7

Disclaimer : All characters belonged to J.K Rowling , the writer of " Harry Potter" series , except the stupid plot .

Chapter 0 : Hocus Pocus : When the clock struck twelve ......

11. 16 p.m.

Hermoine Granger yawned . She had been in the common room for five hours straight in order to prepare for the Potion test that is going to take place in two weeks' time . She shifted her stiff body on the velvet armchair. No use . Her back still felt as if it was stuck in place . Hermoine decided to take a break by sifting through for some other reading materials to get her mind off the Potion List that she had been studying .


11. 20 p.m.

Draco Malfoy removed his expensive black robe and hung it on the clothes stand . Slowly , he paced across the Prefect Bathroom and turned on the hot water tap . Warm water flowed endlessly in the gigantic bathtub . Draco let out a sigh as he submerged himself into the hot water . He felt relaxed , after a whole day of Quidditch practice in preparation of the next interhouse Quidditch tournament . The warm water had felt so good . He was thankful that nobody would come for bathing at such a late hour . He did not want to spend the only precious time he had for himself with some other pest-y prefects from other houses , trying to exchange witty conversations or in some case spiteful insults . Almost automatically , his mind drifted to the image of Ron Weasley and Harry Potter from the Gryffindor . And , of course , the Mudblood --- Hermoine Granger .
Draco leaned his body on the walls of the tub . Slytherin house had been giving a lot of pressure on Draco as he was the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch Team and one of the least prefects that Slytherin was able to produce . The Slytherin House had also been implying that he should run for the next Head Boy. " For the sake of the Slytherins , right Draco ?," Goyle had nudged him much to his displeasure that very evening . Draco knew that the Slytherins had hoped that he would become the next Headboy so that they might be able to get away easily next time they get into any trouble with the school rules .
" For the sake of the Slytherins......"
Draco slanted his lean body and immersed himself into the water . For the sake of the Slytherin ? Since when does he became the representative of the Slytherin House ?

" Since the you were born ." A voice in the back of his head answered him.

Yes , he was slipping into the world of the dark side ever since he was born . His father , Lucius Malfoy , had been the faithful servant of Voldemort and had intended to lead Draco into serving the Dark Lord . His father had wished that he would become the head of the Slytherin House or someone important in his stay in Hogwarts so that Draco could prove his worth to the Dark Lord . Yet , he did not want to . He did not want to lose the only human touch to his father's wishes . He had been given a bad reputation ever since he was born . He did not want to follow his father's foolish footsteps . He hated it . He hated his last name . Malfoy .
Draco brought his head up again . There were tears in his eyes .

11.41 p.m.

Hermoine settled comfortably into one of the armchair near the fireplace . The fire cast a shadow across her face . She flipped into the content page of the big,and leather-bound book on her lap . It was too heavy for her to lift it up . She traced her index finger down the page. The spell of invisibility . ... The spell of flying ...... Wait , the spell of bringing bad luck to your enemy ? One name floated to her mind immediately : Draco Malfoy . He deserved death .
She flipped to the page where the spell is . Page 663 . She placed a finger delicately on the page in fear of tearing it as it was such an ancient book . She read the content softly to herself .

" In order to cast a Bad Luck Charm on your enemy , you are required to whisper his name for one thousand times across a piece of broken mirror continuously . Be careful not to lose count over the times you had muttered his name . A lack of one time or a break on the continuation would cause you to suffer the same fate as your enemy ."

Hermoine smiled to herself . This is too easy . Just break a mirror and she can cause Draco Malfoy bad luck. Just then , her stomach rumbled . Of course . She had skipped tea and supper just to study . Standing up , she went to the boys' dorm to borrow Harry's invisibility cloak and to pick up some broken pieces of a mirror that Lavender Brown , her good friend , had accidentally broke and moved as quietly as possible to the kitchen .


11.46 p.m.

Draco wiped his face with a towel . He felt much better after spending some quality time with himself .

" Time to return to the boys' dorm ."

He picked up his stuff and slipped on his invisibility cloak that was given to him for his 16th birthday and walked briskly out of the Prefects' Bathroom . After all , it was not good to be seen by Filch after school hours , Prefect or not .

11.56 p.m.

Hermoine staggered slightly under the weight of things she was trying to carry . In her right hand , there was a basket full of food , given to her by the kitchen elves . Those were sufficient to last Harry , Ron and her for their next three meals. In her left hand was the bag of broken mirror , which she intended to start using on her way back to the common room . The trip had took her a whole of 15 minutes . Holding up her left hand , she began to mutter .

" Draco Malfoy . Draco Malfoy . Draco Malfoy ."

Yet , unknown to her , another invisible figure was now moving fast towards her .


11.59 p.m.

Draco moved fast in hope that he would not run right into Filch , Hogwarts' caretaker . In order to get into the Slytherin's common room , he would have to cut through the Great Hall . Filch always hang-out with Mrs Norris , his cat , in the Great Hall . A shiver ran down his spine as he thought of the bright eyes of Mrs Norris . That cat seemed to have the ability to see through invisibility cloak .
He stepped cautiously into the Great Hall from the stairways . All clear . now all he had to do was to run across to the other stairway , climb up and presto - It was the Slytherin Common room .

11:59 20 p.m.

The 20th time . " Draco Malfoy ."

Hermoine continued to mutter the name of Draco Malfoy , with her head bowed , as she paced slowly across he Great Hall . Anyway , Filch could not see her . Also , she have another basket to carry .
Draco began to dash across the Great Hall . He have to get across fast .
Hermoine heard footsteps coming towards her . Who was it ? She could not see anyone ......


Then , the clock struck twelve .
Hermoine felt the wind knocked out of her as someone crashed right straight into her . The bag of broken mirror and the basket of food fell onto the marble hallway ,along with the invisibility cloak .

" Ouch !"

" Oomph !"

Hermoine stood up slowly as she tried to balance herself properly . Now , who the hell was that ? She bent down and retrieve all her stuff lying on the floor . The invisibility cloak ... the basket ....the bag of broken mirror . Wait , hold on . The broken mirror ...... Shoot . She had totally forgotten about the curse . In fact , she had broken the continuation of the curse . Now , judging from the circumstances she was in , the curse was already starting to backfire on her .

Draco looked up and squirmed his eyes to adjust to the dark . He could make out brown bushy hair . He did a mental check . There were only a few people with brown bushy hair . Yet , he remembered that he did not see anyone just now . That meant only one thing : If he did not see any of the school ghosts wandering around , the thing he knocked into was a student . If he could not see the student , that meant that he or she had an invisibility cloak . The only person , as far as he knew , who had an invisibility cloak besides him , was Potter . But then , Potter did not have long , bushy hair ....... That meant ......

" Malfoy ?"

Bingo . So he had guessed correctly . He had just knocked into Hermoine Granger , one of the last person he would to see this moment of time .

" Mudblood Granger ."

Draco could see that Hermoine was now frowning .

" You have no right to call me a mudblood , ok ? You knocked into me . You should apologise ."

" Why on earth should us , the Malfoys , apologise to a lowly mudblood ?"

Hermoine could not believe it . So much of parental guidance . She raised the volume of her voice.

" What the hell makes you think that you are more highly than anybody else in the school ?"

She could see that he had tilted his head slightly to her question . Hermoine remembered that he had shown this expression before when Lucius Malfoy asked him a question in Hogwarts during their second year . That should be thought-provoking enough . Good . She had hit some nerves .

" Because my father told me so ."

Draco had not expect this . He had never been asked or questioned about his status in Hogwarts or the wizardry world . Actually , he had always been questioning himself on why he had to hate the muggle-born witches or wizards . " Because my father told me so ." The phrase left an empty echo in his mind .

Hermoine examined Draco's face . There was a look of emptiness . She decided to probe deeper .

" Because your father told you so ?! What kind of answer was that ? You know why you obeyed your father ? Because you are a coward . Because you are scared of him . Because you ....."

"STOP IT! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I WENT THROUGH EVERYTIME I WENT HOME FOR BREAKS !"


Hermoine moved one step back as Draco's reply echoed in the silent hall . She was startled by the sudden outburst . Draco's face was now bright red and shaken . The air of arrogance that had been surrounding him seemed to have vanished . She had never seen him behaving like this before . Ok , maybe she had hit too many nerves .
Just then , another set of footsteps thundered towards them . A tall figure held up the lamp in his hand . A pair of bright eyes followed suit . Filch and Mrs Norris . They were caught .

" What are two of you doing here screamingat such late hours ? "

Filch smirked as Draco and Hermoine looked at each other .

" My , prefects indeed . What would Professor McGonagall say ? One week of detention for both of you."

Hermoine can still hear Filch's gleeful laughter ringing into her ears as he left both of them . Right . The curse was definitely backfiring on her . She looked at Draco who was quietly collecting his stuff . Their eyes met as he raised his head . Draco's eyes were cold and hard . He spun around and stomped off up the spiral stairways into Slytherin's Common Room .Hermoine sighed as she walked back to the Gryffindor Common Room . This was going to be a long week .