Chapter 8: Dragon Drama

Draco opened his eyes slowly. He was surprised for a moment that he could not hear Lela Snape traipsing around the house singing loudly as she often did, or the booming voice of Charlie Weasley laughing. He couldn't even hear Severus Snape moving around- barely making a sound until he would run into a corner of the small house when he would curse to himself. As Draco began to sit up, he paused. There was something leaning on his chest. Moving very slowly, as not to disturb whatever it was, Draco found himself looking down at a head of red hair, falling gracefully over the closed eyes of Ginny Weasley. The events of yesterday came rushing back and while Draco was suddenly very aware of the danger he had brought to Hogwarts, he could not help but notice the flutter of glee in his stomach.

Gently, he moved Ginny so she lay on the couch by herself, still undisturbed. She let her hand fall gracefully to just a few inches above the floor and sighed. Draco felt his mouth pull into a smile before looking around the room quickly. No one witnessed his moment of emotions.

Looking around, Draco found that this was a very nice room. Covered in emerald and silver. The far walls were covered by two bookshelves and between them was a large window with the emerald blinds closed. Turning, Draco found a large canopy bed with a dragon insignia.

"Draco?"

Draco turned to Ginny, who was rubbing her eyes in a tired way. "Wow," she gasped, looking around. "This is not what it looked like when I used it for training."

Draco smirked, "yes well, if I recall, last night there was only that couch," Draco said motioning to where she sat. Ginny stretched her back as she smiled saying, "gee, its like magic!"

Draco rolled his eyes and kissed Ginny's forehead. "Oh," Ginny gasped. Draco looked at her, puzzled, but she silently motioned to the doorway. Where there had only been a gapping hole to a passageway before was now a giant portrait- of Draco and Ginny. The portrait Ginny and Draco were positioned much as the real Draco and Ginny had just woken up. Draco turned to see Ginny blushing.

"It looks quite nice, don't you think," Draco drawled, pushing a strand of red hair behind her ear.

"Well, it is very- big," Ginny agreed. Draco ruffled Ginny's flame colored hair. However he paused as he saw a beautiful sight- his wand sitting on a table near by. Rushing over, he grabbed the wand, waving it and allowing sparks to appear.

"Draco, I think Dumbledore needs to see you," Ginny said motioning to the window. Through the blinds, Draco could see the phoenix that had delivered his note last night. Draco opened the window and the phoenix delivered the note, landing gracefully on the edge of the couch Draco and Ginny had fallen asleep on.

Draco opened the letter as Ginny stroked the phoenix's feathers. It made a strange sound- almost as if purring. It nuzzled its head against her arm. Draco read silently, "Draco- we have a bit to discuss. Do come to my office when you and Ms. Weasley wake up. You'll find your clothes have all been moved to the dresser nearby. Sincerely, Dumbledore."

Draco looked up and spotted the dresser. With a sweep of his wand, Draco's clothes had changed to his Slytherin uniform, without showing a drop of skin. "Well," Ginny grinned as the Phoenix took off again. "Won't you be the scandal of the school?"

Draco smirked, but he knew she was right.

Later, as Draco walked away from Dumbledore's office, Draco understood how much of a scandal. When he had ventured to the office most students had not been in the hallway but now they parted to allow him space in the crowded corridor. Some had fear and confusion on their faces and others seemed shocked. Crabbe and Goyle didn't seem like they were either of these when Draco passed them. He gave them a dark look. They returned it with their own dull ones. Draco was sure that Hogwarts was not going to be the same again. Since he was a Slytherin through and through, he would remain in his beloved house, however there were obvious dangers in living in the dormitories. So, while Draco was to attend classes with his house as usual, he was to sleep and live in the room behind his portrait. On the upside, this was nearly two feet away from the Gryffindor tower. On the downside, it was right next to the Gryffindor tower.

Draco made a face to himself in disgust as he passed a group of whispering girls who fell silent. Draco had forgotten how much he enjoyed being the center of attention. It had been quite a while since he had been the school's gossip- usually Potter stole his limelight. Now Draco shrugged and continued his way through the sea of people towards lunch.

Just as he was about to reach the large doors, he felt a familiar tug on his sleeve. He was whirled around and Pansy Parkinson looked at him- ice in her eyes.

"Quite the chilling look, Pansy," Draco drawled, inspecting his nails in a bored fashion. On the inside he had an urge to teach Pansy Parkinson a thing or two about picking on his girlfriend. He knew he should refrain so he inspected his nails instead.

"Yes, well," Pansy replied in a snotty tone Draco had rarely heard her use to him, "I can't say I am thrilled to see you. I did prefer you dead."

"Oh Pansy," Draco drawled coldly, "after all we had? How that saddens me."

Pansy narrowed her eyes. "That's what happens when you betray your family, house, and upbringing," Pansy snapped. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and Draco could not help but notice the blood red nail polish she wore. It almost seemed to sparkle in the torchlight. Pansy noticed him looking and smirked.

"All the rage these days. This color is very in. To bad you'll never get to feel these hands through your hair again," Pansy told him with an air of snobbery.

"I assure you my heart is broken," Draco drawled sarcastically. "I'll simply cry myself to sleep tonight."

A look of hurt flashed across Pansy's face but was replaced by a look of rage as she turned determinately and marched into the Great Hall, nose in the air. Draco rolled his eyes at her dramatics. Honestly, you'd have thought he had pretended to be dead just to spite her with the way she was acting. Draco moved into the Great Hall, where the clamor suddenly fell into near silence as Draco made his way to the Slytherin table. He sat next to Blaise who gave him a sideways glance.

"Why is the whole bloody Great Hall so damn quiet," Blaise asked loudly, making most of the Hufflepuffs turn back to their meals embarrassed. To Draco's relief, the clamor began to pick up once more.

"Thanks," Draco whispered to Blaise. Blaise shrugged, taking a bite of his mashed potatoes while looking at the Gryffindor table. Draco followed his eye line to the blond Gryffindor next to Ginny. Samantha? Yes, Draco thought that was her name.

"How is that going," Draco muttered, looking around the table as if bored. How easy it was to fall back into his old habits once back at Hogwarts.

Blaise gave him a sideways look, just as Samantha looked up. "Terrible," Blaise replied quietly. "It's quite a delicate situation here. With so many of our peers connected to the Dark Lord it would be unwise to begin anything with Ginny Weasley's best friend. That would seem an easy target, don't you think?"

Draco shrugged though he had to agree. After all, his relationship with Ginny had been anything but peaceful. Draco watched as Blaise and Samantha's eyes met. Ginny looked up and smiled at Draco from across the room and Draco smiled back, winking at her.

Blaise turned to Draco completely, pulling out the Daily Prophet and pointing to an article on the front page. "Mysterious Death of Ministry Official."

"They suspect poison but it's a potion they have never seen before. Something with that ingredient no one uses anymore. What is it again," Blaise asked.

Draco was scanning the article as Blaise spoke. "Angel Wing," Draco replied turning to page 5, where the article continued.

"Eye witness reports say that Glover had taken a sip of his coffee and then fallen over, as if fainting. Mediwizards reported that the moment the drink touched his lip, he was dead."

Above the writing was a picture of a chubby man with glasses that seemed to shadow his eyes. Next to the picture was another of the same man, slumped over the table clearly dead. Draco looked closely at the slumped picture. The rest of the drink was spilled across the table and it seemed to be sparkling.

"Glover was the new official responsible for cleaning out the Dark Lord's spies from the Ministry," Draco asked. Blaise nodded. Draco moved the newspaper into his pocket, hiding it from view as he looked again at the Gryffindor table. Blaise smirked and slapped Draco on the back. "Welcome back to Hogwarts," he said with a grin. Draco rolled his eyes but could not help smiling as well.

Draco knew the angel wing had to be connected to the three siblings he had seen the pictures of in Sirius' photo album. He was thinking of this as he stared at his blank parchment. One of the things he had not missed in his time away was homework and currently he was catching up on his charms homework- or attempting to catch up. He had been looking at these two pages in his charm book for the past two hours. Most of this time had been spent with Draco leaning lazily back in his chair, trying to concentrate but mostly daydreaming of not doing homework. He was just thinking of other ways to distract himself from homework-including sending an owl to Ginny- when a distraction found him.

Draco looked over his book as chairs scrapped against the floor. He was surprised to see that it had been three chairs not one, and that the Dream Team now occupied them, looking seriously at him. "Yes," Draco drawled putting down his book.

"Malfoy, I know that we have not been on good terms," Potter began motioning to himself and the dream team, "but we've been talking a lot and we think we should start over."

"Start over," Draco repeated incredulously. Weasley Senior shifted annoyed in his seat. Draco smirked and looked back at Potter. Potter seemed to understand the skepticism and cleared his throat.

"Yes, start over," Potter explained.

"Obviously Ron is disgruntled about other events," Granger explained, "to be fair, he'd hate anyone who was dating his little sister."

"Even Potter," Draco asked raising his eyebrow. Weasley Senior gave him a dark look. Granger nudged him gently and he let out an exasperated sigh.

"Look Malfoy," Weasley Senior snapped, "I think we both know that our families have a long standing issue and I can't say I understand how you and Ginny find it so romantic, but, I'll try my best to overlook your numerous flaws- for Ginny."

Draco raised his eyebrow higher at the insults embedded in the truce. "What a way with word you have, Weasley," Draco commented twirling his quill. He could see Weasley Senior's ears turning red. Weasley Senior opened his mouth as if to retort, but paused and seemed to catch Granger's warning look. Instead he stood and stormed off. Granger gave Draco a dark look before muttering, "I'll be right back," and rushing off after him.

"Nice effort, Malfoy," Potter sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose, under his glasses.

Draco looked at the emerald-eyed boy very coldly. "This coming from the boy who accused me of causing every sort of mischief at Hogwarts. The Chamber of Secrets, Potter? I mean, I'm good but Merlin knows I'm not that good," Draco drawled. He was at least pleased to see Potter look embarrassed.

"Yes," Potter conceded, fussing with his hair awkwardly, "but you have to admit I was right about all the deatheater accusations." Potter smirked at him in an I-told-you-so-fashion. Draco scowled.

"I assure you, that decision had nothing to do with you," Draco retorted, "besides, we've seen how that has turned out for me. I had to pretend I was dead for ages."

Potter nodded in an understanding way. "You know," Potter said cautiously, looking around the library to make sure there were no prying eyes or ears nearby, "I have to stay at my aunt's house and right before my second year a house elf stole all my letters so it felt like I was dead. I think Ron thought I was."

"Right," Draco said, picking up his charm book and opening it once more, "Dobby I assume." Potter's face fell slightly as he seemed to make the connection that said house elf had once been the Malfoy's house elf-which Potter had released.

"Maybe that wasn't the best example," Potter muttered, becoming oddly interested in the marks on the table. Draco tried not to smirk at his discomfort. This was the boy who lived? Squirming because of a conversation Faux Pas? The Wizarding World may be doomed.

"Malfoy-er-" Potter paused as if deciding on something. "Draco, look."

Draco looked up from his charm book in shock as Potter said his first name. He was surprised to see the boy did not have a pained expression in saying it. Draco had been sure such civility would have been physically painful. Draco was so intrigued by this new step that he nearly missed what Potter was saying.

"Sirius spoke highly of you when I met him earlier today and obviously I adore Ginny, so if we could just be civil to one another- I mean, after all, we are on the same side now," Potter spoke in a rushed tone.

Draco raised his eyebrow feeling a strange flame in his gut as he repeated Potter's words more slowly, "You adore Ginny."

Potter's ears turned bright red and he quickly corrected himself, "I mean, we all do, don't we?"

Draco leaned forward over the table and hissed, "but do you adore her in a different way and does she know?"

Potter frowned for a moment before replying, "I've certainly never told her." Then Potter looked at his watch. "Best be going back to do my own homework in the Gryffindor Tower. Ginny and Hermione are helping me with some transfigurations." He stood, either oblivious to or ignoring the cold look Draco was giving him.

"I hope you'll accept our truce," Potter said before disappearing in the bookshelves. Draco glared at the spot he had last stood. "Bloody Potter," Draco muttered darkly to himself. Potter would have waited all this time to "adore" Ginny without telling her. And what did that mean for Draco? After all, you never forget your first love- at least that's what he had heard. Hadn't Potter been Ginny's first love? Perhaps unrequited to her knowledge, but love all the same. Draco let his head drop to the table with a thunk! "Stupid Gryffindors," Draco muttered to the tabletop. Still, it was sort of refreshing to have normal teenage drama after all the life threatening drama he had had of late. However, in the shadow created by Draco's head so close to the table, Draco could not help but remember his dream of Ginny and Potter dancing and doting on one another.

"I really think you're overreacting," Blaise assured him a week later as they lounged lazily by the lake.

"I'm not reacting at all," Draco drawled skipping a stone. He had changed his technique since Ginny had out skipped him all those months ago.

"Draco shut up," Blaise replied rolling his eyes, "I've known you long enough to know when you're overreacting to something. When was the last time you went to look for Ginny?"

"I'll have you know I saw her just yesterday afternoon," Draco retorted. His stone skipped twice before sinking.

"Because you ran into one another," Blaise replied, raising his eyebrow, "Samantha told me."

"What else has the blond bomb told you," Draco asked casually. He did feel a bit bad, however. True he had seen Ginny a few times this week, and he did have a good time whenever he saw her, but in the back of his mind was the idea of Potter liking her. Ugh! The thought was disgusting.

"Just because you feel intimidated by Potter isn't a reason to send Ginny running to him," Blaise spoke, breaking Draco's reverie.

"Intimidated," scoffed Draco "Malfoys are never intimidated. Especially not by blood traitors."

Blaise smirked, "I don't know if you can say that sort of thing when you're dating a Weasley and wanted dead for betraying the Dark Lord."

Draco frowned, skipping his next stone. "Point is," Blaise continued gracefully, "don't let Potter win by default just because you can't get over some dream you had. It's not like Ginny even knows Potter likes her more than a sister figure anyway."

Draco smirked, "Samantha told you that as well," he asked. Blaise shrugged, but his slight smile revealed the answer was yes.

"What a wise Gryffindor- how rare," Draco drawled, standing and dusting himself off.

"Off to some place bigger and better," Blaise asked with a knowing smirk.

"No idea what you are talking about, Git," Draco drawled back. He waved goodbye as he walked away from the lake and the shade of the tree. The sun hit his head and felt warm and reassuring. Blaise was right, as much as Draco hated to admit it. He was being a bit of a Drama King. He paused, thinking of where Ginny could be on such a fine day.

His attention was caught by something else. A stumbling figure approached, leaning heavily on the forest tree line for support. Draco rushed over just as the figure fell. Pansy Parkinson looked up at him, her eye blackened and her face paler than usual. It looked sickly. "Bloody hell," Draco hissed. Pansy opened her eyes.

"Oh, Drakey," she cooed softly, raising her hand to touch his cheek. He caught her wrist midair.

"What happened to you, Pansy," Draco asked, using his other hand to feel her forehead, it was covered in a cold sweat.

"I did it all for us, Drakey, dear. I may have won forgiveness for you. And we could finally be happy again. But I didn't know it would effect me as well," Pansy muttered. Her eyes seemed out of focus as she looked at her hand- the one that was still attached to the wrist Draco held.

Draco looked hurriedly at her hand. Just as he looked, the last of the glittery blood red nail polish faded, almost seeming to be absorbed into her nails. Without polish they seemed cracked and haggard. Draco has met Pansy for the first time when he was 9 and in all that time, he had never seen her nails look even relatively close to this. That was not how the meticulous Pansy kept her nails. After the last of the polish faded, all that remained was a spot of blood red cloring on the tip of her fingers. But this had no glitter. Draco's eyes widened. "What did you do Pansy," he hissed hurriedly, but her eyes were closing.

"Maybe I scratched too hard. I broke a nail," Pansy muttered.

"Pansy! Wake up," Draco snapped hurriedly. He jumped up looking around, releasing Pansy-hand and all- to think. What should he do? He had a foreboding feeling that this unabsorbed polish was real blood.

"Bloody hell I hate this," Draco gasped, trying to compose himself. Then he leaned over and picked up the limp Pansy, carrying her to the Hospital wing. He may dislike the girl since she had become such a pain, but they did have history.

When he arrived, he kicked open the door. A group of people was standing; looking seriously amongst themselves. They jumped as he banged in. Draco looked around at the faces of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Albus Dumbledore, Lela Snape, Hermione Granger, and the big black dog that was Sirius Black. Even that Oaf Hagrid was present.

Something wasn't right.

"Draco," Hagrid said slowly, as if unsure it was his place to speak. "I tried to break it up, I really did."

"Hagrid this isn't your fault," Granger assured the Giant.

Madam Pomfrey pushed through the group as Sirius returned to his human state. Madam Pomfrey took Pansy from Draco's hands carefully, giving him a foreboding look as she laid the girl on a nearby bed. Meanwhile, Lela motioned for Draco to move forward. He took a few steps then paused. He could see the scarlet hair before he saw Ginny's freckled face. It was slightly paler than usual, though her cheeks seemed to be burned red-as if from a bad sunburn. A slight bruising appeared on her cheekbone. Draco moved past Potter, who stood closest to the bed, and surveyed the sleeping form of Ginny. It would have been innocent except-

"Miss. Parkinson has left us," Madam Pomfrey announced solemnly to the room. Weasley Senior looked more concerned.

"Is Ginny-" he began, but his voice croaked to a stop.

"As of now, your sister is simply unconscious. We will have to keep a special eye on her, however, as this potion has only recently been rediscovered, "Professor Dumbledore said to the room at large.

"What do you mean," asked Potter confused. But Draco could see what Dumbledore meant before he explained. There, on Ginny's jaw line, were three deep scratches. The scratch marks- no different from those caused by someone digging their long nails into another's skin, had obviously drawn blood. And around the edge of the top most scratch was the faintest hint of glitter. Just like that found on Pansy's nails. Just like that seen in the Daily Prophet picture.