An: As I am writing this, my computer's is a bit screwy with the modem and such, thus I haven't yet read your reviews for the last chapter (except for one or two).
First of all, I want to thank Tasty Food for reviewing. Your comments are very true and I shall take it to my advantage. I have gotten a BETA now…well as from last chapter.
Well as for the lack of Blaise/Hermione scenes, honestly, I don't want them to get too involved. In order for my plot to work, I can't really make them all too hopelessly in love otherwise it would take away the realism with this fic (and with fanfictions, I know its hard to keep realism). But I will include scenes, just not too much and I'm not so keen on the technique of flashbacks, as I would rather it to be where, readers to judge and interpret for themselves just how deep everything is. I like to incorporate scenes (which may seem useless) but establish a portal to the characters, thus action doesn't really have to speak for itself.
Oh good news, out of Writer's block and have got a relative plot for the fic. So yay!
Okays, I'm rambling…once again. On with the story I presume? I wouldn't be surprised if now, you people just tend to skip the AN.
Misfit – 06 – Torres De Los Reyes
She fidgeted, she breathed deep, she tried to think of calm, but it didn't come. Hermione was standing outside the giant doors of the Great Hall, along side with Blaise, just moments before entering…together.
"Wait wait wait…" she said, pulling Blaise back from opening the door. "Just give me a second here."
Blaise smiled at the anxious look of her, "com'on, Hermione. You've been through things a whole lot tougher than this. We will be fine."
She suddenly looked at him in an unusual sense. "Do you know what fine stands for?"
But before he got a chance to motion no, Hermione cut him off. "Freaked-out, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional." She said as if revealing some big secret.
Blaise laughed in a ridicule manner, which caused Hermione to frown.
"Blaise, this is serious," she said, in a very solemn manner.
Blaise frowned too…in mockery. "Darling we'll be fine. What harm could we do? We're only just lovers of 'Hogwarts, A History', trying to revise it to our liking."
Hermione merely arched a brow, still looking as unconvinced as ever.
Blaise sighed, "Well, I don't know about you, but f.i.n.e or not, my appetite is getting punished by my cravings," he said taking a few steps towards the door hoping that Hermione would follow.
Much to his dismay she stood still. "Com'on," he said, returning to Hermione's side, putting his arm around her shoulders and lead her towards the Great Hall.
It seemed like eternity, those seconds where Blaise reached out to the door and those where the whole school was almost choking on their food.
Draco was the first one to have seen them walking in, much credits to his Quidditch reflexes. He looked around to observe. The time range was widely varied. It had only taken some a second or so to choke, yet some others, they hadn't even raised their heads.
Draco sighed, turning his attention from the extremely famished Crabbe and Goyle back to the couple walking his way.
Blaise had greeted him with a smile, acting as if shocking the majority of the school wasn't a significant thing. Hermione on the other hand, he observed, seemed to be extremely…fine. She only half smiled as she approached the table and Draco wasn't sure who exactly she was smiling to as her eyes darted everywhere, obviously, trying to avoid looks.
By the time Blaise and Hermione had settled themselves down at the table opposite Draco, most people had resumed back to their food. Draco too resumed back to his food, turning his attention back to his plate once again, right after he glanced towards a little less anxious Hermione.
Draco instantly frowned at the taste of his bland food, his eyes immediately searched for the butter, which happened to be right aside of Hermione.
"Granger, pass the butter," Draco asked, motioning towards the butter by her arm.
Hermione did so, handling him the butter. "Gee, the shock dies down fast," she said in an almost joking tone.
Draco looked up, but it was Pansy who spoke first. "No, just hungry. You know that most people are going to owl their parents tonight. I mean how could they not? The 'next big thing' is here," Pansy said, looking up from her food.
Blaise smirked and turned his attention to Pansy, raising a brow, "The next big thing?"
Pansy shrugged, "that's one way of putting it," she said. "But food comes first," she started once again, smiling.
Draco snickered, "isn't that right Crabbe, Goyle?"
Out of the two pigging out on food, only one looked up. "Wahh?" Crabbe managed to say in between his chews.
This sent the four (including Hermione) into fits of laughter.
Half way across the hall, on the table of the Gryffindors, Harry sat bewildered at the sight of laughter coming from the Slytherin table…more importantly, coming from Hermione.
So he had now knew exactly why Ron was so upset. He knew Hermione had been different since they had returned from Christmas, but never did Harry expect the change to be that great.
Harry sighed, he wanted for Hermione to be happy for once. He knew perfectly well that ever since the war – more importantly the death of her parents – Hermione had been horribly depressed. Partially, he hated himself for bringing her into the war. Everyone knew well enough that, Voldemort had planned on to kill Hermione and her parents just to hurt Harry. There were periods, where Harry suffered the feelings of guilt.
He watched them again: Hermione and the Slytherins. He sighed again. So much had changed. The war had affected everyone. Harry had remembered the sight of grieving mothers over dead sons, lost children crying for parents. He had seen it all, knowing that if the prophecy told the truth, it was up to him to stop it.
He watched the Slytherins giggling, among them Parkinson. Harry had remembered her very well. Last Christmas, the aurors raided her house, Harry was along them, not to their knowledge. He had found her in a room, just down the corridors, a dim room but one that brought a sacred appeal to it. It had taken him awhile, but he eventually figured it out. There lying in a colt was a baby, half asleep baby. Harry remembered the lament face of Pansy when she had turned around with the baby in her arms to see Harry. All Harry could do was to let her go. By the time Harry had returned downstairs, the aurors had gone. Yet they had left the lifeless bodies of the Parkinsons for Harry to grimace at.
There were times where Harry thought how justified the aurors were and just how different their actions were to that of Voldemort and his fellow supporters. But it was a war, either you kill or get killed, there was no justification. It was a survival for the fittest and Harry was glad that Hermione survived, because if he had to deal with it again, without Hermione, he wouldn't make it.
'Hermione deserved to be happy,' he thought finally, before getting up, in search for Ron.
After giving a quick kiss to Blaise, Hermione set off towards the supposedly empty halls. It was her patrol duty again. She was glad; patrol duties had always given her the time and space to think over things.
At the thought of dinner, she smiled. She had learnt that things don't always turn out the way they do; they turn out better. Honestly, Hermione was surprised at the reactions of the Slytherins. She knew that they had changed somehow after the war, yet she was preconceived by earlier ideas that it was hard to see beyond them and it wasn't until today, she had learnt that the so called 'difference' between them and her were purely up to one's imagination.
Hermione was disturbed out of her thoughts when she heard a few noises in the background, but ignored it once she turned around to sense nothing.
Her mind began roaming the corridors faster than her. Sometimes the emptiness of these halls scared her. Everything could be so empty at times, that she had begin to wonder if it was possible to have a place full of emptiness.
Hermione sat herself down on the staircase, looking both ways to see if anyone was there just in case. When she found herself to be completely alone, she undid the top button of her shirt and pulled out something that she had been wearing around her neck.
She let her thumbs smooth over the pendant, she felt shivers down her spine. Hermione was certain that the pendant had some sort of a dark aura, cursed almost, with hatred that evil itself dare not to speak…or maybe it was just her hatred. The pendant had in fact belonged to the death eater that had murdered her parents. Hermione had discovered it the following morning when she returned home. Ever since, Hermione couldn't sleep. She had kept the pendant, close to her, she felt compelled to, because one day, she would find her parent's murderer.
When Draco had finally finished patrolling the sixth floor, he made his way up to the seventh. He yawned, cursing Davies for switching patrol nights with him.
As Draco made his way up, he stopped at the sight of Granger, sitting down observing at something in her hand. She looked so absorbed into whatever she was thinking, she was completely oblivious to his presence.
As Draco approached her, he managed to see what she was holding. It was a pendant, golden circle, inside it an odd shaped red crystal, which Draco couldn't make out what it was. Draco watched Hermione hold it with grip, he could see that she was passionate about it.
Hermione jumped almost when she saw someone right in front of her. She looked up to see Draco giving her a curious look.
"What –" they both started but discontinued to let the other speak. They met each other's eyes and Draco smiled slightly.
"You go," he said, as he took a seat next to her.
"What are you doing? Its late," Hermione asked, looking inquisitively at the boy who just sat down.
"Patrol Duties," he replied. But before Hermione could ask, he continued. "Swapped with Davies, he couldn't make it tonight."
Hermione nodded with this answer and looked back down at the pendant in her hand.
"Your family pendant?" Draco asked, looking at her.
Hermione looked up, her eyes met Draco's. 'Could I trust him?' she asked herself.
"Uh…yea," she finally replied, breaking off the awkward eye contact.
"Can I see?" he asked, laying his eyes on the pendant.
Hermione handed to him, reluctantly but made sure he didn't notice. Draco Malfoy was the first person she had shown the pendant to, him out of all people. Hermione felt like she's opened up more to him than anyone else in her entire life. Yet Hermione still can't say that she trusts him. He's a Malfoy after all and sometimes changes don't happen overnight…or at all. But she just didn't know.
Draco ran his fingers on the pendant. It sent off a cold chill that ran through his body. Having a closer look at it, the red crystal was in a shape of an elegant crown. He ran his thumb across the beautifully etched markings on the crown. His eyes lingered but landed on one side of the gold ring that supported the crystal. Draco took a closer look, there were letters etched into the gold.
"Lobo de los Reyes," Draco whispered, making out the words on the gold.
Hermione turned, "What?" she asked.
"Lorenzo de los Reyes," Draco repeated. "It says it here," he said, point it out to Hermione, who leaned in for a closer look.
Draco watched her as she observed it herself. He knew she was lying, this was no family pendant of hers; she seemed too surprised by the discovery. Draco observed her, he knew she didn't trust him. He suspected that there was still the prejudice that held up a barrier if not many, even though she had shown him something of value to her.
Draco sighed.
'Sometimes people are just too hypocritical,' he thought.
"Lorenzo, Torres de los Reyes," Hermione repeated, interrupting Draco's thoughts.
"Do you know what it means?" Draco asked curiously.
Hermione paused then shook her head before putting the pendant out of Draco's sight as if to conceal a secret. Her attention turned back to Draco.
"Have you patrolled the other floors?" she asked suddenly, obviously attempting to change the subject.
Draco nodded, curious as to why Hermione was so sudden to change the subject. He noticed Hermione getting up and he too got up from the stairs they had been sitting on.
"Well, I better go. Its…late. Good night," she said, attempting to make a rushed exist out of the situation.
"Uh…night," Draco replied, as he watched her disappear into the darkness of the corridor.
"Lorenzo, Torres de los Reyes," Draco repeated to himself. "Lorenzo, towers of the kings," he translated, before heading off towards the Slytherin common rooms, his mind still on Granger's pendant.
An: Right, one chapter done. This chapter was…yes, more character insight. But its also the first Draco Hermione scene. The plot is starting to reveal itself.
Oh that Phrase, pardon me if I got it wrong. Apologies.
Oh yes about the last scene. Well I don't want Draco Hermione to spring onto each other so I'm still making their relationship a bit mysterious but it will soften. However I must say, Hermione's relationship with Blaise is a different matter. If you recall, they meet when Hermione was horribly upset and she was lonely, so she was with him kind of because "he's all she's got". Uh…just thought I would clear that up. The rest of the scenes are up to your interpretation.
Anyways, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and I would love to hear from you. Comments and all. That box to your left corner is the perfect way to go. Well, I'll see when I can get the next chapter up. See you for now.