"What do you want, Malfoy?"

The sudden, and rather loud, outburst from Ron broke Harry out of his thoughts and he jerked his head up in surprise, following the ginger boy's glare over towards the entrance of the compartment. Blocking the doorway completely were three individuals and just the sight of them made him scowl immediately. It was hard to see that smug, pointy blond git without being reminded of a slightly older smug, pointy blond git who had been part of the reason Sirius had died.

Draco Malfoy's grey eyes swept over the occupants of the compartment coolly as he surveyed them all with an arrogant sneer, his ever present henchmen flanking him. He locked eyes with Harry for a moment, staring the boy down with a challenge in his expression, but then his face morphed back into its usual disdain for any lesser beings that was directed at the rest of them.

"Not that it's any of your business, Weasel, but I'm inspecting the compartments as per my Prefect duties," said the Slytherin with an air of innocence about his words, as if he wasn't just looking for a fight which he clearly was. Then he focused his cold gaze on Hermione and grimaced, as though her very presence pained him. "I thought I smelled something bad."

Ron leapt up out of his seat, brandishing his wand, and it was all Harry could do to stop the boy from launching himself at Malfoy. The green-eyed wizard firmly pressed his friend back down onto the seat, adding under his breath, "He's really not worth it, Ron."

Draco arched one blond eyebrow at the ginger Gryffindor, looking vaguely amused. "Watch yourself or I may have to give you a detention, Weasel."

Crabbe and Goyle sniggered appreciatively at his words.

"You watch yourself," Hermione said, bristling at his audacity. "Now go away!"

For a moment, the grey-eyed one looked taken aback at her words and her tone—flashing back to that dreadful punch in third year—then he regained his composure and narrowed his eyes at her. "Are you going to make me go away, Mudblood? Go on then."

Draco's pale hand slid into his robes, no doubt going to grip his wand, but Hermione kept a worried silence. Was it worth it to just hex him real good? She was a Prefect and supposed to set a good example to the other students… Then again, so was the Slytherin and he was being a complete prat as usual. The girl opened her mouth to reply, finally, but she was cut off by Harry as he rose from the seat and tugged his wand out of his pocket.

"No, but I will," he spat, green eyes narrowed in anger at the other boy. His voice was low, hardened audibly by a lot of pent up aggression that he had not been able to vent for the whole summer.

"Oh really?" Draco asked, drawing his own wand out and smirking. "I don't think you can."

In unison, Crabbe and Goyle guffawed idiotically and then cracked their knuckles loudly in what they most likely thought, if indeed they possessed the ability to think at all, was a menacing way.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well we all know thinking isn't your strong suit."

Anger flashed across the Slytherin's face and then he whipped his wand forwards, hissing, "Incendio!"

Red light flashed as flames erupted out of the slim piece of wood, shooting ominously forwards as Ron gave a quick shout of, "Capillus Amotio!" and Harry cried, "Expelliarmus!"

The three separate spells crashed into each other, each separate light flaring almost blindingly bright, before they went flying off in different directions rapidly. Not wanting a repeat of the infamous Densaugeo incident, Hermione let out a panicked squeal and dropped down to the floor of the compartment, hands flung over her head, while the youngest Weasley remained rooted to the spot by the window.

The green light from Harry's wand hit Crabbe square in the chest and the beefy student went flying out of the door and down the corridor, landing with a thump by a group of terrified first years as his wand went soaring in the opposite direction. Ron's spell hit the ceiling with a crack and then rebounded down, striking the window with such force that the heat melted a hole in the glass. Ginny lurched away from it with a yelp, joining Hermione on the floor belatedly. The flames from Draco's hastily cast spell swirled around for a moment and then found a target, hitting Ron's robes. The boy let out a yell and danced around frantically, slapping at the flames sprouting on the material.

Seizing the opportunity to escape as chaos broke out in the compartment, Draco stuck his wand back into his robes and, after shoving roughly past Goyle, ran down the corridor to safety. The great lug of the boy stood there for a moment, mouth hanging open as he stared at the Gryffindors, and then he jogged off suddenly to catch up with Malfoy. After sitting down with the first years gaping at him for a minute, Crabbe staggered to his feet and followed the other two, stumbling in a slightly drunken fashion.

Hermione removed her hands from her head cautiously, looking up to make sure it was safe to do so, and then she squealed again as she saw Ron jumping around in an attempt to put the fire out. Yanking her wand out of her pocket as she scrambled up, she pointed it at his robes and then hurriedly chanted the incantation to an extinguishing spell.

"Exstinctum esse!"

As soon as the fire vanished, leaving only a few wisps of smoke that rose to the ceiling and left a rather unpleasant smell, Ron stopped hopping around.

"Took you long enough!" The boy yelled, patting his robes to make sure there was no damage done.

Hermione gaped at him and then huffed loudly, glaring. "A 'thank you' would be nice, you know! I could have just left you there to be burned alive, Ronald, but no… I decided to help because you're my friend. Obviously that isn't good enough!" she hissed, stalking out of the room and stomping off down the corridor until she was out of sight.

Ron and Harry exchanged bewildered glances then the black-haired boy rolled his eyes, sitting back down by the partially melted window and letting the soft breeze now coming in blow over his face refreshingly. "You walked right into that one, mate," said the Gryffindor with a grin, slipping his wand back into his robes and breathing a sigh of relief that they had all escaped unscathed.

"Shut up." Ron muttered, sitting down and crossing his arms over his chest sulkily. When Ginny gave him a disapproving look for how he had spoken to Hermione, he scowled at her and then turned his head to stare out the window, lips pursed.

The youngest Weasley looked over at Harry, who was also staring blankly out the window, and sighed. She was going to have to sit in silence like this until Hermione decided to grace them with her presence again. That just wouldn't do, however, so she tried to break the silence herself in a falsely cheerful voice.

"What was the spell you used, Ron?"

For a second he didn't acknowledge her then, finally, he turned his head to look at his sister. "It's an instant scalping hex… it removes hair instantly, stupid," he added as she stared blankly at him.

"Oh," said Ginny, blinking and then grinning at the mental image. "I wish it had worked! I'd love to see the look on Malfoy's face when he realised he had no hair left."

"Yeah… though I dunno if it would've pierced through all that gel on his fat head. Hexes can only do so much," Ron remarked with a slight smirk. "Maybe if his fire spell had backfired, it would've set it all on fire and then his head would've exploded."

The girl stared at her brother with a wide-eyed expression, then she shook her head. "I don't quite think that would happen, Ron…"

The Gryffindor's smirk disappeared and he glared at her. "You don't know that, you're only a stupid fifth year," he said aggressively, annoyed that she had ruined his little fantasy. "Might've worked…"

"Not likely," Harry muttered after snorting at the very idea.

The ginger male sputtered angrily, shocked that even his best friend wouldn't back him up on it, and then turned to stare mutinously out the window. Harry wasn't bothered; he concentrated on blocking out Ginny's voice as she tried to placate her brother, as he made a promise to himself that he'd give Draco what he deserved before the year was over.

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