Just Another Day in the Heads' Common Room
The Hogwarts Head Boy had awoken to find Hermione Granger desperately trying to wake him. It appeared that one of her attempts had been to open the heavy, velvet curtains in his room because a large amount of sunlight was now flooding through the large windows that were usually covered by those forest green curtains. Draco now squinted at the brightness of his usually dim room and then realized that there was still a constant tugging on his right wrist. It was then that the teenage boy slowly became fully aware of his surroundings…
He was in his Head Boy dormitory for sure; the down comforter and feather pillow gave that away. He had been asleep…but now he wasn't. Someone had definitely woken him up. That person was still in his room. That person was still holding onto his wrist and now causing it to flail up and down like an old-fashioned water pump. That person was Hermione Granger; the know-it-all, bookworm Hermione Granger.
The revelation of his last thought dawned on him and he quickly yanked his arm away from the girl's grasp. She let out a surprised scream and fell to the floor with a light THUD. Her soaking wet hair flung itself gracefully through the air, landing the curls softly in front of the startled girl's face. Draco watched with disgust as she attempted to push the mass amounts of hair out of her line of sight. She looked up at the boy still in bed and opened her mouth to speak but he beat her to it.
"Should have left your hair where it was, mudblood," he said as he sat up in bed. "Then I wouldn't have to look at that horrid face of yours."
Hermione stared at him for a moment before making a decision to take off her shoes. She could feel him glaring at her as she untied her right shoelace while she sat on the ebony wood floor and proceeded to untie the left shoelace. Upon removal of her shoes she stood up with a shoe in each hand. An innocent smile swept across her face as she looked at the blonde haired boy. Then she swiftly threw one black, chunky shoe at him saying, "This is for calling me a mudblood!" and without hesitation chucked the other shoe at him. The first shoe he caught in his hand but the second one came so quickly that it painfully collided with his head. Hermione gave a proud smile saying, "That was for not getting up on your own." Without another look in his direction she turned on her heels and left the room, slamming the door behind her.
He sat there for a minute holding a shoe in his left hand and rubbing the spot on his head where the other shoe had hit him with his right hand. Then he realized "Did she really just do that? Did Granger really just stand up against me?" With anger pulsating through his body, he threw the covers off of him and leapt out of bed making a b-line for his door with one black shoe still in hand. He dangerously pulled open his door and ran across a deep purple carpeted landing to another door with the letters "HG" carved delicately into the wood. He reached for the golden doorknob, and upon turning it caused the door to fly open so hard that one might think it would come off of its hinges. Draco opened his mouth to begin yelling, but the sight in front of him momentarily paralyzed him.
The room before his eyes was stunning. A cherry wood floor seemed illuminated by the light that was carelessly streaming from the two floor-to-ceiling windows that stood across from the doorway. Between the two windows a queen sized bed shielded by a sheer white fabric rested, covered by a fluffy white comforter folded down to reveal satin, scarlet sheets. Draco marveled at the amount of pillows that had to be placed against a massive headboard which glittered gold. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling that was twelve feet away from the floor. Surrounding the chandelier, a mural of angels, cherubs, and clouds reminded Draco of the ceiling of The Church in La Gran Mezquita which he had learned about in Muggle Studies last year. He was forced into taking that class but after a while didn't mind learning about the artists in the Renaissance period. The ceiling was of course enchanted so that the angels could be seen playing heralding trumpets and the cherubs sat on floating white clouds giggling, smiling and pointing at Draco. His eyes then traveled to the wall on his left which served as home to a large, cherry wood wardrobe flanked on its right by a by a tidy looking desk and on its left by an elegant vanity. Also on the left wall he noticed an open door which he saw led to a white tiled bathroom that gleamed with cleanliness. He saw something move in the vanity mirror and quickly turned his attention to the right wall where a seven foot high, white marble fireplace hosted a small roaring fire. To one side of the fireplace sat a white chaise lounge accented by a red pillow adorned with gold tassels and an armchair in the same decoration sat to the other side of the fireplace. It was there that Draco found the source of the movement for sitting on a fluffy white rug in front of the fire sat Hermione staring determinedly at Draco but with a hint of wonder.
He had been standing there for at least three minutes looking all over her room. Hermione realized that he had never been inside of her room before but didn't expect this kind of awe to overtake him. As his gaze fell upon her, golden-brown eyes met with silver-blue ones and locked into a bewildered stare. Neither of them dared move of make a sound. Hermione blinked and brought herself back to reality, averting his eyes and clearing her throat hoping that it would bring him back to his senses to tell her why he had so suddenly barged into her bedroom. Her plan succeeded and for the third time that morning, Draco returned to his thoughts. His stare quickly turned to a glare as he threw the shoe that he was still holding onto the gleaming floor.
"There's your bloody shoe," his deep voice bellowed at the girl still sitting on the carpet in front of the fire. "NEVER enter my room again uninvited!" With that he stormed out of the Head Girl dorm and back out onto the deep purple landing. He heard her give an annoyed snort as he walked down the seven steps to their common room and faintly heard footsteps following him.
"HA! You think I actually wanted to be in your room? I was only in there because you had to be woken up," stated Hermione with a note of poison in her tone.
"And what, pray tell, was so important that I needed to be woken up?" Draco uttered trying to control his temper. Hermione was obviously angered by this because she stomped her foot on the ground and began yelling.
"WEREN'T YOU PAYING ANY ATTENTION WHEN I WAS TALKING TO YOU LAST NIGHT??? HONESTLY! WHEN I SAID, 'MALFOY, LISTEN CLOSELY. PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE WANTS TO TALK TO US BEFORE BREAKFAST TOMORROW. IN THIS LETTER HE SAYS IT'S IMPORTANT' YOU WOULD THINK THAT YOU NEEDED TO KNOW THAT PIECE OF INFORMATION!!! REALLY! YOU THINK DUMBLEDORE WOULD HAVE PICKED A MORE RESPONSIBLE HEAD BOY! IT'S ONLY TWO AND A HALF WEEKS SINCE WE GOT HERE…MAYBE HE COULD STILL SWITCH YOU FOR SOMEONE LIKE HARRY OR RON! OH WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH YOU, MALFOY! YOU NEVER LISTEN! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WORK WITH YOU IN THIS POSITION OF HONOR WHEN YOU DON'T EVEN GIVE ME THE COMMON CURTEOUSY TO PAY ATTENTION WHEN I'M SPEAKING?"
When Hermione was through, her face had turned a bright shade of red and she seemed rather out of breath. After quickly regaining her composure she said calmly but through gritted teeth, "You hadn't woken up by the time I had gotten out of my bath so I was worried you wouldn't wake up in time for our meeting with Dumbledore."
Draco stood staring with wide eyes at the girl who was just screaming at the top of her lungs. He hadn't seen someone get this upset since Draco ditched Pansy Parkinson to play a game of Quidditch with some other Slytherins in third year. He recalled her temper tantrum very vividly and was quite relieved that at least Hermione hadn't slapped him…yet. Quickly he realized that she was waiting for him to say something. She probably wants me to thank her. Yeah, like that'd ever happen. "Next time mind your own business, Granger."
"I think you misunderstand me, Malfoy. There will be NO 'next time'. Either you clean up your act and start being responsible and worthy of this position or I will insist to Dumbledore that you be removed from the position of Head Boy."
Draco kept on a poker face but inside he was slightly worried. You don't mess with Hermione Granger when she gets an idea in her head. Everyone knows that. Draco had thought of shrugging it off like it was no big deal but then he caught the wild glint in her eyes. She was serious and he could tell. He didn't want to lose his position as Head Boy; it meant too much to him, but more importantly his parents. He had for once made his father proud which he didn't do very often. His father's drawling voice ran was running through his head.
"Well, you seem to have done one thing right, boy. Maybe you'll turn out a true Malfoy after all."
Draco knew he hadn't been as harsh with people as he'd seen his father be, but every time he had the chance it seemed he just couldn't. Most of the time it only turned out to be a fight with words. Apparently this didn't please his Mr. Malfoy. Getting Head Boy was the "best" thing he'd done in a long time. But he couldn't simply just let Granger win this fight. No, he'd go down with honor and pride of the Malfoy name.
"Just keep you bushy-haired, buck-toothed face out of my way this year and maybe there won't be anymore problems."
With a "hmph", Hermione turned on her heels and out of the portrait hole leaving Draco in the middle of the common room with his trademark smirk but his comment wasnt completely true. Her hair wasn't as bushy as it was in their younger years at Hogwarts. Instead her brown locks reached her lower back in gentle curls. As for her teeth, well his insult was very much out-dated to say the least. Now she had a beautiful smile, which Draco noted that he had not personally received but had seen on occasion while she was around Potter and Weasley. A portrait to Draco's right spoke up.
"That fight wasn't as bad as the one you two had Sunday night. Miss Granger seemed to get quite angry in this one, though. Maybe you should listen to her this time"
Draco scoffed, "Do I ever listen to her?"
"Never," replied the portrait stifling a laugh, "but then again, you also never yell at her when you are only in boxers."
Draco stormed back to his room silently swearing to himself for his lack of clothing. Two minutes later he was back out of his room with his black cloak draped over one shoulder. As he made his way out of the portrait hole he couldn't help but wonder how he was going to make it through the year with Granger watching his every move. With that thought in his head, he quickly began making his way towards the Great Hall.