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¨°º¤ø„¸CHAPTER TEN¸„ø¤º°¨
¸„ø¤º°¨ IT'S A BIRD IT'S A PLANE NO IT'S BUCKBEAK!¨°º¤ø„¸
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Waking up with a start, Harry looked about the blurry room squinting, his green eyes both seeing and hearing a fuzzy McLaggen yelling at everyone who was around him, from the far end of the room. Making a grab for his glasses, he turned his attention to the only in use bed beside him; putting the glasses on and now able to see clearly, Harry could make out the top of a red head.
Believing it to be Ginny he climbed out of his uncomfortable bed and walked to the right. "Ginny, are you okay, baby talk to me," Harry said, grabbing the persons arm with concern. The big lump under the covers gave a groan as he pulled the cover off and jumped back as he saw Ron.
"Bloody hell Harry," Ron said in a hoarse voice as he rubbed his eyes and sat up, "you scared me."
"Sorry, I thought that you were Ginny," he told his red headed friend, who was hissing as he moved. "So... How are you feeling Ron?"
"I've felt better, but I'm just about ready to leave. I'm tired of just laying around in this dump and being forced to listen to McLaggen yelling every few minutes. How about you; are you okay; are you ready to go," Ron asked him as he too got out of bed.
"I'm okay, and yes I am so ready to leave too," Harry told him.
"Good," Ron said quickly, "lets go." He swiftly walked out of the hospital wing with Harry on his tail, as they heard everyone who was still connected at the hips and hands, yelling at McLaggen in a vain attempt to get him to shut the fuck up before they all hexed him into a pile of goo.
"Ouch..." Ron muttered with a wince as he walked beside Harry, clearly still feeling sore from his experience as a Weasel.
"You know, being a Slytherin for the day is really hard work," Harry stated, stepping on the moving stair gingerly, and trying not to fall off the end in his dozy state, as Ron nodded, not making it onto the staircase.
"You can say that again," his red head mate said before informing Harry that he was going to go and talk to Dean for a while and walking off.
"Hey Harry," Luna Lovegood said dreamily, popping out of nowhere as she looked over her shoulder at something that Harry couldn't see. "Out of the Hospital Wing already?"
"Yeah," Harry replied with a shrug, distracted by how odd Luna was acting - well odd for her anyway.
Looking around to see what Luna was staring at, Harry caught Zabini talking to a painting and stealing glances in Luna's direction ever couple of seconds. Looking back at his blonde friend he saw her blush and look away quickly. Putting two and two together and getting four, Harry was quite certain that Zabini and Luna had had a bit of a thing going ever since their sticking charm wore off. He thought that it could be amusing to put his theory to the test and see if his deduction was right.
"Hey Luna," Harry said putting his most charming smile - the one he usually used to stun fan-girls for long enough for him to escape - and putting his arms around the Raven's shoulders so that he could gain all her attention.
Down the corridor Blaise Zabini was watching his actions towards Lovegood and with a murderous jealousy filling him. He found that he really wanted nothing more then to walk down the corridor and rip Potter's arm clean off. "That bloody git," he murmered as he watched Lovegood laugh at something Potter had whispered in her ear.
Blaise made his way down the stairs to hex Potters Snitch catching arm off of Luna, but the stairs quickly shifted and he could do nothing more than watch as a Slytherin's greatest enemy and the girl he fancied jumped off at the next landing and, laughing, continued down the hall.
Fuck, was Blaise's only thought as he held onto the balustrade tight almost tightly enough to crack the stonework.
These actions proved Harry right and he looked back toward where Zabini was leaning, giving the Slytherin his best smug smirk as he walked with his friend to their Care of Magical Creatures class. A very pissed Zabini was left behind, waiting for the damned stairs to stop moving so that he could make his way to study hall that was currently taking place in the Great Hall.
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Still sitting in Draco's Muggle Studies class long after the bell had rung, Hermione sighed for the millionth time as she just sat and watched the blond boy that she had spent the day impersonating sleeping on the desk beside her. Draco had fallen asleep about halfway through the movie, his fell to a resting position down on the wood facing in her direction. Rolling her eyes Hermione tried to shake, pinch and punch him awake but she needn't have bothered for all the good it did, he simply moaned at each attack before his faint snoring began again. Merlin he's a heavy sleeper, Hermione thought.
Seeing as they were the only two students still at the desks in the Muggle Studies classroom Hermione had no qualms about putting an evil smile upon her face that would have terrified and shocked half the school had they seen it and one which Voldemort would have been proud of. She turned in her seat slightly to face the snoozing boy, and biting her bottom lip in disbelief that she was about to do this, whispered affectionately in the Slytherin's ear. "Draco," she said softly and Draco smiled in his sleep; she ran her free hand through his white blond hair and few more times as he moaned softly. I wonder what he's dreaming about, she mused as she stared at him, and a sweeter smile graced her face.
"Draco dearest, wake up" Hermione said in a sugary voice, causing Draco's dreamy smile to return from its recess when she was thinking. Here came the nasty part of her plan. "wake up... OR I'LL GET BUCKBEAK HERE TO BREAK YOUR ARM BEFORE CHUCKING YOU TO MAD EYE MOODY SO THAT HE CAN RETURN YOU TO FERRET FORM!"
Draco's eyes snapped wide open, making his head snap straight up before he reflexively took cover, pulling poor Hermione down with him; he was terrified about being anywhere near Buckbeak or the ex-Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher; Draco would have almost been shitting his pants if he had been in the same room as either that chicken that broke his arm or Mad Eye who shoved him down Goyle's trousers as a ferret.
The Slytherin just laid upon Hermione, scared, for almost a minute before he felt her shake under him. Looking down at her he was certain that she was crying, it was a good guess due to the fact that there were tears rolling down her face; it took him about another two seconds to realise that she was struggling to breath as she burst into pure laughter.
"I... Can't...Breath," she gasped between giggles as she pushed him off of her.
Draco's Slytherin intelligence started to put the puzzle together as he slowly looked over their desk to see no one but Professor Bill bidding the last stragglers goodbye, and no Mad Eye or hippogriff anywhere.
"Your face... Your face... Oh Merlin, priceless once again," Hermione cried as the tormented Slytherin stood up fast, dragging her up with him, and not thinking that her little joke was funny in any way.
"Is everything alright back there," the Professor asked as he observed the still laughing Hermione grabbing onto Draco's right arm for balance.
Anger flooded Draco's voice, mostly formed from hating the fact that a Gryffindor had managed to scare the shit out of him, "everything's fine Professor." He snatched his arm away from Hermione and walked past Bill with such speed that Hermione had to run to keep up with him.
What's his problem? Hermione wondered as she watched the rest of the school looking at their intertwined hands once again. Draco took the steps of the charmed staircase two at a time, leaving her out of breath. Hermione no longer cared that everyone could see them together anymore as she ran past him so that she could head him off. "Okay, what's wrong with you Malfoy?" she asked breathlessly, blocking the way so that Draco's attempts to get around her were met with nought but defeat. Looking down at Draco standing two steps below her, she could see that he was pissed.
"Nothing is wrong with me. Just forget about it Granger, let's go back to the Hospital Wing and wait for this stupid sticking charm to wear off," Draco snapped not really wanting to talk to her, as he tried to walk around the annoying girl, but finding that Hermione blocked his every move deftly.
Grabbing a fist full of his shirt with her free hand, Hermione made Draco look into her eyes, brown staring in to grey. "You're mad at me for waking you up the way I did, aren't you?" she accused, knowing exactly why he was acting like this.
"No, I'm just tired of being around a... a mudblood like you!" Draco insisted, all but shouting in her face and narrowing his eyes at her.
Hermione should of felt hurt at the words that were coming from his mouth but all that she did feel was slight humour and a bit of anger accompanying it. Rolling her eyes, Hemrione took one step down so that she could get a little closer to Malfoy, but still tower over him. "You know, I would feel a little hurt at what you just said to me Malfoy, that is if I didn't know that you don't mean a single word that you just said to me."
"What makes you think that I didn't mean every word... Mudblood!" Malfoy snarled, addin mudblood more fiercely at the end, now finding that they were the centre of attention as other students stopped to watch the Head Boy and Girl on the moving stairs , forgetting all about their own classes.
"Look Malfoy, I tried to wake you up nicely, but you wouldn't wake up. I even tried pinching your cheek and punching your arm but nothing happened," Hermione exclaimed loudly, but her voice was calmer now that she couldn't find it within herself to care that everyone was watching them argue.
"And that was the only thing that you could come up with to wake me up!?"
"Well... Yeah. Look, I'm sorry if I scared you Malfoy," she told him as her own temper began to fray at the edges.
"Sorry isn't good enough Granger, and I wasn't scared!" Malfoy exclaimed a little indignant. "Now, lets go back to the Hospital Wing." He paused and looked around at the still students. "And don't all of you have a class or something to go to," he snapped harshly at all those who were watching them fight.
Everyone who had been watching the legendry Slytherin and Gryffindor fighting quickly walked away from the scene, no longer interested in the quarrel. Thinking that he was overreacting, and that she really didn't want to have go back to the Hospital Wing - mainly because she wanted to spend more time with Malfoy, or, as she liked to call him when he was nice, Draco.
"Don't you think that you're overreacting Malfoy? And I know that I scared the living daylights out of you... Even if you say that I didn't."
"Overreacting?" Malfoy snapped, "I am not exaggerating and you didn't scare me Granger."
"Fine, I didn't scare you and you're not being melodramatic; now, what can I do to make you stop being so bitchy and to get you to forgive me," she asked, letting him win their silly little fight, even though she knew that he was lying through his Serpentine teeth.
Draco thought for a moment before answering. "Just answer me something."
"What is it?" Hermione questioned, noticing that her ploy had worked and that he was no longer upset and had a smirk adorning his pale face.
"Did you stick Blaise and Lovegood together on purpose? And if yes, then why?" He enquired curiously, one aristocratic eyebrow raised elegantly.
Hermione joined her fellow Head in smirking, thinking that it was amusing that out of all the things that he could have made her say or do, he had asked her that. "Yes I did that on purpose," she answered, now alone on the stairs with Draco after he had cleared the straggling students from the area. "And Why? Because Luna has a thing for Zabini and you know just as well as I do that Zabini wouldn't look twice at her."
Draco nodded in understanding, "Well... I can tell you that Blaise is certainly noticing the Raven now."
"Really!" Hermione said shocked.
"Yeah, I know when he really likes a girl, and trust me it's hard to please that boy," Draco told her.
"Right... So am I forgiven?" She asked with a smile as they went in the opposite direction to the Hospital Wing to the only outside class of that day, Care of Magical Creatures.
"Yes, I guess you are forgiven Hermione," he said with a shrug and a small smile.
"Good, because if not I was going to give you my muggle germs by giving you a huge hug," Hermione joked, enjoying her time spent with the Slytherin.
Draco rolled his stormy eyes playfully before embracing her in a hard hug, telling her that he didn't care that she was a muggleborn as he span her around in circles, laughing as Hermione screamed at him to stop. Draco span her one final time before placing her down on the ground slowly.
"You know, this is really weird," Hermione burst out of nowhere, "you and me being all friendly I mean."
"Yeah it is; but I... I like it," Draco whispered shyly Hermione moved her hair out of her face with both hands.
"We're unstuck," Hermione noticed and cheerfully threw herself into Draco's arms, quickly letting go of him with a blush, but not before seeing a frown upon his face.
"Yeah, we're unstuck," Draco muttered, less exited than his Co-Head.
Not knowing what to do now that the sticking charm had worn off, Hermione chose to break the silence that they had fallen into by telling him that it had been nice being around him while he wasn't being a jerk and that she would see him around.
As Draco watched her walk outside alone, he decided that he really didn't want her to go.
"Hermione!" He shouted, running to catch her, all the while struggling to think of what he should say to the Lion when he did.
"Yes," she replied, spinning around at his call and wondering silently what he could possibly want.
"Uummm... I wanted to say that I had a great time being stuck to you," Draco confessed, going a little pink in the cheeks and looking at the beautiful day outside to avoid his embarrassment. "And I was wondering if you would like to pretend with me..."
"Pretend to what Draco?" Hermione asked curiously, rising her brown eyebrows completely forget about impersonating Malfoy and acting like the usual nice Gryffindor girl that she was.
"Well you see, when we were stuck together we had an excuse to be around one another, but now that we aren't stuck we don't have an excuse; so I was wondering if you would like to pretend that we're still stuck together," the Slytherin said almost to fast to catch as he stared at the lawns, before adding, "but I completely understand if you don't want to."
Watching him catch his breath, Hermione really thought about it as she looked down the big hill that she was now standing on, watching their classmates close below walking towards the forest. Taking a deep breath she looked back at the blond boy, who was now blushing and looking at his feet. Walking back up to him, Hermione grabbed his left hand and intertwined it with her right, making Draco's head snap back up to look at her, with the most beautiful smile that she had ever seen gracing his features.
"I think that that's a great idea, because we have seven years of catching up to do" she said smiling up at him .
Walking together hand in hand willingly, Draco and Hermione went down the hill to accompany their classmates to their last lesson of the day.
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While Care of Magical Creatures class was taking place outside, inside the castle Marcus Flint was on his was to the Great Hall for him study class with Flora Carrow, who was making a Fat Weasley Twin walk backwards and Hestia - Flora's sister - with a bored looking Fred? while on his back. Striding through the doors, Marcus took a seat at the Hufflepuff table, where the whole class was.
Sitting across from Blaise, who didn't bother to look up at him as he continued with some Herbology homework.
"What do you two think you are doing," Marcus snarled at Johnson who was taking a seat to him right and her teammate Bell as she did the same on his left as two sets of twins sat either side of Blaise, whose head snapped up at Marcus' rant. But the foreign boy's eyes never met Marcus' face as the landed on the Butterbeer cork necklace around the Slytherin's neck first.
The two Gryffindor girls didn't bother to say a word and simply rolled their eyes as they gave over all their attention to their boyfriends.
"Nice necklace Flint, where did you get it?" Blaise asked in a monotone voice, not meeting Flints eyes as he knew exactly where he had got it.
The Weasley twins burst into laughter as they watched Flint look down at the necklace with confusion written all over his face, not having a clue where the weird looking necklace had come from. Snapping his head to glare at the two red heads laughing, wanting to know just what was so funny, as he took off the necklace.
Not getting the answer that he desired from the snickering Fat Twins, Marcus told Blaise that he didn't know where it had come from, but that it was ugly and that he was going to throw it away.
Blaise carefully snatched the cork necklace off of the table before anyone could notice that it was missing. Marcus thinking that he had left it behind and everyone else thinking that it had gone with him as he stood and walked to talk to Daphne, who was engaging in eye rolling as her younger sister flirted with her new boyfriend, Longbottom.
The dark skinned Slytherin stood up quickly, leaving the four Gryffindor's and two Slytherin's behind, as he handed his Herbology work over to the Professor, and walked out to the front courtyard. Laying down on the verdant grass he looked at the gold seal on the 'top' of the baby blue beaded and corked necklace as he ran it through his fingers lazily. Blaise, sighing as he closed his eyes, vaugley wondered what had come over him today, as he slowly went to sleep on the soft green lawn with a tight hold on the necklace and dreamed about Lovegood.
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The last lesson of the day was over with and Draco quickly walked away, dragging Hermione with him in his desperation to not be there any longer.
"Draco, it was just a unicorn," Hermione told him with a smirk as she remembered the look on Draco's face when Hagrid asked him to come and touch the beautiful white unicorn with its single horn upon its forehead. All the while the Gryffindor's joked that they hoped that Frank the unicorn attacked him and finished where Buckbeak had left off.
Draco just kept on walking, muttering under his breath something about bloody chickens as Hermione told him that he had looked like he was facing off Lord Voldemort when he approached Frank back there and then burst out laughing.
Walking up the big hill to the castle, three Gryffindor's and their Ravenclaw friend made their way over to the Hogwarts Heads who were walking ahead of them.
"Hermione!" Harry shouted to get her attention.
Stopping at the top of the hill, Hermione turned to face the person that was calling her. Putting a smile upon her face as she watched her friends approaching she asked, "hey guys, what's up?"
"Oh you know, the sky; the clouds..." Luna said as Ron smirked and yelled that Buckbeak was up too. The cruel comment making Draco scream and run off with Hermione while Harry, Ginny, Ron and Luna laughed until they cried.
Hermione had a hard time breathing as running and laughing didn't mix, and tried to stop Draco as he dragged her through the courtyard. "Draco... Calm down... They were... Just... Joking... With you," Hermione managed to gasp out between deep breaths and they started to slow, before coming to a complete standstill.
"That's not funny at all, Granger," Draco informed her, clearly quite upset.
"So, were back to Granger then, huh Malfoy?" she said lifting a brow. "Just admit that you're scared of Buckbeak... And Mad Eye Moody."
"I am not Hermione," he told her and Hermione gave him a look that said quite clearly that she thought that he was full of shit. "Fine, fine, okay I admit it. I'm scared of both Buckbeak and Mad Eye Moody; but wouldn't you be too if you got beat up by that hippogriff and was turned into a ferret."
"Nope," Hermione told Draco with a fake smile, "because I am a Gryffindor and Gryffindor's are brave."
Looking at their surroundings Hermione saw Romilda Vane and Nigel Wespurt up in a tree laughing while they threw acorns and Draco's usual entourage, Crabbe and Goyle, both of whom looked confused as to where all the acorns were coming from.
"How thick can you get?" Hermione said with a snort, unknowingly repeating what Ron had said about the pair in their second year; Draco dragged her to the centre of the courtyard and sat them down.
"So tell me," she said as she laid back and crossed her legs while carefully fixing her black dress so that her knickers didn't show, "why are we sitting in the middle of the front courtyard?"
"Well you did say that we have seven long years of catching up to do." Draco laid back as well, glancing up at the clouds before letting his head fall to his left so that he could watch her.
"Okay," Hermione said, looking into his eyes, "what would you like to know?"
"What's your favourite colour?"
"Blue; yours?"
"Black; what's your favourite animal?"
"Ferrets," Hermione joked.
Draco just smirked, "I knew it, even as a ferret I'm sexy."
"Of course you are Barbie."
"Hey! I know what a Barbie is and I am not one thank you very much," Draco said affronted.
"I was just joking, have a laugh once in a while," Hermione suggested, before making sure that he had no choice and tickling him until he laughed.
"Stop... Hermione...!" Draco exclaimed, tears in his grey eyes.
"What was that?" Hermione asked in mock confusion, before claiming it was a request to continue and tickling him with both of her hands, forgetting to pretend that they were still stuck together.
Hating being tickled, Draco grabbed bother of Hermione's wrists , straddling her, putting both her hands above her head and watched her straggle under him, wanting nothing more in that moment than to kiss her. Hermione stopped wriggling as she saw Draco looking at her eyes and her lips, starting to lean into her. Hermione closed her eyes as she waited for Draco to kiss her, but it never came.
"Are you two going to kiss?" Luna asked looking down at them.
"No!" They both shouted as Draco got off of the Head Girl and Hermione quickly stood; forgotting about holding hands again.
"You're unstuck," Luna observed with a smile. "Good for you." With that parting comment she left walking backwards, not bothering to look where she was going.
"I... Have to go," the Gryffindor said with a blush, hardly believing that Draco had been about to kiss her and that she was going to let him do it.
Draco watched her walk away from him, not stopping her this time as he walked in the opposite direction, cursing as he went both Lovegood for interrupting the moment and himself for not going after Hermione.
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I decided to write another chapter . making chapter twelve the epolige.
hope you like chapter ten and please review.
