Jackie: Why can't I ever get the million reviews other author's have?
Agent Blorange: Maybe because you suck...
Draco-muse: Don't EVEN say that, gay boy.
Takeru-muse: I hate do this, but I agree with no-tone over here.
Jackie: Anywayz...here's the second chapter. There will be major sap here, I guarantee.
Draco-muse: And Trio-bashing, but if you've read the first chapter, you should know that by now.
Takeru-muse: It's also a very SHORT chapter, I've noticed. What, losing speed already, Draco?
Draco-muse: It's Draco-MUSE, by the way, and why don't you go look at that file, Plot, why don't you?
Takeru-muse: *Pulling up file on laptop* Oh my God.
Jackie: We've been quite busy, I just have to supply the details. Oh, yeah, I don't own Harry Potter. Let's get that out of the way. Now, please enjoy!
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Chapter 2: Losing Grip
Draco was curled up in a large chair in the Slytherin common room, staring vacantly into the crackling fire. No one else was awake yet...very few 16 year olds were known to be awake at 3 a.m., even on a school day. He'd had a lot of trouble sleeping at night lately, and his housemates weren't making things any easier. He had no one to talk to, no one to confide in, and no one to even relate to anymore. Staring into the fire, the flames almost seemed to flicker from orange-yellow, to almost a...a...
"Red auburn," he whispered, wondering what made him classify the flames as a hair color. Slowly, a face started to emerge in the back of his mind...a face with red-auburn hair and piercing blue eyes.
"No, I can't think about her. I screwed that up on the first day. Besides, she's a Gryffindor, and I'm...no, that shouldn't even matter! What am I saying? It's always mattered before. Why not now..."
"Malfoy, what are you doing out of bed again?"
Draco glanced over his shoulder to see the Potions-master and head of Slytherin House, Snape, staring at him from the doorway. "I couldn't sleep. I don't believe that I'm harming anyone." Draco fought to keep the submissive tone he had adopted out of his voice, but it was a losing battle. "Well, maybe if you would sleep when you were supposed to, you could keep awake in your classes, or are we going to have a repeat of last year's miserable marks?" Snape's voice was cold and icy, and Malfoy knew that his father's influence had reached even his favorite teacher and turned him into an enemy. Draco sighed. "Yes sir." He rose from the chair and made his way up the winding staircase to his dormitory.
Snape stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching even long after Malfoy had left his sight. "It's for his own good. The boy's got to learn to deal with this before he does something rash." In a swirl of robes, Snape turned and left the common room.
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"Potions by itself is bad enough, but why couldn't we have had it with the Ravenclaws? Or even the Hufflepuffs? Why the Slytherins?"
Harry and Hermione laughed as Ron stabbed at his schedule with his wand, and had hysterics when he accidentally set it on fire. Hermione turned around briefly to check on their temporary charge, whom they were supposed to be showing around.
"I'm still here, Granger." Jackie muttered inaudibly, and Hermione simply returned her attention to her friends.
"Did you see that scowl she just gave me?" Hermione whispered to Harry and Ron. "I think they put her in the wrong house," noted Harry. "She certainly doesn't act like the rest of us Gryffindors."
"Leave her alone, " said Ron. "She's new to this school and this country, cut her some slack. She's adjusting."
"She should have adjusted a while back. She's been here a week, after all." Hermione shot at Ron, as if he'd insulted her. "We've got to get to the library before we have to go to class. Let's walk faster."
"What if we lose Jackie?" Ron asked.
Harry smirked. "Then we lose her. Come on!"
The trio took off running down the hallway.
*Jackie's POV*
I think I'm in the wrong house.
All these people in Gryffindor are so rude! They act as if they're above everyone else, but they'll never come out and say it. Oh no, that's what the Slytherins do.
What's so bad about the Slytherins, anyway? Draco seemed pleasant enough. From the stories they tell about him, though, you'd think he was the Devil Incarnate or something. And from what I've seen, they give him no reason not to act that way. Harry and Ron are the worst, goading him on like that. You'd think that with all the weird-ass classes they teach at this school, they'd include Manners and Maturity.
There goes that bitch Hermione checking to see if they've run off and left me yet. "I'm still here, Granger." I mutter. It's not loud enough for her to hear, but it makes me feel better all the same. What a Know-it all! Every class we've been to so far, she always raises her hand, she always knows the answer, she's always done the assignment, she always gets everything right...Are you a witch or a robot? She doesn't even bother to take care of herself, either. Doesn't fix her hair, doesn't wear makeup, doesn't exercise...it's a good thing she's got a high metabolism, or else she'd look like that lady in the portrait. And then, she complains that she's the only girl in the school without a boyfriend. Hmm, I wonder why?
Oh, there they go, running off. It's alright. I already know where the library is. As if they're the only ones who've ever snuck out at night to explore...
*End POV*
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The library was far from empty, but it wasn't crowded either. Students were spread out a the various tables reading, studying, or just hanging out. Draco was by himself in the corner, sitting on the floor, actively reading a spell book he had brought from home.
The trio burst in the door, laughing and panting from running down the corridors. Madame Pince gave them a disapproving glare from behind her stack of books, and the three suddenly remembered where they were. They took a seat at a table across the room from Draco. The room went back to business as usual.
Only Draco looked up when the library door opened once again. There, silhouetted in the glow from the torches behind her, was Jackie. Draco watched as she made her way into the library, glancing around her every few steps.
*Draco's POV*
How am I supposed to learn this spell with all these interruptions? Oh, it's them. Of course. And watch, they'll hardly get in trouble. Yep, right there, a nasty look. And they go on about their business. Oh well, back to this...
Why can't these people decide whether they're coming in or not, and do so en masse? Who is that...oh, wow, it's her. With that light around her, she looks almost...angelic? No, just beautiful. Or a little of both.
She also looks lost. I bet those stupid gits ran off and left her behind. Well, she's made it here, and there she goes to join...them...
She's walking away from them. She's heading this direction. Oh man, she's looking straight at me...cool, calm, Draco, calm. Nothing to get excited about, she's probably looking for a book I'm sitting by or something...is she sitting down? She's sitting down! Breathe, she's just a girl...
"Hello again."
*End POV*
*Jackie's POV*
This. Library. Is. Huge.
It didn't look this big at night last time I came in here. Of course, it was nighttime. That could have had something to do with it. But...wow, this is huge.
Ah, there're my "escorts". Sitting on the other side of the room, not even looking for me. Screw them, I don't like 'em anyway. Let's see, any other friendly faces in the room...oh, my, there's...
He's all by himself again. That boy needs a friend. Of course, he's reading pretty hard, or was before I interrupted him. But it won't hurt to keep him company a little bit, will it? I'll just kind of walk over there all quiet-like, slide down next to him, and say hi. He's staring at me...hee hee, they say that I have the best ass below 14th street, is it true? I bet he doesn't know anything about Rent, though…
Okay, my heart is trying to burst out of my chest right now. Calm down, just sliiide down next to him, find your voice, and…
"Hello again."
"He speaks!"
NO!
*End POV*
"Hello again." Draco said quietly.
"He speaks!" Jackie said, surprised. It must have slipped out, though, because her hands immediately went to cover her mouth. Draco's face turned a faint shade of pink, and he looked down at the floor.
"I'm sorry, I can really be stupid sometimes. I meant to say," Jackie took a deep breath, "hello Draco, how are you?"
"About the same as last time you asked." Draco glanced up at her, and found her smiling sideways.
"That bad, huh?"
Draco couldn't help but laugh a little at that. Her sense of humor was very similar to his; cynical and sarcastic, and very quick-witted. He was about to come back with something, when a large shadow fell over them. Looking up, they realized that it was three shadows.
"What do you think you're doing, Malfoy?" Ron questioned, glaring down at him.
Draco scowled. "I'm holding an intelligent conversation. Oh, sorry, you wouldn't know about that, would you, Weasely?"
Ron grabbed Jackie's hand and tried to pull her to her feet. "Come on, let's get you away from this fellow before he corrupts your mind." She pulled away and stood on her own. "I and only I choose who I talk to. It's a free country, isn't it? Oh, I forgot, it's not." With that remark, she stormed out of the library.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Hermione.
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"Mr. Malfoy."
Draco's head snapped up. Snape was staring at him, making his way towards where Draco was sitting. "As I asked before, while you were preoccupied with obviously more important matters, if you were to mix pojunctivius root into your Memory potion, what will the outcome be?"
Every student in the class was staring at Draco, waiting for him to answer the question. Actually, they were waiting for him him to not answer the question.
They weren't to be disappointed. "I don't know sir."
Snape looked around the room. Hermione, as usual, had her hand in the air, waving wildly. The other students were all staring at either Draco or Snape, except one. Jackie was looking down at the desk, tapping her fingers as if she was playing a piano. "Miss Ashmore, would you care to enlighten your classmate?"
"The pojunctivus root would make the taker actually see objects from their memories that aren't really there. Quite effective for driving your enemies mad when you can control which memory they are reliving. They say that the Weird Sisters used this potion to allow the bloody dagger to appear before Macbeth and the blood to appear on Lady Macbeth's hands. But of course, this class isn't that advanced yet." She said all this still tapping on the desk, and then looked directly at Snape. "Sir."
There was an outburst of laughter from the class for a brief second, then everyone quieted down so as not to provoke the Potions Master any further. "5 points to Gryffindor for that answer, Miss Ashmore. Mr. Malfoy, perhaps a semester or two at that American school would jumpstart that brain of yours."
Draco spent the rest of the class in silence, scowling down at both his potion and Neville, whom he had the misfortune to be paired with. He kept running his hands over the pocket of his robes, distracted, the rest of the class. He didn't even notice that Jackie tried to get his attention all class.
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As Potions let out, the trio met up with Jackie outside the classroom. Hermione stopped her as she tried to walk past them. "Not so fast. You should know that you came pretty close to getting points taken from Gryffindor for your attitude today." Jackie glared back at Hermione, and put on a face that Hermione had never seen anyone use before. "But I didn't. I got them added. So don't be all up in my face because I stole your Little Miss Perfect answer. Now, if you'll excuse me..."
She started to push past Hermione, when from the classroom came a blonde-haired tank known as Draco Malfoy. He ran straight into Ron and Harry, knocking them aside and not even glancing up when they shouted at him. Jackie stepped out of the way, but Hermione wasn't fast enough and was knocked to the ground. Jackie listened to what he was muttering as he ran past, and watched him storm off to the Slytherin dorms.
Without warning, Jackie took off after him. The trio just kind of stared after them.
"Is she going to the Slytherin house?" Ron asked.
"Looks like it," Harry answered.
They all stood there for a second, then turned around and walked the other way.
*Jackie's POV*
I can NOT believe this! I answer the question the way he wants it to be answered, and they're afraid that I'm going to lose points for the house. Stupid little insignificant points. Don't these guys know how to profile teachers? Geez, Snape was easy. McGonnogall too. Still working on Flitwick. But, come on...
"That's the last of it...they'll hardly even miss me...I'm going to do it..."
What!? Draco just walked by muttering to himself. He didn't sound happy. In fact, he sounded, almost...
Oh my God! I've got to follow him!
*End POV*
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Agent Blorange: Wha...what? You can't leave it there!
Jackie: Oh, is someone starting to enjoy the story?
Agent Blorange: No, but if someone's going to die, I want it to happen now.
Draco-muse: (Chuckling) You know, buddy, you're reeeeally pushing it.
Takeru-muse: I don't know, I think I'd like to see you blast yourself into oblivion.
Draco-muse: That's it! (Pulls out wand)
Jackie: (Stopping him) Allow me. (Pulls out own wand, imitating Hermione from the movie) Petrificus Totalus!
(Both Takeru-muse and Agent Blorange fall to the ground, paralyzed. Mario walks in and puts duct tape over Jackie's mouth.)
Mario: Don't do that, that's freaky!
Jackie: Hmm Mphd, mnm mph mnm hmphmrn!
Draco-muse: What she means, is "Stay tuned, and R&R!" Oh, and if you want a quick laugh, read Jackie's parody of Digimon and Harry Potter, "Slamfest!".