The carriages finally arrived at Hogwarts Castle, and the students noisily made their way to the house tables. Hermione finally had the chance to talk with her Gryffindor friends again. As expected, the conversation had turned to Quidditch once more.
"Now that Harry's the captain, there should be no trouble winning the Cup!" Seamus's Irish lilt exclaimed jubilantly. Dean and Seamus had been assigned the positions of Beaters for their seventh year. Watching the two of them finally get over their differences after fifth year, and become friends again had been trying. Gryffindor Tower wasn't the same while they weren't really talking.
"I won't be sure of that. Ravenclaw's actually got a good side now." Harry replied.
"Harry, remember, you don't have to say that anymore. Cho graduated last year!" came Ron's cheeky reply. The entire group of seventh years laughed uproariously, much to the envy of many of the other students, as Harry whacked him over the head, a faint blush tingeing his cheeks. Hermione joined the crowd, and finally felt at home again. Spending time with Malfoy had not helped her feel any better about the nostalgia associated with her last year of school.
"Our very own Head Girl is finally here! We thought Malfoy had tried to curse you!" Dean exclaimed, finally noticing her.
"He wouldn't have gotten very far, I promise you that." Hermione replied with a small smirk. She was pulled into the group, as the conversation turned to the year ahead, and the classes that everyone was planning to take.
They sat down at the Gryffindor Table, as Dumbledore proceeded through his customary speech, bringing hope to all with his sincere words. As the sorting began and finished, and the Houses cheered for all of their new first years, each of the students began to wish for the food to appear, and it finally did. After eating their fill, and being dismissed, Hermione excused herself from her peers.
"I have to go to see my new dorm. I'm thrilled as you can tell." Hermione dryly bade good-bye to her friends. As she entered the hall where she was to meet the Headmaster, she noticed that Malfoy was already there. However, Dumbledore wasn't.
"The blasted old fool's late. But, hey, what can you expect. He probably got lost." Malfoy remarked with a sneer.
"Oh, shut up, Malfoy. You can't have an ounce of respect for anyone, can you? Save, perhaps, Lord Voldemort." She retorted back.
"I do not need to respect anyone else, unless they have given me reason." He stated simply, but his eyes were burning with cold fury, indicating that something else in her statement had bothered him. But she was saved from responding, by the appearance of Professor Dumbledore, who smiled knowingly at them both, and proceeded to lead them to their living quarters for the year. The halls seemed to twist on and on, as Dumbledore led them farther and farther through the great castle. Some of the hallways were dark and damp, and Hermione made a note to herself to never have a reason to wander them alone. Others were covered in large paintings, much like those covering the parts of the castle that she was familiar with. As she glanced up at Malfoy, he still seemed angry, yet was dangerously silent. She turned her focus back to Dumbledore's lead, as she felt Malfoy's cold glare at the side of her face.
After ten minutes of walking, they finally stopped in front of a portrait of a red and silver phoenix. The phoenix seemed to be rising from the flames and yet, surrounded by ice that was constantly melting and reforming. Neither the fire nor the ice seemed to harm the other, but rather they seemed to coexist, united by the phoenix.
Dumbledore turned to them. "As I'm sure both of you bright youngsters have guessed, this is the entrance to your shared common room. As long as one of your hands, or the hands of one of the professors touches both the fire and the ice of the painting, you will be allowed in. You may have guests, but in such a manner as to not bother the wishes of your neighbour. I trust that both of you will learn to cooperate through the course of this year, and set an example for the other pupils that differences can be overcome in this great time of crisis." With a grave look at both of them, he turned and wished them goodnight, leaving to retire.
Both Hermione and Malfoy reached for the painting at the same time, attempting to be the first to be let in. However, Malfoy, being the larger individual, successfully touched the portrait first, and was the first to be let in. Hermione scrambled in after him, with a rather irritated scowl covering her usually pleasant face.
However, after taking in the room around her, her scowl gradually faded. The castle's gray stone walls were left bare, except for tapestries hung around in different places. There was a majestic large window, overlooking Hogwart's Lake, complete with a balcony. There was a rather nice looking fireplace, already roaring with flames. In front of the fireplace was one couch, and one chair. Hermione could already envision fights between herself and Malfoy over who got the couch each night. At one end of the room, there were two study desks, with portraits of previous Head Girls and Head Boys respectively over each one. After looking over all of this, Hermione and Malfoy each headed over to their respective doors, which had their titles written above.
As she opened the door, Hermione saw a small stone spiral staircase, leading fairly high up. Sparsely placed over the walls, were windows looking out, and swords crossed under the Hogwarts, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and unfortunately Slytherin crests. Finally, she reached a small stone archway, which led to her bedchamber, and bathroom. A rather large bed covered in green and cream soft sheets took up most of the room. There was a large window opposite the bed with cream and green curtains, as well. Her trunk was sitting on the floor, open, and all of her belongings were already sorted out into the wardrobe that was provided. Through another open doorway, was the bathroom, with a shower, and a claw-footed tub that looked rather quaint and nice compared to the ordinary bathrooms that Hermione had been accustomed to throughout her life.
Feeling extremely satisfied with her…well, with her Head Girl tower… Hermione walked back down the stairs. She had spied a bookcase in the common room, and she really wanted to see what books she could find. Finally reaching the Common Room, she was delighted to note that Malfoy was nowhere in sight. She made her way to the bookshelf and ran her fingers over the various old titles. The tomes ranged in subject matter from defense potions to charms for decoration. As she looked at a title on the top shelf, she was intrigued : "Beginner's Guide to Wandless Magic" She had left her wand in her room, so she was left to standing on her toes, and reaching far up, in an attempt to reach the book. However, as she was stretching, Malfoy walked in, giving a loud snort of laughter as he saw her futile attempts. She turned around, scowling, "Oh, shut up Malfoy. Not all of us are ungainly tall!"
Turning back around, she continued to reach for it. However, Malfoy was now behind her. "What book are you looking for, anyway?"
Hermione had never been good at lying, but now she felt that she should have learned. She quickly scanned the top shelf for a less important title. "Um, well, I was looking for….101 Ways to Torture Tanzanian Telepathic Tortoises"
With a growing smirk on his face, Malfoy pulled the book down, holding it above her reach, and began to flip through it. "If it was anyone besides the Gryffindor Bookworm, I would have thought that they were lying, but since you do read rather obscure books from what I hear, I'll believe you. Although, that doesn't mean that I'm going to give it to you."
"What, you're going to read it instead?"
"No, of course not, I read far more interesting books."
"Like 237 Ways to Tame Ladybugs?" Hermione snorted. This book was sitting rather idly on Malfoy's study desk.
He actually blushed slightly.
"Well its far more interesting than this."
"Undoubtedly, now give it back."
"Back, you never had it in the first place!"
And this is where Hermione made her first horrible mistake: she jumped for the book. Laughing rudely, Malfoy simply held it higher, and began running around the room. Unwilling to give up, Hermione followed suit. Soon, both were yelling at each other, tearing around the Head Common Room, looking like a pair of first years. Unfortunately, this was the scene that met Professor Snape's eyes, when he entered the Common Room.
Both Malfoy and Hermione stopped running, (currently Hermione's hair had been turned green and looked remarkably like an afro and the back of Malfoy's robes looked like a black canvas, having been covered with different colors of inks from the pots that Hermione had hurled at him-she was quite vicious even without a wand), panting slightly and both looking entirely ashamed. Malfoy slowly brought the hand holding the book down, and set the troublesome object on the coffee table that the two had been circling for some time. Professor Snape looked positively livid, as he aimed spells at the pair, restoring them to their normal appearances.
" I was to come and tell you that you had to patrol together tonight, as well as every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday night of the year. However, I will also tell you that both of you have detention on this coming Friday night. I do not want to hear any complaints of other engagements or anything of the like. Right now, both of you clean this room up, before reporting to patrolling duty within a half an hour." With a sincere glare, aimed mostly at Hermione, as if she were the cause of all of the problems, Snape retreated out the portrait hole, and swept off through the castle.
Without a glance at Malfoy, Hermione ran up the staircase to get her wand. When she returned downstairs, Malfoy was still standing, gazing at the fire, with a rather angry look on his face. Right, like he has any reason to be any angrier than me. Sighing, Hermione muttered a few spells that returned the common room to its pristine order, before leaving the common room, to wander a bit to the library, before reporting for her patrol duty. She really wanted to get a copy of the book from bookshelf, without Malfoy knowing.