Chapter 9

He woke. It took him a while to realize that he was still tied to his bed.

"Ron. Ron!" he called sleepily.

"Huh? What?" said Ron as he too woke up.

"Come untie me."

Ron came over and began to untie Harry. Harry noticed that the sheets they had used to keep him in bed had left marks on his arms and legs. They were still a little red which meant he had been struggling against them. Ron noticed him looking at where the marks were.

"You were thrashing around last night. I think you were trying to get untied."

"You think?" said Harry sarcastically. "Next time don't tie them so tight."

"But what if you-

"I won't!" he snapped. Ron just looked at him. "I won't," he whispered again trying to convince himself.

During breakfast Harry told them all about his meeting with Pansy in the library. Neither of them seemed shocked that she had hit him, which annoyed him because he knew he had deserved it but he didn't want to hear that from anyone else. Something else that annoyed him was that Ron and Hermione were slowly reverting back to their old ways. It was just the little things that really bugged him, like the way she always played with his hair and the way she babied him. He tried not to let it get to him but he wasn't successful. He was almost glad that he didn't have to work with them in potions just yet. Then he remembered that he still had to work on the essay with Pansy. To get his mind off of her he changed the subject.

"So Hermione, which one of Millicent Bulstrode's memories did you see?"

"Oh, it was horrible. I saw her yelling at some poor little second year. She was petrified and ran away crying."

"What about you Ron? Who were you partnered with again, Crabbe?"

"No, Goyle, like he's much better. It was pretty weird actually. I, well he, was in here eating, big surprise, and he kept staring at Pansy. It was almost like he wanted to eat her or something."

Harry burst out laughing. Hermione registered it a second later and joined in. This was the first time Harry had laughed in a long time.

"P-Pansy?" he asked through the breaths he was taking to try and stop laughing.

"Yeah, maybe he fancies her."

"No, I don't think so," said Harry a little too quickly.

"Why not?" said Hermione who had finally been able to stop giggling.

"Because, it's Goyle."

"He's a guy too, Harry. You know, your acting a little je-

"Don't even finish that word," he said warningly to Hermione. The smile on her face faded. "What do I care if he fancies her? It's not like we're friends."

"Sorry," Hermione whispered looking down at her plate.

"No, don't be sorry. You know what Harry, you don't have to take your problems out on us mate," said Ron, the anger apparent in his voice. "Mione's right, you are acting jealous."

"Mione, Mione?! What does she call you? Ronny? You guys are pathetic sometimes you know that. I'm not jealous. If I liked Pansy, why would I be trying to torture her in the middle of the night?"

Ron and Hermione looked at him as though they didn't know him. Hermione looked on the verge of tears and Ron looked as though he wanted to hit him.

"What happened to you over the summer," Hermione whispered before getting up to leave.

"I hope your happy now. Why don't you come talk to us when they real Harry re-inhabits your body," said Ron as he got up to follow Hermione.

Harry sat there thinking, 'I need to learn how to keep my mouth shut.'

At the end of the day came potions, which no one was looking forward to because they still had to work on the essay with their partners. Harry had arrived and had chosen a seat near the front of the room. He wanted to put as much space between him and his friends. When he walked in neither of them even looked in his direction. 'If that's how you want it then fine,' he thought as he sat down. Pansy had sat down next to Harry without looking at him.

"I tied myself to my bed," he whispered so only she would hear. This took her by surprise. She hadn't really been serious when she said that. She recovered from her initial shock and said, "Good." After this they both took out their notes and started writing.

"You know it's a waist of time if we both write the essay. Snape's only going to take one."

"What's your point?"

"Why don't we split it? I'll do the first half and then you can add whatever I've missed."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Hey, I just don't want to write the whole thing for nothing."

She looked at him trying to see he was trying to trick her. 'Wow, his eyes are really green. Wait, I don't care what color his eyes are.' "Fine," she said out loud. "But you better make it good."

Snape walked in just as she had said this. He didn't need to give any directions because everyone already knew what to do. "You know what you should be doing, so get on with it. At the end of class you will turn in your essay and I will tell you and your partner the grade you received on your potion."

About halfway through the class Harry silently handed his part of the essay to Pansy. She read it over and was actually somewhat impressed. He was a good writer. She looked through her notes, added what she could and corrected any mistakes, though there were few. They were the first group to finish, which totally took Snape by surprise. Besides Neville, Snape considered Harry and Pansy the two worst students in his class. On this potion, however, they had proved him wrong.

"Are you sure you want to hand in this essay," he asked. "There's nothing missing from it?" Harry and Pansy nodded. "Very well, here is your grade." He slid pansy a piece of sealed parchment. "You are dismissed." They silently gathered their things and went out into the hallway.

Pansy was rather worried to open the parchment. She wasn't an idiot; she knew how much Snape hated Harry. But she also knew that Snape highly favored his house. What she didn't know was which emotion he felt more. Harry on the other hand knew that although they had done the potion perfectly, Snape loathed him enough to give them both a P for 'poor'.

"Don't be surprised if we fail. Snape hates me you know."

"Hmm," said Pansy in agreement without really listening. She was worried about the grade. If she failed anything her father would be furious.

Harry noticed she wasn't paying attention. "Goyle fancies you."

"That's nice."

"Hey! Snap out of it and open the parchment," Harry finally said.

Pansy stopped thinking about what her father would do to her if she failed and slowly opened the parchment. When she saw it her eyes went wide with shock. 'He must have given us a T if she's this shocked,' Harry thought. 'T' stood for 'troll' and it was the worst grade you could get. Pansy slowly looked up from the parchment and looked at Harry. She gave him the parchment. What Harry saw shocked him. They had gotten and 'outstanding.'

"Holy shi-

Pansy quickly covered Harry's mouth. After all they were still outside the potions room and if Snape heard that they would both get detention. She started laughing and so did Harry. "That's the best grade I've ever gotten in that class," said Pansy.

"Me, too." This was the first time Harry had seen Pansy smile. And it was a real smile, not her usual smirk. He couldn't help think 'Hey, she's kind of pretty, but wait this is Pansy.' "We make a pretty good team," said Harry still smiling.

"I guess so." They walked down the corridor together until the reached the stairs. Harry was headed to his common room and Pansy to hers. He got half way up the stairs before calling down to Pansy. She turned around.

"I'm sorry," he said for the second time in two days.

"I know," she said before turning around and walking away.

Potions turned out to be the class most talked about. With a different partner and potion every week, everyone was very busy. Over the weeks they had done several other potions: a potion to make you invisible, a potion that would freeze (literally) whoever drank it (several students ended up with colds after this one), and even a flying potion. One potion in particular caused a bit of a problem. It was a potion that made the drinker turn a bright shade of magenta if they told a lie. Some one in the class thought it would be highly amusing to smuggle some out and pour it into several people's drinks I the Great Hall. Needless to say, there were a few very color full people walking around Hogwarts for a few days. Among them was Ron. Harry took much pleasure in teasing him, as the magenta clashed horribly with his red hair. The weeks of potions flew by and pretty soon it was almost Christmas. Many people were going home for the holidays but there were two people who would definitely be wanting to stay at Hogwarts.

Harry and Pansy hadn't spoken to each other since they uncovered their miraculous grade in potions. They would occasionally acknowledge each other but that was it. But one morning Harry couldn't help but notice a panicked look on Pansy's face as she read a letter.

Pansy wasn't expecting any mail from anyone so when she received a copy of the Daily Prophet she was quite surprised. She opened it up and out fell a letter from her father.

Dear Pansy,
We need to have a talk. When are you coming home for the holidays? It better be soon. This house is a mess. You better not get to comfortable over there in that muggle-lover's school. You never know when I might make a surprise visit and come and get you. Don't even think about staying at school for vacation.

Pansy ripped the letter into tiny pieces. She wasn't going to let him get to her. She had to think of a plan to stay in school, no matter what it took even if she had to hurt herself to do it. But she had to hurry. Vacation was days away. Then she thought of the perfect plan. It would hurt, but going home would hurt more.

She waited until the end of the week. She couldn't do it right away; she knew that Madame Pomfrey was a good healer. With one day to go she did it. After classes she went to Madame Hooch and convinced her to let her use one of the school brooms. Pansy said she wanted to be a decent flier. She said she was embarrassed that some first years were better than her. After much wining Madame Hooch agreed. Pansy made sure no one saw her going to the quidditch pitch. When she got there she took a deep breath. 'Anything is better than going back to that hellhole.' And with that last thought she kicked off the ground. She was wobbly at first, but then she got used to it. She loved the feeling of the wind through her loose hair. She didn't know that from far off someone was watching. She figured that she better do it before she lost her nerve. She flew about fifty feet in the air and then she jumped. She was falling and she heard someone yell. She couldn't make out what they had said because of the rushing wind. No one was there to save her. Then it was all black.

"Pansy, NO!" Harry yelled as he ran onto the quidditch pitch. He had been watching her ever since she had read the letter. As she was falling he raised his wand and said the first spell that came to his mind. "Winguardium leviosa!" She was a foot from the ground when she slowed down, but she still hit with a loud thud. Harry rushed over to her.

"Pansy! Wake up!" he said shaking her. He knew he had to go get help. "Hold on," he whispered before he ran to the castle as fast as his feet would carry him.