Muggle Year
by Virgi Ca

Chapter 9 : Wolfsbane Emergency

A/N: Reviews are good, very good, good for health, good for writer's block. ^_^ You wouldn't want the poor old author to catch one would you?

The normal version without any weird signs (if any) and pictures drawn: http://muggleyear.wildimagination.net/index.htm

Everyone seemed to be afraid of Virginia by now since her outburst in the medical wing. Rumors flew across the school like wild fire and people whom past her either snickered, if they were Slytherins, glared, if they where crushers of Draco Malfoy, or stared, if they were the ones who thought she was the goody-two-shoe.

Hey, but I am a goody-two-shoe. Virginia protested mentally, I mean, I don't do anything bad, the little unknown girl at Hogwarts. This was so ironic, before, she had complained that no one noticed her, and now, she hated all the attention people where giving her. Even the professors sometimes looked at her strangely, Professor McGonagal almost wanted to pull her aside and have a talk with her. Must have been those rumors of me shagging with Malfoy.

It had been two weeks already and she was still in cold war with her brother. Time didn't prove to be a good cure for rumors, but she found herself not bothering about it anymore. Draco didn't find the rumors disturbing and went on with his life, getting tortured by Snape was first on the list. He was giving them more and more work to do and they often had to stay up until midnight, thankfully Snape had given them permission to roam about the school until three in the morning, which was so obviously a torture to them.

You'd think Snape would be a little nicer with Malfoy, but nope, I think he wants to blame me now for not getting his beauty sleep. Virginia thought, pulling her hair up and examining her face in the mirror. She proceeded to adjust the straps, then pulled on her leg warmers and ballet shoes. Satisfied she pushed aside the curtains, bumping right into Lavender and Parvati.

'Oh, uh, hi Ginny!' Lavender greeted nervously.

Virginia just stared at her expressionlessly and walked away. Scratch the previous thought, I'm in cold war with all the Gryffindors. Parvati sighed and Lavender shook her head. Virginia shrugged, not bothering to even take a look, she was still mad about them, especially the three musketeers. 'Lesley!' she called.

'Ginny?' Lesley looked up from her board and smiled, patting the seat beside her, 'what's up?' it was still very early since it was the period after lunch, and students liked to wait until the very last minute. Other students in dance were bustling around, changing and all.

Virginia looked out the window where someone was preparing to dive off the springboard. Although it was already November, December coming, the water sports area was still very warm because Dumbledore had cast a charm for heat. She watched as the girl, who looked at Millicent Bulstrode, fall into the water with a huge splash. She looked back and sighed, 'I really hate Professor Snape.'

'Doesn't everyone hate him?' Lesley laughed, 'but I know why you do, Charlie told me all about the thing Ron and his friends, or lets say the whole Gryffindor house was up to. You really freaked him out and Charlie laughed a whole hour on the bed at your conversation with Seamus.'

Virginia rolled her eyes and stretched, 'I'm still not forgiving them, I mean, come on! I know better than to really have anything with Malfoy.'

'Well,' Lesley looked up thoughtfully, 'You can't blame them for overreacting, from what I've heard from Harry and Ron, Draco seems like a real git to them.'

'Well, to them, yes, to me, yes too.' Virginia sighed, 'but what can I do? It would be so stupid to go back to fifth grade potions, besides, Snape would forbid it.'

Lesley patted her shoulder, 'well, learn to live with it, you'll have to learn more when you grow up.'

Virginia looked at the board curiously, 'why are you ordering so much costumes from Agatha's? We have more than enough don't we?' She picked up the catalogue that was lying between them and flipped through, her eyes scanning the costumes and accessories, 'why are ordering this stuff? It's not like we're gonna have a performance or anything.'

Lesley grinned and took the catalogue, 'you'll see.' Virginia shrugged as Lesley stood up, clapping her hands, 'Students, please group back to your own section and I'll revise the stuff you did last time by group.'

Virginia walked to the senior years and found her partner, whom was Justin Finch Fletchey. He seemed to be a very nice guy, but ever since the Polyjuice incident, he seemed kind of weird whenever they had duo dancing, and the fact that Justin couldn't always remember the steps correctly made it more difficult.

'Uh, hi Ginny.' Justin greeted, 'ready?' Virginia nodded and he put his arms at the side of her waist nervously.

Virginia rolled her eyes and put her hands on his, feeling his skin twitch under her touch, 'hold on tighter, I don't want to fall and break my back.'

'Uh, yeah.' Justin stammered, blushing slightly. Virginia cursed inwardly as they began the routine again. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Draco practicing the tango routine with Pansy, she hated to admit that he was really a great dancer, as if he had been dancing at a very young age.

After about thirty minutes, Lesley finally walked to them. The first and second years were still doing ballet while the third and fourth years were doing modern dance. Lesley looked around and her eyes landed on Draco and Pansy, 'Since you have all been practicing for so long, mind giving a little performance to the class?' she asked.

Some girls from Ravenclaw squealed, it was recognized that Draco and, well, Pansy were the best dancer. Virginia never really danced good in front of anyone since she didn't want to show off and Lesley understood that too. Lesley motioned all the others and they gathered in front of the couple.

Draco cursed inwardly and nodded, while Pansy has a smug look on her face and stared straight at Virginia. Virginia had figured out that she really hated her. And I mean really. Virginia thought, it's not like I've stolen her boyfriend or anything.

As the upbeat music started, the two started swirling around the dance floor in front of the mirror. Virginia had to admit that Pansy was good and seemed really enjoying it, spinning around her heals as Draco held her in place, dipping her to the floor. Her dark brown hair shimmered in the sunlight and spotlights, she would actually be drop dead gorgeous if her face wasn't slightly like a pug, and she had an incredible figure.

'Excellent!' Lesley exclaimed as all the students clapped and some guys catcalled.

The door suddenly creaked open and Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts stepped in.

'May I help you Mr. Filch?' Lesley asked pleasantly, standing up.

Filch eyed Pansy and Draco, then closed the door behind him, 'Miss Chestwood, Professor Snape would like to see Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley in the Dungeons.'

Virginia looked at him in surprise, then turned to Lesley.

'Well, its better that you hurry, wouldn't want Severus to fry you two.' Lesley said, shooing them.

Virginia stood up while Draco sighed as the two followed Filch out of the studio.

_____________________________________________________________________________

'Professor?' Virginia pushed open the door to Snape's office and was surprised to see that it was all neat and tidy, which was not what the office was meant to be.

'You wanted us?' Draco asked, walking into the room.

'Yes.' Snape said. He rummaged through the drawer and took out eight pieces of parchment and another one that was smaller. Draco and Virginia groaned at the same time. 'I will be away from Hogwarts for a while, about three weeks, and while I'm not here, another teacher will substitute, but I have given you two permission to use your potions lesson to research on all these materials. This parchment,' he held out the small one, 'is the permission to get books from the restricted area, I have already confronted Madame Pince so you can take it anytime. I want you to brew all these concoction before I come back.

'Great, just great.' Virginia heard Draco mutter when Snape turned around and faced his cupboard of ingredients.

'This is the key to my cupboard, I trust you two to use it wisely and I want some achievement when I come back.' Snape looked at his two students, 'And please practice your Wolfsbane while your at it, I still don't know if yours will work.' He sneered at Virginia, who winced and back slightly. 'Anyway, all this homework will be handed in to me after Christmas, I will be back on the day before Christmas starts, you have plenty of time so use it wisely. Any questions?'

Both of them side and shook their heads, cursing their Potions Master inwardly.

_____________________________________________________________________________

'Jeez, I really do not know why Snape wants us to do all this research, its not like we're gonna have anything to do with all these formulas!' Virginia roared one day, slamming the book shut and dropping her head on the table. Draco and her were in the medical wing where they set up a huge table, books and bits of parchment scattered everywhere, broken quills lying here and there. 'What does he want us to do, find a cure for the Imperius Curse?'

Draco dropped his quill and leaned back, stretching. He had to admit that he found all these reference quite useless to the wizarding daily life. All of them were about dark curses, talismans, marks and other curses associated with it. Snape had ordered them to write a parchment about the Dark Mark and the book they got from the restricted area almost sucked him into the book. All they had managed to find was the origin of Morsmorde, which obviously and unsurprisingly had something to do with Voldemart. 'I just don't understand, all these are about dark magic and potions, what do we have to do with all this?'

Virginia shrugged and lifted her head, her long wavy red hair falling into her face. 'All I know is Snape is torturing us, how many times have we been caught by Filch? McGonagal even protested on how late I was when going back to my dorm and wanted to give me detention.'

'Did anyone tell you to cut your hair?' Draco asked curiously. No one had hair longer than her, 'when did you stop cutting your hair?'

Virginia turned to him, black circles under her eyes, 'My mom tells me to do so every other day, she's even bugging me more than my big brother Bill who has fang earrings on his ear. I don't remember, I guess since first year. It had just started to grow rapidly last year.'

'Too bad its red, or it would be beautiful.' Draco smirked.

Virginia stuck out her tongue at him, pulling at her long hair, 'Well your hair's no better, it's almost white, as if your sick or something.'

'Right, I wouldn't be surprised if you could fry an egg with your hair.' Draco sneered.

'Oh shut up.' Virginia shot back, snapping her quill in half. The medical wing door opened and they stopped bickering for a second as a Slytherin from forth year came in.

'Yo Malfoy, we got Quidditch practice, won't want Pucey waiting.' He said, then smirked at Virginia, 'see you two are enjoying your love life here.'

Virginia rolled her eyes and Draco glared at him, 'I'll be there, just keep your mouth shut.'

'Right.' The guy smirked, then closed the door behind him.

'Well,' Draco exhaled loudly, 'guess I'll leave everything to you, got Quidditch.'

'What? Me again? Your so irresponsible Malfoy!' Virginia cried.

'Hey, I got my own life too.' Draco argued, standing up.

'When's the match?' Virginia asked.

'Like you'd care.' Draco scoffed, turning around, reaching for the doorknob, 'ninth of December, Gryffindor to Slytherin.' He said before slamming the door shut.

_____________________________________________________________________________

'And here are the Gryffindors! Potter team captain and seeker, Katz, Berrisford, Creevy chasers, Myers, Weasley beaters and Somerville keeper!' half of the whole stadium cheered as Dean Thomas announced the team.

'And the Slytherins! Pucey team captain and chaser, Malfoy seeker, Montague, Bruce chasers, Hase, Marshall beaters and Sherman keeper!' another half roared as green flags waved in the air.

'The second Quidditch match of the season, Gryffindors verses Slytherins!'

'Shake hands please.' Madame Hooch said, flying between the two captains. As the balls released, the game started as Dean's commentary was occasionally drowned by the cheers and screams from the audience.

Virginia looked up from her work and walked to the window. The medical wing was exactly opposite from the Quidditch pitch you could clearly see what was going on. She had decided not to watch Quidditch since Draco had thrown all the work to her, but it wouldn't hurt to just take a peak. Although she didn't really like nor hate the sport, you wouldn't not know about it when you have four brothers playing Quidditch.

She winced when Ron sent a bludger towards Draco, who dodged it and glared at him, his hair flying in his eyes. Everyone knew that Slytherin always lost to Gryffindor because Harry always got the snitch before him. It seemed that Gryffindor would always win, but Draco never seemed beat by the 'fact'.

Virginia leaned against the railing and looked as Draco soared up into the air and looked down, obviously looking for the snitch. She had to admit that he was not all bad, as she had thought in her previous four years of school life. He was very good at potions, maybe even better than Hermione. She had never asked him why he had wanted to stay at Hogwarts during summer holidays, since she sensed that it would be a very sensitive area of conversation. She had overheard some Slytherins commenting that Draco had not been that good at Potions last year and was always stomped down by Hermione. I wonder what he had done during the holiday.

Sighing she shook her head. She didn't have the time to worry about a Malfoy, she had better things to do. Lightening suddenly striked through the sky and rain started to pour. Virginia stared at the Quidditch Pitch as the players struggled to get a good view of their surrounding. Odd, why would it rain like that in December? That was when a sudden uproar rose from the pitch.

'Potter got the snitch! Malfoy missed it by an inch! But it's a tie, a tie! Two hundred to two hundred!' Dean shouted into the magical megaphone. The crowd shouted and cheered as the players landed onto the floor. Virginia frowned, Harry got the snitch again? I don't want to see Malfoy shouting at me when he gets in here. She looked up and her eyebrows furrowed at the round moon. Weird, its raining and you can still see the moon? She widened her eyes when suddenly people backed away from someone and Professor McGonagal and Madame Promfey rushed forward, a while joined by Hermione and Ron.

Virginia turned and a few seconds later the door flew open and Harry burst into the medical wing, mud and all. 'What is it?' she asked, looking at him.

'Ginny…' Harry panted, 'Professor Lupin… Wolfsbane…'

Virginia widened her eyes and covered her mouth. A moment later Professor McGonagal, Hermione and Ron came in. 'Oh dear, what shall we do, Professor Lupin forgot to drink his Potion.' Professor McGonagal said. Filch, Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinister joined.

'Why is it like that?' Harry asked, 'it's not till full moon is it Professor Sinister?'

Professor Sinister looked grave and shook her head. 'I'm sorry, but tonight, the moon is fullest in fifty years and if Remus doesn't drink Wolfsbane by midnight, I don't know what he'll do to himself, or to the school.'

'Get Snape now!' Ron said.

'Snape isn't at school Weasley.' Draco said, stepping inside, his hair dripping wet, holding his broom.

'Oh no…' Professor Flitwick squeaked, 'what shall we do? Severus is the only one who knows how to make Wolfsbane beside Professor Dumbledore!'

'Dumbledore is out too.' Filch reminded.

'Oh dear, what shall we do?' Professor Sinister sighed.

'Ginny, Draco, I heard that Severus had taught you how to brew Wolfsbane!' Professor McGonagal said.

'Uh…' Virginia looked down, 'well, yes…'

'But we haven't tested it at all, we just did it over and over again but Snape never let us test it on Lupin.' Draco interrupted.

Ron glared at him. 'As if he wouldn't die if you brewed it.'

'Mr. Weasley!'

'No matter, its better than nothing, you have to save Remus.' Professor Sinister said, 'he might be a danger to the students.'

'Ginny! You can do it!' Hermione said encouragingly.

'What about me, I know how to do it too.' Draco muttered, 'there's one problem, we're out of preserved unicorn blood.'

'WHAT?' Professor McGonagal exclaimed, 'but if you, then we… we can't possibly get it now, it has to be pre-ordered a month in advance.'

'Professor,' Hermione started, 'Unicorn blood can be replaced by Basilisk blood.'

'But how on earth are we going to get Basilisk blood? We can't go into the Chamber of Secrets again! Besides, the Basilisk is already dead!' Harry exclaimed in despair.

Basilisk…… Chamber of secrets…… Virginia looked at the people in front of her, then at Draco, then at his broom…… Virginia suddenly grabbed Draco's hand and ran, dragging him behind her.

'Weasel, what do you think your – '

'Professor McGonagal, please tell Professor Sprout to prepare the aconite, cut into strips. I'll be back in two hours time and by then the potion should be ready by eleven o'clock!' Virginia shouted over her shoulder, then pulled Draco out of the medical wing.

'Weasel… not so fast! Weasel… Weasley!' Draco yelled as Virginia pulled him down the stairs around corners, ignoring his yells. Finally they turned into a dark corridor and she halted outside a bathroom. Draco put one hand on his knees and panted, 'what in the hell was that? Why are we…' he looked up and recognized where they were.

'Moaning Myrtle's toilet?'

End of Chapter 9

A/N: Be kind and review! Email me at virginialo@wildimagination.net if you got any questions!

Thanks to my reviewers: Demon Child, Princess Evil, lupe silverwing, Angel Obsessed, Satans Little Princess, Shadow Angel, Jessica- Canada, Mionee. Is that classified as a cliffhanger? ~_~ Well anyway, I will put up some more pics when the eleventh chapter comes out, and I may post chapter 10 tomorrow or on Sunday, so watch out.