A/N: Ok, here's the next chapter. I am sorry it's taken me so long to get it up, but ff.net has been down for me and I wasn't able to access it at all. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, sorry it's so short, I'm hoping the next one (still in the works) will be a longer one;) Anyway, please review, I could use some of those.
I write, you review...seems like a fair exchange.
Hopeful? What me?
Chapter 4: Passwords, Plots, and Plans
"NOBODY learned the password?" The young Slytherin second year said for the fourth time in as many minutes.
"Oh come OFF it! Someone's already gone to fetch a Prefect, there's not much more we can do but wait!"
"I HATE waiting."
Draco sighed. Sometimes his house infuriated him. They seemed to have this incessant need to spew out words and speeches that didn't make sense, or didn't need to be said. They spoke for the sake of hearing their own voices and loved themselves all the more for doing it so frequently.
"Coming through! Coming through!" A stern voice said. Draco looked up to see none other then Professor Snape plowing his way through the crowd of sleepy Slytherin's who had planted themselves directly in front of the entrance to their room.
Snape gave a scolding, cold, look around him, his eyes lightening and lingering on Draco. Then, to Draco's surprise, his lips twisted up into a smile. "MR. Malfoy, perhaps you'd be so kind as to tell me exactly what is going on here?"
"Yes, of course, Professor." Draco drawled lazily, this was what he was used to, being treated kindly by Snape, getting better treatment had been something he'd grown very accustomed to throughout his life, "Well, sir, it seems none of us remembered to ask what the password was this year! So none of us can get in. Of course, I would have done it myself, sir, if I hadn't been so distracted by Potter's harassment of me this year, again." Draco lied.
"I thought he stayed at his table all evening.... I didn't see him harrass you at a-" Draco shot the other Slytherin a dangerous look.
"It was harassment from a distance then! What do you know?! You had your face inside your soup bowl half the time, slurrping merrily away! No wonder you didn't see!" Draco spat to scattered snickering. The other Slytherin boy fell silent.
"You believe me, don't you Professor Snape?" Draco said, his voice changing notably from one of dangerous rage to that of a small child.
"Of course I do, Mr. Malfoy." Snape said, and in the way he spoke it was quite clear to all that the matter was now closed.
"I would insist that next year you all do try and pay more attention! The other houses would have a field day if they found out about this!" Snape snapped. He gave another meaningful look to the students of his house.
Though he was not the most well liked Professor in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, those of Slytherin house were for the most part, unwaveringly loyal to him. And in return he was very good to them in his classes, they were allowed to make small mistakes whereas those from houses such as Gryffindor would be severally punished for much smaller ones.
However unfair it may have seemed to some, it was the way Snape ran things. You could either adjust to it, or suffer even worse.
"Quassia." Snape said simply and left before anyone had the chance to question him..
It all remained silent for a few moments before someone spoke up. "Well someone try it! It must be this year's password!"
"What does it mean though. It sounds dumb." Pansy Parkinson, a fellow 5th year, girl said as though spitting something nasty out.
"It means a bitter substance extracted from-" Crabbe began.
"Oh who CARES? Lets just try it so we can all go to bed, already!" Pansy barked.
No one moved for a long moment, each waiting for someone else to try it. Finally Draco took it upon himself to put this whole messy business behind them.
He stood up and went over to the entrance, clearing his throat, he tried: "Quassia!" The entrance slid open, and with a smug smile, he was the first that year to step inside the common rooms.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Well, if I had been sorted into that dreadful house I would try to sit next to him too!" Pansy Parkinson was saying, the next morning at breakfast. "I mean, Potter is obviously the most powerful one in the whole lot.... I'd want to get as close to his power as I could, if I were them. Thank goodness I'm not though. Can you imagine? Me? A Gryffindor! Yech!"
"Heaven forbid you not get to sit at our table every morning, day in day out.." Draco mumbled as he prodded his food.
"What was that, Draco?" "He didn't say anything, Pansy." Orlando Crier said quickly, as he saw the obvious look on Draco's face. The look Draco got every time he was just about to say something particularly bad.
"No...nothing." Draco played along with Orlando's save, having one of his patented second thoughts of much better judgement.
Pansy wasn't a good one to insult. She wouldn't do anything about it, but she whined constantly for the next week, wondering why she wasn't more popular, or why Draco was so mean when he obviously liked her. Which, he obviously, didn't.
It had only been a half-planned insult in any case, Draco's attention continued to be distracted to the staff table where he noted Lupin's presence and Snape's apparent absence.
He knew that the two weren't exactly fond of each other, but he failed to see why Dumbledore would pick feeding a werewolf over one of theown schools Professor's.
It didn't seem to occur to Draco, that perhaps, it had been Professor Snape's idea not to come to breakfast this particular morning.
And what a morning. The sun was streaming in through the windows, which lined one part of the walls, and the ceiling was a clear blue without any clouds. It mimicked perfectly what was outside in the late spring sky.
The owls hadn't arrived yet, but Draco didn't really notice. His family hadn't been sending sweets and goodies to him recently, as they had always done in years before. Every morning, in fact, he would get a new package, and open it straight away at the Slytherin table, exclaiming things such as: "Not these again, if I've told them once it's been a thousand times that I don't like anything that's not imported!" or "This looks oddly like Muggle chocolate, I bet you anything the house elves bought it just to displease me!"
But today, even if he was to receive anything in the mail, he didn't much feel like opening it here or gloating over it.
It's not that he still didn't like to show everyone else how rich or powerful or how much better his family was-but something about the bright Monday morning was troubling him.
It was so perfect, it was so normal, except for one thing that he couldn't get out of his mind, and couldn't stop glancing at.
The staff table.
It was not only Professor Snape's absence that bothered Draco, but also the way in which all the teachers seemed to be a little more tense then normal...and a little more compact. They sat closer then usually and spoke in softer voices. Occasionally now, they started glancing over to the Slytherin table as they spoke, and once, Draco thought he saw Dumbledore look directly at him.
What were they up to?
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Albus, don't you think we should save this for the meeting?" Professor McGonagall said, drawing Dumbledore's attention away from the Slytherin's and back to the matter at hand.
"Yes, yes. Quite right, Minerva." He looked up locking eyes momentarily with each Professor at the table, "It is of the utmost importance to all concerned that no one finds reason to not attend today's staff meeting. We need all of you there if we are to stop what is coming."
The faces of each Professor grew starker, and their forms each deflated slightly. This was not a meeting, which any of them were looking forward to.
Save, perhaps in some aspect, for Remus, who had been meaning all morning to ask Dumbledore if what he'd said last night-about Sirius attending-was really true. But the chance had not, as of yet, arisen.
The table quieted as Professor's returned to hardly touched breakfasts, and Remus, who was sitting directly next to Dumbledore on one side, thought perhaps now would be a good time to bring up the matter of Sirius.
He opened his mouth, and was interrupted by the blasting open of the windows directly over head, as hundreds of owls came swooping inside, dropping letters and packages into bowls of porridge and cups of juice.
Lupin sighed, shutting his mouth again and pushing slightly back from the table, to watch the owls as they delivered their goods.
The subject of his long lost friend, would have to once again, be put off for the time.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Draco chewed the rather toffee like porridge, it seemed to have something a bit wrong with it today. And he turned his head as he heard the windows burst open, and the nearly soundless flutter of a thousand wings.
He watched them soar overhead, dropping letters at every table...and directly onto Draco's head.
"What the-" Draco pulled the letter down off his blonde and now slightly flattened hair and looked it carefully over;
Draco Malfoy
Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft
And Wizardry
There was, as Draco expected, no return address. He flipped the letter over however and found what he'd been looking for. The Malfoy seal, imprinted upon a wax circle of darkest green.
Draco's heart fluttered nervously. He hadn't heard anything from his family since before he left for King's Cross, they hadn't sent any packages as normal, and now, out of the blue, their was a letter, addressed to Draco and in his father's handwriting.
Something smelled funny.
A/N2: Thanks so much for reading! Please, do review.;)
I write, you review...seems like a fair exchange.
Hopeful? What me?
Chapter 4: Passwords, Plots, and Plans
"NOBODY learned the password?" The young Slytherin second year said for the fourth time in as many minutes.
"Oh come OFF it! Someone's already gone to fetch a Prefect, there's not much more we can do but wait!"
"I HATE waiting."
Draco sighed. Sometimes his house infuriated him. They seemed to have this incessant need to spew out words and speeches that didn't make sense, or didn't need to be said. They spoke for the sake of hearing their own voices and loved themselves all the more for doing it so frequently.
"Coming through! Coming through!" A stern voice said. Draco looked up to see none other then Professor Snape plowing his way through the crowd of sleepy Slytherin's who had planted themselves directly in front of the entrance to their room.
Snape gave a scolding, cold, look around him, his eyes lightening and lingering on Draco. Then, to Draco's surprise, his lips twisted up into a smile. "MR. Malfoy, perhaps you'd be so kind as to tell me exactly what is going on here?"
"Yes, of course, Professor." Draco drawled lazily, this was what he was used to, being treated kindly by Snape, getting better treatment had been something he'd grown very accustomed to throughout his life, "Well, sir, it seems none of us remembered to ask what the password was this year! So none of us can get in. Of course, I would have done it myself, sir, if I hadn't been so distracted by Potter's harassment of me this year, again." Draco lied.
"I thought he stayed at his table all evening.... I didn't see him harrass you at a-" Draco shot the other Slytherin a dangerous look.
"It was harassment from a distance then! What do you know?! You had your face inside your soup bowl half the time, slurrping merrily away! No wonder you didn't see!" Draco spat to scattered snickering. The other Slytherin boy fell silent.
"You believe me, don't you Professor Snape?" Draco said, his voice changing notably from one of dangerous rage to that of a small child.
"Of course I do, Mr. Malfoy." Snape said, and in the way he spoke it was quite clear to all that the matter was now closed.
"I would insist that next year you all do try and pay more attention! The other houses would have a field day if they found out about this!" Snape snapped. He gave another meaningful look to the students of his house.
Though he was not the most well liked Professor in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, those of Slytherin house were for the most part, unwaveringly loyal to him. And in return he was very good to them in his classes, they were allowed to make small mistakes whereas those from houses such as Gryffindor would be severally punished for much smaller ones.
However unfair it may have seemed to some, it was the way Snape ran things. You could either adjust to it, or suffer even worse.
"Quassia." Snape said simply and left before anyone had the chance to question him..
It all remained silent for a few moments before someone spoke up. "Well someone try it! It must be this year's password!"
"What does it mean though. It sounds dumb." Pansy Parkinson, a fellow 5th year, girl said as though spitting something nasty out.
"It means a bitter substance extracted from-" Crabbe began.
"Oh who CARES? Lets just try it so we can all go to bed, already!" Pansy barked.
No one moved for a long moment, each waiting for someone else to try it. Finally Draco took it upon himself to put this whole messy business behind them.
He stood up and went over to the entrance, clearing his throat, he tried: "Quassia!" The entrance slid open, and with a smug smile, he was the first that year to step inside the common rooms.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Well, if I had been sorted into that dreadful house I would try to sit next to him too!" Pansy Parkinson was saying, the next morning at breakfast. "I mean, Potter is obviously the most powerful one in the whole lot.... I'd want to get as close to his power as I could, if I were them. Thank goodness I'm not though. Can you imagine? Me? A Gryffindor! Yech!"
"Heaven forbid you not get to sit at our table every morning, day in day out.." Draco mumbled as he prodded his food.
"What was that, Draco?" "He didn't say anything, Pansy." Orlando Crier said quickly, as he saw the obvious look on Draco's face. The look Draco got every time he was just about to say something particularly bad.
"No...nothing." Draco played along with Orlando's save, having one of his patented second thoughts of much better judgement.
Pansy wasn't a good one to insult. She wouldn't do anything about it, but she whined constantly for the next week, wondering why she wasn't more popular, or why Draco was so mean when he obviously liked her. Which, he obviously, didn't.
It had only been a half-planned insult in any case, Draco's attention continued to be distracted to the staff table where he noted Lupin's presence and Snape's apparent absence.
He knew that the two weren't exactly fond of each other, but he failed to see why Dumbledore would pick feeding a werewolf over one of theown schools Professor's.
It didn't seem to occur to Draco, that perhaps, it had been Professor Snape's idea not to come to breakfast this particular morning.
And what a morning. The sun was streaming in through the windows, which lined one part of the walls, and the ceiling was a clear blue without any clouds. It mimicked perfectly what was outside in the late spring sky.
The owls hadn't arrived yet, but Draco didn't really notice. His family hadn't been sending sweets and goodies to him recently, as they had always done in years before. Every morning, in fact, he would get a new package, and open it straight away at the Slytherin table, exclaiming things such as: "Not these again, if I've told them once it's been a thousand times that I don't like anything that's not imported!" or "This looks oddly like Muggle chocolate, I bet you anything the house elves bought it just to displease me!"
But today, even if he was to receive anything in the mail, he didn't much feel like opening it here or gloating over it.
It's not that he still didn't like to show everyone else how rich or powerful or how much better his family was-but something about the bright Monday morning was troubling him.
It was so perfect, it was so normal, except for one thing that he couldn't get out of his mind, and couldn't stop glancing at.
The staff table.
It was not only Professor Snape's absence that bothered Draco, but also the way in which all the teachers seemed to be a little more tense then normal...and a little more compact. They sat closer then usually and spoke in softer voices. Occasionally now, they started glancing over to the Slytherin table as they spoke, and once, Draco thought he saw Dumbledore look directly at him.
What were they up to?
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Albus, don't you think we should save this for the meeting?" Professor McGonagall said, drawing Dumbledore's attention away from the Slytherin's and back to the matter at hand.
"Yes, yes. Quite right, Minerva." He looked up locking eyes momentarily with each Professor at the table, "It is of the utmost importance to all concerned that no one finds reason to not attend today's staff meeting. We need all of you there if we are to stop what is coming."
The faces of each Professor grew starker, and their forms each deflated slightly. This was not a meeting, which any of them were looking forward to.
Save, perhaps in some aspect, for Remus, who had been meaning all morning to ask Dumbledore if what he'd said last night-about Sirius attending-was really true. But the chance had not, as of yet, arisen.
The table quieted as Professor's returned to hardly touched breakfasts, and Remus, who was sitting directly next to Dumbledore on one side, thought perhaps now would be a good time to bring up the matter of Sirius.
He opened his mouth, and was interrupted by the blasting open of the windows directly over head, as hundreds of owls came swooping inside, dropping letters and packages into bowls of porridge and cups of juice.
Lupin sighed, shutting his mouth again and pushing slightly back from the table, to watch the owls as they delivered their goods.
The subject of his long lost friend, would have to once again, be put off for the time.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Draco chewed the rather toffee like porridge, it seemed to have something a bit wrong with it today. And he turned his head as he heard the windows burst open, and the nearly soundless flutter of a thousand wings.
He watched them soar overhead, dropping letters at every table...and directly onto Draco's head.
"What the-" Draco pulled the letter down off his blonde and now slightly flattened hair and looked it carefully over;
Draco Malfoy
Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft
And Wizardry
There was, as Draco expected, no return address. He flipped the letter over however and found what he'd been looking for. The Malfoy seal, imprinted upon a wax circle of darkest green.
Draco's heart fluttered nervously. He hadn't heard anything from his family since before he left for King's Cross, they hadn't sent any packages as normal, and now, out of the blue, their was a letter, addressed to Draco and in his father's handwriting.
Something smelled funny.
A/N2: Thanks so much for reading! Please, do review.;)