Chapter Six: Malfoys do not stutter

In potions the following morning Draco sat down in his usual seat and noticed Blaise walk past. Where is he going? He always sits here.

"Hey Draco, mind if I join you," Pansy asked in her husky voice.

"Oh, no go ahead," he said and as he turned back to find where Blaise had gone to he saw what he could not believe. He quickly turned to Pansy. "What the hell is Blaise doing sitting with Granger?" he snapped.

She looked confused at his sudden flare of anger. "I thought he told you he liked her," Pansy replied matter-of-factly.

"No, he said he liked someone from another house, but he didn't say it was mudblood Granger," Draco whispered sharply as Snape began speaking about some potion they would be making.

"Well he said you didn't care who it was because you weren't interested. Unless you are…" she added slyly.

"NO!" Draco said a little too loud. Snape stopped and the rest of the class turned to look at him.

Hermione paused from her note taking to turn and see who had shouted. Malfoy she thought to herself. Of course, he's always looking for attention. What's wrong with his eyes? He looks as if he's gone off the deep end

"Is there a problem with my instructions Mr. Malfoy?" Snape inquired, raising an eyebrow. "If you believe you can teach this class better than by all means do."

"Uh, n-no," Draco stuttered. Damn, did I just stutter? Malfoys do not stutter. "Sorry Professor I just saw the back of Granger's head out of the corner of my eye and thought some wild creature was about to attack Blaise. My apologies sir." He sneered at Hermione as she turned to glare at him.

Snape, seemingly unamused, returned to his instructions and Draco was lost in his thoughts.

So that's the girl he thinks is attractive and smart?

Well she is attractive, you said so yourself Draco.

And I can't deny that she's intelligent. Wait! Blaise said he thought I liked this girl. He thought I liked GRANGER?! Just wait until lunch he is going to get it. Why would I like her, she's a mudblood.

Blaise's earlier words drifted into his head…"everyone is equal now"…"no reason to be prejudiced…"

Yes, there is a reason to be prejudiced Draco thought. She was smarter than him, better than him at everything except quidditch. But her stupid friend Potty was better at that than him so that's still her fault. Draco sat there fuming while Pansy started their potion they were supposed to be working on together, but Draco paid her no attention, his thoughts becoming more and more warped by…by what? He thought. Why does she bother me so much?

"Especially with the way you too get so worked up over each other." He recalled Blaise's previous statement again.

Maybe he's right. I do get worked up, but only because I loathe her with every particle of my sexy body. Just ignore her, that's what I'll do.

And so that is exactly what Draco Malfoy did. He ignored his best friend chatting up Hermione and actually helped Pansy add the last ingredient. Unfortunately Pansy wasn't as good at potions as he was so letting her do most of it was a mistake and they received rather low marks. Draco didn't let this bother him though as he left the classroom.

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"Students may I please have your attention for a short moment," Professor McGonagall requested at dinner the following night. "Due to the seriousness of the last year I have decided to make this year a bit more…frivolous. Therefore, we will be holding a Halloween costume party, the preparations of which will be overseen by our head boy and girl Mr. Neville Longbottom and Miss Pansy Parkinson," she finished smiling, pleased with herself although Albus's portrait may have made a small suggestion or two.

The hall erupted into excited chatter. They hadn't had anything like this before, unless you counted the Yule Ball, but that was a rather stuffy dance. This was sure to outdo it.

"This is going to be great," Ron said. "But I am a little worried that Neville is one of the planners," he said, whispering the last part so Neville wouldn't hear.

"Who are you going to ask then?" Harry wondered, sneaking a knowing smile at Hermione before looking expectantly at Ron whose ears had gone a bit pink.

"Well, I was thinking about…well, I'm not really sure," he lied.

"Oh, what about Luna? I'm sure she'd love to go with you and she's a friend of ours too so its not like it has to be a date, unless of course you wanted it to. But that's your choice," Hermione pointed out. Ron missed her wink to Harry and Ginny because he was still too busy looking down at his plate to hide his face.

"Yeah, that's not a bad idea," he said a little too nonchalant. The other three just smiled. It's only a matter of time Hermione thought to herself.

At the Slytherin table a similar conversation was taking place…

"So who you asking Draco?" Pansy asked.

"I'm asking-" Blaise started.

"We know who you're going to ask," Pansy snapped. "I'm talking to Draco." She turned back to look at Draco and saw that he was walking out of the hall. "That's odd."

"Yep, so anyone you want to go with?" Blaise asked her.

"Well I've been getting to know Neville since we share a common room and everything and he's actually a lot smarter than he used to be. And he was very brave during the war so we figured that since we are both planning it we would just go together as a casual date."

"Wow, I would say I was shocked, but it seems like nothing is shocking anymore; Snape's a ghost, McGonagall wants to have a party, I like Hermione and Draco is very…un-Draco lately," Blaise said before shrugging and turning back to his dinner and began strategically planning his move.

As Draco walked to the common room he decided he didn't need to ask anyone to the party. He might not even go. It would probably just be a waste of time like the Yule Ball. Or I could just go solo. Hit on other guys dates, God how I love pissing people off.

A/N: Reviews?