Secrets and Dirty Deeds
By the Barefoot Pianist
A/N: Still working on the character development. Please R&R – your comments will be really appreciated and some constructive criticism would be great.
Chapter 2
Another night in the Slytherin common room…
Upon arrival at the common room, everyone began to sit around the fireplace, bringing out their books, parchment and quills, lazily attempting to do their homework. Jade sat next to Blaise and Millicent, trying to work out complicated formulae for Numerology, while Pansy, Daphne and Carmen sat around trying to figure out the angle at which Pluto was between Venus and Jupiter for Astronomy. Malfoy sat alone in a corner, doing his Potions extention essay, closely guarded by Crabbe and Goyle who were scratching their heads at an open book, along the lines of Herbology, making occasional small grunting noises from frustration.
Several hours passed and everyone gradually lost their concentration. It was only Malfoy who was left in the corner doing his homework while everyone grouped around and started chatting.
"Does anyone understand the difference between a stalactite and a stalagmite? I mean, what are those got to do with Defence Against the Dark Arts, anyway?" questioned Jade.
"Pft, who really cares," Malfoy said. He had walked away from his study corner, and he now looked towards the person closest to him, Jade, and asked, "Can I borrow a nib? I just broke my last one."
But before Pansy could offer herself, Jade answered, "Sure," and searched through her bag, looking slightly self-conscious. Pansy's eyes sub-consciously narrowed as she saw, definitely, a light crimson come up in Jade's cheeks. However, her attention was quickly shifted back to the conversation at hand.
Carmen spoke up, "Talking of Defence against the Dark Arts, I had a fucking awful time last lesson. That Harker waif started bitching in front of me, and got me fucking sprung for not finishing my fucking essay in time, and the fucking reason why I didn't get it done in fucking time was because I was trying to do the rest of the fucking research on the fucking Loch Ness Monster from the week before. How the fuck does she expect me to do my fucking homework from last fucking week, and on top of that, finish the fucking turd of an essay for this fucking week as well? She really needs to sort out her fucking issues!"
At that, everyone sat half stunned, half expecting it in silence and stared at Carmen. Not only that, Carmen had made her outburst more than audible, as the whole common room now was dead silent, frozen from what they were doing, looking at her also. Carmen also realised this and looked around at the sea of stunned faces and yelled, "Who the fuck do you think you're looking at? Fucking Harry Potter?" (at which point a small snort came from Malfoy, causing Carmen to turn abruptly and glare at him) and the whole common room automatically, although somewhat hurriedly, went back to what they were doing before.
No words came from anyone in the awkward group for a few minutes, until Carmen finally broke the silence. "By the way," she turned to Draco and said, looking rather evil, "when are you going to consider me for the Slytherin Quidditch team?"
"Soon."
"How soon?"
"Soon."
"But when is soon?"
"When I see that you've got enough skills-"
"You mean a certain difference between you and me below the belt."
Malfoy's cheeks began to show a tinge of pink, as did the others who were listening to their conversation. Carmen heard a low whistle coming from Jade, and a whispered, though distinct, "Ouch" from the direction of Blaise. Either way, Carmen kept one eyebrow up and crossed her arms in a defiant way.
Malfoy cleared his throat, "Perhaps."
Carmen was caught in between the pleasure at being right and dissappointment from being so. She retorted, "I can fly better and faster than Pucey and Nott. Just because I happen to be the gentler sex-"
"The Quidditch team which won these last three World Cups has been all-male."
"That doesn't make our team any better, Malfoy."
"Does to!"
"Does not!"
"Does to!"
"Does not!"
Blaise intruded, "Alright, calm down both of you!" The two were virtually steaming at the ears, arms crossed defensively. Their exchange of deadly looks would have indicated otherwise to their order of calm.
"I bet I'm better than you are at catching the snitch." Carmen finally burst out.
"Oh, do I sense a challenge?" Malfoy asked in mock-fear. "The fact is, you're dealing with the best here, and there is no way-"
"Try me, then," said Carmen.
Malfoy looked very flushed by now, but he held out. "Fine. But don't expect to be treated like a lady. It's rough stuff, Quidditch," and he gave his signature smirk.
"Don't worry, I'll be there."
A/N: Please R&R! By the way, Professor Harker comes from Mina Harker, one of the most famous victims of Dracula. I think her husband went to track down the whereabouts of Dracula in Transylvania or something. Anyway, she was also the cool vampire lady in the movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". If you haven't seen it, I'd definitely advise it.