((OOC: Here's the next chapter. Draco's in this one, I swear! I'm just makin this all up as I go along, so bear with it. I used the classic love/hate detention trick. Umm...not much else to say...so...R/R!))
Draco sat in Divination class, barely listening to the old koot, Trelawny. She was babbling about omens and death. Draco never saw a point to her class. Everything was death, stars, and superstitions with her.
"...The stars are among the most powerful omens around, my dears. One must pay careful attention to the stars. Animals are also powerful omens. The Grim, for example. Does anyone here know what it stands for? No? It stands for death, my dears...," her voice droned on and on and on... "...Unicorns are symbols of innocence..."
I wonder what "research" we have to do on that island?...What's the point of going there?...Maybe I should stay here for Christmas...Yeah, right, like I'm going to go around looking at every symbolic thing on the school grounds to make sure I'm not going to suddenly be brutally murdered...
The bell rang out. Time for Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
"Good day, my dears. And remember: always keep a watchful eye out for omens...," Trelawny said in her misty voice. "Your homework is to read chapter 5 in your text books."
Draco stood up, stretched, grabbed his school bag, and headed fort the trap door into the hallway.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was not a class that Draco could zone out in. What with Moody always yelling "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" at any given moment and the surprise curses and creatures he would show them, it wasn't exactly safe to do so. So Draco sat, paying attention, (or trying to fake it) and sub-consciously listened.
"Crouch taught you the Unforgivable Curses, correct?" Moody asked. The students nodded. "Well, then, let's see how well you fare against the Imperius Curse." (Draco's mind immediately came back to the classroom.) Moody's magical eye swooped around the room and landed on the boy. "Everyone stand up." He said. the students did as they were told and Moody waved his wand. The desks moved to the sides of the room, leaving a large empty space in the middle. His eyes came back to Draco. (Both of them.) "Malfoy. You first."
Draco stepped into the middle of the room and waited. Moody raised his wand once more.
"Imperio!"
All the worries from Draco's mind were erased. He felt happy...content...
Do a cartwheel, said a voice in his head.
No, said a stronger voice. No thank you.
Just do a cartwheel. It'll be so much fun....
No.
Do it.
No.
DO IT!
NO!
Moody waved his wand. Draco's senses came back to him.
"Good," Moody growled. "You did as good as Potter did. Did everyone see that? You have to be strong-willed. You need a strong mind. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" The class jumped. He nodded to Draco, who walked to the far wall next to Crabbe and Goyle and scowled.
He had been compared to Potter. That stupid kid. How could he, of all people, be compared to Harry Potter? His rival. His nemeses. ((OOC: did I spell that right?))
But then, Potter had been put on hold. Voldemort came first.
I'll get him, Draco told himself. He'll pay for killing Father. Then I can go back to bugging Potter.
Humorous though it was to see his fellow Slytherins prance around the room, performing all kinds of crazy feats, Draco was glad when the bell rang for lunch. He had been getting bored. When he walked out of the classroom, he immediately spotted Ginny Weasley, who was coming from one of her other classes.
"Look, It's Widdle Weasley again," he smirked. Ginny glared at him.
"Oh, shut up, Malfoy," she said.
"Mmm, no, I don't think I will...," Draco taunted. Ginny rolled her eyes. "Tell me, Weasley, did your family get any money over the summer or is your oaf of a father too pathetic in Ministry rank to earn anything?"
Ginny had not had a good day. She had gotten a D on a test and had failed to perform a simple charm in Charms Class, and Draco's smart mouth and insults were too much for her to remain calm today. So she snapped.
"Why don't you ever shut your god damn mouth, Malfoy?" she yelled.
"What are you gunna do about it? Get your big brother to come save your ass from big bad Draco?" Malfoy countered. Other students had stopped to see what the yelling was about.
"No, but one of these days, yours is gunna get kicked!" Ginny told him.
"By who?" Malfoy asked. "Certainly not by you, you little bitch." Draco had snapped as well. He didn't know exactly why, but the thoughts about his father had angered him and he needed someone or something to vent it on. And poor Ginny just happened to be the first opportunity that arrived.
The girl looked shocked. "Takes a bitch to know a bitch, eh, Malfoy?" she said, recovering quickly.
"That is QUITE enough!" yelled a new voice. Professor McGonagall came running down the staircase. "Mr. Malfoy! We do NOT use that kind of language in this school! And Miss Weasley! I expect better of you! This is an outrage! 20 points from Slytherin and Gryffindor! And three detentions for both of you! I NEVER thought I'd see the day when our students would use that kind of language in the school!"
"What's up with you, Ginny?" Fred asked as he and George sat down next to her at the Gryffindor table.
"I got three detentions with Malfoy," she sneered.
"You got three detentions?" George replied. "Geez, were you trying to spend time with the creep? What did you guys do?"
"We got into an argument and cursed a few times. McGonagall heard us," explained Ginny.
"Oo, what'd you say?" Ron asked. He, Harry, and Hermione sat down.
"He called me a bitch and I said 'it takes a bitch to know a bitch'."
"Go Ginny."
"That jerk," Hermione said. "He just can't stop causing trouble!"
Harry put in, "Well, that's Malfoy for you."
Ginny was not exactly skipping to the Astronomy Tower when she left for the first detention that night at 7:00. Whenever she was late for that class, it seemed to take forever to reach the tower. Now, it only seemed to take a few minutes to walk down the stone hallways of the school and the spiral staircase to the top of the tower.
Draco was already there when she arrived. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. McGonagall was standing by the windows. At her feet were buckets of water and soap and a few large sponges. The only light in the room was the moonlight.
"Good, you're here," she said to Ginny. "You two will clean the windows by hand. Just scrub the sponges against the glass. Give me your wands." Draco and Ginny reluctantly handed their wands over to McGonagall, who left to take care of other business.
Ginny walked over to the windows without saying anything to Draco.
Why do they even let these windows get this filthy? she asked herself as she began to scrub them. Draco, still scowling, followed her example. After cleaning one window, she looked at her reflection in it. Her fiery red hair, her green eyes, her pale face, all looked rather sad in the moonlight.
Draco watched her for a minute. She looked a lot different in the light of the moon. All he usually saw of her was a little red-haired, green-eyed girl carrying books and hanging out with her little friends. Now he saw a different side to her. The poor girl who was the youngest in a large family trying to stay out of trouble. Especially from Draco Malfoy.
"I'm...I'm sorry...," he said, breaking the silence. "About earlier today."
Ginny looked up at him, her trance interrupted.
"I was upset...and I was venting my anger out on you...I didn't mean to get carried away. I didn't mean what I said," he confessed, keeping his eyes away from her. Ginny looked at him, astonished that Draco Malfoy was capable of an apology.
"I'm sorry too," she said, returning her eyes to the view from the tower window. "I was having a bad day and I guess I was venting anger out on you as well."
Draco replied, "'s ok. I probably deserved it." He offered her a lopsided smile and Ginny gave a small laugh.
"Let's just try not to do that again, ok?" she said.
"Agreed," Draco said, glancing around at all the windows they had to clean.
((OOC: That's all for now. Stick around, tho. It gets better with each detention...:) Please review!))