Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Harry Potter etc still belongs to JK Rowling, plot still belongs to me.

Author's Note: Hopefully, this chapter will at last kick off what was supposed to be my main theme.

"Really Hermione, I mean it!" Harry snapped at his friend. "Someone is following me!"

Hermione and Ron stifled grins. "Look, Harry, full marks for trying to liven up the weekend, but..."

Harry gave a sigh of exasperation. Neither of them believed him. He was certain someone was following him. He could feel it, dogging his every move around the castle. Since Tuesday evening, someone had been following him. This fact made him feel a little guilty. After all, he had been doing some following of his own. Not that he thought of it that way. 'I'm not stalking him,' he had told himself, as he crept through corridors, up and down staircases... 'I'm just keeping an eye on him, in case he tries anything...' Deep down he knew this was a feeble excuse. It just sort of freaked him out that someone had started following him, only a matter of hours after he had started following Draco Malfoy.

"Draco, are you even listening?"

Not for the first time, Draco Malfoy found his reverie broken by the shrill tones of Pansy Parkinson.

"Of course I am!" He defended himself. "Um, what were you saying?"

"What's wrong with you lately?" Pansy snapped. "You're never listening!" She snatched up her bag and stormed out of the Great Hall, leaving the remaining Slytherins to their breakfast.

Draco groaned inwardly. This was so not a good start to the weekend. They'd only been back at school a week, and already one of his friends was hacked off with him. OK, so he had been acting a bit oddly, but he had his reasons...

He glanced up, coincidentally as a certain trio were leaving the Great Hall. As he glimpsed messy black hair, Draco's heart gave an unexpected lurch. The sight of Harry Potter's hair was very familiar to him by now – after all, he'd been stalking him since Tuesday.

At eleven o'clock that morning, the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh years began queuing up in the grounds to be signed out for the trip to Hogsmeade.

In the queue, an occurrence from breakfast was repeating itself. Glancing up and down the line, Draco caught sight of raven-black hair, glinting in the sun. '!' He thought. 'What's wrong with me? Why do I keep looking at Potter?'

"Draco?" Pansy's voice broke into his thoughts.

'Oh double , I'm still looking at him...'

Further down the line, Harry was exerting considerable effort to turn round and listen to what Hermione was saying to him. He was feeling quite disturbed; he couldn't tear his gaze away from the shining blond head of Malfoy.

Suddenly, the two seekers caught each other's eyes. This exchange of glances only served to bemuse them both further. Suddenly embarrassed, they both looked away at the same moment.

Eventually, the line dwindled as the students left for Hogsmeade. The day was then spent shopping for books, equipment and other necessities. Students could soon be seen carrying broomstick maintenance equipment and piles of Honeydukes' sweets, among other things. High on the list of conversation topics was what the older students would be doing that evening. By all accounts, a new club called Gaude had opened on the outskirts of the village. All suspicions of this being a trap set up by some dark entity had been crushed by what numerous students had heard; that Dumbledore had been heard telling Professor Flitwick that the bar there 'did an excellent Firewhisky mixer'.

"So, we're going right?" Ron said enthusiastically, when he, Harry and Hermione saw a poster for Gaude. Sixth and Seventh Years were allowed to remain in Hogsmeade later than the younger students, and many planned to go to the club.

"Ron," Hermione said slowly, as if talking to a young child, "it's a club. We're sixteen. Do the maths."

Ron grinned. "That's the best part. I hear they're letting in anyone with a wand!"

Harry looked dubious. "I don't know Ron. Tempting as getting slammed sounds, I don't think we really should..."

"Think about it, at least, will you Harry?" Ron asked in a pleading voice.

"OK, I'll think about it," Harry conceded.

It was about six o'clock when he caved in. On the way back up to the castle for dinner, he agreed to go. "So, Hermione, you in?"

To both his and Ron's surprise, she agreed immediately.

That night brought even more surprises. Soon after arriving at Gaude, Harry and Ron discovered that Hermione was something of a dancing queen. As they stepped through the doors (as Ron had said, they were admitting anyone with a wand), she took off her cloak to reveal that she was wearing a glittery top and tight, dark blue jeans, an outfit they would never have guessed she owned. She then made a beeline for the dancefloor.

"..." Ron said, staring after her.

"I know," Harry agreed. "Want to get a drink?"

Ron nodded and went straight for the bar.

Ten minutes later, all three of them had had their first taste of alcohol, which they liked a lot. Harry was ordering his third Firevodka and soda when someone unexpected walked in.

Ron stifled a laugh as he looked at the new arrival. "Um, even for Malfoy that's a lot of hair gel!"

The other two laughed as well. Malfoy (for it was him who had just entered) was wearing a lot of hair gel, it was true.

'He doesn't look bad, actually,' Harry thought before he could stop himself. 'Hair gel aside, I mean. Where did he get that sweater?'

A lot of drink later, Harry and Draco found themselves in the middle of a game of Wells of Fire with Ron, Hermione, and Draco's friend Blaise. Hermione did not seem to mind being the only girl present, in fact she seemed to be rather enjoying it. Crabbe and Goyle had been there, but had both passed out after over-indulging on Dragon's Breath Cocktails.

Let me explain Wells of Fire. It is an ancient wizard drinking game, working on a similar principle to many Muggle ones. Each player is required to drain a small glass of his or her chosen beverage in as few swallows as possible. The number of gulps the player needs to finish the drink is the number of spells they must then perform. These spells must produce something attractive, such as synthetic fire or a bunch of flowers. The other players must then approve the prettiness of the spell. The problem with this concept is that by this point, the other players are usually so drunk that they have trouble seeing the thing they are supposed to be approving.

At the present point in the game, Ron had just about managed to knock back a glass of Firewhisky in one, and was attempting to make a dove fly out of his wand-tip. The spell was clearly not working, due to his inebriation, and all that the wand was producing was a cloud of pale blue smoke.

"Forfeit!" The other four players cried out in delight.

"I claim Double Forfeit!" Ron demanded. The others all looked a little nervous. The next one to stuff up their spell would have to perform a forfeit with Ron.

As the next person in the circle, Hermione now took her turn. She got her drink down in two swallows, and fired off her first spell without any problem. Her second, however, went a bit wrong, and a large, purple, funny-smelling cabbage appeared on the table among the empty glasses.

"Mm, pretty," Ron said dreamily as he stared, transfixed, at the cabbage. The others, however, did not agree.

"Double forfeit!" Blaise exclaimed with glee. "OK, you two have to..."

"Let me choose, I know what they hate most," Harry chipped in. "You have to... kiss each other!"

With surprisingly little objection, Ron and Hermione did so. When Harry, Blaise and Draco deemed them to have completed the forfeit, Hermione passed out. This put something of a dampener on the party, and the group decided to go back to the castle while most of them could still stand.

Harry managed to sober up slightly as they left, by throwing up on the pavement and then, supporting Hermione, the four of them trekked back through Hogsmeade. No doubt it would come as a shock to them in the morning that they had been playing drinking games with their sworn enemies, but for now they were too drunk to care.

At last they reached Hogwarts. They entered just behind a party of seventh years, who seemed to have drunk even more. Shortly after entering through the main doors, they reached the fork that would lead Blaise and Draco off in one direction, and Harry, Ron and Hermione in the other.

"Gonna be sick," Blaise said suddenly, and sprinted off towards the Slytherin dormitories. Having realised that they were facing several staircases, Ron was trying to revive Hermione.

"Well, see you," Draco said to Harry, and walked unsteadily after Blaise. Harry began to wonder just how much they had all drunk. Not fully aware of what he was doing any more, he helped Ron lift Hermione, who still hadn't come round, and they started walking up the stairs in the direction of Gryffindor tower.

Author's Note: I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I know it's bit confusing in places, but get used to it, it's how I am. Please review and I'll get Chapter 7 up ASAP.