Wow, I am so sorry that the story is up so late, I've been really busy lately. I'm going to have a few new chapters for you very soon, and they should be interesting. This is really very loosely based on JK Rowlings novel, and I'm thinking of making Hermione do some crazy stuff in the next few chapters. I'm sure how far I'd like to take her. If you have anything you'd like to say, please review.
I slept later than I meant to, hitting snooze several times before actually waking up enough to know that alarms mean wake up time. Unfortunately, when I did join the land of the living, it was because I heard the shower turn on, and remembered the night before. I tried to work up the energy to be angry about the shower while I stretched and yawned hugely. A bit too hugely, because after a particularly satisfying stretch, I rolled right off the bed and landed in an undignified position on the floor. Not the way I was planning to leave the bed, but one does what they can. I crawled to the closet and very slowly picked out my outfit for the day. I had to wear robes over it for classes, but I could at least still have fun with it. I picked out skinny jeans and a form fitting, button down shirt that I particularly liked. After sniffing the tank top that I wore now for any offensive odors, I pulled that off and laid that down with the pile on my bed. I took off the rest of my clothes and grabbed my towel. Damn Malfoy was still in the shower, so I found other ways to groom myself before actually getting in. by the time L'Oreal Boy decided he was finished, I'd clipped and filed my nails, brushed my hair, put on nail polish, removed the nail polish, done 50 sit ups and finally, just laid back down in bed. Finally, the shower sound stopped and I counted to 50 before entering the bathroom in just my towel.
He stood in front of his sink in just a towel, shaving. It was right then that it hit me: my former worst enemy and I were living in very close quarters. Strangely, neither of us seemed to care, though I felt slightly awkward as we greeted each other and I entered the shower slowly, throwing my towel over the side of the door after I'd entered.
Of course I had forgotten my shampoo. Damn it.
"Hey Malfoy?" I shouted.
"Mmmmffffmmm?" Came a muffled humanoid noise through a scruffling noise. He was brushing his teeth. "I forgot my shampoo, can I use yours? And conditioner, if you have it?"
mmmm- yesh, here roo oh," and shampoo hit me on the top of the head. Seconds later, a conditioner bomb broke my foot.
"Aaaaargh! That was my head- and foot!" I shouted. The only response was a bit of a chuckle, so I just turned the water on full blast. I scrubbed quickly and got out, because I had the feeling I was very late for breakfast. I ran out of the shower and brushed my teeth before pulling on my clothes, fixing my hair so that is was wavy in a good way, not a socially unacceptable afro thing. I ran down to the common room, about to blast of the door, but Malfoy stopped me.
"Hermione, you forgot something," he drawled. I paused. I looked at him momentarily, then looked down at myself. pants? Check. Shirt(s)? check. Robes? I had everything. Didn't i?
"Hint:" he said, smiling, "it holds your books and rhymes with flapjack."
What the fuck? Flapjack? What the hell was with the riddles? I had a feeling that happy Draco would start to annoy me as much as mean ferret would. Oh! Backpack! Shit, he was right. I ran back upstairs, grabbed it, and jumped the staircase into the common room. I was really late for my first day. He was gone already, and I realized I hadn't said thank you. Hadn't said anything, really, after his help with shampoo and my backpack. What was with me? I didn't know. I needed caffeine, or a slap in the face, or cocaine, or something. A pick me up of some kind. I was really lagging. I booked it down to breakfast, and threw myself into a seat by Harry, Ginny, Ron, and several other people.
"Sorry I'm late, guys, Malfoy stole the shower this morning." I told them. A storm of insults rose up and I realized they figured it had been malicious. I tried to explain. "no, but I mean, we worked it out last night that shower rights would be battled over every morning, and this morning I was too comatose to win, but he lent his shampoo and now everything is fine. Really, it's all good." I smiled at my friends, who stared at me like I needed a needed a straightjacket.
"Hermione, are you and that death eater git friends now, or something? Because you're being rather nice about him." Ron said nastily. I felt vaguely guilty but mostly pissed that he could never, ever watch his mouth around me, he was an obtuse little asshole all the time, when I liked him, he went off with some slut and when I stopped he decided he would be all protective and not let me go out with who I wanted! Not that I wanted anyone. I was glad I'd stayed silent, not answered him. What was that little outburst? I didn't like anyone here. No one. I really needed to wake myself up.
Not even thinking about the argument anymore, I muttered "well, he's being nice too, giving me shampoo and all that." And downed a goblet of pumpkin juice and tearing into sausage and eggs sitting on my plate. Ginny stared at me intuitively. She could always tell when something wasn't right. Even when I couldn't she'd ask me what's wrong, and I'd realize something was wrong. And now she was in our grade, since Harry, Ron, and I were held beck, so I had less ways to avoid her. Sure enough, during my first class that we had together, advanced potions, she passed me a note within the first moment of Slughorn starting to drone on about I potion I already started to make.
Whats with you and Malfoy? You looked so pissed at breakfast, then you just brushed ron off. He was pissed after that. Not that he had any right to be, what I do is my business!
Well, ron can just deal. He pisses me off all the time, it's just how we operate. It was true. I pissed him off, he pissed me off, we spent more time bickering than getting along.
Sure, yea I know. NOT THE POINT. Draco Malfoy and you. Why are you guys all buddy buddy now?
We're not all buddy buddy!
Yea, then why's he staring at you? He was staring? I looked behind and to the right of me. He held up his hand in a wave, grinned, and stuck out his tongue. I did it back. Was it just me, or did the whole class just turn to look.
Ginny scribbled madly, eyebrows curving and face contorting with confusion. She had an adorable concentrating face.
What the hell, you guys just stuck your tongues out? How friendly (8 years old, too, I'd like to mention) can you get? Stop lying to me and explain everything! Ok, he's coming over here. Indeed he was. He walked over to the table and pulled up a chair.
"Want to be partners?" he asked. "After all, you did," and with that he pulled something out of his bag, "forget your book this morning. You were severely out of it, Granger. Running to and fro like a madwoman, stealing my shampoo." His eyes twinkled and I mock frowned at him. He was being very pleasant, which was somewhat embarrassing in front of my friends, and I didn't know if I liked him saying Granger anymore. I grinned at him. I saw Harry look very confused, and Ron turn tomato. A thought struck me that Ron's color changing was very much like the hulk, but ineffectual and not at all scary. I giggled. Now Draco mimicked Harry's confused look. Ginny looked like she was gloating. We were going to have words later, I knew. I had to run everything by mommy.
"Sure, Malfoy," I said pointedly. Do you want to sit here, or should I move?" I made no effort to move, because I really wanted to stay here. I figured my friends were less likely to kill the intruder than the slytherins. They tried that kind of thing all the time. Last night, for example. He had the same idea, a dragged a chair to my desk.
All through class, Ron shot daggers at us with his eyes, as did the the slytherins. I realized how tired I already was of dealing with all the prejudice and judgment that was so typical of the wizarding community. It was possibly the most destructive and useless mindset anyone could have, and though I couldn't control what all the slytherins thought, I could crack down on my friends and make them be polite to Malfoy. I could try to encourage some civility between the two houses. This year was supposed to be different . the war was over, weren't people tired of this bullshit? Malfoy seemed so relieved, and nice, and cool, and funny, and I felt so inspired by his complete 180. I could no longer even imagine that this was a trick. No one could fake the kind of exuberance and kindness he was now displaying. And although he didn't act that way in front of everyone, Ron knew about how he acted when we were alone. He shouldn't be so damned… prejudiced. He was wrong. For the first time ever, Malfoy was in the right. I looked over at him, as this all stewed in my head. His long, blonde hair, curled slightly around the nape of his neck and hung in his eyes, which were focused on the bubbling pot, his mouth was tight. His robes were open, revealing a blue t-shirt that read 'Believe in Peace'. I hadn't noticed it before, but his torso was lean and muscled. He had dark blue jeans on that were somewhat tight and showed off his long, shapely legs. Without his old sneer and greased hair, he looked attractive. I was attracted to him. I was checking out Malfoy. Oh my god, I had the hots for my old enemy, and Ron was feet away watching us together! He wasn't prejudiced, he was jealous! This sudden realization startled me so hard that instead of cutting the bat wing I was supposed to, I slashed my hand open instead.
"Oh, fuck!" I said loudly, and the whole class looked at me. Sintak looked at me sharply, and started to say "10 points from griffin-" But he saw all the blood and realized the reason for my outburst.
"hospital wing, Granger!" he barked sharply "Malfoy, take her." He responded immediately, grabbing a towel and wrapping my it around my hand.
"Keep pressure on that," he commanded, and we left the room. I sneaked a last peek at Ron before I left. He looked pissed, and stood up, as if to follow me. I turned and told Malfoy to walk faster. I could just imagine how awkward (and possibly fatal) an escort like that would be.
"So, are you just trying to kill yourself?" Malfoy asked jokingly.
"Yes sir, and I'm getting pretty damn good at it too, if I do say so myself," I grinned back at him. He turned to face me, a questioning, mischievious look on his face. I became immediately suspicious. He pulled his wand out and grabbed my hand.
"What?" I asked, suddenly nervouis. Maybe he was going to hurt me worse, maybe he still carried a grudge. But it was a false alarm.
"I can heal this as well as Pomfrey can, let's not bother with the hospital wing," and with that, he fixed my hand, and we ran. We didn't know where we were going, but we giggled and played as we ran through the castle. Winded, we arrived at our dorm. We looked at each other and walked in.
"Well, what do we do now, genius? Play in our room all day?" I stated it as if it was an obnoxious idea, but it sounded good to me.
"If you want to," his twinkling eyes made me think he rather liked the idea as well, but I didn't want to entertain that fantasy. So I shoved him and ran into his room. It looked like mine, but messier. Already he had his clothes and belongings strewn about. He followed me in with a few half hearted protests.
"Holy shit, your room is filthy. Doesn't take you long, does it?" I asked, giggling.
"Nope," said Draco casually "Impressive, right?" I pushed him again and rolled my eyes. Ginny was right, we were getting so immature.
"Yea, I can hardly see your bed through the laundry," I mocked.
"Oh, well, then let's just go see your quarters, shall we?" said Draco, and ran through the bathroom and into my room. I followed him closely, and when he stopped abruptly just inside my room, I slammed into the back of him. As I regained my composure he started to sift through my stuff. He started at my desk and bookshelf, named stuff off as he went through it. He went into my closet ond rooted through that for a second before he noticed my broom.
"You fly, Hermione? What are we still doing here?" I looked at him and smiled. It was lucky that we had some time before our next class. The one we had missed was a double, then it was lunch. We took off through the window and raced across the grounds.
I was really happy that Malfoy was head boy. We were becoming really close, and I was glad for that. We were having so much fun together now, and I knew that it was going to be a good year like I had wanted. Different circumstances, but still fun.