Gambit by Lilosan
A.N.: Big thanks to Allychik6 (Draco is confused about his own actions towards Ginny, when he usually never lets a chance slip to bug one Weasley or the other. Make it insomnia of an irritated adolescent. ;-) ) and jjp91 (Did I update soon enough?).
Chapter 2: "Confrontations"
Draco was still contemplating last Friday and his own actions on that fateful night, when his magic watch illuminated red and said:
"Dear mister Malfoy. I don't want to bother you, but you are going to be late for your class."
"Shit." He lifted his watch to eye level "Tell me, what subject and how much time I have left?"
"It's Advanced Defense Against The Dark Arts and you have got exactly two minutes and forty eight seconds. I would recommend you take the wishing stairs. They are 5 meters to the left in an angle of exactly 90 degrees from your current facial position. Have a good day, sir."
Draco sharply turned left and saw the wishing stairs. Very few students knew about these particular stairs. They had a tendency to appear and disappear whenever they wanted, making it absolutely impossible to find them, without some sort of tracking device or another. He was running towards the stairs and leaped onto the first step. He was just about to give his directions to the stairs, when someone hopped on next to him and commanded:
"Second Floor!"
"What the fuck? I'm already late and I was here first."
He turned around and felt his head pounding with a new wave of pain. It was quite unsettling, how every time he got near her, his headaches gotworse.Why of all people, must it be her? But none of this could be seen on his face. His father had always said that every conversation was like a duel. Show your weakness and you get killed. The stairs had started moving.
"You are going to make me late and Professor Narva doesn't like tardy students. That means that I will get detention."
"You are not the only one trying to avoid being late" snapped Ginny irritably.
Draco looked her straight in the eyes, smirked and with one quick movement snatched her hair, which was conveniantly covering one side of her face. He pushed the strands of hair behind her ear, revealing a purplish mark.
"You should have kept it cold a little longer. Now it will take more time to heal." He inspected the bruise, poking it a bit.
"Ouch! Don't do that. I wanted to thank you anyway, for the help you gave me. And I'm extremely grateful as well, that you didn't mention the little scene to anybody."
She inspected his face, that was only a hand span away. Accentuated cheekbones, a straight noseanda thin mouthwere seperating the sharp planes of clear skin. His eyes, which were currently inspecting her bruised cheek, were clear blue. Strands of hair, a bit too long to her liking were framing his head like a silver halo. But when he heard her voice he took a step back, disdain flitting across his face for a brief moment.
"If you think I didn't tell, just so Potter could still uphold his shining image of a noble citizen, then you are gravely mistaking."
"No. I don't care what happens to that bastard. All I care about is my reputation. I don't want the school to talk about me as if I was some sex-obsessed bitch."
She drew her hair down, so that it covered her face again. The stairs stopped moving. Ginny nimbly jumped of and walked down the hallway. Draco watched her open a door, apologize and walk in. She should have been sorted into Slytherin.
"Mister Malfoy, you are five minutes behind your schedule."
His watch snapped him back out of his reverie. He barked at the stairs and ran down the hallway of the third floor, to get to his classroom. He stood in front of the door, tried to calm his breathing and walked in. Professor Narva was in the process of explaining the different kinds of curses they would practice today. She shot him one scrutinizing look and continued with the lecture.
The students, who were mostly Gryffindor, were watching his every move. The looks he received ranged from displeased to hateful. Ignoring this, Draco took up his seat at the back of the class.
Today's lecture was aboutwhat counter curses were most efficient against differentcurses:
"…the bleeding curses are easy to perform but are very hard to target. Blocking them with the protection charm we have learned last lesson will deflect the worst ones. As you know smaller curses, like the clover-curse, can easily pierce that barrier. Now please stand up, so I can clear the room for practice. No duels, just curse and the counter-curse. Potter and Weasley, Granger and Malfoy, Finnegan and Muller. Mister Creevey, you will be practicing with me. Go on now!"
"Professor, why do you always team Malfoy up with me?"
"Miss Granger, any further references to my ability as teacher or to that stupid house feud of yours will cost you twenty points from your house."
"It's not that. I just don't like him."
"Well, I don't care. You two are the best students in my class and if youpractice witheach other, then you have a challenge to face. Now get going, we don't have much time."
Draco saw Granger drop her head slightly. She looked over to where he was standing, squared her shoulders and purposefully walked over to him. Once near him, she hissed, so that only he could hear:
"You are only good at this, because your father wanted to prepare you for your glorious career as a maniac killer." Draco's eyes thinned like a snake's, letting only a gleam of hatred filter through his blonde lashes.
"Keep my father out of this you rotten Mudblood, or face the consequences."
Both opponents saluted sharply and moved five paces into opposite directions. Draco had barely turned around when Hermione launched her first curse. Draco blocked it easily with a casual flick of his wand. He then fired three curses in short interval.
His father had trained him personaly, directly passing on the knowledge of one of the fiercest duelists of the wizarding world. For example the ability to fire curses and counter curses without the need to pronounce them. He just had to concentrate on his wand and think of the curse he wanted to use.
Granger had been his partner in Advanced DADA for a long time, so she knew about it and could counter, albeit with some difficulty. But this time she didn't expect so many curses nor in such a quick succession. She barely had time to pronounce the counter curse, when Draco's first curse hit her. Obviously she hadn't concentrated, because the near-invisible wall surrounding her wavered. And as the second curse hit, it vanished completely, driving her three feet back. The third curse wasaimed straight at her heart. Daco saw her eyes widen, realization hitting her, that this could be her last breath she ever expelled. He quickly drew his hand upwards, changing the direction of the curse. The curse flew past her, taking out a whole bunch of her curly hair in the process. Draco started forward, wanting to make sure, that the girl standing in front of him was whole.
"Holy shit! Are you alr… Hey!" The first clover shaped streak of light passed annoyingly close to his eye, cutting his ear and shearing some of his own hair.
"Epessa!" Draco screamed just in time. A thick shield of purple smoke swallowed the remaining three streaks of light.
"Are you mad? Did you want to kill me?" Draco strode towards Hermione anger enveloping him like a sacred fire.
He grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her violently letting her go suddenly. With every sense of balance shaken from her, she landed on the floor, letting out a shriek of surprise. Suddenly Potter was standing in front of him, shielding his girlfriend. He pushed Draco back, his right hand forming a fist, ready to strike. But before he could do anything, Draco saw his opponent being swallowed by a gigantic bubble and go slack. He was about to make a snide comment, when he noticed that he himself was encompassed in the same sort of strength-draining bubble. Professor Narva was kneeling next to Hermione, who was massaging a quickly swelling wrist. She had probably strained it when shelanded. The professor straightened and with a flick of her wand made the bubbles disappear. Draco and Harry fell down simultaneously. They were both breathing heavily. Black spots were dancing in front of Draco's eyes and through them he saw the floor tilting crazily. He focused on something stable and started to feel better already.
"Potter, Granger, Malfoy explain yourselves!" snapped the Professor.
Draco filled his constricted lungs with air as best as he could, before launching into his explanatory protocol:
"Just like youtold us to do,we practiced the curse and counter curse, which were subject of this lesson. I threw a few curses at my partner, which she should have been able to block. But she didn't. She especially had trouble with the last one, so I tried to charge its trajectory. It still caught her hair. This probably pissed her of. I was just about to investigate after her wellbeing, when she started hitting me with the clover curse. I was taken by surprise, so it took me some time to activate the right defense curse. I used the Epessa-shield. As you have taught us, it is the most efficient protection against shredding curses, the clover curse being one of them. I lost a good deal of my own hair and got a nasty gash on my ear. Here you must agree that without my fathers tutelage I would never had been able to distract the curse, nor build up the right defenses as quickly as I did. This confrontation could have easily ended with the death of one or even both of us. Knowing the full extent of injuries we could have suffered from, I got angry and pushed her a little harder then I should have. That's when this prick attacked me, causing you to interfere."
"Is this true Miss Granger? You attacked Mister Malfoy with the clover curse after I had forbidden it?" Hermione who was still kneeling on the floor looked extremely uncomfortable. To make matters even worse, her eyes filled with tears and a sob broke from her throat.
"I ... I'm sorry. I didn't want to, but I … " Her voice was shaking so badly, that she couldn't even formulate one sentence.
"Shut up!" Harry stood up and jerked Hermione to her feet. She was so shocked about Harry's behavior, that she went rigid, unable to move. Her eyes were round,making agood impression of a deer caught in the headlights. But she wasn't the only one staring at Harry. Nobody had ever seen Harry act so forcefully and they were clearly frightened. Only one person was wearing a different expression. Draco's eyes half closed, giving him the allure of some sort ofpredatory animal, as he observed the incomprehension grow amongst his classmates. All of a sudden Harry let go of his girlfriend, finally noticing the stares he was receiving. It took him a few seconds to completely perceive the situation. Then he lifted his head and looked at every single student as if challenging them. Draco also felt the fiery stare scorch him but didn't betray any other feelings then hate. Harry took a few deep breaths and started talking:
"We can't start losing control now. Probably most of youknow what happened this summer. Rumors are circulating, but I will tell you the truth. I killed twenty eight people in one night. I was kidnapped and taken to a place completely unknown to me. They were twenty nine. One got away. It was Voldemort. He sacrificed all his deatheaters and then fled gravely wounded after our confrontation. Some might call me a murderer or a psychopath but I know that all the men that I killed were bad. Lusting for power, ready to give up everything just to have more. So if you judge me, don't forget to judge the people that forced me into these actions." A heavy silence ensued. Draco felt his whole body shaking, all the hate welling up in him and a red haze blurring his vision. When he opened his mouth to speak, his voice was surprisingly even and as sharp as a razor blade.
"Never talk about such things, assuming you comprehend the feelings of those involved. And if are trying to lift our spirits for this lesson, try not to get too political about it. Don't forget, some might not share your ideals and would prefer to see you die slowly, painfully. I wonder what people will say then. But I know exactly what I will say and trust me, I won't have any problem at all revealingmy partin makingyou suffer before ending your useless life!"
Draco turned towards the professor. She was looking at him, as if he had sprouted another head. Never had she heard such a young person talk with so muchhatred. His classmates were equally shocked. Draco didn't dare look at Harry after what he himself had said, fearing he would tearthe fucking Halfbloodapart, now that he had unleashed all of his hatred.
"With your permission I will leave this class now. I wish you a good day." He grabbed his book bag and stormed out of the classroom, head held high. Nobody tried to stop him.