i know what you're thinking, you wonder
why i chose her out of all the ladies in the world. it's just a first impression
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Hermione's head hurt. It had been a long day since she stepped off onto the platform of Hogsmeade station, carrying Crookshanks, her ginger fluffball of a cat, off with her. The journey itself had been delightful, conversing with Roman Coldrain. He certainly had something about him. Looks, style.. kindness and a natural charisma. In fact, he had everything about him- but Hemione couldn't think of that. This was the most important year of her education so far and she couldn't afford to lose more concentration than she already knew she was going to.

After the train ride it had simply been a matter of routine. Polite yet detached conversation in the carriage on the way to the castle, being hugged by the ever hyper Juliette. Sitting at the Gryffindor table almost silently during the Welcome Feast, and being shunned by newly sorted first years because they were either scared of her or just plain didn't like her. Hermione would have loved to have been able to say it was the new Prefect badge on her tie, but she just couldn't! It wasn't true! People just disliked her. Well, apart from the couple of faces she'd seen walking up the stairs. Sure, she hadn't looked quite like this last term, but were boys really quite so superficial?

Apparently so, and so she'd kept her head down when ushering the first years to the Gryffindor common room. Her fellow Prefect was almost worse than useless and so she'd had to be the bad cop, telling first years off constantly for shouting the common room password to their Ravenclaw friends down the hallway and for constantly forgetting the password altogether! Eventually everyone had trotted off to bed, or at least- Hermione thought everyone until a little first year wandered over to her and told her that his best friend had told him he was going to explore the castle. And that had made Hermione's day a lot worse. The other prefect had already retreated to their dorm and Hermione had no real will to disturb them, nor had she any will to go and find the idiot child.

So; deciding that the child would probably have forgotten the common room password and would be caught by a teacher if they didn't manage to navigate their way back, Hermione waited. First in the shadows, for hours- seeing one Miss Lily Potter enter the common room looking very wet, and with a green tie in her hands. And Hermione couldn't be sure- but she swore she saw another glint of auburn hair vanish round the corner as soon as Lily jr. entered the room. She could only hope it was Professor Potter, finally coming to her senses about her rebellious daughter.

After that she'd got up, moved into the alcove where the fat lady's portrait was, trying not to disturb the portrait. The first year still hadn't turned up, and it was past half midnight. Her shoes lay next to her from where she took them off and her hair was falling out, curl-by-curl from her semi-neat bun, tendrils now framing her pale face. Her brown eyes scanned the floor as she huddled up next to the wall, her feet chilled from the floor. Why she stayed out, she didn't know, it seemed like the thing to do. Eventually she sat with her knees at her chest, practicing spells she'd memorized- creating birds from thin air and vanishing them again, creating flames then dashing them with water. Who was she kidding? She'd never use them in action or for any reason. She'd end up going back to the muggle world and working there or something. She shook her head at this thought, a half amused expression reaching her face as she did so, before freezing at the shadow cast above her.

Not good news. If a teacher found her sitting out here they'd crucify her, especially if they'd been watching the spells she'd been practicing. And she couldn't afford to get into trouble. She never had. She had her reason, waiting for the first year- for a teacher may not know the password to enter the common room. But it had also been relaxing, being on her own. Solitude was a friend.

TAGGED ! embry !
WORDS ! n/a !
OUTFIT ! here !
MUSIC ! ipod shuffle !
NOTES ! n/a !

i know what you're thinking, you wonder
why i chose her out of all the ladies in the world. it's just a first impression
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hermione's head flipped up as she heard a smooth male voice above her, stepping through the portrait hole and spotting her. There was no doubt about who it was, any other teacher would have gone spare at the thought of her sitting up so late on her first night back- but Professor Lautner never had been like that, at least, not with her anyway. Besides, no other teacher would have been able to see her in the dark shadows, for he was a vampire with perfect sight. Not exactly the kind of thing that comforted pupils, even Hermione was uneasy- but for a different reason.

Hermione had first met the rather young looking teacher in first year, around five years before the current time. She'd identified him almost instantly his eyes, his movement and the way he smelled. Of course, she knew this from reading about them all in her beloved textbooks, which she'd memorised long before stepping foot inside one of the Hogwarts classrooms. From that class, where she sat at the front, bushy haired and being teased by less academically inclined students something seemed to have started, something which had never stopped frightening her, something which made the fear within her increase every second she spent with the man; if she could even call him that.

His golden eyes that turned dark, when he thundered around the classroom on rare occasions when homework had not been done to his standard. He was scarier then, she was scared by his tone and the way he moved so quickly, one student dissolving into tears seconds before he terrorised yet another one. Thankfully, these rows had never been extended to her personally, though she had thought that sometimes at the end o lessons he'd been on the brink of keeping her behind- much to her greatest fear.

It had never been the case however, but she was sure the time would come soon, if this current action was anything to do with it. His chilled hand cupped her face as he looked down on her, Hermione noting that his eyes were a pure honey gold. He had obviously just fed. Yet, there was something wrong, flecks of silver barely noticable in the sea of honeycomb. She knew what it meant, but she was sure he knew too. But why...? It was a curious happening, but she could focus on it for not a moment longer when a string of words escaped his lips. Hermione wasn't entirely sure if she could reply, because although he scared her stiff she found him entirely infatuating- something she knew she shouldn't do.

She'd heard stories of vampires and humans, horrible happenings and dead men, of death and changing gone wrong and of vampires committing suicide once their lovers had died. Then there was also the moral implications. He was god knows how old (even if he did look around seventeen) and she was his student. He had a teachers responsibility to look after her in the capacity of the school, of making sure that nothing terrible happened to her.

"Pr-professor! I'm sorry, I was just waiting, a first year wandered off and I was worried," she gasped, stuttering as she spoke. His hand held the softest pressure on her skin, but it was enough to do something odd to her brain, and to send an electric shock through her body. Her heart beat faster, speeding up and catching in her throat as she wondered what she should do. It would be impolite, but the best thing to do to take his hand from her face. Yes, that would be what she'd do. Shakily, she moved, her hand grasping his wrist and attempting to move it from her face (although, she knew he was ten thousand times stronger than she was) whilst sliding back up the wall, leaving her shoes by her bare feet. "You know, as a prefect and everything- I'll get the blame if a first year gets lost at night..." she finished, blushing, and not just because of the revelation of her dedication to her prefect duties.

"Sorry sir, i-it's really fine; I'll just go up to the dorms now..." Hermione stammered once again, making as if to move towards the spiral stone stairway, but she wasn't letting go of her loose grip on his wrist, as if she didn't really want to go up, or maybe she just overlooked the fact. She was, after all, very, very tired.

TAGGED ! embry !
WORDS ! n/a !
OUTFIT ! here !
MUSIC ! mcr/simon and garfunkel !
NOTES ! sorry, my post is crap compared to yours! !