This is yet to be beta read. Oh yeah, I'm looking for one to help me with my french in the next few chapters. Its is essential. Don't worry people...there will be an explanation in english. I want someone from france. Accostomed to the french culture, with the manner of the french ingrained into them in such a way it would seem natural. The elegance of the french must shine through it all. Please oh please...god I sound super pompous. You can tell I'm not french. Yeah...Oh yeah read and review
"Err...Hermione, P...professor Dumbledore w...wants to see you," stuttered a third year student managing a shaky smile. Hermione smiled encouragingly when she looked up to see a third year Hufflepuff who had green eyes and a nervous grin. She was shifting her weight from one foot to another and fidgeting with her hands.
"Harry, Ron. I'll go see Dumbledore now, he seems to want to see me. Maybe it's about the head girl position," she informed her friends.
"Hurry up 'Mione or Ron might just finish the whole feast," Harry said poking fun at Ron. Hermione turned back to see both her best friends feigning a fight. Ron threw a fake punch at Harry who pretended to be wounded before faking a kick at Ron. Hermione shook her head at the immaturity of her friends, though she was happy that Harry had lightened up from how he was in their sixth year.
They had definitely changed...a whole lot. Over the holidays Harry and Ron had developed a need to portray their masculinity to everyone, thus acted like jerks at every possible time.
They had changed physically as well. Long gone were the days when Ron was tall and gangly. He might be tall now but Harry rivaled him standing at 6 foot 1 just one inch shorter than Ron. Also quidditch had done them a lot of good as they were extremely muscular. Ron was much more muscular than Harry being a beater than Harry who was lithe from being a seeker. Ron had become a beater after the Weasly twins, Fred and George left school that memorable day. The portion of the swamp still remained paying a tribute to the unlikely heroes that were also the trouble makers of the century
Of course to Hermione they were the same old, sometimes annoying, extremely over-protective Harry and Ron. She remembered how they had reacted when she was dating Victor Krum, the Bulgarian national seeker in their fourth year. Rolling her eyes as she thought back to all the times they had been together. They were her best friends followed by Ginny. She wondered if they would remain as close after they left Hogwarts.
Beside Harry sat Ginny and Hermione realized that Ginny truly was very pretty. She seemed to be radiating with happiness from within most probably due to the incident in the train. Hermione smiled at her. Hermione was happy for Ginny. She had always thought the two of them were perfect for each other. Shaking her head to clear the many thoughts from it she turned toward the exit.
As she made her way to exit of the Great Hall, she heard many of the girls talking about Harry and Ron. "They've definitely grown during the summer holidays," commented a Ravenclaw fourth year before breaking into fits of giggles. Hermione rolled her eyes at this. She then realized that even though Harry and Ron were now most probably the most sought after males in Hogwarts itself, she could never bring herself to think of them as more than brothers.
She walked to the gargoyle behind which Dumbledore's office resided. Even the gargoyle brought back memories of their fifth year. She remembered the time she, Harry and Ron had misled Umbridge into believing that there was a weapon and bringing her to where the "weapon" was.
She saw Firenze canter by. He waved at her and told her that he was finally on good terms with the other centaurs in the forest. Hermione congratulated him. Firenze who still lived in the castle as both he and Professor Trewalany thought Divination was best of friends with Hermione, Ron and Harry.
It was dark in the hallway and she was getting quite hungry the pumpkin pasties that she had eaten on the train seemed to be long ago and she hoped that it would be over soon so that she could go and get some food.
Suddenly she noticed that leaning against the wall was an extremely tall, well-built figure. Hermione walked up to the figure unable to make out who it was in the darkness. She tapped on his back and in a millisecond found herself smashed against the stone wall. Malfoy looked down and saw that it was her. His gray eyes not showing any emotion as though he had no soul. Hermione blinked and lost her ability to speak in shock.
"Don't ever touch me Mudblood," He hissed into her ear pushing her against the wall again. Hermione winced in pain and looked up again only to see that he was still looking at her as though she was something disgusting stuck to the sole of his shoe.
"Malfoy," she spat as though the word left a bad taste in her mouth when she finally found her voice. She had hated him all her life and vice- versa. Her tormentor for all those years stood in front of her staring at her with hate. Oh how she hated him and what she would do to slap him.
She smirked inwardly at that thought when she remembered the instance in her third year when Malfoy had insulted one time too many and when she slapped him for it. If only she could do that again but right now she knew it was dangerous as he was much stronger than her and Harry and Ron were not there to help in case things got out of hand.
He towered over her making him a good six-foot-four. His cold, steel gray eyes flashed dangerously, daring her to retort. His sharp features making him look forbidding. She decided to bite back her sarcastic remark as from the look on his face she knew that all he needed for an excuse to hurt her, would be for her to retort.
Her shoulders were beginning to ache from the pressure he was exerting on them by pressing her against the wall. The cold stone walls were uncomfortable and she could do nothing but just stand there limply, something she didn't like at all was feeling helpless.
She squirmed trying to get away from him and thought of yelling for help, but she had too much pride to let Malfoy know that he had managed to cause her pain. That would mean that she was accepting defeat. She was stuck, she could do nothing about the situation and also screaming would mean accepting defeat to her arch nemesis, Malfoy. As she was contemplating a voice cut through her thoughts like a hot knife through butter.
"Is there a problem Mr. Malfoy? Ms. Granger?" a somewhat bemused sounding voice asked. Malfoy let go of Hermione and backed away, he looked at her assuming right away that she would tell on him as all he ever seem to catch her doing was either reading or being an all round goody-goody-two- shoes. Hermione caught that look and brushed her robes before replying, "Why nothing at all Professor." She knew what he thought about her.
She knew that he only thought of her as a mudblood with no personality. She knew that she had nothing to prove but when he shot her that all knowing look she felt her blood begin to boil. She wondered why he was there; never did it occur to her that he was head boy. Again Dumbledore spoke breaking her line of thoughts.
"Would both of you kindly step into my office please," Professor Dumbledore asked and then said the password (Acid Pops). Hermione smiled as she thought about how sweet toothed the headmaster was. Both of them entered his office and Malfoy being in there for the first time gaped.
Sure the Manor had many interesting things but they unfortunately were all dark objects, not that he minded. He whiled away many hours just experimenting with the queer things he had at home. On the other hand, he had never seen anything like Dumbledore's office.
It was a circular room. The first thing he noticed was a phoenix. It's plumage was gold, red and orange and it held itself with the same pride that the bird he had at home did. Obviously it wasn't a phoenix, in fact it was dragonian. The complete opposite of a phoenix. Its song struck terror in the hearts of good and its tears caused nothing but damage. They had named in Hermes as he was a messenger of some sort. It seemed to always be in a foul temper and never let anyone touch it but Narcissa, his mother, it's owner.
Snapping out of his thoughts he looked around the room and saw many interesting instruments giving out a noise in the background. He jumped as a machine behind started to hum. Hermione gave a look that evidently meant that she thought he was weird and sat down on one of the two armchairs in front of his desk while Draco sat on the opposite end of his seat showing his disgust at her openly. Dumbledore settled onto the seat on front of them.
"As Head boy and girl, both of you have many duties to perform. You have the right to take away points from houses and I trust you will reign justly," at that Dumbledore looked directly at Malfoy.
"Also you will assign the prefects their duties tomorrow at the prefectorial board meetings. You will organize balls and other parties of course checking with me first. We have an upcoming ball planned for Valentine's Day in February and lastly the password to your quarters is 'Inky Quills'. You will have separate rooms but will share a bathroom and the common room. Yes that is about all. Oh and the feast is almost over so if you follow me to your quarters now, I will send for food to be there immediately," Professor Dumbledore said. He looked at both the people sitting in front of him, both at the edge of their seats behaving as though the other had an incurable disease.
They followed him in silence as he led them to their quarters. "I have to live with that Mudblood?" Malfoy thought but little did he know that Hermione had a thought along the same lines running across her mind at that very moment. He wondered what his father would have to say about him sharing a quarters with a mudblood. He would definitely throw a fit. Malfoy smirked as he realized that he now had the ability to make Hermione's life a living hell.
They came to the portrait of an extremely pretty lady wearing a empire-waisted gown. She had her long brown hair up in a bun with tendrils framing her face. She had green eyes that twinkled when she smiled at them.
"I'm Ella Enchanted and how may I help you unless of course you are the new head girl and boy," she said in an implacable accent. "Hello Ella, How are you this fine day? Oh and these two here are the new heads. Oh and the password is Inky Quills" Dumbledore said smiling slightly at her. She smiled back sweetly but instead of the painting opening, a small door in the background expanded and moved to the front of the painting. Once it reached the full size of the painting the doorknob protruded.
"I do have more class than the normal paintings you know," a voice rang through the air as though Ella could see Hermione's jaw drop in awe. Dumbledore pulled it open and both Malfoy and herself entered behind him. Hermione's eyes widened in awe as she took in the surroundings. There was a semi-circular leather sofa with gold satin pillows with red lining of a lion running along the border of each cushion and silver satin pillows with green lining with a serpent slithering along the borders.
In a regal looking fireplace, a fire was blazing. I would not have looked out of place in a Victorian house and Hermione immediately fell in love with it. There was an oak coffee table and many bean bags around the room. Bookshelves with every type of book possible were scattered around the room. There was even a stand with a book on it.
Hermione went up to it and read the explanation. It said to write the title of the book she wanted, so she wrote, Hogwarts a History and the book came zooming out of the shelf to her. It would have knocked her out if not for the fact that she had used her hands to cover her face. Thankfully it slowed down as it approached her and fell neatly onto her waiting hands. Unfortunately she had her hands up vertically to her face so they heavy book slid off them and onto her foot causing her to scream, "Bloody hell."
Malfoy turned to look at what happened. He nearly laughed before remembering that Malfoy's never showed emotions especially in the presence of mudbloods. Hermione grinned apologetically and muttered a almost inaudible, "I dropped the book." She continued to look around and saw that there was a socket there. "Wait did I just see a socket there," she thought to herself, her eyes backtracking only to find that she was right.
"How come there is a socket here? I thought...," Hermione said before Dumbledore cut in and said that since Hermione was a muggle born she might want to use some electrical appliances he had bewitched the room to allow electricity. Hermione squealed with excitement while Malfoy just looked at her, raised an eyebrow and smirked. He thought that she was quite stupid showing her emotions in front of both him and Dumbledore. He looked curiously at this socket thing she was so excited about.
It was just three holes in the wall with a little thing sticking out at the end. He wondered what it was that this strange thing did. He wouldn't know as he never took muggle studies. The thought of it was hilarious. A Malfoy, learning about muggles on his own accord. Though he wouldn't admit it he found their way of living without magic intriguing, he knew that it would be pointless for a Malfoy to learn about Muggles as his father himself was the reason for the death of so many of them.
Hermione then thanking Dumbledore and retired to her room anxious to unpack. She was shocked once again when she went in to see that there was a king size bed with hangings all around it.
The quilt was gold and the sheet a rich maroon. There many pillows that were so soft Hermione suspected that magic was used to make it that soft. Other than that there was a dressing table and study table made of mahogany and a walk in closet.
Inside she found all her robes neatly hung up and her other belongings put in their appropriate places. She opened her trunk and extracted her hand phone. She always brought it along but never used it as it went haywire anywhere near Hogwarts. She charged it using the socket near her dressing table.
Next she went into the bathroom. It was nothing compared to the prefects bathroom. It was huge. There was a deep swimming pool in the middle. The bottom and the walls of the swimming pool was of swirling aqua colors that made it seem calm. The whole place was covered with gold tiles. There were fifty odd taps of bubble baths. In the other end of the room there was a bath tub, toilet bowls and sinks. Fluffy white towels hung from the rails near the bath tub. The tub seemed to be made of marble and looked so classy that Hermione gasped.
Hermione could not remember a time when she had been in a place of such grandeur, such structure, such richness in culture and at the same time modern. Her house unfortunately she could no longer call it home was simplistic and necessity based unlike this place where it was all about extravagance. A scrumptious smell wafted in from the common room.
She wanted to avoid Malfoy by all costs, having had enough to deal with in one day but the smell of food that wafted in from the common room was too tempting. "I'll go in, grab the food and leave," she thought devising a plan in her mind. As she stalked into the common room she found Malfoy relaxing on the couch with eating a piece of pizza. She bent over grabbed a piece and walked towards her room. As she had her eyes down cast she did not see Malfoy swiftly move and catch her wrist. As he was a seeker he moved much stronger and thus she couldn't pull her hand out of his grip. She used her other hand to try and pry it off but Malfoy said, "What did I say about touching me Granger?"
""Then what about you? Why would you want to touch a filthy mudblood?" Hermione said her voice harsh. He looked at her slightly amused. He shrugged.
He then continued, "It is extremely rude to not offer a young man the pleasure of dining with you fair Mudblood. Did no one teach you manners at all? Or...are you just scared. Scarhead and Weasel aren't here to protect you now," he asked in a nonchalant tone.
"I would much rather be sparred the torture of having dinner with you," Hermione retorted scathingly before wrenching her hand from his vice grip, and pushed him aside. She stalked into her room and slamming the door behind her. Hermione's mind was already thinking up a plan to get revenge on Malfoy. "I have to put it to work tomorrow itself," Hermione muttered incoherently to herself, her thoughts turning to her home and soon enough sleep claimed her but not before there was a fully formed plan in her mind.
Read and Review ok :P