Once Upon a Hogwarts-Chapter Seven
By Lily in a Pond
Disclaimer: For she owns Harry Potter, for she owns Harry Potter, for she owns Harry Potterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, which nobody can deny! Which nobody can deny! Which nobody can deny! The 'she' is but of course, J.K. Rowling herself.
A/N - KyootNShort - you are my 50th reviewer, so in your honor, I will send you an email telling how this fic is going to end. But please don't tell anyone else about Once Upon a Hogwarts' ending. BTW, the 100th reviewer will get something else, and so on for every 50th reviewer.
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Mandy Brocklehurst hummed a cheerful tune as she strolled lazily by the Charms corridors, looking out for any sign of Hermione Granger. She had been assigned to patrol the Charms corridor by Theo in hopes of lameting romantic Shakespearean sonnets. "You there!" Mandy barked at a wimpy-looking first year, who was trying to pass something to his friend, who looked equally wimpy. "What's that in your hand?"
The first year whimpered as Mandy came closer and closer, his friend long gone in a cloud of dust.
"Well?" Mandy said suddenly, making the first year jump. "Tell me or I'll hex you, and believe me, being a Ravenclaw seventh year prefect, I know some really nasty ones," she hissed, her eyes glittering with malice. The first year practically threw whatever was in his hand to Mandy and then ran away. "And ten points off Ravenclaw for –" Mandy stopped short in her sentence. "Er, I mean, fifteen points to Ravenclaw for er……crafty plotting and um, honesty?" She shrugged and then examined what the first year had been caught with.
Mandy smiled as she looked at the Bada-Bing Bada-Bang Bombastic Bomb she was clutching in her hand. Mandy had levitated quite a number of them in her fifth year to Blaise Zabini's dormitory window. Of course, the old feelings of animosity were all gone now. Something better had replaced them.
"Oh hello, Mandy! Fancy seeing you here!" someone called.
"Hi, Hermione," Mandy replied absentmindedly, lost in her memories. "Wait…………Hermione!"
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While the Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Gryffindors were off gallivanting trying to find Draco or Hermione, the Slytherins were in their common room, discussing a very important topic: why they all hated Daphne Greengrass.
Well, Blaise was ranting and the others were listening.
"I hate Daphne Greengrass so much! She let a Bludger break my arm when I was trying out for Chaser in fifth year," Blaise had started the conversation by saying this very loudly and forcefully when he, Pansy Parkinson, Morag MacDougal, and Theodore Nott had walked into the Slytherin Common Room. "That was why I didn't make the team!"
"Actually, you didn't make the team because you didn't get any of the six balls through the hoops," Theo smirked.
Blaise rolled his eyes. "...Because of my injured arm!"
"Wait, aren't you on the team now?" Pansy asked.
"That's because Malfoy's the captain now...in fifth year, it was still Flint," Blaise said very slowly, as if the fact was obvious.
"Great example of how Slytherins always practice the fine art of favoritism," commented Morag MacDougal. "But along a less violent opinion, I personally hate Greengrass because she laughed at my new haircut and glasses last year. I mean, yes, being English and having a Japanese spiked hairstyle is rather odd, and having fruity little blue-framed glasses is rather embarassing, but she I knew that...yet she still made fun of me and called a fob, whatever that is..."
"I remember that day," reminisced Theo. "Why does 'fob' mean, anyway? My business associate - " the others stared at him " - in America told me it meant something that was 'retarded' or 'weird' and that a person is a 'noob' if they're fobby. But since I don't understand what retarded and noob mean, so I suppose it's just weird."
Morag rolled his eyes. "Well, whatever it means, it was rude of her to make fun of farsighted people with Japanese haircuts."
"She had good reason," Blaise said with a snort. "You looked like you had come off worse in a fight with a hair blowdryer!"
Morag glared.
"Daphne Greengrass is the evilest girl I have ever met!" Pansy exclaimed. "She knew that I used to like Draco and she kept flaunting their relationship in my face all during fourth year!"
"Well, you have a boyfriend now," Blaise said.
"Look who's talking, Mr. I-hold-a-Quidditch-grudge-that-happened-way-in-the-past!" sneered Pansy.
Blaise pointed all ten fingers at Pansy.
"What...the heck...is that?" Pansy asked, eyebrows raised.
"I'm giving you the middle finger times ten," Blaise explained.
Pansy's eyebrows rose even higher. "Okay then…" She pointed ten fingers at Blaise.
"Hey, don't you dare copy me!" Blaise exclaimed, using his pointed fingers to attack Pansy's.
This soon turned into a full-on finger fight, which was interesting at first, but turned a bit annoying.
"…Anyways……" Theo trailed off.
"And now we leave them to their finger fight," whispered Morag. "C'mon, let's go."
Theo nodded and they tiptoed out of the room.
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Ginny Weasley lurked behind a bookshelf, spying on Draco Malfoy. She had cleverly created a small hole in one of the books, silently. Of course, she would have to repair the book later, or else Madam Pince would go mad and smother everyone at Hogwarts with pillows at night.
"Ginny! What are you doing here?" came the slightly distant voice of Luna Lovegood. Ginny groaned. Why did Luna have to show up at such an inappropriate moment?
"Hullo, Luna. Lovely timing you have."
"Oh, were you spying on – " Luna's voice lowered about three pitches " – you-know-who?"
"Yes!" Ginny said, annoyed. "Now, shush!"
"Hey. Weaslette, you know that I have ears, right?" Malfoy said, as he came up behind Ginny, smirking.
"Oh, dear god Malfoy, I just thought those were extra pieces of particularly demented skin," replied Ginny without turning around. "I suppose not then."
Malfoy sneered.
"Would you like to try a carrot straight from the roots?" asked Luna, taking a carrot out from her bag.
Malfoy looked very puzzled by this. "Er….no...?"
"I thought so," said Luna, taking a very loud, crunchy bite out of the carrot. "Did you know that some carrots can tell who your true love is?" Malfoy's eyebrows shot up. "Yes, if one person eats a particular kind of carrot and tastes something unique to each of them, he or she should try to make many people eat it, because the only person that'll taste the same thing is your true love."
Ginny stared. Was Luna making it all up or was this really true?
"So, do you think you could get me one of those carrots?" Malfoy was saying, looking more interested now. "I mean, not that I don't already have a true love, but I just want to…er….check."
Luna was digging in her bag now. "Turns out I do have one right now, Malfoy. Must be your lucky day."
"What can I say? My parents bought a lucky star for me to be born under," bragged Malfoy, back into the cocky and arrogant git Ginny knew him to be now that he had what he wanted. "I was born rolling in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!"
"Well, at the time I was born, a shooting star swept past my mother's window in St. Mungo's," Luna added in thoughtfully, probably remembering some random fact about nebulas or comets or whatever.
"Alrighty, let's go Luna, before this git practically kills you for beating him at luck," Ginny said, grabbing her by the elbow and practically dragging Luna out of the library.
Back in the library, Draco Malfoy was feeling particularly pissed. "Loony Lovegood is luckier than me," he was repeating over and over again. "Not fair! My parents have more money!"
And then he left the library, with a rather girly fluff and huff and flipping of hair (yes, he was back to the hair he had in his third year).
Draco walked down to the Slytherin Common Room and went inside. The girls were everywhere. How was he supposed to do this individually?
"Sonorus!" He pointed to his throat. "Will every girl here please form a line in front of me and take a small bite out of this carrot?" he boomed, his voice magnified times ten. He saw Pansy and Blaise over by the fireplace, having some sort of finger fight, and nodded to them.
"Quietus," Draco whispered and plastered a smile on.
"Alright, what do you taste?" Draco asked the first girl, after she had chomped down on quite a large bit of the carrot.
"Carrot. What do you think it should taste like?"
And so it went.
"Peach."
"Onions."
"My perfume."
"Grass."
"Mashed potatoes."
"Roses."
"Sugared parsley." Draco looked at Pansy strangely. "What?" she protested. "If someone could taste onions, then I could definitely taste the smell of deliciously sugared parsley," she finished in a hushed whisper, dramatically swooning. Draco shook his head and muttered something that sounded quite a lot like, "Mental."
"Beans."
"Lemon."
"Papaya."
"Orange rind."
"Gunpowder..." one fifth year said dreamily, eyes glazed over.
Twenty minutes later, Draco emerged from the crowd with no information, but a newfound respect for the Ravenclaws; they had to cope with weirdos like Loony Lovegood every single day.
Draco sighed and crossed off "Slytherins" from his list. He had been really hoping his true love was a Slytherin. After all, his Cinderella girl was supposed to be a Slytherin……right? Then he remembered Daphne. She was still in the Hospital Wing. I'll visit her tomorrow and let her eat the carrot then, Draco thought.
"I guess doing the carrot thing would be a bit useless at this point since she's still there," Draco mused out loud. But, heading back towards the library, Draco suddenly stopped midstep.
But what about that nagging little feeling in his head that something was wrong? Perhaps he should follow his conscience and head to Gryffindor Tower.
Draco nodded. "Yes...maybe my conscience is right about this," he said out loud. A few third-year Ravenclaws looked frightened and scattered. Draco sighed. "I have got to stop talking to myself...soon, all of Hogwarts will think I'm some sort of loony baboon!"
Chuckling at the mental image formed in his head, he ambled cheerily to the direction of Gryffindor Tower. But as he reached the Fat Lady's portrait, his eyes saw and his mind blanked.
Gryffindor Tower? Draco thought. Why did I go here?
The portrait hole opened and out came Hermione Granger, laden down with books and quills. "Malfoy?" she asked, looking confused. "What are you doing here of all places?"
Draco stared at her. "I...I...don't know. Why am I here?" Shaking his head vigorously, he cleared his throat. "Anyways, I'll be going now. Er...have a good day, Granger." He gave Hermione a strange half-grimace, half-smile and waved goodbye. Hermione was left standing there with an almost dreamy expression on her face.
"Hey!" she called out. "I'll - uh, I'll see you around," she said shyly. He turned around at the sound of her voice and made that strange face again.
"Yeah...I'll see you around, then."
Bouncing to the library, Hermione resisted the persistent urge to jump off a staircase.
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Harry Potter was strolling casually down the Charms corridor when he saw Lisa Turpin and Terry Boot explaining to Malfoy the story of Romeo and Juliet. Amused, he realized that this would probably be the most fun, trying to get Malfoy and Hermione together, he would have this year. Voldemort still was out there somewhere, and it would be up to Harry to hunt him down since Voldemort didn't seem to be showing signs of dropping dead one random day.
Harry rubbed his scar. Even though Voldemort couldn't see inside his mind anymore, and vice versa for him, his scar still occasionally prickled.
He's still out there, Harry thought grimly. Waiting for me to find him. And if I don't, he'll find me.
Ginny had suggested to Harry that he go to the Hospital Wing and get Madam Pomfrey to numb it or something, to stop the jabs and prickles of pain that were steadily getting worse. That seemed like a good idea to Harry. After all, Harry would surely lose fighting Voldemort with one hand clutching his scar in pain.
And in front of him was, surprise of surprises, Daphne Greengrass, who had been missing for the past few days, looking perfectly fine, but ready to murder someone.
Harry pressed himself against the wall, sighing thankfully when Daphne passed him without a glance in his direction, muttering something about bookshelves and filthy Mudbloods.
Just then, a burst of pain filled his head. Harry almost screamed and dropped to his knees, clutching his scar, rocking back and forth.
"Harry! Are you alright?"
Harry looked up and saw Luna Lovegood for the first time looking alert, all signs of dreaminess gone.
"I'm fine Luna, don't worry about me. It's nothing," replied Harry, getting up from the floor and brushing off his robes.
Suddenly, Luna's face was very close to his. Harry immediately drew back. Luna continued to look in his eyes and Harry noticed that her eyes were beginning to roll back into her head.
Then, in a voice very unlike her normal voice, she whispered, "Beware of who you trust……….someone is waiting to strike……………..waiting to strike on the night when magic is the strongest………..evil will rise again on the night………..keep your guard up, and never trust the people around you……..your enemies are feeding on your weaknesses. Whatever you do –" Luna's voice was cut off as she slumped to the floor, looking like a rag doll.
As Harry sprinted into the Hospital Wing with Luna in his arms, his mind was spinning with the possibilities of what Luna had said.
"Someone is waiting to strike………waiting to strike on the night when magic is the strongest………"
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A/N-Oooooooo, scary! That should leave something else for you guys to figure out. Sorry I took so long to update. I had a lot of tests last week. And I am very sorry about Draco and Hermione going to the Hospital Wing, it seemed a bit in my conspiracy plan for that. That will probably come in the next chapter or the chapter after next.
And here are the answers to the burning questions my reviewers have asked…
dramioneshipper – I don't really get that, but anyways! No more readers getting a little disturbed by the very vivid Author's Note. I like the conspiracy too. I have a funny feeling the conspiracy might take some extra chapters to write out. And Draco and Hermione will get together………someday in a country far, far, away. Just kidding. Somewhere in this story, that's all I can tell you. Alright, you want to figure out the clues? Just think of how everything traces back to Hermione. Like, the first clue, 'she's a friend in a complex way', think of who Draco is friends with. Then think of who Draco's friend's friend is. And so on. Told you the first clue is complicated!
Natural-181 – Due to your very persuasive methods, Daphne Greengrass is officially back in the story! I do like the conspiracy, don't you? What an awesome idea for me, myself, and I to come up with in about five minutes.
White-Pink-Fluffy-Strawberriez – Hehe, I should go apologize to the millions of people I stole that line from….
Elizabeth Winters – Let's just say that Harry is in because Ginny is in and Ron is in because Lavender's in too…..that seems like the most plausible solution to me. But feel free to assume any situation that would make sense in this story, I'm not going to go into a lot of detail for this……..too busy congratulating myself on making another cliffie….hehe.
KyootNShort – Yes, it is a bit scary. But the thing is that once one person from each house is roped in, everyone else does it too. Peer pressure. Join the crowd. And yes, Theodore Nott will definitely NOT end up with Daphne. For all her evil, she will die alone. DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Anticlownperson – Nott doesn't really want Malfoy and Hermione to get together, he just wants Daphne! If Draco is with Hermione, then Nott can have Daphne. Plus, he wants it to be done really fast, the faster Daphne and Draco break, the faster Nott can have Daphne. But in the end……..well, see above review. DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Imperial Goddess-123 – Oh, Mandy and Blaise definitely have something going on there. And yes, in a way, this story is rather like 'A Cinderella Story'.
Additional thanks to carly, Christina A. Malfoy, and dragoneyes5000!
EDIT 10/11/07 - Last edit for this chapter finished. Added in the "fob" part and scene in front of Gryffindor Tower, took some unnecessary parts out, and changed a few words here and there.
Tata folks! See ya next chapter!
-Lily in a Pond