Change
of Season
by
Jiwwy
Chapter
4
Common
Rooms
In
the Gryffindor common room, everyone usually went right to bed as soon
as they walked in.
The
same was true for Hufflepuff. Some older Ravenclaws might stay up in theirs
for a few minutes,
but
only to talk about their summers or a new wizarding band or anything else
that would take up
time
tomorrow after they got their schedules. In Slytherin, however, the ambitious
children of
Hogwarts
stay up at least an hour after being stuffed to their seams. Death Eater
kids would usually
get
the fire, but sometimes would go to the back of the common room. The other
kids would
watch
them apprehensively and mumble about cliques.
Draco
was lying against the front of an armchair, his legs sprawling out on the
rug near the fire as
he
read his potions text disinterestedly.
“Malfoy?”
said a voice. It was Jared Harpe, a fourth-year with spiky brown hair and
sharp grey
eyes.
He wasn’t one of the Death Eaters’ kids, but he hung on the outskirts of
them and was known
for
being snappy to mudb- Muggle Born children. Then again, he was snappy a
lot. “’re you really
going
with that Gryffindor girl?” He asked, sitting on the rug in front of the
armchair opposite Draco’s.
A
sixth-year girl who had been gabbing happily and sitting on the arm of
it glared down at him and
got
up in a huff, thinking he was trying to look up her skirt. Jared rolled
his eyes. Draco tried to look
unimpressed,
but Jared question shocked him a little. It had no conviction, Jared was
just curious.
Draco
had never talked to Jared much. “Yeah.” He answered finally, flipping a
page in his book as
if
he were reading it.
Jared
rubbed his nose. “Oh.”
Draco
finally looked at him. Jared was looking around boredly. It annoyed Draco,
and he didn’t
know
why. Probably because Jared wasn’t waiting on me, like I’m used to,
he thought to himself
with
an inside smirk. “Like Potions, huh?” Jared suddenly said, pointing to
the back cover of the text.
Draco
glared at him.
“Doesn’t
every Slytherin?” Snape’s favoritism was a plus, wasn’t it?
Jared
cocked an eyebrow. “Not my girlfriend.” He motioned over Draco’s shoulder,
where a short
girl
with mousy blonde hair and honey brown eyes was grinning a wide smile at
a taller girl with long,
curly
black hair, the face of whom Draco couldn’t see. “Claire Perth.” Jared
said. They’d both shed
their
robes, and Jared’s girlfriend had on a tight green shirt and a pleated
plaid miniskirt. She didn’t
have
much in the way of legs (unlike her friend, who was wearing the school
uniform skirt, but still
managed
to look nice in it, an amazing achievement only made by Padma and Parvati
Patil, Susan
Bones,
and Ginny Weasley that Draco had noticed. He also couldn’t say they made
Hermione look
in
any way horrible) but she had a cute shape considering her size. The dungeons
were always cold,
but
could get as warm as seventy on days on the fringes of the school year,
when people dared to
discard
their robes unless wearing a sweater and jeans. “Don’t like to gossip,
but she’s the worst in
the
school.”
“Worse
than that Gryffindor, Longbottom?”
Jared
looked puzzled, then nodded. “Fat kid with the frog?”
Draco
nodded. Longbottom really wasn’t too big; he just had ultra chipmunk cheeks
that Draco
would
have settled for taunting him about, if he didn’t suck so much at… well,
everything.
Jared
nodded with a grin. “Worse than him. Claire’s… she’s smart. Don’t think
she likes to show
it,
to Snape at least. She’s weird.” He smiled a little as she threw back her
head, cackling at
something
the other girl had said. Then she took her friend’s hand and led her across
the room,
where
they started talking to Gabrielle Delacour and another first-year like
they’d known them
forever.
“Who’s
her friend?” I asked, indicating the tall girl.
“Jervis
Liatos.”
“Jervis?”
“We
call her Java… you really have no clue about your own house, do you? No
wonder you
weren’t
made prefect.”
Draco
glared.
“Sorry…”
He cocked an eyebrow at Draco again and shrugged. “Seriously, though, you
don’t
know
anyone outside your year?”
“I
know the seventh and sixth years.” Draco said coolly.
“Not
one for socializing?” Draco gave him a scowl. “That’ll be a no, right?”
Jared almost sounded
chipper.
Now that was annoying. A small part of Draco screamed, Jesus Draco,
I’d like to see
you
with P.M.S. if this is normal behavior. The majority of Draco
proceeded to mentally gang
up
on this bit and kick its figmented little butt.
Yes…
when the halves of Draco’s brain wage war… That would mean time to go to
bed. “You
can
teach me etiquette tomorrow, kid. I need my beauty rest.” As he stared
to the corridor leading
to
the boys’ dormitories, he found himself unintentionally glancing to the
exit of the common room
to
the rest of the castle, but Hermione was a prefect, and would never sneak
out at night, even for
him.
***
Hermione
sat up and looked around. For the first few seconds of the day she was
normal.
She
sniffed and rubbed her eyes, then remembered that today was the first day
of the term. She
allowed
herself a small smile before she grabbed her robes and amazingly shiny
prefect badge, not
even
wanting to look at herself in the mirror before she made it to the shower,
knowing full well her
hair
was poofed out to the point of being an afro. She tossed a lot when she
slept, and that paired
with
her hair didn’t really make her a very happy girl in the morning.
After
a quick shower and a little muggle foundation that her mother had let her
bring this year, the
only
makeup she owned, and she was set. She brushed through her hair to flatten
it and smiled
good-morning
to Parvati and Lavender, who usually woke up a half-hour before her and
finished
putting
on their makeup charms at least fifteen minutes after her.
She
paused in the dorm room and, on a whim, rummaged through her things for
a small while (it
didn’t
take long to find even the most neglected items— everything was organized
to a fault) and
came
out with a large red barrette. She clipped it behind her hair and slipped
on her Mary Janes.
With
a glance at the clock she noted that she was still about ten minutes earlier
than usual. She
shrugged
to herself and went downstairs, wondering if she could catch a word with
Draco before
the
Great Hall was too crowded.
As
she walked down the marble staircase, she was very happy to see Draco just
emerging from
the
dungeons with Crabbe and Goyle right behind him like big, stupid trains
on his robes. Hermione
gave
him a smile and he stopped. Goyle looked around, but Crabbe didn’t notice
at all. Draco
shooed
him on and he nodded, looking at Hermione with a look that made her raise
an eyebrow
and
wish he’d hurry up and go in already.
Draco’s
hair was still slicked back, damn the bloody blond strands to hell.
She
fought back an almost irresistible urge to muss it again but, being the
good girlfriend she was,
stifled
it. He smoothed it down flatter to his skull, seeming to know what she
was about to do, and
she
rolled her eyes.
“So
what’s the current events in jolly old Gryffindor Tower?” He said jauntily.
“Did Weasley
managed
to get his shoes on all by himself?” Hermione hit him lightly.
“Uncalled
for, Draco Aidan. I said a lack of open hostility, did I not?”
He
mumbled under his breath again and she sighed, but smiled. She finally
grabbed his sleeve and
started
to get him into the Great Hall, when he suddenly paused.
“Uh,
wait, Hermione…” She turned around to face an even paler Draco than usual,
but kept a
hold
of his sleeve, and swung it back and forth like a little girl holding onto
her father. “Hermione…
I
kinda…”
This
isn’t good. She thought matter-of-factly to herself.
“KindatoldtheSlytherinsi’mgoingwithyoutogetinformationonPotter.”
“…
What?” She hissed as she grabbed the front of hisd robes and marched
him away from the
door
of the Great Hall to a corner, where they weren’t in everyone’s way.
He
let out a very whiny moan. “Hermione! It was Pansy’s fault, she
was being mean.” He
emphasized
the mean with all the seriousness of a valley girl trying to prove why
highwaters are
so
much better than capris.
She
couldn’t help but laugh at first, but then she caught herself, stopped,
and kicked his shin. Hard.
With
really hard-soled shoes.
“Jesus
Christ Hermione!” He hissed at her as he grabbed his shin and started bouncing
around in
a
funny little dance. “You’re so mean!”
She
looked up in the air as if pondering this. “Yes. Yes I am, but that’s your
problem isn’t it. Should
have
thought about it before going with a muggle. We’re all crazy, you
know.” She snapped her
teeth
at him to prove her point. He glanced around to make sure none of his housemates
were
around,
and then kissed her. Too much action from her mouth not involving
his mouth was starting
to
bug him, and they’d only been going out a month.
They
parted quickly; she was blushing like a Weasley. “Draco, I’m a prefect.”
He kissed her
again,
on the nose. “But I’m not. So do you think I care?” He said in a
teasing voice. She brought
her
hands up to his neck and grinned. She put one finger up. He took this to
mean one more kiss,
and
that he gave her.
They
were still standing in a corner of the Entrance Hall, and now a few more
students were leaking
in
from the various directions of their rooms, but Hermione was hidden behind
Draco’s shoulders, so
Draco
didn’t care. He kissed her again, and they just stayed like that for a
while, in their own
country,
continent, planet, whatever. They were alone and together and it was glorious.
When
they parted she still had a finger raised.
“What’s
that, he asked quietly. She more felt it than heard it.
She
stood on tiptoes to get up to his ear and whispered in it. “One point for
Slytherin.”
Awwww!
Yeah, I gave
you fluff. Happy now? *grin* Well, I don’t care, I’m happy.
Just so you
know, Claire is my beautiful self-insertion. She forgets everything, without
fail, has little short legs and big
brown eyes
and mousy hair that JUST FREAKING WON’T DECIDE BETWEEN PRETTY GOLD AND
PRETTY
BROWN *simmers*…
and doesn’t like everyone else’s favorite teacher. She’s totally annoying
but somehow there’s
still some
poor sap that loves her. (AKA- HI AUB!!)
Aub named her.
I wanted her to be named Chloe, but it was too Mary-Sueish because I love
‘Chloe’ and it owns.
Jervis is named
after a girl I met at a football game. I couldn’t remember her name at
all so being the lazy kid I am, just
called her
Java, knowing if I called her anything too close to her real name she’d
know I had no idea what it was. ^_^;;
Her name stuck
with me as the girl with the gross name but awesome nickname.
Jared’s just
there. I picked the first name that came to my head and for some reason
it was Jared. I keep wanting to
call him Jason
or Justin, and I have no idea why. If I did a few times in here… um, I’ll
suck. *nods*
Thanks for
the falafel explanations. Falafel r0x0rz. And since I got feedback, I have
another question (a cookie to the
first answer!):
In Black & White, is it normal to have to go through the entire starting
cinema until those slow-as-hell
villagers
finish the temple and I can just go to my saved game? It’s hurting my head.
*shuffles feet, blinks*
ANYway.
Damned Dirty
Chapter Three Revooers (In amazingtastic reverse order): Indarae,
G*Ness (she ownz), Mayleesa,
michee (…
*titters insanely*), Caswy, Son of Evil (aww), Dragon from the Black Lagoon
(Heeey! There’s a possibility
Gabby’s really
awesome! I have a twinkie for a sister, but I’m not like her… right? RIGHT?!
… *sobs*), krissy,
Emaeleigha
(You’re right! CG HAVE no substance: they eat, run on the treadmill, and
mate) (someone read RatBoys
for me, cause
it owns me) (Oh yeah, sorry for stealing your ideas all the time. *grin*)
, Desert Falcon, porkypop,
Rosandra May,
aaaaand! Calypso in Love!!
This
chapter in loving memory of:
Humper J.A.
Becerra-Goetz
You shall
be missed!!
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