A/N: Hi! I'm in Korea. (For those of you who care.) I just got here and I've met one person so far. She is a member on here, too. Okay, I'll shut up and let you read the story. Don't forget to review! (please) I don't own anything, and probably never will. But I'm okay with that.
-------Chapter 10: Dorms --------- (Hermione's POV)
As we walked into the inn, Draco said, "I think I need a drink after that... experience."
"Go ahead, I'm not going to keep you."
"Right, then. See you," he replied, heading off towards the pub.
'Poor guy, must've given him a scare... Wait! This is Malfoy! He's been so strange lately... Nice, maybe... I wonder what he's playing at... Probably planning something... Hmmm.'
I continued thinking as I dragged my light bag of clothes, along with Malfoy's bag of new hair care products up the stairs. Conceited git had bought his own weight in hair gel.
As I reached my room, I heard yelling. Quickly unlocking the door, I found the source.
Ron was standing in the middle of my room holding a pair of Malfoy's boxers. I knew they were his because they were dark green with the Malfoy crest in silver. Harry was holding an identical pair, his eyes fixed on Ron. Laughter shone through Harry's eyes but he dared not even snigger at the situation in front of Ron.
"HERMIONE GRANGER! WHY DO YOU HAVE DRACO MALFOY'S UNDERWEAR IN YOUR ROOM!" Ron yelled at me. Harry started to laugh, not being able to hold it in any longer. Tears started to leak out of the corners of his eyes.
"Ron, you're overreacting," I snatched the boxers out of his hand.
"NO, I'M NOT! THIS IS RIDICULOUS! WHY DO YOU HAVE MALFOY'S BOXERS IN YOUR ROOM?" Ron wouldn't calm down.
"If you would just listen, I would tell you." I was stalling. The real reason was because I had lost some of mine in the wash and borrowed some of his until I could get more. "Look," I walked over to the door connecting Draco's room to mine and opened it. I walked in and the boys followed. Harry stopped laughing.
Ron spotted a WW (Wizard's Wireless) on Malfoy's dresser. Walking over to look at it, he said, "Hermione, he's got one like you."
"Well they all look basically the same, Ron," Harry said.
"He probably wouldn't miss this, right 'Mione? I mean, he has enough entertainment as it is. Instead of watching WizTV, he watches himself in the mirror," Harry and I started laughing. "And instead of listening to this, he would probably have more fun listening to himself talk," Ron continued.
At this I started laughing harder. It was true; the conceited little prat was exceedingly self-centered.
"Who wants dinner? I could order in," I asked.
We agreed on pizza and sodas. A house elf brought it up and we had fun talking about our summers. At the end we sat around the fire and had hot cocoa. Much like what I had done with Draco the previous night.
I had been sitting, thinking about what had been going on between me and Draco for the past day or so when Ron said, "I wonder who the new heads are."
I spat out some of my cocoa. Quickly casting a cleaning spell, I said, "Umm, well... It's umm... It's me and Malfoy."
After that it was Ron's turn to spew a little of his hot chocolate. "WHAT? FERRET-BOY IS NOW HEAD-FERRET-BOY?" Ron exploded.
"Ron. Calm down. It doesn't mean anything, it's probably just Malfoy's father messing with the ministry," Harry said, "What's the problem? I mean, it's not as if we'll have to spend more time with him or see more of that jumped up git."
"That's true, Ron. I don't understand why you're so worried," I said.
"Well, alright. I guess not.," Ron seemed to shrink before my eyes as his rage dispersed.
"Ron, we'd better get off to the Leaky Cauldron and get some sleep. We've got to get up early to get all our stuff, remember?" Harry said, standing up.
I stood up too and we both helped Ron to his feet.
"Good bye you two. I hope I see you around tomorrow. Do you want to meet in the pub downstairs tomorrow night for dinner?" I asked.
"Alright. Night, 'Mione," Ron said, opening the door.
"Night," Harry said, placing a quick kiss on my cheek and taking his cloak from the dresser.
"Goodnight," I called as they walked off down the hallway, "See you tomorrow."
They waved before turning and disappearing down the stairs.
I closed the door and leaned against it, only to be knocked forward when it was suddenly pushed forward. "What, Ron, did you forget- Oh! It's you. Come in."
Malfoy walked casually in. "Lost my key," he muttered, wandering into his room and closing the door quietly.
"Okay…" I said to myself. What was up with Malfoy?
"Oi! Mudblood! Keep out of my room!" Draco yelled suddenly causing me to jump in surprise. Okay. Something was definitely wrong.
I didn't find out what was wrong the next day. Or any other day that week, for that matter. Malfoy and I didn't talk any more, and there were no fights, either. I snuck back into his room one night to return the borrowed boxers and found a letter on his desk. But before I could open it, I heard someone in the corridor, preventing me from going any further.
The night before we would depart on the train, Harry, Ron, and I went out for ice cream at Fortiscue's after dinner. We chatted a while until it got dark, then went to Fred and George's shop to visit. I made my excuses and left around nine, claiming I wanted to go back to my room and make sure my homework was done and all my things were packed. I hugged the twins and Harry and Ron, all of them dismissing me easily enough.
Walking down the Alley, I stepped down a side street and disappeared.
The first thing I heard in the morning was, "Granger! Get out of the bloody bed."
Malfoy, what a useful alarm clock. Dunno why he decided to be nice, if you can call it that, and wake me up.
"Why are you still in bed?" he asked, walking over to me.
"Tell you in a sec," I said groggily. "Over there, in my top drawer," I pointed, "Bottle... Aspirin…"
"How many?" he asked.
I held up four fingers, "Three."
"Are you sure? I thought Aspirin was deadly or something," he replied, handing me the small pills.
"Better off dead than with a headache like mine," I commented, standing up shakily.
"What happened to you?" Draco asks looking me up and down.
"Raz sent me an owl last night. I went to another rave. The music was wicked awesome. Head-banging should be made illegal, though," I said.
"Really. You know, if you were out later than midnight I could get you in trouble, you know," he said with an evil grin.
"You wouldn't," I said, taking a step towards him, "Ouch! What's wrong with my shoes?" I look down, "Ah. Not again! I took the wrong shoes."
"Wrong shoes?" Draco questioned.
"Everyone takes off their shoes when we dance. You feel the music better. I wonder who has mine..." I sat and bent down to untie the boots.
"And what is this, I wonder?" Draco said, his voice full of malicious laughter.
"What," I said warily.
"There's something on the back of your neck," he laughed. "Granger! You've got lipstick on the back of your neck!" Then mockingly serious he added, "Is there something I should know?"
"What? I don't understand!" I rushed over to the mirror and held up my hair. Sure enough there was a dark red smudge on the back of my neck.
"Finally something I understand and you don't! Ha! Granger, I think someone kissed you."
"I know that, you twit, but who? I mean, why? How?" I was totally at a loss for reason.
"Well. Who... I can answer that, it was a girl, ugh. And why? I don't know, I mean you're so unappealing, wait, that's not it... Oh! I have the word! Hideous! That's it."
"Bugger off, Malfoy," I said and pushed past him. I pulled off my shirt, knowing that there was an undershirt underneath.
"Ahhh! I think I've gone blind!" cried Malfoy, hiding his eyes.
"Shut up, Malfoy! You'll wake the whole building!" I threw my shirt at him, laughing.
The shirt missed and he swaggered over coolly and leaned up against the dresser, "Well, we've narrowed down the suspects. It was a girl, hence the lipstick, and she was most likely high on something or other because it was... you," he pointed at me, "that she was kissing."
"Actually, Malfoy," I walked into the bathroom, not bothering to close the door and started to change into jeans, "We haven't narrowed it down to anything yet. You see at raves, girls aren't... well... See, girls aren't the only ones who wear lipstick. Some of the guys wear it as well. Don't ask why, just deal with it. Also, they weren't high because they probably would have missed if they were. So I think we're at a dead end." I hopped out of the bathroom, still pulling my jeans up.
"Argh! Granger! Give us a warning next time, okay?" he commented, turning around.
"Well, I'd better start packing. Have you already done yours?" I asked, waving my wand.
"Yes. I thought we weren't allowed to do magic out of school, Miss Perfection," he said.
"Ah, yes," I waved it again causing all of my belongings to be packed neatly in my trunk, "but apparently they changed the rule. Head boy and girl are allowed. But only simple things like levitation. And, naturally, no magic in front of the muggles."
"Oh, well, blah blah blah! I don't believe you, you know. You filthy Mudblood. Trying to trick me into doing magic, now, are you?"
There was a knock at the door and the innkeeper, Ed, walked in, "Can I help you with your trunks? Mister Malfoy and Misses Granger? I have a muggle taxi waiting on the street, on the muggle side of the building, for you."
I looked at Malfoy, "Is that alright with you? Sharing a cab with a 'filthy Mudblood', I mean."
"Yeah, sure, whatever. Let me get my trunk," Malfoy headed off into the other room.
"You might want to wear a cloak Mister Malfoy. It's raining broomsticks and cauldrons out there!" Ed called after him.
Malfoy waved a hand to show he was listening.
"Oh! That reminds me!" I said, "I finally have a reason to wear my new coat!" I had gotten a coat the day before while I was shopping with Malfoy. It was dark red with golden trimmings.
"Oi! Granger, you coming or shall I Wingaurdium Leviosa you to the taxi?" Malfoy called. He was part pulling and part levitating his trunk down the hallway outside our rooms. "Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea... Don't think the driver would be too enthusiastic about it, though," he muttered, turning to go down the stairs.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming. Unless you can do a better job of levitating your trunk, I doubt that you could levitate me," I performed a perfect weightless spell on my trunk and carried it down the hall and the stairs, passing an amazed Malfoy and reaching the taxi first.
"My, what a strong girl you are, sweetie!" the driver said, "Let me go ahead and get that for you."
I quickly took off the spell, causing me to falter a bit, but still getting it into the trunk with the assistance of the driver.
Malfoy came out behind me and lugged his trunk in as well, without the assistance of the driver, whose attention was on me, "What a nice coat! May I help you into the car?" He held the door open and helped me in.
Malfoy, a disgruntled look on his face, went around to the other side and slid in.
"What's wrong, Malfoy? Your trunk too heavy?" I asked teasingly.
"Shut up," was his only reply. He knew better than to call me a 'Mudblood' in front of the taxi driver. Personally, I wouldn't have cared.
"Your girlfriend here's a strong one. Did you know she carried that suitcase thing all by herself?" the driver commented from the front seat.
"Not my girlfriend," is all that came from Malfoy. He was all hunched over, studying the Hogwarts Express ticket interestedly, avoiding my eyes. I started giggling like a giddy schoolgirl. "What?" came Malfoy's angry response to this light-hearted behaviour.
"Nothing. It's just that you look like a little kid when you pout," I said, leaning over and tucking a piece of his blonde hair behind his ear.
"I do not!" he said grumpily, swatting at my hand and receding further into the corner of the seat.
"See what I mean?" I said.
"You two are a good match, I think. A little young, but a good pair," the driver said, looking back at me.
That kept both of us silent for the rest of the ride to Kings' Cross Station.
Once we got there, Draco didn't bother to get me a cart. But I didn't care. We hung around a group of muggle tourists. I tried to point them in the right direction towards the trains they would be taking. While my back was turned, however, Malfoy decided to confuse them. The poor American tourists couldn't even figure out from the tickets which trains to get on. After Malfoy's input, they got angry at us so we headed to the train early.
After going through the barrier, we got our things unloaded onto the train. We were both bored, so we decided to explore. We found a new car that we had never seen before. It had seats along the sides of the car and it looked rather like an underground (metro/subway) train's car. We had fun swinging on the bars and racing up and down the long passageway. Before long, an hour had passed and we decided to go and have breakfast at the café in the train station. We were free to do more since the train didn't leave for another two hours, and we didn't have to haul our luggage around.
At the Café de Tren (French for Café of Train, in case you couldn't figure it out.). We had tea and scones with jam, slices of different kinds of cheese with bread, and fresh fruit.
Once finished, we still had some time left, so I took Malfoy to a place he had never been before. Mark's & Spencer's. We bought some chocolate and I had fun showing him the muggle clothes, electronics, and his favourite, the toys. It was interesting to see his face light up at something so simple as a Jack-in-the-Box. I couldn't help laughing and he flung a talking beanbag ball at me. When it hit the floor, the electronic voice came on and he was transfixed. I couldn't resist buying it for him. I had a brief image in my mind of Lucius Malfoy playing with it.
We made it back to the train just in time. Everyone else was on with a few just coming in. We went up to the front and ate the leftover chocolate while we watched the train station disappear slowly behind us.
The trip was uneventful. Malfoy and I went into the prefects compartment and gave them their patrolling duties, dividing them into pairs. Each of them was coupled with someone from a different house to help build inter-house relations. After instructing them, we went off to sit with our respective friends. I actually kind of missed Malfoy while I sat through hours of Quidditch talk.
When I went back to the Head Boy and Girl compartment for a book, Malfoy was already there eating his lunch of Pumpkin Pasties and Chocolate Frogs.
"Aw, did the food cart already come by?" I asked, plopping down on the seat.
"No, I just conjured this all up. Don't be stupid, Mudblood!" he replied cruelly.
"Okay. Your mood swings are driving me crazy. What is your bloody problem! I mean, one minute you're nice or at least decent to me, then you turn around and become a mean, heartless jerk!" I said, standing up and waving my arms for emphasis.
"Alright! I get it! Just sit DOWN! I'm not having mood swings! It's just... sometimes I feel like being nice, and sometimes you just make me angry. I can't explain it," he said. He pushed some food over to me, "The food cart lady said she'll be back after she does the rest of the train if we want something else." And with that, he started eating again.
We reached Hogsmeade in due time, and made the traditional trek to the waiting carriages, Hagrid calling for the first years over our heads. He waved hello to Ron, Harry, and me as we passed. I got separated from my friends when I stopped to point a first year in the direction of the waiting boats.
The castle was the same as always except a small make-shift building out on the grounds close to Hagrid's hut. I was too tired to question, so I simply climbed into a carriage that contained none other than the King of Ice himself.
"Bloody brilliant, this is," I muttered.
We sat in silence as the carriage made its way up the muddy drive, and hurried indoors as not to get soaked by the pouring rain. This was not a good day.
At the feast, we were allowed to sit at our own house tables and afterwards were called to leave first. Walking together down the center aisle, we could both hear people whispering.
I leaned over, "What are they saying?"
"What, you think I can understand them? They're probably wondering why you're asking bloody stupid questions," he replied coolly.
"Don't make me hex you, you twit," I took out my wand, hid it in my sleeve, and pressed the point of it into the small of his back to stress my point. He squirmed a bit as we exited through the big oak doors.
Professor Dumbledore was waiting outside to take us to our dorms. As we were walking along, me standing beside Dumbledore and Malfoy lagging behind, Dumbledore commented, "Beautiful weather, is it not."
We heard a scornful laugh from behind us. Malfoy quickly stifled it and said, "But sir... It's raining"
"I know that, thank you, Mister Malfoy. But rain is beautiful. Any weather is beautiful if you really look at it closely," he replied. "It's good that there is a change in the weather. I was getting rather tired of the constant sunshine.
"I agree, Professor," I said as we stopped in front of a painting of a dragon and a lion asleep in a grassy field. Dumbledore prodded the two sleeping animals awake.
"Password?" the lion asked in a loud, confident voice.
"They haven't decided on one yet, Grey," said the dragon in a sly, smooth, and quiet voice. The sound sent shivers down my spine.
Malfoy unfortunately noticed this, and while Dumbledore was instructing the two animals in the picture, Malfoy whispered in my ear, "I wonder who's dorm this will be." I shivered. How can my enemy do that?
"Both of yours," said Dumbledore, turning around. Malfoy yanked his head away from my shoulder. "The password is 'bundled'."
"What kind of password is that?" Malfoy murmured, stepping into the common room behind Dumbledore.
"I think it's... interesting," I said, trying to keep Malfoy from acting like a complete twit in front of Dumbledore.
"Suck up," whispered Draco in the same way as before.
"Will you quit that!" I shouted, completely losing it. Dumbledore looked at me questioningly and Malfoy just smirked.
"This little... spat... has brought me to my next announcement. You will both be sharing this dorm. Miss Granger, your room is on the left. Mister Malfoy, the right one is yours. I'll leave you both to it," Dumbledore stated before leaving the room.
Malfoy and I just stood in awe for a moment, trying to rationalize the situation. It didn't make sense, there were supposed to be two different, not to mention separate, dorms for the head boy and girl.
"House unity! Hah! All they're going to get from this little arrangement is Hell," I commented. Honestly, I was trying to be mature, but I couldn't help being sarcastic.
"Oh, come on, Granger. You know you love this little idea of Dumbledore's. I mean, who wouldn't love to spend time and share a dormitory with someone like me?"
"Umm, well, just about everyone," I said, "Come on. Let's look around."
The common room was medium sized with a roaring fire illuminating the few chairs and couches scattered around it. There were shelves stacked with books lining the back wall. The books only stopped at each end of the wall and in the center where there were solid oak doors. I stepped into the middle door. There was a huge bathroom on the other side. It had a long counter on either side and a gigantic bathtub in the middle of the room. Two showers, one either side, and a room at the end that the toilet occupied.
I ran into Malfoy as he was walking into the bathroom from his room. We both fell into the tub which was fortunately empty.
"Oi! Granger! Watch where you're going. Almost bloody killed me!" he shouted, rubbing his head.
"Sorry. What's your room look like?" I asked, helping him, yes, I know, helping, him off his feet.
He swatted away my hand and stood up, brushing himself off, "Normal. How about yours?"
"I haven't seen mine yet," I answered.
We headed into mine through the door that connected it to the bathroom. There was a closet with all of my clothes hanging up in it and a bed, of course. A dresser stood to the left and a desk was positioned against the wall so it looked out the window.
My trunk stood at the foot of my bed, and my books had been piled on top of the dresser. I pulled one off and plopped it on my bed. Not noticing that Malfoy was still there, I pulled off my robes revealing a yellow tank top I had been wearing underneath.
Unfortunately, Malfoy had just turned from looking out the window and I caught him off guard. "Enjoying the show?" I asked nonchalantly.
"What show?" he answered back.
"Huh," I said and continued changing. I put on my pants which were black with bright yellow and blue stripes everywhere while Malfoy politely turned and continued to stare out the window.
I walked up behind him, trying to figure out what had him so transfixed. His eyes were situated on the little make-shift building out on the grounds.
"What do you suppose that's for?" he asked me.
"No clue," I said, moving so I was standing beside him.
"I thought you were the smart one," he said softly and smirked.
I laughed lightly, "Whatever it is, I bet Hagrid's teaching it."
"Mmm," was his only reply. He turned to go, "Well, I'm not walking out there in the rain."
"Whatever, Malfoy. Go to bed."
"But won't you be scared of the mean old lightning and thunder?" he said in a baby voice.
"Well, I just might climb in bed with you, then," I answered, whacking him with a pillow.
He turned around and looked at me, stunned.
"Goodnight," I said in a sing-song voice, jumping into bed.
"Yeah, yeah," Malfoy waved his hand and disappeared through his door on the other side of the bathroom.
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I hope you liked this chapter! It's a lot longer than my others. I rewarded all my readers for being so patient with an extra long chapter. I can't wait until I figure out what I'm going to write next. Please Review!
