Disclaimer: Much as I'd like to, I don't own Draco Malfoy, or any part of the magical world that J.K. Rowling has all the copyrights to ... please don't sue me. There are some parts of this story that are quotes from the book - it can't be helped - events are the same as in the book, but Draco's opinion of these events may vary from Harry's.
Author's Notes: I needed to do some re-writing, after reading OotP. I have made some minor changes to this chapter, mostly spelling and grammar.
Cyclone49: Sorry, just got your review after I posted the last chapter.
Caz Malfoy: Yeah, but that's just 'cause you're a slash fan ... other than those two scenes, what is there for you to like?
dragonsprincess: My cat is a Malfoy. Seriously ... nah, you're right, not every smart animal is a wizard in disguise ... but my cat is still evil!
Starre: huh? You're crazy.
Akuma-sama: Has everyone here gone insane or is it just me? Oh, and yay for the soon-for-me-to-read new chapter.
Hyperactive Theodore Nott, candy, Peeves, and a star-lit night in the Great Hall.
Chapter 10 - Black Attack
At the Feast that night, Pansy made up for her absence during the day, by hanging all over me like a very annoying cloak ... and I mean very annoying.
The food was good, though.
All the ghosts were present. Even Peeves hovered above the Slytherin table, among the bats, occasionally lashing out and swatting them. The Baron kept giving Peeves glares that could only mean Peeves was under direct orders to be on his best behaviour. About halfway through the Feast, Peeves drifted down below the bats and hovered above me, "Loopy Lupin gone Loony yet?" he asked jeeringly.
"More than you'd imagine." I said coldly.
"He's a right lunatic." Theo added with a grin - Cat shot the three of us vicious glares. Peeves returned this with a grin.
"Are you bothering students again, Peeves?" a cold voice asked behind me. I turned to see the Bloody Baron hovering nearby.
"I was just making polite conversation, Your Bloodiness, sir." Peeves grovelled.
"Out. Now, Peeves." the Baron growled quietly. And Peeves, slightly panicked, nodded and zoomed out the door.
After the Feast was all eaten, the ghosts (with the exception of the Baron, who chose to stay well out of it) did some fairly spectacular displays of synchronised flying, and Sir Nicholas, the Gryffindor ghost, re-enacted his failed beheading (I heard the Baron mutter that he maybe should have let Peeves stay, if only to heckle Sir Nicholas).
As we were leaving, I heard Hermione compliment Sir Nicholas on his amazingly realistic performance, and watched as he bowed to her and nearly lost his head again.
Then I spotted Potter leaving - I couldn't let him leave in such good spirits, so I shouted at him, "The Dementors send their love to Potter!"
He ignored me ... the bloody git ignored me!
Theo had had too much candy - he was prancing circles around me, singing, "Trick or treat, smell my feet." repetitively. Obsessive-compulsive, much?
As I sat down on my bed, Theo started removing his shoes. "You've had too much sugar, Theo."
"Trick or treat, smell my feet."
"You're insane."
"Trick or treat, smell my feet."
"I give up."
"Trick or treat, smell my feet."
Just then, the door burst open and Marcus Flint stood there glaring at us, "Hey - learn to knock - there is such a thing as privacy, you know." I snapped.
"Shut up, Malfoy." Flint said angrily.
"Trick or treat, smell my feet." Theo sang, waving his foot in the air.
"You shut up too, Nott, before I remove your feet." Flint growled. Theo shut up. "Now, all four of you, up to the Great Hall - move it." And with that delightful announcement, Flint then left, on his own way up to the Great Hall.
"Put your shoes back on before you asphyxiate everyone." I said to Theo. Reluctantly, he did so.
* * *
When we entered the Great Hall, we found the other three houses and half the Slytherins there already. The rest of our house followed soon after us.
Cat, Blaise and Pansy approached us and Blaise announced, "The Patils are saying the portrait guarding Gryffindor Tower was attacked by Sirius Black." Cat nodded solemnly in agreement.
"Serves them right for having a portrait guard their tower, doesn't it?" I stated flatly.
"How'd he get in, though?" Theo asked, still bobbing on his feet, like a maniac, and just repressing the urge to dance around the room, because of the seriousness of the situation ... pun intended, this time.
"No idea." Blaise said.
"It's scary that someone like that - a raving maniac - could get inside ... someone must have helped him." Pansy said softly.
"Who'd do a thing like that?" Cat asked - if I hadn't known Black was her father, I'd not have noticed the defensive tone she adopted.
"No idea." I muttered, glancing up to see the teachers had finished a heated, if brief, debate.
Dumbledore now spoke loudly, for the entire Hall to hear, "The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle. I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the Prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the Hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbances should be reported to me immediately." at this point he had turned to the Weasley wearing a badge that said 'Bighead Boy' (probably the twins' work, I'd wager), "Send word with one of the ghosts." he then glanced around the room, seeming to consider something, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing ..." and with a wave of his wand, the tables evacuated the floor-space and a vast number of sleeping-bags appeared in the middle of the floor. "Sleep well." he finished, and the teacher population departed.
"They expect me to sleep on the floor?" I asked in my best impudent tone.
"Yes, they do, apparently." Cat said coldly, snatching a sleeping bag for herself. Theo grabbed a bag too and proceeded to swing it around his head like a lasso.
I rolled my eyes and tried to pretend I didn't know the escaped madman who was currently singing, "Trick or treat, smell my feet." again.
"Are we sure Black was the one who's been living in Azkaban for the last twelve years?" I asked acidly, "Are we sure you're not the Demented one?" I added, glaring at Theo. He tried to sober up slightly.
"What?" he asked, "Sugar, plus teenager, equals hyper." he said, in a surprisingly reasonable tone.
"EVERYONE INTO THEIR SLEEPING BAGS!" Bighead Boy yelled. "COME ON, NOW, NO MORE TALKING! LIGHTS OUT IN TEN MINUTES!"
I spotted two separate lots of Weasley hair (the twins were one, and the side-kick with his hero were the other) moving to two separate corners at one end of the Hall. I promptly grabbed a sleeping bag and stalked to the far end of the Hall from any Weasley presences, whatsoever. The opposite corner from Potter and his pet Weasley, too. Theo, Cat and Blaise followed me. Pansy decided to take Crabbe and Goyle to the fourth corner, with Milli and half-a-dozen Ravenclaw gossipmongers.
I sat on top of the sleeping bag I had taken, trying to look like the idea of sleeping on the floor was beneath me, while the other three climbed into the bags and lay down.
"Whassamatter, Draco?" Theo asked, looking up at me, "Not going to sleep?"
"Not going to lower myself to the standards of the common crowd." I replied coolly.
Theo snorted and rolled over, deciding to talk to Blaise instead, "So how'd you figure Black got in, then?" he asked.
"I don't know." Blaise said calmly, "Can't Apparate in here, and Apparation can be tracked anyway, so the Ministry would have caught him if he'd tried to Apparate anywhere. Can't Floo in. Would have been seen if he'd flown. Dementors at every known entrance." she sighed deeply, "Maybe there's a secret passageway someone's not telling us about?" she said in a tone that made it sound like she was asking if we knew of any such secret passage.
"I know there's ways to Hogsmeade, from inside the castle, but Filch also knows them." Theo noted, "Then again, the twins-de-la-Weasley might know something. If anyone can get anywhere, in this castle, it'd be them, I'd bet."
"Well, they look just as confused as we are." I noted, looking across the Hall at said Weasleys, who were talking to each other in low whispers, and wearing equal looks of confusion and thoughtfulness.
"Lie down, Draco." Blaise muttered.
I glared at her, but then slowly climbed into the sleeping bag I had been seated on, laying on my stomach and propping my head up in my hands, "I don't like this." I muttered, "It's like sleeping outdoors."
"It's like being out under that stars." Cat said dreamily, "It's beautiful."
"Yeuch." I replied bitterly.
"Cat." Theo said suddenly. She looked round at him - he was staring at her with an intent interest that made it obvious that he had an idea, "Why did you link Black to that dog, in Defence class?" he asked.
I rolled my eyes - not this rubbish again. Cat stared at him for a minute, before answering, "I don't know. It just felt right, somehow ... and you have to admit, a big thing like that asking for its tummy rubbed is funny."
"Yes, but ... ah, forget it." Theo muttered.
"THE LIGHTS ARE GOING OUT NOW!" Bighead Boy yelled, "I WANT EVERYONE IN THEIR SLEEPING BAGS AND NO MORE TALKING!"
A few minutes passed in silence, then I heard a whisper from Cat, who had rolled onto her back and was looking up at the sky, "Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky." her eyes appeared almost glazed over and she looked like she had been in a trance.
"What was that, Cat?" I asked in as quiet a whisper as I could, so as to avoid the wrath of Weasley.
"Huh? I didn't say anything." Cat whispered, sounding really confused.
"Yes you did, Cat." Blaise muttered, "You sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."
"I didn't." Cat whispered indignantly.
"Out of tune, I might add." Theo hissed.
"Yep." I whispered, "Only I was too polite to mention that detail, Theo."
Cat was still staring at the ceiling ... at the stars, "It's beautiful, you know ... odd, though ... Mars is nowhere to be seen ... Trelawney says he's always out when someone's out for blood without good reason."
"So that's that star I saw over the Forest, in first year?" I asked.
"Probably." Theo muttered, "Well, He was definitely out for blood, then, wasn't He?"
"Shut up." I muttered.
I eventually dosed off after about an hour.
* * *
Flint broke the bad news to the Gryffindors, about their Quidditch switch, two days before the match was due. By Flint's account, Wood threw a fit.
And so, the Gryffindors proceeded to lose dramatically, to Hufflepuff. It was wonderful fun to watch.
It was so much fun that the Dementors were drawn to it, to try to make everyone miserable ... didn't work on most of the Slytherins - Flint even cheered for the Dementors, when Potter fainted again. Fifty feet in the air, going at full speed ... he fell.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your opinion of the boy-who-lived-to-mess-up-the-Dark-Lord's-plans), Dumbledore caught him with a levitation spell, and sent the Dementors away with some silvery thing I had never seen before - it looked like a sort of bird that chased them away.
I had been in the back row of the stands, and had had to duck as the wind swept the Nimbus 2000 over my head, and away. I turned to watch as it rammed headlong into the same tree that Potter had crashed Mr Weasley's car into over a year previously. Potter's possessions seem to like hitting that tree ... and it hits back pretty violently, too. That'll not have survived.
"Cool. Bye bye, broomstick." Theo yelled next to me, over the noise of the storm and the crowd - I glanced at him, and saw he was looking the same way I was.
"There goes the competition." I shouted in response.
* * *
Having served its purpose, my 'damaged' arm immediately wasn't. Pansy instantly had me doing ridiculous impersonations of Potter falling off his broom ... it felt degrading, impersonating my enemy like that ... but what Pansy wants, she far too often gets - more often than not, just to make her shut up.
* * *
End of chapter 10
Author's Notes: I needed to do some re-writing, after reading OotP. I have made some minor changes to this chapter, mostly spelling and grammar.
Cyclone49: Sorry, just got your review after I posted the last chapter.
Caz Malfoy: Yeah, but that's just 'cause you're a slash fan ... other than those two scenes, what is there for you to like?
dragonsprincess: My cat is a Malfoy. Seriously ... nah, you're right, not every smart animal is a wizard in disguise ... but my cat is still evil!
Starre: huh? You're crazy.
Akuma-sama: Has everyone here gone insane or is it just me? Oh, and yay for the soon-for-me-to-read new chapter.
Hyperactive Theodore Nott, candy, Peeves, and a star-lit night in the Great Hall.
Chapter 10 - Black Attack
At the Feast that night, Pansy made up for her absence during the day, by hanging all over me like a very annoying cloak ... and I mean very annoying.
The food was good, though.
All the ghosts were present. Even Peeves hovered above the Slytherin table, among the bats, occasionally lashing out and swatting them. The Baron kept giving Peeves glares that could only mean Peeves was under direct orders to be on his best behaviour. About halfway through the Feast, Peeves drifted down below the bats and hovered above me, "Loopy Lupin gone Loony yet?" he asked jeeringly.
"More than you'd imagine." I said coldly.
"He's a right lunatic." Theo added with a grin - Cat shot the three of us vicious glares. Peeves returned this with a grin.
"Are you bothering students again, Peeves?" a cold voice asked behind me. I turned to see the Bloody Baron hovering nearby.
"I was just making polite conversation, Your Bloodiness, sir." Peeves grovelled.
"Out. Now, Peeves." the Baron growled quietly. And Peeves, slightly panicked, nodded and zoomed out the door.
After the Feast was all eaten, the ghosts (with the exception of the Baron, who chose to stay well out of it) did some fairly spectacular displays of synchronised flying, and Sir Nicholas, the Gryffindor ghost, re-enacted his failed beheading (I heard the Baron mutter that he maybe should have let Peeves stay, if only to heckle Sir Nicholas).
As we were leaving, I heard Hermione compliment Sir Nicholas on his amazingly realistic performance, and watched as he bowed to her and nearly lost his head again.
Then I spotted Potter leaving - I couldn't let him leave in such good spirits, so I shouted at him, "The Dementors send their love to Potter!"
He ignored me ... the bloody git ignored me!
Theo had had too much candy - he was prancing circles around me, singing, "Trick or treat, smell my feet." repetitively. Obsessive-compulsive, much?
As I sat down on my bed, Theo started removing his shoes. "You've had too much sugar, Theo."
"Trick or treat, smell my feet."
"You're insane."
"Trick or treat, smell my feet."
"I give up."
"Trick or treat, smell my feet."
Just then, the door burst open and Marcus Flint stood there glaring at us, "Hey - learn to knock - there is such a thing as privacy, you know." I snapped.
"Shut up, Malfoy." Flint said angrily.
"Trick or treat, smell my feet." Theo sang, waving his foot in the air.
"You shut up too, Nott, before I remove your feet." Flint growled. Theo shut up. "Now, all four of you, up to the Great Hall - move it." And with that delightful announcement, Flint then left, on his own way up to the Great Hall.
"Put your shoes back on before you asphyxiate everyone." I said to Theo. Reluctantly, he did so.
* * *
When we entered the Great Hall, we found the other three houses and half the Slytherins there already. The rest of our house followed soon after us.
Cat, Blaise and Pansy approached us and Blaise announced, "The Patils are saying the portrait guarding Gryffindor Tower was attacked by Sirius Black." Cat nodded solemnly in agreement.
"Serves them right for having a portrait guard their tower, doesn't it?" I stated flatly.
"How'd he get in, though?" Theo asked, still bobbing on his feet, like a maniac, and just repressing the urge to dance around the room, because of the seriousness of the situation ... pun intended, this time.
"No idea." Blaise said.
"It's scary that someone like that - a raving maniac - could get inside ... someone must have helped him." Pansy said softly.
"Who'd do a thing like that?" Cat asked - if I hadn't known Black was her father, I'd not have noticed the defensive tone she adopted.
"No idea." I muttered, glancing up to see the teachers had finished a heated, if brief, debate.
Dumbledore now spoke loudly, for the entire Hall to hear, "The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle. I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the Prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the Hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbances should be reported to me immediately." at this point he had turned to the Weasley wearing a badge that said 'Bighead Boy' (probably the twins' work, I'd wager), "Send word with one of the ghosts." he then glanced around the room, seeming to consider something, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing ..." and with a wave of his wand, the tables evacuated the floor-space and a vast number of sleeping-bags appeared in the middle of the floor. "Sleep well." he finished, and the teacher population departed.
"They expect me to sleep on the floor?" I asked in my best impudent tone.
"Yes, they do, apparently." Cat said coldly, snatching a sleeping bag for herself. Theo grabbed a bag too and proceeded to swing it around his head like a lasso.
I rolled my eyes and tried to pretend I didn't know the escaped madman who was currently singing, "Trick or treat, smell my feet." again.
"Are we sure Black was the one who's been living in Azkaban for the last twelve years?" I asked acidly, "Are we sure you're not the Demented one?" I added, glaring at Theo. He tried to sober up slightly.
"What?" he asked, "Sugar, plus teenager, equals hyper." he said, in a surprisingly reasonable tone.
"EVERYONE INTO THEIR SLEEPING BAGS!" Bighead Boy yelled. "COME ON, NOW, NO MORE TALKING! LIGHTS OUT IN TEN MINUTES!"
I spotted two separate lots of Weasley hair (the twins were one, and the side-kick with his hero were the other) moving to two separate corners at one end of the Hall. I promptly grabbed a sleeping bag and stalked to the far end of the Hall from any Weasley presences, whatsoever. The opposite corner from Potter and his pet Weasley, too. Theo, Cat and Blaise followed me. Pansy decided to take Crabbe and Goyle to the fourth corner, with Milli and half-a-dozen Ravenclaw gossipmongers.
I sat on top of the sleeping bag I had taken, trying to look like the idea of sleeping on the floor was beneath me, while the other three climbed into the bags and lay down.
"Whassamatter, Draco?" Theo asked, looking up at me, "Not going to sleep?"
"Not going to lower myself to the standards of the common crowd." I replied coolly.
Theo snorted and rolled over, deciding to talk to Blaise instead, "So how'd you figure Black got in, then?" he asked.
"I don't know." Blaise said calmly, "Can't Apparate in here, and Apparation can be tracked anyway, so the Ministry would have caught him if he'd tried to Apparate anywhere. Can't Floo in. Would have been seen if he'd flown. Dementors at every known entrance." she sighed deeply, "Maybe there's a secret passageway someone's not telling us about?" she said in a tone that made it sound like she was asking if we knew of any such secret passage.
"I know there's ways to Hogsmeade, from inside the castle, but Filch also knows them." Theo noted, "Then again, the twins-de-la-Weasley might know something. If anyone can get anywhere, in this castle, it'd be them, I'd bet."
"Well, they look just as confused as we are." I noted, looking across the Hall at said Weasleys, who were talking to each other in low whispers, and wearing equal looks of confusion and thoughtfulness.
"Lie down, Draco." Blaise muttered.
I glared at her, but then slowly climbed into the sleeping bag I had been seated on, laying on my stomach and propping my head up in my hands, "I don't like this." I muttered, "It's like sleeping outdoors."
"It's like being out under that stars." Cat said dreamily, "It's beautiful."
"Yeuch." I replied bitterly.
"Cat." Theo said suddenly. She looked round at him - he was staring at her with an intent interest that made it obvious that he had an idea, "Why did you link Black to that dog, in Defence class?" he asked.
I rolled my eyes - not this rubbish again. Cat stared at him for a minute, before answering, "I don't know. It just felt right, somehow ... and you have to admit, a big thing like that asking for its tummy rubbed is funny."
"Yes, but ... ah, forget it." Theo muttered.
"THE LIGHTS ARE GOING OUT NOW!" Bighead Boy yelled, "I WANT EVERYONE IN THEIR SLEEPING BAGS AND NO MORE TALKING!"
A few minutes passed in silence, then I heard a whisper from Cat, who had rolled onto her back and was looking up at the sky, "Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky." her eyes appeared almost glazed over and she looked like she had been in a trance.
"What was that, Cat?" I asked in as quiet a whisper as I could, so as to avoid the wrath of Weasley.
"Huh? I didn't say anything." Cat whispered, sounding really confused.
"Yes you did, Cat." Blaise muttered, "You sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."
"I didn't." Cat whispered indignantly.
"Out of tune, I might add." Theo hissed.
"Yep." I whispered, "Only I was too polite to mention that detail, Theo."
Cat was still staring at the ceiling ... at the stars, "It's beautiful, you know ... odd, though ... Mars is nowhere to be seen ... Trelawney says he's always out when someone's out for blood without good reason."
"So that's that star I saw over the Forest, in first year?" I asked.
"Probably." Theo muttered, "Well, He was definitely out for blood, then, wasn't He?"
"Shut up." I muttered.
I eventually dosed off after about an hour.
* * *
Flint broke the bad news to the Gryffindors, about their Quidditch switch, two days before the match was due. By Flint's account, Wood threw a fit.
And so, the Gryffindors proceeded to lose dramatically, to Hufflepuff. It was wonderful fun to watch.
It was so much fun that the Dementors were drawn to it, to try to make everyone miserable ... didn't work on most of the Slytherins - Flint even cheered for the Dementors, when Potter fainted again. Fifty feet in the air, going at full speed ... he fell.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your opinion of the boy-who-lived-to-mess-up-the-Dark-Lord's-plans), Dumbledore caught him with a levitation spell, and sent the Dementors away with some silvery thing I had never seen before - it looked like a sort of bird that chased them away.
I had been in the back row of the stands, and had had to duck as the wind swept the Nimbus 2000 over my head, and away. I turned to watch as it rammed headlong into the same tree that Potter had crashed Mr Weasley's car into over a year previously. Potter's possessions seem to like hitting that tree ... and it hits back pretty violently, too. That'll not have survived.
"Cool. Bye bye, broomstick." Theo yelled next to me, over the noise of the storm and the crowd - I glanced at him, and saw he was looking the same way I was.
"There goes the competition." I shouted in response.
* * *
Having served its purpose, my 'damaged' arm immediately wasn't. Pansy instantly had me doing ridiculous impersonations of Potter falling off his broom ... it felt degrading, impersonating my enemy like that ... but what Pansy wants, she far too often gets - more often than not, just to make her shut up.
* * *
End of chapter 10