Title: Misunderstood Godsend
Pairing: Slow moving Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy
Summary: Draco Malfoy could save the wizarding world but he can only understand with Harry as his translator. A fact he is none too pleased about.
Disclaimer: This is not a profitable venture. The characters are not mine. The only thing that is, is the plot (and I doubt it's worth anything… cries)
AN: Sorry this has been three or four weeks in the coming but I would rather go down to London to see my grandma because she has cancer than write this. I'm sorry if that sounds really mean but she's going to be 90 in March so this may have been the last time I see her! And one other word … EXAMS! is dead
Anyway, onto a slightly happier note! The chappies will be getting longer from now on and the plot will begin to form (finally!). I thank those of you who have reviewed, they make me so happy! Most of them have been guessing what it is that happened when Harry heard something at the end of the last chappy, I'm glad to say no one has got it right yet! Hopefully it should come out in this chappy or the next… or possibly the one after that!
Chapter 4When Harry and Ron returned from the Quidditch pitch to the Gryffindor common room, they were instantly bombarded with questions about why the match was postponed. The exhausted looks on the faces of the rest of the team was enough to tell the two that they had already been pumped for information but they hadn't said anything.
"Hey, Ron. Harry!" a strong Irish accent broke through the babble of everyone else. "What 'appened out there? We asked t'others but they won't say a word!" Seamus' face poked through the front of the crowd and he was soon followed by Dean pushing through after him.
"Sorry, mate. Not allowed to say. We'll tell you when the whole thing has blown over." Ron answered to his dorm mates.
"Come on! It can't be that bad. I mean no one had died have they?" Dean said this in a tone that clearly was expecting a negative answer but Harry had to quickly fight a look of shock off his face and vainly hoped that Ron was doing the same too.
"Don't be stupid, Dean! If someone had died, I think they would have told us, wouldn't you?" Lavender said, addressing the last part towards Harry and Ron.
"Of course we would!" Harry said, "But it's no where as serious as that!"
After the crowd around them had dispersed, convinced the match was cancelled over a trivial matter, Harry moved over to an armchair in front of the fireplace and flopped down ungracefully while Ron deposited their brooms back in the dorm room.
Harry was deep in thought about the events that had unfurled today and, therefore, jumped about three feet when Ron plonked himself down on the sofa right next to Harry's chair.
"Sorry, mate." He said with a smirk at Harry's momentarily shocked features implying that he wasn't sorry at all. "How come you told them all that it wasn't serious?"
"I didn't say it wasn't serious, I said it was not as serious as someone dieing. I don't particularly like Malfoy," at this Ron gave a snort. "Okay, so maybe I hate him and the things he's done to us, but I still wouldn't want him to die. Move very, very far away from me, yes; die, no." Harry finished with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Hm, yeah, I guess so. Do you think we could tell 'Mione?"
"Nah. Dumbledore told us to stay quiet and besides, she'll probably figure it out if she's really interested. I'd rather not go against the headmaster." Ron shot Harry a look as he said this. "Ok, I won't go against him this time. Happy?" Smirked Harry as a response.
"Anyway, on to a different subject. God knows what size the git's ego will inflate to if he knew that anyone spoke about him in their spare time!" Ron said with a comical look on his face, and Harry laughed.
"Anyway, when do you think the match will be reschedul-" Harry started but before even having a chance to finish a head of bushy brown hair popped around the side of the sofa.
"Where have you boys been! I've been looking all over for you! I thought you were in trouble!"
"Uh.. 'Mione, slow down before you have a fit or something. We just took the scenic route back to school." Ron told a rather red-faced Hermione. "No were not in trouble, there was just a problem with something."
"What was wrong?" Hermione now had that look on her face; the one that said 'tell me or else'.
"Hermione, really we can't say. We're not allowed and you wouldn't want us to break rules, now would you?" Ron said with the butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth expression that looked quite frankly ridiculous on him.
"Why do you never say that when I try to talk you out of some insane plan to run off to Hogsmead or another one of your hair-brained plots?" The exasperation in Hermione's voice was comical. "Now, considering you haven't got a celebration party to attend let's get down to some homework…"
"HERMIONE!"
"Not now, please?"
The pleading from the boys went on but Hermione would be damned if she wasn't going to make them do their own work this weekend.
"Now, now, class. Settle down. Today we are going to learn a very powerful transfiguration spell that will enable you to change a very small object, such as this spoon, into something much larger and of different conformation."
While professor McGonagall had been speaking, she had placed a tiny silver spoon on the front desk and turned back to the class. Harry and Ron, who were sitting in the third row back turned to the specified page on the board and started to read the introduction. This was not the best way to begin a Monday morning in anyone's life.
"As you can all see, this spell requires the utmost concentration as not paying attention could result in the object decreasing instead of increasing in size."
She regained the class's attention by waving her wand elaborately and the small spoon turned into a Victorian Armoire.
"Now you should not go for something quite so intricate on your first try, I was merely showing you some of the potential of the basic spell."
"Yeah right! She just wanted to show off, that's all." Ron whispered in Harry's direction. Harry grinned but it was quickly wiped off as McGonagall turned back around and started to teach them all the wand movements and the actual spell word.
After they all had it pretty well learned McGonagall started putting them in pairs and gave them all a teacup to start turning into a plain chest of drawers, which Harry personally thought looked like they had come from Ikea.
The Gryffindors shared this class with the Hufflepuffs, so it was relatively peaceful. No one trying to sabotage anyone else's spell. That was why no one really wanted to be paired with Neville, because that was considered close to a death wish.
"Here, Miss Bones. You go with Mr. Longbottom and you two can work on this together."
Susan Bones turned a rather pale colour and Neville sent her a sheepish look. All looked to be well and with five minutes to go until the end of the lesson, it looked like it was going to stay that way. Oh wishful thinking.
A scream ran out through the classroom and everyone, who were still puzzling over how you could turn a set of drawers inside out as they had, turned to look.
Neville appeared to be apologising and looking up a counter curse at the same time as Susan's hair had obviously and, judging by the screaming, quite painfully turned in to a neatly pruned bush that was slowly growing around her head.
"Mr Longbottom! Am I right in assuming you put the emphasis on the last syllable instead of the third? Don't even answer; just get Miss Bones down to the hospital wing. Mr Weasley and Mr Potter will bring down your books and homework."
At this Ron and Harry, who were admiring the fact that their chest of drawers now had two of its four legs, started at the sound of their names being called out by the professor and then agreed after they caught up with the conversation.
Neville, meanwhile, was trying unsuccessfully to calm Susan down and get her to the hospital wing as soon as possible. The poor girls sobs were heard until at least two corridors away, and needless to say, all the students in that particular transfigurations class were now being very careful about where they put their emphasis.
"Now, I want a two foot essay on all the variations of this spell for this time next week. Now, off with you." McGonagall dismissed the class with the normal amount of groans about the lengthy homework.
"Still, it's not as bad as the one foot essay on History of Magic; I mean at least I vaguely know what's going on in this lesson." Harry told Ron when the red head was complaining about the homework.
"Yeah but still, at least you can get away with not doing your work for Binns. You can't with McGonagall. Harry can you carry Neville's bag for a bit, it's getting heavy."
"Sure. Come on, we're nearly there." As Harry had said they rounded the corner to be greeted with the sight of the doors to the hospital wing.
"Neville? You still here, mate?" Ron called when he entered.
"Yeah, I'm round here." A soft voice called out as Neville's face appeared around the curtains around one of the beds. "Madame Pomfrey said I should wait with Susan until she gets back."
"Ah well, we'll wait with you. Here's your stuff by the way." Neville's expression brightened at the prospect of having company other than the sobbing girl beside him as Harry said this when handing over Neville's bag.
"Yeah, for home work McGonagall set us…"
Harry stopped listening as Ron explained the homework and gave the note, which McGonagall had given them to Neville. Harry had no doubt in his mind that it contained the details of Neville's detention.
As Harry let his mind wander, he found it drifting back to the incident that had occurred on Saturday. He hadn't seen Malfoy since, but to Harry this seemed more a blessing than something to be worried over.
Sure, it was a bit strange that something as violent as this had happened to the Slytherin boy that normally showed no emotions other than contempt, disdain or smugness.
'Maybe he just got up too fast?' Harry tried to reason but it didn't sound convincing, even to him.
What still made Harry shiver, even at the mere thought of it, was what happened when he and Ron were walking back to school. The voice, which had spoken, that only Harry seemed to have heard.
'I'm not hearing things. Ron was too busy daydreaming about whatever Ron daydreams about and the professors were too busy discussing amongst themselves. Yeah, that's it.'
But Harry still couldn't help but think, maybe he was going mad.
"The pain will come as the seventh moon rises."
'Hey, wasn't that what I heard when I was with Ron? Nah, it's all just in my head, I was thinking about it so I heard what I thought I heard then.'
"Many will fall before the Great Beast, but the Great Beast will fall before one"'Hang on… I never heard that last time… Oh god no, don't let me be insane.' Harry pleaded, as he realised that Ron and Neville hadn't heard anything either, giving the way they just carried on as they were two minutes ago.
Harry heard some movement from the direction of Madame Pomfrey's office. He leaned around the curtain surrounding Susan Bones' bed and caught sight of Madame Pomfrey and what suspiciously looked like Snape leaning over one of the beds at the far end of the ward, that were usually reserved for patients that were going to stay in for an indefinite amount of time.
As their backs straightened and they moved out of the way Harry got a glimpse of silvery blond hair.
'Is that Malfoy? I thought Pomfrey said he should be well enough to leave by Saturday night. He's probably playing up for sympathy.'
But as Harry got a closer look, because both professors leaning over the bed left and entered the medi witches office, he decided that Malfoy was not playing for anything at the moment as he appeared to be either unconscious or in a very, very deep sleep.
Sorry for the huge gap between posts! I have exams in…. TWO DAYS! Oh my god, I'd better start revising! Hope you like this chappy it's almost two pages longer than the last one! So, as I said at the beginning, they should start getting longer now. The next one won't be up in the next week 'cause I have exams but the week after (26-2 June/July) there should be one up!
Once again, sorry for the wait, and remember, feedback is always welcome!
Au revoir!
