The pursuit of happiness

A/N: I'm sorry guys, but it was brought to my attention the little mistakes in this chapter (by none other than my boo) anyway it turns out that I posted the draft and not the revised chapter like I thought, so here it is. Almost done with chapter 3.


~I only bite on request~

“Dear me, Hermione what happened?” Mrs. Weasley started fussing over her as soon they walked back into the kitchen.

“It was nothing Mrs. Weasley, I’m f-

“No you are not, mum Ron Called her a mudblood,” Ginny was so angry that each word came out slowly and drenched with venom.

To say Mrs. Weasley was angry was *The* understatement of the year, she was bloody livid.

“Ronald Bilius Weasley,” molly exploded louder than a howler. Seconds later Ron walked in, head held low and both hands stuffed in his pant pockets. “I should call your father, tell him that one of his sons dared use that foul word, send you to spend the night in Azkaban. Maybe one night there will teach you what we failed to teach you so far,” Ron flinched visibly at the mention of Azkaban, for that meant spending a night surrounded by Dementors.

“Mrs. Weasley that won’t be necessary, I won’t press charge,” Hermione said, her sobs had subsided but the tears were still there.

After the fall of Voldemort and his minions, the Ministry had passed a few new laws. One of them was that if anyone chose to use the word ‘Mudblood’ in an offensive manner, the person being called that could press charges and the offender would spend one night in Azkaban surrounded by Dementors. After three wizards and one witch had been made as examples the foul word was almost a myth no one spoke of.

“Still, your father will hear about this, together we will discuss a punishment for you,” Molly informed her youngest son.

“Mum… I’m of age, you can’t punish me anymore,” for the second time today, Ron realized his mistake too little too late.

“Ginny, take Harry and Hermione up to your room. I left your school letters on your bed, after I’m done with Ronald we will be leaving for Diagon Alley to buy your school supplies,” thankful for the dismissal the three practically bolted out of the kitchen. The wave of magic and the complete silence coming from the kitchen meant that a silencing spell and probably a locking charm had been put into place.

“There was no need for that,” Hermione shook her head.

“You are too soft for your own good, had it been me I would have put his ass on Azkaban for the night,” clearly Ginny was still angry.

“I wouldn’t say Azkaban, but there was definitely a need for it Hermione, he should’ve known better than to call you that,” Harry sighed sadly, he knew Ron was in deep shit.

“At least we get to go out, I could definitely eat a whole gallon of ice cream right now,” Hermione grinned.

“Yeah, ice cream does sound nice,” Ginny smiled, her anger rapidly slipping away.

About twenty minutes later Ron walked into Ginny’s room.

“Don’t you knock,” Ginny snapped.

“Hermione, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to say that to you, I guess I was just upset with you wanting to date Malfoy and all,” Ron apologized to Hermione completely ignoring Ginny’s comment.

“That’s okay Ron, but if you ever call me that again you will be begging for a night with the Dementors by the time I’m done with you,” she smiled sweetly at him, a little too sweet that it crept him out.

“And after that you’ll have me to deal with,” Harry thumped him hard on the back.

“I have been warned, Mum is waiting.”

“So, Ron, what’s your punishment?” Ginny asked.

“Stuff it, Gin,” but there was no harshness behind it, and surprisingly all four burst into fits of laughter as they made their way downstairs to meet Mrs. Weasley. They took the floo into Gringotts so that Harry and Hermione could get some wizard money. Mrs. Weasley took their list and money and left to do their school supplies shopping, leaving the teens to have some quality time with each other.

“Hermione I remember you saying something about a gallon of ice cream?” Harry smiled wiggling his eyebrows at her.

“Well… you see, maybe not a Whole gallon, but let’s go have some,” Harry held his arm out for her and Ginny, Ron walked behind them as the two girls sandwiched Harry. Along the way Lavender joined them. Just before they arrived at Fortescue’s ice cream parlor, the soft drawl of Malfoy’s voice stopped them dead in their tracks.

“Well, look who we have here, Saint Potter and his band of happy-go-fucking-lucky followers,” Malfoy laid the bait.

They turned as a group to face Malfoy, even though he had switched sides leaving Crabbe and Goyle to fend for themselves, to Harry and his friends it was still weird to see Malfoy not flanked by his usual bodyguards. Instead for company he had Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott.

“Do us all a favor ferret, drop dead,” and unfortunately Ron fell for it.

“No can do Weasel, I don’t do favors,” Malfoy grinned.

“I could always give you a hand,” Harry smiled, even though they had made an effort at being civil towards each other, Harry and Draco loved taking the piss off one another.

“Seems to me like that won’t be at all possible, being that you’ve got your hands filled with way more than you can handle already. Now if you stop being rude, and introduce me to this pretty little thing, I could take her off your arms for a while,” Draco smiled, an almost real smile that set giant mutant butterflies inside Hermione’s stomach.

“But you already know Ginny, and sorry but she’s taken,” Harry grinned.

“You mean you don’t know our friend?” Ginny giggled, ‘this was awesome,’ she thought.

“I don’t believe I do, beauty like this is never forgotten,” he was flirting shamelessly.

“I’m sorry Malfoy, Voldy must have really done damage to that brain of yours. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Hermione Granger,” she dislocated her arm from Harry’s and extended it towards him.

Draco jaw hit the floor, this was definitely not the granger he knew. ‘Shit’, he collected himself quickly, mumbled something about having places to be and left. Theo followed suit but Blaise lingered. He gave Hermione a once over mouthed ‘owl me’ and followed his friends.

“It seems like you’ll be able to hook at least one Slytherin,” Ginny chuckled. Hermione noticed a slight hint of hurt in her friend’s voice, but that was a topic for a late night conversation between just the two of them. So Hermione stored her mental note away, and just enjoyed her time with her friends.

~*~


They stepped through the barrier into platform 9¾ with almost twenty minutes to spare. With Ron and Ginny being the last two Weasley that still attended Hogwarts the ‘get up and go’ time was much shorter. So for the first time they had arrived with enough time to say proper Hellos and Good-byes.

After finding an empty compartment, they headed back out to socialize a bit. Mrs. Weasley bid them good bye and disapparated back home.

“With you being Head Girl I have the right to know of any event happening at the school before everyone else,” Ginny said while brushing an invisible lint from Hermione’s badge.

“If I’m allowed to share information you will be the first to know, but also you are a prefect, so you'll know,” Hermione smiled.

“A lot of eyes on you,” Ginny leaned forward whispering discreetly, completely ignoring Hermione.

Hermione had been oblivious to the fact till now. She looked around noticing that Ginny was indeed right, the boys seemed to be checking her out openly which caused the girls to glare at her.

“I didn’t want all this attention,” Hermione mumbled feeling a bit uncomfortable in Ginny’s choice of outfit for her. Ginny had chosen a pair of loose fitted jeans that hung low on her hips and Slytherin green tee, which she insisted in shortening in length just a bit to show off Hermione’s belly button piercing that just so happened to be a serpent.

“Stop fussing, you look great,” she chided as Hermione tugged her top down.

“Well, hello ladies,” Blaise greeted.

“Zabini,” Ginny acknowledged him.

“Please Red, just Blaise,” Ginny blushed crimson. Hermione had meant to approach her friend on the subject but it had slipped her mind, ‘not this time’ she told herself.

“What do you want Blaise?” Hermione asked.

“Nothing, can't a fellow just say hello to two pretty ladies,” he was Italian through and through. Charm was something he excelled at.

“Not when said fellow is Slytherin and said ladies belong to Gryffindor,” Hermione smiled.

“By the look you are sporting one might say you belong in Slytherin, nice little serpent you got there,” Draco who had come to stand by his friend, smirked giving Hermione a once over.

“Wanna pet it?” she asked, knowing immediately she had stuck her foot in her mouth.

“Only if you pet mine,” just then the whistle blew, letting them know the train was leaving soon. Saved by the whistle, Hermione obediently followed as Ginny tugged her arm walking towards the train.

“What was that?” Ginny asked as soon as they in their compartment, Harry and Ron nowhere in sight.

“No clue,” Hermione responded, excitement clear in her voice.

“Take it slow, Mia, you are treading in dangerous waters,” Ginny warned her.

“You should say.”

“What do you mean?” Ginny asked confused.

“You and Harry seems to have finally gotten together, but it looks like you are willing to give it all up for a certain Italian boy,” it slipped. This was not how Hermione wanted this conversation to go.

“Oh I’m a horrible person,” Ginny cried hiding her face behind her hands.

“No, you are not a horrible person. What changed? I mean you were infatuated with Harry since you first laid eyes on him.”

“I think I lost it Hermione, with him pushing me away before and during the war, I think I lost it,” Ginny explained as a single tear ran down her cheek.

“Have you talked to him about it?” Hermione asked softly.

“I’m not that brave, plus everyone expect us to be together. After the fall of Voldemort so did he, didn’t even ask me out, just assumed I was his,” Ginny explained sadly.

“How long have you been crushing on Zabini?”

“Since the Victory Ball, we danced together a couple of times, I felt appreciated. I know it was only a couple of dances, but… he sure knows how to make a girl feel like the center of his world,” this time Ginny’s explanation was almost Luna like.

“So we both have a crush on Slytherins, that’s the best support I’ve ever gotten from a friend,” Hermione smiled trying to make light of their little predicament.

Ginny had opened her mouth to reply as Harry and Ron walked into the compartment they were sharing, putting and immediate ending to the girls conversation.

“I have to go the Heads Compartment, I’ll see you guys later,” she winked at Ginny, showing Ginny her support, and was gone.

~*~

Meanwhile in another compartment. Draco sat alone reading a Quidditch book.

“Have you heard the new rumor?” Blaise asked peaking into the compartment.

“For all the years you’ve known me one might think you’d know I don’t listen to rumors,” Draco answered, not even bothering to look away from his book.

“I believe you want to know this one,” Blaise informed.

“I highly doubt it,” Blaise hated it when Draco played difficult.

After three minutes of silence Draco looked up at his friend thinking that maybe he had given up. Wrong.

“I know something you don’t know,” Blaise sang in an annoyingly childish voice.

“What are we? Five?” Draco snapped.

“I’ve been on this train for twenty minutes tops, we still have over eight hours to go, I’ll deal with your grumpiness later,” Blaise sighed getting ready to leave.

“Don’t even think of leaving, you can’t come in here, tease then leave without telling me what you know,” Draco said.

“Now you wanna play nice. What if I don’t wanna tell you anymore?” Blaise teased some more.

“Fine. Leave.”

“You are no fun,” Blaise told him.

“You, of all people, should KNOW how fun I can be,” now it was Draco’s turn to tease.

“We were drunk, but I didn’t come here to talk about us. I just heard THE biggest gossip of all times.”

“Really? And what’s that?” Draco asked not bothering to hide the lack of interest in his voice.

“Have you seen the Head Girl yet?”

“I was right there with you, so yes, I’ve seen Granger, so what?”

“Of course you have, sorry mate I wasn't really paying any attention to you. Well, I’ve heard from a very reliable source that the new look was not to impress the Weasel, as the whole train might have thought. But it is indeed to impress a certain Slytherin Head boy,” Blaise sat back as if getting ready to watch a great show.

“We’ve been on the train less than half a hour, how do you know this already?”

“I have my way with the ladies.”

“How reliable would you say this source is?” Draco asked now completely interested in what Blaise had to say.

“Gryffindor.”

“Really? That’s interesting rumors.”

Blaise knew, but doubted Granger did, that she was in trouble. If he knew Draco like he thought he did, Granger was about to take permanent residence on cloud nine.

“She’s looking quite fetching, I didn’t know she was hiding all that underneath her school robes,” Draco mused, speaking more to himself than to his friend.

“Yes I do agree. I was actually going to go after that fine arse myself, but with the info I’ve just shared with you, I have no choice but to sit back and allow you first servings. If you’re interested that is?”

“She’s still a mud-

“Don’t finish that sentence, it is a simple yes or no question,” Blaise interrupted, he really did not like that word. After all the people he’d seen bleed during the war, the only one he’d seen bleed dark was Voldemort himself.

“Sorry mate, old habits die hard. But she is quite fetching and if you are right and the new look is to get my attention, she’s got it,” Draco smiled.

“I don’t wanna sound homo or anything, but you really look beautiful when you smile.”

“Thanks mate, just don’t say that around other people.”

“Yeah, sure. Anyway, I hear she’s still a virgin,” Blaise changed the subject mentally kicking himself for the little slip.

“No way,” Draco said in pure disbelief.

“Way,” Blaise sighed, thanking Merlin that his friend wouldn’t hold his little slip against him.

“So I take it Gryffindorks have yet to figure out how to get past the charms to ‘protect’ the girl’s dorms.”

“I would doubt they even tried, too busy wanking to actually get the real thing.”

“You got that right, now I think I’ll go pay Granger a little visit.”

“She’s in the head’s compartment, just remember if you screw up it’s my turn.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Draco gave Blaise a wink before leaving the compartment he was sharing with him.

“Granger,” Draco made his presence know.

She startled a bit at the sound of his voice. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting anyone for another two hours or so,” she apologized as she tried to collect all the books and parchments she had spread out on the table. The meeting with the prefects wasn’t until three hours into the ride so she thought she had the compartment to herself until then.

“You don’t have to worry about making room for me, I won’t need the table,” he informed her.

“Oh, how come you’re here and not with Parkinson?” he felt more than heard the venom in her voice as she said Pansy’s name. ‘So the rumors just might be true,’ he thought.

“Pansy is probably shagging Theo as we speak and I’m here because Blaise wouldn’t stop talking about his summer and all I really want is some peace and quiet,” he explained.

“Wait a minute, did Draco Malfoy just explain himself to me,” shit, that wasn’t supposed to come out.

“Do you mind?” he asked, choosing to ignore her little slip up.

“What?” had she heard him right?

“Do you mind if I stay?” he asked a bit clearer this time.

“No, I don’t mind,” and she blushed a little.

“Thank you Blaise is my friend and all but he talks too much sometimes,” he smiled at her.

“No problem,” she felt her blush deepen.

Draco had had a soft spot for Hermione Granger since she had the balls to slap him in third year, he would never have dared act on it then but now was a whole different story. They would make a very good couple. His mind was so wrapped up with thoughts of them that he didn’t notice he was staring until the sound of her voice broke him from his thoughts.

“Is there something you need, I can’t really concentrate with you staring,” she was trying to sound harsh but the blush that had permanently stained her cheeks was giving her away.

“I’m sorry, I did not mean to stare, I’ll mind my manners,” he apologized moving his gaze out the window.

Hermione went back to her books, she couldn’t help but wonder why he was being so nice. She tried concentrating on what she was reading but his presence was proving to be a distraction, so when he spoke this time she gave up all pretense of reading.

“Has Weasley noticed your new look?” he was fishing.

“Yeah, I spent some of my summer with them, he thought I was someone else the first time he saw me. But then he got really mad because he thought I had done it just in spite-” if he was being nice she had no reason to be nasty, but perhaps she was giving him too much information.

“I approve,” he nodded.

“Okay, joke is up. Who are you and what have you done with the real Draco Malfoy?” she had reached her limit.

“We are Heads together, we have to live and work together. Also we will probably attend classes together, I don’t know about you but I’m looking forward to having a good year.

We fought Death Eaters side by side, I just thought maybe we could be friends… okay maybe not friends but at least friendly, and with us having to work together, productive conversations will have to happen,” he sounded honest enough.

“Friends,” she sucked her bottom lip as if in deep thought. “I've never considered being friends with you.”

‘Of course not, you were too busy fantasizing about him grabbing you by the shoulder and throwing you up against a wall and having his way with you.’

‘Shut up,’ she really needed a spell to shut this little voice up, it had taken residence in her brain ever since she had admitted to herself that she wanted Draco Malfoy.

“Weasley is one lucky guy.”

“And why is that?”

“The new look, it’s for him, no?” he was fishing again.

“No, Ron has a girlfriend.”

“Trying to get him back than.”

“There’s no reason behind this, I just felt like it was time to change.”

“There is always a reason behind change,” but their conversation was over as the prefects started to filter in to the compartment for the meeting.