HOORAY FOR NO WRITER'S BLOCK!!!!!
Ah ok, now it's time for thank you's:
Casper: hey jenn! Thank you sooooo much for reviewing this story, I love yours too. I can't wait for you to come back hurry home!
Dark Moon: LoL, don't worry I hate those as well as much as fluff stories sometimes are appealing…no, there will be no stupid love triangle type thing here. You have to remember as well that they're in a train carriage in plain view of everyone…
DClick: **blushes** Wow, thanks!!! Personally I hate H/Hr *sucks rotten tomatoes* I dunno what it is about them...but cheers!
Destiny: yeah the whole cockroach thing kind of grossed me out too, but it's pivotal for this chapter *clamps hand over mouth* did I just say that?
Serendipity: yay I made someone laugh! *beams* oh, and I love love love your pen name!
Jedi Tess of Gryffindor: you reviewed! *bows down* thank you thank you thank you!!! I love your stories and am so glad you like mine! Please tell Lee that I hope she recovers really quickly!
And now onto the story…I'm sorry it's so short though *frowns* I promise the next one will be longer!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Will you stop that?" Draco said irritated as everyone looked over to see what the squelching noise was. Crabbe looked up.
"Ungh."
Ron rolled his eyes. "Honestly, I think I'm going to lose it if I have to be cooped up with them any longer," he said moaning. Harry and Hermione nodded in agreement as Crabbe and Goyle looked on in stupefied silence.
"Where are all of those bugs coming from anyway?" Ginny's small voice piped up. Everyone turned to look at her, and then at the stream of bugs that Crabbe and Goyle were deliriously stopping. There was a pause before Fred commented.
"Ah, but we're in the country dearest sister of mine," he said wisely. "And you know what that means…" Ginny shook her head.
"Oh come off it Gin, don't you remember falling in that anthill at Granny's country barn?" George snorted. Ginny blushed and Draco looked on in amusement.
"Little Weasley fell in an anthill? Poor thing," he added sarcastically. Ginny scowled.
"No one asked for your opinion Ferret Face," Ron replied scathingly.
"Since when have I asked permission to express my opinion?" Draco commented dryly, throwing two cards on the pile. "Two threes."
"No way!"
Draco smirked. "Actually, I did have two threes, see-"
"No you dumbass!" came Pansy's voice. Everyone gaped to see her telling her idol off, even Draco.
"Excuse me?" he said, getting up and looking down at her menacingly.
"This isn't the time for stupid arguments Draco," she said, absently grabbing onto Harry's arm in fright. He frowned but didn't try to shake her off. She's terrified, he thought to himself.
"And why not?" he asked, tapping his foot annoyingly.
"Do you not see the hoards of bugs coming in? Hasn't you father taught you anything? It's an Insectiarium Spell and it won't stop unless we try to." She gulped nervously and her painted nails dug deep into Harry's arm. He winced in pain.
"Why do we care?" Fred asked reasonably. "As long as we've got them two over there, why should it matter?"
"Because," Pansy said shrilly, "Insects under that spell have some sort of...venomous thing going on!"
"She's right you know," Hermione said frowning. "This could be dangerous." Everyone in the car exchanged uneasy glances, and even Draco looked a little wary.
"So what do we do?" Ginny asked softly. Draco turned around at the sound of her voice.
"Ask Granger," he said shrugging, sitting down on the floor again.
"She wasn't asking you," Harry said shortly, looking over at Ginny with concern. When he looked away, Ginny rolled her eyes dramatically. But only after he looked away.
"Well, as it seems everyone's depending on me to come up with some sort of answer, I guess I'd better rack my brains then," Hermione said sighing, getting out her books.
"Oh honestly Granger, if you had any real sense you wouldn't be taking out textbooks!" Draco snarled. "We need to take action, now!"
"I suppose you have a better idea then?" Hermione asked dangerously soft, raising her eyebrow. Draco smirked.
"As a matter of fact I do."
"Oh?" Hermione stared curiously, closing 'Beastly Insects and their Magical Attributes' by "Ant" Anthony Red shut.
"Yes. The Impediment Jinx for now, we can toss them out the window as they come," he said shrugging and taking out his wand.
"That's not a very good long term solution," Hermione said frowning.
"Maybe not," Draco agreed, shocking everyone, "but it's a solution nonetheless.
"True. All right," Hermione started, turning to everyone. She seemed to be the silently elected leader of this operation. "Fred and George, go over there and started stupefying them, it's the only thing we can do at the moment." Fred and George nodded and went over to the corner where the bugs were coming in. Crabbe and Goyle grunted in protest but George just pushed him out of the way.
"Move over you great lump or make yourself useful!"
Ginny giggled. "Oh George, you sounded like Mum there!" Meanwhile, everyone was making a mental note that George was the twin wearing green, Fred the one wearing red.
George flushed. "If I ever hear you saying that-"
"George!"
"So sorry Herms...okay, let's do this Freddie boy, shall we?"
"Righto." They took out their wands and started setting little jets of silver light at the bugs, stopping them in mid-scuttle. Hermione smiled.
"Good. Now, let's see…Ron, you help me find some information on this spell."
Ron groaned. "Do I have to?" Hermione looked down at him.
"Yes. Lord knows what you'll do by accident with that wand," she replied sternly. Ron flushed; the previous summer he had snapped it while thwacking it on the table when he couldn't Summon his brush to the breakfast table.
"That was purely accidental!" he argued.
"You're not supposed to be using your wand during the summer hols anyway!" she said, and the matter was closed. Ron threw down his cards and flicked open a book in quiet resignation. Draco sniggered, but was soon shut up when Hermione started talking next.
"Malfoy, maybe you'd just better leave this to us. Wouldn't want to get your hair mussed up, would you?" Hermione grinned mischievously as Draco stood up furiously.
"I don't care if my bloody hair gets messed up! See!" He furiously ran his hands through his hair, leaving his hands a sticky mess. He impatiently got rid of the gel on his hands and turned to face them all. Hermione, Ginny and Pansy took in a sharp breath of happy surprise which caused all the other male occupants to scowl and Draco to smirk. "There. Now can you give me a real job Mother? "Hermione was jerked out of her trance and promptly fixed the scowl back on her face.
"Fine. You can…wait until we find something for you to do," she finished lamely, turning to Ginny.
"Okay Ginny, you're quite good with Charms," Ginny beamed proudly, "so can you think of anything that might stop them? Or maybe get rid of them?" Ginny's face turned thoughtful.
"I suppose…I'll think 'Mione," she said, grinning.
"Good. Pansy," she said grimacing at using the girl's first name. Pansy looked up and smirked.
"Granger?"
"As much as I really don't want to say this, you're one of the best out of all of us at Transfiguration, so think of an appropriate spell please?" Hermione turned her back on the now broadly smirking Slytherin girl and fixed her gaze on Harry. "Okay Harry, I need you to do something really important-"
"Why couldn't I have done that?" Draco demanded stubbornly.
"Because I loathe you," Hermione answered simply. Draco looked like he was about to laugh, but he controlled himself.
"Quite true. Carry on then," he said, sitting in between Ginny and Pansy on the side seats.
"I need you to go outside the car and see where they're coming from," she finished. Harry blanched.
"Oh come off it Hermione, I can't go out there!"
"Oh, ickle Potter afraid of little bugs?" Draco taunted, stretching out comfortably. Ginny tried her very hardest not to take her eyes off of the book page she was scanning.
"You wish Malfoy," Harry hissed. Draco got up abruptly.
"I want to go out there too," he said bluntly, stepping in front of Hermione. She blinked.
"What? But-"
"I'm not going to let a Mudblood like you try to stop me. I'm going out there and that's final. Otherwise, I'm about as useful as Crabbe and Goyle over there." He nodded, and as much as Hermione hated to admit it he was right.
"I'll let the Mudblood comment slide this time Malfoy. But if you try to do anything to Harry I swear that we'll all-" she was interrupted.
"-maim me horribly and feed the pieces to Fang. I know." He leaned against the wall scowling. "I want to do something dammit! I'm bloody bored with you all." His eyes fell on the intently studying Ginny Weasley and he thought Well, maybe not with her…haven't figured her out yet.
Hermione sighed. "OK, fine. Harry, do you think you two can be on civil terms for a few minutes?"
"I'll try, but I can't guarantee anything for him," Harry replied, glaring at Draco. He shrugged, bored.
"Cut the crap Potter, let's go." Harry went over to the train door and opened it cautiously. The still and drab countryside of England met their eyes. Draco snorted. "This is ridiculous. Come on let's get this over with; how bad can it be?"
"Right," Harry replied, hoping to God he sounded brave. He didn't.
Draco sniggered. "I reckon we'd better hurry up before Potty wets his pants!"
"Shut it Malfoy," Harry muttered, starting to round the corner to where the insects were coming from. Both now had their wands out, at the ready. Draco was still sniggering when they abruptly turned the corner and stood deathly still in horrified fascination at the scene in front of them.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Bugs. Everywhere. Crawling on each other's backs, scrambling to get up in the tiny hole they had gnawed through the car's underside, scuttling around like crazed fans at a concert. Draco gulped as he saw a cockroach scoop up ten ants in it's claws and devour them greedily. He looked at Harry who was wearing practically an identical mask of disgust.
"Brilliant! So now what do we do Potter?" Draco asked faintly. Harry shook his head, keeping his wand steadily in front of him.
"To be brutally honest, I don't know." Harry let his eyes rove all over the humungous pile of insects in front of him. When Draco spoke, he jumped in surprise.
"Well, there's nothing else for it. I don't suppose I'll get any Azkaban time for this, they are poisonous insects after all," Draco drawled lazily. He flung out his wand and hissed, "Avada Kedavra" before Harry could stop him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*ducks flying fruit* PLEASE DON'T HURT MEEEE!!!!! I promise to update as soon as I possibly can. In the meantime, chapter five of Seven Deadly Sins is underway, I was struck with the strong urge to write today, aren't you all lucky? J