~The Curse That Went Awry~

~Chapter 8: Malfoys Don't Limp~

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            "I told you that guy was no good, Granger!" shouted Malfoy, seizing Hermione's hand and dragging her back out into the field.

            "No, you didn't!"

            "Yes, well—you know I was thinking it!"

            Hermione glanced behind her, to see that Aldren was standing outside his door, hurling fireballs after them, shouting unintelligible curses (unintelligible because it's hard to speak around six-inch fangs). As she watched, feet pounding hard on the ground, Aldren hurled an especially large fireball whose aim was more deadly than the others. "Draco, duck!"

            "Where?!"

"No, there's a fireball!"

            "Oh, sh—!" Malfoy ducked, a strange sort of running duck that looked, in fact, like an actual duck. In a way. But Hermione wasn't thinking about that. Tugging on his hand, she ran faster. Malfoy turned his head to see Aldren in all his fiery fury, and, rolling his eyes, said to Hermione, "God save us from veelas of the male persuasion."

            Lord only knew how he could be this condescending at this speed. Slowing her pace, Hermione looked behind as well. "He's a veela?!"

            "Run!" He tugged on her hand, and she picked up her previous pace.

            They ran.

            And ran.

            And raaaaaaaan…

            Finally, Hermione couldn't take it any longer. "Malfoy," she panted, "We've—got—to—stop."

            "No, we don't. We've got to run."

            "No—I—"

            "Look, we need some more distance between us and that—"

            "I—can't—breathe—you—stupid—bugger."

            "Oh," Malfoy slowed to a halt, and Hermione collapsed onto the ground with folded legs.

            "Geez," she said, recovering her breath. "What does it take for you to take a break?"

            "You swearing," said Malfoy, sitting down beside her. He didn't seem out-of-breath at all, for which reason Hermione felt a desire to stick out her tongue at him. "What was that, Granger? You never swear."

            "I suppose we balance out then, since you can't say one sentence without swearing." Hermione was now hoping that her heart would slow down before it exploded from her chest and ran away to file a report for abuse.

            "It's not my fault I swear so much. Besides, I only do it when I'm around Potty and the Weasel. Because they're being so fu—"

            "That's far enough, Malfoy."

            "Why? You were swearing a minute ago."

            "It's not that. It's just that I don't want you insulting my friends." Smoothing her hair as best she could (though it remained incredibly windblown), Hermione glared at him.

            "I can't help it. It's in my nature to insult Harry Potter. And Weasley's—poor. Of course I have to insult him!"

            Being completely and utterly disgusted by this, Hermione stood back up, adjusted the backpack that she'd been able to take from Aldren's home (somehow, Malfoy'd kept his, too), and said, "Come on, Malfoy, let's keep moving." With that, she squinted through the growing dark to the horizon, upon which there was an odd, dark line, far away across the plain.

            Something odd happened, then. From behind Hermione, there was a rustle, a thump, and then a quiet, "Ow."

            She turned. "Something wrong?"

            "No," spat Malfoy, levering himself to his feet. He listed a tiny bit to the side, wincing, but then he righted himself with a scowl as he, too, adjusted his backpack. "Let's go." Seizing Hermione's hand, he began to lead them away across the meadow.

            Thinking of how the two of them didn't have any real reason to hold hands anymore (but…somehow she didn't mind…found it rather comforting, actually…but—only in the sense of its familiarity), Hermione followed behind. They walked for awhile, but finally Hermione had to say something. "Are you limping, Malfoy?"

            "What?! Malfoys don't limp!"

            "Malfoy…" admonished Hermione.

            "Granger, I really don't know what you're talking about! Malfoys don't—ow." Malfoy cut himself off by trodding too hard on his left foot and collapsing awkwardly to the side, landing on his left knee. "OW!"

            "Something's quite obviously wrong, Malfoy," stated Hermione, looking down at him with hands on hips.

            "Reawy, Granger, I—" Malfoy stopped abruptly, biting his upper lip.

            "I can tell your leg is hurting you, Malfoy," she reprimanded him, though not as strongly as before. She crossed her arms over her chest. "So why don't you just let me help?"

            "Mawfoys don't need hewp," he maintained resolutely, glaring up at her as he slowly rose to a painful standing position once again. Then he gripped his knee again, wincing.

            "All that running can't have done it any good. Maybe I should have another look at it…"

            "No!"

            "Malfoy…"

            Glowering at her, he laboriously turned himself back on their path and took one step with his right foot, then a half a step with his left before he collapsed again. "Fine," he muttered angrily. "We're not going to get anywhere if I keep going on wike this, can't bewieve I have to, rrr…" Then louder, he called, "A widdwe hewp here, Granger?"

            Smiling slightly, Hermione went over to him, kneeling beside him. "Put your arm over my shoulder," she commanded, slipping her right arm about his waist.

            Malfoy complied, flomping his hand down right below her shoulder. Then it began to creep a little lower, and a little lower…

            "Watch it, Malfoy," growled Hermione.

            "Carefuw, you're sounding a widdwe too much wike Weaswey for comfort, Granger."

            "You're not going to be too comfortable if that hand goes any further."

            "Fine. I'we just weave it right where it is, then, shaww I?" Hermione could hear the smirk in his voice, and she scowled in response.

            "Would you like to be a soprano, Malfoy?" she bit out. "Because if you don't move your hand right now, you will find yourself a place in an all-girls choir."

            Malfoy's hand moved with lightning speed back to her shoulder.

            "Much better."

            The two walked for awhile in silence. Occasionally, Hermione would hear muttering along the lines of, "Rassafriggamfraggamstoopidweg…"

            When the night had truly descended upon them, and Hermione had had to light her wand to see the way ahead of them ("Can't you just heal my leg with magic?" "I don't know that many spells, Malfoy."), they heard a strange sort of unfamiliar sound ahead of them.

            "What is it?" queried Hermione warily.

            "I don't know, but it sort of makes me have to pee…"

            "Water!" It was water. A stream, in fact, which was very narrow, but ran rather deeper than the usual stream did. They stared at it in silence for a moment, and then Hermione observed, "Thank the heavens! I've been dying to take a bath!"

            "Um, slight problem, Granger…"

            "What?" The water looked cool, and refreshing after all the work of hauling Malfoy for miles…well, probably only one mile, but it felt like miles, because he was so ridiculously heavy. Honestly! A boy that age and of that stature weighing that much!

            "No cover. That is…we'd be able to see each other."

            "Each other?! You're not getting into that stream while I'm in there!"

            "Why not? It would be easier to avoid looking at each other if we both went in at the same time…and believe me, Granger, we both need baths," he spouted, giving her a meaningful look while waving a hand before his nose.

            "Well," said Hermione uncomfortably. "We'll both have to take one, then…"

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A/N: Bweeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee…congratulations to our one reviewer who was able to guess what, exactly, Aldren was. Hurray for you! Yay! Sorry for the long wait for the update, we'll try not to do it again, but somehow, since we live at separate houses, we suspect it will happen again. Pink bunny balloon animals to anyone who reviews!