Black Glass II - Lightning
- guess. Just guess.
A/N : My second installment. Please review! A good review just makes me so happy : ). Oh well, the plot comes in. Polyjuice Potion is not too good if taken internally... ::smirk:: No flames please.
Disclaimer: I love those guys. I wish they were mine. I'm whacko. Peace out.
Draco and Hermione looked at each other. Surely they wouldn't have to drink that stuff? Draco had a hard time keeping his face straight; his customary smirk was threatening to make an appearance. He didn't really know why he cared about not smirking right now. Surely he didn't care about the opinion of a Mudblood? He stared at Hermione, who was blushing a furious red, and wondered why. Across the room, 'Potty and the Weasel' were doing the same. He had to bite his tongue to keep from muttering a very rude remark.
'I have gone to great lengths to get the ingredients for you,' Snape told them. 'You can look it up in your notes. It turns you into a carbon copy of the person whom the potion is specific to. It is painful, I'll grant you that.' There were murmurs of alarm amongst the student body, and Snape frowned. 'I'm not going to make you drink it, for heaven's sakes, come on, just mix it. It takes a long time to make, which is why you need a partner. I have prepared everything for you - even stewing lacewings. All you have to do is mix the potion. Now I want no more accidents, Longbottom.' He began to instruct them on how to mix the potion, and Draco noticed that Hermione was going twice as fast as normal. He asked her why, snidely, of course, and she shook her head and muttered something on his not being too smart.
That, of course, provoked Draco, who said snidely, 'Characteristic of Mudbloods - always knowing everything.'
There was another sharp crack, and Draco rubbed his cheek once again as Hermione lowered her hand, glaring. 'Don't you call me a Mudblood, you - you,' she hissed, 'you - son of a rat! At least my family loves me.'
It was Draco's turn to feel like slapping her, but boys didn't slap girls, at least not where he was brought up, and he shot her a look fit to kill. 'Oh, you would know a lot about my family, wouldn't you?' he hissed in return. 'Especially since yours happens to be absolutely perfect? In a family whose motto is probably 'Blood is a whole lot thicker than water?' That had been very nasty, and he half regretted it, but there was no turning back. Hermione's eyes burned with a cold fire. Her face was flushed slightly, and her hair was peeking out under the hat she wore. Her mouth tightened ever so slightly. Draco thought to himself with an impious grin that he liked it when she was angry.
They did not speak to each other for the rest of the Potions class. Draco's slender fingers sorted out the ingredients and shoved them at Hermione, who collected them, glowering. Neville upset his half-full cauldron, and they jumped back just in time for Snape to clear it up, grumbling.
Finally the cauldrons were bubbling and the potion was ready; Snape inspected them carefully, and helped the students put some of the potion into vials. 'Add a hair of your head to the potion,' he instructed them. 'Then it will be ready. Be very careful... do NOT spill anything...' He glared at Neville.
Draco pulled out a strand of silver-blond hair and dropped it in; the potion turned ice-blue. Hermione's turned a darker shade of blue, and they stared at their vials in horror. Hermione had turned rather green; Draco stared at her in surprise. They both put down their vials in the middle of the table, Draco trying to suppress an insult. It came despite his efforts.
'I never knew Mudbloods were squeamish as well as thick-heads,' he said.
That did it. Hermione reached over to slap him, but suddenly a bolt of green light shot from Draco's hand and hit her on the temple. She collapsed on the floor in a limp pile of robes.
After that there was utter confusion. Snape transported her to the infirmary on a stretcher, and the other students clustered around Draco, some accusing, some cheering and a few just plain puzzled. Draco stared at his hand in disbelief. There was a lightning-shaped burn mark on the palm, and it hurt. He certainly hadn't meant to do that. Hadn't even tried to do that.
'What have you done to her, you - you -' Ron Weasley was sputtering. Harry was trying to hold him back, as he was trying as hard as he could to break free and hit Draco in the face. 'How dare you?'
In a while Snape returned with the headmaster and Professor McGonagall, who looked thoroughly harassed. They took Draco away to an empty classroom, and the others were told to get on with their studies. Draco stared at his hand, horrified and shocked. Who - what - had done this to her?
'Did you do this on purpose, Draco?'
'No, sir, I - I didn't,' Draco stuttered. 'I - it just came out, sir.' He showed Dumbledore the burn mark on his palm, and the headmaster peered at it down his long, crooked nose.
'Dark magic,' he said, his voice heavy with strain. 'There was word of this...'
'Was my father involved?' Draco asked, and then bit his tongue; it had slipped out. He felt very weak, very drained somehow.
Dumbledore shrugged expressively. 'I believe - for now, Mr. Malfoy - that you had no part in this, and I believe, as well, that your father - and the Dark Lord - are very much involved, in this and the plot that is rising for the Dark to take over the land.'
Draco gasped, fingering the burn mark on his palm. 'Is Hermione all right?' he asked, his tone softening. He wanted to apologise, and see how she was. He had been rather nasty to her in Potions.
'You may see her, if you wish to,' Dumbledore said. 'There is a lot of explaining to do. She is still unconscious, but Madam Pomfrey says that she may awaken any moment. The spell you used on her was not very powerful. Perhaps... it would be better if you explained it to her.' He took the shivering boy down to the infirmary.
'Hermione?'
Draco's breath was ragged as he looked down at the limp figure on the bed. She looked as though she was asleep, and there was a burn mark identical to Draco's on her left temple. Dumbledore left them quietly, but Madam Pomfrey sat in a far corner of the infirmary, mending something. Draco felt strange. She looked so helpless... and he had done this to her. Draco stared once again at his palm, and at the burn mark that spread across it. It hurt like the dickens.
'Hermione?'
There was the faintest flutter of her long brown lashes. He put out a hand tentatively and brushed away a few loose strands of hair that had fallen over her pale, white face. Her features stood out sharply against the paleness of her skin and her hair spread over the pillow. Draco traced the burn mark with his fingers very gently. It was smooth and cold, unlike ordinary burns. His felt the same, but he didn't want to touch it because it hurt.
'Hermione... wake up.'
Her eyelids fluttered, then pulled open. Her brown eyes widened at the sight of Draco, standing over her with a strange expression on his face. 'What - what...' she struggled to remember why her temple hurt. 'What happened?'
Draco lifted his hand to show her the lightning mark.
'Oh...' She sat up like a bolt, then winced. 'You did this to me! What were you trying to do, kill me?' She stared at him accusingly, and his eyes narrowed slightly as he drew back his hand to look at the mark.
'I wasn't trying to kill you,' he snapped. 'Merely maim you for a month or two.'
She shot him an if-looks-could-kill glare.
'All right, all right.' He sighed. 'Hermione, I really didn't mean for this to happen. I'm sorry'
'Yeah. So you expect me to believe that a bolt of deadly light shot from your hand - by accident?'
Draco fixed her with a look. 'As a matter of fact, that is exactly what happened,' he said frostily. 'I can promise you, Hermione... I - I never meant to hurt you. It just... happened. Dumbledore believes me ... and he says that he thinks the Dark Lord and my father are involved in this as well. I'm sorry you got hurt, but I want you to believe me - I didn't have a hand in this.'
'Ha, ha, ha,' Hermione cracked sarcastically, rubbing her temple tenderly. 'As if the Dark Lord would be involved in a matter including a ... Mudblood.' She winced. 'Ouch.'
On an impulse, Draco bent over her and ran his fingers over the mark. 'Does it really hurt? Do you want me to get Madam Pomfrey?' Hermione shivered slightly. 'No,' she said, but not as frostily as she had intended it to be. Draco looked very strange bending over her with an unrecognisable expression on his face and in his wide eyes fringed with pale lashes. What was it? Then it hit her - he actually looked concerned. His hair was somewhat disheveled. Hermione had a strange impulse to reach up and smooth it down, which she did rather tentatively. He flushed for a moment, then regained composure, drawing away from her slightly.
'Will you be all right?' he asked matter-of-factly, although the look on his face was still strange. 'Dumbledore says the spell that I - that hurt you - was very weak.'
'I feel fine,' said Hermione softly. 'Just very... weak.'
'Yeah, me too,' Draco said with a slight shudder. His eyes were almost completely silver in the light. 'Well, I'd better be going... take care.' He sighed, turning to go. His hair was still slightly awry, fringing his collar. He moved to the door, turned and smiled at her. Hermione shivered, wondering if this slender, pale boy was actually mixed up with Voldemort. She hoped not... he had looked almost human just now. Almost. There was something about Draco that seemed supernatural, from his ever-so-slightly pointed ears, silver eyes and defiant air. She shivered again, remembering the burst of green light that had hit her before the darkness.
Hermione watched him go out of the infirmary, and put her hand up to her face to feel the scar that he had left. Out of the darkness she thought she heard a murmur, 'Next time, Mudblood, next time.'
It was only imagination, she told herself, and lay down to sleep.
A/N: Hope you liked that... ::digs in Sherry's plot bag:: Sherry, you are so messy! Oh well, please take the time to review... I rewrote this three times, can you believe it? At first I wanted to change Draco into Hermione and add a crystal ball, but that sucked so badly I took it out. Sherry is enamoured with Draco. ::snickers:: The next part will come soon. Please, I beg of you, don't get tired of me.