Chapter 4

The Great Hall was buzzing with the usual chatter over breakfast. It was to be the first day of classes. Some people were very excited, while others looked miserable. One of these people happened to be Harry Potter. Hermione and Ron had noticed that he seemed to be in a bad mood, when they finally pried their eyes off of each, other and were now attempting to cheer him up with no great success.

"Come on , Harry. You should be excited. It's our last year here and we start classes today," said Hermione excitedly.

"Not everyone is like you, Hermione," he replied moodily.

"Unfortunately," said Ron looking at Hermione with a smile on his face. Hermione giggled and put her arm around Ron's shoulders, then she began playing with his hair.

Harry felt his temper rise. A second ago they were trying to cheer him up, now they were making googley eyes at each other. He found it amazing how their attention span could get so short. He wanted to do something to get them to stop looking at each other, to get the attention back to him. Maybe he'd throw a piece of toast at them. 'No, that's too obvious,' he thought. He decided on something simple. He knew it was mean, but it annoyed him that his two best friends were ignoring him. Besides, he did not like feeling like the third wheel.

"Winguardium leviosa," Harry whispered under his breath. He pointed his wand at the water goblet that was right in front of the happy couple. They were so preoccupied with each other that they didn't even notice the goblet levitating in front of them. Harry moved it closer to the edge of the table then let it drop. The goblet fell with a small crash and spilled right onto Ron and Hermione's laps.

"OY!" Ron yelled as Hermione let out a small shriek of surprise. "Harry, what happened?" By now a few people had noticed and had started laughing. Harry felt a savage pleasure when he noticed some people at the Slytherin table laughing loudly as well.

"I don't know," he replied innocently. "Maybe you put it too close to the edge."

"We'll have to go change before first class now, and it's potions! Snape'll kill us if we're late. He won't care if we had an excuse or not," said Ron disgruntled.

"We won't have to go change," said Hermione calmly.

"You won't?" said Harry somewhat disappointed.

"No, we won't. And we won't be late for potions either. Look." Hermione pointed her wand at her now wet robes and said calientus.

A red glow emitted from the wand. Seeing the puzzled look on Harry and Ron's face Hermione explained. "It's a simple heating spell. The wand produces the heat and it's just enough to dry the robes without burning them," she said matter-of-factly.

"You know 'Mione, you never cease to amaze me," said Ron with a dreamy look in his eyes. "Can you do mine next?"

"Better yet, I'll teach you," she said sweetly.

'Mione? 'Mione?! Since when did Ron call her 'Mione?' Harry thought as his anger flared once more. Ron and Hermione were now immersed with the spell, once again leaving Harry out of it. He didn't know which emotion he felt more, anger, jealously or just plain sadness. It seemed as if they didn't need or care about him any more. Sure they tried to include him, but their attention span had diminished to that of a two year olds. Harry got up from the table. He couldn't take it any more. He decided to go back to the common room and wait until the first class there. They didn't even notice him leave, and Harry left the Great Hall wishing hard that he had thrown that piece of toast.

Pansy woke feeling very depressed. After her nightmare she had barely been able to get any sleep. Not only was she tired, but she was also angry. 'I can't even get away from him here!' she thought miserably. She had waited for her roommates to leave the room before she got up. She looked at the water pitcher next to her bed and decided it was better if she dumped it out and got some more water later.

'Shit! Now he's made me paranoid. It was just a dream, Pansy. Get over it. Besides he wouldn't really-

"Yes he would," she said wearily aloud, interrupting her thoughts. "He definitely would." Then she remembered just a few days ago he had a knife to her throat.

After a nice, long and relaxing warm shower and liberal amounts of make-up under her eyes to hide the bags, Pansy felt she looked as good as she would get. She wrestled mentally with herself before finally deciding to leave her hair down. She had to remind herself that her father was not there and she was free to look how she pleased. After her internal battle she was ready and she proceeded to the Great Hall for breakfast.

When she walked in her spirits were lifted. This is how she thought it should be; everyone talking about the classes they were to have that day as the ate merrily. Most of them probably didn't have a care in the world and she wished she was one of them. She walked over to the Slytherin table and sat with her usual gang of girls. They sat with their backs to the rest of the Hall and they were sitting across from Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle. Pansy ate quietly as everyone else talked. She didn't want to talk. She wanted to take it all in. The breakfast was one of the best she had ever tasted. However, if you asked anyone else they would say it tasted the same, but not Pansy. She was enjoying every minute away from her father more than the last. She was so happy that everything was better. The food was better, the Hall looked brighter, even people's jokes seemed funnier. She even didn't mind that their first class was potions, despite the fact that she wasn't the best at it and the had it with the Gryffindors as usual. The only thing that distracted Pansy from her wonderful meal was Weasley yelling for no apparent reason. Her and her friends turned to see what all the commotion was about. All she saw was a water goblet on the floor and a few people pointing and laughing and she figured one of them must have knocked it down. She also stole a glance at Potter, whose face seemed distant and indifferent. In other words he didn't care. She turned around to face her friends and said, "You know, he really needs to train his little mudblood better. Then perhaps she wouldn't be so clumsy." Everyone laughed which only made Pansy feel more happy. She didn't think it could get any better until Draco pointed something out. Potter was crossing the Great Hall and was headed towards the doors. What was surprising was that he was alone. Granger and Weasley weren't with him.

"Looks like the golden trio is now a golden duo," said Pansy happily.

"And Potty is the third wheel," sneered Draco.

Pansy got up quickly. "Where are you going?" asked one of Pansy's friends.

"To see if I can get an insult or two in before potions," she replied smiling devilishly. Everyone laughed. "I'll show him to talk about things he doesn't understand," she whispered to herself as she walked.

"The nerve of them. How can they just- they're just- aaarrgghh!" Harry vented out his feelings in front of the marble staircase unaware that some one was listening just behind the doors of the Great Hall.

"They're just what, Potty?" said a voice from behind the doors which made Harry start. He turned around and for a moment was too surprised to say anything.

"P-Pansy?" he finally croaked out. "What're you-

"You were about to insult your friends I believe. Please continue, I could use a good laugh."

"Pansy, just leave." The anger in his voice was apparent. "You don't know-

"Oh, but I do know what's going on. What's the matter? Am I making you angry?" she said threateningly. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it your so-called friends who made you angry first? What, don't like being the third wheel?" The amount of pleasure Pansy was getting out of this was almost palpable. She had a sweet smile on her face but her tone was anything but sweet. She loved pushing his buttons and was pushing all the right ones. "Give it a little time, Potter and they won't even remember your name. You better start looking for new sidekicks. How about ones that are actually useful."

Harry was almost shaking with rage and Pansy could see it. Harry thought it amazing how it was the first day and he was already as angry as he could get. It was taking every once of will power he had not to curse Pansy. He could not believe that he had actually felt sorry for her just the day before. When he spoke again it was in a deadly whisper, "Pansy…just…leave or else."

His whisper had made her flinch and had sent a shiver down her spine, as her father's always did. This, however, made Pansy even more determined to make Harry miserable. The one person she hated more than Harry was her father and he had just reminded her of him. He would pay.

"Or else what?" she said her voice now a whisper. But even the whisper could not hide the anger.

Harry had had it. He had finally cracked. He pulled out his wand so fast that Pansy barely had time to react. "Leave…now!" he said again.

'He's going to curse me. He's really going to do it,' she thought frantically. Then her other side argued, 'Your lucky if he doesn't kill you. Don't just stand there, take out your wand!' Pansy quickly drew her own wand.

Harry couldn't believe it. She must be crazy to think about dueling with him. That had to be it: she had lost her mind over the summer. That was the only explanation. The both stood there, wands raised. Then Harry decided on the perfect spell. It would make Pansy's nose swollen and green and make her face sprout tiny purple tentacles all over it. Harry settled on this one because it lasted at least three days. Pansy saw the anger and determination in Harry's eyes and suddenly a wave of dread spread over her. If she dueled with him she would definitely lose, she knew this. So what on earth had she been thinking? Harry opened his mouth and Pansy's eyes widened as she thought, 'He's going to do it!'

"Sa-," Harry started but was cut off by the doors of the Great Hall opening. He certainly did not want to get caught hexing a prefect in front of the teachers so he hastily put his wand away. Pansy was a little slower on the uptake and didn't have Harry's reflexes. A few people saw her standing there with her wand out for what seemed like no reason before she finally realized how stupid she must look and put it away.

The two exchanged one last glare before walking away in opposite directions. After all, there was more than one way to get to the dungeons .