Hermione wasn't as happy about the prank Ash pulled on Pansy and Daphne, she made that clear when Ash entered the Arithmancy class room that morning.
"That was you, wasn't it?" she asked when Ash sat down on her usual spot next to her.
"What?"
"The prank with Pansy and Daphne."
"Yeah. Nice, right?" Ash beamed but got sent back to earth by the stare Hermione gave her.
"Are you sure you didn't overdo it a bit? I mean, they were freaked out. Their probably dramatized right now," she insisted.
"Oh, Hermione your over reacting. It wasn't that bad!"
"Why did you do it anyway? I thought you were friends with them."
"Yeah, I thought so too, before they started insulting me every waking hour for no reason at all. I just had a bit of fun getting back at them."
"Well, what did they say to you?"
"They were always calling me names and saying that I 'stole their boyfriends'. Weird thing is, they didn't/don't even have boyfriends."
"Well, Draco was Pansy's 'boyfriend' for quiet a while and I'm sure if you weren't there they'd be together right now."
Ash gave Hermione a confused look. "What does that have to do with me that Draco and Pug-face aren't together? We're just friends."
Hermione jaw dropped as she gave Ash an disbelieving stare. "Don't tell me that there's nothing happening between you and Draco. Its plain as day that you like each other, in more then just a friendship way. I mean, Draco's an spineless git, there's no spark of bravery in him. And yet he didn't run away when he saw you being tormented, but actually decided to help you. That has to mean something. Also, the way he looks at you every now and then... It's even making me jealous and I don't even like that guy."
Ash gave Hermione one last glance before falling silent and contemplating what she had just been told...
"Hey Draco," Ash smiled unsure, whilst turning red, when she sat in her usual seat next to him in her Transformations class. She was still thinking about what Hermione had said to her in the class before. Quickly she turned to wave 'Hello' at Ron and Harry who waved back at her. When her face turned back too her normal skin colour she sat back around again and looked at the front.
Did Draco really like her? Was he really interested in being more then just friends, more then just a girl to fuck? Was she interested in being more then just friends with Draco? Was she ready for an relationship? - Thoughts like these haunted her mind while she tried to listen to the Professor talk about Animagus.
"What kind of animal would you be, if you were to be an Animagus?" Draco whispered to her, forcing her out of her thoughts.
"Uh," she said and tried to remember what he had just asked. "I don't know. What about you?"
"I think you'd be a wolf."
Ash turned to him surprised. "A wolf? How come?"
"Well, you are athletic, good-looking and brimming with self-confidence. Also you are extremely loyal to your friends and family - even if they don't let themselves be combined very well. You just accept everyone the way they are. But if someone goes against you, you tend to show your dislike clearly and at times get quite aggressive. Also you are readable like an open book when people know you because you wear most of your thoughts and emotions on your face. Furthermore, your social life is very important to you, you don't stand being alone and can make friends easily, gaining their trust and loyalty in almost an instant.
"Also you are extremely goal oriented and hard working. I mean, who the hell would willingly take nine classes and on top of that take three extra curricular courses? And don't try to tell me that you haven't been sneaking away every evening when you don't have your courses to practise." Draco told her earning an amazed look by Ash.
"You- You know all that about me by just knowing me for a bit more then two weeks?" Ash inquired and raising her eyebrow she added, "have you been watching me?"
Draco smirked at her and leaned towards her. "You'd like to know, wouldn't you?"
"Oh yes sir I would," she smirked back at him.
Draco was just about to say something, when a rod hit the table in between the two of them. "Mr. Malfoy, Miss. Weasley could the two of you please shut up? I'm trying to teach a class here," Professor McGonagall said tight lipped "And if you may wonder. You have detention today after school. Come to my study when your classes have ended."
Annoyed both Draco and Ash eyed their Professor and sighed, keeping quiet until the end of the class.
When all of their classes ended Draco and Ash found themselves next to each other in front of McGonagall's office door. They didn't really have the opportunity to talk at any other time throughout the day and Ash had been thinking about what Hermione had said the whole day. When she had asked Blaise and Tracy about it they had just smiled and told her to ask him - not very good help, she had decided. But what should she do about it? She couldn't just keep quiet and keep on thinking about it.
She was still thinking about it when Draco greeted her by hugging her from behind. "Hey" he whispered with a smirk playing around on his face. Ash greeted him back with a shy smile and hi. Together they went into the professors office.
She was sitting at her desk and was correcting some papers. When she heard them come in, she glanced up at them over her spectacles and motioned them to take a seat in front of her. Then she went back to correct her papers.
"What do you still know about about the Fera Verto spell?" she asked after a couple minutes of silence.
"It turns an animal into an water goblet." Ash answered
"Good, and what do you know about the Avifors spell?"
Again Ash shot out the answer. "It turns an object into an bird."
"Draconifors?"
"Turns a dragon statue into a real life fire-breathing dragon."
"Good job, Miss. Weasley. Do you also know why you are here?"
"Because we were disrupting your class by talking," she said with a guilty look on her face.
The professor nodded. "I won't keep you here any longer. Your real punishment will start tomorrow during class." The two Slytherins looked at McGonagall confused. "I believe that both of you are very bright students, therefore I think that your reason for talking is that you already know everything there is to know about Animagus. Hence, I want you two too show off your knowledge by teaching your classmates about it." The professor smiled at them when she finished and signalled them to leave before turning back to her papers.
Perplex the two students went out of the room and closed the door behind them "What do you know about Animagus?" Draco asked Ash when they were alone.
"It allows people to turn into Animals?" Ash asked.
"That's about as much about it as I know too."
"I guess we'll have to pull an all-nighter," Draco nodded and turned to towards the library, quietly followed by Ash.
When they reached the library Ash and Draco stormed at the librarian and asked her to give them all her books concerning Animagus. Swiftly they gathered the books and sat down in an quiet corner to search through the books for some interesting facts.
The search was quiet with the exception of the occasional. "Can you give me that book?"; "Find anything interesting yet?" or "Do you already have that?". After a while they believed to have gathered everything there was about Animagi there is.
"Do you think that is enough?"
"We can say what an Animagi is, we have the laws, we have an tremendous amount of stuff with what you are not supposed to mix it up with as well as other transfigurations that are similar. Only thing that we could still get some info on is how you actually acquire the skill, but there's nothing in these books about it. Although it would be the most interesting part. Can you imagine turning into an animal? That would really be awesome." Ash told Draco shuffling through the papers they copied. "Where do you reckon we could find information about that?"
"Probably the restricted section," he said with a shrug. "But we're not allowed in there without the permission of a teacher."
"Where is the restricted section?"
"We're leaning against it. Do you see the locked door over there? That's the entrance."
"Draco."
"Huh?"
"I need you to distract the Librarian, maybe ask her if she has any other books about Animagi or something around those lines."
"You will not sneak into that section!"
"Why not?"
"If they find you, you'll be expelled!"
"Is Dracie-Poo scared? Don't worry, I wont be found if you distract the Librarian successfully. I'm relying in you," Ash told him and gave him a quick hug and a kiss on his cheek. Tight-lipped Draco watched make her way towards the door and swiftly stood up and went to the librarian - outwardly cursing her stupidity and inwardly hoping she wont be caught.
Once Ash saw Draco talk to the Librarian and ushering her to the opposite end of the Library, she took out her wand and opened the locked door. With a swift glance around her and back at the vacant Librarian seat she stepped inside.
She didn't have a lot of time. Draco couldn't distract Madam Pince forever and also it was about half an hour before the library closed at 8.
Swiftly she muttered a little spell that she had stumbled across a few years ago, a spell that created a little light that swept through the library and showed her which book she needed for the task at hand. Quietly she told it that she wanted to know about how to become an Animagus and briskly followed the light through the restricted section. After passing a couple of selves the light stopped in front of a big dark book with the title "The Restricted Arts". Once Ash took the book the light extinguished. Softly she muttered a spell that made the big book in front of her into a nice convenient size that would fit into her pocket and quickly raced out of the restricted section, seeing that Draco was now arguing with the Librarian.
When he saw her he quickly apologized to the lady and raced back too there study place.
"Did you find something?" he quickly asked her when he sat down next to her. She beamed at him and nodded. "Good, because I'm probably not allowed to enter the Library ever again after today." Ash laughed and together they started packing up and putting back the books they wouldn't need any more, while keeping those they believed actually would help them with their 'class' and went to the librarian desk to check them out.
Briskly the two of them raced to the common room which they found stuffed.
"We can't learn in here," Ash pointed out. It seemed as if their house was actually having an spontaneous party.
"Nope, not really."
"Do you know any other place we could go to?"
After a few seconds of silence Draco nodded and took a hold of her hand, pulling her after him while he left the common room again. "There's the Room of Requirements. But we have to be quick, curfew will start soon." Ash nodded and followed after Draco's fast pace quietly.
When Draco and Ash reached the seventh floor, Draco started pacing up and down. Ash just watched him in amusement. After he went past her 3 times a door appeared in the wall.
"Nice," Ash commented and smiled at Draco who had come to a stop and opened the door to let her in. As Ash entered she was astonished at what she saw. It was an extremely comfortable little room with a fireplace, a couch and an big table to study at. "Wow, good job Draco," she said approvingly and sat down on the couch taking out the book she had taken from the restricted section. Magicking it to its original size she opened it up at the first page and started reading feverishly.
There while Draco settled himself next to Ash and began reading one of the books that they had borrowed from the library. "Don't you think that we should first concentrate on the stuff we should actually present tomorrow in class?" he asked after a while making Ash look up from her book.
"Oh... yeah, I guess your right," she said and quickly put the book away, taking one of the other ones. "What do you think McGonagall wants us to talk about?"
"I'm guessing the general stuff. Such as laws and how hard it is to acquire the skill and bladibladibla."
"Good.. so now we have the books now we only need to find the info in them and write them out. Once we have the info written out we can come up with a nice little class schedule." And that is what they did. They read through all of the books they had, wrote out the information they found as interesting or relevant and then decided on what they would teach the others about it and how they would do it. When they finally finished it was 3 o'clock in the morning.
Ash yawned when they finished of writing the last word on their class plan. "How do teachers do it?" she asked while laying down so her head was resting on Draco's lap.
"They don't have to research the topics before, they already know it all," Draco answered.
"True, the lesson plan wasn't to hard to make after we knew all the facts... you tired yet?" Ash asked turning her head to look at her partner.
"Not really, you?"
"Nah, I'm way to excited about tomorrow to sleep and also, that book has been calling out to me since I put it away," she told Draco while staring at the book that she had gotten from the restricted section of the library. "Imagine being an Animagus! What animal do you think you would be?"
"I guess I always saw myself as more of a reptile," he answered smugly, "or carnivore."
"I always thought of you more as the ferret" Ash joked making Draco glare at her.
"You heard 'bout that?" he asked pulling a face.
"Course I did, Ron is my cousin you know," she laughed while Draco rolled his eyes at her and started playing with her hair. "Now, no jokes here, I think you are more of a snake person. I can't give a wonderful descriptive why, like you did. But I see you as a snake."
Draco smiled down at her. "Maybe. But I guess we'll never know."
"Why not?" Ash asked while sitting up and turning to face Draco. "We already have the book. Why not try it?"
"It's dangerous. Didn't you understand any of the books we just read through? We aren't the most powerful of Wizards and if you don't have enough power it could all go terribly wrong and we'd be stuck in an mutilated animal form forever!"
"Merlin! You're always such a pessimist! We are powerful, we are strong, we can do this." By now she had turned her full body to look at him and was holding his face in her hands. "Imagine turning into an animal at any given time. Explore the world from a new perspective. Running away from the hardships of being a wizard when you can't bare it any more," Ash smiled at him brightly.
"But what if we attempt it and something goes wrong?" Draco asked one last time.
"It won't. We'll be doing this together, making sure that nothing goes wrong. We can do this," Ash grinned and then whispered into his ear, "together."
Draco stayed still for another minute not looking away from her eyes. Finally he nodded. "Lets get that book and see how its done," he smirked while Ash grinned from ear to ear and got the book. With the book in her hands she went back to Draco who pulled her down next to him and let her rest her head on his chest while they turned to the section about Animagus and started reading.
When morning came the two of them were still holding on to the book, but weren't reading it any more. They had fallen asleep at around 5. Nothing disrupted their sleep, until an alarm sounded from somewhere. Annoyed Draco woke up. It took him a minute to remember where he was, but quickly he turned off the alarm he had set on his wand the other evening. Sleepy he looked back down at the sleeping Ash, who was clutching the book they had been reading together as if her life depended on it.
She looked so peaceful when she slept. Curled up in a ball, with her hair sticking out in every direction of her head and a little smile playing on her lips, she looked like Draco always imagined an angel.
For a while Draco just sat there watching her dreaming and breathing. He knew he would have to wake her up soon, but for another couple of minutes he just enjoyed watching her.
When he started shaking her and whispering her name into her ear, she woke up instantly. Snapping her head to the side and hitting his chin in the process. With a groan Ash touched her head and looked up at Draco who was clutching his chin. "Where are we?" she asked sleepily.
"We're still in the Room of Requirement, we fell asleep at one point. But classes will soon start." he said while standing up.
"Classes... Classes! Transfigurations our first class today! Are we ready? Do we still know everything?!"
"Relax! Everything will be alright. Don't worry." Draco told her while holding her shoulders so she was looking at him.
Ash took a deep breath. "Yeah, your right. Everything will work out alright. Lets do this"
Briskly they gathered up their belongings and hurried to their common room to dump the stuff they wouldn't be needing and grab a change of clothes. Then they hurried to the Great Hall where the breakfast was about finished.
"Where were you tonight?" Tracy asked when Ash sat down next to her and Draco took a seat next to Blaise.
"We had to study," Ash told them honestly. "Our punishment for talking in class yesterday was to hold a class about Animagus. And with that little party you guys had in the common room we wouldn't have been able to get anything done, so we went somewhere else."
"Ah, and why didn't you come back?"
"We fell asleep."
"Did you get everything ready?"
Ash looked at Draco. "Yeah I think we're ready to rock this boat!" she answered with a smile.
There next stop was the Transfiguration classroom, where Professor McGonagall was already waiting for them.
"Alright you two. I hope you came prepared. This class will make half of your semester grade."
"You didn't tell us that before!" Ash said shocked.
"Well, I'm sure you'll manage," the professor told them and then turned to look at the class. "Listen everyone. Today I will not be teaching you," a murmur started to go around the room. "Today Mr. Malfoy and Miss. Weasley offered to take over for me and will teach you about Animagus." Stunned silence filled the room as McGonagall went to the table Ash and Draco normally occupied and sat down.
Everyone stared up at them, as they prepared for the two Syltherin's to make a fool out of themselves. Draco and Ash shared one last glance before they started talking at the same time, making everyone snicker.
The two of them fell silent again when Draco signalled Ash to start. Nodding Ash turned to look at the class and smiled. "As Professor McGonagall already pointed out, we will be telling you a bit about Animagus. What do you guys know about Animagus?" she asked looking around. When nobody answered she focused her eyes on Harry and Ron who were trying to hold back laughter. "Mr. Weasley? Do you know what an Animagus is?"
Ron looked up shocked. "Um, a Animagus is a wizard or witch that can turn themselves into animals." he answered glaring at Ash, because she pinpointed him.
"Exactly," she smiled and looked at the rest of the class. "An Animagus is an wizard or witch that can morph into the form of an animal at will. You are not to mix them up with an Metamorphmagus nor Lycanthrophy because the magic behind it and the process of becoming one is very different."
Draco went on. "For your reference, a Metamorphmagus is a witch or wizard that is born with the ability to change they appearance at will, while Lycanthrophs are infected and Animagus go through a hard procedure to become an Animagus.
"Do any of you know another difference between Lycanthrophs and Animagus? - Potter."
"Lycantrophs are forced to change and lose their personality when they change, where as Animagus can change any given time and keep their personality."
"Correct. There are also other differences between normal Transfiguration and Animagus Transfigurations... " Draco carried on.
They talked about the registration law by the government, where at this point in time only six Animagi were registered - including Professor McGonagall. They talked about the penalties of being an unregistered Animagus - a five year sentence in Azkaban. They talked about known Animagi throughout history - including Falco Aesalon the first recorded Animagi. They taught about the special traits of an Animagus in their animal form - asking the Professor to change into her cat-form and showing the others the dark rings around the cats eyes, indicating her glasses. Then they told them about the problems of becoming an Animagus and showed them nice little pictures they found about how it looks when the transformation goes wrong.
When the class was over their peers actually clapped and congratulated them on the successful class. As did the Professor, who seemed more them pleased with their performance. "Good job you two," she told them. "How did you like being the teacher for once?"
"Never again," Draco answered without a second thought which Ash second.
"Now, now, you did a great job. But I hope you learned that you should not talk during my classes." The two of them nodded eagerly when she said that and then rushed out of the class room to get to their next classes.
Just before they had to split up Ash turned and asked Draco: "Wanna meet up at the Room of Requirement after school again to try it out?"
"Sure, I'll see you there!"