Twenty minutes later, Draco came to a halt in front of the empty wall in front of the RoR. The door appeared for him without any trouble, and he made his way inside to see his Mya there, waiting for him on the couch. She was laying on the couch, but when he came inside, she sat up and spun to face the correct way. He came over and kissed her temple, something he hadn't done in a while.
"You changed your shampoo."
"Yeah, the other one was giving me problems. This one even tames my hair down a little, with the Sleakeezy's in it."
"Hm. I like it."
"I knew you would. Lemon Lavender, you know."
Draco chucked. He used Sleakeezy's too, but the scent he used was Apple Cider. Not that anyone needed to know that he spent half an hour in front of the mirror getting his hair ready each morning. It was better than he did in first and second year, with over an hour spent on his hair. Why was he even thinking about this?
"Well, I do. And your hair is beautiful no matter what you do, Mya. What do you think of the champions being chosen on Halloween, my love?"
"Ugh. Don't remind me. Somehow, Harry is going to get himself wrapped up in a boatload of trouble, and I will have to be there to help him." She shook her head.
"Well, do what you can, but try to stay out of it yourself. Think we should try some wandless stuff, or do you want to move onto wordless? Or we can try wandless and wordless."
"Let's go wordless."
They flicked their wrists, releasing their wands from the holsters, and decided on Lumos to start. When that turned out to be relatively easy, they went straight to shielding and harmless jinxes. It was a bit more difficult, but they were usually able to get the shields up in time.
.
The room was quiet as they sat on the couch afterwards, spent. Who knew wordless magic was so tiring? They sat there, Draco gently rubbing the back of Mya's hand with his thumb, her with her head buried in his shoulder. It was nearing eleven o'clock, curfew had been in effect for about an hour now. But they had a shortcut straight to their dorms. Fortunately, it was one way. No one could get in the RoR if Draco and Hermione didn't want them in there.
"Mya," Draco whispered. "Mya. It's time to leave. You need to get back."
She whined in protest, and shook her head. She was nearly asleep. In fact, Draco wondered if he had woken her up.
Gently lifting her head off of him, he stood up and placed her on the couch. She reached out for him, and he grabbed her hand to help her off the couch. Pulling her to a sitting position, she whined again, then opened her eyes.
"I don' wanna." But he pulled her up so she was standing, then gave in and hugged her. Holding her out at arms length, he told her that he would see her tomorrow, and pushed her off in the direction of her dorm passageway. She staggered off, practically bumping into the wall, but making it through safely.
Shaking his head at her, Draco turned to his doorway and passed through. Quickly getting ready for bed, he closed his curtains and fell asleep quickly.
.
Draco was about to resort to banging his head on the table. Potter had been chosen as the fourth champion. What was this world coming to? He was about ready to leave, leave Potter to his fame, leave the wizarding world, perhaps even leave Britain.
It was always Halloween.
Every time. This was going to be a long year.
As soon as the teachers left the hall, all of the students broke out in whispers and murmurs. Well, all of them except the two or three Beauxbatons students that had broken down crying when they weren't selected. The Hufflepuffs seemed scandalized that there was another Hogwarts champion, the Gryffindors were just as surprised as the teachers. The Ravenclaws were trying to rationalize what had happened, but There was one girl, a third year he thought, who was still looking ahead dreamily. The Slytherins were angry, that Hogwarts had gotten two champions and neither of them were one of their own. The Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students looked like they were considering demanding another champion to be submitted for each school. With a tap of her spoon on her glass, McGonagall silenced the students and sent them all off to their beds, whether they be in a carriage, on a boat, or within the school.
Draco decided that he was going to leave Hermione be for that night, and gave her the corresponding signal for it. Then he left the hall and went down to the dungeons to sulk with the rest of his house.
"Oh, Drakie, isn't it a tragedy! Potter got into the tournament and we didn't."
"Pansy, not now." Not ever, if I were to have my way.
"But Drakie!"
Draco stood up and walked into his dorm room. There was no way he was putting up with Pansy tonight. Crabbe and Goyle were waiting for him there, and as soon as they saw he was in the dorm, the two of them left for the attached bathroom, most likely to get ready for bed.
Sure enough, ten minutes later, both of them came out of the bathroom with damp hair and pajamas on. Draco looked up from the book he was reading on sixth year charms, then stood up and went into the bathroom himself. After a quick shower, he lay back down in his bed and read for close to an hour. Perhaps he and Hermione had practically finished the Hogwarts curriculum, and perhaps they were looking into getting auror - grade textbooks, but they still went over things often. Draco was looking forward to their next rendezvous, when Hermione had agreed to duel. He was going to try not to pull his punches - er, spells.
After he finished the chapter he was on, he closed both the book and the curtains, turning onto his side and falling asleep thinking about what this year would entail.
.
The shuffling and grunting of his dormmates woke him up the next morning. He opened up the curtains and tried to put his slippers on. Keyword being tried. Both feet missed and hit the freezing stone. Pulling his feet up with a hiss, he looked down to try again. Luckily, this time he got it.
Not knowing what the rush to get up was, it was Sunday, Draco rubbed one of his eyes with the heel of his hand. Standing up and shuffling over to the common room, he saw a team of Slytherins working at a table, working on some sort of badge.
The Slytherin common room was quite relaxed, despite what some might say. Most of the people in there were in pajamas for the majority of the day. This was the place where you made lifelong alliances and temporary truces. There were multiple couples cuddled together on the couches scattered around the room. Draco had his father replace them during his second year. Now, with the money put into them, they could shrink and grow to fit the amount of people wanting to sit on them. It was very nice.
Draco exited the common room to head down to the Great Hall for food. He was hungry, sue him.
Entering the hall, he noticed that Harry and Hermione weren't in the hall, but Weasley was there, and looking darkly at his breakfast as though it had done something wrong.
He supposed Harry wouldn't be seen today. After all, everyone has their off days. (Today [March 10, 2021] is one of mine)
.
Monday, Draco knew Potter wouldn't be able to escape the crowds, and Draco knew he would have to aggravate the poor teenager. Yay!
"Ah, look, make way for the Champion! Crabbe, Goyle, you'll want to get your autographs now, before the first task does him in! The Slytherin House has placed bets you see, and they say you won't last ten minutes. I disagree. I think you won't last five." Thankfully, Hagrid had walked out at this point, and the class was started.
Honestly, how was one supposed to fit a rope around a creature that bit, stung, and exploded whenever they were annoyed, aggravated, or even touched. Hagrid pulled Harry aside, talking lowly to him about the tournament. Obviously, Harry didn't want to be a part of it, and Draco was willing to agree. Hopefully, Potter would make it past the first task.
The rest of the class and following week passed in a blur. Harry was continuing to be shunned by every one of his classmates. Draco had spent a couple of days in the RoR with Hermione working on a couple of badges for the tournament. He really didn't want to make them, but, of course, it was expected of him. It was all a part. Stupid Wizarding World.
.
"Like them, Potter? And look, that's not all they do, either." Pressing into the middle of the badge, Draco changed the message from Support Cedric Diggory, the real Hogwarts Champion to Potter Stinks.
"Oh, very funny. Real witty," Hermione dryly stated to Pansy and the other girls.
"You want one Granger? But don't touch my hand, I just washed it. Don't want your blood sliming it up now."
Potter's wand whipped out and pointed and Draco's face. Everyone in the hall backed up a little. "Go on, then, Potter. Moody's not here to save you now, is he?"
"Furnunculus!"
"Densaugeo!"
The two jets of light, one pink and one a neon yellow, ricocheted off of each other and hit Goyle and Hermione."
"Hermione!" Draco shouted. But it seemed Ron also shouted it too, so he seemed safe. For now. (That was too close)
Hermione's teeth, which she was already self-conscious about, had grown to beaver size, and were continuing to get longer.
At that point, His godfather's voice permeated the room. "And just what is going on here?"
"Potter attacked me, sir-"
"We attacked at the same time!"
"-and look, he's hit Goyle!" Professor Snape stepped closer, looking carefully at the fungi looking stuff covering Goyle's face.
"Hospital Wing, Mr. Goyle." Crabbe led him away.
"But he got Hermione too, sir! Look!"
Turning to Draco's girlfriend, Ron pulled her hands away from her teeth, which was honestly difficult looking to do, only for Professor Snape to tell her that he saw no difference. Pansy and the others were practically passing out with the strain of holding in their giggles.
Hermione whimpered, turned, and ran back up the steps, heading for the hospital wing, most probably.
Harry and Weasley were both shouting at the professor, and Draco felt like joining in. Yes, they had parts to play, but did he have to be so rude?
"-inside, or it'll be a week's worth of detentions."
Potter was lucky. He got to escape the classroom an hour early. Of course, it was for some tournament propaganda, but at least he wouldn't die because of a poison he couldn't fix.
Luckily unlucky.