Disclaimer: Don't own anything unless it's mine.
A/N: I'M BACK!!!!!!!! I realize that I've been gone for a few months now, so here's chapter 5. If you want to know why I was gone, then read the author's note after this chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter 5
More Revelations
"That had to be the best potions class ever!" Ron declared happily as he walked out of the potions dungeon with Harry and Hermione on Thursday afternoon.
"Yeah, Snape wasn't there," Harry agreed. "The Slytherins don't seem so happy." They saw the said group sulking off.
"Well that's because they managed to get twenty points taken off," Hermione pointed out. They walked towards the Defense Against Dark Arts classroom.
"Isn't today the day that Gandalf said one of his friends was coming to visit?" Harry asked suddenly. Ron shrugged.
"It is, Mr. Potter," Gandalf said coming up behind him. "My friends are already inside the classroom, as a matter of fact."
"Friends? I thought you said only one was coming?" Hermione asked.
"Well, only one was going to, but he decided to come at a later date. For today these ones are coming. However, we will begin with a small discussion on Mr. Tolkein." With that, Gandalf walked into the classroom. Harry, Ron and Hermione followed and sat down in their assigned seats. They noticed four very short men standing in the front with Gandalf. After everyone arrived, Gandalf began.
"What do you children know about Mr. Tolkein?" he asked. Hermione raised her hand. "Yes, Miss Granger?"
"J.R.R. Tolkein is the author of the Lord of the Rings books, detailing the occurrences of the War of the Ring. Although these facts are thought to be only fiction by Muggles, they are actual occurrences that happened before any other written history. J.R.R Tolkein, although not the strongest wizard, managed to make a name for himself by secretly developing a time-travel mechanism that allowed him to travel to these times to witness and document the events. This caused him to achieve fame in the Muggle world, although a lot of wizards look down on him for being an average professor at a Muggle college," Hermione took a deep breath.
"Very goon Miss Granger. 5 points to Gryffindor. Now can anyone tell me what happened to Tolkein's Time Trekker?" Once again Hermione raised her hand. However, Gandalf decided to ask a different student.
"Miss Weasley, do you know the answer?" he asked quietly. Ginny looked up in alarm. She'd been trying to remain as inconspicuous in this class as possible. After all, she was stuck sitting by Draco. However, she nodded.
"He destroyed it after he finished documenting the events of the War of the Ring," she said quietly. "He didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands." Gandalf smiled.
"Bravo, Miss Weasley. 5 more points to Gryffindor." A few Slytherins grumbled at this. "Now, as this is Defense Against the Dark Arts, I'd like to introduce a few who have fought against dark forces. These are my friends, Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Pippin Took, and Merry Brandybuck."
"We're Hobbits!" Pippin said proudly.
"They probably know that Pip," Merry declared. Pippin shrugged. Gandalf gave them a stern look.
"Frodo was the ring bearer during the War," Gandalf said. "It was a great evil on it's own." For the rest of the class, the Hobbits and Gandalf talked about the evils they had faced, from Urk-hai and goblins to evil wizards and crazy Gollum, and their journey.
"I can't believe he's forcing us to write three scrolls on that!" Ron whined. Lavender, who was walking with them laughed.
"Ron, he said to write it on them and the other visitors that will be coming soon!" she said. "It's due after the Winter Holidays. Plus it's mostly our opinion on the events they talked about!" Ron shrugged.
"Well, it still seems a little much," he declared.
"I can't believe the Americans are coming tomorrow!" Hermione stated. "I wonder what they'll be like."
"Dumbledore said that they're bringing some new instructors with them," Harry said. "I just hope there's no one like Snape." Hermione nodded in agreement.
Later that night, Ginny Weasley was walking down the hall towards the Gryffindor tower when she heard someone coming from the other direction. Quickly, she hid in a room off to the side. No sooner had she entered the dark room that she heard someone rattle the doorknob. She hid behind a bookcase set slightly away from the wall. Draco Malfoy entered. As he walked up to the fireplace, Lucius's head appeared.
"What is it Draco? I am doing something very important!" Lucius said in a very irritated voice.
"Father, you asked me to contact you if I found out anything about Mara Black," Draco said bluntly. Lucius smiled.
"Well, well, so I did. What have you discovered?"
"She's meeting her father sometime next month. My sources couldn't tell me where or when, but they did tell me that," Draco said. Ginny was shocked. How could he tell his father this?
"Well done Draco. Remember to tell me if you discover more." He disappeared for a second. However, he came back. "Oh, and Draco? I certainly hope you put a stop to this silly infatuation for that Muggle-loving Weasley girl. It would look horrible for the family."
"But father, Kevin made that up-"
"Now, now, don't accuse your cousin of such things. He knows you are his ally, but he wants to make sure that you don't make the family look bad. Honestly, even looking twice at someone from that Muggle-loving penniless family is unthinkable."
"Yes father," Draco said, realizing there was no point in arguing with Lucius when he had his mind made up.
"Good." This time when Lucius disappeared, he didn't come back. After a couple seconds of just absently standing there, Draco left the room.
Ginny was in a state of shock. "Muggle-loving Weasley girl"? That had to be her. But, why had Draco's father said that Draco had to "put a stop to this infatuation"? Oh no! Draco couldn't actually like her. It all had to be some sort of mistake. Shivering slightly, the fourth year girl left the room. This definitely qualified as the weirdest thing that had happened all year.
The next day, everyone was excited about the arrival of the American students. Like the year before when Durmstrang and Beauxbatons had come, Hogwarts was spotless.
"I wonder how they're gonna get here?" Dean Thomas asked in the Great Hall at breakfast.
"Who knows?" Ron said with a shrug.
"Remember, they aren't here for a tournament so they might not feel obligated to arrive in a strange way," Hermione stated. She noticed that Ginny was being very quiet. "Hey Ginny, what's wrong?" Ginny looked up with a start.
"N-nothing's wrong," she said a bit too quickly. Hermione was about to answer but Dumbledore stood up.
"I am pleased to announce that the American students will be arriving in two hours. After you finish eating, please return to your common rooms to put your books away. Classes are canceled for today so our guests may adjust to the change. We will meet outside the front door in one hour and forty five minutes. Thank you." Everyone went back to eating. Except Mara. Making up some excuse she hurried out of the room.
"I wonder what's wrong with her?" Angelina asked in a slightly worried voice.
"She probably just wants to look nice for when her friends get here," Katie said with a shrug.
"Yeah, I guess," Angelina said. Everyone went back to eating.
As soon as she'd finished eating, Ginny got up. She really wanted to get out of there. She was still very confused by what she'd overheard the night before. She wanted to leave quickly in case she ran into Draco.
Unfortunately, it seemed her plan wasn't going too well, for as she hurried towards the door, she slipped and fell into someone, who caught her. However, when she looked up to see who it was and thank them, she stopped.
"Watch where you're going!" Draco said meanly. He pushed her roughly away. Ginny was shocked for a second, then she was angry.
"Why don't you Malfoy?" she declared.
"You ran into me Weasley! Now get out of my way," he yelled.
"No," Ginny said simply. Draco narrowed his eyes, and seemed to be ready to retort when Kevin, now with his own supply of goons, walked up.
"Having a little spat with your girlfriend, cousin?" he asked evilly. "Uncle Lucius won't be too happy to hear about this!" His minions laughed. Draco glared.
"She isn't my girlfriend!" he stated.
"But you too looked so close. You even caught her when she fell!" Kevin said in mock surprise. His underlings laughed again.
"Oh shove off! And leave him alone, you prat," Ginny said. Then her eyes widened. She'd just defended Malfoy!
"Oh, look Draco, she's defending you. How cute!" Draco's glare deepened. Finally, he turned and left the room, followed by Kevin and his followers. As soon as she was sure that she wouldn't run into them, Ginny left as well.
Draco walked down the hallway sulkily. His entire world was spinning out of control and he didn't know how to stop it. Why had Kevin come here? More importantly, what was Draco going to do to stop him from ruining his reputation of being one of the meanest people in school. If he didn't, he wouldn't be worthy of the Malfoy name. Especially with his cousin telling everyone that he fancied that Weasley girl.
As he thought of Ginny, Draco was taken aback. First of all, why had he caught her when she fell? Wouldn't it have been more like him to step away? He thought back to that moment in the great hall…
He'd been getting up so that he could leave and decide how to prove that he really could be a Malfoy to his father. Then he'd just been deciding how when the red-headed girl had tripped and started falling towards him. He would've had time to move, but he still caught her…
Draco shook himself out of his reverie. He was going to have to make doubly sure that nothing like that happened again. From then on, he was going to have to be mean to everyone. That would show Kevin! Draco started walking determinedly towards the Slytherin dungeon. However, he slowed as another thought occurred to him. She'd defended him. When Kevin had said that thing about him catching her, she'd called him a prat. Why had she done that? After he'd always he so mean to her, what would prompt her to do that? After all, the last person he'd seen the shy little Weasel defending was Potter back in second year in Flourish and Blott's … No! It wasn't like that. It couldn't be like that. After all, everyone knew how much she liked Potter. This was completely different! However, no matter how many times Draco tried to tell himself this, the more his brain said it's exactly the same.
In the Gryffindor common room, Ginny was also contemplating what had just happened. Why had she suddenly decided to defend Malfoy? Furthermore, how could she have believed, for even a second that he had actually liked her? You wanted him to, that annoying little voice of reason that everyone seems to be stuck with said. No! I like Harry! She quickly thought. Oh really? Give it a rest Ginny! When are you going to give up on your little case of hero worship and get on with your life? After all, you know he doesn't think of you that way, the voice of reason declared. He might someday, Ginny thought in a hopefully. However, she knew the voice of reason was right. Now, Malfoy on the other hand hasn't actually even had a real girlfriend. That is, unless you count that Parkinson girl who seems to think he likes her. Ginny sighed. But he's so mean to all of us, she thought. Oh, that's just because he thinks he's gotta prove himself to his father. I know! Why don't you talk to Mara? She's sitting over there. Plus, she's went out with Draco's scumbag of a cousin, so maybe she could help you out. Ginny looked at Mara who seemed to be deep in thought about something. Why not?
"Hey, Mara?" Ginny said quietly. Mara looked up. "Can I talk to you about something?"
"Uh, sure," Mara said. She seemed to be a little confused. "Go ahead." Ginny told her about her problem. She hadn't meant to say everything, but it had all just came out.
"…and he's always been so mean to us!" Ginny finished. Mara looked at the ground for a moment.
"You wanna know who he sounds like? This guy who went to my old school. His name was Pietro Maximoff. His dad was big on this whole, "Wizards are better than Muggles" thing. However, he didn't say it much around Xavier. Anyway, Pietro was always trying to show his father that he was just like him; he probably still is. He would do anything to earn his father's respect, although he probably never will. I mean he'd do ANYTHING!"
"Like what?" Ginny asked curiously.
"Well, he got his sister sent to a mental hospital, dumped his girlfriend because she wasn't in Slytherin, help his father alter his sister's memory when she got out, and turned his back on all his friends when his father asked for his help. Oh, and then he forced them to take him back when his father instructed him to," Mara said. Just then, the portrait swung open and most of the Gryffindors entered the common room.
"Come on!" Angelina said to Mara. "We'd better hurry!"
"We've gotta be down there in five minutes!" Katie added. Mara got up, and quickly they hurried away. Ginny sighed and followed them. Maybe Malfoy was like this Pietro guy. If he was, then he wasn't really a bad person, just misguided. No, he's still a bad person, the voice of reason declared. Hello! You're the one who told me that I should go out with him! Ginny thought exasperatedly. Well, I'm you so technically you told yourself that! it pointed out. But, why did you have me go talk to Mara if you were just going to call Draco a bad person? Ginny whined. Since when do you call him Draco? You're beginning to like him! Well, maybe not your best choice, but at least you seem to be getting over your hero worship of Harry! the voice of reason declared. I do NOT like Dra- Malfoy! Ginny thought. Then, she hurried out of the portrait hole and downstairs.
TBC…
A/N: Well, there it is! I know it isn't probably as good as the other chapters, but I'm still trying to get the hang of this. As to why Ginny asked Mara, it was just because I had to have her talk to someone who knew Pietro, and considering he's gonna show up in the next chapter, Mara obviously did. Don't worry, Mara's not gonna becaome the one everyone turns to for advice! Thanks to everyone who reviewed since I last updated. You're the main reason I decided to write some more. Now for the reasons I stopped writing:
1) Even though it was summer vacation, I had to get up really early to go to work: picking strawberries. By the time I got home, I was hot and sweaty and I really didn't feel like sitting down and going on the computer.
2) I was reading a lot of other books because in my town's stupid library, the Harry Potter books are in the little kids section, so they don't count towards a prize. (which just isn't fair!)
3) I was really into X-Men Evolution. I mean, it's gotta be my favorite cartoon, and since it was on Cartoon Network, I was watching it almost everyday. This kind of made my brain shift it's focus away from Harry Potter.
4) I knew the fifth book was going to be coming out, so I thought that I'd wait for that to see if I could use anything from it. However, I decided to wait to actually hear a little about the book before I actually read it for myself.
5) However, this turned out not to be a very good plan because after I'd read about some things that happened in Order of the Phoenix, I was pretty bummed (i.e. Sirius's death). So I really wasn't in the mood to be writing HP fanfic.
6) Finally, there was the fact that with new episodes of X-Men Evolution coming out, and me watching General Hospital with my sister, my summer was booked.
However, now I'm back in school and, amazingly, have more free time than in the summer. (this is mainly due to the fact that I don't have to do any outdoor work). So, I'm gonna try writing some more. Oh, I've also edited the last four chapters a little. Nothing really major except I tried to make Mara less Mary-Sueish. Oh, and about the whole J.R.R. Tolkein was a wizard thing, I just needed to have some way to explain why everyone knew who he was. Well, please review!
