The expression on both their faces was identical. Their mouths dropped and their eyes widened. Conflicted whether to be overjoyed at their new achievement and position, or upset at the thought of sharing the prestige with each other.
Hermione was the first to respond. She was a levelheaded girl, and the first to realize that being head girl was far too great of a thing to let Draco being head boy bother her. She was smart enough to focus on what was really important.
"Wow," she finally forced herself to say, "That's fantastic."
"I'm glad you're excited Hermione, what you're about to embark on will take a lot of hard work that needs much ambition and enthusiasm, wouldn't you agree Mr. Malfoy?"
"Uh yes, of course headmaster," he mustered. He shot side glances at Hermione.
"Excellent!" exclaimed Dumbledore, "It pleases me to know you're both dedicated to represent the student body and lead them all to success. Thank you very much for meeting me here, and now if you don't mind I'd like to give a debriefing, if you will, about the tasks…and benefits you'll be responsible for this year."
And with that Dumbledore went on to explain what was in store for them. The optimistic Hermione decided to focus on the fact that the majority of their duties won't even involve working together, but mostly checking up on their assigned houses and help coordinate school events. Draco, however, only thought about the part where Dumbledore said they would have to complete advanced placement assessments together. He shuddered at the thought of having to cooperate with her, while she on the other hand was worried about being forced to do all the work. Towards the end though, they were mostly concerned with their own work load and forgot about each other for awhile while their headmaster explained a few more things to them for about another hour.
"Well, many thanks again for coming dear students, I'm afraid I'm in quite a hurry so I must be off, feel free to owl me with any questions, comments or concerns you may have." And poof he was gone.
They both began to rise and Draco found himself re-annoyed. "Quite a challenge this shall be, that's for sure."
Hermione, knowing she shouldn't care but still couldn't help it, asked Draco what he meant.
"Well this is probably the most difficult year a headboy had ever had to face, it's gonna be quite hard to pull this school out of the crapper."
"Crapper?" she inquired.
"Well yeah, I mean when a wizarding school starts letting muggle-borns have head positions you know something must be wrong," he said hotly.
Hermione scoffed, she wouldn't let him hurt his feelings, even though he was the cruelest person on earth.
"Whatever Malfoy, you're such an ignorant asshole."
He was hot with anger, no one dared say such things about Draco Malfoy let alone fire back with such conviction like she did.
"What makes you think you're even fit to talk to me?" he barked back.
Hermione couldn't believe a person could be so bluntly mean.
"Oh fuck off, you're such a waste of time." She replied as she scooped up her things.
Draco was already out the door though. He couldn't think of anything that made him madder than her. He was cursing her smart mouth under his breath when he almost ran right into Trey Falcon, a Hogwarts and Slytherin alumni by one year.
"Malfoy! Hey mate?" Trey said upon recognizing his old friend.
"Falcon! What's up, just got named head boy"
"Bloody hell Malfoy! 'bout time a Slytherin got back in!"
"You don't need to tell me twice," Draco replied.
"Well dude, let me take you out for a bite in honor of our Slytherin victory."
"Sounds good," Draco started to stay as Hermione made her way out of the shop. She stopped in the door upon finding it blocked. She looked at Draco, trying not to show too much expression.
"Excuse me," she said as she slipped past him.
Much to his dismay the sight of her kept leaving him momentarily speechless and he couldn't think of anything snide to say so Hermione just walked down the side walk into the developing crowd of the Diagon Alley streets.
"WHOA!" Trey exclaimed, "Is that potty's bookworm friend!"
"Unfortunately," Draco responded. "She's head girl."
"Well damn! she's all grown up….fucking hot piece of ass right there."
"Sick dude," Draco said, "She's a mudblood."
"Who cares man, she's fine. If I were you dude I'd be working to get some hot Gryffindor lovin' in the pimp head boy suite all year," Trey laughed, "Imagine the look on potty's face if he knew you got Hermione Granger to call you daddy."
Draco laughed a bit, "You're disgusting man, she may be hot but she's still trash. I don't hit stuff below my station."
"RIGHT Drake, because Pansy Parkinson is high class." Trey said sarcastically.
"SHUT UP," Draco blushed embarrassed then fired back, "Her family is friends with mine, plus I got anything I wanted from her."
"Yeah but dude….WOOF WOOF, plus anybody could get what they wanted from her."
Draco laughed, "Yeah I guess you're right, at least I didn't really like her. I mean damn, when we'd get it on I'd pretend she was someone else."
Trey broke out laughing and gave him a high five. "Next time you should pretend she's Granger," he joked.
Draco gave into a laugh as they headed of to a cafe. At least he wasn't the only one to check her out and like what he saw, that made him feel a little better. But Draco was secretly very concerned. He really really liked what he saw.
… … …
It wouldn't be until the Hogwarts express when the two would meet again, but that doesn't mean they weren't on each others minds for the rest of the summer holiday.
It really was true; Hermione had grown into herself quite a bit. A summer of laying in the beach and surfing all day had left her developing curves fit and soft and her body hard and toned with an over all golden glow from all the sun. The nights though, had left her quite a good seductress. Evenings spent at dance clubs and parties with muggle friends all holiday had altered Hermione. She was a lot more confident, this was a result of a combination of finding herself quite a good dancer and the new attention she was naturally drawing from all the boys.
She had had a few flings, which is very understandable for a girl her age. But she remained a respectable sweet girl, trying to break hearts as nicely as she could.
She'd give in a little, mostly for her own sake, but for the most part she remained unattainable in the eyes of boys she encountered over the summer. Half of her seemed so naive and innocent; the other seemed like a smoldering sex kitten. Males wanted to ravage her….sweetly.
Draco, however, juggled a number of girls of the summer. While he enjoyed girls immensely, he never quite felt right about constantly deceiving them all. But, they had always been quite drawn to them, he was naturally charming. With his good looks, friends and money, they practically threw themselves at him. And while it didn't always feel right, being with a girl helped him forget about even more plaguing feelings he harbored….dealing with his insane family for example.
Besides, all his friends were just like him, it was practically what he was expected to do. It just helped that he was quite good at it. On top of his hard, built body, amazingly blue eyes, gorgeous blonde hair and a rugged mysterious look he knew his way well around the female body. Deep down the girls knew the truth, he never fancied them they way they fancied him, he never cared to make them his, but most likely they decided to pretend such things weren't true.
On one particular evening, right after the meeting with Dumbledore, Draco stormed out for a night on the town after another 'pleasant' encounter with his father. He returned home piss drunk around 3 am. He staggered into bed but sleep didn't find him. Instead he found Hermione. She was so beautiful, her body and face was flawless…. Suddenly, he was enraged.
'Why are you thinking about her, freak! She's not worth a thought! She thinks she's so great, her and her hero friends. They're so close. They're so amazing. They do such great things. It's all a bunch of crap. She's a bunch of crap. Everyone thinks they're so great, well I see through it! She's a snooty know-it-all bitch. Too good to ever mess up. Well I know there must be something she sucks at. She's too good, mudbloods can't be as good as she is. She's got be fake…..'
'…but she's not fake, everything about her was natural. Her tan and blonde her was real, her naturally fit body… and she's so smart. How can she be so smart?...'
'She can't be! She's faking it! I wouldn't be surprised if she cheats! I bet she does….WHY ARE YOU STILL THINKING ABOUT HER? Stop it! Go to sleep! Think about quidditch, think about hexes! Think about pansy!... wait, yuck, no! just stop thinking about HER.'
Unfortunately for Draco, he had many nights like this. And each time he found himself again thinking about her he got more and more angry at himself. He'd tell himself he was pathetic, that he could have any girl, that he didn't need or want her at all. His anger was indescribable. When it wasn't focused on his hatred for Hermione, he focused it on himself.
He wasn't alone though. Hermione often thought about him too, but in a different way.
She struggled to understand why he would hate her so much. She knew he was raised to hate non-purebloods but she felt he hated her specifically as a person as well. She strained herself to think of something she did to him that could make him so mean to her, but couldn't think of anything. True, Harry and Ron gave him a lot of trouble but that was always after he's gone looking for it. It was obvious he was jealous of Harry, and his hatred of Ron was influenced by his father, among other things. Hermione wondered how much like his father he was. Hermione hoped Dumbledore's influence would show him how stupid the prejudices he has learned from home are but she wasn't sure. She wondered how much he pretended to hate Harry for his father or if he honestly did hate him for destroying Voldemort…she wondered how much he really supported the dark arts.
After all this thinking she began to feel sorry for him. He was so full of anger and hate, he was missing out on so much. A majority of it came from home which really made her sad. She was hopelessly optimistic, she decided there must be good in him somewhere. In fact, she told herself she was going to do whatever it takes to be nice and kind to him and be an example. She wanted to show him how nice and successful anyone could be, as long as they were a good person.
… … …
Dizzy… feeling utterly sick and shaking uncontrollably, Hermione tried to open the cabinet in her bathroom. It was pitch black in the middle of the night, August 31st…actually it would be September 1st by now. Unable to function properly, she let it spring open and its contents spilled all over the sink and countertop. Desperately she felt around in the dark for a small brown cyclical bottle. Once she found she immediately clawed at the child-proof top. After what seemed like an eternity she got it open and greedily devoured at least 3 little white pills.
True to the very nature of addiction, just the action itself calmed her down a little. She turned on the faucet and gulped water from her hands and splashed her face with the cool liquid. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, making out her strained face.
In a few hours the rest of her house would be up and busy, preparing to take Hermione to the train station for her first day of school. She had woken up in a panic, feeling like she should run for her life from some unnamed fear. She couldn't breathe and her head pounded. She stomach turned, she hadn't had any in forever… and all she could think of was having some. She could already feel the pills in her stomach dissolving, entering her blood stream and flowing to her brain. Her muscles relaxed and her mind cleared. She was overcome with a fuzzy sense of wellbeing.
In the morning, she would be groggy. She would have to counter the effects of the white pills with the blue ones. She knew this and she hated it. But she couldn't register the feeling of hate right now; all she could do was climb into bed, fall into a dead sleep and wait for her mother to wake her for the train.