Chapter two:
A chime on the grandfather clock standing in the corner of their room awakened the sleeping beauties from their silent slumber. Maranquin awoke first to find herself lying on top of the admittedly handsome Slytherin. She tried to move without waking him but found that her arm was stuck underneath him. She sighed and rested her head on his chest. She could feel his heart beat. It was soothing and so comforting.
He had been nice to her and accepted her even if things were a little bumpy at first. She smiled. I actually had him at sword point for a while She fell asleep again thinking that it wouldn't be so bad at Hogwarts after all. The humming of his heart warming her dreams.
Draco woke a while later to find the sleeping girl on top of him snuggled into his chest. He wasn't quite sure what to do. He wanted to just fall asleep again but he couldn't so he just lay there. He awkwardly put his arm around Maranquin. He looked up at the ceiling and thought this year is going to be so much better than the last one.
He heard a ticking noise and looked over at the clock. It said you're late in curly looking letters above the face in the woodwork. He looked down at the hands and saw that it was 7:24.
He shook Maranquin's shoulder and said " Maranquin, wake up were late for dinner. We already missed the sorting come on."
She woke up and quickly brushed her hair so it didn't look as if she'd just driven 100 miles in a Corvette with her hair down. Draco preformed a de- wrinkling spell on their clothes and they hurried down to dinner.
They burst into the hall just as Dumbledore was finishing his usual schpiel on not going into the Forbidden Forest and not wandering around the school at night. He stopped and looked at the two who were violently blushing as they hurried up to the Head table and took their seats.
Dumbledore was grinning away and announced, "Now that our Head boy and girl have joined us we can start. Dig in everyone." He swirled his wand and all the plates were full to the brim with…
"What's this Professor?" "Has he gone nuts?" "What is this stuff?" people muttered as they looked down at the plates. "Tacos!" shouted Dean Thomas happily.
"Oh my gosh, Dumbledore's finally cracked." "He's gone bonkers" these of course coming from the Slytherins.
Dumbledore stood again and said " Oh yes I forgot to mention something. As you know we have quite a few house elves working here. I have let them have the option of getting pay and vacation time if they so desire. Dobby, the only one who agreed with my proposition took a vacation to Mexico this summer. He thought we might like to have a little taste of Mexico on the first day of school. Alright tuck in."
Most students started right away and found the food to be wonderful as always. A few Slytherins were skeptical and were still grumbling about how the magical world had taken a turn for the worst the minute Dumbledore became Headmaster. But in the end they too joined in and found they liked Mexican food.
Draco snorted with laughter as he saw Weasley find out what a Jalapeno was. His face turned as red as his hair as he chugged an entire pitcher of water found it didn't help and ran out of the hall. The Slytherin table was roaring with laughter and saying things like " trust a Weasley to make the first night back memorable.
Maranquin saw Harry and Hermione look at Ron then turn back to their tacos. They thought it was better to leave him alone. She felt bad for him so she followed him out of the hall. She saw him drinking out of a very large flower vase in the entrance hall. She walked over to him and he stood up quickly with a Lily petal protruding from the corner of his mouth.
"Are you alright Ron?" she asked pulling the flower petal out of his mouth. He grinned sheepishly.
"Yea I'm alright. Thanks." Then trying to change the subject, "It must be tough having to be with Malfoy all year."
"Oh no, he's quite nice once you get to know him." Ron looked dumbfounded. He shook his head violently wiggled his finger in his ear then looked at her.
"Sorry for a moment there I thought you said Malfoy was nice."
"I did." Ron gasped, "He's nicer to me than he is to you and Harry. What did you do to make him hate you so much?"
"What did we do? That slimy git never liked us to begin with. He's a Malfoy and nothing can change that. To us he will always be an arch nemesis. That's just the way it has to be." Said Ron as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well you could try talking to each other and…"
"Talking wont do any good. Besides who could talk to Malfoy?" as Ron headed for the Gryffindor commons.
"I could," said Maranquin in little more than a whisper. Ron didn't hear her. Then she said "If you ever want to talk to me you can get to my room by the portrait of Godric Gryffindor in the commons. The password is Ice Mice." He turned around looked at her and nodded. She smiled then went back to Dinner and took her seat next to Draco.
He noticed that she looked quite sad so, trying to cheer her up, he said "Hah, that's what Weasel gets for eating the garnish."
"Draco why do you have to be such an ass!" she yelled as she got up and left. Silence filled the hall as all heads turned to watch the Headgirl storm out of the gawking Great Hall.
They all turned back to the Head table and to everyone's immense astonishment Draco Malfoy got up from his chair and chased after the upset Gryffindor. Harry turned to Hermione and said, "Tell me that wasn't Malfoy."
"I can't believe it after all this the bugger actually has a heart." She said looking quite amazed.
"Yea, but that still doesn't mean he's human." But Harry looked a little doubtful of what he'd said. Maybe there is more to Malfoy than meets the eye that thought plagued his mind for quite some time.
Malfoy raced up the stairs leaving a very disgruntled Naulden not looking too happy for being woken up twice in the last 3 minutes. Draco made it to the portrait hole and Lord Heathcliff was standing there brushing his glossy black horse. He looked up and said, "Oh, you got a job mate. She's right upset in there. Draco gave him the password and climbed through the portrait hole. Maranquin was sitting in an armchair with her back to the door.
She didn't notice he was there so he walked over to the wall and took down two of the fencing foils. He went over to her offered her the handle end of one of them and said "You never gave me a chance to prove myself." She didn't quite smile but she took the foil and stood.
She waste no time in attacking and he had to move extremely fast to block her swing. They moved around the room the sound of metal clashing violently on metal filled the air. The fight went on both fought well and had extremely fast reflexes. The sweat collected on Draco's brow as the fight went on. Maranquin however, looked like se wasn't affected by the fighting. Which she wasn't. She had fought many a swordfight and this was not by far the hardest one she had ever come upon. She attacked from the right and he barely blocked it from the side. The noise was getting almost too much to stand. The vibrations echoing off the walls.
Only two other people could hear the commotion. They were each sitting in their separate common rooms. Goyle looked up stupidly from his game of wizard's chess, which by the way, he was playing by himself. He looked around and found the noise coming from behind a picture of a Hag. He sauntered over to it, lifted it off the wall and looked stupidly behind the frame. He couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from so he put the picture back and went back to his game, which he was losing.
The other was sitting in Gryffindor common room when he heard swords. Oh no Maranquin he thought. He raced over to Godric's Portrait and yelled Ice Mice. Godric looked quite startled but reluctantly swung open anyway. Ron stepped out into Maranquin's room.
The noise was coming from a door to his right so he burst through it rather clumsily. He was not prepared for what he saw. There in the middle of the room were Maranquin and... " Get away from her Malfoy" Ron yelled at the Slytherin who, in fact, seemed to be losing. The two with the swords ceased fighting to look at Ron.
"What are you doing here Weasley? Drawled Malfoy. He was quite agitated and yet relieved. They'd had a good fight but he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it up.
"Ron what a pleasant surprise." Said Maranquin dropping her foil to give him a quick hug. Ron looked quite startled and didn't know what to do he put one arm around her and then pulled away.
"I err…. I heard noise and thought you might be in trouble." He said looking quite red. Draco sniggered and Ron lunged at him. Maranquin put a hand on his arm to stop him then glared at Draco.
"That was so sweet of you Ron. Thanks. We were just brushing up on our fencing." She smiled up at a very confused Ron. "Do you want to stay and chat a while?"
"Err no I better get back to the commons. I'm glad you're all right. Goodnight Maranquin." He nodded to her and gave Malfoy a glare. Then walked back into Maranquin's room and through the portrait hole to the Gryffindor commons. He climbed out from behind Godric just as Harry and Hermione came through the fat lady's portrait hole.
"Oy Ron where have you been?" asked Harry.
"I've been up in Maranquin's room. She and Malfoy were having a fencing match." Said Ron still wondering why on earth they were doing that in the first place.
"Oh is that what they call it these days?" Hermione said smirking at Ron who gaped at her.
"Moine. Ewww don't even say that. Malfoy? Gross!" Said Harry looking thoroughly disgusted.
"How'd you get to her room Ron?" Asked Hermione trying to change the subject. Secretly she didn't think Malfoy looked half bad but she would never let on the Harry or Ron they'd have a fit.
"Oh, she followed me out of the Great Hall and told me the password to her rooms. It's Ice Mice should you ever feel the urge for a midnight chat." Said Ron feeling special that she had told him before Harry.
Harry decided he would pay a visit to Maranquin sometime and ask her what was going on between her and Malfoy. Hermione was thinking the same thing.
Back in their main room Maranquin and Draco were sitting on their couch watching the fire dance in the hearth. She was sitting with her knees up by her chest and her head leaning on the back of the couch. He was slumped on the couch with his legs stretched out to the fire. He wiggled his toes absentmindedly and Maranquin laughed.
"What's so funny?" He asked. Up until then they had been sitting in silence. She pointed to his toes he looked down and smiled. "I had no idea I did that." He said wiggling them faster. "It's quite fun." She laughed.
"Why are you so mean to Ron? I mean Harry I can understand with your dad and all but why Ron?" She asked. He looked down at his toes, which ceased to wiggle, and sighed.
" I do it mostly for show. I have to keep up the bad boy reputation. My father has connections even in this school. If I do something stupid or look like I've been nice to someone he'll know. And probably beat me for it. He gets malicious pleasure out of seeing others in pain. Even his own son." He looked down in shame.
She reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and her eyes said more than her mouth ever could. They told him that someone cared and that finally he had a true friend. He smiled weakly and gave her a hug. She didn't let go and he was glad of that. It was comforting.
"I'm getting sleepy Draco," she said after a while. She got up and started to leave.
"I think I'm going to sleep here tonight." Said Draco. She turned and looked at him.
"What on earth for?" she asked puzzled.
"Well I err… I don't really want to go back in there." He nodded toward the door to his room. "I'm not a coward I just don't want to handle him in the dark."
Maranquin still looked a bit confused. "Oh right the Boggart. Well you can't sleep here all night. The couch isn't very comfortable. Come." She gestured him to come to her room and she went over to the king sized bed with the red and gold sheets. "It's a big bed, there's more than enough room for two."
"Oh I err… thanks. He said. He would have declined and slept on the couch but he didn't really want to be alone that night. Even though he wasn't real and was two rooms away he was still afraid of his father. He thought to himself funny, the only thing that scares a Malfoy is another Malfoy
They got into the large bed and Draco said, "I can't believe I'm sleeping in Gryffindor sheets." Maranquin threw a pillow at him, which he blocked easily and threw back. She lay down and turned the light off. Draco was still sitting up thinking. He lay down and whispered "Goodnight"
"Sweet Dreams Draco." Was the response he got. Even though the bed was more than big enough for two people both of them ended up in the middle of the bed intertwined in each other dreaming the night away.
A chime on the grandfather clock standing in the corner of their room awakened the sleeping beauties from their silent slumber. Maranquin awoke first to find herself lying on top of the admittedly handsome Slytherin. She tried to move without waking him but found that her arm was stuck underneath him. She sighed and rested her head on his chest. She could feel his heart beat. It was soothing and so comforting.
He had been nice to her and accepted her even if things were a little bumpy at first. She smiled. I actually had him at sword point for a while She fell asleep again thinking that it wouldn't be so bad at Hogwarts after all. The humming of his heart warming her dreams.
Draco woke a while later to find the sleeping girl on top of him snuggled into his chest. He wasn't quite sure what to do. He wanted to just fall asleep again but he couldn't so he just lay there. He awkwardly put his arm around Maranquin. He looked up at the ceiling and thought this year is going to be so much better than the last one.
He heard a ticking noise and looked over at the clock. It said you're late in curly looking letters above the face in the woodwork. He looked down at the hands and saw that it was 7:24.
He shook Maranquin's shoulder and said " Maranquin, wake up were late for dinner. We already missed the sorting come on."
She woke up and quickly brushed her hair so it didn't look as if she'd just driven 100 miles in a Corvette with her hair down. Draco preformed a de- wrinkling spell on their clothes and they hurried down to dinner.
They burst into the hall just as Dumbledore was finishing his usual schpiel on not going into the Forbidden Forest and not wandering around the school at night. He stopped and looked at the two who were violently blushing as they hurried up to the Head table and took their seats.
Dumbledore was grinning away and announced, "Now that our Head boy and girl have joined us we can start. Dig in everyone." He swirled his wand and all the plates were full to the brim with…
"What's this Professor?" "Has he gone nuts?" "What is this stuff?" people muttered as they looked down at the plates. "Tacos!" shouted Dean Thomas happily.
"Oh my gosh, Dumbledore's finally cracked." "He's gone bonkers" these of course coming from the Slytherins.
Dumbledore stood again and said " Oh yes I forgot to mention something. As you know we have quite a few house elves working here. I have let them have the option of getting pay and vacation time if they so desire. Dobby, the only one who agreed with my proposition took a vacation to Mexico this summer. He thought we might like to have a little taste of Mexico on the first day of school. Alright tuck in."
Most students started right away and found the food to be wonderful as always. A few Slytherins were skeptical and were still grumbling about how the magical world had taken a turn for the worst the minute Dumbledore became Headmaster. But in the end they too joined in and found they liked Mexican food.
Draco snorted with laughter as he saw Weasley find out what a Jalapeno was. His face turned as red as his hair as he chugged an entire pitcher of water found it didn't help and ran out of the hall. The Slytherin table was roaring with laughter and saying things like " trust a Weasley to make the first night back memorable.
Maranquin saw Harry and Hermione look at Ron then turn back to their tacos. They thought it was better to leave him alone. She felt bad for him so she followed him out of the hall. She saw him drinking out of a very large flower vase in the entrance hall. She walked over to him and he stood up quickly with a Lily petal protruding from the corner of his mouth.
"Are you alright Ron?" she asked pulling the flower petal out of his mouth. He grinned sheepishly.
"Yea I'm alright. Thanks." Then trying to change the subject, "It must be tough having to be with Malfoy all year."
"Oh no, he's quite nice once you get to know him." Ron looked dumbfounded. He shook his head violently wiggled his finger in his ear then looked at her.
"Sorry for a moment there I thought you said Malfoy was nice."
"I did." Ron gasped, "He's nicer to me than he is to you and Harry. What did you do to make him hate you so much?"
"What did we do? That slimy git never liked us to begin with. He's a Malfoy and nothing can change that. To us he will always be an arch nemesis. That's just the way it has to be." Said Ron as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well you could try talking to each other and…"
"Talking wont do any good. Besides who could talk to Malfoy?" as Ron headed for the Gryffindor commons.
"I could," said Maranquin in little more than a whisper. Ron didn't hear her. Then she said "If you ever want to talk to me you can get to my room by the portrait of Godric Gryffindor in the commons. The password is Ice Mice." He turned around looked at her and nodded. She smiled then went back to Dinner and took her seat next to Draco.
He noticed that she looked quite sad so, trying to cheer her up, he said "Hah, that's what Weasel gets for eating the garnish."
"Draco why do you have to be such an ass!" she yelled as she got up and left. Silence filled the hall as all heads turned to watch the Headgirl storm out of the gawking Great Hall.
They all turned back to the Head table and to everyone's immense astonishment Draco Malfoy got up from his chair and chased after the upset Gryffindor. Harry turned to Hermione and said, "Tell me that wasn't Malfoy."
"I can't believe it after all this the bugger actually has a heart." She said looking quite amazed.
"Yea, but that still doesn't mean he's human." But Harry looked a little doubtful of what he'd said. Maybe there is more to Malfoy than meets the eye that thought plagued his mind for quite some time.
Malfoy raced up the stairs leaving a very disgruntled Naulden not looking too happy for being woken up twice in the last 3 minutes. Draco made it to the portrait hole and Lord Heathcliff was standing there brushing his glossy black horse. He looked up and said, "Oh, you got a job mate. She's right upset in there. Draco gave him the password and climbed through the portrait hole. Maranquin was sitting in an armchair with her back to the door.
She didn't notice he was there so he walked over to the wall and took down two of the fencing foils. He went over to her offered her the handle end of one of them and said "You never gave me a chance to prove myself." She didn't quite smile but she took the foil and stood.
She waste no time in attacking and he had to move extremely fast to block her swing. They moved around the room the sound of metal clashing violently on metal filled the air. The fight went on both fought well and had extremely fast reflexes. The sweat collected on Draco's brow as the fight went on. Maranquin however, looked like se wasn't affected by the fighting. Which she wasn't. She had fought many a swordfight and this was not by far the hardest one she had ever come upon. She attacked from the right and he barely blocked it from the side. The noise was getting almost too much to stand. The vibrations echoing off the walls.
Only two other people could hear the commotion. They were each sitting in their separate common rooms. Goyle looked up stupidly from his game of wizard's chess, which by the way, he was playing by himself. He looked around and found the noise coming from behind a picture of a Hag. He sauntered over to it, lifted it off the wall and looked stupidly behind the frame. He couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from so he put the picture back and went back to his game, which he was losing.
The other was sitting in Gryffindor common room when he heard swords. Oh no Maranquin he thought. He raced over to Godric's Portrait and yelled Ice Mice. Godric looked quite startled but reluctantly swung open anyway. Ron stepped out into Maranquin's room.
The noise was coming from a door to his right so he burst through it rather clumsily. He was not prepared for what he saw. There in the middle of the room were Maranquin and... " Get away from her Malfoy" Ron yelled at the Slytherin who, in fact, seemed to be losing. The two with the swords ceased fighting to look at Ron.
"What are you doing here Weasley? Drawled Malfoy. He was quite agitated and yet relieved. They'd had a good fight but he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it up.
"Ron what a pleasant surprise." Said Maranquin dropping her foil to give him a quick hug. Ron looked quite startled and didn't know what to do he put one arm around her and then pulled away.
"I err…. I heard noise and thought you might be in trouble." He said looking quite red. Draco sniggered and Ron lunged at him. Maranquin put a hand on his arm to stop him then glared at Draco.
"That was so sweet of you Ron. Thanks. We were just brushing up on our fencing." She smiled up at a very confused Ron. "Do you want to stay and chat a while?"
"Err no I better get back to the commons. I'm glad you're all right. Goodnight Maranquin." He nodded to her and gave Malfoy a glare. Then walked back into Maranquin's room and through the portrait hole to the Gryffindor commons. He climbed out from behind Godric just as Harry and Hermione came through the fat lady's portrait hole.
"Oy Ron where have you been?" asked Harry.
"I've been up in Maranquin's room. She and Malfoy were having a fencing match." Said Ron still wondering why on earth they were doing that in the first place.
"Oh is that what they call it these days?" Hermione said smirking at Ron who gaped at her.
"Moine. Ewww don't even say that. Malfoy? Gross!" Said Harry looking thoroughly disgusted.
"How'd you get to her room Ron?" Asked Hermione trying to change the subject. Secretly she didn't think Malfoy looked half bad but she would never let on the Harry or Ron they'd have a fit.
"Oh, she followed me out of the Great Hall and told me the password to her rooms. It's Ice Mice should you ever feel the urge for a midnight chat." Said Ron feeling special that she had told him before Harry.
Harry decided he would pay a visit to Maranquin sometime and ask her what was going on between her and Malfoy. Hermione was thinking the same thing.
Back in their main room Maranquin and Draco were sitting on their couch watching the fire dance in the hearth. She was sitting with her knees up by her chest and her head leaning on the back of the couch. He was slumped on the couch with his legs stretched out to the fire. He wiggled his toes absentmindedly and Maranquin laughed.
"What's so funny?" He asked. Up until then they had been sitting in silence. She pointed to his toes he looked down and smiled. "I had no idea I did that." He said wiggling them faster. "It's quite fun." She laughed.
"Why are you so mean to Ron? I mean Harry I can understand with your dad and all but why Ron?" She asked. He looked down at his toes, which ceased to wiggle, and sighed.
" I do it mostly for show. I have to keep up the bad boy reputation. My father has connections even in this school. If I do something stupid or look like I've been nice to someone he'll know. And probably beat me for it. He gets malicious pleasure out of seeing others in pain. Even his own son." He looked down in shame.
She reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and her eyes said more than her mouth ever could. They told him that someone cared and that finally he had a true friend. He smiled weakly and gave her a hug. She didn't let go and he was glad of that. It was comforting.
"I'm getting sleepy Draco," she said after a while. She got up and started to leave.
"I think I'm going to sleep here tonight." Said Draco. She turned and looked at him.
"What on earth for?" she asked puzzled.
"Well I err… I don't really want to go back in there." He nodded toward the door to his room. "I'm not a coward I just don't want to handle him in the dark."
Maranquin still looked a bit confused. "Oh right the Boggart. Well you can't sleep here all night. The couch isn't very comfortable. Come." She gestured him to come to her room and she went over to the king sized bed with the red and gold sheets. "It's a big bed, there's more than enough room for two."
"Oh I err… thanks. He said. He would have declined and slept on the couch but he didn't really want to be alone that night. Even though he wasn't real and was two rooms away he was still afraid of his father. He thought to himself funny, the only thing that scares a Malfoy is another Malfoy
They got into the large bed and Draco said, "I can't believe I'm sleeping in Gryffindor sheets." Maranquin threw a pillow at him, which he blocked easily and threw back. She lay down and turned the light off. Draco was still sitting up thinking. He lay down and whispered "Goodnight"
"Sweet Dreams Draco." Was the response he got. Even though the bed was more than big enough for two people both of them ended up in the middle of the bed intertwined in each other dreaming the night away.