White Hair and a Snapped Quill

Hi everyone. Well, I am one of the latest fans of HP to fall in love with Dramione. It really all started when I went to the midnight screening of HP6 (which was awesome!!!) and I fell in love with Draco Malfoy. So then I went home and stumbled upon this term Dramione, coined by adoring fans, and I knew it would be my next fanfic. So please enjoy, I loved writing this!

Chapter One: Discussing Rocks

She was in the library. No, the books were disappearing... now she was in front of a crackling fire in an old stone fireplace. She looked around. Yes, now she was in the Gryffindor common room, with Harry and Ron, who were discussing something... they were talking about the shape of rocks, she realized. How odd.

She glanced around and was startled to see a figure approaching. She squinted at him- he was vaguely familiar. As he stepped closer to her, Hermione recognized the pointed face, the pale skin, the light gray eyes... It was Malfoy. Draco Malfoy.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but right then she heard Ron shout, "What are you talking about, Harry? Waffles taste like strong coffee, not decaf!" And suddenly Ron and
Harry disappeared, and the only people in the room were Malfoy and Hermione.

She somehow was suddenly sitting on the couch, and he smiled at her. Not the usual smirk or sneer that was usually glued to his face when he saw her- a much softer smile. Hermione blushed when she thought that, when Malfoy stopped sneering and actually smiled like a normal person, he looked quite handsome, really.

"Hey, Granger," he said, and sat down next to her. "How's the water boiling?"

Hermione blinked. This was getting stranger and stranger by the second, but she, for some reason, replied, "Quite well, actually."

Malfoy smiled at her again, a sheepish smile, and a bit of his white-blond hair fell over his forehead. She suddenly reached out and brushed it away, and his skin was colder than ice. But she smiled when she touched him. It felt good.

"Granger, I've been thinking-" he started, when suddenly he meowed.

Hermione stared at him. "What?"

He meowed again, and suddenly there was a clawing feeling on her hands. She yelped and her eyes flashed open.

"Crookshanks!" Hermione said furiously. The furry cat gazed at her, and meowed again. He had been clawing at her hands.

Hermione sighed and blinked several times, shaking her head to clear the odd dream from it. She had dreamed about Malfoy. Wow.

"I don't believe it," she muttered, yawning and standing up. Crookshanks meowed at her again, and she sighed. "Are you hungry?" Crookshanks waved his bottlebrush tail in the air, and meowed loudly again.

"Would you quiet that silly animal, Hermione?" came a grumble from the bed above Hermione's. That was Lavender Brown, who had the bed on top of Hermione's, and shared a dorm with her.

Hermione sighed. "Sorry, Lavender," she muttered, rubbing Crookshanks on the head so that a rusty purr came from his throat.

The other two girls who shared a dorm with Hermione were Parvati Patil and Holly Beetwinch. They didn't mind Crookshanks, and usually Lavender didn't either, but recently, since Lavender had taken to snogging Ron whenever he wasn't in a class, she and Hermione's acquaintanceship had turned prickly.

Hermione got out a bowl and picked up her wand from the bedside table, and murmured, "Foodacorpus." Immediately, a disgusting blend of cut-up hearts and eyes and such materialized in the bowl, but it must have looked delicious to Crookshanks, because the cat swiped a tongue around his licks and offered his owner a mrrrow of thanks, digging into his breakfast.
She sighed and turned away to the dresser, beginning to get undressed and put on her robes. On her bedside table was an old clock the color of gold, with a small dragon on it that looked around and twitched his tail, breathing fire every hour. A glimpse at the clock's face told her that it was five o' clock in the morning. She couldn't go down for breakfast for another two hours, and classes did not start until eight.

After getting dressed, she flopped down in front of the mirror that was by the window, and she stared at her reflection. Her hair was not quite as bushy anymore, and thanks to Malfoy and Madam Pomfrey, she no longer had buck teeth. Her slender face and her dark brown eyes gazed at her, but she couldn't help but feel the usual exasperation at her plain appearance.

"If only my hair was flatter," she muttered.

"You look quite nice, my dear," the mirror told her gently.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Yes, thank you," she responded politely anyways, but quickly pulled her hair into a sort of curly ponytail before getting up and grabbing her books and some parchment and some ink with a quill, deciding to head out to the common room to catch up on some homework for Potions.
Of course, it wasn't due until next week, but she preferred to get her homework out of the way, unlike her two best friends, who liked to wait until the last night to do their work, and then usually cried to Hermione for help.

She went out into the common room, pleased that she was alone, and spread out her books and papers on a table, getting out a fresh piece of parchment and opening her bottle of ink, dipping her quill into it neatly, and opening her book.

Right then, the fire uttered a coughing noise, and then crackled, blazing into a beautiful fire. It amused Hermione that the fireplaces were often like the Muggle lights that automatically turned on whenever someone entered a particular room. If the common room was empty, the fire would die down. If someone came in, then it began blazing for them.
As Hermione admired the flickering flames, she suddenly remembered the fire in her dream, and remembered Malfoy.

His silky voice returned to her. "Granger, I've been thinking-"

She shook her head. Stop it! It was a stupid dream. Now focus on your work, she told herself sternly, tearing her gaze away from the fore and flicking her eyes over the words on the book. She read easily for a few seconds, but then they jumbled together and began dancing about the pages when she remembered how handsome Malfoy's hair had looked....
Having half a mind to smack herself across the head, she hissed to herself, "Malfoy's a git, you know that. Just because he was sweet in your dream doesn't change anything!" She furiously began scribbling down on her parchment, fighting to stay concentrated.

She began to think about her classes, and how she had been dissatisfied with her latest lesson in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and how Seamus had accidentally blown up a pixie in his face. It had been funny, and since Sean had been alright, that had made it even more funny. Snape had been furious, of course, but what was different?

As she kept her mind busy with thoughts of Potions and homework and how sweet her book smelled today, and she was calmly writing something down when Malfoy's face arbitrarily popped into her head, and she remembered how breathtakingly handsome he had been when he had smiled at her.

Hermione blinked and stared hopelessly at her parchment, knowing that there was no way she was going to be able to get it done in a state like this.

***

"Oy! Hermione! You alright?" Ron waved his hand in front of Hermione, who had her hand propped under her chin, and she was staring off at the windows.

She jumped suddenly, and blinked rapidly. She swallowed hard. "I- ah, fine, thanks. Just tired. Er- Crookshanks woke me up early this morning, begging to be fed."

Ron scoffed and grinned at Harry, who was scribbling some last-minute notes onto his homework for Snape in Defense Against the Dark Arts, in which they had been given a week ago.

"Typical cat. Honestly, Hermione, you should really give that thing a drop-kick out the window, he's such a nuisance."

"Crookshanks is not a nuisance- he's my pet, and I actually really like him, Ronald!" Hermione snapped. "Anyways, your girlfriend gave me a hard time, too."

Ron got a look of terror on his face. "What? Lavender? Is she coming?" He looked around quickly.

Harry looked up and exchanged a look of deep amusement with Hermione. "Come off it, Ron, she's a girl, not a bat."

Ron just took a large bite of his sausage and chewed slowly, eyes wide. "She is a bat, for all I know. I tell you, Harry, these girls get scary when they fall in love."
Hermione stared at him.

"What? You couldn't possibly have taken offense to that- you don't have a boyfriend! Oh, wait, I'm sorry, Mrs. Krum," Ron added teasingly, making Hermione smack him playfully.

"What's our first class today, Ron?" Harry asked distractedly, tapping his quill thoughtfully on the table.

Hermione took a gulp of Pumpkin Juice from her goblet and swallowed hard.

Ron frowned and glanced around at the papers he had brought along to breakfast. He shuffled through them, and then withdrew a schedule. His blue eyes flicked over the piece of parchment, and Hermione held her breath. She knew she would never be able to concentrate if Gryffindor had it with-

"Slytherin," Ron confirmed, face drooping with dismay. "Shoot. That means Malfoy, Harry."

Harry shook his head. "Pity," he muttered, before turning to Hermione. "Hey, Hermione... you probably understand this homework... do you think you could-?"

"I thought Defense Against the Dark Arts was your best class, Harry," Hermione said absentmindedly, staring at her toast. She would just have to not look at Malfoy. Maybe, if she didn't, then she could get through this class...

"Well, yeah, until Snape became the professor," Harry replied, sighing and sliding his fingers through his messy jet-black hair, revealing his lightning-shaped scar for just a moment.

Dumbledore stood up slowly from his place at the long table that sat before all the students and everyone began to quiet down as they looked up at him.

"I hope you all have gotten your fill," he beamed down at them. "Now, it is time for you to depart for your classes. Have an excellent day!" he cried, before sitting back down as the many plates and dishes and piles of toast, eggs, sausage, soap, bagels, muffins, cereals, and fruit disappeared with a wave of his wand, and all the students began to get up and scramble away from the main hall.

"Wonder what we'll be doing in Charms today?" Ron asked no one in particular as he, Harry, and Hermione made their way out of the large wooden doors and started to climb up the moving stairwells.

"Who knows. I just hope Flitwick doesn't run out on us again and we get some ghost as a sub. Emergency choir meeting, indeed," Harry scoffed.

Hermione would have laughed at Harry's sarcasm had she not been so distracted, because right at that moment, she saw a particular white-blond haired boy load the staircase with them.

"Why if it isn't little Potter and the Weasel. Ah, and look, it's the Weasel's little girlfriend over there," Malfoy drawled.

Hermione blinked, and before Ron or Harry could say anything back, she snapped, "You're one to talk, Malfoy. You look like you got a whole bottle of Bleach dumped on your head!" Hermione wasn't sure if he knew what Bleach was, since it was a Muggle product, but when his pointed face turned to her and his eyes widened with surprise as he took offense, she decided he knew what it was.

"Careful, Granger. If you talk too much, those buck-teeth of yours might get stuck to your bottom lip!" he growled, gray eyes sparking, even though he knew she no longer had buck-teeth.
Ron, Harry, Crabbe, and Goyle, who hadn't spoken yet, all watched in amazement as Hermione and Malfoy shot it off. Hermione felt annoyance making her palms get sweaty, and she stalked up to him, her face inches from his. Up close, she was taken aback by how handsome he was. She also realized he had changed his hair style- instead of that obnoxious, slicked back do, it was now parted to the side, and it looked soft.

She tried to stay concentrated as she growled, "If I were you, I'd be nicer to girls, especially ones who hate ferrets!"

Malfoy blinked, and.... impossible... but- was that an impressed gleam in his gray eyes? He just stared at her, jaw locked, and Hermione smiled triumphantly at him, wheeling around. She was pleased to see that a bit of her hair smacked Malfoy in the face as she turned, and she marched away.

She left Ron and Harry to, for once, be as startled as Malfoy at Hermione's bold move, and they glanced at him before running after her.

As Malfoy watched Hermione and the others go, the corner of his lip twitched upward, and Crabbe and Goyle exchanged surprised looks behind Malfoy's back.

"Alright, class, settle down, settle down," Professor Flitwick squeaked. He glanced around as his Slytherin and Gryffindor students quieted down and got to their seats. He nodded at them, from his usual spot behind his desk, on a pile of particularly thick books, and cried out, "Today we will start to master the Colorendo Charm."

"Blimey- that's a new one. Don't you ever wonder who comes up with these names, Harry?" Ron muttered, grinning.

Harry muffled a laugh as he and Ron attempted to concentrate on what their dwarf teacher was saying.

"The Colorendo charm is in fact extremely useful. While Muggles like to- what's the word?- ah, yes, paint- they often take hours and days to paint a wall or a table. However, our Colorendo charm enables us to not need any paint. We select any color we desire and our walls can be restored with not hassle, no mess, and no brushes. There is paper set before each of you- I will have a student demonstrate before we begin."

"This could end badly," Harry muttered.

As Flitwick looked around quickly for an applicable student, Hermione's gaze drifted across the room, to where Malfoy was sitting next to Crabbe and Goyle. He had such adorable hair...

"Ah, Miss Granger!" Flitwick squeaked, and she jumped, looking at her professor.

"Yes, sir?" she asked quickly.

"Would you like to show the class how to perform the Colorendo charm? I will guide you, but I suspect you'll do just fine..."

Hermione nodded swiftly.

"Very well, then. What is your favorite color, Miss Granger?"

"White-blond," Hermione blurted without thinking.

Everyone blinked and looked at her oddly, muttering. Ron and Harry glanced at her, looking concerned. Hermione immediately went red, wishing she could melt away. She felt someone staring at her, and she glanced over quickly to see Malfoy staring at her, his expression torn between disgust and surprise.

"I- I meant, violet, sir."

"Ah, yes, right then- take your wand, Miss Granger, yes, and wave the end just slightly. Yes, yes, you've got it. Now point it at your parchment and say, 'Colorendo'!"

Hermione took her wand into her sweaty hand and stared fiercely at it, determined to get this right. She waved the tip slightly and said firmly, "Colorendo!"

Immediately her parchment became a beautiful shade of violet, and Flitwick began clapping, and the class reluctantly followed, still suspicious about her earlier blurting.

"Well done, Miss Granger, like usual! Now, class, do exactly what Miss Granger did! Think of your favorite color, and remember not to put too much pressure on the wand- no, Longbottom, gently wave the tip, don't whip the whole wand around! Finnigan, that's close, just a little faster than that- Miss Parkinson, well done, you are very close as well!"

Through the rest of class, Hermione fiercely concentrated on her work, and did not look at Malfoy once, though she could feel him watching her the whole time.

Finally Charms let out, and they swept through the doors with Flitwick wishing them a good day.

"What was that all about back there?" Ron asked Hermione, brows raised.

"You feeling alright? You've been acting strangely all day," Harry observed, sounding concerned for his friend.

Hermione was clutching her books to her chest, and she looked nervously up at them. "Of course I'm fine," she said harshly. "Come on, I'm just tired. We've got Potions next, right Ronald?"

"Er, right. With Hufflepuff," Ron said uncertainly, glancing at Harry.

Students began spilling from their classes, and as Hermione and her two friends began to mingle with the crowd, there came a very familiar voice from behind them.

"Eh, Granger, what are you playing at?" Hermione closed her eyes, biting her lip, as Malfoy caught up with them, Crabbe and Goyle at his side.

"Let us alone, Malfoy," Ron growled.

Malfoy glared at him. "Is your name Granger?" he asked, gaze snapping back to Hermione. "You checking out my hair, Granger?"

Hermione stared at him, and she opened her mouth angrily. "If you think I have a thing for ferrets, then you might as well and go accuse Ron for snogging a hippogriff!"

Malfoy just laughed with Goyle, and he walked away with his two bodyguards.

"I swear, he's like a piece of nasty food always been crammed down our throats!" Harry said, eyes hard.

Hermione just nodded breathlessly. "I know. He's such a... a git. Come on, let's go."

As she turned away and continued along the the corridors with her friends, she couldn't get his pale, annoying, adorable face out of her mind.

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