A/N: And now...here you go!
Chapter Twenty-Two: Nailed
Crying, Julie practiced turns and braking high above her school. Every so often, it became too hard to see and she brushed the unwelcome tears away with her black sleeve. She didn't know why she had picked on Draco's dependence on the house-elves, or why she had escalated it into a fight. Some of the things he had said had been really mean, true, but she had also said a few bitter things as well, especially calling him a poor little rich boy...that was entirely out of line. And asking about whether he was affected by their age difference, she guessed that was just pure Snape-side vitriol.
Unless she had really wanted to find out how much it affected her.
Julie didn't want to lie to her parents. And she had already had to falsify details to cover her meetings with Malfoy. She knew full well they would get caught sooner or later, by whom she had no idea, but the results would be somewhat inevitable. Draco would lose his job, certainly. She might be transferred to some other wizard school, or placed under permanent, constant watch for her 'suspicious tendencies.' And that would mean her own daughter would bear the same constant scrutiny, because what the mother and grandmother did would certainly appear in the next litter.
For a moment Julie giggled irrationally at the thought of human babies in litters. The concept of constant scrutiny for inherited tendencies was one from Professor Hagrid's class...in normal tense dealing with hippogriffs. That thought provoked the further picture of her father as a hippogriff, and she nearly fell off of her broom laughing.
There was a shattering 'CRASH!' in the next second.
"Oww!"
As much as Julie wanted to curse aloud with all of her lovely new Quidditch words, that brief sound of pain was all she could manage. The window had splintered where normally it would shatter, and more than forty million little teensy bits of glass seemed to have lodged in her right cheek. The taste of blood in her mouth made her want to gag. One eye was burning and would not open.
"Julie!"
The voice was Donaghan's, she dimly grasped. The next second, strong arms were lifting her from the ledge through a window that had been smashed away by his bare hand. "Madam Pomfrey, come help me, quick!"
"Good lord, how did you get in here?" the nurse asked Julie.
"She crashed her broom int'a the window there," Donaghan told her, brushing Julie's wild, loose hair away from her wounds, knowing she would be less distraught over horrible cheek scars than having some of her bushy black hair cut off. "Julie-girl, can y' hear me? Are you ar'right?"
"Yeah," Julie answered with half of her mouth closed. "Sorry 'bout the window, Madam Pomfrey."
"Never mind that, dear. Donaghan, can you put her down over here so I can strip the glass?"
Obediently Donaghan carried Julie over to what felt like a hard table with a sheet on it. The second he put her down; he crouched to her eye level and stroked her unwounded arm.
"Y'll be ar'right, Julie."
"Alright, now you're going to feel a bit o of pain while I take out the glass, Julie."
Madam Pomfrey took out a wand and began mumbling a charm to pull the shards out. Blood surged from Julie's face as thousands of tiny bits departed to adhere to the nurse's wand. There was a strange feeling followed by warmth as a shard was pulled out of her right eye, but mainly it was all too painful to distinguish individual things.
"A bit o' pain, y're knockin' 'er out wi' it!" Donaghan protested, noticing Julie's tears streaming from her left eye. "Can't y' zap her with some kind a' anti-pain spell?"
"Believe me, Donaghan, if there were any less painful way, I'd take it. I don't want Julie's blood to clot, because then I might not be able to get some shards out. Hold still, now, Julie, I think I've got them all."
At that perfectly inopportune moment, Hermione came in to check on Donaghan. Instead of a usual scene with the Scots boy still in bed, she was horrified to find her own daughter there with face so bloody that but for the hair and gloves she was unrecognizable.
"What happened?" she asked Madam Pomfrey and Donaghan. The latter pointed to the broken window that spoke for them.
Instantly, Hermione realized what had happened. Severus had enchanted the window to be unbreakable just in case Donaghan tried to jump out again, and so, when Julie either crashed into or knocked on it -it appeared by her wounds to be the former, it had exploded with some force outwards, directly into Julie's face.
"Julie, dear, are you alright?"
"Sort of," Julie mumbled with the right side of her mouth closed. "Can I still play this afternoon?"
"She's alright," Madam Pomfrey rationalized, knowing that if she was on about Quidditch despite being that cut up, no force short of Dumbledore himself forbidding her was going to keep the Gryffindor Seeker from this game. "I'm just going to close your cuts with a charm, okay, Julie? You'll be as right as rain in a few moments."
"My eye, too?" she asked indistinctly.
"Is there something wrong with your eye?" Madam Pomfrey asked in alarm. "How does it hurt?"
"I' feels a little sharp, like a beesting."
"Oh, dear, that's not good." The round little nurse hurried over to a cupboard and brought back what looked like a telescope. "Julie, we're going to make you lie on your back for a few minutes, I'm going to check for a slice in your cornea."
"Wha'?" Julie asked.
"A papercut on yehr eyeball," Donaghan clarified.
"Oh."
Madam Pomfrey and Hermione shot the Scot a grateful look. His simplistic, greatly downplayed definition had calmed Julie considerably. It was clear from the way he took Julie's hand and would not let go, however, that he knew full well what was going on from a medical point of view.
"Why do you have your Quidditch gloves on, Julie?" Hermione asked.
"It's the day of a game," Donaghan explained. "We all have our tricky little quirks."
"Speak for yourself," Julie retorted weakly. "Are your ankles bruised up much from last night?" There was a silence before she apologized: "Sorry, Donaghan."
"Ankles?" Hermione was giving her daughter and the Scot both a very suspicious look.
"I take m' broom t'bed like a teddy bear before ev'ry game, 'Fessor," Donaghan clarified. "I'm not sure why, but it seems ter' bring me good luck."
"And she wears her gloves the whole day before. Sporting superstitions."
"Precisely," the young Gryffindors answered in unison.
Madam Pomfrey had now assembled the telescope-like apparatus and was bending over Julie to look at her eye.
"Alright, Julie, now I need you to hold really still, okay? I'm just going to look at your eyes, it won't hurt a bit."
Julie nodded and dutifully held still. Donaghan had her left hand, so her mother took her right. Madam Pomfrey hemmed and hawed for a while before finally observing aside to Hermione just how serious the 'eye papercut' was.
"There is a possibility she might not regain her sight in her right cornea...we have to let it heal the Muggle way."
"Isn't there-?"
"There's very little I can do but ward off infection here. It's not a bad cut, but the location makes Healing Charms very risky. If for any reason it were to swell...I'd say a bandage and an eyepatch for the next two weeks. No Quidditch."
"Of course, Poppy. Will she have to stay up here tonight?"
"I believe that would be the best course of action in this particular case...I would also get ahold of Severus and Minerva to negotiate a delayed game."
"Julie's not going to like that idea. They've already delayed one game this season because of her."
"I'm sure Severus can think of a truly Slytherin way to get around that hitch, especially with Donaghan out of the game as well. Perhaps a faculty match instead might ease the students' disappointment at the game's delay?"
******************************
"Hell, yeah!"
Sometimes Severus overdid things just a bit.
"Of course, Hermione," Professor McGonagall responded with a slightly demented little gleam in her eye. "I think I myself would like to play Chaser for Gryffindor."
"I'm Chasing for Slytherin against you, then."
"But Sev dear," Hermione began in an over-sweetened voice that would have sent any self-respecting house-elf into insulin shock; "I had hoped you would be watching our daughter during the match."
"Aw, but McPhersen and Poppy can look after her! I want Julie to see Draco and me make mincemeat out of Harry and Minerva."
"Draco and I, dear, and I don't think she'll enjoy watching both of her parents slug it out out there."
"You're playing, too?"
"It's me or Neville, dear. I think I'd be a good Keeper, wouldn't you say?"
Professor McGonagall nodded her head emphatically.
"But you hate to fly!" Severus protested.
"Not since this afternoon. I think it's rather fun, challenging, strategic and all that rot. Do you honestly think you can beat me, dear?"
"Tied up and with a wire brush. But let's not subject Minerva to my kinky fantasies."
"Severus!" The Headmistress was scandalized. Hermione, however, didn't blink an eye.
"Hmm. Do we have a bet, then, dear?"
"A bet?" Severus's pointy nose began to twitch like a bunny's. "The loser has to-?"
"Submit to whatever the winner can come up with -their kinkiest fantasy."
"Hmmm."
"You two are sick! I can't believe that you're teachers here."
"Come now, Professor McGonagall, we weren't always just teachers here." Hermione gave the Headmistress one of her very best childish grins. If making her ex-Transfiguration professor blush and send Severus from the room was Hermione's intention, the little grin surely did its' job alright.
"That was one of the most sincerely disturbing pictures I've had in my mind all year, Hermione! I'm tempted to lose and see whether you sit down the next day."
"Professor McGonagall!" Hermione feigned absolute surprise at this. "I had something very nice in mind should the Slytherins lose. Care to hear?" Despite Minerva's shaking her head, Hermione continued, "It involves Severus's costume for breakfast the next morning..."
"Leather and chains?"
"I was thinking just robes that weren't black. But if that's what you're after, I'm sure I could-"
"No, colorful robes are perfectly okay by me!"
Professor McGonagall didn't like admitting when she had been well and truly messed with to further a sly intent, but when Hermione did it, it was so gracefully that she had no problem owning up to having been played like a violin all the way. "You are aware that you're playing with fire with your Slytherin?"
"Don't I know it," Hermione said carelessly. "Oh, well. At least this little injury got Julie back with Donaghan. I was worried that her Slytherin might be someone dangerous."
"Julie's Slytherin?" Minerva asked curiously.
"Yeah, there's some guy she likes, 'he's a Slytherin' is all that I've heard so far. I'd rather see her with Donaghan, I mean, except for the whole werewolf thing, he's a lot nicer than many of the boys I've seen."
"Or Malfoy?"
"Decidedly nicer than Malfoy. Why, he runs circles around that-"
Hermione froze. Minerva was showing her something from earlier in the All-Show. There was Julie running smack into Malfoy and falling down, him helping her up, what looked like a few insults between the two and then...he kissed her. That...that Slytherin was kissing her baby girl. And worst of all, Julie was liking it.
"I saw this in the Entrance Hall this afternoon," Minerva clarified. "I'm beginning to wonder if this was the first time it happened, because neither of them is foolish enough to engage in something so dangerous in such an open view, unless it was just Draco's chance to make his feelings known."
The connection of Malfoy's first name to the idea of his having feelings for her daughter was like hitting Hermione with a bat.
"Professor McGonagall, he's seven months older than me!" she cried.
"Well, now, technically, you're a year and eight months older than him now because of the Time-Turner," Professor McGonagall pointed out, "and there's a smaller age difference than the one between you and Severus, dear."
"That doesn't mean I'm going to let that bastard go around snogging my daughter!"
"That's hardly a fair way to look at things."
"Fair? FAIR? You be the fair one, Professor, I'm going to rip off Malfoy's head for this."
"Now you're just being plain violent."
"I'm going to be a lot more violent when I find him!"
"Hermione, stop it!" The words were like smacking her in the face. "When has the angry approach got you anywhere? I hate to say it, but you're going to have to handle this like a Slytherin. You must not let Malfoy know, you must definitely not let Severus know, and above all you must not let Julie know."
"Then what's the point of knowing?" Hermione asked sarcastically.
"Because now you can break them up humanely," Professor McGonagall told her, as if this were the obvious conclusion. "You know, if Albus had let me know about you and Severus, you'd have a whole fleet of little bushy-haired Weasleys now. I think he saw something between you is the only reason why he didn't have me break you up."
"You say that as if it was your area."
"Still is, dear, breaking up inappropriate relationships. You'd be startled how many Slytherin temptresses have tried to get their oily hands on Gryffindor boys -and girls, and sometimes I didn't step in in time."
"You mean to say there are...?"
"There are always a few sexual predators in any community with Slytherins. I believe it's a result of all the Dark wizards' inbreeding."
"Damn straight Malfoy's a sexual predator."
"No, he's a lonely wizard with an unfortunate taste for dark-haired Gryffindors. Can you remember the last time you used his first name?"
Hermione couldn't answer.
"See? Most wizards won't give him the time of day except for what his mother did, and looking so much like his father doesn't help at all. Everyone calls him a pureblood behind his back, he had two friends growing up and that's it, and then he unfortunately falls in love with someone impossible. Sound familiar?"
"You aren't saying-!"
"Well, let's take it from Julie's point of view, then. She grew up in hell. I'm not going to make any points about the orphans' camaraderie or all that rot; she grew up in hell, plain and simple. She's learned to make a life out of scraps and ends and survive on her own since she was very small, amid the very dregs of the Muggle world. And suddenly she finds out the truth of things. She's a witch. She's got a whole new world of magic and freedom now. And as if that wasn't wonderful enough, she finds her family. In the space of not more than forty-eight hours, Julia Starcatcher, orphan, becomes Julia Starcatcher Snape, witch and aspiring Quidditch player. It's enough to boggle any child's mind. Except she knows next to nil about the wizarding world. Harry can tell you how annoying it is to have every third item explained to you, even if it is in the kindest way. She's as bright as you were at that age, you know, she wants a chance to use that great mind of hers. And suddenly, a wizard comes along to challenge her intellect. A wizard-born who wants to know Muggle stuff. And who better to teach him than Starcatcher? I know full well why Malfoy wants to know Muggle facts, and knowing him, I'd bet the interest would have died long ago except for Julie's teaching making it interesting."
"So you think that I should just let them...go ahead?"
"No, because while it's good for Draco, it could do Julie a world of harm. It may be starting already, the jokes about fancying teachers just like her mother did and such; you know what she's going to go through with that. And let's face it, her father would kill Malfoy. Why don't you see how she's acting toward Donaghan? Maybe this will burn itself out like her first crush on the Captain did, and she'll go back to dating guys her own age."
"Alright. But what about the Quidditch game?"
"Malfoy will be Seeking for the Slytherins. Julie will be watching from the window with Donaghan."
"Okay, then. Maybe this isn't as bad as I think."
"You're right. It's still possible he only kissed her as a joke or as part of some plot just to mess with us."
"Never assume with those Slytherins, though."
"Including your daughter." Professor McGonagall observed.
****************************
Blindness did not agree with Julie Starcatcher. Madam Pomfrey assured her that after tomorrow she would only need the right eye bandaged to ward off an infection spread to both eyes, but after only half an hour Julie was getting very tired of this not seeing. Donaghan had to stop her twice from taking the bandage off, once with her knife, which he took, and again with one of Madam Pomfrey's scalpels, which she stole. Unfortunately, it was enchanted not to cut anything unless it was in Poppy's hand, and Julie wound up sitting on a bed in the corner muttering to herself.
"Damned...dratted...can't see to...I'd think I'd..."
Donaghan couldn't really grasp what she was saying. Being around a blind Julie was a little like being around a mental patient -unnerving. Finally she sat bolt upright on the bed.
"I've got it!"
Julie got up and walked toward Donaghan, promptly tripping and falling on the ground again.
"You know, without my broom, I am a klutz," she observed, attempting to find him again in the dark caused by her bandages. "That's four times today that I've fallen down."
"D'you count the time through the window as one of them?"
"Five, then."
"Maybe...here, use yehr broom as a guiding stick." He handed her the Firebolt and guided her to his bed. "Better?"
"Much. How did you figure that?"
"Well, y' said tha' without your broom y' thought y'were a klutz. An' I know y' aren't, so the broom to help you see seemed only logical."
"I meant that I was only moderately graceful on the Quidditch field, as opposed to the falling-down wreckage I am normally."
"Y're incredibly graceful on the Quidditch field, an' also on the dance floor, an' at school, everywhere y'are." Donaghan was still scared to admit that he still liked her, but he wasn't about to let her speak so self-deprecatingly. "You've always had this air when y' walk around, like 'nobody messes with me, I'm Julie Starcatcher.' You had it when you walked up to the Sorting Hat, and when you walked through the barrier at King's Cross, I was watchin' y'."
"So you don't think I'm clumsy?"
"Not in the slightest bit. So maybe you were 'avin' an off day today, tripped and fell down a bit. You could do worse, only-girl."
His old name for her echoed in Julie's mind, bringing back memories of the two men at Hogwarts she'd come to like. On one side of a vast chasm was Donaghan, the perfect example of right and good and Gryffindor, and on the other side was Draco, a slouching, drawling, pure-blooded Slytherin. Which one to choose? Even if Donaghan still liked her, would he take her back? And could she handle the secrecy that a relationship with her Charms teacher entailed? Right now she couldn't even see her hands, let alone make a decision on relationships. If Madam Pomfrey hadn't ordered her not to cry she would have burst into tears then and there, but as it happened, she just hugged Donaghan suddenly.
"I've missed you a lot in these past few days. Why were you hiding here?"
"I wasn't hidin', Julie, Madam Pomfrey wouldn' let me leave."
"Well, what's wrong? I can't see anything, but you-" she began to tickle him mercilessly, "feel alright."
Donaghan laughed and began to tickle her right back.
"Y' feel good, y'reself, Julie, s'pecially with these old clothes on." He was not necessarily referring to the clothes but to the body under them. Julie stopped suddenly, but Donaghan did not pull back.
There it was, the long-missing element. Donaghan was good, but he was much too good. He had never done anything she hadn't tried before back at the orphanage, thus losing her interest in a few short weeks. But now with one slightly off-color remark he had restored her curiosity. Draco was bad, sort of, a kind of forbidden fruit, and Julie decided maybe the fights weren't going to be worth it. She kissed Donaghan fervently on the cheek.
"Can I have you back, Captain?" she asked quietly.
"Not until you answer my questions, Seeker," Donaghan began in a mock-stern voice, grateful for her blindness that she could not see his happy smile. "Why did y' break it off with me in th' firs' place, if'n y' were just intending to take me back like a…a fish y' 'ad hooked? I'm nobody's salmon, and I'll not play this game with y'."
"I don't know what made me break things off with you. Boredom, maybe? I was tired of you always being so good with me, never breaking any rules or taking any risks, you know? It's not like I'm some innocent little girl you have to be careful with, despite my ather's fond illusions to the contrary."
"Well, how innocent aren't y'?"
"Donaghan,
I've been kissed under moonlight,
Danced with in the dark
I've drunk champagne in the forest
And gone barefoot in the park
Nothing's new to me
If you'll excuse me
There is no romance in my life."
"But that's terrible!"
"That's life in the Muggle world."
"If y've seen all the wonders
That life has to give
If y'll pardon me askin',
Why bother to live?
It's all new t' y',
When love's true t' y',
Everyone needs romance in their life."
"Donaghan, it's a lost cause. I'm used to everything. By the way, why are we bursting into song again?"
"I don' know. It's romantic!"
"I'm used to it!"
"Are y' used to someone burstin' into song with y'?"
"Well, no. But then, Muggles aren't as eccentric as wizards are!"
"All y' need is love,"
"Alright, excepting them."
"All y' need is love,"
"Don't you dare start singing again!"
"All y' need is love!"
"Love is just a game. I can't believe you're quoting a Muggle film-"
"Cherish is the word I use to describe,"
"You aren't!"
"All the feeling that I have hiding here for you inside,
You don't know how many times I wish that I had told you,
You don't know how many times I've wished that I could hold you,
You don't know how many times I've wished that I could mold you into someone
Who could cherish me as much as I do you."
"Don't try this game with me,
I've played a few too many rounds
Don't try to make me see
Love isn't real, it's just a lie
Told to children and fools!"
Donaghan placed a finger on Julie's lips.
"You don't believe that?"
"I have since my brother died."
"What about your parents? They love y'."
"That's the only kind."
"Y' mean y' really don' think you can ever fall in love?"
"I can like someone and pass the time, but for me there's no such thing as love."
"But Julie…I love you."
Three little words, with more magic in them than any spell on Earth. Despite Madam Pomfrey's warning, Julie felt her eyes tear.
"Donaghan, I-"
"Say only what y' mean."
"I don't know what this feeling is,
But suddenly everything I've ever felt beside it seems so very small…
You don't know how many times I wish that I had told you
You don't know how many times I've wished that I could hold you
You don't know how many times I've wished that I could mold you into someone
Who could cherish me as much as I do you."
"And I do,
Cherish you,"
"And I do,
Cherish you."
"Cherish is the word…"
**********************************************
Warming up before the Quidditch game, Malfoy took another drink of the pumpkin juice that the house-elves had brought for him. Remembering what Julie had said about his needing house-elves made him want to smack the little being away, but instead he gave it his towel and told it to go away.
Absently, he got on his broom and began to whistle. Before he knew it he was singing aloud just as absently:
"Let's talk about me for a minute
Well, how do you think I feel about what's been going on?
Let's talk about me for a minute
Well, how do you think I feel about what's been going on-"
No, that was exactly the kind of self-centered, patrician way of looking at things she had nailed him on. Dammit, did she have to be right about everything? He searched his mind for something else to hum as he practiced turns.
"Raven hair and movie lips
Sparks fly from her fingertips
Echoed voices in the night
She's a restless spirit on an endless flight
Oo-who witchy woman
See how high she flies
Oo-who witchy woman
She got the moon in her eyes…"
Well, that described his present girlfriend perfectly, but the tenor range was a little too high for him. Again Draco tried desperately to think of something to take his mind off their fight.
"Fast as you can
Baby run free yourself of me
Fast as you can…"
No! There was no way on earth he was going to flutter around like an idiot singing a Muggle chick song. Not happening. Nope. Damn Julie and her vintage rock music.
"I'm just mad about saffron
And saffron's mad about me,
I'm just mad about saffron
She's just mad about me
They call me Mellow Yellow-"
Now this was beyond human tolerance! Whichever one of those damned Weasley boys had spiked his drink with potion again, he was going to personally gut them and have them stuffed.
As if flying over the almost-full stands of the Quidditch Pitch singing 'Mellow Yellow' at the top of his lungs wasn't totally awful, Malfoy had the distinctly unfortunate privilege of discovering each and every student from Gryffindor was singing the Red Lions fight song, whilst the Slytherins were singing that of the Green Serpents in perfectly discordant counterpoint. It was a little like a cross between Wagnerian opera and a hockey game.
Worst of all, Professors Snape and Granger were leading it. From the air it sounded like neither could carry a tune in a bucket. But when Draco flew up sharply behind his ex-Potions master, it was clear where Julie got her perfect diction and good lower register. Severus was an excellent baritone.
Hermione, however, still sounded like a cat was being strangled by the Gryffindors. Malfoy flew up behind her and received a similar shock; she wasn't bad at all. Either the Quidditch pitch was abysmally designed acoustically, or there were so many Off-Key charms being cast between both sides that nobody had a chance of sounding good except from three feet away.
Draco decided this was the latter as he joined in the Green Serpent song and immediately realized his profound blunder. His joining brought Hagrid into it for the Gryffindors, and then Professor Sinistra for the Slytherins, then Harry and Professor McGonagall for the Gryffindors, until the entire stadium sounded more profoundly awful than the time a flobberworm ate too much and exploded with deafening flatulence.
Watching from the Hospital Wing, Julie and Donaghan wondered what the beautiful singing was.
At last both songs ended and the Quidditch game began. Draco whispered an almost inaudible expletive followed by the word 'Weasleys,' who were actually sitting in the stands as confused as he.
The whistle blew and Draco set out to look for the Snitch. Harry got away with the Wronski Feint twice before he quit marking his opponent's trail. There was a bell, Gryffindor had scored.
Professor McGonagall did an airy little backflip, showing off just a tiny bit, only to be given a royal scowl from Severus. Professor Sinistra knocked a Bludger in her direction.
The Headmistress zipped away at the last second, only to realize Severus had gotten hold of the Quaffle. He threw it, it was very close-
And Hermione pulled off a daring save. Harry stopped flying to cheer a bit and got a Bludger in the back for his team spirit. This was really turning into a dirty game. Fortunately, Harry scored on the penalty shot to Gryffindor and the score was set at twenty-zero then. Neville, who was playing Beater after all, sent a Bludger in the direction of Severus, only to tragically miss by about seven feet.
It was not necessary to state who got knocked off her broom.
Severus immediately dropped the Quaffle and dove to catch his wife before she hit the ground. Either this was considered heroic or she really was a students' favorite; as even the Slytherins applauded this. The game was momentarily paused while she got back on her broom, and then Severus sent the Quaffle at her goal again.
She missed.
Figures.
Just then, Neville's second Bludger knocked the wind out of Severus. Another from Professor Sinistra knocked the wind out of Neville. Draco kicked Harry in the face. Hermione took Professor Sinistra's bat away and bonked her with it. Ron (the other Gryffindor Chaser) kicked Malfoy in the gut. Professor McGonagall scored again in the confusion. The referee tried to take the bat away from Hermione and gave up even trying when he saw the look on her face. Severus scored against the Gryffindors. Hermione looked like she was going to bonk him next. Just then, Harry got the Snitch and it was all over.
"Well, do you still like flying?" Severus asked. Hermione gave him a piercing look, then smiled as if nothing at all had gone wrong.
"Actually, this game was kinda fun. Professor Sinistra, are you okay?"
Her coworker gave her a thumbs-up despite the large bruise forming on her head. Ron and Malfoy were still fighting and nobody really bothered to break them up. A few Slytherins actually placed bets on the outcome of the fight. Finally Harry and Hagrid went over and pulled them apart like still twitching Velcro. Ron's girlfriend was terrified by all of this.
Donaghan had commented as unobjectively as he could, but for some reason, Julie was still cracking up. After all, it was kind of humorous to her point of view. Except when Donaghan told her that Ron and Malfoy were still squaring off, that made her nervous. Normally when one's ex is being smashed into unrecognizable pulp and not just at chess, it is a happy occasion worth celebrating.
But what if he didn't know that he was her ex?
*********************************************
A/N: Alright, song credits.
'No Romance In My Life' by Janalyn McNeville (Falconers,) 2002
'All You Need is Love' by Lennon & McCartney (Beatles,) 1968
'Cherish' by Terry Kirkman (The Association,) 1966
'Love Isn't Real,' by Janalyn McNeville (Falconers,) 2002
'Let's Talk About Me' by Woolfson/Parsons (The Alan Parsons Project,) 1984
'Witchy Woman' by Don Henley (The Eagles,) 1977
'Fast As You Can' by Fiona Apple, 1999
'Mellow Yellow' by Donovan Leitch, 1966
I'm sorry about the whole bursting-into-song thing happening again, and I promise to tell you who's responsible next chapter. Okay? Reviews, food for the starving plot bunnies!