I guess I forgot to tell you guys I was going on holiday for about half a month... Sorry! That probably pissed off a few of you guys... But I found a nice little shop that sold carrot juice and I'm finally starting to show a bit of a yellow-ish tint! :D
This chapter goes to: Norway- because I just love the word Norwegian (though I can rarely spell it right) and MOSTLY Pigfarts- It's on Mars- for an amazing username, getting the sea salt ice cream reference correct and because I'm a real person with feelings... maybe 0.0
It was a bright and rather cheery Wednesday morning, to say the least. I could only assume it was because I woke up with a smile on my face—God knows why—and nothing terrible had happened to me yet. On Wednesdays, the girls in my first period Arithmancy class got together in the classroom for the Study Hall Professor Vector graciously gave us each week. The guys went out and about, but we had our little pack. I always brought a book with me for entertainment as the conversation was extremely dry. On occasion, we talked about class, in which case I lead the conversation, though gossip was all they did, really.
But the gossip isn't always so dry when it's about you.
"So, Hermione, I heard you've been dating the one and only Draco Malfoy. Is he really as good as everyone says?" Padma Patil asked, expecting to have my full attention. They were sitting in a circle on the floor and I was sitting on a nearby table, dangling my legs.
I held up a finger to hold them over until I could finish my paragraph. For a fiction book, the one I was reading now was rather entertaining. I slowly brought my head up to look at the group of girls. "Did I hear something about Draco Malfoy? Because if I did, you're all going to be sorely disappointed."
"But... I heard—"
I snapped my book shut and knocked on it. "Fiction, you can be sure."
"Not all of it, though!" a girl with a Scottish accent said from the circle, "Can't be."
"Well, tell me exactly what you've heard then," I challenged.
"We heard that you two were partners to brew Amortentia so he fell in love with you, then he didn't have a good batch of counterserum so he stayed in love with you for a while, then he tried to woo you even a bit after it was over, then you two started fighting again, the Amortentia wore off, he kissed you—" the girl said before correcting herself, "More like snogged, I should say—and then you guys spent a steamy night in the dungeons last night and you left him shirtless and sleeping on the dungeon floor."
I blinked a few times, just for good measure. Looking at the girls' serious and curious faces while saying that last part made me want to laugh at them. So I did, all in good humour.
"And where exactly do you get this terribly erroneous information? Peeves?" I guessed, knowing he always loved to sneak about.
"Well... pretty much everyone in the school knows it by now, what with Pansy telling everyone," another girl, Lavender, explained.
"Couldn't you just tell us if it's right?" the Scottish girl said impatiently.
Although the Scottish girl was getting on my nerves, I decided to answer curtly. "Well, to confirm everything: yes to the Amortentia and the failure of a counterserum, not really to the 'wooing' thing you were on about, yes to the fighting and the wearing off, yes to the kissing—not snogging, mind you—and a whopping hell no to the steamy night in the dungeon. Good enough, girls?" I felt no need to lie to them. It's not as if they would never find out! They lived for gossip like children lived for candy.
Some of the smarter girls only had a smirk and a coy look on their faces at this fact. Despite my rejection of the last fact I distinctly heard a "Way to go, Hermione!" coming from the clump of girls.
"How do you suppose Pansy came up with all that crap?" I asked them all.
"Blaise told her everything Draco said, no doubt," Padma answered, then hesitated, "But you really kissed him?"
I felt the incessant need to refuse the statement. "He kissed me by surprise. God forbid it would ever be the other way around! Although I have to say, 'screw you' is not the most romantic thing to say before kissing someone."
"The bloody git..." another girl muttered.
"Did he really?" Mandy Brocklehurst asked, feigning an offended expression.
I rolled my eyes a bit at their nonsense. "That's just the type of utter prat he is, I guess."
When Cho Chang started speaking, most of the girls stopped talking among themselves, as they normally did when she spoke. "Well, it's only about a week until winter holiday. Are you going to do anything about it?"
This was the first question I had been asked by a girl in my year that had actually made me think in a long time. I wasn't quite expecting it.
"Well I still don't forgive him for all the things he's done to me—" I corrected myself, "To all of us. And I can't say that even now he's the nicest person to me." I was looking up and swinging my legs over the edge of the table I was sitting on. Talking to them, I was working out my thoughts to myself. "Half of me feels like he's just trying to make me look like an idiot by pretending to like me. About 40 percent of me wants to give him a square punch in the nose, another 9 percent thinks that he's actually pretty brilliant, and yet there's this small inkling in me," I looked down and stopped swinging my feet, staring at the floor, "that feels sorry for him. Because his life could be ruined because of his false feelings for me..."
There were no longer questions being thrown at me from either direction, a big relief to me. I snapped out of my trance to gather my books in my arms and finish.
"Though I can't say he doesn't deserve it," I said before shutting the door on my way out.
I only had 20 minutes until Potions class started again; and I was sure much bickering would ensue. The entire experience for me so far had encompassed about a week—a few days give or take. Ernie MacMillan and his girlfriend had started a rumour about a party in Hogsmeade before winter break. So, naturally, everyone was planning on turning up. Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were arranging dates, Slytherins were trying to claim the idea of the party as their own and God knows what Ravenclaws were doing.
Everyone around me had a date: Harry had Ginny and vice versa, Ron had Sally-Anne, the Patil twins were sharing three guys vying for their attention—even Luna had decided to accompany Neville upon his request.
For me, however, I would be the only one of my friends not going home for the holidays. My parents had left a few days ago to the Smithsonian museum in America, and the house would be vacant. I originally planned on going to the Burrows with Harry, Ron and Ginny, but ever since the Sally-Anne incident, the atmosphere between Ron and I hadn't quite been the same as it was when he made the offer.
The situation wasn't all bad, though. I had gotten Professor McGonagall to agree to arrange a lesson every Tuesday and Thursday; she never left Hogwarts during holiday. I also got Professor Sprout to let me come take care of the delicate plants in greenhouse 6 every week. In short, my schedule hadn't dropped much for Christmas.
For everyone else, the party was the next big thing. A thought abruptly sprinted through my mind; who would Draco be going with? Pansy Parkinson? Millicent Bulstrode? Goyle?
The last thought made me laugh. Now that I thought about it—Draco would be so much nicer as a gay man. Not to mention he'd make a good one.
With that final thought, I rushed to Potions, only to find Draco in his assigned seat and not the one next to me. Blaise had yet to come to class to take the seat next to me, but I wondered if he would push Draco out. My questions got answered as Blaise strolled into the room with Pansy.
"Draco—" he started in a threatening tone, noticing the seating arrangements.
"Blaise?" Draco replied expectantly.
The atmosphere seemed tense to me, looking between the two Slytherins. All of a sudden, both of them broke into smirks, then full-out smiles before Draco stood and gave Blaise a 'bro hug.'
They spoke quietly so that even Pansy couldn't hear them clearly. "Good to have you back, Draco."
"Just know if you try that utter shite again, I'll tell Pansy what you did with Millicent last year in the room of requirement." At Blaise's horrified look, he continued, "Yep; I know about that."
"I guess you really are the Slytherin Sex God of Hogwarts, presiding over all of our endeavors," Blaise whispered back. After a moment, he added, "But really, man. Can I have my seat back?"
"It'll cost you a butterbeer keg," Draco enticed with a cunning smile.
Blaise winced, but made the deal with a pat on the back. Draco then walked back slowly to sit with me. "Well, I knew I'd have to face this bridge eventually," he laughed, making it hard to be extremely angry.
"You have to say, I'm a bit more of a guillotine for you than a bridge, no?" I replied with a smirk, letting him know of his imminent death.
"Well, I guess this calls for a sorry," Draco said, catching me by surprise. I had prepared so many witty remarks to so many expected insults! And a 'sorry ' is all I get? Absolutely dumbfounded, I came up with one on the spot.
"Sorry it had to be me, you mean," I replied snidely.
"You twist everything I say, don't you, Granger?" He started, smirking back, "Any Gryffindor would be just as bad as you. Although, not quite as bad as a good-for-nothing Hufflepuff." Susan Bones had heard this and glared back at Draco, whilst winking at me.
"Well not all Gryffindors are mudbloods, are they now?"
Draco rolled his eyes at me, "Mudbloods and blood traitors are all alike. And it's hard to find a good person without any of those qualities. I'll bet you didn't know the first girl I ever liked was a half-blood who lived with her mudblood mother." This was definitely something I didn't know. And yet something that made me feel a bit happy.
"Your father kill you?" I replied.
"In fact, no. I can get pretty good at keeping relationships secret."
"Speaking of which," I started, looking anywhere but at him, "Who are you taking to the party in Hogsmeade?"
"You want to know who to get jealous at, right?" Draco replied with a know-it-all expression. "In that case, you don't have to worry. I think I'm going out with the boys that night." Ha! He really is taking Goyle!
"You? Mr. I'm-so-sexy-Slytherin?"
Draco's mouth gaped before I'd realized how he could have taken the last part. When I went to defend my statement, he held up his hands. "Your words, not mine." At my stubborn look, he continued. "Well, I would normally go with Pansy, but she's no longer a straggler,"—he coughed—"slut. Ehem! And even that yak Bulstrode has a date! There are only seven Slytherin girls in our year, and I am absolutely sick of them. Although I have to say, I'm pretty hard to get."
I shook my head slowly, feigning pity for the boy whilst laughing in my head. That was, until he said, "Well! Guess I'll have to go to Ravenclaws soon! But that's still only Padma, Luna, Cho and Marietta. "
"I had never really noticed how small Hogwarts was until now," I said, only just realizing it. There were about 1000 students at any given time, spread out across 7 years... The math calculated 142 students each year—about the class size of my old primary school. Considering those students were also split into four houses with all mudbloods barred from their house, Slytherin could very well only have around 25 students a year. "But why not Hufflepuff?"
He gave me a glare out of the corner of his eye. "Slytherin isn't all about being a pure-blood and having ill intentions, you know. It's about cunning, ambition, resourcefulness and pure determination. If we have 'a certain disregard for the rules,' it only helps us get where we want to be in the end." He paused. "Hufflepuffs are the exact opposite. They're all about loyalty, friendship, hard-work and not being judgmental. If you can tell, Little Miss Susan Bones over there would be the Anti-Draco. I find it weak. Even a Gryffindor would be better than them."
"Even a Gryffindor mudblood?" I asked, intrigued.
"Getting hopeful, aren't we Granger?"
"I was just wondering," I replied sharply at him.
"Well I guess it would depend on the person. It's not all about their status, believe it or not," he explained.
Less than a minute later, Slughorn started the lesson. Everything was quiet in the classroom and I started taking notes. Apparently, we would be brewing next week before holiday.
"You... wouldn't want to come with me to Hogsmeade, would you?"
Dun dun duuun! Oh, and that question is probably not what you're making it to be in your minds. And this is officially the longest chapter of this story so far! And I have a whole notebook filled with this story that I wrote on holiday. In doing it, I realized that it's not going to be long before the story is over... ;(
IMPORTANT QUESTION: Well, not really XD But! What is the most amazing thing you've ever done? It can be like proclaiming you're going to rule the world when you were only 2 years old, or skydiving with a balloon. Just, anything you're proud of (or NOT proud of) doing.