One month later
Hermione was still pondering on what Alice Cullen had told her a month ago.
"You'll be going to the Christmas ball with this cocky vain boy. McLaggen or something. I've had several vision on you before coming here. I want you to be careful. There are two boys will seriously and truly fall in love with you, there is also this other boy but he will just have an infatuation on you. The two boys who will seriously love you... you will get to know them both better this year, only one of them will be your soul mate... Be careful."
She couldn't believe it. As much as she hated divination, she knew that Alice's powers were different, hers were real although it could change at any time.
Out of the many wizards at school, two of them would fall in love with her. But only one was going to be her soul mate! And who was going to have the infatuation on her? It could be any of the boys as far as she knew!
She frowned and closed her eyes for a moment to relax herself before trying to read the book she was reading. She was in the library. Her favourite place in the whole entire school, second to the black lake.
"Hermione?" a voice said behind her.
She turned around to find Zacharias holding something in his hand. "Hey." she greeted.
"MS. GRANGER!" Madame Pince yelled from her corner of the library. "NO TALKING IN THE LIBRARY!"
Zacharias stuck the finger at her when she wasn't looking. "If we aren't allowed to talk, she shouldn't yell." he muttered.
Hermione chuckled but stopped chuckling when he handed her something. "What is it?" she asked.
"A letter from Alice. She wrote to me and told me to give the other letter to you," he said. He sniffed her letter for a moment and sighed with a dreamy look on his face before completely giving it to her. "Smell it, it smells so good!" he said.
She rolled her eyes with a small smile that she couldn't help and began to read.
Hermione,
I'll skip with the formalities because I feel like we are going to be good friends, really good friends.
I've had another vision. You're going to be asked out by the McLaggen boy by the black lake. If I'm correct, he goes there every day at five pm because you do. You don't know because he walks several meters away from you. On the same day you get my letter, he's going to ask you out. Do you really want to go to the party with him? He seems like a big prick and a real bore. I'll give you an early warning, he's going to talk about Quidditch during your whole conversation with him.
Oh, I've got another thing to tell you. The blond boy, Zacharias. He is one of the three boys I envisioned who will fall in love with you. I don't know if he's the infatuated one or the your soul mate of either of the two boys.
That's all I've got to say. Write back if you want. I'll be writing back soon!
Alice
xx
She looked at Zacharias carefully as he sat himself in front of her. When he noticed that she was watching him a gave her a small smile.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing." she said.
After about thirty minutes of more reading, she told him that she was going to go for a walk by the black lake and wanted to be alone. Looking at the clock, it was four fifty. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said. "I'll be going straight to my room after my walk."
He nodded with a disappointed look before saying his goodbye to her.
She then left the library and made her way to the black lake, trying to keep thoughts about Zacharias that he was one of the three boys, away from her.
She walked up and down by the black lake and looked into it's waters with no expression held on her face. Cormac McLaggen was going to appear soon. Using a spell to check the time, McLaggen was going to be here soon in exactly a minute.
60 seconds... 50 seconds... 40 seconds... 30 seconds... 20 seconds... 10 seconds... 9 seconds.. 8 seconds.. 7 seconds.. 6 seconds.. 5 seconds.. 4 seconds.. 3 seconds.. 2 seconds.. 1 second..
She could see a figure walking closely by the black lake's water several meters away from her. By looking at the figure's gait, it was obviously a boy, the boy being Cormac McLaggen as it was a laid-back kind of walk.
She decided to go over and talk to him and see how he was. Maybe she could get an answer out of him as to why he kept following her to the black lake. She knew why, but she wanted to hear it from him for herself. It was better to hear from the actual person than not to... right?
Wanting to get his attention, she did the one thing no one would or could believe she would (could) do. Hermione dropped a very heavy but small book she kept in her robe pocket into the lake's murky waters and watched it for a moment. She then began to panic. What the hell was she doing? Throwing her book into the river may get McLaggen's attention but CRAP! It had all of her notes from what Cedric/Edward had told her on Vampires!!! "MY BOOK!" she yelled. "Merlin! My book! Somebody! Help!"
There was a splash. SPLASH! And suddenly, an extremely soaked and dripping figure in what looked liked Hogwarts uniform stood in front of her. "Your book?" it said.
She gawked at McLaggen. He had dived into the lake to save her book. Oh well, at least she had got his attention. "Thanks, McLaggen," she said as he dried himself and her book with a spell. "You didn't need to have dived in. I just panicked."
"It's alright," he said. "I need to work on my reflexes anyway. I still can't believe Weasley got to be Keeper."
Hermione blushed a little bit, remembering that it had been she who had helped Ron get to be Keeper. "So what brings you out here?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Just like the view here. Air is nicer too. You?"
"My favourite place out of the whole entire place," she said. "I hold a lot of memories here."
The two had began to walk side by side as the wind blew. Not many people were around. The only people who were, were couples who were 'busy'.
"Did you get invited to Professor Slughorn's party?" Cormac McLaggen asked.
Hermione nodded nervously. Alice had been right. He was going to ask her! "You?"
He nodded and looked like he was going to say something but shut his mouth.
"I'm not going with anyone yet," Hermione said, hinting at him to ask her out. "I can't find anyone really, to go with me."
He smiled and cleared his throat. "Would you like to accompany me to the party then?" he asked. "You can call me Cormac from now on, if you want."
"To the Christmas Party?" she said, raising an eyebrow.
He nodded. "Loads of girls have asked me but I rejected most of them," he said. "I'd prefer to go with you."
Hermione was about to answer him when suddenly a loud bang came from behind them. Smoke started to surround the two of them.
"What the hell?" Cormac muttered. "I thought you weren't allowed to use offensive spells by the Black Lake! Or is it one of the Weasley twins inventions?"
Hermione used a spell to get rid of the smoke and found herself looking at Draco Malfoy who stood two or three meters away from her, clutching his wand dangerously. "What do you want Malfoy?" she asked with a frown.
"What are you two doing out here at such a time?" he sneered.
"Do you have a problem, Malfoy?" Cormac asked as he took two steps forward. He was now standing right next to Hermione. "If you don't leave immediately, I'm afraid I will have to hurt you."
Draco smirked. "You? You're going to hurt me?" he said. He began to laugh. "Like you could. You couldn't even get into your Quidditch team. Do I look like I'm scared?"
Cormac whipped his wand out and pointed it at Malfoy. "Leave" he hissed.
"Cormac, put your wand away," Hermione said. "He's not worth it."
Draco made silly faces in attempt to annoy Cormac. Cormac McLaggen was known to have a temper whenever he was teased, Draco was probably aiming for him to explode.
Hermione saw that Cormac's fists had turned white from clenching too hard. She frowned. "Cormac," she said. "Stop it. He's being a baby trying to tease you like that. If you calm down, I'll answer to your invitation."
Cormac put his wand away.
"I thought you were going to hurt me?" Draco said when he saw that Cormac wasn't holding his wand anymore.
"He's not going to," Hermione said.
"And I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave," Draco said with a yawn. "Appears not."
Seeing that Draco Malfoy was not going to go anywhere, Hermione took her wand out and used a spell to make him fall asleep. After he collapsed onto the ground, she put her wand away and looked at Cormac with a smile on her face. "Now that we have got rid of him..." she said. "What were we talking about again?"
Cormac smiled vainly as soon as she mentioned what they had been talking about earlier. "Would you like to accompany me to the Christmas Party?" he asked, repeating what he had said earlier.
Hermione nodded. "Yes, I would love to."
A/N
Short Chapter. Soz. Hope you liked it tho. And everyone who has reviewed so far, thnx.