Hermione Granger and the Sixth Year Makeover

Professor McGonagall had to go to the feast, but Harmony couldn't stand the thought of food (which was just as well, since she had to lose nearly 4 pounds), so McGonagall had Dobby the House Elf show her to her new dorm.

All the way there, Harmony walked in a daze. Snape? Her father?

And Draco? Head Boy? Her roommate???

The dorm room was in one of the lower levels of the Astronomy Tower. "Here you is!" said Dobby, stopping in front of a dark painting showing two reclining figures. Harmony recognized it as a copy of Cupid and Psyche by Jacques Louis David, which she had seen at the Cleveland Museum of Art during her summer in America. Since this version moved, however, Cupid seemed perpetually to be struggling to get out of bed while Psyche slept on, pinning him down by one wing.

The image of two nude people in bed in front of the dorm she was to share with Draco disturbed Harmony greatly, although not in an entirely unpleasant way.

"Password?" asked Cupid, somehow maintaining his silly grin.

"Sparklypoo," Harmony answered, giving the password McGonagall had provided.

"I love that word!" said Cupid, and he giggled as the door swung open.

Harmony stepped into a small sitting room featuring a single sofa, a fireplace, and what appeared to be a bearskin rug.

Three doors opened off the common room. "The center door is to the bathroom," said Dobby," and the other two are to the bedrooms. Dobby must warn Miss Granger, the bedrooms switch! Sometimes the left is yours, and sometimes the right!"

"Can't that be fixed?" asked Harmony.

"No Miss," said Dobby. "All Headmasters has tried! Will Miss Granger be needing anything else from Dobby? You hasn't eaten yet."

"No thanks, Dobby," she replied, not mentioning that she didn't want food because she had become anorexic over the summer. (Usually anorexia nervosa takes a lifetime to develop, but Harmony was a fast learner, and had spent hours on pro-ana websites picking up tips She was an expert on it by now even though she hadn't actually lost any weight.) "I think I'll just go to bed."

Once Dobby had left, Harmony poked her head into the right-hand bedroom. It proved to be furnished in Slytherin colors and hung with Malfoy family portraits, including several portraits that appeared to be of Veelas.

Probably not her room.

Did this mean that Draco had Veela relatives, even though his family claimed to be Pureblood? She would have to needle him about it later.

Next she tried the left-hand door, which she found to be decorated in black with purple accents, the walls covered in moving posters of her favorite bands like Green Day and... um, Green Day.

Without undressing, Hermione put on her MP3 player and lay down. (A/N: Yeah, I know that in 1996 portable MP3 players didn't exist, but my story, my rules! MWAHAHAHA!) With her headphones on, she wasn't aware Malfoy had come in until he spoke.

"Gawd, Granger, this room is hideous," he drawled.

Opening one eye, Harmony pulled off one of her black and purple buckle arm warmers from Hot Topic and threw it at him. "Hey, thanks!" he said, catching it neatly. "I've always wanted one of these... whatever it is. "

"Fuck off, Malfoy," said Harmony, who had also taken up swearing over the summer.

"Oh, I'm wounded!" he cried. Then his tone changed to one of curiosity. "Hey, what are those scratches all over your arms?"

Harmony had forgotten that the whole reason she was wearing the arm warmers was to cover her scars from cutting herself after her uncle had started raping her. "They're from trying to kill myself when I heard you were made Head Boy," she snapped.

"Well, you did a lousy job of it," he shot back. "The cuts need to be vertical, and a lot deeper."

"I'll keep that in mind for next time," she said.

"Well, I'll be in the next room if you need help," he offered, and left.