Hello, everyone, nice to see you again! Having wanted to update this chapter since like yesterday, but have only had a chance to do it now. Again thank you for reading, reviewing and all; still wish to see what you think about this story, this chapter or the previous ones. Enjoy! :D
CHAPTER VI
Hermione Granger noticed, all right, that boys now gave her that look, which in the past had used to be bestowed to her only occasionally when she had dressed up and worn make-up. But, now, even without those, they still gave her that look, which she honestly wasn't really sure how to react to.
She of course felt flattered. Secretly she had always wished boys would look at her that way after years of having two boys as best friends slowly made her question her physical quality. Although her feelings for the two boys were completely platonic (she had thought she had had a crush on Ron once, but even laughed at the ridiculous idea now), she realized she had at some level expected them to also see her for her look, not merely her brain and personality. The fact that they were completely ignorant of said look, well, that kind of deflating, making her feel unattractive at all, especially when they shared with her their infatuations with this or that girl or when she saw the look in their eyes when they stared at said girls. That time she had thought there must have been something wrong with her … physical attributes. Once again not that she had wanted (she still didn't want, okay) to have more than platonic relationship with either of her bestfriends.
Anyway, despite the being flattered part, she also couldn't help but feeling uncomfortable with the way boys often checked her out there and then now (still excluding her boys, a fact she now sincerely thanked Merlin). So, more than ever, she felt happy her two bestfriends were boys because, conscious or not, they discouraged unwanted, irritating boys from coming her way.
And at the moment, to be honest, she couldn't care less. There was currently no boy that made her feel the need for her boys to lift the effect they had on yet.
Anyway, upon thinking about the issue over, she realized she had hardly developed any feelings for any boy. The first time she had seen a boy with more than just platonic feelings was when she got acquainted with Victor Krum. But, even then it was not because she fancied him; it was more because she was flattered that such famous Quidditch seeker as Victor would pay her that sort of attention. That time when he asked her to come to the Yule Ball with him and when they finally appeared at the ball together, she felt like a Cinderella being swept off her feet by a prince charming.
She realized, then, she only fancied liking him, and never really liked him more than a friend, which she politely mentioned in one of her letters to him as he seemed to get the wrong idea. They sent less letters ever since, and stopped sending at all for the past year.
As mentioned earlier, she also thought she fancied Ron once. And she actually wept when she first found him going out with Lavender. But, then she realized the case was not much different from that with Victor. She only fancied liking Ron, not really liking him as in more than a friend, although in this case it was a little more intensified what with her silly expecting one of her boys to acknowledge her physical quality back then, which now just sounded utterly ridiculous and embarrassing anyway. She felt stupid with her crying over Ron then. She felt embarrassed, until now, that Harry had seen her during that one of silliest moments in her life, but thanked God Ron knew nothing about that. Oh, she would make sure he would never know. That was just beyond embarrassing.
Other than those two, Victor and Ron, she barely felt anything toward members of the opposite sex (she did not take her silly little girl crush on Gilderoy Lockhart into account, thank you, that was just way too silly). She wouldn't deny she found some boys, including some at school, look rather attractive, but that did not necessarily mean she would feel an attraction toward them. She found it she looked beyond looks, and thought it looked like she was into more mature guys. Not as mature as her old professors, of course. Please, that was … sick. What she meant was boys a few years older than her. Unfortunately, such boys were hardly around now that she was in her final year at Hogwarts. And when they had been around in the previous years, well, she had just been a little girl.
So, Hermione thought she would just enjoy boys' attention to her now and do nothing about that. Besides, she had NEWTs to come, and thus no time for a relationship.
It was actually kind of hillarious in some cases, the boys' attentions to her, such as the way Neville became even much more clumsy and nervous around her now (she really pitied him, but it wasn't like she could do anything about that), or Collin Creevey secretly took her pictures here and there (he tried to do it secretly, but he was just not stealthy enough), or Ernie MacMillan looked too eager to do whatever it was she asked him to without thinking twice (not that she made use of the situation for her own benefit).
She even noticed how some elder Slytherin boys gave her that look, even the Ferret Boy! She remembered how his eyes widened and mouth agape that night upon realizing it was actually her. It was funny, indeed; his expression was very comical and the idea alone, that the Slytherin Prince just gave the mudblood a checkout, was hilarious!
Anyway, he seemed barely affected with her presence afterward. It looked like he had quickly gathered himself upon realizing it was just her. Strangely, it felt rather insulting. But, what did she want then? For the Ferret Boy to actually fancy her? That was sick.
Hermione, however, must say that she had been thinking about the insolent blonde more often lately, mostly because of the changes in his attitudes. Really, it was sort of weird to see the Slytherin, who usually picked on her and her two bestfriends, now completely ignore them. Yes, she knew it had things to do with his sister being among them, but even the idea that he changed because he was being considerate with his sister's well being, well … it felt really weird. It made him seem completely out of character. In fact it made him seem not like him at all.
The way he acted like a brother he was supposed to be made him look more … mature. And Draco Malfoy and being mature were not supposed to fit well.
Oh, no, she didn't like the direction of her train of thoughts. She did not just think Malfoy seemed to be more mature as in the way she liked more mature guys. That was completely irrelevant!
She huffed, deciding to stop at once the train of thoughts that had gone rather counterproductive, and increased the speed of her steps as she made her way through the long corridor, heading to the library just before she was … smacked onto someone!
"Ouch!" she cried as her forehead hit the chin of the other person, and she lost her balance and would have fallen if not for the other person who, with a speed of a well-trained Quidditch player, caught her arms. As it was, the ones falling freely onto the floor were her books, her precious books! Upon realizing this, she did not even bother to look at the person she had smashed onto, and quickly dropped herself to gather the scattered books. Only after said person dropped on his knees and helped her collect the books, handing them over to her, that she looked up at his face, and found a pair of piercing blue eyes staring down at her.
"Thank you … Zabini," she smiled genuinely at the dark-haired Slytherin, which she thought was rather handsome but too quiet it was rather unnerving.
"Uhmm… that's okay," he returned her smile, though seemed rather unsurely, as he followed her standing up.
"In fact, I guess I should be saying sorry, should I? Guess I was walking around the corner too fast. So; sorry…" he again offered her his unsure smile.
"That's okay," Hermione replied and, for not knowing anything else to say to the too quiet Slytherin, quickly added,
"Well, I gotta go to the library now; have to return these books and all. See you around…!" She waved her hand briefly as she walked past him, completely unaware that the eyes of the tall Slytherin followed her until she disappeared behind a far corner.
The truth was, Blaise was not unsure about his smile. In fact, he was very happy that he smiled, which he didn't do quiet often, preferring to look emotionless. He was also quite nervous, and because he was not used to let such rather weak emotion shown, he covered it by somehow turning the supposed-to-be-nervous smile into an unsure one. He did not mean to make it look like that, but that was the best that he could do.
Now Blaise again smiled, this time genuinely, for he thought he was alone in the long corridor and was relishing his encounter just a minute ago with Hermione Granger.
There was indeed a benefit for being quiet, he thought, quite contrary to what Hermione had on mind just then (not that he knew of it). As his other Slytherin friends, Blaise had thought Purebloods were simply better than the others, the Halfbloods and Mudbloods alike. But, unlike his friends, he had thought better than bragging about the purity of his Italian wizarding ancestry nor insulting others 'lower' than himself. He was just not into those things.
And, look at what it did him; nothing but goodness. If it had been any other Slytherin she was just smacked onto, he was sure Hermione would not have smiled that beautiful smile. He had always secretly admired the muggleborn witch. In fact, it was her outstanding magical ability, her shining confidence and graceful moves, despite her heritage, that had made him slowly but surely loosen his uphold of his old bigoted pureblood beliefs. Hermione had effortlessly proven that all those beliefs, that tainted bloods and mudbloods were slower and ugly and weak and all, were wrong. She was anything against what narrow-minded Purebloods thought they would find in a muggleborn.
Blaise kept on smiling as he turned around, continuing his nicely-interrupted trip to the dungeons. He did not notice a blond head that just disappeared behind a corner, its eyes glared daggers at the back of his head as he walked past the corner, with the dreamy smile, which was very unlike him, still attached on his face.
The blonde, who appeared to be none other than his bestfriend Draco Malfoy, clenched his fists quite tightly the nails were digging into the skin of his palms. But, he didn't care. He did not understand exactly what possessed him, but he felt enraged watching the scene that had just been unfold before him. He couldn't be mistaken; that dreamy look on Blaise's face … his bestfriend fancied the Gryffindor Princess! He felt his blood boiled, but refused to admit, albeit inwardly, that he was being jealous.
No. He was not being jealous. He was not feeling jealous with Blaise over Hermione Granger!
He had decided it was just a silly little crush, whatever it was he had recently felt about her. He had decided not to follow up on the ridiculous infatuation (if that even had been an infatuation), and to dismiss every single thought regarding her coming over his head recently. He had also decided to ignore any single reaction of his body so easily triggered by her mere presence, and ignored her all the same. He would not even look her way whenever she was around, even if he was very itchy to do just that.
He thought he had got over her. But, why was he now becoming enraged only by watching the innocent encounter between her and Blaise? He was enraged with the encounter, he was enraged because of the feelings he couldn't seem to control, he was enraged that he had to have feelings, let alone some pathetic ones concerning the muggleborn bestfriend of Harry Potter!
He turned around, and directed all his anger and pent up frustrations at the wall that had been behind him by punching it hard with his fist, growling in process. He ignored the pain on his knuckles cut open by the action, and, upon gaining some of his self control back, angrily darted out of the rather secluded corner toward a direction completely different than that of Hermione or Blaise.
Several feet from the corner, Crystabelle hid herself back behind a shadowy alcove.
Gee, Draco had it bad. Real bad.
Crystabelle had thought her brother was only slightly infatuated with the Head Girl. But, look at how jealous he became just by looking at the brief, rather friendly encounter between Hermione and Blaise. It looked to be more than just some small infatuation. Her brother obviously had a big, bad crush on Hermione!
She also noticed that Blaise obviously fancied the Head Girl too. Look at that silly dreamy smile on his face; never had she thought she would see that kind of expression on the face of her brother's bestfriend, who had seemed to be too quiet and emotionless she had once questioned his humanity. Apparently, however, Blaise was not that deprived of emotions.
Oh, yes, Crystabelle had noticed all the encounter and how Draco had been spying from behind the corner. Not that she had been spying too, she just happened to be at the right time and at the right place when the incident occurred. She was reading in the alcove when Hermione passed by, and after some musing, thought she could perhaps join her to the library. That was when she saw Blaise walking from behind the far corner straight onto her, sending her books toppled onto the floor. And just when Crystabelle was about to leave her hiding place to offer some help, she saw Draco watching the exchanges between Hermione and Blaise from a corner near her alcove before hiding himself behind said corner just before Blaise turned around and walked toward both siblings' direction, although he was completely unaware of their presence.
She had seen Draco's reddening face, how he clenched his fists and shook in anger before punching the walls. That must hurt, she cringed.
Nevertheless, Crystabelle couldn't help but covering her mouth to suppress amused giggles now that the hilarity of the situation sank in. Merlin, this was real interesting! What a drama! And a romance one, too, at that! She wondered who would win the heart of the fair Gryffindor Princess in the end? Was it Blaise, or Draco? Blaise seemed to have a slightly bigger chance here, what with him and Hermione seemed to be in better term compared with Draco and her. Aww… poor Draco.
She again let out some giggles as she thought it was even of bigger chance that Hermione would pick someone completely different than either of those two. There were Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, and some other boys Crystabelle had seen obviously attracted to her. The two Slytherins had no chance at all! Aww ... poor Slytherin bestfriends, then!
She giggled even louder, her small hand hardly managed to suppressed it until she heard footsteps and became completely silent, not wanting other students to discover her in her favorite alcove. She still, however, could not prevent a very wide smirk from forming on a corner of her mouth.
Now, she wondered how the Head Girl felt about all of these. Whom exactly did her heart belong to? Who was the boy that would be a real source of her brother's jealousy?
Crystabelle decided; it was her new mission to find the answers for these interesting questions.
Upon hearing the footsteps no longer, she left the confinement of her alcove and headed straight toward the library.