malfoy

Draco Malfoy
And the Bloodstone
_ _ _ _ _By Ti'ana

Chapter Seven

Halloween was one of the biggest events at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Everybody got into the spirit of things, except for perhaps the school's poltergeist, Peeves. He acted no different than usual, but then again he was always acting up.

Until Halloween, Draco Malfoy hadn't been bothered by him all year.

The loud, high squeak of a party favor woke him from his sleep.

"Must wake up, boy!" Peeves was hovering above Malfoy's head upside-down. He was wearing an orange party hat and a green twirly tie.

"Uggh..." Draco sat up. "Don't you have some other houses to bother?"

Peeves seemed to think about this for a moment. "Yes! But I am here now."

"Someone get the Bloody Baron," Draco grumbled.

Peeves beamed. "The Bloody Baron is helping Sir Not-so-headless Nick with his two-hundredth-and-something Deathday party. Nick don't seemed to pleased, but I am! I have the chance to bother all of the Slytherin house!"

"Peeves," a deep, broken voice croaked from behind Malfoy's bed curtain. "Get back to work."

Maybe it was some of the poltergeist's humor mixed with his fear of the Bloody Baron that made all of his color drip away out through his feet until he was as white and transparent as any other ghost. No questions asked, Peeves disappeared quickly.

The curtain opened. "I'll keep that one in mind the next time Peeves finds his way into the Slytherin common room. Rise and shine, pretty boy." Goyle opened Malfoy's drape until his whole bed was exposed. "Breakfast is in ten minutes."

"Bring me back a pumpkin cake." Malfoy hugged his pillow and pulled the blanket back over his head.

"Ooh, no you don't!" Crabbe jumped on Draco; obviously that wasn't his intention, because he fell off when Draco cried from underneath the sheets.

"I'm getting up!"

Fifteen minutes later, Draco and his cronies were down at the breakfast table. Obviously, Gregory Goyle had been lying, because half the school was missing. Of course he admitted to it; Draco could have guess he simply wanted to get to the food before anyone else.

The hall was decked in orange and black ribbons, balloons and tabletop decorations. Someone had made the mistake of letting the live bats out early, because they zipped around the hall as everyone struggled to eat their breakfast. One small bat dug its claws into Goyle's pumpkin pancake and tried to pull it away. He slapped it off, and a swarm of the black critters attacked his hair, pulling out several strands (but not really inflicting much damage).

There were no classes that day, so after breakfast, the students were allowed to do what they wanted until they were called back into the Hall.

That afternoon was the official Halloween party. Whoever let the bats out early before had rounded a hundred or so of them up and had them in large cages around the school. Dumbledore had been working on the decorations all day after breakfast, after someone had bewitched several of the streamers to act as snakes. They pulled themselves off the ceiling and were attacking people left and right, biting their robes. Several students reported to Madam Pomfrey for bites and bruises.

Rather than sitting with Malfoy and Crabbe, Goyle walked to the other end of the table.

"What are you doing?" Of course, Draco needn't have asked where Goyle was going. To sit with Lisha, of course. Over the past two months, the two of them had become closer and closer while Draco's relationship with her only became worse. Even so, they had learned to respect each other: Stay away from me and I won't turn you entirely green as I had planned. Fine, don't bother me and I won't set your new robes on fire. Deal.

Albus Dumbledore stood in the middle of the hall and raised his goblet to the air, asking for silence.

"Usually I would give a brief speech about Halloween, but this year, all I will say is this: don't let any of the bats out, please. Professor Blodsucan has helped us bewitch some of them to seem evil, but when someone let them loose this morning..." (his gaze fell on Fred and George Weasley, each of them laughing to themselves, with a twinkle in his bright eyes) "we couldn't tell one from the other. If you see a vicious, bloodsucking creature, contact Professor Blodsucan or myself. If it happens to gnaw off a finger or two, see Madam Pomfrey. Enjoy dinner!"

Dinner itself lasted only a half hour. Despite all the food there was (pumpkin cake, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pudding, apple butter and pumpkin bread, orange fruits which no one could identify but seemed to be addicted to, purée of squash, carrot and raison salad, plus mounds and mounds of other foods), it was finished almost as soon as it was placed on the table.

Rather than moving into the common rooms afterwards, the school remained in the dining hall. Goyle and Lisha moved to the end of the table Crabbe and Draco were sitting on. Draco sipped from his half-filled goblet of pumpkin juice resentfully when they sat. Lisha seemed pleased with his abhorrence.

"Hey, Malfoy, wanna play a game of four-way chess with us?" Crabbe was standing behind Goyle and Lisha, his old chess set raised high enough so Draco could see it.

"No thanks, I'll pass." He was still bitter over the sprout charm incident, and stuck to his vow of avoiding Lisha.

"I left mine up in the Slytherin tower. Sorry guys, I'll just watch."

"Sure you don't want to use mine, Lish?" Goyle displayed his moving chessmen. His Queen was whacking a pawn over the head with her staff.

"Er... I don't think they're used to me. You go ahead, Gregory." The Queen yelled something at Lisha in another language. It sounded like French.

"My dad got 'em when he went on a trip for the Ministry of Magic. They understand me, and I'll be damned if I catch a word of what they say. But at least I can win with 'em!"

Crabbe presented his intricately carved chessmen to Goyle. The pieces eyed each other, and the game began. Lisha urged Goyle on. His Queen yelled something apparently contradictory to Lisha's advice, and pointed to an empty space four squares in front of her, and said something which sounded like "sheckmet."

"She's right." Hermione craned her neck over Goyle's shoulder. "Automatic checkmate. Vincent already has you on check."

"Who asked for your opinion, Mudblood?" Draco clutched his goblet of pumpkin juice in both hands.

Hermione's lip quivered. "Mudblood or not, I could still have your head in a wizards' duel!" She stormed off, leaving Draco, Crabbe and Goyle bursting with laughter. Lisha fumed.

"She's right, you know. Hermione may be a no-good Gryffindor, but she could take all three of you on at once!" Goyle, of course, was the first to run off to apologize to Hermione. Draco almost started laughing again. Lisha had Goyle wrapped around her finger.

Crabbe hesitated, but went after Goyle. Draco couldn't find and explanation to that one. He turned to Lisha. "I don't know what you've done to my friends, but I want them back. You've got them hypnotized, haven't you? You've got those powers Professor Blodsucan's always warning us about. The evil powers of the nonliving!"

Her face turned bright red in anger. "I don't need hypnotic powers to help your 'friends' realize they've been following you blindly for all these years! Just like their fathers followed Lucius Malfoy, the most notorious of the Death Eaters...."

Draco couldn't allow that. He threw his goblet at Lisha, hitting her hard in the stomach. She yelped loudly, and drew in her breath quickly. The hall grew quiet.

"Don't you ever talk about my father like that!" Malfoy's face was redder than it had ever been, considering his remarkably pale complexion. "Nobody speaks of the Malfoys that way! We are a respectable family! How dare you!"

He saw Lisha grab her wand, and his next memory was of a loud voice which seemed to be yelling right in his ear.

"One more outburst like that and you'll both have detention for a month!" Professor McGonagall stood over Draco.

Draco looked around. He saw Lisha on the floor. The wand had never made it out of her pocket. "But she was going to use magic on me! Didn't you see?"

"Nonsense," Professor Blodsucan said. "Lisha isn't trained enough to do any serious damage to you with that wooden stick of hers. Now, get off the floor, both of you."

Lisha's eyes were half-opened, but she was hardly moving. The voice of Professor Blodsucan seemed to make her weaker, for when she struggled to stand, he muttered something under his breath, and she slipped and fell. It couldn't mean much, because she didn't seem to surprised.

"As punishment," Professor McGonagall continued, glaring at Professor Snape, "the two of you will return to the Slytherin house and miss the rest of the Halloween party. No points will be taken from you because..." She never bothered to finish her sentence, but her scowl at Professor Snape grew harsher. "Just go."

"How many times is that you've gotten me in trouble?" Draco was still seething on the way up to the Slytherin tower. "Two? Three? And it's only the third month of school. You know, I hardly ever got in trouble last year, or the year before."

Lisha didn't reply. Her eyes were only half-open, as they were when she was on the floor in the hall. She didn't even appear to be listening.

Draco continued rambling. "...And that bit about my father! That was really uncalled for. My father was in a trance when he joined the Death Eaters. He works against Lord Voldemort now. So do Crabbe and Goyle's fathers. They were hypnotized by his evil powers, kinda like you've hypnotized Goyle into liking you."

"This argument is becoming redundant," Lisha mumbled, still staring blankly ahead. Without another word from her lips, she turned left into the girls' section of the Slytherin tower.

Malfoy continued on his way to his room shared with his two friends. Hatred bubbled in his heart, mixed with something he couldn't identify. It was too much for him to comprehend, that deep emotion boiling in the depths of his soul.

So deep in his thoughts and emotions, Draco didn't even hear Crabbe and Goyle enter the room, nor when they said "goodnight." His vexation towards Lisha crowded his mind, and it was nearly daybreak when he finally fell asleep.