Disclaimer: Unlike the true author of the Harry Potter series, my version of Draco Malfoy & co. were not created under the effects of caffeine (haha just kidding) - so well, acknowledge the power of coffee! (& Ms Rowling, of course)
A/N: Sorry, been really busy...:( here's the next chapter!
blueeyedchibi: Here's the next chapter for your perusal! Hope you like it ) Thanks so much for the review!
"Malfoy! MALFOY! Would you just WAIT UP!"
He quickened his pace as he strode along the corridor.
"Malfoy!"
He was almost running now.
"Malfoy, won't you just stop!"
"I have nothing to say to you, Mudblood!"
Hermione ignored the insult as she tried to catch up with him. "What was that you were saying about…"
Suddenly Draco spun around and grabbed her by the shoulders, frightening her considerably. Then he shook her hard till her teeth rattled in her head. "Shut up!" He hissed. "You don't want the whole world to hear you, damn it!"
Hermione was too scared to say a word, so she just let out a soft moan. His fingernails were digging hard into her shoulders, and his glare was so piercing she could barely even open her eyes.
Finally, he let her go, muttering softly to himself. Thankfully, no one was walking along this corridor, save for one first-year who had literally scurried away upon seeing the figure of Draco Malfoy advance upon his path.
Sorry.
Hermione tried to hide her amazement at Draco's apology, but she gathered up her nerves and looked expectantly at him. "I don't have class now; and neither do you, so you might as well tell me. There's got to be a good reason why you're telling me this."
"Granger, you know better than me why I'm telling you this," hissed Draco, turning away to stare at the portrait of a rather ferocious-looking wolf snarling at his equally angry face. "He knew that I am failing the Dark Lord; he's going to rat on me. He knows I didn't hex Weasley!"
"But how do you know?" asked Hermione, bewildered.
"I don't know…" Draco turned back again, his rage suddenly diminishing into that of weariness. "I…I just feel it. His…his voice sounded so familiar; I've heard it before, at my induction, or some other time when I was meeting the Dark Lord…I've heard his voice before…and, I hear it sometimes in my subconsciousness. He's just a filthy dog! Argh!" His voice was laced with so much spiteful disgust as he clenched his fists.
"But Harry's…Harry's told him a lot," whispered Hermione, light suddenly dawning upon her. "He's been meeting Professor Nell very often; he must have told him about all the secrets we've found and asked him for advice!"
"Why do you think I'm telling you, Granger?" sneered Draco. "For your own play's sake?"
Hermione didn't say anything. She just stared at the ground.
"I just thought of something else," said Draco, his cold eyes were surprisingly filled with worry as Hermione looked up. "Nell's working with Professor Sprout over that mandrake potion they give Stunned patients. The one Weasley's supposed to take and get out of that stoned state."
"Oh my god," whispered Hermione. "No wonder Harry said the potion wasn't working!"
"Proves my point!" scowled Draco. Then he saw Hermione's stricken face, and immediately (and rather strangely) felt pity for her. "You're not the only one stuck in a predicament, okay! My problems weigh worse!"
He regretted those words as they came out.
"Oh yeah? You only think about yourself, arrogant git, you don't think about how others feel!" snapped Hermione. "You think you're some prince, but let me tell you, you're just a stone-cold ferret who's just an utter jerk because you don't even see the misery of even the people who are close to you; you just think about your own problems and your own troubles but you don't care that anyone else is heartbroken as well!"
There was a very thick, cold silence, except for their heavy breathing.
Then Draco took a few steps forward till right in front of her. Hermione tried to back off, but he grabbed her by the shoulders again, though not as roughly as the previous time. Hermione looked away, but after a while, she looked back. This time, she saw his grey eyes looking right at her, almost sparkling. They were no longer steel-cold; they were soft, full of unspeakable emotion, and hurt.
"I never knew you hated me so much, Granger."
"It's time you did." But it was said in such a raw whisper, that Draco could hardly believe her. Hermione didn't believe herself either.
"Granger, look, Weasley's in bad shape. Everyone knows that. But we're still going to find a way to get him well again. In three days' time, if you don't help me think of a plan to get past hurting Ginny Weasley, three people are going to be so dead. One is Weasley. Next is his sister. Then third is me."
Hermione closed her eyes and tried to shut out his voice. But it was nearly impossible given he was grabbing her arms and was just centimetres away from her.
"Weasley's your bloody friend. Then what about his sister? And…"
His voice trailed off as he came to the third person involved.
It's me being selfish, she thought to herself, shutting him out from her thoughts. I'm the one who doesn't think about others; I only think about my misery. I never thought about how Ron would feel if I let his sister get hurt, I never thought about Ginny dying in front of my very eyes when Ron's already in this state, I never thought about…about how…how he would die too…
Hermione finally opened her eyes again, staring into the sparkling grey eyes before her. She felt a tingle go through her, but she shook it off. Then she relaxed a little, so that Malfoy's hands lost its grip, and she was able to brush them off her shoulders. A second later, she found herself turning away and walking off briskly in the opposite direction.
Draco Malfoy just continued looking at her walking away from him. Something dull was beginning to cloud his eyes, clouding them from expressing a shred of emotion. Then it turned back to the gray that it used to be…or maybe not as cold…
---
Ginny brushed her silky red hair neatly down her shoulders, before parading a little in front of the mirror. Her dormitory mates all laughed at her for being vain, but she merely grinned and set the brush down. "You're all jealous!" , she had said with a completely honest twinkle in her eye, while everyone laughed again.
She went to the common-room, but only a few third-years were there, chatting happily by the fireplace. In her mind, she was searching for one particular person, but she had no idea where he would be. Thinking immediately of one place, she exited the room and started heading towards the back of the castle that faced Hagrid's hut.
The corridors were strangely quiet, save for a few slamming doors and the sound of swinging portraits. Everybody was diving back into their rooms. Ginny cocked her eyebrows at the swinging staircases above, wondering what was going on. She knew that some important examinations were coming up and also practices for Quidditch were intensifying. She was getting very weary with the frequent practices as well. Yet, it was still a bit odd for everyone to be staying indoors.
It was only when she reached the corridor leading down to the open field that she realised why everyone was staying indoors. She had been too caught up in her thoughts to look out of her dormitory window! There had been a sudden blizzard of snow raining hard upon the grounds, covering the field with a dizzying white sheet of ice, and her entire body was beginning to feel terribly frozen as she backed away into the warmer interior of the castle. Although the weather had been turning cold, never had Ginny seen a summer change into such a terrible winter before! And it was a blizzard, of all scenarios! Ginny was beginning to wonder why nobody had told her about it when she left the dormitory, when she realised, with a rather horrid suspicion, that the sunrays had been lighting up the dormitory earlier on.
"What's going on?" Ginny wondered, aloud, as she hurried along the corridor back to the common room where she could get some warmth. After all, a T-shirt and jeans under Gryffindor robes was definitely not enough to be dealing with snow. Her teeth were beginning to chatter, and she could feel a knot tightening in her stomach.
"Why, why, what's the hurry, Miss Weasley? Got a bit of cold?"
The high-pitched spiteful, sour voice could only belong to one person. Ginny stopped and turned around, glaring at Pansy Parkinson. "What do you want, Parkinson?"
"Me? Nothing. I was just wondering if you'd like a scarf, considering you look oh-so-cold!" twittered Pansy, who was well snug in winter outfit, offering a green-and-white scarf.
"No thank you, it has the mark of you Slytherins!" spat Ginny.
"Oh of course, how could I forget. A blood-traitor like you wouldn't be worthy of a Slytherin item!" hissed Pansy, her smile crooked.
"Shut up, Parkinson and get back to your dungeons." Ginny was trying to keep calm.
"Oh I couldn't resist the opportunity to say hi to you. I was just wondering…were you intending to go out to the field? I mean, look at it, it's perfectly lovely to be playing in the snow there…"
"It was SUNNY a few minutes ago!" accused Ginny.
"Oh, that I know, that I know. I just wanted a bit of chill, that's all."
Ginny stared at her. "You changed the weather?"
Pansy laughed. "That would require a great deal of Dark Magic my dear. Do you think I'd be so capable?"
"Well then, of course not," retorted Ginny, beginning to shiver terribly. "Now would you please excuse me I need to go and get a fire warming my bones and not be wasting my time with a catty creature like you!"
Pansy's eyes flashed angrily as Ginny turned away. "What did you say?"
Ginny stopped, then she turned back, her red hair flaming with the dim glow of gold from the lamps lining the corridor. "I said, I don't want to be wasting my time with a catty creature like YOU!"
Pansy pulled out her wand, eyes narrowing into slits. "You'll be sorry for this, Weasley, you're going to regret you ever said that."
"When did you get so touchy?" demanded Ginny, her hand also reaching inside her robes for her wand. "Catty is such a mild adjective! Or would you like me to add on that you're also a bitchy, frivolous…"
"Petrificus Totalus!" screeched Pansy, but Ginny ducked the shot of light in time. Pansy was about to raise her wand to cast another spell, and Ginny was pulling out her wand far too late to counter…
"Parkinson, what the bloody hell are you doing!"
Pansy spun around at the sound of the familiar snarl, while a shaking Ginny immediately pulled out her wand to point straight at her. "Draco?"
Draco Malfoy strode into view from around the corner, and Ginny's eyes took on a look of confusion apart from the fear that was present within. Pansy's were full of bewilderment. "Draco, I'm helping you."
"I don't need your bloody help. Keep that wand. And yes I mean you too, Weasley," he spat at Ginny, who retreated a few steps and kept her wand, eyeing him warily. Pansy refused to keep the wand, instead holding it more firmly towards Ginny. "Draco, stop being softhearted. You know that if you don't kill her (Ginny's eyes widened at this point in time), you're going to die yourself in three days' time!"
"That's my business, Parkinson, I've told you a billion times, damn it! Why don't you ever get it into your head!" Draco hissed, and reached out to grab her wrist. Pansy struggled with the grip, but it was too strong for her. "You're coming with me downstairs and you're going to stop this nonsense you're creating."
"I'm not creating any nonsense!"
"Oh yeah? Care to explain the weather to me? You've been dabbling in Dark Magic!"
Pansy snorted derisively. "Like you haven't!"
Draco's eyes glinted terribly. "Pansy Parkinson, you're going to regret this."
"Stop it, Draco, or I'll scream out loud that you're a Dea…"
"Burn in hell, Parkinson!" Draco snarled, and delivered such a resounding slap across her face that Ginny gasped loudly in response. Pansy didn't yelp; she merely sagged under his grip, her face turning white. The corridors were eerily quiet, and Draco stared at the red palm mark shouting out at him from Pansy's white face.
"Get out of here, Weasley," muttered Draco. "And don't you dare tell anyone about this." Ginny didn't need any further prompting; she spun around and took to her heels back to the Gryffindor common-room. Draco looked at Pansy, guilt suddenly sweeping in waves towards his heart. Drats, when did I ever start feeling guilty about such things?
He didn't want to look anymore. He let go of Pansy's wrist and walked off, leaving her to collapse against the banister, her eyes void of emotion as they watched him walk down the corridor, away, away from her…
---
"Something's not right…" muttered Hermione, as she walked towards the Great Hall, in time for supper. "Something's just not right…"
"Hermione, are you okay?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Do you, err, want to go take a look at Ron after supper?"
"Yeah, sure."
The two of them walked to their seats in silence. A rather white-faced Ginny greeted them softly. Hermione looked at Harry and saw him looking as alarmed as she felt. "Ginny, what's wrong?"
"N-nothing."
"What's wrong, Ginny, you can trust us!" whispered Harry, urgently. "Has…has it got to do with Malfoy?"
Hermione felt a tingle run through her. She unconsciously cast a look over at the Slytherin table; worry swept through her as she could not see the familiar platinum blond mop sticking out from the crowd. He was usually on time…
"N-nothing, really."
Hermione motioned for Harry to stop questioning, and they both allowed Ginny to start eating instead. However, she didn't go beyond three mouthfuls, and pushed her pudding bowl away gently. Then she started to get up and move off. Harry made to go after her, but Hermione patted his arm and nodded her head. Then she got out of her chair and went after Ginny.
"Ginny! Ginny!"
Ginny just kept on walking faster, towards the common-room.
"Ginny, wait up!" Hermione was getting annoyed today was spent catching up with people who seemed bent on never stopping. "Ginny!"
Finally Ginny did stop. But her back was facing Hermione. Hermione watched it heave – something was really not right.
Suddenly, a vision hit Hermione hard…
"I don't need your bloody help…" … Parkinson glaring at me … her wrist in my grip … "Burn in hell, Parkinson!" … a red palm mark against white … "Get out of here, Weasley," … watching Ginny Weasley run away in fear … watching Parkinson sag in my grip …
Hermione jerked back to reality as the dim golden surroundings faded into slightly brighter ones, and Ginny was still in front of her.
"Ginny, did Parkinson try to do anything to you?"
There was a moment of silence. Then Ginny turned around slowly. "How did you know?"
"Listen, did Parkinson try to…kill you?"
With that, tears began to flow down Ginny's cheeks in a flurry. Hermione rushed forward and hugged the girl, feeling her sobs tremor through her body. Oh my god, thought Hermione, she must have been trying to help Draco kill Ginny.
As Ginny quietened down, Hermione told her not to worry too much; that it was probably a plot to kill Harry and she was being tangled up in it. Meanwhile, she should stay in the common-room for safety reasons. Ginny followed her instructions, and went back to the common-room. Once in, Hermione stood outside, her brows furrowing together. She was not getting anything in her head, and she was becoming increasingly worried.
If Draco had stopped Pansy and walked away, then where was he now?