Well, finally a new chapter! Good news: I successfully completed NaNoWriMo 2005. My total word count, as of Monday evening when I "entered into the NaNoWriMo Hall of Heroes", was 51,022. So that's really really awesome. But anyway, back to business. Now that my life isn't completely taken up with writing at least 2000 words a day, I can concentrate A LOT more on this story, so expect chapters more frequently! cheers

In case you don't know, which I'm sure all of you do know, none of us are supposed to put review replies in the chapters. So, if you leave a signed review, I can reply using the new feature (which is so cool) but if you leave an anonymous review, sorry. I can't reply. But please keep reviewing! It really does mean so much to me.

Disclaimer: I don't own this.

Chapter 13: Surprise

Grumbling, Draco stomped his feet as he walked into the Great Hall, his broomstick resting against his shoulder. Quidditch practice hadn't gone so well. As team captain, he had had the difficult decision of deciding who would and who wouldn't be on the house team that year. At Quidditch tryouts a few weeks back, he had made the choices. To his disgust, nobody at all had tried out for the position of Beaters, so Crabbe and Goyle were still on the team. Their Keeper, as it had been last year, was Warren Quinn, a burly sixth year with black hair. All three of their Chasers had been replaced, however; Draco decided that the ones they had last year were not aggressive enough. Their three new Chasers were Aidan Tulson, a brown hair and brown-eyed sixth year; Blaise Zabini; and Alan Howry, a delicate looking yet fierce competitor that was only in fifth year. Draco still wasn't pleased with how the team had turned out, but hopefully it would be better than last year.

Shaking snow off of his cloak, Draco headed down towards the dungeons. When he reached the Slytherin Common Room, he said the password "Wolfsbane" and entered the common room. He walked up to his bedroom and shut the door. He had barely started to change out of his Quidditch robes when an owl appeared at his window. Seeing Draco, the owl fluttered outside of the window, hooting and waiting for Draco to let it in. Remaining where he was, Draco watched the scruffy owl carefully. The only people that ever wrote to him were his father and, more recently, Ginny. Either way he didn't want to read the letter.

He was contemplating ignoring the owl's now shrill hoots of indignation when a snowball slammed into his window, hitting the owl's wing. The owl fell out of sight, but soon it appeared at the window again. Sighing, Draco walked up to the window and opened it. On the ground below he saw his fellow housemate, Blaise Zabini, readying another snowball. He stopped when he saw Malfoy at the window and grinned.

"I thought you'd never open the window, Malfoy," Blaise called up to him. "That owl's gonna freeze if you don't do something with it."

Trying to avoid getting bitten by the irate owl, Draco untied the letter from the owl's leg. Once the letter was removed, the owl quickly snapped at Draco's hand and took off. Draco unfolded the letter and scanned to the signature at the bottom. His heart thumped when he saw it.

"Who's the letter from?" Blaise shouted, dropping the unfinished snowball onto the ground.

"Nobody," Draco called down to him. Then he shut the window and moved to his bed, sitting down and starting to read.

Draco,

I want to remind you again of our Christmas plans. You will come home as soon as the Hogwarts Express leaves for the holiday. The Dark Lord will arrive for dinner Christmas day and will leave that night, so his stay will not be long. The main reason for his coming is to see how well you are prepared to become a Death Eater. I suggest that you refresh your memory on what responsibilities that entails before you come home.

I hope that at school you are keeping a low profile for now. I have heard from the other school governors about the disappearances. Do not draw attention to yourself because that could bring investigations that Malfoy Manor does not need. Do not be a fool. I know how much you hate the mudbloods and blood traitors, as do I, but do not go overboard. The extermination of the filth that haunts that school will be gone in due time; it will come with the rise of the Death Eaters and when the Dark Lord emerges in his full power. Until then, control yourself.

I expect you to be on your best behavior when you return home. You wouldn't want anything unpleasant to happen, now would you? I will see you in a few weeks time.

-Lucius

Draco tossed the letter into the fire, as he did with all of his father's letters. There was no need for him to keep them. Every word his father ever spoke or wrote him was emblazoned in his mind.

He still didn't know what he would do when Christmas came. He would, of course, have to go home; but what he would do when he met Voldemort, he didn't know. Voldemort had only been to their house twice in Draco's life time, but he had been at school when it happened. As Voldemort's right-hand man, Lucius sometimes had to play host to the evil wizard.


"Just what do you think you're doing, Mr. Malfoy?" Professor Trelawney questioned abruptly. Draco stopped staring out the window and his eyes came back into focus; his mind often wandered while he was in Divination.

"Doing, Professor? Why, I'm trying to learn something useful. I suggest you get to teaching," Draco sneered. Looking somewhat shocked, Trelawney turned away from him and back to what she had been addressing to the class.

"As I was saying," continued Sybill Trelawney, "I have a surprise test for you, though I have told you before that it was coming up. Everybody in the school, including the first years, is taking this test. You are one of the last classes to take it. Now, I'm sure all of you remember those questions I had you answer?"

A few students nodded their heads, but others merely looked blank. Draco remembered; how could he forget? His had been What are you most afraid of? and What is most precious to you? He had found them odd questions for a test, but had answered them easily enough. For the first question, his answer had been I don't fear anything. The second answer had come to him easily enough. He started to write down Myself but just as he dipped his quill into the ink, he realized how conceited that sounded. Oh well, he had thought. I am Draco Malfoy and I do have a reputation to keep up. So he had written that answer down.

Now a sinking feeling settled in his stomach. Trelawney had said there would be a test on those questions, but what did she mean?

"I have a paper here with a few questions on it pertaining to those two questions you answered earlier; this is the test. Dumbledore had me give these to each student and only just recently did he tell me what they were for. There were two sets of each pair of questions and two students each received a set of them. So for each question you answered, there was another student in the castle that had the exact same questions, but those two alone had them. Dumbledore…" Trelawney trailed off, a faraway expression on her face, "…he is a very mysterious man. He has not told me the whole reason for this, but he assures me that it is important."

With a questioning look on his face, Draco watched as a piece of parchment was handed to him. There was a list of questions on it, and he started reading them.

1. You have come to care deeply for another person. If they are in grave danger, but you can save them by sacrificing yourself, do you?

2. You are an old man and death is knocking at your door. You are all alone in an empty house with nobody to care for you. If you could go back and do one thing differently in your life, what would it be?

3. You are able to take away everybody's greatest fear; however, this means that you yourself are stuck with them. Will you do it, and if so, how will it affect you?

4. Danger is all around you. Your only hope of survival is to ally yourself with your greatest enemy, who can help you. Who is your greatest enemy and how do you go about asking for their help?

5. As you grow up, you realize that you are a complete failure. Life no longer has any meaning to you because you have wasted it on trivial things. Yet something deep within you says that there is more if you look hard enough for it. Will you find it?

Draco wrinkled his face and peered closer at the questions. What the…? he thought. Anger started boiling inside him, rising higher and higher until he threatened to explode in a rage. Why would anybody ask questions like these? He knew one thing though: Draco Malfoy wasn't going to answer them.

Leaping off his light pink poof, he thumped to the front of the class where Trelawney was sitting calmly at her desk. He thrust his "test" in front of her and said, "I'm not doing this."

Draco could hear gasps and snickers from behind him, but he ignored them. He fixed his gaze on Professor Trelawney and waited for an answer.

"You must," Trelawney said to him, her eyes opened wide with earnest. "If you do not, I will have to give you a detention and then you will still have to do it."

"I won't answer these," Draco said. "There's absolutely no point in it. It doesn't even have anything to do with Divination!" He threw his arms up in the air in exasperation and fury.

"It is important," Trelawney stated. Her eyes glazed over and her head lolled to the side slightly; she stared at her desk, seeing nothing in particular. Draco raised an eyebrow at her but turned. He was just about to walk out of the classroom when Trelawney said, "Do not leave, Mr. Malfoy."

The rest of the class was watching with bated breath as the scene unfolded before them. Not bothering to hide his scowl, Draco turned to face the rest of the class and stalked back to Trelawney's desk.

"Fine. You want me to answer these questions? Fine. Then can I leave?" Draco snarled at her. All he got in reply was a simple nod. "My life couldn't get much worse," Draco muttered as he snatched the parchment back from Trelawney and headed to his desk. He sat down and pulled his quill and ink out.

For the first question, he wrote his answer: I don't care about anybody.

His answer for the second question was, My life is fine the way it is. There is nothing to change.

The third answer was simply, I fear nothing.

He paused before answering the fourth question. He had many enemies, but which did he consider his worst? Many suspects crossed his mind: Harry Potter, Voldemort, his father. They were all enemies of his, sure, but were they his greatest? He settled for writing down, Everybody is my enemy.

For his fifth answer, he wrote, Life is what it is. If there were something more, I would've found it by now.

After he had scribbled down the last answer, Draco stood. Without even stopping, he tossed it on Trelawney's desk and walked out of the classroom; everybody watched him leave.

Draco stormed through the halls, irritated. He knew that he hadn't exactly answered the questions correctly, but he didn't care. What gave Dumbledore, or anybody else for that matter, the right to ask personal questions like that? Draco didn't think he even knew the answers; he had never even thought about them. But that's not true, he told himself. You've thought about it. Many times, actually.

He thought about what it would be like to have somebody care for him, like a mother. Even to have them care enough to say "I love you" once in a while. For Draco, sometimes it felt like his hardened heart couldn't take any more, and that it would be nice if somebody just held him and didn't care if he cried or if he seemed weak.

Draco's eyes burned with suppressed rage. Why did he have to be born into such a lousy family? Why did his father have to be a Death Eater and his mother have to be so pathetic? Why did life have to be so difficult for him? Why couldn't he have a family like-

"Weasley!" Draco shouted as somebody bumped into him and he fell against the wall. Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger passed him, heading towards the stairs. "Watch where you're going!"

Ron turned around to say something as he kept walking, but failed to stop at the top of the stairs. He tumbled down the twenty or so stone steps until he crashed to a halt at the bottom. Hermione and Harry rushed to help him up and Draco stood at the top of the steps, laughing at them.

"Nice one, Weasel!" Draco crowed at them. He started down the steps lightly, making sure to keep far enough out of punching distance. "Next time watch where those over-sized feet of yours are going, and you can avoid situations like this."

Rubbing his head, Ron carefully sat up and gave Draco a glare. Then, with Hermione and Harry each holding onto one of his arms, he stood up. The three friends walked off.

Still grinning with glee, Draco walked away towards his next class of the day.


The next day Draco was walking from the castle down to Care of Magical Creatures class. The snow had stopped falling the day before yet there was almost a foot of it on the ground. He pulled out his wand and whispered a few quick words. Immediately, thick clouds of steam pored out the tip of his wand, melting some of the snow so that he had a path.

A commotion ahead of him caused him to look towards the greenhouses. Ginny Weasley was hurriedly walking towards the castle with her head down, holding her books close to her chest. She, along with a bunch of other students, had obviously just come from Herbology. The students behind her were mainly Hufflepuffs, but a few Gryffindors were there as well.

"…that's what Professor Sprout told me…" one girl said to another. They were both following Ginny. Then, louder, she said, "I hear that she's the one that took Harding and Johnson."

Draco stopped, stepped behind some bushes, and watched interestingly what was going on before him. With a hard look on his face, boy that Draco recognized from the Hufflepuff Quidditch team grabbed some snow and packed together a snowball. He lobbed it into the air and it splattered on Ginny's upper back. She didn't cry out or turn around, she merely stumbled and kept on walking, getting closer and closer to the castle, and Draco, whom everybody had failed to notice.

The boy that threw the snowball glared at Ginny's back and said to his friends, "And I thought she liked us muggleborns. She's no better than a Death Eater herself."

A few other students, primarily Ravenclaws, joined the group that was following Ginny and started gossiping with them.

"Ginny wouldn't do that," one girl said.

"But Filch caught her at the scene of the crime, Alana," said a Ravenclaw boy. Everybody stopped walking and watched Ginny. Draco stayed hidden next to a tiny cluster of bushes, just watching. Ginny was walking past his hiding spot, which was just down the steps, and starting up the stairs to the entryway. She didn't see him though because her face was cast down. The boy that had thrown the snowball earlier packed together another one, this time even harder. Draco could tell even before he hurled the ball through the air that it was going to hurt badly when it hit.

The ice ball, which was about the size of Draco's fist, smashed into Ginny's wrist. She cried out in pain and clasped her wrist as her books tumbled down the few stairs she had climbed up. Draco didn't know what made him do it, but he stepped away from behind the bushes and grabbed Ginny's books. Ginny turned and stared wide-eyed as Draco handed her few books to her. Everything around them seemed to stop what it was doing; the birds stopped chirping, the people stopped talking, and it seemed as if the very air ceased to move. Everybody was gawking at Draco, who had frozen in place when he realized what he had just done. His hand, holding the books, was extended towards Ginny and a stricken look appeared on his face. Ginny was half turned toward him, her hand still holding her wrist. Her eyes were open wide with surprise and shock.

Without moving his head, Draco's eyes peered to his left and his right. Everybody was still staring. Panicking, he dropped the books and dashed across the grounds towards Hagrid's hut. Everybody turned and watched him go.

Hesitating slightly, Ginny bent over and picked up her books. Then she darted up the remaining steps and disappeared into the castle. It was a full minute before anybody outside moved again. When they did, they were already talking fiercely with each other about what they had just seen.

That day in particular, Draco was glad that he was early to a class. It gave him time to catch his breath and clear his mind before anybody else arrived. He rubbed his face wearily. What had he done? Did he just help Ginny Weasley? A horrified look crossed his face as he realized that by that evening, the whole school would know and be talking about it.

"Hey Malfoy," a voice said from behind him and Draco jumped. He relaxed when he saw it was just Blaise Zabini. A throng of students were coming behind them, all of them headed towards Care of Magical Creatures class.

"Hey Zabini," Draco said nervously. He then reminded himself who he was and plastered an arrogant and relaxed look on his face. He couldn't let any of his housemates see him like this; they might start to think that he had gone soft. He didn't know what had made him pick up Weasley's books, but he, Draco Malfoy, surely wasn't going soft.


After class everybody headed back towards the castle. Draco was dreading this, for he knew that people would already be talking about him and Ginny. He took a deep breath and walked inside. Only a few people turned and looked at him; obviously word hadn't reached everyone yet. It would though; Draco had no doubt about that. If there was a secret in Hogwarts, it was everybody's business.

Draco was on his way to dinner that night. He had stayed up in the Slytherin Common Room for the rest of the afternoon so that he wouldn't have to face the school. The thought of them talking about him being a Death Eater suddenly seemed much more preferable than what they were sure to be talking about now.

He heard a thump through a door at his right; it was a door to one of the boys' lavatories. He paused and checked the halls. It seemed as if most people were already at dinner. He quickly opened the door, stepped inside, and shut the door behind him. He turned around and jumped back, barely managing not to cry out in shock as he saw what lay before him.

On the floor ahead of him was the form of a young boy, except this didn't look like any boy Draco had ever seen. His hair was standing straight on end and was florescent purple and his skin had turned a shocking shade of green. His Gryffindor robe had several rips in it. Another curious thing that Draco noticed was that his shoes were missing, even his socks. He saw that the boy's bare feet were even green.

This must be Trent Johnson, Draco though, rubbing his jaw. He went through the rest of the bathroom and banged open all of the stall doors, his wand held ready. There was nobody in any of them; the bathroom was empty save for him and Trent. Draco went back to the boy, checked for a pulse, and found one.

He was just about leave the bathroom to go find a teacher when a thought struck him. If he was to tell a teacher where Trent Johnson was, everybody would suspect him of being the one to take him. They would think that he had just turned him in; nobody would think he was really innocent. Even if somebody walked in right now…it wouldn't be good.

Draco quietly pulled open the door to the bathroom and peered into the hallways which were now deserted. He stepped out of the lavatory and calmly walked towards the Great Hall. Somebody else would find Trent Johnson soon, and then nobody would suspect him. In the mean time, he would just act normal.

However, as he stepped into the Great Hall, all hopes of remaining normal flew out the window. Everybody in the hall turned to stare at him. Some burst out laughing, some pointed, others simply stared. Ginny was eating with her head bent down and in the case of Harry and Ron, they were glaring suspiciously at him. Trying to hide his apprehension, Draco sent an evil smirk their way and headed towards the Slytherin table. Most of the Slytherins treated him as normal, but a few looked at him questioningly. They all turned away when they saw the scowl on Draco's face though. Well, all except a few.

"What do they mean, you helped Ginny Weasley?" Pansy sniffed at him, pouting her lips. She placed a hand on Draco's shoulder and started rubbing it. Draco swatted her hand off and scooted away.

"I didn't help her," Draco said irritably. "I was just moving her books, which were in my way."

"That's not what everybody says that saw you today," Pansy continued. She was receiving some warning looks from her friends, but she chose to ignore them. "They say that you were helping her pick up her books."

"Are you going to believe some stuck-up Ravenclaws and dimwitted Hufflepuffs, or me?" Draco asked simply, his eyebrows raised.

"Of course I believe you, Draky-poo," Pansy cooed, turning back to her plate. "I just had to find out firsthand that you hadn't been helping her." She started cutting up some pork chops as she talked. "I mean, when I heard everybody saying that you had a crush on that shapeless, ugly, poor, good-for-nothing Weasley girl, I just knew it couldn't be true."

Draco took a sip of pumpkin juice and ignored Pansy. Personally, he didn't think that Ginny was shapeless, and certainly not ugly. Though Draco hated her with all his might, he couldn't help seeing that Ginny was no wallflower. Hey, he was guy, and he noticed things. Now, poor, on the other hand, Ginny certainly was.

Draco felt eyes on his back and he turned in his seat. Half of the Great Hall was staring openly at him; even a few of the teachers were looking his way. He scowled and turned around, which was more than he could say for everybody else.

He glanced at the Gryffindor table out of the corner of his eye and saw that Ginny had a miserable look on her face, and Draco couldn't blame her. Everybody knew that Malfoys and Weasleys hated each other. What must they all think seeing, if only for a moment, two of them getting along? But that wasn't the only thing bothering Ginny, he knew. He had heard the other rumors that were floating around school. They were saying that Ginny was the one kidnapping the students. Draco attributed that rumor to the fact that Filch had caught her, past midnight, wandering around the tunnel where Albert Harding was found. I told her she should have run, Draco thought.

Just then, somebody came rushing into the Great Hall. Draco, along with everybody else in the Great Hall, watched a fourth year Ravenclaw boy scramble to the head table. Gasping for breath, he halted next to Dumbledore and whispered something in his ear. Dumbledore scraped back his chair and stood up; professors McGonagall and Snape followed suit. Together, the three of them quickly walked past the house tables and out of the Great Hall. The boy that had come to them scampered after them hurriedly.

After a few moments, half of the hall stood up and hustled out into the corridor, looking to see which way the teachers had gone. Draco knew full well what had happened; they had found Trent Johnson.


By nightfall, news of Draco Malfoy helping Ginny Weasley had almost completely been forgotten about. Instead it was replaced with talk of Trent Johnson, the young Gryffindor first year. He had been taken to the Hospital Wing where Madame Pomfrey was doing all she could for him. So far, the boy still wouldn't wake up. His hair had been returned to the normal shade of brown and his skin was no longer green, but Madame Pomfrey couldn't seem to wake him. She had assured Dumbledore that he was in no danger and he seemed healthy other than the fact that he was unconscious.

It was nearing the end of November. The first Quidditch game of the season, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, would be in two days on the 30th of November. Recently Draco had taken to spying on the Gryffindors during their practice to see what kind of team it looked like they had this year; Finnigan and the Creevey brothers and joined the team. Draco wasn't the least bit worried about Collin and Dennis Creevey. One bludger sent their way courtesy of Crabbe and Goyle and they'd be out of the game; they were tiny boys.

Now, Seamus Finnigan, on the other hand…he might cause a problem for the Slytherins. Though not quite as tall as Draco was, he was still a good-sized lad with muscles. Draco had seen him play at practice and decided that he was a decent Chaser…for a Gryffindor anyway. Their other Chaser, Dean Thomas, was good as well. And then there was Ginny. Draco remembered her playing Quidditch last year, but it seemed as if she had improved greatly over the summer. Where earlier she sometimes had trouble catching the quaffle, now she could catch one backwards with her eyes closed; Draco had seen her do it at the end of practice last week.

As Draco readied for bed that night, his thoughts flew to the Christmas he would be spending with his family. Dread filled him when he thought of seeing Voldemort in person. He didn't quite know how he would handle it, but one thing was for sure: Draco would never surrender to him. Never.


The next day during lunch, Dumbledore stood. Immediately a hush covered the Great Hall as everybody expectantly waited for whatever their Headmaster had to say.

"I have good news, students," Albus Dumbledore said brightly. "Madame Pomfrey has succeeded in waking Trent Johnson."

Cheers erupted in the hall as everybody, including a few Slytherins, clapped and whistled. Madame Pomfrey, who was sitting at the head table, blushed slightly as a smile crept up her face.

"Yes, yes, it is wonderful," Dumbledore said, a huge smile plastered on his face. "However, he has no memory of what happened to him." Everyone in the Great Hall quieted. "It seems as if a memory charm was placed on him, a powerful one. He remembers everything up until the point of when he was taken. He remembers absolutely nothing that has to do with his disappearance, so I don't want anybody to question him. It will take time for him to get readjusted to the school schedule, and we want things to go as smoothly as possible.

"We will also be setting a few new rules," Dumbledore continued. "It is for everyone's good and so that no more of these disappearances will happen. No student is allowed out of the castle after dark unless accompanied with a teacher. There will now be an earlier curfew; everyone is expected to be in their house common rooms by eight p.m. unless they have a signed letter from a teacher explaining their reasons for being out. We will continue with Quidditch, but all practices are to be overseen by Madame Hooch. Also," Dumbledore said, "the Head Boy, Head Girl, and prefects will no longer be doing their nightly corridor patrols; the teachers will take care of that. But I will discuss those matters with them at another time.

"There is more good news, though…a surprise," Dumbledore said, and his smile returned. "The teachers and I, along with the Head Boy and Girl, have decided to do something different this holiday season." Dumbledore paused for a moment and everybody stared excitedly at him. There were a few whisperings but mostly everybody remained quiet.

"In light of recent events, we have decided that we need something to cheer us up and move us on from these attacks on the students. It will also be a sort of celebration of Trent Johnson's and Albert Harding's safe returns."

Again the Headmaster paused. Some of the students were practically falling off their seat because they were leaning forward so much, wanting to hear Dumbledore's every word. Ron and Hermione were receiving some questioning looks as well as some anxious questions, but they merely smiled and remained quiet.

"We have decided to throw a masquerade ball," Dumbledore stated. "A Christmas masquerade ball, that is." At once everyone in the hall started talking, not caring if they were interrupting Professor Dumbledore or not. Draco caught snitches of conversation, especially from the girls. They were already talking about what sort of costume they were going to wear. Draco stared incredulously at them. How can someone, after hearing about a ball not only thirty seconds earlier, be already talking about what to wear? Some of the guys seemed interested, but a lot of them seemed to dread the thought of another ball. Draco smirked.

"Settle down, now, settle down," Dumbledore said, waving his arm to gain attention. Everybody fell silent again. "The ball will take place on December the twenty-second since the trains to take students home for Christmas leave the next day. This is a masquerade ball, which means that everybody must wear a costume of their choosing. The point of this ball is to have fun and relax for the holidays; however, as it was with the Yule Ball during the Triwizard Tournament, only fourth years and above will be allowed to attend the ball."

There were many loud groans, especially from the girls, at this statement. The rest of the students still remained attentive though.

"I hope that all of you will have fun at the ball," Dumbledore said. "We will post more news on it as the date approaches." Dumbledore sat down and all the students started talking excitedly with each other. Draco wasn't sure what to think. For the Yule Ball he had gone with Pansy, but that was only because his father had made him. Surprisingly, there were no girls, at the moment anyway, that caught his eye. Sure, there were plenty of pretty ones, but Draco had already gone out with most of them; those relationships had never lasted more than a week.

Draco eventually ambled out of the hall and to his next class. He'd decide later on a girl to take to the ball. Right now, the thought that kept punching its way into his mind was of Christmas at Malfoy Manor. That day loomed before him ominously and he was worried that it wouldn't end well.

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A/N: So? What did you guys think? Was it good, bad…what? I tried to write a bit of a longer chapter since this story was neglected during November. Please take it as a peace offering, lol. Uh, yeah, please review.

Lauren