Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, they belong to the brilliant J.K Rowling. I might have come up with the plot, but I do not intend to make money on it.
A/N: First of all, sorry I haven't posted this as soon as I wanted blames her lack of muse
Second, Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for all your reviews! It's such a pleasure to read them and I really appreciate all of them! 3
Chapter Six – Whose side are you on?
Hermione woke up next morning at dawn and it seemed that she had just closed her eyes. She felt exhausted, like every muscle of her body had been beaten, but she felt a particular pain in her wrist, she looked at it and saw a dark bruise, 'That bastard!' she thought and cursed Draco (not literally). Now she'd have to be careful, she couldn't let anyone see that bruise, too many questions.
"Oh Crookshanks, can't we just stay in bed all day? I'm too tired to get up," said Hermione to the cat, who on the other hand had been able to get a lot of sleep, since he had fallen asleep a long time before Hermione and now he stretched himself and yawned rested, "you lucky cat!" she said while petting him.
Hermione pulled herself together and got out of bed. She dragged herself to the bathroom where she looked herself in the mirror while brushing her teeth, 'Holy cow! I look like a ghost, argh! This is what too little sleep does to you, now I'm all pale and ugly,' thought she and pouted. She splashed some cold water in her face, just to wake her up completely. 'I seriously need to get some sleep, maybe today after...oh crap, I have detention,' thought she, 'maybe if I poison Snape's breakfast then he'll...oh who am I kidding? This just sucks big time!'
When she was all dressed in her Hogwarts robe and as ready as she could get to face a new day, she went down to breakfast. She filled her plate with loads of different fruits and some bread, but then she discovered that she didn't feel hungry at all. In the mean time Harry and Ron had entered the Great Hall and instead of taking their usual seats next to Hermione, they had walked right by her. Apparently Ron had convinced Harry to freeze her out, 'Argh, I'll have to deal with that later,' thought Hermione and finished her breakfast.
When she was done she went to class, Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall.
"Today we are going to work on turning flowers into stone and back again to flowers," said Professor McGonagall after she had entered the classroom, "Miss Granger, why don't you start?" asked she and looked at Hermione.
Hermione didn't hear the Professor, she sat looking down in her book and was half asleep.
"Miss Granger, are you with us?" asked McGonagall and Hermione looked up and realized, when she saw the Professor's gaze aimed at her, that her absence of mind had been noticed.
"Erm, yes I'm here," said Hermione a bit dazed and she heard a few giggles from behind her, but she was unable to clarify who they came from.
The Professor let Hermione be and picked another student, and Hermione sighed, 'Oh how embarrassing!' thought she and was invisible for the rest of the class.
When the class was finally over and Hermione had remained invisible and silent, she left the classroom in a hurry. Even in the next couple of classes she kept to herself and didn't attract any attention to herself. At last it was time for lunch and Hermione, who actually felt hungry for the first time in a couple of days, hurried through the corridors to the Great Hall.
She found her seat in the Great Hall and filled her plate. No sign of Harry and Ron yet. 'Probably skipping lunch to practice Quidditch,' Hermione thought. When she was done and on her way out of the Great Hall, she suddenly heard her name.
"Miss Granger, can I talk to you for a second?"
Hermione turned around and saw that it was Professor McGonagall who was talking to her. Hermione smiled slightly and nodded. The Professor gestured for Hermione to step outside and into the corridor. Hermione was wondering about what on earth she wanted to talk to her about.
"Actually I am not the one who wants to talk to you," said McGonagall and smiled kindly at Hermione, "Headmaster Dumbledore is the one who wants to see you in his office."
"See me? But why?" asked Hermione curiously.
"You'll find out," answered Professor McGonagall, and then lead Hermione to the entrance to Dumbledore's office.
Soon Hermione found herself in the headmaster's office. The bookshelves piled up infront of her, as she entered, and pictures looked curiously at her.
"Erm, headmaster, are you there?" said Hermione and took a step forward, now she noticed the headmaster sitting in an armchair on her right.
"Hello Miss Granger," said he and looked up, smiling, "welcome."
"Eh, thanks," said Hermione and smiled back. Dumbledore continued to let his blue eyes rest on her and said nothing.
"I was told that you wanted to see me, sir," said Hermione when she couldn't endure the silence any longer.
"Oh, that's right, well come on and sit down. I want to talk to you about something," he said and conjured a chair for her. Hermione sat down and looked the headmaster.
"Well, you see, quite a few of your teachers have come to me, because they are worried about you," said Dumbledore.
"Worried? About me? Why?" asked Hermione surprised.
"They have noticed a certain change in your behavior lately. You haven't seem to be yourself. Madam Pince mentioned an episode in the library and a few of your other teachers have noticed that you haven't been quite as active in class as usual. Now, it is my responsibility that all the students are comfortable and happy to a certain extent on this school, so of course, I wanted to consult this with you," explained the headmaster in a warm voice.
Hermione started to feel a bit uncomfortable, of course her change of mood hadn't gone by unnoticed, but she'd never expected any of her teachers to react in this way nor having to discuss it with the headmaster himself. 'Surely he must have something better to do that talk about my silly teenage problems,' thought Hermione.
"I will not force you to talk about this if you won't, but do know that if there's anything wrong, then the staff and I will do all in our power to help," said Dumbledore and smiled.
'What on earth is he talking about? No one can help me," thought Hermione, then she decided that she might have to explain a bit.
"Well, I've just have a few bad days, you know, haven't slept that well because of the storm and then with detention and homework, it's just been a lot to deal with," said Hermione knowing she was only telling half of the truth.
"Ah, I see," said the headmaster with understanding, "Well then, perhaps you should relax some this afternoon, perhaps even take a nap," said he and laughed.
Hermione smiled and thought that that was an excellent idea, but then she remembered her detention.
"Yeah, that is a very good idea, but I have detention today, so –
The headmaster broke her off, "Not to worry dear, I've spoken to Severus and we came to the agreement that your detention is over, after all it was not such a bad thing you did," said Dumbledore and winked at Hermione. She smiled and was relived and slightly amused. 'Came to the agreement.. yeah right!' thought Hermione.
"Oh thank you, sir," she said.
"Now now, you should better get to class, otherwise you'll be more late than you already are," said Dumbledore.
Hermione got up and said goodbye quickly, then she hurried through the corridors and down to the cold dungeons. When she reached the classroom, she opened the door very cautiously and tried to sneak in as unnoticed as possible.
She was relieved when she saw that Professor Snape was writing something on the blackboard and therefore did not see her enter. She sat down on the only empty seat left, right infront of a certain Mr. Malfoy, but Hermione didn't quite worry about him right now, she was more concerned about what evil comment Snape might say when he saw her.
"Ah, so Miss Granger decided to show up today, how kind of you," said Professor Snape sarcastically as he turned around and sneered. Hermione flushed, but didn't reply and surprisingly enough, Snape left it by that and continued his lecture.
Hermione sat for a while and listened, but was then interrupted by someone who tapped her on the shoulder. She slowly turned her head and saw that the blond Malfoy heir was trying to get her attention.
"What?" she snapped in a whisper.
"Shh, Granger, when we win tomorrow, then meet me in the library two hours after the Quidditch match," whispered Draco.
"What if you don't win?" asked Hermione and couldn't help but to smirk a little.
"Don't worry Granger, we will," whispered Draco back, and he on the other hand didn't try to control the smirk that seemed to be stuck on his face.
"Mr. Malfoy, miss Granger, is this something you would like to share with the rest of us?" said Snape.
"Yes, Professor. Potter is throwing paper pellets at me," lied Draco and watched Harry turn in shock.
"Professor, sir, that is not true, I didn't do anything," said Potter.
"Is that so? Then why do I see paper pellets on Mr. Malfoy's table?" said Snape and raised an eyebrow while pointing at the paper pellets Draco's table, obviously planted there by Draco himself, "That'll be five points from Gryffindor," said Snape and smirked. The Slytherins giggled. The Gryffindors didn't, especially not Harry.
Hermione hadn't paid fully attention to what had just happened, she had been wondering about Draco's 'invitation'. She didn't quite understand why Draco had been showing so much interest in her lately, when he had been her, and her friends', enemy for so many years.
Potions class was soon over and Hermione headed back to the Gryffindors' common room, normally she would have walked with Ron and Harry, but apparently they were still insisting on not wanting to have anything to do with her.
Instead of hanging out in the common room with her fellow Gryffindors, she went straight to her own room. The thought of taking a nap was very tempting, and soon after Hermione had laid herself down on the bed, she had fallen asleep. She didn't wake up before dinnertime.
"Gosh, I've slept for so long," she said to herself, "but I definitely needed it too," she said and smiled. She freshened herself up for dinner and then left her room. On her way down the stairs to the common room, she heard a pair of familiar voices. She stopped and listened.
"But why is she suddenly always around that foul bloke, Harry? I don't understand! Did you see how they were whispering in class?" said Ron.
"Look, it's probably just a coincidence that you saw them together in the library, and he was probably just insulting her, today in class too," she heard Harry answer.
"Whatever, I won't have that slime ball touch my girl," said Ron, and then the voices faded and Hermione heard no more of the conversation and she realized that they had left the common room. She stood for a second until she was sure the coast was clear and then she headed to the Great Hall for dinner.
Hermione woke up the next morning, Saturday morning, and felt well rested and a bit happier. Today was the day where the Quidditch match against Slytherin would take place, and it was also the day where Hermione was supposed to meet Draco Malfoy for a date after the match.
Hours after Hermione had awoken, after hours of studying, she got ready to go see the match. When she reached the Quidditch pit, she heard a familiar voice behind her.
"Didn't expect to see you here today," said Ron. Hermione turned around and looked at him with a wondering expression.
"What do you mean? Of course I'm here. I'm always here to cheer," said she with a little smile because of the rhyming. She hoped it would break the ice.
"Yeah, but whose side are you on today?" said Ron seriously and sneered. Then he turned around and walked away, leaving Hermione to herself. She was a tad insulted by his harsh words. Of course she was on Gryffindor's side, wasn't she?
Soon the game had started and Hermione watched the players fly high above her. Her eyes wandered from Harry and Ron to Draco. She noticed how good Draco actually was at flying.
"Slytherins scores! The makes it 30-20 to Slytherin," she heard the commentator say.
Suddenly something unexpected happened. Draco flew straight towards the ground, Harry soon by his side, then Draco suddenly pulled up and Harry continued towards the ground and only pulled up just in time before it was too late. This gave Draco a chance to get ahead and catch the snitch. Draco had feinted Harry, he had only pretended to see the snitch.
"Draco Malfoy has caught the snitch. Slytherin wins!" yelled the commentator. The Slytherin crowd went crazy, jumping and screaming, all smiling. The Gryffindors booed. Hermione remained passive. She felt weird. Slytherin had won and she was going to meet Malfoy later. Of course she could just not show up, 'Tempting,' thought she, but knew deep down that she would go and meet him.
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I hoped you liked this chapter. Please review. Next we'll find out how Hermione's little date goes :)