Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own the universe of Harry Potter. I only own the random thoughts that come into the various characters' heads.
A/N: Thanks for reviewing everyone! And for those of you who don't know, a kneazle (I'm thinking, at least) is a cat-type creature. Crookshanks is said to be part kneazle.
One question: would any of you read a post-Hogwarts Dr/H story if I were to write one?
Okay, without further ado, here it is. Enjoy and be sure to review.
King of the World
"Is there a reason why you were just semi-nice to Draco?" Hermione asked herself as she made her way back to the Gryffindor common room. "Don't answer that…then people think you're crazy." She glanced around to make sure that, indeed, no one was looking before moving on. "Something is wrong with you, Hermione Granger," she whispered once she found the corridor was devoid of life, save for the dust mites that clung to the tapestries. "You can barely even tolerate the guy, let alone actually like him…"
Hermione stopped dead in her tracks. "Wait…who said anything about liking him?! That's it, I need sleep." With the resolve of getting some more sleep, considering the fact that all of her previous rest kept being interrupted, she determinately made her way through the last of the winding corridors and to the common room. When she reached the Fat Lady she muttered the password, Pooglewidgets, and then stalked over to the girls' staircase, not talking to anyone. However, she was deterred by one Ginny Weasley.
"And where were you this whole time?" she asked in a highly suspicious voice.
Hermione rolled her eyes whilst sighing—she really is quite the wonder at multitasking. "I was with Draco bec…"
She was cut off by the tumultuous gasp that erupted from Ginny's rather tiny frame. "You were with DRACO?!" A second later, she seemed to realize something. "Ooh! You were with Draco, eh?" She waggled her eyebrows suggestively before repeating, "Eh?"
"EW, no! Merlin, Ginny," Hermione exclaimed as she threw up her hands. "I was with Draco BECAUSE Betty went into labor early this morning and I had to be there for the kneazles. Did you really expect me to leave her alone with a guy? Anything could have happened. And right now, I would like nothing more than to just go back to bed and sleep for a few hours, so could you please move?"
Ginny still didn't look like she was convinced, but she let Hermione pass anyway. This, however, didn't stop the redhead from singing "Hermione and Draco, sittin' in a tree…" under her breath for a good part of the day. Of course, this gained her many strange looks from various peoples, who already thought her to be a bit touched in the head, based solely on the fact that Ginny would randomly burst into song.
Hermione slept until two thirty, but not very peacefully. Part of this was due to Lavender, who would come in every few minutes and announce the time by singing it opera-style. The brunette would always grumble to herself and then reply "Thank you, Lavender, but I am aware of that" or something along these lines. Finally, on the eleventh time Lavender walked in, Hermione lifted her pillow and threw it at the girl before she could sing. "Shut UP!" she yelled. Well, to say the least, Lavender did shut up and went away. After this, though, the prefect was unable to fall back asleep, so she contemplated the other reason as to why she was kept up: Malfoy.
"Curse Malfoy and his whole family!" she thought. "Why did he have to tell me that he actually wasn't that bad? I was perfectly content thinking he was an insufferable git, thank you very much." Hermione ranted, in her mind, of course, for the next few minutes. Finally, she got out of bed and spoke out loud. "Just forget it, Hermione. You know eventually he is just going to do something that will remind you why you hated him in the first place."
She didn't know how right she was.
10.10.10
Hermione spent the rest of the weekend doing the homework that was due in the next few weeks. Everyone else, well the girls at least, were talking nonstop about the Ball that was to be held on the last day before break, instead of on Christmas, like the Yule Ball was. This was because many of the parents wanted their children home for Christmas since Voldemort was growing stronger with each passing day. Hermione was excited about it, after all, she got the dress, but she was just dreading it because she didn't know who she would take. Harry was going with Ginny, Dean was going with Parvati, Seamus was going with Lavender and Ron…well…Ron and Hermione were still trying to get on better terms with each other.
Monday came, and with that brought the Care of Magical Creatures class with the ever pleasing Slytherins. Today was the day that everyone had to turn in their creature. Hermione waited anxiously for Draco, which was odd, because the last time they had Betty in class, she wanted nothing more than to kick his ass. Of course, she wrote off the impulse of wanting to see him as really worrying about how Betty and the kneazles were. Oh, how little she knew. Finally, she spotted him with the brown box in tow.
"All righ', everyone, gather roun'," Hagrid said once everyone got there with their Clabberts, and in Hermione and Draco's case, kneazle. "Today I want ter check over yer creatures, and then I'll grade yeh on the condition they're in." Everyone looked around apprehensively and Hermione noted that some of the Clabberts were looking rather worse for wear. Hagrid moved through the crowd, taking notes and giving out grades. In the meantime, Hermione went over to Malfoy.
"Hey, Draco," Hermione greeted as she got closer. He was standing around with Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy. "Let me see Betty."
Draco gave her a condescending look and then said, "Malfoys don't take orders from the likes of you, Mudblood." Hermione tried to give him a Death Glare, but only succeeded in being hurt. Everyone had turned to listen now. "So why don't you scamper off, considering I did this whole project by myself."
Now everyone gasped at this. Hermione Granger can handle being called a Mudblood and anything else you can throw at her, but say she didn't do her homework, and you've crossed the line. Her brown eyes flashed dangerously. "You foul, cocky, arrogant carrier PIGEON!" she screamed before stalking off.
"Yeah!" Ron added before spitting at Malfoy's feet. He ran off after Hermione since he had already gotten his grade from Hagrid. He paused to tell Hagrid that Hermione did, indeed, help a lot on the project, and not to believe Malfoy. Hagrid simply said "O' course" before letting him chase after her.
"'Mione!" Ron called once he caught up to her. "Are you okay?"
"Fine. Great. Couldn't be better," she replied sarcastically.
"Look, Hermione," Ron began. "We all know Malfoy's a git and, if you want, I can always hex his arse into oblivion." He finished up the last part with a grin.
Hermione looked at him and then sighed. "You know, I'm not even upset that he called me a Mudblood, or that he tried to take all of the credit for the project. Mostly I'm upset because I was stupid enough to think that maybe, just maybe, Malfoy wasn't as bad as I thought he was," she said before adding "I guess I was wrong" with a bitter laugh.
Ron pulled the brunette girl into a tight embrace. "Hermione, what you have to understand is that guys like Malfoy are programmed by their fathers to be one thing: sadistic Death Eaters. It would take a miracle to make him change. And, Hermione, you can't be a miracle-worker for everyone."
Hermione looked up at him and gave him a small smile. He was right, of course—guys like Malfoy would never change. But that didn't mean she was going to give up quite yet. She couldn't explain how or why, but she knew Draco was better than that, and she was determined to prove it to everyone.
10.10.10
Though Hermione was trying to work a miracle, it didn't stop her from going off on Draco. She managed to corner him in an empty classroom after lessons on Monday. Needless to say, he was thoroughly surprised when Hermione grabbed him by the back of the robes and pulled him in.
"You, Malfoy, are the worst person I have ever had the displeasure of meeting," she started off, punctuating each word by poking Draco in the chest. Hard. "I can't believe (poke) you had the nerve (poke) to discredit me in front of everyone (poke.) Just because you (poke) had to go and be a guy (poke) and try to save face in front of all of your friends (poke, poke, poke.)"
Draco was starting to become indignant and his chest was starting to hurt. "I was not trying t…"
"Oh, don't (poke)even give me that, Draco! Now what you (poke) are going to do for me (poke) is tell everyone that I did my fair share of the project (poke) and that I am not (poke) a Mudblood. Got that?"
"I most certainly will not!" Draco exclaimed. "A Malfoy never takes back anything he has said."
"You WILL!" Hermione retorted. "Or I shall poke thee to death!" (Poke, poke, poke.)
Draco, who was getting quite fed up with all the poking, grabbed both of Hermione's wrists and held them with one hand. "Ha! Now you can't! And I won't take back what I said."
"Please?!"
"No!"
"GOD!" The brunette yelled. "Why do you have to be so god damn SEXY?!" These words were greeted by a silence during which Draco dropped Hermione's hands and plastered a smirk on his face. "I mean…stubborn. I meant stubborn." Draco just kept on smirking in that smug way of his. "Oh, sod off!" Hermione shrieked before stamping out of the classroom.
"AHA! So she does think I'm sexy," Draco said to himself. "Well, it wasn't a big surprise. I am dead sexy, after all. Hmm…I wonder what's for dinner." Determined to fine out exactly that, he swaggered out of the classroom and down to the Great Hall.
10.10.10
"Oh. My. Gosh." Now, Hermione Granger was not one to overreact, but right now, she was definitely overreacting. "I just called Draco Malfoy, my sworn enemy, sexy!! Why did I do that? Why? Now Malfoy is going to think that I think he's sexy!" Hermione was frantically pacing around her dormitory now, which was empty due to the fact it was dinner. "I don't even think he is slightly sexy…Right?" Here she stopped and contemplated for a moment. "EW, no! You most certainly do NOT! Pull yourself together!" She continued pacing in this way until Ginny came up to see why she wasn't at dinner.
"Oh, Ginny, it was bad," Hermione claimed, shaking her head. "So very, very bad."
The redhead, thinking the worst, tentatively asked, "What happened?"
Hermione buried herself in her pillows and then said, "I called Malfoy sexy."
Ginny, who heard "I mauled a boy in Tennessee," was now seriously disturbed. But, figuring she better make sure. "Pardon me?"
The prefect revealed herself before whispering, "I called Malfoy sexy!" She promptly turned a lovely shade of pink and then disappeared in her pillows again.
"You called Malfoy SEXY?!" Ginny screeched, which earned a heartfelt "Shut UP!" from Hermione. The youngest Weasley apologized before falling into a fit of giggles. This was, indeed, the funniest thing she had ever heard. "Maybe now they will admit they like each other. It's been so obvious for the longest time now," she thought, but she didn't say anything out loud. Besides, Hermione would just refuse it. Instead, she told Hermione it wasn't that bad and then left her alone with the promise that it will be okay.
Hermione, of course, didn't believe a word she said.
10.10.10
Hermione, being the person that she is, spent the next three days avoiding Draco Malfoy at all costs. It was considerably a lot easier this time around, owing to the fact that they no longer had to complete a project with each other. After getting top marks and twenty points each for taking care of Betty, and the little confrontation fiasco, Hermione and Draco parted their ways. Or so she thought.
Come Friday, all of the Gryffindor girls had officially begun talking about the Christmas Masquerade nonstop. Hermione, contrary to popular belief, was not in the least bit worried about finding a date. In fact, (oh, the horror!) she told Ginny and Lavender that she was planning on going alone, and was perfectly fine with that, thank you very much. They didn't believe her, so they spent their time convincing some guys to ask her to the dance. Hermione refused most of them, but the weirdest one she met while they had Herbology with the Ravenclaws, for a change.
"Okay, class, listen up," Professor Sprout called once everyone had settled into their stations. "Today we'll be working with Convivium Plants. Who can tell me something about them?"
Of course, Hermione's hand shot into the air. "Convivium Plants are known for their parties, though they have no visible face or body. They are for the most part placid, but will bite when irritated with the tiny teeth that line their leaves."
"Very good, Miss Granger. Ten points to Gryffindor. Now today, we're just going to be pruning them. You'll be working with the person across from you."
Hermione looked at the boy that was sitting across from her. He had brown hair, blue eyes and, even though he wasn't standing, she could tell he was pretty tall. He also wore a dreamy expression that looked vaguely familiar. However, they had never met before, so she decided to introduce herself.
"Hello, I'm Hermione Granger. Who are you?"
The boy looked startled that she had addressed him for a moment, but finally said, "I'm king of the world!"
"Sure you are…" she commented. Hermione was, needless to say, taken aback from this response and was thinking it was going to be a very interesting Herbology lesson. She watched the boy as he picked up the pruning shears and held them over two of the dead leaves. Suddenly, he looked up.
"The red wire, or the blue?" he asked in a hushed voice.
He seemed to be waiting for Hermione to answer, so she said, "Uh, blue?" The Ravenclaw boy snipped off the leaf and let it fall on the table. He then closely examined the pruning shears before seemingly finding them unfit.
"I'll be back," he stated in clipped tones as he went off to find another pair.
"Right…" Hermione breathed. She realized that everything he has said so far had been from a movie, which was odd since most wizards don't know what they are. The prefect was beginning to wonder if the boy was a bit touched in the head when the girl next to his spot turned to her.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Kristin Lovegood, and that was my twin brother Sam. You probably know our cousin, Luna."
Hermione looked at the girl. She had brown hair, brown eyes and an infectious high-energy attitude. The prefect decided that she and her brother really didn't look that much alike, besides for the fact that they were both rather tall. Then she remembered her manners and said, "I'm Hermione Granger." After a moment, she added, "Is there something…wrong? With Sam, I mean?"
Kristin laughed and shook her head. "No, he's just always been talking like that for as long as I can remember. See, our mother is a Muggle, and she loves Muggle films. She really got him into the habit of speaking in all movie lines. It makes him stand out more."
Hermione nodded and then wondered if being a Lovegood meant you had some quirk to your name. "She seems pretty normal," she thought. "I wonder what her quirk is." Just then, Kristin answered her thoughts.
"I know, you're probably thinking what's wrong with me then, right?" she asked with a smile. When Hermione gave a shrug, she clarified. "Well, actually, I'm considered the 'oddball' in the family, because I really don't act in a different way. But, that doesn't bother me, I like being unique." She finished up this last part with a big smile before turning back to her plant.
"She's really nice," Hermione thought as Sam finally returned with a new pair of pruning shears.
"May the force be with you," he said as he handed the shears to her.
"Umm…okay?" Hermione replied with a confused look. This obviously was a movie she had never seen.
"You're KILLING me, Smalls!" Sam exclaimed exasperatedly. His yell seemed to have angered their plant because it promptly bit him on the finger. Hard.
"Ack!" Hermione yelped. "Are you okay? Let me see that."
Sam, however, didn't let her. "'Tis but a scratch."
"No! You're bleeding. I can do a quick healing charm, if you'd like."
"I've had worse."
Hermione looked around in a confused way. "I'm sure you have," she said slowly. "Just let me heal it really quick."
"Come on, ye pansy!" Sam voiced.
Upon hearing Pansy's name, Hermione got a dark look on her face. "Skank," she thought as she grabbed Sam's hand. She muttered a quick healing spell before he could refuse any more.
"You're welcome," she said before picking up her pruning shears again. She and Sam worked in silence for the rest of the class period. When Professor Sprout dismissed class, Sam pulled her aside.
"May I escort you to the Masquerade, milady?" he asked in a very formal way.
Hermione was not expecting this, but then soon figured it was Ginny or Lavender's doing. "I'm really flattered, Sam, but I think I'm just going to go alone. I'm sorry," she replied.
"Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn," Sam retorted in an offhand voice before walking out of the greenhouse.
"Ginny and/or Lavender will get severely harmed for this," Hermione muttered as she headed out after the class.
Hermione was just about to head through the doors to the Great Hall when a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She tensed, thinking it was Malfoy, but relaxed once she heard the familiar voice of Ron.
"Hey," he said with a smile. "Can we talk after dinner?"
"Sure," she replied with an answering smile. "We'll talk during patrol duty tonight."
10.10.10
After dinner, Hermione sat in her favorite chair by the fire and finished up her homework while she waited until it was time for her and Ron to do patrols. The new heads worked out a schedule earlier in the year that required everyone to do rounds at least twice a month. Finally, at nine o'clock, Hermione found Ron and they left the common room with a promise to Harry and Ginny that they would be back as soon as possible.
"So," Ron said after a few minutes of comfortable silence passed between them. "How have you been?"
Hermione thought for a moment before replying. "Honestly, I don't know how I've been. I'm just confused I guess."
"Confused? About what?" Ron asked.
"Nothing…everything…Things are just all over the place for me right now. Kind of like once I think I have everything figured out, something throws me for a loop. Do you know what I mean?"
Ron regarded Hermione for a second and then said, "Yeah, I think I do." Hermione turned to him then with a small smile. They lapsed into silence again. Finally, Ron couldn't take it anymore.
"Are you glad that you don't have to work with Malfoy anymore? That must have been awful."
At the mention of Malfoy's name, a deep blush crept up her neck and face. Suddenly, she was incredibly grateful for once that it was so dark in the hallways. "Yeah, I am glad. Though, you know, Malfoy really isn't as bad as we think he is."
Ron stopped dead in his tracks and whirled on Hermione. "Are you serious?" he asked incredulously. "Hermione, Malfoy has been nothing but mean to you since first year. He is a slimy git that is never going to be any better than what people think of him."
"You just don't know him like I do, Ron."
"Whatever you think you know about Draco Malfoy is a big lie. Whatever he told you is just his method of getting you to do anything for him. You can't trust him, Hermione; you never will be able to."
The brunette was getting rather defensive and hating herself for it. However, she decided that this was one battle she wasn't going to win. "You're right, Ron. He will never change."
Ron took a few moments then to calm down. "Okay, well Malfoy wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about."
"And what was?"
"I wanted to…apologize," Hermione started to say something, but Ron held up his hand. "No, just hear me out. Look, I have been a huge arse lately, and you really don't deserve that. The whole Allison thing was just one big mistake. I guess I just got excited because I actually found another person who was into all the same things that I was. I know, there isn't any type of excuse I can come up with that will justify what I did to you, but I just want you to know that I really wouldn't hurt you on purpose."
Hermione looked at Ron and noted the sincerity in his voice. "I know, Ron. I've already forgiven you too. How can I stay mad at you?" She asked the last part with a laugh.
"Well," Ron continued. "In light of all of this, I was really hoping that maybe you might possibly consider taking me back? I mean, I can understand, sort of, if you don't want to, of course."
Hermione had had suspicions lately that Ron would be, in fact, trying to get her back. She thought about this sometimes late at night when she was supposed to be sleeping but, alas, she was somewhat of an insomniac. She had never been able to figure out how she would answer him, but now she did.
"I'm sorry, Ron, but I think we're better off being friends." With this, she left a sullen Ron and went back to the common room. She really didn't quite understand why she didn't say yes—after all, that's how it was always supposed to be. However, Hermione was quickly finding out that nothing is ever what it seems. Her world was shifting at her feet, and if she didn't start moving forward, she was going to get lost in the shuffle.
