The Debutante Ball
A fanfiction novel by sizzleberrylicious
Chapter Six
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Draco froze as a neon green jet of light skimmed dangerously close to his left ear and watched as it zoomed into the depths of the Forbidden Forest behind him. He narrowed his eyes at Blaise, who was still on the ground. Had his best friend made an attempt to.. kill him? Draco seethed with rage, pointing his wand at Blaise, muttering, "Imperio!"
Blaise, who was fumbling with his mind trying to recall the counter-spell to the leg-lock, was suddenly overcome by a strange, dream-like feeling. He panicked. This could only be the Imperius Unforgivable. He inwardly groaned.
Get up, Zabini, floated in Draco's voice. Blaise made a move to get up, but then stopped short. I must not listen to him! he reminded himself quickly.
Get up, Zabini.. Get up.. Zabini.. Get up.. Up now, Zabini.. Zabini.. Zabini.. Get up.. Zabini..
Blaise let out a long shriek, Draco's voice pounding in his head, growing louder by the minute. He had no choice but to follow. Struggling, he managed to flip himself up without the use of his helpless legs.
Good. Now, drop your wand, Zabini. Drop your wand.
Blaise fought with all his will power and held on tightly to his wand, his grip nearly snapping the polished wood in half. Who knew what Draco would do to him once he was defenseless?
Zabini.. Drop your wand.. Let go of your wand, Zabini.. Zabini.. Zabini, drop your wand.. Drop your wand.. Let go of your wand.. Zabini.. Zabini..
Blaise's fingers quivered as, one by one, they unstuck themselves from his wand. Blaise was screaming at himself not to let go, but couldn't do anything against it. His wand fell to the muddy grass, making an odd squishy sound as it nestled in the mud.
Squish.
Good, Zabini, good.
All of a sudden, Blaise felt the curse being lifted off him, and sighed in relief. He quickly made to grab his wand, but Draco was quicker.
"Accio wand!"
The magic stick flew out of the mud and neatly into Draco's outstretched hand. Blaise shut his eyes, fearing the worse, when suddenly, his reflexes caused him to reach out and grab.. his wand? He blinked open his eyes in surprise, gripping onto the wood tightly in case this was some kind of trick.
"I'm sparing you, Zabini," Draco shouted over the rain. "Just don't mess with Granger again."
Draco walked back towards the castle, his wand still in hand. Blaise muttered the counter-spell for the annoying leg-lock and struggled to stand up. He glared daggers at Draco's retreating back, before firing off as many curses as possible in his direction.
Draco, knowing that Blaise wouldn't let him off that easily for placing him under two Unforgivables in less than seven minutes, immediately spun around and deflected the curses, sending them back towards a stunned Blaise.
Blaise's eyes widened in shock as his curses shot back at him. He dived out of the way, but a scarlet red beam of light hit his ankle, and he turned rigid as a board, falling to the ground with an audible thud.
Draco smirked at his immobile friend before heading back to the castle. When he was a few feet away from the castle, the main doors suddenly burst open, sending a stream of bright light into Draco's eyes. He dived into an overgrowth of Hawthorn bushes, but then mentally smacked himself for his behaviour.
A Malfoy does not run and hide, much less dive into bushes! I've got more dignity than that. Besides, it's not like that person was -
"GRANGER?!" he nearly shouted in surprise. He clamped his hand over his mouth, but thankfully for him, the rain was too heavy, and that persistent Know-It-All hadn't heard him.
He watched as she disappeared into the rain, her silhoutte still roughly visible. He slitted his eyes when realisation struck him; she was making her way to Blaise Zabini.
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Hermione rushed down the many flights of marble steps and out the main entrance. The thunder and lightning had gone, but the rain was still pounding down hard against the solid walls of Hogwarts. Hermione shivered as she stepped out into the rain and scanned the Grounds for any sight of Draco or Blaise. She noticed a strange lump on the ground several feet west of the rose bushes and rushed over to it, alarms going off in her head that one of the guys were badly injured. Her vision was blurred considerably, but she didn't care. She had the strangest feeling that whatever the boys had been duelling over had to do strongly with her, and she wasn't going to just leave the injured party to suffer.
Hermione's eyes widened when she reached Blaise's stupefied state. She dropped to her knees in the mud, not caring if her stockings got soaked with mud. She fumbled for her wand and muttered the counter-spell. "Ennervate!"
Blaise's eyes snapped open and Hermione helped him up, a worried look splashed over her features. "Are you alright, Blaise? Can you walk? Do you want me to go fetch Madam Pomfrey?"
Blaise shook his head, wincing at the pain. "I can walk, Granger, no need to draw attention to anything."
Blaise made a move to walk, but stumbled forward. Hermione bit her lip as she helped him to his feet again, looping his arm around her shoulders. "I'll help you walk to the castle. Come on."
Hermione and Blaise silently made their way back to the castle, slipping in the mud every now and then. When they finally made it back to the warmth of the deserted Great Hall, Hermione helped Blaise to sit down on one of the benches. "Can you make it to the infirmary, or do you want me to go and get Madam Pomfrey? I think you've sprained your ankle, and you've got some fresh cuts on your shoulder," Hermione noted as she inspected his wounds. "If you don't want to, I could fix them for you here."
"That'd be appreciated, Granger," Blaise said. Hermione nodded in agreement as she pointed her wand at him, steadily. Blaise shut his eyes. This was the second time he was on the receiving end of a wand in less than ten minutes! His pride had danced out the window and into the storm, he was sure of it.
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"Ginny, can I talk to you about.. something?" Hermione asked her redhead friend, jerking her head towards Harry and Ron, who were busy seeing who could eat the most cream puff pastries in ten minutes. Ginny nodded, understandingly.
"Girl talk," Ginny agreed. She turned to Harry and Ron, "Uhm, Harry, Ron, Hermione and I are going to go and take a walk."
Ron shot her a questioning glance before devouring the rest of his cream puff and grabbing another. "But awen't you gonna eat?" he asked through a mouthful of cream puff. "This schtuff ish goooood."
"Let 'em go, Won. It'sh pwivate giwlie's schtuff," Harry said, shovelling more cream puffs into his mouth. Ron merely shrugged his shoulders and continued to wallop the cream puffs. Hermione and Ginny exchanged glances before walking out of the Great Hall. Once several feet away from the door, Ginny rounded on Hermione and grinned.
"Alright, 'Mione, spill!"
Hermione blushed. "Well, I'm confused, Gin. As you know, Dra- Malfoy asked me to walk with him several nights ago. And then, last night, while I was taking a stroll around the Grounds, Blaise suddenly appeared and started saying how dangerous it was and all that, then he.. Uhm.. Licked my ear."
Ginny's jaw dropped. If she had been an animated cartoon character, her jaw would've come unscrewed and fell down till it hit the floor. She blinked once, twice, before snapping her mouth shut and giggling. "Oh my God, Hermione, that is SO unfair! You've got BOTH of the notorious Slytherin hotties wanting you. How do you do it?"
Hermione laughed, nervously. "I don't know, Gin. I don't even know what to do now!"
Ginny smacked her forehead. "I do. You pick one, and I'll have the other. Fair?"
"GINNY WEASLEY!!"
"What?" Ginny grinned, sheepishly. "You can't hog them forever, 'Mione."
Hermione felt a blush creep up her cheeks and she lifted her chin. "I'm not hogging them, Gin, don't be silly." She fidgeted uncomfortably. "And, well.. After I went back up, I saw Malfoy and Zabini duelling. I got really worried, Gin; there was an Avada thrown in! They could've been seriously hurt, or worse, dead! So I went down, and I helped Blaise inside. He had the Locomotor Mortis leglock on, and Draco - uhm, Malfoy - was nowhere in sight."
Ginny stared at her for a moment before smirking at her. "No, really, Hermione. Choose one. I'll have the other. It's a fair deal, don't you think?"
Hermione sighed. "Ginny!! I don't even know if they actually like me. You do realise how very wrong that would be, after so many years of mistreatment and name-calling from Draco, and ignorance from Blaise? It's just so.. weird. Besides, I have 'tainted blood'. No pureblood would even consider thinking about me, let alone wanting me!"
"Look at you, 'Mione, you've grown up so much since then. Guys are definitely starting to notice you," Ginny grinned. Hermione bit down on her lip, her cheeks now a tomato-red shade.
"Oh, shut up, Gin."
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Disclaimer: I do not intend to achieve any profits in the form of money, cheque, or items by the publishment of this piece of crap, nor do I intend to do any copyrighted infringement, or whatever you call it. Happy?
Author's Note: I bet you that most of you thought that one of them, Blaise or Draco, was gonna die. Well, I can't afford to kill them off, seeing as they both play very important rolls in this story. Rejoice!! I've finally got the plot settled out for my next story!! I'm so excited!! But I'm only going to post the first chapter AFTER I finish The Debutante Ball, seeing as I might abandon this story, as I seemed to be doing with my other stories on my previous account. Well, I'll advertise it in the last chapter of this story, so keep your eyes open!!
Thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou and THANKYOU to all my brilliant reviewers!! oneamsoundstage, curioscat, WinnieThaPoo92, I lUv JeSsE mCcArTnEy, Gueneviere, GoldenWingedSilverFaerie, dracoisthesexiestmanalive, Abby, Loh Ai Lin, Eternally Night, and Artemis52036!!
Urhm, these are just some responses to some reviews. Thanks a lot, guys!!
Abby: THANKYOU, Abby. Happy? Ha. Abby, I have no friggin' idea what their middle names are. I just made them up. x) And I couldn't think of any other middle name for Draco anyway. Chester? Bob? Draco Bob Malfoy.. Ha! I'm gonna die laughing.
I lUv JeSsE mCcArTnEy: Ahh, well, I don't think Draco's evil. He didn't kill Dumbledore, after all! And besides, Draco just rolls off the tongue.. Mmm. Yummy. Haha. Sorry if me calling him Draco instead of Malfoy offends you. And I am reeeeally sorry about the length of the chappiter. I had writer's block!! Eek!!
GoldenWingedSilverFaerie: Haha, thanks a lot for the review!! I reviewed one of your stories already. x) And well, no one died, since the Avada missed it's mark.. Thank God. I seriously don't know how I'm going to continue this story is Draco is dead and Blaise is jailed. shudders Oh, and I think this Pansy is easier to work with than the snotty, frou-frou Pansy most people write with. Besides, people change, right? Right? Right. x) Nice to know that we have the same Pansy-tastes!!
WinnieThaPoo92: As mentioned in this chappiter, BLAISE pulled an Avada. He's eebil. But still hot. Ha. Okay, sorry, moving on. And I'm trying reeeally hard not to update so late, but it's all I can do with school workloads and all that shit. Ha. I'll update as often as I can, I promise. I've already got about.. half of Chapter Seven done, if it helps. x)
Loh Ai Lin: Haha. Thanks for reading and reviewing anyway!! Hee. See you in school!
Lalala.. Ha, I hope I made sense.
Hm. Alright, I have nothing else to say. Ttfn, 'sizzleberrylicious. Muaxx, sweets! ♥