Chapter Seventeen
The Trouble with Partners
None of the teachers were talking much about Chamber, they preferred to ignore students questions, even Nadia, who was slightly hysterical since she found out her twin sister had been petrified. Ron, Hermione and Harry all trudged along to Defence Against the Dark Arts to find Rinoa in an overly cheerful sort-of mood. "Ahem. Class. Because of certain . . . circumstances." She was choosing her words carefully; evidently the other teachers had been on her case again about frightening the students.
Back in said teacher's class, all was going reasonably well and after a few uneasy minutes the entire class was laughing and smiling, well except the Slytherins, and even some of them couldn't resist Rinoa's charming personality. "So, does anyone know . . . how to deal with Pixies? . . . Okay, anyone besides Hermione? Geez, you're to smart, you know that, if everyone was like you I'd be out of a job!" Hermione blushed deeply, "Now everyone it may come as a shock, but someone has actually managed to TIE with Hermione Granger for top mark in the class on your Sea Serpent projects." Everyone looked around, wondering who it was. "Draco Malfoy! Good job!"
Malfoy looked his usual smug self, everyone else was shocked.
"Now, on a different note, for our next major assignment we'll be going out into the Forbidden Forest in pairs and your job will be to find your way back to the school while escaping the dangers of the Forest using all the stuff you know."
"I-I-Isn't that a little d-d-dangerous?" Neville asked shakily.
She nodded, "But don't worry, Neville, each of the teams will have four people plus one teacher supervisor to help ONLY if you get into something really nasty. We can only do this once 'cause the other teachers are kinda inconvenienced having to come supervise and all so it's worth A LOT."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other and smiled, they were always in the same team.
"Now . . . as a twist of sorts." She smiled evilly. "I'LL be choosing your teams."
Several students paled, "W-Why?"
"Because," She answered, "In the real world you won't always find yourself working with the witches and wizards of your choice. You may find yourself in a life threatening situation with your worst enemy and the two of you will have to know how to put your differences aside and work together to survive!"
"What's the matter Weasley, can't handle it?" Malfoy whispered snidely, "Because you only have two friends in the whole class?"
Ron went red and lost control, jumping out of his seat, just stopping himself from lunging at Malfoy. "Calm down!" Rinoa said, "Now here will be the groups . . . Lavender, Ron, Harry, and Paravati."
"Eww . . . I have to be with Weasley and Potter?" Paravati, the snobby Slytherin girl said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
Harry and Ron looked at Hermione and wondered who she would be paired up with.
"And the other groups will be, Neville, Crabbe, Goyle, and Seamus. And Dean, Lee, Hermione and Draco!"
Hermione and Draco looked at one another in complete horror. "Professor Heartilly!" They both said at the same time, but she only turned her back to them and didn't respond. "Now we're doing it today, so get in your groups, grab your wands, and follow me! You can leave your scrolls and things here, this is a practical test."
Grudgingly the students set out after Rinoa down the hall and out into the bright sunshine, they crossed the grounds to Hagrid's shack where he was obviously waiting for them. "Now class, Hagrid knows these woods better than anyone, so he'll be around to help you out if your team really gets into trouble send up red flares from your wand and he'll be able to come help. Now, McGonagall has graciously agreed to take Neville's team, Sprout will be with . . ." She continued naming teachers until she got down to Harry's team, then she paused, "You guys will have Squall as a supervisor. I've already checked with Dumbledore and he says it's fine as long as he's only there to supervise."
Hermione raised her hand, "Who's going to be our supervisor?"
"Oh that'll be me." Professor Heartilly said brightly, "Alright everyone, you have an hour to go through the woods and find the magic stones I've set up, you grab your stone and make your way back, okay?"
The groups moved nervously into the forest. They hadn't gotten in very far when they were attacked by something, Hermione wasn't sure what at first, but amid the confusion of the boys' screams she thought she could make out the shape of a giant spider, it scurried past them however, and disappeared into a group of bushes. "Wh-what the hell was that thing?!" Hermione heard Malfoy screaming. "When my father hears I've been forced to come out into these barbaric woods with all these monstrous creatures-"
"I'm sure he'll be eager to know about how capable you were when it came to fending them off." Rinoa concluded, Malfoy glared at her furiously but said nothing.
Suddenly a loud roar shook the ground, Dean fell to his knees and Malfoy looked around with large frightened eyes like a cornered mouse. Suddenly a large beast tore through the bushes and leapt in front of them, it was as big as a mini-van and the beast bore a huge red mane, long gruesome horns and had rows of pointed teeth.
"A behemoth?!" Rinoa gasped, "They were supposed to be further in the forest! Stand back children, you don't know how to-" But before she could finish the monster gave another deafening roar and charged at her, it knocked Rinoa to the side. Dean and Lee rushed to help her but Malfoy took off straight in the opposite direction while it was distracted.
"HEY!" Hermione screamed after him, "Are you stupid you can't just run into there alone!" She chased after him but he ran really fast, soon the wood became a blur around them and the behemoth's roars died out. By the time Malfoy finally stopped from exhaustion they were in a completely different area and Hermione had no idea how to get back.
"What are you doing following me, mudblood?!" Demanded Malfoy angrily.
"Trying to save your neck you stupid git, though I'm starting to wonder why." Hermione replied through clenched teeth. "Do you have any idea where in the woods we are or how to get back?"
*
Rinoa rolled to the ground, the beast roared, Lee ran up behind it, then realized that they hadn't learned any spells that would work against something like that, the beast turned on him giving Rinoa a chance to jump to her feet, she pulled out her wand, "CONJUNCTIVITIS!" She screamed and the behemoth screamed in fury and swung a claw at Lee but missed widely.
"She's blinded it!" Dean shouted.
"Confundus!" Rinoa chanted, the behemoth began to waver around then run around in a small circle as though it had no clue who it was supposed to be attacking. "STUPEFY!" Rinoa yelled, a bolt shot out of her wand and struck the behemoth squarely in the jaw, it fell backwards and the impact of its massive body hitting the ground caused the ground to shake. "Jeez Hagrid what do you keep in this forest?! Next thing you know they'll be ruby dragons . . ."
"Wh-what was that?" Dean asked.
"A behemoth, very high level and dangerous monsters, you should always try to avoid those you hear me, along with ruby dragons and T- Rexaurs those are some of the most dangerous monsters in the world . . ."
"M-most . . . in the . . . I dunno I was expecting pixies or something." Lee said.
"Is anyone hurt, where are Draco and Hermione?" Rinoa asked looking around.
"I think Malfoy ran off and Hermione was trying to stop him." Dean said.
"Oh crap." Rinoa muttered, "Please say they have enough sense to send up red sparks like I-"
"Uh, Professor you never actually showed us how to send up red sparks for help you kinda . . . forgot." Lee said softly.
". . . . Shoot." Rinoa muttered.
*
Malfoy and Hermione had managed to walk a ways in relative peace, as long as Hermione remained several feet behind Malfoy at all times, she would have liked to turn him into a slug, but wanted to get back to Hogwarts alive as well. They walked on in silence for a while until Hermione had a thought, "I think we should go left." She said suddenly.
"Why?" Asked Malfoy.
"Well, if you look ahead a little you can see some glinting . . . like a stone in the light."
"That's nonsense!" Said Malfoy, who had been leading them until then and was not eager to give the leader position to a mudblood like Hermione.
"Oh yeah!" Hermione asked, "I bet you're just leading us in circles!"
"Why you-"
"I don't know about you but I want full marks for this fiasco!" Hermione snapped irritably, and pointed her wand in the direction of the glint of light, "Accio magic stone!" She shouted, sure enough within seconds a large shining emerald-like stone floated into her grasp which she grabbed and placed into her robe pockets.
Malfoy was quick to wipe the impressed-look from his face before she turned around again.
*
Harry's group was doing alright, they were going fairly slowly though and Ron kept worrying aloud how Hermione was doing with Malfoy. "If that jerk so much as-"
"Relax. They have a teacher with them. She'll be fine." Harry assured him again and again, he was a little surprised to see Ron so concerned for Hermione, considering that the two of them seemed to like nothing more than to bicker with each other lately.
"Alright we've found our stone!" Lavender was saying up head.
"Time to find our way back now right?" Ron asked, Squall merely nodded, he looked bored.
Suddenly from behind them Lavender shrieked, Squall and Harry spun around, a large snake had just dropped out of one of the trees and landed on her shoulders. She kept screaming. "Calm down . . ." Squall was saying, "It's only a snake . . ." Could be poisonous, he thought, I have to get it off of her.
Finally she flung the snake at the ground, trembling, and they all watched it slither back towards her. Harry suddenly felt himself moving forwards as though he was drawn towards the snake, "Don't bite her . . . don't bite her . . ." He kept saying softly under his breath as though the words were just pulled out of him.
He didn't notice the alarmed looks Lavender, Ron, Paravati, and even Squall were giving him, quickly Squall stepped in between Lavender, Harry and the snake, "Flipendo!" The snake instantly flew backwards into the forest and out of sight.
For the rest of the way back to the school everyone kept shooting Harry strange, disturbed looks, even Ron, though he had absolutely no idea why.
*
"Look!" Hermione said impatiently, "We have to calm down and get out of here!" It was already sunset and the fall weather meant that it was getting cold fast.
"Incendio." Malfoy muttered and a fire started, he used it to warm his hands, "What do you have in mind, exactly, Granger."
"This," She said, holding her wand out in front of her, "POINT ME!" She commanded and instantly the wand shot in a direction. "That's the way to the school." She said decidedly.
Malfoy got up; he could not hide his amazed expression this time. And she noticed, but chose to say nothing but smile a little smugly herself.
None of the teachers were talking much about Chamber, they preferred to ignore students questions, even Nadia, who was slightly hysterical since she found out her twin sister had been petrified. Ron, Hermione and Harry all trudged along to Defence Against the Dark Arts to find Rinoa in an overly cheerful sort-of mood. "Ahem. Class. Because of certain . . . circumstances." She was choosing her words carefully; evidently the other teachers had been on her case again about frightening the students.
Back in said teacher's class, all was going reasonably well and after a few uneasy minutes the entire class was laughing and smiling, well except the Slytherins, and even some of them couldn't resist Rinoa's charming personality. "So, does anyone know . . . how to deal with Pixies? . . . Okay, anyone besides Hermione? Geez, you're to smart, you know that, if everyone was like you I'd be out of a job!" Hermione blushed deeply, "Now everyone it may come as a shock, but someone has actually managed to TIE with Hermione Granger for top mark in the class on your Sea Serpent projects." Everyone looked around, wondering who it was. "Draco Malfoy! Good job!"
Malfoy looked his usual smug self, everyone else was shocked.
"Now, on a different note, for our next major assignment we'll be going out into the Forbidden Forest in pairs and your job will be to find your way back to the school while escaping the dangers of the Forest using all the stuff you know."
"I-I-Isn't that a little d-d-dangerous?" Neville asked shakily.
She nodded, "But don't worry, Neville, each of the teams will have four people plus one teacher supervisor to help ONLY if you get into something really nasty. We can only do this once 'cause the other teachers are kinda inconvenienced having to come supervise and all so it's worth A LOT."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other and smiled, they were always in the same team.
"Now . . . as a twist of sorts." She smiled evilly. "I'LL be choosing your teams."
Several students paled, "W-Why?"
"Because," She answered, "In the real world you won't always find yourself working with the witches and wizards of your choice. You may find yourself in a life threatening situation with your worst enemy and the two of you will have to know how to put your differences aside and work together to survive!"
"What's the matter Weasley, can't handle it?" Malfoy whispered snidely, "Because you only have two friends in the whole class?"
Ron went red and lost control, jumping out of his seat, just stopping himself from lunging at Malfoy. "Calm down!" Rinoa said, "Now here will be the groups . . . Lavender, Ron, Harry, and Paravati."
"Eww . . . I have to be with Weasley and Potter?" Paravati, the snobby Slytherin girl said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
Harry and Ron looked at Hermione and wondered who she would be paired up with.
"And the other groups will be, Neville, Crabbe, Goyle, and Seamus. And Dean, Lee, Hermione and Draco!"
Hermione and Draco looked at one another in complete horror. "Professor Heartilly!" They both said at the same time, but she only turned her back to them and didn't respond. "Now we're doing it today, so get in your groups, grab your wands, and follow me! You can leave your scrolls and things here, this is a practical test."
Grudgingly the students set out after Rinoa down the hall and out into the bright sunshine, they crossed the grounds to Hagrid's shack where he was obviously waiting for them. "Now class, Hagrid knows these woods better than anyone, so he'll be around to help you out if your team really gets into trouble send up red flares from your wand and he'll be able to come help. Now, McGonagall has graciously agreed to take Neville's team, Sprout will be with . . ." She continued naming teachers until she got down to Harry's team, then she paused, "You guys will have Squall as a supervisor. I've already checked with Dumbledore and he says it's fine as long as he's only there to supervise."
Hermione raised her hand, "Who's going to be our supervisor?"
"Oh that'll be me." Professor Heartilly said brightly, "Alright everyone, you have an hour to go through the woods and find the magic stones I've set up, you grab your stone and make your way back, okay?"
The groups moved nervously into the forest. They hadn't gotten in very far when they were attacked by something, Hermione wasn't sure what at first, but amid the confusion of the boys' screams she thought she could make out the shape of a giant spider, it scurried past them however, and disappeared into a group of bushes. "Wh-what the hell was that thing?!" Hermione heard Malfoy screaming. "When my father hears I've been forced to come out into these barbaric woods with all these monstrous creatures-"
"I'm sure he'll be eager to know about how capable you were when it came to fending them off." Rinoa concluded, Malfoy glared at her furiously but said nothing.
Suddenly a loud roar shook the ground, Dean fell to his knees and Malfoy looked around with large frightened eyes like a cornered mouse. Suddenly a large beast tore through the bushes and leapt in front of them, it was as big as a mini-van and the beast bore a huge red mane, long gruesome horns and had rows of pointed teeth.
"A behemoth?!" Rinoa gasped, "They were supposed to be further in the forest! Stand back children, you don't know how to-" But before she could finish the monster gave another deafening roar and charged at her, it knocked Rinoa to the side. Dean and Lee rushed to help her but Malfoy took off straight in the opposite direction while it was distracted.
"HEY!" Hermione screamed after him, "Are you stupid you can't just run into there alone!" She chased after him but he ran really fast, soon the wood became a blur around them and the behemoth's roars died out. By the time Malfoy finally stopped from exhaustion they were in a completely different area and Hermione had no idea how to get back.
"What are you doing following me, mudblood?!" Demanded Malfoy angrily.
"Trying to save your neck you stupid git, though I'm starting to wonder why." Hermione replied through clenched teeth. "Do you have any idea where in the woods we are or how to get back?"
*
Rinoa rolled to the ground, the beast roared, Lee ran up behind it, then realized that they hadn't learned any spells that would work against something like that, the beast turned on him giving Rinoa a chance to jump to her feet, she pulled out her wand, "CONJUNCTIVITIS!" She screamed and the behemoth screamed in fury and swung a claw at Lee but missed widely.
"She's blinded it!" Dean shouted.
"Confundus!" Rinoa chanted, the behemoth began to waver around then run around in a small circle as though it had no clue who it was supposed to be attacking. "STUPEFY!" Rinoa yelled, a bolt shot out of her wand and struck the behemoth squarely in the jaw, it fell backwards and the impact of its massive body hitting the ground caused the ground to shake. "Jeez Hagrid what do you keep in this forest?! Next thing you know they'll be ruby dragons . . ."
"Wh-what was that?" Dean asked.
"A behemoth, very high level and dangerous monsters, you should always try to avoid those you hear me, along with ruby dragons and T- Rexaurs those are some of the most dangerous monsters in the world . . ."
"M-most . . . in the . . . I dunno I was expecting pixies or something." Lee said.
"Is anyone hurt, where are Draco and Hermione?" Rinoa asked looking around.
"I think Malfoy ran off and Hermione was trying to stop him." Dean said.
"Oh crap." Rinoa muttered, "Please say they have enough sense to send up red sparks like I-"
"Uh, Professor you never actually showed us how to send up red sparks for help you kinda . . . forgot." Lee said softly.
". . . . Shoot." Rinoa muttered.
*
Malfoy and Hermione had managed to walk a ways in relative peace, as long as Hermione remained several feet behind Malfoy at all times, she would have liked to turn him into a slug, but wanted to get back to Hogwarts alive as well. They walked on in silence for a while until Hermione had a thought, "I think we should go left." She said suddenly.
"Why?" Asked Malfoy.
"Well, if you look ahead a little you can see some glinting . . . like a stone in the light."
"That's nonsense!" Said Malfoy, who had been leading them until then and was not eager to give the leader position to a mudblood like Hermione.
"Oh yeah!" Hermione asked, "I bet you're just leading us in circles!"
"Why you-"
"I don't know about you but I want full marks for this fiasco!" Hermione snapped irritably, and pointed her wand in the direction of the glint of light, "Accio magic stone!" She shouted, sure enough within seconds a large shining emerald-like stone floated into her grasp which she grabbed and placed into her robe pockets.
Malfoy was quick to wipe the impressed-look from his face before she turned around again.
*
Harry's group was doing alright, they were going fairly slowly though and Ron kept worrying aloud how Hermione was doing with Malfoy. "If that jerk so much as-"
"Relax. They have a teacher with them. She'll be fine." Harry assured him again and again, he was a little surprised to see Ron so concerned for Hermione, considering that the two of them seemed to like nothing more than to bicker with each other lately.
"Alright we've found our stone!" Lavender was saying up head.
"Time to find our way back now right?" Ron asked, Squall merely nodded, he looked bored.
Suddenly from behind them Lavender shrieked, Squall and Harry spun around, a large snake had just dropped out of one of the trees and landed on her shoulders. She kept screaming. "Calm down . . ." Squall was saying, "It's only a snake . . ." Could be poisonous, he thought, I have to get it off of her.
Finally she flung the snake at the ground, trembling, and they all watched it slither back towards her. Harry suddenly felt himself moving forwards as though he was drawn towards the snake, "Don't bite her . . . don't bite her . . ." He kept saying softly under his breath as though the words were just pulled out of him.
He didn't notice the alarmed looks Lavender, Ron, Paravati, and even Squall were giving him, quickly Squall stepped in between Lavender, Harry and the snake, "Flipendo!" The snake instantly flew backwards into the forest and out of sight.
For the rest of the way back to the school everyone kept shooting Harry strange, disturbed looks, even Ron, though he had absolutely no idea why.
*
"Look!" Hermione said impatiently, "We have to calm down and get out of here!" It was already sunset and the fall weather meant that it was getting cold fast.
"Incendio." Malfoy muttered and a fire started, he used it to warm his hands, "What do you have in mind, exactly, Granger."
"This," She said, holding her wand out in front of her, "POINT ME!" She commanded and instantly the wand shot in a direction. "That's the way to the school." She said decidedly.
Malfoy got up; he could not hide his amazed expression this time. And she noticed, but chose to say nothing but smile a little smugly herself.