A/n: Hey thanks for the wonderful reviews, I am glad I can actually write a story that some people like!
Chapter 17
Hermione walked quietly along side Tonks as they made their way to
the Three Broomsticks.
"I can't do this!" Tonks cried out when they stopped in front of the
restaurant.
"Yes, you can." Hermione said flatly scanning the crowd for Malfoy.
Hermione kept looking at Tonks who was trying to find a sign of
Hermione who had to dodge many people underneath Harry's
invisibility cloak.
"No! What if he tries to kiss me? I can't kiss him, he's my
godforsaken cousin!" Tonks said groping around for Hermione.
Hermione sat laughing in her head. The thought had never occurred to
her that Tonks would be kissing her own cousin.
"I never thought of that." Hermione said smiling as she found the
back of Tonks robes and tugged on them in the direction that Draco
Malfoy was appearing from. As he appeared nearer to her Hermione
could feel Tonks retreat a few steps.
"Hey Hermione." He said smirking at her. Hermione wanted to gag at
the bloody little actor.
"Uh... Er... Hey." Tonks mumbled backing up and knocking Hermione on
her bum.
"Ouch." Hermione hissed as she landed on a rock.
"What?" He asked looking at Tonks.
"Nothing." Tonks said as she felt Hermione tug on her robes again
signaling she was there.
Draco leaned in to kiss Tonks and she jumped backwards just missing
Hermione. "No, no!" Tonks said bumping into Hermione again.
"Why?" He asked looking at her oddly.
"My...my...make-up will smear." Tonks said stuttering gesturing to
her pink lipstick.
"Oh." He said taking her hand and leading her into the restaurant.
Hermione followed the two into the crowded restaurant weaving her
way through the crowd with difficulty.
Hermione watched as the two youths slid onto two barstools, belonging to a tall table.Hermione looked around slowly and saw a vacant booth next to Tonks and
Malfoy. Hermione slid herself into it, trying hard not to get the
cloak caught on the table. Hermione sat bored, watching Tonks
pretend to be her, Hermione wasn't surprised that he couldn't tell
her apart from Tonks. Hermione watched as Draco Malfoy smiled at
Tonks lovingly and whispered little nothings in her ear. Hermione
sat there slowly growing sad. Hermione suddenly realized she was not
one of a kind, but she was replaceable. Tonks could very easily take
over her life and no one would notice, except for the fact Tonks
would be missing, that wouldn't go unnoticed. Hermione got caught up
in her state of jealousy and failed to notice a family of four
scooting themselves into the small booth.
Hermione slowly slipped
under the table and tried to get away, but the mother had slipped
her legs in and so did a little boy on the opposite side of the
table. Hermione sighed in exasperation and decided she would wait
for someone to get up to get something so she could sneak out.
One hour later Hermione sat huddled up underneath the table, her
hands slowly cramping and her bottom becoming numb on the cold, hard
floor. Hermione tried hard to shift into another position when she
realized the woman's foot was on the hem of her cloak, but it was
too late and Hermione had already moved and the top of her cloak
fell off of her head. In frantic move movements to try and cover
herself the little boy peeked under the table as Hermione rammed
herself into his legs.
"AHHHH, there is a floating head under my table!" The little boy
screamed as he scrambled on top of the table. Hermione watched it
teeter and was relieved when the father pulled him off so it didn't
tip. Hermione sat under the table barely breathing as the mother
slowly peered under the table. Hermione slowly smiled and waved at
the white lady.
"Th... th... th... there's a girl under there." the woman sputtered
to her husband.
"Nonsense!" He said shoving the boy into her arms as he and his
daughter peered under for a look. Hermione just grinned sheepishly
at them as the man slowly got up from the booth, pulling his family
along with him after throwing down a few galleons to pay for the
meal. "People are so weird." He muttered as they walked away.
Hermione slowly crawled out from under the table and sat down on the
red seating as she regained her posture. Hermione suddenly
remembered why she was there. She looked to her left and saw a girl
and a boy sitting there, but the girl and boy wasn't Tonks and Draco
Malfoy. Hermione growled to herself and while no one was looking she
pulled off the cloak and slowly went up to the couple.
"Ooh... er... how long have you been here?" She asked them as they
looked at her weirdly.
"About half an hour." The boy answered her, looking her up and down.
"Thanks." Hermione replied as she left The Three Broomsticks.
Hermione held the watery material in her arms and shuffled through
the crowd. Hermione kept her eyes peeled for any sign of a platinum
blonde hair boy or a raven black haired girl. Hermione suddenly
spotted Tonks head and through the cloak around her. As she ran up
to the girl she grabbed her arm and whirled her around.
"Where have you been?" Hermione said hushed as she looked at the
girl. Hermione's stomach sank as she saw a girl with green eyes and
a look on her face as if something sour was under her nose, staring
through her.
"What?" The girl gasped backing up slowly and knocking down a
display of posters.
"Sorry." Hermione murmured as she apparated away from her. Hermione
wandered around for about ten minutes, looking at things in windows,
and randomly calling out Tonks name too see if she was near.
Hermione stopped in front of a door, leading into a jewelery store
as she called for Tonks again.
"Hermione?" A voice called as Hermione stood in the door of jewelry
store.
"Tonks?" Hermione called as she looked around, moving away from the
door.
"Hermione! Where have you been?" She said when Hermione grasped her
hand.
"Well, first, I was stranded underneath a stuffy table...then I was
scaring the bloody life out of unsuspecting people." Hermione
retorted at Tonks irritated.
"Hermione, what's wrong?" Tonks asked as Hermione choked back tears.
"Nothing. You've done good. You can go." Hermione said pulling off
the cloak after wiping at her eyes to make sure no tears were
visible.
"Thanks Hermione." Tonks said air kissing Hermione on either side of
her cheeks. Tonks slowly turned back to herself but with long red
hair, colored streaks in it, and a vintage black Sex Pistols tee, a
green cardigan and black and gray checkered pants.
"You were a good actress." Hermione said smiling at her.
"I did take some theater when I was 10." She said smiling as she
took Harry's cloak and Dissaparated.
Hermione smoothed her hair and stood outside the door waiting for
Malfoy to come out. Hermione couldn't understand why it bothered her
so much to see Tonks and Draco together. Hermione though she hated
his living guts. Hermione guessed she was absolutely wrong.
"Hey Hermione. Here." Draco said pulling a black box out of his
robes.
"You shouldn't have." Hermione said feeling guilty as she felt the
smooth velvet. Hermione slowly opened the box and gasped.
"Yeah... I should have." Draco said kissing her head as she pulled
out a silver cursive H studded with diamonds. Draco took the box
from her and pulled the necklace out and unclasped it. Hermione
lifted up her long black hair that was now down to the middle of her
back so Draco could hook it around her neck. Hermione dropped her
hair and smoothed some stray frizzy pieces.
"It's great." Hermione said smiling shyly.
That night after shopping and dinner, Hermione sat in Draco's dorm
with him as he sipped a glass of fire whiskey. Hermione guessed he
was relieving himself of some burdens he was carrying for the time
being.
"You want some?" He asked her as she shook her head.
"No thank you." Hermione said to him.
"Mrs. Goody two-shoes." He said staring at her.
"What?" Hermione asked leaning forward, gripping the side of the
chair.
"You heard me, why don't you ever try something new?" He asked her
frowning. "You will never do anything bad."
"So becoming a Death Eater isn't as bad a drinking lager?" Hermione
asked as she took the bottle from him and drank half of it. Hermione
wiped the fire whiskey off her mouth as she felt it burn her throat,
but forced herself too keep a straight face.
"Well, the worst thing I could have ever done was get with you!"
Hermione rambled, she couldn't believe how fast fire whiskey was
effecting her.
"What?" He said as his jaw dropped. Hermione took another swig and
threw the bottle down at his feet where is shattered. Hermione was
so mad, even though she knew the alcohol was responsible for some of
his talking, but Hermione knew there was truth behind those words.
As Hermione stormed out the room she grabbed the necklace and pulled
it off, throwing at his face.
Hermione awoke the next morning, her head pounding and spinning. She
slowly retreated from her bed and felt her stomach lurch. Hermione
dashed towards the toilet and heaved into it. The hot vomit rushed
through her throat, causing Hermione to remember the row she and
Malfoy had had the night before. Tears stinging her eyes, Hermione
flushed the toilet and got up to stand in front of the mirror.
Hermione's complexion was pale as she flushed her face with hot
water. Hermione felt her stomach give another sickening lurch as she
vomited on top of the sink and all down the front of her nightgown.
Hermione collapsed to the floor feeling horrible. She slowly looked
up at the clock on the wall in front of her and let out a sigh. It
was 10 o'clock in the morning and she still wasn't fully awake.
Hermione leaned against the wall and stood up to go and find her
wand.
Hermione finished cleaning herself up and headed downstairs.
Hermione had taked a potion to cease the hang over but she still
didn't feel 100% better. Hermione slowly walked down the steps and
sat down in the comfortable chair next to Harry, Ron and Ginny.
"What's the matter, Hermione?" Ginny asked as Ron check mated Harry.
"Nothing, just caught a little bug." Hermione said snuggling deeper
into the chair.
"Got to go." Harry said getting up with his bags and running out of
the common room.
"Where's he off to?" Hermione asked Ron befuddled.
"Training with Dumbledore." Ron answered making the chess set
disapear with a wave of his wand.
"Oh." Hermione answered as Lavender entered the common room with
some boy on her arm.
"I thought Harry and Lavender were dating." Hermione asked staring
at the two.
"Were... Harry broke up with her. Said he didn't have time for a
proper relationship now." Ron answered looking at the beautiful
Gryffindor.
"Oh... When did this happen?" Hermione asked quietly.
"Ages ago. Since he started training with Dumbledore." Ron answered
her again.
"When did he start his training?" Hermione asked feeling bad that
she had been left out of all of this.
"If you would have been here you would have known, but you were too
busy play Mrs. Death Eater Malfoy!" Ron said getting up and stalking
off to his room.
"Geez." Hermione said hurt.
"No offense, but you haven't been around much recently. Your always
with him. You wouldn't know that Ron dated Parvati or that Harry is
failing transfiguration, or I for that matter have cancer." Ginny
said getting up as Hermione called after her.
"Ginny, what?" Hermione said still not being able to believe her
ears.
"Yeah, you wouldn't know, I thought you were my friend." Ginny said
running off angrily.
"Ginny! I am your friend!" Hermione said sitting in the chair
stunned. Hermione got up and raced into Ron's room.
"Why didn't you tell me Ginny had cancer!" Hermione shrieked at Ron
who was sitting on his bed.
"Because you didn't deserve to know!" He yelled back at her, getting
up briskly.
"Ginny is my best friend, too!" Hermione said as hot tears spilled
down her cheeks as she sat in a red chair next to the door.
"Hermione, I'm sorry." Ron said cooling down and pulling her into a
hug as Hermione sobbed into his shoulder.
A/n: Hey hope you don't mind how the story format is set up. It is a bit different and I don't feel like messing around with it. Also anyone else want to be a BETA I want at least two for a better perspective or whatever, like so I'll have two oppinions about it. If you would be interested email me at azbestbtrippinaol.com.