A/N1: (stares at computer screen blankly) Wow...just wow. I can't thank all of you guys enough for the support!!! 105 reviews, I am ecstatic to say the absolute least. Ok, ok, I'm very sorry to those of you waiting for me to update Lightning, but the response for this was just overwhelming. Therefore, I decided to hurry my lazy self up and update even faster than I had originally planned.
Disclaimer: Why do I bother? No, Harry Potter is not mine. I don't claim a piece of it. Nada, zilch, zip, zero.
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XXXXXMalfoyXXXXX (Dinner, same night)
Draco and Blaise were eating dinner silently, when the doors of the Great Hall opened. Usually everyone all crowded in the Hall at once to get a good seat by their friends, but this was different. In walked two Ravenclaws he wasn't familiar with, then following them, a Slytherin and a Hufflepuff and after those two, he saw Ginny and some that didn't look familiar. It took him a second to realize that it was Hermione. Malfoy had never seen her look so different. Not just in how she was dressed, but her hair. Instead of the frizzy curls Malfoy had come to get accustomed to, her hair was as straight as a pin.
To Malfoy, it seemed that he was the only one who noticed her walk in; that is until Blaise started talking to him.
"Damn. Granger looks hot!" He whistled.
"Stop staring at her you moron." Malfoy snapped at him hypocritically. But he doesn't need to know that I'm being hypocritical.
"Well she does. You have to agree."
"Yeah, but still; it's disgusting how you are lowering your pureblood Slytherin standards for filth like her."
"Relax mate. I'm not going to do anything. If I did, I'd probably get hexed by Potter or a Weasley. But if I had my way, I would—"
"Don't finish that. You sicken me, Zabini."
"Whatever," Blaise said as he went back to eating. After checking for sure to see that Blaise was still eating and not paying attention to him, Malfoy began to watch Hermione interact with those at her table. Are they really that oblivious? They see her in class every day and yet they haven't noticed? Her hair is completely different. It looks good, but it's more naturally pretty when it's curly. He stopped his thoughts, having realized that they were positive and complimenting her when they shouldn't be.
I told you that you liked her hair curly.
"Bloody birds of menace!" Malfoy heard Ron shout across the Great Hall. So he's finally noticed then. But did he have to shout? Hermione's not going to like that. Great, I just called her Hermione in my mind; as if it was second nature. Oh boy, now I'm screwed. I'm supposed to have trouble remembering to call her Hermione on that old bat's orders. Hermione got up and stormed out of the Great Hall. What'd I miss?
The fact that I told you that you liked her hair curly.
No, I purposely ignored that.
Sure you did, but either way, you like it better curly.
No—I just didn't get time to adjust to her hair straight. I mean, she just came in and then left without eating.
How do you know that she didn't eat? Were you watching for her? Did you notice that she hadn't come in until towards the end of dinner? Did you also notice that she didn't eat anything at all?
Yes, of course I---have no response to that.
Haha, I figured as much...stalker!
Through gritted teeth Malfoy snarled, "Leave me alone."
Blaise looked startled. "I'm sorry, what?"
Nothing, I was just trying to get this inner voice to leave me alone. That's all. It's nothing to worry about, except for the fact I'm going insane.
"Nothing, I was just talking to myself."
The first sign of madness is talking to yourself I hope you know.
"Oh that's fitting." Malfoy said aloud.
"What?" Now Blaise was genuinely confused.
"Never mind."
"Ahh, I see." Blaise put two and two together after seeing Malfoy glance at the doors Hermione just left through. "You can watch her but I can't? That's really fair."
"We're Slytherins, we don't play fair. But that's not what I was doing. I wasn't watching her.
Blaise smirked at Malfoy's denial; something must have happened yesterday that he wasn't being let in on. "Sure. So did you take her to bed with you yesterday or something?" Malfoy spit out what he was eating. "What are you talking about??"
"Well obviously something happened yesterday with her that I don't know about. That wounds me; I thought we were best friends!"
"Blaise, nothing—"
"No, don't talk to me. I don't want to hear anything you have to say!!"
Malfoy sighed. "When you're done being a drama queen, tell me, ok? Cos only then will I tell you what happened yesterday."
"Ok, I'm done. So something did happen yesterday, I knew it! I want all the sordid details."
"First, do me a favor. Stop hanging out with Pansy, you're starting to sound like a chick."
"Done. So what happened?"
"Well it started when we were called to Dumbledore's office and he told us that we are going to be Heads next year with a Heads' dorm that we are living in together, and he instructed us to start addressing each other by first names." Malfoy purposely left out the slapping part to preserve his pride and the soul mate part to keep...well that he just didn't want to tell Blaise.
"Wicked."
XXXXXHermioneXXXXX (Astronomy tower, finishing chick night)
"So Spencer...you wanna tell us the 'major' news??" Ginny asked eagerly. Spencer stretched lazily.
"No not really. How 'bout everyone else go first with their observations." Everyone groaned in unison, even Elaine. Once there was something not involving the makeover ritual, she was interested.
"Nothing much happened at the Hufflepuff area. Nobody said anything until Ron shouted (tactless oaf!) and then everyone was looking at our Hermy and whispering. Cedric eyed her, but then Cho smacked him." Commentated Marie.
"Same with the Ravenclaws, it was pretty boring actually. Nothing major like at the Gryffindor table."
"Alright, so Ginny, what happened at the Gryffindor table?" Alyssa prompted.
"Well not much. You could pretty much figure it out from the commotion Ron caused. Nobody noticed at first and then Ron finally shouted and that got the whole Hall's attention and then everybody noticed. Spencer took up where Ginny left off, "That's not exactly what happened at the Slytherin table. You see, someone noticed right when she walked in; as if he was looking for her specifically." Everyone excluding Hermione gasped at this revelation.
"Well who was it?? Tell us!" said Elaine impatiently.
"No, hold on. I have to go to the bathroom."
"NO. You can't just start news like that and expect us to wait. Tell us, and then you can go." Pressed the usually passive Marie.
"Fine, fine. It was Malfoy. He saw her when she came in and he was looking at her. Not just looking but staring. Then he got into this conversation with Blaise. Both of them declared me the most gorgeous Slytherin and then they sat by me and we snogged. The end."
"SPENCER!!" Everyone smothered her with pillows until she threw her hands up in surrender.
"Haha, I'm just kidding. But the first half of that was true. He DID talk to Blaise, and looked angry at first. Then Blaise said something, probably about Hermione, which made Draco spit out his food. But I got the signal from Elaine to leave so that was all I heard and saw. Hey, I'm kinda hungry."
At everything else, Hermione had stayed relatively non responsive, but she blushed when she heard what Spencer said about Malfoy—err Draco. Ginny, always having and very keen eye for discomfort saw that and immediately pounced on her. "Ooh, Hermy is bluuu-shing!!" That attracted the attention of everyone else in the room and soon everyone was surrounding her.
"Does Hermy have a crush on Draaa-aaaco?" She merely mumbled under her breath, "No. And don't call me Hermy."
"Liar." Hissed Spencer jokingly. "You totally like him!"
"No I don't, but I need to."
"Ooh, you need to, why??" Oh no, this sucks!! I didn't want to tell all of them. I only wanted to tell Ginny. Is there anyway that I can get away with just saying nothing?
"Nothing."
"Yeah right, tell us!!" That didn't work. I didn't expect it to anyway. I guess I'll tell them. It'll be totally worth it just to see their faces.
"Draco...is my soul mate."
"Why did you call him, Draco?"
"Wait, SOUL MATE?" Marie asked.
"What happened to Ferret or Malfoy?"
"SOUL MATE?" Marie continued to badger Hermione, obviously not reacting well to being ignored.
"Dumbledore told us that we have to use first names to address each other because we're going to be Heads next year."
"Yeah, but what does that have to do with being soul mates?"
"WHAT!?! You've totally been holding out on us! Why haven't we known about this? Tell us everything!!"
"Like how did you get soul mates?"
So Hermione spent the next couple minutes explaining to the rest of her friends about her and Malfoy. When she was done with her story, everyone had a comment.
"Oh my gosh, no way!! I can't believe you guys are soul mates."
"I want a soul mate!"
"You're so lucky. Malfoy is so hot!"
"This is soo cool!!"
"When did this happen?" To be heard above the commotion, Alyssa cast the sonorous charm and herself. "Everybody shut up!!! I have an idea. We should watch The Notebook and see the kiss in the rain."
"Where did THAT come from? We were talking about Draco and Hermione. Not kissing."
"Yeah, I know, but that scene in The Notebook is so romantic."
"Oh my gosh." Elaine groaned. "Alyssa, you're such a hopeless romantic."
"No." She countered. "Hopeless romantics are only considered 'hopeless' to those who like to read!"
"Ooh burn!" Shouted Spencer.
"That was stupid. Alyssa, you like to read almost as much as Hermione, AND you're a Ravenclaw." Elaine rolled her eyes.
"So what?!"
"Hey you guys! Let's watch this movie." Ginny grinned, holding up a case. Spencer groaned loudly. "Please not that movie. It's so disgusting."
"Fine, how about this one?"
"Yeah!" Everyone agreed to watch that movie, and when it was the right time everybody chimed in time with the movie,
"You will get pregnant, and die!"
Much later, at 3 am, almost everyone was asleep after all that went on that night Hermione was laying awake while Elaine was reading Pride and Prejudice and using her wand for light, Alyssa was snoring, Spencer was drooling and Marie was moaning in her sleep. "Mmm...Ooh, Professor Snape, that tickles." Ok, she's not even a Slytherin! This is just ridiculous and sickening! What is the world coming to? First Draco is my soul mate and now Marie—the5th year Hufflepuff—is dreaming things about Professor Snape! That's so sick! I wonder what Draco is doing right now...why do I even care?? He's an evil Slytherin pureblooded bigot who has done nothing but forever take joy in tormenting me as he has for the past 6 years until now. Right?
Yeah, but that doesn't mean that you haven't had an attraction for him during the past six year that's just now starting to dislodge.
Dear Merlin, I think I'm going insane.
TBC…
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A/N2: Does anyone know what that quote is from? Hehe cyber-cookie for whoever gets it. I liked how I ended that. This chapter was mainly to get across Draco's reaction because I know lots of you wanted it, and also to explain to Hermy's friends about her and Draco. There was idiocy in this chapter...major idiocy and pointless-ness, but hey no flames 'bout that, kay? Alrighty, so before the next chapter, I want 105-114 reviews. No flames though!!!
Lovelove, Amanda
