Disclaimer: No, this is not my own. JK Rowling owns Harry Potter. And HBP shows it.
A/N: I saw this movie, "Mean Girls" and I immediately got this plot bunny in my head. So, here I am, hope you will enjoy it. Please, if you read, leave me a review, ok? Thanks! Sadly this is the last chapter of this story, I loved writing it, so it's a shame it has to come to an end…
Not Myself
From that day, a change happened in Hogwarts. Fleur Delacour was not the queen anymore, and her place was taken by someone else. That would be me.
Yes, the once bookworm Hermione Granger was the new queen of the school, and the other two Barbie, Parvati and Lavender, adored me like a goddess.
Few days later, I had to go back home to attend an important theatrical show, one I'd always loved to see, as my parents were able to find the tickets.
When I told that to Lavender and Parvati they seemed lost.
"What will we do this weekend then?" they asked each other.
"Well, ok, I'll see if I can at least come back early, or not go at all" I conceded. Their faces lit up.
"Yes" they said adoringly.
So, after some owls back and forth with my parents I managed to convince them I was too busy at school to go home for the show, and remained at the castle. Parvati helped me organise a big party in Hogsmeade.
That day, in class, I touched Harry's shoulder.
"Hey, I throw a party tonight at the village. Only the coolest people will be there. I think you should come" I said in my best Fleur Delacour voice. See, hanging around with her I got some of her behaviours.
"Will Fleur be there?" he asked me.
"Of course not! I'm not a silly girl, you know" I said mocking outrage. He grinned at me.
"I'll be there then"
I hoped he would make his move, because frankly it was about time he did! Fleur had already found another boyfriend, why hadn't he already asked me out was beyond me.
But that night he would be mine.
When the party started, it was painfully clear that the voice had spread, and all the school more or less was there. I kept searching for Harry, and I couldn't find him.
Thinking he had not come, I kept drinking and drinking to drown my disappointment, till I was thoroughly pissed. I hid in one room of the building I had rented, shooing a snogging couple away.
Soon later, he entered the room.
"Hi" he said softly. "I've searched for you all night"
"Me too" I said drunkenly.
"I think you've had a bit too much to drink" he teased me.
"Yes, I may have. I was angry that you hadn't come yet. Then I entered here…"
"I hid here because I was escaping from Fleur. By the way, you said she would not be here!" he said, glaring at me.
"She must have snuck in…there's so much people here that I didn't invite!" I said, then hiccupped.
"Well, you're pretty popular right now" he said caressing my cheek. I saw him leaning in, and my heart soared in triumph. But my drunken state ruined it all.
"I see you understood you're not Fleur's property anymore now" I said, and immediately regretted the words that left my mouth.
He stopped, and glared at me. "Property? Now I see it! You're nothing but a clone of her!" he said, and moved to go away, but all the alcohol I had in my body had not finished its show yet.
Long story short, I puked on his trousers, and he left disgusted, with me pursuing him and trying to beg for his forgiveness.
But the night was not finished yet. Susan and Ernie passed by that right moment, and they were utterly pissed that I had not invited them, especially because I had refused their invite to go for a Butterbeer saying I had to go with my parents.
While walking away, they put me in front of the blunt truth. I had become another Fleur, and I had pushed away the only ones who really were my friends in doing that.
So I cried, and cried, holed up in the room where I had met with Harry few minutes before, all night.
But it was not finished yet. Because in the next days, hell broke loose at school. Fleur must have understood my game to bring her down, because she used the strongest weapon she had against me.
The Pink Diary.
She added a page berating herself, then feigned to have found it and brought it to Dumbledore, who, of course, immediately called me, Parvati and Lavender in his office.
They of course knew the book, and tried explain the truth.
"Headmaster, really, that book is Fleur's. I dunno why she tried to show it wasn't hers, but I have seen more than once it in her room" Parvati said.
"Miss Patil, why should miss Delacour call herself a not trust-worthy bitch?" Dumbledore asked, his blue eyes as hard as I had ever seen them.
"I dunno, but maybe we are not there because we are liked by everyone" Lavender suggested. The dumbest thing she could say, really.
I said nothing, because I knew that the Headmaster would have never believed us.
But Fleur wasn't finished. With a copying charm, she replicated the pages of the diary, and spread them in the school, so people, especially girls, started fighting in the halls, spells flew everywhere, till the Headmaster himself intervened.
"Silence!" he bellowed. "All of you, in the Great Hall"
And so the huge crowd reunited there.
"I think, you all need to work on your relationships with the other girls" the Headmaster said.
So professor McGonagall and Professor Vector took charge of it, and all day we stayed there, telling what rumours we spread on who. When it was my turn, I lied, telling I never badmouthed anyone. I could feel Professor Vector's gaze on me, the page about him must have been spread too.
"You disappointed me, miss Granger" the Arithmancy Professor said.
Then we all asked forgiveness for what we did, and in the end Susan revealed the plan to bring down Fleur.
"Because, see Fleur, I had somehow to show you what a perverted lesbian obsessed with you I am" she ended joking on the rumour involving her. I admired her in that moment, but I knew I needed to say to Fleur that I was sorry.
So I followed her retreating form, and I knew things were going to be bad when we ended under the Whomping Willow.
Well, Fleur did, anyhow, and the tree was not pleased. So it hit her hard, and she ended in the Hospital Wing for weeks.
Everyday someone visited her, and it showed me that more the people fears you, more they lick your boots. But I knew I had to do that too.
It was needed if I truly wanted to go back to who I really was. And it surprised me when she accepted my apologies hugging me.
Maybe she had learned a lesson herself. So I left the Hospital Wing feeling far better than when I had entered.
However, the rest of the school despised me, still believing I was the author of the Pink Diary, and the others feared me believing I pushed purposefully Fleur under the Willow. It were hard times, as Susan and Ernie still didn't talk to me, and so I was once again alone, much like on my first day at Hogwarts. I ended skipping lunch, and walking lonely around the lake.
I knew something else was needed, but I had to find the courage to do that.
The occasion presented itself few days later, when Aurors entered the Arithmancy classroom.
"What's the meaning of this?" Harry asked.
"Harry, the Aurors are here to check on the rumours on Professor Vector's conduct in class" Dumbledore said.
"But all what was written in that diary is bullshit! It's just things written by silly girls who have nothing better to do!"
"I know it, Harry" Dumbledore said, "but since the rumours on Filch proved to be true, we need to check them all accurately, unless the author shows himself, or herself, and tells us it was just lies"
That was the moment. I needed to tell the truth.
"Adieu, Harry. You will never like me after this" I thought, then stood up.
"It was me, Headmaster. I wrote those lies about Professor Vector using Unforgivables in class"
"Very well then. Aurors, I think we can leave them to their work then" Dumbledore said to the Ministry officials, who then left.
The Professor gave us back our latest test.
When I went to take mine, I spoke again. "I'm really sorry" I said, ashamed.
"I forgive you" he said, smiling. "I've been young once, too, although it may now seem strange, and I've done my fair load of foolish things too. But as my personal punishment, you will enter the team" he winked at me.
I nodded while taking my test, and looking at the result I heard someone speak behind me.
"Welcome back, bookworm" Harry said a bit spitefully, smirking. He was right, I had got 99 percent on that one.
So I entered the team, and although Professor McGonagall had given me detention, so I could not leave the common room till the end of the term, Professor Vector managed to get me out of there for the match with the Salem Institute of Witchcraft and Wizardry, from United States of America.
With a Portkey we travelled to Diagon Alley, where the event would take place. There was almost no one in the stands to see our exhibition, and that depressed me a bit.
During the whole match I seemed unable to remember the basic things of Arithmancy, so I was of no help for the team, however we managed to tie, and an extra question was needed. Neville Longbottom, our captain, chose their only girl as opponent, while their captain chose me.
Facing her, I noticed she had no sense of fashion, she needed a good face cleaning, to wash her hair, probably change her clothes, but I also knew that in that moment insulting her would have not helped me win the match, nor would have stopped her from winning it herself.
So I concentrated on the question, but she answered first.
I panicked, sure that we had lost, but the referee told her the answer was wrong. I just needed to be able to remember when Professor Vector had explained that kind of magical equations…let's see, it was the day after Harry cut his hair.
"Merlin, how hot he was…" I thought.
"Focus, Hermione, focus. What was written on the blackboard past Harry's head?" I kept berating myself, and hope started to vanish.
Then I remembered. I got the answer right, and we won. All my team-mates hugged me, and Neville continued insulting the Salem team, maybe overreacting a bit. But I knew then that this was really important for him.
Once back at the castle, I walked up the stairs toward the common room.
"Where are you going?" Neville asked me.
"To the common room. I've still got detention" I said, naturally.
"Come on, you've gone out already" Professor Vector said. "I'll speak with Minerva, you enjoy the Ball. This is your night, Hermione" he said, and smiled at me. So I nodded, and with the rest of the team we entered the Great Hall.
Just in time, because Dumbledore was announcing the Spring Queen and King.
"The King for this year is Roger Davies" and the boy erupted in an exaggerated exultation. I rolled my eyes.
"The Queen is…Hermione Granger"
I could not believe my ears.
"Where is Hermione Granger?" Dumbledore asked. So I moved, thanks to Neville's pushing me too, and reached the front of the Hall, where a small crown was given to me.
I then took the magical microphone, and spoke.
"Well, this is an huge shock for me. And I know lots of you would die for this, and I am elected just because half of the school is glad I brought Fleur Delacour down, and the other half believes I'm scary so they better be in my graces. This is not right. After all this is just a symbol so I want to share it with all of you"
And I did. I materially broke the crown in pieces, and spread them to all the girls in the room.
"You are all queens to me tonight" I said, and then walked back into the crowd.
I felt someone touching my shoulder, and I found myself staring into green pools that I dreamed of.
"Have you had too much to drink tonight?" he asked softly. "Am I risking to be puked onto again?"
I nervously laughed, shaking my head.
"Good" he said, looking at me with intensity, and taking my hand, leading me on the dance floor.
We danced to a slow song, then finally he cupped my face, and kissed me.
"You're the most amazing girl in the world, Hermione Granger. There's no need to fake to be what you are not" he said before kissing me again. I laced my arms around his neck, and kissed him back, feeling my heart soar to Heaven.
From that moment we were an item, and often went to dates in Hogsmeade. He kept spoiling me with red roses, and expensive gifts.
"Hey, Harry, there's no need to spoil me" I said when he gave me another pair of earrings.
"You deserve it, Hermione, because you are MY queen. I love you"
"I love you too" I said, kissing him.
When the year finished, he graduated, while I still had an year to attend at Hogwarts, as well as Susan, Fleur, Parvati, Lavender and Ernie. The Barbie group broke, and everyone went his/her way, Fleur entering the female Quidditch team, Parvati found herself another leader to worship, but it was just a small group that kept to themselves, and no one noticed them, me and Harry kept seeing each other and were madly in love, and Ernie and Susan had found themselves someone too. They had tried hooking up at the Ball, but it didn't work...
And if some new girls acted like Barbie…well, let's say we know how to deal with them, after all the Whomping Willow is there for that, isn't it?
Just joking!
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