A/N: Alright, this chapter is mostly transition stuff. I apologize. But I'm going on vacation this weekend so I wanted to give you something.
I need fifteen reviews before next chapter! So keep up the good work!!
Chapter Six
When Hermione sat down at the breakfast table the next morning, she felt sick to her stomach. There was another full-color picture of her lying on top of Draco, covered in mud in the newspaper, accompanied by a short caption about their spill after practice. She turned it over, absolutely disgusted with not only herself, but the entire situation.
If Hermione had learned anything at Hogwarts, she had learned better than to get involved with a guy like Draco. Most of the school thought he was such hot shit, and all the girls wanted him so badly. Yet he prided himself on being elusive, and staying monogamous – much to most girls' chagrin, and everyone's surprise. Ron and Harry were always talking about how surprised they were that he did not sleep around just to prove that he could.
Hermione wanted more than anything to put the events of yesterday afternoon out of her mind, but it was almost like being stuck in a bad movie. A constant replay was on repeat inside her head. She was just glad that Harry and Ron would never find out about it. Their angry voices were the last thing she needed right now.
"Hermione, did you remember today is Senior Portrait day?" her mother asked, looking up from her paper.
"Oh, crap," Hermione said. She had completely forgotten because her mind had been so preoccupied with trying to forget about Draco.
"Hermione, Consuela found this in a drawer yesterday," Mrs. Granger continued, holding up a cell phone. "I thought you told me yesterday you had your phone with you," she prompted. Hermione buried her face in her hands.
"I thought I'd thrown it in my bag, Mom, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lie to you," she apologized. Mrs. Granger passed her the phone.
"We almost lost our cook. She'd been complaining about hearing things for weeks and I thought I would have to let her go until she came to me yesterday with this," Mrs. Granger informed Hermione. She was quiet for a while, giving Hermione a displeased look. "I had some outfits sent over for your pictures, and I'll bring your other uniform to school when it gets back from the dry cleaners."
"Thank you!" Hermione replied feeling incredibly relieved.
"Hermione, I am a little bit worried about you," Her mother confided. "You haven't been acting like yourself lately."
"I-" Hermione could not think of anything to say to that. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you were announced president of the honor society and you didn't even seem to notice. You've been on edge about it since you got the letter saying you were a candidate, I thought you would be thrilled," Mrs. Granger began.
"I am!" Hermione interrupted. "I just have a lot on my mind," she admitted, being entirely honest.
"Like what? I'm your mother, you can talk to me," Victoria said softly, almost as though she were pleading with Hermione.
"Well, how will I balance all of my schoolwork with Dance and my other clubs?" Hermione asked, scolding herself mentally for backing herself into such a tight corner. "And I'm not even sure where I want to apply to college yet, let alone when I need to get all of that taken care of."
"I thought you had decided about college," Her mother looked shocked, and Hermione realized she must have said the wrong thing. She scanned her brain for something to say to fix the situation but came up empty-handed.
"She's changing her mind because we've been teasing her about being a lesbian," Draco interjected, coming into the kitchen. "Plus, her coach thinks she could get a dance scholarship at a few other schools," he said as he sat down. Hermione felt like hugging him.
"A lesbian?" her mother looked worried.
"Because it's an all-girls school," Draco said nonchalantly, pouring milk over his cereal. "No guys for miles, the girls get bored, it all adds up."
"Oh for heaven's sake," Victoria laughed, sounding relieved. "Wellesley is an excellent school Hermione, and it won't turn you into a lesbian if you're not one to begin with, but if you want to go to a co-ed school that's fine too. A Dance scholarship, that's exciting, huh?"
"Yes, but I don't know if I want to do that," she protested. "I'm still thinking about it."
"Well, you have a little bit of time to decide," Her mother said. "Don't worry so much."
"That'll be the day," Draco snorted. Hermione glared at him and finished her orange juice.
"You look good in red," Mrs. Granger changed the subject, referring to Hermione's burgundy dance team uniform. "So this is the away uniform?"
"Yeah," Hermione replied. "I don't even know why we have to wear them to school," she said, frowning at it.
"To promote school spirit," Draco informed her. "It's also an excellent advertising method. Besides, you don't wear that to dance in at the games," he added.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, you get costumes and stuff," he said, buttering his toast.
"Don't you remember, Hermione?" Her mother asked, looking at her strangely.
"I do now," she said honestly, visions coming into her head. "I don't know what's wrong with me this morning, I feel dumb," she confessed.
"Are you feeling okay?" Mrs. Granger looked concerned. Hermione nodded.
"Yeah, I guess I'm just not awake yet," she said, shaking her head.
"I'll take her to Starbucks," Draco said, as though that would cure everything. Hermione smiled, even though she could not remember what Starbucks was.
"Oh, that'll fix everything," her mother laughed. "Alright, well, I'll see you two after school with your clothes for pictures," she reminded them, standing up.
Once they were safely in the car, Draco turned to Hermione.
"What is wrong with you?" he asked. She shook her head.
"I have no idea! Everything was going so well, and now I can't remember anything," she mourned. "What is Starbucks?"
"Your favorite coffee shop," he informed her. "You'd better figure out what's wrong, I won't always be around to fix it," he scolded her. She just sunk into her seat and stared out the window. "Wait here," he said, after he had parked the car at Starbucks.
Hermione sat in the car, looking out the window. As soon as Draco had disappeared into the building, a police cruiser pulled up next to the car. The window rolled down, and the officer knocked on her window. Hermione jumped, and quickly rolled her window down.
"Hermione Granger?" The officer asked.
"Yes," she replied. "What's going on?" she asked, panicking. Had something happened to her mother or father?
"Calm down. I'm Officer Mitchell, Chief of Police," he said, holding his badge out for her to see. It looked exactly like a police badge, except the inscription on it read: Lt. Mangus Mitchell, Order of Merlin- Second Class, United States Ministry of Magic – Office of Muggle Mishaps. A look of understanding crossed her face, and he smiled at her. "I just need to ask you a few questions," he said, pulling a wand out of his car and directing it towards her. "You may have a little bit of a headache after this," he warned. Then he whispered a few words Hermione could not hear.
A bright light came out the end of his wand, making Hermione blink, and all at once she felt as though she were being dragged through her entire life in fast forward. Then she landed safely back inside herself, and she opened her eyes. He was right, her head did hurt.
"I appreciate your cooperation," Officer Mitchell said, rolling his window up. Hermione's head was pounding so hard she thought it might explode. When she went to ask him what had just happened, he was gone. She tried to remember what colleges she had planned to apply to and instantly a list popped into her head, just like it should have earlier that morning.
"Awesome," she said to herself, massaging her temples. Now if only she could get her headache to go away.
Hermione walked into her leadership class and took the only empty seat left in the semicircle of desks, right next to Josh. He grinned at her.
"You look really great in red," he informed her. She smiled and thanked him. "I've heard this is a really great class, I'm excited," he went on. Hermione felt a little bit better about the class after that. She looked around and noticed that most of the students in the room were wearing some kind of sports uniform. A little voice in her head noted that they were all popular kids, and she was reminded of Violet's reaction when she had discovered Hermione would be taking Leadership.
"What do you intend to do in that joke of a preppy social hour?" Violet had asked. Hermione had been unable to come up with a response to that question, but she had been dreading the class since that discussion because the guidance secretary had informed her that all electives were full so she would not be able to switch out of it.
"Good Morning!" a cheery blonde woman said, coming into the room. Everyone greeted her happily as though her cheer was infectious. "How was everyone's summer?" she looked around and listened intently as a few students talked about things they had done over the break. "Excellent!" she said. "Alright, well I only see one unfamiliar face here, so I think we'll skip those silly ice breakers and just let Josh introduce himself. Josh?" she prompted. Josh stood up and introduced himself to the class.
"Hey, I'm Josh, I just moved here from California. I'm a senior, I'm on the football team, and so far I like it a lot better here than at my old school," he said. Everyone clapped politely as he sat down.
"Thanks, Josh," the teacher said. "I'm Mrs. Hollins, but you can just call me Mrs. H," she introduced herself. "Alright! First order of business today is finding a Student Body Vice President," she began. "For those of you who don't know, Sarah, the girl we elected last year, had to move to New York over the summer quite unexpectedly. So the position is open. Any volunteers?" she asked. No one raised their hands, and her face fell slightly. "Alright then, Senior council members, I want you to conference for about five minutes and come up with a solution," she instructed. Pansy and a few other students left the room.
"Okay, Draco, you're on," she said as she left the front of the room. Draco got to his feet and stood up in front of the class. Hermione wished Ron and Harry were there so she could laugh with them about how much he had to be loving the attention.
"Well, as you all know, Homecoming is coming up next month," he began. Hermione tried to listen as intently as the other members of the class, but she just could not force herself to focus that hard on planning a school dance. All you had to was hire a DJ and hang some construction paper decorations around the gym, right? She sighed and looked down at the blank notebook page she had planned to take notes on.
"Hermione?" Draco asked. She looked up, startled to hear him talking to her. "Any ideas for a committee?"
"Um," Hermione squinted at the list he had written on the board. "Refreshments?" she suggested.
"Oh, good one," Mrs. H called from the back of the room.
"Who do you want as your co-chair, Hermione?" Draco asked. Hermione looked blankly at him.
"I'll do it!" Josh volunteered. Draco grinned almost wickedly and wrote their names on the board. "This should be fun," Josh whispered to Hermione. "Now we'll be able to eat a lot and say we're doing research."
"Great," Hermione replied, not even caring that she did not sound the least bit enthusiastic. What she really felt like doing was screaming. Leadership was turning out to be the biggest joke of a class she had ever encountered – worse even, than Divination. She sighed and began doodling in the margin of her notebook.
"Pansy! Do you have a decision?" Mrs. H asked suddenly. Hermione looked up to see the Senior class council members filing through the classroom door.
"Yes, we do," Pansy replied. "We decided that the Vice President needed to be someone responsible, reliable, and honest. So we wanted to pick someone who had a pretty good GPA so their schoolwork wouldn't suffer, someone who didn't already have a lot of commitments, and of course, someone who was capable of representing our school with poise and dignity," she paused. "So we chose Hermione Granger," Pansy said, smiling evilly at Hermione as she said it. The class burst into applause that Hermione could tell was incredibly phony.
"How about a few words, Hermione?" Draco asked, motioning for her to stand up. Hermione glared at him, as it was becoming clear to her that he was in on this nasty trick. She made her way up to the front of the room and smiled at the class, feeling like this was all an elaborate charade.
What did not cross her mind for a second was the fact that it was all a charade. This was not really happening, and in a few months, it would be nothing more than a distant memory. But this thought did not cross her mind. Instead, Hermione was telling herself to find the good in this horrible trick. She was reminding herself how good this would look on her college application.
"Well, members of the Senior council, I am honored that you picked me for this position and I hope I don't let you down," Hermione said. "Thank you, and I promise I will do my best to fulfill the duties that come along with being student body Vice President."
A bright camera flash left horrible spots in front of Hermione's face. She struggled to focus on the picture-taker, and suddenly found herself face to face with Violet.
"Congrats, Miss Vee-Pee," Violet crooned, dragging out the letters. "I'll be sure this gets in the yearbook, maybe even on the cover," she said sarcastically, giving Hermione a glare that plainly demonstrated her disappointment in her best friend.
"Alright, well, let's get everyone on a committee and then we can spend the rest of the period working in committees," Draco decided. Hermione gratefully returned to her seat, glad for the break from the spotlight.
Hermione sat down in the hall after all her classes had ended, doodling on a piece of blank paper and waiting for it to be time to change for practice. The rest of her day had been just fine, not taking into account the fact that Violet was barely speaking to her anymore. Her classes were pretty good, she just wished leadership was not such a joke. For some reason she had pictured studying leaders of the past and attending seminars and workshops, not planning school dances and socials. Why were they focusing on such trivial events and not on making or amending school policies? She sighed out loud, wishing she could switch classes.
"Why the long face?" a familiar voice asked. Hermione looked up to see Josh standing above her.
"Oh, no reason," she lied, letting a small smile crawl across her face. "I'm just impatient."
"You're ready to dance, huh?" he asked, sitting down next to her. "I understand. The first few days of school are really rough sometimes. I have three essays to write already," he informed her. "Congrats on making VP," he said. "That's really cool, Draco said this was your first year in leadership."
"Yeah," she admitted, feeling really awkward all of a sudden.
"You must be pretty popular then, huh?" he asked. "You had to be really popular at my old school to be elected to an office," he told her.
"I'm not popular at all," she protested, speaking honestly for the first time in the conversation. Josh gave her a look that plainly said he did not believe her for a second. "Come here," she said, scrambling to her feet. He stood up, and Hermione grabbed his hand. "Come with me," she repeated, leading him around the corner.
They went right into the library, where all of the librarians greeted Hermione enthusiastically. She said hello to all of them, and led Josh to the back corner of the room. It was dim and smelled fairly musty, but Hermione pulled a thick tome off the top of the shelf and placed it in Josh's hands. She led him to a nearby table, and waited impatiently for him to see the book in front of him.
"Kensington Preparatory School Yearbook," he read off the title. "This is from last year!" he finally noticed. Hermione sighed, and flipped open the cover. About halfway through the book, she stopped and pointed to a picture.
"There," she said. "That's me."
"No way," Josh said, leaning into the glossy page, as though the dim lights were playing a trick. "So?" he asked. Hermione looked at him, and then looked down at the picture. She remembered very vividly being horrified at her image.
It had rained on picture day, so her hair had frizzed to about the size of an afro. She had spilled pudding on her shirt at lunch, just before her picture was taken. When the flash had gone off, she blinked, so her eyes were only half open. Hermione looked up at Josh again.
"So?" she asked, incredulous. "So? So I'm a dork! I am a complete and total brainiac bookworm, who dresses funny and acts even funnier. I know I don't really seem like that anymore, but that's who I am. Until this year, I was the topic of countless jokes. Everyone tormented me, people were always going out of their way to humiliate me."
"But Draco said you two had been friends since you were little, he wouldn't let anyone do that to you," Josh said. Hermione felt like she was talking to a brick wall.
"Draco was the worst about it!" she hissed, not wanting to let her voice get above a whisper. "It wasn't until this summer that I told him he had to stop and we finally reconciled," she explained. Josh was quiet for a long time.
"Hermione, that's not who you are anymore," he said finally. Hermione sighed, and realized she had not gotten through to him at all. Obviously too much salt water and sun had made him dumb. "Listen to me," he said, realizing she thought he did not understand. He took her hands. "You may have been the biggest loser in the entire world last year, but for whatever reason, you've decided to change that. You have to believe me when I say you're not that girl anymore," he said, pointing to her picture. "You're still the same inside, Hermione, you're just not letting people walk all over you anymore. You've told everyone that you don't care what they think of you, and that you're going to do whatever you want regardless of what they think. You wanted to join the dance team, so you did. You wanted to be in leadership, so you signed up. And it was that easy, wasn't it?"
"Not exactly," Hermione said softly.
"I know your friend Violet thinks you're 'selling out' and becoming a preppy poser or something dumb like that, but she's wrong. You'd only be a poser if you were doing it just to fit in, just to be popular. But the truth is, Hermione, that you do fit here. You belong on the dance team, as Student Body Vice President, president of the photography club and the National Honor Society. That's who you are. You're not Violet, and so there's no reason for you to feel guilty for being chosen as vice president, even though she might be a little bit upset at you right now. She's a good friend, Hermione, and she won't stay mad at you forever," he paused again. "I know it might be ridiculously early, but do you think you might do me the honor of being my date to Homecoming?" he asked.
Hermione almost fell out of her chair. Here he was spouting off about how she was being herself and then he tacks a homecoming date invitation on the end?
"Uh, Josh, I think you may have gotten the wrong idea," Hermione began.
"As a friend, Hermione," Josh interrupted her. "Will you go with me as a friend?"
"Let me think about it," she said judiciously. He looked crestfallen, but quickly recovered.
"Alright, well, I'm going to go change for practice. I'll see you around, Hermione," he said, squeezing her shoulder before he walked away. Hermione sighed and stood up to put the yearbook away.
"Ladies, gather round!" Kerry called at the end of practice. She had a rather large cardboard box in front of her and had started to tear it open. The girls all ran to where she was standing and hovered expectantly around the box, still out of breath from their last run-through. Kerry tore the box open the rest of the way and opened it to reveal a lot of plastic bags full of something black.
"Ooh!" Blaise squealed, reaching for one of the bags. She tore it open and a two-piece dance costume fell out. Holding it up, Blaise revealed it to be a pair of black wide-legged pants and a short burgundy tank top. The pants had burgundy sequined flourishes on them, and the top had matching gold ones.
Hermione bit her tongue to keep from laughing. The outfits were not horrific, they were just funny. She took the one Kerry handed to her and reluctantly followed the other girls to try it on. There were excited squeals and remarks as the girls emerged in the outfits. Hermione slid hers on, and was disappointed to find that it was a lot tighter than it needed to be.
"Oh, Hermione," Kerry remarked, disappointed. She walked around Hermione, inspecting the outfit. It really was too small, and did not even look passable like their uniforms did. "There isn't time to get a new one between now and Friday," she sighed, sounding really disappointed. She looked around to see if someone else's was too big, but everyone's uniform seemed to fit them like a glove.
"Maybe she'll have to sit this one out," Blaise remarked, looking a little smug. Hermione sighed.
"You don't think you could lose a few pounds between now and Friday, do you?" Kerry asked, completely joking.
"She'll have to," Blaise responded, not joking in the least. Hermione glared at Blaise.
"We'll figure something out. Let me get your measurements so this stops happening," Kerry said finally, after a long awkward silence. Everyone on the team was staring at Hermione.
"We've never had a problem like this before," Blaise commented. Hermione sighed and changed out of the costume. Kerry took her measurements and wrote them down in her notebook.
"Alright ladies, take these home and hang them up," Kerry instructed. "Hermione, don't worry, we'll figure it out."
"Tip your chin up a little, and look over here, now smile," the photographer said. Hermione did her best to follow the directions. The camera flashed, and Hermione relaxed. "Alright, go change into your last outfit," the photographer directed.
Hermione emerged in her black dance team uniform and headed back to the backdrop the photographer had her standing in front of. She was told to kneel on the ground and put her hands on her hips, so she followed the directions. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her mother hovering attentively. Ordinarily this would have driven her nuts, but today she was relieved.
After about twenty different poses, the photographer told her she was finished. Hermione stood up and stretched, and headed to change again, but her mother stopped her.
"Go over there," she said, pointing to where Draco was having his pictures taken. Hermione sighed and headed for the corner of the room. Once the photographer noticed Hermione, she instructed her to sit on a black box in front of Draco. The process of posing and re-posing began again.
"Blimey," Ron remarked, looking at Hedwig's latest delivery. "Harry, wake up!" Ron called, running to his friend's bed. Harry stirred sleepily and sat up.
"What is it Ron?" Harry asked. Ron held out the letter from Hermione, as well as the picture she had attached. Harry let out a low whistle. "That's our Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Let me see!" Seamus shouted, joining the two other boys. "How come she doesn't look like that around here?" he asked. "Put it on the wall," he instructed. Harry climbed out of his bed and picked up his wand. Then an idea crossed his mind, and he whispered a few words. The picture grew twice its size, and Harry carried it down to the common room, where he tacked it on the bulletin board.
"She's very pretty," Neville managed to say, following the boys to see what the fuss was about.
"Yeah, she is," Dean agreed. A disgusted snort from Ginny tore the boys' attention away from Hermione's picture.
"I can't believe you all," she commented. "This is Hermione we're talking about!"
"We know," Seamus said, turning back to the picture.
"So, aren't you all a little bit skeptical? This is nothing like the Hermione we know," Ginny pushed. The boys dismissed her.
"I can't believe she looks so good," Ron said.
"We can," Lavender and Parvati said in unison, joining the group around the bulletin board.
"I don't think you have anything to worry about, Ginny," Harry tried to console her. He put his arm around Ginny's waist. "This whole project has probably inspired her to reach out and try new things or something. You know how she is, she probably just wants to get a good grade and not miss out on any opportunities. She told me she went to a library with 128 million books in it last weekend – and those were just on the muggle side."
"That sounds exactly like the Hermione we know," Ron agreed.
"I guess," Ginny agreed. "Maybe I just miss her."
"You're not the only one," Seamus said, meriting a smack on the head from Parvati.
Hermione hefted her duffel bag onto her shoulder and started walking towards the stadium. It was Friday evening, and unseasonably chilly for September. The warm afternoon had disappeared with the sunset, and Hermione was grateful the dance team track suits were double lined.
"Hey!" a voice called out, and Hermione turned to see Violet jogging a little to catch up with her. "Hey, Hermione," Violet said.
"Hey," Hermione said softly. Violet fell in step with Hermione as she continued to the Stadium.
"They're making me cover the game for Yearbook," Violet explained. Hermione nodded, hating that this conversation felt so awkward. Violet took a deep breath. "I owe you an apology," she said, stopping and turning to Hermione. "I uh, this is embarrassing, but I heard you talking to Josh in the library on Tuesday," she confessed. "Don't be mad, I know I shouldn't have listened, but I want you to know I think he's right," she hurried to continue so Hermione could not interrupt. "I really think it's great that you're Vice President. I know I've been acting like a jerk, and I'm sorry, I'm just jealous."
"Jealous?" Hermione was shocked.
"Yeah, because I would never have gotten picked to be Vice President, and if I had ever tried out for the dance team they would have laughed in my face," Violet informed her. "And I really wanted to be National Honor Society President. I know we agreed not to let that get in the way of our friendship, but it was a lot to deal with all at once."
"Oh, Violet," Hermione said, giving her friend a hug. Then she noticed her friend's hair was now a demure shade of pink. "I like this color," she complimented, touching the soft pixie-like locks.
"Thanks, my mom helped me with it," Violet said, running her fingers through it. "So you're not mad at me for being a jerk?"
"No, I understand that I've been acting really weird lately too," Hermione conceded. The girls started walking again.
"So, my mom told me Draco's dad walked out again," Violet said, making sure to keep her voice low. Hermione nodded.
"His mom's back in rehab too," Hermione added. Violet rolled her eyes.
"Must we repeat this sob scene every year?" she asked. Hermione laughed in spite of herself.
"Oh!" She remembered something suddenly, and started rifling through her bag. "Here," she said, handing Violet a piece of paper. Violet's eyes lit up.
"This is great, Hermione," Violet said. Hermione had handed her the flier for the first photography club meeting. She had been doodling it on a spare piece of paper during her classes. "I'll get some copies made on Monday," Violet folded the paper and stuck it in the back pocket of her torn up jeans. "Can you believe my mom tried to throw these jeans away again?" she mourned. Hermione looked at the faded and torn-up pair of flare jeans that Violet had been wearing since freshman year and tried not to laugh.
The girls reached the stadium and were ushered through the gate immediately. Even though the game was not scheduled to begin for another two hours, a line had already formed at the ticket counter.
"This is obscene," Violet murmured. She snapped off a few shots of the crowd outside the stadium, and then turned around. "Holy Shit, I've descended into school spirit hell," she observed, looking at the brand new burgundy and gold stadium seats.
Hermione was inclined to agree with her. The athletic department had been working all week to prepare the stadium for the season opener. In addition to their perfectly manicured field and new seats, a brand new Olympic-caliber track had been installed, everything had been repainted, the scoreboard had been replaced, and the press box was expanded. Everything was in coordinating shades of burgundy and gold, and the cougar logo was plastered everywhere. Balloons were clustered at every corner.
In addition to the perfect landscape, all three cheerleading squads were stretching in front of the stands. The Junior Varsity and Freshman football teams were hovering in one corner, the marching band was warming up in their new pit right next to the stands, and the dance team was clustered in the stands around the 50 yard line.
"It's not too late to turn back," Violet offered. Hermione laughed, but she was sorely tempted to bolt in the opposite direction. She made her way to the stands and joined the rest of the team.
"You're late," Blaise snapped when Hermione sat down. "Come here," she instructed. Hermione tentatively sat down next to Blaise. "Stacey, pass me some foundation," Blaise called out. The blonde passed her a small tube, and Blaise began slathering it on Hermione's face. A camera shutter clicked almost right in Hermione's ear, and Blaise shrieked.
"It's just me," Violet crooned. "Yearbook," she said in a sing song voice. Blaise shot her a plastic grin and turned back to Hermione's face. She added a ton of glitter and a pair of fake eyelashes before she was content.
"Alright ladies, listen up!" Blaise called, stepping over the seats to stand in front of everyone. "I want you all to sit right here in the first two rows for the entire game. At the end of the first half we will go prepare for our performance at halftime in the staging area," she gestured to the empty area next to the bandstand. "After we perform, we'll have a quick break while the band marches, but then I want everyone back here for the second half. Would you please back off?" Blaise snapped at Violet, who kept snapping pictures of Blaise.
"Soor-ee!" Violet mocked before turning around. Hermione bit her tongue to keep from laughing.
"Alright, then after the game we'll follow the football players into the school where we'll all congregate in the main gym until the press has been cleared," Blaise continued. "That should take awhile; I think they're showing Finding Nemo or something while we wait. But after that we've been instructed to go directly home, so we'll have to skip pizza tonight," she said, referring to the original plan which was to get pizza after the game.
Traditionally following the games, the police cleared the press from campus in about thirty minutes, but because this was the opening game they were anticipating it would take much longer to get everyone off school grounds. Hermione sighed, wondering what she had gotten herself into.
"Can I talk to you for a second?" a voice said into Hermione's ear. She looked up to see Pansy hovering at her elbow. Hermione nodded and stood up to follow her, ignoring the nasty look Blaise was giving her. As they walked towards the visitor stands, Hermione could not help but admire the way Pansy carried herself. She walked with her back completely straight and her shoulders square, as though she had never slouched a day in her life.
Her steps were even, and her hips swayed naturally as she walked making her long blonde ponytail bob from left to right and back. Hermione felt a little bit like a clown next to her. Pansy's cheerleading uniform was neat and tidy, falling just right on her thin frame, while Hermione's track suit just fell straight, not hugging anything. They stopped walking, and Pansy turned to face Hermione.
"Um, I just wanted to tell you that Draco told me what happened," Pansy said. Hermione's stomach flipped upside down, but for some reason Pansy looked as nervous as Hermione felt. "No hard feelings, alright?" Pansy asked. Hermione's eyes widened in shock. "I mean, Draco told me it was all him and you pushed him away, and I just want you to know that I understand. It's okay, I'm not mad at you," Pansy clarified.
"Oh," Hermione could not reply.
"Ignore Blaise, alright? She doesn't understand, and she's kind of a brat anyway," Pansy added. Hermione nodded. "Don't look so scared, I'm not joking," Pansy said, giving Hermione a genuine smile. Hermione smiled weakly and followed Pansy back to the stands.
Try as she might, Hermione could not focus on the game at all. Pansy's words were echoing in her head throughout the entire first half. Why had Draco lied for her? True, he had kissed her, but she had not really pushed him away. This whole situation was really frustrating, and it was getting worse every day. Especially now that Pansy knew about it, and did not seem to care.
Hermione was so caught up in her thoughts she barely noticed the first half flying by. Before she knew it, everyone was standing up to go get ready for the halftime show. She grabbed her bag and hurried along to the staging area. They all slipped out of their track suits and formed a ring around Kerry who gave them a few last minute reminders.
"Smile, ladies, be sure to smile. Remember the field is a lot bigger than our practice space, so you'll be spread out but don't let that throw you off. Alright, get out there and make me proud!" she said, and Hermione followed the girls out onto the field. She moved into her starting position and took a deep breath.
The music started and before Hermione knew it, she was sliding elegantly into the final pose. She grinned furiously, proud of herself for pulling it off. The team ran off the field, and as soon as Hermione was back in the staging area she was being hugged ferociously by a very excited Violet.
"You were so good!" Violet sounded shocked. "That was incredible!"
"Thank you," Hermione said, her cheeks turning rosy pink from all the praise. She put her track suit back on, and gathered up her belongings.
"Hermione, your outfit looked great, how did you do it?" Kerry stopped her. Hermione looked down at her track suit and then realized Kerry meant her performance outfit.
"My mother has a tailor who just made me another one. She just copied the old one and matched it perfectly," Hermione explained. Kerry smiled.
"That's awesome, good thinking," she commended before letting Hermione and Violet pass.
"I'm starving," Violet said right away. "Let's hit the snack bar," she suggested. Hermione agreed and they returned to the stands with pizza and popcorn.
The game ended around nine in a decisive victory for the Kensington Cougars. Hermione and the rest of the dance team sprinted across the field with the cheerleaders to catch up with the team as they ran back to the school.
"Awesome game!" Josh shouted, catching sight of Hermione. She laughed, wishing she had been able to concentrate on it. Violet caught up with her a few seconds later and they descended down the back path from the stadium where the Police had blocked off a "media free" zone.
Everyone squeezed through the doors of the main gym which had also been decorated for the occasion. Pizza and sodas had been delivered, and after the team had changed out of their uniforms, everyone got settled in.
"I heard you rocked the halftime show," Draco said, coming over to where Hermione and Violet had set up camp. Hermione smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
"Who said that?" she asked.
"Pansy," he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm sorry I missed it," he apologized. Hermione was confused for a second but then remembered that the team always returned to the locker room during halftime.
"There will be other times," she said.
"Did you see my mom?' he asked, looking a little bit distressed. Hermione shook her head no. "My dad came," he admitted. "He came and saw me at halftime."
"I didn't see him," Violet protested.
"Yeah, he left at halftime," Draco informed her, taking a slightly annoyed tone. She shrugged.
"My dad wasn't there," Hermione said suddenly, realizing he had promised to come see the first game.
"Surprise, surprise," Violet said sarcastically. Hermione looked down at her hands and was quiet. "Well neither way my dad, let's all cry about it."
"Why the long faces?" Josh asked, joining the group. "We just kicked some major ass, you all should be celebrating." He got no response from anyone, so he just walked away.
"Alright, well, I'll catch up with you two later," Draco said, walking away. Hermione sighed and took a sip of her soda.
"So are you gonna go to Homecoming with Josh?" Violet asked. Hermione shrugged.
"I don't know yet, I'm not sure how I feel about him," she replied.
"He seems nice, you'd probably have fun," Violet suggested.
"Are you encouraging me to be involved in a school function?" Hermione pretended to be incredulous
"Hey, Miss Student Council, your presence is mandatory. Might as well have a date," Violet defended. "Besides, I have to go for yearbook, so we can suffer together."
"I'm going to think about it some more," Hermione stayed firm. "My mom is going to make a huge deal over it, you know she will."
"Truth," Violet agreed. "How much longer do you think we'll be cooped up in here?" she asked. Hermione shrugged.
"It could be a while," she said sadly.