poison ✞ dramione

part one

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when hermione returned to complete the seventh year she missed out on—effectively being one of the few eighth years that did—she just hoped it was a somewhat normal year.

but she's hermione granger, best friend to one harry potter, who did opt to return too, and what's classified as 'normal' is battling some form of mythical, magical creature.

what hermione granger doesn't do is attention.

but that's all they were receiving—attention, attention, attention. whispers and rumours followed them like a thick, black fog. relentless, they were. it was these moments she regretted ever returning—ron hadn't returned as he opted to stay at home and help george heal. the joke shop had reopened two weeks before school started and although it was still a booming business, george was finding it increasingly difficult to hold his own while in the shop. it all reminded him of his deceased twin and hermione didn't blame ron for putting family before education.

she heard ginny sigh. "and to think this'll be a normal year."

harry nodded. "it won't be so bad, they said. we'd hardly be noticeable with the overpopulation, they said."

"stop complaining," hermione muttered, smiling at susan bones. the girl smiled back, making the scar on her cheek more prominent.

ginny groaned next to her. "why did we return? kings gave us all a position in the auror department!"

"gin, this is your seventh year, you have to return," hermione scolded. "and i'm not entirely sure that's what i want to be when i leave. i've been leaning towards opening a bookshop."

"you don't need newts to be able to run a bookshop," harry pointed out, keeping his eyes ahead of him.

"like i said, my choice hasn't been made," hermione said tiredly. "maybe i want to be a bookshop owner, maybe i want to be an auror, hell, maybe i want to be in law enforcement! i don't know and i may be the 'brightest witch of our age' but that doesn't mean i'm going to use that to my advantage. i'm going to do this properly with qualifications."

ginny just shrugged, smiling at hermione. "we don't expect anything less, 'mione."

hermione smiled at her friend but inwardly cringed at the nickname. she didn't dare to correct them since it seemed to be their favourite—it was better than mi or mia, so she picked the lesser of the three evils.

speaking of evil...

harry nearly froze in his tracks. "is that—is that malfoy?"

hermione snapped her head in the direction harry was looking in. lo-and behold none other than draco malfoy himself, casually leaning against a wall while lazily flicking through a quidditch magazine in his hands. hermione watching him in wonder—he just stood there, out in the open, read his mag and chewing his gum like half the station wasn't whispering about him. he ignored all the attention like a pro and—she was a bit jealous. she could tell harry was too because he was never great at staying out of the limelight, let alone pretending he wasn't in it.

hermione chewed her bottom lip then turned back to harry when she noticed the subtle tilt of malfoy's jaw in their direction—he noticed them looking. "well, we were there at his trial, harry. this is his temporary fix until they have a reasonable punishment for him. he's a bit of an odd character, isn't he?"

ginny snorted then pushed the two of them into the train. "malfoy? odd? no, he's just an arsehole. let's go find a compartment."

hermione quickly glanced back out towards malfoy. she frowned when she saw that he hadn't even looked up—that he hadn't strayed his attention from the magazine, that he was blowing bubbles with his gum, that he still couldn't care less about all those who still talked about him.

but harry wouldn't let malfoy go. "yes, i remember the trial, hermione. i remember him being threatened with a triple life sentence in azkaban and not giving a rats arse about it. i remember them warning him that if he doesn't comply, he'll be receiving the dementors kiss without a second thought."

"is it true what the papers are saying?" ginny asked with a sigh, knowing that the subject of malfoy won't leave for quite a while. "that he's immune to the veritaserum potion and his occlumency walls are so strong not even voldemort could break through them? is that true?"

hermione shrugged, pulling apart doors to an empty compartment. "it was mentioned but never developed on. although i am curious, i'm not going to be the one asking him."

hermione dropped onto one of the benches, harry and ginny taking the bench opposite her. harry grinned teasingly at her. "what, afraid he'll curse you with an unforgivable?"

"he actually can do that," hermione said as-a-matter-of-factly. "wandless magic and all. it's why he was cuffed down at his trial."

"okay, okay, i get it," ginny said loudly, pulling out a game of exploding snap and a couple chocolate frogs. "he's quite magical. now let's just not talk about malfoy, alright? play snap with me, harry."

hermione chuckled at ginny then pulled out a book she shrunk. she enlarged it then opened it up to the page she had dogeared. as she read the book she listened to harry and ginny laugh brightly together. when ginny offered her a chocolate frog, she looked up and took it off her with a grateful smile.

she could only hope hogwarts wouldn't be so terrible.

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yo. what a short chapter but !!!!!! oh well.

so like yeah, this is short. compared to chapters i have previously written, (which do sometimes tend to be 4k+ words) this just doesn't compare. however, i wanted to keep these short, snappy and straight to the point. not all the chapters will be short but like mentioned in the first a/n, you need to understand what happened here to understand the sequel.

i just wanted to get this out, to see what you guys think [and i was going to post a crossover fic but then i really liked this idea so. here u go mates]

-bee