Disclaimer- I don't own squat. Shocking isn't it? However... My lovely friend (WHOM I HAVEN'T SEEN A REVIEW FROM YET!!! –hint hint-) and I are planning the kidnapping of Draco and Severus (or Sevvie as I so fondly call him). If you would like to help us in our erm... Noble Quest simply drop us a line. :)
Summary- Hermione Granger is thoroughly fed up with Draco Malfoy and his taunting. Wanting to get blackmail on him she makes a polyjuice potion that turns her into Blaise Zabini. Something goes wrong with the potion and she gets stuck in the Slytherin girl's body. When, after almost a week, she returns to her own body she's gotten the blackmail she set out to find, but will she use it? I suck at summaries, but I don't think that was that bad, was it?
A/N- ALL YOU HAPPY LITTLE READERS THERE!!!!!!!!! Now that I have your attention. As you can see, I've changed my penname. Yet again. I hope it didn't confuzzle anybody. I don't want to lose readers/reviewers over something like that. It'd make me very, very sad...
You know I find it hilarious that those little cheap compasses that you can get in those 25 cent prize dispensers (you know what I'm talking about?) will actually change the way they say is north if you shake 'em up a bit. I wouldn't want to be lost with only one of those things to help me find my way. :) Also, you know what's cool/interesting? This story has the same 'initials' as my friend! Hee hee... I'm so easily amused...
Anywho, ON WITH THE MADNESS!
-Killing Me Softly-
-Chapter 2—Thin Line Between Love and Hate-
After Malfoy had clothed himself he and Hermione went down to the Great Hall for dinner.
Hermione strode into the hall with a mask of confidence firmly in place, but behind that she was somewhat nervous. Not very much so, but just enough that her hands were shaking. Although she knew a significant amount more about Blaise's behavior in public (she had studied her for the past month) than she did of her behavior in the Slytherin common room and with Malfoy, she was a little nervous about being around so many people. Keeping up her façade would be a good deal harder with so many people watching her, taking note of her every movement. For they would be doing just that. Hermione had noticed in the month she had been watching Blaise that the girl was something of a Slytherin queen, with Malfoy as her king. Granted, they weren't together, but the Slytherins looked to the two for guidance. 'When you think about it,' Hermione thought 'it's really quite interesting. They're the only Slytherins capable of ending all the house feuding, yet they do nothing.' It really was fascinating, this Slytherin social system.
Malfoy sat down at the end of the table, closest to the teacher's table, and Hermione seated herself across from him. Next to her Pansy Parkinson glared out at the world as if it wasn't worth her time. Across from Pansy Crabbe was playing with his peas in a rather repulsive manner. Goyle was going home for Christmas so he was in the Slytherin common room doing some last minute packing (the train left after dinner), or so Crabbe had said when Pansy had asked.
So were Harry and Ron, Hermione remembered. Harry was staying at Ron's, apparently they wanted to get in some extra quidditch practice, something they wouldn't be able to do at Hogwarts. During the winter holidays the pitch was virtually never unoccupied since the first game was after break.
Hermione carefully picked at her food, a salad and a handful of walnuts. During 6th year she had gone vegan, making it rather difficult for her to find things to eat. At the beginning of 7th year she had spoken to Dobby, asking him to send food that wasn't 'forbidden' up to her seat.
However, as she was sitting at the Slytherin table the food wasn't sent to her. She looked longingly over at her usual seat at the Gryffindor table where, sitting there oh-so-temptingly, a pitcher of soymilk and a platter of veggie ribs practically screamed her name.
"Z?" Malfoy whispered into Hermione's ear "Come on, lets get the hell out of here. Pansy's flirting with me again." He shuddered and Hermione smirked inwardly as he nervously glanced towards Hogwarts' resident 'dumb blonde'.
Hermione stretched languidly and said softly, looking up at him with big puppy dog eyes "But Draco dearest, I haven't quite finished my dinner yet..." She laughed as Malfoy looked from her to her plate, on which rested a lone carrot stick, and back again. Glaring angrily he pulled her by her forearm out of the hall.
Sill dragging her and muttering profanities under his breath Malfoy banged through the tall double doors that led outside. Releasing her and turning around he said irritably "She was touching me!" At this Hermione burst out laughing, holding onto a nearby bench for support. Malfoy looked on with his eyebrows raised and his arms folded as she finally collected herself, fidgeting with her hair uncomfortably.
"Thank you ever so much for that little outburst." He said coldly. "You know one would expect that a... lady like yourself to treat others with more respect than that. Especially when 'others' means her best friend." Hermione could see now that he was only joking so she played along.
"And one would think," she said putting her hands on her hips "that a gentleman such as yourself would treat a lady with more respect than this." She waved her hand at her arm and in the general direction of the Great Hall. "Honestly. You shouldn't be treating someone of such high stature in this vulgar manner. It is entirely unacceptable. Women are delicate things my Lord Drakie." He flinched at the name and Hermione smirked. "Well now, what do you say Drakie?" she questioned, mockingly stressing the nickname that Pansy had given him in fourth year, the year when she had first started trying to gain his attention. He sighed.
"Forgive me? Please?" He opened his silver-gray eyes as wide as he could and grinned idiotically. The result was rather disturbing.
"Fine, fine. I forgive you," Hermione said with not-quite-feigned reluctance. Malfoy snorted indignantly and she grinned back. She turned away from him and started off down the path leading to the lake. Malfoy followed, walking several steps behind her.
Hermione sat down on a low tree branch that hung out over the lake, trailing her feet in the water. Malfoy sat down next to her and she smirked at him playfully.
"Careful, you'll break the branch." She scampered up to the branch above him and then the one above that. When she reached he highest branch that could hold her weight she carefully stood up, poking her head through the canopy of green leaves.
"Pretty sunset, isn't it?" Malfoy called from somewhere below her.
"Sunset?" Hermione turned her face up to the orange and red sky. "What time is it?" The clock on the north tower tolled eight, answering her question. "Shit," she said loudly. She ran her hands through her hair nervously, and examined her hands, checking for any signs of her returning to her usual form. After over a minute of frantic checking she stopped, letting her arms fall limply to her sides. There was absolutely no change. Her hair was still short and silky, her hands still soft and white, her voice still thin and soprano. Everything about her screamed Blaise Zabini, even fifteen minutes after the polyjuice should have worn off.
"Something must have gone wrong... I can't think what though..." Hermione was the brightest witch, or wizard for that matter, of her age and there was no way she would let something so trivial as a bungled polyjuice potion faze her. She slipped quickly into Encyclopedia Granger mode. 'Most likely it was either to many of Zabini's hairs or an overdose of the potion. If it was a potion overdose I should be back by tomorrow. On the other hand, to many hairs... who knows how long I could be stuck like this?' Her train of thought was abruptly cut off by the appearance of Malfoy's head next to her left foot. His slightly shaggy blonde hair blew gently in the sort breeze, brushing across his high cheekbones.
"Come down," he whispered so softly she could barely hear him. He tugged at the cuff of her pants and she nodded, carefully and quietly climbing down from the tree. She stood next to him on the lowest branch, closely pressed to the trunk, peering over his shoulder.
There, at the edge of the forest stood a unicorn, cropping at the soft green grass growing there. It was young, probably a year old or close to it, and it's coat shimmered a soft color bordering between silver and gold. Its horn glowed gently in the evening light.
"It's beautiful..." Hermione breathed. She wanted to go touch it, it looked so soft... but she knew better than that. Unicorns were dangerous when you didn't know how to handle them. Even when you knew what you were doing they were still unpredictable. Malfoy twitched his mouth gently at her and she returned the gesture.
The moment was ended by a loud squeal coming from up the path leading to the school, accompanied by a girl saying excitedly, "Megan look! It's a unicorn!" The magnificent animal raised its head and, seeing the two squealing girls, bolted into the forest.
"Way to ruin a moment, eh?" Hermione said playfully to Malfoy. His mouth twitched and she grinned at him. Then, grabbing him by his arm, she jumped from the tree and ran up the path to the castle.
She walked with him up to the portrait entrance of the Head's dorm. The mermaid the painting depicted greeted them in her usual manner.
"'Lo sugar. How're things?" she smiled warmly, flipping her frizzy red hair over her shoulder.
"Firith Elenath." Malfoy grunted the password. Hermione swatted him on the shoulder.
"Just fine, thanks," she said with a smile. "How're you doing?"
"Pretty good," the mermaid replied. "I visited Hank in the charms corridor while you folks were at dinner..." She trailed off dreamily. Hermione laughed good-naturedly. Hank was a portrait of a merman in the charms corridor; he and the mermaid had something of a romance between them. The mermaid talked constantly about him to anyone, anytime. It was somewhat annoying, but amusing at the same time.
By this time Malfoy was glaring impatiently at the mermaid, his arms crossed. "Alright sweet, I'll let ya in. Don't go having a hippogriff..."
The portrait swung forward and Malfoy went in calling over his shoulder "See you at breakfast Z."
"Yeah, see you..." Hermione replied absently.
"Ooh, someone's got a crush!" the mermaid squealed.
"What? Gods, no! We're just friends!" Hermione was immensely startled.
"Blaise sweet, don't go hiding stuff from me! I saw the way you looked at him just now."
"Whatever you say," Hermione said skeptically. She waved to the mermaid and wandered down the hall heading in the general direction of the Slytherin common room. 'Honestly,' she thought as she walked '"I see the way you look at him" Ha! I don't look at him in any special way...' Hermione found herself remembering the first time she and Malfoy had come to the Head's dormitories.
Hermione had chosen the password before Malfoy had even gotten a word in. Firith Elenath. Fading stars. She thought it was pretty. Malfoy thought it was stupid. They were so different, it was a wonder they kept from killing each other.
Malfoy had stormed right into the common room, but Hermione had stayed outside a minute to talk to the mermaid. The first thing the mermaid, or Sandy, as Hermione had soon learned her name was, had said was "he's just dreamy ain't he?" Hermione had been disgusted at the time. Now she wasn't entirely sure. He was still a ferret face, but he didn't seem like a bad person... She shook her head vigorously. He was Malfoy, nothing more.
She stopped in front of a painting of a snake wrapped around a golden apple, the entrance to the Slytherin common room. She quite liked the painting actually. It reminded her of a picture she had attempted to draw once, although this one was ten times better. She stood there admiring it for a minute before the snake hissed at her impatiently. It was then that she realized she had no idea what the password was.
--
Woah, seven pages... I don't know how that happened... Anyhow, the password, Firith Elenath, is Sindarin for Fading Stars. For all I know I could have to switch the words around or add some other little word in, but I just took the word for fading and the word for stars and slapped 'em together. I think it's pretty and I don't care if you think it's stupid. And no, it has absolutely no symbolism. I'm big on symbolism and stuff like that, but the password means nothing. It's just cool. However, Malfoy's head appearing by Hermione's left foot is a crucial detail. There's just something special for me about left feet, in fact the whole left side of the body, but mostly left feet, something you'll probably notice throughout this story. You may notice though how the way Hermione thinks of Malfoy changes, however subtlety, after his head shows up. I know, I'm weird, but that's that. :)
Also, Thin Line Between Love and Hate is an Annie Lennox song. It's a cool song. The lyrics don't exactly fit this chapter, but the title works pretty darn good.
THANKS
winter-embers- Thanks! Wait, so you're Torie? Or am I stupid and forgetful?
sweetRazzy- Thanks. I have to agree with you there, this one is much better. Although I'm glad you liked the other one. Sadly, it had no plot. Yes, had. I deleted it. It was a hard decision, but there really was no point in keeping it up.
crimsonskie- I like your name. Thanks for your review! :) Now, when you say sweet do you mean sweet as in awesome, or sweet as in cute? Sorry, I'm just a little analytical.
perfectpurple118- I'm sorry, your review confused me to no end. First you say Blaise is supposed to be a girl, but then you make it seem like my making her a girl was incorrect. I'm so confuzzled...
cherriesjubilee- Thanks for the wonderful constructive criticism. Alright, I know it's a little OOC for Hermione to be doing something this... rash. But I think how she planned it out makes it a little better. Beyond that there's not much I can do on that subject that wouldn't involve rewriting the whole story. Blaise? Well, I haven't quite figured that one out yet. I'll come up with something... As for people being worried about Hermione's disappearance, I'll take care of that next chapter. I think I'll just have her 'go home' for the break. And I thank you profusely for the grammar comment. I hate bad grammar with a passion. Although my grammar when I speak isn't all that great and my spelling is... well, lets just say it could be better. I try my best. :)
Arwen Luinel- Darn it! You reviewed! I was so longing to set my kitty on you... Just kidding, my Kit Cat is very happy with your review, she won't be attacking you any time soon. No, really. She purred while I was reading it (she sits in my lap when I go on the computer, it's very cute). Thanks for the happiness!
Well now, if my muse doesn't eat me I'll be updating within the month. Also, I'm thinking about starting another story. I just wanted to ask you guys, is that ok? Or do you fear for my updating 'regularity'? It'd be a Wickfic. I love that musical and I just today discovered that had a musical/play section. I was in heaven. So, yea or nay? I'll wait 'till I've finished a bit more of this if you like. It's all up to you. REVIEW!!! Hey, that rhymes...
SMs