now for chapter 10 (oooo double figures), what on earth to write about? The muses appear to be avoiding me at the moment

Disembodied Hands

The week past quickly for Raid. She and Hermione had become the best of friends. Which was a good thing since Harry was refusing to talk to Hermione and just scowled at Raid. Ron of course sided with Harry on the issue although never openly criticized Raid.

Raid easily matched Hermione's grades in all subjects except Arithmacy. Hermione however did not feel pressured more to get better grades, she did not feel competitive at all for some reason. Raid was very modest in all her lessons when she could be.

It was Friday night and Raid was bored. As it was nearly nine o'clock she was still allowed out of the common room, but Hermione was on prefects patrol so there was no fun to be had with her. So Raid decided to head out on her own.

Dressed in her black baggy trousers and a tight red vest top Raid was quite an unusual sight in Hogwarts with her vibrant purple hair. She looked good in these clothes, it was a muggle fashion that her muggle friends dressed in and she loved the style. It also annoyed the hell out of her foster parents. Raids beloved skateboard appeared in her hand, graffiti sprawled across the back of the deck. The castle was an ideal place for a skate, lots of stairs and handrails. Avoiding other students as well was a challenge Raid enjoyed, especially seeing their terrified expressions as she wove in and out of them in the wider corridors.

This evening found her on the sixth floor working her way down the castle. The corridors were practically deserted. She whirled past the paintings hanging majestically on the walls, causing a stir from their owners. A large figure appeared in front of Raid, it turned and scowled at her. Professor Umbridge.

Raid groaned and brought her board to a stop, flipping it up to her hands. Halting in front of the frog resembling woman Raid looked down in to the teachers face expectantly.

"What on earth are you doing?" Umbridge asked acidly.

"Skating, obviously." Raid replied.

"I will not be spoken to you like that!" The teacher shrieked. "You will stop immediately. And where are your robes young lady?"

"There are no rules to say I can't skate professor." Raid drawled the last word as if it was an insult. "And we have been through this before. I don't like wearing robes. And since I do not have any lessons till Monday I am not going to wear them." She finished finally.

Umbridge looked as if she was about to explode.

"I have never been spoken to in such insolence." She squeaked. "Detention!"

Raid laughed.

"I don't think so Professor. Good Evening"

With that last remark she put her board down, placed her foot on it and rolled away down the corridor quickly, laughing all the way. She loved annoying that teacher.

Wrapped up in her skating, Raid quickly became lost. But she figured she couldn't do anything but keep going. She glanced behind her as she moved along and looked back down the corridor that looked exactly like the one before. Then turning back to look where she was going she crashed right in to something hard, and noisy.

"What the!?" Exclaimed the hard thing she had crashed in to. It sounded male.

They were lying in a crumpled heap on the floor entangled in each other.

Raid saw a flash of grey-blue eyes and blond hair. She grinned.

"Hey Draco." She said brightly.

Draco twisted his head around, which appeared to be under Raids lower legs and scowled at her.

"Seems we've found something that you're not so good at." He drawled.

Raid blushed and began untangling herself from Draco's wiry body. She stood and held out her hand to Draco to help him up. He ignored the hand and got up himself. Raid raised her right eyebrow at him.

"Actually, I can skate quite well, you were in the way." She retorted.

"I was in the way? You crashed in to me, because you weren't looking where you were going!" Draco snapped.

"A minor detail." Raid said airily. "You could have moved."

Draco just scowled at her.

"Stupid muggle device." He muttered and kicked the skateboard.

"Hey!" Raid exclaimed angrily. "There's no need for that. There are a lot of useful and fun muggle 'devices' as you call them." Raid said, defending the world where most of her friends came from.

"Yeah well, whatever." Draco said dismissively.

"Yeah, whatever." Raid snapped irritably and skated off round the corner.

"Eriador, wait." Draco called regretting his words immediately. But she didn't hear, she was already gone.

"Shit." He muttered and kicked a wall. The portrait above the section of wall he had just kicked looked at him disapprovingly.

"Kicking walls never got anyone anywhere young man." The portrait said. "More often that not it just made the building fall on their head." It finished thoughtfully, and walked out of the painting.

Draco just stood staring dumbly at the empty portrait.

"Malfoy!" A sharp voice shouted at him.

Draco's head snapped away from the empty painting to see Hermione walking towards him quickly.

"What do you want Granger?" He said snidely.

"You should be patrolling the west wing, not the east you stupid git." Hermione snapped. "Go there!"

Draco stared at her in open disgust at her telling him what to do. But then to Hermione's surprise he turned on his heel and walked swiftly away, in the direction, it seemed, of the west wing.

Hermione came in to the common room at 9.30. Finding Raid sitting in an armchair gazing absently out of the window, she made her way over, ignoring the cold stare she got from Harry as she passed him and Ron playing wizard chess. She collapsed in to a chair opposite Raid and sighed.

"Uh, Malfoy." She spat. "I swear, he is the most annoying person alive."

Raid giggled.

"He hasn't been to bad to me actually, except for tonight." She said, a small frown creasing her forehead.

"He's probably in love with you or something." Hermione said in disgust. This brought a smile to Raid's face once more.

"Ha, I think not." She laughed

"What happened with Malfoy tonight?" Hermione managed to ask.

"Oh I bumped, well crashed actually, in to him when I was skating this evening. He was a bit of and idiot about it. I just left when he started insulting, 'muggle devices'" Raid said laughing. "It was nothing."

"Oh. Well anyway, what are you doing tomorrow?" Hermione asked.

"I was going to spend the morning with Shadow, I haven't been able to see him much, other than our morning rides." Raid replied.

"You get up at that ungodly hour every morning?" Hermione asked, shocked as if it was breaking some kind of law.

"Yup." Raid said happily. "What are you planning on doing tomorrow? You can come and see Shadow if you like?"

"Oh I was going to go and catch up on work in the library. Can I come and see Shadow some other time?" Hermione asked a little wary in case she had offended Raid.

But Raid did not seem fazed at all by the rejection at all.

"Ok then, I'll come and meet you after I'm all cleaned up then. I've got some work to catch up on as well."

The evening past quickly, the girls never ran out of topics to talk about, they sat and talked and laughed until 12 o'clock when they retired to the dorm to bed.

Raid of course, instinctively woke up at her ungodly hour in the morning. She looked out of the window and watched the clouds race each other across the sky. There would be a storm tonight, she thought. Then she disappeared from the room and reappeared in the forest, near her horse. That morning she gave her horse a thorough grooming till he shone. Then with hooves pounding they ran through the forest as if they themselves were racing the clouds. Raid was breathless as she slid off Shadows back, when they were once again in the clearing she had found him in on the first morning she had been at Hogwarts. Conjuring the saddle and bridle away she gave her horse a final loving pat before apperating back to the dormitory. It was still only 10.30 but the girls she shared the room with were up and gone.

Collecting some new clothes Raid went in to the large bathroom and had a long relaxing soak in the small- pool, sized bath. Finally, forty-five minutes later she appeared in the dormitory again, wearing a pair of jeans that were tightly fitting around her hips but flared out at the bottom covering most of her trainers. She wore a simple black thin strapped top. Her hair was blue.

As Raid walked slowly along the long corridor leading to the library she felt distinctly uneasy. Like someone was watching her. She shrugged the thought off, there were of course numerous painting hanging on the walls, who were actually watching her.

Then as she past a small alcove in the wall disembodied hands grabbed her and pashed her against the wall. She struggled but then realised that her assailant had a body as well. She looked up in to their face. It was Draco Malfoy.

"Draco." She breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought."

But Draco stared intently in to her eyes and put a finger to her lips, she instantly fell silent. He brought his head to her ear.

"I know who you are, I know who she was, and I know what she did." Draco whispered in Raid's ear.

Then pulling back he looked directly in to her deep inky eyes.

"You should have been in Slytherin. And you should be with me." He said finally.

"I don't think.." Raid began stubbornly but was cut short.

Draco lowered his head to hers and gently pressed his lips against hers. Pulling away he said.

"Think about it."

Then he turned and walked away leaving Raid astounded against the wall.

Gasp!!! Oh my goodness. Now I just have to decide whether Draco really is the baddy he seems to be. It's a tuff one to do without making it to cliché. Input from you guys would be good. Also, shall I make Raid an Animagus or would that just take the p???? What do you think. Please tell me, I got no reviews last time L