Sometimes It's Good to be Bad

Chapter 27 And the Plans Roll On

The next morning came too soon. At breakfast, Hermione was quietly telling Ron and Harry about some of the spells she had checked for, though expressing she still had a lot of work to do. For some reason Ron exploded at her, screaming that she should stop lording over people how much smarter she was than everyone else before turning on Harry telling him about how much it sucks to always be second best to him in everything. By the time Ron stormed away leaving two very dumbstruck people, the attention of the entire Great Hall was on the "golden trio".

Right after Ron left, his two best friends turned to each other and stared. They didn't notice Ginny's gaze on them from a few seats down as they got up together and hurried out the room, heads together talking softly.

It was obvious to Hermione what had sent Ron over the edge this time-- he felt that he had done nothing of worth in working on the horcruxes. With the locket, yeah he had seen it first, but they never would have been there if it weren't for her. Then Harry had had the money to buy it and she had been able to figure out how to destroy it. Now, Harry had gotten them into the chamber, and Hermione had found the barette. He had done nothing.

But just because she understood why he had gone off on them, it didn't mean she was going to go back to being friends with him anytime soon. This fit perfectly into her plans, and her master would be very happy to hear of the development. Ron had just isolated himself, and if she and Harry went back to him anytime soon it would be completely against the character the group had displayed over the past six years. Now she would have Harry all to herself to bother Ginny with.

Instead of expressing any of this to Harry, she instead wondered what the hell was Ron's problem, further implanting the negative thoughts into Harry's psyche.

That night was the first Transfiguration study session. About twenty-five people had signed up. She was to meet Professor Davis in his classroom twenty minutes beforehand to "go over what they would be doing". While they did technically do this, it only took a few minutes. The rest of the time was spent going over everything that had happened and what her progress had been so far. She gave him her spelled report to the Dark Lord and in the interest of full disclosure she also showed him a pensieve memory of what she had done to Zabini and Pugface. It caused him to chuckle.

She was a little surprised when Harry showed up, but was happy about it. He did need help with his Transfiguration, after all. It made her even happier when Ginny was right behind him. Though she spent most of her time helping the younger students and Professor Davis the older ones, she did one round with the older students. When she got to Harry, she stood right up against him and held his hand to show him the proper way to do the wand motion needed for the spell he was doing. Though she had already done the exact same thing with many students already, she saw the dark look pass over Ginny's face that had been her goal.

When they got back to the common room, Hermione looked at the bulletin board and was reminded that the first Hogsmeade weekend was coming up. She went over to the couch where Ginny was sitting and plopped down next to her. "Hey, Gin. We haven't gotten to hang out and have any girl time since we got here. We should go to Hogsmeade together and make a day out of it."

Harry happened to be walking by the sofa on his way to his dorm when he heard Hermione's suggestion. He sat on the arm behind Hermione and put a hand on her shoulder. "That's a great idea, Hermione. Gin, you've still been a bit down lately, and that would be just the thing. You two will have a wonderful time." Hermione looked up at him and smiled before he left. Perfect. Now the girl couldn't say no.

Soon after Hermione went back to her own room and got to her work at stripping the wards. After an hour she had gotten to about a third of them, but she needed to do her homework. So back downstairs she went. She was sitting at her desk when Zabini came in closely followed by Nott.

"Do you do anything alone, Zabini?" He just glared at her and moved to his desk and pulled something out of it, handing the item to Nott who then left the dorm. Zabini then slumped in front of his desk and started in on his own homework.

"So, Granger, trouble in paradise?"

"What are you talking about Zabini?"

"That little fight at breakfast. The golden trio falling apart?"

She snorted. "Hardly. Ron's just a jealous git. Besides, it works for me right now to have him out of the picture, so we'll see how long it takes for him to apologise to Harry and me."

"If you say so," he responded, shaking his head.

"I do," she answered, ending the conversation. Soon it was time for all students to be in their dorms, and her turn to patrol the hallways. Closing her books she sighed and left the room.

When she awoke the next morning it was towards the end of breakfast. She threw on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and ran down to get something to eat. Otherwise she'd have to wait until lunch. After gobbling down her food, she went back up to her bathroom and worked some more on the wards. When Zabini came to tell her that Harry was downstairs waiting for her she felt she'd only need one more go at it before they were all down.

"Can you tell him to come up to my room?" she asked politely.

"Granger, he can't get up the stairs."

"Zabini. What I am doing with Harry cannot involve anyone other him, myself, and Ron when he gets a clue. Therefore, either you can leave the Head dorms for a few hours and not return for any reason whatsoever, or you can bring him up your stairs and through the bathroom to my room." She explained the situation as she would if she were talking to a five year old.

It didn't take him long to decide that he didn't want to leave at the moment and it would be much better for his well being to bring the boy who lived to her room than to refuse, so he went back down the stairs cursing her over and over in his mind. He was a pureblood for fuck's sake. Why the hell should he be taking orders from a filthy little mudblood. Sure, the Dark Lord seemed to have formed a liking to her and sure she was a hell of a lot more powerful than he, but really, how much could that count for?

When he got back to the common room, he turned to Harry. "Follow me, Potter."

"What? Where am I following you to?"

Zabini rolled his eyes at the idiot boy. How this person had ever gotten past the Dark Lord was way beyond him. "You can't get up her stairs, so you're going up through my room."

When Zabini left the two together, he gave Granger the deepest look of loathing he could muster and went back to downstairs.