Chapter 10: Hermione Granger: Strike One

H e r m i o n e G r a n g e r

Hermione ran down the stairs laughing in joy trying her best to outrun Draco. During a class of Divination, Harry and Ron were not allowing her to sit with them until she told them what was going on. She couldn't break her promise to the girls, so she decided to sit beside Draco. During that time, Draco accidentally dropped an embarrassing picture of him when he was a child, but Hermione had a hard time looking at it when Draco was there slapping his hands at her. If she was able to outrun him, she'd be able to look at the picture.

"Come back here Granger!" Draco yelled out almost tripping down the stairs. "It's not polite to take things that aren't yours!"

"Not a chance!" Hermione shouted.

"I'm getting tired!"

"That's your fault! Not mine!"

Hermione ran out the courtyard stopping in the middle of the field. She flipped the card over seeing a picture of a twelve year old Draco dressed in woman's clothing. He even had make-up and matching accessories. Hermione laughed loudly finding the picture pretty hysterical not caring one bit that people were staring at her.

Draco finally caught up snatching the picture out of her hands.

"Malfoy dressed up as a girl." Hermione said while laughing. "What was your name? Drakira? Draca?"

Draco grimaced, "It's so embarrassing. I should have burned it a long time ago."

"No you should keep it! It would make good memories."

"For you maybe... Pansy found it disturbing when I dropped it once. She said it's only cute if I was five years old. Not twelve! Luckily Blaine wasn't there at that moment."

"Awes, I find it adorable." Hermione's laughs started to simmer down.

"You don't need to lie."

"No really. It's cute. Even the so called "Magnificent Draco Malfoy" needs embarrassing moments in his life."

Hermione gave him a sincere smile meeting his eyes as Draco slid his hand across her waist and around the other side. She tiptoed to give him a quick kiss on the lips. Hermione was no longer feeling sad about losing her first kiss to him. She wanted his kisses now, and one of the things she liked about it was how he knew when to kiss her. He respected her "Only pecks in public" rule.

"I see the lovebirds are doing well." Blaine commented walking towards them. "Who knew a Gryffindor and Slytherin would get together."

Hermione turned to look at Blaine giving him a smile. This was the first time she actually came this close to him. "Hey."

Draco turned to look at Blaine, his hand losing contact with Hermione's waist. "Yeah we're doing great." Draco replied uncomfortably intertwining his hand with Hermione.

"I have to talk to you later Draco. It's important, unless you guys have plans later on tonight." Zabini winked at Draco a smirk being placed upon his face.

Hermione stared at Zabini wondering what he meant. Now she knew why Draco would get irritated by him. He was sort of like Ginny except way worse. She turned her head looking around finding Ginny behind a bush waving at Hermione to come over.

"Meet me at the library now!" Ginny mouthed behind the bush.

Hermione turned back to look at Blaine still teasing Draco and Draco already getting annoyed. She felt bad for having to leave him like this, but Ginny looked like the news was urgent. "You guys can talk now if you want." Hermione interrupted. "I really don't mind. I have to speak to Ginny anyways."

"Are you sure?" Draco asked meeting her eyes again.

"Yes. It's fine. I'll just see you later on tonight okay? Send me a letter or something."

"Okay… 9pm. You remember where yeah?"

She leaned in giving Draco a kiss on his cheek. "Yes I do…, Love you."

"Love you too…" Draco mumbled.

Hermione turned to look at Blaine. "It's nice… seeing you up close…"

She then scurried along to Ginny who grabbed her wrist as they started to run back into the building.

"Bad news…"

"What do you mean bad news?"

Ginny squeezed her wrist tighter as they ran through the halls nearing the library. "I'll tell you when I get there."

"Okay…"

The two girls continued running until they reached there rendezvous. Hermione stood there trying to catch her breath as she stared at Lavender who was sobbing on the floor, Padma trying to comfort her. "What happened?" Hermione finally asked.

"She was a bit angry." Cho Chang said sympathetically. "She couldn't handle seeing you and Draco being a happy couple…"

"What do you mean?" Hermione raised an eyebrow sitting down across from Cho.

"Well… we were all here after our classes ended… Padma and I started to talk discreetly about all the progress you made and how good you were doing. We then started to joke about what would happen if you actually fell for Draco…"

"Lavender never told us that she still had feelings for him…" Padma interrupted gently patting Lavender's back. "She snapped and started to blurt out how you wouldn't even have got to know him without our help."

"No one heard right?" Hermione asked biting on her thumbnail.

All of them looked down an uncomfortable presence spreading between the girls. Hermione turned seeing Ginny looking down too. "Who heard it…?" She whispered.

"Pansy Parkinson…" Cho Chang mumbled.

Out of all the people in the school, it had to be Pansy Parkinson who heard about their plan. Hermione felt scared, she didn't want it to end this way with Draco. She wanted to tell him herself and face the consequences that way… Although she couldn't do that now, because Pansy would obviously do it for her.

"I'm so sorry..." Lavender sobbed loudly. "I shouldn't have gotten jealous. I mean I know that you don't love him at all. You would never fall for Draco right?"

Hermione's eyes widened not very sure how to reply to Lavender's question. She didn't want to lie to them anymore. No one even knew about the secret meeting's she's been having with him ever since the spring season kicked in. They didn't even know about the time she got intimate with Draco on the boat during the second task.

"We don't have time to talk about feelings." Ginny interrupted. "Harry and Ron snapped too. They have captured Parvati in their room trying to make her spill out what's going on. They won't let anyone in or out of that dorm. Not even their roommates. They've gone mad."

"Let me tell them…" Hermione gritted through her teeth. She had so much to deal with at the moment.

"You can't trust them… I know you can trust Harry, but Ron has a big mouth at times…"

"They're my best friends too Ginny. I need too. I should of since the beginning."

"Let me in!" Neville yelled banging on the door. "It's not right to hold the door close on your roommates!"

"No! Not till were done in here!" Ron yelled out.

"Professor McGonagall won't like this!" Seamus Finnigan yelled back.

Hermione stomped her way into the room Ginny and Cho behind taking out her wand.

"What are you doing?" Neville asked. "Don't explode our dormitory!"

"Alohamora!" Hermione said pointing her wand against the doorknob.

The door magically opened in seconds. Ron stared at the door as Hermione came into the room.

"I knew we should have sealed the room with magic…" Ron said to Harry.

"We don't know that many spell's Ron…" Harry whispered.

"Let her go." Hermione demanded. "I'll tell you what's been going on…"