"Do you think they'll have another race next time?" Ron asked.
Hermione almost rolled her eyes. His group won one time, and suddenly now he wanted to come to every session. Everyone had just returned from their hikes, and apparently Hermione's group had come dead last ... probably cause of her. Ron's group won unfortunately.
"So you actually want to come next time then?"
"Hey I wanted to come!"
"Oh please, I practically begged you to come. You only want to come next time because of the galleon prize." Hermione replied with a smug look.
"Well you can always use an extra 10 galleons." She saw him jiggle his prize bag some more, obviously content with his winnings.
"Whatever Ron, but I doubt there'll be another race. I'm pretty sure Alisa just did the race for the first day to gain some more attention."
He gave her a confused look. "Who's Alisa?"
"Malfoy's girlfriend." Hermione answered plainly.
"Didn't know he had one."
"Yeah it's the witch who organized all this. The one with the black hair, over there." She pointed to Alisa, who was now standing and chatting with Malfoy. She couldn't help but notice Alisa was very pretty. Her hair was taken out of her half bun and was all down and curled around her shoulders. Hermione was instantly jealous. She had straight sleek black hair, while Hermione had bushy, curly, blondish brown not-even-sure-what-color-to-call-it hair.
"Doesn't look like the type he'd usually date." Ron commented. Hermione knew exactly what he meant. She tried to recall Malfoy's last girlfriend, but could only come up with Pansy Parkinson.
Eww. Pansy.
Just thinking about her made Hermione remember what a complete cow she was. She was always full of gossip, even worse than Parvati and Lavender, and she wasn't exactly good looking. But what Hermione truly hated about her was how fake she was. Always vying for the attention of Malfoy.
This woman seemed to be the opposite of that. Her laughs seemed genuine, her smile surrounded by laugh lines and the cutest dimples. Her hand in Malfoy's, while speaking with someone else. Malfoy seemed to be gazing elsewhere. She tried to catch his line of sight and when she did: she felt the need to smack him over the head. His eyes were trained on another woman a few feet from them.
How can men be so idiotic?
Here he was hand in hand with a complete angel of a girl, yet he seemed to be checking out another woman. Yes the woman was indeed very beautiful, yet she was trying too hard and reminded her of Parkinson. I mean who has a face full of heavy makeup on during a hike? She almost scoffed and was about to rant to Ron ten other things this woman was wearing, but then caught the eye Malfoy who was now staring at her.
She raised an eyebrow, questioning his look, but he just looked away with a smirk.
"Yeah she actually seems really nice." Hermione said tentatively.
"And pretty." Ron added. She slapped his arm and gave him a hard glare. "Hey I was just about to say Camelia's prettier!"
"Sure you were Ron."
"I was!"
XXXXX
Hermione stepped in and was relieved to feel the cool chill of the lift. She pressed the button for lobby and leaned on the side of the lift. It had been a long day of work filled with expense reports, loads of paperwork, and of course more job interviews. She was very exhausted and couldn't wait to go home, especially cause she had her date with Charlie tonight.
Just as the doors were closing, a hand reached in and pulled them apart. Malfoy and Zabini stepped in. Zabini pushed the 2nd floor button and resumed his conversation with Malfoy, both of them not even sparing a glance towards Hermione.
Oh this is awkward. And they didn't even acknowledge me, how rude. Hermione thought.
Zabini worked in the Department of International Magical cooperation, and resumed his friendship with Malfoy ever since they both started working at the ministry. She couldn't care less of course, but... she seemed to be keeping tabs on him ever since their recent conversations.
Zabini stepped off to the 2nd floor with a slight nod to Hermione this time. Just when she thought it couldn't get more awkward… it just did.
"Oh kill me now." Hermione muttered, but apparently not as quiet as she would've liked.
"What was that?" Malfoy looked up, finally, staring directly at her for the first time.
Hermione couldn't help but stammering, "Oh no, I was just- er, oh I was just talking to myself- that's all it's nothing." Very smooth Hermione nice.
"Oh. Well are you coming this weekend?" Malfoy asked. She must've had a confused look on her face because he added, "You know the muggle hiking thing and all"
"Yes I was thinking I would." Hermione answered. No response. She couldn't reason why he'd even ask.
Malfoy shook his head,"Well I wouldn't bother, you're pretty terrible at it if you ask me."
"Oh shut it Malfoy, no one did ask you did-" She had turned around to see malfoy smirking like no tomorrow, and immediately ceased speaking.
"Wow can't even take a joke can you Granger?" He rolled his eyes exhaustively. "I mean of course I was joking, even you couldn't possibly be bad at a pathetic muggle activity." He swept past her as the doors opened, without another look.
Leaving Hermione baffled and quickly hurrying to leave the lift.