He had remembered, but everything seemed to have turned upside down since Emerald arrived. He and Hermione had started to make plans. Together.
"Well, I was hoping that at today's meeting, you and Emerald would have an idea chosen. You'll have to bring her up to speed on everything though."
"Yes sir. We'll be down in a moment."
And with that, he turned and hurriedly walked out of the room.
"Lets try this again. What are you?"
She stood and walked over to him. She raised her right arm and let her hand gently cup Draco's cheek, smiling.
"Maybe some other time, love. Were wanted else where."
She walked past him to the portrait and stepped through.
"You coming?" she called back.
"Wha? Yeah."
They walked in silence down to the great hall where they could hear laughter emitting from the doors that were ajar.
"About time," someone yelled as they walked in.
Emerald, who should have been quite intimidated walking into a room full of strangers where she was expected to lead, simply walked over to a table, sat on top of it and looked out to the small sea of students. She quietly waited for Draco to speak, possibly introduce her to the prefects but with no such luck, did it herself.
"As many of you probably know, I'm Emerald. I'm taking the place of Hermione Granger because she is, well, unavoidably detained," she said with a small smile.
Draco's head jerked up at these words. "What do you mean 'unavoidably detained'?"
"This is not the time for that."
"You know what! You're the most confusing, irritating, and annoying person I have ever met!" he said almost screaming.
"You forgot dead and I know."
Draco huffed in annoyance and turned back to the group.
"As you may have already heard, were going to plan a day for the school. Any ideas?"
"Can it be anything we want?" Emerald asked.
Without turning around, Draco said yes shortly.
"Can we do different things throughout the day or does it have to be just one thing?" Emerald questioned.
"What ever we want," he said slowly as if he was talking to a five-year-old.
"Why not throw a party?" a prefect said.
"Not just a party though, why not make it a whole day worth of stuff." Emerald said.
"What exactly did you have in mind?" Draco asked irritated.
She sat for a moment contemplating how she would word it. "Why don't we do something like a play where we all get to dress up and goof off. All the prefects and Heads would be in it. Then, later that day, we'll do dinner and then a dance."
The room sat quietly as they thought over her idea. Smiles began to erupt among the students. "Sounds like a great idea!" "This is going to be so much fun!" "What should we do first?"
They spent the rest of the meeting discussing what they were going to act out and what kind of dance they should throw. Two and a half hours later, everyone left the Great Hall in a jovial mood. Everything was set and all Draco and Emerald had to do was to inform the Headmaster of their plans and start looking for costumes for the play, which they had decided to go with a muggle theme, Footloose.
Draco's anger seemed to ease off as they made their way back to their common room. Once inside, they began discussing what props and costumes would be needed. Draco, having never seen or heard of the muggle movie, left it up to Emerald who seemed to have the movie memorized, ("It was only the best movie of the 80's!") made a list of all that was needed. Forty-five minutes and a very bored Draco later, Emerald finished with the planning. She shortly joined him on the couch with a satisfied smirk.
"What are you so happy about?"
"Well, I've just finished assigning people roles in the play."
"Yeah, so?"
"You're going to be Ren," she sounded as though she had just told him that he was had to run around the school in just his knickers.
"Who the bloody hell is Ren?"
Emerald looked away, not really trying to hide the grin.
"Emerald!" he said warningly.
"Oh, just the main character," she said sweetly.
"I told you, I'm not playing any big roles. Anyway, who are you playing?"
"Preachers daughter."
"You gave me Ren, a lead role, and you're just the preachers daughter!"
"There are two leads stupid. Me, Ariel, and you, Ren okay?"
"What if I don't do it?"
"Then your poor Hermione will be so sad that her prince charming won't be in the surprise play for her," Emerald said with a baby's voice.
"Its for Hermione?"
"Well not technically, but who's going to tell her otherwise. And yes, she will be returning shortly."
"How soon?" he asked anxiously.
"I don't know the exact date but I believe that it will be sometime in the next two weeks."
Draco jumped up from the couch, startling Emerald. "Well, what are we waiting for? We have a play to rehearse for."
