Chapter beta:Dark Akuma Hunter

That night Draco lay on his bed staring at the ceiling for hours without sleep. He was contemplating many things, keeping sleep a bit beyond his reach. Potter and Weasel are sick! I thought they were disgusting before, but this is a new low… now how can I use this information….I don't want to play this card too soon, no, who knows when it might come in handy to have this over them. They definitely wouldn't want the school to find this out! Hhmm…I guess I have a new reason to not let either one of those wankers get behind me… This last thought was accompanied by a shudder. He continued to let his mind wander over this new development. Granger wouldn't be too bad if she wasn't a mudblood. Spends too much time with books though… well I don't see books helping her out now! She's lucky I was bored today, I definitely wouldn't have agreed to help her if it weren't for this stupid Muggle Studies! I don't understand why Father would think taking Muggle Studies would improve our public image. He wouldn't grow a mustache if it would help his public image! ….I wonder what he would look like with a mustache….

He leaned off the bed, reaching into the nightstand's drawer and taking out a family photo. His mother smiled warmly at him as he tried to edge out of the center of the photo. His Father was standing to the left of them, his face passive with an underlying hardness. How tough can he look with a mustache! With that thought Draco began to draw a large curly handle bar mustache on his father. The photo scowled but the mustache held. He looks like one of those old time western villains! He decided to add a black cowboy hat for good measure. Draco replaced the photo, satisfied with how silly his father looked with a mustache and cowboy hat. He looked as silly as Draco felt sitting in stupid Muggle Studies. He rolled back to his original spot in bed, trying again to fall into sleep. His mind continued to churn until he fell asleep, dreaming strange dreams of his father being a western villain, and Draco was the sheriff who saved the day, all the ladies loved him….

oOo

In the morning when he woke up and reflected on what happened yesterday, he at first thought it was all part of his strange dream. However, once he arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast he decided it was most certainly not a dream. Watching the Gryffindor table from across the room he noted upon many things. One of which was that when Granger had entered she had dropped her books and papers. Potter and Weasley, being the good friends they were, instantly helped her pick them up. If he hadn't known what he had learned last night he wouldn't have suspected a thing. But, if his eyes were telling him the truth, he had seen each boy take a small portion of the papers each, the very papers he saw her working on the night before. She gave them a smile, thanked them for helping her, and took her place at the table. He had seen that same smile before; his mother used that smile when his father made decisions for her.

He continued to watch them as they headed down the halls to their double charms class. To anyone else it would look like a group of close friends walking together, laughing and sharing secrets. Draco knew better now. He recognized that while at one time that is exactly what they were, it was all a sham now. Bile threatened to overcome his throat at the thought of those two boys and their actions, disgusting! For once he wished he shared more classes with those Gryffindors, so that he may watch longer, but the only class they shared on Tuesdays was Care of Magical Creatures after lunch.

He had followed behind them until the split where he headed off to his Double Transfiguration class. Great, even without sharing a class with those Gryffindors, it still won't be a Gryffindor free morning! Once in the class he spent half his time taking notes and listening, and the other half wondering what was going on in the Charms classroom. Why am I even bothering to worry? There are other students there as well as Professor Flitwick! She will be ok; however I won't be if I don't pay attention to McGonagall!

Time seemed to drag on forever; the only thing keeping him awake was the promise of the break period after class. Today Slytherin was going to the quidditch fields to practice, but he wouldn't be going anywhere if he was caught taking a snooze during class! It was going to be a quick practice, but they were going to cram in as much as they could before quidditch started up in November. As soon as the class was dismissed he raced off towards the field. Gryffindor was not going to win this year!

oOo

Lunch finally came with the promised tater-tots. He didn't know why he enjoyed them so much, but he did. Normally he would build a pyramid with them and topple them over, but today he speared them with his fork, watching the Gryffindor table from across the room. Potter and Weasley had their backs to him and were sitting entirely too close as they ate, elbows bumping occasionally. Granger sat across from them, allowing Draco to study her emotions. As he studied them he could see Granger's discomfort and wondered why none of the other Gryffindors took notice of this. When others talked to her, Granger never looked them in the eye, always looking slightly to the left or right of their faces.

"No pyramids today?" Blaise interrupted his reverie, bringing his mind back to focus on his own table. "You finally figured out the proper way to eat them, or is something bothering you?" Blaise looked in the direction Draco had previously been looking. "Gryffindors? What have they done today to earn your glare?"

"Potter and Weasley disgust me." Draco said by way of reply. Draco looked to his plate to see if there were enough tater-tots left to build with. There wasn't, but there was enough to make a face out of. He began arranging them into a frown as Blaise decided to comment again.

"Yes, I find they disgust me too, filthy blood traitors and the like, associating with mudbloods! But how is this different than any other day? It has never interfered with your childish obsession with these potato products." Blaise poked at the pile of potatoes on his plate as he said this. Blaise did not share Draco's enthusiasm for tater-tot Tuesday. He felt they were too close to being a muggle food, and insisted on smashing them up into a hash, mixing in bits of ham and cheese as he did so. Draco thought for a moment about letting Blaise in on what he knew, but decided against it. This was Draco's ace in the hole, if he handed it off to Blaise it might be played before Draco was ready. No, he would wait. But what could he say to throw Blaise off the scent. He does stare at the She-Weasel a lot, maybe this will hit home for him.

"I hear the She-Weasel decided she was chasing for the other team, if you know what I mean." He wasn't sure if he expected it to work, but Blaise's eyes darted farther down the Gryffindor table to where the younger Weasley was seated. It could have been by chance, but she was staring dreamily to where Potter and Granger sat. Most probably she was actually staring at Potter; everyone knew she had a crush on him. If Potter was so keen to be with a Weasley, why not go after the female one that was obviously smitten with him? Either way, the fact that Draco was analyzing Potter's love life disgusted him further.

"No, that can't be true, she fancies Potter, and everyone knows that. Nice try. Even if it were true, why that would put you in such a foul mood; you fancy her?" The tone that accompanied that sentence was calm, but Draco knew there was an underlying menace in there.

"No, not at all. You know I don't care for red heads or flat little girls, of which she just happens to be both." Draco was baiting Blaise, shifting the focus from himself to Blaise. This was enough to get Blaise to stop questioning him, allowing Draco to go back to observing the Gryffindor table. Draco stabbed another tater-tot as he watched them. He saw Granger was already done with her meal and was beginning to leave as lunch was almost over. Abandoning the rest of the tater-tots on his plate, Draco slipped out after her. Their next class was Care of Magical Creatures, one that Gryffindor and Slytherin shared. Draco really thought he would never see the day that he'd look forward to Care of Magical Creatures, with Hagrid and the Gryffindors!

He had followed behind her from a distance, with other students between them. Soon the whole class was there waiting. They waited for a while until they heard a noise coming from behind Hagrid's hut. Alarmed the class made their way around the hut to find Hagrid following behind his bloodhound. What is the beast's name? As long as he doesn't try to eat me this time I don't care! Potter was the first to speak up.

"Hagrid, have you lost something?" Hagrid dropped the tarp he was looking under and stared at the class for a minute. Of course he has lost something Potter! He lost his ruddy mind a long time ago! Draco gave a silent smile to his thoughts. If only he could manage to lose his job as well! Potter tried repeating his question adding, "Would you like us to help you?" Draco really hoped by 'we' Potter only meant the Gryffindors. You never know what monster Hagrid might have about, and Draco was certainly not going to look about for one.

"Actually, yeah, you coul' all 'elp me! It was to be a surprise fer class today, but I seem to have misplaced it! Everyone split up an' look about, and holler if you see anything!" And with that Hagrid went back to looking. The class was very hesitant; no one had moved to help look. When Hagrid noticed this he turned back to the class and asked, "Well, what you all be waitin' fer?"

"We don't know what we are looking for," Weasley stated. "We might as well be looking for something that is invisible!"

Hagrid blushed at first, realizing his mistake, but then shouted cheerfully, "That's exactly it! We are looking for a diricawl!" Feeling satisfied with his explanation Hagrid and the bloodhound moved on to search around the corral. Having enough of this nonsense Draco decided to interject.

"Has he lost it or what? I still have no idea what we are looking for!" Several Slytherins snickered at this, and begrudgingly a few Gryffindors agreed.

"A diricawl is a plump flightless bird that has the ability to turn itself invisible." Granger, ever the know-it-all, stated. Many sighed and groaned as they realized how long this class was going to be today, while others still looked confused. As if sensing what they were about to say Granger continued. "Known to muggles as the dodo bird, a diricawl can vanish into a burst of feathers. Their ability is why the muggles assume they are extinct. The Ministry hasn't felt the need to correct them seeing how it heightened awareness with how the muggles treated animals." Realizing she was rambling a bit, Granger finally brought home her point. "We should be looking for its feathers. When they vanish, a lot of their feathers get left behind."

Now that they had an objective the students broke into pairs and began searching. Draco noticed Potter and Weasley pair off and disappear into the trees for a bit. Draco didn't have to follow them to know they were not looking for dodo birds. Draco stood there for a bit, trying to decide if he was actually going to help or not. As he was thinking about it, he wondered, what would I do if I actually found one of those stupid birds? If only I had a cage… So with that he decided to look for a cage first. It seemed that he wasn't the only one with that idea as he found himself approaching a stack of cages the same time Granger did. These must have been the cages that Hagrid had the diricawl in originally, there are feathers everywhere here! Granger attempted to grab one off the top; they must have been made from a heavy metal because it seemed like she was having difficulties. Draco silently walked forward and tried to help her get a cage down. He went to lift the cage and his previous thought was confirmed, it seemed to be impossibly heavy. As he continued to lift it, the weight shifted, and Draco almost lost his balance. Draco looked up and his eyes met with Granger's as they came to the realization at the same time.

"They have been in their cages the whole time!" Granger exclaimed with a small gasp as Draco cursed that giant oaf for assuming that an animal that could disappear was missing simply by glancing at their cages! Granger then called Hagrid over, explaining to him that his diricawl were indeed never missing. Once again he blushed then profusely apologized to the class for wasting their time. They spent the rest of their class time observing the seemingly empty cages, trying to catch a glance of the dodo bird. As the class wasn't nearly quiet enough, the birds remained invisible until it was time for Gryffindor to leave for their Herbology lesson. It was probably a good thing Granger had discovered the location of the diricawl. If Draco had been alone he might have kicked back and watched the wild dodo chase.

Now that all the interesting parts of his day were over, Draco looked forward to only three more things: Dinner being the nearest, sleep being the farthest, and his meeting with Granger, which could prove to be the most interesting part of his day. Until then, he would have to suffer through one more class, and he could hardly wait.