Draco, Flipside
Day 6 and 7
Halfway through Potions the next afternoon, Malfoy made quite the disturbance.
Professor Snape, knowing that Malfoy was about as tame as a pussycat, paired him with Neville to make Veritaserum. He trusted that Malfoy could do the potion correctly, and since Neville was getting better at it, he trusted him too.
It was a big mistake.
Halfway through class, Malfoy took a fit at Neville because he accidentally knocked the wrong ingredients into their cauldron. "It's SIX SHRIVELFIGS and TWO pints of ARMADILLO BILE!" he screamed in poor Neville's face. "You STUPID, NO-GOOD son of a—"
"That's enough, Malfoy!" Parvati yelled across the dungeon at him. She whipped out her wand and pointed it at him. "Ki Porporis!"
Her spell hit him in the back of the head, causing his mouth to meld shut. But Malfoy had a backup plan. He took the steaming cauldron of wrecked Veritaserum and dumped it over Neville's head. Neville stood silent for about two seconds before his skin started to burn. He screamed like a banshee, and writhed in agony to the floor.
That was when all hell broke loose.
Ron jumped onto Malfoy's back and punched him. Harry joined in, kicking at him as he lay on the floor. Hermione tried to stop them as Seamus and Lavender joined in, but got hexed with the Vociferous Hex for her trouble by Goyle. It didn't help in the least, because she shrieked out a volley of curses (some she was making up on the spot) and hexed him right back with the Derma Curse. His skin broke out into a green rash and wrinkled up.
"STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!!!!" Professor Snape yelled. He brandished his wand. "STOP THIS!!!!!"
"Oh, do shut up," Millicent Bulstrode sneered, hitting him with the Jelly-Legs Hex. He crumpled to the floor, still yelling and trying to freeze them with the Impedimenta jinx, but all he kept doing was hitting the cauldrons.
Harry, Ron, Lavender and Seamus stopped their abuse on Malfoy as Professor McGonagall burst in. "Severus, what the hell is going on in here?" she cried out. "What has happened? I can hear you all the way from my classroom, and it's six stories above you!"
Hermione couldn't stop yelling because of the hex. Professor McGonagall muttered "Quietus" under her breath, turning down the volume on Hermione but not shutting her up. Pansy Parkinson and her gang giggled as Hermione tried yelling at them, but found that her voice was just under a whisper. Instead of trying to do something about it, she went straight to Malfoy (who was unconscious from the gang-beating) and cradled his head in her lap.
"Who is that lying on the floor?" she asked, making her way to where Professor Snape had dragged himself. "Severus, who did this to you?"
"Ask Bulstrode," he grumbled.
"Thirty points from Slytherin," she snapped at Millicent, who was glaring at her. "Attacking your Head of House, what a disgrace…"
That's when she saw Neville and Malfoy, both knocked out on the floor, with Hermione doing all she could for Malfoy.
"Draco," she muttered, stroking his pale hair. "Wake up, please wake up…"
He wasn't about to wake up anytime soon, though. He had a bloody nose, and was bleeding from his ears as well. A long, narrow cut ran down his cheek and bruises were welling up all over his face.
"Get them to the hospital wing," Professor McGonagall said sharply. "Severus, you're coming with me to see Dumbledore about this." She took the Jelly-Legs Hex off of him, conjured stretchers for the injured boys, and turned to the class.
"I must say, I'm extremely disappointed in both Gryffindor and Slytherin. The people in this class will go straight to their common rooms immediately, since you have no more classes this afternoon. You will be notified as to what will happen to you, if you were involved with this. Go now."
Harry, Ron, Seamus, and Lavender were in the deepest trouble. Malfoy had been beaten so severely that he had been bleeding internally. Neville's skin had been burned almost to a crisp, so Malfoy was in trouble too. Parvati, for hexing Malfoy, was only given a detention with Goyle and Hermione. Millicent Bulstrode, however, had to scrub out the dungeon, all the cauldrons, and had to help Professor Sprout in the greenhouses after dinner for two weeks.
After her detention ended around 11:45 PM, Hermione took Harry's Invisibility Cloak (he was still in Dumbledore's office, or she would have asked first) and went off to the infirmary. When she got there, she flattened against the wall near the door and listened.
Madam Pomfrey sounded fretful. "Damn near beat the poor child to death, look at this, and I'm almost out of the medication I've been using all night…"
Something fell to the floor. Cursing, Madam Pomfrey bent over to pick it up. "Only bottle of this potion I have left. If I break it, he'll probably die. Of course, students don't often gang-beat other students, and I haven't had any internal bleeding cases since James Potter fell off his broomstick and into the stands about twenty years ago."
"What did he do to deserve this?" McGonagall asked in a hushed voice.
Hermione could hear Snape's snort of disgust. "He was shouting at Longbottom, then he dumped his cauldron over the boy's head. I don't understand though…why did he act like that? He's been under the spell of the Congeniality Concoction for the past six days."
"Potions wear off, Severus. I'd say Mr. Malfoy has until about midnight before it wears off completely. Who did this to his mouth?"
"Parvati Patil."
"Well, she's one of Flitwick's bets Charms students," McGonagall sighed. "I'll have to speak to him. The Ki Porporis Hex, what a nightmare that one is…I remember, when I was seven, my brother…"
"He may have brain damage, too. Potter, Weasley, Brown and Finnegan were kicking him in the head. If he does, can it be reversed, Poppy?"
"Oh, certainly. Five minutes flat. Here now, my lad, drink this…"
"He's unconscious. What's the point of talking to him?"
"He'll wake once the potion takes effect, Minerva. I'd say that would be in…oh, five minutes or so."
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and stepped into the infirmary. There, she could see Neville sitting bolt upright in his cot, covered in bandages. She had to suppress a giggle, because he looked more like a mummy than anything else at the moment.
"Does it still hurt, Longbottom?" Madam Pomfrey asked kindly.
Neville swallowed. "N—no, ma'am," he gulped. "My skin feels kind of tingly from the potion you put on me, though."
"Well, I'd say it's about time to take the bandages off…up you get, then."
As Neville's bandages fell away, Hermione stuffed her fist in her mouth to stop her laughter. Neville's skin was a florescent purple. As he glanced in the mirror, he almost fell over from the shock.
"Ah, yes…that's a rather embarrassing side effect. All the same, you're cured. I suppose you won't be paired with Mr. Malfoy in Potions again, will you, dear! Off you go!" Neville scurried off, and Madam Pomfrey turned back to Malfoy.
Snape glanced at the clock. "I really must go now, ladies," he said. "I have no doubt in my mind that Albus wants to see me about the, er, disturbance in my class this afternoon. Good night." He swept out, with McGonagall looking scornfully at him.
"Calls himself a teacher…two students nearly got killed…three hexed, four if you count Severus," she muttered.
Madam Pomfrey guffawed as she poured the rest of the potion down Malfoy's throat. "I can't believe I've missed seeing Severus flopping about like a beached whale!"
Suddenly, Malfoy let out a long, low moan. Hermione's heart nearly stopped beating as his grey eyes opened. He gazed around in wonderment.
"Where…"
"Shh, dear. Drink the rest of your potion, there's a good boy…"
She helped him sit up, and he swallowed the rest of the bottle. His face contorted. "Yeuch!"
"Don't 'yeuch' me. That potion's saved you from internal bleeding and possible brain damage. A little bad taste in the mouth never hurt anybody."
Hermione felt like telling her about Hagrid's last attempt at a treacle tart (where she had ended up sprouting green boils on her back), but decided not to.
"I'm afraid I'll have to leave you for a few minutes," Madam Pomfrey continued. "Minerva and I have to make an incident report…don't forget, you're going to be in a bit more trouble than you expected to be. You're lucky that you didn't get any of that botched Veritaserum in Longbottom's eyes, that would have burned them right out without a damn thing I could do about it." Her eyes twinkled. "Do try and get some sleep. I'll be back in about half an hour."
The moment they left, Hermione threw off the Cloak and sat next to Malfoy. "Hey, Draco," she greeted him warmly.
He vainly tried to sit up. "Hermione, what happened? Why…?"
"They hurt you pretty badly, Draco. After Parvati hexed you and you dumped the cauldron over Neville's head, they practically mopped the floor with you." She reached for his hand. "Do you remember anything at all?"
"Just you, holding me," he sighed. "Pretty sweet memory, in my opinion."
She laughed. "Well, don't worry. Madam Pomfrey won't let anything happen to you. Nor will I," she added.
He finally managed to sit up, and looked at her with his eyes starting to mist up. "Hermione…don't make me love you anymore than I already do. It could be dangerous," he warned.
She laughed. "That sounds like a threat, Malfoy."
"That's Mr. Malfoy to you, love! I didn't spend sixteen years of life on this planet just to be called Malfoy!"
They laughed. Suddenly, Malfoy made a face and clutched his stomach.
"Damn potion," he muttered.
At that moment, the clock struck midnight. As the chimes on the clock rang through the infirmary, cold terror gripped her heart. The Congeniality Concoction had worn off. Malfoy was back to normal.
Or was he?
"Draco?" she asked tentatively. "Are you all right?"
"No, I'm not bloody all right!" he yelled. "I've been attacked by Potter and Weasley, my brain's probably even more damaged than it already was, I was bleeding internally to death, for the love of all things creepy…"
"Draco!" Hermione cried, shocked.
"…and I completely screwed up a beautiful girl's friendship with her two best friends!" he continued.
"Draco, honestly, we're all fine now," she said quickly.
He stopped. His face had taken on a strange and serious look. "How did Potter take it?"
"Not well, but he's with Cho Chang now, I guess."
"That's good."
They stared at eachother. "Um, am I supposed to say something?" she said after a while.
"I'll say something, then. I still love you, even though I'm nasty again and even though you'll probably never love me the same way—"
"You're wrong there," Hermione cut in, kissing him.
When McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey came back, Hermione snuck back upstairs. After running into the Common Room, she raced to Harry's dormitory and put the Cloak into his trunk. The moment she was done, the hangings around his bed opened, and Harry himself poked his head out.
"Hermione! That's mine, you know!"
"I know, and I'm sorry. What did Dumbledore do to you?"
Harry looked crushed. "I'm off the Quidditch team for four months. That was the same punishment that Lavender, Seamus and Ron got—four attackers, four months of incarceration without my broomstick. I guess it's fair in a way…we damn near killed him, but it would have been good all the same!" he added, chuckling to get a rise out of Hermione.
She sat on the closed lid of his trunk and sighed. "It's been one helluva week."
"Tell me about it. Malfoy was actually human for a week! Just when I thought I'd seen it all here in the wizarding world, Neville got a potion right for once and not only did it splash Malfoy…"
"Hey, you're right!" Hermione exclaimed. She went over to Neville's bed and pulled the hangings back. The boy sat up and gawked at her.
"Hermione!"
"I wanted to thank you, Neville."
"For what?"
"For making this the best week I've had in ages."
She closed the hangings on his stunned expression, gave Harry a sideways wink, and scurried out of the dormitory.