Chapter six

Slytherins with a bad attitude

'Aw!'

'Watch it!'

Hermione, Jacs, Harry and Ron had just been walking down the corridors when Hermione had accidentally walked into someone – who didn't seem as pleasant as Hermione when it came to apologizing to one another.

'I'm so sorry, didn't see where I was going,' pleaded Hermione.

'Whatever.'

It was, Pansy Parkinson – the little pug faced Slytherin who had a major crush on Draco Malfoy. Her short dark brown hair and hissing orange eyes caused Jacs to flinch, muttering under her breathe, slut! Only this year, her buckteeth were poking out further, and her freckles darker. Hermione's eyebrows suddenly lowered fastly as she continued to glare at her.

'Well, no need to get all agro about it. I was only apologizing.' She snapped, beginning to walk past her again.

Pansy raised her eyebrows at Hermione sarcastically and laughed. Her laugh was like a high-pitched witches, certainly not what you would expect from a sixteen-year-old girl.

'Hah, know it all. I was only apologizing, no need to get agro over – Oh, hello Harry, lost to Malfoy yet?' she called out, attracting the attention of Harry – not for the better though. She was always trying to compare Harry's strength with Draco's – which always caused Harry to get quite angry.

'Get lost, Pansy.'

'Yeah, and while you're getting lost,' Jacs made herself heard, causing Pansy's eyes to fall upon her. 'Take a bath, you stink. And your hair – EW, come on, lice inspection please!'

Pansy's eyes screwed up, and then looked back to Hermione. Her pug nose and dirty orange coloured eyes always gave Harry a scare when he looked at her. She had to be, one of the worst looking Slytherins they had ever seen.

'Start me!'

'I beg your pardon?' Hermione asked her, looking up to her with her eyebrows raised. It was only the look Hermione gave Pansy that caused Pansy to call that out.

All of a sudden Pansy jumped out at Hermione and started to pull at her hair with all the strength she had. Hermione tried to pull back, but the Slytherin girl was too strong for her.

'Stupid know it all!'

Hermione, to Ron, Jacs and Harry's surprise didn't just push Pansy off of her, but ended up slapping her in the face. Both Ron and Jacs looked bright and smiley, while Harry looked shocked.

'Hermione?' called out Harry, rather surprised to see Hermione slap another female.

'Go Hermione!' Jacs called.

'Hit her harder!' cheered Ron.

Harry hushed up Ron, while the pathetic Pansy tried to fight Hermione, who didn't seem to be worried about rules and tried to fight back – only for self defense and to try and get Pansy away from them. For some reason, tonight, Hermione didn't want to put up with any nonsense like Pansy trying to fight her. Ron shook his head again, before folding his arms and looking towards Jacs.

'Where's that monkey when you need it?'

'Oh,' Jacs jumped. 'I'll call him! MIONE!' she shouted out, followed by a loud whistle.

'Get off of me you infection!' shouted Hermione, pushing at Pansy face. Pansy squinted back at Hermione, wrinkles appearing on her nose due to frowning.

'No! You stop being gay!'

'I'm not the gay one around here!'

Harry and Ron stood watching Pansy and Hermione have a go at one another like cats, and several times when Harry went to stop them Ron would stop him. Jacs had wondered about a meter away from them, continuing to call out for her monkey.

'Let them go, it's healthy to take your anger out.' Nodded Ron, using any excuse to let them fight.

Pansy reached forward at Hermione and whacked her in the nose, which brought small tears to here eyes. So, Hermione spat suddenly at Pansy, between the eyes. Pansy flinched at Hermione's actions, pulling away for about a second and wiped her nose.

'Ah! Gross!' she screamed out trying to wipe the spit off of her face. 'Why do you have to be so fucken feral?!'

'You're the one who came at me! Doing this is my self-defense!' called out Hermione, who was puffing. Pansy didn't give up easily. She jumped at Hermione again, and the fight went on. Jacs now was holding her monkey, and running towards Ron and Harry.

'I hope he just ate,' Jacs said, letting a little smirk fall onto her face. 'If he ate the cheese, he'll get diarrhea!'

Ron snorted a laugh as Jacs moved forward and whispered to the monkey,

'Get on Pansy and shit alright?'

The little monkey jumped off of Jacs hands and onto Pansy's shoulders – where it began to make movements around her head.

'AH!' Pansy screamed, trying to hit the monkey off of her shoulders. 'It's PISSING ON ME!' Pansy then jumped back, and tried to get the monkey off of her shoulders. As she failed, Hermione took a breath and tried to move out of reach of Pansy. Despite the amount of monkey urine she had on her, Pansy jumped forward. She went for Hermione again, but this time Harry latched on to Hermione's arms and pulled her away from Pansy's reach.

'Hermione, this fighting is stupid, come on, let's just – '

But before Harry could finish, Pansy had whacked him hard in the nose. He backed away for a second, holding his nose in pain while Ron carried on the job in keeping Hermione back. He had all of a sudden felt indifferent about letting Hermione fight. Jacs looked over to where Harry was with a blood nose, and shot a poisonous look back to Pansy.

'You've pushed it bitch,' she hissed evilly, rolling up one of her sleeves. 'No one hits Harry!'

Jacs jumped forward, and pulled back her right fist. When it was back as far as she could, she forced it forward with so much might – it forced Pansy into the wall of the corridor with a black eye. As Pansy lay on the ground, her eye now badly bused, Jacs rolled down her sleeve with a frown still printed on her face.

'If you want another one for the other eye, just come here and I'll give it to you! Slut!'

Even though her eye was throbbing with tenderness, Pansy pushed herself back up and looked to Hermione and Jacs, who were standing side by side; frowns planted on their faces. Pansy then jumped out towards them, trying not to chock on her tears.

'STUPID GRYFFINDORS!'

'Stay back Hermione!' Ron called, holding back Hermione.

'Stay back Jacs!' Harry then called, holding back Jacs.

Pansy jumped away from them unexpectedly, stared them in the eyes for a bit then threw on the most sudden sad face. She began to pat her uniform down so it was straight again, and tried to look innocent by gazing towards Hermione and Jacs wide-eyed.

'I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't mean to Hermione, Jacs, I want to be friends!'

Hermione nor Jacs didn't believe her, either did Ron or Harry. They all thought that maybe she had seen a teacher somewhere, so no was suddenly changing her emotions to get her out of trouble when Hermione dobbed her in.

'You liar! You're only saying that now because you probably see a teacher or something!' said Hermione, with a large frown spread across her face. Pansy started to frown once again, and threw her fist up at Hermione.

'I hate you!' she growled, going to take a hit at Hermione. Hermione however, ducked at her shot, and in the back of her mind was trying to figure out just why Pansy had decided to pick on her tonight of all nights. Pansy once again went to have another swipe at Hermione, but this time her fist was held back by someone's hand. Hermione gasped, and looked over Pansy's shoulder to see just who it was that saved her.

'Cho?' Hermione caught her breath, rather surprised at seeing the short black haired Chinese girl with glasses holding back Pansy's hand. This year, Cho had become head girl of Ravenclaw – and this wasn't known to any of the four Gryffindors until Hermione's eyes fell upon the badge saying so on Cho's cloak.

'Ms Parkinson,' Cho said softly, her tone of voice becoming more serious compared to what it's like when she speaks to Harry, 'you shouldn't be out this time of night. Neither should you be fighting with someone that isn't a house member of yours. And, you shouldn't even be near the Gryffindor halls. Why are you down here to begin with?'

'Because,' Pansy snapped, 'I felt like it.'

'That's not a reason,' Cho said lazily, before pointing to her badge, 'I'm the head girl of Ravenclaw. I'm down here because I heard your argument from the Ravenclaw halls. I am able to take points you know,' she paused, and then looked to Hermione in front of her, 'twenty points off Slytherin.'

'So that's Cho…' Jacs muttered, getting a look from Ron.

'Ugly isn't she?'

'Tell me about it!'

'You can't do that!' Pansy growled, 'that's against the rules! I'm a Prefect!'

'Our head of house Professor said I was allowed to,' Cho grinned, 'so I am able to. As I said, I'll make a note to Professor Snape to take twenty points from Slytherin.'

'Why aren't you taking points from them!' Pansy screamed, throwing her hard out and pointing to Hermione and Jacs, 'they was fighting me too! And Look! The blonde one gave me a black eye!'

'But in self-defense; if you hadn't of been down here in the first place and started the fight, this wouldn't of happened. Anyhow, I think I should go get a Professor – '

'No!' Pansy growled, latching her hand onto Cho's short black hair and yanking it. Cho gave a small squeal of pain, right before she attempted to push Pansy off of her.

'Get off of me!'

'No!' Pansy growled, continuing to pull at Cho's hair. 'I'm not going to let you!'

'Quick!' Ron whispered into Jacs' ear. 'Put the monkey on Cho so it can crap on her!'

Jacs' little smile became eviler, as she snuck up behind Cho and threw her monkey onto her hair. The monkey's landing caused Cho to scream with fear, before screaming again as the monkey seemed to mistake her hair for a toilet.

'That's revolting!' Cho hissed, trying to get the monkey and Pansy off of her at the same time. 'Who the hell owns this thing!'

'That thing has a name!' Jacs hissed from behind her. 'It's name's Mione –'

'I don't care what it's name is! Just get it off of me!'

'You don't care about Mione!?' Jacs shrieked, throwing her head forward. 'Mione's a living thing too you know! He has to go to the toilet sometime, he just cant keep it in!'

'Look! Whatever your name is, get it off of me! And Pansy, would you BUGGER OFF?!'

'Ladies!' came a voice.

Ron, Harry, Hermione, Jacs, Cho and Pansy turned around to see Professor Lupin again, holding a latten up at them with a surprised look on his face. Jacs grabbed her monkey, Hermione let go of Pansy's cloak and Pansy quickly let go off Cho's hair, then stood with her hands by her side, trying to look as innocent as possible.

'Ms Granger, Ms Parkinson, Ms Neilson, Harry and Ron please come into my office right now.' He spoke in a rather annoyed tone, mainly glaring at Pansy. 'And Ms Chang, it was good of you to stop the fight between Ms Parkinson, Ms Neilson and Ms Granger to begin with – ten points to Ravenclaw. Now, hurry along back to your dormitory all right?' he asked her politely.

Cho nodded gently to his words, and turned her back to Pansy and began to walk off to her dormitory. Harry's eyes however, never left the back of her until she was out of sight. Lupin turned his back to them, and led them down the corridor towards his office.

On the way there, Pansy would shoot deadly glares across to Hermione, causing Hermione to ignore her more and move closer to Harry and Ron. Ron happily allowed Jacs monkey to sit on his shoulder, while Jacs continuously jumped on Pansy's feet – always causing her to trip into the back of Harry. Once inside, he closed the door after them and went to stand behind his desk.

'Now, tell me, what on Earth is going on?'

Pansy's eyes suddenly became watery as she flattered them at Lupin, thinking maybe that would get her out of trouble. She moved closer to his desk, beginning to twirl her finger around with one of her knotty strands of urine soaked hair.

'Oh sir, I was just walking down the corridor on my way back to the Slytherin common room, and out of no where, Hermione jumped out and attacked me! Then Jacs and her monkey jumped on me, and that fucken – oh I mean, monkey piss – er, peed on me!' she cried, having tears rolling down her face and incessantly rubbing her barely black eye. If it wasn't for Harry, and the fact that she was a girl, Ron would of have pounded Pansy hard by now.

'Oh?' Lupin muttered, 'I don't believe Ms Granger or Ms Neilson are those sort of girls who tend to waist their time with immature fights with ladies of a different house member? Ms Parkinson?' he asked lazily, obviously knowing it was a lie.

'I didn't Professor, you have my complete word on it.' Said Hermione, 'but I do admit, I did fight back at her in self-defense.'

'And I did punch her sir,' Jacs told him. 'I know it was wrong, but I had every right to seeing that she wouldn't give up on poor Hermione!'

'She's lying sir! I never did any thing! Fine! Take her side, just because she's Harry Potter's friend!'

'That's enough!' shouted Lupin, standing up from his chair. Hermione, Jacs, Ron and Harry slightly took a step away from him – they didn't recall the last time Lupin had gotten so mad. But seeing another student accuse him of taking sides with Harry Potter must of hit a nerve inside him.

'Ms Parkinson, I watched the whole fight. You are lying, and in doing so, you have detention and thirty points will be taken off Slytherin for your lies. Never, I repeat never say I take sides. I have no favoritism in Harry, nor any student. Now, get back to your dormitory before I change my mind and make your punishment more.'

Lupin took a small breath, and then looked to Ron, Jacs and Hermione.

'You three better get back to your dormitories right now, is late, and I don't want you getting into trouble for keeping you in my office.'

'See! Taking sides again!' cried out Pansy, jumping up and down, 'so much for not taking sides! I'm telling Professor Snape about you!'

'Ms Parkinson!' he roared, slamming his hand down on his papers and pointing to the door. 'Go! And Harry, I'd like you to stay.'

Within seconds, all four of Ron, Hermione, Jacs and Pansy had left the room, leaving Harry with Lupin. On the way out, before Pansy was able to get to her dormitories to change, Jacs monkey had given her something, which caused Ron to laugh and Pansy to scream.

'Harry, please, take a seat.'

Harry did as he was told and sat down, and then looked towards Lupin. He could tell by looking in Lupin's eyes, he wanted to give Harry some words of advise.

'Any thing wrong, Professor?' Harry's heart slightly moved faster with panic whether he was going to get into trouble or not. Lupin looked up again to face Harry, then began to speak.

'Look, Harry. Right now, even though I am a Professor…I need to tell you something, but not as a Professor but as a friend. Harry, I want you to keep clear of Cho – '

'Why?' blurted out Harry, who sort of blushed as Lupin raised his eyebrows at Harry's own words. This was at all very confusing to Harry. It was just today that he was telling him he had no intentions on treating him as a friend rather then a student, but now, he was surely contradicting himself. The only thing that came to mind was a little mental image of Jacs saying something like, Trapped in the corner of contraction!

'Why, isn't it obvious to you? Thought you were smarter then her. You'd like her to be your girlfriend right? She's not your type Harry; she's a lovely student I have to admit to that, but…I just don't think she'd the right one for you. Jacs is a sweet girl, not to mention funny and maybe in your eyes pretty. Try her? I'm only telling you this, because after what happened to Sirius – ' Lupin froze for a moment, trying to find the free the words in his throat, then carried on, 'I thought you didn't need to be hurt any more.'

'Sir, no offence, but it really is my business…' muttered Harry, feeling a curse of anger come over him. 'I should make my own choices, not let someone else do it for me.'

Lupin, didn't take his eyes off of Harry. He was rather surprised that Harry talked to him like that, but otherwise ignored it and waved his hand slightly. This was certainly the last time ever Lupin would give him advise.

'I'm sorry Harry, I won't interfere again. Nor will I ever intend to treat you as a friend rather then a student. Now, hurry off to bed, I have duty tomorrow morning. Goodnight, Harry.' Lupin said, getting up from his chair and walking over to the door.

Harry gave him a simple nod before Lupin opened the door for him, let him out then left the room himself. He went one way, Harry went another.

As Harry moved off in his direction, he began to sigh. He looked to his side, where he saw an open window, and the half moon still shinning brightly. Leaning out slightly, Harry looked down to the green grass. Just out to his right, he could barely see the hoops from the Quidditch field, and to his left he could see Hagrid's hut and the entrance to the dark forest. As he continued to gaze at nothing in particular, he noticed a black figure move out of the dark forest. After taking a closer look, he recognized the figure to be Snape – coming out of the dark forest holding an empty goblet.

Harry squinted a bit at the sight of Snape, and then moved his head back so Snape didn't see him hanging out the window. He thought for a moment, still trying to figure out why Snape kept going out to the dark forest and night and day, taking these potions. Sighing, Harry began his short walk to the common room not feeling like thinking about the possibilities.

As he stumbled further to the Gryffindor common room, Harry brushed back his scruffy dark brown hair. He now had a sick feeling inside his stomach about Lupin's next class, and how Lupin will now treat him. Harry began to regret speaking like the way he did to Lupin in his office, but for some reason that night just felt it relevant to tell Lupin he didn't want him interfering with his personal life. He liked Professor Lupin a lot, there was no doubt about it - but at the moment, he just felt like he could sort things out by himself. It was now a fact though, that every time he saw Cho, his mind repeated the question whether he really liked her or not, or if it was just a phase he hadn't got over... then every time he saw Jacs, his heart jumped. But every thought he had about the two girls remained in his mind - his mind and his mind only.

Harry stumbled in front of the Fat Lady, who appeared to be fast asleep. After sighing a bit more, Harry cleared his throat with a little cough to awake the Fat Lady. She however, remained in a deep sleep. Harry narrowed his eyebrows slightly at the sight, before making a louder cough. The Fat Lady still failed to wake up. Now that he was utterly ticked off, he took a breath so he could shout at her to open - but paused when he saw fog beginning to appear around him.

He looked behind him, where the fog was also. Then to the sides, where he saw the fog appear as well. The fog surrounded him. Now feeling less confident about waiting for the Fat Lady to wake up, he swiped at the fog a bit so he could make his way threw it.

'Aw!' he thought he heard a girl's voice say. Harry swung to behind him, where he saw nothing, no one. Taking a little gulp, Harry then turned to the Fat Lady, where he went to tell her to wake up, but as he walked towards her and continued to swipe at the fog, he continued to hear little, 'Aw's!'. Harry turned again, where he saw no one. Now beginning to panic, he called out to the Fat Lady,

'Miss Fat Lady! Wake up please!'

'Oh, uh, ah, w-what?' one of the Fat Lady's lazy eyes opened up. She looked down to where she saw Harry, standing innocently, looking up to her with confusion printed across his face. She narrowed her eyebrows a tad before giving a yawn.

'Let me guess, out late again Mr Potter?' she asked drowsily. Harry gave a quick nod before pulling his cloak from the ground.

'Crookpussyness.' He told her blankly, urging to get inside his common room. The Fat Lady nodded her head a slight bit, before opening the picture frame and allowing Harry inside.

'Silly password,' Harry heard her howl from outside the common room. Harry however didn't pay much attention to her self-opinion, and watched her close her frame to see if the fog made it's way in. To Harry's relief, nothing followed him in.

'Harry…Pansy…I hate her so much!' shouted Ron at breakfast the next morning, taking his anger out on a piece of toast and a knife. 'And still hate Cho, the only thing good about her now is, she got Pansy into trouble at least.' He mumbled again, stabbing the toast more.

'Ron, take it easy please.' Said Hermione, looking back to Harry after she said it, 'you may not agree, but Lupin is right. Ron is right, I'm right, Jacs is right. But we're not going to force you into something you don't want to stop doing… if you want to get hurt, then ok. Let Cho do that to you, you're obviously not going to listen to us.'

Harry's eyes narrowed a bit at Hermione, then Ron as he placed down his goblet of drink.

'I don't see what you all have against her. She can't hurt me because, because she's not interested… I just didn't tell Lupin because…I don't know, I felt, dumb talking to him about it, so I didn't talk to him about it. Worked out fine…'

'Have you seen Jacs today?' Ron asked, trying not to spit out his food by laughter. 'I wanna recap on last night when that monkey of hers crapped in Pansy's hair. Oh, you should of seen that Pansy's face, she was spittin!'

Harry began laughing, which caused Neville who was next to him flinch. He then turned to Neville, and nodded his head.

'Hello Neville, how are you?'

'G-good Harry, and you?' he asked, stuttering. Harry gave another smile, and turned back to his food.

'Never better.' He then looked back to Ron, a large smile printed across his face. 'She's so funny, and yeah, where is she? I didn't see her when I went back to the common room last night, she must of went to bed?'

'Yes.' The little English accent rang out from behind him. Harry spun around to see Jacs, standing with her shoulders down low and her cheeks rather pink. She then rubbed her nose slightly, before turning the other way and sneezing.

'Last night I caught a cold,' she mumbled, sniffling. 'Stupid Pansy Parkinson…'

Ron turned his head the other way where he saw Pansy at the Slytherin table, sobbing away to Malfoy about her encounters with the four Gryffindor students. Ron then turned back to Harry, Hermione and Jacs with a doubtful look spread across his face.

'I think we'd better keep an eye on Jacs and Hermione,' he whispered, eyeing Malfoy. 'Pansy would of told Malfoy by now wouldn't she?'

'Is Pansy Malfoy's girlfriend?' Jacs asked suddenly, looking over to the pug faced Slytherin with a spiteful look. Hermione shrugged a bit while Ron screwed his face up at the question.

'I… I'm not sure? Is she? I mean, as much as I hate Malfoy, I would think he'd have better taste then her… oh she's on the top of my list now!'

Hermione and Harry shrugged, whiles Jacs lowered her fist at the sight of Pansy.

'If she dare gets the story wrong and says it didn't hurt…'

'Hermione,' spat Ron who still had food in his mouth, 'isn't that an white raven?'

He was pointing to a huge bird perched outside the window on the railings for the stairs. It was a white raven too, with large blue eyes. As soon as Ron realized what it could be, it whacked his head several times while Hermione gasped.

'Oh, a raven, must be the white wolf again!'

Ron groaned and almost fell off of his chair at her words, whilst Jacs and Harry giggled at Hermione's fascination.

'Oh, craps. Should never of mentioned it to you…'

'You brought it upon yourself Ron,' laughed Harry, finding Ron's annoyed face amusing. Jacs continued giggling, nodding as she did.

'Yes, slip of the tongue aye Ronald?'

Harry, who thought it, was a good idea to move off of the subject of Cho and whatever happened last night pointed to the right raven wing.

'Hah, Hermione, still has your bandage on.'

'She's looking to us, you know, last night we should of actually gone out there,' she whispered, 'but Cho stopped us. We should go now.'

'But, Hermione, Charms is about to begin, we can't skip class for her?' asked Ron.

'And I know Lupin's on duty around the grounds today, I shouldn't get into any more trouble with him…' muttered Harry under his breath. Hermione plainly stared at them both with nothing but disbelief on her face.

'If we go save her, we'd be saving a girl's life. What about you Jacs?' she asked, looking up to the blonde student. Jacs went to speak, but heard in the right side of her ear Collin Creevey's little unbroken voice, calling out her name. She then saw Ginny move from her seat straight away, causing Jacs to get similar ideas.

'I'd love to come and all Hermione –' she paused, looking towards Ginny who was giving her facial signs that Collin was coming up behind her. 'BUT I really must get to – whatever I have! See you round Ron, Hermione, Harry – GINNY, WAIT FOR ME!' she ran down the hall, screaming as Collin began to follow both her and Ginny.

Harry and Ron couldn't help but laugh at the sight; Collin being so obsessive over two Gryffindor girls, but then also at the same time remembered their friend's certain obsessive thoughts – Hermione Granger, and the obsession with the white wolf.

'So, are you both with me?' she asked, raising one eyebrow. Ron moaned while Harry plainly nodded slightly as he jumped up from the table. When he went to turn to completely get his legs out from underneath the table, he was facing the teacher's tables. There, he saw Lupin, looking awfully tired. Harry then felt his stomach turn at the nervous feeling he was getting from when he had to go to that class next, but continued pulling his legs out. There was another thing also that he made a note of – Snape yet again wasn't there.

'Yeah, we are.' He said finally.

'Don't know why I follow on in these plans…' Ron mumbled as Hermione had just gotten up from the table and walked towards the corridor leading to outside.

'If we hurry now, I'm sure we won't be that late for Charms,' said Hermione as she strode down the corridors. Ron rolled his eyes and followed close behind.

'You'd better hope so, I don't wanna get into trouble again…'

'Snape wasn't at the tables again,' Hermione heard Harry speak. 'You don't think he's gone off into the dark forest with that goblet do you…?'

'I'm not sure…' Hermione looked puzzled, itching her chin as she walked. 'His disappearance as got me thinking over the last few days… I'm beginning to believe Ron's Vampire theory –'

'Hold on a ruddy moment,' Ron cut her off, giving her a dirty look. 'There's no Vampires down there… Snape isn't feeding one… please, let's just keep telling me there isn't; it's for your own safety you do know.'

When all three friends were outside, they saw that same raven sitting on the railing. But as soon as it saw Harry, Ron and Hermione, it fled off in the other direction. It swooped down from where it was sitting, and off into the dark forest. Hermione huffed at the sight, and then grabbed the side of Ron's arm.

'Come on, let's follow it!' called Hermione, running in the direction the raven flew. Ron sighed and let Harry in front of him, with a rather annoyed expression.

'If I ever hear that word white wolf again, someone's gonna –'

'Shhh! She'll hear you!' she snapped at him. Harry's eyes widened as he saw, in the distance, Lupin was standing, on duty like Harry knew he would be. His stomach turned again. He thought maybe he could of gotten here before Lupin's duty, but he was obviously wrong.

'Um, guys, it's Lupin, I think it's better if we came later, come on…'

'But, Harry, shouldn't we at least tell him about the girl in the forest? What if he could go in there for us and save her, that way RON you wont have to go in and get scared?'

Ron ignored her while Harry shrugged his shoulders slightly. When he looked up again, the sight of Lupin caused him to recoil.

'We could, but then wouldn't he ask us how we knew she was in there in the first place?'

Hermione went to speak, but no words came out. She stood quiet for a second then frowned a bit.

'I'll tell him I saw her the other day when I ran after the white wolf to help her paw. I'm sure he'd understand wont he?'

Harry glanced over to him, and then had flashes back of him telling them he couldn't always be around to help them out of trouble when they needed it. Ron looked like he was about to explode and tell Hermione off for her obsession, but swallowed his words every time he went to speak.

'I, I'm not sure. He might, but – oh, I don't know. You should tell him, it'd be saving a girl's life – '

'Class started five minutes ago…' came out that cold deep voice none of the Gryffindors wanted to hear. The three of them turned around to face Snape, who once again for some reason was holding a goblet with smoking fumes floating out. It smelt so bad, the same smell as yesterday.

'Oh,' said Hermione, 'we didn't notice sorry, we'll go now.'

'I have to admit, even though every year I'm no where near impressed with your behavior, this year is by far the worst… I'm telling you now, if you don't pick up your act somehow, I'll assure you that you will be expelled…now, hurry up and get to classes.'

He turned away from them in a sudden gush of cold wind and headed down near the dark forest.

'Why,' started Ron, 'has he been going down there…with all those potions? Is he looking after someone down there?'

'I told you, a Vampire –'

'DON'T, tell me that.'

Hermione shrugged at him, then looked back to Lupin.

'Come on, we'll have to go to class I'm afraid… Lupin will surely get us into trouble or something…'

When Hermione, Ron and Harry arrived in Charms class, they noticed that not yet was a teacher there. Hermione walked in and placed her books down next to Ron was, then Harry went on the other side of Ron.

'Where's Professor Flitwick?' whispered Hermione to Ron.

'How am I meant to know? We just got here!'

'Heard he was away,' came Malfoy's voice, 'pity though, poor little mudblood wont be able to hand in her over done homework…' he said, with a sarcastic sad expression spreading across his face. Hermione frowned deeply at him and looked away from him. Hermione kept her gaud up, and remembered Pansy telling Malfoy what had happened last night. She would surely have over dramatized the story.

'Oh shut your mouth Malfoy!' Ron growled.

Malfoy turned around to him with his eyebrows raised, and a sarcastic slash of shock on his face.

'Oh dear! Am I annoying you Weasel? Can't do that, when you get stressed you can't think…so there's no help in thinking a way – '

'What words don't you understand about "Shut up"? If you love your jokes so much, tell them to your friends – oh that's right. You have none. Don't even have girlfriend, let alone someone who's interested in you.' Snarled Ron, tightening up his fists.

'Ron!' whispered Hermione.

Malfoy's face became now way more serious then any of the Gryffindors had seen it before. He stood up and looked down at Ron, with his eyebrows lowered hard. Ron could see Pansy in the background looking confused, as did Crabbe and Goyle.

'Wouldn't say stuff you have no idea about, you hopples downy,' he hissed, causing Ron to almost bust with anger. He stood up straight facing Malfoy and looked him in his icy cold blue eyes with his fists tighter then ever.

'Don't bloody call me a downy, you bloody Dompty!'

Malfoy's lips curled up in anger, then brought his fist back, and then threw it at Ron, hitting him right under his eye. Hermione gasped as Ron fell back, but Ron wasn't back for long. Harry went to grab Ron and yell at Draco, but failed in doing so.

'That's it!'

Ron jumped at Malfoy and made sure he got a blood lip, and then Malfoy threw another punch at his nose strong enough for it to bleed rapidly.

'RON, stop right now!' screamed Hermione pulling at Ron's cloak.

'Ron he's not worth it!' called out Harry, helping Hermione pull Ron away from throwing another punch at Malfoy. Malfoy smirked smartly at Ron as he kicked and squirmed to attempt to get out of the grasp of Harry and Hermione.

'Hah, look at the hopeless downy, can't even stop his friends from holding him back!' he laughed, having the Slytherins behind him laugh as well. Ron's cheeks became even pinker under his freckles as Malfoy laughed at him more.

Ron without warning began kicking Malfoy hard in the shins, before smacking him right across the cheek hard. As he exhaled with exhaustion, he kept his gaud up by clasping his fists hard.

'Ron, just relax! Ignore him, he's nothing –'

'And, mudblood, what do you know?' Malfoy continued to torment, looking at her coldly. The three now annoyed friends could hear the gasps and mumbles from the students who were watching the fight closely, before noticing Malfoy's sour look. Ron could see that his kick was successful, and that Malfoy would surely have a mark by the next morning. Hermione kept a stern face and stood up to him.

'I happen to know a lot more then you, and I happen to know that fighting is just a loser's way out. If you just kept your big mouth shut, stupid things like this wouldn't happen!' she snapped at him, having her eyes lowered the whole time she snapped at him. He stood there staring at her with no expression what so ever, then suddenly out of nowhere began to laugh with the rest of his house. Hermione's bruised cheek from the fight with Pansy last night began to hurt because of her immobile facial expression.

'Hah, the mudblood thinks she's good, hah. What a laugh!'

'Hello class!' rang out a familiar, over cheery voice.

The whole class seemed to remember it from their second year, so they all gulped and thought it was safe if they didn't turn around. Even though they were now mortal enemies, Draco and Ron gave one another terrified expressions. Ron mouthed to Draco, 'you turn around first.' But Draco mouthed back to Ron; 'I think it's safer if we just didn't turn around.'

'Ah, hope you remember me! Professor Gilderoy Lockhart!'

If it was possible, the whole class would of died right there on the spot out of shock and horror, including Malfoy who didn't seem quite happy about it either. Malfoy spun around, now loosing his rage for bashing the living daylights out of Ron.

'Erm, why are you our teacher? Where's our real teacher?' asked Malfoy, having an annoyed look upon his face. Lockhart laughed and held his wand up into the air.

'Ah well, he's…sick or something, but never fear, I am here! My memory, was brought back to me after a while, so now, I'm a Professor again!' he laughed, snorted as he did. Hermione gave a look towards Harry that sent a shiver down their backs. Was it possible Lockhart was back? Ron snorted, while Malfoy fell onto his chair holding his bruised face and blood lip in pain.

Nothing happened during class, Lockhart went on about something he read in a book about David Bowie, and Malfoy gave death-threatening glares at Harry, Ron and Hermione. He felt the urge to hit Ron more build up when he heard them talking about him, but never got the chance to do it.

Blood dripped from Malfoy's lip ever few minutes, while Ron's nose bled every time he spoke. Under his eye was soon turning purple and beginning to become puffier. At the moment, Malfoy and Ron hated one another more then the whole class hating Lockhart put together.

End of chapter.

Author's note: there will be more up soon! Trust me… I have heaps more to write, I haven't even introduced me yet faints dramatically.