Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter Empire. I'm only writing for my own entertainment and no money is being made.
Wicked Mission Accomplished
Chapter 2
17 days till 1997
Announcements
When Harry was on his way to the Great Hall for breakfast with Ron and Hermione at his side, he tried his best not to think much of what went on the night before on the third floor but naturally didn't succeed. Having laid awake the whole night either repeating the encounter in his head or cursing himself, (Malfoy too for being an arse), it was now that he was beginning to contemplate what he should do with his Malfoy "project".
It was a bit hard at the moment for Harry to think things through due to the constant buzzing in his ears. His friends were talking not-so-quietly about their agenda for the day--or, in other words, Hermione telling Ron how important it is to begin with their studying as early as possible on this beautiful Saturday and Ron coming up with poor reasons why they shouldn't. In addition, there were an unusually large number of other students around them also heading the same direction as they were, chattering enthusiastically as if it wasn't early in the morning. 'Frickin Early birds' Harry thought annoyed.
When the trio entered the Great Hall about to walk to the Gryffindor table, they suddenly stopped in their tracks as they noticed the changes in their surroundings. Gasps of amazement could be heard and not only from them. Everybody who stepped into this place that didn't quite look like the Great Hall, appeared to be under a bedazzled spell. A spell that left them all open-mouthed and entranced by what they saw.
The ceiling was wholly covered
under white clouds with a bright light fighting to get through to
them; giving one the feeling that you were about to witness the
creation of something majestic. Apparently, Dumbledore had not only
enchanted the ceiling but the whole room. It didn't feel as if they
were going to eat a normal breakfast but rather like they were about
to have a cozy picnic in the Forbidden Forest. There were no walls to
be seen and in its place stood gigantic den trees shielding the
dining tables including the staff one. The hard stone floor had been
changed into outdoor ground with piles of snow here and there.
The
most wondrous things to see were probably the fairies flying high
above the students. The fairies looked so tiny and breakable and
aesthetically astonishing. Their bodies were draped in a soft
looking, pastel cloth in each of the House's representative
colours. They all had serene expressions on their faces and they were
humming Christmas carols in barely-audible high pitched voices.
Someone suddenly bumped into Harry's back jolting him out of his stupor. Turning around, he saw that it was Colin Creevy and he let out a small groan. He was one of the last people he wanted to see at the moment. He hoped Colin was too busy admiring the transformations than to pay attention to him. Harry looked quickly around for Hermione and Ron and snickered when he that saw his best friend still had his mouth hanging open looking peculiarly like a stupefied frog. Hermione, he noticed, was already giving lectures to some unfortunate First Years about the advanced spells Dumbledore used.
Harry took a b-line to his usual seat near the end of the table facing the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables, leaving his friends and Colin behind at the entrance. Whatever it costs he shall by all means try to avoid Colin till he left for the break. In front of him was sitting the usual crowd of Seamus and Dean. Next to him on his left, sat Neville. The two empty seats on his right were reserved for Ron and Hermione.
"Morning Harry," came the chorus from Seamus and Dean. Neville's mouth was stuffed with something yellowish as he opened his mouth to mumble a good morning. Disgusting.
"Hey guys." Harry replied cheerily while at the same time reaching for some sausages to put on his plate. "Looks cool what the old man's done with this place, I think."
Seamus looked up with brows furrowed, "I wonder what else he has in store for us."
"What do you mean 'what else'?"
"Haven't you read it on the notice board in the common room Harry?" Seamus asked.
"To tell the truth I haven't really paid attention to the notice board lately," was his reply.
'Why hasn't Ron told me about it?'
The guys sighed. "And we all know why." They were all sending Harry the 'look'. The look that made Harry feel like a pathetic three-year-old boy who didn't know yet that the world was round like his snitch, or that even such a thing as the world existed.
Just then Hermione and Ron arrived and took their respective seats with Hermione ending up in the middle.
"Hello,"
said Hermione as she greeted the group.
Ron, having heard the
last part of what Dean and Seamus had just been talking about, asked
immediately, "What is it that we 'all know why'? Good morning
by the way," as he picked a muffin and took a huge bite of it.
"Well, Harry, as usual, is out of it," declared Dean.
"Hey! Not noticing some tiny shred of paper on the notice board hardly proves anything--and it's just that, unlike you guys, I'm really concentrating on things of greater significance," Harry defensively shot back.
Hermione sweetly asked, "Like Malfoy?"
"More like the safety of the Wizarding World--so you and Ron can have a happy future together," Harry pointed out to Hermione, and silently promising himself not to get all bothered when merely hearing the Malfoy name.
Ron and Hermione both slightly blushed at Harry's dry remark, but refused to comment on it.
Then Ron stepped in the conversation, letting his eyes flicker on Harry for a moment before looking down to his food again and asked, "Harry I forgot to check, how did it go with your big night yesterday? I tried staying awake for when you came in but…eh…I guess I fell asleep."
Harry didn't particularly feel like touching on that raw subject. He still had some thinking to do.
Hermione was now also eagerly awaiting Harry's answer. Dean and Seamus, not knowing what the 'big night' really was, thought it to be something different.
"You had a hot date and didn't tell us mate?"
Harry smiled at this, "Sadly, not even close to that. I was just working on something I thought would prove to be interesting," he said, purposefully turning to Hermione. "But wasn't really." At this, Hermione shook her head at Harry's futile attempt thinking that he was obviously wasting his time.
Before anyone could say or, even worse, ask anything more about yesterday he quickly asked, "Say, what was on the notice board anyway?"
"For us to come down earlier for the announcements," Neville gulped down some orange juice and was about to continue when Dumbledore stood up and asked for the students' attention. Harry was happy that Neville was interrupted seeing that he had small pieces of food stuck between his front teeth--not to mention his breath was stinky.
"Students,
we are in the wonderful month of December." A few, especially those
in Slytherin, rolled their eyes but no sounds were made.
"Soon
we may encounter hardships in our path, but for now let us all make
some lasting memories. This year, at your request, the professors and
I discussed the possibility of another Yule Ball. With some
convincing on the part of the prefects, the majority of us are in
favor of holding one again."
Now, whispers could be heard everywhere--especially from the girls and they looked with reverence at Hermione and Malfoy for making the Yule Ball come true.
Most of the guys, including Ron and Harry, suddenly turned gloomy at the prospect of having to go through the whole experience twice in their lives, how horrible they darkly thought and those dark thoughts were also directed at the two prefects. They had originally thought for sure that it would stay a silly idea from some girls with no chance at being taken seriously.
Dumbledore looked content around him with the trademark twinkle in his eyes and then continued. "The Yule Ball will be held exactly one week from tonight, on the night of Yule, before you leave for your holiday break. There will be rules of course. First of all, no alcohol allowed because most of you are not of age yet and a school does not encourage it students to drink. Second of all, this is a gala event hence the requirement for formal attire. And at last, it will make me very happy to see everyone of you more than once on the dance floor."
"Who does he think we are? Magical dancing dolls? He must be kidding about that last rule," said Ron grumpily.
"Now, my dear students, I have another thing to tell you. As you can see, the Great Hall has been drastically transformed in order to fit the Christmas spirit. But everything is not done yet. In order to strengthen our friendships and improve school unity, I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow afternoon one hour after dinner in this hall. At that time you will get another surprise."
By now there were startled faces everywhere.
"I leave you to continue with your breakfast." Dumbledore bowed his head slightly and then sat down again.
It wasn't even close to nightfall yet, but it could have fooled one otherwise, because the far away sun couldn't show even one ray of light with all the dark clouds. The wind howled and was chillingly sharp. The atmosphere seemed to be cloaked in sullen grey. No one really wanted to be outside in this depressing weather--but three lonely figures were sitting on a tree-trunk at the edge of the Forbidden Forest overlooking the frozen lake.
A heavy sigh followed a previous frustrated one in less tan five seconds.
"Oh for Merlin's
sake! It's only a ball, no need to get all worked up about it."
The figure in the middle said, tired of the boys' whining she had
endured thus far.
Ron, who was digging a hole in the snow with
the heel of his foot, suddenly looked satisfied, "At least Harry
and I need not to worry about some bloody Krum this year."
"Let Harry speak for himself," Hermione had indeed a very good point Harry thought to himself.
"And for your information Krum might not be here, but that doesn't mean there aren't other males who are thinking of asking me very soon," she menacingly told Ron.
Ron's foot stopped moving and with wide eyes he looked at Hermione and almost yelled when he asked, "Who!" He breathed hard and continued to interrogate Hermione, "You are not going with him, whoever he is are you? You're not considering it, are you! I can't believe you! Here there's Harry and me dateless still and you speak of going with someone else?"
"Maybe I am! It's only the first day so there's no need to worry on your part, I'm sure if you wait till the last day you might still be able to go with some leftovers," Hermione snapped back.
Harry, who had been silent until now decided he had heard enough, "Stop it both of you. You're both so blind."
Ron and Hermione were now looking angrily at him for interrupting. Harry didn't mind, he was sure they would be thanking him later.
"Ron why don't you ask Hermione out for the ball? That way you can be sure she won't be going with any strange guys." Harry paused to let this sink in.
It was quiet for about three seconds before Ron looked at Harry like he was a genius, "Yeah..." He turned to Hermione with a red face.
"Hermione..." He didn't finish his sentence though, for Hermione--who was also red now--proudly said, "Don't bother Ron. I don't want you to do this only because Harry mentioned it."
Harry, growing annoyed with them stepped in again before Ron could answer. "Hermione, believe me when I tell you that Ron wants this a lot, he's just being difficult about it because he's not sure you will return the feelings he has for you."
"Harry!" Ron cried in outrage and didn't dare to look at Hermione even though she was glowing.
"And Ron--when will you get it that Hermione is very fond of you? Everyone in school knows how much she likes you."
'There,' Harry thought, satisfied.
Hermione's reaction was unlike Ron's earlier. She just looked at the ground still not believing what Harry had just said about Ron. Meanwhile, Ron was staring at Hermione with eyes wide and feeling very hot.
"Eh...so uh Hermione..." Ron bravely started.
'It's better to give them some privacy,' Harry wisely thought to himself. He stood up and began his walk back to Hogwarts all alone. His two close friends didn't notice a thing, not even when he said 'see you later'.
Sitting on his bed Harry went over the day's happenings again. Ron still hadn't returned. 'Probably snogging Hermione to death, making up for all those years in denial.' He had no problem with this--on the contrary, he was glad that the two are finally admitting to themselves and each other their feelings.
The rest of his roommates were probably in the common room playing exploding snap or some other game. It was perfectly fine by Harry, for now he finally had some time to think without someone else distracting him--he even skipped dinner in favor of thinking.
What plagued his mind the most was not his friends, not the Yule Ball, not Dumbledore's surprise, nor Voldemort--but strangely, Malfoy.
On his way back to Gryffindor after leaving Ron and Hermione near the Forbidden Forest, he was about to open the heavy door to enter the Great Hall when he saw a dot moving in the corner of his eyes. As he glanced with his eyes to see, Harry quickly learned said dot was Malfoy. His pale features were distinguishable thanks to his expensive looking outfit of black fur. Harry also saw that he carried a red steaming letter. A Howler.
Harry moved to stealthily follow Malfoy but abruptly stopped as he thought about what Malfoy would say to him if he caught Harry spying on him again. He wasn't afraid, far from it, but he didn't want Malfoy acting suspicious around him. He wanted Malfoy to commit a faux pas when he was being careless. Besides, Malfoy seemed to be going to the Quidditch pitch, and there wasn't a lot of space there to hide anyway.
Back in the dormitory Harry shook his head. He had to focus on what he would do next. Malfoy was mysterious, no denying that. Everyone except himself trusted Malfoy to be completely the good guy as he claimed himself to be. With the elder Malfoy still in Azkaban and his wife being the perfect socialite attending functions and what else, he is fairly sure of Malfoy being the only one capable of continuing their family business both legal and illegal. Then again it is slightly hard for Malfoy to conduct business while still at school. Are they right and him wrong for not trusting so easily? 'No,' Harry thought. Someone has to be skeptical about it. If they are not going to be skeptical--then he is. He promised himself to try to subdue his watching, but he will not permit himself to start having doubts. He can't afford it. Not when so much can go wrong.
And thank Merlin he managed to keep Colin away, even if it is only for today.
A/N:
Reviews are very much appreciated. Please let me know what you think.
Next chapter we will know what the deal is with Colin and there will be a bit more of Malfoy. Expect some fun surprises. I'm making this a nice Christmas/New Year fic in Harry's 6th year at Hogwarts where I will not dwell too much on Voldemort. I mean hey, it's the season to be merry and all. I have no desire to make this an action packed Harry and Voldemort story. I'm perfectly content with J.K.Rowling doing that job (and some other talented fanfic authors out there).
A huge thank you to my beta Clare (ninjatech).
fic dedicated to all slash writers and lovers from the harry/draco fandom for keeping our passion alive.