Disclaimer: As I have said, I don't own anything in this fic. Except for the plot.

Hey! Not much in here, this chappy is a bit long but it's also just for relieving me from the pains of school. Stress has fully taken over me. Meaning, this chappy is less of romance and has a bit of humor and discoveries. Anyway, I won't ruin it for you here. Read on!

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-Chapter 14: Crud! Figures and Spoons?!-

"Yeah right"

"I mean it"

"I know"

"I'm getting confused"

"So am I"

There was a silent pause for a while...then Hermione pushed herself from the bed to look at him. Her mouth slowly formed a smile, then she started giggling.

Draco raised an eyebrow at the girl who has gone to hysterics in front of him. He raised the pillow he was holding and hit her on the head lightly.

Hermione stopped and looked at him. Her face turning somber...then made herself fall back to her previous position.

"D-did I hurt you?" Draco asked guiltily.

"I never thought I'd live the day, Draco Malfoy would care about a muggleborn witch...specifically me"

"Is it really hard to believe?"

Hermione nodded as she rolled around so she's now facing the ceiling of their room.

"Seriously though, what is the matter with you?" Draco asked seriously.

Hermione shook her head.

"Tell me"

Again, she shook her head.

"Please?"

She turned her head to her left, now looking directly at Draco.

"I just feel...depressed. It's weird really"

"Why?"

"Well, basically, it's because of you"

"Me?" Draco asked sounding shocked and a bit offended.

"No, I don't mean it like that" Hermione added quickly by the sound of his tone "I mean it's just that, you changed. Even if it is for the good, it's sort of different really. First, we became friends, then Harry got mad at me, then Ron did next. Later, Harry and I reconciled except there are still awkward moments between us since we just came from a fight, and Ron still won't talk to me. Everything just changed since I got here – well, except for my usual study habits of course – and it's really making me miserable," Hermione breathed deeply at this. She turned back to face the ceiling then shut her eyes.

'So, it is my fault' Draco thought to himself, guilt running through his veins.

"But I'm not saying it's your fault okay?" Hermione told him still closing her eyes. It's like she's reading his thoughts.

"But it is" Draco said in a whisper that could barely be even heard.

"What did you say?" Hermione asked as he now looked at him, eyes open, full of...tears.

Now Draco really felt guilty.

'How could she cry like that for such a little thing?' He thought to himself 'I never cry for little stuff like for a best friend and all that petty stuff'

'That's because you never had a best friend' said another voice inside his thoughts. 'You never even had a true friend...ever'

Draco grew mad at his thoughts for letting him feel miserable.

"Oh, shut up" he hissed to his own thoughts but accidentally said it aloud.

"Huh?" Hermione asked as she sniffed.

"N-nothing" Draco said hastily as he stood up from her bed.

Hermione sat up from her position, still looking at him as he moved around.

"Get some rest Hermione, it's a big day tomorrow"

"It's always a big day whenever we're in a castle where magic can exist. That's because we never know what we might encounter every step we take"

Draco smiled faintly. He moved towards the curtain that divided their sides of the room. He clutched it in one hand, Hermione's eyes still on him. He moved towards the other side, pulling the curtain with him, covering her view on his side of the room. He stole one last glance at the sad looking girl on the bed.

"Good night Hermione" he said in a low voice to her. Not waiting for an answer, he stepped to his side and disappeared behind the curtain.

x

Hermione woke up the next morning with much of the sunlight on her eyes.

"Oh crud"

Something hit her stomach with a flop.

"Crud" said a cute and squeaky small voice.

"You can talk?"

"Crud!" said Cruddles her Buper.

"Err...can you say something else?"

"Crud!" it said louder than before.

"Okaaay" Hermione said getting freaked out.

"What's wrong in here?" Draco asked followed by a wide yawn, he rubbed his eyes and squinted as he looked over at Hermione and the ball of fluff bouncing on her stomach.

"It talked!" Hermione exclaimed still in shock.

"Of course it talked, didn't you listen to the big oaf during classes? It talks but only says its name" he yawned again.

Hermione turned her gaze from Draco to her Buper, her jaw dropped.

"Ugh! As much as I feel bad about you knowing something that I don't, I can't feel bad enough"

"Why's that? And why is he saying 'crud'?"

"That's because that's the name I gave her"

"You named it 'crud'?" Draco asked giving her a weird look.

"No, of course not. I named her Cruddles," She said defiantly as she took the ball of fluff and cradled it in her arms.

"Crud! Crud!" Cruddles repeated as she cuddled onto Hermione's arms.

"Well, too bad. You shouldn't have given it a long name" Before she could speak, he walked back behind the curtain to his side.

x

"Hi Harry"

"Hey 'Mione"

Hermione sat either side of Harry and Seamus. Ron wasn't there.

"Where's Ron?"

"Here," said a muffled voice under the table "why?"

Ron asked as he reappeared back on the table.

"Errr..."

"Look you guys, can you just stop and be friends again? I mean, there's no need for the both of you to stay mad at each other. It was because of that actually started this fight between he two of you"

Ron pouted as Hermione sighed.

"Uhhh..."

"Ummm..."

Both couldn't have anything to say.

"Hermione, Ron is sorry for being such a pig," Harry said as he looked beside him "Ron, Hermione is sorry for being a total cow" he said looking at Ron from opposite of the table.

Harry looked back down at his food as he started buttering his toast. Ron and Hermione looked at each other then to Harry. Harry then looked up at both of them with a questioning look.

"What?" he asked with a bit of his toast in his mouth.

"Cow?" Hermione repeated raising an eyebrow looking appalled.

"Pig?" Ron asked with the same look as Hermione.

"Well, it is true"

"You're the cow, you started all this"

"And you're the pig because your now eating and I'm not" Ron said as he took his own toast and started buttering it.

Harry and Hermione looked at him and laughed.

"What?" Ron asked, as he was about to shove the whole of his toast into his mouth.

"It's good we're all friends again. Remind me to keep my temper with the both of you" Hermione said as he took a croissant from a plate in front of her.

"Same goes for us" Harry and Ron said in unison.

All three of them laughed together, taking the attention of a few students, like Draco.

'They're friends again' Draco thought as he drank from his goblet while looking over at Hermione's joyous face 'I better not ruin it for her again'

He sighed and replaced his goblet on the table.

"Draco?" Pansy said just near his ear "What's wrong?" She looked over at what Draco was looking at, but Draco hastily turned to look at his pug-faced fellow Slytherin.

"Nothing, c'mon. First class is Divination, we have a long walk to take to the tower" Draco said as he stood up from his seat.

"Remind me, why didn't we ever drop this class?" Pansy asked heatedly as she followed him along with most of the other 6th year Slytherins.

"Because, it's just a pile of rubbish and it's one class we are guaranteed to pass and get high marks on. Besides, it's like a free period. All we have to do is continue with our predicting we'll suffer and that bug-eyed bat would give us high marks.

"You really are a true Slytherin Draco"

"Of course I am" Draco said with a tone of pride in his voice.

'...but I hope I wasn't' he added in his thoughts as they started to climb the enchanted staircases.

"Oh and Parkinson, where's our Buper?"

"Right here" she said as she patted on a lump on her robe's pocket.

"What did you call it?"

"Poo!" came a cute and squeaky voice inside Pansy's robes.

"Poo?"

"Short for pookie"

"Right" Draco said with a weird expression on his face.

'What is it with girls and names?'

x

"Crud!"

"Excuse me?" Professor McGonagall asked as she turned her back to the lined up students outside her classroom waiting for her to open the door.

"Crud! Crud! Crud!"

"Now really, who is that? Speak up or else I have to dock off more points to your house than you already deserve. I do not tolerate students using such offensive language"

"Err...sorry professor" Hermione said from the middle of the line as she raised her hand.

"Ms. Granger? Why...I never have seen a prefect, most of all a top student in my-"

"Oh no professor!" Hermione added as she walked to the front of the line. "I-it's not me, I-it's my B-buper"

"Ah, of course. Hagrid told the staff some of you might be taking those things into classes. Dumbledore gave your permission to do so, and so have I...but, I will also not tolerate it if you stop participating classes"

"O-of course not professor"

"And may I ask, why you named your Buper 'crud'?"

"Err...its real name is Cruddles, but she can only say Crud"

"Very well," McGonagall said, as she looked up to the class "Anybody else who's brining their Bupers into the class today?"

Parvati raised her hand, so did Lavender, Padma, Luna and a few other Ravenclaw girls. It seems like only the girls are the ones keeping the Bupers.

McGonagall sighed, turned back and open the door then walked inside the classroom, followed by the boys still discussing Quidditch and the girls who were still cooing over their Bupers.

x

"Dear, I can sense your aura getting conspicuous" Trelawney said in a dazed voice indicating her hand towards Draco.

"Hmph, bug-eyed bat" Draco said under his breath.

"Pardon me, dear?" she asked still with a dazed tone in her voice.

"I just sensed something from my crystal ball" Draco said in a mock fascinated voice, as he waved his hands around the foggy glass ball in front of him.

Pansy snickered silently beside him.

"Yes, yes...what do you see?" Trelawney asked, oblivious to the real situation.

"I see..." Draco started.

'What the bloody hell do I see in this thing?' he asked himself quickly.

"I see..." he repeated aloud as to stall the time.

'What's that?' he asked himself looking over at a fuzzy looking figure he saw at top left of the ball.

"I see..." he squinted his eyes "a bulky eyed hag!" he said rather loudly than he was supposed to.

He looked up to see his professor's reaction to his first ever prediction, which he never made up.

When he did, he jumped back rather quickly and breathed heavily while clutching his heart.

"Is something the matter?" she asked as she looked at him, bewildered at his actions.

Meanwhile, the Slytherins were howling in laughter at this and a few of the Hufflepuffs couldn't help but join in with the laughing.

Draco slowly walked back to his seat as his professor stood up from her place.

Judging by Trelawney's position earlier, she was kneeling very closely to Draco's seat. And as Draco guessed, it was she whom he saw in the crystal ball. The ball merely showed a reflection of the Divination's professor. No wonder Draco described the figure as a 'bulky eyed hag'.

Draco slowly sat back down on his seat as Trelawney was now regaining her walking around to see the other student's performances.

"That w-was great D-Draco!" Pansy exclaimed from beside the still stunned looking Slytherin.

Draco turned to look at her and tell her why she thought it was funny, when Trelawney almost gave him a heart attack.

"What are y-" he started but abruptly stopped as someone patted him from the back and as Pansy's laughter grew louder.

"That was great Draco...no wonder you got that part of Josh Ryan in the play" Millicent said from behind him with a nodding Crabbe beside her.

Draco smirked at this.

'These idiots will believe anything!' he thought to himself but continued his gaze to the other students in the perfume filled room, who were all looking at him with admiration. 'Oh well, anything to keep myself at the top'

He continued looking around, then winked at a Hufflepuff who was still looking at him and whom he had noticed had a dreamy expression on her face. She blushed and hastily turned around to entertain the Divination professor who had been trying to get her attention.

Draco smirked again.

'Hu! He thinks he's too cool. Everyone's blinded by him...but no matter, I can still get Hermione for myself soon' a certain Slytherin thought to himself while looking at Draco as he ran his hand through his loose, shiny black hair.

x

"Well, that was a great lesson" Hermione said with a smug look on her face as she dropped a shiny silver spoon inside the box which Lavender had been passing around.

"Speak for yourself" Ron said sadly as he dropped a fork into the box, which Hermione noticed had a bird's beak and was still wriggling around.

"Yeah" Harry said from her other side. She saw that he had successfully turned the crow into a spoon but it still had claws and was running around in circles on his table. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"C'mon, that was the easiest one we were ever assigned to transfigure all week" she said in a it-was-nothing-I-can-do-that-anytime look on her face.

It was Harry and Ron's turn to roll their eyes as they headed out of the room.

"Hermione," Harry started as he pushed open the door to let the said girl walk out first "only you would be daft enough to think that lesson was actually e-"

"Hello Hermione" said a rather familiar voice.

"Oh, hey Gin!" Hermione replied in a happy tone.

"Ron" Ginny nodded to her brother who was standing at the right of Hermione.

"Hey Ginny" Ron said as he too nodded his head towards her sister.

"Harry" she said his name rather differently almost seductively yet coarsely then nodded towards Hermione's left side at him.

"Err..." Harry started looking unsure, "Gin" he said as he nodded at her.

Ginny smiled at Hermione, then at Ron then smirked at Harry.

Harry still looked at her as if she's gone mad.

"C'mon Gin, or else McGonagall will get into a fit and give us a whole lecture about being tardy" one of her friends, as Hermione knows as Ella, was tugging on Ginny's robes, urging her to move forward into the room behind the trio.

"Good bye then" she said dismissingly as she walked inside together with the rest of her classmates.

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" Ron said incredulously as they started walking down the corridor towards their next class, Charms.

"How should I know? She's your sister, not mine" Harry said still thinking about what just happened.

"Well, it was you she kept on looking at" Ron pointed out.

"That was quite obvious wasn't it?" Hermione spoke up.

Ron rolled his eyes, then looked over at Harry again.

"You know what?"

"Obviously we don't" Hermione spoke up again.

Ron glared at her then turned back to Harry.

"I think she still likes you Harry"

"We've been through that, Ginny just likes me as a friend and nothing more"

"But you don't know that"

"Yes I do, she told me after the war remember?"

Ron touched his chin with his thumb and index finger, to show that he was actually thinking.

"Oh yeah..." he said nodding his head.

Harry and Hermione rolled their eyes.

"Arrr..."

"What did you say Hermione?" Ron asked.

"Huh?"

"Arrr..."

"There you go again, what do you want?" Ron asked yet again as he now stopped.

"I didn't say anything" Hermione said as she and Harry now stopped as well.

"That be me laddie"

"Huh?"

"Over here" Harry and Ron looked around to see no one but a few of the Gryffindors getting farther from them then they looked down "AHHH!!!" they shouted in unison.

"Oh hello, Noby" Hermione said calmly at the pirate house elf.

"NOBY?!!" Harry and Ron said in unison, looking at the poor excuse of a house elf then at Hermione.

"Actually it's No Beard, but he prefers to be called Noby" she filled in as to her best friends and looked back at the Noby with a smile on her face, thankful that he no longer smelled of rotten fish.

"Ayy" Noby said while nodding his head.

"Noby," Hermione started "these are my best friends, Ron Weasley..." she said indicating the red faced red head who gave a small nod "...and Harry Potter" she indicated Harry who also did the same as Ron.

Noby smiled and took his polka dotted bandana off his head and bowed very low at both of them but not until her stole a second glance at Harry.

"Noby here is the head of the kitchens' management and over the other house elves"

"You're a house elf?" Ron asked bluntly.

"Indeed I am lad" the proud house elf said as he re placed his bandana on his head.

"Err...riiggghhhttt!" Ron said back to him, as he and Harry were giving each other weird looks.

"Miss, I have something to say to yee" Noby said, diverting his attention to Hermione, as he pulled her to the opposite side of where Harry and Ron stood to avoid them overhearing.

"Hold on," Hermione reached down into her pocket to reveal a pink ball of fur. "Harry, hold her for me a while"

"Crud!" Cruddles exclaimed excitedly as Harry took her in his hands.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, now getting curious as she walked back towards Noby.

"It be about that girl yee were talking to" she gave him a questioning look. "Red hair" realization came to her as she nodded. "She is spying on yee"

"Excuse me?" Noby merely nodded.

"He" he started pointing a small finger at Harry which he covered with another hand as to avoid him see "be friends with blonde boy"

"Blonde boy? You mean Draco?" He nodded.

"They be having a truce..."

"Truce?"

"...and a bet"

"A bet? A WHAT?!!" Noby nodded again "What do you mean a bet? About what? On who?"

"Yee, me lady, yee"

"Me? What did they deal on?"

"The red head girl knows, she be spying on them and yee"

"Are you serious? Or is this your idea of a joke?"

"Oh no me lady, Noby does not tell jokes or lies to Noby's friends"

"Then how do you know this?"

"House elves always overhear things from student conversations, ay"

Hermione nodded.

"Just keep look out miss, they bet you a kiss, so Noby had heard"

"A what? A kiss? They bet a kiss? What do you mean? I-" before Hermione could finish her sentence, Noby already vanished in front of her.

"Hello?" came a voice from down the corridor. "Oh, Harry! Ron! Hermione! I've been looking everywhere for the three of you!" Hannah said as she walked towards the trio.

"What is it Hannah?" Hermione asked.

"Well, first of all, you're now 20 minutes late for Charms. Flitwick asked me to come look for you"

Hermione checked her watch, the talk between her and Noby slowly getting lost from her thoughts.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed.

"You bet it is, we-" before Hannah could finish her sentence, the trio had already gone, running down the hall where she came from. She sighed and rolled her eyes, slowly making her way back to the classroom.

-End of Chapter-

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Reviewers!

Thanks for the reviews you guys, please continue reviewing, it keeps me going. The less I get the less effort I get to write the next chappy, esp. at this time because of my exams...but thanks to all those who really took time to review my fic.!! Hope to see more...

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Hey guys! I know I said my exams are coming up. In fact, it's gonna be this Saturday. Thought I'd just write a chapter to relieve myself from all the stress that has taken hold of me since my last update. School's been torture these days! Anyway, updating seemed a good idea a while ago...just my idea of loosing my stress of all the school work and studying.

My next update will be next week...probably Wednesday or the next Saturday or Sunday. I'm not positively sure yet, but just keep a look out k?! Please R & R! I gotta go now...bye!

-DragonPrincessRhean-