Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter, and all other chapters in this
fanfiction do not belong to me in any way, shape, or form. I firmly deny
ownership of said characters, as ownership belongs to the author, J.K.
Rowling. I am merely borrowing said characters for the purpose of writing
a fictional story meant to honor the creativity of said author, and do not
mean in any way to infringe upon any rights of the author of the Harry
Potter stories. So, to sum up all that in a short, simple way... Owner of
characters - J.K. Rowling, Owner of nothing in this story - Me.
Author's note: Thank you for the reviews!!! I really appreciate all who review this story. As a first time fan faction author, your reviews really boost my confidence. Thank you so much!!! Also, I'm sorry if this chapter isn't the greatest, I worked really hard on it, but it seems like it doesn't really move the plot on very much. It's more humor than anything... I promise next chapter will move the story forward a little more...
And, onward, to:
The Least Likely Prince Charming
Last time, in our story, there was lots of Fred and George chaos, kissing frogs, and Ginny/Draco quality detention time...
Coming up this time - Harry needs to talk to Ginny, Hermione takes a study break, Malfoy's up to something, and Neville has a slight accident...
Chapter 6
"I Think Neville Broke the Slipper"
Ginny Weasley was tired. She had just survived the four most horrible days ever, and she still had 3 more to go. Her first day of detention was pretty easy, until her and Malfoy actually had to actually kiss those frogs. But, she guessed she could always blackmail Malfoy by telling the school that he had accidently kissed Crabbe in his frog form. Unfortunately, he could probably blackmail her back with the fact that she kissed Zambini, Goyle, and had also accidently kissed Pansy Parkinson in her frog form (thinking that she was kissing the Crabbe frog). Luckily, Malfoy and his friends were too embarrassed to spread around exactly how Ginny and Draco had changed them back. Ginny had only found out when Draco had tried to taunt her with the information the next day, at least until Ginny had quickly figured out that if she had kissed Zambini, Goyle, and Pansy, Malfoy must have kissed Crabbe...
The second day of detention with Malfoy was spent arguing about anything and everything. They had first started arguing about the whole frog thing, but then proceed to argue about so many things that even Ginny forgot what they were arguing about. Fortunately (or unfortunately - depends on which way you look at it), Snape had confiscated their wands before they began their detention task of cleaning the potions closet. Ginny guessed that maybe the close quarters and the heat in the room had caused them to argue about everything. All Ginny knew was that she had come out of there feeling really hot, with a slight shortness of breath, and a strange feeling quite unlike anything she had ever felt before. She thought that all the arguing might have been making her sick, but some time spent relaxing in the Gryffidor common room reading her Arithmancy book had quickly cured her of those strange feelings.
The third day of detention, her and Malfoy spent feeding Hagrid's new pets - Snerkles. Snerkles were another of Hagrid's "animals nobody has ever heard of before which appear to serve no purpose except to try to maim unsuspecting students" class experiments, and appeared to have the body of a huge spider, the head of a venomous snake, with the fire breathing capabilities of a dragon, and a stinger like a scorpion on their long, horned tails.. Malfoy swore that the only thing they really ate was fingers and toes of Hogwart's students, and had refused to help Ginny feed them. He instead just sat and watched Ginny try to give them the food that Hagrid swore they would eat. Ginny just thought they liked to eat each other, but Hagrid was convinced they preferred to eat a gruel made of flubberworms, mandrake root, and butterbeer.
The forth day of detention, Ginny and Draco were required to help Filch clean the Great Hall following dinner. That was quite an experience. Ginny never knew that 100's of 11 - 17 year olds could be such really messy eaters. It was hard work, cleaning up and scrubbing - without magic - but it was quite amusing when Filch thought Draco wasn't working hard enough, and mentioned to Draco his ideas on how to punish the evil Hogwart's students. Draco worked pretty hard and really quickly after hearing about Filch's ideas of corporal punishment.
Currently, Ginny was enjoying a break from detention. Both her and Draco were given tonight off from detention, as the professors felt they needed a night off from detention to study. Ginny was very happy about this reprieve, as she really didn't know how much more she could stand Malfoy smirking at her, and firing off insults at her as fast as she could retaliate. And somehow, Malfoy managed to look good, even when he was smirking and being an insufferable git. Ginny could just imagine what he would look like if he actually smiled and was nice for a while, with his tall, leanly muscled body, aristocratic facial features, impossibly silver hair, and gorgeous grey eyes that Ginny could lose herself in if it was anyone but DRACO MALFOY....
"Ginny"
Ginny was thankfully startled out of her completely inappropriate thoughts about a completely inappropriate boy by a voice calling her name from behind. She turned around and looked, and saw Harry running towards her, calling her name.
"What's up, Harry?" Ginny asked when Harry caught up to her. Harry was looking his usual handsome but disheveled self, with his rumpled robes and flyaway hair, and gorgeous green eyes magnified by his glasses. Ginny sighed to herself as she looked at Harry, thinking to herself that it was too bad he was so much like another brother to her. If it hadn't been such a brotherly relationship, Ginny thought that Harry would be the only possible prince to tempt her away from her "no more boyfriends while she is still at Hogwart's" vow.
Harry was looking at Ginny as he walked beside her in the hall. He seemed sort of nervous about something, and Ginny was starting to get really curious.
"Well, Ginny, I need to ask you for a HUGE favor." He said as he looked down from his 5'11'' height at the very petite redhead.
Ginny looked up at Harry and wondered what this was all about. She knew Harry well enough to know he would never ask for help unless it was really, really, really important. Harry was still looking at Ginny very nervously as they stopped in the middle of the hallway.
"Well, I know you are in detention with Malfoy for a couple more days." Harry started, green eyes darting everywhere, trying to avoid Ginny's cinnamon colored eyes.
Ginny was really starting to get curious, and continued to stare at Harry as he paused to look around behind him like he expected someone to be trying to eavesdrop on them. Ginny got tired of waiting for Harry to continue, so she asked, "So, what's it matter to you who I have detention with?"
Harry just took a deep breath before he started to talk again. "Well, Ginny, we think Malfoy's up to something." Harry said with a worried look on his face.
"You mean you-know-who type something?" Ginny whispered to Harry, as a worried look suddenly appeared on her pretty face.
"Well, our sources say that Malfoy's been acting kind of funny lately." Harry said, like he was in charge of a team of spies or something..
Ginny just looked at Harry kind of funny when he talked in "spy talk" like that. She wondered if he knew that sounding like that muggle movie character James Bond made him seem really weird. Ginny knew You-Know-Who wasn't a laughing matter, but she was hard pressed not to laugh at "Harry the Spy". "So, Ginny" Harry continued, oblivious to the red-head's secret amusement at his CIA attitude, "I was wondering if you could try to feel out why he's acting so weird, since you have to spend the next couple of nights in detention with him.", Harry asked as he pulled Ginny to the side of the hallway and out of the way of the oncoming traffic heading off to dinner. "Any information you can get from him would really help", Harry said to Ginny, with a serious look on his face. .
Ginny just gawked at Harry, and started to wonder if she should start humming the "Mission: Impossible" theme or something. She felt like asking Harry if something was going to self destruct after he was done giving her mission orders. Somehow, though, Ginny didn't think Harry would appreciate the humor in that very much.
Harry was waiting patiently for Ginny to say she was going to get some information from Draco, as he saw the person they were talking about walking down the hallway. He noted to himself that Draco appeared to pause slightly when he saw Harry and Ginny in the hallway, standing very close as they faced each other and talked, but Harry didn't think anything of it. It was well know to all that Draco hated Harry. What Harry failed to notice was that the slight pause in Draco's stride and the tightening of his wide jaw did not happen until he saw the girl whom Potter had cornered in the hallway. The girl with a memorable, one of a kind, mane of red hair...
Draco Malfoy was patrolling the hallway, looking for something to do, when he happened to see Harry Potter. As Harry Potter was his favorite person to torture, he was at first happy (or at least as happy as he was capable of feeling) to see Harry in the hallway without his two sidekicks. That was until he saw the girl Harry had cornered by the wall in the hallway. Draco didn't know why those two huddled together made him a little upset, as he usually loved it when the freaks of this school hooked up together. It only gave him more ammunition to use against them when he made fun of them. But, for some reason, Draco didn't like seeing Ginny and Harry together. Maybe it was because he didn't like the idea of anyone else hexing that git Potter but him, which Draco suspected Ginny would be doing to Potter fairly soon, given the nature of her temper. With the comforting vision of Potter with Bat Bogey's attacking him in his head, Draco continued on his way down the hallway past the muggle-loving pair.
Ginny wasn't sure that Harry was right about Draco being up to something. She felt that if anything, the only change in Draco was that he was acting a little nicer lately, only occasionally picking on 1st years and Harry, Hermione, and Ron. In fact, Ginny thought that one of the only people he tormented a lot anymore was her, and that was just because they had detention together all the time. However, Ginny knew what she was expected to do, so she did the only thing she could in the circumstances.
"I'll do it." said Ginny to Harry. "I've always wanted to be a spy, you know" she said with a smile.
Harry just smiled down at the girl, as he had known she would never refuse to do what he had asked. As he looked down at her, he suddenly noticed how pretty she was when she smiled, and the way the lights seemed to glint off her shiny red hair. But Harry had more important things to think about than that, so he started to turn to go on his way.
"Thanks, Gin. You're the best." Harry said as he walked away. Ginny just sighed to herself as he left, and started off the opposite direction to go study.
Meanwhile, Ron Weasley was trying to lighten Hermione up. Ron and Hermione were currently in the library, and Hermione was still trying to study. Ron, however, thought Hermione had studied enough, and was currently trying his best to distract her. At the moment, he was drawing a very good caricature of Draco Malfoy and Vincent Crabbe kissing. Hermione was trying to ignore him, but the picture was just too good. A giggle escaped her lips, and Ron knew a feeling of satisfaction, at least until Hermione stopped smiling and glared at him.
"Ron, would you please stop that!!" Hermione snapped at him. "I need to study for NEWTs you know. If you aren't going to study with me, then please leave." She said as she stared the red-haired boy down.
"'Mione, you really need to lighten up, you know? NEWTs are how long away? You really need a break.." Ron said to Hermione, trying desperately to convince her to stop studying.
"Ron, why do you even sit herewith me if you aren't going to study, anyway. Why aren't you off with Harry somewhere?" Hermione asked him, genuinely puzzled.
"Well, Hermione, I just like spending time with you." Ron said honestly, as he looked into Hermione's eyes.
Hermione blushed. She looked at Ron for a moment, then she glanced back at her book. She closed the book and looked at Ron again, and sighed. "C'mon Ron, I guess I'm done studying for today. Let's go do something fun." she said, as she grabbed Ron's hand and smiled shyly at him.
Now, Ron Weasley is a completely normal, totally hormonal teenage boy with his brains located in that certain unmentionable in a PG-13 story part of his anatomy, but even he knew that he wasn't being invited to do anything like snog in the Astronomy tower (no matter how much he would secretly have liked to). But even Ron (who liked to think he knew Hermione quite well), had never in a million years suspected where Hermione was taking him...
Neville Longbottom was currently looking for a place to hide and study. He tended to stay away from the library, as he was always bothered by Crabbe and Goyle every time he tried to study in there. And his usual place to study, the Room of Requirement, was currently being used by what appeared to be a Disco dancing Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Neville just had to shake his head at that, as he went to find a new place. He searched the school, finally finding an empty room in a hidden area on the 2nd floor. Or at least it appeared to be empty of people, until he saw a bright red head sitting at a table in the corner, reading a book.
"Oh, sorry, Ginny, I was just looking for a place to study." Neville said, as he went to back out of the room.
"It's okay, Neville." Ginny said as she smiled kindly at the shy young man. "You can study with me."
Neville sat down at the table with Ginny, and got out his Herbology book. As he was getting out the book, he looked around the room, and became fascinated with some of the unusual objects that were there. On one table, there was a display of a very ornate mirror and an apple with one small bite taken out of it. On another table, there was a beautiful rose in a glass container on display. In a corner of the room, there was an old fashioned spinning wheel, but what really fascinated Neville was what was displayed on the left hand side of the room. It was a display of a pumpkin, a beautiful ball gown, and a pair of delicate looking glass slippers.
Ginny saw the way Neville was looking at things in the room, and decided to enlighten him. "This is the fairytale room, I think. It looks like a lot of magic stuff from fairytales is stored here." Ginny said. "I found this room yesterday after I was done with detention, and I was fascinated."
Neville got up to go stand by the display of the slipper. He picked one up, and began to examine it. "You know, I've heard that all the fairytales we hear are really true stories. This must really be Cinderella's slipper." Neville said, as he brought one of the slippers over to the table to examine it more closely.
As both Ginny and Neville sat at the table looking at the beautiful slipper, neither one heard the noise of other people entering the room. But a cough from one of those people had both of them looking up in surprise.
Malfoy was surprised to see Ginny and Neville in this room. This room was one he and his friends had discovered long ago, and often used it as a place where they could plot things against Harry Potter and his friends. At the moment, he had ordered Crabbe and Goyle to come here with him to discuss their plans for the newest way to make Harry miserable. They had been planning it for weeks, and Potter would be so surprised. Draco wasn't stupid, he knew that Potter knew he was up to something, but he expected that Potter thought it had something to do with the Dark Lord. Unfortunately for Potter, it was just another bout of Potter torture that Draco had up his sleeve. But first, Crabbe, Goyle, and him had to get rid of these two Gryffindors, so they could continue to make their plans.
Upon hearing the cough and seeing Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle enter the room, Neville stood to face his tormentors. As he stood up, he dropped the slipper he was looking at on his chair.
"What do you guys want?" Neville asked, trying his best to sound belligerent.
"This room is all we want right now." stated Malfoy. "So take your muggle loving girlfriend and go somewhere else."
"We were here first!" Ginny said, as she gave the three Slytherin boys a true Weasley glare.
"Well, we'll be here last." stated Goyle.
"Well, we're not leaving." Neville said, with a worried look in his eyes and a slight tremor in his voice. He then proceed to plop himself back down into the chair....
Draco was shocked when Longbottom let out a piercing shriek after sitting down in the chair. Ginny, Crabbe, and Goyle were all just staring at the boy, pretty much clueless as to what had happened.
"What is wrong with him?" asked Crabbe, as Neville jumped out of the chair and started running around the room like his pants are on fire.
Ginny was still trying to figure out what had happened, until it suddenly hit her....
"I think Neville broke the slipper." Ginny said, as the three Slytherin boys gave her very confused looks.
"What the bloody hell are you talking about, Weasley?" Draco asked.
"You know, Malfoy, the glass slipper... He sat on it." Ginny said pragmatically. Ginny started to head out the door after poor Neville, when Draco grabbed her arm.
"I'll go after him." Draco said with a sigh. "The last thing the idiot needs right now is a girl going after him. I'll get him to the hospital ward."
"No you will not, Malfoy. You'll just make fun of him." Ginny argued, trying to fight her arm away from Malfoy to go after Neville.
"It's one of the duties of being a prefect, Weasley. I have to help when someone is hurt." Draco said with a sneer. "And the last thing I want is to lose the power this prefect badge brings." He said, and smirked.
"Okay, I guess you can help him better than I can at the moment, as he probably has his pants off already trying to get the glass out." Ginny said with a resigned sigh. "But if I hear you mistreated him in any way.... You know what I'll do." Ginny said, as she touched her wand pocket fondly with her free hand.
Fate watched the happenings with an amused smile. She hated doing that to poor Neville, but she had to find a way to make Ginny start to see that Draco could be nice, if only he had the motivation... Fate was certain her plan was working, but she knew her two unwilling people would fight her plan every step of the way.... Wait until they find out that they can't fight fate......
Next time, on The Least Likely Prince Charming.... What exactly is Draco's Potter torture plan, and will it really work? Is Ginny cut out for a career as a spy? And why does Dumbledore have a twinkle in his eye now? Find out all this and more in Chapter 7, entitled "Did Dumbledore OD on Sugar, Again!?"
Author's note: Thank you for the reviews!!! I really appreciate all who review this story. As a first time fan faction author, your reviews really boost my confidence. Thank you so much!!! Also, I'm sorry if this chapter isn't the greatest, I worked really hard on it, but it seems like it doesn't really move the plot on very much. It's more humor than anything... I promise next chapter will move the story forward a little more...
And, onward, to:
The Least Likely Prince Charming
Last time, in our story, there was lots of Fred and George chaos, kissing frogs, and Ginny/Draco quality detention time...
Coming up this time - Harry needs to talk to Ginny, Hermione takes a study break, Malfoy's up to something, and Neville has a slight accident...
Chapter 6
"I Think Neville Broke the Slipper"
Ginny Weasley was tired. She had just survived the four most horrible days ever, and she still had 3 more to go. Her first day of detention was pretty easy, until her and Malfoy actually had to actually kiss those frogs. But, she guessed she could always blackmail Malfoy by telling the school that he had accidently kissed Crabbe in his frog form. Unfortunately, he could probably blackmail her back with the fact that she kissed Zambini, Goyle, and had also accidently kissed Pansy Parkinson in her frog form (thinking that she was kissing the Crabbe frog). Luckily, Malfoy and his friends were too embarrassed to spread around exactly how Ginny and Draco had changed them back. Ginny had only found out when Draco had tried to taunt her with the information the next day, at least until Ginny had quickly figured out that if she had kissed Zambini, Goyle, and Pansy, Malfoy must have kissed Crabbe...
The second day of detention with Malfoy was spent arguing about anything and everything. They had first started arguing about the whole frog thing, but then proceed to argue about so many things that even Ginny forgot what they were arguing about. Fortunately (or unfortunately - depends on which way you look at it), Snape had confiscated their wands before they began their detention task of cleaning the potions closet. Ginny guessed that maybe the close quarters and the heat in the room had caused them to argue about everything. All Ginny knew was that she had come out of there feeling really hot, with a slight shortness of breath, and a strange feeling quite unlike anything she had ever felt before. She thought that all the arguing might have been making her sick, but some time spent relaxing in the Gryffidor common room reading her Arithmancy book had quickly cured her of those strange feelings.
The third day of detention, her and Malfoy spent feeding Hagrid's new pets - Snerkles. Snerkles were another of Hagrid's "animals nobody has ever heard of before which appear to serve no purpose except to try to maim unsuspecting students" class experiments, and appeared to have the body of a huge spider, the head of a venomous snake, with the fire breathing capabilities of a dragon, and a stinger like a scorpion on their long, horned tails.. Malfoy swore that the only thing they really ate was fingers and toes of Hogwart's students, and had refused to help Ginny feed them. He instead just sat and watched Ginny try to give them the food that Hagrid swore they would eat. Ginny just thought they liked to eat each other, but Hagrid was convinced they preferred to eat a gruel made of flubberworms, mandrake root, and butterbeer.
The forth day of detention, Ginny and Draco were required to help Filch clean the Great Hall following dinner. That was quite an experience. Ginny never knew that 100's of 11 - 17 year olds could be such really messy eaters. It was hard work, cleaning up and scrubbing - without magic - but it was quite amusing when Filch thought Draco wasn't working hard enough, and mentioned to Draco his ideas on how to punish the evil Hogwart's students. Draco worked pretty hard and really quickly after hearing about Filch's ideas of corporal punishment.
Currently, Ginny was enjoying a break from detention. Both her and Draco were given tonight off from detention, as the professors felt they needed a night off from detention to study. Ginny was very happy about this reprieve, as she really didn't know how much more she could stand Malfoy smirking at her, and firing off insults at her as fast as she could retaliate. And somehow, Malfoy managed to look good, even when he was smirking and being an insufferable git. Ginny could just imagine what he would look like if he actually smiled and was nice for a while, with his tall, leanly muscled body, aristocratic facial features, impossibly silver hair, and gorgeous grey eyes that Ginny could lose herself in if it was anyone but DRACO MALFOY....
"Ginny"
Ginny was thankfully startled out of her completely inappropriate thoughts about a completely inappropriate boy by a voice calling her name from behind. She turned around and looked, and saw Harry running towards her, calling her name.
"What's up, Harry?" Ginny asked when Harry caught up to her. Harry was looking his usual handsome but disheveled self, with his rumpled robes and flyaway hair, and gorgeous green eyes magnified by his glasses. Ginny sighed to herself as she looked at Harry, thinking to herself that it was too bad he was so much like another brother to her. If it hadn't been such a brotherly relationship, Ginny thought that Harry would be the only possible prince to tempt her away from her "no more boyfriends while she is still at Hogwart's" vow.
Harry was looking at Ginny as he walked beside her in the hall. He seemed sort of nervous about something, and Ginny was starting to get really curious.
"Well, Ginny, I need to ask you for a HUGE favor." He said as he looked down from his 5'11'' height at the very petite redhead.
Ginny looked up at Harry and wondered what this was all about. She knew Harry well enough to know he would never ask for help unless it was really, really, really important. Harry was still looking at Ginny very nervously as they stopped in the middle of the hallway.
"Well, I know you are in detention with Malfoy for a couple more days." Harry started, green eyes darting everywhere, trying to avoid Ginny's cinnamon colored eyes.
Ginny was really starting to get curious, and continued to stare at Harry as he paused to look around behind him like he expected someone to be trying to eavesdrop on them. Ginny got tired of waiting for Harry to continue, so she asked, "So, what's it matter to you who I have detention with?"
Harry just took a deep breath before he started to talk again. "Well, Ginny, we think Malfoy's up to something." Harry said with a worried look on his face.
"You mean you-know-who type something?" Ginny whispered to Harry, as a worried look suddenly appeared on her pretty face.
"Well, our sources say that Malfoy's been acting kind of funny lately." Harry said, like he was in charge of a team of spies or something..
Ginny just looked at Harry kind of funny when he talked in "spy talk" like that. She wondered if he knew that sounding like that muggle movie character James Bond made him seem really weird. Ginny knew You-Know-Who wasn't a laughing matter, but she was hard pressed not to laugh at "Harry the Spy". "So, Ginny" Harry continued, oblivious to the red-head's secret amusement at his CIA attitude, "I was wondering if you could try to feel out why he's acting so weird, since you have to spend the next couple of nights in detention with him.", Harry asked as he pulled Ginny to the side of the hallway and out of the way of the oncoming traffic heading off to dinner. "Any information you can get from him would really help", Harry said to Ginny, with a serious look on his face. .
Ginny just gawked at Harry, and started to wonder if she should start humming the "Mission: Impossible" theme or something. She felt like asking Harry if something was going to self destruct after he was done giving her mission orders. Somehow, though, Ginny didn't think Harry would appreciate the humor in that very much.
Harry was waiting patiently for Ginny to say she was going to get some information from Draco, as he saw the person they were talking about walking down the hallway. He noted to himself that Draco appeared to pause slightly when he saw Harry and Ginny in the hallway, standing very close as they faced each other and talked, but Harry didn't think anything of it. It was well know to all that Draco hated Harry. What Harry failed to notice was that the slight pause in Draco's stride and the tightening of his wide jaw did not happen until he saw the girl whom Potter had cornered in the hallway. The girl with a memorable, one of a kind, mane of red hair...
Draco Malfoy was patrolling the hallway, looking for something to do, when he happened to see Harry Potter. As Harry Potter was his favorite person to torture, he was at first happy (or at least as happy as he was capable of feeling) to see Harry in the hallway without his two sidekicks. That was until he saw the girl Harry had cornered by the wall in the hallway. Draco didn't know why those two huddled together made him a little upset, as he usually loved it when the freaks of this school hooked up together. It only gave him more ammunition to use against them when he made fun of them. But, for some reason, Draco didn't like seeing Ginny and Harry together. Maybe it was because he didn't like the idea of anyone else hexing that git Potter but him, which Draco suspected Ginny would be doing to Potter fairly soon, given the nature of her temper. With the comforting vision of Potter with Bat Bogey's attacking him in his head, Draco continued on his way down the hallway past the muggle-loving pair.
Ginny wasn't sure that Harry was right about Draco being up to something. She felt that if anything, the only change in Draco was that he was acting a little nicer lately, only occasionally picking on 1st years and Harry, Hermione, and Ron. In fact, Ginny thought that one of the only people he tormented a lot anymore was her, and that was just because they had detention together all the time. However, Ginny knew what she was expected to do, so she did the only thing she could in the circumstances.
"I'll do it." said Ginny to Harry. "I've always wanted to be a spy, you know" she said with a smile.
Harry just smiled down at the girl, as he had known she would never refuse to do what he had asked. As he looked down at her, he suddenly noticed how pretty she was when she smiled, and the way the lights seemed to glint off her shiny red hair. But Harry had more important things to think about than that, so he started to turn to go on his way.
"Thanks, Gin. You're the best." Harry said as he walked away. Ginny just sighed to herself as he left, and started off the opposite direction to go study.
Meanwhile, Ron Weasley was trying to lighten Hermione up. Ron and Hermione were currently in the library, and Hermione was still trying to study. Ron, however, thought Hermione had studied enough, and was currently trying his best to distract her. At the moment, he was drawing a very good caricature of Draco Malfoy and Vincent Crabbe kissing. Hermione was trying to ignore him, but the picture was just too good. A giggle escaped her lips, and Ron knew a feeling of satisfaction, at least until Hermione stopped smiling and glared at him.
"Ron, would you please stop that!!" Hermione snapped at him. "I need to study for NEWTs you know. If you aren't going to study with me, then please leave." She said as she stared the red-haired boy down.
"'Mione, you really need to lighten up, you know? NEWTs are how long away? You really need a break.." Ron said to Hermione, trying desperately to convince her to stop studying.
"Ron, why do you even sit herewith me if you aren't going to study, anyway. Why aren't you off with Harry somewhere?" Hermione asked him, genuinely puzzled.
"Well, Hermione, I just like spending time with you." Ron said honestly, as he looked into Hermione's eyes.
Hermione blushed. She looked at Ron for a moment, then she glanced back at her book. She closed the book and looked at Ron again, and sighed. "C'mon Ron, I guess I'm done studying for today. Let's go do something fun." she said, as she grabbed Ron's hand and smiled shyly at him.
Now, Ron Weasley is a completely normal, totally hormonal teenage boy with his brains located in that certain unmentionable in a PG-13 story part of his anatomy, but even he knew that he wasn't being invited to do anything like snog in the Astronomy tower (no matter how much he would secretly have liked to). But even Ron (who liked to think he knew Hermione quite well), had never in a million years suspected where Hermione was taking him...
Neville Longbottom was currently looking for a place to hide and study. He tended to stay away from the library, as he was always bothered by Crabbe and Goyle every time he tried to study in there. And his usual place to study, the Room of Requirement, was currently being used by what appeared to be a Disco dancing Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Neville just had to shake his head at that, as he went to find a new place. He searched the school, finally finding an empty room in a hidden area on the 2nd floor. Or at least it appeared to be empty of people, until he saw a bright red head sitting at a table in the corner, reading a book.
"Oh, sorry, Ginny, I was just looking for a place to study." Neville said, as he went to back out of the room.
"It's okay, Neville." Ginny said as she smiled kindly at the shy young man. "You can study with me."
Neville sat down at the table with Ginny, and got out his Herbology book. As he was getting out the book, he looked around the room, and became fascinated with some of the unusual objects that were there. On one table, there was a display of a very ornate mirror and an apple with one small bite taken out of it. On another table, there was a beautiful rose in a glass container on display. In a corner of the room, there was an old fashioned spinning wheel, but what really fascinated Neville was what was displayed on the left hand side of the room. It was a display of a pumpkin, a beautiful ball gown, and a pair of delicate looking glass slippers.
Ginny saw the way Neville was looking at things in the room, and decided to enlighten him. "This is the fairytale room, I think. It looks like a lot of magic stuff from fairytales is stored here." Ginny said. "I found this room yesterday after I was done with detention, and I was fascinated."
Neville got up to go stand by the display of the slipper. He picked one up, and began to examine it. "You know, I've heard that all the fairytales we hear are really true stories. This must really be Cinderella's slipper." Neville said, as he brought one of the slippers over to the table to examine it more closely.
As both Ginny and Neville sat at the table looking at the beautiful slipper, neither one heard the noise of other people entering the room. But a cough from one of those people had both of them looking up in surprise.
Malfoy was surprised to see Ginny and Neville in this room. This room was one he and his friends had discovered long ago, and often used it as a place where they could plot things against Harry Potter and his friends. At the moment, he had ordered Crabbe and Goyle to come here with him to discuss their plans for the newest way to make Harry miserable. They had been planning it for weeks, and Potter would be so surprised. Draco wasn't stupid, he knew that Potter knew he was up to something, but he expected that Potter thought it had something to do with the Dark Lord. Unfortunately for Potter, it was just another bout of Potter torture that Draco had up his sleeve. But first, Crabbe, Goyle, and him had to get rid of these two Gryffindors, so they could continue to make their plans.
Upon hearing the cough and seeing Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle enter the room, Neville stood to face his tormentors. As he stood up, he dropped the slipper he was looking at on his chair.
"What do you guys want?" Neville asked, trying his best to sound belligerent.
"This room is all we want right now." stated Malfoy. "So take your muggle loving girlfriend and go somewhere else."
"We were here first!" Ginny said, as she gave the three Slytherin boys a true Weasley glare.
"Well, we'll be here last." stated Goyle.
"Well, we're not leaving." Neville said, with a worried look in his eyes and a slight tremor in his voice. He then proceed to plop himself back down into the chair....
Draco was shocked when Longbottom let out a piercing shriek after sitting down in the chair. Ginny, Crabbe, and Goyle were all just staring at the boy, pretty much clueless as to what had happened.
"What is wrong with him?" asked Crabbe, as Neville jumped out of the chair and started running around the room like his pants are on fire.
Ginny was still trying to figure out what had happened, until it suddenly hit her....
"I think Neville broke the slipper." Ginny said, as the three Slytherin boys gave her very confused looks.
"What the bloody hell are you talking about, Weasley?" Draco asked.
"You know, Malfoy, the glass slipper... He sat on it." Ginny said pragmatically. Ginny started to head out the door after poor Neville, when Draco grabbed her arm.
"I'll go after him." Draco said with a sigh. "The last thing the idiot needs right now is a girl going after him. I'll get him to the hospital ward."
"No you will not, Malfoy. You'll just make fun of him." Ginny argued, trying to fight her arm away from Malfoy to go after Neville.
"It's one of the duties of being a prefect, Weasley. I have to help when someone is hurt." Draco said with a sneer. "And the last thing I want is to lose the power this prefect badge brings." He said, and smirked.
"Okay, I guess you can help him better than I can at the moment, as he probably has his pants off already trying to get the glass out." Ginny said with a resigned sigh. "But if I hear you mistreated him in any way.... You know what I'll do." Ginny said, as she touched her wand pocket fondly with her free hand.
Fate watched the happenings with an amused smile. She hated doing that to poor Neville, but she had to find a way to make Ginny start to see that Draco could be nice, if only he had the motivation... Fate was certain her plan was working, but she knew her two unwilling people would fight her plan every step of the way.... Wait until they find out that they can't fight fate......
Next time, on The Least Likely Prince Charming.... What exactly is Draco's Potter torture plan, and will it really work? Is Ginny cut out for a career as a spy? And why does Dumbledore have a twinkle in his eye now? Find out all this and more in Chapter 7, entitled "Did Dumbledore OD on Sugar, Again!?"