II — All or Nothing
Oh, how I missed classes!
Don't say it. I know. Loony.
Morning lessons were over, and I wore a maniacal grin all the way to the Great Hall for lunch, drawing unwanted attention and bewildered stares. Harry and Ron only gave each other knowing looks and continued with a conversation about the one subject they knew best: Quidditch. I spent a few moments wondering how you could possibly have a deep discussion about a sport. But then again, I've never watched ESPN.
My back laden with heavy books, I walked down the table and sat across from Ginny — who took one look at my face and started laughing. Still high off of learning, I giggled with her.
Distracted from their conversation, Ron and Harry's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and the former pouted.
"Hey!" he complained. "Why is she allowed to laugh at you and we're not?"
I displayed my oh-so-cute dimples and answered teasingly, "That's because I'm laughing with her, darling."
Sending a wink in Ginny's direction, I started selecting food from various platters: apples rich with antioxidants, romaine lettuce and tomato salad, lean sliced turkey on whole grain bread . . . I wasn't a health nut. I was just conscious of what I ate, something my boys didn't share in common with me.
Their graces Parvati and Lavender gushed excitedly a few feet away. Stealthily, I tuned in to their conversation.
"Dear Merlin, it should be illegal for him to be so hot!" Lavender sighed dreamily.
Dear Merlin, it should be illegal for her to be such an airhead.
Sorry, I wasn't being fair. Her behavior just reminded me of Sixth Year. It's gag-worthy.
"He's not even a total prick anymore," mentioned Parvati. "Oh, and the way that shirt showed off his arms!"
Lavender licked her lips. "The way those jeans showed off his —"
"Lav!" Parvati laughed, eyes wide in surprise. She really shouldn't have been, considering she . . . Sorry, I was being unfair again.
"I was gonna say 'arse'!"
Okay. Who the hell were they talking about?
I stole a glance at them just in time to see them stop talking and turn toward the entrance, waving and smiling flirtatiously.
At Malfoy.
Suddenly, I realized that I was gawking at him . . . and that he noticed. The one eyebrow he raised in a mocking expression brought my attention to his eyes. His eyes . . . in which I saw nothing. Again, no emotion. If eyes were the windows to the soul, then his must be barred jail cells.
No, that wasn't true; you can see the prisoner behind the bars. Lord Draco Malfoy was anything but a prisoner.
Maybe a more accurate metaphor would be to say he had the curtains closed. Yes. But what was it that he didn't want others to see?
Highly disturbed, I resumed eating my meal, trying to ignore the Gossip Queens while they established his lordship as the yummiest male specimen to ever roam the earth. Gag-worthy.
"Has that salad personally wronged you in some way?" Ginny asked warily.
"Don't be absurd," I muttered.
After watching me worriedly for a few more moments, she grabbed my hand that was once again raised to take a stab at my plate. I glared at her for interfering. The way I saw it, it was better to vent my anger on food rather than people. Humans were slower to forgive things — like attempted murder.
Then I realized that getting mad at Ginny would contradict the reason I was mad at her in the first place. Funny how logic works.
"Sorry, Gin." I smiled at her reassuringly. "I've just got a lot on my mind."
She accepted my apology and weak excuse, saying, "I understand. It's the first day of classes and you're already worried about studying!"
"Yeah, 'Mione," Ron jumped in, swallowing the food in his mouth. "Just slow down. Give it a rest once in a while."
I almost twitched in annoyance. The 'it' he referred to was my mind, of course. Trust me, if it was that easy, I'd do it. They've been my friends for how long? — Six or seven years?
Refraining from starting a lecture on the importance of grades and schoolwork, I merely answered, "I'll try."
"We just care about you," he continued. The look on his face told me he didn't buy my codswallop. "I'm not saying to stop studying altogether, but there's a point where you're pushing the limit. Don't overwork yourself."
Heartened by his thoughtfulness, I beamed and kissed him tenderly.
I felt guilty for not giving my friends any credit. They did understand me. I just needed to remember that and hope we could work things out with communication. It was cliché, I knew, but for a reason.
"Come on, you lot," Harry said, ushering us to finish our meals. "We've got to get to our next class."
Our cozy group of four exited the Great Hall together, making our way to the dungeons for Potions. My hand quickly found its way into Ron's, entwining our fingers as we walked. He glanced at me, and his mouth curved into a shy smile. I would've returned it.
If I hadn't fallen flat on my face.
And pulled Ron down with me.
Stunned, we both lay sprawled out on the floor for several seconds. Then Ron saw my shocked expression and started laughing hysterically. Harry and Ginny couldn't help but follow. With the breath thoroughly knocked out of me, I felt lightheaded enough that I soon joined in as well.
In my peripheral vision, I saw Malfoy walk by with a scowl, his eyes narrowing in frustration.
I smelled a tripping jinx.
Still, it wasn't like him to walk away without adding a smart remark or two. Suspicion tickled the back of my mind, telling me I should worry about it more, but I decided that Malfoy was simply a strange person.
And thanks to him, we arrived at Potions late. Professor Slughorn took one look at us and deducted 10 points from Gryffindor, an extremely minor punishment for four students being tardy. (Malfoy didn't look so happy about that either. Not that I'm complaining.) Then he took a few more minutes to conclude the speech we'd interrupted, stressing that we choose our lab partners wisely to last us the whole year.
"I teach Potions, not Musical Chairs. If circumstances require me to move your seat, I may instead decide to move you to a different class for this time slot," he warned. After a pause to make sure we understood, he said, "You have five minutes."
With Ginny added to the group, we had even numbers for partners. When she refused to work with her brother and I also admitted that working with Ron would be too much of a distraction — at which I blushed and they laughed — we settled on having Ron with Harry and Ginny with me.
Being the last to get to class meant we had the last pick of seats. From combining what should've been two separate Years, the room was literally full. The only remaining seats were in the front of the class, which the others observed with distaste. I didn't see the problem. I instructed Ron and Harry to take the table in front of us so that I could whisper tips whenever they really needed it; Slughorn was slightly more lenient than Snape but not by much.
"Hello, Granger, Weasley."
No. No, no, no. As if I haven't had enough of him already!
Ginny murmured a polite response, but I ignored him, beating myself up mentally.
"Granger?"
Why did he bother trying to talk to me?
Oh well.
"Hello, Malfoy," I replied, turning around only enough to meet his eyes for a brief second.
Now I knew why they were so against the seating arrangement.
"I think I need glasses," I whispered to Ginny who snickered and made a teasing comment about my book obsession.
Slughorn clapped twice loudly to get the class's attention.
"It seems as if everyone has arranged themselves properly, so I'll introduce your first assignment." His face crinkled with an amused smile. "To change up the syllabus and start off the year on a good foot, you will be making —"
He turned to the chalkboard and, with a flourish of his wand, instructions appeared. Above them in fancy cursive, it read . . .
Ice cream.
"You have two options for flavors: chocolate and vanilla," he said merrily. "Because this is not your average 'potion', I've had house elves stock the supply room with necessary ingredients and utensils. Also, I hope everyone knows the proper Freezing Charm. It's called ice cream for a reason." He checked his wristwatch. "You have half an hour left in class. Begin."
I instantly went into multi-task mode, lighting two small fires with my wand and setting a cauldron on each while instructing Ginny.
"Get the ingredients for the custard base first."
She nodded and went to the supply room.
"What flavor are you going to make?" asked Malfoy, uncomfortably close to my ear.
I moved over to the side and faced him, noting that his table was set up like mine.
"I don't know yet," I said truthfully.
Huh. Strange. I was almost getting used to his civility. Although I would prefer it if he respected my personal space.
"You can't make a decision?" He actually sounded curious.
Looking away from his face, I answered, "Well, I don't have a preference . . . and it has to be one or the other."
"You're so 'all or nothing', Granger," he said, smirking, but it was less malicious and more teasing. "Why can't it be both?"
I scrunched up my nose, frowning. "You mean blend them? Wouldn't that take away from each separate flavor?"
"And people call you the brightest witch of our Year." He rolled his eyes. "Make a swirl. You know, with a little bit of each?"
"That's —" I hesitated, blinking in revelation. A smile spread across my face. "That's brilliant."
He smirked again, but victoriously this time. "I tend to do that once in a while."
Inspired, I hurried to the supply room, passing Ginny who was carrying eggs, milk, cream, and sugar back to our table.
Chocolate, chocolate . . . I spotted a package and grabbed it off the shelf, grinning while I also snagged a vanilla pod.
"Enlarge the cauldron and double the ingredients for the custard. We're making chocolate and vanilla," I told Ginny, noticeably excited.
Behind me, I heard Malfoy laugh and try to cover it up with a fake cough. I ignored him, making sure the heat was low on both fires so the dairy ingredients wouldn't curdle. In the second cauldron, I poured in milk and added the vanilla pod, sliced down the middle.
With nothing left to do but stir and wait, I discreetly checked with the boys to make sure they were doing okay. It seemed that Harry's background with the Dursleys was finally coming in handy; he was familiar with cooking and could direct Ron appropriately.
It also helped that the recipe was one that a First Year could follow.
Fifteen minutes passed, Ginny and I making idle chatter as we each focused on a cauldron. At this point, mine was emitting a delicious fragrance that told me to remove the pod and add the custard. Ginny put the chocolate in the remaining half, and we both continued stirring until her chocolate was thoroughly melted.
Delicious.
Finally, they were ready. I extinguished the fires and thought carefully to remember the proper incantation and wand movements for the Freezing Charm.
"Glacius," I enunciated softly. Using the full power of the spell would've resulted in an icicle, cauldron and all.
Success! My face lit up at the sight of chocolate ice cream. Pleased, I repeated the spell with the vanilla with equally satisfying results.
Now for the culmination.
I combined both flavors into the larger cauldron, swirling it artfully with a decent amount of what ex-Professor Snape would've deemed as "foolish wand-waving." This made me realize just how many ex-Professors existed for me now, and mostly from DADA.
Quirrell, Lockhart, Barty Crouch Jr. as Mad-Eye Moody, Umbridge I could care less about. Certain memories of Lupin and Dumbledore could bring tears to my eyes. But Snape . . . Of him, and later, from him, there were no fond memories. That was the most tragic of all.
"Ah, Miss Granger, you've done it again!" Slughorn exclaimed proudly as if I owed all of my skills to his superior teaching. Bitterly, I recalled how he had thought my work to be less than stellar in Sixth Year. "Let's see . . . Ten points to Gryffindor should do it."
At least I got back the points we lost for being late.
"Oh, and what do we have here?" He approached Malfoy, and I turned around to watch. "Splendid! A masterpiece!"
Bloody. Hell.
He'd made an ice cream cake: double layer (one chocolate, one vanilla) with fudge between and whipped cream on top and around the edges.
"Twenty points to Slytherin."
Twice as many points as me too.
Disgusted, I faced the front of the room again.
"Thank you, Professor Slughorn," Malfoy said graciously. Ha! As if the git had a gracious bone in his body. Well, I'd show him. We had almost the same schedules. He was going down.
After everyone had cleaned up, class was dismissed, and I raced to leave. I'd be damned if Malfoy beat me in one more thing, including getting to the door. I told myself that I was the best, that I had to be the best.
A vindictive smile graced my lips.
Oh, how I missed classes.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, including its characters and settings, belongs to someone far more brilliant (and rich) than I.
NOTES:
04.22.07 — Ha! A chapter in four days, three of which were schooldays!
I feel accomplished. The plot is setting much better in my head, and I've got chapter titles now. Seriously, I'm on a roll.
I ended this chapter the same way as the other one though, matching the first and last sentences. I swear it won't become a habit. It just fit.
Read and review, s'il vous plaît!