Hey folks, very sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I had this stupid history assignment that was pretty much taking over my life and then it was holidays and now I'm back. For the record, chapters will be coming faster. Hopefully. Just FYI, I'm not entirely sure when in Harry Potter or Mortal Instruments this is set, but everyone is roughly the same age. Lastly, I NEED REVIEWS! Just a smiley face will make my day. Nothing too fancy. Surely that's not too much to ask?

CHAPTER 8

Clary had to admit, Hermione was pretty cool. Well, as cool as someone like Hermione could be. As the group stomped up the marble staircase, Clary thought that Hermione would make quite a good friend. Well, from as much as she could tell so far. A bit pompous, yes, but very intelligent. And it must be hard for her to be friends with possibly the most famous teenaged wizard in Britain as well a cocky, stubborn redheaded guy, and survive the wizard equivalent of high school.

The plan for the tour that morning was to begin in the castle, from the top floor, and work their way down to the grounds. The Shadowhunters' guide was Hermione, as neither Harry nor Ron would take up that responsibility themselves without a decent bribe. The three girls, Clary, Isabelle and Hermione, were the unspoken leaders of the group, chatting freely about everything and nothing, with Shadowhunters asking questions about wizard life and the witch firing questions about Shadowhunting life.

The boys, however, clearly found it slightly more difficult to launch into conversation. Trying hard to make a good impression, although for what he was not quite sure, Harry asked Jace a few timid questions along the lines of "Do you like Hogwarts so far?" or "So…do you want to see anything in particular?". The answer was a grunt in acknowledgement at having heard the question, but nothing more. Clary was surprised at Jace. He must be exceptionally bored to not offer up any witty sarcasm or jokes.

Alec was getting on pretty well with Harry, although Clary couldn't exactly say why. Possibly the only thing they had in common was that they had black hair and could use magic.

At the Astronomy Tower, everyone leaned over the edge, trying not to get vertigo.

"Wow. This is pretty cool." Clary was easily impressed.

Jace, who was next to her, moved closer, and whispered in her ear, sending a shiver down her spine.

"Yeah, but so trapping Izzy and Harry in a room for a night." He and Clary looked over to them, where the two were standing curiously close to each other.

Then Jace finally lost it. "I'M SO BORED! Can we please do something that will not somehow persuade me to jump to my death, at which thousands of teenage girls will be weeping with despair at my handsomely dead body?"

The rest of the group jerked around at this sudden outburst, and Hermione's cheeks turned scarlet.

"Of…Of course, um, let's just head down now. I think we've seen enough of this."

With a slightly frightened glance at Jace, she hurried out of the tower, followed by a sulking Ron and Harry, Jace, then Isabelle and Clary, who were looking quite awkward.

Strolling down the corridors, Hermione had turned into a walking, talking version of Hogwarts, A History. Ron was not entirely pleased about this.

"Hermione, seriously. If you are the only person in the history of Hogwarts that actually cares about Helga Hufflepuff's third cousin twice removed who established the Gobstones club in 1827, then congratulations, but I think our guests," at which Jace was shot a venomous look, "aren't enjoying themselves very much."

After a moment or two of furiously awkward silence, Clary came to the rescue.

"Um, guys, I don't mean to break up the chit-chat, but I think…" Her words were lost when the bell rang and the sounds of hundreds of students above, below and around them erupted in an explosion of noise.

Ron, who seemed to have taken 'saved by the bell' literally, shoved Harry and Hermione in front of him and called over his shoulder, "Good luck on the tour, GITS!"

And they were lost in the swell of the students.

-oOo-

"Great. Thanks for that." Clary glared up at Jace who merely shrugged and leant against the wall as a group of a few dozen third year girls came up to him, demanding his autograph.

Izzy raised her eyebrows, but Jace awarded the girls a smile that Clary could have sworn made a couple of them almost pass out, and signed their bags, notebooks and even their shirts. Clary wasn't impressed, and glared at him, only until a winning smile on his part made her anger somewhat dissolve.

It was only at a glare from Clary that the girls finally scrambled away.

Clary turned on Jace. "Jace, smiling at me like you are in a Colgate commercial can't and won't always win people over."

"I'd like to challenge that theory," He replied.

As if on cue, a fumbling, mumbling Professor Trelawney shuffled down the corridor. She was looking hastily through a deck of tarot cards, which she dropped some of. Being the reliable gentleman that he usually wasn't, Jace helped her pick them up of the floor.

She glanced up at Jace, and mumbled, "Thanks."

Jace presented her with a dazzling grin. "You're welcome."

The professor looked slightly wary, then she returned a small smile and hobbled away.

Jace turned to Clary. "See? I am right. Again. Still, I don't see how you could possibly think that my Colgate commercial smile wouldn't work."

Isabelle, Clary Alec both sighed at the same time,and were about to continue wandering to their unkown destination when Harry, Ron and Hermione caught up with them. They were all hoping that Jace's snobbish arrogance would stop by the time the Shadowhunters left. If they were indeed planning to leave.

Hermione hissed at Ron. "Come on!"

Looking down at the floor and mumbling, Ron apologised to Jace for being a moron earlier.

Not about to pass up an excuse for mockery, Jace said, "I accept your apology, Ronald. And I depply appreciate the fact you came and told me yourself. It shows great courage and a sense or responsibility."

"Gee, thanks for the compliment." Ron snarled.

As Clary gave Jace a shove in the back to indicate that he should keep walking, Alec noticed a group of students further down the corridor that even a two year old would sense as danger. Jace, Clary and Isabelle picked up on it too, and they turned to face the approaching students. The leader of the group had white-blond hair and a smirk on his face that Clary thought didn't indicate friendliness. Behind him were two thugs that could be best described as human gorillas. None of the Shadowhunters were entirely sure what was muscle and what was fat. A girl, whose face resembled a squashed pig, was standing behind them.

The gang strolled down to face the Shadowhunters. The leader spoke and offered his hand.

"Draco Malfoy. And you are…?"

The girl who was standing behind Malfoy elbowed her way out to the front.

"And I'm Pansy Parkinson. I hope you like our school. And I also hope that those three," she jerked her head in the direction of Harry, Hermione and Ron, "aren't boring you to death!"

Jace, as usual, took care of the situation.

"Hm. I'm Jace, this is Clary, Isabelle and Alec." The Shadowhunters nodded at their name. "And no, these charming friends are not boring me to death, but you all are starting to."

Pansy looked like she had been slapped.

Ignoring her, Jace walked up to Draco, and it was clear who had the physical and verbal power.

"Look, dude. It seems that the turn of events that you just created are not going to end up in your favour. I strongly suggest that you and your posse piss off very fast, because, well, I don't like your face."

While Alec was looking worried about Jace starting a fight with someone who could wield incredible magic, Isabelle and Clary were trying, almost unsuccessfully, to smother their laughter with their hands. Malfoy looked slightly stunned, and his thugs looked like soldiers waiting for orders. Attack or surrender?

Malfoy recovered from the initial shock and cocked his head.

"You're a piece of work, aren't you?"

Jace scowled and began to turn away when Malfoy whipped out something from inside his robes, and it was almost too late when Jace realised what it was. He dove out of the way, pulling Clary with him.

A bolt of reddish-orange shot out of the end of Malfoy's wand, missing Clary's head by about the width of a finger nail.

Smirking at his surprising the two Shadowhunters, Malfoy twirled his wand around his fingers. Clary noticed that behind Malfoy, Pansy was fumbling for her wand as well, and the Shadowhunters instinctively whipped out their Seraph blades and executed a fighting stance, with Clary complimenting Pansy with a death-glare that Maryse would be proud of.

Jace taunted Malfoy. "Seriously? You can only fight with a bit of wood shoved in your slimy hand?"

Malfoy mocked him. "Seriously? You can only fight with a big of metal in your slimy hand?"

Just as Jace about to reply, Harry came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. He cleared his throat and murmured, "Whatever you're about to do, it's probably not such a good idea in the middle of the corridor. Maybe, erm, take it outside?"

Jace liked that Harry didn't exactly say that the fight was a bad idea. He was under the impression that that there was serious conflict between the houses, and Harry was constantly leading the battle against Malfoy and his gang.

Malfoy looked momentarily apprehensive at Jace's suggestion, and Clary though proudly and slightly smugly about how visible Jace's muscles were.

Nonetheless, he agreed. "Fine. Whomping Willow, 8 tonight. We'll settle this like men."

Isabelle raised her eyebrows in a "don't even go there" kind of way. She started fiddling with her golden-whip, which currently, deceptively, looked like a set of golden bangles.

Clary put a hand on Isabelle's arm. "We'll deal with this later. I know how you feel."

The only one out of possibly both parties that wasn't looking forward to the fight was Hermione. As the bell rang for the next class of the day and the crowd in the hall had broken up, Hermione seriously thought about telling McGonagall.

"This is not going to end well."

So, there it is. I hope it's worth the wait. It probably isn't. Also, I'm running out of ideas for the plot, and I'm still not sure how long this fic is going to be, and any ideas, no matter how random/nonsensical/odd they are. REVIEW!