Chapter 3 - Cordial Introductions
Today was Saturday, and Hermione woke with a start. She looked at her clock and saw that it was 10:40 am. Oh blimey, I better get up, she thought. As soon as she stood up, she remembered the events of the previous night; McGonagall and Snape barging into her room unannounced and presenting her with a new roommate. Alexander Brickman, Durmstrang transfer and recently sorted Gryffindor. Well, thought Hermione with a hint of excitement, he can't be all that bad if he's a Gryffindor. Plus, he was quite handsome.
She pulled on a sleeping robe and stepped out into the shared common room. She peered over quickly to steal a glance at his room and saw that his door was wide open. His bed wasn't made, but there appeared to be no one in it. She heard a toilet flush and shifted her eyes quickly to the bathroom door.
Draco muttered a quick Scourgify to clean his hands and opened the door. There, in all her pajama glory, was the mudblood. Her eyes widened and he soon realized she was staring at his well-formed and naked torso. He snickered without thinking and said, "What? Never seen anything as beautiful as this before? I'm sure-" he broke off abruptly realizing that he was not Draco, but Alexander, and a Gryffindor wouldn't be this cocky.
Hermione blushed and averted her eyes to floor.
"Sorry, I-I wasn't expecting you to...uh...emerge from the bathroom like, like that," stuttered Hermione.
Draco laughed flakily. He looked over at Granger and said, "I was only joking, Granger."
Hermione's head snapped up. She hadn't heard her surname used as her first name since the days of Draco Malfoy poisoning the Hogwarts halls.
"Well, I was just going to dress quickly and grab a quick bite of breakfast. Would you like to join me? It's rather late in the morning, even for a Saturday, but I think there will still be food available..." Hermione's words slowly faded out in Draco's mind.
My Godric does she babble, thought Draco.
"Sure, I'll join you. Just, uh, let me get dressed," he responded to Hermione. She was still talking so his response seemed to be more of an interruption.
"Right, I'll dress too," Hermione said as she hastily walked back to her room.
Draco-as Alexander-and Hermione were now back in the Head Students' common room. Granger appeared to be working on some sort of Arithmancy chart, while Draco sat and looked through some books.
"So, Alex," Hermione began as she put her homework away, "not to seem rude, but your entrance was a bit abrupt. What made you decide to come to Hogwarts? I've hear Durmstrang is quite a nice school."
Who the hell'd you hear that from, Mudblood? Krum? Probably, thought Draco.
"Well, this whole war brewing with the Dark Lord caused my parents to become a little over protective, and they felt that Hogwarts was a better refuge for me." Well, at least the whole thing wasn't a lie.
A few minutes passed and Hermione finally said, "Well they were right."
All Draco could hope for was that Granger would stop prodding. He'd always known the mudblood to be Potty's sidekick and the Weasel's argue buddy, but apparently she was an annoying, nosy, know-it-all.
Almost as if Granger could read his thoughts, she stood up slowly and said, "I'm sorry. It's quite rude of me to prod," a longing look appeared in her eyes, "my friends are out fighting the war, too. Left me here to do private research on these things called horcruxes." She continued to walk over to a small framed photo on the wall.
Draco felt awkward, as if he should do something. His mind was already messed up at seeing his old Slytherin friends: Goyle, Zabini, and Pansy, gathered at their table in the Great Hall. How much he'd wanted to join them. Instead, he was constantly being looked at, and even stupid Gryffindor floozies-Lavender and Parvati, was it?-were fluffing their hair and make what were supposed to be seductive faces at him.
He was much to annoyed to care about anything, but then again, he couldn't show his annoyance, as he was currently Alexander.
"So, uh..." began Draco, "are these your 'horcrux' hunting friends?" He didn't even have a clue what the hell a horcrux was.
He was now looking at the picture on the wall; Weasley, Potter, and a smiling Granger were standing with their arms around each other in what appeared to be their fifth year at Hogwarts. Pathetic, thought Draco.
Hermione looked up at Draco, not even knowing he had approached, and stated with a shakey voice, "Yes this one, the ginger, is Ron Weasley. This one is the famous Harry Potter. Surely you've heard of him?"
"No."
Hermione's eyes doubled in size as she breathed, "You, you haven't? 'The Boy Who Lived'? 'The Chosen One'? No?"
Draco decided to play this for it was worth. "Nope, I haven't. Perhaps you can tell me about him?"
"Oh, of course! He's my best friend," responded Hermione with such real enthusiasm that Draco almost vomitted. Almost.
"But first, Granger, I'd like you to tell me the name of that blond-haired boy in the background."
Hermione rolled her eyes, Draco didn't know if it was a response to his calling her Granger again or if she just didn't want to talk about Draco, but she told him evenly, "Well his name is Draco Malfoy. He's, or I mean, he was in Slytherin. He doesn't go here anymore though. His parents are death eaters and I'm positive he's joined them. He was actually supposed to be the Head Boy, but seeing as he left, he can't be," Hermione grinned with pride as she said this, "but anyways, I never really had any severe problems with him, well, no, there was one time, but otherwise he was always attacking Harry or Ron. He called me a mudblood often. Of course, I didn't want to give Malfoy the satisfaction of how much it hurt me-I mean what could I do? It's not like I could control the fact that I was a witch born to muggles-so I just ignored it," she stopped here, and Draco assumed she was done, but she continued," He's quite cunning, but annoying also. He comes from a very wealthy pureblood family and he thinks he deserves the right to everything. He always threatened us with 'My father will hear about this,' but I doubt his father ever did. Sweet Salazaar, if my child was owling me every day complaining about stuff as much as Malfoy did, the child would no longer have a face! I personally don't think Malfoy is a good representative of the supposedly perfect traits of a pureblood, the poor thing actually seems to be severely misguided, only looking for his father's approval. I'm just going to stop there, he's gone anyways, and he wasn't a very nice person. We didn't get along," Hermione stopped, irritation shining through in her voice and shame in her eyes for sympathizing even just a little with stupid Malfoy.
Draco stared at Hermione with an incredulous look on her face. How could this bitch even think about saying what she just did about me? Purebloods have all superiorty over you muddy-blood filled muggle-borns! Draco's mind was racing for statements to justify himself, but Hermione sauntered off back to her room.
So if this is how Granger's gonna be, then so be it. We'll play it your way, you filthy. litte. mud. blood, Draco thought as he slammed the door to his room.