I have never broken the 1000 hits bar for one day before. I freaking love you guys! Even if I can't turn orange... But I will prevail! One day, I WILL look like an Oompa loompa, believe it! - Transformed into Naruto
Chapter dedicated to: Sasuke-KiraLover-Because I am Kira. And I have the eyes. But I loved your review, so you're safe XD AND xYama-chanx- Because her review made me feel FUZZY inside… and Hana Kimi pwns face XD Not to mention she used the :3 face. And everyone knows that's the coolest.
"Draco Malfoy, you self-centered, rat-arsed git!" I screeched at the top of my voice.
"Lovely to see you too, Love," he replied.
"What on earth were you thinking to take advantage of my friend like that, you prat?"
"Since when is it so important to you? I've always been screwing around with Neville, it's you who's changed about it. You never used to take it so personally," he said casually, without any of the normal malice in his voice. I thought on these words for a moment. Yes, Draco's whole Hogwarts career up until this point was making the lives of Gryffindors terrible.
"Well, yes; but I thought that you had changed. You don't care about any of my friends or I?"
"I do care about you, Love. Just… something about Neville strikes a chord in me. And I just have to be your friend, I'm not giving a shit about others."
"Obviously," I replied coldly, "And I take it the potion's been wearing off, then."
"What potion?"
"Oh, you've forgotten. Brilliant!" I said, holding my face in my hands, "What am I supposed to do now? Being close or far away will only make you more dreadful to everyone."
"If you kiss me, I'll start being nice to them again, no matter how Longbottom they are," Draco offered.
"And how long will that last? You're going to fall out of love with me in only 1 or 2 days at this rate. You just don't get it, do you? I can't believe my potion was that bad. But it's going to happen, and then what, Draco? We're back to square one."
"Well, I don't really remember how dreadful I used to be to you, but I know that the 'square one' you're talking about sounds pretty terrible. I never want to be that much of a prick to you ever again," he came toward me with arms open, "I love you, Hermione." Neville, who had already donned his protective gear was watching from the door. His eyes were wide and he was just standing in awe of the situation at hand.
"Well I don't love you. And I never will. You almost made me believe—" I hesitated, "You know, I don't have time for this; don't have time for you. Why don't you just go back to hating me, calling me names and casting hexes on me. That way we can all be miserable together."
I started walking away before I remembered, "Oh, and I almost forgot: don't ever fall in love with me again."
I walked toward where Neville was standing at the door. "Arse," I swore under my breath.
"I heard that, Love."
"Oh, go die in a bloody hole."
I cast a Disillusionment charm on myself as I ran back into the building. By the time I could really think about what I was doing, I was back at the painting of the common room. I gave the lady in the painting quite a shock when the password came out of thin air.
"Dilligrout," I said as she opened the painting outwards. Only Ginny was in the common room, and she noticed the painting open, but no one come in.
"'Mione, is that you?" she asked into thin air.
"It's Neville," I replied quietly, stalking up to my room.
"Well Neville wouldn't go up to the girls' dormitories."
I never replied as I kept walking up the stairs. Ginny, being the good friend she was, tried to follow me. When I got to the top of the stairs, I waited and let her pass me before heading back down and out of the Gryffindor tower. Going to the library was too predictable of me, so I had to go somewhere else. Not that I was particularly sad or angry, I just didn't want to have to be near anyone at the moment. A good book would have been particularly nice.
I reached into my cloak pocket, fishing around for a book. I took a handful of items out of the pocket and surveyed them. Two shrunken books, an owl treat for Hedwig and a vial.
"A vial?" I asked myself aloud, wondering what it could be. I don't generally carry around vials full of suspicious liquids with me. I lifted it up to the light of the corridor and gasped. The mother of pearl sheen and spiraling smoke suspended in the vial pointed me to the reality of the contents—Amortentia.
"How did that get there?" I asked myself, retracing my steps of the past few days. Suddenly, it hit me: Ron needed help with his potion, and I put some of my potion in a vial to test it! Of course I would have slipped it into my cloak pocket!
This could be my solution, I thought in the heat of the moment.
"Ginny!" I called when I re-entered the common room, "I'm thinking of re-drugging Draco!"
"You're joking!" She said incredulously, suddenly popping up from the nearest couch. She scrambled around the couch to come to my side.
"Well Draco's been being a right foul git to my friends again," I explained, "And now that I see there is a way to stop it, I want to."
"Go on."
"And I have this little vial of Amortentia—"
"Hermione! You know that stuff isn't allowed in school!"
"Unless it was made in school," I finished with a smirk, "I think this is just what we need!"
"But why? For what purpose? He's teased us before, he can keep teasing us. It's not that much of a hindrance. It won't bother us any longer; we have an immunity to him," she explained, "Does it really bother you that much?"
"Well… yeah. I'm sure it always has."
"Are you sure you don't just want to keep him in love with you?" Ginny speculated. It was a good possibility that was the reason. I liked having a servant, and not getting hexed in the hallway was a bonus, not to mention it gave me new company.
"Positively not. You know, if it doesn't bother you too much, I'll just not use it. I was just trying to be a good friend."
"You are a good friend, 'Mione!" she exclaimed, hugging me. "The best." But when she came back from hugging me, she had a horrified look on her face. "Harry!" she called, frightened.
"What?" he called back from the boy's dormitory.
"You should come see Hermione, my little Bogey," She called up to him, putting a lot of stress on 'Bogey.'
"You call him 'Bogey'? Not a very endearing name, don't you think?"
"Oh!" she noticed, "Yeah, it's just… an inside joke between us. That's all."
Harry came flying down the stairs, saying, "By 'bogey' I hope you don't mean 'bogies'." Ginny nodded, worried. "Oh damn."
"Come see Hermione, Love," she said cautiously.
"What do I have to do with bogies? And why are you guys staring at me?" I got up to walk toward the bathroom, "Do I have one? You could just tell me, you know." But when I saw myself in the mirror, there were no bogies, nor any odd nose deformities. I scanned myself in the mirror, before I saw the tiniest black thing in the hollow between my collarbones. I charged out of the bathroom, having no clue what it was.
"And I suppose this," I said, pointing to my collarbone, "has nothing to do with you two?" I cast a spell to rip it off and inspected it before bringing out my wand and casting Engorgio on it to make it bigger. At first sight of it, I had no clue what it was. But upon further inspection I realized that it was a tiny video recorder.
Ginny and Harry both shifted uncomfortably in their seats as I asked the next question, "Did you two… bug me?" They nodded sheepishly. "Then why, may I ask, do you feel you need to video record every second of my life?"
"Malfoy," Harry said quietly.
"Blackmail," Ginny said a second after that.
"You bugged me so that you could blackmail Draco?" I asked as they put on ashamed faces. "You cheeky little devils! You could have at least told me!"
Harry and Ginny looked at each other, "You mean, you don't mind?"
"Mind? I hate Malfoy as much as the next Gryffindor. I'm totally in." Harry and Ginny looked relieved. "Although, if you would have told me sooner, I could have given you some really juicy stuff."
"Yeah," Ginny considered, nudging me with her elbow. "I mean he has quite the pair of lips anyway. You might as well."
I looked at her stoically, "I wasn't talking about that Ginny. I was talking about more dirty pick up lines. See what you've done?" I asked, turning to Harry, "Now her head's all in the gutter. I don't even want to hazard a guess as to what you two were doing while I was gone today."
"Actually, to tell you the truth, it was just a front to get you to spend more time with Malfoy and get more blackmail," Harry admitted.
"Honestly, I don't know how I didn't notice it sooner!" I exclaimed, examining my chest.
"Well when you came to talk to me, you lifted the Disillusionment charm off of yourself, which was the same charm we cast to make the bug invisible. So you lifted the charm off the bug too."
"Well then thank God I didn't use the Bedazzling Hex instead!"
The rest of the night passed nicely for the three of us, chatting and laughing away in the commonroom. Neville tried joining our conversation once, and I apologized for the rather odd meeting earlier today. Obviously, after I had left, Draco had tripped him before running after me, and Neville had scorched his left hand on the fire seed bush. God, Malfoy really can be a handful, hunh?
Draco woke up to Blaise slapping his arm hard, demanding him get up due to the imminence of being late to the first class period of the day.
"Nah, I don't really feel like going today," Draco said as an excuse.
"Why, mate? Dreaming about Granger a little much?" Blaise replied while tying his tie.
"I don't know. Recently it's been a bit weird," Draco got up, deciding that he was in fact going to classes today. "I'll tell you on the way to first."
"Alright, but don't take too long. You know how Professor Binns gets sometimes."
"Do I ever," Draco replied, finally pulling his cloak on and scrambling around for shoes. Upon finding them, he pulled them on haphazardly and rushed out of his dorm ahead of Blaise, just to prove that he could.
"Okay, mate, tell me about this Granger business," Blaise urged, unenthusiastically.
"Yeah, well just to let you know, I went back to hating Gryffindors yesterday. No standing ovation needed, really," he said, boasting. "But right now it's just Granger. Before, when I was deeply under the influence of the Amortentia, there wasn't a thought that passed my mind that didn't have her in it. Disgusting, hunh?"
"Primitive. But go on," Blaise urged.
"Well, she's still in my dreams sometimes, but we're always debating. You know she is so fun to get pissed! Every so often she still haunts my being awake, like right now when I'm thinking about her, there are some feelings with it, but nothing too obtrusive. If I'm distracted, however, she doesn't get a first or second thought in my mind. I mean, if she passed by right now, I wouldn't know whether to trip her and laugh, or turn around and walk with her to her next class."
"Well that sounds… confusing."
"It is! So much! I just wish this potion would wear off faster. Yesterday it started and went fairly quickly—now that I look back on it. But today it's just creeping to the finish line. But I'm sure by tomorrow I'll be completely Amortentia free. Finally, eh?" Draco said, winking with relief.
"Wait," Blaise said, thinking. "You said that it started wearing off yesterday, right?"
"Yeah?"
"How could you tell?"
"Uh, in the beginning of the day I was thinking about Hermione, but near the afternoon all I could think about was being angry at Neville for ruining our date."
"Well first of all, you two had a date? Why on earth do you keep leaving me in the dark, mate?" Blaise chided. "Second, at the very end of the day yesterday, how did you feel about Granger?"
"I was still pretty sickly in love with her. Today is much better though," Draco replied, relieved.
"How exactly do you feel about her today?"
"Um, I definitely don't love her, but I don't automatically think 'oh! Mudblood! Must hex mudblood~' So, I really don't know... If she came around right now, I would probably start an argument with her as an excuse to walk her to class. I may tell her one of my prized pickup lines before leaving too, she loves those. But after that, I'd probably rethink it all and slam my head against the desk at my next class. God I just don't know, Blaise."
"Well, can I tell you something funny and disgraceful at the same time?" Blaise offered with humour.
"Off topic, but sure."
"You see, the process it takes for Amortentia to wear off only takes a day. That day was yesterday." He paused. "You know what that means, right?"
Draco completely lost it, stopping right in the middle of the corridor and just staring into space in Blaise's general direction.
"It means that any feelings you have now for her are completely your own. Not to mention you're officially a disgrace to the house of Slytherin," Blaise patted the comatose boy's back, "Have fun, mate!" he yelled as he ran ahead, knowing that Draco wouldn't be around until much later.
You see, there are many words that could describe what Draco was feeling right then. But none fit quite as perfectly as the two he chose:
"Oh fuck."
Well that chapter took a heckload of time to write. It's double the size of the normal chapters, though, so I assume you forgive me~
Now I have to ask: how'd you like my plot twist? I really wanted to fit this in the story, and up until this point it was the main goal I was working to, but it just seemed very… un-Draco to me. Not to mention I swore twice this chapter, which is something I rarely do in real live XD