Chapter 3
When Things Go Too Far
The week had been dragging on for Harry, between the detentions and the partnerships in Potions class, tension between the Slytherins and the Gryffindors was crackling and everyone in the castle could feel it. Arguments broke out violently but before anything got too out of hand, someone always intervened. The whole situation was making Harry very uneasy and he woke up on Thursday morning with a feeling of dread in his stomach. Obviously something was going to happen that he wasn't going to like.
Ignoring his uneasiness he got up and went about his daily routine, and pretty soon they were all in the Great Hall eating breakfast and dreading the day. Today they had Double Potions right after breakfast, and afterwards they had DADA (also with the Slytherins) and then they had to go back to Potions because it was Thursday, and every Thursday they had three Potions classes.
"That fucking bitch!" Ginny exclaimed as she sat down and shot daggers over at the Slytherin table.
"What's wrong Gin?" Hermione and Harry asked in unison.
Ginny sighed and looked over to her friends. "Tara Flint is the problem. That fucking bitch is trying to move in on my girlfriend. Yesterday she was 'so nice' to help Padma out of her wet shirt. And today she was flirting with her near the doors to here, touching her hair and smiling, touching her shoulders, I know all the goddamn signs!" Ginny said in frustration as she started ripping apart her napkin.
"I'm sure it was nothing." Ron replied, his mouth full of bacon.
Hermione glared at her boyfriend and quickly said something before Ginny ripped Ron a new arsehole. "Maybe you should speak to Padma about it."
"I did. She seems to think that Tara is just being friendly. Friendly my fucking arse, that bitch is trying to steal Padma away from me, and I will AK her ass before she succeeds."
Harry wrapped his arms around Ginny and rocked her slowly back and forth trying to calm the fiery redhead. "Gin, murder is not the way. I know you must be really angry right now, but you should talk to Padma and try and make her see it from your point of view." Harry said in a calm voice.
His tactic worked and Ginny visibly relaxed. She leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. "You're right. Thanks Harry." She said with a smile kissing his cheek. She got up and went to search for Padma so they could have their little chat.
"Good work Harry." Hermione praised as she patted his shoulder and went back to her breakfast.
"Think Snape will be merciful and forget about the partnerships for today?" Ron asked, a hopeful expression on his face.
"Don't hold your breath Ron." Harry answered.
"So how did it go?" Draco asked Pansy as he and Blaise sat down at the Breakfast table.
"It went well, I got everything and it's on its way to its destination." Pansy said with a self-satisfied smile.
"Brilliant! This is going to be so very entertaining." Draco replied with a smile as he started filling his plate up with food, and watching the windows, waiting for the morning post.
Neville sat at the Breakfast table, holding a conversation with Dean and Seamus. Last night had been brutal, before dinner Ron had exploded on him in the Common Room. Hermione and Harry had tried to calm the redhead down, but it didn't really do much help. At the end of it Ron finally said that if Neville was happy then he would leave it alone, but the minute the Slytherin did something to hurt Neville, that he would be the first one to say "I told you so."
"So have you and Bulstrode…. you know?" Seamus asked, making hand gestures to get his point across.
Neville turned red and shook his head. "No, I want to wait until our wedding night, and she seems to agree."
"Aw, come on Nev, you gotta be at least hitting that! Sure she's not the prettiest girl in the school, but damn!" Dean replied with a shake of his head.
"You gotta test drive the car before you buy it." Seamus replied with a laugh.
Neville rolled his eyes at his friends' antics and was happy when the morning post came. The owls distracted everyone, so he snuck a look over at the Slytherin table and saw Millicent looking back at him. She blew him a kiss and he smiled and mouthed, "I love you". She smiled back and turned to continue a conversation with someone at her table. Two rolls of parchment landed on his plate, which was luckily void of any food. He picked up the one that said, "Read this first" and opened it.
Longbottom,
This letter is to warn you of your girlfriend's little secrets that she has been keeping from you. You say you love her, but has she told you that she has been arranged to marry Marcus Flint since she was 9? Her and Marcus are destined to be together, and your little fling with her will not change that. Her parents will make sure of that.
If you do not believe me look at the accompanying letter, it's a copy of the signed contract that was officially put into motion on Millicent's 13th birthday. If you truly love her, you will make sure that she does not dishonor her parents, for if she does they will disown her and throw her out of her house, and she will be miserable. You live without your parents, so you can imagine how she would feel if her little affair with you cost her everything she held dear in her life. Think wisely Longbottom.
Neville picked up the next letter and quickly unrolled it, feeling the pain of betrayal slowly coiling around in his stomach.
This contract hereby assures the betrothal of Marcus Flint and Millicent Bulstrode. Their union will be honored when Millicent turns 18. The rules of this contract are as follows:
1. Millicent must be a virgin upon her wedding night with Marcus.
2. Marcus is allowed to sleep with as many girls as he chooses so he can be well experienced for his wife.
3. Millicent must not date anyone other than Marcus Flint.
This contract will be bonded by blood magic, and will not be broken unless one of these rules are in infraction. If so the parents of the rule breaker will give punishment of their own choosing. Everyone who bears witness to this contract and agrees with it's terms will sign their names on the lines given, afterwards the blood magic ceremony will begin.
Amy Bulstrode
William Bulstrode
Richard Flint
Karen Flint
Millicent Bulstrode
Marcus Flint
Neville angrily shoved the letters into his book bag and without a word to any one he left the Great Hall and went up to the Gryffindor Tower to be alone with his thoughts and his tears.
Harry watched Neville's retreated back and looked questioningly at his two best friends. "Do you have any idea what the hell that was about? He looked upset."
Hermione shook her head and looked over at the Slytherin Table, noticing Pansy's smile as she stared at the Great Hall doors that Neville just exited through. Hermione also noticed Millicent's confused and concerned expression and could only think that something really bad had just happened. And no matter what, she was going to get to the bottom of this.
"We should go to Potions, we don't want to be late, Snape will deduct more points, and we've been losing more points this week than we've earned. I do not see the House Cup going to us this year." Harry said as they stood and walked out of the Great Hall.
"Unless we stop You-Know-Who and his evil plans I don't think so either." Ron replied. Harry and Hermione rolled their eyes when Ron refused to say Voldemort's name, but they knew it would take a while before that happened.
Hermione heard loud laughter behind them and she turned to see Blaise, Pansy and Draco laughing about something and giving each other high fives. She knew they had something to do with what was wrong with Neville and she was going to find out exactly what the evil Slytherins had done.
Millicent quickly went up the stairs towards the Gryffindor Tower. Neville had shown her where the portrait was just incase there was an emergency. At the time she never thought she would use the knowledge of where the Lions slept, but she felt this was an emergency. She saw how Neville had looked when he fled the Great Hall, she saw him reading something that obviously upset him and she wanted to know what was wrong. She wanted to help her boyfriend in any way that she possibly could.
The fat lady in the portrait looked at Millicent with cold eyes. "Aren't you out of your territory?" The portrait asked.
"I'm looking for Neville, did he go in here?" Millicent asked, trying to be polite to the lady.
"Do you mean Longbottom?" The portrait asked.
"Do you know another Neville?" Millicent asked snidely. The portrait was getting on her nerves.
"Yes he went in, but you are not a Gryffindor and I will not allow you inside."
"I know that. I just hope it won't be any trouble for you to see if you can get the word to Neville that someone is waiting out here for him."
The portrait was silent for a moment before she nodded her head and disappeared from her frame. Millicent sighed as she shifted weight from one foot to another, she didn't know how long she would be waiting, but she was sure that she was going to be awfully late for Potions. Snape was going to ring her neck.
Draco looked around the classroom and noticed Millicent's absence. He wondered where she could be; no Slytherin in their right mind would be late for Snape's class because he could get very angry. The only person who got away with it was Draco, and that was only because Snape was his Godfather.
"You wouldn't happen to know what upset Neville this morning, do you Malfoy?" Harry asked as he copied his notes from the board.
Draco sneered at the boy. "If I did what makes you think I'd tell you? Believe it or not Potter, you don't scare me."
Harry looked over at the blonde and rolled his eyes. "Fine, but if I find out that you had anything to do with it, I'll make what Moody did to you seem like child's play."
Draco would never admit it to anyone, but at that moment Harry sounded dead serious. He sounded dark, threatening and sexy as hell. Draco gave him a snide look for good measure before he went back to copying his notes; glad that the Gryffindor couldn't read his thoughts.
Millicent didn't know how long she stood there but when the Portrait opened she was relived to notice Neville had indeed come out. But her happiness dissolved when she saw the dried tear stains on his face. "Oh, honey what happened?" She asked moving closer to him to touch his face, and she was shocked when he pulled away as if she burned him.
"Don't touch me." He said, his voice sounding tired and worn.
"Baby what's wrong? Are you ok? What happened?" Millicent asked, ignoring the pain she felt at his obvious anger towards her.
"What's wrong? Millie…you're fucking betrothed to Marcus Flint! When were you going to tell me this, huh? When you got kicked out of your house, or when we got married?" Neville asked angrily.
Millicent's eyes grew wide as she lowered her eyes to the ground. This could not be happening. She was trying to get out of that stupid contract, and her parents were thinking on letting her, but it would be a long process, and she had to try and be patient with them. She was hoping that she would never have to tell Neville because she didn't want him to think she had been deceitful. "How did you find out?"
"Someone who knew the whole thing sent me a letter with a copy of the fucking contract that you signed. Blood magic? Those are almost never unbreakable, how could you do this to me?"
"I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to hurt you. I have been trying to get out of it and my parents are just a little hard to work with, but I am sure that I could get them to break the contract in a few more months."
"Bullshit! If so, you should have told me. You said we had no secrets between us you lied to me! What else have you lied to me about Millie? What fucking else! Are you even a virgin? Have you been sleeping around with Flint and telling him all about the stupid Gryffindor that fell in love with you and had plans on marrying you? Had a good laugh with him about it right?"
"No! It wasn't like that! I love you, only you. I never even liked Flint, and I most certainly never slept with him or anybody. Neville I want to be with you and only you." Millicent said hugging the boy and planting a kiss on his lips.
Neville seemed to be giving in but before she knew what happened he pushed her off of him so hard that she fell to the floor. She stood up and looked at him with disbelief. "I never want you to touch me again. It's over Millicent, don't even bother trying to talk to me cause I'm sure anything you say are more lies. Leave me alone!"
"Oh Nevie, baby please you can't mean that!" Millicent cried as she tried to move forward to him but he held out a hand and stepped back.
"I mean every word. We're through Millicent. I never want to speak to you again." And with that said he stepped back inside the Common Room and the portrait closed.
"Neville!" She screamed as she banged on the portrait hoping he would come back out but he didn't. Millicent let a heart-wrenching sob escape her and she turned on her heel and raced down the stairs heading towards the Slytherin Common Room where she could cry in peace.
As the day progressed Millicent and Neville's absence was wildly noted. After DADA the group trooped back to Potions, and Hermione was going to get to the bottom of the whole thing even if it killed her. Near the end of Potions, when they were packing up their stuff Hermione looked over at Pansy and pursed her lips in a straight line, resembling Minerva for a quick second.
"Parkinson, what did you do to Neville?" She asked, arms folded across her chest.
Pansy looked up from stuffing her book into her book bag, she took her sweet time zipping it up and putting it on her back. "I don't think that's any of your business." Pansy said pushing past the girl just as the bell rang. The class quickly tried to make a break out of the classroom and because of this Hermione and Pansy were separated.
When Hermione finally got out of the classroom she saw Pansy walking ahead with Blaise and Draco. Ron and Harry started towards their friend only for her to take off down the hallway in hot pursuit of the Slytherins.
"Hermione!" Harry and Ron called, but she paid them no attention as she hurried up the stairs and after Pansy. After two landings she finally caught up to them and grabbed Pansy's arm.
"You're going to tell me what you did to Neville. Tell me right now! You have no right butting into his personal life!" Hermione yelled.
Pansy yanked her arm away from the girl and looked at her with distaste. "Oh great now I have to burn these robes. I have scent of a Mudblood all over them now." Pansy said with a sneer.
Hermione made a frustrated noise and punched Pansy hard in the jaw. Pansy fell back into Blaise's arms from the impact. She touched her face, looked at Hermione with pure hatred and launched herself at the girl. It wasn't long until they were slapping and punching each other banging into students and the banisters. They were dangerously close to the stairs and it was a relief when Hermione pushed Pansy away from her and stepped forward.
"You fucking bitch! You pulled out my hair!" Pansy screamed when she saw strands of blonde hair in Hermione's hands.
"Hermione!" Ron and Harry called, they were coming up the first landing.
"Oops sorry!" Hermione said with a mock apologizing look. "I guess your hair just isn't strong enough."
Pansy struck out wildly and Hermione jerked back quickly to avoid getting hit. But she moved back too much and her foot slipped and she tumbled down the stairs. Her scream echoed throughout the halls as she fell. Everyone that had stood back to watch the confrontation gasped and screamed at the falling body and Ron and Harry stopped dead in their tracks when Hermione's body landed at their feet at the end of the second landing. She laid in a pull of blood and Ron looked down at her in shock.
Harry quickly pulled the girl onto his lap, ignoring the blood that he was instantly covered in, and checked her pulse. "Someone get help! Someone call Pomfrey! Hermione, hang on, please hang on!"
A/N: Hope you guys liked this chapter, it was interesting to write. Please leave a review, and I hope you guys like the pace of the story, if you feel that I am doing something wrong or I can make some characters stand out more, or anything you have to say, you can tell me it would be nice to hear your thoughts. The next chapter will be up soon, Peace!