A/N: Ok ok ok, I've been getting reviews (Alright, just one) telling me that Blaise is a boy so I would just like to point out the Jo has never said what Blaise's sex is so I like to chop and change.
Chapter 16: Abandoning
Hermione turned to see what Jason was looking so frightened about and saw Draco glaring so nastily at the prefect that it scared her a little too. "Uh-oh." She said under her breath. "Let me just apologise beforehand." She hissed as she watched Draco stalk to the pair.
He looked at Jason as if he was scum and Hermione realised that Draco was taller than the other boy.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? No one except the Heads are allowed in this corridor past seven pm. Save your sucking for a better time. Now get back to the common room." His voice was calm but the venom behind it was unmistakable.
Hermione couldn't look at Jason as he turned and fled. She did however glare Draco down with all the anger she possessed for him at the moment. "How dare you!?" she raged. "What gives you the right to treat him like that? Weren't you ever taught not to pick on people younger than you?"
He turned to her, a dangerous look in his eyes. "You don't like him like that." It wasn't a question, Hermione knew that much.
"Oh yeah?" she stamped her foot, she didn't know why but it helped her vent a little. "And how the hell would you know who I like or want?"
He stepped a little closer to her, towering above her though in reality, he was a little over five inches taller. "And how dare you suck face with a child just to make me jealous when you should be doing your duty?! Don't even try and tell me that that wasn't a show put on for me."
That was it, there were a lot of things Hermione could handle; being called a beaver, insulted, treated like and outcast, getting only 105% in a test (just about) but she would not stand by and let anyone call her a cradle snatcher. She slapped him hard before he could think twice. He didn't move or even twitch to indicate that he had felt it.
"Don't you ever insinuate things about my thoughts or feelings when you clearly have no idea!" She opened the door of the third floor corridor and looked back at him. His cheek had her handprint emblazoned across it and she felt an odd sense of satisfaction from it. "You patrol this corridor. I'm sure you're perfectly capable."
The door banged shut behind her seething form. He had of course been spot on but he had deserved that slap every bit as much as he had in second year.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Hermione had had some time to calm down after storming out and was suddenly struck with her predicament. She had let Draco goad her and now he had every right to go and complain about her to McGonagall or Snape and she would most probably lose her badge. Her good sense was surfacing and with it; panic. How she would die before she saw her badge in the hands of someone like Hannah Abbott or – god forbid - Pansy Parkinson.
Being Head Girl was what she had worked towards since she had first heard of the thing, which just so happened to be the first day of her first year and no she had destroyed it because she couldn't hold her temper – and embarrassment – in check long enough.
Hermione entered a dark corridor and sank down, depressed, to the floor, leaning on the wall for support. She heard footsteps but didn't move a muscle. Her eyes stayed glued to the same imperfection on the wall as the steps got louder. They finally stopped in front of her. She had realised a while ago that there were more than on set of footsteps.
She looked up into the faces of her best friends, rolled her eyes and looked away again.
Ron sat on one side of her and Harry on the other. "How did you find me?" Hermione asked unnecessarily as she had seen Harry folding up the Marauder's Map. They also didn't seem to feel the need to explain.
Harry shrugged. "The map said that you were upset so we came to beat the bad monsters away."
Hermione snorted. Hanging with them two was not good for her feminine side. "It did not. The map shows where people are, not how they are feeling."
"You never know, I might have upgraded it. Considering the amount of time you don't spend with us anymore, we could have done it without you knowing,"
Hermione smiled fondly at him. "And disfigure something that your father made while at Hogwarts? I don't think so." She didn't say with Sirius because Sirius' death was still painful, even two years after it had occurred.
"So are you going to tell us what's wrong?" Ron prodded, hoping for an answer but with Hermione, it was never guaranteed.
Hermione shrugged. "I probably just lost my badge."
Ron looked at her Head Girl badge in confusion. "Hermione, it's right there." He pointed at it.
Hermione looked at him disdainfully. "I meant that it's going to be revoked."
"Why?" Harry asked politely.
"Because I just walked out on my duties as Head Girl." Hermione explained to them what had happened. Ron couldn't help laughing at the end. "You kissed Jason who's in the year below us and you smacked Malfoy again?"
Hermione glared daggers at him. "Ronald it isn't funny!"
"Yes it is." Harry insisted. "What on Earth possessed you to do that? Not the smacking, the kissing."
Hermione huffed and crossed her arms. "Your girlfriend and Julie Baddock."
"Well that explains a lot." Ron granted. "My sister's mad and Julie is strange but he did save your life not long ago which means that yours is in his debt. How does it feel?"
"I'd say screw you if I agreed with swearing."
"Just don't walk away again ok?" Harry asked. "We miss talking to you and now that you've done away with your bodyguard, we can spend more time together."
"But I like by badge." Hermione insisted. "I want to keep it."
"Well what can you do?" Ron asked. "You can't exactly go to McGonagall and tell her that Malfoy got angry at you because you made out with a prefect while you should have been patrolling just so that you could get back at Malfoy for kissing someone on his break."
Harry raised an eyebrow at the redhead. "And you wonder why they call you insensitive?"
"What?" Ron asked confused. "What did I say?" He focused on Hermione again. "But kissing someone to make Malfoy jealous would lead people to assume that you fancy him."
Harry looked at her apologetically.
"Well I hate to love you." She looked at Harry "And leave you." She looked at Ron with a look that clearly said not. "But I have to find Ginny and explain everything so that she isn't too miffed about the murderous looks that Draco shoots me in the common room. Julie too."
"Yet she still calls him Draco" She heard Ron whisper to Harry as she left. She shook her head at his tactlessness.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
"What do you mean you slapped him?" Ginny gasped.
"Did I stutter?" Hermione asked casually.
Hermione, Ginny and Julie were sitting in the deserted common room. Jason was nowhere to be seen and Terry was probably in his room.
"She meant explain." Julie said helpfully.
"I know what she meant Julez." Hermione settled down into the sofa and retold the story for the second time. "So do you know where Jason is?"
Ginny grimaced looking uncomfortable. "Well I haven't seen him but judging by your version of Draco's reaction, I would be surprised if he had gone straight to Professor Flitwick and handed his badge in. I don't think that it was such a good idea anymore. Draco can get really jealous"
Hermione glared nastily at them both. "This coming from the girls that convinced me to go through with it even when I refused? Argh!" She groaned, covering her eyes. "This isn't helping people. And he has no right to get jealous when he did just as worse."
"Oh get over it! The pair of you." Julie said plainly. "You're acting like a bunch of children. You like him and it's obvious that the likes you too. Tell each other, shag and be done with it!"
"Julie!" Ginny cried. "You can't say something like that."
"I believe I just did." Julie shrugged. "He's saved your life, he doesn't call you mean things anymore and he's apologised once. And seriously, people have been waiting a long time so just get over this tiny hurdle and get onto the babies."
Ginny shook her head. Julie didn't always have to say what she thought but she did anyway. It was amusing in its own little way. "God am I glad Draco's not here to hear you say that. Besides, you can't just forget that he was snogging Blaise Zabini. What was his excuse for that?"
"He did it to see how you'd react." Julie shrugged.
Ginny studied the Slytherin. "Do you know that sanity mixed with whatever it is that makes you spout words off like a regurgitating toilet is even scarier than when you keep than separate?"
"Well he wanted to know if you felt anything deeper for him than just friendship. Sure he went about it like and idiot but that doesn't mean that he likes Blaise."
Hermione shrugged. "This'll probably be my last might in this common room anyway. I suppose that it might not be so bad. I'll actually get to spend some more time with Harry and Ron now. Trust me, too long without me and Ron is just about to go off of the deep end with insensitivity."
"Hermione." Ginny consoled. "It was one mistake, you'll probably just get reprimanded."
"Ginny, I smacked him. Hard! He's gonna milk it for all it's worth." She insisted dejectedly. "Remember the Hippogriff incident?"
"He's grown up." Julie yawned. "Besides, you slapped him for telling the truth."
"I don't need to be told how wrong it was Julie." Hermione smiled. "If felt good at the time. How dare he accuse me of kissing a minor."
"You did kiss a minor." Ginny pointed out.
"I know! I'm a minor too. You know what I mean." She said agitatedly.
"I think you're sleep deprived." Ginny said finally. "And we should find Jason and apologise to him. I also don't think that you need to see Draco again tonight and he should be back any minute so go to bed and we'll act all innocent."
Hermione didn't need telling twice. She had gotten the weight off of her chest and now all she wanted to do was crash.
She was up the stairs and in her room before she heard the portrait swing open to accept the Head Boy.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
It was a weekend and also 10am in the morning. Hermione was still in her bedroom, completely dressed but not daring to leave it in case she ran into Draco. This was the latest she had ever stayed in it but she jut couldn't seem to find the courage. If she did avoid the Slytherin, she would probably run into a Professor ready to take her badge away and she could handle that even less.
She wondered where Ginny and Julie were. She had at least expected them to come in and find out why their friend was nowhere to be found but apparently, they didn't seem to feel the need to do that.
Hermione dumped herself onto her bed and crossed her arms. She was being a coward and she knew it. It wasn't really as bad as she was making out. She had just smacked the Head Boy for being rude and full of himself. Ok, so it was pretty bad because she had also run out on her duty, something that Hermione Jane Granger had never – in her life – done before yesterday evening but when it had all started, she had never thought that it would turn out this badly.
It was during her silent ranting that her door had swung open.
Ah, I put this chapter up because someone asked me to yesterday and I would also like to say thank you to Taintless for reviewing this fic from the beginning. You have stayed with it and I hope you realise how happy that makes me. Your reviews helped even when I was feeling like I would just end it at some chapter or another.
Thank you again.
Dina
