The Dragon Tamed

Chapter 8.

Malfoy might have taken the first step towards the possibility of them being friends, or whatever it was he was planning but, just like he had promised her, it hadn't extended outside of the History of Magic classroom. He was still unbearable at all other times, or nearly always so. His rule seemed to be extending to the walks back from their Potions and Transfiguration tutorials once they had dropped off the other Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, but only if he was in the right mood - whatever that might be.

He still walked around as though he owned the place (although he no longer had the back-up of Crabbe and Goyle), still held court at the Slytherin table, still terrorised the first years...and every other year as well, still sneered at the Dream Team and still sucked up to Snape. However, despite all of this, Thea was beginning to see changes in Malfoy's behaviour, or maybe it was because she was now looking for changes that she was now seeing them. Up to last year she'd had a very definite picture of what Malfoy was like and how he behaved, but all that seemed to need reviewing.

Although he still held court at the Slytherin table he seemed to no longer be interested in the politics of the Slytherins. Oh, he still knew what was going on and who was who, but he no longer socialised with (what Ginny called) the "Big Name" pure-bloods. Of course, that could just be because he no longer had anybody in higher years to suck up to, but Thea didn't think so. He just seemed disinterested. Apart from talking to Zabini and Parkinson, Malfoy's attitude to others was decidedly chilly. Unlike other years when he had positively delighted in terrorising the younger years, this year he practically ignored them. If he was horrible to them it was because they got in his way or managed to come to his attention when he was in a foul mood. Of course, his friends just ignored his moods whenever they appeared. Many a time Thea had seen Zabini talking animatedly to Malfoy, while Malfoy just glared at him. To Thea it looked as though he were imagining all the painful ways he could kill Zabini just to shut him up for five minutes. The only time Thea saw Zabini and Parkinson shy away from talking to Malfoy was when he received any owls. Since his father's stay in Azkaban, Malfoy's enthusiasm at receiving letters had dried up. When he got a letter he never opened it at the table and often left the hall not long after the owl arrived. As she had pointed out the general weirdness of this to Ginny one time at breakfast, Ron had said, 'It's Malfoy, what do you expect?' as though that explained everything, which, as Ginny pointed out, to Ron it probably did.

Thea had often wondered what he did with the letters he received but had all but given up hope of finding out. It wasn't like she could ask him. Then, one Friday morning, Malfoy got another letter. Thea didn't think much of it until her History tutorial where she finally got some answers...along with some new questions.

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Thea walked into the History classroom and immediately knew that this one wasn't going to be anywhere near as pleasant or enjoyable as the last few tutorials. Over the last few weeks they had managed actual conversation - nothing out of the ordinary, favourite classes, teachers, the latest school gossip, that kind of thing. Neutral, nothing can go wrong kind of topics. They had talked mostly about various classes though. Malfoy explained to her why he enjoyed Ancient Runes and Arithmancy and although he sounded remarkably like Hermione she refrained from saying anything. Thea had kept the conversation away from Defence Against the Dark Arts but had been more than happy to talk about History of Magic (no surprise there seeing as that was what they were supposed to be doing anyway) and Elemental Magic.

It was during one of these conversations that Thea had begun to understand the whole issue of channelling and controlling Elemental Magic. Professor Algaron had explained it to them several times but she had never quite got it. She followed up to a point then it was like there was a door in her brain that refused to open and let the information through. Malfoy had helped her to understand that each person controls Elemental Magic differently because each person sees the world slightly differently. In the same way, each person accessed the Magic in a way unique to themselves. That was why Algaron could only guide them, not show them. The only definite advice Malfoy had been able to give her was to not to force the issue: apparently the more you tried to reach the magic, the further away it got. The best way, the only way, but by no means the easiest way was to learn the focusing techniques that Algaron was teaching them and leave the rest to nature. When the brain was ready to cope with the enormity of what was going to pass through it, it would open and allow the magic access. Of course, you were to encourage this to happen, but not force it. Easier said than done, Thea had found. But it had helped her. She no longer felt as frustrated and that, in turn, had improved her concentration. She could now find her place of calm, the one that let her concentrate on the problem at hand but also be aware of what was going on around her, with considerable ease. Of course, staying there for any amount of time was not so easy but that came with practice, practice and more practice. Strange to think that a substantial amount of her progress was down to Malfoy.

Thea now no longer dreaded her History tutorial, in fact she'd even go as far as to say she looked forward to and enjoyed them. So much so that she had forgotten that Malfoy's mood could change at the drop of a hat.

As she walked towards him that Friday she saw that his entire body was stiff and the tension was coming off him in waves. She sat down opposite him warily, in case he told her to move away from him, when he didn't she quietly took her things out of her bag. She had brought her Potions homework with her for him to look over if he was in the mood to, but seeing the look on his face she knew there was no point in even asking. Quite honestly she preferred the possibility of Snape telling her she was an idiot than interrupt Malfoy brooding. He could rival Harry with his brooding skills. Instead she pulled out her Defence Against the Dark Arts homework from that morning. She wanted to get a head start on it, so the enforced silence suited her.

After about three quarters of an hour Thea glanced over at Malfoy, needing a break from writing and was surprised to see his books pushed to one side and him reading a letter, a letter that she assumed was the one from that morning. Careful not to disturb Malfoy, Thea watched him through her eyelashes. His lips were pressed thinly together, his eyes narrowed to slits and the hand holding the letter was white. Thea wondered what could be in the letter that had angered him so much. The letter itself looked terribly worn, as though it had been opened and read several times. She was beginning to wonder if this was perhaps an earlier letter when Malfoy held the letter slightly away from himself and glared at it. Thea wondered what he was doing for a moment before the letter burst into bright flame. Within moments in had burnt down to his fingers and was just a pile of ash on the table.

She jumped back slightly in alarm and he looked across at her almost as though remembering that she was in the room. On impulse and not considering her personal safety she spoke. 'That was Elemental Magic, wasn't it?' She didn't care that she sounded ever so slightly in awe. Outside of the classroom, that was the first time she had seen Elemental Magic in action.

His eyes widened in surprise, as though that hadn't been what he had expected her to say. Recovering, he nodded briefly. Then his eyes narrowed and he leaned across the table. It took all of Thea's willpower not to shrink away from him.

'If you tell anyone,' he said softly, menace clouding his voice, 'I will make you regret the day you ever came to Hogwarts. Do I make myself clear?'

Thea nodded vigorously, a lump in her throat and thoroughly convinced that her eyes were comically wide.

He looked at her expectantly.

'I didn't see you do anything to anything,' she assured him. 'I promise.'

He stared at her for a long moment but he must have seen something to his liking because he leaned back in his chair, looking satisfied.

Thea frowned as she felt the magic around her shift ever so slightly. She looked at Malfoy, feeling slightly alarmed. 'What did you do to me?' she demanded.

'I bound you to your promise.'

She felt the bottom the bottom of her stomach fall out. 'You did what?' she asked faintly. 'Why? I'd already said I wouldn't tell anyone.'

He shrugged. 'Better safe than sorry.' He looked at her knowingly. 'This way you can't even tell Weaselette.'

'I wasn't going to,' she ground out. As if she'd tell Ginny this. Her best friend would declare Malfoy a menace, tell Harry and Ron and who knew what would happen after that. It was the main reason Thea told Ginny next to nothing about the tutorials: she wouldn't understand. 'What will happen if I do tell anyone?' she asked, a shiver of fear running through her.

'Why should it matter?' he asked as he gathered up his books, 'you weren't going to tell anyone, anyway, where you?'

'That's not the point,' she protested. 'I should have the option to decide and you should invest in a little trust.' She winced internally. She really hadn't meant to say that last bit.

'Self-preservation,' was all he said as he slung his bag over his shoulder.

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Thea found herself becoming more aware of Malfoy. She often caught herself studying and contemplating him with increasing frequency, mainly in the great hall at meal times when she saw him with his friends and also in the history tutorials because this was when she saw him alone. Malfoy didn't seem to notice her watching him, or if he did he didn't care. She wasn't quite so lucky with her friends though, as they often did catch her staring at the Slytherin table and unsurprisingly wanted an explanation. So far she had managed to get away with it, saying that she was just staring into space and the Slytherin table just happened to be in the same direction, or something similar. The boys all believed her but the sceptical looks she was given by Hermione and Ginny were often enough to make her try and avoid them for the rest of the day. Luckily so far, neither of them had said anything. She was also pretty sure that Harry had figured out there was something to figure out. He had caught her watching Malfoy over dinner, but after giving her usual excuses he had told her that she had been staring at the Slytherins for roughly the last five minutes. He had then sent a rather significant glance in Malfoy's direction. She had been saved from giving an explanation by Ron yelling for Harry to hurry up, which had been a good thing because she had had no idea what she would have said. Harry hadn't spoken of it since, but she was sure he'd want to talk eventually. Why it mattered that she was observing Malfoy, she didn't know. Malfoy was a conundrum that she was trying to solve, surely Harry could appreciate that.

Whenever she was around Malfoy she found herself cataloguing his every movement and every tonal infraction. Even when she was engrossed in her studies, a book, whatever, the back of her mind continued to file everything away for later consideration. By the beginning of November she realised with horror that she could read him fairly accurately. She no longer thought, "I wonder what that frown means, I wonder what that slight downturn of his mouth means." Instead she was thinking, "That means he's annoyed by a problem he can't solve quickly, that means he's thinking unhappy thoughts." Not easy to read, but possible. One of the easiest methods of reading Malfoy's mood was to listen to his voice. There were slight inflictions to his voice that Thea was learning to recognise, and respond to if there was warning to be had. And by respond to, she meant becoming as small and insignificant as possible so he didn't notice her. She didn't want to be anywhere in the firing line, thank you very much. The harder that his voice got, the angrier he was. Thea had yet to see him truly explode, but then, if that was what he looked like angry, she didn't want to see what he looked like when really pissed off. He raised his voice when he was irritated by someone or something and wanted to humiliate someone in retaliation. Normally the poor person he finally let loose on had nothing to do with whatever had set him off in the first place. Thea had noticed that most first and second years ran away as they saw him walking down the corridor, or hid in empty classrooms, alcoves or behind statues. When he was being devious his voice became soft, but there was a definite edge to it. Then there was his arrogant voice when he was showing off and generally being a spoilt little bastard. And then there was the voice Thea had only heard once, or maybe twice in the past few months. The one that said he was thinking, and it wasn't about soft cuddly animals or anything like that, but some really depressing shit. If anything, that voice scared her more than the others because the others were all vintage Malfoy while this was new and different.

Sometimes in class she found her thoughts settling on Malfoy and unless she forcibly stopped herself she would spend ages daydreaming about him - but not, she hastened to point out, like the vapid idiots who mooned over him. She found herself imagining what it would be like to grow up in the household and family name he had. Of course, that was rather difficult to imagine since she knew very little about Lucius Malfoy. He was a Death Eater, looked incredibly like his son and didn't like the Weasley's. That really didn't tell her much of what he was like as a father. At no point in her little fantasies did she find herself wishing that she and Malfoy were friends and that he would confide in her and trust her. Never.

Once in Transfiguration she had found herself distracted by Malfoy's notes, or, to be more precise, his writing. She had become mesmerised by the way his quill had flowed over the parchment and the elegance of the writing. She had become so mesmerised that she hadn't heard McGonagall ask her a question, or feel Benji nudging her in the ribs. She had been resting her head on her hand, quill idle in the other, watching Malfoy write, noticing, bizarrely, how well sculptured his hands were. So when McGonagall had slammed her hand onto the table, Thea had jumped, nearly fallen off her stool and knocked over her bottle of ink. As it had made its way towards Malfoy's parchment he had almost lazily waved his wand and cleared it up. All while McGonagall reprimanded Thea, rather loudly. After class Thea had avoided all questions about what had happened. Harry had smirked knowingly at her but apart from that had done nothing. Thea just hoped that Malfoy had no idea as to what had distracted her. After that little incident Thea had made sure that she never looked at his hands or his notes again. It just wasn't worth the embarrassment.

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It was a few weeks after Malfoy had suggested the whole first name thing (and it still sounded weird hearing her name out of his mouth), when he and the Dream Team got into their first proper bust up of the year. It had started out as a typical argument between them all. Thea and Colin had been walking back to the Common room with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Seamus after their Apparation class. Ginny had run off as soon as the class had finished and Thea had no idea where she had gone. Benji had gone off with Lauren to spend some quality time with her. Apparently he had taken Ginny's advice to heart and the two of them had been inseparable since that Hogsmeade weekend. Since everyone else had classes, the corridors were pretty deserted, or at least they had been until they turned a corner and saw Malfoy walking towards them accompanied by Zabini and Parkinson. Thea had taken one look at the look on Malfoy's face, seen the tension thrumming through his body and had immediately known that nothing good was going to happen, and, that in fact, it was going to be something bad.

That morning the Prophet had reported that the night before there had been a series of co-ordinated attacks by Death Eaters on various targets, all of them, unsurprisingly, enemies of Voldemort. It was just the kind of material Malfoy loved to rub in the faces of the Dream Team.

'Ah, look it's the ineffective Dream Team,' said Malfoy, sneering. 'Have you managed to save any Muggles or Mudbloods recently?'

Thea groaned as Harry and the others froze. She knew that every time there were reports of new attacks, Harry felt more and more guilty because he hadn't yet managed to stop Voldemort. Though, how it was Harry's fault, she didn't know. He was only a seventeen year old boy, for crying out loud. Surely control of Voldemort and his Death Eaters should fall to the Ministry of Magic before it fell to Harry.

Harry slowly turned around and glared at Malfoy. 'Do you want to say that again?' he asked quietly. Already Thea could hear his control waning.

'Well, if the papers are anything to go by, they haven't,' mocked Zabini, holding up his copy of the Prophet, with a big front page picture of the Dark Mark in the sky.

'Shut up,' ground out Ron, clenching and unclenching his fists. Thea raised her eyebrow in surprise that Ron hadn't just tried to thump Malfoy. It seemed as though Hermione's repeated suggestions of Ron not letting Malfoy get to him were finally beginning to work...at least for the time being.

'I'm sure the Dark Lord is quaking in his boots at the thought of all that you're not doing,' said Malfoy, sneering slightly.

'I bet you know all about that, don't you, Malfoy', seethed Ron, 'You being a junior Death Eater and all.'

Thea closed her eyes briefly, praying, for what it was worth. Draco didn't exactly confide in her, but she did know a few things, thanks to either Sirius or her own observations. So she knew that Draco wasn't confident about his future and that he was beginning to question what he had been told all his life. After the first letter burning incident Thea had discovered that at least some of the letters he was burning came from his father. And by discover she meant she had seen the signature after Malfoy dropped another letter on the table to let it finish burning. Obviously after binding her promise he felt more secure, though thinking about it she wasn't sure the binding extended to later incidents, but hey, why chance it? But she had decided that if he was burning letters sent by his dad, there were problems there. And considering all that was going on in the world, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility to think any disagreements had to do with Voldemort, Death Eaters and general evilness. She didn't think that he would appreciate being accused of being a Death Eater, and especially not by Ron. Although inciting a confrontation with the Dream Team probably wasn't the cleverest thing in the world to do.

Malfoy froze for a moment and for a second Thea saw the depth of his anger reflected in his eyes before his mask came back down. He sure wasn't a happy bunny.

'Well, yes, the Dark Lord often tells me of his dastardly plans over a pint of blood. Just last week he mentioned something about gutting a family of weasels,' said Malfoy, scathingly. He turned to Harry, ignoring Seamus and Hermione holding Ron back. 'Would you be interested in who else is on the list, Potter, so you can fail to save their pathetic lives, just like you failed to save your parents or Diggory, or any of those other dead bastards?'

Harry was getting much better at keeping his temper, even around Malfoy; however, no one could expect Harry not to react to that. Malfoy always seemed to know exactly what to say to get Harry spitting blood, and this was no exception.

Harry immediately reached for his wand, Malfoy matching his movements. Within seconds they were standing feet apart, with their wands pointed at each other's throats. 'You will pay for that, Malfoy,' growled Harry. He was literally vibrating with controlled anger. Thea was actually impressed he hadn't exploded or something yet.

'You mean like Voldemort has?' snarled Malfoy, his eyes flashing.

'Malfoy, you bastard,' yelled Ron, pulling out his wand. Just as he was about to point it at Malfoy, Zabini pulled his wand and pointed it at Ron, drawing his attention away from what was happening between Harry and Malfoy.

'Don't even try it,' Zabini suggested rather coldly to Ron. 'I will drop you.'

'Thea,' whispered Colin, 'what do we do?'

Thea glanced at him. 'Stand well back and out of the way,' she advised pulling him out of the way and into one of the castles rather convenient niches. If spells did get cast, she didn't want her and Colin to be in the middle of a battlefield. 'This could get ugly.' Although the number of times a confrontation between the two groups actually spiralled out of control had diminished in the last few years, when they did clash, it was always spectacular. And since this was the first of the year, Thea was sure this would be quite an epic one.

'Like I'm scared of you, Zabini,' said Ron scornfully.

As Zabini pointed his wand at Ron, Hermione began to move. Thea expected her to try and calm the situation as she normally did. Instead she pulled out her wand and pointed it at Zabini. 'Don't you threaten Ron, Zabini. Put your wand down, now!' Hermione actually looked angry and out of the corner of her eye, Thea could see Malfoy take note of that.

'I've got a better idea, Granger,' said Parkinson calmly as she pointed her wand at Hermione. 'Why don't you?'

Hermione glanced over at Parkinson, obviously kicking herself for forgetting about the Slytherin girl.

'Colin,' said Thea quietly, reaching for her wand, 'you might want to get your wand out and be ready to cast a Shield Charm.'

'You think it's going to get that bad?' he asked fumbling for his wand.

'You think it isn't?' she retorted.

'Good point.'

However, Hermione wasn't the only one who had forgotten about someone. As he stepped forward, Seamus pulled out his wand and pointed it calmly at Parkinson. 'Well, this is interesting,' he said, all trace of humour gone.

Thea tensed as she felt a prickling of Elemental Magic along her skin.

'Your move, Malfoy,' said Harry, sounding strangely satisfied.

Actually, it turned out that Ron and Zabini were much more eager to get into a fight. Since she had been paying attention to Harry and Malfoy, Thea hadn't been watching any of the others. Hence she had no idea if it was Ron or Zabini who cast the first curse, but it was certainly one of them.

Both curses went wide - Ron's harmlessly hitting the wall, Zabini's heading towards Colin. The actual curse was absorbed by his Shield Charm but the force of the spell hitting it knocked Colin off his feet and knocked him back into the wall.

Thea rushed over to him as Ron, Zabini, Parkinson and Seamus starting throwing curses and hexes at each other. As she checked that Colin was just winded and not actually hurt, Thea became aware that sanity seemed to have returned to Hermione and she was doing a tremendous job of casting shield charms on Ron and Seamus, who both seemed to be far too gone to bother with something as basic as protecting themselves. Luckily for Hermione, it seemed as though everyone's aim was slightly off, probably because of the high emotion. But even so, every now and again a hex hit its intended target. Seamus had started laughing uncontrollably and Ron had got jelly-legs before Hermione (after sending a rather sly hex at Zabini) had been able to rescue them. The portraits weren't quite so lucky though and Thea could see them running through the paintings, trying to avoid all the spells that were hitting them. Other curses that Hermione wasn't able to stop went flying down the corridors and Thea really hoped that no one got hit by one. Now Fred and George had left, stray curses weren't something you expected.

As Thea helped Colin sit up, she noticed Harry and Malfoy.

They were standing to one side of the fight, glaring at each other and although their wands were still pointed at each other they were beginning to drop. That wasn't as comforting as if first sounded because she had found the source of magic she had felt earlier.

It was Harry and Malfoy.

Oh fuck.

At least that explained why the magic had felt vaguely familiar. She had already felt Malfoy use Elemental Magic before and so she had recognised his signature, for lack of a better description.

As she watched Thea realised that there was a magical barrier or sorts surrounded them. It was preventing any of the curses that were being flung around from actually hitting them.

Although curses were being prevented from entering the barrier, Thea wasn't certain it would stop any magic from escaping. And if Harry and Malfoy tried to attack each other using Elemental Magic, that would be a bad thing. If there was one thing Thea did know, it was that she didn't want to be anywhere near a fight between two of the most powerful wizards in the school, especially since they were both talented Elementalists.

There was also the small fact that it was nearly break time. Very soon the corridors were going to be full of students and professors who would be oblivious to what was going on.

So, as much as she didn't want to move from her relatively safe place next to Colin, she knew she had little choice if she wanted Harry and Malfoy to stop their stupidity before they blew up the school. Hermione still had her hands full stopping the others from killing one another and, by the looks of things, she still hadn't noticed Harry and Malfoy.

'Thea, where are you going?' called Colin as she moved away from him, keeping a look out for stray curses.

'Going to stop those two from doing anything really stupid,' she said. 'Get your shield charm up again, just in case.' Before Colin could protest, she kept moving.

Since she was going to try and talk some sanity into Harry and Malfoy (chance would be a fine thing) she decided to move round the barrier so she was on the other side to the fight. That way it would hopefully protect her from any stray curses. She ducked a few hexes that were thrown her way and her shield charm broke just as she got to the relative safety of the barrier. If it was protecting them, it would protect her, she hoped. Although, it was strange being so close to so much live elemental magic. She could feel it all around her; it felt thick and charged, as if ready to do something.

'Hey,' she said loudly, secretly hoping that the others would hear her as well and realise what was about to happen. But no such luck. 'Hey!' she shouted. This time she was gratified to see both of them flick their eyes to her, if only for a second.

'What do you want, Thea,' growled Harry.

'To suggest that the pair of you stop this blatant stupidity, now,' she told him impatiently, ignoring the growing push of the elemental magic.

'Stop interfering in things that you don't understand, Maggi,' hissed Malfoy.

'Oh, excuse me,' she scoffed, managing to sound completely unconcerned when really she was terrified, 'I may not know much, but I do recognise the pull of Elemental Magic. I can feel both of you getting ready to blast each other.'

'So, what's your point, Thea?' asked Harry, but she could feel his magic wavering.

'That you're both being incredibly stupid and, knowing you two, you'll probably blow up the school and kill everyone in it. Which is so not the way I want to die.'

'I really don't care, Maggi,'

She didn't believe him for a second, but now was probably not the best time to call him on it. 'Well, that's a pity,' she told him, 'but you might care about this...'

'What?' they both snapped.

'That McGonagall and Snape are storming down the corridor, sporting matching faces of thunder?' she said impishly.

The effects of those words were immediate. Both Harry and Malfoy pulled their magic back and promptly had to dodge a couple of curses. Thea very quickly got her shield charm back up.

Harry looked around him in amazement. 'How long has this been going on for?'

'Since you and Malfoy began your stare-a-thon.'

'We'd better stop them. McGonagall and Snape will kill them.'

'For once, Potter, you and I are in agreement,' said Malfoy. 'Shall we?'

'Expelliarmus!' they both shouted together.

The others immediately looked up in some confusion as their wands sailed out of their hands.

'Oy, mate, what did you do that for,' shouted Ron as Zabini glowered at Malfoy. 'I nearly had this bastard banged for rights.'

'McGonagall and Snape are storming down the corridor,' Harry told Ron quietly.

All of them spun round to watch McGonagall and Snape approach them. Both of them looked mad as hell. They were scary enough separately, but together they were truly terrifying.

Malfoy glanced at her and rolled his eyes before returning his attention to the approaching professors.

'Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Zabini, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, Miss Parkinson, Mr Finnegan, what do you think you are all doing?' demanded McGonagall. How had she managed to not run out of breath saying all those names, marvelled Thea.

'Potter,' was all Snape drawled as he came to a stop next to McGonagall, 'I should have known.' He glanced round and his expression soured even more as he took in the presence of Ron and Hermione. 'Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley, of course you'd be involved as well.'

How typical of Snape to notice the presence of Harry and any other Gryffindors but conveniently ignore the rather obvious presence of any Slytherins, especially Malfoy.

'What is going on here?' asked McGonagall severely. 'I do not expect to hear from the portraits that students are moments away from using Elemental Magic in an unprotected area of the castle, and against each other, no less. And then I get informed that other students are duelling around them. And now I see it involves the Head Boy and Girl as well as two prefects, all of whom should know better.' She glared down her glasses at them. 'I demand an explanation!'

Thea was enormously relieved that she was being ignored and she got the distinct feeling Colin was feeling the same.

'Ah, professor,' stammered Harry, looking wildly between Ron, Seamus and Hermione, obviously at a loss as to what to say. It really wasn't the ideal situation to be caught in.

Malfoy, Zabini and Parkinson were openly smirking at Harry and the others but quickly schooled their expressions to one of respect as McGonagall glared at them.

'Now, Potter,' said Snape. 'You were about to explain why you were about to attack Mr Malfoy with Elemental Magic.'

'Malfoy was going to attack me too,' protested Harry angrily.

'I imagine Mr. Malfoy was acting in self defence,' responded Snape. Malfoy nodded rather gleefully in agreement.

'Malfoy started it,' said Ron hotly. 'He was laughing about all the Death Eater attacks.'

'Is that so, Mr. Malfoy?' asked McGonagall severely.

Malfoy didn't reply, just glared into the distance.

'I'm sure Mr. Weasley misunderstood what Mr. Malfoy was talking about,' interrupted Snape.

'It wasn't all that difficult to understand,' shot back Seamus. 'Haha, lots of people died. I think it's really funny.'

'Mr. Finnegan, that is enough,' said McGonagall. 'I think we should all make our way to the Headmaster's study. I'm sure he'll be interested in hearing about the improper use of Elemental Magic as well as the duel. You were all very fortunate that no-one got hurt.' She looked them over, her lips pursed. 'Although a couple of do look a bit worse for wear.'

Ron had been hit with tarantallegra and was still a bit shaky on his legs; Seamus had a gash on his arm, as did Zabini. Both Hermione and Parkinson seemed to have got through unscathed.

Her attention then turned to Colin as Thea helped him to stand.

'Mr Creevey, what happened?' she exclaimed, sounding concerned.

'He got hit by a stray curse,' Thea told her. 'His Shield Charm absorbed most of it, but the force of it knocked him into the wall.'

'Oh, Colin, are you alright?' asked Hermione, sounding distressed.

'Yeah, I'm fine,' Colin assured her. 'Just feel a bit sore from where my back hit the wall.'

'Miss Maggi, perhaps you could accompany Mr Creevey to the infirmary,' said McGonagall.

'Oh but, Professor, I'm fine, really,' protested Colin.

'Mr Creevey, it is just a precaution, nothing more.' She turned to the others. 'Right then, the Headmaster's, now.'

As McGonagall walked past Thea, she put her hand briefly on Thea's shoulder. 'That was a foolhardy action, Miss Maggi, but it is commended.' With that she walked quickly after Harry and Co.

As Thea and Colin walked slowly towards the infirmary, Colin turned to Thea. 'Did McGonagall just congratulate you for being an idiot?'

Thea laughed. 'Yeah, I think she did.'

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It was the end of break and Thea and Colin had just finished telling Ginny and Benji (who had returned after Lauren deemed him too distracting when she had homework to do) what had transpired in the corridors when the common room door opened and in walked Ron, Hermione and Seamus, all looking rather dejected. It didn't take a genius to realise that things hadn't gone well with McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore.

'Where's Harry?' asked Ginny.

'Elemental class,' Hermione told her.

'So, it went well then?' asked Thea sarcastically. As if she needed to ask.

'Not even close,' huffed Seamus as he dropped onto the sofa.

'Bloody unfair, is what it was,' fumed Ron, pacing up and down in front of the fire.

'What happened?' asked Colin.

'We all got a bollocking, is what happened,' Seamus told them.

'So, what did McGonagall say, Hermione?' Thea asked the Head Girl.

Hermione perched on the arm of the armchair Ginny was curled up in. 'Well, it didn't go well. Basically she told us that she had never seen so many seventh years behaving as though they were uncouth hooligans - and those were her exact words. She was appalled by our behaviour in such a difficult time...'

'She even had the nerve to say we should be friends with the Slytherins,' exploded Ron, interrupting Hermione.

'She didn't say we had to be friends with them,' corrected Hermione. 'Only that we should be working with them, not fighting them. And she said the same applied to all the houses. And anyway, it was Dumbledore who said it, she only agreed with him.'

'It's the same thing,' dismissed Ron. 'And I have no problem working with the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, just not the Slytherins. They're just junior Death Eaters.'

Thea saw Hermione gear up to lecture Ron and decided to jump in before it happened. 'So, did you lot get detention or anything?'

'Well, me, Harry and Zabini got a couple of detentions each. I think Snape and McGonagall were more pissed with the prefects going at it than they were with us mere mortals,' said Seamus, shrugging.

'Ron and Parkinson got a week's worth of detention,' Hermione told them, glancing at Ron as he paced past her, scowling. 'And both Harry and Malfoy have to talk to Professor Algaron about nearly using Elemental Magic in the corridors. Dumbledore insisted.'

'What about you?' Benji asked Hermione.

'Snape was adamant that, as the Head Girl, I should be appropriately punished, so Dumbledore decided that Malfoy and I have to take on extra responsibilities, including extra rounds.'

'Bet Snape wasn't happy that Dumbledore included Malfoy in that,' commented Ginny.

Hermione grinned. 'Not pleased at all. But I think Malfoy was even less impressed. It certainly wiped the smirk off his little ferret face.'

'Serves the little bastard git right,' growled Ron. 'It's about time he didn't get away with things like he does normally.'

'Have you ever known Dumbledore let anyone get away with anything? He gave exactly the same punishment to the both of us.'

'You poor thing,' sympathised Ginny. 'You have to spend extra time with Malfoy.'

Hermione pulled a face. 'I know. Horrible, isn't it? It is my own fault though. McGonagall was right, I should have tried to break up the fight from the beginning and not when the spells started flying.'

'Hermione,' protested Ron, standing in front of her, 'don't be silly. You were amazing facing off against Parkinson like that. Of course you should have done it.'

Hermione turned a little pink and seemed at a bit of a loss as of what to say.

Colin seemed to be oblivious to the interplay between Hermione and Ron as he said, 'Didn't you get any points deducted?' Thea thought he had a valid point though. She had expected them to have had points removed.

'Nope,' said Seamus, grinning. 'I think Snape and Black's little points war has everyone nervous. Would you want to deduct points from us? We may be top today but we could be bottom tomorrow.'

'Actually, we're second,' Colin informed him.

'Aw, crap. Who pissed off Snape?' exclaimed Seamus. Thea laughed. It was true, before breakfast they had been in front of Slytherin.

Benji shrugged. 'Dunno. But as we walked past it went down by twenty points. Ravenclaw are currently top.'

'Bugger,' said Ron succinctly.

'Don't fancy being you tonight, Thea,' said Hermione.

Thea groaned, dropping her head into her hands. 'I was afraid someone was going to say that.'

'He stormed off after McGonagall dismissed us. He didn't even wait for Zabini and Parkinson who had waited for him. He literally growled at them when they tried to talk to him.'

'Great. Tonight is going to be such fun,' groused Thea, unease pooling in her stomach. 'At least it's Transfiguration and not Potions. I wouldn't survive that.'

'We could meet you outside the classroom,' offered Benji.

'Yeah, then you wouldn't have to walk back with him at least,' agreed Ginny.

'You'll be doing no such thing,' Hermione corrected them. 'You'd almost certainly be caught out after curfew.' She turned to Thea. 'I can be waiting if you want me to, though.'

Thea smiled. 'Thanks Hermione, but I don't think so. I've been working hard to convince him I'm not scared of him, or at least not as scared of him as most people are, and if you're there, they'll know it's not true and I'll be back to square one.'

Hermione nodded approvingly. 'I'll wait in the common room until you get back.'

We'll all wait up too,' said Ginny, Colin and Benji nodding their agreement.

'But that's mostly because Ben has his Astronomy tutorial with Zabini, isn't it?' she asked dryly.

Colin shrugged and smiled. 'Well, you know, two birds, one stone and all that.'

'Oh bloody hell,' exclaimed Ron loudly. 'Seamus, quick. We're going to be late for Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid'll kill us.'

Seamus looked at his watch. 'Aw crap. We are as well. We'd better hurry.'

'See you all later,' called Ron as they both rushed out of the common room.

'I wonder how long it will be until they realise they haven't got their books,' mused Hermione. 'Oh well, never mind. They should be old enough to look after themselves, after all.' She stood up. 'I'm off to the library. See you all later.'

'The library, huh?' repeated Colin as she stepped out of the common room.

'She could be looking for something important,' added Benji.

'Want to see what?' asked Thea.

Ginny looked at her watch. 'I would, but the last three times we've followed her to the library, she really has just been working and I have got to get this analysis done for Magical Law this afternoon.' She frowned at Thea. 'And come to think about it, so do you.'

Thea squirmed. 'I kind of did it on Friday,' she admitted.

'History tutorial?'

Thea nodded.

'You're so lucky,' sighed Ginny. 'I know it's Malfoy, but at least he lets you do other homework sometimes.'

The boys shrugged. 'Exploding Snap it is, then.'

--------

Thea walked towards the Transfiguration classroom with a feeling of dread. Who knew what Malfoy was going to be like tonight?

She slid into her seat next to Malfoy, wishing fervently that she had been on time to the first tutorial so she hadn't ended up sitting next to him. He didn't even glance up at her as she pulled her stuff out of her bag.

She managed to stay under Malfoy's radar for the whole tutorial, which was amazing, and such a relief. He asked her two questions, both of which she got right; apart from that, he ignored her.

The reason he was ignoring her, Thea was sure, was because he was busy picking on Salmissra Trellis the whole time. Generally she felt sorry for anyone who was subjected to Malfoy's foul temper, but this time she just couldn't quite work up the indignation. Truth be told, she was actually finding it quite funny. Thank god it wasn't yesterday and Potions tutorial, otherwise that would probably be her being ripped a new one by Malfoy.

She was pulled out of her musings by Malfoy snapping, yet again, at Trellis. 'Dear God, girl, are you always such an incompetent airhead? A Hufflepuff could do better than you. Do you ever do any work? No wonder McGonagall is always having a go at you.'

It was nice that Malfoy was noticing her general uselessness. If Ginny could see this, she'd be crying with laughter. She'd have to make sure she regaled the whole thing to Ginny as soon as she got back.

'But, but, but...' stammered Trellis, but to no avail.

'Have you ever picked a book up in your life or are you just too busy being social all the time?' The emphasis he put on 'social' made it clear that he was talking more about her reputation as a slut than her reputation for being a gossip.

Thea quickly swallowed the bubble of laughter that threatened to spill out of her mouth. That would never do, Malfoy would kill her. This had to be the first time she had ever heard him insult a Slytherin. It really was rather fun. The Slytherins didn't seem to be finding it so amusing though. They were all looking rather shocked and vaguely bemused. Finally they seemed to be a bit angry about the whole thing. They weren't used to Malfoy openly ridiculing them. More tellingly none of them seemed to have the gall to answer him back or anything.

Even when the tutorial was finally over, Thea still couldn't escape; he was going to be walking her and the others back to their common rooms.

The Slytherins disappeared in record time. For once they weren't all trying to fawn in front of Malfoy, they couldn't wait to get away from his acid tongue. It was about time they finally found out what that was like.

Malfoy had his stuff packed up in what felt like a blink of an eye. 'Well, come on then,' he snapped. 'Hurry up will you? I have better things to be doing than walking you children back to your common rooms because you can't look after yourselves.'

Thea smiled wearily at Giles. This walk was going to feel like the ten thousand mile march.

'Do you think he's in an even worse mood than usual because he got into trouble with McGonagall this afternoon?' he whispered as they shoved their things quickly into their bags.

'I think so,' she replied after checking that Malfoy wasn't paying them any attention.

'Bugger.' He seemed to brighten slightly. 'At least it means he won't be this bad next week.'

'Only if he hasn't managed to get into another fight with Harry,' Thea pointed out as she swung her bag over her shoulder.

'Oh,' was all Giles said as they walked quickly out of the room as Malfoy glared at them.

'You two, stop gossiping on my time,' snapped Malfoy as he lifted his bag over his shoulder. 'I have no interest in hearing about your pathetic lives.'

Janet made sure that Giles was between her and Malfoy all the way back to the Hufflepuff common room, like she always did. After Giles whispered the password, Janet scurried in as quickly as she could. Giles wasn't far behind her, although he did pause long enough to shoot Thea a sympathetic look over his shoulder.

She hung back as Malfoy strode off towards the common room. Now that she was alone with him it was going to be twice as bad, she just knew it.

'Well, hurry up then,' he called back impatiently. 'I don't have all night, you know.'

'You already said that,' she muttered, looking at the floor.

He must have heard her and stopped walking because she walked straight into him. She put her hands up to steady herself and ended up falling against his chest. She hadn't noticed him turning around, probably because she had been busy studying the floor. Once she had steadied herself she snatched away her hand and stepped back from him. She didn't know why, but she was feeling distinctly embarrassed. She kept her eyes on the floor, waiting for Malfoy to either yell at her for being so clumsy or to make some scathing remark. She could feel his eyes boring into her. After what must have been a few seconds - though it felt like a few years - she finally looked up at him.

'I thought you only walked into things when you were reading,' was all he said before turning around and continuing to walk towards the common room. 'Hurry up,' he called. 'I really don't have all night.'

Thea was shocked. She had assumed that the reason he had stopped in the first place was to yell at her. She would have thought that her walking into him would have just given him even more of a reason to be angry. She quickly started walking to catch up with him before he changed his mind. She didn't want his dark mood to reappear.

They walked in silence for a bit before Malfoy spoke again. 'So, did Granger and the other miscreants tell you about our charming meeting with Dumbledore and McGonagall this morning?' he asked her. He didn't sound bothered by her answer, but the very fact that he had asked meant that he was obviously interested in what she said.

'Yeah, they mentioned it,' she told him.

'What did they say?'

'Not a lot.' Like she was actually going to tell him anything that they had said about him.

He raised an eyebrow. 'Really?'

Ok, so that wasn't going to be believed. Time to try again. 'Just that McGonagall was furious, Dumbledore wasn't too impressed either and you all got handed out some detentions, extra rounds and the like.'

'Well, I guess you could put it like that,' he muttered darkly. 'Sodding unfair, though,' he added.

Thea turned to look at him. Unfair? Who was he kidding?

He must have seen the look on her face because he protested, 'What? Why are you looking at me like that?'

'How is it not your fault?' she asked him. 'You did start it, after all. I was there, remember?'

'How did I start it?' he demanded.

Did he have short term memory loss, or something? It had only happened that afternoon. 'Well, you did taunt Harry about all the people who have died in the war,' she told him.

'Ah, yes. So I did.' He frowned, obviously trying to think of how he could still blame Harry.

'Don't even try,' she ordered him.

'Try what?'

'Uh, trying to put the blame onto Harry. Just accept it was you who started it and be done with it.'

'But I didn't start it.'

'Am I talking to myself?' she wondered out loud.

'Oh, I accept that I started the argument, that is beyond doubt. But I didn't start the wand pointing or the duel.'

'Oh shut up,' she snapped irritably.

'You know, if King Weasel hadn't spoken, I imagine that myself and Potter would have exchanged a few more words and then gone our separate ways.'

'You can't blame Ron,' protested Thea. What a surprise, if he couldn't blame one, he'd blame the other.

Malfoy opened his mouth to retort but she just kept on talking. 'If you ask me, you're both as bad as each other.'

'You're comparing me to Weasley?' exclaimed Malfoy, sounding revolted.

'No, you and Harry, you ninny!' She paused and thought for a moment. 'Although that works as a comparison as well.'

'Oh, well, I suppose Potter is marginally better than Weasley.' He scowled. 'But I'm not a ninny, I'm a Malfoy.'

'And one means you can't be the other?' she questioned.

'Naturally.'

Thea laughed. She just couldn't help it.

He gave her a look but otherwise didn't say anything.

As they turned a corner he spoke again. 'You know, putting yourself in the firing line of Potter and myself was in incredibly foolish thing to do. You could have been killed.'

'Well if I hadn't done it, the entire school could have been killed. And then it really wouldn't have mattered.'

'But why you? Granger was there.'

'Hermione was busy stopping various curses flying down the corridors and hitting some random person.'

He looked at her slyly. 'You know, Professor Snape nearly got hit by one. That's what had him storming up the corridor with McGonagall.'

Thea stared at him. 'Really? No wonder he was so angry. Did he find out who cast it?'

Malfoy shook his head. 'And that's the only thing that stopped him from killing whoever it was.'

'Would he have killed Zabini or Parkinson?' she asked, genuinely curious.

He thought for a moment. 'He probably would have just maimed them,' Malfoy admitted.

As they approached the Fat Lady, he turned to regard her. 'You still shouldn't have done it.'

'But I'm a Gryffindor,' she told him, pointing at the Fat Lady. 'I thought being stupid was pretty much what we did,' she said dryly. Or at least it was in the eyes of the Slytherins, at any rate.

He didn't even begin to crack a smirk. 'Gryffindor stupidity is still no excuse.'

She sighed. 'Fine. Next time you and Harry try to kill each other, I'll leave you do it, OK?'

'There won't be a next time,' he said shortly.

Hum. Now why didn't she believe that?

As the entrance opened, she turned to him. 'Night.'

'Thea,' he called softly.

She turned back around.

'I hated the fact that they assumed I was a Death Eater, just because my father is.'

With that he turned on his heel and stormed away, leaving a rather gob smacked Thea standing by in the entrance, staring after him.