Author's Note: Yipees! Another chapter for you guys. I am so sorry for not updating for such a long time, but I had been really busy lately. It sounds like an excuse, but I really was pretty busy. The starting of school, and blah blah blah. But I shouldn't do this to you guys! Over eight months without updating a single word, I am such an idiot. NO! Feel free to throw tomatoes at me, I'm not acceptable. But hey, hopefully you guys would like this fiction! So please review to give me the encouragement. At least some of you are waiting for the next chapter(I hope…), so it will motivate my feeling of writing. I am challenging myself since that I am writing this fiction in Verdana, size 5. But it's still fun to do it! It will be hard to see, but I will try not to have any typos. Don't think I'm crazy, but I just want to test a little. And if I fill two pages with the fonts as big as this, it will be a long chapter!
Disclaimers: All Harry Potter and affiliates are copyrighted to Ms.J.K.Rowling, who I am not. I will love to be her, but for the time being, I have no option, Lol. By the way, from now on I will include a short section of From Last Time at the beginning to make it a little more interesting and formal.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Requesting Beta Reader(s)! Well I certainly don't know well GuardSweetie has gone… So if any of you would like to be my Beta reader, please review or send an e-mail to Thanks!
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CHAPTER - Two Perfect Men
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From Last Time:
"You may keep the Sickles." Draco waved his unocdupied hand casually at Madam Juinigre, a cage on his other hand.
"You are very generous indeed, young mister." The shopkeeper spoke gently as she waved her wand at the silver changes, "I sincerely hope you may come again."
"I will, of course." Draco said coldly as he stepped out of the pet shop. The blazing sunlight was shining on his platinum blond hair again, as he thought to himself, I will go to Flourish and Blotts now, to get another book to inspire my writing.
He found his way to his favorite wizard book store, and walked to the section where he always visited. He was both amused and surprised when his eyes met a head of bushy brown hair.
"Fancy meeting you here," He said with his cold drawl, "Mudblood…"
Oh, what a joy… thought Hermione, as a chilling voice that belongs to no one of her liking crept into her ears. She looked up from her book, while unsurprisingly, she saw a pale face with a trademark smirk of a certain blond wizard. Those grey eyes were shooting piercing glares, filled with hatred, disgust, and amusement. Trying not to be frightened, Hermione shot up from her soft couch. On contrast of what she thought, she was even more intimidated by Malfoy's height. Hermione herself focused her own hatred in her eyes, and shot Malfoy a cold glare. "What do you want, Malfoy? Had enough flirting with Pansy?"
Malfoy's pale face was suddenly flushed with pink pigment. Although Hermione knew perfectly well that Malfoy wouldn't muster such a thing has flirting with Pancy, she even knew potently that the blond wizard had strong dislike toward Parkinson. But it was just too amusing to see Malfoy actually flushing with abashment in front of her. Bloody hell, it was the famous Malfoy we are talking about. Hermione replied quick-wittedly as she stared at the handsome, but malicious wizard, "Take your time to rummage some reply in your brain full of Dark Arts. I'm not in a rush, but I assume that you are, don't want to keep sweet Pansy waiting, huh?"
Malfoy suddenly gathered his own courage, and spat at Hermione, "You know what, Mudblood. I would love see how you are doing with two of your dirty little boyfriends. What are their names again? Pothead and Weasel, perhaps they were? Oh oops, I meant Potter and Weasly. Pardon me." Malfoy started into Hermione's eyes with sarcasm, as he emphasized the last syllable.
It was Hermione's turn to blush. Of course it wasn't true, but letting Malfoy having her best was just not… Hermione. Her face was soon the color of Ron's flaming hair, but she retained her cool emotions. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, and her hair was flowing fluently by the small breeze outside of Flourish and Blott's window. Out of the blue, the sight of Oliver popped into Hermione's mind. If this man in front of me is one percent as nice as Oliver, I would just faint. But hey, the Malfoy family is one of a kind. "You know clearly that Ron, Harry, and I are very good friends. Perhaps you need some friends, and a life to not bother girls?"
Malfoy retained his cool, as he quickly, and curtly replied, "You know Mudblood, I really don't have time to have such enjoyable discussions. I, unlike you, actually have something important to do. To tell the truth Mudblood, you wouldn't look half bad if you just lose your know-it-all attitude and raise your skirt by a few centimeters." Surprised at his own mouth, Malfoy quickly continued, ignoring the flushed gesture on the witch's face, "But of course, you are still a Mudblood--"
Without his notice, Draco's face was covered by a thin red mark. It appears that Hermione had slapped him, again. As prideful as our little prince was, Malfoy had never been hit by a female before Year Three. The same girl slapped him this very second, after three years of suppressed tolerance.
Malfoy's eyes widened with surprise. With a light "pop", Hermione Apparated away from Flourish and Blotts, leaving behind a quite irritated Malfoy behind. "Oh Merlin, what an absolutely wonderful rendezvous was that? Can Malfoy be any more conceited, rude, and just downright querulous?" Hermione muttered to herself as she resurfaced on the main, small street of Diagon Alley.
The sun was as radiant as usual, but its rays of light had seemingly been diminished. Fluffs of dull and grey clouds appeared, seemingly to be a harbinger of an inexplicable catastrophe. Nothing of the sorts bothered our innocent witch. Unbeknownst to the danger laid in front of her, Hermione Granger continued her pieces of outspoken thoughts, which was accompanied by a pair of pacing feet.
"Oh of course, Malfoy has an amazing dad of a Death Eater. Almost every soul in the magic world knows that, and he is still able to walk under the bright sunlight without having a shameful mask?" Hermione questioned herself, with a bundle of sarcasm. "Oh that's right. We are among a war. A war raged upon us almost 17 years ago, and has waited too long to be finished once and for all. Now isn't the instigator the mighty master of these almost soulless Death Eaters? Yes, Voldemort, the ultimate cause of all this pandemonium. It happens that our favorite blond wizard has a dad who just might be the most royal follower of the Dark Lord…"
"Well where am I off to now?" Hermione wondered to herself, apparently she had forgotten her little date with Oliver Wood. "Oh yes, Oliver is waiting for me over his flat… I must get going…" Oliver's apartment was only a few blocks for where Hermione was standing, certainly she did not wish to waste her time Apparating. Our young witch hurried off to the direction of Oliver's apartment, certainly oblivious of a pair of sinister eyes following her feminine figure…
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Draco stood in astonishment as Granger Apparated away. Again. By her. Draco Malfoy does and will not tolerate being indignantly hit by the same girl twice. She will taste my wrath the next time we meet… If we meet again, that is.
As much as Malfoy hated to admit it, it was in fact quite pleasing for him to see someone else from the opposite side after being literally "locked up" in the cold Malfoy Mannor. Filled with indignant anger, Draco tried to recall the purpose of his visit to Flourish and Blotts before meeting the familiar witch. Oh yes, novels for writing ideas… Now I must hurry… Valuable time has just been lost playing with Mudblood. Egyptian Penguin is probably waiting…
Left with a comfortable couch in front of him, Draco sat down. The seat was still warm from Granger, and it was filled with a natural, but sweet, scent from her. Next to the couch was a small coffee table, where laid an opened book, obviously left by Granger. Intrigued in the choices of books the biggest bookworm in all of Hogwarts would make, Draco lightly reached for the open book next to him. The cover was anything but extraordinary. Seemingly it was only a sheet of hard wool canvas, wrapped around by a few layers of thin and torn plastic to preserve the canvas. At the dead center of the cover, one lone word stood, faded. Forgetting.
Seems to be an attractive book by the looks… Draco thought to himself, sarcastically. Almost all of the books on his shelf in the Malfoy Manor had covers made of either the finest dragon hide, or the slimmest wool canvas. The letterings on those books are most undoubtedly covered with pure gold. Scented with a sweet rosin smell, a cover of one book alone would probably cost the whole Weasley Household.
Draco's eyes gleamed with interest as he slowly lifted the cover…
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Hermione was greeted with a toothy grin from the Quidditch Boy as she rang the doorbell. "Bienosvenidos honey." Oliver spoke in a poor English accent.
"Greetings Oliver!" Hermione exclaimed with a sweet smile. Though the flat was certainly not a big place, Hermione always enjoyed her every visit here. Each visit was always a new adventure, as Oliver was a person who could not stand the same decoration for a week. Although he was a famed Quidditch star, it was hard to spare much money with all the amount he spent on furniture and interior decorations.
"Take a look around," Oliver spoke, filled with ecstasy, "While I was look around the Diagon Alley, I found a quite beautiful oakwood armchair. I just couldn't resist but getting it for myself. Just let me warm some desserts for us, alright?" He offered Hermione a boyish smile as Hermione slowly nodded.
Agreeing to her mate's offer, Hermione started her wander around the small apartment. Over on the right wall hung an unfamiliar poster of the Chuddly Cannons, which Hermione did not see during her last visit. On the same wall stood a shelf filled with books. Not to her surprise, Hermione found that most of the books were on Quidditch. But, she was surprised when she found a copy of Witch's Weekly laying on the table under the shelf.
"Oliver, why do you have this?" Hermione spoke in an inquisitive tone. Oliver's head peaked out from a small room he calls the kitchen. He flushed at the magazine Hermione was holding in her hands.
"I just wanted to know a little more about girls… and how to win their interest." He replied truthfully, as Hermione's adventure continues.
A messy bed stood in front of her as she turned to the right, with a soft blanket unmade. The bed was furnished with two beautiful posts carved with angels on its ends. Next to the bed was an odd-looking table. It had a thing piece of hard mahogany wood shaped of a hoop as its top, while the short table was supported by a large wooden orb with small wings on its sides. The ball was lying on a plate of wood so it wouldn't roll away. Undoubtedly it was a replica of the Golden Snitch.
Hermione's heart leapt with an uncomfortable joy as she came across quite a few framed pictures of her and Oliver which were lying on top of the Snitch table. They both seemed so easy and comfortable within those photos. An odd shaped alarm clock stood next to the picture-frames. It was shaped like a Muggle baseball bat lying on its side. At the center it was just the same as any other Muggle digital clock. Hermione did not recognize the fact that Oliver bought the clock just in the celebration of his Muggle-born companion.
"So," Hermione's "adventure" was interrupted with a soft voice, as she glanced toward Oliver. He was holding a tray topped with cookies and two cups of coffee. Hermione was actually a bit hungry after eating nothing except for the light breakfast. "Come on, just a light dessert. Would you like to go out later to Leaky Cauldron to eat lunch? That would be pretty entertaining."
"Yes I would in fact," Hermione answered with full ebullience, "I didn't eat much today, and to tell the truth, I'm starving…"
The day of Hermione passed quickly with Oliver by her side… Also, with a pair of eyes watching her every move…
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Author's Notes: FINALLY! Another chapter done! After 8 months! Please review! Oh please!
