, he needs to stay around muggles for a bit so he can gradually change back, they seem to have no impact on himself.
Then we found out that the only place with the lowest population of wizards in where you live. So we figured to send you a letter explaining things, you mustn't tell his family, they must believe that Lucius bought the house on his own free accord, so they can help mold him back.
Yes, you are probably wondering why we would want him back to normal, a good Malfoy is a great thing right? Well, we don't want to send him to his grave if we can help it. If you know who found out about this, he would surly kill him very quickly.
That's where you come in. We would appreciate it if you stayed away from him, as you are the only witch for five miles, besides Mrs. Malfoy. This would help us out a great deal, and make our lives much easier. But we wont blame you if you are forced into a situation with Mr. Malfoy, just try to act very neutral, upon anything! Once again thank you very, very much!
Cynthia Cobble WPHD
"Well isn't that dandy!" She really couldn't tell why she was angry, but she had a very good guess at it. Her guess, had, of course, something to do with the fact that she was told to stick around as well as stay far away from the Malfoys, to help her mortal enemy's father recover from amnesia about his own personality.
"Well, time for the next one, Sorry Hedwig, but I have to see if I'm needing to write any more letters." And she opened it. It smelled sweet, like poppies. She unfolded the letter.
Granger,
I'll be coming over around noon, I expect you to prepare for a long questioning session. Also, I expect to see that book that I saw my picture in. All of it. Not just my picture. And granger, if you have been drawing me all over its pages, I highly expect you to see a therapist. Soon.
Malfoy
"Ok then, well, mom and dad will both be out by then, so I guess its ok." She sat down at her desk and scribbled 'see you then' on the back handed it back to the black bird. Then she grabbed another piece of parchment for her letter to Harry.
"Let's see, what to write." she snapped her fingers and started to write.
Dear Harry, and Ron if you're with him,
Don't worry about me, I'm fine, really! Plus I have something I have to do over here this summer I can't go to Ron's. Also, I haven't seen my friends for ages! So I would highly appreciate if you stopped sending letters and howlers to change my mind, it just won't happen ok? I'll write you often and update you on what's going on around here so you wont need to worry.
See you at kings cross on the first, or may be sooner,
Hermione
She rolled up the paper and tied it to Hedwig's leg. Hedwig chirped happily as Hermione opened her window and let the bird soar out. She watched until Hedwig was well out of sight before she shut the window and drew her curtains. Sighing, she turned off her light and headed down for dinner.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The next Morning Hermione felt as though an earthquake had just started. But when she opened her eyes, she realized it was something much worse. Harry and Ron stood over her apparently very angry.
"EEK! Harry, Ron, honestly! Couldn't you two have waited until like ten?" she glanced at her clock to see that the time was nine thirty.
"Mione, we got your letter." Ron said drearily.
"You had to come all this way, wake me up, before ten, just to tell me you got my letter?" she asked, very confused.
"We were worried." Hermione hit her head.
"Did you even read the letter?" she asked very seriously.
"We did, and Mione, we think we deserve a very long explanation as to what you have to do out here, that's so important that you'd risk being around Malfoy!"
Sighing Hermione stepped out of bed, her light pink pajamas looking as if they were designed for a house elf, a rather tall house elf. She walked over to her desk grabbed the letter about Draco's dad, then thought again, and hid it in her desk.
When she turned around, she saw something in Harry's hand. That something, was the last thing Harry needed to see.
"Hermione what's this?" and he was about to open it, when it was snatched out of his hands, by a very scared girl.
"Don't touch that!" she snapped at him. The look on her face, mixed images of scared and confused, made it appear as though she didn't recognize the two people in front of her.
"Mione what's wrong?" Ron had come over to see what was going on.
"I need to stay here, for reasons that if I could tell you I would. You two however are not aloud to be anywhere near this place! So go! Hurry before the ministry sees you here." She lied beautifully.
"Mione," Harry started very worried. "What's in that book?"
"It's none of your business Harry! Really now Go!" she was very angry, she knew that she shouldn't be this way with her friends, it was probably just making them doubt her wanting to be here along with her sanity. But she also knew, that the longer they stayed, the longer until Draco's dad was healed and the longer they would be staying here.
"Mione, give me the book." Ron said calmly.
"No Ron." And her eyes instantly darkened "Leave now, before I owl the ministry and tell them your messing with their plans."
"At the end of our fourth year, Mione, we stopped listening to the ministry. Remember?"
"This is different, this has to do with someone's life, you can't stay here, or you risk their life!"
"Mione, I don't believe you." Harry said very seriously. Hermione, shocked, turned her back on her friends.
"Then why are you still here? Go, now, before I soak you with one of my acne causing potions." * She felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Mione, Listen, we are just worried. What your saying makes no sense, please tell us the truth, you can trust us. Is Malfoy putting you up to this?" Ron stepped up to her, being the neutral in the argument.
"Which one?" she asked softly.
"Draco of course!"
"No, Ron he isn't putting me up to this, could you two leave now, I promise to write every day so you know I'm fine. If I need you I'll owl instantly, ok?" She smiled reassuringly. Smirking, Ron took her book from her hands and opened it quickly. "Hermes!" She shouted quickly, before Ron got a good look at anything, and the book shut shocking Ron. He dropped the book. She dropped to the floor and held it to her chest tightly.
"Go now. Just .GO!" she shouted nearly at the top of her lungs. Both Harry and Ron were very confused by they way Hermione was acting, but they knew by now, that if she got this way, best to high tail it out of there.
When they were gone Hermione put her book on her night stand and instantly fell onto her bed. Then when she was sure her parents were gone, she started to cry.
*~*~*~*~*~
*= Ok first of all, I believe that the use of potions, isn't really using magic if they brewed them at school, thus it isn't an offense.
AN:
So, how did you like it? I wrote this while very asleep and forgive me if there are any obvious errors. I Also like this chapter very much because it puts in a plot, if any of you don't like what I have done, tell me please, and may be I'll change it.
Also keep up those reviews! They are nice encouragement to continue writing.
Thanks Relena