Chapter Eleven

Three days passed in pretty much the same fashion they had as of late. Tara was harassed, Draco was harassed, I was harassed. They both stuck to me like some sort of shield, perhaps assuming I was so used to the treatment that I could buffer them from it. It was uncomfortable to say the least. They were the only two people with the ability to grate on my nerves and now they seemed to find that my side is where they thought they ought to be when they were in class and (often times) out. Needless to say I pulled many a Granger, and hid in the library. If someone had told me at the beginning of the semester that I would be facing this issue, I might have just gotten off the train and said goodbye to the whole mess.

Still I brewed the potion and handed it to Tara. I hoped at the very least that this would give her some relief so that I too could get some relief.

"Thank you so much, Raven!" she squeeled.

I took a deep breath. "You're welcome. Now remember, it's best on the full moon. That's in four days. I gave you six so that should do you for half of the year as long as you store them somewhere cold. Take one drop each night."

"I won't forget!" Tara said, and hugged me.

I shut my eyes and stilled at the physical contact but managed to say, "Be careful, you don't want to break it."

"Oh right!" she said, and pulled away from me, blushing. "Thank you so much! I can't wait to put this to good use."

There was something in her tone that I thought was odd but I was simply too tired of dealing with her to put much thought into it as she raced off to wherever it was Tara went when she wasn't in class or sitting next to me. I promptly sat down at the table and opened my book just as the blonde haired man (who had been making my life somehow more unbearable than before) sat down.

"What was she doing here?" Draco asked.

"Perhaps she was studying," I said, turning a page in my book. "It's more than what you do in here."

"You couldn't sit somewhere else? There are never any pretty girls here," Draco bemoaned.

"Thank you so very much for the compliment," I said, sighing. "You could try going somewhere else. Somewhere alone. I hear the top of the astronomy tower is empty at this time of the day. Or the bottom of the lake. The squid gets lonely."

I could feel Malfoy smirking at that. "But I'm already friends with one monstrous creature right here."

"I'd hardly call you a friend," I said coldly.

"Fair enough," he said, dropping whatever was in his hand to the table. I looked and saw an apple.

"You could eat in the Great Hall. It's lunch time."

"You're not eating there. Why should I?"

"Why does it matter where I'm at? Really, you're acting like a frightened second year. It isn't as if most of the students don't believe fully that you were tricked and Tara and I are the bane of your existence."

"Perhaps I stay around to prove that isn't true. Someone has to look out for your reputation. You certainly don't," he said, not even falling for the bait. "Do you know how difficult it is to improve someone's reputation who haunts the corridors, glaring? I might as well start trying to make Snape into a teddy bear."

"I never asked you to help me," I said, trying to hide my surprise by narrowing my eyes in suspicion, still looking at the book.

"Stop glaring, it does things to your face," Draco said.

"Why do you even care what people say about me?" Or about my face?

"Perhaps I'm tired of the taint on our House. Really Harrison, you make us all incredibly ridiculous."

"Considering you started my infamous streak I can hardly say that you're doing much better," I said and put down the book to give him a real glare.

He just smirked. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. I must be really off to not even be able to push Malfoy's buttons anymore. When did that start happening?

"So...you and that Hufflepuff..."

"We were plotting against you, obviously."

Finally his eyes narrowed at that and I felt relief, for some odd reason. Perhaps it was the familiarity of our rivalry. If we weren't rivals, and we weren't ignoring each other, what did that make us? It was something I hadn't considered, nor was it something I wanted to. Acknowledging the possibility that Tara might actually be my only friend was hard enough.

"Relax Malfoy, it seems my torture extends to her too," I said. "I gave her something to help her with this nightmare."

"Can we not talk about her?" Malfoy said abruptly.

I could see the shudder that let me know he was thinking of Tara and him and...when had I learned to tell what he was thinking? I looked back to my book.

"You brought her up."


A week passed and, as per usual, Draco sat beside me in Herbology.

"They're going to start rumors about us if you keep sitting beside me," I told him.

He didn't take the hint.

Draco snorted, "They already have."

I sighed, "True. But if I hear that they think I'm snogging you I might just lose my lunch."

Draco smirked, "Oh I doubt that."

I groaned, opening up a book. As if on cue whispering started and I wondered if talking about rumors had actually caused them to start.

"The hell -" I heard Draco say under his voice.

I thought about asking him whether I wanted to know but decided I probably didn't.

"Hello Raven," I heard a familiar voice.

"Hello Tar -" and I looked up.

Tara looked striking. That was the only word for it. Her skin, while paler, seemed to almost shine iridescently. Her eyes - were they bigger? And definitely more vivid. They had been brown before, I was nearly sure. Now they were the most vivid pale blue that they almost glowed. Her dark hair was now jet black. And her new look didn't just stop at her face, her body was...shaped...differently. More curves and less softness, angular. If I hadn't known for certain that the voice had belonged to the excitable Hufflepuff, I wouldn't have been able to place her.

"Tara? What happened to you?" I asked, unable to hide the surprise in my voice.

She pouted, then said, "Don't you like it?" Her eyes slid to Draco, who had gone rigid in his chair. "I was inspired."

"It's...different. You look nice, but different," I said.

"Thanks!" she said, and hugged me, much to my shock.

She then took a seat at the front of class, one of the only chairs left. All eyes were on her as the class broke out into excited talking.

How could she manage to change her looks like that? She's awful at Transfiguration.

"What was that potion you gave her?" Draco asked suspiciously, clearly figuring along the same lines as I was.

"Something for dreams and sleeping," I said.

"How did she pull that off?" Draco asked.

"Maybe she had help," I suggested. "Or made a few deals with a demon."

Draco darkly said, "Or maybe she is one."