Hermione's biggest regret from the past weekend was getting an apology from Draco Malfoy.
It was early Monday morning, and all she could think about were the words "I'm sorry" coming from Draco Malfoy's mouth. And then from that, she would proceed to think about what a nice mouth he has, and how she wouldn't mind kissing it again. But mostly, she thought about the apology, and how she knew she could probably never get him to say it again.
After he had walked off yesterday, and Hermione had ditched her two best friends, she searched nearly all of Hogsmeade for him – but to no avail. He seemed to have just disappeared into thin air. Later on that afternoon, she had run into Blaise Zabini and inquired about his best friend, but he didn't know where Draco was, either. This was all very frustrating for Hermione, for she had felt that she was finally getting somewhere with Draco...and that maybe, just maybe, he was starting to come around.
"Hermione," a sweet voice called out from behind her, breaking Hermione out of her reverie. She spun around on the couch to see Ginny standing behind her with a big smile on her face. "You look lost in thought. What's up?"
Despite the fact Hermione had seen Ginny last night, she had not told her about her encounter with Draco. She knew Ginny would probably read too much into it and try to talk her into talking to Draco again. Of course, Hermione would love nothing more than to speak with Draco again...if only she could find him. Still, she didn't need her good friend hassling her about it. Nor did she need this information accidentally being leaked to Harry and Ron.
"Oh, it's nothing," Hermione replied. She was a terrible liar, and Ginny knew it.
"Does this happen to have anything to do with a certain Fifth Year harlot?"
"Ginny Weasley!" Hermione gasped, surprised to hear her sweet friend refer to someone like that. However, she couldn't help but chuckle.
"Because, you know, Malfoy could do so much better than her," Ginny continued.
Hermione nodded. "I agree. And he probably will. There are still a few pretty Sixth Year Slytherins he hasn't pursued yet. Perhaps one of them will turn out to be his lifemate."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a nitwit, Mione. I was talking about you."
"Give it up, Gin." Hermione sighed, shaking her head slightly.
"I'm not going to give this up!" Ginny cried. "Not until I see you happy again! And not until I see you deep in thought with a smile on your face, instead of that ghastly frown you are displaying right now."
Hermione frowned. "I am not frowning."
"Actually, you are," Ron said, entering the common room. "And it's ghastly."
Hermione shot him a death glare as he grinned.
"I couldn't help but overhear part of your conversation," he said.
Hermione groaned inwardly. "How much did you hear?"
"Just the part about you displaying a ghastly frown." He eyed Hermione as she sighed in relief. "You know, frowning is quite unattractive. You're so much prettier when you smile."
Hermione blushed furiously. But not as much as Ron, whose face had gone redder than his hair when he realized what he'd said. Quickly, he cleared his throat and said, "You know, I mean 'you're' as in a collective noun, meaning most people, not...'you're' as in you are. Not that I wasn't including you in the you're, but -"
"Seriously, Ron!" Ginny snapped. "It's not a crime to tell your best friend that she's pretty. Especially when it's the truth." Ginny smiled sweetly at Hermione, who was blushing even harder now.
"What's the truth?" asked Harry as he entered the room as well.
"That Hermione is pretty," Ginny replied. "Don't you think she's pretty, Harry?"
Hermione suddenly wished the floor would open up and swallow her.
"Of course," Harry said without hesitation, only he managed not to blush when he said it.
"That's it," Hermione muttered. She jumped up from the couch. "I have to get to class."
"No you don't," Ginny said. "We haven't even gone to breakfast yet."
"I know that," Hermione snapped. "I meant to say breakfast."
"Well, we're almost ready to leave. Why don't you wait for us to go with you?"
"Because!" Hermione exclaimed. "You're embarrassing me!"
Ginny grinned. "If you think you're embarrassed," she muttered, "my brother just told a girl she was pretty. He's going to be red all day."
Hermione laughed. She looked over at Ron, who appeared to be discussing something with Harry; the pink tint still visible in his cheeks.
Ginny grabbed Hermione's arm and laced hers through it, and began to lead her toward the portrait hole. "You know, Hermione, you don't give yourself enough credit. I know you're thinking that Draco Malfoy is too good for you, when in reality I'm kind of wondering why you like him."
Hermione opened her mouth to argue that she does not like Draco Malfoy, but she knew it was a lost cause. She knew Ginny no longer believed her when she said it. Instead, she kept silent and thought to herself, I'm kind of wondering why, too...
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Draco's biggest regret from the past weekend was apologizing to Hermione Granger.
All he could do was keep asking himself over and over why he'd done it, yet he still could not come up with an acceptable answer. First, he blamed it on too many butterbeers, but since he'd only had one, that wasn't much of an excuse. Next, he blamed it on the incredibly boring date he'd been having with that Fifth Year girl Sadie. The girl had driven him to the brink of insanity, and being driven to the brink of insanity can do crazy things to a person. For instance, it could make him apologize to a girl he hates with all his heart and soul.
So Monday morning arrived, and Draco was still busy thinking about that stupid apology, and silently berating himself for being such a dolt. He was so busy silently berating, in fact, that he hadn't even noticed that Blaise had sauntered into the common room. That is, until the boy spoke.
"Hey," Blaise said. "A cute girl was looking for you yesterday."
Draco smacked the palm of his hand against his forehead. "Damn. Sadie. I left her all alone at the pub, didn't I? I forgot all about her."
"Well, yeah, you did," Blaise agreed. "But I wasn't talking about Sadie."
"Oh," Draco said distantly as he began to pile books into his bag. "Pansy, then?"
Blaise gave Draco a look of complete and utter shock. "You consider Pansy to be a cute girl?"
"Yeah, sure. You know, if she's in a good light and you're squinting and you kind of tilt your head a little to the right..."
Blaise was absolutely astonished by this information, and made a mental note to try that trick out later. In the meantime, he said, "Right. Well, I wasn't talking about Pansy, either."
Frustrated by this little guessing game, Draco sighed and said, "Was it Marietta?"
"Who?" Blaise, now equally annoyed as Draco, gave up and said, "No, geez. I was talking about Hermione."
"Granger?" Draco snorted. "I thought you said a cute girl was looking for me. Not a sorry excuse for one."
"Fine. Whatever," Blaise said, throwing his hands into the air in defeat. "You know, I don't know what your problem is with her. I mean, other than her heritage. Which, by the way, is a lousy excuse for not liking someone. You know, if you gave her a chance, you might just find that you actually like her."
Draco narrowed his eyes at Blaise. "Why do you suddenly want me to like Granger? I thought you were madly in love with her."
"I am not," Blaise said softly, "madly in love with her. I will admit that I kind of like her. I mean, once I got to know her a little, I realized she is actually quite pleasant. She's nice and smart and funny and sweet, and she's got a pretty smile..."
"Oh yeah. You're not in love with her at all," Draco grumbled, shoving the last book into his big with a little more force than usual.
"Okay, so yeah – I like Granger. A lot, even. But it doesn't matter, because she doesn't like me back. At least, not in that way. No, her heart is reserved for someone else."
"Who?" Draco demanded.
"Someone who's too stupid and stubborn to either notice or care, apparently."
"She's in love with Weasley!" Draco exclaimed.
Blaise shook his head. "I give up. I really do. I have been trying so hard to make you see, but you refuse to. Well guess what? I'm tired of trying. Apparently, it's a lost cause. Apparently, you're willing to give up something that could turn out to be the best thing in your life. Well, I'm not that stupid, you know. If you don't act fast and soon, I will do everything in my power to make damn sure that Granger's not wasting anymore of her emotions on can count on that." And with that, Blaise stormed out of the room.
Draco just stood there, frozen. What the hell was Blaise talking about? Obviously, his crush on Granger was taking its toll on his mental health. Yeah. That must be it.
Shrugging, he tossed his bag over his shoulder and headed down to breakfast.
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That Fifth Year Sadie's biggest regret from the past weekend was getting practically no useful information out of that barmaid.
The woman had brought her out back and discussed love potions, as she'd promised, but then she started babbling on and on about her "special" love potion. Something about it only working if the person you give it to already loves you back. Well, a lot of help that would be for her! Obviously, Draco Malfoy wasn't in love with her. If he was, she wouldn't need the stupid potion in the first place! What kind of person would make such a useless love potion as that one?
And then, to make matters worse, the barmaid had refused to give her any samples. The nerve! She made up some excuse, like she knew Professor Snape, and she knew he would be positively livid if he found out she had supplied one of his students with a love potion. Which was probably very true...only Professor Snape would never find out about it, because Sadie was not really using it for a project. But she couldn't very well tell that to the barmaid, could she?
So that is why she stayed up very late Sunday night (getting about only two total hours of beauty sleep – something she didn't really need though, if she did say so herself). She had gone to the library and flipped through Potions Through the Ages – A Guide to Nearly Every Potion Ever Made until she'd found the chapter on love potions. Luckily, the book contained a few recipes. Unfortunately though, the directions said to let the potions stew for approximately two weeks before using (but she really didn't want to wait two weeks. There was no harm in using the potion early, right?). And she didn't exactly have all the right ingredients (she did, however, have a few ingredients that were close enough to substitute). Still, she was very optimistic that by the beginning of classes on Monday morning, Draco Malfoy would be madly in love with her.
She glanced lovingly at the vile of potion she held in her hands. The substance inside was clear – surprising, considering all of the junk she'd put in it – and odorless, too. She smiled satisfactorily.
"You seem awfully cheerful for someone who got stood up yesterday by the hottest guy in school," said her friend and dorm mate, Michelle.
"I did not get stood up!" Sadie screeched. "He had another engagement to attend to."
"Ahh...you mean with that Sixth Year mudblood Griffyndor?" Michelle grinned. "Tell me, are you jealous of her?"
"Hardly!" Sadie scoffed. "Me? Jealous of a mudblood? A bushy-haired one at that! No way, Michelle. She is the last girl on Earth I would ever be jealous of! And it's not like I have anything to worry about. Draco doesn't even like her! In fact, I'm pretty sure he hates her guts! And besides...why would he be interested in her, when I'm standing right in front of him? She's not even pretty."
"You keep telling yourself that, Sadie dear." Michelle stuck her nose in the air. "All I know is that if some guy I liked ditched me at a pub to go meet in some dark alleyway with a girl like Hermione Granger, I would be feeling pretty insecure right about now. But that's just me." She headed for the door to the dorm. Before exiting the room, she turned to Sadie and said, "Are you really going to wear that? Blue looks positively horrid on you."
Sadie turned a slight shade of purple. Her friends could be such bitches sometimes.
Forget about her, she told herself. And forget about everything she said. It won't matter in a little while, anyway, because Draco Malfoy is going to fall madly in love with me, and that little mudblood won't be able to do anything to stop it. Ha!
Feeling slightly better, Sadie very gingerly tucked the vile away inside a pouch, which she then placed into her bag. Then, just to be on the safe side, she took off her shirt and changed into a nice light green one instead.
She wanted to look her best for when Draco Malfoy professed his undying love for her.