The Courting Games
Chapter Six: A Long Night
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
Author's Note: Good evening ladies and gents and welcome back to the Courting Games! First off I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed, alerted and favourited, as always your comments make my life! Now without further ado the story!
As Draco had predicted almost as soon as he sat down at his usual table in the common room and got himself set up with parchment and quills he was, quite literally, flooded with questions and pleas for help from his own classmates all the way down to the first years.
"Alright, alright! Will you people just calm down, shut your traps and form a line," he instructed annoyed as they swarmed like a group of insect their questions turning into mindless buzzing in his ear as they all tried to make themselves heard over one and other.
Quickly a line formed itself leading out from his table headed by a nervous looking Georgianna Bole.
"Alright, Bole, what do you need?"
"I need to know the difference between an elixir and a potion," she squeaked.
"Get your brother's third year text and read chapter three, next," he snapped as the little blond thing scampered off.
Next was a second year, Graham Pritchard.
"Malfoy can you help me with my Disarming Charm, I know it wasn't assigned work but it's in my brother's old notes that we should be learning it by now," pleaded Pritchard.
"The incantation as you probably know is expelliarmus with the inflection on the 'pelli the wand movement is a harsh slash, like so," Draco demonstrated, "Come and find me later if you have more questions about how to use it, I just have too many people that need a bit of help right now to go into it."
"That's alright, I'll just practice on my own," Pritchard said with a sigh.
Next was Daraline Burke, a third year who needed to know how to deal with a grindylow. After that Goyle confessed he was still having trouble with his shield charms. By the end of a half an hour Draco had fielded ten questions and there was still a seemingly endless line of people still to help. Not that he could really call his one sentence answers helping, but if he didn't hurry he'd never get through even half of the people who needed help. Glancing around the room he could see that Daphne, Theo, and the sixth and seventh year prefects were similarly swarmed.
Suddenly there was a loud crack. The common room fell silent as Adriana Corner, a sixth year prefect and a witch not known for her good temper stood on her table looking ready to curse the next person who spoke.
"What is going on here?" she demanded her wand sparking dangerously, "Why is it that no one seems to be capable of doing their own homework tonight?"
You could have heard a pin drop.
"Well, answer the witch!" demanded Graham Montague, her male counterpart.
"It's Defence, alright Corner? Don't get your panties in a fucking knot," sneered Tracey Davis.
"If you want to take this to another level, Davis, we can –" snapped Corner.
"Not now Adriana, you can curse Davis after we've got this sorted," interrupted Montague.
He had apparently expected the hex that came his way because it hit a shield.
"What do you mean it's defence, Davis?" he drawled lazily deciding it was time to get in the game.
"I mean, Malfoy, that the Ministry's professorial puppet is going to make us fail our OWLs and NEWTs and all the other years will be even further behind in the Defence curriculum because the bitch refuses to teach practical lessons and doesn't assign even remotely useful reading."
Davis was not known for her tact, in fact the pretty little brunette with her short hair and pixie features was rather notorious for her tendency to scorn everything and everyone and make no secret of the fact.
"Who agrees with Davis?" asked Miles Bletchley a seventh year prefect and the Quidditch team's keeper.
Slowly the majority of the clustered Slytherins raised their hands, a few of them glancing nervously at members of the Inquisitorial Squad.
"Very well, those of you with questions about Defence and concerns about your examinations I ask that you put them to rest for the moment. The tutors and prefects are to come with Bletchley and I, and we will discuss how to handle the problem. We will be available for help in the other subjects after the meeting," said Adele Baddock, the other seventh year prefect, in her usual clipped overly formal tones.
The clusters of students dispersed slightly around the common room very few of them actually heading up to the dorms. They wanted to be around when the decision was made and Draco couldn't blame them. Defence Against the Dark Arts was slowly becoming the class in which everyone was stuck at the First Year level, curriculum wise anyway. The Slytherins might have scores of hexes and jinxes and protections in their memory banks, because if you didn't you would find yourself permanently in the Hospital Wing, but that didn't mean they were prepared for OWLs or, Merlin forbid, an actual situation where they might need to defend themselves. This was an obvious glaring weakness as the Slytherins were very much aware that the Dark Lord had returned and there were times of turbulence and danger ahead no matter which side of the argument you happened to favour.
Baddock opened the way to the prefects' conference room with a muttered word and the twelve senior Slytherins made their way inside and arranged themselves in hierarchal order around the table. Baddock, of course, took the position at the head of the table with Bletchley on her right and Corner on her left.
"We have a serious problem," Baddock began looking each of them in the eyes with her icy blue stare, "The grades, futures, and reputations of the students of this house are in serious jeopardy. Umbridge, while a useful tool for some of us, is going to do a great deal of damage in the long run. Normally with a professor this unsuited we would simply have them removed, our families, after all, have the power and influence through the Ministry and the Board of Governors."
"Well then, why are we still discussing this? We should owl or firecall our connections, with the full force of Slytherin house against her the sorry excuse for a woman would be removed before you could say Mutiny," Corner pointed out.
"We can't," said Montague with an annoyed sigh, "It would undermine our own authority."
"At this stage, she cannot be removed in any case," Draco pointed out.
The glares he was met with were more hostile than usual. Not entirely unexpected.
"Care to enlighten the rest of us, Malfoy?" demanded Corner.
"As you all know it has been the goal of my family to see Dumbledore removed from his position as Headmaster, with certain…changes during the last few months it has become necessary to involve the Ministry. Fudge has, obviously, been bought and paid for but he is doing as instructed, it is merely that we find his selection distasteful."
"Putting it mildly," sneered Daphne.
"As it is Umbridge has the Minister's go ahead for anything she can get away with as long as it wrests control from Dumbledore, as evidenced by a few of her more ludicrous educational decrees. This has become a situation we cannot intervene in without causing a serious incident, even if we were prepared to lose face. It was a miscalculation on my father's part, I take full responsibility."
Baddock sneered.
"Save your breath Malfoy, we are all aware of the ramifications of crossing Lucius Malfoy; we will not fight you on this matter, for the moment. This is not about politics. This is about educating ourselves to the standards to which we ought to be accustomed."
"Can we have the upper years teaching the younger years? Seventh could do independent study and teach fifth and sixth, sixth could teach fourth and third and fifth could teach first and second," Bletchley pointed out.
"On top of OWLs or NEWTs and our regular course load, not to mention we have enough issues trying to keep up with the curriculum when we're just tutoring, there is no space for practical lessons in the common room and we would have to make a secret out of it," Montague snapped.
"What about Snape?" suggested Theo quietly, with a shrug, "He's always after the defence job. He knows his shit, and it's a chance to see us succeed where the other houses fail which should please him."
"I'll ask him but he's got a lot on his plate, I don't know if he'll have the time," Draco said with a sigh.
Truth be told he was worried about his godfather, the man was thinner, paler, and in a worse mood than he'd ever been before. Draco really didn't want to put the additional weight on his shoulders. He was sure Severus would shoulder the burden if they admitted they couldn't handle it on their own but he didn't want to put him in that position if he could help it.
"What about someone outside the castle?" he asked suddenly.
"We'd never be able to smuggle them in effectively, even if we could find someone willing and able not to mention a place and the time to hold lessons."
"And if I could find a way?"
"Did you have something in mind?" asked Corner arching a brow sceptically.
"I know someone who might be able to work something out," said Draco thinking of Potter and his secret defence group.
"Well, that wasn't vague at all," said Daphne rolling her eyes.
"Just because you don't have any better ideas doesn't mean that you have to get snarky when I try to protect my contacts from retribution. In case you've forgotten, Daphne, simply talking about this is not only bordering on illegal but could put us all in danger."
"Malfoy, loath as I am to admit it, is correct," Baddock said, "Umbridge has proved herself to be unstable, and she has power. We cannot antagonize her, thus we must work around her,"
"Malfoy, see what this contact of yours can arrange, and talk to Professor Snape. In the meantime, Adriana, talk to your brother; find out what the Ravenclaws are doing to stopper the gaps in their education. We'll lengthen the tutoring sessions, and post recommended reading for each year for the moment," Bletchley instructed.
"This meeting is adjourned," Baddock said rising.
The prefects and tutors rose with her and together they filed out of the conference room. Draco was surprised by the lack of people in the common room, and glanced at his watch. He bit his tongue on a curse, they'd been talking for two and a half hours and everyone had turned in for the night.
"I'll post a notice," Bletchley said grabbing up a quill and parchment.
Draco exchanged polite nods with his fellow prefects and tutors and all but trudged up to his room. He hadn't even touched his Arithmacy homework before the human inundation and as much as he loved the subject he wasn't looking forward to it after the long and gruelling meeting he'd just had.
With a sigh he changed out of his uniform and into a pair of loose pants and a soft t-shirt and grabbed his calculations out from his book bag. He was sure he was close to solving question fourteen and if he could figure it out he could have the rest of Vector's proof no problem. As he laid the calculations out on the green bedspread he noticed that there were a few extra papers.
Pulling the extras out he recognized the scrawl immediately and excitement flooded him as, tiredness forgotten in the wake of excitement, he began reading Potter's response.
Sorry, we can't all have perfectly groomed hair. Mine just grows this way, it doesn't matter how many haircuts I get or how long I spend combing it or how much gel I use. Apparently it's genetic and my Dad and Grandfather had the same kind of hair. It stopped bothering me a long while ago.
As to my clothes, they're pretty much all I own outside of uniform, hand-me-downs from my cousin who is about a million times larger than me. Not of course that that's difficult. I've been thinking of going shopping for my own stuff for a while now, it's not like I can't afford it, but apart from not really having the time, or a clue what I'd pick, I don't want my greedy relatives to know my parents left me an inheritance. They'd just try and take it from me and that is hassle I just don't need.
Well, Ron and I met on the train and I'm not quite sure how we became friends it just sort of happened, easy as breathing, but you're right we really didn't like Hermione at first. We thought she was a stuck up know-it-all with no sense of humour, and she really was quite unbearable that first month at Hogwarts. Don't you dare tell her I said it though! Anyway you remember on Halloween of our first year there was that troll in the dungeons? Well that morning Ron had said something that really hurt Hermione's feelings and she spent the day holed up in the girls loo crying. She didn't go to classes or come down for the feast. When we were being herded out of the Great Hall Ron and I realized she didn't know about the troll, so rather than letting a teacher or prefect handle it, like we should have, we snuck away from the group. The troll, however, was not as Quirrell said, in the dungeons but wandering around on the second floor. It went into a room and we locked it in and were busy congratulating ourselves when we Hermione screamed and we realized we'd locked the troll into the bathroom with her. So, being us, we went charging to her rescue, throwing bits of pipe and generally making a distracting ruckus. I stuck my wand up its nose and Ron managed to master Wingardium Leviosa in time to knock the thing out with its own club. By that point the teachers arrived and were ready to lay into us when Hermione piped up and deliberately lied to McGonagall to get us out of trouble. There are some things you just can't help being friends after and apparently taking on a mountain troll is one of them.
I actually read quite a bit, it's a side effect of not sleeping. Mostly it's just our course books and stuff about Quidditch but I broke down this summer and raided my aunt's bookshelves. If you tell anyone else this it is worth your life, but I'm kind of addicted to muggle romance novels. There's something about knowing that there's going to be a happy ending that draws me in. Since pretty much every romance novel is the same however it's hard to have a favourite. So it comes down to a tie between Flying with the Cannons and the muggle novel I Want to Go Home by Gordon Korman. It's meant for young readers but it's just so hilarious I read it over and over again.
Still when it all comes down to it if the weather is half-way decent and I have any choice in the matter I want to be outside flying or kicking around the football or just going for a run. I love it outside and call me an adrenaline junkie if you like but there's no better feeling than the one you get after pushing your body to the limit whether it's running that extra ten feet or pulling out of a suicidal dive. No better feeling in the world!
I speak out against that bitch because somebody has to. Umbridge is a spiteful old toad who's not committed to teaching, fine I can deal with that not like we haven't had teachers like that before. She's in bed with the Ministry, gross but again I can deal with it. What I can't stand is the fact that she's discrediting my word and Dumbledore's effectively crippling any ability we might have had to spur the students and the government into pre-emptive action to counter Voldemort. And he is back; don't pretend you don't know that to be the absolute truth, your father was at the resurrection ceremony for Merlin's sake! Besides which detentions with her are quite literally torture and I'd rather it be me in there than some poor firstie.
Well, if she doesn't allow Gryffindor to play in the house league I'm going to throw a full on hissy fit. Yes, I did just say that, and possibly drag the Cho and the Hufflepuff seeker off twice a week for serious seeker training just so that you lot don't completely overtake the school in points. This is me admitting you are a half-decent seeker; don't let it go to your ego.
If I could do anything after Hogwarts, I don't really know what I'd do, I thought about being an Auror but it isn't what I would be happiest doing I don't think. Actually I'm starting to think I'd like to teach Defence after I graduate. It's my best subject and Merlin knows this school needs a decent professor who won't try to kill or torture the students and who's not afraid to stick it out for more than a year.
I don't really want to talk about why I don't go home for the holidays. So instead I'll tell you that I love staying at Hogwarts over Christmas, most years there are snowball fights and chess. Mrs. Weasley knits me one of her famous sweaters and sends the best treats you will ever taste, and the whole tower goes quiet. It's also quite fun to watch the professors make cakes of themselves at the feast!
Over the summer hols I spend my first month or so in my room doing homework and avoiding my cousin, or wandering the neighbourhood. Then I usually go to Ron's house and hang out with the Weasleys. We play Quidditch and the Twins always have some new trick up their sleeves, Hermione comes over sometimes but her parents like to spend the break with her since they don't see her most of the year and they all go away. Last year we went to see the World Cup, as you know, and that was fun except for the whole Death Eater bit at the end.
My favourite colour is also green, because it's the colour of grass and trees and my mother's eyes. Plus there is the fact that you do look good enough to eat in it. My favourite food is garlic bread with cheese, I cannot even explain how scrumptious it is. I love it! My favourite subject is Transfiguration, it's challenging, interesting, useful and McGonagall doesn't want to kill me, unlike our Defence teachers. The only year this wasn't the case was third year but Lupin was pretty much awesome so I doubt that really comes as a surprise to you.
My team is the Appleby Arrows in no small part because they're the rivals of the Wimbourne Wasps and I really don't like Ludo Bagman. I don't bring it up very often because Ron can go on and on and on about the Cannons and their various virtues and then Ginny gets her back up about the Harpies and the debates can last for hours.
My favourite season is the fall because it's usually a good temperature not too hot or cold, the leaves changing colour are always pretty, and we get to come back to Hogwarts. That being said I really don't like Halloween all that much and have always preferred Christmas. I also despise Valentine's Day. I may spend the entire day hiding in a broom closet from hordes of my not so secret admirers this year. Care to join me?
My favourite type of music is a kind of muggle music they call alternative, and I don't really listen to Wizarding music.
I'm not worried about Sirius Black. He hasn't tried coming after me again and to be honest I'm not really convinced I was in any danger in the first place despite what the Ministry says. Besides which, he wasn't there when Voldemort was resurrected and we haven't heard any news about him killing muggles on his own. I don't think he was a Death Eater at all. What I'm hoping is that the Aurors will reopen the case and find the sonofabitch who really betrayed my family and that the rat will get within wand reach of me.
If I absolutely had to pick one I'd have to say Barty Crouch Jr. despite the fact that the man was a crazed Death Eater psychopath at least I learned something from him, he didn't try and get me into the papers and tabloids at every turn, and he didn't have Voldemort stuck to the back of his head. Isn't it so sad that my standards are that low?
Why is it that to qualify for the Defence position you have to try to kill me? Even though Umbridge hasn't come right out and done it yet we're only in November, it's just a matter of time.
If Professor Snape taught Defence would Potions still be your second favourite subject? Are you getting better grades than Hermione in Arithmacy?
Does the fact that I'm against Voldemort bother you? Should we agree not to mention it or do you think we can handle accepting that we each have our different opinions and leave it at that?
What do you and your family do for Christmas? What was the best gift you ever received? What about the thing you wanted the most that you never got?
What is your opinion on House Elves? If you had to pay them wages would you still use them? Have you ever have to clean up after yourself?
What kind of music do you like? Do you play an instrument or sing in the shower? If so are you any good?
What do you think of Umbridge and her decrees? Do you agree or are you just going along for the power trip? Which one do you think is the best and which one is the worst?
Look I've got to get going or I'm going to be late for Divination, but…would you meet me in the Great Hall tomorrow night maybe around two in the morning?
Draco immediately began scrawling out his answer trying to write quickly because he knew he had to get his Arithmacy work done tonight and he didn't want to wake up tired tomorrow if he was going to spend another late night with Potter. He wondered what the Gryffindor Golden Boy had planned for them and how he could be so casual about wandering around the school after hours with the current dictatorial regime.
Excitement made his stomach tighten and flutter, this was going to be the real test, after all. It was one thing to write half a novel to each other and steal glances across classrooms, it was easy to ignore five years of animosity and severe differences of opinion when they weren't actually speaking and could plan out their words, but now they would have to actually face each other speak to each other civilly. A smirk twisted Draco's lips, well, perhaps speaking wouldn't be the only thing they got up to tomorrow night.
He stared down at his paper strewn bedspread considering. What he really wanted to do was sneak up to the owlry to send Potter his reply but he still had to get done his Arithmacy homework and it was already closing in on one o'clock in the morning. He sighed and picked up question fourteen and his quill going through his steps again. He frowned as he looked at the equation he was left with through narrowed suspicious eyes.
"Bloody hell, the damn thing factors!" he swore, annoyed that he had been tricked by the change in format into believing the problem was more complicated than it actually was.
He scribbled down the answer to the question and finished the rough draft of the proof for Professor Vector. He would clean it up tomorrow at lunch or after dinner, add in his therefore statements and such, tonight he was on a mission to the owlry.
His sleeping attire was dark and Draco didn't really feel like changing so going completely against the Malfoy credo he slipped on his shoes cast a quick notice-me-not charm with little difficulty, congratulated himself briefly on finally mastering the sixth year spell, and for the first time he could ever remember left his room in less than immaculate condition.
He didn't bother creeping out of the common room, there was no one visible lingering and he didn't want to seem furtive to anyone who might be lurking around unseen. No sense giving people fuel for undermining gossip. Once he slipped out of the common room Draco became more cautious. If he was caught out of bed after hours it was more than just his reputation at stake, after all, and he'd managed to make it this far in his Hogwarts career with a total of five detentions and that was plenty. Malfoys did not scrub.
Hogwarts at night wasn't something Draco had had much occasion to notice before, but it was beautiful and peaceful with the light of the waning moon streaming in through the windows in inconsistent beams turning the castle into something out of a fairy story.
The halls were quiet and empty the portraits sleeping and the staircases moving lazily if at all. It was all too easy to forget that Filch and his mangy beast haunted the halls long after the professors had completed their rounds and gone to sleep.
Draco made it up to the owlry with only one close call when he was forced to duck into a shadowy alcove to hide from Peeves who was carrying a bucket of water, cackling gleefully at the top of his lungs, and had a line of blackboard erasers trailing after him like bizarre little ducklings.
The owlry was fairly empty, most of the owls in question being out hunting, but Draco managed to prod a grumpy old screech owl awake and get him to accept his scroll. He'd hexed the seal to shock anyone besides the recipient who tried to break it. Just to be safe though he fixed the owl with his most intimidating look.
"This scroll is to go to the fifth year Gryffindor boys' dormitory. It is to be delivered into the hands of Harry Potter and no one else."
The owl shot him a contemptuous look but gave a disgruntled hoot of assent and took off into the night.
Draco scowled.
"Don't know what the bloody beast is complaining about, it's all of a five minute delivery, around the corner," he muttered to himself moving into the fresher night air and wishing that his own owl Primus wasn't out hunting. He hated trusting such a task to a curmudgeonly old feather duster.
There was a soft thud and the crunch of boots on gravel that had Draco crouching low behind the stone stair rail and peering through the gaps. He wondered who else was creeping out of the castle at such a late hour and was surprised to find that it was Severus striding down the gravel side path, headed for the front gates. He was dressed in his typical black, his robes billowing out behind him and though Draco couldn't see his face he could imagine his godfather's expression judging by the tense set of his shoulders.
Draco clenched his teeth on a surprised noise when he saw the mask in his hand. It seemed he was going to a Death Eater meeting. Draco's stomach knotted as he watched his godfather and respected professor until he reached the front gates and disapparated, unsure what to feel.
AN: There you have it folks, the plot thickens. I kind of love writing the Slytherins they're so snarky it's adorable.
For those of you who might have noticed a few inconsistencies and were wondering about the timeline, I've made it so that Educational Decree Number 24 is the one that basically says no dating and 25 is the one that says no clubs.
In this story ED #24 was issued sometime in Late October, Harry and Cho got together before the DA was formed (prompting the no dating decree from the toad lady) in Late October they formed the DA, (prompting the no clubs without my permission rule which was instituted in early November) Harry played a few Games with the other girls in Late October/Early November. Umbridge is still holding off giving Gryffindor permission to play Quidditch, which works because the inter-house quidditch games have thus far been between the other houses. Now we're somewhere around Mid or Late November.
I am following along with the fifth book tacking on events that happened there into my new and improved timeline, so let me know if there are any inconsistencies.
As always please review and let me know what you guys think!