Hermione Gaunt??

Chapter 8

Last time: Minerva took her student's extemded arm and, before she could blink, she was in an ornate, Slytherin-like room, with a couple lying on the bed.

                                                                                         ***

Molly Weasley was furious. She had just recieved a letter from Minerva, telling her that her youngest son had attacked Harry, and that he had some dort of vendetta against Hermione, following the discovery of her heritage, and now she was sitting in the Head's offics and Hogwarts, across from her sulking son, who was trying to protest his 'unfair' treatment. She had had enough.

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY! I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU THINK THAT THIS IS ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR, BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT IT IS NOT. HARRY HAS BEEN YOUR BEST FRIEND FOR NEARLY A DECADE AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY HIM? I Am DISGUSTED. IF YOU PUT ONE MORE HAIR OUT OF LINE, YOU WILL BE COMING HOME AND I WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE HELL." Molly screamed. She had had it with her youngest son. He'd had attention issues when he was younger but she was hoping that they would have gone away by now. Obviously, they hadn't.

"Minerva, I am so, so sorry about this. Please don't hesitate to contact me about any further mishaps; I'm only a Floo call away. And as for you, young man, you are grounded at school. That means no Hogsmeade, and a curfew of nine thirty every night. As well as this, I am putting a spell on your wand to make sure that the only spells you're performing are in class. If I get an alert about you using magic for any other reason, you WILL be brought home and punished severley." Molly said, waving her wand towards her son, smiling kindly at the Headmistress, and floo-ing out of the school. ***The news of Ron attacking Harry travelled around the school quickly, and by the time Ron went down to the Great Hall for breakfast the next morning, he discovered that he had become a social paraiah over night. It turned out that turning against the Boy-WHo-Lived and the most gorgeous, powerful witch in the school did wonders for the social life.. in a bad way.

As he sat down at the Gryffinmor table, students edged away, leaving him to 'think about his actions'. Sighing, he reached for the bacon, and the eggs and began to eat. Just as he lifted his for to his mouth, however, lightning crashed down from the celing and gathered at the Slytherin table, and dissipated to reveal three new figures sitting at the table. Harry, Ginny and Hermione. No-one even blinked, with the exception of Malfoy moving down the table to allow Hermione to sit at the dead of the table, and Daphne passing Ginny the bacon. Hermione. Sitting at the head of the SLYTHERIN table. He really had messed up. And there was nothing he could do about it. ***Over at the other side of the hall, life was good. Harry and Ginny were surprised that they were welcomed so easily, although they did reckon that their being best friends with the descendant of Slytherin had something to do with it. Still, the snakes weren't actually so bad once you got to know them. For example, of you told anyone in Gryffindoor that Daphne Greengrass was insanley smart and sarcastic, and in fact didn't care about her looks (the only reason she maintained them being her family's image) they would be shocked and sent you to the hospital wing. Or if you told them that Theo Nott was a chess prodigy, and that secretly, Draco Malfoy was as much of a book worm as Hermione herself.

Last night, when Harry had been healed by Madame Pomphrey, he had returned to the Slytherin commons, where they had spent some time in the common room as Hermione was hounded by eager students with a multitude of questions about her becoming the heir to their great house. Seeing as their only friend there was occupied, Harry and Ginny had had to improvise. And by improvise, we mean talk to and get to know the other snakes in their year, which is how they had come across these shocking discoveries.

So now, the next morning, when they had flashed down to the table, they were welcomed with open arms and sarcasticly friendly jibes, and most importantly of all, bacon, the couple began to wonder why there was such a vendetta against such great people.

"Harry, how are you feeling this morning?" Pansy asked him as he settled down at the table.

"Much better, thanks Pansy. My ribs still ache a bit, but Pomphrey said that's only to be expected after such a rigarous healing." he said, smiling wearily. Ginny took his hand and gave him a gentle nudge, and just like that they were in their own world, full of small touches and gentle smiles. Across from them at the table, Draco and Daphne watched on in awe, and felt almost kind of awkward about watching the scene across the table. In pureblood families, emotion was never shown in public, and the fact that they were comfortable enough to show their love in front of people who had been their enemies just days before amazed them.

"I wish I could be like that one day.." Daphne whispered to Draco.

"So do I Daph, so do I."

Just as Draco replied, the signal was given for the students to go to their first class of the day and pupils swarmed out of the hall.