"Whose brilliant idea was it to give us History of Magic so early in the morning?" I yawned as we walked out of our first class of the day. I stretched a little in an attempt to drive away my fatigue. Daphne giggled at me and flipped her hair. She did that so often I hardly ever noticed.
"What is the big deal? He's not even paying attention to the class. Just do something else with the time," she suggested as she turned for the stairs. We had Care of Magical Creatures next, which would hopefully aid in waking me up.
"She does; have you not seen her sleeping" Theo commented with a smirk. I gave him a tired look in reply and just rubbed my eyes.
"Or heard her snoring" Draco added following after him. I hit him in the stomach as others laughed at his comment.
"I don't snore" I stated and crossed my arms. Draco simply smirked at me as we turned onto the next set of stairs.
"Are you sure about that, because I know I heard some sort of growling near me."
"Shut up Blaise" I glared as we reached yet another set of stairs on our path to the ground floor. Whoever decided to give us History of Magic this early must have been the same genius who was making us have our next class so far away.
"I know I heard it in the morning," Pansy sneered at me. "For someone so feeble you sound an awful lot like a manticore"
"Shut it" I warned her with a look. Draco put a hand on my head and smiled down at me.
"Which are you more upset about? Is it our comments on your height or your surprisingly loud nature?"
"Keep talking and someone is going to get hurt" I snapped at him. The rest of them laughed as we finally made it to the ground floor.
"Whatever you say, Volkov" Blaise teased as he separated himself from our group. "Have fun in class" he smirked and walked to the stairs of the dungeon. We waved at him and the others began to head out of the Entrance Hall towards the grounds. But I didn't move.
"What is it?" Theodore asked noticing my pensive stance in the hall. "You're not really upset are you?"
"No, but I'm going to go down to the dungeon" I said looking over to where Blaise had gone.
"You skipping class?" Draco asked sounding like he would gladly join me if I was. I smiled at him and shook my head.
"I think I'm going to go get Lev. He hasn't been out in a while and a roam around the grounds might be good for him" I answered. Draco huffed in disappointment as Theo gave me a slightly nervous look.
"You sure that's a good idea?" Theo asked me. I shrugged in reply.
"No but if I don't take him out soon he's going to start getting restless, and that's not a good idea either" I reminded him. Draco and Theo made a face making Daphne giggle next to them.
"Want me to go with you?" Draco offered ignoring her.
"She's not the brightest candle in the bunch but I'm sure she knows where our room is" Pansy muttered to herself. I decided to let that comment slide.
"It's okay, you go on ahead" I replied. He nodded and they started walking out. Just before Draco got too far I grabbed his robes and pulled him back a little. He looked back at me curiously. "Don't start any trouble while I'm gone"
Without a single word Draco gave me one of his usual grins and walked out with the rest.
I started towards the stairs to dungeon. Lev liked laying around as much as anyone else but if he didn't get the proper exercise he got restless. With winter coming we had to take advantage of the grounds while we still could. Soon enough the weather would be filled with rain and snow. And as much as I loved that sort of weather it wasn't good when on a walk with your impatient puppy so taking one now would do him good. But just before reaching the stairs I heard someone call for me.
"Kitty!" Behind me I saw one of the twins walking down the main stairs. I couldn't tell which one of them it was. Normally I didn't give it a second thought but I had been rubbing my eyes enough in History of Magic that it blurred my vision slightly. And yet another reason to dislike that class showed itself.
"Hey" I smiled as he got nearer. I tried not to squint as I tried to find out which of the two it was.
"Can we talk?" he asked.
"Yeah, sure. Where's George?" I asked noting who it was. I always found it unusually when they weren't together. Fred looked a little anxious to have me ask that. Instead of responding he looked around and sighed. I frowned a little noticing he hadn't answered my question. He walked me over against a corner, near where the hall to the kitchen was. "What is it?"
"It's just... He's not going to be happy I told you but what else can I do" Fred mumbled almost as if to himself.
"Who won't be happy about what?" I asked frowning a little more.
"He's been putting it off for way too long; it's his own fault."
"Fred" I called so he would look at me. He did, shook his head, and sighed again.
"Look, Kitty… I wouldn't normally do this but… The thing is George—" Fred's sentence was cut short as someone pulled him past me and around the corner, into the hall and out of my sight. I heard rustling and some sort of shuffling from them. I leaned in a little from curiosity but leaned back when someone came around the corner. It looked exactly like Fred, except…
"Hey Kitty, shouldn't you be in class?" George asked casually leaning against the wall as if nothing had happened.
"It's not for another little while... Where did Fred go?" I asked trying to lean in to look in the hall again but George blocked my view. When I looked back at him he pretended as if he hadn't just done that.
"Oh, him? He had to go, don't worry about it" George smiled though I didn't quite believe him.
"Okay I guess…"
"Anyway, you—"
Before he could finish his sentence George was pulled by the back of his robes into the hall. Again I heard rustling and again someone who looked exactly like him took his place.
"Kitty," said Fred, breathing a little heavily. "Look, you need to know, George—"
Again the same scene repeated itself. This time I heard a thud in between the rustling. From the hall George appeared, his hair starting to look a bit messy. But still he casually leaned against wall in front of me as if nothing was wrong.
"Don't mind him. So you were saying, about your class" George inclined either not noticing or choosing to ignore my clear confusion on the current situation. Before I could even think to answer George was pulled from behind and fell to the floor. This time not far enough to hide from my view. Fred stepped over him but George pulled at him down along with him.
"Would you quit putting this off!"
"Would you quit telling me what to do!"
"Are you two okay?" I asked them getting a little worried. Both of their heads snapped to me. George got back up quickly and put a hand over his brother's mouth. Fred tried to elbow him away but George kept his grasp. Somehow this scene looked familiar.
"Kitty, give us a minute would you?" George smiled as he struggled to drag his brother from view.
"Sure?" I answered though I was still very much confused. But, in all honesty, I doubted I would ever stop being surprised by those two.
I heard muffled arguing from them but no clear words. As I waited for them to finish I thought about Care of Magical Creatures. It was probably going to start soon and I didn't want to be late. Already it was too late for me to go get Lev. I would just have to take him on a walk after lunch or something. It was probably for the best, considering the trouble that might start if we were dealing with the Blast-Ended Skrewts again.
"Guys?" I called peeking around the corner.
"Yeah?" they both answered but I didn't see them, not right away. I looked down to find they were on the floor and looking a little wrecked. I had to stifle a giggle at the mess they had made of themselves.
"Uh, I have to go to class now. Mind if we talk another time?"
"But—"
"Yes, of course, it can wait" George smiled, interrupting his brother. He hurried up and over to me, patting my head when he reached me. "You be a good girl and head to class now."
I wasn't sure what that was all about but I would deal with it later. George smiled happily at me but that didn't hide his obvious attempt to keep his brother out of my sight. Something was going on between them, of that I was sure, but I really needed to head to class. I waved goodbye at them and headed out.
"Take this thing for a walk?" I got back in time to hear Draco's latest complaint. I shook my head and sighed at him. "And where exactly are we supposed to fix the leash? Around the sting, the blasting end, or the sucker?"
"Roun' the middle," Hagrid replied and demonstrated on one of the skrewts. "Er - yeh might want ter put on yer dragon-hide gloves, jus' as an extra precaution, like. Harry—you come here an' help me with this big one..."
Harry walked over to him as I went and joined my fellow Slytherins.
"What happened with your mutt? Come to your senses and realized what a demon it is?" Draco asked. I rolled my eyes at the remark but answered anyway.
"I decided I'll just take him for a walk after lunch. It would be too distracting to bring him here."
"It would make more sense than to bring yet another dangerous creature into the class" Theo commented with a nod to himself.
"I don't know what all of you are always complaining about; I think Lev is sweet" Daphne smiled next to him. Most everyone frowned as Daphne and I laughed.
"So what are we doing today?" I ask looking as students unenthusiastically gathered around the Blast-Ended Skrewts.
"We have to walk them" Draco muttered with a scowl on his face. Theodore motioned over to the skrewts with a look of annoyance.
"Apparently they keep killing each other because they have too much pent up energy" Theo explained. "So, naturally, our professor finds the solution to that is to endanger his students so that maybe they will become less violent."
"Naturally" I repeated and he smirked at me. It took a little while, seeing as no one was rushing to do it, but eventually we all had our own skrewt to look after. Next we were all given a leash to try to tie on them. For some it was easier than others.
"You know this might not be so bad" I said as I finished adjusting the strap on my skrewt.
"Only you would be mad enough to say that" Pansy scoffed as she struggled to get hers on her leash. I laughed a little at her struggle making her glower at me in return.
"I think I'm going to call her Shelly" I smiled patting my skrewt's shell.
"Why are you like this?" Draco complained with a sigh next to me.
"Like what?" I frowned, reaching to stroke her shell again.
"Don't touch it!"
"Her" I corrected him. He rolled his eyes and frowned at me.
"Why are you always going after things that will inevitably kill you?" he whined shaking his head as if I was beyond reason. I rolled my eyes at him.
"First of all Shelly won't kill me; at most she'll suck out my blood—"
"Oh much better" he muttered sarcastically and interrupting me. I chose to ignore his tone.
"Secondly, when do I ever do things that kill me? I'm clearly alive" I stated waving my arms around to prove a point. Daphne giggled and shook her head at me.
"He's right though. Whenever you go near magical creature you go a little mad"
"See?" Draco smiled happily, having turned my own friend against me.
"Although, Draco, you can't really tell her what to do" Daphne continued with a sort of knowing smile. "It's not like you're her boyfriend or—"
"Shut up, Greengrass. Who asked you to butt in anyway" Draco interrupted before she could go on and walked off, dragging his skrewt behind him.
"What's with him?" I asked watching Pansy as she followed quickly after him, almost forgetting her own skrewt in the process.
"Do you think it was something I said" Daphne asked Theo innocently, batting her eyelashes. He didn't answer but instead just laughed and looked at the two departing Slytherins. I sighed and shrugged not understanding the joke.
"Well I'll be taking Shelly here for a walk. If you need me I'll be over there" I said pointing to a currently unoccupied patch of land. They both nodded, though Theo looked like he still had some laughter in him. I tugged lightly on Shelly's leash and she followed after me obediently.
I didn't have much trouble with Shelly. Every now and then she would stray a bit from my path but it wasn't anything I wasn't used to dealing with. Lev was the same way whenever I had him on a leash. But it wasn't often; I only did it on the occasional trip to Diagon Alley. My father didn't like me going out alone, for fear of something happening to his only heir I assumed, but I hated being supervised like a child. So as comprise we agreed I needed to have one or more people accompany me, but it had to be someone of my choosing. Because of that last part it was usually either Alla, Draco, or Lev.
As we got further into the class Shelly started getting a little more restless. I didn't blame her; if I was forced on a leash I would probably do the same thing, or worse. Shelly pulled away suddenly, dragging me along with her. I pulled on her leash stopping her, which was lucky for a certain someone whom she had almost attacked. No doubt Ron would have thought I had told her to do it.
"Hi" Hermione greeted next to him. I waved at her making sure to keep my grip on Shelly so she didn't pull away.
"What" Ron snapped at me annoyed. But if that annoyance was caused by me or someone else I wasn't sure. Normally he waited for me to speak before deciding to be a pain so I figured it was the latter. Either way I ignored it.
"Having a better time with yours I see" Hermione mumbled as she struggled with her skrewt, pulling from its leash. Mine was nudging at the ground rather calmly.
"I have a knack for dealing with dangerous creatures I suppose" I smiled at her. Ron made a face but again I ignored it.
"Yes you do" said Hermione, frowning at why she couldn't get hers to behave as well as Shelly was at the moment.
"Well maybe Shelly is just calmer" I offered.
"Shelly?" Both asked at the same time. I smiled at them and nodded.
"Yes, Shelly. She has a shell and she is a girl so I thought it was appropriate" I shrugged making Ron roll his eyes at me.
"Bloody brilliant you are" he remarked sarcastically. With a sigh I turned to look at him.
"Well isn't someone just a ray of sunshine today" I smiled not wanting to start an argument with him.
Ron mumbled something I was pretty sure I didn't want to hear and let his skrewt pull him away from Hermione and I without another comment.
"Are you two having a fight again?" I asked looking back to Hermione
"No, not with me" Hermione sighed looking back from Ron to look at her skrewt.
"He and Harry then?" I asked and she nodded in reply. It seemed her, Harry, and Ron fought just as much as Draco and I did. Well maybe not as much; I doubt their friendship could withstand that amount of arguing. But it was still nice to know we weren't too dysfunctional in our relationship. "What is it about this time?"
"The champion thing" Hermione answered, looking to make sure neither was listening as she did. They didn't like her sharing anything with me.
"Oh, he's jealous then." I wasn't asking a question. Ron had a very superficial personality so it seemed logical he would react that way. Then again I'm sure anyone would get tired of constantly being overshadowed by their best friend.
"Yeah... I'd say so…" Hermione mumbled.
"I'm sure a lot of people are" I mentioned trying to make light of the situation. She looked worried and I didn't like it.
"Hey you're good at getting people to do what you want them to, right?" she asked, suddenly reminded of the fact.
"I am" I nodded but smiled at how she could make manipulation sound so much nicer.
"How can I get them to speak to each other?"
Hermione sounded hopeful for an answer. I smiled solemnly at her. I could easily teach her how to trick the two into making nice again but I didn't want to. It's not that I minded teaching her, if anyone could learn how it was Hermione, but… Once you started on that sort of thing it's kind of hard to stop. Knowing you could get most everyone to do most anything for you with something as simple as word placement… it could get addicting. She was a sweet person and I didn't want to take that from her. But she wanted an answer so I sighed and gave her one.
"I'd say by not intruding too much" I shrugged hoping she'd buy that.
"How will that help?" she asked curiously. I smiled a little relieved and made something up.
"Boys have a lot of pride. If you push to help they'll think that you think that they can't do it themselves; they'll get upset and defensive. I mean they obviously can't do it themselves or else there wouldn't be a problem in the first place but that doesn't mean they have to know that. "
"So just don't push too much" she muttered to herself. I nodded. Technically it had been somewhat true but it wasn't the most effective way to get results. Still, it would be enough to keep her thinking she was doing something when in reality they would just be working things out themselves.
"If you push them then they'll just get upset with you too. Remind them they're being stupid every once in a while but if you do it too much their 'man pride' will be hurt. Just try to keep it from turning physical and their problem will resolve. That's all you have to do."
"Boys are stupid" Hermione sighed at me, shaking her head.
"I agree" I smiled at her and she smiled back.
I left her soon after to continue to walk Shelly. A little ways away Draco stood without his skrewt, having handed him off to Crabbe and Goyle. I shook my head at him as I got closer.
"What were you talking to the mudblood about?" he grumbled when I reached him.
"Don't call her that, you know I don't like that. Not that you'll listen but I just thought I would remind you" I mumbled as he smirked at me.
"What was it?" he repeated coming to stand by my side. Shelly walked ahead as Draco and I followed.
"We were talking about how stupid boys are" I smiled back at him. He rolled his eyes at me
"Really" he said sarcastically
"Yes, really, right Shelly?" I called to her. She ignored me and moved us to a patch of grass that looked a little greener than the rest.
"If that's true then how come Nott gets higher marks than you?" he grinned smugly at me.
"Notice how you couldn't use yourself as an example" I replied making his smugness fade. I giggled earning me a look from him. "The reason for that would be my grade in History of Magic needing some improvement. That and he's taking Divinations, which Theo has admitted one doesn't even have to try in and the professor will still give high marks. I on the other hand take Arithmancy, an actually challenging course, along with an extra class, Study of Ancient Runes. That is the reason he has a slightly higher average than me"
"Why do you take every question so seriously?" he asked in a tone mixed between amusement and annoyance.
"Because that's what intellectuals do"
"You are such a nerd" he laughed making me stick out my tongue at him.
"I may be a nerd but at least I don't constantly need help in my classes" I replied with an innocent smile.
"Shut up" he glared at me.
"Also, if I wasn't, you wouldn't be passing most of your classes" I reminded him with the same smile on my face.
"Shut up" he snapped at me. I giggled at how seriously he took the most meaningless things. "And I would still be passing."
"Sure you would" I cooed patting his shoulder which he did not appreciate.
"Don't look down on me when you need a ladder just to be at my level" he teased purposely leaning down to look at me. I smiled knowing that he always resorted to those sorts of remarks when he was running out of ideas.
"Height wise, yes, but with everything else, not so much" I teased back batting my eyelashes at him. He scowled at me again.
"Seriously, shut up."
"Looks like someone is a grumpy Deedee" I cooed and reached over to squish his cheeks together. He didn't appreciate that either. Instead he growled a little and pulled away from me.
"I'm leaving" he sighed and started walking away.
"Aww you're no fun" I teased but he kept walking.
"Enjoy your time with your latest beast" he called without looking at me.
"Coward!" I called back with a laugh. Draco pretended not to hear and walked back to his friends. I giggled a little to myself. He was really adorable when he wasn't being an insufferable and hardheaded brat. But then again that's probably the same thing he said about me. Great minds think alike after all.