Shades of Grey

By: Destiny's Darkness

Disclaimer: I own little. Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, and the contents of J.K. Rowling's books are not on that list. The original characters, obviously, are, but if you want to use them for some reason, be my guest. Just let me know, so I can read your stories.

Chapter 4

"You lied to them."

"I did not."

"You lied to them."

Belle spun around to face her best friend in all the world. "Dani, I told them we were picking up clothes for Mya, who's staying with us tonight. I didn't lie to them." She stared into the solemn green eyes.

Danielle broke eye contact first, dropping her head and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Why didn't they recognize you, Hermione?" Her voice was quiet, quiet enough that Hermione could have pretended not to hear it, and with anyone else she might have. But not Danielle.

"I've told you about the Anti-Muggle spells."

"The psycho spells from hell that play havoc with your looks." The blonde frowned, allowing the flesh of her brow to wrinkle. "Do they alter your appearance that much? That you best friends won't recognize you?"

"And my voice. I usually sound more like this." She pitched the sound of it to high and nasal, so unlike her usual rich, musical tones. Winced. "Maybe not quite that bad." She crossed the room to the floor length mirror on the back of Dani's bedroom door. "My hair's frizzy. Hell, it's got to be at least four feet wide, which takes a foot of the length." She stared at the chocolate-colored curls, winding their way nearly to her waist in nearly perfect, loose ringlets. "My eyes fade into this horrid, dull brown color." They stared back at her, dark brown orbs with flecks of gold. She spun around again. "I bloat nearly three inches and bloat so I look nearly twenty pounds heavier. My skin clouds up with various shades of red and yellow." She stared at the perfect tan of her hands as her last words, voiced in a shout, echoed through the apartment. "I'm ugly."

The broken words nearly shattered Danielle's heart. "Not you, Hermione. Our Belle. You could never be ugly. After all, how did you get your nickname?"

"I had a crush on the Beast from the Disney movie when I was, like, six. Which makes it totally unfair that I get teased about that because I really had a crush on him at the end after he turned into the prince."

"Right. Actually, I forgot about that. What I meant was, why did everyone start calling you that in general? Other than the obvious, keeping-out-of-the-limelight thing."

"You mean that troll I dated in fourth or fifth grade?"

"He was hardly a troll. If you weren't so damn nice, at least then, every girl in our class would have hated you. And some did anyway. He was the class prince."

"I'll take the prince from the movie, thanks. Besides, he wasn't that cute."

"Oh, yes, yes, he was. Don't shake your head at me. Didn't he become a model a few years ago?"

"I wouldn't know. I spend most of my life in a castle in Scotland, remember?"

Danielle's cell interrupted the quasi-argument. "Listen, I'm really sorry, you guys, but I can't come."

The blonde winced, knowing full and well what Hermione's response would be. "Mya, what do you mean by you can't come? We're about to leave for your place. And Kylie's on her way. She left work early."

The voice on the other end of the line wavered nervously. "Oh, I'm really sorry-"

"So you said."

"Listen, Jeremy surprised me with this whole, elaborate movie night, to make up for… I mean, he surprised me."

"At two o'clock in the morning?"

"Umm… yeah, he couldn't…um…find the movie he wanted."

"Give me the phone."

Dani glanced at her friend nervously, unwilling to watch that volatile temper explode. After all, she would be the one cleaning up the resulting disaster area. "I don't know, Belle. Can you be nice?"

"I'm always nice." Brown eyes narrowed at the unintentional snort. "What's that, dear? Did you have something to say to me? Like, 'oh, of course, Belle, here's the phone. Please make her cry and beg forgiveness for the way she's been living her life'?"

"Belle's not allowed to talk to you for a while," Dani warned the other end, deliberately turning her back on the irritated brunette. "Oh, quit stammering. If you expected her to handle your cowardice with a mothering nature, you deserve to have her chew you out." Dani didn't have to stand in front of Mya to know the other blonde was chewing her fingernails and pulling at the ends of her hair. "Mya, I really don't like the idea of letting you stay there tonight when every time we call, you're in hysterics. Are you sure you don't want us to come and get you?"

The pause failed to reassure her.

"Mya, if you don't convince me in about three seconds, you won't have a choice in the matter. You'll be staying here tonight. Do you understand me?"

"Thanks, Dani, but I'm fine. We're just going to watch this one movie, and then I'll head to bed. I promise I'm okay. It's just that time of month, you know? It makes me really emotionally unstable."

"Compared to when?"

"I'll tell you what. We'll have lunch tomorrow. How about Juno's Grill? Noon? Great. Oh, they're starting the movie—I've got to go. See you tomorrow."

"They? Who's they?" At the dial tone, Dani turned back to Belle with an unusually unreadable expression. "She's gonna stay there tonight. But we're having lunch with her tomorrow. Noon at Juno's."

Just as she knew it would, Belle's fury dissipated like rain before the sun at the mention of their favorite little hole-in-the-wall. "Yum. I've missed Juno's. Hogwarts has excellent food, but no variety. I'd sell my soul for some decent sushi."

"Well, you'll have to do with excellent Italian." The two began to wander back to the living room. "But if you're desperate to part with something, that Gucci miniskirt caught my eye."

"Have you been going through my closet again?" Hermione darted into her room to check. "I'll have you know that was going to be one of your Christmas presents, but since you're so bloody nosy, I think it'll look better on me."

"Oh, come on. That cannot be your reasoning behind gift-giving. You look better in everything."

"Don't I just? Actually, you should know, you wear stripes like they were made for you. Especially black and white. It makes me so jealous sometimes; I just can't achieve that "jailhouse meets Rocky Horror Show" look."

"Ha. Ha. Oh, man, noon's like ten hours away. We have got to get some sleep if we're going to convince her to leave that asshole. Without just dragging her butt off to Siberia, that is."

The next day, Hermione found herself calming Dani down. "Chill out. I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason she didn't show."

"Yeah, right. That little snot-nosed brat really doesn't realize how dead she is, does she?"

Hermione made a quick face. "Isn't it just a shame when that happens? I mean, it's not bad enough that these poor people have died. They have to wander around for a few days before someone bothers to fill them in."

If there had been any justice in the universe, Dani's glare would have turned the snickering brunette into a smoldering crater of witch. Instead, Hermione patted her head as a mother to a spoiled child.

"Now, now, dear. That's not nice-"

"You're one to talk." Dani dropped to the bench with enough force to break a lesser seat. "Belle, this just doesn't feel right. Was Mya ever clutsy before she started dating what's-his-face?"

"Yeah," she answered immediately. "The girl makes me look like a freaking ballerina."

"But she was never covered in cuts and bruises." With that single statement, Dani eliminated any trace of amusement from the conversation.

"You think he's abusing her."

"I think it's unnatural for a pretty girl like that to suddenly start having to cover herself in bandages so her various cuts don't become infected, just after she begins dating a new boyfriend."

"Goddamn it." Hermione began to pace furiously. "Have you considered the possibility of her cutting herself?"

"Briefly. But too many things don't add up for her to be cutting herself. Like, she's so exact with her handiwork in the kitchen, but the cuts are crude." Dani looked up from the cement to see Belle slamming the driver's side door to Dani's prized Mustang. "Oh, no. Get out of my car. You are not driving my baby. I still remember what you did to your last car."

"That was not my fault, and you know it. That old man pulled out right in front of me. I couldn't have avoided him in any way possible."

"Unless you'd only been driving ten miles over the speed limit instead of twenty-five. Honestly, you're such a thrill-seeker. Get out." Glaring at the refusing brunette, Dani yanked impatiently at the driver's door. "We can hunt down Mya and her piece-of-shit boyfriend, but you're not driving."

No response.

"Damn it, Belle, move. You have ten seconds to haul your ass out of my seat."

"Shhh." The chocolate eyes widened in nervousness. "Shh, you'll catch their attention."

"Who?" Glancing over the crowds, she failed to notice anyone in particular to watch out for.

"Them, that's who." She pointed to the two boys from the night before. "I don't need to deal with that, okay? Let's just go."

Dani waited until both of them were settled in their seats before speaking again. "Belle, aren't they your best friends? I'm not sure I understand why you're running away from them."

"I'm not running away from them!" Hermione hissed, irritated. "If I were, my feet would be carrying me away from here. I just don't want to deal with answering their questions just yet. Let them wallow in their guilt."

"Misplaced guilt."

"Your point?" Hermione slipped lower in her seat to avoid any stray glances as they passed Harry and Ron. The two turned toward the Mustang, sensing innately they should follow it, but luckily, common sense stopped them in their tracks. "How do you think they found us?"

"Kylie, maybe. She got pretty friendly with them last night. Even told them she was Mya's roommate." Choosing to focus on the road before them, Dani allowed the silence to take root.

"She told them about Mya?"

The blue eyes glanced briefly at the girl beside her before answering. "Yeah, well, the child never could hold her tongue. Do you think they remember Mya?"

"I'm not sure they ever met her. Our relationship had taken a few blows during the Triwizard Tournament, so when I was spending all my time in the library, they were fighting in other places." Dani didn't miss the trace of irony in Hermione's voice. "Then, they really weren't happy that I was dating Victor, well, Ron in particular. Meeting his fan club didn't hold much appeal, I guess."

"I can't believe Mya stalked him."

"Why not? You've met her, haven't you?" Hermione's smirk hardly held well wishes. "She's very much the clingy sort. We all know what happens when she doesn't have some man to cling to."

"Speaking of which…" Dani paused a moment to consider her next words. "When was the last time you got laid? Or even snogged some random guy in the janitor's closet?" At the grimace on Hermione's face, she felt confident in her perception. "I thought so. You're always going on about how everyone at your school has the emotional maturity of prepubescent boys, but you know how you get when you choose abstinence. Don't give me that look! You become a tight-ass, and you know it. Everyone does. Honey, do us all a favor, and find some man tonight. Unless you're saving yourself for that Potter kid."

She'd chosen the perfect motive. "A nun gets more action then a girl waiting on Potter," the brunette snapped. "Now, if we could kindly analyze my sex life after we eliminate this Jeremy jerk?"

Author's notes: I'm so, so, so, so sorry. Between my AP classes and tests, and just graduating, I've barely had the extra mental capacity to edit my last chapter. So I didn't. I hope no one thinks it's truly crap, cuz that's the way it's staying for know. In addition to not having the brain power to write this chapter, I wasn't sure how I wanted it to play out. I mean, I knew some of the basic events that had to be in this chapter, but writing (as you all know) is different then just making stuff up.

I hope this chapter didn't disappoint anyone. Where you surprised? Please let me know; I tried to avoid becoming one of those writers who honestly thinks they're going to surprise you with the painfully predictable identity of some "secret" character. I know this part seems pointless, but I'm trying to make this kind of a character study. You know, where you really get to know Hermione, AKA Belle. Please review, and tell me what you think. Such as, who (if anyone) should Hermione couple up with? Draco (making an appearance in the next chapter, I promise), Harry, Ron (not likely—sorry, folks, just not my fave ship), new character?

I do have some other major developments to unveil, so review quickly. My parents got me a laptop for graduation, so things should roll out faster. Hopefully.

Thanks for reading, and lots of love,

Destiny's Darkness

6/2/05