Well, here goes a pretty long chapter! I had quite a lot of fun typing it, so I hope that you guys enjoy reading it! Please, read and review! (But don't feel forced to do so!)
Hermione was basked in the dim lights while walking quickly through the corridors. 'Where had the time gone?' Hermione thought fervently. 'One minute, I was studying for NEWTs, and the next… it's almost half past the start of dinner time! Where would Harry and Ron think I was? Oh, Merlin…'
She quickened her steps, and the clunking of her shoes became louder and quicker. As she turned the corner, she was welcomed with a loud cackling laugh and a water balloon being thrown at her feet.
"Look at Hermione Granger, running about," cackled Peeves. "Where are you running late to this time? Hmm?" He smirked. "Not running off to snog your boyfriend, are you?"
Hermione tried not to appear flustered as the thought of Draco ran through her mind. "No! I haven't got time for you right now, Peeves. I have to go to dinner." She definitely did not have time for the school Poltergeist's antics.
Still, Peeves followed behind her, floating on his back in a very relaxed manner. He smirked at her once more. "Where are you off to after that? What does the seemingly goody-two-shoes Granger do after dinner?"
"Go away from me, Peeves!" Hermione stomped away from him.
"Okay, Granger. I'll leave you alone…" Peeves smirked as he dropped a red water balloon on top of Hermione's brunette hair.
The water balloon smashed on her head, which resulted in a very wet Hermione. Her wet clothes stuck to her skin as she bellowed out, "PEEVES!"
Peeves' cackling laugh drifted away and Hermione kept on walking, but more angrily. She had just lost about 10 more minutes of her dinner.
Hermione turned another corner and the Great Hall's entrance loomed into view. The door was already open, so she just walked in. She was hoping for a stealthy entrance without anyone seeing herself dripping in water, but things went the other way around.
The pug-faced Pansy Parkinson had pointed a mocking finger at Hermione, and laughed loudly.
"Granger is wet! Just look at the Mudblood! That water is purer than she is!" she laughed, and the rest of the Slytherin table joined in when they saw Hermione.
Hermione didn't say anything or look up from the ground as she walked to the Gryffindor table and sat down in front of Harry and Ron. Her face was tomato red as she helped herself to a turkey leg.
"Hermione, what took you so long to get here?" asked Ron after he gulped down his food.
"I was studying," she answered softly, "and then I met Peeves along the way…"
"That explains the, uh…" Harry started, only stopping when Hermione gave him a deadly look.
Hermione lifted her eyes up a little past Harry's head to look at Draco, whose pale eyes were already looking at her. He gave her that look again. She was going to see Draco after dinner, it seemed.
Harry interrupted Hermione's thoughts. "What're you looking at?" He turned around, looked, and turned back to Hermione.
"Nothing," answered Hermione almost a little too quickly, "I guess I just zoned out a bit…"
"Okay..."
"I have to go study some more. See you guys later!"
Hermione stood up from her slightly damped seat and walked out the Great Hall's entrance, taking the usual route to the classroom that she and Draco would always meet.
Minutes later, Draco entered the room. Hermione didn't seem to notice, as she had her back turned towards him, deep in thought. Draco silently tip-toed up to her and grabbed her by the waist, kissing her on the cheek softly. His problems just seemed to go away when he was with her… it was like he was in a separate world, just him and Hermione. No secrets, no danger... just him and Hermione.
Hermione smiled lightly at him, sharing the thought silently.
"How did you get wet?" Draco asked, letting her go to allow Hermione to face him properly.
Hermione seethed at the thought.
"Peeves," she said through gritted teeth, "that damned Poltergeist."
Draco instantly understood. "I'm sorry about how the people in my house treated you…"
"It's alright. I don't expect anything less from them," Hermione sighed. People in the Slytherin house, especially Parkinson, had taunted her all these years… just for being a… Mudblood.
"Don't let what they say get to you," Draco added kindly.
Hermione eyes went soft, and she smiled. "I'll try," she said.
Harry couldn't take it anymore. The suspicion inside him was too much for him to bear.
"I don't think that Hermione actually went to go study," stated Harry, looking seriously at Ron.
"Where do you think she went off to, then?" asked Ron.
"Somewhere. I don't know where, but somewhere other than the Gryffindor Common Room or the library."
"Do you want to go search?"
"Yes. What if Hermione gets into trouble? She'll never let us hear the end of it," Harry sighed, remembering the moment in their first year when Hermione got her first detention.
"Alright then. I'll take the left corridors, and you take the right…"
And so they did what they said. Harry and Ron both got up from their seat and walked out of the Great Hall. There, they broke up into two, Harry going to the right side, and Ron going to the left.
Ron looked through the first classroom – nothing. The next four classrooms didn't have anything in them except for desks and chairs, used quills, spilled ink, or just paper thrown around.
Ron opened the sixth classroom, and his mouth was agape with horror.
There Hermione was, snogging the face off of that twitchy ferret, Malfoy.