Pride and Pretenses. (Dramione)

Chapter 3

Hermione Granger could say, to the second, the exact moment her life was ruined.
The day in question started out innocently enough. In fact, the whole day was quite benign, anticlimactic actually, if you think about it. Of course, it didn't really ruin anyone else's life but hers so people could be biased. In any event, it was a clear, blustery September day – another ordinary Wednesday in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Like everyone else Hermione ate breakfast at the Great Hall and like everyone else she headed for her first class after – in her case it was Transfiguration with the Slytherins.
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"Alright," McGonagall settled the class down. "Today we will be learning about-"
A student walked in, interrupting her introduction. Naturally the whole class looked at the door and watched the student walk up to the professor. The student was female, tall, and slender. Sunlight streaming in through the classroom windows emphasized some of the highlights in her strawberry blonde hair as she moved toward the front with the grace of a ballerina. She had a delicate, heart-shaped face and stunning blue eyes framed by extremely long lashes. Everyone, of course, was curious about the new stranger but suffice it to say, most of the boys were transfixed by her and some of the girls were already beginning to get jealous.
"Can I help you, Ms...?" McGonagall asked her when she reached the front.
"Genevieve Harrington." She had a lilting, musical voice with a slight accent. "I apologize for being late but Professor Dumbledore wanted to speak to me this morning as I arrived late last night. He told me to talk to you and give you this." She handed over a note.
"Very well," McGonagall replied after finding the note satisfactory. "Welcome to Hogwarts Ms. Harrington." She smiled at the young girl. "According to this note you were sorted into Gryffindor. I am Professor McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor house and these," she motioned to the class who were pretending not to listen. "Are your classmates."
"As I'm sure you've already heard," McGonagall addressed the class this time. "This is Ms. Genevieve Harrington. She is obviously new here and I expect you to show her a proper Hogwarts welcome." She turned to Genevieve. "At present we have Gryffindors and Slytherins in this class." Turning to back to the class, McGonagall added, "Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley are the prefects for Gryffindor. I expect you both to help your new housemate settle in." Some of the Slytherin boys looked disappointed at that. "You may sit over there with Ms. Granger."
Genevieve accordingly took a seat next to Hermione and both girls exchanged smiles as McGonagall resumed the lesson.
"I'm Hermione, by the way," Hermione said once class ended holding out her hand.
"Genevieve," the student answered accepting the hand. "Can you tell me where the Charms classroom is?"
"Oh, I'm heading that way myself. I'll show you."
By this time Ron and Harry had joined them and introductions were once again exchanged.
"Ah, Harry Potter," Genevieve commented after Harry introduced himself. "I've heard about you." She didn't make any further comments for which Harry was grateful.
"So where are you from Genevieve?" Hermione asked as they walked down the hallway.
"I came from Beauxbatons," she answered.
"That explains the French accent."
"I suppose so. Although I was born in St. Mungo's and grew up near Canterbury. We moved to France when my father's business expanded. My mother is French and went to Beauxbatons too so she had no problem letting me go there even though I was English and naturally received a Hogwarts letter as well."
"Beauxbatons... So you must know Fleur Delacour," Ron said.
Harry and Hermione looked at him pointedly.
"Ah yes," Genevieve answered. "Fleur, Gabrielle, and I grew up together. Our mothers are best friends. You," she turned to Harry with a smile. "Saved Gabrielle's life, among other things. Gabby couldn't stop talking about you for months!" She laughed. "And you," she turned to Ron. "Fleur said you helped too. She said she doesn't know where Gabby would be without you."
Ron blushed.
"And of course, Hermione here managed to snag Viktor Krum, one of the wizarding world's most eligible bachelors! Although, if girls knew how obsessed he was about quidditch, they wouldn't even bother. He's a nice enough boy, quite sweet, but so obsessed about the game. It's the only thing he ever thinks about! I suppose, that's what makes him the best."
"Did you go out with him?" asked Hermione out of curiosity as to how she came to know all about Viktor.
"Goodness no," Genevieve laughed. "He's more like my brother. My father and his father have been doing business for years. They always stayed at our place when his father had to do business here." Genevieve grinned. "You should've seen the first time he tried the Wronski Feint. His nose hadn't always been crooked you know."
Harry laughed and Ron looked on in amazement, hanging onto Genevieve's every word.
"I haven't heard from him in a while. He's always so busy with quidditch," Genevieve continued. "Are you still going out with him Hermione?"
"No," Hermione blushed. "He just took me to the Yule Ball, we never really went out. We still write to each other though.
That broke the spell. "You still write to Viktor Krum?!" Ron asked incredulously.
"Of course," Hermione answered nonchalantly. "You can't expect me to suddenly stop talking to him just because he left the school."
"How come you never told me?" Ron asked turning red with jealousy.
"You never asked," Hermione said simply. "Besides, I didn't see you complaining when you got the fully signed Bulgaria Team poster last Christmas." Harry and Genevieve laughed.
Luckily, both Hermione and Ron were spared from further embarrassment as they had reached the Charms classroom.
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As the weeks went by, Genevieve became better friends with the Golden Trio. In fact, "trio" would not even be the right term to use anymore as the three friends were rarely seen without the new addition. The more they got to know her the more the original trio liked her. She was charming, nice, funny, and smart. Despite having changed schools Genevieve was keeping up with the material quite well and soon she was discussing some of the harder material with Hermione. Hermione was glad to finally have another girl to balance out the testosterone. Ginny was a great friend but she was really more Harry's girlfriend and the fact that she was a year younger prevented her and Hermione from having a lot in common. Genevieve was exactly who Hermione wanted as a girlfriend: aside from their academic similarities, Genevieve read as voraciously as Hermione did so they were able to discuss books as well and Hermione was glad to find that Genevieve had the same opinions she did. Genevieve even read Hogwarts: A History more times than Hermione which definitely put her in Hermione's good books. Hermione was also happy that Harry and Ron had both lessened the amount of questions they asked her since they now had Genevieve to help them with schoolwork as well. However, that was where the similarities ended.
Unlike Hermione, who was friends with other people merely by association to Harry, Genevieve quickly became one of the most popular girls in school. Her stunning beauty drew the attention of the guys at school (and no, she wasn't part Veela) and while they were jealous at first, her designer clothes and accessories, as well as her outgoing personality, made the girls want to be her friend. Also, while Hermione was a muggleborn, Genevieve was a pureblood, and unlike the Weasleys, the Harringtons belonged to the upper echelons of wizarding society. It didn't take long for people to make the connection that her father was George Harrington III of Firebolt fame. Her family had been making the best brooms for centuries and her father obviously inherited the broom making gene when he invented the Firebolt. To say that Ron's jaw dropped when he learned this little fact would be an understatement. Some would later say that Ron was standing in the Astronomy Tower when he found out and his jaw dropped so far that the Slytherins were quite shocked when they saw the lower half of a mouth rush past them in the dungeons on its way to the Chamber of Secrets deep below the school. Yes, Ron was beginning to develop quite the crush on Ms. Harrington, but that's getting a bit ahead of ourselves.
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I suppose if she wanted to be technical about it, Hermione could say that things started to unravel in the weeks leading to the Halloween ball. Naturally, Dumbledore put the Heads and the Prefects in charge of the event. Hermione, of course, worked hard to make sure that the event would be a success. Ron, on the other hand, was never really into anything Prefect-related, aside from the status it gave him, so the Gryffindor load fell on Hermione's shoulders. To top it all off, OWL examinations were going to be held in December so the 6th years were also busy studying and trying to keep up with their numerous assignments. Though it was certainly daunting, Hermione was able to handle her workload by doing what she does every year – scheduling. Unfortunately, there was just so much going on that she didn't have time to make up schedules for Harry and Ron as well. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on which way you look at it, Genevieve was there to help. While Hermione was busy planning the ball and cramming in study time in between, Harry, Ron, and Genevieve formed a study group in which the latter helped the other two with their assignments.
Finally, the day of the ball came and it was a huge success. Everyone was amazed at the decorations and the event itself but the real star of the night, the one everyone talked about after, was Genevieve. She showed up to the ball in a magnificent 2,000 Galleon dress and wowed the crowd with a beautiful rendition of a chart-topping Weird Sisters song, a song Hermione had never heard of. It turns out, some of the prefects had asked some of the students to perform and provide the entertainment for the night and Genevieve was one of those asked.
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The OWL examinations were a blur of nerves and stress. Nonetheless, the 6th years eventually got through them. In order to make the procedures in the school more cohesive, Dumbledore had decided that he would name the next year's Head Boy and Girl in January based on the OWL exams and of course, the student's overall performance in school. This was so that the next Heads will have a chance to shadow the present ones in order to make the transition smoother the following year. This of course, put extra pressure on Hermione. Everyone had said she would be Head Girl, but still, you never know. All she knew was that she had dreamt of being Head Girl for years. Being muggleborn, she constantly had to prove herself and prove that she had as much right to magic as her classmates. While helping Harry save the world was one thing, becoming Head Girl was really something she could call her own and something that would show her pureblood classmates that she belonged in this world as well. After the exams, Hermione felt okay about her performance. At the very least, she did give it her all – blood, sweat, tears, and her firstborn child – so there was really nothing more she could've done in terms of trying to secure the Head Girl position. At the end of the day, when it's out of your hands, the best thing you could hope for is the knowledge that you really couldn't have done anymore than you already did. Now all she had to do was wait and hope that her all had been enough.
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After the exams, students prepared to go home for the holidays. Genevieve invited Harry, Ron, and Hermione to spend Christmas with her family in their villa in the south of France. Harry and Ron eagerly agreed. However, Hermione's parents forbade her from spending Christmas away from home. They had a policy that no matter what, Hermione had to spend Christmas with her family. She really wanted to spend time with her friends since she barely saw them the past couple of months and she would rather shoot herself than go home but her parents were paying for her tuition and she really had no choice. So with a fake smile plastered on her face she wished them a Happy Christmas and left with her parents at King's Cross.
As always, spending time at home was utterly painful for Hermione. She was dragged to countless dinners at complete strangers' houses pretending to be the dutiful daughter to a perfect, happy family. Her only bright memory throughout the whole ordeal was Christmas morning when she found Hedwig and Pig waiting at her window with presents. Harry and Ron got her books – "Potent Potions and their Antidotes" from Harry and "Quidditch for Dummies" from Ron (that made her laugh). Mrs. Weasley gave her another jumper and some sweets, Ginny gave her a beautiful pair of earrings and Fred and George gave her some of their Patented Daydream Charms ("We know how bored you get at those dinners" they had said on their card). Genevieve had given her scented bath oils that also caused the water to change colours and bubble up like a jacuzzi. Hermione gave her presents for Hedwig and Pig to deliver (Quidditch gloves for Harry, a Chudley Cannons jersey for Ron, a magical compact for Ginny that had every makeup item one would need, the newest Celestina Warbeck for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and a magical ledger for Fred and George that added up your sales totals for you ("I know how much you boys hate Arithmancy but love looking at how much money you have"). She also gave Genevieve a charm bracelet where the charms actually changed periodically. Hermione had a big smile on her face thinking about everyone's reactions to her gifts, that is, until her mother woke up and called her downstairs for breakfast.
Meanwhile in France, Harry and Ron were having a blast at Genevieve's place. They enjoyed the sun and the beach on the coast and the Harringtons were really nice and hospitable.
On Christmas morning, Harry and Ron eagerly jumped out of bed to inspect their pile of presents.
"Harry, is this what I think it is?" Ron asked holding a neatly wrapped package shaped like a broom.
"I got one too. No way," Harry breathed unwrapping his package. "Blimey! It is a new broom!"
"Not just any broom," Ron said reverently stroking the polished mahogany handle. "It's the Firebolt III – this isn't even out on the market yet!"
Harry let the broom go and watched it hover motionless in midair at the perfect height for him to mount it.
"Bloody hell Harry," Ron said still staring at his broom. "No one has even seen one in the flesh!"
When they made their way downstairs for breakfast, the boys thanked Genevieve and her family profusely for an hour, much to their amusement, the other presents forgotten. Oh Harry and Ron opened their presents yes, but they only thought of one thing when they looked back on that Christmas morning.
Two days later, Harry and Ron received a message from the Order that a new lead regarding Voldemort involved Horcruxes and it would be helpful if they started learning about them. Genevieve was with them when the letter arrived and their shocked faces at having received a letter from the Order naturally made her ask what was going on. Because they didn't know what to tell her and they didn't have a clue where to start, they asked Dumbledore for permission to tell Genevieve about the Order so that she could help them. Of course Dumbledore knew the Harringtons well and he trusted Genevieve so he allowed the boys to let her in on what's going on. Luckily, Genevieve had a large library in her villa ("Wow, Hermione would love this" was Harry's comment) and they were able to start researching Horcruxes.
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Finally, much to Hermione's delight, the holidays ended and it was time to return to Hogwarts. She eagerly boarded the train and sat down in an empty compartment with a big grin on her face. A few minutes later, Harry, Ron, and Genevieve found her and entered the compartment.
"Hey guys!"
"Blimey Hermione," Ron burst out. "We've got loads to tell you!"
The four friends proceeded to detail their holidays to each other. Hermione didn't have much to say as hers was uneventful. Harry and Ron, on the other hand, couldn't stop talking about how amazing their vacation was. Eventually, they mentioned Dumbledore's letter.
"At first we were like 'What are we going to do? Hermione's the best at research'," Ron said making Hermione blush. "Then Genevieve here saved the day. She showed us her family's library which had tons and tons of books!"
"You should've seen it Hermione, it was huge! You would've loved it," Harry added.
"At first we looked at the general 'encyclopedia-like' books for information but it was really hard to find anything," Genevieve said.
"But then she did this awesome spell where you say the word you're looking for and it makes the books with that word glow," Ron added.
"It was kind of like magical Google," Harry explained.
"What the heck is a Poogle?" Ron asked.
"Never mind," Hermione said laughing. "I understand. Go on, what did you guys find out?"
"Anyway," Ron continued. "Turns out, horcruxes are these things that allow you to split your soul and put it into different things so that you can't die."
"We're thinking Voldemort did just that and that's why he keeps coming back. I guess the only way to kill him is to destroy all the horcruxes," said Harry.
"Well I guess we should start thinking about what and where these horcruxes are."
"Actually," replied Harry. "We think we may have figured it out. I mean, for Voldemort to put his soul into them, they had to be pretty important things. They also have to be things that are hard to find. To be honest, we were stumped. I mean, they could be anything, how would we know where to start? Luckily, Genevieve had this great idea that he could've used something from the four founders. And doesn't it all fit? I mean, putting his soul in the founders' things would not only mean putting his soul in very important relics but it would also be the ultimate sign that he had control over the school that once tried to control him. What's more, with the exception of Gryffindor's sword – which is obviously not a horcrux, no one else knows where the others are. That would make it even harder to destroy them."
"We also think," Genevieve added. "That Nagini is a horcrux. I mean, it's the ultimate insurance to have a horcrux close by and always with you just in case someone gets to the others."
"Looks like you guys were quite busy. Now that I'm up to date, I can start helping you. I feel bad to have missed out on all the action."
"Yeah," Ron agreed. "But I think at this point there's nothing more we can do until Dumbledore gives us more information. Genevieve didn't think it'd be practical to start looking for the founders' relics until Dumbledore has confirmed our ideas. Unless you can think of something else Hermione."
"No," Hermione agreed, much to her dismay. She hated feeling useless. "It looks like we'll have to wait for more information before we can go on."
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Over the next few weeks, Hermione again became very busy with school and her prefect duties as the new term progressed. She saw less and less of her friends as she struggled to stay on top of things. Ron tried to help with prefect duties but being Ron, his commitment to the quidditch team took precedence over other activities. Their relationship hadn't progressed very much although Hermione wasn't really sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, she was grateful that it hadn't gotten serious yet since she wasn't sure she was ready for it. On the other hand, the idea of Ron as a boyfriend was starting to grow on her and he seemed to be really into her. He would still hold her hand and carry her books to class and was really sweet to her. They argued less often and she was starting to feel like she was ready to move on and that Ron might be the guy for her.
In the meantime, the rest of the "quartet" had gotten more information from Dumbledore and they were making some serious headway in their research. One day, Hermione was studying alone in the common room as everybody else went to Hogsmeade for the weekend, when Harry, Ron, and Genevieve burst in with the biggest smiles on their faces. Their faces and clothes were covered in soot and they had scratches on their arms.
"What's happened?" Hermione asked shocked. "Are you alright?"
"Never better," Harry replied with a grin. "We just destroyed a horcrux!"
"What?!"
"Yeah," Harry confirmed as they sat down. "It was Ravenclaw's diadem. Our research said that it was hidden at school – "
"Research?" Hermione interrupted. "I thought we weren't going to do anything else until Dumbledore gave us more information."
"Well, he did," Ron said, sheepishly. "We're sorry we didn't get to tell you. You were just so busy we hardly saw you. Plus, you probably wouldn't have had time to help us. Your plate was full. We didn't want to add any more to it."
"That's sweet of you but you know I would've gladly helped you out."
"It's ok. We understand. Luckily, Genevieve was here to help," said Ron.
"So anyway," Harry continued excitedly. "The diadem was supposedly hidden at school so we've been trying so hard to find it. We've even snuck into the Ravenclaw tower to see if it was hidden there but it wasn't. Then Genevieve thought we should try the Room of Requirement to see if we could make the room bring it to us. So we tried to think 'We need Ravenclaw's diadem' but nothing happened. Then Genevieve started thinking 'We're looking for something' and voila! The room opened into this monster lost and found warehouse. Where better to hide something than in a giant pile of junk that no one ever goes through? So we spent all day looking through the room – that explains all the dust. There were a couple creatures we had to deal with – that explains the scratches – but all in all, with the exception of having to go through all that stuff, it was pretty easy. We found the diadem and I was about to touch it but my scar started to hurt really bad as I got near it so Genevieve levitated it to a corner. We tried to blast it with a Bombardia but that didn't work and we tried to burn it but that didn't work either, so we took it to Dumbledore. He taught us a new spell 'Fluo vita' which works kind of like a patronus. You focus all your positive energy into the spell and pour it all into the object. The idea is that your life force goes into the object and all the positive energy ends up overwhelming and destroying the mangled piece of soul in there. The diadem made a mini explosion and was destroyed in a puff of smoke. Dumbledore was really weak afterwards though. Apparently, it takes a lot of your energy to do it. And that's it! Two down, 5 to go."
"5? And 2?"
"Oh yeah, Dumbledore said, that his sources say Voldemort split his soul into 7 - 6 horcruxes, plus himself now obviously. Two is for the diadem and the diary back in 2nd yr. It'd be so much easier to stab every horcrux like before but I can't exactly carry around a basilisk fang all the time," Harry said with a smile. "Anyway, I'm beat. I'm gonna go have a nap before dinner."
"Me too," said Ron and Genevieve.
Hermione was so shocked with the news and Harry was talking so fast that she barely had time to react before all 3 of them were gone. A million thoughts ran through her head when they left. On the one hand, she was glad that they were one step closer to defeating Voldemort but on the other hand, she honestly felt left out and disappointed. She was always there to help Harry 'save the day'. It sounds selfish but every time "Harry Potter saves the world" Hermione Granger was always an integral part of the adventure, an important piece of the "Golden Trio". She always scoffed at the nickname but to be honest, being there for Harry and being part of the trio has become a part of who she was. They were like the Three Musketeers. Now, it seems like she's not needed anymore and frankly, if she couldn't be a part of that she wouldn't know who she was. But she should be happy because it doesn't matter who does it. All that's important is Voldemort getting defeated...right?