Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and the related people. Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling...props to her!
Warnings: Hm, none for this chapter :D
Author's Note: Well, nothing really new. Here's another chapter. Thanks to Brooks for reviewing :D I appreciate it.
The Dreaded Night
Hermione woke the next morning with a sense of uneasiness. Malfoy had never liked her. She was a mudblood she didn't even qualify as a good servant to him. Blaise and Pansy were the only Slytherins to ever talk to her and the only ones that ever would. Blaise and Pansy were the friends that Hermione had thought Harry and Ron were.
Pansy was surprisingly smart. Hermione had always thought of her as one of the stupidest people she had ever met, when really she was almost as smart as Hermione. She valued her grades just as much anyway. Blaise was adventuress. She loved to go on adventures and was always in trouble or in the hospital wing for doing something. She was smart too, but not in potions. That's where most of her injuries came from. But she still seemed to be one of Snape's favorite students.
Together they had a friendship that nothing would tear apart. And they always promised that nothing would. They would always hear the version of the story according to someone else before the pointed any fingers. They did that for Hermione, and she was thankful for it.
But when they did point fingers, that person usually got something. It was never Hermione, Pansy, or Blaise that said anything about anyone. It was what someone else said. And when they found who that person was, Blaise would go 'talk' to them. If they were lucky Pansy was with them and Pansy would talk Blaise out of doing something that she would have regretted. If Hermione would have been there, she would calm Blaise down too, but she couldn't be seen with them yet.
Not until tonight...tomorrow officially. Hermione sighed and got out of bed. She quickly showered and got dressed. Unlike most days, she decided she would put her hair up. She put it in a messy bun and left a few pieces hanging loosely in her face. She liked the freedom it gave her.
Lavender got out of bed and yawned. She stretched for a moment and then gasped. "Oh, Granger, I didn't hear you get up," she said as she grabbed a towel and headed for the showers.
"That's because I was being quite," Hermione whispered to herself. Parvati stirred from her bed and got out of bed gracefully. Every move she took was full of grace, and Hermione hated her for it.
"Good Morning, Granger," she said smiling evilly. Hermione smiled the fakest smile she had ever smiled and Parvati's smile fell off her face. She went into the bathroom and slammed the door. Hermione grinned to herself. Anything that made Parvati scowl made Hermione smile.
As Hermione was leaving the dorm Parvati and Lavender came out of the bathrooms talking rather loudly. Hermione was about to shut the door behind her but left it open a crack to hear them.
"I'm in love!" Parvati's voice screeched. "I can't believe I'm saying this! Ron's the greatest! The way he kisses is just so magical!"
Hermione's breath caught in her throat. She was over Ron, but it still hurt her to have people talk about him or Harry. She hated Parvati for stealing Ron's love and for stealing Harry's love.
"Oh, Parv, that's great! It's so awesome that you're going out with Ron and Padama is going out with Harry. It's the greatest. You guys are going to be so popular when this is through!" Lavender gushed.
Harry was going out with Padama? Hermione felt like a knife was being repeatedly stabbed into her back. She hated the Patil twins more than she hated Malfoy. They had said some nasty things about her. Not only behind her back but to her face. When she was friends with Harry and Ron they hated them almost as much as she did. Now it seemed they were just doing this to get back at her.
"I know! It's all working out the way I planned it to!"
Hermione couldn't take it anymore. She ran down the stairs running to get some breakfast and go sit on the balcony. Today was a Saturday, so there were no classes. She had the whole day to herself. That's what she was grateful for. She didn't want to be around anyone right now anyway.
She entered the common room. No one was around. They were all probably upstairs still sleeping. Hermione rose with the sun. So did Lavender and Parvati. It was a curse.
Hermione made her way toward the portrait door. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw something in the fire.
Blaise's head was in the fire's flames. "Blaise?" Hermione asked not wanting to believe that she was actually talking to her via flames.
"Hermione! I was hoping to get to you! If I didn't I was going to scare some Gryffindors, but I'm glad I found you!"
"What do you need me for?" Hermione asked sitting Indian style in front of the fire.
Blaise sighed. "It's about Pansy..."
"What happened?" Hermione asked looking gravely serious.
"Her parents. They were taken. Her father was taken to Azkaban for being a death eater. They would take her mother, but she's pregnant. They don't take pregnant people to Azkaban."
"Oh, my gosh! What does Pansy say about it?" Hermione's heart went out to her friend.
"I can't find her! Hermione you have to help me find her! She might do something drastic. She hated her parents, as you know, but now she has no where to go!"
Hermione nodded her head. "Meet me in the usual place in five minutes. I'll be there."
Blaise nodded and her head vanished from the fire. Hermione hurriedly got up from her spot on the rug and ran toward the door. She didn't make it to the door though because she bumped into something though and flew backwards landing hard on her back. Pain sprung into her back as she shot upright.
She looked around for something that she had run into, but didn't see anything around. Her eyes widened when Harry and Ron materialized in front of her. "Lost one of your precious Death Eaters?" Ron spat at her.
Hermione stared at him; he looked down at her his eyes full of hatred. "No! Of course not!" she defended herself.
"Then why were you in contact with Zabini? Why are you worried about Parkinson? You hate them," Harry said crossing his arms over his chest.
"They're my friends. How would you know I hate them? You obviously aren't my friends and never were." Hermione said standing up and dusting herself off.
"Obviously." A voice said from the stairway. Hermione saw Parvati saunter up to Ron and kiss him passionately in front of her. Hermione looked away; as did Harry.
"'Morning Sweetie," Ron said huskily. Hermione wanted to throw up.
"If they were your friends, you wouldn't have betrayed them," Parvati said hugging Ron tightly.
Ever since the incident that summer, Hermione was quick to lose her temper, and her control. She stepped forward and slapped Parvati hard across her cheek. Parvati screeched and shot toward her, but Hermione was hoping for that. All the training that Blaise had given her was finally going to be put to use!
Harry put an arm out to stop her though. Parvati stopped immediately looking at him like he was mad. "Harry, what are you doing?" She shouted ready for a fight.
"She's not worth your time," he said icily looking at Hermione.
"That's right, it's just a waste of time," Ron said just as cold looking at Hermione so she got the point.
They thought she was just a waste of their time. She felt so useless at that moment. She ran from the common room and straight to the astronomy tower tears rolling down her cheeks. She got to the tower before Blaise did. She leaned against the railing and sobbed.
She hated it. She loved them so much. She was more of a sister to them. It hurt her so much to know that they hated her. But no matter what they said to her she continued to love them.
They called her names, they pulled pranks on her, and worse they ignored her. Nothing they did would ever make her stop loving them though. She wished she could just stop it all. She wanted to not love them. To move on. They had, why couldn't she?
Because she knew she was innocent. She knew they were being blinded and couldn't see the truth and she knew she would love them until they saw the truth. Hermione was sobbing so hard that she didn't hear Blaise come up behind her.
However, she did feel the hand on her shoulder. Hermione turned to look at her friend. Blaise smiled slightly and opened her arms to her. Hermione rushed into them and hugged tight, needing the hug. She hadn't hugged anyone in so long. She let her emotions flow out with her tears, and Blaise was there to comfort her through it all. She didn't even ask for an explanation, she just offered herself to her.
When Hermione couldn't shed another tear, she looked up at Blaise. "Thanks," she said smiling for the first time.
"That's what friends are for." Blaise said. "And that's why we need to go find, Pansy. She needs what you needed."
Hermione nodded and they set off to find her. They searched almost the whole day. Wherever they went they couldn't find her. Either Pansy was a good hider, or they weren't good at looking for people.
After three hours of endless searching Hermione sighed. "Where could she be? We've searched almost everywhere!"
"Then why didn't you check my room?" Pansy said turning a corner in front of them. Blaise and Hermione jumped on her enveloping her in a hug. Pansy smiled and hugged her best friends back with full force.
"Pansy, don't you ever scare us like that again!" Hermione said as she squeezed her.
"I won't, I promise."
They laughed at her inside joke. They heard footsteps approaching, but it was too late to untangle themselves. Hermione didn't have time to slip away to ensure that they weren't seen together. "Well, what do we have here?" A familiar voice asked.
Hermione spun around to see none other than Draco Malfoy leaning against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest. His platinum blonde hair hung in front of his icy blue eyes hiding emotion.
"Draco!" Blaise shouted. "We were just...uh...we were just," she tried to explain.
"I know what you were doing. But why in the hell were you doing it?" he asked standing up straight and walking up to her. Up close he was a good two inches taller than her. This meant that Hermione was four inches shorter than him, she swallowed a cough.
"Because, we're her friends," Pansy said standing up straight as well. "And if you have something to say about it, I'd like to hear it."
Malfoy looked at his best friends and then at Hermione. His gaze bore into her and she didn't back down. He circled around her like Pansy had done examining her from every angle. When he finished he frowned.
"Just as I expected. You're still a know-it-all who thinks she's better than the world. I would have thought that you would have changed."
Hermione's eyes flashed. "I do not think I'm better than the world. I'm not a know-it-all. I like to study, is that such a crime?" She was finally standing up for herself. Outside, Hermione was calm and collected but inside she was smiling and trembling with fear. She knew that Malfoy could do something horrible to her, but she smiled because for once she was sticking up for herself. 'After all these years I finally do it,' she thought to herself.
Malfoy smirked. "You didn't just run behind your friends that time."
"I never ran behind my friends. There were plenty of times I would have said something, but they beat me to it."
Malfoy laughed hollowly. "The point is, Draco that we've been friends with her for a while now. We wanted to tell you in a different way, but it seems too late for that now," Blaise explained.
"Yes, it does seem to be that way." Malfoy stood still for a moment. "Just don't expect me to welcome you with open arms, Granger. You keep your distance and I'll keep mine."
"Like I would want to be friends with you anyway," Hermione shot back.
"Fiery," He said smirking.
"You got it," Hermione responded smiling slightly to herself too.
Malfoy walked off heading to the Great Hall for lunch. Hermione turned to Blaise and Pansy. They put they're elbows out and Hermione greatly took one of each. They entered the Great Hall together, linked forever as friends.
Author's Note: Whoosh, Chapter Four Done :D I hope you guys liked it. Draco does seem a little nicer but don't worry, he's still the bad-assed Slytherin we all love. :) That will come out more in the next chapter. So anyway, thanks for the reviews I've gotten so far and don't forget you can always review more than on chapter ;)
PLEASE REVIEW!!!
Warnings: Hm, none for this chapter :D
Author's Note: Well, nothing really new. Here's another chapter. Thanks to Brooks for reviewing :D I appreciate it.
The Dreaded Night
Hermione woke the next morning with a sense of uneasiness. Malfoy had never liked her. She was a mudblood she didn't even qualify as a good servant to him. Blaise and Pansy were the only Slytherins to ever talk to her and the only ones that ever would. Blaise and Pansy were the friends that Hermione had thought Harry and Ron were.
Pansy was surprisingly smart. Hermione had always thought of her as one of the stupidest people she had ever met, when really she was almost as smart as Hermione. She valued her grades just as much anyway. Blaise was adventuress. She loved to go on adventures and was always in trouble or in the hospital wing for doing something. She was smart too, but not in potions. That's where most of her injuries came from. But she still seemed to be one of Snape's favorite students.
Together they had a friendship that nothing would tear apart. And they always promised that nothing would. They would always hear the version of the story according to someone else before the pointed any fingers. They did that for Hermione, and she was thankful for it.
But when they did point fingers, that person usually got something. It was never Hermione, Pansy, or Blaise that said anything about anyone. It was what someone else said. And when they found who that person was, Blaise would go 'talk' to them. If they were lucky Pansy was with them and Pansy would talk Blaise out of doing something that she would have regretted. If Hermione would have been there, she would calm Blaise down too, but she couldn't be seen with them yet.
Not until tonight...tomorrow officially. Hermione sighed and got out of bed. She quickly showered and got dressed. Unlike most days, she decided she would put her hair up. She put it in a messy bun and left a few pieces hanging loosely in her face. She liked the freedom it gave her.
Lavender got out of bed and yawned. She stretched for a moment and then gasped. "Oh, Granger, I didn't hear you get up," she said as she grabbed a towel and headed for the showers.
"That's because I was being quite," Hermione whispered to herself. Parvati stirred from her bed and got out of bed gracefully. Every move she took was full of grace, and Hermione hated her for it.
"Good Morning, Granger," she said smiling evilly. Hermione smiled the fakest smile she had ever smiled and Parvati's smile fell off her face. She went into the bathroom and slammed the door. Hermione grinned to herself. Anything that made Parvati scowl made Hermione smile.
As Hermione was leaving the dorm Parvati and Lavender came out of the bathrooms talking rather loudly. Hermione was about to shut the door behind her but left it open a crack to hear them.
"I'm in love!" Parvati's voice screeched. "I can't believe I'm saying this! Ron's the greatest! The way he kisses is just so magical!"
Hermione's breath caught in her throat. She was over Ron, but it still hurt her to have people talk about him or Harry. She hated Parvati for stealing Ron's love and for stealing Harry's love.
"Oh, Parv, that's great! It's so awesome that you're going out with Ron and Padama is going out with Harry. It's the greatest. You guys are going to be so popular when this is through!" Lavender gushed.
Harry was going out with Padama? Hermione felt like a knife was being repeatedly stabbed into her back. She hated the Patil twins more than she hated Malfoy. They had said some nasty things about her. Not only behind her back but to her face. When she was friends with Harry and Ron they hated them almost as much as she did. Now it seemed they were just doing this to get back at her.
"I know! It's all working out the way I planned it to!"
Hermione couldn't take it anymore. She ran down the stairs running to get some breakfast and go sit on the balcony. Today was a Saturday, so there were no classes. She had the whole day to herself. That's what she was grateful for. She didn't want to be around anyone right now anyway.
She entered the common room. No one was around. They were all probably upstairs still sleeping. Hermione rose with the sun. So did Lavender and Parvati. It was a curse.
Hermione made her way toward the portrait door. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw something in the fire.
Blaise's head was in the fire's flames. "Blaise?" Hermione asked not wanting to believe that she was actually talking to her via flames.
"Hermione! I was hoping to get to you! If I didn't I was going to scare some Gryffindors, but I'm glad I found you!"
"What do you need me for?" Hermione asked sitting Indian style in front of the fire.
Blaise sighed. "It's about Pansy..."
"What happened?" Hermione asked looking gravely serious.
"Her parents. They were taken. Her father was taken to Azkaban for being a death eater. They would take her mother, but she's pregnant. They don't take pregnant people to Azkaban."
"Oh, my gosh! What does Pansy say about it?" Hermione's heart went out to her friend.
"I can't find her! Hermione you have to help me find her! She might do something drastic. She hated her parents, as you know, but now she has no where to go!"
Hermione nodded her head. "Meet me in the usual place in five minutes. I'll be there."
Blaise nodded and her head vanished from the fire. Hermione hurriedly got up from her spot on the rug and ran toward the door. She didn't make it to the door though because she bumped into something though and flew backwards landing hard on her back. Pain sprung into her back as she shot upright.
She looked around for something that she had run into, but didn't see anything around. Her eyes widened when Harry and Ron materialized in front of her. "Lost one of your precious Death Eaters?" Ron spat at her.
Hermione stared at him; he looked down at her his eyes full of hatred. "No! Of course not!" she defended herself.
"Then why were you in contact with Zabini? Why are you worried about Parkinson? You hate them," Harry said crossing his arms over his chest.
"They're my friends. How would you know I hate them? You obviously aren't my friends and never were." Hermione said standing up and dusting herself off.
"Obviously." A voice said from the stairway. Hermione saw Parvati saunter up to Ron and kiss him passionately in front of her. Hermione looked away; as did Harry.
"'Morning Sweetie," Ron said huskily. Hermione wanted to throw up.
"If they were your friends, you wouldn't have betrayed them," Parvati said hugging Ron tightly.
Ever since the incident that summer, Hermione was quick to lose her temper, and her control. She stepped forward and slapped Parvati hard across her cheek. Parvati screeched and shot toward her, but Hermione was hoping for that. All the training that Blaise had given her was finally going to be put to use!
Harry put an arm out to stop her though. Parvati stopped immediately looking at him like he was mad. "Harry, what are you doing?" She shouted ready for a fight.
"She's not worth your time," he said icily looking at Hermione.
"That's right, it's just a waste of time," Ron said just as cold looking at Hermione so she got the point.
They thought she was just a waste of their time. She felt so useless at that moment. She ran from the common room and straight to the astronomy tower tears rolling down her cheeks. She got to the tower before Blaise did. She leaned against the railing and sobbed.
She hated it. She loved them so much. She was more of a sister to them. It hurt her so much to know that they hated her. But no matter what they said to her she continued to love them.
They called her names, they pulled pranks on her, and worse they ignored her. Nothing they did would ever make her stop loving them though. She wished she could just stop it all. She wanted to not love them. To move on. They had, why couldn't she?
Because she knew she was innocent. She knew they were being blinded and couldn't see the truth and she knew she would love them until they saw the truth. Hermione was sobbing so hard that she didn't hear Blaise come up behind her.
However, she did feel the hand on her shoulder. Hermione turned to look at her friend. Blaise smiled slightly and opened her arms to her. Hermione rushed into them and hugged tight, needing the hug. She hadn't hugged anyone in so long. She let her emotions flow out with her tears, and Blaise was there to comfort her through it all. She didn't even ask for an explanation, she just offered herself to her.
When Hermione couldn't shed another tear, she looked up at Blaise. "Thanks," she said smiling for the first time.
"That's what friends are for." Blaise said. "And that's why we need to go find, Pansy. She needs what you needed."
Hermione nodded and they set off to find her. They searched almost the whole day. Wherever they went they couldn't find her. Either Pansy was a good hider, or they weren't good at looking for people.
After three hours of endless searching Hermione sighed. "Where could she be? We've searched almost everywhere!"
"Then why didn't you check my room?" Pansy said turning a corner in front of them. Blaise and Hermione jumped on her enveloping her in a hug. Pansy smiled and hugged her best friends back with full force.
"Pansy, don't you ever scare us like that again!" Hermione said as she squeezed her.
"I won't, I promise."
They laughed at her inside joke. They heard footsteps approaching, but it was too late to untangle themselves. Hermione didn't have time to slip away to ensure that they weren't seen together. "Well, what do we have here?" A familiar voice asked.
Hermione spun around to see none other than Draco Malfoy leaning against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest. His platinum blonde hair hung in front of his icy blue eyes hiding emotion.
"Draco!" Blaise shouted. "We were just...uh...we were just," she tried to explain.
"I know what you were doing. But why in the hell were you doing it?" he asked standing up straight and walking up to her. Up close he was a good two inches taller than her. This meant that Hermione was four inches shorter than him, she swallowed a cough.
"Because, we're her friends," Pansy said standing up straight as well. "And if you have something to say about it, I'd like to hear it."
Malfoy looked at his best friends and then at Hermione. His gaze bore into her and she didn't back down. He circled around her like Pansy had done examining her from every angle. When he finished he frowned.
"Just as I expected. You're still a know-it-all who thinks she's better than the world. I would have thought that you would have changed."
Hermione's eyes flashed. "I do not think I'm better than the world. I'm not a know-it-all. I like to study, is that such a crime?" She was finally standing up for herself. Outside, Hermione was calm and collected but inside she was smiling and trembling with fear. She knew that Malfoy could do something horrible to her, but she smiled because for once she was sticking up for herself. 'After all these years I finally do it,' she thought to herself.
Malfoy smirked. "You didn't just run behind your friends that time."
"I never ran behind my friends. There were plenty of times I would have said something, but they beat me to it."
Malfoy laughed hollowly. "The point is, Draco that we've been friends with her for a while now. We wanted to tell you in a different way, but it seems too late for that now," Blaise explained.
"Yes, it does seem to be that way." Malfoy stood still for a moment. "Just don't expect me to welcome you with open arms, Granger. You keep your distance and I'll keep mine."
"Like I would want to be friends with you anyway," Hermione shot back.
"Fiery," He said smirking.
"You got it," Hermione responded smiling slightly to herself too.
Malfoy walked off heading to the Great Hall for lunch. Hermione turned to Blaise and Pansy. They put they're elbows out and Hermione greatly took one of each. They entered the Great Hall together, linked forever as friends.
Author's Note: Whoosh, Chapter Four Done :D I hope you guys liked it. Draco does seem a little nicer but don't worry, he's still the bad-assed Slytherin we all love. :) That will come out more in the next chapter. So anyway, thanks for the reviews I've gotten so far and don't forget you can always review more than on chapter ;)
PLEASE REVIEW!!!