So last minute before posting this chapter, I decided it wasn't right and completely rewrote it, deleting a scene and adding the last one (which I happen to really like so I'm glad I changed my mind). That is the reason this is being posted so late. I apologize immensely.
Thanks again to Cubaser for your continued support and reviewing!
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER
Social Awkwardness
I was standing at the entrance of a large maze looking around. My surroundings were unfamiliar: I was in what appeared to be some sort of underground chamber. I heard something like a bird call and looked up. A red phoenix was flying towards me. I reached out, letting it land on my forearm and somewhat giggled at the fascinating sight. The bird was beautiful and the touch of it was warm and made my entire body swell with pride. Hearing footsteps coming from the other direction, I turned and saw Draco Malfoy walking towards me, smiling. As he got closer, I quickly took my wand out of my pocket and pointed it at the bird. Draco did the same, and just as he was muttering some indecipherable curse, the bird took off into the maze. Draco immediately began to run after it and I followed. We ran through the maze, twist after winding twist. Finally, the maze walls opened up into a large, open circle and in the middle the phoenix had perched itself of the forearm of an elderly woman… my grandmother. I stopped dead in my tracks and lowered my wand. Draco slowed his pace, but kept going with his wand up. I was about to tell Draco to stop, that she was of no harm, but I looked at my grandma first and she – she winked at me. Suddenly, she spun on the spot and disapparated, the bird disappearing with her. Draco cursed under his breath and turned toward me. He passed me wordlessly and began walking through the maze again.
I rolled over in my bed and looked around. The room was filled with light from the rising sun, it was probably right around time to get up for breakfast, but I remained in bed. I rolled onto my back and kicked off my blankets. My dream had caused me to break out into a sweat. Probably because she was in it.
Since her death, my grandma had appeared in my dreams many times. At first, this often caused me to wake up screaming and sobbing and shortly after my mother would run in but there was never anything she could do to console me. After awhile, she had stopped coming in and, eventually, I had stopped screaming and would, instead, just cry or break out into a sweat as I had just done.
I sat up with the images of the dream still running through my mind. It didn't make sense, not any of it. Looking around the room I saw that everyone was still sleeping, so maybe it was earlier than I originally thought.
I got out of bed and changed. When I was finished getting ready, the other girls were just beginning to wake up. In order to avoid the questions as to why I was up so early, I went down to the Common Room to wait for Hermione or the boys to get ready.
After about ten minutes of sitting in an old armchair that Ron frequented, Hermione descended the stairs. "I was wondering where you went."
"Oh," I said, "I got ready fast so I just figured I'd wait down here."
We left the Common Room and began walking to the Great Hall. "So," I said, trying to break the silence. After all, I still wasn't sure how Hermione felt about me, especially since she refused to help Harry and Ron last night in filling me in. "What do you think it was Percy was talking about in the Prophet?"
Hermione shrugged, "I honestly have no clue. But it's probably something ridiculously stupid if the Ministry has anything to do with it."
I agreed and we finished the rest of the walk in an awkward silence. Once we reached the Great Hall and then the Gryffindor table, we sat down facing each other and I found myself looking not only at Hermione, but the Slytherin table as well. I was, once again, flooded with thoughts about my dream. For some reason, I couldn't seem to let go of it like a normal dream. It seemed as though I was trying to tell myself something subconsiously.
I was brought out of my reverie by Harry sitting next to me. "Mail come yet?"
"No," I answered disappointedly, we were all eager to read about whatever Percy could have been referring to. I buttered a piece of toast and once I had taken a couple of bites, the mail came. Hermione anxiously scrambled to grab Ron's Prophet and nearly knocked over her glass of milk. Composing herself, she read the headline: "Ministry Seeks Educational Reform. Dolores Umbridge Appointed First-Ever 'HIGH INQUISITOR'."
"I'm confused," I said, swallowing a bite of toast. What did that mean?
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "what's a 'high inquisitor'?"
Hermione read the article aloud as I continued to nibble on my toast. Apparently Umbridge was the Ministry's way of keeping an eye on Hogwarts.
"That's ridiculous!" Harry said, "And now she has the power to inspect other teachers!"
I looked across the table at Hermione who looked grim, and then at Ron, but Ron was… grinning.
"What is funny about anything Hermione just read?" I asked mystified.
Ron then expressed his excitement at seeing McGonagall inspected. I rolled my eyes playfully and quickly finished my toast so I wouldn't be late for my first class.
I found classes extremely boring in the morning, but was pleasantly surprised to get my Potions essay back with an 'E' on it. At first I didn't know what it meant, but after asking Ron, I was thoroughly pleased. He showed me his 'P' with a frown and I wanted to ask what it stood for, but because of the look on his face, I decided not to.
After Potions, I walked to the Great Hall with Ron, Hermione, and Harry. Because Snape had talked about the O.W.L.s, that was all Hermione seemed capable to think about. The entire walk she rambled on and on about marks.
I found it hard, however, to stay tuned in to the conversation. A certain scene from my dream kept replaying in my head: watching Draco go after my grandma and then her winking at me with the phoenix on her arm, as if we shared some secret that Draco was not in on.
I sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Ron and continued thinking over my dream. I was replaying the wink once more just as I heard my name. "Huh?" I asked.
Hermione was looking across the table at me with a look of astonishment on her face. "You got an 'E' on your essay?" she asked incredulously.
"Uh, yeah… probably just a fluke," I said, trying to reassure her of her status as the "smart one". I did, however, wonder what she got.
"I got a 'P'," Ron said grimly.
"Well, there's nothing wrong with that," I looked to my right and saw Fred, George, and their friend Lee sitting down. "Right, America?" Fred said elbowing me.
I raised an eyebrow at him. Fred had taken to teasing me about anything and everything – namely my nationality. "Please don't tell me that's my new nickname," I said while raising an eyebrow and referring to a habit of his: calling me anything related to the States - Liberty, Westerner, Stars and Stripes, Texas.
Fred smiled, "Don't worry, I'll come up with something cuter." He said the last word with a wrinkle of his nose. I turned forward while playfully rolling my eyes and found that Hermione was still going on about O.W.L.s. As we ate, Fred took it upon himself to explain to us what the different marks were that you could receive and that his Charms class was inspected by Umbridge.
I stood from the table with everyone else as they were insulting Umbridge. I wasn't sure what it was about the woman, but just thinking of her sent a tremor through my body.
"Well," I said grabbing my books, "maybe we'll get lucky and she won't inspect any of our classes." I hoped with all of my heart that this was true. She never did anything to me, but I hated being around her and watching her treat certain people the way she did.
"Scared of her, are you?" I looked up at Fred. Well, there was one thing I loved about the Weasley boys – I had to look up to them. Being 5 foot 10 inches, if I wasn't the same height as most boys, then they were shorter than me.
"She's not exactly my favorite person, but I wouldn't say scared," I defended myself as I looked up into his brown eyes, lying just a little bit.
"Well don't you worry your little American head about her," he rested his hand gently on the top of my head, "I think she's only interested in ripping apart the professors today."
"Yea, today," I said quietly, but apparently he still heard me.
He shook my head from side to side with his hand. "Eh, the worst she could do is send you back to America." I looked at him gravely, not doubting for a moment that what he said was true. Fred dropped his hand and looked at me seriously, "I'm only joking."
"I knew that," I snapped back defensively, once again lying just a little bit. I turned around and realized that Hermione had already left for Ancient Runes. I left the Great Hall by myself trying to figure her out. We normally always walked to Ancient Runes together since neither Ron nor Harry took the class, so this was odd. Sure, it was no secret that I was closest to Harry, but I still considered myself close to Hermione. Just the way she acted towards me sometimes really confused me. Was it possible that she was still upset that Ron and Harry had told me about the Order, and Sirius, and everything that had been planted into my head last night? Certainly not, the boys didn't have a problem with me knowing any of it.
I was already on the third floor when I realized something was wrong. Did I usually pass that painting on the way to Ancient Runes? I couldn't be entirely sure because I usually followed Hermione's lead, which I now knew was a mistake. I should have been paying attention on how to actually get to the class. Between the moving stairs and the walking suits of armor, I didn't know my way around the castle very well, and it probably didn't help that I turned down that tour with the first years.
Turn right. Somewhere along the way I remember that we turned right. But, of course, there was no right turn on this corridor. Maybe I'm backwards. I turned around and let my books droop some in my hands. We needed so many for this class and they weren't exactly light, and it probably didn't help that I had been walking around with them much longer than necessary.
I reached the end of the corridor and decided to go back in the direction I came from. However, just before I made the turn around the corner, my drooping books fell from my hands. I stood there and stared at them a moment, of course I would drop my books. I could hear chuckling and turned to see that it was a man in a painting. After giving him a dirty look he turned and went walking down the hallway in the opposite direction through the paintings. Maybe if you hadn't of been rude, he would have helped you find the classroom, I scolded myself as I squatted to pick up the four books.
I was reaching to retrieve the last one when I heard footsteps. Hurriedly, I grabbed the book and attempted to stand so that whoever they were wouldn't fall over me, but in the middle of this the footsteps rounded the corner and I felt a hand pressing down on my head so that its owner could steady him or herself. The pressure of the hand on my head made me unbalanced and I toppled over with my books once again falling out of my hands, the owner of the hand falling on top of me.
"I am so sorry!" I apologized as whoever had been unlucky enough to topple over me transferred their body weight so that it wasn't on my lower half. I made a move to put my body into a kneeling position so my butt wasn't on the floor and looked over at the person who was, almost as clumsily as me, trying to make sure they were completely off of me.
"It's fine, are you all right?" the owner of the voice looked up at me as he asked and I recognized him immediately: Draco Malfoy. He looked me over as if trying to make sure he didn't squash me and then also pulled himself up into a kneeling position.
"Yeah, I-I'm fine," I stammered. The dream that I had had the previous night now came at me full force. Draco running through a maze after the phoenix, pointing his wand at my grandmother… "I'm so sorry," I said again, furrowing my brow. "My books fell out of my hands and I bent down to get them and, well…" I awkwardly trailed off.
Draco continued looking at me and smirked. "It's really quite all right," after he said this he looked around, "In your defense, you were carrying a lot of books." I looked on the floor and, of course, my Ancient Runes books were scattered about. Draco picked one up and I went to reach for another just as he had, our hands bumping together. "Sorry," he mumbled as he pulled his hand back. I inwardly cursed myself for my social awkwardness. I gathered my remaining books and just as I grabbed the last one a hand appeared in front of my face. Taking Draco's hand he helped me up.
"Ancient Runes, huh?" he said, giving the book that he was still holding a shake. "You're a little out of the way then, aren't you?"
"Um, I actually wouldn't know. I'm sort of lost," I said embarrassed.
Once again, he smirked at me. "Well, luckily I know where it is," Draco began walking down the corridor and I immediately followed, falling into step next to him. "I think I sort of met you on the train," he began. I was shocked that he remembered that and I guess I let the shock show on my face because he added, "Your accent isn't hard to forget. It's not every day you help an American girl with her luggage."
I could feel myself blushing, "Thanks for that, by the way."
Draco shrugged. "I'm Draco," he said as he put out his hand.
"Yeah, I know…" I started as he accidentally talked over me, "Taylor, right?" I nodded taking his hand. "You know my name?" he asked curiously.
I smiled. "Well, I guess it's no secret that you're not popular amongst Gryffindors, but talked about," I said airily.
He nodded, "No, that's definitely not a secret." We walked for a few seconds in silence as we made a left turn. "So, you're friends with Potter?" he asked, looking down at me.
I opened my mouth to reply, but I wasn't sure what to say. Yes was the answer, but instead I nodded.
Draco seemed to take this in. "Watch out, I'm not so sure about him," as he said this his face was serious.
My immediate reaction was to take up for Harry, but as I opened my mouth to do so, I thought twice. Instead of sounding like he was trying to put down Harry, Draco actually sounded like he was warning me. "Thanks," I started, "but I think I've got that worked out." He nodded and looked forward.
"I really don't know how you got this lost on the way to Runes," he said with a chuckle as we made a right turn.
"I never got a tour!" I defended myself, also beginning to laugh, "And on top of that, these hallways are huge and the armor walk and the staircases move and those are never good things when you're a person that just easily gets lost."
While I had been saying that, Draco had been watching me. When I finished, he began chuckling again.
I couldn't help but laugh with him. His laugh was infectious. "Don't laugh at me!"
He roared with laughter now, "Then why are you laughing at yourself?" As he laughed, little lines formed around his mouth and eyes and I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of his face.
"Ugh," I pretended to be frustrated as his laughter dismissed some.
"I'm sorry," he said between the remaining giggles.
"As you should be," I said in a mock-serious manner, still focused on his face.
"No," he said, laughter gone now, "I'm sorry that you're going to be late your class. But we are finally here." Draco came to a stop in front of a door.
I looked at the door, willing it to disappear. I was having fun despite what Harry, Ron, Hermione, and everyone else said about Draco. He was kind to me, and funny, and I didn't really want him to have to leave. "Thanks, again," I said.
He held out my book that I forgot he had been carrying, "You know, after the luggage, and helping you with your books, and showing you to class, I think you owe me."
"Do I?" I said, taking my book from his hand and adding it to the other three cradled in my arm, "And what exactly do I owe you?"
Draco shrugged, that adorable smirk on his face. "I'm sure you'll figure something out," he stepped out of the way so that I could open the door to Runes, "See ya." He turned and walked off as I managed a "See ya" in return, but, like the 'bye' on the train, I'm sure it was inaudible.
