A Summer Song

A SUMMER SONG

TO: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: Hi

FROM: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

Hey Granger. Summer bores me but I find relief in the fact that my fate is much better than spending it with a family of muggles. I can't wait to return to Hogwart's, so I could expose that foolish Potter for the fraud that he really is. Oh, least I forget to express my excitement in seeing what hand-me-downs that Weasley kid will be wearing, I wonder how he'll bulk up to force himself to fit into the clothes that his pig-sized brothers will be giving him? Why do you hang around with a bunch of losers? Oh yes...could it be a case of being birds of the same feathers thronging together? No wonder Gryfindor's crest looks like a bewildered fowl.

Enjoy your summer, Granger.

TO: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: Re: Hi

FROM: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

I have nothing to say to you.

TO: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: Could it be?

FROM: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

Oh Ms. Granger, could it be that the girl who can't seem to run out of things to say in class is cringing at the mental might of one such as I? The brevity of your reply is quite disturbing. I never thought dumbness is contagious. Spare yourself the degeneration and find new friends. I'm sure the other members of your pitiful house are much better company and influence than pathetic Potter and wretched Weasley.

P.S. I've been meaning to ask, what were your muggle parents thinking? What kind of name is Hermione? As if Granger wasn't bad enough...

TO: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: Re: Could it be?

FROM: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

First of all, Malfoy, you have no right to insult my friends like that! What have they done to you, anyway? Why do you hate them so much? Why do you hate me so much? We all go to Hogwarts to learn. Why do you and your cronies have to make it so miserable?

Second, leave my parents out of this. So what if they don't have wizard's blood? That doesn't make them any different from everyone else. Wizards and witches were hunted down and persecuted hundred of years ago because ordinary people thought they were different. Why do you harbor the same paranoia? Why do you look down on people who don't share your oh-so-mighty pedigree?

You're a sad, sad boy.

P.S. Did you know that sometime in the 9^th Century, Draco was a term used for the offspring of a human and a dragon? No wonder you stink!

TO: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: Har har har

FROM: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

Ooooohhhhh. Did I rub you the wrong way, Miss Granger? No need to be so touchy. I hate Potter because his undeserved fame has gotten to his head. The way he walks, the way he talks, he thinks he's above everyone else. He cruises down the hallway pompously displaying that scar on his forehead. Let me ask you this, Granger. If that scar is to stand for his greatness, what did he exactly do? Nothing! He just cried like a baby and received that scar, and now, everyone is expected to worship him? I'll die before I kiss his arse like you and everyone else seem to be doing. And that bloody Weasley kid, I hate him because, well, where do I start? He's poor, and he comes from a family who doesn't even know how to count. How many kids do they have? How much do they earn? Basic mathematical balancing is beyond them, and that is unforgivable. What's worse is that they do not have the drive to improve their lot in life. Daddy Weasley is content with being the Ministry's goffer lad. And Mama Weasley, well, she's content with cooking and cleaning their sorry little house all her life. No wonder she's as fat as a hog.

And contrary to what you believe Granger, I don't hate you. You are...well, I don't hate you, but I hate the company you choose to keep, and that makes you sorrier than how you perceive me to be.

P.S. Dragon-human offspring eh? No wonder I strike so much awe with the people I meet. You included.

TO: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: Conceding, huh?

FROM: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

It's been two days, Granger, and still no reply from you! I never thought that you acquired your friends' cowardice as well. And here I was thinking that you were different. Ha! It turns out that the poor muggles' child is but a faint shimmer of a dying star.

TO: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: ?

FROM: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

Granger, it's been a week. Don't give me a lousy muggle excuse like your line had been disconnected or you lost my e-mail address or you forgot your password. I deserve a reply, so don't exhibit the same lack of etiquette your friends are fond of.

TO: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: Listen...

FROM: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

Two weeks and no reply from you. Don't tell me, all that "Feisty Hermione" I see at Hogwarts is but a play, a feigned courage that cannot be sustained? Come on Granger, are you allowing me to walk away the victor in our little colloquy? Triumph isn't alien to me, but I live for the thrill of the hunt. Don't walk away and deprive me of that Granger. Prove yourself worthy of my time. I demand a reply.

TO: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: (none)

FROM: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

Still no reply?

TO: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: One more week

FROM: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

Goyle once said that he hates the last weeks of summer. Being the simpleton that he is, his reason was that he'll miss his mother's cooking and his pet duck. I had to remind him of the feasts offered nightly at the great hall, just to stop him from breaking into tears. That didn't work so I had to whack him in the head for good measure.

And today starts the last week before we enter our third year at Hogwart's. Like idiotic Goyle, I hate it. I despise this time when the trees' dried leaves of faded yellow meshes with budding greenness to advent the changing seasons. I abhor the pungent smell that ascends from the soil, heralding the coming rains. I dislike the fact that I would be away from home, from my father's discerning eyes, from my house's cradle of luxuries. And I resent the duty that I am burdened with, to carry my family's pride, to live up to lofty expectations, to trek a path that I have not chosen for myself.

I always wanted to be an artist. With what field, I am not certain. A writer maybe? Perhaps a bard? Songs. I love songs. Words that dance with an intangible melody conveying emotions which nothing else can express. But such dreams are all but lost. A position in the Ministry awaits me, as with my father and forefathers. Ours is a tradition rich with respect and onerous with power, and I am not one to break that line. I have no choice.

Unlike you.

I do not hate you, Granger, as I've said in my previous mail. I envy you. You chose this, this life of Wizardry. And your folks supported you, their ignorance notwithstanding. And sad times like this makes me envy you even more. You're probably busy and excited making a list of the things you will need in a week hence, scribbling outlines of the books you have scanned in advance during the previous months, stimulated by the challenges to come. I, on the other hand, only have the company of Goyle and Crabbe to look forward to, as well as...ah Granger. I don't know what I'm feeling right now. It's the drizzle outside I say, and the full moon maybe, and the fact that you don't read my mails anyway.

See you in a week's time, Granger. And I do hope you're not as sensitive with that slow-witted Longbottom as you are with your other friends. Oh, we have grand plans for that moron indeed!

And Granger, sorry for calling you a mud-blood last summer. That was too...well, I could have called you a muggle instead, which you are anyway.

P.S. If by some chance you read this, bear in mind that this is not me, and this is not an offer for friendship. I can be a good fiction writer, don't you think?

TO: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: (none)

FROM: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

I guess you haven't read my mail three days ago, eh Granger?

TO: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: (none)

FROM: Dementius Mikolas <[email protected]>

You came with the night and stayed as it fled

And blanketed me from the biting cold

You, with your eyes of a thousand joys so fed

Lost in the scent of your hair, tepid and red

Your splendor the loveliest tale ever told

And though my soul in darkness clings

Your name, the only song my heart now sings

So kindle my stupor with your kindness warm

And make me see

The wonders of a world untouched by harm

Reminded by the splendor of your charm

In fond gaiety

And linger not on words unmeant, and their sting

For your name, the only song my heart now sings

Undress me now from this putrid skin of mine

And open thine eyes to me

An affection that shall not wither with the shifting climes

Though denied, I dare not make it cease, through time and time

'Tis, my yearned malady

And though I know not what the future may bring

Your name, Hermione, the only song I shall sing

TO: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: What???

FROM: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

What was that all about, Malfoy? First, you insult my friends, then you insult me, then you insult my parents, and you never even spared my name, and now, you're trying to confuse me by sending me a stupid poem while disguising as someone else? You're so incorrigible! You think you're such a hunk now, huh, such a lover boy? Save your budding hormones for someone who actually cares! You're mad! You're seriously ill! You need help! Stay away from me!

TO: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: Re: What???

FROM: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

Granger, you're the one who's incorrigible! I spent all summer waiting for a reply from you, hoping that our argument wouldn't end by default, and when I finally received your reply, you accuse me of sending you a love letter? Oh please. What makes you think it was from me? Don't flatter yourself. A more probable, nay, possible actuality is that it was sent by that egocentric Potter or that monstrously ugly Weasley. Granger, please, don't place yourself in my league, you'll never be my type. Why, in bloody hell, will I write you something that would glorify your name like a song? Stay with your kind, Granger, and leave me out of it. I'll be departing for the train station after sending this, and I do not want you to discuss this with me or anyone else during the year. This would be so embarrassing. Imagine me, Draco Malfoy, being associated with the like of you, Granger? Please.

TO: Draco Malfoy <[email protected]>

SUBJECT: Re: Re: What???

FROM: Hermione Granger <[email protected]>

Wait. I never told you that the letter "glorified" my name "like a song".

(End of Correspondence)