Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the following characters, locations and stories which they are based on. They all belong to J.K Rowling and I don't make any profit out of this. Now that that's all cleared up, shall we get on with the story?

A/N: I'm not 100% sure if I actually like this chapter or not, my first draft was halfway through completion before I realised I'd have to change it slightly as there were a few discrepancies with what I've written so far. Let me know what you think about it anyways, I'd like to hear what you think about it.

Going Forward

Chapter 8 – No Running In The Halls.

I had to admit, this was working out better than I'd expected. When Dumbledore had appointed me as babysitter to some idiotic exchange student, I figured it was an attempt to torture me for all the hassle I've given his favourite student. Perhaps it was. He knows me well enough to know that I would hate the idea of it all – he'd had to convince me into it with extensions on my assignments. As it turns out, I had quite a lot in common with Jacob – we were getting along fairly well so far.

He reckons he's a fairly good quidditch player too. To be more precise, he says he's 'bloody brilliant'. He's a seeker though, like me, so if he tries out for the team we may have to juggle things about a bit. I've always fancied myself as more of a chaser than seeker anyway, so this could be a good opportunity to play my favourite position. Father won't be too impressed if he finds out – he's always been adamant that I should play as seeker, as you're far more likely to get noticed for your talent as seeker, apparently.

It wouldn't make any difference if I was discovered by some quidditch scouts anyway – it's hardly the type of career Father has planned for me. I could use the new boy to my advantage though – use him as an excuse if Father complains. After all, if I'm supposed to be looking after him, what would he do without me during quidditch practice if he wasn't on the team? Is it my fault that the only position he's half-decent at is seeker (which I doubt very much, seeker players tend to be very versatile)? Of course not. And if he's actually better than me at seeker (which, again, I doubt very much), then he might be able to beat Potter. And if he can beat Potter, Slytherin could win the cup for the first time in years. Who would everyone applaud and congratulate? Me, obviously, who led us to victory in my first year as Captain.

Of course, I could be getting a little bit ahead of myself here, but I reckon this year we'll be stronger than ever, whereas Potter's team will have lost their 2 beaters, and if he's planning on keeping his best mate as keeper… well, he'd just be making it far too easy for us. The main competition on the Gryffindor team is always going to be Potter though. If only there was a way of getting rid of him.

"Can I help you, boys?" I hadn't noticed until now that Madam Pince was now stood at her library desk, looking at Jacob and myself expectantly. I handed her the list of books Jacob was going to be needing.

"Would you happen to have a copy of these? My exchange student only received his book list this morning, so we've not had a chance to get any for him yet."

She gave me a warm smile. "Certainly, Mr. Malfoy." She quickly glanced at the list I'd handed to her. "Ah. You have the same subjects as out other new student. This should make it much quicker to find…" She trailed off as she scurried away towards the shelves of books. It was at that moment I noticed the other students waiting for Madam Pince to return with the books they'd also requested. I frowned as I realised what Madam Pince had just said.

"The same books? She must have been mistaken."

The red headed witch rolled her eyes at me, before replying "No, Malfoy. She's getting books for her 6th year lessons."

"You're a 6th year?" I asked Julia, confused.

"Yeah… so?" She replied.

"So what was Dumbledore thinking, putting you with a 5th year student? Bloody idiot."

"And how exactly does that make Dumbledore an idiot?"

"Well, she's either going to get lost finding her classes or you're going to be late for yours while you're making sure she gets to her classes."

"Actually, I don't think that's going to be a problem. And I think Dumbledore knew what he was doing when he asked me to show Julia around."

"Oh? And why do you think that?"

"Well, I presume Dumbledore thought that seeing as how I'm taking 6th year classes too, it wouldn't be a problem."

"You're skipping a year?"

"Took you long enough, huh? Yes, Malfoy, I'm taking 6th year classes this year. I would've thought you'd noticed that, what with you sitting directly behind me in most of our lessons and all. Clearly you're not all that observant though, eh? Bloody idiot."

I was stunned. How had I not noticed this? She couldn't really be sat in front of me, all of this time, could she? Huh…

The elderly Librarian watched this exchange with interest as she slowly made her way back over to the students, attempting to balance a large pile of books in her arms as she walked. "Sorry to interrupt. You'd better take these and hurry. You'll be late if you're not in your classrooms in 2 minutes."

The four students simultaneously turned to stare at the clock, their features turning suddenly to look panic-stricken, before grabbing the books and running out of the library.

"No running in the halls!" She shouted after them, mentally cursing herself a moment later for shouting at the students. After all, she didn't tolerate noise from anyone in her library, herself included.

As we ran along the halls, I couldn't help but think there was a flaw in this plan. Not only was it a nightmare trying to run with the weight of all of these books (we would never make it in time at this rate), but Ginny and Draco were lagging behind slightly, obviously not as accustomed to being late for lessons as I had been at school. Surely they should expect me to not know the way? To get lost if I didn't have them to follow? They wouldn't possibly know that it was me and my mates who had found more hidden passageways, ways in and out of Hogwarts, than anyone else at school. I wasn't in the lead though, the other new person was, and I was surprised to find that she was actually going the right way to the transfiguration classroom. Maybe Hogwarts wasn't quite as confusing as I thought it was when I started, so many years ago. "Hey, Julia, right?" I shouted to her as I struggled to keep running. "Are we going the right way." I heard her mumble under her breath as she finally took a wrong turn, and was so tempted, for a moment, to tell her to come back. But I couldn't let them know that I knew my way around. I turned around instead, waiting for Draco to catch up. "We're going the right way then I presume?"

"Well she's not, but we don't need to worry about that. That's Weaselette's problem, not ours. At least we won't be as late as they are to class."

"Julia! It's this way!" Ginny yelled to her friend, who hadn't been running quite as quickly as she was a moment ago, she quickly turned and ran back and the race to McGonagall's class continued.

I hated having to pretend I was new. I have never been late to a lesson, not once in my life. Running in the opposite direction of the classroom was pure torture for me, but I knew once Jacob had mentioned it to me that I'd slipped up. I couldn't be so obvious in future. Ginny and I were behind the two boys now, steadily catching them up. It was clear that she didn't want to be the last one to class either, so we kept it up, hoping that we could overtake them and get there first. Ginny managed to race forward a bit, grabbing Draco's arm and knocking him over as she overtook him. As he fell, he managed to trip Jacob and Ginny. Narrowly avoiding Draco's leg, I carried on running. Ginny was the first to spring back to her feet and now we were ahead, so close to the classroom now…

Gasping for breath, the two girls quickly entered the classroom. The professor glancing at them disapprovingly. She hated having to punish her Gryffindor students, though she tried to be fair to her class. "Sorry… we're…late…Professor." Ginny said inbetween taking deep breaths. "We…had…to…get…books…for…"

"Sit!" Professor McGonagall replied sharply, looking more annoyed as another pair of students burst in through the door. "All of you. I want no more disturbances from any of my class, or I'll have to start giving out detentions. Now, if you turn to page 194…"

Draco, unnoticed by the Professor, managed to give Ginny a little shove as he walked past her to get to his desk. She glared daggers at him, unable to retaliate, as she quietly sat down next to Julia to listen to the Professor's lecture.