Author's Note: Happy New Year! I wanted to once again thank everyone who reviewed the last two chapters. I can't even tell you how much I appreciate it. Anyway, here's the next installment…hope you enjoy!
Chapter Three
Hogsmeade and the Potions Examination
Six days later there was a pre-Christmas visit to Hogsmeade, meant for those people that were going home for the holidays and still needed to do some last-minute shopping.
For Harry, Ron, and Hermione, however, it meant a day of browsing and a lot of time spent lounging in The Three Broomsticks.
"Why does that git Malfoy keep looking over here?" Ron asked suddenly, scowling in the steel-eyed Slytherin's general direction. "Did I grow an extra head without either of you telling me?"
"Why, has it happened before?" Harry chuckled as Ron felt his neck and shoulders self-consciously.
Ron deepened his scowl. "No." As an afterthought he added, "Happened to Fred once, though. He must have been seven or eight. I couldn't look at him for months afterward without laughing. Neither could anyone else, well except Mum. She didn't think it was that funny. I swear, that woman is seriously lacking in the sense of humor department."
Hermione nearly choked on her butterbeer. "Excuse me? What on earth are you talking about, growing an extra head, that's physically and magically impossible!"
"If anyone would know, Hermione would," Harry admitted.
Their red-headed friend shook his head. "It was a hex gone wrong," he explained. "And it wasn't really an extra head, not the way you two are imagining…he's already got one of those, his name is George. Except George has a body attached. It was just a smallish, head-shaped growth coming out of his neck. It didn't have eyes or a nose, but it did have a mouth, and it kept saying really nasty things to anyone who passed by."
Harry burst out laughing. "I would kill to see that!" he exclaimed.
Ron could barely speak; the memory was driving him into fits of hysterical laughter where he could barely breathe. "We have photographs somewhere, I think…unless Fred burned them."
"I would have," Hermione commented, but she was laughing too.
*~*~*~*
Over at his table, Draco sipped his cherry rum thoughtfully, watching The Three Musketeers—Hermione in particular. She was laughing about something, and he raised an eyebrow as she tossed her head back, smiling really wide. Draco took a large swig and forced the harsh liquid down, wishing he were the one to make her laugh. He never made anyone laugh. Hell, he never laughed. He ignored the conversation around him—Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise, and Pansy didn't even half interest him today—and thought about Her, the Gryffindor who had taken over his mind. Draco didn't understand why suddenly he couldn't stop thinking about her. So he'd had two run-ins with her, in the library no less, where they hadn't nearly killed each other. And now suddenly his brain was constantly tuned to the Hermione network: all Hermione, all the time. His stomach flipped over involuntarily when her eyes flashed in his direction. He caught and held her glance for a moment, hoping he looked nonchalant and arrogant like he always did, and praying his face didn't betray his true emotions...like he even knew what they were.
My true emotions? Draco thought disgustedly. Bloody hell, what am I on?
Suddenly his thoughts of Hermione were purged as a girl who couldn't possibly have been older than nineteen sauntered up to him. She looked like a younger version of the lovely Madam Rosmerta; all high heels and curves and hair. He wouldn't have noticed her but it would have been impossible not to, even in Draco's absent state of mind; her entire outfit was red, green, and glittering.
"Hi," she said breathily, running a hand through full, perfect curls that were a deep shade of red not found in nature. "I'm Allegra, Rosmerta's cousin. I'm gonna be working here now. Who might you be, handsome?"
"Draco Malfoy," he said inattentively, still watching the brunette Gryffindor several tables across the room.
"Well, Mr. Malfoy, you look like you could use a bit of cheering up," Allegra purred, sliding onto Draco's lap. From behind the counter Madam Rosmerta smiled, obviously proud of the way Allegra was acting.
Draco was about to decline until he saw Pansy across the table, gripping the armrests on her chair with white knuckles, and her jaw clenched. She'd actually been the one to break off their short-lived relationship all the way back in fourth year, and yet she still hated seeing Draco with any other girls. Insufferable wench, he thought bitterly as he eyed her warily, trying to guess what she was thinking of doing with Miss Allegra.
His eyes shifted back to Hermione and he almost said no, but he couldn't stand seeing her happy and laughing. Filthy Mudblood. And did she have to shake her hair like that? Mentally he kicked himself. He had to stop having those thoughts. What would his father (Who is conveniently dead, he reminded himself) say?
So with one last look at Pansy, whose face had contorted into an ugly, jealous snarl, he let some of his pale blond hair fall in his eyes and looked at the perfectly lovely, sexy Allegra on his lap. "I could use some cheering up," he said, his voice low. "Where do you want to go?"
Allegra squealed in delight and hugged Draco around the neck, one long, shapely leg swinging up in front of her as she did so.
Draco's breath caught in his throat; forget stupid vexing Granger, this chick was hot! He kissed her hard on the lips in a way that promised there would be more where that came from and she immediately led him away, giving him strategically placed sultry looks all the while.
*~*~*~*
Hermione eyed Malfoy with contempt as he left with a sexy young redhead. She didn't miss the glare he shot back at her as he passed her table, either.
Well, fine, Hermione thought stubbornly, it's not my fault he's a concupiscent pig!
Had he no pride at all, practically going at it with Rosmerta's cousin in the middle of The Three Broomsticks? And now they were leaving to do Merlin knows what! She asked herself why she even cared. She didn't care. That was way too strong a word. She just wanted to be sure he kept up Hogwarts' excellent reputation. Yeah…that must be it.
"Hermione?" she heard Ron's voice say exasperatedly, bringing her back to reality and away from her aggravating thoughts of a certain Malfoy.
"Yes?" she said, shaking her head to clear it.
The two boys eyed her warily. "You kept staring at that disgusting display provided by Miss Allegra and her new, er, companion, Master Malfoy," Harry informed her. "Any, um, reason?"
"No," Hermione said defensively, standing up. "None at all. I was just tired, I've been studying so hard and I've barely gotten any sleep in five weeks."
Of course, she thought, biting her lip, the reason for my lack of sleep is not because I've been up studying all night. Well, not the entire reason. But they don't have to know that, do they? Her eyes drifted and landed on, as Harry had so eloquently called it, a 'disgusting display': Allegra and Draco were searching each other's stomachs for buried treasure with their tongues, by the looks of things. And in broad daylight, no less!
Hermione sighed inwardly, wondering what it was like to be sexy, to be wanted for something other than the homework. She wondered what it was like to be wanted by Draco Malfoy.
*~*~*~*
"Now pour your completed potion into the vials you will see on the ends of each of your tables, make sure to cap them tightly, and bring them up to me," Professor Snape said dryly at the end of their Potions practical examination. "And no talking, or I shall be forced to take five points from Gryffindor every time someone opens his or her mouth."
Hermione threw up her hands and rolled her eyes, looking meaningfully at Harry and Ron, who both looked as angry as she felt. She knew they were all thinking the same thing: Didn't that pompous git know what he was doing?
An increasingly loud buzz filled the dungeon classroom as nearly every Slytherin in the room, of course, immediately started talking.
Harry and Hermione exchanged exasperated glances while Ron muttered nasty things about Snape under his breath.
"Quiet, everyone!" Snape snapped after a minute or two. "That'll be thirty points from Gryffindor," he added maliciously.
"All he wants is to make us angry," Ron mumbled crossly, "I swear that's his mission in life…he's a stupid, deranged, son-of-a—"
"RON!" Hermione hissed. "If any of them hear you, it'll only make things worse!"
Not being an idiot, Ron complied, but he continued to make faces at their greasy-haired professor and made crude gestures under the table. Harry, at least, thought it was funny, but Hermione just shook her head and capped her potion.
"Bring the vials up quickly now," Snape continued, "so you nasty children can get out of here faster."
Malfoy then pointedly looked in their direction, raised his eyebrows at Hermione, and with a smirk he mimed zipping his mouth shut as if to say, "I didn't talk, don't you worry."
At the sight of this, Ron's jaw dropped and he kept closing it, then opening it again as he looked worriedly at Hermione, who was biting her lip in an attempt to hide a smile.
Harry nudged Ron; silently trying to ask him if he'd noticed how Hermione's eyes kept flickering back to Draco. His eyes, however, never left her.
*~*~*~*
"I am so glad that's over with," Harry said happily as he and his two best friends stumbled out of Snape's dungeon.
"I know," Ron agreed. "That's it for examinations! Oh my God, it's the end of fall term! I'm so happy I could cry!"
Hermione smiled at them. "Now you can think about all the fabulous extra holiday work we have to get done," she said contemptuously.
Ron's smile immediately fell. "Jeez, Hermione!" he moaned. "How is it that you always know just how to kill a mood?"
"I do not," she argued, "I'm just stating the truth!"
"But did you have to state it now?" he demanded.
Hermione, however, could not answer, because time itself stopped then. She was completely frozen, save for the shivers creeping rapidly up her spine, and heard only a silky voice whisper in her ear, "Good luck on those exams, Granger. I'll see you around," and then a tall, blond figure walked in the opposite direction.
"Hermione?" Harry said worriedly, waving a hand in front of her face. "What's wrong? Did Malfoy do anything?"
"What?" she asked dumbly. "Why would he do anything?"
"Because he's Malfoy," Ron shot back, but he looked as confused as Harry.
"No," she said absently. "He did nothing. Let's go see about getting something to eat."
Both boys, of course, agreed at once and so off they went, leaving Hermione with a lot of mixed emotions to sort out.