Appearances Can Be Deceiving

Chapter 7: Christmas Arguments

DISCLAIMER: Apart from the receipt, which was sitting on my desk when i was typing the story, i don't own anything you recognise.

Hermione woke in her own bed. The pale light streaming through the windows indicated to her that it was morning.

For the first night in what seemed like a long time, she'd slept a blissful dreamless sleep. The sleep of the dead.

She stretched out on the large bed, relishing the feeling of restfulness that enveloped her.

Until she remembered the previous night.

Quickly pulling a robe over her pyjamas she ran down to the common room to see if Harry was up.

Finding the common room empty she tore up the stairs to the boys dorms. It, however was also empty.

Hermione didn't know whether she was glad that she couldn't find Harry, since it meant she had a chance to think things through in her head, or if she wanted to see him and talk to him about what had happened.

Sinking weakly on to the sofa in front of the fire in the common room she sat staring in to the fire for a long time, trying to make sense of everything.

So she'd slept with Harry. Now what? What was she going to do when she next saw him? Act like nothing had happened? Be all lovey-dovey? Were they a couple now? What was he going to do?

Unable to stand the thoughts swirling over and over in her head any longer she decided to do something she'd been putting off since the end of term.

Homework. If anything could make Hermione forget her troubles it was homework.

Twenty minutes later she sat in the library, books about potions, plants, magical creatures, jinxes and hexes sprawled over the table she was sitting at. And not one of them had succeeded in halting her thoughts of Harry.

She had come to the conclusion that she couldn't blame Harry for what had happened. Sure, now she thought about it, it wasn't something she would have expected Harry to do, but then again he was only male. It was she who had asked him to make love to her. She who had kissed him. She who had ripped away his towel. Hermione smiled at this memory. Besides she couldn't deny that she'd enjoyed it.

She needed to talk to Harry.

Hurriedly, she returned the books to their right places – even her love life wasn't important enough to risk incurring Madam Pince's wrath – and she made a break for the Gryffindor tower.

Harry wasn't in the common room when she entered so, barely breaking her stride, she continued on her way, until she was bursting through the door to the boys dormitory. He wasn't here either. Undeterred she made her way across the room to his trunk and, after rummaging around in there for a few minutes, finally emerged with what she was looking for.

The Marauders map.

Tapping the tattered piece of parchment with her wand she muttered "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." She watched impatiently as the spidery lines began to weave their way across the parchment from the tip of her wand.

There! There he was! Hermione had only a couple of seconds to wonder what Harry was doing in the Room of Requirement before being distracted by another labelled dot wandering the hallway outside the library.

What was Draco Malfoy doing in the castle?

Too intent on her relationship, or lack thereof, with Harry, she simply rolled up the parchment and raced out of the tower, deciding that she would wonder about the Ferret later.

She turned a corner and ran straight into someone.

There was a moment of silence before the person she'd struck spoke.

"Hey, Mione," he smiled down at her. "Where were you going so fast?"

"I…well…er…I was on my way to find you." Now she'd found him she couldn't think of a damn thing to say.

"I'm right here. What was it you wanted?" He continued smiling. It was kind of creeping Hermione out.

"Well, I…I just wondered what you were doing in the Room of Requirement?" Damnit! I choked! she thought, mentally punching herself, there was a perfect chance to tell him I wanted to talk about what happened last night and I bloody choked! You really are an idiot Hermione!

"Erm, I wasn't in the Room of Requirement, Mione." Harry looked slightly puzzled, as though he was wondering what she was talking about.

"Yes you were."

"No, I'm pretty sure I wasn't." What the hell is with her? This was getting kind of weird for Draco, especially since the "real" Harry Potter was stashed away in the Room of Requirement, with various spells on him to keep him alive. A stint in Azkaban for inadvertently killing Potter would really hinder his plans.

Hermione couldn't understand why he was lying to her.

"Harry, I looked at the map and it clearly said you were in the Room of Requirement." She sounded impatient.

"What map?" If he looked puzzled before, it was nothing to the way he looked now.

"The Marauders Map." She said slowly, looking at him as though there was something drastically wrong with him. "It also said that Malfoy's in the castle, but I thought he was at home with his family, mourning over the fact good old Voldy's dead."

She took out the parchment and handed it to Harry. "Sorry, I didn't wipe it, but I was in a hurry to find you."

As Draco's eyes moved over the map his eyes widened. So this was how that git had done it! He knew that Potter and his tag along's must have been able to avoid the teachers some way, Merlin knew they got away with enough, but he never dreamed it would be something as simple as this.

He noted with horror that a little dot labelled "Harry Potter" was immobile on the seventh floor. In the Room of Requirement. So that was why she'd thought he'd been there. Wait a minute, he thought, if it says that's Potter, what does it say about me? His eyes quickly swept the page in front of him before coming to rest right next to the dot labelled "Hermione Granger." At the dot labelled "Draco Malfoy."

Shit.

Hermione was still looking at him funny. He supposed he shouldn't have looked so surprised while he perused the map, but it had caught him off guard.

He rolled it back up and placed it in his pocket, "Malfoy's not on there now, Mione, maybe you just imagined it."

Her eyes narrowed at this comment.

"There is no way I imagined that sleazy toad's name. Give me it back and I'll point out to you exactly where I saw him."

"That's ok, Mione, I'll just keep it, maybe he just came to pick something up that he'd forgotten. He's not here anymore."

Slightly mollified, Hermione admitted that this was a valid reason for Malfoy to be back at the school.

She was still suspicious as to why he'd been in the Room of Requirement, and even more so as to why Harry had lied to her.

At least, she was until he kissed her.

"What was that for?" She asked dreamily, as she floated on air once he'd pulled away.

"Can't a guy kiss his girlfriend?" He grabbed her hand and walked up to the tower with Hermione in tow, feeling happier than she had in a long time.

She had a boyfriend. And it was Harry Potter.

Christmas day eventually arrived, borne on a blizzard so thick, Hermione wondered how the owls got through it.

She woke early, and, grabbing the presents that lay on the end of her bed, wandered through the common room and up to Harry's room.

Harry. Her boyfriend.

It was now exactly one week since the end of term, she and Harry had been going out only four days and she had to admit something to herself. She had it bad!

Since the night they'd had sex he was all she could think about. She walked round with a permanent grin on her face, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Hermione Granger was falling in love.

Only one thing marred her happiness and that was the continuation of the dream. It seemed that she was only allowed one night of respite by the gods before they messed with her head again.

That didn't matter though. It was Christmas day and she was going out with Harry!

Opening the door to his room slowly, she watched him a moment as he lay asleep. Unable to stand it any longer, she ran to his bad and jumped on him.

"Get up, sleepyhead. There's presents!" If she'd heard that happy giggly tone in anyone else's voice she would have had to fight the urge to throw up, but she couldn't help it.

Draco cracked open an eye. Please let this all be a bad dream! that little voice in his head screamed, there isn't a giggling Mudblood on my bed. I don't look like Harry Potter. I'm at home and the house elf is going to come in any minute now with my breakfast.

He opened his other eye to see Hermione peering down at him. Damn.

He resigned himself to at least having to spend an hour in her nauseatingly cheerful company.

With less enthusiasm than the almost hyperactive girl sitting on his bed he reached for the small pile of presents at the end of Potters bed. At least I'll be able to swipe anything good, like that map.

Ignoring Hermione's almost constant patter he opened the packages.

A jumper? Not exactly off to a great start.

A receipt for a pint of milk? Who the hell where Vernon and Petunia anyway?

Two tins of rock cakes. Must be from the oaf, I'm not eating them.

A miniature figure of Harry on a broomstick, what the dickens? (A/N – saw that phrase on the British slang forum and just had a mad urge to fit it in somewhere) a note was enclosed. Harry, look what they're selling in Diagon Alley! Merry Christmas, Ron. Don't want that either.

Hermione's present now. Hogwarts: A History?

Why do they hang out with her if she gives them crap gifts like a book for Christmas? Especially a book you can get out of the library any time you wanted. Which, lets face it, wasn't very often.

Although, he eyed her critically, the nightdress she was wearing did clearly show at least a couple of reasons why a member of the male sex would want to hang around with her.

She looked up from her own presents and caught him looking at her. Noticing the book in his hands she smiled at him.

"I know you haven't got it and it just kind of reminded me of the first night we kissed, because of the whole stairs thing." She said, almost shyly.

How sickeningly sweet he thought snidely, while his features were smiling. "I love it, Mione! Hurry up and open my present!"

She did as he asked and gasped when she saw what it was.

"Wow! There must be a hundred different ingredients in here! And a book containing every potion I could make with them!"

Yep, and it just coincidentally happens to have every ingredient you need for my potion. And how to brew it. "I thought you'd like it Mione," he said aloud.

"Like it? I love it Harry! Thank you."

Hermione fairly skipped her way out of the library that afternoon.

Despite the dreams, her life seemed to be improving. And she'd always loved Christmas anyway, it was her favourite time of year.

Besides, the whole point of her trip to the library was to look up a spell to help her remember her dream. She now felt strong enough to finally face up to it. She wasn't, however, going to perform it in the library, which was why the neatly hand written spell was safely in the pocket of her black skirt as she made her way up to the common room.

Lost in her anticipation of relief she didn't notice Toni until she'd walked into her.

"Watch where you're going, Mudblood," sneered Toni, "I know you're not exactly skinny but you don't need to take up the whole corridor."

Although she tried very hard to deny it, Hermione had always had a very volatile temper, besides which, Toni had always wound her up anyway. She wasn't in the mood today to let Toni bring her down.

Narrowing her eyes at the girl before her, she spared a moment to wonder why on earth Harry had ever slept with Toni? Sure, she had big tits and was passably attractive but that was pretty much it.

"I'm sorry, Toni," she said smiling pleasantly, "I guess I was just too busy being happy and thinking about my boyfriend to remember to watch out for toads."

"Wow! So you actually found someone desperate enough to go out with you?" Came the response, "is he blind?"

"Maybe we could double date! Oh no, wait, I forgot, no guy can actually stand to be around you for any longer than it takes for a quick screw every now and then."

The two girls were conducting their argument in low venomous tones, only inches from each other.

"At least I can get some, Granger, and from what I recall, perfect Potter didn't seem to have any complaints."

"Is that chest of yours stopping the flow of blood to your brain? Because I seem to remember you screaming something about his calling you a pathetic shag."

"I've had enough guys to know that the look on his face meant that he was having a very good time. Doesn't it just piss you off? Knowing that you've got my sloppy seconds?"

"How do you know my boyfriend's Harry?"

"Oh please, it's totally obvious. St. Potter and Know-it-all Granger. It was always going to happen, you're both so boring no-one else would ever go out with either of you."

"Well if you must know, there wasn't anything sloppy about him at all. He was amazing actually, and, despite what everyone may think, I'm not as innocent as I look, so I know what I'm talking about. I guess he just didn't feel the need to try too hard with a pathetic whore like you."

"Oh, he tried alright," Toni laughed spitefully, "and then some. He wasn't actually too bad himself. In fact…"

She paused, a thoughtful look on her carefully made-up face.

Hermione waited impatiently for Toni to continue. After a few seconds she drawled: "You going to finish that sentence? Or are you just going to admit that you're a bitch and let me go on my way?"

"I'm sorry Granger," Toni had a gleeful look on her face, "I just got a bit distracted, that's all. Lost in the memory. You know how it is. Well, a couple of memories if you must know."

"What are you on about now?" Hermione almost shouted at her, whilst an angry little voice in her head thought, if he slept with her more than once I am going to make sure he regrets it every day for the rest of his miserable little life.

"Just thinking about that weird little thing he did with his tongue." Now she looked a little puzzled, "it was exactly the same as Draco did it. I could have sworn for a second that it was Draco above me."

This was a little too much information for Hermione. Giving Toni a disgusted look she stalked past her.

She happened to like that thing he did with his tongue.

A/N: it sounded better in my head, but the words wouldn't do whatI wanted them to, sorry. anyway, hopefully it won't put you off, and you'll review and keep reading :)