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¨°º¤ø„¸ CHAPTER SIX ¸„ø¤º°¨
¸„ø¤º°¨ NEVILLE FIGHTS BACK ¨°º¤ø„¸
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Entering the Charms class early, Hermione took a seat next to Luna, who was spacing out like usual in the back of the class, and stared blankly at her open text book as she let what a drunken Marcus flint had told her.
"Because," Marcus softly whispered, not catching Hermione's slip ups, "Granger's the one girl that he can never have and it kills him."
Hermione cocked her head in confusion. "Why?"
"Because he likes her so much... Maybe even loves her..."
Loves her, loves me? That was all that kept spinning around in Hermione's head and she was unsure about how she felt about this new information. Ron who sat upon the top of his desk four rows down from her with Harry was impersonating Pansy Parkinson- and doing a good job of it too- and was informing anyone who would listen about what had happened with Bole by the Ravenclaw Quidditch tower. Not that Hermione heard this. Her mind was too scrambled to pay attention to anything other than her convoluted thoughts.
"Can you believe just how furious Madam Pomfrey was when she saw that the whole Slytherin Quidditch Team was intoxicated?" Hermione vaguely heard Harry say to Ginny, who was sitting in his lap.
"Yes," Ron said quickly, answering for Ginny, as he then started talking about what happened when Proffesor Snape- who was already enraged from spending an hour in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom trying to get a crying Pansy Parkinson to leave before Myrtle flooded it- found out about his Quidditch Team and actually took one hundred points off of Slytherin and gave them a months worth of detentions. It didn't help their case that they were completely unable to remember why they were drunk from the charms that the Twins had placed upon them.
As Malfoy heard Ron going on about what had happened by the Quidditch pitch he turned to Zabini and Hermione moved her uncomprehending eyes up from the Charms text- she caught Malfoy's eye and he decided to give her the most disgusting glare as she attempted to keep her face expressionless like a Slytherin, then countered his glare with the most evil smile that she could muster.
Luna, who was watching her, passed Hermione a note asking 'Why are you smiling at Draco?'
Looking away from the uneasy Malfoy who was stirring in his seat as he started up a conversation with Zabini, she answered with a smirk. 'Oh, it's nothing.'
"Luna, can I ask you a personal question?" Hermione asked, turning her head so that she could see Luna's blonde head nodding a 'yes'.
Snatching the parchment back she wrote, 'Why did you blush when Ron made that joke about you and Malfoy being twins? And I know that it was not because you were embarrassed Luna.'
As Luna read the parchment Hermione passed her ,Luna blushed again as she spoke with a small smile, "you caught that, huh?"
"I think that it was pretty obvious." She told her with a nod and then wrote, 'But why? Malfoy, he's a fucking asshole.'
"What?!" Luna all but shouted making Malfoy and Zabini turn, wondering exactly why she was shouting. "It's not him!" she exclaimed more quietly, snatching that parchement back to clarify. 'Blaise Zabini I like... NOT Draco.'
"What?!" was shouted in the classroom for the second time in the space of a few minutes and this time everyone stopped whatever conversation they were having to look up at her; not really caring about this Hermione carried on talking to her friend, "what do you see in him? Well I suppose we all know what you see in him, but still."
Picking up the yellow feathered quill Luna told her, 'Well it happened on the Express when we were coming to Hogwart's this year. I was reading the Quibbler upside down and wearing my Spectrespecs and not really watching where I was going. So I accidentally walked straight into the boys changing room and looked up to find Blasie with not shirt on- and I have to say that he's one good looking Slytherin. Anyway, I just stared at him because he's the first person I've ever seen who doesn't have loads of Wrackspurts floating through their ears to make their brains go all fuzzy.
Reading this Hermione hid her inner smile with an outer Slytherin smirk, thinking about just how funny it was that Luna, despite her abnormalities, was just like any other girl when it came to boys. She looked over at said Snake and checking him out agreed that Zabini was one good looking guy- so is Malfoy, a traitorous voices inside her whispered softly as her eyes scanned over him- she shook her head and turned back to Luna.
"But I do have to say that I really prefer chocolate over vanilla or caramel," Luna whispered quietly in her left ear before breaking into giggles.
Then, hearing the door to the Charms Classroom bursting open, Hermione turned to see the Twins practically collapse into the room breathing hard and come to a staggering stop before her desk.
"Neville-"
"Nott-"
"Greengrass-"
"Outside."
Was the warning that came from the breathless Twins.
Standing up as fast as was possible, Hermione ran out of the classroom with Luna, Ron, and Harry and Ginny right behind her, not sure of exactly what was going on. Bursting through the door she saw Neville in a harsh duel with Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass, as Astoria yelled hysterically for them to stop.
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Watching the Weasel's fat twin brothers come running into the classroom and then seeing Granger exiting the room with them and her little gang tailing her, Draco decided to wait a good minute before leaving the room to see just what was going on. Walking through the Charms door Draco had the wind knocked out of him as Granger tackled him to the ground to help him avoid being hit with the Furnunculus hex that Theodore had just send at Longbottom.
"What the hell is going on?" Draco yelled, partly talking about the situation and partly about the fact that Granger was on top of him. You like it, said that horrible part of his mind that ignored house rivalry, you like her, always have.
"Shut up," Granger told him loudly, putting her hand across his mouth to silence him, "and help me stop them."
Granger stood up and Draco now saw that there were sardines coming out of Potter's nose and Weaslette was helping him up so that she could take him to the Hospital Wing. Draco couldn't see Weaselbee anywhere but then he felt something crawling up his right leg and looking down blanched, a red weasel with a white stomach and baby blue eyes was nearing his thigh. "Get off me," he said loudly, making the weasel jump off of him and run to Hermione- Granger- who picked him up.
Finally, Draco thought with a smirk, my Weasel insults can properly match their Ferret ones. Weasley's a Weasel, Weasley's a Weasel... his mind sang in pleasure.
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It was at this point that Blaise had slipped out of the classroom, passed Flitwick who he could hear had just started teaching, and out into the hallway, where he stood beside Draco just as a purple light exploded out of Longbottom's wand and going to the Lovegood girl by mistake.
He ran to her and shielded agains that Tarantallegra that Longbottom had meant for Daphne. Looking down at the girl in his arms Blaise noticed how small and petite she was, all the while checking that she wasn't hurt. "Are you okay Lovegood?" Blaise asked with true concern.
"I'm... I'm fine, thank you for saving me," Lovegood smiled, "but now I think that it's time for me to save you," she finished as Daphne sent a Jelly-Leg's Hex Nevilles way. Lovegood carefully shielded them both from harm and he didn't notice how hot her face got as Blaise put his arms around her waist and picked her up as he made a run for it; now she was trapped between a wall and had her arms around his neck. He didn't even notice how Lovegood was staring into his eyes as he said, "Thank you Luna."
Luna blushed.
"HEY, LOVE BIRDS!" Fred yelled, "HELP ME OUT OF HERE AND THEN YOU GUYS CAN SNOG ALL YOU WANT."
Blaise now the one blushing, let Luna go so that she could run to Fred, who was kneeling over his twin's body as his limbs had snapped together as a Body Bind from Theo came into contact with him. "What's the counter curse," Blaise heard Fred saying frantically, panicking a little.
"Finite," Luna said simply, and as Blaise saw George or was it Fred come back to life.
Now running to the group that was made up of the Twins, Luna and Blaise, was Hermione, who had a transfigured weasel in her left hand- who Blaise could only assume was Ronald Weasley- while Draco had his right arm around her and shielded them from the spells, hexes and jinxes that where flying in the air around them.
"Is everyone okay," Hermione asked as she looked at George with concern, while Draco still had his hold on her and Weasley was trying to bite him. Blaise carefully didn't point out Draco and Hermione's proximity- who he knew that Draco wanted more than anything and, thought Draco was unlikely to admit it, loved more than anything as well- and hoped that they stayed like that- with his arm wrapped around her waist possessively and her body leaning into his- for just a little while longer.
Unfortunately the stares of the group cause them to move apart as Hermione began to command the rest of the group. "Okay then, Fred, George you take Neville out. Luna and myself will get Greengrass. Draco, Zabini, you guys take Nott."
The fact that was lost on the rest of the group- including Hermione- but not Blasie was the fact that she had slipped in her orders and called Draco, Draco and not Malfoy. It said something to him but she and the rest of the group were unlikely to remember that it had ever occurred the moment that the duel was over anyway.
A yell of 'petrificus totalus' was heard all around and rendered the three duellers completely immobile, arms and legs snapped together as they fell down from the lack of balance.
Stopping the duel, Astoria Greengrass ran to Longbottom to make sure that he was okay before going to her sister and Theodore and telling him in a dangerously low tone that she knew that he was only dating her because he was trying to get into her pants; before breaking off their relationship and saying that she loved Longbottom even if he was a Gryffindor.
Following Astoria, Hermione knelt between the pairs lifeless bodies. "Are both of you going to stop fighting my friend or do I have to keep you this way permanently," she said threateningly. "Blink once for yes and twice for no... Oh, and don't think for one minute that I won't leave you here like this for Filch to find." Never having seen the 'mudblood' this furious before Daphne and Theo both blinked once and Blaise kept quiet as she performed the counter-curse- still sneering at his housemates- as Luna helped Longbottom.
Theodore stood quickly and pushed past Blaise and Draco, storming down the hall after shooting daggers at Longbottom, who had his arms around his now ex and was kissing the sensitive spot between her neck and shoulders, and back into the charms corridor. Blaise could practically hear Theodore's thoughts, 'he can fucking have that slut for all I care;' and saw Daphne's internal battle as she saw just how happy Neville Longbottom was making her little sister.
"Well," Fred said, standing behind the new couple, "I think that it's time for us to leave. Come on George, we have to go to the Hospital Wing again."
"Yeah, lets go see sardines come out of Harry's nose," George said back to his twin with a smirk and walked up to Hermione. "Hey, I think that we should take the Weasel... um... I mean Ron, up with us," he added to Hermione, correcting himself as Ron snarled viciously at the word Weasel.
"I don't think that giving them Ron was a good idea," Luna told Blaise out of nowhere before turning to walk down the same corridor that Theo had just taken, back to Charms. Blaise followed without another word.
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Hermione watched Luna walk away with a dreamy smile, that she suspected Blaise had something to do with, adorning her face.
"Being Head Boy and girl," Draco said from beside her- no not Draco, Malfoy, always Malfoy- "I would give you all detention with Snape, but, seeing as Snape is still has to deal with Parkinson and the whole Slythering Quidditch Team, I'm going to let it go," he finished. "Now get to class all of you!"
Hermione watched Neville kiss Astoria goodbye and as her sister walked up to them, pulling Neville away from the younger Greengrass and told her that she'd be able to see Neville after class... And after she'd had a nice long chat with him. Thought she did say all this with a smile, clearly not liking Neville's Gryiffindor status but enjoying how happy Astoria was with him, as she dragged Neville to class.
Hermione was actually a little sick of seeing them snog like they were never going to see eachother again and started to walk away, only to have Malfoy run past her and block her way. Glaring at him, Hermione crossed her arms and tried to go around him, but he just moved with her. "What the hell Malfoy?!" Hermione sneered in annoyance and looked up at him.
"I need to talk to you," was all he said.
"Talk about what? That you secretly love me, or something like that," Hermione teased, before bursting out laughing as Draco went stiff and a nervous look passed across his features.
"Ha!" Hermione exclaimed, "you should see your face, it was just priceless."
Draco looked at her for a second, seeming lost in thought and a small smile replacing the fear on his face. Then that emotion was covered too and he snarled at her, "all I wanted to say is that this stays between us. My house doesn't need any more points taken away and neither does yours, got it?"
Draco stormed away then, leaving Hermione, feeling guilty, alone in the corridor to clean up Harry's sardines and walk back to Charms, thinking that maybe she had gone too far this time.
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