Against All Odds
Chapter Ten
Koneko-chan Says!
Stefani: *slumps over keyboard*
Nanashi: *pokes her in the side*
Stefani: *does not respond*
Nanashi: *nudges her*
Stefani: *does not respond*
Chibi-Relena: *jumps up onto table* *pokes Stefani's head*
Nanashi: It does not seem to work.
Chibi-Relena: *cocks head* *nudges Stefani's head* Does not seem to work.
Heero-chan: *comes into room* *looks at Nanashi and Chibi-Relena's attempts at waking the sleeping authoress* *sighs* *very loudly* IS THAT DRACO MALFOY PERFORMING A STRIPTEASE JUST ON YOUR GARAGE ROOF?!
Stefani: *leaps up* WHERE?! WHERE?! *dashes for window* WHERE?!
Heero-chan: He left. Now write, before Angel comes back for revenge on the previous short chapter.
Chibi-Relena: The previous insane chapter. Do you remember how many readers bombarded you with emails because of that?
Stefani: *sniff, sniff* No Draco… *grumble, grumble* Fine. *resumes work* *types in random nonsense*
Angel: *appears in a puff of purple smoke* *warning tone* Stteeeeeeefffffff…
Stefani: EEEEEK! *goes back to work hurriedly*
~*~*~*~
When Hermione finally came back to the portrait of James and Sirius, she found them with several scantily clad women in Egyptian belly-dance costumes. Sirius grinned down at her, and the girl on his lap frowned. She frowned back at her with all might, before saying, "Serpentia Rulius," and entering.
The first thing she noticed was a very disgruntled Draco Malfoy still lying there in the middle of a sea of parchment. "Oh dear…" she gasped, having completely forgotten about where she'd left Draco. He was asleep. She went to him, kneeling down beside him, brushing a hand across his cheekbone, to see if he was truly asleep. It seemed he was. Undoing the many buttons of her cloak, she covered him quickly before taking out her wand and whispering the words to release him from the spell. Then she got up and went for her room.
Going straight for her desk, she opened her Arithmancy book, and took out several pieces of parchment, bent on finishing her homework. However, this did not work out as she had planned, as the numbers began swimming in front of her eyes, though she tried studiously to continue. The problem was, she just didn't care all of a sudden. She had been all fired to go when she'd walked through the portrait hole… now all she wanted to do was sleep.
Then it clicked. "DUMBLEDORE!" That was it! This was all some great conspiracy amongst the staff members! They were against her! All of them! This was not supposed to be HAPPENING!
…
…
She was still sleepy. Grumbling, she got up, closing her book with a muffled "thump" and marched towards her bed, before sighing, grabbed a pillow and made a U-turn, back towards the common room where she lay herself out on the couch beside the still-sleeping Malfoy progeny. If this was what all the professors wanted to go through this stupid scheme in order to do, why not humor them? It might as well get her on Snape's good side, as he too seemed to want this to be happening… that is, he did not object to it. Leaping over him, she landed with a light bounce on the couch (which issued a small "ouch" as she did so) before she settled down with her pillow into a nice comfortable sleeping position and closed her eyes.
The room was large, and full of ancient-looking objects, extremely well-dusted, oppressively so in fact. Only half-conscious of what she was doing she reached for them, examining several of the more exotic-looking ones by eye, not trusting this place which hinted of too-strong wizarding magic, to touch them. The door slammed open as she did so, and she whirled in a fright, suddenly terrified of who owned these horrific articles.
"Get in there, boy." The words were sharp and short, and she cringed as she looked for someplace to hide, before she found herself face-to-face with the older Malfoy, who's searching eyes passed right over her, before pushing the younger one, Draco into the room. His eyes were downcast, even as he stumbled forward, but as soon as he lifted his eyes, they widened the moment they saw her, then flew to his father, who seemed not to notice her at all. They returned to stare at her, asking the obvious question… 'What are you doing here?'
She shrugged back, unable to give an answer. She pointed at Lucius now, and his eyes returned to his father, who was glaring at him. "You know why you're here."
"You want me to join you and the others in their plot to make me Voldemort's heir. You want me to become a Death Eater. You want me to follow in your footsteps and grovel at the feet of the Dark Lord." He replied tonelessly, eyes kept steadfastly on a point somewhere over his father's shoulder.
Hermione came closer, unable to help herself. She stood between the two now, and Draco's eyes were diverted… he turned to her now, watching her, even as he continued to speak his father's wishes. His eyes warned her to stay back, warned her of what his father could do to her if he could see her… was she just invisible? Could he hear her if she talked, touch her if she came close enough? Or was she simply an observer, to watch, but not able to do anything.
"Look here boy," his diatribe was interrupted by his father roughly grasping him by the collar. He had grown tall enough so that he was almost eye-level to the man now, but that did not mean he could hurt him. Oh no, Lucius Malfoy would not be challenged, especially not by his own son. "You will aspire to bear the Dark Mark with dignity, to be able to serve the Dark Lord as he wipes this world free of the Muggle society. And you will bring me the power of being the Dark Lord's right-hand man."
Draco was strangely calm, "You will never be his right-hand man, Father. The snake will always come first. He will always choose a serpent over your cowed, sniveling form."
He was knocked sideways with the ferocity of Lucius Malfoy's blow, thrown towards Hermione, though Lucius could not see her, he seemed to be able to hear her, as a scream managed to tear its way out of her mouth. She instinctively caught him, wrapping her arms around him to prevent him from hitting the floor, and with a bright flare of light the moment they made contact, the dream shattered around them.
Waking up screaming had never been a favorite way for Hermione Granger to wake up. Waking up screaming with someone quite close to her screaming was even worse. Her eyes flew open, to come, once again, face to face with Draco Malfoy. That made it twice in a row.
"What did you do?!" he yelled, immediately turning to her, his pale eyes sparking, as he grabbed her by the shoulders. Having been rudely waken up, Hermione certainly did not appreciate this 'loving embrace'.
"I was dreaming." She replied bluntly, keeping it short and sharp. "And I believe you were too."
"I—" With difficulty, he took a deep breath and let go of her, moving away. Stiffly, he tried talking in a conversational tone, "You let me up off the floor."
"Oh yeah… right… sorry about that." Her face flushed as she rearranged herself into a sitting position. "The dream. You had the same one as me."
She raised an eyebrow at Draco's direct statement. "Possibly." She allowed, shrugging her shoulders, "You, me, a ferret floating around in a punch bowl and a night of wild, kinky sex?"
"Dammit, I'm being serious. Just tell me the bloody truth!"
Hermione nodded. It was true… she had been a bitch leaving him on the floor like that and forgetting him. "Yes. I was in your house. You and your father came in. Had what I would hardly call a 'civil conversation'. You got shoved, I caught you, I saw fireworks, I scream, you scream, I wake up."
He was silent for a moment before saying, "Yes, all right… that's… one interpretation of it."
With a sigh, she stood up, straightening her clothes properly on her frame from when they'd previously been twisted around her as she slept. Noticing this made Draco realize that the cloak still tangled around his legs was hers. Now, if he had been Potter, or even Weasley, he might have been touched by the gesture. But he was Draco Malfoy, and with an indifferent shrug, picked it up and handed to her with a simple, "Thank you."
"Uh… you're welcome… I guess?" His face certainly was a study, switching expressions quicker than she could perceive them. Then, he stood up, swishing his way amongst all the scattered pieces of parchment, heading for his rooms.
"You know, I was serious about the ferret in the punch bowl dream, you know!" she called after him, quite cheekily, she must say so herself.
He turned back once, a faint smile flitted on his face, with just a touch of his old evil leer. "I know."
This left her with a raised eyebrow. Interesting. This was becoming very interesting indeed.
~*~*~*~
Deep in the dungeons, Snape was still pondering, even as his hands quickly and deftly mixed and measured the ingredients that he was experimenting with. That new professor… he shook his head, trying to get her out of his head. She was a danger to the students as well as the staff. Why Professor Dumbledore continued to admit these strange DADA teachers was beyond him. Of course, he had accepted a former Death Eater, so there wasn't much he could say to that point.
He sighed, pushing away a length of dark hair from his face. His life did not require any more mysteries than those that he'd already had. It had taken much time and hard work, but he had finally been able to be accepted back into the Death Eaters' throng, if only on the outer edges, which had to be expected. And they were planning something. Not Voldemort, no… but the Death Eaters, and all traces led straight to Lucius Malfoy.
He supposed it had to be simple. They wanted nothing more than power, and the Dark Lord could give it to them. And all the Dark Lord wanted was…
He snorted, the Wonder Boy of Hogwarts of course. What evil wizard didn't want to deliver the bane of the Dark Lord's existence to him? But when? When and where would they catch him?
Wards had been set up of course, everywhere, including Privet Drive so that even his extended family was safe, no matter how much they loathed the boy, and how much they wanted him not to exist. They had to stay alive. And there were wards everywhere in that castle, just to keep that foolish boy alive. And the boy wanted nothing more than to jump right into the dangers the entire wizarding world was trying to keep him from, playing the role of the great vanquishing hero.
"Do I sense a touch of bitterness, Severus?" he turned, in the middle of stirring a potion vigorously, to face a mild-faced Dumbledore.
"Headmaster." He acknowledged, but made no other answer.
"Sa Lai has told me of the… situation that has happened down here last… I must say, you reacted in a… peculiar way, did you not?" His bright blue eyes were piercing and they were searching his face for the truth, a truth that Severus hoped more than anything to hide. Truthfully, he still had no idea.
"I do not know why, Headmaster, that I did what I did. But if should not bother either me or her, I assure you, it should not bother yourself either."
The old man shook his head smiling, "Severus, you will never change…"
"I mean not to, Headmaster." His voice was full of conviction.
"Perhaps, perhaps…" he conceded softly, shaking his head again, and looking past him at the ingredients lying on the lab bench. "And how is the potion coming along?" he asked in an entirely different tone of voice.
"I'm coming up with another one… the other one that she actually tried… did not work as well as I wanted it to."
"Not at all, you mean?"
Pride. That was all that prompted his next comment. "She should not have taken that potion like a fool without the proper precautions. It was quite unfinished, and quite unnecessary!"
"I see."
Dumbledore's voice was echoed with one from the doorway and the two men turned to face the new professor's strangely calm face. Silver eyes seemed to glow in the semi-darkness as she came down the stairs in small, graceful steps. She stopped several feet away from the two of them, and while Dumbledore kept tactfully silent, Snape would have said something if she hadn't held up a hand, lips pursing dangerously.
"I was going to thank you, Severus." She told him, adding his name at the end as an afterthought. She held up a vial, "This is my own blood. In order for the potion to work, I assume it has to work for each individual. And what works better for a potion for vampires than what we crave most?" She set it down on the lab bench before stonily walking away, back up the stone steps and out into the dungeon hall. The footsteps halted for a brief moment, her voice floated back down to the two of them, "Fool that I am, I have years beyond imagining, and I have seen more than you can ever imagine." Then they continued as they soon faded away completely.
Dumbledore, with a flurry of his many-colored robes moved to follow her, "I see the lady's feelings have been bruised by your cynicism. I take my leave, after seeing to it that you are the one who is going to be asking the Bewitching Seraphs to our Yule Ball."
He wanted to do nothing more than groan, right then and there. "Headmaster, I have many things—"
"Can none of them wait, then?" he asked mildly, as he began to walk towards the door, "I take my leave." He disappeared up the steps and down the corridor with a hidden smile on his face.
Severus then groaned, slumping into a chair nearest him. "Of all the bloody lunatics in this school who actually like those stupid bands adolescents like so much, why did he have to choose me?"
His hand strayed to his neck for what seemed like the twentieth time, at where the bite marks had been. He remembered the humming waves of heat, of the pure ecstasy… he shook his head. Vampire's Kiss indeed. He was lucky enough to have survived it, not to mention actually liking it. He was not an idiot. He would not go lusting after vampires like so many others who had suffered one of their bites did. He was Severus Snape. And in his own eyes, that meant there should no longer be anything more for him that penance for all that he had ever done. The potion needed to be stirred again.
He was at it for a few more minutes before stopping in disgust. This was not helping. That Angel had annoyed him too much for him to concentrate on Potions' brewing. The only cure for that was very simple however.
Time to go and give Potter hell.
~*~*~*~
Nagini shook her head, her eyes blinking. She felt like she'd been hit by four Stunning spells all in a row. "Do not tell me that I consumed alcohol instead of caffeine…" she muttered, placing her head carefully in her arms, as she slumped over the table. Harry raised an eyebrow, "Uhm, no… actually, you did drink coffee… but you seem… back to normal now."
"Normal?" Nagini's head came up so quickly, Harry barely had time to lean back, to avoid her breaking his nose. "Oh, it must have been that girl! She hit me with a Confusion spell, I know it!" Anger flitted through her, though she suppressed it very well indeed.
"Who?"
"Parkinson." She growled, standing up. "After I found her, gave her another choice, she goes and throws a spell at me. Oh dear… what did I do?"
"Uhm… muttered a lot about Sweet 'N Low… carried around a lot of lingerie…" at this point he blushed, "And… uh… some other stuff." He added lamely.
She groaned again, "Did I try to seduce you into my bed?"
Harry turned red, "Uhm… no… but I think you, uh, tried to kiss me…"
She smacked her forehead against her arm, "Oh, stupid, stupid bint, when I get my hands on her…"
"Potter!" Harry turned round to face the roundness of a large belly. His eyes slowly traveled vertically, up until he reached the face up Millicent Bulstrode. He blinked. "Yes…?" he asked, maintaining as much politeness as was possible.
"The Yule Ball's coming up."
"Yes…"
"You're going with me."
Harry blinked. And was silent for a moment. Then, "I'm… what?"
"You're going to the Yule Ball with me."
"I…"
Nagini lifted her head, groaned as she saw who it was and then rolled her eyes, "Give it a rest, Bulstrode. Didn't you know he's already got a girlfriend? Cho Chang? Ravenclaw Seeker? Ring any bloody bells in that thick skull of yours?" Anger and annoyance made her snappish. It was not a good combination.
Millicent became almost defensive, "He's always hanging out with… with you so how was I supposed to know they hadn't split up?"
Nagini rolled her eyes again, "You realize that if they were to split up, the entire wizarding world will have known about it?"
Millicent let loose a low growl, before flouncing away. Or… trying to flounce away… the effects left more to be desired.
Shaking her head, she snapped her fingers in front of Harry's face, effectively shaking him out of his silent stupor. "You really should know that Millicent Bulstrode is quite taken with you." Harry's face twisted in barely hidden disgust. "The girl tried to turn Hermione into a cat last year and Ron into a bloody rat. She screwed it up and got them half-changed… they were walking around with tails and ears and I believe Ron had whiskers for the next week or so. Dumbledore thought it too funny in order to change them back."
Nagini smiled, her tongue languidly swiping her canines. "Ah, well I would have expected the girl to have made a blunder of herself. And I'm sure it didn't turn out too badly did it? I would not like to think of the repercussions of your two friends actually turning into cat and mouse."
Harry nodded, "I suppose you're right. But I never have liked her and it's doubtful I will—"
He was interrupted by a girl outfitted in Ravenclaw Quidditch robes slide into the seat next to him, placing an arm around his neck and smiling, first at him, then at Nagini. "Ello, love." she said softly, nudging his cheek with her nose. "Who's the girl?"
"Nagini Whetlyn." At the girl's blank look, she added, "Head Girl?"
"OH!" The girl laughed immediately, holding out a hand to her, "Cho Chang. Ravenclaw. I'm only a prefect though… Mum and Dad weren't too happy with me…" she trailed off for a moment before shaking it off, "But that's all right… you and Hermione Granger were always smarter than me. Well, her for sure, you more likely than not…" She paused again, "I'm babbling, aren't I? I don't, usually. Babble, I mean." She groaned, leaning her head into what seemed like a familiar place at the crook of Harry's neck, "Oh, I'm acting like such a silly bint today, it's not even funny."
"You too?" Nagini asked, almost conversationally, "I was hit by a Confusion spell by a girl that I thought was dead, how about you?"
Harry's eyes widened as he stared at Nagini, then at Cho. It was true, she wasn't usually all this… (bubbly, her term was?) insane… could there really have been a connection? He felt the same, fuzzy feeling again whenever there was a 'something' going on, and more than likely, he'd be thrown into the middle of it.
Her head came back up. "Well… now that you mention it… I swear, I think Pansy Parkinson must have joined up with Moaning Myrtle… I could have sworn I saw her in the Charms corridor. Granted, she didn't look that much silvery and glow-y and everything and she did look like she was holding a wand but…" she shook her head, smiling slightly as Harry wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Ooh, is that coffee? Is there Sweet 'N Low? If there isn't, black is fine too—did I ever tell you Harry that you can never go wrong with—"
"That's er—actually, yes you've told me. Sweet 'N Low, better than sugar, right?"
"Yes indeed! Now, is there anymore coffee?" she asked brightly and Nagini was looking at the girl was complete horror. "Oh on Salazar's ashes, was I honestly like that?" she asked Harry.
"Well… uhm…" he shrugged a little, "Close?"
"Why oh why did you not throw a curse and end it all mercifully?"
"Too many questions."
"Ah."
He sighed, picking up Cho in his arms, as she continued to chatter along mindlessly about miscellaneous things in general. "Would you like to come with me as we try to get her in the Ravenclaw common room?"
"Is this inter-house sort of cavorting allowed?" she asked, surprised.
"No, but we do it anyway. Cho, er, Cho?" he asked her, shaking her slightly as she seemed to have become extremely enamoured of the ceiling. "Ooh, look at that, the snow's falling! I want to play with it! Catch some for me?"
"Cho dear, we're taking you back to your common room… er, do you remember the password?"
"Password?"
"To open the door to your common room."
She blinked for a few moments before nodding, "Oh! The common room! Sheep!"
"Sheep?" she nodded vehemently, before continuing to coo about the ceiling. He turned, almost desperately to Nagini, "She's worse than you were! Well? Would you like to come?" Nagini shrugged, getting up. "I have nowhere else to be. And despite everything embarrassing having to do with this, I find her antics faintly amusing." A smile with the same Slytherin-ness that Malfoy could inject in his leer, appeared on her face. "And then of course, there's always after the spell's worn off and we can relate every single mortifying detail back to her."
He sighed, shaking his head, but still smiling, "I can tell why the Hat put you in Slytherin. Mind you, they wanted to put me in Slytherin too, but—we'll not get into that." he added hastily.
Nagini smiled, "Nothing could be worse than knowing you belong in Slytherin, then having that Hat tell you that you should be in Hufflepuff."
"You? In Hufflepuff?"
"Yes. I in Hufflepuff. I allow you the right to titter."
Harry burst out laughing.
"I said titter, mind you, not full-out laughter."
"Well, what more can I say? Sheep."
Nagini blinked, "Pardon me?"
Harry frowned, kicking a curtained wall with a sneakered foot, "Sheep! What the—come on you blasted door, sheep!"
"I think the word you're looking for is 'lambchops'?"
From behind them, all three of them turned to face Gabrielle LaPointe, fifth year Ravenclaw. The curtain leaped up, and the wall slid to the side, showing the way into the Ravenclaw common room. "Now, why is it that you have our Prefect talking about peppermint sticks?"
Harry carefully made his way into the common room, ignoring the strange, questioning looks he was receiving from the other Ravenclaws and lay her down on an unoccupied sofa. "She's a little… out of it." he attempted to say, "She got hit by a Confusion spell and… it's… well… taken affect." The girl he was facing, frowned, rolling her eyes at him, as if he were the most biggest idiot since Neville Longbottom.
"I can see that. How come you haven't taken her to the Hospital Wing?"
"It has to… wear out."
"So she's going to be talking about… chipmunks for how long?"
"About an hour?"
"Fine. Good day." The wall closed back up and the curtain snapped back down, right in front of him.
Nagini's eyebrows were raised. "Quite choosy about the company they keep, aren't they?" Harry sighed, leaning back against a different wall, running his fingers through his shock of black hair. "Er… yeah. They don't really like me all that much."
The girl smiled, "Male or female?"
Harry looked up, "Mostly the guys I suppose. The Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs never got over Cedric."
She smiled, remembering the whispered story of the last Triwizard Tournament Hogwarts had hosted, "Then I suppose that should have answered your question."
He gave her a blank look, "What?" he asked, unintelligently.
"Harry Potter, you really are quite ignorant of what most of the female population of this school think of you? If you were not Cho's boyfriend, I believe you would have found more women than simply myself appearing in your dormitory. And much less clothed than I was."
He turned red. "Er…" He managed to utter, running his hand through his hair again, as an embarrassed reflex this time.
She gave him one of her rare smiles, "You are sweet, you know that? Hermione told me you were."
He blinked. "What? Hermione was talking about me?"
He paused. "I'm sweet?" the word seemed to sound distasteful coming from him. For a moment, it was as if Ron's attitude was rubbing off on him.
"Yes. Yes you are." she replied, as she turned away. "And now that Cho is safely put away in her common room with all of her extremely worried housemates, I suppose I should take my leave."
"Or you two could follow me and continue with the work you have neglected in making the Veritassium."
Snape's voice stopped both adolescents as they were just parting. Harry looked up to face Snape's patented look of complete and utter doom firmly set on his face. Nagini raised an eyebrow, "When have you ever told us that we were to report to you today?"
The tall man glared down at her. "Miss Whetlyn, I had guessed that as Head Girl in this school you would be very much learned at the art of potion making and the exact timings therein. Apparently, you are as about as witless at it than even Longbottom could accomplish."
Nagini's teeth grit together with a harsh sound and if Hermione had been there, or her parents, they would have winced at the damage her teeth had taken. She knew an insult when she heard one. And she wished now more than ever that she could use the power that her master had endowed her with in her creation. The almost unnoticeable sparking appearing in her clenched left fist caused Harry to stare, but Snape thankfully did not notice. Harry spoke up, "We'll go now Professor if we have to. But there was that whole thing with Pansy and then Hermione…"
Snape glared at him, "I am fully aware of both students' predicaments. I assure you, Miss Parkinson's family has been informed and the body has been cremated."
Nagini's face clenched together even more at the mention of the body. She knew full and well that the girl was still alive. She had not done the Adavra Kedavra curse on herself. She was in this castle somewhere. And she had to be found. Immediately.
And when she was found, the Veritassium would come in very handy indeed. "Then we shall go." She grasped the sleeve of Harry's robe and commenced walking away from the Professor, who still stood there, staring at them. For Nagini had forgotten to keep a close watch of her anger and of her powers… and her hand was still glowing a fiery green.
"Lamia." he croaked through suddenly dry lips. All thoughts of the vampiress were immediately forgotten at the sight of the green fire. The only ones who had had ever had the power to produce their own green fire without the help of a wand had been the snake-women that the Dark Lord had bred into his services.
That was it. Nagini was a lamia, brought into the school by the Death Eaters to kill Harry Potter. That explained everything.
~*~*~*~
Ron was stumbling back to Gryffindor tower, after his bout with Blaise Zabini when he came quite closer to being trampled by a half-sobbing, half-roaring Millicent Bulstrode. In the middle of her frenzy, she focused on Ron. "What the hell are you doing down here? That bloody tower of yours isn't good enough for you Gryffs now? You have to barge on our territory?"
"I was just coming back up—" Ron actually attempted to explain to her, as he felt handling a still half-sobbing Slytherin should not call for insults… just yet. But of course, she interrupted him, miffing him quite considerably considering the circumstances.
"You Gryffindors are all the same! You're all pig-headed, golden children with haloes all around!" And it looked like a giant sobbing Slytherin female would verily maul him right then and there. And since when did he have a halo?
If he did, he'd probably be cleaning the Potions' benches a few less times a week.
"Bulstrode, just give it up already won't you? You just got told off didn't you?"
Millicent turned on the voice in the corner, "Fuck off Zabini!" she shrieked at her, "It's none of your business."
"I share the same bloody common room as you. It becomes quite annoying when you oh-so-subtly admire the moving photos of Potter that you bribed off of Creevey."
Ron's face twisted in a look of disgust. Millicent took one look back at him, before continuing in her headlong dash back to their common room, bellowing obscenities all the way down the corridor.
Blaise slipped out of her pose of lounging on the wall, and cracked several vertebrates. Flicking her eyes at Ron, she smiled, "It might look all mysterious and sexy to do that, but it sure does nothing else to help you."
He began to look slightly unnerved. "What was that all about?" he asked, gesturing in the direction of where Millicent had disappeared.
She made a noise of absolute contempt. "She got told off by Potter more likely than not. You're the Gryffindor, you can ask and make sure I'm right."
"Oh." He paused. "What did she ask him…?"
"More likely than not, she told him that he was to take her to the Yule Ball."
That made him laugh. "Not bloody likely!"
"I agree. Oh, and I owe you this." she tossed a cloth bag over to him, which he caught reflexively. The jingling of coins inside, instantly drew his attention and he looked down at it. "What the hell?"
She made a "harumph" sound, "Oh go on and open it, I haven't put any hexes in it."
Ron slowly undid the string and opened it. Even in the dim corridor lights, he caught the flash of gold. "I won the bet. I cheated. You helped. Thank you." She disappeared down the corridor following Millicent, towards the Slytherin common room.
To empty air, he said… "Uhm… you're welcome then?"
~*~*~*~
Draco shut the door, before turning round. Pansy was sitting on his bed, her long legs curled up close to her, her arms hugging them close, and rocking herself back and forth.
It seemed close to impossible to see how Draco's face went from pale to white in the second it took for his heart to beat once. "P-Pansy."
She looked up, his blanket curled around her, and he realized that she was close to completely naked. Shreds of clothing hung on her thin frame, and he could see her cheekbones starkly in her gaunt face. She looked like she'd been to hell and back.
"Draco…" she whispered, her voice cracked and harsh. "I'm… sorry…" she struggled to move, and she could… but slowly, as if she was moving in a vat of syrup.
Draco just stood there, unable to move in blatant shock as he stared at the girl that was supposed to be dead. He had been one of the few who had seen her body. She was supposed to have been cremated…
That was when the door was flung open and in leaped Crookshanks, every ginger hair on his back standing on end. Hermione followed cautiously before she stood still, staring at the visage that seemed only a shell of the former Pansy Parkinson.
"Oh my… god…" she managed to say. Crookshanks stopped short, the fur slowly returning to normal on his fur as he cocked his head quizzically to the side. Meowing his confusion, he shambled a little closer, sniffing the girl cautiously.
Ignoring the stunned pair in the doorway, her attention turned to the cat, her hand reaching out towards it, just as cautiously. Step by step, Crookshanks inched forward, sniffing at her outstretched hand. Then, as if reassuring both himself and her, he licked her hand slowly with long languorous movements of his raspy tongue before leaping for the bed, and closing his eyes, he curled up into a ginger-colored ball on Pansy's lap and began to purr. Shivering slightly, Pansy's eyes slowly came down to watch the furry lump in her lap and her hand trembled as she stroked it once, twice.
She then looked up again, this time towards Hermione. The dull, lifeless eyes widened and she hid her face in her hands, unable to look at the brunette. "I'm sorry…" she whispered, "I'm so, so sorry…"
Hermione was freed from her sudden inability to move and she was striding quickly towards the bed, and towards the girl. She snapped her fingers, as she walked and Crookshanks leaped obediently off the bed, and went behind Draco, nudging the backs of his legs insistently. Hermione rearranged the blanket around the shivering girl so that it covered her completely, and gestured to Draco as Pansy made no move to do anything. How she got here in the first place was a miracle in itself. Slowly, as if his feet had been nailed to the floor, he came forward, and between the two of them, got the girl to Hermione's room, where she immediately hustled Draco out and made for the dresser.
Draco found himself unceremoniously facing a shut door and he turned to face Crookshanks, who was twitching an ear at him humorously. He slumped down in a chair, and Crookshanks made it his business to crawl up onto his stomach and stretch out on it. Patting its fur absentmindedly, he stared up at the ceiling. What was going on? First Hermione turning up in his dreams quite literally, and then Pansy Parkinson appearing in his room when she was supposed to be dead… He shuddered, realizing that she was with Hermione at exactly that moment. What was she? What could she do? What…
That was it, he got up and went to the door, putting his ear to it, listening.
Hermione on the other side was having a hard time to keep from going back into catatonic shock, and she was literally galvanizing herself into action, grabbing things out of the drawers. "Bloody hell, you're clothes—er, what's left of them anyway—are soaked through… come on, take them off." Pansy clumsily withdrew from Hermione's reaching hand, almost falling off the others side of the bed. Hermione harrumphed in her displeasure. "Come along Pansy… I'm not going to bite you. Just get those things off of you and put these on." She held up the slightly overlarge sweatshirt and jeans she was holding. "I dunno about the underwear thing though…"
"34D."
Hermione's face registered surprise, as Pansy seemed to overcome part of the stupor as soon as her trembling fingers were clenched on the fabrics of the clothes. "Oh… well then… uh… good because…" she dropped it then and there, reaching for another drawer instead of talking. "Me too."
Draco behind the door, lifted his eyebrows. Well, you'd never have known just looking at her beneath those bulky students' robes. Granted, he'd seen a little less of those since they'd begun sharing a common room but still… he continued to listen, though he knew quite well how undignified this would look if anyone should catch him, crouching at the doorway, listening through the keyhole. But, oh hell, he was curious.
He heard the shuffling sound of clothing as Pansy changed, slowly and with some help from Hermione, as she seemed unable to understand her way through the sweater, and began shaking the moment she couldn't see anything.
He heard more shuffling as someone, more likely than not Hermione judging from the pace of the footsteps, that were headed to her bathroom. She re-entered the room not two seconds later, and after another minute, the footsteps, as well as Hermione's encouraging mutterings to Pansy began to drift towards the general direction of her door. At that moment, he was streaking back to the couch as silently as possible, flinging himself down on it (and thankfully not on the cat), he rearranged himself into a dashingly sexy, unconcerned Slytherin pose.
Hermione opened the door, her eyes catching his with a suspicious glance. He raised his eyebrows at her. Then she shrugged and stepped aside, allowing Draco's gaze to pass over to Pansy. He came very close to having his jaw drop. Pansy had never been what you called pretty, especially when he'd first met her. Of course, she'd grown to have quite a figure, and her features had softened slightly, but never, especially with everything that she wore to cover all that, she had the same kind of striking features as Hermione. And all her dark hair had been pulled back in a ponytail, something he had never seen happen before.
His eyes again, rested on Hermione as she led Pansy slowly towards him, and he tensed automatically. But there was no sudden spark of jealousy or rivalry in Pansy's eyes. Hell, there wasn't even a spark of much life. She just stared out at the world with indifference. Draco stood up, coming closer to her, staring at her. She looked up him, her lips twisted into a hesitant frown, and Hermione had melted slightly. But not enough to let her guard down too much, Draco could see that she was fingering her wand in her pocket. Of course she was suspicious. Pansy was supposed to be dead. That could not be stressed enough. She was supposed to be dead.
Then, leading her to the sofa, Hermione pressed a mug of coffee into Pansy's shaking hands (she regularly had the house elves appear with such mugs whenever she was bent on studying), and sat down opposite.
Draco then lounged on a one-seater, and watched Pansy as she sipped the steaming liquid. Finally, he asked the question. "Why are you here?"
Pansy looked up, her eyes, free of makeup, would have been deep and soulful, if they hadn't looked so empty. "I got away…" she whispered.
Hermione stared at her blankly, leaning forward to hear better. "Got away from what?"
"From the room. She found me. She gave me magic… little magic…" her body shook as she looked up from her mug to Hermione. "One spell."
Draco raised an eyebrow, "Who?"
"The snake girl… she came, gave me a choice. Knew what I had done."
Hermione had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. "That something had to do with me being in the Hospital Wing, didn't it?"
Pansy slowly nodded. "I knew you had it. Watched you. Remembered it." her eyes went back down to the steaming mug of coffee in her hands.
The two of them were now looking at her gravely. "What was it? What did you know I had?"
"Time."
Draco stared blankly, wondering what on Earth she was talking about. Hermione on the other hand stood up with a shriek, rushing to her room, tearing at a drawer in her desk that had been Charmed shut. "It's not there!" she cried, running back out again, leaving the floor of her room a mess.
"What the hell are you talking about?!" asked Draco irritably, indignant of being left out of the loop.
From beneath Hermione's borrowed sweater, Pansy slowly pulled out the chain around her neck. At the end, something gold glittered in the light of the fireplace. She took off the chain, holding it out in her hand to Hermione.
Draco's eyes widened as he stared at the object in her hand. And Hermione squealed in indignation. "That's mine!"
Pansy's face lifted up to hers once more. "I'm sorry…" she whispered again, the glittering golden thing falling into her lap as she hid her face in her hands and began to sob.
Draco reached out and picked it up. There was no doubt about it. "By Oddball's pink feathered tutu, where did you get one of these?" he asked, staring at the golden Time-Turner in his hand.
Hermione sighed, hiding her face, "McGonagall is going to kill me…"
~*~*~*~
End of Chapter. Well… slightly longer, and slightly… saner? I was completely hyper the last time I touched a keyboard, and so the previous chapter was born. Hopefully, this sort of explained some of the things that happened before that probably would never have happened under normal circumstances. And for the record, others may think Cho should be chained inside a boiling cauldron of oil, but I don't find any fault with her… really, I don't. Review me!
