By Siriusly Amused
Author's Note: This seems to be another difficult chapter to write, but the good news is that I'm beginning to fill in some of the missing pieces of the puzzle. You should all pray that I don't forget them or go into another bout of writer's block. Yes, it is summer again which means no 7 hour days of school prohibiting my writing. However, this summer I have a job. I work at a small movie theatre 20 miles from my home. But I don't work 7 hour shifts except for the few times that I'll have to work matinee till close, therefore I should have more time to write! Of course I have a few excursions planned for this summer...like skydiving for instance (shh...no one tell me mum) but I hope to squeeze out chapters at least once a month...hopefully more. Oh blah, my boss just called and told me that it's a slow week so I don't have to come in tomorrow or the next day. I need money. Oh well, at least I'll be able to write.
Disclaimer: You should all know by now that I own nothing, but to please the lawyers; I don't own...the Harry Potter universe...Beyoncé...the movie theater that I work at...Jennifer Lopez or her marriages...Eminem...Kermit the Frog...and the Beatles.
Blundering Idiots
"I'm in love with Noelle!"
I sat bolt up right in bed, panting as sweat dripped down my bare chest. It was three in the morning on January 20th. I don't know how the realization had come to me because I had been dreaming about an evil spider taking over the school. It was a little spider too, and everyone had to look at their seats before they sat down incase they sat on the spider. Noelle hadn't even been in the dream and yet I woke up and realized that I was, and pardon my Beyoncé, crazy in love with her. It made perfect sense! She was the reason for my sudden change. Why I gave up Ginny. Why Potter was the closest thing to my best friend. Why my stomach got all knotty and my hands sweaty. Why I suddenly did good things for no reason at all. I was in love. And my dad was going to kill me as soon as he found out.
Malfoy's don't fall in love. We marry whoever will bare us the most beautiful children. Now that I knew that I was in love, I needed to tell someone. I got online but seeing as it was a school night and three in the morning, no one was on. I couldn't sleep so I went upstairs to get some warm milk.
I stumbled over my own feet and stubbed my toe before entering the kitchen where I went to the refrigerator and opened it. After my eyes adjusted to the refrigerator's light, I grabbed the milk and, as a second thought, the chocolate as well. I was about to add some marsh mellows to my hot chocolate when my father drowsily walked into the room.
"Don't you have school tomorrow?" he asked in annoyance. I nodded. He glared at me for a bit then made himself a bowl of cereal. I was about to take my milk down into my bedroom to escape his icy presence when he talked yet again. "So what do you know about that Potter boy?"
"Harry?" I asked in confusion.
"No, Florence! Yes, Harry, how many other Potters do we know who are still living?"
I shrank back a bit in fear and sat down at the table to put some distance between me and my father. "Well, I don't know. He's fairly smart. Pretty good at soccer though he has nothing on me of course. He's been acting a bit weird lately though."
"Weird?" asked my father, still glaring at me.
"Yeah."
"How is he weird? Other than being the spawn of James and Lily."
"Well, on New Years he broke up with Ginny Weasley. Big mistake if I ever saw one." My father made a face of disgust. "Really, Father, she is kind of pretty. I had a thing for her myself at the beginning of the school year...nothing personal, I just wanted to have a go with her!" I added as my father blanched, if that were even possible. My father smirked just a bit.
"And how was she?"
I shrugged. "I don't know, I let Potter have her as soon as I realized he cared for her. I backed off and have been a bachelor ever since."
"Why?" I barely heard the question for my father had whispered it with barely a breath. He stood, fixated on me, his stance rigid and his cereal forgotten.
"Well, a lot of girls are taken these days. I'm having a bit of a problem finding one."
"No, why did you just let Potter have the Weasley girl."
"Well, he was crazy for her and that's what friends do." I winced. My tiredness had let my tongue slip and I had said the magic word. My father glared at me for what seemed like an eternity before he slowly walked over to where I sat and, without saying a word, dumped his cereal on my head. The cold milk trickled down my face and into my eyes as the blurred figure of my father disappeared from the kitchen.
Since I figured that I would not be able to go back to sleep, I showered and spent an extra long time getting ready for school. But I looked ten times better than I normally did and I caused no less than five feinting spells on the bus alone that morning (my SUV was in the shop after I skidded on some ice and hit a deer).
First hour health had manifested itself into first hour study hall. Our study hall teacher, Ms. Umbridge, is to this day the single most annoying person on the face of the planet. The fact that she looks like a toad helps very little. She had put me in detention the first week I had her for coughing too loudly, though I think her fake, 'hem hem' was much worse than my bout of bronchitis. The massive amount of homework along with my detentions had prevented me from explaining my bad behavior at Draco's party to Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the others, therefore for the first week of second semester, my only friend was Draco. The two of us shared some weird understanding, and it was scary.
The Saturday night after my first week of school I asked Ron, Hermione and Ginny to meet me at Ern's Pizza to talk. Ron and Hermione came, bundled up against the blistering cold of January and sat across the table from me, nibbling on their pizzas thoughtfully.
"So you see, I just think that Lucius Malfoy is up to something and I think it has to do with me and Sirius. Sirius had fought with him a couple of months ago. I'm not supposed to know, but I overheard Sirius talking about it on the phone with one of his friends. Anyway, I think that Draco's sudden goodness has pissed Lucius off and he's now after me because he thinks that I'm the reason for Draco's change. So I thought that if I pissed Draco off, he would go back to normal and I could stop worrying."
Ron laughed outright, choking on his soda as he did so, even Hermione smirked a little. "Harry," she said, "I think the priest hit you with his car a bit harder than Dr. Khai thought. You're obviously delusional. I don't blame you for fearing Lucius Malfoy, God knows the rest of us do, all that money and no one, not even Draco, knows what he does for a living. But I highly doubt that he's after you or Sirius. Sirius is his cousin for God's sake!" I had told Ron and Hermione of Sirius' blood relation to the Malfoys soon after Sirius admitted it.
It pained me that my two best friends were taking this news so lightly, but they forgave me for being an ass. Ginny on the other hand still wasn't talking to me. Ron was thrilled but Hermione gave me some sympathy.
"She has her reasons, Harry. What with your fight with her brothers and then your sudden moodiness, any girl would get frustrated. But just give her time. She's fourteen and still very immature. Let it be for now and if it's meant to be you'll get back together. In the mean time, there are other fish in the see. I hear Padma is recently single and she's had her eye on you for quite some time."
So that was how I ended up going out with Padma. She was very easy on the eyes and Sirius had nudged me in a 'that's my boy' way when I brought her home for dinner one evening. But Padma was not as intellectually stimulating as Ginny was and I found myself zoning out for hours at a time as she discussed Jennifer Lopez's latest marriage.
My second week of school was also spent in detention for Ms. Umbridge caught me cursing at a piece of paper that just wouldn't go into the trash can (I'm a soccer player, not a basketball player and my aim apparently sucks).
My detentions, flippant girlfriend, weird connection with Draco, annoyance that Ron and Hermione didn't believe that I was in danger, and mounting homework made my life seem as if it were in a state of perpetual blahness. I was feeling that blahness first hour on January 20th.
"Why such a long face, Potter?" Draco asked, coming into the library as the bell beeped. I was sitting at our normal table with my head flat down upon its top. I lifted my head for a moment and watched as Draco took out his geometry homework. I then placed my head back upon the table, inches away from the 'Fred and George were here freshman year' etching.
"Life sucks," I told Draco.
"That it does," Draco responded. "Are these lines congruent?" he asked, shoving his notebook at me. I nodded and he went back to work.
"Hem hem."
"God, kill me now," I mumbled to the table.
"No sleeping, Mr. Potter! I believe another week of detentions will..."
"Oh, come on now, Ms. Umbridge!" Draco pleaded, gracing her with a smile that she didn't deserve. "Harry wasn't sleeping, he's just depressed so give the guy a break, will ya?" Umbridge giggled stupidly as Draco swept a lock of bleached hair out of his gray eyes. "Besides," Draco continued, running a finger up and down the hand that Umbridge had placed upon the desk, "you look much too pretty to stay after school with a detention, and I hear it's ladies night over at the pub."
"Great, send her to Sirius," I mumbled, but Umbridge didn't hear me. She giggled uncontrollably and let me off with a warning as she skipped back to her desk. "Thanks," I said dolefully to Draco.
"No problem!" Draco exclaimed as he closed his homework. "Now you can help me."
I raised an eyebrow.
"I think I'm in love," Draco announced.
"Draco." I paused. "I'm straight."
Draco scowled and threw his protractor at me. "I'm in love with a girl!" he exclaimed.
"...oh."
Draco sighed and continued. "Noelle. I don't know how I fell for her, but I did and now I don't know what to do."
"Most people ask the girl out."
"But what if she doesn't like me!"
"Use your charm."
"I'm a blundering idiot around her!"
"Well if it makes you feel any better, I think you're always a blundering idiot but I still hang around you." I paused again as Draco thought it over. "Speaking of which, would your father approve of a girl like Noelle? I thought you only seriously dated the daughters of Lucius' friends."
"Father doesn't approve of her, but he doesn't approve of a lot of people that I've been hanging out with."
We were silent for the rest of study hall.
"All right, girls, after much pleading and arm twisting, I have managed to get the Hagrid's class to agree to stay in the gym this week and let us have the weight room!" Ms. Hooch announced as we stood in our attendance lines. I glanced behind me and saw the lines of kids glaring at us. Harry and Ron were laughing over some joke.
I caught up with Hermione as we walked into the weight room. "Partner?" I asked.
"Of course!" she said, smiling. We found an easy leg machine and she started as I stood in front of her. We talked about lunch and Dumbledore's latest antics (he came to school wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt that day) before we had a short silence.
"So, have you heard from Harry?" I asked her though I knew the answer.
"Yeah, we've been talking again for the past week. He hit Draco because he firmly believes that Lucius, Draco's father, is out to kill him. It's almost as if he's having visions of his future or something. I think he's off his rocker."
"Ah," I said vaguely. "Is it true that he's going out with Padma?"
Hermione heaved a huge sigh at this. "Unfortunately! And to think I hooked those two up. Now she follows Harry around like a sick puppy and bores all of us to death. Ron is ten times more intelligent than she is and that's saying something!"
"You set them up?" I asked slightly shocked. Hermione blushed.
"Well, you see, you weren't answering his calls and...oh, Ginny you made a voodoo doll of him and..."
"Alright, alright, I get it. I messed up. So I'm assuming that Harry is head over heals with Padma?"
"Well actually..."
"Fine then, I don't need him! I should play the field while I'm young anyway!"
"Er...Ginny?"
"Not now, Hermione!" I stormed over to where some boys from my grade were benching. "Hi!" I said and the boy benching replaced the bar and sat up.
"Wotcher, Ginny!" Michael said.
"Wotcher?" I asked, confused.
"It means..."
"Never mind, I was wondering if you wanted to see a movie with me this Friday night?"
"Er...sure...why not?"
"I can't believe we're going to dissect a fetal pig!"
"So Ginny goes over and sits by him and his immature friends at lunch!"
"I mean, when we dissected the frog last year, I kept hearing, 'Hello, Kermit de frog here'!"
"Ginny's dating someone new already!?"
"Not to mention dead pigs can't smell good."
"Which one was he?"
"The dark one."
"I didn't like him."
"You wouldn't, Ron."
"Well he had a shifty look to him."
"HELLO? You guys are supposed to be helping me get ready for the dissection tomorrow!" Lavender yelled during seventh hour study hall, making Ron, Dean, Seamus and I jump. "I mean what if I slice Mr. Pig's neck and slash his aorta in the process?"
"His aorta is in his heart, Lav," Seamus said while working on his Spanish homework.
"I'd like to slash Michael's aorta," Ron stated glumly, drawing a pig on his pig dissection workbook.
"Now, Ron, stay out of this. You know what happened the last time you interfered with Ginny's relationships!"
"Yes, and now I'm missing Harry dreadfully. I don't get it. Why aren't they still together?"
"Well, I'm kind of glad that they aren't!" I stated while finishing my French homework. I felt several sets of eyes bore into me.
"What?" Ron asked, his ears turning a bit pink.
"I believe that Harry and Ginny are meant for one another, but I don't think either of them realizes it. They're both really immature and they both need to grow. So I think some time apart will be good for them."
Lavender nodded her agreement while fussing with Seamus' hair. The three boys were looking at us girls in disbelief.
"What's in those magazines you girls read?" asked Ron, fiddling around in his backpack for a poptart.
I was admiring my beard which the Weasley twins had braided while I scolded them for playing Eminem music in the computer lab when the door to my office burst open and in walked Sirius Black. "Sirius!" I exclaimed brightly as Sirius pulled up a chair and sat down.
"Harry's finding out," he stated flatly, the playful gleam gone from his eye.
"Finding out what?" I asked. "About the birds and the bees?"
Sirius stared at me blankly. "I believed he figured that out ages ago," he stated. "He's finding out something bigger. Something about me and his parents from our younger years."
"Oh, no, Sirius, you're not his real father are you!?"
"Principal Dumbledore, how could you suggest such a thing?" Sirius looked disgusted.
"Sorry," I said, sinking back in my armchair.
Sirius looked tired and ran a hand through his hair. "Harry is curious about his parents death."
"As any orphan would be," I stated logically. Sirius sighed and gazed at me hopelessly.
"He's friends with Draco Malfoy now, did you know that?" he asked me.
I brought my fingers in front of my face and nodded once. "I have noticed the pair conversing in an almost friendly manner of late, yes."
"Lucius has noticed as well. You know what Lucius has planned for Draco...or at least we can imagine what he has planned for Draco, and I don't think that Draco's sudden kindness or his friendship with normal people has any part in those plans. Lucius has confronted me on several occasions."
Sirius stopped and stared at me. We were both silent and I heard the Beatles playing in the office and saw the shadows of my secretaries dancing upon their desks through the frosted window of my door.
"You know how I believe that Lucius is behind Lily and James' deaths," Sirius stated seriously.
I nodded once again.
"Well, I think he's after Harry now, and I think Harry knows that as well."
I sighed and began unbraiding my beard.
"We have no proof that Lucius is responsible for any deaths, past, present, or future. So keep a wary eye if you must, but don't let it overpower you or Harry. Let Harry be a kid, Sirius. I doubt anything will come from this."
Sirius looked hurt.
"For once, Dumbledore, you are wrong. About Lucius' intentions anyway. But you are right about being happy. Until I have reason to worry, I will be happy, and Harry too. But I'm only doing it because I truly believe that soon, our worlds will come crashing down."
End Author's Note: Well that took a couple of hours as it usually does. M is reading over my shoulder. I can't type when people do that. She wants to watch Moulin Rouge...I don't. I want to go to the next chapter. But I don't know what I want to do in that chapter. So I am at a loss. I'll post this tomorrow...after I get back from furniture shopping with my mum. But since I don't have to work tomorrow evening -grumbles about the recession- I guess I could do it then. And type the next chapter. It's nearly ten. M doesn't know if she wants to watch Moulin Rouge anymore. She's sitting next to me like a dog...I typed God at first and now she's laughing and saying, 'thank you'...but her sitting reminds me of Sirius...-sniffles- SIRIUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another Author's Note: Well it's about an hour later and M and I have now retreated to the basement (we both have laptops) so not to disturb my sleepy family. It's very cold down here and I can't help but think about how I need to get to bed for I know I will be roused by my parents at 8 in the morning tomorrow, but I don't care. I have been rereading some of my past Hogwarts High chapters and I have realized that I really don't like chapter 14...I liked the beginning when they were in church but that was about it. And I didn't like the Ron Hermione scene because it just wasn't really them. But I think this chapter has made up somewhat for last chapter and I promise some good Ron/Hermione soon. M just dropped a peanut in her laptop and now it smells like a peanut and she's disgruntled. Anywho, I want to apologize for breaking Harry and Ginny up but someone once told me that the story wasn't the same with out the sexual tension and I highly agree. I had thought that with Draco/Noelle still not together that would help but in the end I decided that one of the couples just had to break up and I just couldn't break Ron and Hermione up when things have been going so good for them. Besides, Ron and Hermione fight all the time and it would have to take a huge fight to break them up where as Harry and Ginny need to learn tolerance. Plus Harry and Ginny would be more independent anyway. This is ridiculously long and my feet are cold and I need to pee so adieu.
This is Ridiculous: I just realized that I made Padma an idiot in this chapter when we all know that she's in Ravenclaw and a prefect therefore she can't be but it's my fic so there!