RoomMates

Year at Hogwarts is sixth, date is December tenth

Okay here we go folks, strap on your seat belts...he he.

Chapter One: Dinner, Sorting, Giggling, Orange Jell-O, and Snowflakes

Hermione sat at the Gryffindor table during dinner, bored with today’s events. Tonight was Friday, which meant tomorrow would be Saturday, and that also meant the first day of winter break.

Nothing unusual happened this year yet, and Hogwarts was approaching Christmastime, which was also the time of the Yule Ball. Now in sixth year, Harry Potter had defeated Voldemort last year for the final time, so naturally, nothing odd was going on, and, since the Yule Ball was coming up, the boys were busy worrying about getting dates then spending as much time with Hermione.

She didn’t really mind the boy’s ignoring her though. She knew that they weren’t going to ignore her forever, but every year at this time since fourth year, the boys would go stir crazy. Last year Hermione ended up going with Ron since he didn’t have a date, and she had to turn down Seamus because of this. Everyone knew she had a crush on Ron in fourth year, but she truly did want to go with Seamus. Ron knew this, but he still wasn’t very happy. In the end, Hermione decided to give in and go with Ron last year, and she really hoped it wouldn’t be the case again this year.

Hermione looked over at the Slytherin table for a change. Malfoy was sitting at the head of the table looking very smug as always, Pansy clutching to his arm. Pansy noticed her staring and looked at her icily, clearly saying with her eyes that Draco was hers, all hers. Hermione looked away, clearly sickened at the thought of dating a Malfoy.

Hermione briefly had an idea of just leaving dinner early and heading to the library, but it quickly wore away. Truthfully, she was getting bored with the books in the library; they were all the same, really. These days when she goes she usually just reads Hogwarts: a History. Besides, she had all of her work for winter break completed, and even a few extra credit assignments written.

She looked out the window, with the snowflakes drifting from the trees, causing her thoughts to stray back to the Yule Ball. Truth be told, in fourth year she had outdone herself pretty well, and since then she still liked the feeling of being done up once in a while. Of course, she did look quite nice last year, but she didn’t do anything new. She even wore the same dress robes. What with everything completed, she decided that tomorrow morning she was heading to Madam Malkin’s Robes for all Occasions to buy a new dress robe.

She stared down at her peas and chicken, Ron and Harry were talking about Quidditch as always. Seamus chucked peas at Dean, and Hermione snorted into her mashed potatoes, slightly amused. She was grateful when she heard Dumbledore clear his throat. She looked up at him to listen.

“Now students, as you all may know, Voldemort is no longer with us, so there really isn’t much to worry about or plan for. So, the faculty and I decided it would be a bit of fun to come up with something new.”

Several cheers erupted from the Great Hall from that comment; it was true that the year was going pretty dry. Sirius was finally cleared of charges, and has proper visitation rights for Harry. Hermione was absolutely ecstatic that something interesting was approaching.

As the silence died down, Dumbledore continued on:

“You may have noticed that a portion of our grounds has been off limits to you all for some construction work to be done. Now, it is time for me to reveal to you what we have been working on. We will instruct the sorting hat to choose two Hogwarts students to participate in this, and this has nothing to do with grades or test scores. The hat will simply decide which two students are the most compatible, so as not to create stress.”

“Well it’s obviously going to be Potter and Weasley then,” Malfoy drawled.

As if Dumbledore heard him, he continued on saying:

“These partnerships will, however, not be within the same house. The partnerships must be from two different houses. Another rule for this is that the partners will be boy-girl.”

After he said this, most of the boys hooted, and the girls giggled. Ron made a very offending comment about Parvati, which caused him to have a pie thrown at him. He threw the pie back, causing a quite large food fight at the Gryffindor table.  This ended up as Harry cleaning orange Jell-O off his glasses, Ginny flicking specks of corn from her robes, Ron pulling string beans from his hair, and Hermione trying to clean the chocolate pudding off her face. After everyone was already cleaned off and silenced, Dumbledore was finally able to continue, and looked very determined to finish his speech:

“As much as most of you may not want to admit it, you will be working with a fair amount of Muggles when you leave Hogwarts, so we want you to be able to adjust easier. This means that you are simply going to have to know how things work to be able to live in the near future. Fortunately for two of you, we have built a Muggle house on these grounds and expect you to live and work together, with no magic, in this house for the remainder of the school year.”

At this point, every student gaped, shouted, screamed, or cried. As a matter of fact, few even fainted! Hermione knew that not all wizards and witches liked Muggles, but this was absolutely nuts to her. But, of course, nothing could top Slytherin, which was, by far, the rowdiest. No one could help hearing Malfoy’s rude comments and threats. Hermione could not believe what her ears were picking up. “I can’t believe two of us actually have the opportunity for this, this will be like being home for me, and I get this best of both worlds, I really hope I can go, then I won’t be so homesick and bored anymore…” she thought. Harry looked at Ron with anxiety. Hermione heard him say something about not wanting to quit Quidditch. After all, he was captain. Dumbledore, however, was not fazed. He continued on:

“For you to be able to live a *comfortable* life, we have enabled electricity to be used within the house. The house will be beautiful, but quite unique. There is one bedroom, one bathroom, one kitchen, a relaxation room, and one recreation room. The recreation room will include one pool table, a Jacuzzi, plenty of squishy purple furniture, and a large entertainment system with a huge screen projector to watch movies. The bathroom will have a very large pool- like bathtub and shower, and the relaxation room will have lots of comfy furniture, relaxing music, candles, incense…etc, oh and a new fangled thing called “dimmable lights”! OH! And a bunch of special features and tons of “surprises”, needless to say, if you are offered this chance, we simply cannot let you drop out.”

The room was silent because, obviously, most of the students didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. They didn’t know what a “pool table” was, what a “Jacuzzi” was, or what “dimmable lights” were, and they had no idea what movies and projectors and entertainment systems were. This was also, of course, mixed with the awestruck expressions of confusion. Everyone knew that Hogwarts was a muggle-supporting school, but no one possibly thought that they would go this far. Several students were saying things like "Only ONE bedroom for two people?!", and "A boy and a girl sharing a ROOM? Isn't that like, illegal?!" Even Hermione, who had always supported Dumbledore’s genius ideas, had to admit that this idea had definitely topped the cake.

Fortunately for Harry and Ron, Hermione was able to explain enough for them to understand. Secretly inside, though, Hermione partly wished she wouldn’t be chosen. Even though she wasn’t talking to Ron or Harry as much lately, she couldn’t imagine going through school at Hogwarts without them, or without magic as well.  She continued focusing on Dumbledore.

“For the pair to be able to move in by tomorrow, we need to do this sorting as quickly as possible. I will first ask Ravenclaw students to go up to the stool, and then Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. Please treat this in a proper manor, and be respectful. I will also note that this is a totally serious project, and those who participate will be graded by how they live and work together. Since the Yule Ball is next Saturday, they will be able to leave the house and participate. Under no circumstances will they be able to leave, except to Hogsmeade when permitted.”

So, tediously one by one, the students tried the hats on. The hat was not supposed to shout when it found two matches, it was only going to look over everyone’s personality and opinions, and place two of them together. When finally everyone was finished, they went to sit down in their seats to hear which two of the lucky students will be placed together. Harry and Ron were grinning at each other, and Hermione absolutely did not know what to think.

Hermione felt very apprehensive at this moment, wondering if she was going to be chosen. Sure, it was an honor, but what if she was placed with someone horrible? “No.”, she thought. “The Sorting Hat has never made a mistake before, and I highly doubt it will make a bad decision. Hopefully if I am chosen, it will be with a tolerable boy, preferably a Ravenclaw…”

So, as the tension in the air was becoming increasingly thicker, and when everyone was at the edge of their seats, The Sorting Hat kindly cleared its throat, and announced…

“The two students chosen to live in the luxury house will be Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy!”