Muggle Year
by Virgi Ca

Chapter 11: Death of the Sorting Hat?

A/N: Is the problem sorted out? Does anyone still see any weirdo signs? Except for my friend, who complained first thing in the morning when I went back to school that there were all sorts of Chinese characters on her screen. ~_~

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

'You sure that's what that Weasley said? You think I heard wrong?'

'Nope, we all heard that Ginny said that she didn't have anything to do with Malfoy.'

'But why is she always around him now? And he doesn't even think its bothering, like he does with every other girl.'

'Does that include Pansy Parkinson?'

'Maybe.'

'Well, I don't know about you, but I know Ron's gonna be furious about this, wait until we see what he says about them, it might even be beyond the shagging.'

'Oh come on, what can there be more?'

'You never know.' The huge pack of students from various houses that were chattering in the corridor suddenly stopped when a voice screeched down the corridor.

'YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW DRACO MALFOY!' Virginia yelled, appearing at the end of the long corridor, her face flushed, obviously running up stairs. The pack of students turned and looked down the other corner and saw Draco freeze in place, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and Millicent with him. Myra stopped in her tracks when she opened the door of the Medical Wing, wanting to find Draco who was not there.

'Did you hear someone call me Vincent?' Draco asked, looking around, deliberately ignoring Virginia, sticking his hands in his robe pockets.

'Oh don't give me that I-don't-know-you look Draco Malfoy, I've seen it too much.' Virginia seethed, stomping forward, 'give me back that vile, or I swear I'll curse your head off.'

'What? Oh, it's you, my dear potion partner Miss Weasley, how do you do? It's been a while since I've seen you.' Draco said in a fake voice, smirking at her.

Virginia stopped and glared at him, 'Yes, I'm glad to see you too Mr. Malfoy, now will you kindly give me that vile that was suppose to reside in the little cupboard down the dungeons?' she held out her hand and waited, tapping her feet.

'Vile? What vile? Did I hear wrong?' Draco asked, blinking.

'Give it back Malfoy, it's Veritaseum!' Virginia screamed, jumping on him unexpectedly. The other students screamed at the word Veritaseum and backed away, even the Slytherins. Virginia pinned him to the floor by sitting on his stomach and dug into his robes, taking out a vile with see through liquid. Smiling in satisfaction she stood up and glared down at Draco, who glared back at her.

'You could have at least used more dignified ways Weasel.' Draco grunted, standing up, 'no one said that I'd use it.'

'Right.' Virginia scoffed, taking it away when Draco tried to snatch it back, 'I know you want to use it, or you wouldn't spend all the effort in trying to steal it when I wasn't around.' She turned and stuck her nose in the air, walking towards the medical wing, 'your out of luck though, this is going back into the cupboard.'

'Come on Weasley,' Draco pleaded, following her, 'just one drop.'

'No.'

'Please?'

'NO!'

Pansy glared them, then turned on her heal and left.

The others stared as they disappeared through the white door, could it be true that they were friends, or even more?

_____________________________________________________________________________

'Come on Virginia, one drop.' Draco pleaded again, closing the sound proof door behind them.

'No, no no no no no.' Virginia repeated firmly, tossing the bottle in the air then catching it again, looking back at him warily, 'I know what you want to do Draco, you want to give it to Harry or the other Gryffindor, just to humiliate them, I won't let that.'

'Please, it would be so much fun to know what that Scar boy thinks, and it would help that stupid brother of yours to get the guts and say what he wants to to Granger.' Draco reasoned. Virginia thought for a second and Draco's eyes lit up, 'Please Virginia?'

'No.' Virginia said firmly, opening to door to their working room, 'Snape comes back it two days time and I don't want him knowing that his precious Veritaseum's missing and all. Nope, it would be so embarrassing too, I don't think you'd like that either would you?'

'Goody-two-shoe Weasley.' Draco muttered, throwing himself onto the couch, blowing the blonde hair out of his face.

Virginia shrugged, 'I don't deny that, that's my reputation.'

An awkward friendship had developed between them ever since the incident in the Chamber of Secrets. They had agreed to keep it a secret, although they hadn't really said anything about it, they just knew what they had to do. When they were in public, they call each other Weasley and Malfoy, when they were alone, Virginia and Draco was fine by them.

'Snape's coming back in three days?' Draco frowned, leaning his head back, 'it's been three weeks already?'

Virginia nodded, opening a book, 'we start Christmas Holiday's tomorrow.'

'You mean this afternoon,' Draco corrected, 'our lessons are over.'

Virginia shrugged, 'whatever.'

'Wonder what Snape would make us do when he comes back.'

Virginia turned on her stool, book in hand, 'Just don't let him know that you've taken the Veritaseum, or he'll have my head.' She glared, hopping off the stool.

Draco smiled evilly, 'can't guarantee anything, keep that in mind.' Virginia rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, carrying the book. 'Hey, have you found out about that curse used in Dark Marks?' he called, following her.

Virginia shook her head and glared at him, 'that's not only my job you know, why do I always get the nasty stuff?'

Draco shrugged, sitting down, crossing his arms, 'ever wondered where Snape went?'

Virginia looked up thoughtfully, 'I don't know really, but some people say that he'd eloped with a woman.'

Draco let out a laugh, 'him? Would anyone want him?'

Virginia grinned, 'beats me, you never know.'

'Hey, I've been wondering, do we have those ruddy dance lessons during holidays?' Draco asked, leaning forward.

Virginia shrugged, 'Don't know, maybe the students will ask, you know the activities are so popular now. Everyone's just so happy when their doing whatever they need to.'

'Right, and I've never seen so much happiness in the Slytherin common room.' Draco said sarcastically.

'You seem happy enough, you're a good dancer.' Virginia commented, turning the page over.

Draco shrugged, 'I've learnt it before, not a surprise and not something new to me. My mother was a dancer before she married my Father, you know, something like Lesley.'

'Really?' Virginia raised her eyebrows, 'you and Pansy dance good.'

Draco smirked, 'right, but I tell you, she's not that good as she seems when she's with me, sometimes the partner just makes you look good.'

'Really?' Virginia said quietly, lowering her head.

'You don't seem too good with Fletchey, want me to teach you or something, not like I'm going to be your partner though.' Draco warned, standing up. He grabbed her hand and pulled her from her chair, ignoring her protests.

'Draco, I don't think it's proper to dance in the infirmary.' Virginia laughed as he twirled her around.

'Who cares, no one's in here.' Draco said breezily. They did the tango routine that Lesley had taught for the past months, and Draco had a feeling that Virginia wasn't dancing to her full, just hastily playing with him. He suddenly dipped her and looked into her face, 'not bad, for a person who wasn't trained until September.' He said, grinning.

'Thank you so much for the complement Mr. Draco.' Virginia said warily, 'I'm flattered.'

'What, are you two doing?' another voice said sternly. They both turned their heads towards the door and saw Charlie standing there with an amused look on his face, 'I thought you guys weren't even considered friends. As I recall Ginny, you said that Draco Malfoy was "a git that was determined to destroy you".'

'Oh shut up Charlie.' Virginia said as Draco lifted her up by the waist, 'just, just don't tell anyone about this, uh, little incident.'

'You guys aren't, well, on a relationship are you?' Charlie asked, sitting down on the bed nearby.

Draco shook his head without a trace of embarrassment, 'Nope, none at all, just, what should I say, friends? But nothing else.'

Charlie raised his eyebrows, 'friends? Slytherin and Gryffindor'

Virginia shrugged, sitting down, 'friends, if you can say that, friends who bicker, threaten and curse each other.' She added, grinning.

'I hope that's just it.' Charlie muttered under his breath.

'Hey Virginia, there's another book on the list in invisible ink.' Draco said, motioning her to come to his side.

'What?' Virginia squeaked, rushing forward. Draco tapped his wand on the small piece of parchment and words started to float onto the last line. 'I'm going to kill Snape!' she declared.

'Let's go, he comes back in three days, I don't want him to give me more work than I have to do.' Draco said, pulling her by the arm, leading her out of the infirmary.

I just hope that they're just friends, and nothing more. Charlie sighed mentally, looking at the door.

_____________________________________________________________________________

'I am deader than dead.' Draco pronounced, throwing himself onto the common room sofa. He messaged the side of his head and sighed, plopping his feet on the cafe table in front of him. He had just finished the last essay with Virginia and it was almost mid-night. Bidding his partner good night he trudged his way back to the Slytherin dungeons, wanting nothing but to get back his sleep he had lost for the past two months.

'Draco?' a silky voice rang, 'you okay?' small hands started to message his shoulders, releasing the stress.

Unconsciously Draco leaned backwards, sighing in pleasure as her hands expertly messaged his muscles. He had to admit that Pansy was doing a good job, and wasn't that annoying when she was whining about this and that. At least she has some use. Draco didn't deny the fact that Pansy was a better dancer than everyone else, but he couldn't help but think that her talent when only to there, that there was no more room for improvement.

'You've been away from the common room for so long, all you do is work with that Gryffindor until midnight.' Pansy pouted, sitting beside him.

Draco shrugged, 'that's my work.'

'Draco? Why are you still up at this time in the morning?' Crabbe asked, walking through the stone doors in his pajamas with Goyle and a few other Slytherins.

'Work.' Draco grunted, 'I had work, everyone knows.'

'What work? Shagging girls?' Pucey, the Quidditch team captain sneered, still mad that Draco didn't get the snitch from Harry, which was like the nth time.

'No,' Draco said flatly, 'work, implying the tremendous burden Snape decided to bestow on me and Weasel.'

'What is it in that girl that let's you put up with her so long?' Goyle wondered, unwrapping his sandwich he had snatched from the kitchens.

'Yeah,' Montague, another chaser from the Quidditch team said, throwing himself onto the green easy chairs, 'you get all worked up when people from other houses even touch you, but that girl just keeps ticking you off, I'm surprised you haven't wrung her neck yet.'

'One thing is, if she's dead, I won't have anyone to put the blame on.' Draco smirked.

'One thing,' Hase said, 'but rumors are flying around the whole school and there was this time I heard, Weasley was trying to seduce you to get some information for her little crush Harry Pot-head.' The room roared with laughter. They didn't care if they stayed up all night, Snape never minded and no other teacher dared to enter their common room.

'Oh please, Draco wouldn't be interested in a wretch like her.' Pansy argued, leaning her head on his shoulder. The others whistled and catcalled while Draco rolled his eyes inwardly, but had no intention to push her away.

'Yo, what's up?' a few sleepy voices asked, the girls from the senior years walked down the stairs. 'What? Having a mid-snack in the common room?' Millicent yawned.

'Yup, and seeing how bold Miss Parkinson can be around our Serpent king.' Montague joked. Pansy stuck her tongue out at him, then snuggled close to Draco. There was a sudden knock on the stone door and Montague turned to open it. Draco raised his eyebrows at the sight of Virginia standing there, looking on guard.

'Oh, if it isn't the little slut that wants to gain the attention of our Draco, ain't it fellows?' Montague sneered as the others agreed and snickered, 'I didn't know that Gryffindors can be that bold.'

'What are you doing in our common room Weasley?' Pansy demanded.

Virginia frowned, clutching her wand in her robe pocket. Her eyes landed briefly on Draco, who just stared at her, then snickered like the rest. Virginia turned back to Montague, 'Professor McGonagal told me to tell your house that we will have dinner earlier, at six o'clock and that all students have to punctual, or marks will be cut off. She also wanted to tell you that Professor Snape would be back by tomorrow evening and wants you people to behave.' She reported in a formal voice. She couldn't help but feel a chill run up her spine.

Montague leaned forward and touched her chin with one finger, 'why not stay, your beautiful enough to make my mouth water.' The others roared again with laughter.

Virginia just looked back at him evenly and slapped his hand away, 'Get your filthy hands off me.' Without another word, she flounced out of sight, her long hair flying behind her.

'Wretch.' Montague muttered as the stone walls closed.

'Who cares, she's just a Gryffindor, a Weasley no less.' Millicent smirked.

'Point taken.'

_____________________________________________________________________________

'I swear Ginny, your getting worse than Hermione, all you go to is the Library, the dungeons, the medical wing and the dance studio, get a life.' Ron commented as Virginia stepped in, a stack of books in hand. It was a Christmas Day afternoon and most of the Gryffindors were seated in the common room. As usual Virginia had gotten up early in the morning and buried herself into the potion books she got from the library, but she hadn't seen Draco the whole morning.

'Ginny, it's Christmas Day and your still studying, you are indeed worse than Hermione.' Lavender agreed.

Virginia shrugged, 'I have nothing else to do, it's not like you guys need me or anything.' She looked at them coldly and started for the stairs, but Harry grabbed her arm, stopping her.

'Look Gin, we're really sorry for the Polyjuice incident, but it's Christmas Day, family day, and here, the Gryffindors are your family, not the Library, just forgive us will you?' Harry pleaded.

'Yeah Ginny, we're sorry.' Parviti said.

Virginia sighed, 'Guess I can't be mad at you guys all day, it's not good for my health.' Harry grinned and let go of her arm, leading her to the sofas.

'Hey guys, what's up?' Charlie walked into the common room hand in hand with Lesley.

'Hey Charlie come over here.' Ron waved.

'Gryffindor family day.' Charlie commented, 'hadn't had one in ages.'

'Lesley, are we gonna have any dance lessons during Christmas?' Lavender asked.

'Well, we can if you want to.' Lesley smiled, 'but I'm a bit busy, but you're all free to use the studio. Actually, there would be something I'd like to do, or I have to do during the holidays and I plan to finish it before school starts again, so, yeah, we are going to have lessons.'

'Well, we're going hunting on Thursday.' Dean said, 'I think it's gonna be fun.'

'Claude said we'd get to play around whenever we like, the area is almost always full of students.' Colin added.

'I guess this Muggle Year programme is a big success.' Charlie said, grinning.

'Yeah, even the Slytherin's seem to be having fun.' Ron smirked.

'So, how's your potions going?' Seamus asked, turning his attention to Virginia.

Virginia shrugged, a bit uncomfortable, 'you know, a bit of this a bit of that, then poof, you get something to hand in. I sometimes even wonder if Snape reads all those essays I give him.'

'What do you guys research about anyway?' Hermione asked curiously.

'Mostly about dark arts, to be honest, I really don't know why he wants us to research so much about all these dark magic, we even had to do an essay on you-know-who.'

'What?' Geraldine squeaked, 'but that – that's – '

'I'm just doing research on him, I'm not summoning him.' Virginia said dryly.

'Students, please go to the Great Hall now, Dumbledore is back and we are expecting some guests to arrive soon. Please wear all your working robes, uniforms and tidy up everything on you before you go down, I do not want any ridiculous ornaments of any sort.' Professor McGonagal said, closing the portrait hole. She had been quite grumpy these days, partly because Dumbledore was not at Hogwarts.

'Guests?' the Gryffindors looked at each other.

_____________________________________________________________________________

'What is going on that we don't know?' Ron demanded as they entered the great hall. The place was decorated overnight with decorations of all four houses. The other students filed in, equally curious on what was happening. Each year they wore whatever they wanted at the Christmas Feast, and something else that was weird was, no students were allowed to go back home for Christmas, but the Professor McGonagal had announced that they would be allowed during Spring Break instead.

The Gryffindors all settled down, looking at the staff table. At least ten more chairs were set up and the four tables seemed longer than usual, because there were seats left.

Dumbledore and the teachers filed into their seats, the chatting stopped immediately. A lot of students were curious on where Dumbledore had gone.

'Students,' Dumbledore began, standing up, looking around with the same twinkling kindness in his eyes, 'I am pleased to be back at Hogwarts and equally pleased to see that all have behaved during my two week absence. I am glad to announce that we have a new student joining us at Hogwarts, and we will need to conduct another sorting. Headboy and Headgirl please.'

The Headboy from Hufflepuff and Headgirl from Slytherin pushed open the doors and walked up with the two sorting hats.

'I am the best sorting hat in the whole world!' the black one that sorted out houses said, steam coming out.

'Well, I'm new, and so I'm better, you'd think the school would still need a ragged old hat like you!' the silver one screeched. The two students rolled their eyes as they walked up to the platform, putting them on the table.

'Our new student whom would be sorted, is Adrian Bradley, a sixth year, whom Professor Snape had kindly taken to Hogwarts from Azkaban.' Dumbledore announced. All the students gasped and turned looking towards the opened doors.

A tall boy with jet black hair was standing there wearing black Hogwarts robes and Snape was standing behind him. His eyes were a cold blue color and was looking down the isle with a hard look.

'It's the youngest person ever to get thrown into Azkaban!' Seamus hissed to the Gryffindors, 'the Daily Prophet had been reporting about him when he got out at summer, I had no idea he was still going to school!'

'He's sixteen, of course he's going to school, we just didn't know that he was going to Hogwarts.' Parvati snapped, staring at the boy who walked down the isle slowly, his robes bellowing at his feet.

He was non the less another student, but what made him so extraordinary was not only because of his past, but also because he had long straight sleek black hair that went down to his waist, tied up on his head in a ponytail.

'You'd think he was a friggin' girl.' Dean muttered, his eyes following him. The whole hall quiet down when Adrian sat down onto the stool.

'I told you that they liked me better!' the silver sorting hat said smugly as McGonagal dropped it onto his head. Almost instantly it shouted, 'DANCE!'

Virginia heard the girls gasp and some girls from Ravenclaw in Dance giggled. He was obviously attracting a lot of attention, although some looked quite scared at his expression and the fact that he was a prisoner from Azkaban.

'I'm still the best!' the black sorting hat declared as it was dropped onto Adrian's head, and the weirdest thing happen, the sorting hat talked out loud and everyone in the hall could here it, not the little voice beside your ear. 'Hmm… very tricky student, just like Harry Potter five years ago. You were released from Azkaban am I correct? Sixteen years old, thrown into jail without a trial at the age of thirteen, a sixth year… hmm, where should I put you?' All the students were listening quietly, some shocked faces around.

'Well, I can't see you being in Hufflepuff, no, it does not suit you, no to Ravenclaw too, they are too mild for you… hmm… Gryffindor? Not likely… well, no not likely… Slytherin? Let me see……'

All eyes were focused on the sorting hat as it listed out the possibilities. It took a good deal of five minutes and still it couldn't make out its decision.

'What more does it have to think about, just throw him in Slytherin, he looks like he should be in that stinky house.' Ron muttered.

Virginia looked at the hat, then suddenly felt heat in her chest, a second later the sorting hat gave out a blood-curling scream started to crumple on Adrian's head, then fell off.

'Oh my!' McGongal cried, staring at the hat in horror. All the other teachers and some students at the back stood up to get a better view.

'Gryffindor…' the hat said in a small voice before the tip fell to the floor in a heap along with the brim of the hat.

The whole hall burst into commotion as they all stared at Adrian, who was looking down at the steaming hat.

'Minerva, please take the hat to my office, see what Fawkes can do.' Dumbledore said grimly, looking at the old hat. McGonagal nodded and picked the hat up carefully, disappearing behind the back door.

'I'm terribly sorry for the incident Adrian, but at least the hat has sorted you, welcome you to Gryffindor.' Dumbledore said. 'I expect that all students shall lend a helping hand to our new friend.'

Adrian nodded and stood up, walking down the stairs, the long tail of hair swinging at his waist. All eyes were on him as he walked down the Gryffindor table, then sat beside Virginia, who was sitting at the far end. He turned and gave her a small smile, holding out his hand, 'Nice to meet you, Ginny Weasley.'

End of Chapter 11

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

Next Chapter will be up tomorrow!!