Hello everyone! This is where the story starts to get good. The first few chapters were just to establish some things. I hope you enjoy. Please review!
Chapter 4 Playing Dress Up
Another two weeks passed in the halls and class rooms or Hogwarts. It was Saturday, and a trip to Hogsmeade was planned. She made a quick guess at the time, and figured she had slept in late enough judging by the angle of the rays of sun thrown across her bed. She got up, and did the customary shower and change, and headed for the common room. She assumed she was just in time for lunch. The heavy weight she had been carrying with her since her embarrassing display in Herbology was lifting. She felt a little happier, and even hungry for the first time in weeks. She started humming a little tune as the statue slid to the right to admit her passage. She was looking down at her shoes, beat up old things. After they had satisfied her curiosity she glanced up, and nearly tripped when her gaze met that of Draco's. He sat poised at the edge of one of the couches, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees. His hair curtaining his left eye. He just continued to stare at her, in this sort of confused way. Hermione tossed her curls and continued toward the main passage.
"Hey Granger, wait a second." he forced out before it was too late.
"What?" she replied without turning around, or breaking her stride.
"Um, are you going to Hogsmeade today?"
"I was planning on it. Why? Daddy didn't sign your permission slip?" she chuckled. Draco let out a half growl, and Hermione shivered a bit.
"No, I was thinking that today we could actually do something the school is expecting of us besides bickering." This slowed Hermione's pace, and she turned.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Oh come off it Granger, I don't want to hang out with you, but I don't want to disappoint the whole school because we couldn't get along for five minutes. Now my plan was to ask McGonagall for permission to go into the store rooms in the attic and see if we can find any decorations, or even costumes."
"Um... Oh, well, that sounds like a good idea actually." Hermione said the words slowly, and unsure, as if she couldn't believe Malfoy had thought of it himself.
"Well?" He waited impatiently.
"Yeah, but I'm really hungry right now, do you want to meet up at her office at around 12:30?"
"Sounds good" With that Hermione left the room, and continued down to the great hall.
Hermione took her accustomed place between Harry and Ron, who were having a heated argument about some quidditch team.
"Just think, Quidditch in America!" Ron fumed, "Bunch of bloody idiots if you ask me. I bet they'll even want to have protective gear."
"Oh relax Ron, Americans aren't as big of babies as they seem, I met a very nice one this summer..." Harry countered. At this point Hermione stopped listening and focused on her brunch. It was a delicious club sandwich and pumpkin juice. She played with her fork and slowly chewed her food. She just couldn't believe that Malfoy had come up with a decent plan, and that he was actually being civil to her.
After she finished the remainder of her meal she rose and said a hurried goodbye to her friends.
"Where are you going Hermione? Aren't you going to Hogsmeade?" Harry questioned.
"Uh, no actually, I am going to do a project for our winter festival. Um... it was Malfoy's idea." She shrugged.
"What? You are going to spend quality time with that git? Do you want us to come along? What if he tries to pull something. I don't trust him Hermione, not at all." Ron exploded, not even stopping for a breath.
"I know, I don't either, but I can't disappoint the school just because he is a pompous ass." she countered, and gathered her bags. "Don't worry about me guys, I will tell you if anything happens, and believe me, I am taking my wand and a few choice hexes along with me." she winked, and left the common room.
I guess if I am going to be digging through a bunch of old dusty boxes I had better change my clothes. She glanced at the time and noted that she had about 20 minutes before she was supposed to meet Malfoy. She hurried down the empty corridors and stopped in front of the two warrior statues. "Unity" she said clearly. The two statues smiled at her appraisingly and slid to the left. She entered the passage way and turned left to her room. After about five minutes of deciding what to wear she settled on a torn pair of jeans and an old shirt from a circus she got when she was kid. She threw her hair into a sloppy ponytail and grabbed an empty bag.
At precisely 12:30 she arrived at McGonagall's office. 'go figure, that moron can't even tell time' she thought bitterly to herself. She nearly choked when Draco walked out of McGonagall's office beaming, with their professor in tow.
"Good luck you two," she said smiling, "You'll need to get the keys from Filch, he should be doing his rounds on the first floor." With that her robes made a flourish, and she swished down the hall.
"Great," Hermione sighed, "That is the last person I would want to talk to"
"No joke." Draco replied as he headed for the stairs. He was confused, they hadn't even glared at each other. He continued to lead the way down to the first floor. When they spotted Filch Draco was the first to approach him.
"Um, Filch, we are looking for decorations for the Winter Festival, and Professor McGonagall said we would need to get the keys from you." he stated bravely, "Um, you know, the ones for the attics."
Filch glared at the two attractive teens, and sized them up. He reluctantly handed over a large rusty key ring, and muttered, "Decorations my foot! Hoodlum kids just running around trying to find another place to snog. Back in my day..." his words trailed off as he turned around. Draco and Hermione exchanged incredulous looks, and then glared at the retreating figure. They both silently thought that he couldn't be farther from the truth. Then Draco did something that shocked both of them.
He laughed. A long hearty laugh, one that comes from the gut. Hermione after a confused moment joined in.
"Ha ha, Filch... You and I.... snogging...." he desperately tried to catch his breath.
"I know, in the attic of all places..." Hermione erupted. The two continued back to the staircase getting some semblance of calm. The rest of the way up to the attic neither made a sound. Hermione reviewed the moment in her head. That was the only time in the past 7 years she had heard Draco ever truly laugh, and not just snicker. It was a nice sound, sort of a low rumble, one of the contagious kind.
The two reached the top, and were met with their first obstacle. A large wooden door, very ancient looking. Draco began to scan the set of keys. His eyes clouded over, and Hermione could tell he was concentrating very hard. After about a minute of him searching she reached out and grabbed the knob. It made a loud creaking noise from years of unuse, and the door swung open. Malfoy glared up at her, but refrained from comment. They continued down a narrow corridor, and read the rusty name plates on all of the doors. Finally they found one that said, "Storage". Draco immediately reached for the know, not wanting to be out smarted again by Hermione. This one was locked. He smirked at her and began flipping through keys. Finally he found one that matched the engravings on the knob, and inserted it. The door creaked open, and dust flew out. Everything was covered in large sheets, and the two looked apprehensively around the room.
Hermione decided to take charge, "you get the right side, and I'll check the left." Both went to their respective sides and began lifting musty old sheets. The first one Hermione lifted hid a bunch of old trunks. She knelt down and opened an ancient lid. Inside were the most beautiful ball gowns she had ever seen. There appeared to be one for each lady of the house. She immediately spotted the one for Gryffindor, and pulled out the soft fabric. It was long, and told of days long since passed. She admired the fine stitches, and turned it this way and that in the thin shafts of light. She squealed and called to Draco.
"Draco! Look what I found, this is definatley going to be my costume. It is just perfect. And look, there is one for a Slytherin girl in here too!" she said excitedly. Then she realized that she had just been really really civil to Malfoy, and had even called him by his first name. She cringed as he lifted his eyes, and displayed a soft smirk.
Draco couldn't believe that he had heard her use his first name, and he could tell by the look on her face that she hadn't intended to do it either. He decided to let it slide, because he didn't want to spend this whole day sparring with Hermione about how soft she was growing. He glanced at the gown she was holding, and indeed is was very pretty he thought. Gold and maroon. He thought that she would look very stunning in the gown, but refrained from telling her so. "Yeah, it looks pretty cool," he conceded, hoping that didn't sound too interested, or friendly. "There's a slytherin one in there too?" he questioned.
Without delay Hermione carefully placed her costume on top of another chest and withdrew the Slytherin gown. It was black and green, and shimmered in the light. It was a equally beautiful dress. Draco smiled and said "I know what I'm going to be for this dance"
"What a cross dresser?" Hermione chuckled.
"No, I think my girlfriend and I will be Lord and Lady Slytherin." he replied.
"Oh," Hermione faltered. She didn't know Draco had a girlfriend, and she couldn't quite tell if it bothered her. "Who gets that honor this week?" she said coldly, throwing the dress in a crumpled heap on the floor. Draco didn't miss any of her actions.
"Pansy," he said slowly, "I thought you knew, everyone knows, I mean, Honestly, we've been off an on ever since we came to Hogwarts. Lucky for her, we've been on since September." he finished.
"Oh lucky girl," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. How could she not have known? But then again Malfoy had never been very open with public displays of affection, and he often mocked Pansy freely. Hermione continued to search through trunks. She found one filled with jewelry to match the gowns, and considering the Slytherin gown was gorgeous she placed the matching jewelry on top of it, sighing audibly. Draco noticed all of this. He knew that as much as Hermione didn't like Pansy she was mature enough to realize the inevitable. He smiled a bit to himself. She treated everything with such care, even when she loathed it. He respected her for that. He noticed she had pulled out several necklaces and laid them near her own gown, seeing which ones would go the best. In the end she put all the things she had tried back in the trunk and looked wistfully at the ceiling. Draco knew something was wrong.
"Couldn't find something gaudy enough?" he asked, trying to get a rise out of her.
"Shut up Malfoy." she said, and again concentrated on her task. The room was silent except for the occasional shuffling sound. After about twenty minutes Hermione said "Hey, Lord Slytherin, I found your costume." She held up a very ornate slytherin costume that matched the dress perfectly. She laid it next to the gown and continued searching. She found one for Gryffindor.
"Hey, who are you taking to the dance?" Draco asked nonchalantly.
"I don't know, I guess it's between Harry or Ron, but I bet they already have dates." She said more to herself then to Draco.
"You know there are other guys in this school, the entire world doesn't revolve around those to chuckle heads." He meant this as sort of a compliment, but it came out all wrong.
"Leave them out of this Malfoy, and come to think of it, Leave me out of this too. I think I will just go alone, it doesn't really bother me." She said shortly. Again silence pervaded the room. after about half an hour Draco decided one last time to have a civil conversation, he had to admit he was bored out of his mind.
"You know, that locket of yours would probably go really well with that dress." He offered. Hermione glared up at him instantly. He knew he had hit a sore spot.
"It's broken." was all she managed to say.
"Um, well, can't you fix it?" He asked dumbly.
"It broke for a reason, I just haven't figured it out yet."
"What do you mean for a reason."
"I mean, that necklace was very special to me, and it broke on its own accord. There was no outside reason, it just broke. ok? Besides I can't fix it. I don't know how, and I've already looked for spells in my free time." she finished and pushed herself off the floor. She stood up and began to load her arms up with all the things they had picked out. She looked at him, and said "I have a lot of other stuff to do tonight, but this was a really good idea Malfoy. I'll leave your costumes here." With that she walked out of the room. Draco stared at her as she walked out the door. She suddenly looked very tired. He didn't mean to bring up a sore spot, not really, he was just bored, and he had assumed that she cared a lot about that necklace. Most people would go on and on for hours about something they really loved. Not Hermione he found out. He also stood up, and scooped all the rest in his arms. He locked the door on the way out, and decided they would have to do this next week. Not just because it was their duty, but because now he was genuinely curious about Hermione. She was hiding something, and he wanted to know.