Review Responses:
Golden Lass - thanks for reviewing!
Dark-Lady-Devinity - Next chapter's here, sorry for the wait, thanks for the review!
honest iago - I know you're going to love the first part of this chapter! Thanks as ever for the review!
Cooldot - People do in fact need to start telling Percy things and hopefuly they've learnt their lesson! I'm so glad you like Dru! I love writing her and I was hoping everyone else would like her too! She's here again in this chapter being just as frank as ever! lol! Hope you enjoy the quidditch. What did you think of GoF? I liked it, possibly noit as much as PoA but still really cool I thought. Thanks for reviewing!
Aries Zodiac - Glad you liked the boggart incident it 2was great fun to write! Thanks for the review!
A/N: I'm so sorry for the wait you've had for this, I couldn't post over Christmas because the only computer I had access to that was internet capable had a virus and couldn't be used, if it's any consolation I have been able to keep writing on my laptop so I'm a fair way ahead of myself at the moment. This is a very long chapter though so hopefully it'll help make up for the wait.
A Subtle Change Chapter 7Having fixed a date and time for him and Percy to speak to Druscilla, Remus found himself at the ministry early one morning. In the lift he started a conversation with the man he was travelling with, who had given him an odd look when he had stated which floor he wanted. The man was probably in his late twenties but he had a harassed look about him.
"So who are you here to see?" the man asked.
"Professor Thornfield," Remus replied.
"Oh, are you another new secretary?"
"No, why would she need a new secretary?" Remus asked in confusion, "I met her secretary just the other day, what happened?"
"Oh they never last long. I held the position once." The man spoke quietly as though recalling something he would rather forget.
"Why don't they last long?" Remus asked curiously.
The man shuddered slightly and shook his head, saying in a near whisper, "We don't speak of that."
Deeply puzzled, Remus continued on his way as the lift came to a halt at his floor. He was conscious of being rather late and tried to drag his mind back to the important issue. He rounded a corner in a hurry only to walk directly into what looked like a walking pile of files and parchment but turned out to be a startled Percy, Remus saw as he looked up from where he had landed on the floor covered in pieces of parchment.
"Oh, I'm sorry Remus!" Percy bent to pick up his paperwork and soft laughter came from down the corridor followed by footsteps, muffled by the plush carpet.
Druscilla Thornfield loomed over him suddenly, "Hello Remus, nice to see you again," she smiled, clearly amused.
Damn, Remus thought, this was never going to change the embarrassingly foolish impression he'd made the last time she'd seen him. "I'm fine," he waved off Percy's continued apologies and concern.
Druscilla watched as he got to his feet and dusted himself off, helping Percy pick up the last of the papers. "Are you sure you're alright?" she asked.
"Oh, I'm fine, thanks," he assured her.
"Sure you don't want to take your clothes off and let me have a look?" she raised an eyebrow.
Remus grinned at seeing Percy blush a deep scarlet, feeling more confident at seeing someone more ruffled than himself by the situation. "Well, maybe later. I came to talk to you about the Order."
She raised her eyebrows, "We could do both at the same time."
"Percy was supposed to be in the meeting as well."
"Oh, he won't mind, will you, Perce?"
Percy gave them a flustered look, "I don't think this sort of conversation is very proper for these surroundings, or really any surroundings."
Druscilla laughed, "Pity. Anyway, I suppose you two better come into my office."
The first thing Remus noticed about Druscilla's office that day was that though every other ministry window was showing a thunderstorm of horrific proportions her window showed a light spring shower. She saw where he looking and smiled, "It's a good idea to stay on the good side of the weather regulation department's people," she winked, "Even when everyone else gets hurricanes my weather stays relatively fine." She gestured to the chairs in front of her desk, "Have a seat, both of you."
Percy and Remus sat on the somewhat uncomfortable wooden seats whereas she relaxed in a large squashy leather armchair which put her higher than them. This was a woman who liked to remind people who was in charge.
"We're here to extend an invitation from Dumbledore," Remus began, "You know of course about the Order of the Phoenix."
"Of course," she nodded.
"Well Dumbledore has asked me to invite you to join it."
"No, thank you."
"I'm sorry?" Remus wasn't entirely sure he'd heard her correctly.
"No, thank you," she repeated. "I'm a member of too many obscure societies as it is, just the other week I ended up at a fundraiser for the Society for the Protection of Pogrebins and goodness knows what possessed me to join that, I was almost killed by a Pogrebin as a small child."
"I don't think you quite understand what the Order is, it's not so much a society…"
"More a last desperate defence against a rising Dark Lord?" she interrupted Remus in a dry tone.
"Yes." Remus didn't know how else to respond.
"I'm not interested. If I want to do something to obstruct Voldemort I do work for the Ministry," she reminded him unnecessarily.
"Without meaning to sound offensive, the Ministry…"
"Is run by fools," she interrupted him again, "Yes I know that but I don't feel the need to join this group of yours."
"Druscilla, we really would value your help," Remus pressed, "The Ministry isn't doing very well when it comes to fighting Voldemort and the Death Eaters."
Her usually warm voice turned instantly to ice, "Well I'll just go and tell that to the aurors downstairs, twelve of whom have been killed in the last month, most careless of them."
"I didn't mean that it was the ministry workers that were doing anything wrong. I meant that the ministry lacks the strength of leadership required to come up with a comprehensive strategy to fight Voldemort," Remus attempted to smooth things over.
She gave a humourless smile, "As one of the leaders of the Ministry I'm going to take that as an insult."
Remus shrugged, growing tired of walking on eggshells, "It wasn't intended as one."
"It better not have been or you'll be invited to leave." Her voice had not thawed even a degree.
"Perhaps I should leave and give you some time to think it over," Remus suggested, "But whatever you say I have a feeling you'll join us eventually."
"No," she replied emphatically, "I don't think I will be doing that."
"Yes you will," he smiled, "I can tell." Remus nodded politely to her, "Good day, Druscilla."
Druscilla Thornfield was left spluttering in annoyance as he left her office, "Weasley!"
"Yes?" Percy had remained quiet in hopes of staying out of trouble and thinking Remus could convince her better than he could.
"Why did you let him in here?"
"Actually you invited both of us in," Percy reminded her.
"Well if he comes to see me again throw him out! And why are you still in here? Don't I employ you to do something? Like manage a department you are currently not managing due to being sat in my office."
"Yes, Professor Thornfield, I'll just be going then." Percy beat a hasty retreat, glad that it wasn't him that had tried to convince her.
XXXXXXX
At Hogwarts the day of the first quidditch match of the season dawned brightly. Ron rolled out of bed far earlier than usual, he had had little sleep the previous night, worrying about the day's match. After his victory at the end of the previous year he had been feeling more confidant about his abilities but the added element of competition in this particular game had left him more nervous than ever.
After his conversation with Seamus he had admitted to himself that he would very much like the position of team captain and had taken to practicing harder than ever. The knowledge that he was going up against his best friend though was disquieting, firstly because of the personal competition, and Ron hated competing with Harry, and secondly because Harry had been the youngest seeker Hogwarts had seen in a century and there was no way he wasn't going to win. There was also the added factor that Ginny had been practising just as hard and was determined to take a shot at the position herself.
His sister was the only other person at the Gryffindor table when Ron came down to breakfast. The hall was mostly deserted, a few Ravenclaws were chatting at one end of their table and a solitary Hufflepuff seventh year was reading the Daily Prophet at her table. The Slytherin quidditch team were mostly yet to surface but Draco was poring over a quidditch diagram and appeared to be trying to explain it to a very bored looking Pansy Parkinson who was far more interested in her magazine but was nodding and smiling in what she appeared to think were the right places.
Dumbledore was sat at the staff table with Snape and McGonagall, the latter of whom smiled across at Ron in an encouraging way as he sat next to his sister.
"Hi, Ron."
"Hey, Gin. You couldn't sleep any longer either?"
"No. I'm not expecting to get the captain's job or anything but I want to give Harry a run for his money for once!"
"Technically, that's Malfoy's job," Ron pointed out.
"No," Ginny objected, "Today that's our job. Though admittedly it'll be easier if Malfoy can actually get the snitch!"
"True."
"Look, Ron, I just want to say good luck and may the best Weasley win!" she extended a hand and Ron shook it with a grin.
"You're on, Ginny, we may not be able to win but we'll give Harry a good run for his money!"
"Definitely!" she agreed before loading her plate with bacon.
The team were all assembled soon with Katie giving last minute instructions. They were about to leave when the post arrived and Hermes swooped over to where Ron and Ginny were sitting. The note was short but encouraging with the whole family wishing them luck for the up-coming match.
It was with his family's encouraging words still ringing in his ears that Ron walked out onto the pitch half an hour later. The whole school had assembled to watch and both teams looked well trained and determined to win. It was strange to see Malfoy step up to shake Katie's hand but it all seemed amicable enough as they exchanged nods and Madame Hooch blew the starting whistle and threw the quaffle into the air.
Ginny was the first in possession, passing swiftly to Katie while Harry and Malfoy both swooped up and began circling the pitch. Ron positioned himself in front of the goal posts flying back and forth, keeping an eye on the game.
"And they're off!" Lee Jordan's replacement commentator was a seventh year Slytherin girl who seemed to have got the job by beating off all competition, literally. "Chaser Weasley in possession for Gryffindor, passes almost instantly to temporary captain Bell! Added element of fun to this match in that the most successful Gryffindor player (or should I say the one still actually on their broom at the end!) gets to be their new captain as Bell's refused, pleading reasons of workload! Course we're all suspicious she's just making the time to have a social life, but such vicious rumours should be quashed here and now as we all know she doesn't know what a social life is!"
"Miss Gray!" McGonagall chided whilst Snape could definitely be seen to be smirking at his student's comments.
"Sorry about that, Professor," the girl continued, "Truth hurts sometimes I guess. Anyway, Gryffindor's still got the quaffle, it's the new kid, the bloke, only male chaser, you can't miss him but I don't remember his name so we'll just call him Jimmy for now. Jimmy passes to Weasley…Oh let's make that tries to pass to Weasley! Intercepted with ease by Slytherin Chaser Mathews! Go Slytherin!"
"Miss Gray, please commentate in an unbiased manner!" McGonagall snapped.
"Yeah, that'll happen, Professor!"
Ron tore his incredulous eyes from the teachers stand where Mariella Gray was giving the most unusual commentary he'd ever heard. The quaffle was heading his way and the Slytherin chaser in possession looked likely to make a break for the goal. Sure enough they outstripped Ginny with ease and flung the quaffle at the right goal post. Ron shot across and caught it neatly, tossing it easily back out to his sister.
Mariella Gray had turned her attention to the Gryffindor robes, "Well I must say that red's rather garish, doesn't do the Weasley siblings any favours with their hair colour! Slytherin on the other hand are all looking very dashing in that beautiful forest green!"
"Could you focus on the game perhaps?" McGonagall suggested.
"Nothing interesting's happening!" Mariella protested.
"Yes it is!" The Transfigurations teacher could be heard yelling.
"Ok, ok," Mariella shrugged her shoulders, "So Gryffindor just scored. Twice. So it's twenty nil to the Gryffindors but there's still everything to play for and plenty of time for us to slaughter them! Hopefully, literally!"
"I never thought I'd say this, Gray, but you make me miss Mister Jordan's commentary!"
The commentator seemed to realise she'd gone too far and was about to have the magical megaphone forcibly taken from her, "Sorry, Professor, I'll stop tormenting your team."
Half an hour passed by remarkably quickly and Ron had stopped a further ten tries at the goal, the Slytherin chasers worked together awfully well, better than the Gryffindor ones because they had all flown in matches together before. Still Ron was quite proud that he was yet to let them score a single goal. The score, as the depressed commentator, who was sounding less pleased with herself by the minute, had just announced, was now one hundred and ten to nothing in Gryffindor's favour.
Harry and Malfoy were both circling madly but aside from one brief appearance ten minutes previously no one had seen anything of the snitch. At that moment Katie scored for the seventh time in the game, there was no denying that she was an excellent chaser, and Gryffindor went up to a hundred and twenty. Slytherin were still to score and the team were looking rather disheartened, apart from Malfoy who was looking furious and yelling various commands at them which Harry was trying to sabotage by breaking up their formations, something Malfoy looked fit to kill him for.
Ron noted with surprise that Malfoy wasn't a bad captain. With being uninvolved in most of the game he was able to organise the other players fairly well. It seemed seekers were in a good position to captain, well Charlie had told him that years ago Ron thought glumly. Still, he tried to stay hopeful, Oliver Wood had been a keeper and he'd been a great captain, if a trifle mad.
Neville, Seamus and Dean were cheering in the stands, along with Parvati who Seamus had dragged along and seemed to be enjoying herself. She was stood next to Hermione who was bouncing in front of her seat in excitement causing Ron to chuckle at her antics.
Luna Lovegood was cheering fiercely in the Ravenclaw stands and seemed somehow to have appropriated a Gryffindor scarf.
Ron was pulled out of his observation of the crowd by Ginny's whoop of delight and the commentators shout of dismay, the score had gone up to one hundred and thirty to Gryffindor.
Ten minutes later and the score was one hundred and seventy and Malfoy had ceased to shout orders and seemed to be searching madly for the snitch, wishing to end his team's misery as quickly as possible. Ron didn't think he'd seriously lose the match on purpose though.
Up above the other players Draco Malfoy was beyond annoyed, his first game as captain and they hadn't scored a single goal! It was humiliating. The Slytherin stands were getting quieter and less animated despite Pansy's continued cheering and prompting of them to do the same. As he flew past his girlfriend blew him a kiss, yelling, "Come on, Malfoy, what are you waiting for? Do something!"
Do something, well that was easy for her to say! All she had to do was stand there and watch.
"Not doing too well as captain, are you?" Harry couldn't resist the opportunity to irritate Malfoy.
"Well at least I am a captain!"
Harry gave him a look which to Draco said, 'yes and I will be too just as soon as I catch the snitch before you, which I always do!'
Suddenly Draco saw it and it took all his self-control not to dart after the little golden ball fluttering by the Slytherin goal posts. His keeper had noticed and was trying to surreptitiously let him know. He glared at the fourth year and the keeper took the hint that he'd already noticed and that he didn't need Potter to do the same.
Racking his brains for a distraction that wouldn't land him in Azkaban for attempted murder, though at least then he'd be with his father, Draco took a risk and turned away from the snitch to yell to his chasers. "Arrow Head Attacking formation!"
Draco then turned back to Harry, "So, Potter, do you think you strive to achieve so that you can think your dead parents would have been proud of you?"
He took the bait. Harry dived through Draco's chasers, scattering them left, right and centre and allowing Draco to take off towards the Slytherin stands where his keeper was near frantic at his captain's seemingly blasé attitude to the snitch.
The shouts of the crowd were drowned out by the wind streaming past him as he threw his broom forwards at speeds that weren't exactly safe. The snitch had hardly moved and he grasped it easily, swinging his broom to the side in order to avoid the goal post and nearly colliding with Harry on the way.
Draco looked down at his hand in shock before laughing and waving the snitch in the air. The whole stadium was quiet for a moment before the Gryffindors began to cheer their victory. Draco looked towards the Slytherin stands, he didn't care that they'd lost, he'd won a much more personal victory, but his house were probably not going to be overjoyed by his decision. Still, hopefully they'd see that there had been no coming back from the position they were in.
"Gryffindor win but Slytherin captain Malfoy catches the snitch whilst Potter's too busy thinking he's a human bludger. Tough luck, Potty! Final score: Gryffindor-170; Slytherin-150!" Mariella didn't seem too bothered by their defeat, for all the girl couldn't concentrate on the game while commentating, Draco knew she knew enough about quidditch to agree with him that they had had no chance of a victory.
Suddenly the Slytherins began to cheer, encouraged by Pansy who seemed to have forgotten that she was a demure young woman and was screaming like a banshee. Draco laughed and flew across the pitch to meet her.
Ronald Weasley was in shock, Malfoy had caught the snitch before Harry. This was not the way things were supposed to go, they'd still won but that just made it more amazing. Clearly the Potter/Malfoy grudge match did not allow for them to put their teams first, or at least it clearly didn't allow Malfoy to put his team first.
Ron swerved madly as Malfoy darted past him to land in the Slytherin stands and sweep Pansy Parkinson off her feet while being clapped on the back by Crabbe and Goyle.
The Gryffindor team seemed to get over their shock and landed, each feeling though that their victory had been a little hollow. Harry certainly didn't look happy, Ron thought. He landed by his friend and patted his shoulder, "Don't let him get to you, so he caught the snitch before you once, odds were it had to happen sooner or later! We still won!"
Harry shrugged him off, "Yeah, I suppose."
"Oh my God!" Ginny smacked her brother on the back with a disturbing amount of strength, "Ron, you were amazing in that game!"
"He certainly was!" Katie agreed, "You get my vote, Weasley!"
"Mine too," Ginny grinned.
"Vote for what?" Ron asked in confusion.
"The captain's post!" Katie clarified.
"He gets my vote too!" Jack, one of the new beaters, said.
"I don't think…" Ron looked at Harry, "It was one game, I vote that Harry's captain."
Harry looked up from the ground at his friend. "Don't be silly. I vote for you."
It was that single vote, knowing how much it cost his friend, that meant more than any of the others. Ron didn't care that he'd been unanimously voted Gryffindor Quidditch Captain; it was Harry's vote that mattered to him.
"Thanks," he muttered as the other team members began to stream away from the pitch to the crowd.
Harry shrugged, "No problem. Ginny was right, you were amazing up there." He turned and walked away leaving Ron with a knot in his stomach, he hated it when he and Harry were put into competition with each other.
Katie had grabbed the Slytherin commentator and Mariella suddenly yelled, "Alright everyone, no surprise I'm sure but Ronald Weasley's the new Gryffindor captain by a unanimous vote from his team mates. Wow, you know what this means?" she paused for a moment, "They can count up to six! Who'd have guessed it to look at them!" With that she relinquished the magical megaphone to an annoyed McGonagall who seemed to be being held back from grabbing it beforehand by a smug looking Severus Snape.
Ron's attention however was grabbed by Luna Lovegood who raced up to him, "Hello!" she said brightly.
"Hi," Ron gave her an uncertain look. At close range he could see that her Gryffindor scarf was in fact home knitted and he suspected she'd made it herself, though what she'd want with a Gryffindor scarf he was unsure.
Luna had a strange gleam in her eyes, "Congratulations." She rose on her tiptoes, leaned in and kissed him.
Ron was stunned, Luna Lovegood was kissing him. It was rather nice actually, he reached out and placed his hands on her arms to steady her and bent his head so she relaxed the sharp angle her neck was at in order to reach his lips. Eventually he moved his own lips against hers before pulling away.
Luna beamed at him, "I know you don't feel that way about me, I've just been wanting to do that for ages."
"Luna, I…" guilt welled up at the truth of her words, but then she had kissed him it wasn't as though he had meant to lead her on or get her hopes up.
"It's ok, Ron. That was all I wanted."
He returned her smile, blushing rather red, he hadn't imagined his first kiss being quite so public, or with Luna for that matter, but he wouldn't take it back even if he could.
She hugged him impulsively, "We're friends though, right?"
Had she asked him that question just the previous day he wouldn't have known quite how to respond, now he didn't even consider before grinning at her and pulling a strand of her hair gently, "Yeah, course we are."
She beamed at him, "Well you should get back to your house for the celebrations."
"You could join us if you want," he offered.
She shook her head, "That's ok, Hermione might 'accidentally' hex me."
Ron turned to look at the spot over his shoulder she was focusing on, Hermione was indeed shooting Luna a very unpleasant look while leaning on Harry's shoulder. The two were both looking equally sorry for themselves and Ron was torn between the instinct to groan and tell them to snap out of it or to go over and comfort them both.
He looked back at Luna who simply said, "She likes you too, you know."
Ron frowned warily, "Too?"
Luna snorted, "I'm weird, Ron, not stupid and certainly not blind." There was a slightly wistful look in her pale eyes, "See you round." She turned and began to walk away.
"Luna!" Ron ran a few paces after her and grasped her arm gently, turning her round but lost for words. Wanting to make her feel better but unable to feel something he didn't.
She managed a smile and patted his cheek in an odd gesture, "Win some, lose some," she shrugged, "Plenty more fish in the sea. Now for goodness sake go and celebrate your victory!" This time when she walked away he let her go.
XXXXXXX
After the match Hermione raced onto the pitch, intent on congratulating Ron, but sidetracked by a dismal looking Harry. "Oh, Harry," she gave him a quick hug, "Don't worry about it. You did your best and Malfoy just had a lucky break!"
"I don't care!" Harry muttered unconvincingly but Hermione didn't hear him, she was too busy looking over to where Luna Lovegood had just run up to Ron. What was she doing? Hermione suddenly gasped in horror as the younger girl leaned in and kissed her Ron. The kiss was too long to be one sided in her opinion.
She watched in shock as the girl hugged him and Ron playfully pulled her hair, grinning at her. As Luna went to leave he even pulled her back, his hand on her arm!
Throughout the whole exchange he spared her and Harry a brief glance before turning his attention back to Luna.
The two of them were attracting a lot more attention than simply hers, the remaining students were watching and gossiping madly though the two young lovers (Hermione used the term with great bitterness) didn't seem to have noticed. It seemed they were too wrapped up in each other.
Malfoy and Parkinson strode by, arm in arm, with a large crowd of Slytherins.
"Bad luck, Potter!" Malfoy called tauntingly to Harry, clearly not caring for good sportsmanship.
Pansy though took one look at where Hermione's gaze was directed and laughed, "Come on, Granger, surely you knew he could do better than you!"
Watching them walk away, and restraining a fuming Harry, Hermione felt the girl's words cut deeply. Ron felt he could do better, well fine, let him, she thought indignantly.
The aforementioned Weasley was currently crossing towards them, seeing Malfoy had said something to provoke Harry and keen to see that his friend was alright.
"Hi guys, what was Malfoy on about?"
"Just rubbing it in!" Harry said bitterly.
Ron gave him a self-conscious smile and shrugged awkwardly, "Ignore him."
Ron tired to ignore Harry's muttered statement of, "Couldn't have worked out to do that for myself!"
"What were you doing with Luna anyway?" Hermione asked in a disapproving tone.
Ron blushed and shrugged his shoulders, "Nothing."
"Didn't look like nothing from here!"
"She was just offering her congratulations, that's all."
Hermione looked doubtful. Ron was surprised Harry hadn't teased him about it but Harry was remaining stubbornly silent and looking almost anywhere but at his best friend.
XXXXXXX
The victory party in the Gryffindor common room was less boisterous than usual, possibly in part due to the fact that the twins weren't there to liven things up Ron thought. All of Gryffindor though seemed to feel that it hadn't been much of a victory, being handed to them in the way that it was. In fact Slytherin seemed to be relishing the outcome of the game much more than the Gryffindors were. One Slytherin in particular.
McGonagall looked up from her work at a knock on her door the day after the match, "Come in."
A smirking Severus Snape strode into her office, "Hello, Minerva, I just came to remind you that you owe me ten galleons."
"I hadn't forgotten," she frowned.
He took up the vacant seat across from her, "Just giving you a reminder. Don't look so disappointed, your team won, just because Draco proved himself capable of beating Potter's no reason not to be pleased with the outcome."
"I'm still not convinced he didn't find a way to cheat!" she grumbled.
"Is this the fabled Gryffindor sense of fair play?" he teased, "I didn't think you were such poor losers."
"As you pointed out, Severus, we didn't lose, you did."
"Actually, personally, I won. Ten galleons to be exact."
She sighed in frustration and glared at the younger man, infuriated by his teasing but also pleased to see his mood so light for once. In recent times the two had shared less and less banter about their houses as Severus became increasingly withdrawn, and in her opinion ten galleons was not really that high a price to pay if it got a smile out of Severus. Not that she was about to tell him that.
XXXXXXX
Almost a week passed after the match with surprisingly no altercations between Gryffindor and Slytherin; despite Slytherin's constant taunting of Harry, who was quite obviously reaching the end of his fuse.
Ron and Hermione though were both worried that their friend was going to snap eventually, the looks he was giving Malfoy were certainly enough indication of that. Harry reigned himself in however and managed to make it through the days after the quidditch match with nothing more than the odd comment tossed back at the smug Slytherins who all seemed to have completely forgotten the fact that one win against Harry in more than two years of playing against him was not necessarily that impressive.
It had been a particularly difficult day and the three Gryffindors were on their way to the library, at Hermione's insistence. ("What do you mean, you haven't done much Homework this term!"). Coming from the opposite direction Draco Malfoy was walking with Pansy Parkinson but the two didn't seem to notice them at first.
Suddenly the Slytherins registered their presence. "Look at Granger fawning over Weasley, notice how all last week she was supporting Potter the wonder child until Weasley turned out to be the winner after all." Pansy's clear, mocking voice reached them as they passed, causing Hermione to turn red in a mixture of anger and embarrassment and remove her hand from Ron's arm where she hand placed it to restrain him from going after Malfoy if he said anything stupid. It was unclear whether Pansy had intended them to hear her or not as she and Draco continued without further comment.
Harry however had had just about enough, the last couple of days had been progressing from bad to worse and being laughed at by the Slytherin girl was the last straw, even though a part of him registered that it had been Hermione and not actually him she had been talking about.
He swung around and pulled out his wand, "Care to say that again, Parkinson?"
Pansy turned to face him, looking unimpressed, "What are you going to do, Potter?"
Harry advanced towards her and though she refused to back up she began to look slightly concerned. Draco was in the process of pulling his wand out to help her when Harry fired off the first hex that came to mind. Considering how often he saw Pansy fiddling with her hair or checking her reflection in the glass of a portrait he couldn't help but think it was rather fitting.
"Furnunculus!"
Pansy was hit directly in the face, a look of bewilderment dawning as she realised Harry had indeed attacked her without further warning. Knowing what the spell did, she raised a hand to her face in horror and felt the ugly and somewhat painful boils springing up across her nose and cheeks. "Oh!" she let out a little cry of horror and Draco rushed to her side, placing a hand on her arm and trying to turn her to face him but she shrugged him away and refused to look at him.
"Potter, you bastard!" Harry was momentarily distracted by the fact he'd never heard Malfoy swear at him before and that was all the opportunity Draco needed.
Harry suddenly felt himself hit with what felt like a not so mild electric shock which sent him stumbling backwards. Draco had turned away from him and back to Pansy who was still keeping her back to him, not wanting him to see her face. Harry didn't even think before throwing all the force he could muster behind his next curse, "Expelliarmus!"
Draco's wand flew across the room and out of sight and Draco himself was thrown back roughly into the nearby wall hitting his head with enough force that a tinge of red appeared in his white blonde hair. Pansy screamed and began to dig through her shoulder bag for her own wand, seeing Harry raise his wand to curse Draco further.
Harry was half way through the curse when his wand slipped from his fingers, "I'll take that thank you, Mr Potter." Snape's silky tones came from his side where the potions master had pulled his wand from him, "A thousand points from Gryffindor." The man sounded entirely serious and Harry was about to protest that the Slytherins had started it when the furious tones of his head of house reached his ears.
"Severus, much as we all understand the severity of what Mr Potter just did, would not a hundred be more realistic?"
"Very well," Snape conceded.
"But Professor – " Harry began only to be cut off by McGonagall.
"Mr Potter, we saw exactly what happened, whatever provoked you to attack Miss Parkinson it was very clear that you were the one who started this fight!"
Snape was helping Draco to his feet while Pansy stood by glaring at Harry, though admittedly her facial expressions were hard to tell because of the boils but the anger in her dark eyes told him that she definitely wasn't smiling at him.
Ron and Hermione were both looking deeply uncomfortable and as though they should perhaps have put a stop to what was happening but the whole scene had played out so quickly no one had had a chance until Snape and McGonagall had rounded the corner to see the situation.
"You will serve detention every night for a week. I am deeply disappointed in you Mr. Potter!" McGonagall snapped, fixing Harry with a look of serious displeasure.
Harry was given no time to respond as McGonagall accompanied Snape in taking the two Slytherins to the hospital wing.
"Can you believe that!" Harry exploded once they were out of sight.
"Well you attacked an unarmed girl, so no mate I have to say I'm having trouble believing it," Ron looked shocked.
"That 'unarmed girl' was Pansy Parkinson, not exactly little miss innocent! You heard what she said!" Harry's anger was clearly growing.
Ron, wishing to avoid the fight he could feel brewing between them, said, "Yeah I did. You're right, she shouldn't have said that. Come on let's go back to the common room."
"You two haven't been to the library yet!" Hermione protested.
Ron sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. "Go without us, Hermione, I think the last thing we need is to find more trouble tonight."
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So what did you think? Please let me know, I'm desperate for feedback! Next chapter's going to be a little action packed and hopefully rather interesting. I'll try not to keep you waiting so long next time. Stick with me, I'm geting there with this story, thanks to everyone for reading:o)