Chapter 4
"Mr Weasley, your wrist is too slack; with that movement any first year could disarm you. Miss Patil, try not to embellish your wand too much or you will end up half-way across the classroom. Mr Longbottom, well done." Neville blushed under the praise the professor gave him, it was not often he got singled out for praise.
"Alright class, that is enough for today, you may pack away your books and are then free to go, please read chapter 2 in preparation for the next class. Mr Snape and Miss Granger please stay behind for a moment."
The was a scurry of activity as everyone packed up their bags and hurried out of the defence classroom while Chris and Hermione waited for their professor. Once everyone had left the room they were both given a roll of parchment.
"I am planning a practical demonstration of some of the spells you will be learning this year and I want the two of you to demonstrate these to your classmates. The scroll contains the spells I want you to learn and you will need to be ready after next weekend; as you will be demonstrating them on each other, you will need to be able to deflect the spells as well as demonstrate their effects by letting them hit you."
Hermione's eyes sparkled with thrill. "Oh I'll be ready sir, is that everything?"
"Yes, you may go, Chris if you could stay for one more minute please." Hermione picked up her bag and practically skipped out of the classroom. The door shut behind her and Lucius turned to Chris.
"How would you like to join me for dinner this evening? It has been our first month together at Hogwarts and I think it is in need of a little celebration, it's the weekend tomorrow so it doesn't matter if you are out too late."
Chris smiled as he stood up and picked up his bag. "I would love to join you for dinner tonight," He leaned over and placed a kiss on Lucius' lips, "And maybe more?"
Lucius laughed, "If that is what you want, now off with you, I have another class due soon."
Chris stepped out of the classroom, he had a free period before lunch and he was planning on going to the library to start on his homework if he was going to spend the weekend with Lucius.
"You do know it's wrong, don't you?" A voice spoke from behind Chris causing him to groan silently as he saw Hermione leaning against the wall next to the classroom door.
"Care to enlighten me to what you mean, I cannot read minds." For a brief moment he wondered if lengillimency would work if he cast the incantation on her even though he was not a lengillimens himself, but thought better of it; Granger's mind was probably like a maze, too full of information to figure out a clear path through.
"You and Professor Malfoy, he's a teacher and shouldn't be taking advantage of you like that."
Chris eyed her warily, "he's a teacher and therefore has the right to choose whichever students that he wants to do his demonstrations. He knows what I'm capable of and trusts me to be able to do this correctly, the same way he knows what you are capable of." There was no possible way she could be hinting at what she was insinuating.
"Well, maybe I have it wrong then. Maybe you're the one taking advantage of him instead. Either way, you should know that actions do have consequences."
She was delusional Chris decided as he watched her turn and walk away. There was no possible way she could know anything about Lucius and himself despite her claims. Even if she did, what could happen, Professor Dumbledore was fully aware of their courtship and he would not let anything happen to them.
Lucius was worried, the dinner he had prepared for Chris and himself was sat in the corner under a heating charm, but Chris was almost an hour late. While it was true he had never specified a time, dinner meant the time it was served in the Great Hall.
He turned as he heard the door open and close and was momentarily confused until Chris appeared from underneath his invisibility cloak.
"I'm so sorry I'm late, I had a difficult time escaping from Granger. She seemed to be tailing me every step I took."
Lucius took hold of Chris' arm to guide him over to the table. "Tell me, and maybe I can find some way to make her suffer."
Chris took a sip from the glass of water that was in front of him before he began. "Everyone was going down to dinner, but I said I would be eating in my father's rooms. Hermione doesn't eat with the others in our year anymore you may have noticed, so I didn't think anything of it when she didn't follow the others and remained reading in a chair. I was halfway down when I realised I was being followed; I decided to take a detour going via the kitchens pretending to pick up some food and of course I then had to go into the kitchens and it is impossible to enter there and not come out with anything. I knew i had to take action then as I saw her hidden behind a nearby tapestry, so I decided to go to father's rooms and pick up my invisibility cloak, he's probably going to wonder why there's a treacle tart in his room but I can contact him later. I know I can get from father's rooms to his office a little bit further down the corridor and out of sight and so I came straight from there. I do hope someone catches her standing there."
Lucius put down both of their plates, "but why was she following you in the first place?"
Chris savoured his first mouthful, lunch had been a bit of a blur as he had worried about Hermione's message. "Ah yes, perhaps I should have told you about that incident first after this morning's lesson." In between mouthfuls, he told Lucius of Hermione's accusations and threat. "I just think it was an empty threat, putting two and two together and getting five, but it seems that she's actually looking for something."
"Don't worry about it, I can't see her doing anything, not while she's in school at any rate. But just promise me you'll keep an eye out and I'll have a word with your father about her as well."
"She can't actually do anything can she? I know Dumbledore has given his consent, but could she take it higher, like to the governers or the ministry?" Chris set down his knife and fork and looked intently at Lucius.
"You don't need to worry about the governers, many of them are old school so will understand the value of a courtship. As for the ministry, she would have to take irrefutable evidence for them to consider anything. You have nothing to worry about."
After dinner they retired to the couch and Lucius enquired about Chris' week and complained about some of his students making Chris laugh.
Before it got too late Chris decided to return to Gryffindor Tower, just to dispel Granger some, but did say he would return the next day.
"Just remember, don't let her get to you," Lucius said as he placed a kiss on Chis' forehead. "If you like, you can stay over the night before the demonstration and we can practice your spells."
Chris spent the weekend working on his spells, away from Lucius for he could see Hermione in the corner working and watching him. He contemplated going down to his father's rooms just to avoid her scrutiny, but no doubt she would try and follow him there again.
By the time Monday rolled around Chris was glad to return to class, at least then he had a reason to ignore Hermione.
"You are so lucky," Chris muttered to Draco as he sat down next to him in transfiguration. "At least you have a Granger-free zone."
"Ah yes, dad told me about your dilemma, he missed you this weekend. And you couldn't even escape to your father's room?"
Chris pulled out his books, parchment and ink. "And give her more ammunition, she's done nothing but watch me all weekend. She's got it into her head that there's something going on between your father and me."
Draco had to stifle a laugh, "But there is."
"But she doesn't know that," Chris whispered as McGonagall entered the room. "Only the teachers know, and there's a reason for that. And now she's digging for proof."
"Mr Snape, are you quite finished?" McGonagall called over, causing Chris to blush. "Then we can begin. As you have noticed, since your first assignments I have been grading your work and also giving you a percentage."
She passed everyone a sheet of paper. "This shows you what percentage you need for each grade, this way those of you looking to improve your grade know what you need to get."
Next, she passed out their last assignments. Since he had started his N.E.W.T's he had been getting a steady stream of E's, but since the start of this year he had been getting O's. From the sheet he could see that his marks had just been hitting the O level, but now this assignment was at 90%.
Once all the assignments had been passed out McGonagall started on her lesson. "This term we are going to be working on human transfiguration. If you have the aptitude, by the end of the year maybe you can start working on the animagus transfiguration. Be warned, human to animal transfiguration is a complex procedure and I would hate any of you to be stuck permanently with animal features. I am sure some of you know people with stories to tell about that.
Chris had to suppress a laugh as he remembered a half-cat Granger in their second year. He shook his head when Draco looked him, but gave a slight inclination of his head towards Granger, who was almost bouncing in her seat.
"I'd love to see her as a flea," Draco whispered to Chris as they turned to the required page in their books.
It seemed McGonagall's idea of putting their percentages on their assignments was shared amongst the rest of the teaching staff. Chris was happy with his marks, in most of his subjects he was just below an O, so if he continued on the way he was by the time the exams arrived he should have no trouble hitting the top grade. Much to his delight he was beating Granger in potions, by a whole five percent, according to his father.
"It's not just about following instructions, but knowing your ingredients," Severus explained one evening while going over the Half-Blood Prince's notes. "Take the sopophorous bean example. Then skin is so hard, it's difficult to get much juice that way, but crushing it exerts more power and thus gives us more juice."
It was nice to be top of the class, but something was bothering Chris about this; Granger did not seem as concerned as she should have been about it, she was spending more time than usual in the library and not all of it on class work according to Neville; he had seen her in the charms section mostly and they had yet to be set a charms assignment.
By the time the weekend rolled around Chris had decided he would keep an eye on what she was doing. From previous experience, when she was secretive that meant she was planning something.
Sunday evening, Chris and Lucius were in his rooms practicing the spells Chris would need the following day in his practical demonstration with Hermione Granger.
"I think we should call it a night now," Lucius said returning his wand to its holster. "We don't want you too worn out for tomorrow."
Chris nodded and also put away his wand. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, Lucius had really put him through his paces tonight, making him cast the spells until he had them perfect, and also to let the spells hit him in order to know their effects. For a brief moment, he compared this practice to the one in his fourth year with the imperious curse, but then decided Lucius was not that sadistic.
"I'm going to use your shower," he stated peeling off his robes and heading for the bathroom. "Seen as it's your fault I feel like this."
"And here I thought you liked getting dirty with me," Lucius chuckled, and ended up with a face full of t-shirt as a reply.
Chris adjusted the shower to the desired temperature and stepped beneath the spray, letting it massage his shoulders. He just stood there for ten minutes, letting the tension drain away so by the time he stepped out of the shower he was completely relaxed and ready for something else.
He found Lucius sat on the sofa reading by the firelight, he was mesmerised watching the light dance across his face. He went over to Lucius' drinks cabinet and poured drinks for them, and then went and sat down next to him.
"Here, our little celebration last weekend was cut short." Lucius looked at Chris with raised eyebrows. "What? Admit it, you had something like this planned last weekend if I hadn't have left early."
Lucius reached out and pulled Chris onto his lap, "Well, with that sort of offer, who can resist." He set their drinks aside before nuzzling into his neck. "So, you've given up on the Granger problem then."
Chris pulled back from Lucius, "No, I know she's up to something, but for now it's not worth worrying about. I want to be able to spend time with the one I love, the one I love who I want nothing more than to spend the night with."
"Now that I can arrange, not a problem."
As Lucius led him to the bedroom Chris was glad he had chosen to put his concerns aside. All that was important now was Lucius and himself."