Disclaimer: Alas, still not mine. Only J.K. Rowling's.
A/N: And I'm back! Well, yeah, a day late. But who can blame me? I had tests in three major subjects and I had to study really well last night. Especially for GEOMETRY. Gosh, I do loathe that subject now even if I adore Algebra. Geometry? Just… UGH.
Anyway, enough with my ranting. Just read this. Still not beta-ed and I'm too lazy to proofread it again. I've read this countless times before and I think I've edited enough? Haha, I'm not really sure. Just read it and have fun!
Chapter Four: How to Tame a Dragon
She was in an unknown place with, surprisingly, a swimming pool beside her. She was alone and woozy whilst looking around. There were stampeding hippogriffs inside her head, giving her a massive headache. "I don't feel so good," she thought, clutching her head in an attempt to stop her raging headache.
She needed something cold.
Her eyes then drifted on the swimming pool and an idea occurred. She crouched down, dipped her hand, and sighed. It was cold enough and she was sure that if she submerged into the water, her headache would be alleviated.
She decided to dive and once her body made contact with the water, she released another sigh. "That's better," she thought, doing some strokes for her entertainment.
Hermione submerged her head into the water. When she resurfaced, her eyes widened into horror. Something was different with the water. Its transparent color changed into an opaque one. And its texture was… different. Hermione scooped the strange substance into her hand and screamed. Her fingertips were turning pink, almost swelling. She was shedding skin, for goodness' sake! And when she checked her hands once again, she had noted that her nails were coming apart.
"What is happening to me?" she declared aloud, her skin feeling abnormally tingly… burning.
Another quick look around the strange swimming pool confirmed her guess.
She was swimming in liquid mercury.
Hermione screamed consecutive "helps" but no one seemed to hear her pathetic cries.
She tried swimming to the edge of the pool but she just couldn't. Her limbs were frozen on the spot and defied the orders of her brain.
And then, she started to sink. She was going deeper and deeper and deeper…
Hermione sat up, releasing a miniature yelp in terror. She ran a hand through her short hair, trying to calm her thudding heart.
'Just a dream,' she thought, eyes trained on her bed. She was so relieved, thinking that she was going to die in that mercurial swimming pool. It was all together a weird dream… a nightmare. The feeling of liquid mercury surrounding her body was horrifying and she was thankful to Merlin she woke up before completely dying.
Now that she was awake, her vengeful temples released their wrath. Her fingers pressed against her temples, trying to cease their aching, but in the end, it was futile. All she managed to do was brush away perspiration that had formed on her forehead.
"YOU!"
The sudden scream made her cringe, scowling as her headache increased. She was about to tell the person to 'shut up' but the next thing he knew, Theodore Nott grabbed her collar and pulled her until his face was close to hers.
"Teddy?" she carefully asked, surprised at the resentment in her roommate's eyes.
"Don't you dare call me 'Teddy'!" he hollered back, pulling her up until her feet were flat on the ground. "You… you disgusting pig! How dare you do that to… of all people… Draco was so upset… him!"
Hermione almost laughed at Teddy's incoherent talking. But she held the bubbling laughter; the fury in Teddy's eyes made her realize she would be in great dangerif she provoked him more.
"I… I don't understand," she answered. And she meant it. She was so confused she was awakened by a furious Teddy (who was supposed to be his usual immature and adorable self). He was constantly shaking her and it did not help her raging headache.
"Don't understand?" he yelled. "Draco… upset! You… disgusting! How… how could you?"
And the events yesterday came rushing back into her memory, her eyes widening in horror as more minutes passed. She remembered the time when Teddy made her drink a glass of firewhiskey. She remembered drinking another one and another. After that, everything was a hazy blur. All she could make out was being dragged inside their room… toppling over Draco Malfoy… mercurial eyes (that explained her weird mercurial swimming pool nightmare)… and…
"Oh Merlin!" she moaned, hiding her face behind her hands in embarrassment.
"Finally remembered, eh?" Teddy spat, his words finally coherent.
"I… I didn't…," she stuttered. "Merlin, is he all right?"
Teddy glared hard Hermione was driven to take a few steps away from him. It was surprising to see him so enraged. Judging by the fact that he had been blubbering incoherent words awhile ago, Hermione supposed he must really be furious.
"What do you think?" he spat. "He was… he was spewed by a drunkard and had the nerve to pass out after doing that… that… disgusting thing to Draco! Oh, how he screamed!"
"I'm sorry, okay!" she declared, this time frowning. It was not her fault she vomited all over Malfoy. She was forced to drink by Teddy. It was not her fault she couldn't stomach firewhiskey.
"Then apologize to him!" Teddy said, his voice a tad bit calmer. "Draco had been upset for the past few days already. He does not need some bloke who spews his innards out. Now go."
He waved his hand to dismiss her and she, not wanting to be in the same room with a wrathful Theodore Nott, scrambled out of the room without any hesitation.
Hermione entered the Great Hall with a great scowl on her face, right hand was massaging her forehead. As soon as she walked out from her new room in the Slytherin common room, her headache worsened. Some Slytherins greeted her and she forced a smile on her face. After all, she was still new here and she made it a point not to have enemies on her firstday in Hogwarts.
'Speaking of enemies,' she thought, remembering Teddy's fury. It was surprising he would be so furious over a thing that did not happen to him. Hermione felt a bit disappointed of Teddy's reaction a while ago. She actually thought he would be a good friend to her and help her (even if he did not know) to save her parents. It made her upset Hermes Austen already made an enemy… two to be exact.
Malfoy. Thinking about him made her headache worse.
'Stupid. Stupid! STUPID!' she reprimanded herself.
It was embarrassing to know that she vomited all over Draco Malfoy. And now… Draco Malfoy was mad at her. She knew he was. He was Malfoy, for Merlin's sake! It was common knowledge that he did not want anything to ruin his immaculate image.
She just wished she refused Teddy's offer. Draco Malfoy was a vital person for her mission. He was a Death Eater and a spy for the Order. She needed someone with positions like that for her mission to be successful.
Hermione then arrived at the Slytherin table and chose to sit at the farthest end of the table. She'd rather not be interrogated by curious Slytherins. But then, as soon as she sat down, another person invited himself to sit on the vacant seat beside her.
She was about to beseech him she'd rather be alone when a steaming mug of tea was placed in front of her.
"Are you all right?"
Hermione looked at her new companion and was surprised to see Blaise, smiling at her. "Blaise!" she exclaimed. "I… I'm fine." She grimaced when her headache told her the otherwise.
Blaise rolled his eyes, humored. "Right," he said, pushing the tea closer to the brunette. "Now, drink that. Tea can soothe your headache. I also added a potion that can help."
"Uh… thanks," she whispered, lifting the cup off the table. She sipped a little and instantly, the effect of the potion kicked in.
"Better?" he asked, his eyes trained on his breakfast.
Hermione nodded, this time smiling. "Thanks, Blaise," she said. "I feel a lot better now."
Blaise just shrugged. "Keeping a Sobering Potion is always handy," he said, eyes on her. "Especially if you're roommates with Malfoy and Nott."
Upon hearing the names of her other roommates, she frowned. Embarrassed, she rubbed the back of her neck. "I… I'm sorry," she said.
He looked genuinely surprised. "For what?"
"Well," she started, her frown deepening, "for starters, I just spewedall over Draco Malfoy. Teddy was furious when he confronted me a while ago." She looked at him and was astonished to see he was far from being angry. In fact, he looked completely amused. "You're not mad?"
Blaise chuckled and shook his head. "Teddy's being immature," he said. "He always had this… soft spot for Draco. He just blows up every time something happened to him. Weird, I know. But Teddy's just being his usual self. You'll get used to it."
Hermione smiled at Blaise. He was nice and she felt herself calming down in his presence.
It boggled her to imagine three completely different persons living in one room for seven years. She just thought that they would have… clashed. But judging from what she had seen for three days, they seemed to be getting along really well.
"I'm just wondering," she said. Blaise looked at her whilst chewing a hotdog. "How did the three of you become friends? It's just that… your friendship is a bit unlikely."
"Unlikely?" he repeated, amused. "Yeah, well, Draco and I were friends ever since we were born. We are practically inseparable. His mother and my mother are best friends so every time they visit each other, we tag along. And Teddy… well, we instantly became friends ever since first year. Let's just say he had no shame and had the nerve to sit with us in our chosen compartment."
Hermione laughed. "It's just weird you're living with the two of them," she said. "How can you tolerate them?"
"I've finally mastered the art of ignorance," he said, flashing a charming smile. "After all, ignorance is bliss."
She just shook her head, surprised with his answer. So Blaise Zabini was really Draco Malfoy's best friend. And it was surprising the House she had loathed ever since she laid eyes on them was capable of caring for other people. Sure, they could be real bullies, especially to people who did not meet their standards (like her). But they still had a heart, albeit a really tinyone.
The doors of the Great Hall then had burst open. Hermione averted her eyes away from her breakfast to look, but then wished she had not. Draco and Teddy were walking side-by-side and the blond caught her eyes. He gave her a really dark glare and looked back at her breakfast, ashamed.
"Oh, just leave Draco some time to simmer down," Blaise said.
"And when is that?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow.
He gave her a sheepish grin. "Well… a while," he answered, hesitant.
She scoffed. "Blaise, even if I'm new here, I'm not stupid," she said. "I have this… uh, gut feeling that apologizing to him was like taming a wild dragon." Which she thought was ironic, since Draco's name was the Latin word for 'dragon'.
He was about to retort something back when a Prefect gave them their timetables.
Hermione instantly snatched hers and skimmed down its contents.
"Great, Potions with Gryffindors," Blaise said with a scowl. "What a wonderful start for our day."
"Great!" she cried in enthusiasm. Her eyes widened, realizing her mistake. "Uh, I mean, 'Great'!" she snarled in sarcasm. "Gryffindors are a-annoying aren't they? Just looking at them makes my wand hand itch terribly."
"Yes," he answered, carefully watching her. "But you can say that without looking like you've eaten something rotten."
Hermione blushed and looked away, frowning upon hearing Blaise's laugh.
The school bell then rang. Blaise and Hermione, together with the other students, walked out of the Great Hall to go to their own respective classes.
"The first day is horrible," Hermione softly whined as she and Blaise dodged rowdy students who were eager to eat their dinner.
"Hermes," Blaise started, "first days are always horrible."
And he had a point. Every first day of school, students were still usually in their vacation mode. And so, their laziness and crankiness were evident. Apparently, even the teachers showed how much they hated the first days of school. Most of them, especially Snape, deducted points without any reason at all… sometimes, he made up some bizarre reasons and no one was supposed to contradict his decisions.
Speaking of Potions, Hermione concluded that their first Potions class for the year started terribly. For some strange reason, Snape already ordered them to make a potion. Almost half of the class groaned to oppose, but one sharp glare from the greasy-haired Potions Master had shut them up and they wordless collected the ingredients they needed for the potion.
That was not the end of it. While they were making their potions, Ron Weasley had accidentally added an extra pound of belladonna to Blaise's cauldron, resulting to an explosion. Thank goodness Blaise was nowhere near his cauldron. If he was splattered by at least a small amount of his ruined potion, he might be confined in the infirmary for a week because of abnormally large boils all over his body.
Enraged with Ron, Hermione, without thinking at all, brandished her wand and hexed Ron until he turned a terrible shade of purple. After all, Hermione became touchyevery time a person ruined another person's potion out of fun.
She realized what she had done after the whole room burst into boisterous laughter. Her eyes widened in horror as she stared back at Harry, who was equally amazed.
Ron saw red and was about to tackle her the Muggle way. But then, Snape came into the scene and upon seeing Blaise's ruined potion, a very purple Ron Weasley, and a horrified Hermes Austen, he placed two and two together.
He deducted five points from Hermione, which dampened her mood since her House hadn't earned any points yet. However, she felt strangely pleased when Snape deducted twenty points from Gryffindor because of what Ron did. He also gave him detention for a week. Hermione felt slightly guilty for Ron, but he deserved it for being a prat and ruining an oblivious Slytherin's potion.
She surprised herself for being furious to Ron for ruining Blaise's potion. Sure, he did not do that incident accidentally. But she would have been indignant if twenty points was deducted from Gryffindor and Ron landed himself on detention while five points were only deducted from Slytherin. But now, it was embarrassing for her to think that she was gleeful about the unfairness of Snape's actions.
'Merlin, I'm turning into a Slytherin already,' she thought, groaning inwardly.
"Are you all right?" Blaise asked, looking at her in slight concern.
"Oh, I'm fine," she answered, absentminded. Her eyes landed on Blaise and she smiled. He was truly kind. She felt remorse for loathing his whole being before. He was still a bit prejudicial to the Gryffindors, but he was polite and nice. He did not hex Ron for ruining his potion, after all. It was enough proof for Hermione.
It was a mystery to her why Blaise always accompanied her. Malfoy and Teddy still avoided her like she was the great plague herself and she wouldn't have minded if Blaise joined his other best friends. But no, he still stayed beside her and she was thankful for him.
"I'm sorry," she said, running a hand through her brown hair. "It's just that… your friends are avoiding you because of me," she added after seeing his raised eyebrow.
"Rubbish," he said, waving a dismissive hand. "They're being immature."
Hermione meekly nodded, a scowl growing on her face. 'Of all people I could puke on, why Malfoy? WHY?' she demanded silently. Now that he was furious at her, she predicted her mission would be close to intolerable. Thinking about that made her blood freeze. What about her parents? What would she do if Voldemort successfully retrieved information from her parents and then… kill them afterwards?
"I have to apologize to him!" she announced to the whole corridor, conviction evident in the tone of her voice. Her determined eyes landed on the amused Blaise. "I have to go apologize to him. I have to!"
Blaise chuckled and shook his head. "Okay, okay," he said. "You can go apologize to him if you want. But there's no need to frighten some first years."
Hermione blushed once she saw the confused and frightened looks from the scurrying first years. "Sorry," she said, a tad bit softer.
"Are you really sure about this?" he asked.
"I have to," she repeated, her conviction unwavering. 'Or else…'
Blaise sighed. "Fine," he answered. "Draco's usually in the Quidditch Pitch, practicing. I don't even understand why he's practicing already even if we just started school. Anyway, if you go right now, you might still catch him."
"Okay, thanks Blaise," she said, now running away from him.
"Good luck!" he shouted, slightly smirking. "You sure need that!"
Hermione waved her hand for thanks before disappearing. Once she was gone, Blaise shook his head. "A strange chap, he is," he said, before following the others and went to the Great Hall.
As soon as she arrived at the Quidditch Pitch, Hermione spotted Draco Malfoy. Being the only person in the whole school with abnormally silver hair made him distinct among the others. And besides, he was the only insane person to practice Quidditch on the third day of school.
He was wearing his Quidditch uniform, though, he had stopped flying. Instead, he was lounging on the ground, eyes gazed up at the velvety night sky.
Hermione took a few hesitant steps. Malfoy seemed exhausted and she did not want to bother him. But she was here now and there was no backing out.
No backing out. Funny how that sentence became Hermione's current motto in life. She had landed herself in a lot of difficult situations for a span of three months already. They were too big for a teenage girl like her to handle. But then again, she was not normal. One, she was a witch. And two, she was the best friend of Harry Potter. A lot of things were expected from her. She had to do everything for the safety of her loved ones. There was no backing out.
She released a sigh and regretted it the next minute. Apparently, Draco had heard it and was now staring at the intruder. Upon seeing Hermione, he scowled and glared before looking back at the night sky. His peaceful expression a while ago was completely wiped off from his handsome face.
"I… I came to apologize," she feebly started, taking more steps until she was a few feet away from the scowling Slytherin. "I… I didn't mean to… you know."
"Leave," was his sharp command. Hermione, despite her determination, flinched.
"Look," she said, taking more steps towards Draco. "I'm really sorry. I don't really drink and apparently, I drank too much last night."
He scoffed and then stood up, brushing some grass from the seat of his trousers. Draco bent down to clutch his broomstick before walking back to the school, ignoring Hermione's presence in the process.
Hermione, indignant, swiveled around and shouted a loud "Wait!" Fortunately, the blond stopped and turned around, his glare darkening. "I'm sorry," she repeated, this time in exasperation. "I'm doing my part. The least you can do is to forgive me."
He seemed surprised with Hermione's blunt comment.
She, on the other hand, lifted her chin in determination. 'No backing out,' she told herself firmly, not allowing her stare to waver as Draco started to take a few steps back to the brunette.
He stopped just two feet away from her. Hermione waited in bated breath for him to say something.
"Stay away from me, Austen," Draco spat, a sneer forming on his face. "The first moment I saw you, I knew you'd be a nuisance. Thank you for confirming my impression yesterday." A look of disgust crossed his face.
Hermione looked affronted. "I'm not a… a… nuisance!" she cried, glaring hard at the blond.
A scoff escaped from his mouth. "If I hated the person the first time I saw him, the feeling will last. You cannot do anything about it, nuisance." With that, he started to walk away.
She was beyond livid as she watched him walk away. "You… you just wait, Malfoy!" she screamed, knowing that he could hear her. "I am going to prove to you that I am not a nuisance!"
"All right, calm down," Harry said, carefully choosing his words.
He found himself in the Room of Requirement after being rudely awakened by an eager school owl carrying a hasty letter from Hermione. At first, he wanted to ignore it. Sleep for him was precious, especially now that they were in seventh year already. But Hermione's post script scared the crap out of him and so, after bidding a woeful goodbye to goodnight's rest, he unwilling trudged into the Come and Go Room.
He was greeted by an enraged Hermione. She immediately blew up upon seeing her best friend, screaming words he could not understand.
Harry had calmed her down first and now, she was sitting stiffly on the couch conjured inside, her face red from shouting and her arms tightly crossed.
"Now, tell me slowly what the problem is," he continued, taking a seat beside the calmed brunette.
Hermione released a pathetic moan and placed her head on his shoulder, pressing her face against his neck. "Take me back, Harry," she pleaded. "I don't want to spend the rest of the school-year in the Slytherin common room. I'd rather be killed by Voldemort than… than sleep in a room with that… that… vermin!"
"Who?" Harry asked, raising an amused eyebrow.
She removed her head from his shoulder and scowled. "Malfoy," she stated.
A look of understanding dawned on Harry's face. "Oh," he said, after moments of silence. "He's making your life hell? Even if you're disguised as Hermes Austen."
Hermione groaned once again. "Malfoy hates the whole world," she stated, rolling an eye. "Maybe his Mudblood radar alarms every time I'm near him. And so, he gets mad at me or something."
Her eyes narrowed and she grabbed the throw pillow sitting innocently on the couch, oblivious to its doom. Because, she then threw the pillow into the air, grabbed her wand, and blasted the cushion into smithereens.
"Whoa there," Harry said, eyes widening. Judging from the fact that his best friend ruined an innocent object made him realize that she was definitely furious.
"The nerve of that guy!" Hermione shrieked, continuing. "He had the nerve to tell me that I'm a bloody nuisance! Oh, I'll show him."
"Well," he butted in, "I hate to say this but I kind of concur with – I WAS JUST KIDDING!" He guffawed while slowly moving Hermione's wand point away from him.
Hermione's wand hand fell limply on her lap and sighed. All these worrying and shouting drained the energy out of her. Now, she just wanted to crawl back to her bed and shut the whole world around her.
Harry, noticing her sudden change of demeanor, sighed and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He pulled her closer to himself and for comfort, gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead. Hermione seemed to succumb to Harry's comforting actions and soon, her head once again found itself on his shoulder.
"I know you're undergoing a really difficult phase in your life, 'Mione," he started, now on his wise mode. "Trust me; I kinda get what you are feeling right now. Remember, you were the one who decided to do this. No one forced you to. And so, if you want to quit, the decision is still yours."
She shifted uncomfortably on her seat and Harry smirked. He knew he was knocking some sense into her head.
"Wipe that smirk off your face, will you," she grumbled, though a smile was visible on her face. "I hate the times when you're the wiser one, Harry. It makes me feel insignificant."
He chuckled and placed his chin on her head. "I treasure those moments," he retorted back. "It makes me feel that I'm better than Hermione Granger. And that's some achievement."
She playful punched his shoulder and he just laughed. "I just realized I sounded immature a while ago," she said, ignoring the eager nod she got from Harry. "Bleh, I shouldn't let Malfoy bother me. He's the least of my worries, after all. But… but Merlin, he's still a pain-in-the-arse."
"Agreed," Harry said.
They allowed silence to settle between them. And then, it was Hermione broke it. "How are the others?" she asked.
Harry shrugged. "Still coping," he said, carefully choosing his words. "Ron tends to stare into space these past few days. Goodness, I had to act like I'm sad and all around them. Ginny kinda got touchy yesterday when I told her that she should be happy. Told me I was being insensitive. Sheesh, girls."
"Hey!" she cried back, indignant. Harry only flashed a smile. "Speaking of Ron, I'm sorry about what happened in Potions class today."
"You surprised me with your actions," he said, frowning. "But we both know that Ron intentionally placed an extra pound of belladonna in Zabini's cauldron. He… deserved it. But, I warn you that he'll not forget that in the future, Hermione."
"Oh, I know," she retorted back, rolling her eyes.
Harry then leaned his cheek against her head, releasing a wide yawn.
"I guess we should go back now," she said, looking at her watch. It was almost midnight already. "We both had a long day."
"Yeah," he said, standing up as he retrieved his Invisibility Cloak from his backpack. He wrapped it around his body, making his torso and legs invisible. Upon one glimpse from Hermione, he scowled. "How come I don't have the privilege to roam around Hogwarts any time I want? I'm Harry freakin' Potter, for goodness' sake!"
Hermione flicked a finger on his forehead, shaking her head in the process. "Well, maybe Dumbledore will bestow this privilege on you if you faked your own death and have a new identity and gender. Try it. It might work."
"Oh, ha ha," he said, ruffling her head affectionately.
Then, they both walked out from the Room of Requirement. "Goodnight, Hermione," Harry whispered, giving her forehead a kiss.
"Goodnight," she said, watching as he covered his head, completely making himself invisible.
"Stay strong," was his parting words and soon, walked back to the Gryffindor Tower. Hermione, following his lead, went back to the Slytherin Dungeons.
A/N: Well, that's it. Sigh, I'm going to rush this okay? I'm going to watch AVPM and AVPS again today because I am very depressed I still cannot watch HP 7 on the weekend… Yes, you've read right. I haven't watched it yet. My parents did not allow me because of the tests and all and… DAMN IT! I'll probably be watching it next week and WORSE, with my family. Don't get me wrong. I love them and all BUT they have no damn clue what will be going on in the movie so you know, the inquisitions and such. AND UGH, I'm really so depressed. And you know what can make me happy.
YUP, REVIEW!
With love,
2booklover4