A/N: Chapter 10! :) Sheesh...took up eight pages in OpenOffice. Granted, a lot of it was the change in paragraph, but...meh. :P
Now this Chapter was fun. I kept going over it in my head while going on a walk...or to school...that's generally my planning area. It's where I get my inspiration. The faster I walk, the faster the events seem to go.
The poem/prophecy is my creation! It isn't something I took off the internet, no – if you look it up, you probably won't find it. Hmm...may want to keep this poem/prophecy in mind. It could come in handy. ;)
Kay, in my doc, the underlined bit while they are looking over the poem was highlighted. I underlined the bits that were highlighted, but when you're reading, think of them as highlighted, not underlined.
Read and enjoy!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling, the song "Downfall" is by Trust Company. All I own is the (ADDED) plot and the Ocs.
Downfall
...***...
Chapter 10
"Here I stand,
Hold back so no one can see,
I feel these wounds,
Step down,
Step down,
Step down.
Am I breaking, down?
Can I break away?
Push me away,
Make me fall,
Just to see,
Another side of me.
Push me away,
You can see,
What I see,
The other side of me.
Fall back on me,
And I'll be,
The strength I need,
To save me now,
Just come,
Face to face with me..."
-Downfall,Trust Company
The bell rang, signalling the beginning of Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Well...what would be the beginning.
If Professor Morrigan knew what 'on time' meant, it would be, thought Hermione, rolling her eyes. Malfoy wasn't in class yet. She felt a rush of both relief and...was that disappointment? No. No, of course not. And besides, would he-
There was a slam of books down on the seat beside her, and was it? Yes, there was the blond hair – Malfoy had gone to sit beside her again. Odd, she thought it would be a bit awkward, especially when she watched him blow up on Goyle the day before. He should've known – she wasn't really hiding it. It definitely was awkward, there was no doubt about that, but Malfoy didn't seem bothered. He simply took out his yellow quill again and began to twirl it in his fingers absentmindedly, staring up at the door to Morrigan's study.
It didn't necessarily mean Hermione wasn't bothered by the uncomfortable air.
Eventually, the late Professor came out, a grin on his face, a twinkle in his eye. "Morning!" he called, brightening the mood up considerably.
He walked down the steps and toward the front of the classroom. "Just to clarify, I'm still looking at a couple of papers. Some are quite...well done. There are a few that are tremendously close, and a few, well..." he paused for a moment, frowning and furrowing his brows. It seemed a little humorous, therefore a few giggles and snickers in the class. The grin and twinkle were back on his face as quick as they left.
"Anyway, I'm not quite done looking them over, but I assure you, I will get to it by, oh...next class or so." He nodded. Multiple times. Then he raised a finger. "Today, why don't we look at some literature? No, don't look at me like that – it was bound to happen at some point. Maybe not." He furrowed his eyebrows again in deep thought, but continued. "We will be deciphering...a Hogwarts prophecy. Very old, this story. More like a poem, really, but interesting, nonetheless." He made a motion with his fingers – much like one would use to taunt someone for a fight – and a small stack of parchment flew into his hand. He waved his index finger, and one piece fell in front of each pair of students. All the while, the whole class was watching him in awe. Wandless magic, thought Hermione, impressed.
"As old as the first story itself is old, the prophecy and the written bit isn't that old. Only a few years, really. I will give you a moment to read it over, then I will tell you your assignments. Keep in mind, this is a real prophecy."
She rolled her eyes and leaned over the piece of parchment, already starting to read what was on it. In the corner of her eye, she saw Malfoy doing the same thing.
A Fox's Downfall
Listen close and listen well,
Learn the tale of a dark, dark spell.
Though magic origin the charm may be,
No need for such tricks in the bloodstained key.
Friend of a snake and lion, eagle and badger,
A fox quick and cunning as any one snatcher.
Ally she may seem, fair she may sound,
When one is caught, they are forever bound.
Foolish the snake when it once began,
Unwise choices, the poor blind man.
Knowledge he gave of the dark black art,
Clouded by emotion heavy in his heart.
Betrayed the four in a sinister time,
Stolen treasures she did, a terrible crime.
From the heart, the soul, and within the mind,
A drop of blood in the dirt left behind.
Care not did she, for her four found friends,
No pain as she watched their bitter ends.
Like a vampire, with great power and thirst,
And barbaric it may seem, will not be the first.
Through the cloud, a fog, an unforeseeable mist,
We'll find a power, forever hidden within six.
Taught lessons though young, from a prophet with his own,
Thrown into battle, to make sure the fox is overthrown.
The first already with great fortune and fame,
Has seen far too much and will not be the same.
Despite bravery and skill, strength, skin and bone.
Cannot finish this final, fatal task all alone.
Let it known they are loved from the best friend's sibling,
No doubt they'll take part together against the greatest of duelling.
With friendship and loyalties, the lover's fire ignites,
To keep peace and trust so the group may fight.
But love unrequited that was never foreseen,
As one begins to wonder what it could ever mean.
They fight, strong and hard, against those once their superiors,
Never again feel small, powerless and inferior.
It's brains against brawn, as one would say,
But a fool would state they only go one way.
Though intelligence is a key to great success,
One needs to go further if they wish to see the rest.
Another has seen further, in a different sort of fashion,
Without knowledge and thinking, but friends and devotion.
However many souls in their family they must defend,
Unfortunate this hero will be the one to meet his end.
Five have spoken, however one has not.
For they hold an evil black lie, one four have bought.
Beware, as they betrayed their side,
Same with the fox, as they're an ally denied.
Hermione sat back. How confusing could you get? She shook it off, then glanced at Malfoy. He was twirling the pen again.
"What do you think?" he asked. His voice was a little raspy, as if either, he hadn't used it in a while, or he had a pretty rough night. She couldn't quite tell.
Her head snapped back to his question when he glanced over at her, eyebrows rising. She cleared her throat. "Err, well..." she thought a moment. Her own eyebrows furrowed. "It's rather confusing."
Malfoy smirked and looked back down at the parchment. "I suppose so." Furrowing his brows and adding, as if he had just thought about it, "If you're finding it confusing, I suppose it'll be my job to make sure we don't fuck up this assignment, huh?"
"Now to the analyzing!" cheered Morrigan before Hermione could answer. "You are to take out a piece of paper, write down the verse that you are assigned, and then write down anything that comes to mind. Point form, if you will." He scratched his chin, as if contemplating something. "Well, since we have partners..." he paused again. Then he snapped his fingers and pointed to Hermione and Malfoy. "You two! Malfoy and Granger, you will analyze the first verse..." he continued to point to other groups. "Potter and Weasley Female, you'll work on the second one...Weasley Male and Foster, how about the third..." He continued on, and as the students watched, the blackboard behind him began writing down what everyone was responsible for.
1 - Malfoy & Granger
2 - Potter & Weasley F
3 - Weasley M & Foster
4 - Finnigan & Longbottom
5 - Patil & Patil
6 - Goyle & Nott
7 - Parkinson & Zabini
8 - Abbott & Finch-Fletchley
9 -
10 -
11 -
12 -
Small class, thought Hermione, absentmindedly.
"I'm guessing Parkinson and Zabini made up?" whispered Hermione to no one in particular.
"Yeah, probably," answered Malfoy, absentmindedly. There was an edge to his voice, most likely indicating that he wasn't necessarily forgiving Parkinson anytime soon.
"Anyone want to do the ninth verse?" asked Morrigan, looking around. Hermione vaguely saw Malfoy look at the parchment again at the corner of her eye and watched as he shook his head.
"We'll take it," she heard Harry say. Hermione was secretly proud of her brother-like friend. He wanted to do some extra work! It may have had something to do with Ginny as well though, but she didn't want to worry too much on that.
"Alright then! Potter and Weasley F on number nine!" The board wrote the pair beside the number "9".
"Any takers for number ten-"
Foster raised her hand up to the ceiling in a Hermione-like way. Hermione herself had to bite her lip in order not to say anything extremely nasty. She saw Malfoy raise his eyebrows. He smirked after hearing Ron groan about doing extra work.
"Of course," said Morrigan, not losing his sunny behaviour. "Number eleven?" No one raised their hands. He scanned the room until his eyes rested on-
"Zabini and Parkinson! How about you two work on number eleven, hmm? What do you say?"
"No," said Parkinson, immediately.
"Aw. Come now, look, the board is already writing your name on itself." And sure enough, it was, but it seemed to have paused when Parkinson said her blunt "No."
"Let's not hurt its feelings, waste its time and make it frustrated. It may want to fling itself on the wall. Things in this room have feelings too you know..."
"Alright, it's fine, we'll take it," said Zabini. Nice save... Parkinson shot him a glare, but said nothing.
"And finally, any takers for number twelve?-"
Malfoy looked critically over at Hermione, who shrugged.
She wasn't quite ready for the way Malfoy decided to voice the matter, however.
Malfoy smashed his fist on the table and shot his hand in the air. "We'll take it!" There was a short silence, but Malfoy didn't seem to notice. He looked far too determined for that.
"Sure thing, Mr. Malfoy! Are you alright with that, Ms. Granger?" he asked, although, he sounded as if he was going to give them the task, whether or not she was fine with it.
Of course, her answer was, "Oh, I'm fine with that."
"Excellent!" The board finished writing their names, and then Morrigan began to speak again. "Alright, you are to write notes, let's say...at least, bare minimum of, err...two thirds of a roll of parchment. Deal?" There were a couple murmurs in the classroom. "You'll have time to work on it now, of course," he said, matter-of-factly. "Consider this as a miniature project. Now off you go. Get started. We wouldn't want to add this to our homework list – I've heard many stories of Professor Snape and his notoriously horrible essays that he assigns..." That got everyone working.
"So, Granger..." said Malfoy, turning in his seat so he could face her more. "How are we going to do this?"
"Well..." she began, a little taken aback by the tone of his voice. It seemed...friendly. Was that even possible for a Malfoy? "We could both write the verses, one each, I'll write the notes and you'll analyze. Does that work?"
"Now hold it. I'm not doing all the thinking."
"Fine then. I'll think and write notes," she replied, frustrated. He gave her a toothy grin.
"That works quite well, actually."
Hermione nodded while rolling her eyes, took out some of her blank parchment and began writing the first one. Malfoy did the same, but wrote the second.
Listen close and listen well,
Learn the tale of a dark, dark spell.
Though magic origin the charm may be,
No need for such tricks in the bloodstained key.
Hermione glanced over at Malfoy's parchment, finding her eyes widen as she looked.
Five have spoken, however one has not,
For they hold an evil black lie, one four have bought.
Beware, as they betrayed their side,
Same with the fox, as they're an ally denied.
"Something wrong?" asked Malfoy, innocently. She blinked. The handwriting looked oddly familiar...
"No, nothing at all," replied Hermione, flashing a grin. He looked at her skeptically, he definitely knew she was bluffing, but he made no note of it. Instead, he looked at her parchment.
"Anything you notice?" he asked. She looked at it hard.
"Well, I suppose the prophecy is about, er, well...dark magic," she spoke, while writing it down. He chuckled, grinning widely.
"I never would have noticed," he stated, sarcastically. "'Listen close and listen well, Learn the tale of a dark, dark spell'? Is that where you get it from?"
"Don't mock me." It only made his grin wider. Hermione went to the next two lines. "'Though magic origin the charm may be, No need for such tricks in the bloodstained key'." She looked at him expectantly. He raised his eyebrows.
"What are you looking at me for? You're the know-it-all-"
"I'm not doing this on my own, you know!" she snapped, going back to look at the lines.
"Fine," said Malfoy, taking the piece of parchment and sliding it over toward him, earning himself a grunt of protest from Hermione. "Well, you'd better be listening, because I'm not repeating myself." Malfoy took his yellow quill and underlined three words. When he underlined the words, however, Hermione watched as the ink began to bleed out on the word, highlighting it with yellow.
Learn the tale of a dark, dark spell.
Though magic origin the charm may be,
No need for such tricks in the bloodstained key.
"They could all mean the same thing," he said, looking at her triumphantly. Hermione was in awe, from both what he noticed, as well as his quill.
"Yeah...I imagine it makes sense," she replied, a little peeved that he noticed that before she did.
Just to show her exactly how high his ego went, he added, "No round of applause, just making sure we don't fuck up, like I said before." He feigned indifference, but there was a ghost of a smirk playing on his lips.
Rolling her eyes, she took her own quill and began to write the observation down. After she did, she stopped, looked slowly over to Malfoy and asked, "Do you...have any more of those quills?" Smirk still on his lips, he began digging into his bag, taking out three more of the quills and placing them on the desk. Green, blue and red. House colours.
"Where'd you get them?" she asked, picking up the red one and looking it over.
"Weasley's shop. They sell the strangest things," he said. She looked at him oddly, but he didn't notice. He seemed to be looking off somewhere else. Hermione cleared her throat.
"Well, interesting items, nonetheless," commented Hermione. "I don't approve of the majority of the things they sell there. Speaking of which – do these quills do anything else?"
"No. They just make the writing pop out more. And they don't need ink."
"Why do you use the yellow one? I thought you hated Hufflepuff."
He raised his eyebrows, as if just realizing this. "I do. Yellow does a better job than the others though. Green and blue are too dark, and I obviously would stay away from red. I have a reputation to keep, and writing with a red quill..."
"Oh." Hermione took the parchment back and began to look at the last line. Something hit her then, and she looked back at Malfoy.
"'Spell'? 'Charm'?" He looked at her, clueless for a moment, but when he looked back at the parchment, he blinked.
"'Tricks'..."
Hermione took the red quill and drew a line underneath a few more words, watching as the red ink began to bleed onto them, just as the yellow did.
Learn the tale of a dark, dark spell.
Though magic origin the charm may be,
No need for such tricks in the bloodstained key.
"'No need'...'magic origin'...so that would mean..."
"You don't need magic to use the spell," finished Hermione. They both looked at each other for a second, then Malfoy furrowed his brow.
"Well write it down!" He sounded hasty, either by excitement or he actually was frustrated.
"Err...of course..." replied Hermione, taking her quill (not the red one!) and writing what she found. When she looked up again, Malfoy had highlighted another part, this time in green:
Learn the tale of a dark, dark spell.
Though magic origin the charm may be,
No need for such tricks in the bloodstained key.
"The key to the spell is dark magic, yet, you don't need magic. That would mean that a Muggle or a Squib could use the spell, but in doing so, they'd be using dark magic. Don't know how that would work..." Malfoy seemed to have said the last bit mostly to himself, but that did not mean Hermione didn't catch it. She nodded her head and wrote it down. He scratched his head. "Damn, that was confusing."
They worked more on this for a while, before moving onto Malfoy's verse. He'd already decided to highlight quite a few things, each in different colours. Hermione was – in all honesty – quite thrilled that he picked up the red quill. Gave her some courage to pick up the green one later on if need be.
Five have spoken, however one has not,
For they hold an evil black lie, one four have bought.
Beware, as they betrayed their side,
Same with the fox, as they're an ally denied.
Granted, he did highlight "ally denied" with it, but did that really matter? He used the red quill!
"Definitely not a friend," he said. "An ally on the outside...to have fooled four out of five. Impressive."
Hermione was scribbling the notes down, and before they knew it, they had about the right amount to say they had finished, and more. Hermione put down her quill and looked around, interested in everyone else's progress. No one else seemed to be done.
"Alright, class!" called Morrigan from the front. "This will be due in a few weeks! I expect a lot of information with the amount of time I've given you. In fact, this shall be put down in essay form. For now, the class is dismissed!" The groans from the rest of the class were inevitable.
Hermione began to pack her things. She turned to Malfoy and asked, "Are you taking-"
But he wasn't there. And nor was the parchment. The prophecy was still there, but not him, nor the notes. She frowned. Maybe he's adding more notes...? Or he's planning on working on the essay. I'll need to find him so I could look over it when he's done...whatever he's doing. Huh, guess I'm not actually doing this on my own, then.
She stood up and left, but as she walked down the corridor, something – a thought – hit her. She began to reflect on it. The handwriting...The Weasley's shop...odd behaviour...same class...library... She gasped. That was it. The answer!
Hermione rushed up to the Gryffindor Tower, putting her bag on a lone table and going through it. Ah ha! There it was. The Note-Passer.
She put it down on the table, took out her quill and wrote on it.
Are you Draco Malfoy?
Hermione waited a minute, and she felt her breath get caught in her throat as she read the answer she got.
About time, Granger.
A/N: About time indeed, Hermione. :P Well, Draco was making it rather obvious...ha ha.
Grr! I want to redo my prophecy, but...too...lazy...lol
The 11th Chapter is called "This Notebook" (by Dropout Year) and the song quote is:
"I'm gonna write in this notebook you never get to read through,
With phrases that I took from conversation with you,
And throw them in the air with the possibility these will be the words that you'll someday sing.
I only hope you're listening..."