Well, bad news for me, I'm sick. Good news for whoever is reading this, I have so much more time to type up a chapter now. I hope you like it!
Holly awoke feeling rested and ready to take on the day. One of the first thoughts to pop into her head was her little game with Draco, and she couldn't wait to actually start it today. She jumped out of bed even though it was much too early for her normal standards and started rummaging through her wardrobe for clean school robes while humming a tune.
"Ugh!" came a loud groan, "why are you so bloody cheerful? You're never up this early!" Tori complained and held her fluffy pillow over her ears to drown out the sound.
"No kidding, Holly. Normally it's Tracey waking everyone up in the morning," Daphne joined in from the confines of her curtained bed.
The raven haired girl in question popped her head out of the large bathroom that they shared, "Hey, it's not my fault that you lot wouldn't wake up until dinnertime if given the chance," she said with her toothbrush still in her mouth and then turned to Holly, "and why are you up this early?"
All of her room mates waited for Holly to respond as she tugged her gray vest over her head. "It's nothing, honestly! I just have a feeling it's going to be a good day is all." Oh, great, she thought, I'm starting to sound like a Hufflepuff now. Turning to her full-length mirror, Holly sized herself up. She looked decent enough with her hair in perfect brown ringlets and a bit of makeup, but she would need to do something more to catch Draco's attention. She looked around the room and immediately found her inspiration. "Hey, Tori," she said innocently, "what's that shortening charm that you use for your skirts?"
Her friend's eyebrows immediately went so far up that they were hidden behind her golden bangs. "I knew it! I knew you were going after someone! If I tell you the charm, you have to say who it's for."
"Ok, fine, just tell me!" Holly said exasperatedly.
"Good," Tori replied with a smirk, "all you do is say 'cortio' and tap your skirt where you want it to end."
Holly did as she was told and tapped her skirt a few inches above her knees before looking at her reflection again. Oh, Draco wouldn't stand a chance in their game.
"Wow, I think I might even be into you," Tori said with a wink as she stood behind Holly, appraising her in the mirror. "Now tell me."
"Ok, you win. I'll tell you who I fancy," Holly leaned close enough to whisper into Tori's ear, "absolutely no one." She couldn't help but to laugh at the blonde's outraged face.
"Holly Earnshaw!" Tori bellowed, "I will find out eventually, even if I have to hold you down and force you to drink veritaserum, and you'll be sorry you hadn't told me sooner. Come on, I'm your best friend in the world, whoever it is, you know I would help you!"
Now there's a thought. Despite whatever she and Draco had going right now, Holly knew that Tori would do whatever it took to get them together if she told her that she really wanted to. Tori had always said that being with him was a great way to pass the time, but that she had no real interest in him or any other boys at school for that matter. Embarrassing Draco would certainly be easier with Tori on her side, but it would almost be too easy. No, she would have to be the mastermind behind it in order to feel any real satisfaction.
"Oh, look at the time; I really must be going," she said, inching her way past Tori and towards the door to the common room.
"Oh, you insufferable twat!" She shouted and threw her pillow at Holly. Luckily, the door closed right before it hit her in the face and she continued on her merry way with a chuckle. If there was one thing that she and her best friend had in common, it was their tempers. Holly didn't worry about it though, it was impossible for them to be mad at each other for more than a couple of minutes because there was always something important that one needed to tell the other so the whole thing was forgotten.
Her laughter was cut off the second she stepped out into the corridor. Holly felt a shift in the atmosphere as if she had just plunged into icy water. It was as though the air around her had a faint electric buzz now that the lively crowd of students was not bustling around like normal. It was almost eerie. Pulling her cloak tighter around her small frame, Holly ducked her head down and continued on her way to the great hall for breakfast. You're being silly, she told herself, a sixth year who's afraid to walk alone in a hallway? Pitiful. Yet despite her mental berating, she could not rid herself of the ominous feeling that was constricting her chest. Something heinous was going to happen, and soon. The thought was so sudden and unexpected that she stopped in her tracks. Where had that come from? It was in her head and out so quickly that she almost hadn't even caught it, but it had been there. Though she told herself that the notion that something sinister was happening inside Hogwarts was utterly ridiculous, she made the decision to visit Professor Trelawney in the next couple of days to discuss her premonition. Surely she would tell Holly that it was just a lack of sleep that caused her delusion and then she would be able to stop worrying about it.
With this thought in mind, Holly let out a long breath and started off again towards the main staircase posthaste. In her haste to get to where other students would be, she bumped into someone very hard as they rounded a corner heading the same way that she had just come from, making her fall flat on her bum while they remained perfectly upright. For a split second she had been so startled that she whipped out her wand, but then she noticed who was grinning down at her and lowered it sheepishly.
"Well, well, well," said Graham Montague, offering a large hand to her and pulling her onto her feet, "a little skittish today, aren't we?"
Holly gave him an apologetic smile. "Yeah, sorry about that, Graham. You know me; can't get up to breakfast fast enough," she said while pulling her skirt down a few inches for she had noticed him staring none too discretely at her exposed skin. When that did nothing to divert his gaze, she coughed slightly and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Sorry," he said with an embarrassed laugh, "it's just, you look different today. I like it."
"Oh, well thank you. I'm sorry, but I really must be going now," Holly said, turning around, but before she could take two steps, he placed a firm hold on her arm.
"Wait a second, Holly," Graham stopped to give her time to turn back around and leaned up against the wall, running a hand through his hair. Oh Merlin, was he really trying to hit on her right now? He had already missed his chance by about four years. "I was just wondering if you-"
"Montague!" Holly couldn't think of the last time that she had been so relieved to hear Draco's voice. Probably because she never had been relieved. Perhaps now she could make her getaway while Adam was being yelled at. She tried to quietly step away, but Graham walked up to her and held her in place by putting an arm around her shoulder. Great, there was no avoiding this today. Draco made his way up to them in his quidditch uniform and gave only the briefest glance at their position before looking back at the 7th year boy, though Holly could have sworn she saw his jaw muscles tighten infinitesimally. "Why are you standing here flirting when we have a practice in five minutes? You're not even in uniform yet, you great oaf." Holly didn't know whether it was impressive or stupid to have the gall to talk to a seventh year in that tone. By the nervous look on the older boy's face though, Holly had to grudgingly admit that it was the former.
"I'll be ready in a minute. Don't tell Urquhart," Graham said before looking back to Holly, "what I was going to say before is that I was wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend."
And there it was. Two sets of eyes were focused on her now, one hopeful, the other malicious. Was he really mad at her? Montague was the one wasting all of his time, she had no say in the matter! "Don't even waste your time on her, Montague," Draco sneered, "she probably already has plans with her beloved Potter and-"
"Oh, bugger off, Malfoy! It's incredible how immature you are!" Holly didn't even give him time to answer with his own jibe as she stomped off towards the main staircase. Ugh! How could a person be so infuriating all of the time? She had almost, almost grateful to him for stepping in between Montague and her, but then he had to ruin it by opening his big mouth. How did he not get hexed by offended Slytherins around every corner? Surely she wasn't the only one who wanted to give the "Slytherin Prince" a bit of his own medicine?
Only two more years, she reminded herself. This had become her mantra from the minute she stepped onto the Hogwarts Express to come home last Summer. Two more years until she could be a healer at St. Mungo's, two more years until she could live her own blissfully boring life, and most importantly, two more years until she could finally be rid of the narcissistic ways of Draco Malfoy.
She thanked her lucky stars that she didn't run into anyone else on her way up to the great hall; they probably would have gotten a nasty bat bogey hex without a second glance. When she sat down next to Blaise, he looked at her for a while before cautiously asking, "Hey, Holly? What are you thinking about? Your face looks... weird."
"Thanks, pal," she answered sarcastically.
She saw him fight off a smile, "no really, it's starting to creep me out."
Holly let out a dreamy sigh. "Oh, I'm just thinking about how wonderful it will be when I don't have to see Draco Malfoy's face every bloody day of my life." Hearing this, Blaise got the same frown that he had whenever Holly spoke badly about his best friend. Could they still be called best friends? She hadn't seen them actually hanging out since last school year. What had happened?
"He's just had a lot to deal with lately. He's not a bad person, though, if you give him a chance," Blaise argued halfheartedly because he knew Holly wouldn't listen to him and was met with a disbelieving look by her. "Ok, so he's kind of a prat to you. Alright, alright! He's a major prat."
"That's better," said Holly.
"I'm still not sure why, though. For the most part, he reserves that much dislike for the Gryffindors and first years," Blaise thought out loud.
"I guess I just got lucky," she shrugged as a tan arm wrapped itself around her shoulder.
Tori let out a loud laugh as she plopped down on Holly's right with Draco doing the same to her. "Do my ears deceive me or did you just say that you finally got lucky?" She asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
Holly fought the urge to roll her eyes. As she knew would happen, Tori seemed to have forgotten their argument from that morning. "Oh, shut up, you," she laughed, can't I ever eat my eggs in peace?"
Tori pretended to ponder this before shaking her head. "Nope!" She said, popping the "p". While they ate, the two girls chattered on, barely letting the other get a word in edgewise. About 20 minutes later, Holly stood up to head back to their dorm to get ready for Charms class. As she started walking past her friend, her eyes slid over to Malfoy who had that blasted smirk on his face. His gaze trailed down to where his hand was rested not quite high enough to be considered Tori's waist. Prick. Holly was not going to let him win at her own game. She had to come up with something to catch him off guard, and fast. But what?
Classes that day seemed to drag on more slowly than usual so when she finally made it down to the common room at the end of the day, Holly didn't even change out of her school robes before collapsing back onto the luxurious black couch. She heard a soft chuckle coming from off to her left. "Rough day, huh?" he said. Before Holly even cracked open one eye, she knew that it was Blaise who had said it.
"You have no idea," she moaned.
"Come play a game of wizard's chess with me then. It will help you unwind."
That made her laugh. "Blaise, you're my best mate and all but you are hopeless at wizard's chess. Last time we played together you didn't even know what check mate meant."
He laughed along with her at the memory and if his skin wasn't so dark, Holly swore she would have seen a fierce red color in his cheeks. "Yeah, well I'm better now! Theodore taught me over the Summer when you were busy being antisocial."
"Blaise, just because I like to take the time to read a good book doesn't make me antisocial," she said, sticking out her tongue. "You're on!"
Surprisingly, Blaise hadn't been exaggerating; he was pretty good. Not any competition for Holly, but good nonetheless. She had only had to remind him what a pawn was and was not allowed to do a couple of times and even had to move her queen away from a check a few times.
"Well as much fun as that was, I think I'm going to head off to bed now," Holly said while stretching her arms above her head.
"Oh come on," Blaise pleaded, "one more game? I really think I might beat you this time."
"You mean without cheating this time?" she asked, her eyebrow perched high on her forehead.
"You caught that? I thought I was being sneaky."
Holly snorted, "about as sneaky as a Hufflepuff!" She slapped her hands over her mouth as Blaise got a dark look on his face.
"Sneaky as a Hufflepuff, you say?" He asked quietly and stalked over to her. Oh, this would not end well for her.
Backing up until the underside of her knees met the couch, Holly tried to correct her blunder. "Oh no, that's not what I said. I said you're as sneaky as-" she couldn't finish the sentence as Blaise barreled into her and pinned her firmly underneath him on the couch, holding her arms above her head. "No, please, Blaise!" He just shook his head with a maniacal smile on his face. Then he began to tickle her. A mix between laughing and screaming filled the room as Blaise poked her ribs mercilessly, and the pleading got louder the longer he held her down.
Soon, though, Holly's ears were met with two other laughs between her own wheezes. "You're so bad, Draco!" Tori said loudly. Oh, the happy couple was back, were they? The tickle torture stopped when the portrait hole closed and Holly rolled her eyes at Blaise. He should probably get up now, Holly thought, or else Draco and Tori would probably think that...
"Blaise!" She said in a loud whisper. He brought his focus back to the girl beneath him with a questioning look. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off immediately as Holly brought her head up and crashed her lips onto his. At first, Blaise was clearly in shock as he wasn't moving, but soon enough, his lips matched her rhythm and he brought his hand up to cup her face.
Holly had to fight the urge to do a victory dance when, only a few seconds later, two sharp gasps filled the room.
Ooh, what's Draco going to do about Holly snogging his best friend? Things are getting interesting at Hogwarts this year! Sorry this chapter was pretty late, I'm just having trouble finding motivation lately. As always, thanks to everyone who has added this story to their alerts or favorited it!