AN: I'm tired, hungry, and I need to do my homework. However, I don't feel like it, and that's what the nurses office is for: skipping Algebra!! But, anyway, that is why this chapter might sound a little.... tired, hungry, and needing to do its homework... ^_~
AN2: Just wanted to say something I forgot last chapter.... Let's hope that JKR will tell us whether Blaise is a boy or a girl by the 7th book.... It's very confusing.... ^_^
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Through the next week, all conversation between Severus and Shaylee, when there was any, was strained.
Shaylee always left right after she was done with her meal, which she ate quickly and quietly.
Severus seemed to be falling back into all of his old habits. He was being especially nasty to his classes again, and his hair was steadily growing greasier.
But, while Shaylee never even glanced towards Severus, he was always watching her. He studied her face whenever she was near, trying to figure out what was going through her head. Shaylee knew that she was being watched, but never said anything to stop it.
Dumbledore watched all this occur sadly. He had been hoping, for Severus' sake...
~*~*~**~*~*~
Hermione was grinning as she walked into the gym. Today was the day that they were going to swim.
There were already girls in the locker room changing. They were allowed to wear their own bathing suits, as long as they weren't too revealing. Hermione used a spell to change quickly. She remembered to leave her hair down instead of putting it up as usual, and walked out of the locker room with a towel around her.
There was already a small group crowded around the door to the gym. Draco wasn't there yet, so she just leaned against the wall, staring at the door to the boys' locker room, willing Draco to come out.
She was surprised when Draco didn't walk out alone. He was talking jovially to a Slytherin boy that she didn't really know.
When they reached Hermione, Draco put a possessive arm around her waist and proceeded to introduce the two.
"Hermione, this is Blaise Zambini, a fellow Slytherin."
"Hello..." Hermione greeted hesitatingly.
"It's nice to meet you, Hermione." Blaise stuck out his hand, and looked her in the eyes. Hermione smiled and took his hand. He seemed to be a very nice guy.
The group had grown larger, but Professor Weasley hadn't shown up yet. The bell rang and Shaylee popped out of the pool door.
"Hey, the door wasn't locked... You could have come in, you know..." she said, stepping aside to let them inside. Shaylee was wearing a green bathing suit with her robes over the,.
"I need to retain some authority," she explained when her cousin looked at her strangely.
The class sat down on the benches by the pool and waited for instructions.
Shaylee stood in front of the class. "Firstly, I know that there are some of you who can't swim. That's fine and we'll try to get past it. But, I also happen to know that there are a few very talented divers in this class."
Draco elbowed Hermione teasingly. She blushed, but didn't say anything.
"So, just for a bit of fun, let's have Draco show us one of his best dives."
"W-what? Me?" "That's what I said. Get out there, Malfoy," Professor Weasley said, pointing towards the diving board. "I promise that I won't point my wand in your direction unless you're drowning," she prompted. Draco stood up, exasperated. "OK..." He walked over to the diving board while Shaylee climbed up on the lifeguard seat.
He got up on the diving board and stretched down to touch his toes.
The whole class was watching him. Draco sent mental daggers towards Shaylee before diving off.
When he came up, Shaylee was clapping enthusiastically while Hermione was giving him a thumbs up. Blaise was smiling, but otherwise, the class was just staring at him, stony-faced.
"Awesome job, Draco!" Shaylee beamed as Draco sat down.
"Hey, I just remembered that I left my whistle in my office, so I'm going to let Hermione show you some of her dives. Draco, you're obviously capable, so you can be the emergency lifeguard. Though it won't be needed..."
"Um... O...K..." Draco said as Shaylee popped out of the room, not leaving him much choice.
Hermione bounced off of her seat and to the diving board, winking at Draco on the way.
She reached the diving board and started to think of which dive she
was going to use for her plan... When she reached her decision, she reached
down to touch her toes, looked to Draco for his grin, then ran to jump
off.
Draco watched as Hermione spun into the water. It wasn't as good as the dive that she had shown him when they had met in the pool, but it was still better than he could do.
He cheered as she hit the water. Blaise was also clapping, and some of Hermione's old friends were looking very impressed.
Draco waited for Hermione to come out of the water so that they could continue. She didn't come up.
"Oh, shit..." Draco craned his neck, but all he could see was a blue shimmer, along with her fanning hair near the bottom of the pool. When he looked closer, he could also see that she wasn't moving.
He cursed again, then jumped in the pool. Swimming towards the bottom, he saw her limp body, floating in the middle.
He grabbed her waist and started to pull her upwards, but she wouldn't move very far. Upon a quick investigation, he saw that her hair was stuck in a filter. He quickly made way to the filter, keeping in mind that every second they were underwater, water was filling up her lungs.
He untangled her hair from the filter and kicked off of the pool floor, carrying her up with him. Upon reaching the the top of the pool, Draco set Hermione on the edge of the pool, remembering the time when they had been in this exact spot, doing the same thing, but they had switched places since then.
"God, Hermione... Come on..." he muttered. There were a few people coming down from the benches to surround them. It seemed that when an old friend was faced with death, they weren't mad at her anymore... Deciding that he needed to perform CPR right that moment, he started.
Harry was kneeling behind him, just muttering, "Oh my God..." over and over again. Ron didn't seem like he could say anything; his face was stark white, and it looked like he'd be the one needing CPR soon.
"Come on, Hermione. You know how much I love you..." Draco wasn't going to give up. He had found the girl he loved, and he wasn't going to let her die just because her hair was slightly long and more likely to get stuck in a filter than most girls' hair!
Suddenly, Hermione opened her eyes, spit out some water, and sat up. "What... Oh. Hi." And with that, she grabbed Draco and pulled him into a huge kiss.
As soon as Draco pulled away, the room was full of questions.
"What happened?"
"Are you OK?"
"Did you hit your head?"
Hermione shook her head silently.
"I dived down there and swam by the filter when I was getting ready to go back up to the surface, but my hair got stuck. I tried to get it undone, but it didn't work. I was running out of air, but I didn't open my mouth. Finally, I just blacked out from lack of air..."
The rest of the class seemed satisfied with this explanation, even Harry and Ron, who were now huddled around Hermione, telling her how sorry they were and asking her if she was sure she was all right.
Draco, however, was a little unsure. Hermione had only been underwater for fifteen seconds, twenty tops, before Draco had gone down to get her. He knew that she could hold her breath for a lot longer than that. He'd seen her hold it for over a minute before! One thing was for sure; she hadn't actually been drowning.
"Well, it's lucky for me that Draco saved me... Really... I don't think I would have lived any longer if he hadn't gone down there..." Hermione continued, innocently.
Harry grinned at him thankfully, and even Ron gave him a courteous nod.
Ohh... So that was what she was doing... The plotting little witch...
He looked knowingly at Hermione, who blushed and winked at him. He shook his head and put his arm around her, grateful that she hadn't really been drowning.
At that moment, the door opened. "So, did I miss anything?" Shaylee asked, grinning.
~*~*~**~*~*~
Somewhere in a mansion in the countryside, a man was sitting with a small group, talking, and growing angry.
"Severus Snape has betrayed us multiple times over, not to mention going back on all the ideals he once held. There is no reason to keep him alive. Yet the Dark Lord forbids us to kill him yet..."
"We can do other things. We can hurt him other ways," one of his confidantes reminded.
"That's true. But the Dark Lord might find out," another pointed out.
"We're not killing him. That's all that he forbade."
The man sitting behind his desk smiled slowly. "I know an indirect way that we can hurt him. We just have to hurt someone he loves."
~*~*~**~*~*~
Hmmm.... How can they hurt Sevvy... Wait and see! (Though, there are certain things that I want you to NOT think, so I'll just tell you that they are very STUPID!!!) ^_^ ::cough:: anyway.... ^_^ THANK YOU REVIEWERS! I LOVE YOU!!!! Tune in sometime in the near future. Cuz you haven't seen the other side of the deal yet! ^_~
Cute-Kitty: LOL. Thanks!
skyleia: LOL.. I had too much fun writing that... ^_^
Lizzie Malfoy1: lol! Heehee... Don't worry; most of the kewl
people are annoying sometimes! ^_^ Thanks!
Silbara: Hehe. That's not the end. There's still quite a bit
left. When I'm done with this fic, I'm gonna do a short sequel, then I'll
work on Sweet Dreams. That one just kinda left me when I got the idea for
Troubled Waters... Anywho, thanx!
wowsergirl: Heehee! Here you go! I tried to get it up a little
faster!
Kat Davi: LOL. The thing I'm trying to portray is that she is
very fickle. And she's used to thinking that she's really in love with
a guy, and then it turns out it was just a little crush. However, she loves
Severus so much that she doesn't want to hurt him when she realizes that
it was just a little crush. The thing is, it isn't just a little
crush. So, it's like this confusing little circle that I can't explain...
^_^
dracosgurl_chrissy: Heehee... You noticed too? Sorry. I was
just trying to get the little Sev/Shay conflict out, and my chapters have
been short lately, so there hasn't been much Draco and Hermione stuff lately.
But, there was in this chapter, so yay! ^_^
Meg: Thanx! Here it is! Enjoy and thank you for reviewing!
Pyrope: LOL! Thanks! That meant a lot (and it made me laugh,
too!).
wash: heehee! Thanks a bunch!
chelsea: LOL. yep. Thanks! I read at school too... Even when
I'm supposed to be researching... And then I get caught and get in trouble...
Oh well... ^_^
Angelgirl11: Thanks!
Dying_Angel1: No! Don't die!! ::faints, Shakespearian style::
Static Wolf: Wow... thanks!
Mystic Snow: ^_^ Thanx a bunch!
magicalferret: Heehee! Wow... Thanks bunches!
Lyra Silvertongue2: Wow... Your review made me laugh, which
sent me into a fit of coughing... Which made me unable to type for a few
seconds! ^_^ But, anyway, thanks! ^_~
the counter: OK... I'm very confused by that... If you explain
what you mean, I can answer... ^_^
Genevieve Jones: LOL. Heehee, no prob. And, yes, school sucks...
Well, thank you for reviewing!
Lady Coia: LOL... Yeah, I wrote another response about the serious
side of Shaylee somewhere up there... I think it's Kat Davi's response.
Anywho, sorry it's short. I can't find much time to write, and I try to
update as much as possible... So, sorry, but thanks for reading!
Tickled Purple Monkey: Don't worry. You aren't imagining things;
it was unnaturally short... ^_^
Squish: Sorry. I can never remember how you spell Guishy...
Anywho, stop making fun of me, or I'll start reading your stuff, and pointing
out every mistake you make! -_- And what's so funny about a fickle
heart? Wow...
