A/N: Hey everyone! Actually, I have around 78 pages of this stuff already completed, hehehe. I've been on hiatus for a really really long time, so I've forgotten the most important message in an author's note: READ AND REVIEW, PEOPLE. Pretty please with extra cheese? Thanks!
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Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Heather were in the common room, sitting in armchairs around the fire after almost everyone else had gone to bed and a few stragglers remained, out of courtesy to Heather. She had returned from her walk with Malfoy while everyone else was at dinner and waited in Hermione's room.
"Heather, I can't believe you!" Ron complained. "Malfoy, of all people?"
"Ron!" She leaned forward to him, beseeching. "Please. There's nothing going on, really. You actually believe all those rumors?" She turned to Harry. "Harry, please. Talk some sense into Ron."
"And you even took a long time walking around with him!" Ron accused. "You weren't even at dinner!"
"Ron, I came back during dinner. I've just been hiding out in Hermione's room," Heather explained patiently.
"That's still heaps of time," Harry remarked neutrally, making Heather frown at him.
"What did you two do?" Hermione couldn't stop herself from asking. "If you don't mind saying," she added hastily.
"And begin at the beginning," ordered Ron.
The three of them leaned into Heather conspiratorially.
"Oh, all right," Heather exhaled irritably, looking at their faces. "Fine. I went for a walk because people in the castle kept harassing me so… I went. So I was walking, and then Malfoy walked beside me, and we talked a bit, then we argued… Oh! Yeah, I forgot. He lent me his scarf because I forgot mine." She rummaged in her pocket and produced a Slytherin scarf.
"He gave you his scarf?" Ron asked, incredulous. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline.
"Not gave, Ron, lent," Heather corrected none too gently. "There's a stupid fucking difference."
"That was actually nice of him," Harry remarked, surprised. Was it really the Malfoy they knew? Perhaps the bastard had some hidden depths too.
"How are you going to give it back?" asked Hermione, frowning at Ron and Heather's exchange.
"Oh… Right. I have no idea," Heather admitted, stumped. "I sure as hell don't want to give it back in front of everybody. And I don't want to pull him into a corridor just to give it back." She made a face in revulsion.
"How about by owl?" Hermione suggested.
Heather's face lit up. "That's a great idea."
"Alright, so what happened next?" asked Ron impatiently. "Come on, let's get on with it!"
Heather shot him a dirty look. "We argued some more. Then we met you lot. And then we got into a bragging contest."
It had started when Heather looked at the lake, iron-gray and still, and was reminded of her vacation at the Loch Ness in Scotland where they stayed at an ancient castle once owned by a fire-eating wizard who had a passion for skulls and whose ancestors dabbled in a bit of torture.
'I miss Scotland,' she had said, half to herself. 'That was the best vacation ever.'
'That's your best vacation? Scotland?' Malfoy had sneered. 'You must not get out much, then. My best vacation was at Germany.'
She'd made a face. 'What, eating schnitzels and sauerkraut? Boring. I saw the Loch Ness water-horse.'
'Who cares about a stupid water-horse? We went on a Volksmärche, and a Weiberfastnacht, and we saw a woman eating live rabbits while juggling plates.'
'That's fun to you? Afternoon walks and carnivals? You must be even more boring than I thought. We explored a castle and saw shrunken heads in the basement.'
"Shrunken heads?" Ron's was aghast. "Bloody hell, Heather. You have a really different idea of fun."
"Yeah, we saw instruments of torture too!" Ron's reaction fueled her enthusiasm. "You know the Iron Maiden? It's like an upright coffin, but one side has nails on it, and when the person is shut inside it, he'd have holes all over, but the best part is, the nails aren't that long so you'd still be alive, but you'd be bleeding to death!"
Harry agreed silently with Ron, who looked rather green. Heather looked ordinary, but she had hidden depths too. Maybe that was why Malfoy kept going to her! "Okay, then what happened?"
She shrugged. "Then we argued some more. Then we went back. That's
it."
"Oh, really? That's it?" Ron said sarcastically, when his color returned to normal and the urge to vomit had subsided. "So now you're all lovey-dovey after your bragging contest?"
"What?!" Heather stood up, blazing in anger. "Ronald Weasley! You take that back! Of all the foolish, insensitive, ignorant, misguided things to say!"
Ron had stood up too. "I won't take it back! There's obviously something going on with you two!"
"You don't know what you're talking about, Ron!" she said angrily.
"You two, stop it right now," said Hermione sharply.
"Make him apologize!" Heather shouted.
"I'm not apologizing!" Ron shouted back. "He's the enemy, but you hang around with him! You want to be friends with him more than us! You like his company more than ours! Admit it!"
"Stop it right now!" Hermione screeched. "Sit down, both of you!" Ron and Heather sat down slowly, glaring at each other.
Harry felt a headache coming on. This was the bloody Yule Ball again! Although Viktor Krum was infinitely harmless compared to Draco Malfoy, obviously. He turned to Heather. "Have you considered his side?"
"What do you mean his side?" Heather asked incredulously. "I'm here! Know my side!"
"I think what Harry means is," Hermione paused, having difficulty in finding the right words. "Is… Well…"
"Well?" Ron prompted impatiently. He couldn't believe this. Heather, going around with Malfoy! It was stupid – it was even worse than Hermione dating Krum!
"Well, okay, so we know Heather's side," she shifted uncomfortably, rubbing her neck. Ron tried not to stare. "But we don't know how Malfoy feels about, you know, this whole thing."
"Why would we want to know that?" Ron and Heather chorused.
Hermione and Harry exchanged looks. "Heather, Malfoy probably… likes you," Harry said bluntly.
"What?!" Ron and Heather chorused, united in their shock.
"What an idea!" said Heather scornfully after a slight pause. Really! The nerve to even suggest such a thing! "I know you lot aren't stupid, but now I'm not so sure."
"Well, think about it!" Hermione insisted. "He keeps going around – "
"I am not going to think about it. The idea is laughable," Heather said with a tone of finality. "And I don't think we should ever talk about this again. It's doing me in." She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Can we sneak down to the kitchens and get some hot choc?" She felt like she needed to apologize, but as she thought the matter over in her mind, there was no reason to, so she said that instead.
"Yeah, I think I need one too," said Ron faintly.
"Dobby would love to see us anyway," Hermione said.
"The Invisibility Cloak is too big for the four of us," Harry said.
Heather grinned at him. "We'll just have to rely on our sneaking skills."