CHAPTER 4 "Fighting Back"
Over the next few weeks, the Heirs got closer.closer than biological siblings. The feud was fully over. It actually reversed. Instead of being deadly enemies, Harry and Draco were now the very best of friends.
They met weekly in Godric's Hollow, sitting on the remains of the Potters' house. One such meeting they sat solemn and silent, lost in their own thoughts, until Harry voiced something the others had been wondering about for some time.
"I don't mean to pry, Draco, but how do you know your father's dead? The Ministry hasn't let on that even they know.he's still listed as Fudge's 7th advisor!"
Draco sighed. "Potter, do you believe in Hell?"
Taken aback by the question, Harry stuttered, "Well, I-I believe in Heaven, so I suppose there must be an opposite place as well.why?"
As if he hadn't heard Harry's response, Draco continued. "There are demons in Hell. You all know Voldemort's trying to recruit anything and everything to be on his side. Dementors. Giants. The demons watch over all those sinners fit to go to Hell. They're ferocious, fearsome, but docile at first sight. The venom they can carry is deadly. No antidote. And their powers of coercion are stronger than any Imperius Curse." At this, Draco's face closed off like curtains dropping over a window. His voice flattened out. "Voldemont sent my father off to Call them. To Call them up from Hell. Tricky business. My father started about a week ago. As with any Calling, his soul went down, leaving the body behind to carry out its regular duties until the soul returned."
"But then your father may still be alive. How could he have broken the contract?" Hermione interjected.
"Listen, Granger. My father is dead-you should have seen his room a while ago. OR maybe you shouldn't've." Draco's voice painted Lucius' room as it had looked that night.
Violently red hangings at the one window, small and high, not enough to let any light or joy in. Candlelight flickering sinisterly off the dead-black wall. Unintelligible words spelled out on the chalk-white floor, horribly red. Written in blood. His blood. Heavy silence and fragments of a lost soul hanging in the eerie stillness of the air.
"That night was horrible. My mother entered the room and sunk into a dead faint. I almost did as well. Me, Draco Malfoy, who doesn't cry or faint." An odd sort of shiver passed briefly on the handsome face, leaving a deadened, haunted look in his eyes.
The three listeners stared at Draco in silence. The difference in his face after the telling of his story was startling. He looked older, more wearied. Lines creased the space between his fair eyebrows. Even his hair seemed to lose some of its vivacious vitality.
Draco's gaze shifted from Harry to Hermione and back again. One pair of sorrowful bright green flames and one set of teary warm brown eyes looked back at him. For some unknown reason, it cheered him up to see the compassion in their eyes.
Ginny was next. Draco's eyes wandered over to her, not expecting much, but it was the unexpected that he saw.
Ginny's eyes were full of bald adoration, like a lover's upon her crush. "Whoa.girl.calm yourself there," Draco thought, disoriented. What upset him was that it was apparent Ginny had no interest in what he had been saying. Sure, it was his father. But his father was worse than idead/i. Even if he wasn't a very nice person, he still didn't deserve that. No one did. It was a most horrible fate. But what did she know? She was a iWeasley/i.
*~*~*~
"In light of recent events," rang Dumbledore's voice, "it is my belief that this school needs some cheering up. Am I wrong in surmising that a school dance is in order?"
The whole school started yelling excitedly at that. Dumbledore smiled and waited for quiet.
"Safety precautions have been taken to the fullest extent," he assured them. "We have done all in our power to insure that this dance will be nothing but an event of pleasure and safety. It will take place on Friday the 3rd of October." Piece said, Dumbledore sat and was immediately engaged in conversation with Professor McGonagall.
Harry and Hermione's eyes locked together. They were going. Seeing this, Draco turned away. And seeing that, Ginny set up for her first move.
*~*~*~
iHe and the others followed, their tired eyes glinting in the half-light. They didn't want to go, but the other option was death.
"Shit.maybe even death's better than this," he thought, rubbing his eyes and running a hand through his red hair.
But the group trudged on. Little did they know what was in store for them and who was watching them at that precise moment./i
*~*~*~
"Amazing how this silent school can become a hellhole of giggles, isn't it?" Draco rolled his eyes at Harry, nodding in the direction of all the congregated Slytherin girls, all of whom were currently arguing on who would get the cutest dance partner. "You mention the word 'dance' and the whole place explodes!"
Harry grinned. "Too true. Giggling should be made illegal," he said, remembering his embarrassment in fourth year." Unconsciously, his eyes wandered once again to the other side of the room where a certain brown- haired Gryffindor female was quietly absorbed in her studies for O.W.L.s. "Now, if people could be more like her I might consider.," he joked, winking at Draco.
He didn't notice Draco's subtle change of expression. But it was so subtle that it wasn't any wonder. Draco cleared his throat and quickly put on a cheerful mask.
"So you and Hermione are going, right?"
"Yeah.I guess so," Harry said, a dreamy, faraway look in his eyes. He had become quite the dreamer ever since Dumbledore's announcement.
"Who d'you think I should go with? Should I go at all?"
That brought Harry back to earth. "Of course you should go!" he exclaimed. "And you could have practically any girl in the school if you wanted to!"
Draco didn't say anything to that. "One thing certain, though, I'm NOT going with Pansy. She is such a slut."
"Err.okay," Harry replied. Then he laughed. "I never imagined I'd hear that coming from you! I mean, number one foremost Slytherin at this school calling his Slytherin girlfriend a slut?!"
"She was inot/i my girlfriend. I swear, she wasn't. It was her and her little group of friends who stirred up that rumor." He rolled his eyes. "Trust them to come up with something like that."
"You took her to the Yule Ball.."
".Because she asked me to. I figured I wouldn't go, then she comes up and asks me, so I was just 'oh, what the heck'. So I went."
"I see. Kind of the same for me, only I had to go. Well, it was either that or have it all over the school that Harry Potter was scared of girls."
Draco smirked. "I bet you were, back then. You and Weasley. I saw you all freaking out over choosing a girl."
"Oh, be quiet, Malfoy. Or I'll be sure to tell Pansy that you love her to death."
"Fuck you, Potter," he said swatting Harry's shoulder jokingly. "As if you would ever do that!"
"Sure I would. Mark my words.one more sound out of your mouth."
"But after all, you're scared of girls."
"Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed, and Malfoy took off, running all the way to the courtyard.across it.and in the meantime scaring half a million owls out of the trees.
*~*~*~
Ginny walked over to Hermione, who was engrossed in her studies. "iTypical/i," Ginny thought.
Hermione heard her footsteps and raised her head as Ginny came closer. "Hi, Ginny. What're you up to?"
"Oh.nothing much. Wanna play chess?"
"Sure."
Ginny got out Ron's old chess set, with its figures charmed to flash different colors.
"Ginny! Did you do that?"
"Of course I did," Ginny said, smiling to herself. She knew Hermione would be impressed.
The game began.
While Ginny was making her move, Hermione's eyes wandered over to the two boys chasing each other round and round in a circle like birds or butterflies or something. She grinned. They were so cute.
"Hermione?" It was her turn.
"Knight to E3," she responded, taking one of Ginny's bishops. She looked back at the boys. They were out of breath now, and just talking again. It was funny how boys never thought of themselves as gossiping "like girls", but they did it all the same. It was apparent. And it was cute.
*~*~*~
Soft music filtered around the entire school.. girls dressed in fancy evening gowns, giggling as they waited for their partners.this is the scene that met Harry's eyes as he stepped out of his dormitory.
Like magic, his eyes zoomed directly to Hermione. Just like at the Yule Ball, her hair was all sleek and shiny.but this time curled around her shoulders, framing her face with lovely light brown velvet curtains, bringing out the color in her eyes. She was wearing dark forest green dress robes, made of a satin-y sort of material. It was simple, but it accented her natural beauty and made her look like a princess. Her sparkling eyes danced over to him, and her smile was dazzling, so that Harry couldn't help but grin in return.
They left together, the green of their two robes blending pleasantly against the red and gold décor of the Gryffindor common room.
*~*~*~
The Great Hall was fabulous, everything soft and beautiful. Hermione was lovely. Harry was handsome. Heads turned as they walked by, radiant with pleasure. But they weren't the only ones being watched.
Draco Malfoy had turned up for this as well. He was dressed in black, which made his silver-blond hair gleam like precious metals. Very dashing- looking. Eh.he was watching them. Of course he was watching them.
*~*~*~
Through all joy, there is always sorrow. And through all sorrow, there is joy. He trudged on and on, wondering where they'd come out, mouth dry, stomach a bottomless pit of hunger. His only consolation was that his cousin was beside him. They had accidentally found each other in the dark, then recognized each other as Ron and Melinda. If she could do it, so could he. Or so he thought.
*~*~*~
He could see her eyeing him, so out of courtesy, he asked her. He also just wanted to get rid of her for a while.
Ginny was happy. Incredibly happy. He hadn't even known that anyone could get that happy over a stupid dance. But whatever. He wasn't paying attention anyway.
He spent the dance with his eyes glued on Harry and Hermione, in the middle of the dance floor. "I thought Harry didn't dance," he thought sourly.
But then a sickening thought occurred to him. He was jealous. JEALOUS. Jealous of a guy who had to live through hell on Earth and beyond. Who had no parents. Who had horrors in his past others could only imagine. He, Draco Malfoy. Jealous of Harry Potter.
Horrified, he shook Ginny off with a lame excuse of having to go to the restroom. He didn't want her waiting for him, so he said he was just going to go to bed after that due to a severe headache. Ginny was worried, but Draco just brushed her off with so much anger that she lay off. He just wanted to be alone.
But he didn't go to the bathroom. He went outside. He wanted to kick the crap out of something right now, right there.
A reckless sort of anger and frustration came over him and he stood there, white and shaking with his eyes turning to cold steel and mouth firm, as if it were chiseled out of granite. He hated them both at that moment.
There was a big rosebush in front of him. He swung his foot back, ready to aim low and uproot the bush.
But he stopped. For both Harry and Hermione, which he had hated so painfully seconds before, a warm, friendly love surfaced. They were his friends. And Harry! He was the best friend Draco had ever had in all his 15 years. Crabbe and Goyle didn't count-a fingernail had more brains then they. But Draco had actually been jealous of him! He sighed. He was a fallible human being, what could he say. He headed to the boy's dorm.
*~*~*~
The song ended. And on cue, a faster song was struck up.
Harry and Hermione left the floor and went outside. It was lovely-the weather just right; a light breeze playing with their hair, the moon's light beaming down on them, its face full and bright.
They sat on a stone bench, looking up at the sky.
Harry's hand found Hermione's. In it he pressed a necklace, silver, thin, and intricately engraved.
"Listen, will you take this?" he asked.
"What is it?" she opened her hand. "My gosh!" she breathed. "A Myrathic! Wherever did you get it? They're supposed to be really rare. And why are you giving it to me? You should keep it for yourself-you're in more danger than me as of right now!"
Harry laughed. Typical Hermione, spouting questions so fast a cheetah couldn't answer them. "Well, firstly, I made it. And as for why I'm giving it to you..you're in danger too. This is a time where Voldemort is back. No one is safe, really."
"But you're in more danger than me! Keep it for yourself.that way you're safe."
"Look. Voldemort is going to try to hurt me in any way possible--"
Hermione threw up a hand. "As I've been trying to tell you! You're in much more danger than me!"
"No, wait a minute. Like I said, Voldemort is going to try to hurt me in any way possible. He doesn't care if he hurts anyone else in the process. And so, I've been thinking, 'What if he went for you?' I don't think I could stand that. And seeing you in pain would hurt me more than anyone can imagine. Just do it for me, okay?"
Hermione blushed. She sighed as she looked down at the little necklace Harry had just given her. "All right. I'll wear it.for you. But you still haven't told me how you got it."
"I told you, I made it!"
Hermione looked skeptical. "How could you have made it? Only a selected few can even get a hold of one!"
"Well, you know that in Charms we were talking about amulets, right?"
"Erm.yeah.oh, I think I see what you're getting at."
".and I was looking in a textbook and saw a picture and a description of a Myrathic."
".and you decided to ask Professor McGonagall to borrow a small chain for a Charms experiment?"
"Right in one. I thought I might as well do it properly, or else you wouldn't approve of it and you might not wear it." With that, Harry stood up and grinned down at Hermione, offering her one of his hands. "It's the last dance, Hermione."
Taking it, Hermione replied, "Harry, we haven't got time to go inside now!"
"Do we need to?" Harry's arms snaked around her waist, and taking the hint, Hermione softly laid hers around his neck.
They gazed into each other's eyes, the tension high in the air. Hermione's hand found its way to his face and stroked it, the girl smiling faintly but happily as she did so.
The song ended. One could hear Dumbledore giving the routine speech thanking them for a great time, etc. But Harry and Hermione were still outside.
The tension was too much for Harry. He swallowed hard.then.leaned forward.
"Hey, you guys gonna snog the whole night away?" The teasing voice shattered the peace as a redheaded girl came running up to them. "Hermione, I've been looking for you! Have you been outside this whole time?"
They broke apart suddenly, giving each other guilty glances.
"Ginny! It's late, honey.what are you doing out here at this time of night?" Hermione asked, snapping back to reality.
"I should ask the same of you," came the indignant reply. "I need help on my Potions homework."
"What's it on?"
"Well, we're going to be making Shrinking Solutions, as we've been studying them for the past.what.decade? And we're supposed to write up an analysis of the reactions of rat spleen to acidic wormwood-"
BANG.
"Err.what was that?" Ginny asked, whirling around.
BANG.
"What's going on?!"
BANG.
"Harry! Hermione! Where are you?!?"
BANG.
She was all alone.
Over the next few weeks, the Heirs got closer.closer than biological siblings. The feud was fully over. It actually reversed. Instead of being deadly enemies, Harry and Draco were now the very best of friends.
They met weekly in Godric's Hollow, sitting on the remains of the Potters' house. One such meeting they sat solemn and silent, lost in their own thoughts, until Harry voiced something the others had been wondering about for some time.
"I don't mean to pry, Draco, but how do you know your father's dead? The Ministry hasn't let on that even they know.he's still listed as Fudge's 7th advisor!"
Draco sighed. "Potter, do you believe in Hell?"
Taken aback by the question, Harry stuttered, "Well, I-I believe in Heaven, so I suppose there must be an opposite place as well.why?"
As if he hadn't heard Harry's response, Draco continued. "There are demons in Hell. You all know Voldemort's trying to recruit anything and everything to be on his side. Dementors. Giants. The demons watch over all those sinners fit to go to Hell. They're ferocious, fearsome, but docile at first sight. The venom they can carry is deadly. No antidote. And their powers of coercion are stronger than any Imperius Curse." At this, Draco's face closed off like curtains dropping over a window. His voice flattened out. "Voldemont sent my father off to Call them. To Call them up from Hell. Tricky business. My father started about a week ago. As with any Calling, his soul went down, leaving the body behind to carry out its regular duties until the soul returned."
"But then your father may still be alive. How could he have broken the contract?" Hermione interjected.
"Listen, Granger. My father is dead-you should have seen his room a while ago. OR maybe you shouldn't've." Draco's voice painted Lucius' room as it had looked that night.
Violently red hangings at the one window, small and high, not enough to let any light or joy in. Candlelight flickering sinisterly off the dead-black wall. Unintelligible words spelled out on the chalk-white floor, horribly red. Written in blood. His blood. Heavy silence and fragments of a lost soul hanging in the eerie stillness of the air.
"That night was horrible. My mother entered the room and sunk into a dead faint. I almost did as well. Me, Draco Malfoy, who doesn't cry or faint." An odd sort of shiver passed briefly on the handsome face, leaving a deadened, haunted look in his eyes.
The three listeners stared at Draco in silence. The difference in his face after the telling of his story was startling. He looked older, more wearied. Lines creased the space between his fair eyebrows. Even his hair seemed to lose some of its vivacious vitality.
Draco's gaze shifted from Harry to Hermione and back again. One pair of sorrowful bright green flames and one set of teary warm brown eyes looked back at him. For some unknown reason, it cheered him up to see the compassion in their eyes.
Ginny was next. Draco's eyes wandered over to her, not expecting much, but it was the unexpected that he saw.
Ginny's eyes were full of bald adoration, like a lover's upon her crush. "Whoa.girl.calm yourself there," Draco thought, disoriented. What upset him was that it was apparent Ginny had no interest in what he had been saying. Sure, it was his father. But his father was worse than idead/i. Even if he wasn't a very nice person, he still didn't deserve that. No one did. It was a most horrible fate. But what did she know? She was a iWeasley/i.
*~*~*~
"In light of recent events," rang Dumbledore's voice, "it is my belief that this school needs some cheering up. Am I wrong in surmising that a school dance is in order?"
The whole school started yelling excitedly at that. Dumbledore smiled and waited for quiet.
"Safety precautions have been taken to the fullest extent," he assured them. "We have done all in our power to insure that this dance will be nothing but an event of pleasure and safety. It will take place on Friday the 3rd of October." Piece said, Dumbledore sat and was immediately engaged in conversation with Professor McGonagall.
Harry and Hermione's eyes locked together. They were going. Seeing this, Draco turned away. And seeing that, Ginny set up for her first move.
*~*~*~
iHe and the others followed, their tired eyes glinting in the half-light. They didn't want to go, but the other option was death.
"Shit.maybe even death's better than this," he thought, rubbing his eyes and running a hand through his red hair.
But the group trudged on. Little did they know what was in store for them and who was watching them at that precise moment./i
*~*~*~
"Amazing how this silent school can become a hellhole of giggles, isn't it?" Draco rolled his eyes at Harry, nodding in the direction of all the congregated Slytherin girls, all of whom were currently arguing on who would get the cutest dance partner. "You mention the word 'dance' and the whole place explodes!"
Harry grinned. "Too true. Giggling should be made illegal," he said, remembering his embarrassment in fourth year." Unconsciously, his eyes wandered once again to the other side of the room where a certain brown- haired Gryffindor female was quietly absorbed in her studies for O.W.L.s. "Now, if people could be more like her I might consider.," he joked, winking at Draco.
He didn't notice Draco's subtle change of expression. But it was so subtle that it wasn't any wonder. Draco cleared his throat and quickly put on a cheerful mask.
"So you and Hermione are going, right?"
"Yeah.I guess so," Harry said, a dreamy, faraway look in his eyes. He had become quite the dreamer ever since Dumbledore's announcement.
"Who d'you think I should go with? Should I go at all?"
That brought Harry back to earth. "Of course you should go!" he exclaimed. "And you could have practically any girl in the school if you wanted to!"
Draco didn't say anything to that. "One thing certain, though, I'm NOT going with Pansy. She is such a slut."
"Err.okay," Harry replied. Then he laughed. "I never imagined I'd hear that coming from you! I mean, number one foremost Slytherin at this school calling his Slytherin girlfriend a slut?!"
"She was inot/i my girlfriend. I swear, she wasn't. It was her and her little group of friends who stirred up that rumor." He rolled his eyes. "Trust them to come up with something like that."
"You took her to the Yule Ball.."
".Because she asked me to. I figured I wouldn't go, then she comes up and asks me, so I was just 'oh, what the heck'. So I went."
"I see. Kind of the same for me, only I had to go. Well, it was either that or have it all over the school that Harry Potter was scared of girls."
Draco smirked. "I bet you were, back then. You and Weasley. I saw you all freaking out over choosing a girl."
"Oh, be quiet, Malfoy. Or I'll be sure to tell Pansy that you love her to death."
"Fuck you, Potter," he said swatting Harry's shoulder jokingly. "As if you would ever do that!"
"Sure I would. Mark my words.one more sound out of your mouth."
"But after all, you're scared of girls."
"Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed, and Malfoy took off, running all the way to the courtyard.across it.and in the meantime scaring half a million owls out of the trees.
*~*~*~
Ginny walked over to Hermione, who was engrossed in her studies. "iTypical/i," Ginny thought.
Hermione heard her footsteps and raised her head as Ginny came closer. "Hi, Ginny. What're you up to?"
"Oh.nothing much. Wanna play chess?"
"Sure."
Ginny got out Ron's old chess set, with its figures charmed to flash different colors.
"Ginny! Did you do that?"
"Of course I did," Ginny said, smiling to herself. She knew Hermione would be impressed.
The game began.
While Ginny was making her move, Hermione's eyes wandered over to the two boys chasing each other round and round in a circle like birds or butterflies or something. She grinned. They were so cute.
"Hermione?" It was her turn.
"Knight to E3," she responded, taking one of Ginny's bishops. She looked back at the boys. They were out of breath now, and just talking again. It was funny how boys never thought of themselves as gossiping "like girls", but they did it all the same. It was apparent. And it was cute.
*~*~*~
Soft music filtered around the entire school.. girls dressed in fancy evening gowns, giggling as they waited for their partners.this is the scene that met Harry's eyes as he stepped out of his dormitory.
Like magic, his eyes zoomed directly to Hermione. Just like at the Yule Ball, her hair was all sleek and shiny.but this time curled around her shoulders, framing her face with lovely light brown velvet curtains, bringing out the color in her eyes. She was wearing dark forest green dress robes, made of a satin-y sort of material. It was simple, but it accented her natural beauty and made her look like a princess. Her sparkling eyes danced over to him, and her smile was dazzling, so that Harry couldn't help but grin in return.
They left together, the green of their two robes blending pleasantly against the red and gold décor of the Gryffindor common room.
*~*~*~
The Great Hall was fabulous, everything soft and beautiful. Hermione was lovely. Harry was handsome. Heads turned as they walked by, radiant with pleasure. But they weren't the only ones being watched.
Draco Malfoy had turned up for this as well. He was dressed in black, which made his silver-blond hair gleam like precious metals. Very dashing- looking. Eh.he was watching them. Of course he was watching them.
*~*~*~
Through all joy, there is always sorrow. And through all sorrow, there is joy. He trudged on and on, wondering where they'd come out, mouth dry, stomach a bottomless pit of hunger. His only consolation was that his cousin was beside him. They had accidentally found each other in the dark, then recognized each other as Ron and Melinda. If she could do it, so could he. Or so he thought.
*~*~*~
He could see her eyeing him, so out of courtesy, he asked her. He also just wanted to get rid of her for a while.
Ginny was happy. Incredibly happy. He hadn't even known that anyone could get that happy over a stupid dance. But whatever. He wasn't paying attention anyway.
He spent the dance with his eyes glued on Harry and Hermione, in the middle of the dance floor. "I thought Harry didn't dance," he thought sourly.
But then a sickening thought occurred to him. He was jealous. JEALOUS. Jealous of a guy who had to live through hell on Earth and beyond. Who had no parents. Who had horrors in his past others could only imagine. He, Draco Malfoy. Jealous of Harry Potter.
Horrified, he shook Ginny off with a lame excuse of having to go to the restroom. He didn't want her waiting for him, so he said he was just going to go to bed after that due to a severe headache. Ginny was worried, but Draco just brushed her off with so much anger that she lay off. He just wanted to be alone.
But he didn't go to the bathroom. He went outside. He wanted to kick the crap out of something right now, right there.
A reckless sort of anger and frustration came over him and he stood there, white and shaking with his eyes turning to cold steel and mouth firm, as if it were chiseled out of granite. He hated them both at that moment.
There was a big rosebush in front of him. He swung his foot back, ready to aim low and uproot the bush.
But he stopped. For both Harry and Hermione, which he had hated so painfully seconds before, a warm, friendly love surfaced. They were his friends. And Harry! He was the best friend Draco had ever had in all his 15 years. Crabbe and Goyle didn't count-a fingernail had more brains then they. But Draco had actually been jealous of him! He sighed. He was a fallible human being, what could he say. He headed to the boy's dorm.
*~*~*~
The song ended. And on cue, a faster song was struck up.
Harry and Hermione left the floor and went outside. It was lovely-the weather just right; a light breeze playing with their hair, the moon's light beaming down on them, its face full and bright.
They sat on a stone bench, looking up at the sky.
Harry's hand found Hermione's. In it he pressed a necklace, silver, thin, and intricately engraved.
"Listen, will you take this?" he asked.
"What is it?" she opened her hand. "My gosh!" she breathed. "A Myrathic! Wherever did you get it? They're supposed to be really rare. And why are you giving it to me? You should keep it for yourself-you're in more danger than me as of right now!"
Harry laughed. Typical Hermione, spouting questions so fast a cheetah couldn't answer them. "Well, firstly, I made it. And as for why I'm giving it to you..you're in danger too. This is a time where Voldemort is back. No one is safe, really."
"But you're in more danger than me! Keep it for yourself.that way you're safe."
"Look. Voldemort is going to try to hurt me in any way possible--"
Hermione threw up a hand. "As I've been trying to tell you! You're in much more danger than me!"
"No, wait a minute. Like I said, Voldemort is going to try to hurt me in any way possible. He doesn't care if he hurts anyone else in the process. And so, I've been thinking, 'What if he went for you?' I don't think I could stand that. And seeing you in pain would hurt me more than anyone can imagine. Just do it for me, okay?"
Hermione blushed. She sighed as she looked down at the little necklace Harry had just given her. "All right. I'll wear it.for you. But you still haven't told me how you got it."
"I told you, I made it!"
Hermione looked skeptical. "How could you have made it? Only a selected few can even get a hold of one!"
"Well, you know that in Charms we were talking about amulets, right?"
"Erm.yeah.oh, I think I see what you're getting at."
".and I was looking in a textbook and saw a picture and a description of a Myrathic."
".and you decided to ask Professor McGonagall to borrow a small chain for a Charms experiment?"
"Right in one. I thought I might as well do it properly, or else you wouldn't approve of it and you might not wear it." With that, Harry stood up and grinned down at Hermione, offering her one of his hands. "It's the last dance, Hermione."
Taking it, Hermione replied, "Harry, we haven't got time to go inside now!"
"Do we need to?" Harry's arms snaked around her waist, and taking the hint, Hermione softly laid hers around his neck.
They gazed into each other's eyes, the tension high in the air. Hermione's hand found its way to his face and stroked it, the girl smiling faintly but happily as she did so.
The song ended. One could hear Dumbledore giving the routine speech thanking them for a great time, etc. But Harry and Hermione were still outside.
The tension was too much for Harry. He swallowed hard.then.leaned forward.
"Hey, you guys gonna snog the whole night away?" The teasing voice shattered the peace as a redheaded girl came running up to them. "Hermione, I've been looking for you! Have you been outside this whole time?"
They broke apart suddenly, giving each other guilty glances.
"Ginny! It's late, honey.what are you doing out here at this time of night?" Hermione asked, snapping back to reality.
"I should ask the same of you," came the indignant reply. "I need help on my Potions homework."
"What's it on?"
"Well, we're going to be making Shrinking Solutions, as we've been studying them for the past.what.decade? And we're supposed to write up an analysis of the reactions of rat spleen to acidic wormwood-"
BANG.
"Err.what was that?" Ginny asked, whirling around.
BANG.
"What's going on?!"
BANG.
"Harry! Hermione! Where are you?!?"
BANG.
She was all alone.