Beautiful Darkness by EssTheDreamer
***Chapter Three***
Of Familiars and Friends
"Who are you?" asked the boy, the one with the glasses, after getting up.
Hermione was miffed. Most people, after pushing you down, would apologize, especially if they didn't help you up. Wizarding culture is a bit backwards, thought Hermione.
"I'm …" Hermione wondered if she should reveal her real name. Draco had put up a glamour on her, to protect her identity for who knows what reason, so maybe he'd like her to keep up the mystery. "I'm Charlotte Watson," she said, deciding to go with a name of a famous muggle actress, only the shortened version.
"Oh … I'm Harry Potter," said the boy, waiting for a reaction. Hermione didn't know what else to say, so she just said "Oh, that's … nice."
The boy - Harry - looked shocked at her reaction, or rather, the way she had no reaction. Hermione then noticed the red haired boy, who stood there looking like a fish. After a nudge from Harry, he stepped out of his flustered state. "I'm Ronald Weasley, but you can call me Ron. Uh, what school do you go to?"
Again, Hermione was at a standstill. She wanted to attend Hogwarts, having read all about it, even though it was an outdated version, but she didn't know how to apply or how to even notify them of her magical abilities. She decided that she could tell a partial truth. "I'm being home-schooled, although I hope to attend Hogwarts next semester." That was the truth, but only if you spun the words around.
Just then, Draco appeared. "Granger, didn't I say to stay in the store?" He was carrying a bag full of stuff, such as scrolls of parchment, and on his other hand, he held a black and silver broom with Firebolt Supreme labeled in silver letters. When he reached Hermione, he turned the bag into a coin, just like the bookstore girl did, and stuffed it in his pocket.
"Who is Granger supposed to be? And who are you to command her around?" asked the redhead, Ron.
"Granger? He said, uh, Char. Maybe your ears are a bit stuffy," said Hermione, making up an excuse on the spot.
"Yes, I call her Char, it's a shortened version of her name, you know. There's no problem with that, I believe. I'm Draco Malfoy," said Draco, a bit snottily. He seemed to realize that she went by a fake name here.
"Oh, you're a Malfoy, explains the white hair! That family is known for Dark Magic and allying with the Dark Lord, that's for sure. You should hang out with the right sort, like us," said Ron, motioning to Harry and himself, as if it was a universal fact, turning to Hermione. Harry looked surprised at Ron's words and shot him with a glare.
Hermione also looked shocked at the way they quickly dismissed Draco, just because of his name. She quickly rose to the defense of Draco. "Honestly, magic is magic, colors do not matter. One decision from the past should not also draw out your whole life, especially if it was someone else who made it. Come on, Draco, I'm sure we have better things to do than hang out with these bigoted idiots" she said, not even bothering to wait for a reply from the judgy duo. She grabbed Draco's arm and pulled him to the opposite direction that Harry and Ron were standing in, nearly running with the speed Hermione was pulling.
When Hermione found a suitable location to stop in, she turned and looked at Draco, who looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I can defend myself, you know."
"Yes, of course I know that, but you didn't exactly do that, did you?"
"I was going to, but you didn't let me," huffed Draco, like a child.
Hermione laughed at the way he was acting; she'd just defended him, and yet he was still acting like a spoiled child. Thinking of that, she realized that she didn't know much about Draco, who was going to basically be her tutor for all of summer.
"Are you an only child?"
Still with his raised eyebrow, he replied "Yes, why are you asking?"
"I just realized that I know next to nothing about you, and I'm going to depend on you to teach me magic."
"Oh, right, that. I'm sure that we'll be well acquainted by the time you start Hogwarts. Speaking of that … to get you into Hogwarts, I'm going to need to show you to my parents, and you'll need to impress them," said Draco, worried how his parents were going to react to a girl, a muggle one at that, even if she was immensely powerful with some dark tendencies.
"What am I, your girlfriend?" asked Hermione with a roll of her eyes.
"If you want to be, all you had to do was ask, sweetheart," he said, bringing his hands to his heart and leaning back in a teasing gesture.
"Who would want to be your girlfriend? I'd rather date a ferret," muttered Hermione, who could feel a blush coming on. For all her ability to mask her emotions, she still couldn't control her blushes!
Draco chuckled at Hermione's retort and secretly felt pleased that he'd conjured a blush out of her. "Anyway, we'll need to set up a form of communication. Can't be knocking into you every time we need to talk, right?"
"Yes, of course, but how do wizards communicate?" she asked, hoping it wasn't something weird.
"By owl, or by Floo. I'd connect to you by Floo, but … then my parents would want to meet you before you're ready, and that would be hard to get out of. So, we'll get you an owl," said Draco, walking into the store.
Hermione had never been much of an animal person, save for when she'd once had a cat named Crookshanks, from her childhood. When the cat had suddenly went missing, it had been a huge heartbreak of Hermione's. So when she say a kitten that looked like a miniature Crooks, she couldn't help but pick it up.
"Oh, Draco, look, this kitten's calling me. Surely we can communicate in other ways, I don't have need of an owl. I'd rather this cute little ball of joy," she said, starting to coo at the ginger kitten.
The kitten didn't seem to like Hermione that much, even going as far to scratch her on the cheekbone, just below her right eye. Hermione let go of the cat right away. "On second thought, let's just get an owl," wincing in pain at the scratch.
Draco, who'd been watching the whole exchange with arched eyebrows, brought out his wand and tapped her cheek, and the scratch vanished, although it left a slightly faded mark.
"Cats just hate me in general. I was a fool to think one might finally like me," she said, looking wistfully at the cat.
"Don't worry, most animals dislike wizards that aren't their wizard or with whom they don't form a special bond with. I'd once tried to pet a phoenix, and it flew away to the other side of the room. Bit of a disappointment, but I'll find my familiar one da-" Interrupting Draco's speech to cheer them up, just then, a snowy furball launched itself at Draco and started licking his face, much to the amusement of Hermione. Draco stood there, gaping, as he was slobbered over. The shopkeeper came towards them.
"Oh, congratulations! You've found you familiar. This little Akita's been so hard to take care of, I've been waiting for the day it's wizard would walk through these doors. You can have him, I can't deal any longer. I believe she doesn't have a name yet, so good luck!" the shopkeeper went off to get starting supplies for the white Akita, and Draco stood there, with a dog licking him. Hermione was still laughing, so much that her stomach hurt.
After Draco got rid of his momentary surprise, he'd paid the shopkeeper, and paid for Hermione's owl, a midnight black owl that she'd non-creatively named "Midnight". Draco, also not feeling creative, named the pup "Akita", and they left the store with two pets.
Midnight wasn't her familiar, but she learned from the shopkeeper that some familiar-wizard relationships develop, and aren't at first sight, and Hermione knew that she would love the owl.
AN: Hello, everyone! I hope you all liked the chapter, even if it was shorter than usual!
I was going to make Crookshanks her familiar, but seeing as canon Crookshanks was Hermione's familiar in 3rd year, and this is in basically 6th year, I decided to just give her a pretty little owl. I've always loved the pet name Midnight, and I've just wanted to use it, so, Midnight the owl was born.
Akita was a total unplanned accident. I just wanted Draco to get slobbered on, but since it happened after his familiar speech (which I don't think it's canon, sorry), I decided to give little ol' Draco an Akita instead of a ferret, which is kind of cliche.
Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! In response to the reviews on whether Hermione is dark or light, I think going with a mixture, aka grey, with some dark tendencies, like one review suggested, will match this story the best! I am also quite happy because I have the rest of the story planned out, and there will be a ton of plot twists (sorry, not sorry, but sorry, lol). There will be two major parts to this story, one before the major plot twist, and one after, in which Hermione's character will get a bit darker.
But that's in the future, so don't worry about it.
In response to a review on having Hermione be multi-cultural, that's a good idea, thanks! I haven't seen any Indian/Desi Hermione's in the fandom, so I'll try to add that in, somehow. Or just a ton of different cultures in general. JK Rowling never specified, so us fanfic writers can do whatever our heart desires, haha.
In preparation for Draco and Hermione's tutoring sessions, what do you guys want to see? I'll definitely have Hermione react to Divination, but if you guys have any requests, then just review to let me know so that I can include it. Their tutoring sessions will be written in snippets, and will be happening over the rest of this summer.
Best,
Ess
Reviews are your own personal Akita, follows are Midnight as your owl, and favorites are a little Crookshanks that doesn't bite! :D