Chapter 25
Well, Maybe I do Break Bones
Later that night, I sat in the tiny room in the library. I fiddled my fingers over the unopened note she had given me earlier and wondered if I should open it. It could be anything. It could even be where to meet her tonight. 'Well, she is late. Maybe it says something important.'
I was reaching to rip open the seal on the note when the door handle twisted and opened. Granger stumbled in; at least I guessed it was Granger behind the pile of books.
"I've managed to pull every possible library book on Veela and their charms; the useful ones at least." She dropped them onto the table and wiped her sleeve over her forehead.
I raised my eyebrow at her and stood, my hands, as well as the note, sliding into my pockets as she opened a book so old that the pages were nearly nothing but dust. I watched her tiny fingers run over the ink and leaned over the book with her.
"What exactly are we looking for?" I asked, looking over at her.
"A stronger charm." She said without missing a beat. My eyebrows furrowed in wonder. I didn't need a stronger charm. This one worked just fine. And I told her so.
"No…." she said absently, "That charm is known to have horrible side effects. I want to find one that doesn't cause you any harm."
I stared incredulously at her until she felt my eyes on her. "W…what?"
"One that doesn't cause me any harm, huh?" she flushed red.
"er…well what's bad for you is bad for me too now right?" I smirked and, giving her a shrug, I picked up a hardback with green binding.
We spent nearly two hours looking through the rumbled papers and old manuscripts of millions of different wizards and witches and my eyes began to ache. It didn't help that I spent at least one and a half of those hours watching the brunette girl out of the corner of my eye.
I had always just mocked her for having her head in a book that I never took the time to watch her study. Now I had time. Now I wanted to watch her run her fingers over the book and find something interesting. When she did, she would lean all the way over the page and her hair would fall over her shoulders and when what she thought was useful wasn't, she'd huffily sit back down and flip the page with annoyance.
The first time she did this I had to bite my hand to avoid laughing. The second time I had to pretend to cough to hide my laugh. The third time I didn't react in time and chuckled and remarked, "you getting angry with the book, Granger? Are you going to curse it?"
"Oh shove off, Malfoy." She muttered slamming the book closed and reaching for another one.
"If I did that you'd be left going through these books all by your lonesome." I smirked over at her and she crossed her arms at me.
"I am going through these all by my self because you can't seem to focus. I'm going to go through all the books you were suppose to read because you didn't."
My lips twisted to a frown and I buried my nose back in my book. I didn't look at her again for another 20 minutes. That was when she stood and stretched her arms over her head. She wandered over towards the back of the room where a tiny window that I hadn't noticed before was.
I shut my book and stretched my legs too. "Our 'date' has exceeded its time, Granger. Plus I have to practice for the match tomorrow."
"Mm…I wouldn't mind some fresh air." She turned and smiled back at me, clasping her robe together to brace herself for the cold.
Ten minutes later found Granger and I in the quidditch pitch. She lay back on the grass as I mounted my broomstick. "You like to fly, Granger?" I asked as a cool breeze blew past me.
"No. I like to keep my feet firmly on the ground, thank you." I let out a chuckle and zoomed off and made a few rounds of the pitch.
"Malfoy." She called out to me as the clock struck 11 at night. I looked down to see a tiny ball of gold fluttering towards me. I smirked and sped after it; breaking into a dive that I nearly wasn't able to pull out of.
I glared at the snitch and I turned to see Granger controlling it with her wand. A smirk was across her lips and she had to cover her mouth with her hand.
"Trying to kill me, Granger?"
"Well it sure would be the end of my problem." She gave me a wry smile and I stepped off my broom.
"Just for that…" I grabbed her arm and hoisted her up, "You get a flying lesson from me."
She squealed and cried out in protest, squirming but I pushed her up onto the broomstick and sat behind her. One arm went around her to keep the squirming girl from falling and the other I used to steer.
And steer I did, rather roughly too. I dove and rose up, I spun and sped until I began to feel queasy myself. And then I landed, and Granger stumbled off the broom and lay on the ground gasping. "You asshole."
"I'm sorry," I grinned. "But now you know how I felt. Seriously, come sit and I'll teach you."
"Nononono! I don't want to learn." And she sat in the grass with her bottom lip sticking out. She picked up her wand and used it to smack the snitch against my head.
"Dammit! Learn to take a joke, Granger." I tenderly rubbed my head and she snorted at me.
"Jokes are supposed to be funny."
"I thought it was funny." I smirked and she punched me square in the nose. The damn girl broke my nose.
Ta da! Next Chapter: Wow, I really break bones.