Hello, everyone! THANK YOU for all of the wonderful reviews! You guys really make me smile. Okay, so I noticed that in the previous chapter Voldemort said "Thank you" to a Death Eater. I know, that is NOT REALISTIC AT ALL! It's a habit...but also keep in mind that Voldemort's a little happier/nice to his Death Eaters since Harry Potter died. Here's Chapter 3!
PS: Don't worry, I'm still going to work on Magical Marriage...it's just so fun to write this!
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling is a very lucky lady. I will never be able to write a FanFiction story that can match to her wonderful skills. :(.
Chapter 3!
Hermione wandered around the large extension of the ball room, not at all eager to find Draco Malfoy. I wonder if he knows that we are going to have to get married...Hermione thought.
"Granger. It's so nice to see you again." Hermione twirled around, finding herself extremely close to Malfoy. They were much too close for the bookworm's liking, and she started to back up. Unfortunately, Malfoy noticed this. He followed her until she was up against a wall.
"Uhh..hi, Malfoy. I'm happy to see that you've become even more of jerk since the last time I saw you...oh wait, I think I saw you amongst all of the Death Eaters yesterday. Well, Hermione, that's no surprise, since this idiot here really does become meaner and meaner as the days go on. Oh well!" Hermione threw her arms up in the air, exaggerating, and also talking to herself.
"I take that to offense, Hermione." Draco responded, smirking.
"Oh yeah, Draco? Well guess what? I DON'T CARE! YOU ARE A JERKHEAD THAT I HATE!" Hermione screamed at the top of her lungs. She suddenly felt all of the eyes in the room on her, and her face started to get red.
"Embarrassed, huh Granger?" Draco laughed. "Or was that a blush? Are you just absolutely amazed that the handsomest man on Earth is standing her talking to you?"
Hermione stood up straight, knowing that the redness on her cheeks was starting to go down. "I think you're flirting with me." She said simply.
That seemed to take Draco aback. Had Hermione Granger just shut up Draco Malfoy? Boy, someone should write this down and put in some history files!
"Listen, Malfoy. I hate you, you hate me. Why are we doing this? Let's just walk away, and let our anger leave. Then, tonight, when we have to move into that "building" together, we won't still be worked up. We can solve our problems then. Ok?" Hermione spoke softly and calmly, and then started to walk off in an attempt to find one of her friends.
"Ok." Draco said softly to himself as Hermione left. She's right. Draco thought to himself.
Hermione started to wander around the large, exquisite room and found herself thinking to herself. This is so messed up. Me and Malfoy-what was Lestrange thinking? Well, we all know she hates me. But she loves Draco, heck, he's her NEPHEW! Is this supposed to me some sort of joke? I wish Ginny was here. But no, she decided to run off and leave me all alone. Her and her whole family just deserted me. You know what, Hermione? What kind of a friend is that? Ginny left the girl that was in love with her brother and best friend's with her so that she could be safe-yet she's a PUREBLOOD! That whole family decided to leave me, the mudblood, and they knew that Voldemort would win. Everyone did. Harry...Harry just wasn't in that mental state of mind to kill the darkest wizard ever. Even the night before The War (we all knew it'd be the next day) he broke out in a nervous sweat. He said he wished he would have been born to different parents, given a different name. Anything but being Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived. You know what comes out of being a muggle-born? Nothing. Nothing at all. Well, less than nothing comes out of it. You are treated horribly and now I'm going to be killed, because everyone knows that Voldemort will kill me soon. This is just some facade to make us all like him as a leader. But I don't like him as a leader, and I never will. I'd rather rot in hell than follow his orders, and I'll show him that. He'll see it real good.
"Hermione!"
Hermione looked around, trying to see who had called her name in the busy room.
"Neville!" Hermione smiled, figuring out who had called her name. She threw her arms around her peer. Suddenly, her smile faded. "Neville...you're a Pureblood. You aren't getting married to someone bad, are you? And Voldemort isn't turning you into a Death Eater, right?"
"No, no, no, Hermione. No. Everything is actually kind of falling into place, except Voldemort winning the War. See, Voldemort needs to keep Hogwarts running. Obviously, since You-Know-Who is so evil, he wants to make the school one of the Dark Arts. But I figured, I could teach there, y'know? I could bring some happiness to the school, for those poor kids who will otherwise grow up to be evil! And Voldemort seems to like the idea...obviously I won't tell him that I'll teach the children things not relating to the Dark Arts, but I think he thinks I'll be a good herbology teacher, so I'm taking the job. And then I've been paired with a great person: Hannah Abbott! You remember her, don't you? Blonde, sweet, rosy cheeks?"
"Oh, Neville that sounds terrific! I do remember Hannah, but unfortunately I must remember something you don't. She was halfblood. Why would she lie and say that she was a muggle-born to Voldemort? It's a miracle they didn't find out, or else she would've been Crucio-ed. Plus, muggle-borns were almost all going to be killed, before this idea." Hermione looked concerned for her friend.
Neville smiled knowingly. "No, Hannah actually is a muggle-born. Her dad's brother, or her uncle, though, was a wizard and went to school with Snape and Malfoy's dad. They bullied him because he was a muggle-born, and when his brother (Hannah's dad) found out about this, and once he had a daughter that was a wizard, he told Hannah to say she was a halfblood. Dumbledore knew, of course, because Dumbledore knows everything. But Hannah took her dad's suggestion and told everyone that her dad was a wizard, which made her a halfblood. Yesterday, when Voldemort threatened to kill anyone who lied, Hannah knew she had to tell the truth. That's why she went to the muggle-born section. She and I got paired, and she told me all of this. Right now she's off in the Ladies' Room. But nevermind me. Hermione, what's happened to you? If you ever need help just come to me. Who were you paired with?" Neville questioned.
Hermione's face darkened. "You really don't want to know." She replied.
"Yes, I do. Where's Ron? And Ginny?"
Hermione felt tears prick her eyes, and feared that she would start to weep in front of Neville. "Ron...Ron died. I was there, and he just fell down and started to bleed a ton until he shriveled up. He stoppe-he stopped breathing after that. I didn't know what to do, or who to get for help. Heck, I didn't even know what was happening to him. He just started to bleed, and vomit blood, and I couldn't do anything. I stood there, stunned by it all, and let him die. I let him DIE, Neville! How can I ever forgive myself?" Hermione was full-on crying now. She just couldn't hold back her tears.
"There, there, Hermione." Neville tried to calm the upset woman in front of him. "I know that you think it was your fault, but it wasn't. You don't know what happened, but I do. It was the same thing that Professor Sprout died of. It's...it's very complicated. But it involves going into the recesses of ones mind and pulling out some dark Truth, something that they did to someone that they loved. Something they lied about. Then, the murderer brings that Truth out into broad daylight to that person. They torment them with it until they die of sorrow and regret. This Dark Art, called Povusinox, takes years and years and years of practice to work correctly. The least amount of time you have to spend on it before mastering it is 43 years. Because of this, only someone older can accomplish the horrid job. By observing what the person's death was like, we can figure out what the dark Truth was. I...I shouldn't say..."
Hermione looked frightened. "Neville, tell me what you know. Everything that you know."
"Hermione..." Neville warned. "Fine. Here's the deal. I tell you Ron's dark Truth, you tell me your match, okay? Fair deal?" Neville put out his hand for Hermione to shake.
"Deal. Now spill it." Hermione shook Neville's hand urgently.
"Okay, so judging by your description of Ron's bleeding to death, I can determine that it had something to do with a relationship he was currently in. And you were dating him. Next, he died slowly, and painfully. Sometimes it can be fast. This means that he lied, and that what he did took place over a long period of time. This also shows us that he did something related to a relationship...but not with the person who he said he was dating. Lastly, when he "shriveled up" that means he had plans...pla-plans to..."
"Yes?" Hermione pleaded.
"...plans to kill you." Neville paused for a moment.
"WHAT? Ron? Kill me? It's insane. He wouldn't do that!" Hermione protested. "Tell me what else you know."
"Well, all in all, Ron was cheating on you...with Pansy Parkinson. And she didn't like you and therefore told him she'd break up with him and tell you that he was cheating on you if he didn't kill you. So he tried to kill you...he was going to during the War, and he figured you'd never know. So, yeah...that's what happened." Neville finished.
Hermione started to sob. "I know that you're telling the truth...it's just really hard to process." She cried. "Oh, and a deals a deal. I got Malfoy as my partner." Hermione ran off into the crowd of people, wiping her face in hopes to cease the crying and redness.
"Everybody."
Hermione looked up, and saw Voldemort floating in the air.
"You shall go to the Malfoy courtyard to get lunch. Then, you will move into the building directly after lunch." Voldemort finished.
Hermione nodded and started towards the double doors, eager for food of any kind. She quickly found a place with Neville and Hannah (who had come back from the bathroom) and told them about how the Weasley's had deserted her. Lunch was over way too soon and Hermione dreaded having to move into the building.
After bidding goodbye to Neville and Hannah, Hermione heading straight to the building not even trying to look for Malfoy.
There was a Death Eater bye the door of the newly-built building and was telling each couple which floor they had. It was obviously a magical building, for there were hundreds of couples and each couple got their own floor. Hermione felt very awkward all alone and trying to figure out her floor number.
"Granger, Malfoy. 79." The Death Eater said with no expression.
Hermione hurried around the Death Eater and tried to figure out how to work the building. I think you have to think your floor number in your head. Hermione thought to herself. She tried her idea, and sure enough, it worked. She suddenly saw a door floating in front of her. "COME UP WITH A PASSWORD." The door barked at Hermione.
"Donkey." Hermione said the first thing that came to mind, a muggle animal.
"BOTH WIZARDS MUST AGREE." The door droned.
"Granger." Draco floated up behind Hermione, scaring her.
"Malfoy, we need a password. Do you have any ideas?" Hermione glared.
"No."
"Men."
"Hey!"
"FINE! I'll decide it all on my own!" Hermione complained.
"Fine."
"Humbug."
"YUCK!"
"You said you'd be fine with any password!" Hermione protested.
"Yeah, but Humbug was Pansy Parkinson's nickname for me." Draco explained.
"Oh. Well Humbug was my hamster's name." Hermione smiled.
"What's a hamster?" Draco asked, confused.
"It's a muggle thing. Anyways, what should our password be?" Hermione asked.
" I dunno. How about...Tigress? Draco suggested.
"I like that. Let's do tha-" Hermione froze, and so did Draco.
"Whoa." Draco looked scared.
"I know." Hermione nodded. "We were actually being civil to each other."
Hermione and Draco looked at each other. Eventually, Hermione broke the stare. "Anyways," she started, shaking her head as if to rid the knowledge of what had just happened, "Tigress it is."
"Tigress it is." Draco agreed.
Sorry for the kind of abrupt ending...I'm not sure if it was abrupt or not. It seemed to be a good ending nonetheless. I'm going to start working on Chapter 4 soon...if you've read my other story, Magical Marriage, you can probably tell that this one has Dramione starting much sooner than the other.
BTW: Humbug was my friend's gerbil's name, and I said that Hermione had a hamster because I have an ADORABLE hamster!
Anyways, happy reading!