Misunderstood Maledictions | Tomione

One For the Scrapbooks

"What'd you say, what'd you say?" Lavender chanted, finishing her marshmallow and licking her fingers clean in the most ladylike manner Hermione had ever seen... given the fact that Lavender had just roasted a marshmallow on the end of her wand in the Room of Requirements and had then proceeded to eat the sticky mess.

The brunette smiled slightly. "I said, 'Oh, that's terrible! I'm so sorry for your loss!' "

Ron actually cracked up, Harry smiled in that serious yet teasing way of his, Draco smirked, and Lavender again began to cackle evilly. Hermione jabbed an accusing but good-natured finger at the mischievous Hufflepuff. "Lav, how did you not end up in Slytherin?"

Lavender sobered up instantly and tapped her skull in complete seriousness. "It's all up here, Hermione. The goodies."

Right...

"Oh, Hermione!" Ginny exclaimed suddenly, leaving Ron to snort and cover his mouth at Lavender's previous response. She snapped her fingers in recollection. "I meant to tell you sooner: I got asked where we come from and why we transferred here about twenty times in the course of, what has it been, twenty-five hours? My most popular response was: We got expelled from the Academy of the Sun for practicing excessive Dark Magic. The little snakes loved that one."

"Oh, I said that we had been instrumental in destroying Grindewald's Egyptian forces, and now we had come over here to finish the job," Harry said. He frowned thoughtfully, glanced down at his girlfriend, and gently poked the tip of her pixie nose in mock annoyance. "Gin, those two might clash."

"Yes, the Slytherins did seem a bit confused at the breakfast table this morning," Draco mused sardonically. He glanced sidelong at Hermione, smirked temptingly, and invitingly held out his arm nearest her.

Hermione rolled her eyes but scooted across the five or so inches between them nonetheless. She snuggled into his side and closed her eyes as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and absently began to drum his fingers on her side. At least, she thought, at least they had managed to survive their first day of class with a minimal number of abnormal occurrences. Minimal. "And remember, everyone, the more outrageous, the better," she mumbled sleepily.

"You want an example of outrageous?" Ron asked, smiling smugly. "Here's one: I said that we had been privately tutored on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean our entire lives and have just been exposed to civilization as the world knows it."

Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother. "Oh, that one was creative, Ron. Now they're going to think we're all jungle freaks."

Ron wrinkled up his nose and shot Ginny a dirty look.

Not to be outdone by her on-again/off-again love, Lavender said imperiously, "Well, I said that Draco is descended from French magical royalty of the same name, Ron can turn his hair green and make his ears pointed on command, Harry and Ginny are members of an ancient and mysterious Old Magick cult that holds a rendezvous inside the Great Pyramid under the light of every full moon, and Hermione, beside her uncannily Seerish abilities, comes from the most powerful wizarding family in the history of magic."

Leave it to Lav. It sounded like a sitcom. Draco tilted his head down, found Hermione's amused gaze, and winked. "I kind of like that one, Nef, don't you?"

The light atmosphere in the Room of Requirements was exactly what Hermione needed after the always stressful first day of classes, not to mention first day of classes in a different time period. In any case, she was relieved she had survived last night's first encounter and one of her two subsequent classes (ironically, Defence Against the Dark Arts) with the young Lord Voldemort.

Her happiness was short lived when she remembered where she would eventually end up that night - sharing a common room with him, among other things - but she smiled mischievously. "Yeah, it does sound like something I could get used to." She stretched her leg out away from the sofa, the very tip of her shoe managing to nudge Ron's knee. "How about it, Ronald, going to go all green and pointy on us?"