To my reviewers: Hello? Anyone out there?
Ms. CE – Bless you for reviewing, and your words of encouragement! Keep reading, and tell me your thoughts. The actual plot line is still fermenting in my head, so suggestions and constructive criticism is very helpful.
Chapter 4
"Malfoy is your tutor??" Ginny screeched.
Cara moaned and dropped her head back down into her hands. "I know," she said miserably in the direction of the floor. "If I wasn't failing Potions before, can you imagine what my grade will be now?"
"Holy hell," Ginny said, still looking both enraged and bewildered. "I mean… holy hell."
"I know," Cara said again, her voice muffled against her hands.
She jumped a second later when a hand dropped on her shoulder. "Cara," said a voice quietly.
Ginny gave another screech. "Blimey, Harry, don't sneak up on a girl," she said, shooting the boy a glare. Cara snuck a look at her friend and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Ginny might be glaring at her long-time crush, but damned if that goofy look wasn't still hiding there in her eyes. It was amazing no one else seemed to see it.
Harry Potter just grinned at the redhead. "Hah. Like you scare me, Weasley," he said with a smirk. He dropped down on the couch across from the two of them and looked over at Cara. "I heard you talking," he said to her.
"Great, first he's sneaking, now he's eavesdropping," Ginny muttered, crossing her arms and glaring harder.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Anyway. I heard you guys talking, about how Draco Malfoy's your Potions tutor," he said.
Cara nodded, resisting the urge to beat herself senseless with her Dark Arts textbook. That would leave a mark, and she just wasn't up for a long session in the bathroom trying to wrestle with her concealer. "Yeah. I'm dead. Dead, dead, dead."
Harry shrugged. "Look, I'm not fond of the guy, that's no secret," he said. Ginny snorted, and he rolled his eyes again. "Shut up," he told her. "Cara, I just wanted to tell you, he's not as bad as you think."
"Holy hell," Ginny said for the third time in under two minutes. "You're defending Malfoy?"
Harry grinned. "Don't tell Ron," he said. Then he sobered a little. "No, really. I know a couple of things about him… anyway. Trust me when I say, he's not as bad as he's been painted. And he's really good at Potions. I should know, I've got him as my bloody partner in that class."
"That's right," Cara said out loud, remembering the gossip that had swirled around the school last fall. "And you guys haven't killed each other."
Harry chuckled. "Yeah. But that's probably only luck," he said. Then he shook his head. "No, really. He's not that bad. I'm not saying I'm ever going to invite him to my birthday, but you'll be ok. Just… try not to let him get to you," he told her. "Draco'll take any weakness and throw it back at you a hundred times. You've got to, well, stand up to him, I guess. Make him respect you."
"And how am I supposed to do that when I'm exploding a cauldron in his face?" Cara asked him.
Harry shrugged. "Don't let him intimidate you. Or at least, don't let him see it. Make him think you're not scared, that you don't think he's any better than you."
"He's not," Ginny muttered.
"In Potions, he is," Cara pointed out.
"So, let him know that," Harry said, getting up. "But don't let him put you down." And then he grinned, a wicked grin that sent his eyes dancing so that even Cara got the shivers. Merlin, no wonder Ginny had a thing for this guy. Talk about hot. "And if he gets to be a pain, tell me and Ron. We haven't tangled with the guy for a long time."
"Oh, yeah, that's what we really need," Ginny said. "Ron getting an excuse to kill Draco Malfoy. Thanks, Harry, I really wanted my brother sent to Azkaban for life. You're such a pal."
Cara grinned as Harry rolled his eyes and then reached over and tussled Ginny's hair, causing the other girl to screech once more. She caught the barest glimpse of a funny look as he did, though, and it made her briefly pause from her contemplations of her own miserable life. What did that mean… she thought, before Ginny flung a pillow after the black-haired boy. Harry dodged easily and laughed over his shoulder as he headed for the fireside and his two friends, and she shook her head. Whatever.
"Don't let him intimidate me, he says," she said aloud. "Don't let Draco Malfoy, most terrifying student in the whole bloody school, intimidate me. Great advice, Harry," she said sarcastically. "Really great advice."
"Hey, you could always carry some of Fred and George's things," Ginny offered. "I mean, how intimidating could Malfoy be as a canary?"
Cara looked at her, and both the girls giggled.
**********
Draco sat comfortably ensconced in a corner of the library. This particular table was out of the view of Madam Pince, and conveniently located near the Potions section. He reached for another text and flipped pages, skimming quickly. He'd had to select only the more recently published volumes, as Professor Stone's potion had been completed about five years ago.
He skimmed the page of the book in his hands. The Nerve-Deadening Potion, he read silently, was a major step toward the eventual development of such highly complex potions as the Wolfsbane Potion. Sonora Stone, working for several years in a remote part of Indonesia, eventually discovered the proper quantity of powdered opium to be combined with other volatile ingredients, including blubberpus and venom from the Timber Rattlesnake. It was her use of ingredients from various parts of the world, combined with an brilliant addition of chopped toad eyes, that led to the final formula.
Draco made a few notes on the ingredients. He'd been through piles of books, and was still looking for the formula. He might have to break down and just ask Professor Stone, although he preferred to try and find all the pieces himself. Knowledge was power, he thought, with no small satisfaction. He intended to arm himself with quite a bit.
A dark memory swam out of the back of his mind, and for a moment, Draco had to fight back the images.
The sharp sound of flesh meeting flesh… "Insolent boy," a cold voice hissed. "You will not fail me next year…"
He snapped back out of it a second later as two quietly giggling girls passed by his table, a shelf of books away. To his chagrin, he was breathing quickly and rather heavily. His fingers tightened around his quill as he deliberately steadied his breathing. He would not be in that vulnerable a position again, he thought grimly, bending over the books again. Never again.
As he began skimming and making notes again, unbidden, another memory surfaced.
He reached out and laid one finger on the tear-dropped shaped leaf. A whirlwind of sensations exploded behind his eyes, a microcosm of emotions made him reel. And over it all, the sound of a girl, laughing happily, and a feeling of incredible warmth…
He shook it off, as well. Lately it seemed this one sought him out at the oddest times. Binns' class, in the dorm at night, in the Great Hall. Almost as if his mind was trying to tell him something.
Draco sneered silently at his own thoughts. He was getting maudlin, he thought derisively. A strange hallucination, thanks to a rare plant, and suddenly he was getting as pathetically soppy as Potter. He focused on the parchment in front of him. He had work to do. Knowledge to accumulate.
And this time, he thought bitterly, quill moving once more, he would not be the one left powerless.
**********
Cara dragged herself through the next day, obsessing over the fact that she had to spend an evening in the dank, dreary potions dungeons with the school's most dangerous student. Even the rice custard at lunch failed to spark any enthusiasm. And Ginny was no help, the way she kept chattering on about classwork. Not that there was anything wrong with talking about classes, it was just that classes meant Cara thought about Potions, and thinking about Potions led to tutoring. Tutoring equaled Scary Slytherin.
Don't be intimidated, she thought later that evening at dinner, poking sadly at the very nice chicken on her plate. Hah. Easy for Harry to say, he'd reportedly faced down the Dark Lord himself no less than five times and lived. Not even Malfoy could compete with that.
Next to her, Diana nudged her. "Oy, Cara, pass the peas, would you?" her dormmate asked. Cara did with a silent and glum face. "What's the matter with you?" Diana asked as she spooned a generous portion on her plate. "You haven't said anything hardly all day."
"Tutoring tonight," Cara muttered. "Potions."
"Riiiight," Diana said, in an 'oh-so-that's-it' tone. "Look, he's just a guy, right? You're a girl. Girls are way superior to guys. Period."
Ginny leaned across the table at that and chimed in. "No kidding. I mean, look at my family. My parents had to give it six tries before they got it right," she said, pointing her fork at herself.
"Oy!" her brother protested from a little farther down the table. "Who got prefect, then? Not you, smarty!"
Ginny wrinkled her nose and turned a superior look on her brother. "Right. And that's what I meant." Cara snickered as Ginny rolled her eyes knowledgably at her friends.
Harry leaned forward at that point, looking confused. "Then what did you mean?" he asked.
Ginny gave him a pitying look. "Since you don't understand, there's no way to enlighten you," she said in an 'aren't-you-so-sad' voice.
Harry just looked more confused, and nudged Hermione, who was scribbling notes about something next to him. "Mione, what's she talking about?" he asked.
Ron poked his fork at his friend. "Yeah, how can girls just flat out be better than boys?" he asked. He snorted. "Girls can't even pee standing up."
At that, Cara and every other girl within earshot groaned. Hermione even sighed and looked up. "Honestly, Ron," she said, giving him a pitying look of her own. "You just proved her point."
"What? But all I said was…" Ron started protesting.
Cara rolled her eyes and turned back to Ginny. "Are you sure you're related to him?" she asked, pointing her own fork.
"Sadly, yes," Ginny said, spearing another bite of chicken. "It's that damn hair."
**********
Cara had managed to finish off a nice helping of plum pudding after dinner, and consequently her stomach was pleasantly full as she made her way down to the dungeons. She even started to whistle as she walked along.
"Lalalalala…" she hummed, taking the stairs at a hop. Dinner had revived her spirits. So she had Mr. Scary Slytherin for a tutor, so what? It was just a few nights a week, and it was to keep her passing her most hated class. She'd live.
She swung her bookbag on her shoulder as she bopped along, humming. "…walking on sunshine, whoa-oh," she hummed to herself. Ginny had promised to break out the emergency Honeydukes stash afterward. Now THERE was something to look forward to.
She pushed the classroom door open, still humming, and stepped into the room. She didn't see anyone, so she danced her way over to a table in the front of the room, and dropped her bag on top.
"I'm walking on sunshine, oh-oh… I'm walking on sunshine…" she sang into the quiet room. "And don't it feel good!"
She did a little shake and a shimmy that she'd picked up from a muggle cousin of hers, and did a quick spin around. And then another, this one much slower.
She stared into cold, gray eyes.
"If you are quite through," Malfoy drawled.
Cara felt herself turning crimson, and couldn't think of a thing to say. Cripes. So much for 'don't let him intimidate you.'
"Set up your equipment," Malfoy said in a cold voice, sweeping his eyes derisively down her and back up. "If you think you are capable of focusing on even that."
Cara's jaw dropped. "Who shoved a broomstick up your ass?" she blurted out. I mean, didn't normal people kind of lead up to insults, she thought angrily.
One slim, pale eyebrow slid up. "Presumably the same person who taught you to dance," he said in a silky tone. "You will find cauldrons in the cabinet against the wall. Try not to break any."
Cara found herself turning and stalking off toward the cabinet, which she was perfectly aware of, thank you very much, mouth opening and closing like a fish in her horrified shock. She'd never… I mean… Merlin's beard, he was awful, she thought, banging a door open. She reached for the first cauldron on the shelf blindly, before something made her take a deep breath.
She needed his help. Needed it to pass the class. She counted ten in her head as she stood there, hand resting on the shelf in front of her. It wouldn't do to completely alienate the guy even more than he was. After all, he was a Slytherin.
"The cauldron is the round metal object with a handle, McDouglas," her tutor drawled behind her.
Then again… Cara gritted her teeth a moment, then suddenly grinned. Maybe she could have a little fun with this, she thought, reaching for a standard size cauldron.
"Oh, is this right?" she asked, turning and widening her eyes. She might not be a dumb blonde, but her sister was. And Mum had always said she was a dead-on mimic.
Malfoy, predictably, sneered at her. Cara just smiled sweetly. Oh yes, she thought gleefully, walking back to her table, cauldron in hand. Girls were better than boys. And wouldn't it be fun proving it.