Disclaimer: Well, I DON'T OWN THEM!
They plotted on how to woo a Granger... There were romantic attempts, lame attempts, would-be-embarrassing attempts and many more... But they still had not decided on which to use for the next day, so Draco could not fall asleep thus, could not dream of Hermione...
It had been a very good night's sleep for Draco (let's not count the fact that it was three in the morning when he finally drift off to dreamland. It was still a good sleep with a good dream as a bonus). Once he woke up from his peaceful little sleep (or rather, nap), he got off his bed gracefully and dashed to the fireplace outside his room.
Draco then placed himself neatly into his armchair facing the fireplace.
Creak.
The door of Hermione's bedroom creaked open and revealed it's mistress standing in the doorway, rubbing her large watery eyes groggily. She was wearing a blue-white striped pyjamas. Draco did not see but he did hear her. He prepared himself...
'Darn it! I forgot to change out of my nightwear.' He thought to himself unbelievably. He actually forgot about it!
A Malfoy never forgets about their own appearance!
Never.
But still, any seconds now... As the footsteps got steadily louder and she seemed to get closer, Draco also thought of what his first impression in Hermione would be. 'Definitly a bad one...' he finally concluded as he scanned his clothes again. In actual fact, his clothes were all nice! So it doesn't matter. However, a typical Malfoy like him would never want to show people him in his nightwear.
A soft yawn reached his ears and he tilted his head a bit to his right to try to catch sight of Hermione's face. "Good morning. How's your... sleep?" Draco initiated a conversation.
Hermione, who was shocked to see the young master of a superbly rich family wake up so early at first, realised that she was gaping at him, her eyes no longer groggy from sleep. She hurried to close her mouth.
Draco noticed these of course, and took note of it in his memory notebook. It would be a nice thing to recall some time later... Hermione, as soon as she closed her mouth, opened it once again, but this time, it was to talk instead of gapping. "Fine... It was fine. Oh, and good morning too. Um... What's the time now?"
Hermione could not believe that it was five am in the morning. Well, it a normal time for her to wake, but how could anyone else (especially Draco Malfoy) awake as early, or even earlier than her?
He frowned a bit as he looked at the watch on his pale wrist, "It's five... in the morning." he added as he looked out of the window into the dark dawn sky. It would have been completely dark if not for the stars, moon and a faint yellowish-white glow behind the hill of the Shrieking Shack."Why?"
"Nothing." She shook her head innocently. Hermione was always the first student to wake up in the whole school on every day, except for those times when there's a Quidditch Game or something when the Quidditch players all went to warm up a little first.
Sigh... She had to go to the library, what's the point of waking so early when you are not in the library?
Hermione got her butt off the chair and she went straight to her room for a change of clothes before Draco could ask her to stop. 'He was being so strange. The way he looked at me in the eyes last night... And just now... Weird.' She thought as she pulled up some socks.
Hermione had got on her nice little school-girl blouse and a nice long pants and was only missing her shoes when there were knocks on her door. "Come in." She said smoothly, she knew who her visitor was.
Well, who else but him?
Hermione already had her shoes on by the time Draco came into her room and seated himself comfortably on her small couch. "So, what can I do for you? I'm in a small rush."
"Just thought I should come in and say hi." He said sarcastically. Draco laughed, "Well, actually I just wanna talk to you... You know, conversations or something like that?"
"I know... But you see, I need to go to the library." Hermione looked at him seriously. She obviously did not see anything abnormal in what he said.
"Oh... Same here!" He added quickly, but brightly. (A/N: Sorry to interrrupt in the story. This Draco here, may seem OOC...I know, but bear with it. I think it will not last long). Hermione could not help it but look appalled at the behavior of Draco with an eyebrow raised. 'Weird.' She thought again.
"Alright then, are we going together?" She inquired.
"Yea. Anything wrong with that?" The look on Draco face looked like he was hexed with a Most Advanced Cheering Charm.
"What's wrong?" she repeated his question. "Your clothes are all wrong to go out with me." She said with an air of pride as she was well-dressed for the trip to the library.
The morning in the library with Draco was not as bad as Hermione thought it to be. He did not tease, insult or irritate her. They merely read books and did some homeworks (mainly Potions) together. Though they got some interesting remarks from giggling girls from other houses as some of them passed by their corner of the library.
'They were a couple...'
'I knew it...'
'... Oh... He's taken!'
'Wow... I didn't know Slytherins like him would...'
Blah Blah Blah...
Draco smirked at each of those kind of remarks and turned to Hermione to find her sulking. "You don't look nice like that." He commented as he flipped through pages of the Arithmetic Book for Better Beginners, not looking at Hermione in her face.
"Oh..." Was her only reply.
Draco didn't get to find out if she did heed his advice as it was time to go for breakfast. Hermione left first, leaving Draco to tidy his things. 'She did not look happy to bet mentioned together with me as a couple...' It was a piece of saddening news for him. He got to get her to like him a bit. Or else, how would he be able to court her?
The Saturday breakfast was a routine. Everyone got into the hall and sat down at their house tables.
"Did you see Harry?"
"No, why?" Ron asked with his mouth all full with food. The food was unrecognizable but they smelled (yucks!) like bacoon and sausages.
"Ron! Don't talk to me before you swallow whatever that's in your mouth." Hermione said with the look of disgust in her face. She doubted that her appetite would take more than a goblet of pumpkin juice for breakfast.
Hermione, being unbearable to the way Ron murdered his already lifeless food, decided to get up from her chair when suddenly Harry appeared and sat beside her and Ron. It was such a relief to Hermione as she had intended to not see Ron at that point of time.
"Harry, where have you been?" Harry looked into her eyes which were filled with concerns and smiled at her before whispering gently and lightly to her, "No where." Both smiled at each other and they maintained eye contact.
The supposedly noisy hall seemed to mute itself and everything and everyone around them blurred. Only the two of them were clear in each's eyes.
"Dear students," the loud booming voice of Dumbledore filled the room and the blushing couple came back into reality. "Please, may I have your attention?" He swept his glance through the hall, "I have an announcement to make. This year, we have a new transfer student from Beauxbatons and I'd like all of you to give her a warm welcome."
The alert students gave a loud round of applause and quietened down as soon as Dumbledore ushered the girl to the front where there was an old four-legged stool which had an old, frayed hat on it.
Hermione took notice of the girl, as did the rest of the guys, she should be in the seventh year too, judging by her looks. She was very pretty. The blond had smooth, sleek and long hair which fell past her shoulders to her waist, her hair gave out a faint white glow. She had elegant features and a superb figure.
McGonagall placed the hat onto her head and her sparkling gold eyes were hidden under the uglier hat. It had been a few seconds before the hat yelled 'Slytherins!' and she went to join the clapping crowd, still wearing a brilliant smile which showed her dimples.
Hermione could see some Hufflepuff boys next to her House table looking at that girl and plastered dreamy looks on their faces. She noticed groanings from her house table too.
"I can't believe it!" She muttered under her breathe.
"Can't believe what?" Harry's voice rang in her ears. It was the only male voice (apart from the Slytherins) that wasn't complaning about the sorting of the attractive girl.
"Boys! They just can't stop doing that! Like only pretty girls are their top priorities." She complained.
"I'm not like that!" Came the protests from Ron and Harry. She eyed them and gave up. They really were different from the others. The trio strode down the corridors, chatting happily together.
"Hermione, I don't think you'd showed us your new room yet!" Ron exclaimed in the midst of their conversation on dragons as they recalled the Triwizard Tournament just a few years ago.
"Oh... That. You want to see it now?" She offered.
"'Course! Unless you don't want us to..." Ron said.
"Of course not! Don't think silly." Hermione slapped his arm playfully.
"Hahah..." The gang laughed and went down the corridor which led to the Heads Common Room.
Hermione leaned close to the portrait of an artist, Vincine de Regarion, and muttered the password loud enough for only him to hear.
Ron rolled his eyes. "Ron, you have to understand that it's a must." Harry defenced Hermione.
The door unlocked itself and swung forward to admit entry to the pupils. They passed though the white curtains hanging at the entrance and slipped into the room. "Wow. This is large for only two students to stay in." Commented Harry. Hermione grinned at him, she did not know what to say.
Then, she heard laughters of a male and a female. The male had to be Malfoy, but the female... Harry seemed to notice that too as he was tracing the noise to it's source- Malfoy's bedroom. "Malfoy's in there?" He questioned.
"I think so." Shrugged Hermione.
"Who's the girl?"
"No idea." Hermione replied plainly, sounding uninterested.
"Don't you want to know?" Harry asked.
"Hmm... didn't people say 'curiosity kills the cat'?" Hermione retorted.
"You are still curious aren't you?" Harry smirked.
"Yea... but..."
"Come on. Knock on the door." Ron joined in. Both boys flashed an evil grin on their face.
"Fine." She waved the white flag and surrendered to the boys. They were such good friends...
Knock, knock.
"Hello, Granger. What can I do for you?" Draco answered the door, "Oh... I see you brought your great friends along too." He gave a quick glance in Harry's direction.
Hermione turned to look at Harry and Ron too. "I was just wondering why was it that there's so much noise in your room. It's causing some disturbance to us..." She swept her hand in the boys's direction and finally directing it at herself. "and we can't concentrate. So..."
"So you want me to shut up?" He helped her finish her words.
"Yea... That's about it." She blushed. Why can't she think of better words to say?
"Hello." The door opened to it's full length and the trio saw the girl from Beauxbaton there.
"Ha... Hallo..." Stuttered Hemione. 'Hermione!' She screamed in her mind. 'Stop acting like an idiot already!'
"I'm Elise," she introduced herself and stretched out her hand which Hermione gladly took.
"I'm Hermione Granger."
"Hi, and you are?" Elise asked Ron who stood closest to Hermione.
"Ron Weasely." He introduced. Draco snorted causing glarings to be thrown at him.
"Draco, I think that wasn't very good."
"Elise, I'll explain later about this 'rude' thing."
Elise's smile deepened as she stretched out her hand to Harry. "Harry Potter. Nice to meet you."
"Oh... Nice to meet you too." Harry smiled.
"Excuse me. Elise, may I know your last name?" Asked Ron politely.
However strange Hermione found Ron being so polite and interested in Elise, she was curious about her last name too.
"Oh, I'm sorry to leave that out." Politeness never left her. "I'm Elise Roonie."
And Ron looked like he could faint...
A/N: Hey guys! I'm back! Don't know if you all enjoy waiting. Lol... Ok, obviously not. This chapter should not have included so many craps (those that were at the top part of the story) as it was meant to be a chapter to introduce Elise... You never know what she will do to the relationship of DMHG.
Seeya,
fionger