A/N: I had hoped this chapter would have been done sooner, dratted writers block. I hope to have the next chapter up within the next week or so, sooner if I didn't have so many school projects to complete. Oh, well. I really have no idea how many chapters this thing is going to be, but as it's only like their second week of school, you're in for a long ride. I might speed time up a bit when the mood hits me. Well enjoy. -
Disclaimer: I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, Lord of the Rings, nor Harry Potter. They are the sole property of the original creators, i.e. not me. This story is merely to entertain; mainly me. So please don't hurt me legal persons.
Operation: Modification
Hotaru tried her hardest to avoid Draco, but as they had every class together and shared the same house, it was a little difficult. She later figured that just ignoring him worked better. This system worked pretty well, for a couple of days anyway, until they had Snape's class, as potions required some teamwork to make the concoction turn out correctly.
"You know, you're going to have to talk to me eventually," said Draco as he added some necessary ingredients to the potion. "I mean, with my illegible handwriting how am I supposed to know which of these is the correct ingredient to use?" He then held up two brightly colored plants, one of which wiggled as he held it. Hotaru just continued to be interested in her notes and paid no attention to what he was holding.
"Well, I suppose I'll just have to guess." He looked at the two plants and did a little eany-meany-miney-moe type thing. Hotaru gave a short glance out of the corner of her eye as he finally decided on one.
"This is the one…I think," said Draco as he was about to drop the wiggling plant into the potion. Hotaru quickly jumped up to stop him.
"No!" she yelled as she grabbed the plant away from him. "You're going to kill us all."
"Ha! It worked," he said gloatingly. Hotaru was just looking at the plant as he said this.
"Bad plant, how did you get out here," she said looking around. "I'd better put you back where you belong." She then walked over to Snape's closet to put the wiggling plant away.
Draco just looked slightly depressed as Hotaru had succeeded in making him look like a fool as she had feigned talking to the plant, and had not talked to him. "Or not," he said as he began to formulate a new plan to get her to at least be on speaking terms again.
On the other side of the room, Syaoran just sat and scowled at Draco, while occasionally adding the needed items to the potion. He waited for Snape to be out of earshot before he'd talk to Sakura. "I really don't like that guy," he said. Sakura then followed Syaoran's gaze.
"Oh, Syaoran-kun, you should really let it go. I mean, Hotaru-chan can take care of herself," said Sakura. "And besides, my brother always says the same thing about you."
"Yeah, but look at them," he said as Hotaru had returned to her workstation and continued to ignore Draco. "She really doesn't even seem to like his company."
"It's all right; she's just teaching him a lesson. Just let them work it out."
"How can you be sure it'll be okay?"
"I talked to her before class, she has a plan to try and get Malfoy-san to shed his harsh exterior, or in other words, to de-Slytherin him."
Syaoran just gave her a disbelieving look, "That's going to take a lot of work."
"That's why she's asked for our help."
"What are you up to?" Sakura just smiled sweetly at Syaoran.
"I'm not up to anything," she said innocently. "This plan was not my doing; I've only just become a part of it, as you will be."
Syaoran just had no clue as to what was going on in Sakura's head. "Don't look so worried, Syaoran-kun. It's not like anyone's going to get hurt from this."
"Well, I don't know," said Syaoran. "If Hotaru keeps going on the way she is, Malfoy-san's pride will be completely shattered."
"Actually, we're just trying to deflate his ego. And since pride never seems to do anything but hurt others, what's the use of him keeping it? It'll just ruin him in the end. I think its best he get rid of his smugness disguised as pride before it's too late. I mean, from what I heard, and even read, Malfoy-san's father's a sort of shady character, and Malfoy-san seems to be heading in the same direction. I really think something can be done about this."
Syaoran just sat there trying to understand what Sakura had just said. He then remembered when his pride had consumed him. He could then see why Sakura hoped that Draco could also be rid of it. "I guess you're right, but how did you find out about Malfoy-san's father?"
"Oh, Hermione-chan had showed us the newspaper article from the Daily Prophet this morning, it talked about the capture of he-who-must-not-be-named as well as some people who had once been in league with him, or believed to be in league with. One such person was Malfoy-san's father, Lucius Malfoy. They're from a so called 'distinguished' or pure blood family."
"So…this guy, Malfoy-san's father, is completely bad news?"
"Big time. I just hope it's not too late for Malfoy-san to come back from the darkside."
"I'm sure of it, Sakura-chan. I mean, there's no harm in at least trying, right?"
Sakura was about to respond to this, but noticed that Snape was looking in her direction. She figured it would be best to continue the conversation after potions was over.
On the way to their Care for Magical Creatures class, Sakura filled Syaoran in on the plan which had been code named 'Operation: Change Draco' which they later changed to 'Operation: Modification' so Draco wouldn't be as suspicious as they didn't have to say his name anymore. Draco's ears seemed to perk when his name was mentioned, guess he's paranoid or something.
Sakura and Syaoran then relayed the plan to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Tomoyo seemed to already know the plan; Sakura couldn't figure out how, as she hadn't even been in earshot of the conversation. Then again, Tomoyo did seem to get the hang of the Taro cards pretty easily, and to Trelawney's misfortune, actually make accurate predictions, none of which involved any death or dismemberment. Aww, poor Trelawney, no carnage for you, well, just yet anyway.
Harry and Ron were a little hesitant to go along at first, as the plan would call for them to be civil towards Draco. Hermione then reminded the two that Draco seemed to get worse every year so perhaps if they started being nice, then the viciousness of Draco would hopefully dissipate. However, Ron and Harry knew that if Tomoyo and Hermione were in on the plan there was no way they couldn't be a part of it as well, so as to avoid punishment for backing out. Like they'd get on the girls' bad side this early in the year.
While the plan was being discussed, Hotaru just kept up the game of ignoring Draco, all the while weakening his defenses as he tried almost everything to get her to talk to him. But for the plan to be successful he'd have to endure her silence. After all, it wasn't just that she wanted Draco to switch gears and drive away his evil habits, but she also wanted him to respect her. Because how can respect be earned if you let someone walk all over you and assume that they can just get away with saying just about anything. No way she'd ever let herself become a doormat. No, he was going to learn how to respect people if it killed him.
"Come on, Hotaru," said Draco, really starting to get frustrated. She took no notice as his voice became angrier; as she was too busy playing with the odd creature that made cute squeaking sounds as she held it in her arms.
"How long are you going to keep this up?" Draco was fuming at this point; annoyed that anyone would go this long without giving him his much-desired attention. "At least talk to me, it's not like I said anything that horrible." He then made a grab for the creature held by Hotaru, which changed the adorable squeaks to a horrible squeal.
"Now look what you've done," said Hotaru finally addressing Draco. "You've moved from torturing me to attacking poor little creatures."
"I didn't attack it; I was just trying to get you to talk to me."
"Well, it worked. But I think you owe someone an apology," she said, while placing her free hand on her hips somewhat impatiently.
"Fine," he said in a mildly defeated tone. He dropped his eyes to the side and said, "I'm sorry."
"Yeah, like that was believable," she said annoyed. "But I was actually referring to the creature you assaulted."
"I didn't even…You've got to be joking."
"I don't joke about things like this, and you'd better be more sincere to the 'Little Guy' than you were to me. And for your horribly unbelievable apology, you're going to have to try way harder to be even close to friend status again."
"All right, I'll apologize. And I will make it up to you; I don't even know why I even said that out loud."
"Next time you say something like that make sure you stop before you get to 'out loud' and then you might have something," she practically scolded. "Now, apologize to the 'Little Guy'."
Draco was just glad that none of the other Slytherins, or Gryffindors for that matter, were around to hear his pathetic attempt to apologize to the small creature. They'd never let him live it down if they had. But he was just glad he was making some progress in getting Hotaru to talk to him. Little did he know that there was a plot against him devised by Hotaru, and he was walking straight into her trap. Hotaru mentally tapped her fingers together sinisterly, as actually doing this physically would raise questions, and eyebrows that suggested 'weirdo'.
Hotaru then looked around just to make sure the finger tapping had been just in her head, as no one really seemed to look at her any differently, she made her way to Sakura's group to see how the plan was going. "So, how's the scheming going?"
"Everyone's now in on it," said Sakura. Just then a small cat-like creature with wings came fluttering out of the sky.
"Spinel Sun?" asked Sakura, Syaoran, and Tomoyo in unison, all mildly shocked.
The small plushie look alike was carrying a letter in his paws, "This is for you, Sakura-san. Eriol thought it would be best if I delivered the letter, mostly because he does not possess and owl. He has information for you about this school, and some of the goings on in the magical world, just like you asked."
"Oh, thank you, Spinel Sun," said Sakura.
"'Like you asked'? Sakura-chan, when did you send a letter to Hiiragizawa-san?" asked Syaoran.
"I sent it the first night we got here," she replied.
"Yes, and I'm sorry for the delay, but there were certain things that had to be settled first, mostly he was just annoyed by a certain title that was bestowed upon him." Sakura and Tomoyo giggled at this remark, everyone else just looked at them curiously. "Anyway, he finally calmed down enough to write a reply," Spinel finished. Sakura then took the letter and scanned it.
"Well, he was still a bit miffed when he wrote this wasn't he," said Tomoyo, glancing at the letter. "But there's a lot of information on the school's history, and there's even a map." The map resembled that of the marauder's map, as Harry noted, looking over Sakura's shoulder.
"I have something I must speak with Ceroberus about, where is he?" Spinel inquired.
"He's in the girls' dormitories, no doubt eating," replied Hermione.
"Thank-you," and with that he flew off towards the school.
"I wonder why he needs to talk to Kero-chan." Sakura thought out loud.
"Well class is almost over so we can go to the dorms to check," offered Tomoyo.
"Now that that's settled, what are we going to do about Malfoy?" wondered Ron.
"What ever it is, I know for a fact that there'll be a lot of magic involved," said Harry. "Dealing with Malfoy will be no easy task if we just guilt him, we'll have to guilt him as well as use other means to make anything happen."
"What do you mean?" asked Hotaru. "And remember I said, 'Be nice'."
"Of course I remember, I just meant that what you're doing is a great start, trying to make him feel bad," said Harry. "But for it to really take effect well have to amplify anything we do with magic so as to break his barriers down sooner. 'Cause, at the rate you're going, no offense, it'll be at least a couple years before he starts to really warm up to anyone."
"Oh, well that's all right then." Hotaru just gave a little wave as if trying to shoo off her original thought of what Harry was implying.
As the group discussed plans of pain for Draco, he could only sit and wonder what they were up to, knowing that it must somehow involve him. See. Paranoid.