Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. Please, no angry mobs.
A/N: Thank you so much for reviewing! I love you all ;) On that note, be sure to review some more! After all, that's what motivates me to write. Let's try to break 50 reviews with this one, eh?
Confrontation and a Talking Muffin
"If you plan on making running into me a habit, please inform me so I can start wearing some protective layers," said Draco as he put out a hand to help Hermione to her feet. Upon closer inspection, he saw the hurt look in her eyes. "Is something wrong, Granger?"
Hermione, on her part, was still fuming at Ron and only had one intention on her mind: Run as far as you can. "Why do you care? I'm just a Mudblood after all," she replied as she turned to run. She was hindered, however, by the fact that Malfoy had placed a strong hand on her forearm. "Let go!"
"No! Not until you tell me what's wrong."
The prefect regarded him from behind narrowed eyes before she finally exploded. "Why are you here, Malfoy? I mean shouldn't you be off reading So You Want to Be an Evil Genius or something? Why aren't you off tormenting someone else? Must you make my life miserable? Because I can assure you, someone else has already accomplished that."
Malfoy was too shocked by her outburst to say much of anything. In this moment of hesitation, Hermione wriggled free from his grasp and shot off down the hallway. "Hermione, come back!" He called after her retreating form. He knew she wouldn't stop—he hadn't really expected her too. Draco had seen the look in her eyes, and that was all he needed to understand what happened. He then turned the other way and slowly walked back to the Slytherin common room.
Both of them had been too preoccupied to even notice that he had used Hermione's given name for the first time in six years.
7.7.7.7
It was all Hermione could do to not spend all her time holed up in her room in the following days. She was determined not to give Ron the satisfaction of thinking he had hurt her that much. Instead, she carried on as if nothing had happened, with the exception of the fact that she was now avoiding a Ravenclaw, a Slytherin and a Gryffindor, who happened to be one of her best friends. All she needed was a Hufflepuff to piss her off and she'd be all set. Hermione was accomplishing this feat quite well until one day when one of her "cold shoulder subjects" cornered her in the loo after classes—beginning what will soon be known as the confrontational stage.
"Hermione, just hear me out before you go storming off," Allison said as she blocked the prefect's way. Storming off was exactly what Hermione had been planning, but she stopped anyway. She looked at the blonde expectantly.
"I just wanted you to know that I'm really not that kind of girl," Allison started. "You know the kind that steals other people's boyfriends." Hermione must have had a disbelieving expression on her face because she went on. "Really, it's true. It's just that I've liked Ron for a long time, and well I couldn't think of any way to compete with you. I mean, half the guys here want to go out with you and all the girls wish they could be like you. I guess I wanted to knock you down from your pedestal so I could prove you weren't some superhuman."
Allison stopped now, hoping to get some reaction from the older girl. Hermione, however, was still trying to digest what this girl had said. "Do people really think that much of me?" She thought to herself. Hermione reflected back on the last few months, thinking about people's reactions as she walked past or talked. Somehow, she seemed to have missed the glances from the guys and the envious looks from the girls. "I guess they do." Now, looking at Allison, the prefect supposed the girl's reasoning made sense.
"Well, I just wanted to say that I was really, really sorry and that I'll stay away from Ron," Allison interjected while Hermione was thinking. "I guess I blew it though," she added with a sad laugh. "Ron was the only guy I've found who liked the same things I did. It figures he would already have the perfect girl." With this, the green-eyed girl turned and walked away, leaving a semi-shell shocked Hermione in her wake.
"At least she had the decency to look truly sorry," Hermione muttered. "Maybe she really isn't that bad after all. I seem to be finding that out about people a lot lately." After this, the prefect also made her way out of the bathroom and started walking back to the common room, lost in her own thoughts.
After a few minutes, Hermione thought she heard footsteps behind her. She stopped and tilted her head to listen, but she heard nothing more. She started again, only to hear the footsteps again a moment later. This time, the brunette turned around and caught a flash of silvery blonde hair right before it ducked into a nearby classroom. "Malfoy," she hissed as she made her way into the classroom herself, determined to figure out why Draco was following her.
She stepped into the room and was immediately grabbed from behind by the aforementioned Slytherin. "Malfoy, why are you following me?" Hermione said in a somewhat tired tone, not even bothering to turn around. "I'm sick of all these games you play."
"Listen, Mudblood," said a harsh voice that most definitely was not Draco Malfoy's, but his father's instead. "I want you to stay away from Draco; you can finish this inconsequent little project yourself. If I hear you have been spending any more time with him, there will be hell to pay. Now, are we understood?" Hermione, who had been standing stock-still, simply nodded before being released by Lucius. "Good," he spat before turning on his heel and walking away.
Hermione stood there for a few moments waving her arms around with a confused expression. She did this whenever she was at a loss for words, and couldn't figure out exactly what had happened. Finally she exasperatedly whispered, "Holy hell" before walking out and making her way once again to the Gryffindor common room, with a considerable amount more to think about.
7.7.7.7
Hermione took the long way back to the common room and used this time to think about what exactly she wanted to do about Ron. One part of her wanted to forgive him, and another part wanted to just forget him and move on. As she reached the Gryffindor tower, however, she realized she really wouldn't have much of a say in this matter.
"'Mione!" Ron called as soon as the prefect appeared in the portrait hole. "Wait, I just want to talk to you for a minute."
"You have got to be kidding me," she said to herself before making her way over to the redhead. "What could you possibly have to say to me?"
"Sit down," Ron said. When the brunette made no move whatsoever to do just that, he continued. "Well, I've been thinking and…" He was cut off at this point by the derisive snort that came from Hermione, which clearly said You, thinking? Ron decided to ignore this and went on. "As I said, I've been thinking about this whole Allison thing, and I've decided that you really don't deserve this. I mean, if I can be tempted into cheating on you, I really shouldn't be with you. I'm sorry, Hermione." With this, the youngest Weasley son walked away with a remorseful expression.
"Did he just break up with me?!" Hermione thought frantically. "He cheats on me, but he gets the satisfaction of breaking up with me? I cannot believe that git!" At this, the prefect let out a stream of incomprehensible words before turning on her heel and walking right back out of the common room.
Ten minutes later found Hermione at the library, her one true sanctuary. Even after she caught Ron and Allison, this was still her favorite place to sit and think. She found a table in the back and sat down to do her homework. After all, no matter how crazy her personal life got, Hermione always found a way to get all of her homework done and still get top marks on it. She commenced to do this for the next twenty-one minutes (she'd counted) until a voice startled her out of her current state.
"Well, well, well. Look at Granger. Always the studious one," Draco Malfoy said in a sneering voice. Actually, it was a mock-sneering voice because he really couldn't manage the real thing around Hermione anymore. She looked up and immediately covered her face with her hands.
"This can't be happening to me," she muttered to herself from behind her hands. "If I just close my eyes like this for awhile, he will not see me and just go away." So, the prefect continued to do this until she thought Malfoy had finally given up and gone elsewhere. However, when she glanced up, she was met with one very confused Draco, who had spent the time trying to figure out whether or not Hermione had truly gone insane.
"Okay…well I just wanted to come by and see if we could set up another meeting for the project," the Slytherin spoke up after a few moments.
Hermione sighed and was about to say yes when she remembered Lucius' warning. Suddenly, she started gathering her things and replied, "No, Malfoy. I'm taking over this project from now on. I don't need some ferret boy helping me to get the grade. I can handle it alone." She started to make her way out of the library.
"Wait," Draco said as he caught her arm. She drew in a sharp breath when he did this, but he didn't seem to notice. "I thought we came to a truce, why are you acting like this?"
"Why the hell do you care? I'm just a Mudblood after all," Hermione retorted.
By now, Draco was starting to build up an anger that matched Hermione's. "That's right," he said in a low voice. "You are." With this, he stormed out of the library. Hermione was left behind, trying to quell a confusing wave a guilt that was building inside her.
7.7.7.7
The next few days passed in a blur of confusion, tension and an overload of homework for Hermione. Though, to be fair, all of the sixth years had an overload of homework due to the teacher's crazy notion that since the N.E.W.T.s were a year away, it was only natural to start preparing now. Hermione kept to herself, not really wanting to confront the fact she was slightly hurt by Ron, utterly confused by Draco and not as mad as she should be at Allison. Thankfully, Saturday morning brought a promising reprieve from all of this. This was, of course, the day of the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Quidditch game.
"Hermione, wake up!" said an embodied voice that shook the prefect awake. Hermione slowly opened her eyes to see a blurred bit of red hair.
"Hmm," she thought to herself. "This can be one of two people. But considering they are not currently lying at the bottom of the staircase, it must be…Hello Ginny." Obviously, she said the last part out loud, owing to the fact that Ginny was not a mind reader, as far as anyone knew.
"C'mon! It's almost time for the match!" Ginny replied as she moved back to the door of the dormitory. "I have to go down already—Harry wants to check out conditions before we start."
Hermione grumbled to a certain extent as she pulled herself out of her bed. She looked out the window and saw nothing but clear skies. "Harry should be happy about that," she muttered as she collected her things for a shower. The brunette proceeded to do her normal grooming routine before she got dressed and headed down to breakfast.
As she reached the Great Hall, she caught the eyes of a one Draco Malfoy. The orbs were like cold steel and it made Hermione shudder. She decided against sitting down and eating so she grabbed some toast and headed straight to the Quidditch pitch. She climbed the stairs to the top row and sat down for what was sure to be an exciting game.
More people were starting to fill the stands when Hermione happened to glance up and see Lucius Malfoy sitting next to Professor Snape. "No doubt trying to scope out the competition for Draco," she thought as she watched him whisper something in the Potions Master's ear. Just then, Draco himself climbed the stair and sat down next to his father. Finally, Dean's voice cut in when everyone had settled themselves.
"Hello, everyone! Today's game is sure to present itself to be positively enthralling!" he said, getting quite a few blank stares from the Slytherins and a chuckle from everyone else. "Okay, so let's kick this monkey and get on with it!" With this comment, however, everyone had a blank stare. Dean went on unfazed though, "Coming out now we have the Hufflepuff Team led by Keeper and Captain Parker; Chasers Abbot, Bones, and Bailey; Beaters Finch-Fletchley and Macmillan; and finally Seeker Smith!" The crowd erupted in applause and cheers as they all landed on the pitch.
"Next out we have the Gryffindor Team led by Seeker and Captain Potter; Chasers Weasley, Creevy and Brown; Beaters Finnigan and Mitchell; and finally Keeper Weasley!" Another tumultuous applause ripped through the stadium as the team flew once around and landed near the Hufflepuffs.
"Now, I want a clean game," Madam Hooch said. "Captains, shake hands." Harry shook hands with the short brunette in front of him. "Ok, now on my whistle. One, two…"
"And they're off! Gryffindor is in possession with Weasley handling the Quaffle. She flies down the pitch, passing to Creevy. Creevy flies to the goals and gets it past Parker nicely. 10-0 Gryffindor. Hufflepuff in possession now, Abbot flies down, she passes to Bones, who passes to Bailey. Bailey flies to the left—oh! Nice fake out. Bailey flies to the right and scores! Teams are tied at 10-10. Brown takes the Quaffle…" Dean continued to commentate as Harry circled above. The Gryffindors had just scored again, and he was confident in the way he had trained his team, so he really wasn't too worried about paying close attention. All of his thoughts were on finding a hint of gold.
"We're going to win," Harry thought to himself. "I mean, Hufflepuff is a pushover. They remind me of push-pops. Man, those are good little tubes of ice cream…" The Seeker then continued to think of push-pops and other equally good frozen treats for the next few minutes. Unfortunately, as these thoughts danced about in his head, he didn't hear Dean screaming a very important something.
"SMITH HAS SPOTTED THE SNITCH! Potter seems to be in some sort of trance! Smith speeds towards the racing ball and is almost there! WAKE UP HARRY!" Dean shouted at the top of his lungs. Only then did the Boy Who Lived hear his name and realize what was going on.
"Crap!" Harry said as he flew off towards Zacharias. He quickly caught up, thanks to his trusty Firebolt. The two boys raced side-by-side as they chased after the Snitch. They both reached out, and just when one of them was about to close their hand around the struggling ball…
"OUCH! Smith has just been hit by a Bludger, sent his way by Finnigan!" Dean shouted over the groan of the Hufflepuffs. This event, however, temporarily distracted Harry—enough to make him stall on catching the Snitch.
"HA!" The Gryffindor yelled as he watched Zacharias. Harry was never a big fan of the kid, after all. His train of thought was interrupted just then by the fact that the other speeding Bludger was coming directly at him. "Poo…"
"Potter does an amazing rollover to dodge the Bludger sent by Macmillan," Dean said, the Gryffindors groaning this time. During this move, Harry was completely disoriented and lost sight of the Snitch altogether. "Okay, well the game continues now. Hufflepuff is in possession with Bailey speeding down the pitch, passing to Bones. Bones swerves around a Bludger, but the Quaffle is intercepted by Ginny Weasley!" Cheers erupted through the stadium as the youngest Weasley passed to Colin, who passed to Brown, who then, in turn, passed back to Ginny in a tight formation. "Weasley flies towards Parker, she shoots and…" Dean was cut off then by Professor McGonagall, because he had cussed rather rudely as Ginny's toss was cut off by an incredible save made by Mary Parker. "Score remains at 20-10 Gryffindor," Dean ended sadly.
This save, however, did not dishearten the Gryffindor players. Lavender quickly regained possession of the Quaffle. "Brown, Creevy, and Weasley continue in their routine, passing to each other and leaving no room for someone to steal the Quaffle. Brown to Creevy, Creevy back to Brown," Dean commentated through the bewitched microphone. Soon the players' tactics became too swift, so he just shouted names. "Brown, Weasley, Creevy, Weasley, Creevy, Brown, Creevy who takes it down the pitch, heading straight to the middle hoop! Ah! He flips it back to Brown who sends it sailing through the left hoop! Score stands as 30-10 to Gryffindor!" Dean shouted over the cheers coming from the Gryffindor section. "You know this reminds me of a joke I heard the other day," Dean started, getting a warning glance from McGonagall. He pushed on unfazed though. "So there are two muffins in an oven. The first muffin says, 'Man, it's hot in here!' and then the second muffin says, 'Oh my gosh! A talking muffin!'"
This sent everyone into a stunned silence. Crickets everywhere could be heard. Ginny, who seemed to be unaffected by her recently ex-boyfriend's jokes, scored three more times without anyone noticing. I.Q.'s dropped by the second. Even Lucius Malfoy's brow furrowed a bit more—a strong emotion for such a man. Finally, Dean's own chuckle broke the crowd out of their paralyzed state.
"So, anywho," he continued, wiping a tear from his eye. "Ginny seems to have scored setting the points at 60-10 to Gryffindor. Ok, Hufflepuff has the Quaffle n…Wait a second…Potter has seen the Snitch!"
Sure enough, Harry was now hurtling towards the ground after a certain shiny something. Smith was still slightly stupid from the very bad joke, and reacted a little too slowly. He tried to catch up with Harry, but his broom was no match for the Firebolt. "C'mon you little bugger," Harry whispered to himself as he caught up to the Snitch. "Come to papa." And come to papa the Snitch did, proven by the fact that Harry's hand was firmly clasped around it.
"YES!" Dean yelled exuberantly as Gryffindors rushed on the field. "Gryffindor wins 210-10! The Gryffindors are screaming like they want a truckload of ice cream!" Everyone was too excited and happy to even register this comment—one that would surely render them befuddled. After all, they all wanted to get to the after party in the Gryffindor common room.
7.7.7.7
Draco Malfoy was sitting sulkily with his father, waiting for the latter's carriage to arrive. "Well it looks as if you've got your work cut out for you, Draco," Lucius said in the usual drawl. "I will not have you be beaten by that Potter again. And stand up straight."
Draco obeyed his father's admonishment, but remained reserved. He was still thinking about Hermione and why she acted like she did. Not that he cared, of course. "Yes, Father," he said, not really listening. He snapped to attention, however, at the mention of a certain girl's name. "What?"
"Really, Draco. I said at least you don't have to worry about that Mudblood Granger any more."
Draco tensed and said, "What is that supposed to mean?"
Lucius looked contemplative for a second then spoke. "Let's just say I…strongly suggested that she stay away from you and continue the project herself."
Inside his head, Draco was thinking furiously. "So that's why she was acting so strange. My father must have threatened her. That is so typical of him. I need to reverse this, because he would surely have spies looking after us. I can't let him see that I care, though." Out loud, Draco said, "Father, I appreciate you helping me contain her, but I really can handle it. Besides, I wouldn't want to get a grade on work I didn't even do. You're the one who always says, 'A real man earns what he gets.'"
Lucius thought about this for a moment then said, "Very well, Draco. You can continue working on this little project, and I will tell my people to leave you alone. Just be careful, you could get her filth on you." At this time, the carriage came up and the driver stepped out to open the door for Lucius. He stepped in and said, "Goodbye, son."
"Goodbye, Father," Draco replied as he thought of way to get back into Hermione's good graces. He shuddered to think at what sort of public humiliation would be required to do this.
A/N: The "perfect girl" line that Allison says is from some movie I'm sure, I just can't remember which. Virtual cookies to those who can tell me. And to those who review. J
