Chapter 7: Dancing With Draco

That morning the Daily Prophet arrived with a large and formidable headline: "Twenty Ministry Officials Disappear" with a picture of a rather frazzled looking Cornelius Fudge on the front. Hermione yanked open the front page.

"Oh my God."

Raven looked over from her orange juice. "What?"

"Look!"

Raven read, "The ministry is in a state of chaos as officials try to discover the mystery of the missing wizards. As of last night, twenty ministry officials disappeared from their homes."

"Bloody hell! Is my dad alright?" Ron's eyes widened in fear. Hermione quickly scanned the list of missing wizards and witches.

"No. He's fine. I reckon your mum would've sent you a letter anyway."

Harry took the paper from Raven's hands. "What do you think happened to them?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "What do you think? Voldemort, of course." Ron winced at the name; he was the only member of the group who had not come to terms with the saying of the Dark Lord's name.

Meanwhile, Harry was rifling through the pages of the paper. He got to another page, and then gasped. "They've taken a teacher! From Hogwarts!"

"What?" replied his friends in unison.

"Yeah! Listen to this: 'The ministry officials are not the only who have gone missing. Hogwarts' newest Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher, Professor Bloomingfield."

A dark, unsafe feeling settled over Raven. She was doing her job, but somehow felt that the Teen Titans were not protecting Hogwarts as they should be. She was sure that it would be mentioned, however, as she glanced up at the teacher's table to see that, in confirmation, Professor Bloomingfield was not there. She looked at her friends. Harry's face was extremely troubled, as if he felt as unsafe as she. Hermione looked equally shocked, although Raven guessed that this was more having a teacher disappear than the fact that someone disappeared, and that the lessons would be off. Ron, however, looked positively gleeful. This was because, although Hogwarts had been infiltrated, Ron had particularly been picked on by the missing professor, and had gone through considerable bouts of copious weeping because of her, or so she had been told by Harry.

Sure enough, Dumbledore stepped to the podium in front of the great hall.

"Students of Hogwarts! I have some dreadful news. Your professor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Bloomingfield, has been… kidnapped."

A gasp could be heard throughout the hall, and although some students had the same reaction as Ron, it was easy to see that everyone was frightened by this sudden breach of their safety.

"Luckily, we can rest easy knowing that many Ministry officials are on the case to find this missing teacher, and the rest of the missing Ministry workers who have also gone missing. Also, know that Hogwarts itself has not been breached. Professor Bloomingfield was out at the Hog's Head last night, having a nightly firewhisky. She was last seen leaving the shop, and never returned to Hogwarts. Let me make myself clear: She was not taken from Hogwarts. As of now, being in Hogwarts is not a danger. Please let us have a moment of silence for the hope of a safe return of the Professor."

The school fell silent. Not a single voice was heard, as students wished not only for the safety of the professor, but for the school and themselves.

The Gryffindor 6th year's Charms class that day was particularly drab. They spent the entire day learning wind charms, which would thrust a bout of wind out of the tip of a wand which would travel until it hit the nearest wall with a gentle whoosh. Hermione, of course, had already perfected the spell. Raven and Harry were close seconds, tying and getting the spell right at the same time, while Ron continued to only produce a gentle breeze.

"Spiritus!" "SPEEritus!" "SpirITus!" "Spyrytis!"

Hermione grew annoyed and chastised Ron for not getting it right. She went over to him and gently guided his hand to the target they were practicing on, slowly murmuring the incantation in his ear, as he repeated it.

Raven was preoccupied with her thoughts. How could they let this happen? She couldn't help but be angry at herself and her teammates for not keeping a closer eye on all the teachers.

Since they had this class with the Slytherins, Malfoy was using it as an excuse to shoot bouts of wind at unsuspecting girls' skirts, snickering as they flew up and as the girls tried vainly to cover themselves. Malfoy caught sight of Raven talking to Harry, and moved closer to her to get a good shot.

"SpIRitus!"

The spell flew forward and hit Raven's skirt, sending it upwards. Malfoy, unfortunately, did not get a good glimpse of anything because Raven's lightning fast reflexes pushed her skirt down with her left hand and had her wand pointed towards him with her right.

Harry, however, had been faster, and had his wand underneath Malfoy's chin.

Raven's purple eyes were flashing fiercely with rage.

"You. Are. Dead."

Malfoy's eyes widened with fear, and Harry touched her arm. "Raven, it's okay. He's too low. Don't give him such a quick escape."

Raven, still burning with anger, snatched her arm away. "I'm fine!" she snapped. "I can take care of myself."

Harry moved back, hurt, but didn't say anything. He moved his eyes instead to Malfoy, who although still looked as scared as hell, had a slightly mocking smirk on his face.

"Sorry, Potter."

Raven glared at him.

"He's right. You're too low." And with that, she turned and stalked out of the classroom, giving the excuse to Professor Flitwick that she had to use the bathroom.

Malfoy turned to Harry.

"You're pathetic. Have to take orders from a girl. Disgusting."

Draco smirked at him and turned away to find another less scary prey.

Hermione and Ron, who had just witnessed the scene, turned to Harry.

"What was that all about?" asked Ron. "Why did she do that? I know Malfoy was being a son of a bitch, but you didn't do anything!"

Hermione said nothing.

Harry shook his head. She was so unpredictable. She had been like this less lately, but whenever it happened it was with greater intensity. Sometimes when she was angry or moody, it was for no reason that he could see.

At the team meeting that evening in the Room of Requirement, all the members of the Teen Titans came together.

Robin looked around at his teammates.

"Okay. This is an emergency meeting. One of the teachers has been kidnapped. We should've been there to stop it."

Beast Boy interrupted. "How could we have done anything? She was outside the walls of the castle!"

"Beasty has a point," added Cyborg. "Since we're masquerading as students, we can't go outside the boundaries."

Robin clarified. "We may not have been able to prevent her kidnapping by directly guarding her, but we should've been more aware of the teachers. We've been focusing too much on the students. And we still have no leads on what exactly Voldemort is doing."

Cyborg interrupted. "Actually, BB and I found out one thing. Anybody know a kid named Draco Malfoy?"

Raven and Robin both answered, "Yeah?" and then glanced at each other.

"Well, he's the son of one of the Death Eaters. I hear one of Voldemort's closest men, too."

Raven gasped in realization. So this is why she could always feel such evil radiating off of the boy. It was in his blood.

As the team filed out to leave, Starfire and Robin stalled to pick up their items. Once everyone was gone, Robin turned to the girl.

"Uh, Star, you know the…um… ball?"

"Yes, Robin?" answered Starfire, her eyes wide with hope and anticipation.

"Uh…" Robin neglected to see this obvious apprehension, and asked, "Are you going with anyone?"

"No!"

"Oh, well, neither am I… and… uh…" He looked up to see Starfire staring at him, and realized that he had taken an uncanny and very obvious interest in his steel toed boots. "Never mind."

As Robin was finding the answers to the mysteries of life in the rivets of his boots, Starfire's eyes dimmed with disappointment. Robin moved quickly to leave, and Starfire stopped him by touching his shoulder.

"Robin?"

"Yeah, Star?"

"Would you go to the ball with me? We could have dancing and eating and fun!"

Robin's eyes lit up in happiness and a little humiliation at being such a coward.

"Of course!" He took her in his arms and hugged her, and they stood there in each other's embrace.

After a few minutes, they left, hand in hand.

Back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry and Raven again found themselves alone to think and read. Harry was fully aware that the ball was coming up soon, and realized that he had to ask her to the ball. He wasn't sure how to go about this, especially with the incident this morning in Charms, which he was still rather irked and hurt about. He looked over to see Raven immersed in a book.

"Raven?"

She looked up.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Um… what are you reading?"

"Oh… Green Angel. By Alice Hoffman. American author. You should read it. It's beautiful and sad. One of my favorite books."

She looked into his eyes with her purple ones. A connection formed between the two of them. Harry moved to see the back cover of the book where Raven was on the couch. He sat down next to her.

She read the passage she was reading to him.

"I was too shy to speak, but on my next birthday I would turn sixteen. Everything would change then. I would cast away my fears and step into my future. I would comb the tangles from my hair and wash the dirt away. When I walked through town, people would whisper, Is that Green? And I would say, Yes, it's me, I've been here all along, but you've been too blind to see."

She looked into his green eyes.

"Your eyes are green," she said, as if noticing for the first time.

"Yes," Harry replied.

"Green…" She repeated the last part of the passage. "Been too blind to see…"

At that moment, Harry was overwhelmed with his feelings. He drew her waist towards him and she obliged, almost subconsciously moving her arms to his neck and one of her hands to his hair. As she ran her fingers through his black hair, he pulled her back onto him, using one of fingers to draw her chin towards him and moving his mouth to hers. They kissed passionately, connecting in every way. They could feel each other think. She nipped at his bottom lip, and he moved his tongue into her mouth. Raven could feel herself spinning. She ran her hands up his chest, and he pulled her closer. Her hand brushed his scar.

They both felt the jolt, and sprung apart to opposite ends of the couch as if electricity had shocked them.

Raven sat motionless, staring at Harry with wide purple eyes. He looked back at her, equally surprised, and affected by the burn he had just felt. His body tingled for the touch of her again, but anger and frustration and hate boiled inside of him at his scar, his curse, and why she had made it hurt.

"What is it with you?"

Raven was shocked. This was the boy who had just opened her up, who had just kissed her with more passion than she had ever felt in her entire life. She felt as if her mind had been ripped open, all her secrets completely exposed. Not only had she been shocked by his passion, but by whatever force was held inside that scar, that boy, his mind.

"What the hell!"

"What is your problem?" Harry moved off the couch, standing and staring down at her.

"My problem? Weren't you the one just kissing me? What the hell are you talking about?" Raven got up to face him at eye level.

"What is your problem with touching people? Why do you shut people out so much!"

"Why are you so angry? What the fuck is your problem?"

"All of a sudden we're kissing, and I feel like we've connected, and then you move away from me. What is wrong with you?"

"What is wrong with me? I have no problem! You're the one who moved away!"

"You did too! I felt like I hated you!"

I must control my emotion, thought Raven. But this was hard after what had just happened. She felt herself give way to another outburst filled with sadness and rage. "Then why did you kiss me? You're such a bastard! I hate you! If you're going to be so romantic and kiss me, then you can't all of a sudden start yelling at me!"

"Then why do you have such a problem with people touching you?"

"What!"

"Yeah, and helping you! Like today, in Charms! I wanted to protect you! Malfoy's a fucking jerk! And yet you won't even let anyone in close enough to affect you!"

"What the fuck! I didn't do that because of you!"

"Yeah, but I felt betrayed! Why the hell are you so bloody selfish?"

"ME? I'm selfish? What, am I not allowed to be angry? Look at yourself!" No one had ever said this to Raven before. She knew that she didn't like to open herself to people, but no one had ever had a problem with it. People had just ignored her.

"You're so… bipolar! One second you make me want to kiss you, and the next I want to keep you away from me! WHY DO YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE THAT!" Harry felt confused, and had no idea. He needed an explanation.

"Listen to yourself, asshole! What, do you just expect a girl to make out with you and then find some reason to ditch her because you're through! I thought you lo…" She trailed off. Tears were brimming at her eyes.

"You thought I what?"

"Shut up." The tears that threatened to spill down her face scared Raven more than she had ever been scared before. Emotion… "You're no better than Malfoy."

Harry was taken aback. Malfoy was evil. He'd always known it. And this… this was her opinion of him- he was no better than Malfoy. He looked up at Raven, the senseless anger and hate fading from his eyes. She was furious. She wouldn't forgive him.

Raven ran up the stairs to her dorm. She jumped onto the bed, quickly shutting the curtains, and went into her meditative trance. But she couldn't hold it. She couldn't focus. She panicked and could hear her heart thumping. She attempted again. It didn't work. The words wouldn't come. She couldn't remember. Azarath, zinthion… No. That wasn't it. Why couldn't she remember? She'd done it every day since she was little! Raven collapsed on her bed, tears running noiselessly down her face as she drifted away into dreamless sleep, confusion rattling her brain and feeling the tingle of Harry's lips on hers still.

Harry collapsed on the chair in front of the fire. He had no idea what he had just done. Why he was so angry. Sure, what she had done in Charms had been rude and had no excuse, but that was no reason for him to blow up at her. What had he done? For one thing, he had ruined all chances of going to the ball with her. And secondly, he needed to figure out why his scar had hurt when she had touched it. She wasn't evil. But it had to have been that. He hadn't been angry at her entirely; he had been angry at his curse, and at whatever evil was somehow within her, without her will. Harry fell asleep in the chair, depressed beyond words and disgusted at himself for what he had done.

That night in the Slytherin common room, Draco Malfoy waited by the edge of the fire. He looked into the fireplace, expecting his father's head. Finally it appeared. He had been ordered there that night to receive special instructions from his fugitive father. All of a sudden the countenance of Lucius Malfoy appeared.

"Draco!"

Draco jumped.

"Hello father."

"Draco, let me tell you what your dear father has been up to."

As Lucius relayed the plan to his son, Draco's eyes grew wide.

"You really hope to gather this power through mere teachers?"

"Not only them, Draco. Which is where you come in. There is a girl in your class. Her name is Raven." Draco drew in his breath. "I need you to… get her to trust you. She is essential to our plan. She is powerful beyond measure, yet she does not know this. Do not underestimate her. Your duty is to…" The wizard chuckled wickedly. "court her. When the time is right, we will take her away to be used to bring the Dark Lord to full power, along with the famous Harry Potter. Be ready, Draco."

The next morning was the most awkward Harry had ever experienced. He hadn't apologized because his courage (or lack thereof) had not allowed him to. And suffice to say, he doubted a simple apology would be enough.

Raven had entered the great hall, and upon seeing Harry, looked away. She went over to Hermione's side, sitting three people away from Harry as if he wasn't even there. She wasn't being snobbish about him. He felt like he was invisible to her.

Hermione looked at Raven, glared at Harry, and said nothing.

Ron turned to Harry. "Quite a row you two had last night."

Harry cringed in humiliation. "You… you… heard?"

"Mate, everyone in the entire house could hear you two carrying on. Heard every word. Would've come down, but we were all afraid you two had taken out wands on each other."

Raven had suddenly gotten up. She looked at Harry for the first time, not seeing through him, and then walked over the Slytherin table. Harry felt his heart sink. Raven walked over to Draco, tapped him on the shoulder, and asked him something. Draco's eyes lit up in glee, and he replied to her, smirking happily. She turned curtly and walked back to her place next to Hermione. Hermione, though she looked at Raven with slight disappointment at first, then changed to her expression to one of understanding.

Draco smirked cajolingly across the way at Harry. Harry got up and left. He couldn't take it anymore. As he walked to the bathroom and, after relieving himself, returned to the hall, he ran into the gloating bastard himself.

Draco smiled at him. "So, Potter, guess who just asked me to the winter ball?"

"Your mother."

"Guess again, Potter. Raven's mine for an entire evening. Suck it up and admit you've lost."

"No. Because you're daft and she's only doing it to spite me."

"Maybe in the beginning, Potter. But not by the end."

"If you hurt her, I swear…"

"What, Potty? You'll come after me with your little wand and Weasley?"

Harry glared at him, and stalked around him. He marched into the great hall, and tried not to show his anger as he grabbed his bookbag and to his first class. Professor McGonagall needless to say, was surprised to see him as the first into the classroom, instead of his usual last, late self. As he was obviously boiling in anger, she refrained from prying.

Author's Note:

I do not own Harry Potter or Teen Titans. I wish I did. Nor do I own any copyright laws to Alice Hoffman's Green Angel, which I also wish I did. Sorry it took me so long to update. I had two cups of coffee this evening and it's currently 3:13 in the morning. I felt in a writing mood.

Later gaters.

Ravenwings13