Once Upon a Hogwarts- Chapter Four
By Lily in a Pond
Disclaimer: Seriously, swearing on behalf of the Seriously Serious Sirius Black, I DON'T own Harry Potter. Oh wait, he's dead. (Harry cries pathetically in background while Ginny hands him a tissue.) Well, you get my point.
Please read and review!
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Draco was lying on his bed, doing absolutely nothing but wasting time as he contemplated what to do with his free period, which was already halfway over. He could challenge Blaise to a game of chess, but that might turn into the last game of chess they had, which had included a thrilling battle between a bloodthirsty king and a rather ferocious rook. It had lasted for seven hours and Draco wasn't in the mood to skip dinner and classes just to beat Blaise at something. He liked winning, but he wasn't stupidly stubborn, like those Gryffindorks, especially that dense Weasley.
He could go and catch up on some homework and study a bit in the library, but bookworm Granger might be there. No, correction, she would always be there. Does she have a cot in the library or something, because it seems like she lives there! Draco wondered. Every time I go there, I see her hunched over a table...
He could always go downstairs and snog Daphne, like he used to during his free periods. But lately, Draco hadn't been feeling like he really wanted to, which was strange because usually snogging was a very enjoyable pastime. As Draco sighed and sank deeper into his bed, he wondered what had changed. Three years ago, Draco had been so sure that his Cinderella, his Daphne, was the one he loved. Now, Draco wasn't so sure at all. What had happened to their spark, their shared interests, their bond? It seemed like in one night, everything they had together was swept out of the window. What had happened?
As Draco lay on his bed staring blankly at the ceiling, Blaise Zabini snuck in and grabbed a Slytherin scarf and a glass of water. He crept out as sneakily and quietly as he came in without Draco noticing.
Sighing, Draco rolled over and grabbed the picture he had gotten from the Muggle Creevey kid, Colby or something like that. The picture showed Daphne and him dancing together, looking in each other's eyes. They were swaying softly to the music of the Yule Ball and Draco thought they definitely looked happy. What had happened to make their relationship so strained now?
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Hermione was in Ancient Runes class when a note landed on her desk. Spying her name on the note, she quickly snuck a look around and then opened the note.
Hermione took another careful look around and wrote her answer on the back. She pulled her arm to throw it, then stopped, remembering that her aim wasn't that good. Instead, Hermione thought, Wingardium Leviosa! and the tiny piece of parchment rose into the air, glided over to Mandy's desk, and flopped down on it.
Seconds later, another note went whizzing past her, reached Theodore Nott's desk to the right of Hermione, screeched to a stop midair, and took a U-turn back to Hermione's desk. Nott blinked and then went back to spacing out.
Hermione stifled a giggle. That bit of magic was pretty good.
Do you dislike the Slytherins?
Hermione scribbled, Yes, on the back, and cast Wingardium Leviosa on it again. Then she made a mental note to go to the library later and find out which Mandy used to charm her notes. It was an extremely useful spell.
Hermione then shook her head vigorously. Hermione Granger, the ambassador for goody-goodies, use a spell that normally was used for passing notes or sending flying missiles around rooms? she yelled at herself silently. What was I thinking?
Another note arrived. This time, it landed on Hermione's head, tangling itself in her bushy hair. Hermione winced as she pulled out a few curly brown hairs along with the note.
Okay, good, here's what you can do to help out the Brocklehurst On Zabini Organization (BOZO). First, I want you to find...
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When Hermione woke up on Friday morning, she felt instantly refreshed by the bright sunlight streaming through the window. Today, she and Harry would be getting their first Head duties! What made this day even better than it already was that today, Blaise Zabini would get his comeuppance.
All the way down to breakfast, Hermione couldn't keep a Cheshire Cat grin off her face. Harry and Ron asked her what was wrong, but Hermione only simply smiled mysteriously.
"Just you wait and see," she had said, and that was the end of the discussion.
"Moring, Hermione," said Ginny as she sat down in the seat next to her. "Nice weather we're having, eh?"
"Yes, it is nice," Hermione agreed. "Lovely bit of charmwork right there, enchanting the ceiling to have little birds flying around it." She struggled to keep herself from exploding with laughter.
As Hermione buttered her toast, she looked up for a moment and there it was, a big, fat pigeon, soaring towards Blaise Zabini.
SPLAT!
"Ooh!" The Great Hall chorused.
"Argh! Stupid pigeon! Somebody get me a towel! A napkin! ANYTHING!" Zabini was screaming as he frantically tried not to touch his gelled hair, which was now currently covered with pigeon poop. Goyle handed him a green snot-covered hankie. When everyone blanched, he protested, saying, "What? He said anything!"
"Wow, Goyle has finally shown signs of intelligence!" Malfoy mock-whispered. A shout interrupted the sniggers.
"Look!" someone from the Hufflepuff table was shouting. "More are coming!"
Though stating the obvious, that was indeed true. A hundred or so of pooping, peeing, pigeons were flying towards Zabini at top speed.
SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! And so it continued.
Fifteen seconds later, the physical features of Blaise Zabini were no longer visible. He was now completely covered with pigeon poop and dripping with pigeon pee. It was absolutely revolting, to say the least.
"Hey, Zabini!" Mandy Brocklehurst shouted from the Ravenclaw table, standing on the table. "Why don't you use your wand?"
"MY WAND ISN'T HERE!" Zabini roared at Mandy. "BUT I THINK YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT! BUT YOU KNOW THE ONE THING I KNOW? I KNOW YOU STOLE IT!" he shouted, pointing a long, thin finger at Mandy, who feigned innocence. "YOU, MADISON ELIZABETH ALTHEA FAWCETT BROCKLEHURST, YOU STOLE IT!"
"I wonder how he knows her full name," Morag MacDougal commented thoughtfully from the Slytherin table.
"Hey, Blaise? If you would stop ranting for one second and look down, you'd see that your wand is in the exact same place it was since yesterday."
Hermione wrinkled her nose. "Ew...he puts his wand there?"
"Well, you know what they say about wands," Ron said, leaning back in his chair. Harry, Hermione, and Ginny stared blankly at him. "What, you don't know? Wands love company. I suppose it's natural his wand wants another wand there to be a nice companion."
"It's not there, you perverts," Blaise snapped. "She meant the left pocket."
"Now, just how do you know that?" Morag asked Mandy. Mandy turned red.
"Well - I - I'm just a very, very, very, very good observer."
"Anyways," Blaise cut in nervously. "You stole my wand and then returned it to make me look stupid, Brocklehurst!"
"Like I would be able to think of a plan that is so smart, it's stupid!"
"HA-HA, well, my brain isn't afraid to handle that! Yesterday, I thought and thought and thought for hours, and then, I GOT IT!" Blaise screamed maniacally.
"Loony," Luna muttered. The Ravenclaws stared at her in shock. "Ironic, yes," she muttered.
"Then, after I saw your beauti - er - ugly picture on my nightstand, I discovered the perfect plan that was so stupid, it's smart!"
Mandy's lips twitched. "Continue."
Blaise thrust his wand (no, the other one...pervs) into the air and tackled Mandy to the ground, which must have hurt considerably seeing as she had been standing on the table.
"Zabini! Brocklehurst! Get off each other this instant!" Professor McGonagall shrieked, running towards the students while shooting jets of red light at them. Astonishingly enough, the random movements they made rolling around on the floor dodged every single one of the spells.
"You two! My office! NOW!" Professor McGonagall barked, abandoning magic and seizing the both of them by the ear. "Never before, in all my years at Hogwarts, have I seen a most audacious display of primitiveness, and by a pair of seventh years! And to think I was actually considering you two as Head Boy and Girl! Audacious indeed!" And then she stalked off, leaving Blaise and Mandy to follow meekly in her wake.
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"Hogsmeade trip next weekend," Ginny mused as she patted her hair down subconciously. "I wonder if red is too daring of a shade for this dance...oh, Hermione, look, Hogsmeade next week."
Hermione smiled. "Excellent! I need to buy new dress robes, the blue one I wore to the Yule Ball is simply too small."
"Did you get your Ancient Runes dictionary?" Ginny asked as they started walking towards the portrait. Ten minutes ago, Hermione had suddenly remembered in the middle of scrambled eggs that she had left her Ancient Runes book on top of her nightstand. Ginny had accompanied her back to Gryffindor Tower since she had nothing to do with the extra time.
"Yeah, it was right where I left it, so that made finding it a lot easier," Hermione laughed. "What color do you think you're buying?"
Ginny bit her lip. "I don't know...dress robes are fairly expensive..."
"Well, you know that Ron doesn't need new robes; Percy's passing his navy robes down to him," Hermione said. "And you could always get Harry to buy it for you."
Ginny shook her head. "I hate borrowing money. Still, I suppose something simple in a cheerful color would be affordable. What about you?"
"Well, I haven't spent any of the money that my parents gave me for my birthday, so I guess I'll poke around Hogsmeade for a bit. I don't want anything too expensive, just a dress with a nice, creamy hue."
"I see. I'm more of a vivid person, myself. I was thinking of buying a red dress, actually," Ginny said. "Do you think that's too bright for this ball?"
"What's wrong with red?" Hermione asked.
"Well," Ginny said, looking uncomfortable. "The HUB is a ball celebrating the fact that Hogswarts is still united as one as You-Know-Who is at large. I just know that I'm going to be thinking about that all during the ball. The atmosphere isn't just going to be the same as the Yule Ball."
Hermione and Ginny sat in silence for a bit before Hermione checked her watch. She gasped.
"Ginny, the bell's going to ring in thirty seconds!"
And so they dashed off to their respective classes, Charms for Hermione and Divination for Ginny, though Hermione honestly didn't know why Ginny even bothered to take that class. "Easy grade," Ginny had said, "You just make up rubbish, preferably about Harry dying and Trelawny will soak it all up and tell you have the makings of a Seer and give you O's."
Hermione slid down into her seat. She noticed that Blaise and Mandy were still gone and giggled quietly. Nobody knew that she had helped with Mandy's poop and pee plan. That was mostly why Mandy had wanted Hermione to help her. Nobody would dare suspect innocent, goody-goody Hermione Granger, the bookworm who all the teachers loved! Needless to say, Hermione was getting a bad influence from Ginny and her brothers, Fred and George.
Halfway into the lesson, Hermione heard scuffles near the door. Professor Vector opened the door and gasped. There, rolling on the floor, was Blaise Zabini and Mandy Brocklehurst, clothes rumpled and adorned with funny marks on their necks and faces, probably from attempts to strangle and claw at each other.
"Mandy Brocklehurst! Blaise Zabini! This is absolutely……………astounding! However, such actions must be punished..." The professor sighed, looking deeply saddened. "One point from Ravenclaw and Slytherin."
Judging by how many points Professor Vector took from their houses, Hermone concluded that Professor Vector must also be an advocate of the students.
"Now, you two, please go in and sit down. Everyone else, five points to each of your houses for being spectators."
Professor Vector was also very nice, just in case if you didn't know that already.
Grinning, Mandy sauntered into the classroom, but not before whispering, "She said my name and house first, Zabini." Blaise immediately whispered back, "Who cares?" and kicked her foot.
At potions, Hermione barely stifled a giggle when she saw Blaise surreptitiously conjure a 'kick me' sign on Mandy's back. Harry and Ron, however, snickered loudly when Mandy gestured to a special area and Blaise immediately turned white.
"Settle down, children, settle down," Slughorn said, rapping his knuckles loudly on his desk.
"Hey, Ron, don't you think it's weird that Slughorn has lasted more than a year?" Harry whispered to Ron, before sitting down into his seat.
"You just noticed that?" Hermione asked incredulously. Good god, they must really be thick!
Harry opened his mouth to say something back, but when he saw Slughorn coming towards him, he instead made a rather rude hand gesture at Hermione quickly.
He's been hanging around Ron for too long, Hermione thought sadly. Well, actually, I'm surprised Harry's lasted this long, what with them being together for seven years.
"Today we are brewing half of Felix Felicis. This potion will probably take you about two months to brew, so you'll be spending a lot of time working on this over the next weeks."
Ernie Macmillan raised his hand. "Professor?" Slughorn nodded in his direction. "Sir, why are we brewing these complicated potions this year?"
Rather brave, Hermione noted. I suppose it's the absence of Professor Snape.
"It's seventh year, Macmillan! Times are changing, people must build a stronger defense,and you need to know about these complicated potions because in times like these –" he lowered his voice dramatically, " –you will need them."
The class shivered in unison, then laughed nervously. There was something sinister about the choice of words that Slughorn had used, Hermione thought. It was as if he expected the whole class to fight against Voldemort, using potions.
"So, Felix Felicis!" Slughorn's voice had returned to it's regular booming sound.
Hermione stood up to get the ingredients, but Malfoy pushed her down.
"I'll get the ingredients this time, Granger," he sneered. "Don't want Slughorn thinking you're doing all the hard work."
Hermione said nothing, but thought, Well, at least I'm getting a little closer to him. Physical contact.
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Half an hour before dinner, Hermione headed off to the library to get a new book for Arithmancy. To her dismay, Daphne Greengrass was reading a book in the same aisle Hermione's book was in.
Daphne looked up. "Oh, it's you, Mudblood," and put down her book.
Hermione was reaching for her book when someone tapped her on the shoulder.
"Stay away from Draco, Mudblood," Daphne hissed menacingly. "He's mine, Granger, and he'll never be yours."
"What makes you think I want to steal him away from you?" Hermione asked, heart thumping loudly.
"Oh, come off the innocent act, Granger. I've seen the way you look at him." Her eyes narrowed. "You just want to steal Draco away from me because you were the girl that he danced with at the Yule Ball, weren't you, Cinderella? Well, too bad. He's mine, and mine only. Not yours. You can do all you want to get him to notice you and realize that you were the girl at the ball, but that isn't going to work because he still believes I'm his Cinderella girl." She smirked widely. "And there's nothing you can do to change that because Draco's in love with Cinderella, and Cinderella is, for the moment, me." Daphne smirked again and turned on her heel.
"I won't be seeing you later, Mudblood."
Hermione was so angry, her blood was boiling, a lump had rose into her throat,and she felt like she couldn't breathe. Suddenly, a heavy bookshelf fell on an unsuspecting Daphne Greengrass, who just happened to be under that particular bookshelf.
Hermione rubbed her eyes. Could it be? Did she just lose control of her magic and cause a bookshelf to fall on Daphne Greengrass? Was Daphne dead?
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!" Madam Pince screeched, striding over. Hermione gasped and quickly ran past booksleves, twisting and turning, zigzagging, until she was safely out of the library.
Surely a bookshelf can't kill you. Right?
To be safe, Hermione ran down the steps to the Great Hall for some dinner. If there's one thing she had learned from her Muggle childhood, it was that
1) The guilty party was always the first one to deny anything.
2) The guilty party is always at the scene of the crime.
3)The guilty party is always the one to inquire about the incident.
Besides, Hermione didn't have enough Galleons to pay for the accidental death insurance Daphne's family would probably have.
But as Hermione greeted her friends at the Gryffindor table, she was unaware that a pair of eyes had followed her from the library and had now sat down at the Slytherin table.
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A/N-Sorry guys, I was really busy this weekand and didn't have enough time to work on it and submit it. I had a load of tests to study for and two major projects due.
Anyways, here are some replies to reviews.
Bloody Priestess – Wow, thanks! I LURVVVVVE long reviews like yours! I'm grateful for the Blaise and Mandy talk, makes my life easier when there's a distraction that's fun and easy to write about. LOL-ing in public? I do it all the time! 'Course, people stay away from me, but that's okay. I'm simply letting out my emotions.
Dragoneyes5000 – Thanks, I loved the Blaise/Mandy duel too. There's more coming up, including THE BIG DUEL in about two or three more chapters. Involves, forks, knives, food, a flock of ravens, a bunch of hissing snakes, and a ton of madness.
dramioneshipper – Heck yeah, I want a kiss showdown! But before I wow you with my amazing verbal kiss skills, I want to say that I had a lot of fun writing the duel scene and the pigs flying out of the window scene was completely a quirky idea I came up with in science during someone's Powerpoint Presentation. I mean, that stuff that seems so natural to happen at Hogwarts why not use it? CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM KISS WITH CHOCOLATE CHIPS, FROSTING, SPRINKLES, AND A LITTLE CHOCOLATE HOUSE ON TOP! (I know, believe the craziness……)
anonymous(AKA Joy) – The shrinking spell so does make sense! If it didn't why didn't any of my other reviewers ask about that? And besides, it's part of the "humor" past of the story, but I think I already told you that already.
Additional thanks to Bloody Priestess (Ch 1 and 2) and White-Pink-Fluffy-Strawberriez.
Edit 3/18/07 - Changed the 'fight' between Mandy and Blaise a little bit and fixed that wand problem I said I would fix, but didn't until now.
9/7/07 - I've just finished the last edit for this chapter. I goofed with Mandy's full name, so that's fixed now. :D
You guys rock!
-Lily in a Pond
PLEASE REVIEW!