…1345…
…1346…
…1347…
Draco Malfoy was bored. Very bored. As he was counting very slowly, quite a lot of time had gone by. Madam Pomfrey had come and gone, seeing that Hermione and Terry were still asleep, therefore letting them stay one more night. Draco was grateful for this because his head still hurt like a bitch plus he didn't think he could stomach Blaise's satisfied smirk when she realized it could've been her instead of him in the Hospital cot. He groaned and rolled over, these thoughts messing up his count.
Looking around, he found that Terry Boot was snoring possibly as loud as one can snore and that Ginny hadn't moved a muscle. Hermione seemed to be breathing normally and all, but he couldn't tell whether she was up or not. "Granger. Granger!" Draco hissed. Hermione jumped, making Draco smirk. "So you were up too?" Hermione glared at him, but nodded.
"Well yeah. I'm not tired," she replied, sighing and propping herself up. She looked out the window to see noting but the shadowy and foreboding Forest outline.
"Can't wait to get out of here," Draco said, as if trying to fill the silence. Hermione stifled a laugh.
"Yes you can." Draco frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"Face it Malfoy, your past track record gives you away- well, if the Hippogryff (sp?) incident is anything to go by." Hermione had a small grin on her face now, remembering the awful acting of the person across from her, his groans of protest and his smirking when Harry and Ron had to help him with Potions ingredients. Draco scowled.
"Well fine, have your little snicker over there," he replied resentfully, burying himself further beneath the sheets. Hermione giggled.
"I will, thanks." There was a minute in which Hermione 'had her little snicker' and Draco scowled as hard as he possibly could before Hermione fully realized how very bored she was. She reached for the nightstand; her wand wasn't there. So magic was out. Tapping her finger on her chin thoughtfully she thought of every Muggle game possible, most that she had used in the car on family road trips. However, since there were no cars in the Hospital Wing, the License Plate game was out. "Hey Malfoy," she said suddenly, making Draco jump yet again and hit his head on the bedpost.
"Ouch…what Granger?" he asked, rubbing his head angrily.
"Do you know how to play Hangman?" she asked casually. He raised an eyebrow.
"It sounds violent," he answered. Hermione burst out laughing; she had to bury her head in the pillow to keep the sounds muffled. "What?!?" Draco said, annoyed.
"Oh yes, it's terribly violent not to worry." She flung her hand out onto her nightstand and caught a piece of parchment. Not too far from that was a quill. "Here, I'll teach you- I'm that bored," she added. Draco rolled his eyes, but probably was as bored as she was because he didn't protest.
--
An hour later, Hermione was smiling happily; she had won almost every single game. Draco was very annoyed, tapping on his hand on the bedpost that had so offended him earlier. Here's an example of one Draco won:
__ __ __ __ __ __
R G
A M
E F
FERRET
"Ha, very amusing Granger," Draco had spat, angry at the outcome. She sighed.
"Oh lighten up, it's just a game. Honestly, you must have never played games when you were little…"
"Was I supposed to?" Draco asked. Hermione looked at him for a second before laughing again- but this made Draco confused. He wasn't being sarcastic then, that was genuine. Hermione looked up from laughing and saw the puzzled look on his face and stopped immediately.
"You weren't joking, were you?" she asked carefully. His head jerked around to look at her, and his eyes narrowed dangerously.
"It's none of your business Mudblood." Hurt, but determined not to show it, she shrugged and picked up the parchment and quill, setting them on the nightstand next to her as they were before.
"Fine. I'm going to sleep now, so amuse yourself…and don't interpret that the wrong way please." Hermione rolled over and once again, tried to go to sleep. Draco flipped her back the finger heatedly, but it didn't give him half as much satisfaction as it should have. He sighed softly and tried to go to sleep himself.
--
The next morning, Hermione, Draco and Terry were out of the Hospital Wing. Hermione had taken one last look at Ginny, who was being visited by Nora, and then left with her wand safely in her grasp. She and Terry started talking about what they had missed while Draco went sloping off towards the dungeons, no doubt where the Slytherin Common Rooms were. "I'll see you in Charms," Hermione said to Terry, waving goodbye as she started to jog towards the Great Hall. Something told her Ron and Harry would be in there.
"Hey!" she said, coming behind the two. They turned around and grinned widely.
"You're out!" Harry said, giving her a hug. Ron looked a little wary, so Hermione just laughed and patted him on the head.
"Good Ronnie." Ron grinned and motioned for her to sit across from them. She did so, making sure she wouldn't get her robes caught on something.
"How's Ginny?" Ron and Harry asked in unison, then laughing because of the similarity.
"Honestly, you two spend way too much time together," Hermione said. "Her condition hasn't changed."
"Oh," replied Ron, disappointed. There was an awkward silence before Hermione reached noisily for a piece of bread.
"Oh God, I forgot how good solid food tastes!" Hermione said, sinking her teeth into the still-hot bread. Harry reached for on as well.
"They're not bad are they?" he remarked, biting into it himself. Hermione shook her head, satisfied with her small-talk attempt. All of a sudden she clamped her hand to her mouth in horror. Ron and Harry looked at her quizzically.
"What's up?" Ron asked, mouth full with a roll.
"I missed the first day of classes! I'll be so behind!" she exclaimed, getting up in a hurry and knocking over the breadbasket as a result. Harry laughed.
"Don't worry Hermione, they postponed classes to figure out what that…that red boomy thing was," he finished lamely.
"Oh," Hermione said, sitting down embarrassedly. "Well did they figure out what it was?" Ron shook his head.
"No."
--
It didn't take Draco long to change. Throwing on a black t-shirt, he looked out the window at the grass below. The height of his dorm room had always pleases him; although the entrance and common room were deep in the dungeons, the dormitories inclined upwards into a tower. Looking down on the world gave Draco both a sense of overwhelming power and that of wanting to be violently sick. He steadied himself, grabbed his wand and began to walk down the steps to the Common Room. A well placed high heel altered his plans ever so slightly.
His nose and dignity slightly squashed, Draco brought himself to his feet as gracefully as possible. "Bugger off Blaise," he said to the smirking girl resentfully. "I don't need anything else bruised thanks."
"You stupid git, don't you know anything?" Blaise asked incredulously. Although a little taken aback, Draco merely shrugged and tried to get past her; she stuck her arm out to stop him. He stopped dead, scowling.
"Make it quick."
"I can't quite believe you didn't know a Doomrae when you saw one," she said.
"A what?"
"Oh come on!" Blaise threw up her hands in frustration. "From the description Pansy gave me, it was definitely a Doomrae. Brought in by a big, jet black owl with silver talons? Come on, did your father teach you nothing?" Draco thought back; the silver talons twinkled forebodingly in his memory.
"Oh…my bad." Draco replied, trying to push his way past her. This time she obliged, but was smirking unbearably wide.
"I suggest you look up the side effects Draco. It might come in handy." With that last piece of malevolent advice, she sauntered away, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
"'I suggest you look up the side effects Draco'", he mimicked, in a bad mood now. "'I suggest you bash your head into a wall Draco'…honestly." He thwacked the wall with his wand angrily and a thousand blue sparks ricocheted off of the stone steps and wall. He stood there, watching his own work contently. "I feel better now." Draco looked at his watch; if it served him correctly, breakfast was being served. Walking out of the doors to Slytherin Common Room, he looked around. He started to go towards the Great Hall, but the sight of the steps ascending to the library stopped him.
The temptation to follow up Blaise's comment was too great for him to quell. Looking from side to side to make sure no one was watching, he walked into the library. The musty smell of books hit him like Granger in third year: stinging and sharp. Madam Pince looked over her spectacles at him and sniffed. Undoubtedly, she was not a fan of the Malfoy bloodline. Draco rolled his eyes at her before walking over to the Restricted Section. Madam Pince was on him like a vulture.
"You are aware, Mr. Malfoy, that the Restricted Section is-"
"Restricted. Yes, vaguely," he replied sarcastically. Madam Pince drew herself up, offended.
"Well do you have a teacher's note?"
"Yeah," Draco replied, absently whipping out a year old note from Professor Snape. Madam Pince inspected it closely, finishing her inquiry with a triumphant smile on her face.
"I'm afraid this is a year old Mr. Malfoy."
"Well, in the Hogwarts Creed chapter four section twenty two, once a teacher gives you a note it is valid until destroyed," Draco said, sounding very much like he was reciting the text. Her owlish eyes blinked.
"Oh. Well then- one book." Disgruntled, she went back behind her desk.
"Stupid prat," Draco muttered. What kind of a prick would memorize the Hogwarts Creed? Well, besides for that Peter Weasley…
His pale fingers traced the spines of the books, which were so old they felt like the very earth had sprung up and become books. A large black volume caught his eye; it had a drip of blood frozen along its side. Draco quietly and quickly slid it out of its place and opened it in his arms. The contents blinked up at him. It was definitely the book he needed.
His thoughts pelted his mind like a hard rain: If Dumbledork just knew more about Dark Magic they'd know instantly what that thing was…I can't believe I didn't realize it before!...oh that's a disturbing image…here we are! The Doomrae.
THE DOOMRAE
"Known as thee 'Bringer of Doom', it comes in thee silver talones of a black owl, which has all thee characteristics of a snowy owl except its jet black. The Doomrae wille rise itselfe up and burst into its natural form, usually a dangerous ray of light (thus the name Doomrae) that can blind, disorient, render unconscious, kill (among other things) to those closest to it at the momente of imploding. Those it affects can experience such things as heade paine, memory losse or unexplained black outs.
"Bloody hell," Draco said to himself. "This doesn't look promising." Shutting the book with a loud 'thump', he brought it over to Madam Pince's desk. "This one please." She looked down at him doubtfully.
"That book? Why?" she asked suspiciously.
"For school," he said, wanting dearly to add 'you old bat'. She shrugged, picked it up and prodded it with her wand. It shuddered and then lay still.
"There you go. Enjoy." Draco nodded to her and left with it under his arm, intending to go up to the Common Room and study it further.
--
Hermione had forgotten her Arithmancy book. She sprinted down the hallway alarmingly fast, dodging students and statues along the way. As she ran, she saw Filch skulking down the hallway with his loathsome cat. She bit her lip and stopped dead, looking around for an alternate route. A door she had never noticed before was to her right, the room inside with light that crushed her eyesight. Filch was approaching fast, and first class has already started; it didn't look good.
Quickly, she ducked into the room and immediately felt herself being pushed forwards. The light faded away and left Hermione squinting into the now overpowering darkness. A single torch was lit, and it illuminated the sign that said 'LIBRARY'. She stomped her foot in frustration. The library is nowhere near the Common Room! Looking around herself, she suddenly felt a stab in her head, so painful she collapsed onto the cold stone floor. Holding her hand to her head, she attempted to get back up but failed.
To her shock, she found herself fallen on something soft; something that felt human. Hermione shrieked and inched away from it, wide eyed with horror. The person got up, nursing his own head. He looked about as bad as Hermione felt. The torch was pinched out, and it was tinged blue with the gloomy light from the outside window. Hermione strained to see through the blue, locating the boy she had fallen on. His blond hair fell over his wide eyes. They both looked at each other and at the same instant opened their mouths in terror.
"Who are you?!?"