Chapter 15

The next few days went by with a surprising amount of both ease and difficulty with a dash of surprise and predictability. Predictably to Tracey and Pansy, Hogwarts life started up its mundane routine with the first full week of school life slotting into place. Surprising to them both was just how popular they seemed to be when it came to gossip. This brought in all of the Gal's as it mainly focused on what was apparently one of the main talking points of the school. "What had gotten into Parkinson", now moved on to, "No seriously, what the hell really is going on with Parkinson". It seemed the school was entirely focused on what it meant by her abandoning the friends they had only known her to be with for the ones she was now seen everywhere with.

Ron, Harry and Hermione found that the ease in which they now started their fifth year in earnest was going better than they thought in those first three days of term. Yes, Hermione still thought them irresponsible that they cast off History of Magic but their logic was sound enough, they were catching up and keeping on top of the mountainous homework. And yes, she thought their hours above the Quidditch pitch were wasteful, but it was a distraction she knew they needed.

Unfortunately, they found the difficulties of the year also threatening what peace they could make as the Harry, Umbridge saga continued. After Hermione's run in with her in the first Dark Arts lesson she was beyond done with the woman. She even managed to draw up a more favourable comparison with Trelawney being a more competent teacher. What was also a surprising difficult turn of events was Ron's newfound confidence. It was being noticed more and more by the school at large and this was likened to a new advert listing him as a higher grade than what he was the previous years. Ron was becoming mildly aware and while forcing himself not to let anything go to his head, he did allow himself to enjoy the staring. Harry was more than happy for his best mate, especially as it took the attention away from himself. Hermione though, found herself dealing with this new drama with more difficulty than any of them.

She found herself battling her own thoughts as she continued to fiercely despise these new 'admirers'. Hermione thought the clamouring and attention seekers sickening that it was over his looks and not his personality which she had loyally loved about him, like Harry, for years. Now she felt possessively protective.

Ron looked over to the stands, he could see Hermione was sat wrapped up against the cold as she watched on with the handful of other spectators. His own face being whipped by the high winds, he turned away from her after giving her a wave. The odd butterfly had threatened his stomach as she waved back and gave two tiny thumbs up in the distance.

Ron took a bump as he was slammed into from his left. An arm gripped him round the neck, and he went deaf from the roaring in his ear. He quickly realised it was Harry who was almost leaping from his Firebolt onto Ron's Cleansweep. Ron gripped him back with a shout of his own as they celebrated. Those few dangerous butterflies disappeared as he felt the overwhelming pride from his best mate as they celebrated him being picked as the new team Keeper. Ron knew it was a genuine, daft over the top reaction from Harry and his own excitement peaked as they swung around clumsily in the air.

Not quite as thrilled to be out in the cold Hermione collected her bag and said her goodbyes to the other Gryffindor's who sat watching. She shook her head as she shuffled sideways out of the row of benches. Her thoughts on, "boys and their games", returned but she was more than happy for them both. Harry had already been named Seeker again during the session, "of course", she thought with pride for her boyfriend, he was the best after all. And Ron, well she didn't understand it all but he'd certainly done some things up there that had the crowd cheering. One thing she did know was that it looked to her like they'd had some fierce competition. All the prouder for them both she turned for the stairs when she heard an ear shattering bang then screams.

Spinning around she looked to the stands before following their gaze. She'd found the sight just in time to see Ron fall a final five or so feet before hitting the ground with an audible thud that she could here from all the way up where she was.

"So…".

"Yep…".

"Nervous?"

"No", Pansy lied. It was only double Potions they were heading to.

"Apparently he's going out with that friend of Chang's in Ravenclaw", Tracey said.

"Right", Pansy said monotone. She'd heard this, and another three girls that were dating Weasley. She secretly got prissy about it the first time, thought him a bit of a pig after the second, then found it all the harder to believe after the third. Once she'd heard this fourth rumour with no one confirming it except some girls stating it was untrue, she now put it all down to the sad rumour mill. But then she had to laugh it off, "what do I care, I don't even like him", she thought.

Tracey understood what was going on in her head and it wasn't a time to poke and try to find her funny bone. "Its just potions", she said off handed.

"Exactly", Pansy beamed with just a tad too much enthusiasm hiding whatever true feelings they had.

As they turned the corner, they were surprised to see mostly everyone from their class already there waiting for the start of lesson. Usually, first to class, they slotted into the corner just a ways off from the two sides who were back to posturing, all be it less enthusiastically as this was no longer their first lesson back together.

"He's not here", Pansy thought to herself.

"Who's not…oh, no he's not", breathed Tracey.

Pansy's eyes widened as she realised that she'd spoken out loud. She eyed Tracey who smiled then laughed leaning into her neck. Pansy laughed despite herself then gave her a shove back.

The door to the potions room opened, Snape filling the door as was the expected sight. He gave the corridor a once over then rounded on Hermione.

"Potter, Weasley, where are they", he asked coldly.

Surprisingly Hermione didn't falter, "Gryffindor team try-outs were last night and Ron got keeper but after practice there was an accident and he broke his arm", she said confidently. "Harry's collecting him from the hospital wing now".

Pansy and Tracey glanced at each other before seeing Snape do a double take as he heard this and the scowl that was building relented into a thin smile. The smallest hint of a gleam in his eyes, his voice brightened as he said aloud, "my my, what a fine choice in keeper he sounds". There was a round of sniggering from some of the Slytherins. "Let us hope my house is up to facing such a, formidable sounding team this year". The sniggering turned to laughter and, for the first time, possibly ever, they all thought they heard what might be a chuckle coming from the Potions Master as he turned inside, beckoning them in.

They began to settle into their places once in the dungeon and Pansy found herself automatically going to stand by Tracey's elbow. Of course it had already played out in her head, and while she wasn't interested in Weasley, there was no way she was going to go straight to him as a lesson partner.

As Snape seemed satisfied with the class as they immediately settled into their seats, he addressed the lesson. "Today we will be brewing a particularly dangerous, if not deadly potion. The Erumpent is an extremely dangerous creature when misunderstood and certain body parts are even more so when used improperly as ingredients-".

The door to the dungeon opened to reveal Harry and Ron entering. Harry sheepishly looked around until his eyes met Snape's, a faltering attempt at a steely gaze appearing on his face in an effort to show strength. Ron meanwhile hobbled in on an apparently injured leg, his left arm hanging limp in a sling.

Snape, predictably, saw through what a feeble attempt it was by Harry to be resilient to his professor. And, while most of the class was now expecting him to use the opportunity to go off at the two boys, once again he smiled. "Speaking of calamities", Snape now seemed to be hiding a genuine amusement. "Welcome to Gryffindor's newest star player".

Howls and jeers echoed throughout the room until, just as surprisingly, their head rounded on the Slytherin's, ordering them quiet.

"Two of you there", he nodded to a desk in front of where Hermione and Neville sat.

With a glance between them in surprise at being allowed together they nodded and took their seats.

"As I was saying", Snape said cooly, "this will be another challenging brew, which I expect you to realise will be the normality from this year onwards", everyone remained silent.

Pansy, ignoring a prang of disappointment that settled in her stomach relented into the comfort of another lesson with her best friend. Glancing over at Weasley and Potter she was already pleased to see the taller of the two had parchment in front of him and a quill in hand, ready to take notes. Focusing for too long on his face, she noticed the black eye that had formed and a bust lip she'd seen him sporting earlier in the week had re-opened. He looked a mess, "a hot mess", her head interjected. She brushed it off, it wasn't a wrong thought though. There was something rugged and appealing to her minds eye, something she'd never thought attractive before. The eye's she'd had for Draco had settled on daily perfection, skin routines, order without chaos. She shook herself as she heard the Professor.

"So I should not have to repeat myself", he glared at the boys, "more than a second time. You have been warned about the seriousness of this lesson, the frailties and instabilities of its ingredients and my unwillingness to tolerate carelessness or foolishness".

Snape moved to his demonstration area and was met with the sound of a class full of chairs scraping against the floor as they all stood to follow. Tracey brought Pansy close to the front to get a good view.

Snape went over his usual habits at the start of every tutorial, taking great care to explain the ingredients made up of Erumpent carefully. She waged that these ingredients in the Erumpent Potion, or Exploding Potion, would have no false instructions with everyone needing to pay full attention.

"We are in luck, as Wizardkind", Snape spoke casually as he worked so delicately with the hairs and vials in front of him, "that we live in a time where we have learnt that we no longer need to needlessly kill these creatures to use in needless potion making. We now know that it is the tail hairs and not the tails themselves that are as potent and that its saliva is as incendiary as its horn. Allowing us to slowly breed back their numbers from the endangered levels they were reduced to".

Pansy had never heard Snape speak on something so fragile as this and made her pause for a moment. She wasn't the only one as she noticed many of the class looking at him oddly. She couldn't help but see Granger's face had softened a great deal and was almost doughy eyed. Realising how close she was to Granger she began to smell an earthy, sweet note hanging in the air. Turning her head she almost shouted out in fright as she realised in between them both stood Weasley towering over them.

"How does someone that big just sneak up so unnoticed", she thought with a grumble. Eyeing him, annoyed, she saw him struggling to hold his parchment in his injured hand as he tried to write with his other. She let this pass for only another moment before rolling her eyes and giving him a gentle elbow into his ribs, or hip owing to her side.

"Give me that", she whispered gently, and held out her hand for the parchment.

"No, its fine", he hissed back.

She was annoyed but he smiled down at her again and it made her stomach feel light. "Idiot". "Do as your told!" She hissed at him and elbowed him harder.

He passed her the paper, and she could feel him chuckling silently. Apparently, she'd allowed herself to be drawn in by him, again, and hadn't noticed him pressing against her gently. She pulled away and took a step, looking round, happy to see they were all huddled around Snape enough to not be noticed. Then she saw Granger's eyes fixed on her, it was a dirty, angry look. Pansy was almost impressed by her. But her look of repulsion was so appealing to Pansy, then the thought that it might even be a look of jealousy came to her.

Granger was still looking at her and without turning away from where they both stood, eyes locked, she made a very calculated and obvious move to lean in against Weasley. Theatrically, knowing she was being watched, she turned her nose up at Granger and turned away back to Snape.

She knew she'd allowed herself to be pulled into Weasley and had switched off somewhat, but she'd just had enough about her to still be taking in a lot of what Snape had been saying and doing. She began to write as quickly and neatly as she could. She'd missed the odd bit, but she knew this potion well, she'd done a lot of studying this summer and once she had her books for the year she read them through twice with the lack of much else to do while locked away in her room at home. She knew Granger would be all over him, looking for an excuse to hate on the notes she was going to give him and find reason for warning him off her. She was determined to give him the best notes he could hope for.

Snape explained he was almost done and that this particular potion was twenty-five percent key timings and heat measurements. As she listened she felt something slip down the back of her head. She stilled with silent, wide eyes as she felt the touch of a hand as fingers brushed down against the run of her sleek hair. She slowly turned her head, eyeing him she could see it was clearly, or at least subtly, Weasley's hand. But his eyes were fixed forward on Snape. His fingers gently parted her hair and she felt him caress a patch of skin on the back of her neck. Her breath caught as a rush of sound hit her ears and heavy heat flushed her cheeks.

Trying anything to not think about the sensation that was building in her, how she was seconds away from admitting to herself that it was amazing and didn't want it to stop. She focused on Snape's voice and continued to write. Icey fire burnt its way down her spine and as quickly and suddenly as it started, it stopped as he pulled his hand away.

As though someone had pulled the power supply to her brain it stopped working until she realised it had melted somewhere inside her skull. She began to slowly regain herself and realised Snape was about finished. She looked at the parchment. She'd managed to jot down his final notes but noticed her handwriting had deteriorated as Weasley's hands had started the underhanded tactic against her.

Pansy realised she was back at her desk, stools under the table she was stood by Tracey, awaiting the order to start brewing. Tracey was whispering to her but she couldn't make anything out.

She started to regain composure as Snape's voice started to fill the room again. "Before we start let's have another shuffle for the sake of my annual report not having another number of deaths included".

As she heard this, she realised the same as their last lesson was about to be played out.

"Yes", Snape mused, "Lets have a little more of a rethink, particularly with explosive materials. Finnigan lets have you go stand with Granger. Potter with Thomas. And, yes, Miss Parkinson you did such a good job with Weasley last time lets have Longbottom join you and Miss Davies if you could join Weasley".

Pansy and Tracey turned to each other with round surprised eyes, "Oh….", Tracey said mirroring Pansy's thoughts.

Snape seemed to remember that his decision today wasn't just about inflicting himself on the Gryffindor's as he paused and pulled a face. "And someone make sure Crabb and Goyle aren't paired up".

Pansy tried to give an off-hand shrug as Tracey dipped down to collect her bag and offered her a small apology. "For what!" she quietly scoffed, "it's nothing".

Tracey gave a very obvious look and smiled, "promise I won't jump him", she breathed as she passed her.

"Idiot!" she cried out, much louder than she meant to. As she turned to look back at the girl who had become the delightful pain in her arse so much of late her heart jumped into her throat as she came to be face to face with Neville Longbottom. "Oh, I forgot about that bit".

Tracey took her place by Weasley and kept looking to her right to watch out for Pansy. The girl didn't seem to know where to look or what to do in the situation and it made Tracey nervous for her. She wasn't worried that she'd revert to a former version of herself, but that she'd struggle to get through the lesson without going to bits.

To her left, just behind her she could overhear the disapproving clicks of Granger. She chanced a glance and saw her eyeing Pansy's direction, muttering to Finnigan as she did. Her instincts were to give her a cold look, say something even, but she focused on trying to give Pansy something of a reassuring nod.

"So", came a voice from behind her, "Snape seems adamant on giving me top tear Slytherins to keep me on the straight and narrow".

Tracey had just managed to meet her girls eye line and tried to communicate when Weasley's words caught her off guard. "God's he's tall", she thought approvingly as she turned and took him in. She hadn't found herself so up close with him for a long time, the size of him was impressive. She thought on her best friend and how she shouldn't really take too much note of him, for Pansy's sake. Her best friend really was taken with him, she just didn't seem to know it. But, Pansy wasn't the thought police and what harm was there in eating up what bits of him took her fancy.

Tracey had noted for a while that, yes, she had been first on the hype train with Pansy to notice puberty hitting him for all the better. But, he definitely wasn't her usual type. Tracey found, from an early age she liked her boys that bit more on the softer side, or at least, the feminine side of handsome. Softer face, fuller lips, alluring light coloured eyes really pulled at her but she had always known that was more to do with her tastes not stopping at just the boys around her. She liked Draco in that way of course, and Blaise, they were both beautiful in that slightly gentile way but their piggish reputations were an ultimate turn off.

This boy though was not that, "so broad, a jaw that could sink a ship, I could just give him a hi-five he looks so manly with his war wounds", she thought, all be it in jest.

She found her voice realising she was being quiet, "what a good little Gryffindor you are recognising your betters".

Ron smiled, "oh dear, another lesson like that is it".

"Like what?", she tossed him a Norad root for chopping before grabbing it back with a 'tut', "Sorry, here, if I do the heavy cutting, you can just prepare them as we go", she nodded to his arm.

"Hmm? Oh cheers, well I was just thinking along the lines of, another lesson with a pretty Slytherin with attitude, here we go again".

Tracey snorted, "Oh look at you", she said all smiles, "you really are 'that' boy now aren't you. So straight to Pretty Is it, want to skip the verbal foreplay and just sneak off to the supply cupboard for some snogging and arse grabbing?".

Ron snorted, he was happy to hear it sounded amused and not shocked, thanks to Pansy he found he approached girls like a two-tier game, chess on a fundamental level and one-upmanship on another. "If I thought you could handle me, broken arm and all, I'd take you up on it maybe but for now I'd rather get us both a decent grade on this".

"Ok you have banter a plenty, I can see that but what are you up to? Least he's bringing us back to the work and not just doing circles flirting".

"Hmm well, I'm not so easy played", she pointed at his arm, "that ain't broken so I'll still take it easy on you but make sure you pull your weight".

"Fair enough", he smiled down at her.

Pansy had been moving about her workstation for a good few minutes touching her ingredients from where they lay, already placed neatly, trying to nervously make them lay even more so.

She'd tried Tracey already but couldn't catch her eye, when she did it had helped. The look she gave her, she'd taken to be meant as offering her reassurance in a, "You can do it", way, but the reassurance had been fleeting. If she'd not had heard the tutting and clicking from Granger already for the tenth time she certainly felt the heat from her boring eyes in the side of her head.

Another glance up distracted her as the sound of laughing reached her, Tracey and Weasley were already getting along two tables over, "quicker than the two of us did", she noted.

Knowing it shouldn't bother her and with another side glance at Longbottom who looked close to passing out with his hands by his sides, Pansy took a breath, her stress starting to show as she leaned forwards again.

"Look at how scared he is, how could you blame him", it was a murmur really, one that floated over to her and couldn't be helped but overheard. She didn't need to find the source, it was signed off again with another disapproving 'tut'.

Pansy's head very slowly and eerily turned to glare at Granger through the distance. Even with the room quickly filling with the usual smoke and mist of the bubbling cauldrons and crackling fires, they both locked eyes. "PISS OFF", Pansy mouth silently but oh so clearly to a shocked and angry girl on the receiving end.

She turned back to Longbottom with a very unthought out plan of action but an overly excessive amount of determination. "Right, Nev…Longbottom, shall we get started…". A look at his face and she knew the idea to force a kindness between them might actually kill him with shock if she played it too much the one way. "I mean, let's get us both a decent mark, ok? Longbottom?". He stuttered silently, now clutching a ladle to his chest. She took that to mean he was ready but, in all honesty, it looked to her like he was just arming himself if he needed to fight her off.

They spent ten minutes going through the motions of Pansy trying to find jobs for him to do that she felt he could manage without messing the whole potion up. It wasn't easy though, "he's so damn nervous!", she struggled against the knowledge that she had cause most of this within him. She cursed under her breath repeatedly as they worked, to herself, but he would overhear, and it kept enticing short sharp apologies from him. Trying a different tactic, she asked him if he wanted to take over and pick what she should do, and he could concentrate on the ingredients he was confident with. This brought on a near panic attack's worth of dropping items, knocking over vials and strained patience from Pansy not to shout and scream.

Pansy looked up again, doing what she tried not to do, her best friend was having a very cosey conversation with the boy she was crushing overly hard on. Granger had a look on her face that told Pansy she wanted to smack her and rescue her friend, then Longbottom. Longbottom looked as though he could be a little Pansy who had just been told by her father to come into the kitchen and work on making dinner with him, the prospect was horrifying and brought a shiver to her and a sickening prang in her stomach. This new reflection of her own tormenting childhood brought more pity towards the boy, and she changed tactics again, trying to go with an approach she wished were the sort someone had approached her with when she was younger.

"Your so much better then me at Herbology Longbottom", Pansy spoke slowly with a very horse voice brought on with an overwhelming amount of emotion and frustration. "You have everyone in this room beat in the greenhouses. Just focus on this class like were in them now, working with flauna and fauna". She rubbed her head as a pain began to ache at her temples.

She started to cut up the ridiculous amount of Midnight Seaweed that the potion called for into long shreds. An amount of silence between them was noticeable to her.

"I…I'm not that goo…good", Neville managed to mutter as he de-seeded a gloopy looking transparent fruit he knew to be from a Malevolent Tree.

Pansy shook her head as she concentrated on the knife, "Longbottom, there's always something for each of us and yours is Herbology".

He dropped the fruit, splattering the work surface as he tried to pick them back up. "No my gran…grandmother says I'm just wasting my time…and I".

Pansy was really trying to focus on her task and hold their partnership together, she just needed a spark of belief in him or something. Still cutting away she interrupted him, "You can't listen to what other people tell you". "Bloody hypocrite", a disapproving voice in her head jeered. "Shut it!", she hissed.

"Sorry!"

"No, Longbottom", she huffed, annoyed at herself, seeing the fearful look in his eyes, "I wasn't talking to you I was…", she saw him eye her back with a new amount of fear, it irritated her to see how scared of everything he was. "Don't like your handywork?" the voice said. Pansy slammed the knife down on her ingredients as she chopped.

It turned out small talk with Weasley went beyond easy and went further into actual fun. She'd never been around Quidditch much as her dad was a Muggle and mum didn't follow the sport. So, she'd only started following the four to five years ago since beginning school. Weasley seemed to feel this out for himself and like finding a kindred spirit they dived into the subject. She also found him surprisingly fast with his humour and not at all dull at general conversation. They hadn't touched on Pansy as a subject and she hadn't rattled him with her secret agenda of finding out if he was a bit of a pig or not, so far, he was a refreshing surprise.

Tracy had noticed they were laughing a lot and it made her look over at Pansy, worried she would get the hump with her for moving in on him. When she did, she saw how stressed she looked, and it made her want to help but she literally had nothing else she could do. She saw Snape eyeing them both intently a number of times and hoped, for Pansy's sake he would lay off the boy.

Not able to keep focus on her friend she turned back to the work. But soon she was helping him with his arm, and it brought them closer as she had to lean over a lot or guide his hand.

"No snarky comments or dirty innuendo?", he laughed quietly.

"Oh no", Tracey smiled, "their all here, in my head. I'm just not going to hand them out to anyone so willingly".

"Anyone, and here was me thinking I was special".

"Oh, your special alright lad", Tracey cackled, scolding herself, she didn't want to be so obvious with others around.

"Well maybe not but then again", he smiled, thoughtfully he said, "being genuine for a minute, thanks for this mate, I could have really struggled with this class", he raised his bandaged arm, "and you're not bad to talk to…for a Slytherin".

Tracey opened her mouth to speak when she paused, staring at him again. All the thoughts that he was going to be a testosterone filled boy full of sex jokes and flirty banter had been pretty well off the mark. Taking in his bruised face too she noted that his gritty, still perfectly imperfect face with its mismatch of freckles and the odd spot was actually more handsome than she had been willing to admit. "You're alright too mate". "Although", she added with a sultry grin, "mate? What am I Billy Butch, I was the good looking Slytherin half an hour ago". Not being able to drop her little agenda she added, "Oh and that fondle in the storerooms is still on the cards".

Ron barked out a choke of laughter and leaned on the table, hiding under the clouds of coloured steam that were filling the room. "Well, mate! I think your smart as well as good looking, like dangerously smart. So yeah, you are fit, all of you in your little group are especially good looking. But we both know that you're not talking to me to get me in a storeroom, and I know that you know that I've had my…". The confidence in his voice faltered and his smug smile dropped away.

Shocked yet impressed Tracey had been hanging on his words but now, she gripped his arm, "no!" she lowered her voice to a hissing whisper. "Don't stop now, say it…go on, please!"

.