Back down in the farthest depths of the Dungeons, two full-grown men were arguing over equally important issues.
"What did you want to be when you were young?" Severus Snape asked the janitor.
"When I was a kid, I wanted to be Albus Dumbledore."
Snape glared at the other man who was sitting opposite of him. "Archus don't be a goof! I'm trying to make a serious point here...I've been teaching for several years and each year...these kids get more and more arrogant."
"Aw skrewt shit, Professor. Come on Severus, the students haven't changed, you have! You took a teaching position, 'cause you thought it'd be fun, right? Thought you could have summer vacations off...and then you found out it was actually work...and that really bummed you out," was the man's wise reply.
"These students turned on me...they think I'm a big malignant greasy git." (A/N: I'm not going to argue on that topic! Lol!)
Archus stared at him, shocked by what he was hearing. "Listen to yourself Professor. If you were sixteen, what would you think of you, huh?"
"Hey...Archus, you think I give one bat's behind what these kids think of me?"
The man nodded, "Yes I do."
"You think about this...when you get old, these kids; when I get old, they're gonna be running the Wizarding World," the Potions Master continued to rant angrily.
"Yeah?"
"Now this is the thought that wakes me up in the middle of the night. That when I get older, these kids are gonna take care of me," he stated, sounding like he was actually worried.
Archus Filch wasn't an extremely intelligent man, but what he said next, was quite clever. "I wouldn't count on it, sir." With that, he left the Dungeons, knowing there was sure to be another area of the castle that needed his attention.
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Back in Snape's classroom, the five "inmates" were sitting together on the floor in a circle. For the past few minutes they had been asking one another several questions that dealt with very personal things and some questions that were just that…questions.
"What would I do for a million bucks? Well, I guess I'd do as little as I had to..." Harry said, looking around at them all.
"That's boring," Ginny yawned.
"Well, what am I supposed to say, Gin?" he asked, trying to steal a quick kiss from her. Draco noticed the obvious disgust in Hermione's eyes.
"The idea is to like search your mind for the absolute limit. Like, uh, would you fly to school naked?" Ginny asked with a grin, stealing her own kiss and making Hermione turn a dark shade of red as she attempted to look the other way.
Harry laughed nervously, then said, "Um, uh...would I have to go to class naked?"
"Of course, Potter," Draco smirked, causing the Boy-Who-Lived to groan. "Don't want to let all your fan club members to have only one chance to see your little man. Might as well give them the entire day. I'm sure you'd make the front of the Daily Prophet that way.
Turning back to Ginny and ignoring Draco, Harry asked, "In the spring, or winter?"
"Doesn't matter, does it?" the redhead asked the group, but no one but her seemed interested in hearing Harry's reply. "Spring," she finally decided.
"Through the whole day, or only part of it?"
"Either one," she sighed, starting to get annoyed by all the questions.
Harry contemplated it for a moment, then said, "Yes."
Ginny squealed, clamping her hands over her mouth.
"I'd do it!" Cho cried, startling everyone so that four pairs of eyes were on her. "I'll do anything sexual, I don't need a million dollars to do it either," she told them, a mischievous twinkle in her dark eyes. Draco chuckled and Hermione smiled. Leave it to Cho to break the ice in such a forward fashion.
"You're lying," Ginny hissed, crossing her arms over her chest protectively.
Draco eyed Hermione and she eyed him back. They both knew what was going to happen next would be ugly.
"I already have! I've done just about everything there is except a few things that are illegal. I'm a nymphomaniac!" Cho stated with obvious pleasure.
"Lie," Ginny said, rolling her eyes. She dismissed Cho's statement too easily. Wanting to play along with Cho's charade, Draco asked the half-crazy girl his own question.
"Are your parents aware of this?"
"The only person I told was my shrink," she grinned. Draco smirked over at Hermione and she in turn nodded to him to go on.
"What did he do when you told him?"
"He nailed me," Cho gleamed, a bright smile set across her face. Draco and Hermione laughed together and Harry glared at the Ravenclaw in disgust. But it was Ginny who spoke what was on her blonde mind.
"Very nice," she shook her head.
"I don't think that from a legal standpoint what he did can be construed as rape since I paid him," Cho continued, adding to her story as she saw fit.
"He's an adult!" Ginny nearly screamed.
Cho was now in her prime. She was relishing all the attention that was bouncing her way. There was no way she was going to let it stop now. Pleased at how this was going, she went on to say, "Yeah, and he's married too."
Disgusted, Ginny snapped, "Do you have any idea how completely gross that is?"
"Well," Cho shrugged, "the first few times-,"
"First few times!" Ginny interrupted, clearly taking every word Cho said for granted. She was actually draining all this in, believing it all. "You mean he did it more than once?"
"Sure, why not?" Cho grinned, looking completely insane.
"Are you crazy?" Ginny demanded.
"Obviously she's crazy if she's screwing her shrink," Harry commented in a huff.
"Have you ever done it?" Cho wondered, going in for the kill, the main point of her argument with Ginny. The other girl looked at her, shocked, then looked at the rest of the group. Hermione was leaning into Draco and both were smirking at her. Harry was silent, avoiding her eyes, and Cho (damn it) was staring right at her.
"I don't even have a psychiatrist," she sighed, crossing her arms opposite the way they were before.
"Have you ever done it with a normal person?" Cho asked, losing her patience a bit.
"Aren't those containers up there so nice?" Draco grumbled something under his breath. "What?" Ginny demanded, angrily.
"You never answered the question," he declared, meeting her annoyed gaze with his own calm, collected one.
"Look, I'm not gonna discuss my private life with total strangers," she stated, as if her excuse would save her from all their prying eyes and wondering minds.
Hermione was still a bit angry about the whole Harry/Ginny thing, but she took pity on the girl. With a heavy sigh, she lifted herself away from Draco. Squatting down in front of Ginny, she said softly, "It's kind of a double-edged sword, isn't it?"
"A what?" Ginny was almost in hysterics now.
"Well, if you say you haven't...you're a prude. If you say you have...you're a slut! It's a trap. You want to but you can't but when you do you wish you didn't, right?" Hermione asked, hoping for once the girl would just agree with her and then she would be able to get her out of this mess. However, she wasn't that lucky.
"Wrong," Ginny stated, glaring at Hermione with hate. The once best friends had a silent staring contest for a moment before Ginny shoved Hermione away.
Anger flaring, Draco entered the conversation. "Are you a tease?" he questioned, stalking over and giving Hermione a hand up.
"She's a tease," Harry said from the corner where he was hiding. Everyone looked over at him.
Flustered, Ginny cried, "Oh why don't you just forget it?"
"You're a tease and you know it, all girls are teases!" Harry snapped, his eyes wavering on Hermione's skirt, which had pulled up a bit showing off more of her well-defined calf. Seeing where Potter's eyes were straying, Draco pulled the edges of her clothing down. Hermione barely flinched at his touch, instead, she laced her fingers through his own when his hand brushed by hers.
"She's only a tease if what she does gets you hot," Draco insisted, leading Hermione back to where they had been sitting previously.
Totally oblivious to the mute battle that had been raging on between Harry and Draco, Ginny was almost in tears. "I don't do anything!" she yelled.
"That's why you're a tease," whispered Cho, finishing the argument before anyone else started breaking down.
"Okay, let me ask you a few questions," Ginny growled, wiping a few stray tears from her eyes as she got ready to interrogate Cho. The Ravenclaw bristled, defensive in her own way. She shot a glare at the girl with the fiery red hair.
"I've already told you everything!"
"No! Doesn't it bother you to sleep around without being in love. I mean don't you want any respect?" Ginny wanted to know. Hermione laughed at this and Draco chuckled quietly to himself. They both were amused by Ginny's choice of words. Here she was making Cho out to be the bad one when she had gone behind Hermione's back and slept with Hermione's boyfriend, which had been Harry. And here she was, coaching Cho on why it was it was wrong to be screwed by a shrink.
"I don't screw to get respect...That's the difference between you and me," Cho replied, sounding awfully satisfied with herself.
"Not the only difference, I hope," Ginny mumbled.
Harry rolled his eyes, walking away from his corner to Ginny's side. "Just give it up. Face it, you're a tease."
"I'm not a tease!"
"Sure you are! You said it yourself sex is a weapon, you use it to get respect!" Draco reminded her, a malicious grin spread across his face as his hand on Hermione's waist started to rub against her bare skin. He was pleased to note that Potter seemed completely pissed off at this gesture.
"No, I never said that, she twisted my words around!" Ginny screamed in frustration, looking over at Harry for some kind of back up.
"Oh then what do you use it for?" Harry asked her, glaring with his emerald eyes, so harsh and cold at this point.
"I don't use it period!" she shouted, turning away from him as the tears started back up again. (A/N: I kinda don't like Ginny, if you couldn't tell, but I can stand her, so don't worry, I won't totally make her pathetic.)
"Oh, are you medically frigid or is it psychological?" Draco asked, earning himself a bit of a glare from Hermione. He wasn't sure why all of the sudden she was getting a bit protective of Ginny. What hadn't the redhead done as of late to piss off the girl in his arms? Didn't she deserve whatever she got?
"I didn't mean it that way! You guys are putting words into my mouth!"
"Well if you'd just answer the question," Draco sighed, hugging Hermione, who was getting awfully tense.
"Why don't you just answer the question?" Harry persisted as well.
"Be honest." That came from Hermione.
"No big deal," urged Cho.
"Yeah, answer it!" Draco cheered.
"Answer the question, Ginny," Harry told her, sounding very serious.
"No! I never did it!" Ginny shouted, as tears broke free and she started to cry uncontrollably. Harry let out a sigh of relief, the lie was over. "Hermione," Ginny whimpered, crawling across the floor to where her once best friend was. "Oh Hermione, I'm so sorry."
"Ginny?" Hermione was so confused she didn't know what else to say. Hadn't Ginny and Harry admitted to having intercourse. Hadn't they been caught and thrown in detention for it? She was confused. "Ginny what are you talking about?"
A/N: Ok so what's the scoop? What was going on that Hermione didn't get? Why would Ginny and Harry lie about that kind of thing? Does Harry have true feelings for Hermione, or will Draco be the one to steal her heart away? And what did everyone do to get into detention? These questions and more will be answered in the next chapter, when we get together for the second to final hour. Detention at Hogwarts is a ten hour deal, people! ~ Nev