The Truth About Hermione Granger

Hermione woke up the next morning to the sounds of her cousin singing in the shower. It was a song Hermoine didn't recognize, but a nice one nonetheless. She pulled herself out of bed and immediately jumped back onto her bed. The floor was stone and froze her feet on contact. Quickly, she looked around the floor for her slippers and found them over by the bureau. Taking a deep breath she ran over to her slippers and jumped into them quickly.

"Do you know how silly you look?"

Hermione whirled around to see Amelia toweling off her hair. "The floor is cold," she said almost haughtily. "What do you expect?"

Amelia just laughed and tied her hair on top of her head. "Has Draco been by yet?" she asked.

"No, why?"

"He was here earlier," answered Amelia. "When you were still asleep. He came in and watched you for a while, but then I made him leave and told him to come back later. It was kind of sweet, you know. Watching him watch you sleep."

Hermione could feel her cheeks get a bit hot and she turned away to pull out some cloths. "Well, he's a sweet boy," she said. "No matter what my father may say about him."

"I was under the impression that your father liked Draco Malfoy," said Amelia, rubbing an oily looking substance into her feet.

"Well, he does, to an extent, I suppose," answered Hermione, pulling out a pair of jeans and a red sweater. "But he's a bit down on Draco now that he's dating me! I'm sure YOUR father's the same way about your boyfriends."

"I wouldn't know," said Amelia, putting more of the oily stuff on her feet. "I've never had a boyfriend."

Hermione watched her for a moment and finally asked, "what's that stuff?"

"It's a moisturizer," answered Amelia. "Prescription. My feet get so dry in the winter that they crack and bleed. Mom took me to a dermatologist- wizard, of course- and he made this stuff for me. We have to keep going back to him because my mom and dad both suck at potions and I'm technically not allowed to make them yet."

Hermione smirked. "Does it work?" she asked.

"Sure does," said Amelia. "And it smells good, too. Kinda like Myrrh."

Hermione nodded. She could smell it from where she stood. "Well," she said finally. "I'm going to take a shower."

"Don't you let Draco in there with you!" called Amelia as Hermione shut the door.

"I won't," answered Hermione with a laugh.

But, she thought. I can't promise I won't think about it!

* * * * * * * *

"There you are, poppet!" said Hermione's father as she came into the dining room for breakfast. "I was wondering whether or not you would be joining us for breakfast."

"Sorry," she answered, sitting between Amelia and Draco. "I couldn't find any clean jeans so I had to ask one of the house elves to wash a pair for me."

Draco smirked and leaned over to her. "You could've come down without pants," he whispered.

"I heard that, Mr. Malfoy," said Snape in a bored sort of tone.

"Sorry, sir," answered Draco, modestly turning a bit pink.

"So, Hermione," said Sylvia from across the table. "Your father tells us that you're doing wonderfully in school."

"I suppose you could say that," said Hermione nervously, glancing at her father.

"She got ALL of her owls," put in Draco.

"Did you?" asked Amelia. "I only missed one."

"Which was that?" asked Hermione.

"Divination," answered Amelia. "But, that's a pointless class, anyway."

"Divination is NOT pointless, Amlelia," said Sylvia. "It's very useful, especially for you!"

"Oh, mum, what've I gotta learn Divination for?" moaned Amelia. "It's so BORING and involves a whole lot of staring which I can't stand! Besides, I get premonitions when I need them."

"I agree with Amelia," said George, taking a bite of his sausage. "Arithmancy is MUCH more useful." He winked at the three teenagers across the table as Sylvia playfully smacked his shoulder.

"Hermione," said Snape. "Your aunt and uncle would like you to go stay with them for a month this summer."

Hermione nearly dropped her fork and almost inhaled her eggs. "What?" she said.

"Yes, Hermione," said Sylvia. "We'd love to have you. Amelia could show you all the interesting places and then the two of you could fly back to England together."

"I have to come back to apprentice under Uncle Severus," Amelia reminded her.

"Yes, I know," said Hermione. "Oh, that's so wonderful! I would love to go!"

"Oh, good, then, it's settled!" said George. "Severus, you're always welcome to come, too."

"That's quite all right," said Snape quickly. "I shall have much to attend to before the start of next term."

"Oh, Hermione, this is going to be so much fun!" exclaimed Amelia. "We can go to the White House and Times Square and Madison Square Gardens and maybe we can even go white water rafting! This is going to be GREAT!"

Hermione giggled at her cousin. "I can't wait," she said. It was then that she noticed that Draco was awfully quiet. She looked over at him to see him staring down at his plate and pushing his eggs around aimlessly. "What's the matter, Draco?" she asked.

"You're going to be SO far away," he said. "What will I DO all summer without you?"

Thankfully the adults and Amelia were talking, so they hadn't noticed what was happening. "Oh, Draco that's so sweet!" she said. "Don't worry, I'll write to you, I promise!"

"Thanks, Mione," he said, looking over at her. "You know I love you, don't you?"

"I do," she said, smiling sweetly at him. "And I love you, too."

He smiled at her and they both rejoined the conversation with the adults, which was now a possible trip to Ireland during the spring holidays for Snape and Hermione.

* * * * * * * *

As it turned out, Hermione and Amelia went to visit Voldemort the next day, just for the morning. He was happy to see them and asked if they needed anything. Again, Amelia asked for another sneaky sounding potion and Hermione could think of nothing she needed. Again Wormtail was ordered to bring breakfast and again he stared at Amelia almost hungrily.

"Are you sure you won't consider it, Amelia?" asked Voldemort after he'd snapped at Wormtail to check on Naginni, his snake.

"Not a chance," said Amelia. "He's WAY to old for me. I could NEVER be betrothed to Wormtail."

Hermione grinned. It was obvious that Wormtail was asking about Amelia constantly.

"Well, he does ask," said Voldemort. "And I don't get any peace unless I promise to ask you just once more. He would treat you well, Amelia."

"I know that," she answered. "But, I just can't get past the age difference. I know, I know, young witches take up with older wizards all the time, but I just can't do it."

"Very well," said Voldemort, turning to Hermione. "How has Draco been treating you?"

"He's treating me VERY well, sir," answered Hermione. "He's very careful with me. I think he doesn't want to get on my father's bad side."

Voldemort chuckled. "That's a bad place to be indeed!" he exclaimed. "If I know your father, that is. And I think I do!"

Hermoine grinned back at him. "I know," she said. "I've been there before. I mean before I knew he was my father, that is. He used to call me a know-it-all and tell me to shut up and sit down."

"It was only because you are friends with Potter," said Voldemort. "He was insanely jealous of Harry's father, James. I told him on several occasions to just be rid of James Potter, but no, he wouldn't do it! That would hurt Lily, he said and he just COULDN'T do that!" He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Well, Lily was a dirty mudblood as I found out later, so what did it matter to HIM if it hurt her," he said.

"I don't know, sir," said Hermione. "I mean, Tom. Perhaps he didn't realize that she was from such an unfortunate family."

He only nodded.

Finally, after breakfast, Voldemort had some 'errands' to attend to, as he put it, and sent the girls back to Snape Castle with a Christmas present each that they were to open on Christmas morning and not a moment sooner! They promised to put them under the tree and not touch them before Christmas and were off by floo powder again.

As soon as they appeared in Snape castle, Draco wanted to know exactly what had happened, so they were forced to tell him that Wormtail was still after Amelia and that nothing else really happened.

Little did they know what the next day would bring....