Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to JK Rowlings.
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Chapter Two: Going Green
Virginia spent that weekend trying to get all her notes ready for classes on Monday, putting off the unbidden memories that surfaced with her conversation with Draco. She had returned to the bookstore the next day as promised, only to be grudgingly told that the book wasn't in, which put off the reading schedule she had devised. Once she realized this, the only thought that went through her mind was, "Good Lord, I'm becoming Hermione!" before she set it alight and when for a jog.
She now sat in class, first thing Monday morning, knowing no one, having read a total of three pages from her text, the guilt was eating at her, and she was sucking on the end of a sugar quill as she listened to the professor drone on and on about material she had covered last year. She was hoping the sugar would give her the kick she needed to keep awake, but her eyes were not cooperating with her stratagem at the moment and kept threatening to betray her.
She heaved a sigh and shifted in her seat, trying to make as little noise as possible as the little troll of a man who was speaking constantly glared out at anyone who so much as twitched. She slowly leaned and her desk gave a groan, but just as the professor was about to turn his attention to her, someone began coughing loudly behind her.
"You there! Boy! You think you can just interrupt my class whenever you see fit?"
"Sorry sir, tickle in my throat."
"And you brought it into MY classroom? Do you think we are muggles here? That we cannot take care of such simple ailments?"
"Of course not sir, but it
came on suddenly, and I did not want to miss your lecture."
This seemed to give him pause for a moment. "Well, that is understandable. Just have it looked at."
"Of course, sir. I'm going as soon as I am released from your class."
"Right. Yes. Well then…"
Virginia bowed her head, suddenly grateful his wrath wasn't turned on her for her fidgeting, but for heavens sakes, the man was a complete bore! She forced herself to sit perfectly still and alert for the rest of class, catching up on letters home to look busy until at the very end he began to discuss their thesis.
"Now class, as you know, you are the brightest and the best to be accepted into this degree program, and as such we have high expectations for our graduates," he fixed them with a leer as he rubbed his hands together. "The paper you submit must be an original piece, with approval from the board. Each of you will have to present your proposal by November fifteenth and if you are denied, then you are out of the program for April Convocation." He seemed to smile gleefully at the looks of shock that spread over the students faces.
"But professor…"
"Are you interrupting me?"
The brunette girl paled and sunk in her seat.
"As I was saying, you must be very careful with the topic you choose. We do have advisors here in the college, or you can come in to see me if you feel so inclined," again he sneered, "and I do suggest you do seek out some one. Now, if you are so fortunate as to make it past the November date, then the second part of this course will have no more lectures, but will be you and your classmates presenting different aspects of your paper to each other. These will be of my choosing to prepare you to defend your thesis before the board come March." His gazed searched the room. "Are there any questions?"
Virginia looked around and saw no hands raised so sighed and raised her own.
"Yes?"
"Does the library have a copy of the past thesis topics?"
His lips curled slightly at her. "Yes." He scanned the room again. "If that is all, dismissed."
Virginia stood and began gathering all of her belonging into her bag while her professor stocked off out of the rear exit and she turned to see a few other stragglers.
"Don't shift in you're chair, he really don't like that."
She eyed the young man behind her. "Excuse me?"
"Your chair, he charms them so they'll creek when you move 'round a lot, figures that's the ones who aren't listening."
"Oh. Thanks for the tip."
He brushed a lock of dark hair out of his eyes. "Names Marcus."
"Virginia."
"Well Virginia, we were just headed to the library, would you care to join us?"
She glanced around but saw no one else there, "Who's we?"
"Sandra, Ryan and Annrea. Don't worry, they're a wee bit shy, and Annrea is a wee bit embarrassed 'bout her da."
Virginia couldn't help but laugh at this as they began to walk out of the class and down the long corridor. "Her dad?"
"He's not has gruff as he seems, just likes to strike fear into people for the first little bit, says it's a weeding tactic."
She scrunched her brow when a realization came over her. "You mean the professor? Professor Golin? That's her father? What's she like?"
He smiled dreamily. "Sweetest lass around."
She smiled at his expression. "I see how it stands. You rescue me one minute and break my heart the next…" He got a slightly panicked look about him as she said this and she immediately sobered. "I'm sorry Marcus. I'm the youngest of seven and I'm used to joking about everything. My brothers even have a joke shop. Oh goodness. I didn't mean too…"
"No, no, I just didn't want you to think…"
"Well then, now that we got that bit of awkwardness out of the way." She grinned again. "So, you and the professors daughter…"
They shared a laugh as they entered the library and he led her to a table with people she recognized from class sitting at. "Hello all, hope you don't mind, but I brought along Virginia. Virginia, this is Ryan and Sandra, and this and Annrea."
"Lovely to meet you."
"Hogwarts. Got to be Hogwarts."
Virginia smiled down at Ryan as he pushed up his glasses. He was older then the rest, at least thirty with sandy blonde hair and a kind smile. "How did you know?"
"Well, you're British, and no self respecting Brit would go anywhere else, or so my wife says. She was a Ravenclaw, but before your time, I'm sure."
Virginia smiled at him and sat down. "Gryffindor."
"Ah, so you're brave are you?"
Her grin almost faltered for a moment. "Sometimes. I try to be."
Ryan looked at her for a moment then patted her hand. "We all try to be. Well, you have to come home for tea some time, or Nelly will kill me, says there's not enough of you Hogwarts people around here."
Virginia nodded her ascent and turned to the other two. "So, Annrea, I hear your father's a professor."
"Marcus!"
"What?"
"He's really not that bad."
Virginia just smiled. "They usually aren't."
"Now Virginia," Sandra cut in, "we were looking through the topics of the thesis' done in our area of interest, but if you haven't picked anything yet, I suppose you could just read though everything. If nothing else, it might give you an idea or allow you to waist time."
Virginia was a little taken aback by this girl, but when the others did not respond to her she bit back her remark. "Right, well I've already picked my topic."
Sandra just raised a brow. "Really? Then I suggest you just correlate with these because chances are the topic you have chosen has been written about probably several times in one format or another."
Virginia just grinned at her. "Sure if you want me to, but I'm fairly sure it hasn't been…"
"You still should check."
Virginia shrugged and grabbed the book on Greek Runes and began and cursory look through. An hour later, she snapped her book shut and declared herself to have an original topic and ready to leave.
"Hey Virginia," Marcus began, "we're having a start of term party on Friday that you're welcome to come to, and you can bring a friend if you'd like."
"I don't know a—" she was about to say she didn't know anyone here, but stopped as she thought about Draco. "I'll come, but I'll have to see about my friend."
Marcus nodded. "Oh, and you're welcome to join us here to study anytime."
She smiled widely at them. "Thank you so much you guys. Sorry I can't stay longer." She waved them all goodbye and left, her thoughts suddenly full on how to ask Draco to a party, heck, how to see him again. They never covered that one on Thursday after drinks.
She slung her bad over her shoulder and walked outside into the warm September air and began to chew her lip. "Malfoy. Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. Draco…Draco Malfoy. If I was Draco Malfoy and wanted to see someone what would I do? Okay. Think Slytherin here…hmmm. Oh, for crying out load, I'm sure they'll know where he is in Dean's Office." She walked over to the nearest campus map, took out her wand and tapped it twice. "College of Medicine, please."
A pathway lit up, showing her the quickest route from her current position to the lit building on the other side of campus. She grabbed a parchment from the bottom of the board and transferred the map to it and began to walk, making up plausible stories and scenarios as she did so. A while later, as she stood outside of the office doors, trying to calm herself before she went in. "Deep breath. You're not doing anything wrong, you're just trying to find a friend. Yes. A Friend. An old friend from…school. That's it. Just tell them that."
She pushed the door open and only saw a beautiful young woman sitting behind a desk, dark hair swept up, and not much older then herself, and she couldn't help but suddenly feel plain, if not intimidated. "Excuse me, Miss," she glanced at the name plate on the desk, "Miss Connolly, I'm looking for a student that is in this college. His name is Draco Malfoy and it would be very much appreciated if you could help me locate him."
The woman turned to her and just looked at her silently for a moment. "I'm sorry, but student information is confidential."
"But I don't need information, I already know all about him. I'm an old friend of his; I just want to visit with him while I'm here."
She smiled politely. "If you were an old friend, then you would know where to find him."
She gave a frustrated sigh. "Look. I know he's here on Tuesday's and Thursday's for class, and I just wanted to surprise him, okay."
She just blinked. "I'm sorry, student information is confidential."
"Fine. Thank you." She stomped out of the office in a huff, frustrated that the polite way wouldn't work. "Fine, Slytherin it is." She threw herself down on a bench in the hall and began to rub her temples. "Okay, okay, okay, so I want to be sneaky about this, so he doesn't suspect. Easy, bump into him. Great. Where? Hmmm? Outside of a classroom or something so we can just walk and talk and keep it casual. Good, good. Now, how to find his class…" She leaned forward and thought about everything they talked about that day. Nothing there. Okay. "The books!" She jumped up and almost ran back into the office, but images of the uncooperative assistant stopped her. "Okay, so I know the name of one book he had, but it was worn, so probably an old book, but he was still using it…maybe a used text? No, Draco would never buy used." She furrowed a brow and continued down the hall until she came to a rack of pamphlets, notices and the year calendar.
She grabbed a copy off the stand, flipped it open and scanned the courses for fourth year medical studies and saw the complete opposite terms as she had. They were just finishing a term, hence why his classes only ran until the end of the month, so the book she saw was for his last terms course requirements. Things were looking bleaker for her.
The sound of a door opening and shutting broke her thoughts as she saw Miss Connolly locking up the office and look towards her. "Still here?"
Virginia just raised her chin a bit higher. "Just reading something I found interesting."
The woman smiled faintly at her. "You said it yourself, he's not here today." She glanced down at her wrist then back at Virginia. "Stay as long as you like, but I'm off to lunch."
Virginia's eyes grew wide, "Is it that late all ready?" She stuffed the calendar in her bag and took off in a dead run, knowing she was late for class.
~~@~~
It wasn't until later that afternoon did she have the chance to ponder Operation Slytherin again as she trudged out of Potions Building, having been late for classing, and as it was first day, the professor did not have a lecture, therefore when she arrived the lab was empty and she did not receive her syllabus, nor her first assignment for next week. After tracking down where the professor's office was, which of course he wasn't in, and she was told he usually was around Wednesday's. So, Virginia was using this lull in her day to further plot, and to walk back to the book store to see if her text was in yet. It was around this time she was cursing the anti-apprating charms all schools seemed to have. What good was it to have your license if you could never you it!
Nothing was coming to her as she walked along, all she had was a book to go by, or sit outside all day and hope he walked by. Just as Enlightenment came into view she stopped. "Of course! The bookstore!"
She rushed through the doors and went directly to the counted, grin prominent on her face. Mr. O'Brian just sighed and frowned. "Here to get more money outa me are ya?"
"Is my text in yet?"
"Just in this morn'n."
She rubbed her hands together. "Well, I have a proposition for you, do you keep you're old required reading listed for classes?"
He eyed her for a moment. "Aye."
"How 'bout this then, I'll pay full price, if you let me look at last terms list for Medical Studies."
"Now, why should I be doin' that?"
She began to look pleadingly at him. "Please, Mr. O'Brian, I'm just trying to track something down."
He shook his head at her. "No deal. I'm sorry Miss, but I'm not allowed to give them out to just anybody."
She thought about it for a moment. "How about if I came in tomorrow and did inventory for you all afternoon, that way I'd technically be working her, then you could show them to me…"
"I'm not payin' ya—"
"No, no," she cut in, "I'd do it for free, and pay full price, if you let me look at the lists."
He thought about it for a moment, and then gave her his hand. "Deal. Be here tomorrow, and I expect you ta work hard."
She shook hands, paid for the text, and left, congratulating herself on her masterful planning.
~~@~~
Tuesday came with sleeping in, more class, then the day of inventory, which actually did not turn out too bad. As it turned out, the majority of the books were already categorized and spelled, but as it was start of term and a lot of witches and wizards were selling old books for new, she only had to sort through those, repair the ones that needed repairing and add them to the list. All in all, it wasn't the worst way to spend an evening in her opinion, and Mrs. O'Brian, thinking Virginia a romantic, even helped her go through the listings until they found his text on it. His course was called Cytodiagnosis and the Potions that Help taught by Professor E. Steensen in the Potions Building, but it didn't have a room or lab number, nor a time, but it did narrow down a place, and that was a start.
"Well dear, just go to the office and ask about the professor. They can't say no to that," Mrs. O'Brian said kindly.
So that was just where Virginia was headed. She had an hour before she had to meet with her potions professor to get his syllabus, and this seemed as good a time as any, plus it also gave her time to figure out a back up plan if need be.
She stood outside the door, willing herself not to be intimidated by this woman. "What can she do to me? Nothing. Just go in there and ask. Where's that Gryffindor spirit? Be brave, Virginia." She took a deep breath and pushed open the door. "Miss Connolly."
The woman turned and smiled, a glint in her eye. "More students you wish to track down?"
Virginia smiled back sweetly in return. "No, not at all. I'm looking for Professor Steensen."
"Erin or Edward?"
Virginia's smiled faltered; the paper had only said E. Steensen. "Uh, well, the one that teaches Medical Potions," she said weakly.
Miss Connolly's grin grew. "Oh, they both do. Do you know which class they teach that you're interested in?"
She flushed as she tried to recall the name of his class. "Oh, umm, it's called, Systo, no, oh, yes, Cytodiagnosis and the Potions that Help."
If anything, Miss Connolly's smile grew larger at her words and Virginia was beginning to wonder if she should begin to fear, but she only said, "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that information is confidential."
"What!"
"You are clearly still trying to track down a student and not a professor, and I'm afraid that this office cannot help you with that."
Virginia with almost sputtering by this time. "Are you telling me that you are not going to tell me where to find the professor's office?"
"I'm afraid I can't help you."
"But—but…"
Miss Connolly rose from her desk and firmly grabbed Virginia's arm, "If there's nothing else, I'll ask that you please leave."
She was gently, but forcefully led to the corridor and the door shut behind her and Virginia let out a groan of frustration as she stormed out of the building. "I HATE THAT WOMAN!" She didn't care if she attracted stares as she yelled out; she was just too wound up. Knowing that she needed to calm herself before seeing her professor, she transfigured her bag into a bracelet, slipped it on and began to jog, trying to come up with plan B.
Half an hour later and no closer to a solution, but she did think of new and creative ways to hurt someone, she was running up the stairs to the sixth floor and knocking on the ornate door. "Professor Belanger?"
"Come in."
She swung open the door to see a figure hunched over a caldron that was sitting in the corner. "Am I catching you at a bad time?"
"No, no, I'm just making a break through, but I can always use an inspiration! Isn't that what we all are, inspirations?" He turned around and looked at her. "Ah, you see. I should use some Ginger Root. See how you just inspired me!"
She laughed nervously. "Yes. Well. Ah. Right then, Professor, I'm Virginia Weasley, and I am truly sorry, but I was unavoidably detained, so I missed you handing out your syllabus, so I wondered if I might get a copy?"
"Oh, but of course you may my good lady. Now, what did you say what class you were in?"
"Oh, right. Sorry, I'm in Everything You Should Know About Potions."
He smiled at her. "A most comprehensive review class. Yes." He flicked out his wand gave it a wave and produced a parchment. "Here you go. I trust you will be there for the next class?"
"Of course, sir. I do apologize for arriving late for the first."
He waived his hand at her. "You have inspired me, so it is forgotten." He turned away and she took this as an end to their conversation so backed out and quietly shut the door behind her.
She was about to leave when notes posted on the wall opposite caught her eye. She walked up closer and her breath almost caught in her throat. "I'll be damned." There in front of her were the latest grade postings for Cytodiagnosis and the Potions that Help, Professor Erin Steensen, Room 616, and beside Malfoy, Draco was an 87.
"Are you done checking my grades?"
She almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of that voice. "Merlin! Draco! For crying out loud! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
He just smirked at her in response. "Well?"
"What?"
"At least tell me what I got."
"Oh." She flushed. "An 87. Congratulations."
He shrugged. "What are you doing up here?"
"Meeting with my professor," she indicated the door she just exited.
He raised a brow, but nodded. "I thought you were taking Runes and History?"
"It's an elective."
"Ah."
Virginia fidgeted with her paper. "I was just picking up the syllabus, see," she held it up for him to read.
"That really is a gimmy course."
She just scowled. "Not everyone is a potions poster child. I figured I needed a review, and it fit in with my schedule." They stood there for a moment more. "I thought you were only here on Tuesday's and Thursday's?"
"That's when I have classes, but I wanted to check my grade."
"Oh."
"I'm just on my way out, have to get to the hospital, so if you want to walk me out…"
"Sure, I mean if you want me to."
He motioned for her to start, and he matched her pace. "So…"
"Hmm?"
"I hear you were asking about me in the office." He gave her a grin as she turned as red as her hair.
"What? Me?"
He gave her a side long look. "Well, they didn't leave a name, just said a red head that said they were an old friend from school, so I guess it could have been anyone. Sorry. My mistake."
Virginia cleared her throat but said nothing in return, only concentrated on walking, not wanting to tumble down the flight of stairs. Once they reached the outer doors, she finally looked up at Draco and met his gaze. "Okay, it was me. But I didn't know how else to find you, and I don't know anyone else here, and I just wanted to ask you a stupid question."
"What?"
She flushed as they continued to walk to the edge of the campus grounds. "It's really dumb."
He raised his brow but remained quiet.
"Oh, all right. Some people in my college are having a start of term "get to know you" thing, and well, I didn't want to go without knowing someone." He looked surprised at her request and she felt like crawling into a hole. "It wouldn't be a "date" date, just a, I know you, so I'm comfortable thing."
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yeah. I mean, if you want me to go, I guess I could, as long as I don't have a shift. When is it?"
"Friday night."
"Sure, I'll go, but on one condition."
A knot suddenly formed in her stomach. "What?"
"I'm not sure yet, but I'll think of something…creative."
"Crap."
His chuckle came back again. "Too late to back out now, Virginia. Just tell me when and where and I'll be there." He took a step back just off of campus grounds and gave her and wink. "I don't know why you just didn't try flooing me, I am on the network." With that he disappeared with a POP and Virginia slapped her forehead at her stupidity.
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