CHAPTER 13
Draco and Hermione showed them all the classrooms and the quickest way from class to class. They also told them to watch out for the switching staircases and secret halls and passageways.
After showing them the inside of the castle, they went out onto the grounds. They showed them the lake and told them not to go into the Forbidden Forrest, and last, but certainly not least, they showed the Quidditch field.
"I love Quidditch!" Cephius exclaimed.
"Me too!" said Elana. "But our school was so cheap, all we had were goalposts. We didn't have a stadium."
"Yeah, here everyone in the school comes out to watch the games," Hermione informed them.
Cephius and Elana were in awe of the stadium. Their school had deprived them of a stadium and their Quidditch teams weren't real good.
After the tour, there was still a half hour before dinner and the Sorting of Cephius and Elana. Draco and Hermione invited them up to their common room. Once again, they were in awe.
"Wow!" said Elana. "How come our common room wasn't this big?"
"Maybe it was, we just had so many people crammed into it," Cephius answered. "This is really nice."
They sat in the common room until it was time to go down to dinner. All of them had things in common, not surprisingly.
They walked down to dinner together. Draco and Hermione went to the Slytherin table and Elana and Cephius went to the front of the hall.
"Good evening everyone! We have two transfer students from the United States," announced Dumbledore. "They are seventh years and will be spending the remainder of the year here. Now they will be sorted."
Professor McGonagall came out with a stool and the Sorting Hat and said, "When I call your name, you will put the Sorting Hat on your head and be sorted into your appropriate Houses." They nodded. "Blacktree, Cephius."
Cephius walked up and sat down on the stool. In about three seconds it yelled out, "SLYTHERIN!"
The Slytherins clapped as he made his way over and sat across from Draco and Hermione. Pansy was next to him and she said, "Hey hottie, you wanna come to my room tonight after dinner?"
"Uh no, I have a girlfriend," he said rudely.
"Well she don't have to know about it, you are from America, right?"
"Jenkins, Elana," McGonagall called.
Elana went up and sat on the stool. After a few seconds, it yelled, "SLYTHERIN!"
Once again, the Slytherins cheered. Elana sat down next to Cephius and kissed him. Cephius looked over at Pansy and smirked. She let out a small "Hmph" and turned back to Dumbledore who was speaking again.
"Now that that's taken care of, Let's eat!"
The food appeared magically on the tables and everyone began eating.
Draco turned to Hermione and asked, "Do you wanna learn how to fly?"
"Yes! Can you teach me?"
"After dinner. We'll go out to the Quidditch field. I've been thinking about it and last week you seemed kinda nervous, so I thought you might wanna learn."
"I'd love that Draco!"
So after dinner, they got Draco's broom and headed out to the Quidditch field.
"Okay, so you know how to mount the broom, right?" Draco asked.
She mounted the broom and Draco made sure she was on right. "Okay, good. Now kick off the ground. If you're nervous, only go up a little then come back down."
"Alright." She kicked off and rose about ten feet. It looked like she was having trouble keeping the broom steady, and she came back down.
"You look nervous," Draco commented. "You're hands are shaking. Try to relax. I promise you won't fall off. Try again."
Hermione nodded and kicked off again. This time she was steadier and actually started to fly around. She flew around for about fifteen minutes then came down.
"Draco I can fly! I didn't fall off!" she squealed.
"See it's not hard. I don't know why you were so scared."
"Well it was because of Neville back in our first year."
"That kid doesn't know his foot from his ass. How can you expect him to know how to fly?"
Hermione smiled and said, "You're probably right. Flying scared me because of someone who is basically a squib."
Draco laughed and said, "I'll tell you what, if I get enough money for Christmas, I'll buy myself the new Lightning Bolt 420 and give you this broom."
"Okay, that sounds wonderful," Hermione agreed.
When they got back to the common room, Dumbledore was waiting outside by the portrait. "Ah, I was wondering when you'd get back. I need you to plan our Christmas dance. It will be the night before everyone heads back home."
"Yes sir," they said.
"Good night children."
"Good night Professor."
They went into the common room to start planning.
"We should have ice sculptures that won't melt," suggested Hermione.
"Yeah and we should have baby blue fairy lights, and the walls should have ice on them. Hey, we can have a whole ice theme!" Draco said excitedly.
"I like that. We'll make everything out of ice, but we gotta have a warming spell put on the room so it isn't cold. And the floor has to be solid, it can't be ice, for obvious reasons."
"There has to be anti-melt spells on all the ice too," Draco said.
"This sounds good," said Hermione. "We can see Dumbledore tomorrow. He'll probably like the idea. It seems like he's into that kinda weird stuff."
"Okay, tomorrow then. I'm gunna go to bed, I'm beat."
He got up to leave and Hermione put on a pout and said in a fake whining voice, "What, no good night kiss?"
Draco sat back down and embraced her. He kissed her long and deep.
"Better?" he asked.
"Much. Good night Draco."
"Good night Hermione." ~ The next morning, Draco and Hermione went to Dumbledore's as soon as they woke up.
"It's a great idea!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "We haven't ever had a ball like this! It's a marvelous idea."
Draco and Hermione left in high spirits and went to eat breakfast.
"'Mione, I have Quidditch practice after breakfast. Wanna come and watch?" Draco asked.
"Yeah sure. I have nothing better to do anyway."
"Great!"
"Good morning Draco, Hermione," Cephius called as he sat down with Elana.
"Someone's in a good mood," Draco noted.
"Yup. This school is great, so is our house! You know what we talked about all night?"
"I haven't the slightest idea."
"500 ways to kill Harry Potter! It's amazing what some people come up with."
"That's interesting," said Draco. "But we gotta go."
"Where?" asked Elana.
"I have Quidditch practice. You can come if you want."
"Okay," they said.
So the four of them and the rest of the Quidditch team headed out to the field. When they got there, the Gryffindors were already practicing.
"Okay Gryffindors, out! We booked the field three weeks ago!" Draco yelled. "Leave now!"
"And I suppose you're gunna make us, Malfoy?" Harry yelled back. "You and your pathetic little girlfriend, what can you do?"
"More than you think!"
"If you want the field so much, we'll play you for it. If we win, we get the field today and your next practice time. If you win, you get the field today and our next practice time," Harry suggested.
"Fine. Come on guys. We gotta wipe these Gryffindor bitches out once again. When are you gunna get it Potter? We're better than you."
"Shut up, Malfoy. Let's just get this over with."
Hermione, Cephius, and Elana went into the stands as the game started.
Since there was no ref, there were no rules. It was a dirty game. The chasers were taking the beater's clubs and hitting the opposing chasers with them. The beaters would cut in front of the chasers and take the quaffle away. Within ten minutes, the score was ridiculous. It was 170- 150 Slytherin.
All of a sudden, Draco went into a steep dive. Harry followed him. The snitch was hovering two feet above the ground. Draco and Harry were looking at each other. They were each daring the other with their eyes to pull up. Finally, ten feet above the ground, Harry pulled up figuring Draco would follow. It was a suicide wish. At five feet, Draco jumped of his broom and caught the snitch.
"Looks like we won!" Draco announced triumphantly. "Gryffindors get out!"
Draco picked up his broom and mounted it again. The Gryffindors walked off bruised and defeated. They had taken the brunt of the beating.
The Slytherins practiced through lunch and into dinner. A few times during practice, Draco looked down at the stands. Cephius and Elana were making out the whole time and Hermione was sitting a good fifteen feet away from them and a few rows up.
This year, the Slytherins were determined to win. They were sick of Gryffindor beating them (especially Draco). This year it was going to be all Slytherin glory.
They walked into the Great Hall twenty minutes after dinner had started. The team was sweaty and bruised.
Everyone on the Quidditch team plus Hermione, Cephius, Elana, and Blaise sat at the end of the table. They looked up and noticed the Gryffindors giving them death glares. They returned them. ~ The next few weeks went by quickly and it was the Saturday before the Christmas dance. That Saturday, they got to go to Hogsmeade. Unfortunately there was a blizzard and they had to walk through the storm.
Draco, Hermione, Cephius, Elana, and Blaise had their heaviest cloaks wrapped tightly around them and their heads were bent to the oncoming wind.
They found the robe store that they bought their robes for the last dance and headed in. Hermione saw a whole rack of baby blue robes and went over to it. She figured that she'd wear baby blue to match the decorations.
The robes she picked were long sleeved and silk. They were very pretty and made her look like an angel when she tried them on.
Elana and Blaise got similar robes except Elana's were green and Blaise's were navy.
Draco bought silver robes that brought out his eyes and made him look sexy.
Cephius bought black robes so that he and Elana would be in Slytherin colors.
Blaise didn't know who she was going with yet. She just figured that she'd probably just dance with a few of the guys that didn't have a partner. ~ The students were scheduled to go home the next Saturday, so the dance would take place that Friday.
On Tuesday of that week, Draco received an owl from his father.
Dear Draco, I know that you said that you didn't want To come home for Christmas, but your Mother and I would really like to see you. We would also like Hermione to spend Christmas at the Malfoy Manor. Your Mother would like to be properly introduced. Please write back as soon as possible.
Your Father
"'Mione!" Draco called. She was in her room reading.
"What?" she yelled back.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?"
She came down and said, "Sure, what's up?" She sat down on his lap and started brushing his hair out of his eyes.
"I just got an owl from my father. He said that he wanted me and you to go to the Malfoy Manor for Christmas. I know that we planned on staying here, but my mother really wants to meet you and we can stay here for Easter."
"Okay, so we'll go. I've always wanted to see your house anyway. Plus I wouldn't wanna disappoint your father already."
"You sure? I actually expected you to put up a fight," he said.
"What's the use? You would've somehow convinced me into going anyway, so I'll just agree from the start." She smirked at him and her kissed her.
"You know me too well."
He wrote a quick letter back to Lucius.
Father, Hermione and I will be coming back to the Malfoy Manor for the Christmas holidays. Tell Mom that I look forward to seeing her.
Draco ~ On Friday, everyone was excited about the holidays, and everyone above forth year was talking about the dance that would take place that night.
After class, Draco and Hermione headed up to their common room.
"Hey 'Mione, we better get changed. This dance starts earlier than the last one," Draco said.
"Okey dokey," she agreed.
They both went up to their dorms to get ready. Draco changed quickly and headed down to the common room. He knew that Hermione would take some time to get ready, so he started pacing the common room. He was nervous about everything, the night (although he didn't know why) and about vacation.
Hermione came down a half hour later. She looked gorgeous, like an angel.
Draco walked up to her and handed her a single white rose. He said, "For you, Hermione, the angel of my heart."
Draco and Hermione showed them all the classrooms and the quickest way from class to class. They also told them to watch out for the switching staircases and secret halls and passageways.
After showing them the inside of the castle, they went out onto the grounds. They showed them the lake and told them not to go into the Forbidden Forrest, and last, but certainly not least, they showed the Quidditch field.
"I love Quidditch!" Cephius exclaimed.
"Me too!" said Elana. "But our school was so cheap, all we had were goalposts. We didn't have a stadium."
"Yeah, here everyone in the school comes out to watch the games," Hermione informed them.
Cephius and Elana were in awe of the stadium. Their school had deprived them of a stadium and their Quidditch teams weren't real good.
After the tour, there was still a half hour before dinner and the Sorting of Cephius and Elana. Draco and Hermione invited them up to their common room. Once again, they were in awe.
"Wow!" said Elana. "How come our common room wasn't this big?"
"Maybe it was, we just had so many people crammed into it," Cephius answered. "This is really nice."
They sat in the common room until it was time to go down to dinner. All of them had things in common, not surprisingly.
They walked down to dinner together. Draco and Hermione went to the Slytherin table and Elana and Cephius went to the front of the hall.
"Good evening everyone! We have two transfer students from the United States," announced Dumbledore. "They are seventh years and will be spending the remainder of the year here. Now they will be sorted."
Professor McGonagall came out with a stool and the Sorting Hat and said, "When I call your name, you will put the Sorting Hat on your head and be sorted into your appropriate Houses." They nodded. "Blacktree, Cephius."
Cephius walked up and sat down on the stool. In about three seconds it yelled out, "SLYTHERIN!"
The Slytherins clapped as he made his way over and sat across from Draco and Hermione. Pansy was next to him and she said, "Hey hottie, you wanna come to my room tonight after dinner?"
"Uh no, I have a girlfriend," he said rudely.
"Well she don't have to know about it, you are from America, right?"
"Jenkins, Elana," McGonagall called.
Elana went up and sat on the stool. After a few seconds, it yelled, "SLYTHERIN!"
Once again, the Slytherins cheered. Elana sat down next to Cephius and kissed him. Cephius looked over at Pansy and smirked. She let out a small "Hmph" and turned back to Dumbledore who was speaking again.
"Now that that's taken care of, Let's eat!"
The food appeared magically on the tables and everyone began eating.
Draco turned to Hermione and asked, "Do you wanna learn how to fly?"
"Yes! Can you teach me?"
"After dinner. We'll go out to the Quidditch field. I've been thinking about it and last week you seemed kinda nervous, so I thought you might wanna learn."
"I'd love that Draco!"
So after dinner, they got Draco's broom and headed out to the Quidditch field.
"Okay, so you know how to mount the broom, right?" Draco asked.
She mounted the broom and Draco made sure she was on right. "Okay, good. Now kick off the ground. If you're nervous, only go up a little then come back down."
"Alright." She kicked off and rose about ten feet. It looked like she was having trouble keeping the broom steady, and she came back down.
"You look nervous," Draco commented. "You're hands are shaking. Try to relax. I promise you won't fall off. Try again."
Hermione nodded and kicked off again. This time she was steadier and actually started to fly around. She flew around for about fifteen minutes then came down.
"Draco I can fly! I didn't fall off!" she squealed.
"See it's not hard. I don't know why you were so scared."
"Well it was because of Neville back in our first year."
"That kid doesn't know his foot from his ass. How can you expect him to know how to fly?"
Hermione smiled and said, "You're probably right. Flying scared me because of someone who is basically a squib."
Draco laughed and said, "I'll tell you what, if I get enough money for Christmas, I'll buy myself the new Lightning Bolt 420 and give you this broom."
"Okay, that sounds wonderful," Hermione agreed.
When they got back to the common room, Dumbledore was waiting outside by the portrait. "Ah, I was wondering when you'd get back. I need you to plan our Christmas dance. It will be the night before everyone heads back home."
"Yes sir," they said.
"Good night children."
"Good night Professor."
They went into the common room to start planning.
"We should have ice sculptures that won't melt," suggested Hermione.
"Yeah and we should have baby blue fairy lights, and the walls should have ice on them. Hey, we can have a whole ice theme!" Draco said excitedly.
"I like that. We'll make everything out of ice, but we gotta have a warming spell put on the room so it isn't cold. And the floor has to be solid, it can't be ice, for obvious reasons."
"There has to be anti-melt spells on all the ice too," Draco said.
"This sounds good," said Hermione. "We can see Dumbledore tomorrow. He'll probably like the idea. It seems like he's into that kinda weird stuff."
"Okay, tomorrow then. I'm gunna go to bed, I'm beat."
He got up to leave and Hermione put on a pout and said in a fake whining voice, "What, no good night kiss?"
Draco sat back down and embraced her. He kissed her long and deep.
"Better?" he asked.
"Much. Good night Draco."
"Good night Hermione." ~ The next morning, Draco and Hermione went to Dumbledore's as soon as they woke up.
"It's a great idea!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "We haven't ever had a ball like this! It's a marvelous idea."
Draco and Hermione left in high spirits and went to eat breakfast.
"'Mione, I have Quidditch practice after breakfast. Wanna come and watch?" Draco asked.
"Yeah sure. I have nothing better to do anyway."
"Great!"
"Good morning Draco, Hermione," Cephius called as he sat down with Elana.
"Someone's in a good mood," Draco noted.
"Yup. This school is great, so is our house! You know what we talked about all night?"
"I haven't the slightest idea."
"500 ways to kill Harry Potter! It's amazing what some people come up with."
"That's interesting," said Draco. "But we gotta go."
"Where?" asked Elana.
"I have Quidditch practice. You can come if you want."
"Okay," they said.
So the four of them and the rest of the Quidditch team headed out to the field. When they got there, the Gryffindors were already practicing.
"Okay Gryffindors, out! We booked the field three weeks ago!" Draco yelled. "Leave now!"
"And I suppose you're gunna make us, Malfoy?" Harry yelled back. "You and your pathetic little girlfriend, what can you do?"
"More than you think!"
"If you want the field so much, we'll play you for it. If we win, we get the field today and your next practice time. If you win, you get the field today and our next practice time," Harry suggested.
"Fine. Come on guys. We gotta wipe these Gryffindor bitches out once again. When are you gunna get it Potter? We're better than you."
"Shut up, Malfoy. Let's just get this over with."
Hermione, Cephius, and Elana went into the stands as the game started.
Since there was no ref, there were no rules. It was a dirty game. The chasers were taking the beater's clubs and hitting the opposing chasers with them. The beaters would cut in front of the chasers and take the quaffle away. Within ten minutes, the score was ridiculous. It was 170- 150 Slytherin.
All of a sudden, Draco went into a steep dive. Harry followed him. The snitch was hovering two feet above the ground. Draco and Harry were looking at each other. They were each daring the other with their eyes to pull up. Finally, ten feet above the ground, Harry pulled up figuring Draco would follow. It was a suicide wish. At five feet, Draco jumped of his broom and caught the snitch.
"Looks like we won!" Draco announced triumphantly. "Gryffindors get out!"
Draco picked up his broom and mounted it again. The Gryffindors walked off bruised and defeated. They had taken the brunt of the beating.
The Slytherins practiced through lunch and into dinner. A few times during practice, Draco looked down at the stands. Cephius and Elana were making out the whole time and Hermione was sitting a good fifteen feet away from them and a few rows up.
This year, the Slytherins were determined to win. They were sick of Gryffindor beating them (especially Draco). This year it was going to be all Slytherin glory.
They walked into the Great Hall twenty minutes after dinner had started. The team was sweaty and bruised.
Everyone on the Quidditch team plus Hermione, Cephius, Elana, and Blaise sat at the end of the table. They looked up and noticed the Gryffindors giving them death glares. They returned them. ~ The next few weeks went by quickly and it was the Saturday before the Christmas dance. That Saturday, they got to go to Hogsmeade. Unfortunately there was a blizzard and they had to walk through the storm.
Draco, Hermione, Cephius, Elana, and Blaise had their heaviest cloaks wrapped tightly around them and their heads were bent to the oncoming wind.
They found the robe store that they bought their robes for the last dance and headed in. Hermione saw a whole rack of baby blue robes and went over to it. She figured that she'd wear baby blue to match the decorations.
The robes she picked were long sleeved and silk. They were very pretty and made her look like an angel when she tried them on.
Elana and Blaise got similar robes except Elana's were green and Blaise's were navy.
Draco bought silver robes that brought out his eyes and made him look sexy.
Cephius bought black robes so that he and Elana would be in Slytherin colors.
Blaise didn't know who she was going with yet. She just figured that she'd probably just dance with a few of the guys that didn't have a partner. ~ The students were scheduled to go home the next Saturday, so the dance would take place that Friday.
On Tuesday of that week, Draco received an owl from his father.
Dear Draco, I know that you said that you didn't want To come home for Christmas, but your Mother and I would really like to see you. We would also like Hermione to spend Christmas at the Malfoy Manor. Your Mother would like to be properly introduced. Please write back as soon as possible.
Your Father
"'Mione!" Draco called. She was in her room reading.
"What?" she yelled back.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?"
She came down and said, "Sure, what's up?" She sat down on his lap and started brushing his hair out of his eyes.
"I just got an owl from my father. He said that he wanted me and you to go to the Malfoy Manor for Christmas. I know that we planned on staying here, but my mother really wants to meet you and we can stay here for Easter."
"Okay, so we'll go. I've always wanted to see your house anyway. Plus I wouldn't wanna disappoint your father already."
"You sure? I actually expected you to put up a fight," he said.
"What's the use? You would've somehow convinced me into going anyway, so I'll just agree from the start." She smirked at him and her kissed her.
"You know me too well."
He wrote a quick letter back to Lucius.
Father, Hermione and I will be coming back to the Malfoy Manor for the Christmas holidays. Tell Mom that I look forward to seeing her.
Draco ~ On Friday, everyone was excited about the holidays, and everyone above forth year was talking about the dance that would take place that night.
After class, Draco and Hermione headed up to their common room.
"Hey 'Mione, we better get changed. This dance starts earlier than the last one," Draco said.
"Okey dokey," she agreed.
They both went up to their dorms to get ready. Draco changed quickly and headed down to the common room. He knew that Hermione would take some time to get ready, so he started pacing the common room. He was nervous about everything, the night (although he didn't know why) and about vacation.
Hermione came down a half hour later. She looked gorgeous, like an angel.
Draco walked up to her and handed her a single white rose. He said, "For you, Hermione, the angel of my heart."