Sucky, sucky pregnant lady is so late in updating again :P It probably won't get better for a while. He's due on November 11, you know. That's... not far from now. I'm big, heavy, sore, tired and have a lot of heartburn. Those who tell you being pregnant is a joy LIE or clearly forgot the physical realities of the thing. XD I know that the joy of him kicking certainly wanes whenever he delivers a particularly nasty kick to my ribs or kidney. ;)
Oh, and just something I've been wanting to say... Yes, I know Bracelet has a lot of chapters, but please do not confuse that with it being very long. There are many, many longer stories out there. I just post relatively short chapters, something I wouldn't have done if I had realized at the time how long it would become. Not about to change MO mid-fic, though, so it is how it is. Just think of every "real" chapter being 2-3-4 chapters long :P The actual fic thus far is about 155k words, no lightweight but not the length of e.g. Deathly Hallows (199k words) yet either. :)
Let me take the chance to try and pimp the dmhgficexchange to you again. They will post three new fics a day for the next month (no WIPs, they are all finished works) so go reeeeaad. I put more info and a link in my bio. And yesss, I contributed but it's anonymous so you won't know with what or when it's posted until the master list is posted at the end. ;) Since I'm not likely to finish Bracelet in the next month (unless I can do the "ROCKS FALL, EVERYONE DIES!!" kind of ending? XD) it won't technically be written AFTER Bracelet, and I guess I might post it here on ffnet. After the reveal. But, still, go check out the whole exchange. Personally, I will try to read all of them.
Hermione decided that there was a reason boys tended to lean towards physical violence: They needed to weed out the stupid ones of their sex, as their kind of stupidity was leaps and bounds beyond normal stupidity.
Unfortunately, they weren't doing a very good job of it, and currently everyone was insane. No better word for it.
She'd tried talking to Harry after the incident in class, but, being insane and all, he didn't see anything wrong with anyone's actions—except Boot's. In fact, he commended Draco on 'being much less of an egotistical prat than usual'. He was only concerned about Draco's reasoning, contemplating that Draco might be doing this solely to raise speculations about Hermione, something that her honesty sadly required her to admit was unlikely.
What nobody seemed to appreciate was that such brainless male actions started gossip, no matter what the intentions behind them were. Normally, she didn't mind gossip that much. She'd learned to live with people being annoyed at her eagerness in class and insulting her with the common term know-it-all, often even disparaging her looks, her hair, and—in earlier times—her teeth. She could live with that and recognize the remarks for what they were. Sometimes she could even laugh at the notion that people saw it as a pity that she was smart rather than beautiful. Sometimes.
Lately, however, a handful of people seemed to have begun speculating whether she was truly a slag or 'just' a doormat who liked mean boys. It didn't help that they seemed to lean towards 'doormat', even though slag would probably have been worse. There was just something fundamental inside of Hermione that wanted to rebel against these speculations, but since there was no way she could really rebel it just… hurt.
She knew she had made her share of mistakes when it came to boys. She knew she had made more than her share, actually. In fact, the last weeks were just a muddled blur of things she should have done differently or shouldn't have done at all. But she had neither been anyone's slag nor doormat. She had just been confused, trying to figure things out.
Every time she heard someone talking, it cut a little deeper, and she became a little more depressed. She, who otherwise loved school, began counting down the days until she was able to leave. This depressed her even further.
It was with this in the back of her mind, steeling herself for the worst, that Hermione made her way to class Monday morning. She held no illusion that the weekend would have killed any talk or spawned something more interesting to talk about.
"… snogged half the night…"
"… then what about…"
"… much better suited…"
"… on his lap…"
"… his father…"
Hermione only caught very fragmented whispers, enough to deduce that she wasn't the one being talked about, before she was spotted and they suddenly quieted or began talking about Quidditch or homework. She frowned. It couldn't have been about her—she certainly hadn't snogged anyone for half the night in recent memory.
Well, ok, but nothing they knew about, anyway.
Still, it felt really strange that nobody seemed willing to discuss this with her nearby…
Deciding that she would find out eventually, she sat down and got ready for class.
Eventually, Hermione's patience paid off as gossip eventually found her in the shape of Ginny. Hermione had just sat down to lunch when the younger witch sat down next to her.
"Guess you're off the hook, huh?" Ginny said without much greeting, filling her plate with food.
"Guess so," Hermione agreed, not at all surprised that Ginny would know about Friday. Everyone knew.
"I'm a bit surprised, though," Ginny mused. "I didn't think he was one to move that… quickly." She frowned. "Or maybe he was. It's really hard to tell since he always had a girlfriend."
"Hm?" Hermione wasn't entirely following.
"Malfoy," Ginny said, glancing at Hermione. "You know with the whole stunt he pulled this weekend?"
"Can't say I do know," Hermione pleasantly said, taking another bite of her food and chewing it carefully before swallowing. "But it must have been good if it's him they're talking about."
Ginny shrugged. "Run-of-the-mill, really. He just snogged some girl. Only, people are a bit surprised with the… you know… everything that's been going on, and the pureblood arses are pleased that he finally seems to focus on someone with the right blood and background."
Hermione coughed as discreetly as she could to dislodge the bit of carrot that had somehow gotten stuck in her throat. "What?" she croaked, once she was fairly sure she could breathe again.
"Personally, I don't think he's doing himself any favors by taking a leaf from Zabini's book and spreading his interests around," Ginny continued, seemingly without noticing. "I mean, it's only been something like a month since he broke up with his long-time girlfriend, then he showed some weird interest in you, and now it's all about Greengrass."
"Greengrass?" Hermione asked, bewildered. "Daphne Greengrass?"
Ginny blinked. "What? Oh. No. The other one. Her sister. Astoria. She's fifth year."
"Fifth year?" Hermione's eyes were widening.
Ginny was looking confused. "It's not that uncommon, Hermione."
"Of course not," Hermione muttered, frowning. Ginny was right. The girl would be fifteen or sixteen, well within the dating range of a seventeen-year-old boy.
She couldn't help but raise her head and scan the Slytherin table as if she'd be able to tell who it was. Her eyes stopped at Draco, who had his head in his hands and looked like he had a bad headache.
"Malfoy doesn't look too happy," Ginny observed at the same time.
Hermione tilted her head. "No, he really doesn't. Which one is she?"
"Brunette," Ginny muttered, nodding in the general direction of at least ten brunettes.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You have to be more specific than that."
"See that mean-looking bloke? Third from his right."
'Mean-looking blokes' weren't exactly a rarity in Slytherin, either, but Hermione managed to pinpoint the one Ginny had been referring to and from there located the girl that Malfoy had allegedly decided to pursue next.
She was pretty, Hermione supposed. Her hair was long and looked soft, and she looked like she had a pleasant figure under her school robes. She was very animatedly talking to someone, her eyes glittering with excitement, and it looked like she might actually have a personality.
She wasn't exactly the way Hermione had pictured her. Or, rather, how she would have pictured her, given the time to consider this. As she was looking at the girl, she couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment in Draco. In spite of everything he had done to her, he had always seemed to respect Parkinson, but now he was with some other girl less than a week after Pansy had spent several nights sleeping in his bed, doing whatever it took to comfort him and help him through his magical addiction.
Given their past relationship, Hermione didn't even want to imagine what that entailed. In fact, just the thought made her slightly nauseous and she lost her appetite.
How could he just turn around and be with some girl that nobody had ever connected to him after that? How could he be such a faithless bastard? Perhaps his inclinations towards Hermione hadn't had anything to do with magic bonds either, maybe he was just like Zabini but better at playing people.
Hermione's eyes swept back towards Draco of their own accord and a shock went through her as she met his gaze. He was steadily watching her watch Astoria. It was impossible for her to prevent the slight blush at being caught and she awkwardly looked away.
"Well, at least that takes care of my problem no matter what prompted it," she muttered unconvincingly, half to herself and half to Ginny. "What about yours? Did you take care of that yet?"
Ginny sighed, looking uncomfortable at the new subject. But then again, who wouldn't be uncomfortable at the mention of telling your boyfriend about your ex-lover? "I will," she quietly replied. "After the holidays. If I tell him now and things go wrong, it would be so horribly awkward between us and it would be unbearable to be home and have to pretend we weren't fighting..."
Ginny actually had a good point. Molly Weasley was a force of nature, and she definitely would make her opinion on the matter known if she found out that something wasn't right between Harry and Ginny. She wasn't exactly known for her subtlety.
"Are you coming for Christmas this year?" Ginny asked, unsubtly changing the subject. "I mean, I assumed you were, but it doesn't seem like you and Ron are doing much better…"
Hermione shrugged. "I didn't know if he'd mind, so I was planning on going home."
"Of course he wouldn't mind!" Ginny objected. "It's more if you'd mind, being surrounded by his family all this time."
"Don't be silly," Hermione muttered.
"So, you're coming?"
Hermione shrugged. "Maybe after a week or so. I already told my parents I'm coming home."
"Fair enough." Ginny smiled, genuinely pleased.
Draco was having a bad day. No, he was having a truly horrible day.
His hasty, poorly conceived plan was working.
He should be pleased that he hadn't underestimated people and their shallow gossip, but he wasn't. He should be happy that Hermione seemed to have heard and believed it all, but he really wasn't. Maybe if she'd shown a bit more emotion, he would have felt a bit more gratified. In fact, he would have given just about anything to have seen more than confusion and curiosity on her face. He thought he had caught a brief flash of censure, but… maybe he hadn't. And if he had, it probably didn't mean what he wanted it to.
It wasn't fair. He was feeling torn up inside from what he'd done and she felt nothing. He felt an immediate urge to go to her, to make her listen, to tell her that what he had done had meant nothing, that it had been to make her life easier. That he still wanted no one but her.
But what good would it do when she didn't care? She would just be on his case to get over it.
It wasn't as if he didn't try. He'd even tried to enjoy himself at the party. Ultimately, it hadn't really been that bad—the girl was kind of cute after all—but he hadn't truly enjoyed himself, and the next day this irrational remorse had begun.
He didn't really understand this feeling. He had never ever cheated on Pansy, but there had been the summer where she'd suggested they see others and he'd actually seen someone. He hadn't felt guilty then. He'd sort of known that Pansy had only suggested this, hoping that he'd find that he preferred her, but he'd still liked the freedom. At least until he'd found out that the witch hadn't liked him half as well as his money. It had stung and he'd been happy to return to someone who cared about him, even if he wasn't in love with her.
He kept staring at Hermione, willing her to show some other emotion than embarrassment that he'd caught her sizing up the girl he'd been with. She just pushed her food around while talking to the Weasley girl and refused to look up again.
"I figured out why you've been avoiding me," Blaise said, heavily sitting down next to Draco and hurriedly grabbing whichever food was nearest.
Draco briefly closed his eyes. Indeed, he hadn't felt like being the one who had to share this. "Good," he replied, "then you'll know I want you to shut up about it."
Blaise shrugged. "You shouldn't be so glum about it. It's a good thing, isn't it? You're moved on and the girl you chose is cute."
Draco's insides twisted. He glanced at Blaise. "What the hell is that thing you're wearing?"
Blaise made a flourish, showcasing his threadbare robes. "School robes, adhering to the Hogwarts standards."
"I didn't even know you owned such rags."
Blaise grinned. "It's a bit short too. I just hadn't gotten around to tossing it." Draco stared and eventually Blaise's grin faltered and he shrugged. "I'll most likely be getting blood on it, won't I? No need to ruin my good robes."
Draco had forgotten all about Blaise's 'date' to get his face rearranged by Tracey's boyfriend for allegedly forcing her to kiss him. "It's insane," he growled. "You're just going to let him have a go at you?"
Blaise shrugged again. "One good swing, that's all he gets."
"And what if he hexes you instead?" Draco asked.
"Hmm," Blaise mulled this over. "Then I might need some help getting to the hospital wing. Do me a favor, mate, and don't stray too far away from me today."
Draco groaned. Insane bastard.
He groaned even louder when Pansy slipped into a seat across from him. Hadn't he suffered enough already without adding his ex-girlfriend to the mix?
Apparently not.
"So, Astoria, huh?" she asked, looking curious.
"Huh?" he asked, not quite catching that.
"Astoria?" she ventured again.
He blinked and frowned trying to separate the syllables in his head. Nope, they didn't make any sense to him.
Pansy looked startled and then she suddenly giggled, hiding her mouth behind one hand. "Oh, my… You don't even know her name!"
Draco glanced at Blaise, who seemed to be in on the joke. "What's in a name, anyway," Blaise helpfully supplied. "It wasn't deep conversation Draco here was interested in from what I heard."
Slowly the mistake dawned on Draco. Astoria. A name. Of course he would be expected to know her name, but he just hadn't really… well, cared.
"You snogged a girl all night without even knowing her name!" Pansy sniggered. Why she found this so amusing, Draco suspected he would never know. Still, it was better than her being jealous and upset, he supposed.
"I knew her name," he lamely lied. "I just didn't hear you over all the… chewing."
Both Pansy and Blaise cracked up. Draco rolled his eyes; trust them to treat his life as a joke. "How do you know her anyway?" he asked Pansy defensively.
"Friends with her sister, you dolt," she gasped, composing herself. "I see her all the time. Even lived with her for a few weeks this summer. She's nice enough. Never shuts up, though."
Great. Of all the girls he could have kissed, he had to choose one his ex knew intimately.
"She shut up well enough on Saturday," he murmured, making Blaise laugh again.
He was loath to admit it, but his friends' laughter actually took some of the sting out of the pain and disappointment, and he was feeling a little bit more human by the time he had to return to class.
Draco turned and scowled at Theo in silence, completely convinced that this was Theo's way of tormenting him for the whole bracelet incident.
"Oh!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed, getting their attention. "I… suddenly remember I need to be somewhere. Bye!"
Draco raised an eyebrow at her as she ducked her head and slipped past him. That was certainly not obvious at all. Her discomfort was understandable, though. He just hoped she had no inkling of what Theo was probably going to say now. "So, what is it this time?" he asked, sauntering over to a chair. "You disapprove of the way I do absolutely nothing?"
