The Longest Day

The Longest Day

Chapter three- Inner views

Draco stood completely still, with a red tinge across his sullen face. Millicent looked at him and sighed, bored now that the dancing was over. Draco was a divine dancer, as she would know. She had been his dancing partner all through out their childhood as Pansy's mother didn't care for dancing (Pansy was Draco's partner for everything else at that age). Millicent smirked, remembering the time when, after Draco had first kissed her, Pansy had grabbed her hand and twirled her around their room with a grin stretching from ear to ear. That had been fourth year, after the Yule Ball, and Millicent still smiled at how long it had taken Draco to finally kiss Pansy. He was such a self-confident young man, except around her. It was a joke in the common room that Pansy had sapped Draco's vocabulary, because he stood sputtering in front of her for the first four years of school all the way up until the dance. After that, he kind of stopped talking when she was around, afraid of looking stupid.

Millicent felt sorry for Draco. He still hadn't recovered from Pansy's death. It had been the turning point in his life, where he decided whether he should fight for the light or dark, and in the end he chose light, as Voldemort was the cause of Pansy's demise. Millicent sighed again, determined not to think about it right then. She went to sit down. There were only three tables in the room, however, and two were currently preoccupied. Millicent glanced at Blaise and Aluthera. Aluthera was still snickering over Draco's embarrassment, while Blaise twirled her around, a small smile on his face. Millicent smiled a little too. Aluthera may have been her best female friend, but Blaise, whom she had known longer, was by far her best friend ever.

He was a very handsome young man, who smiled easily. He was tall with tight black curls and blue eyes. He could have even passed for her brother, with their looks. The difference was Blaise smiled all the time, at everyone, and Millicent rarely smiled.

Millicent knew why Blaise was a Slytherin though, even with his easy demeanor. While he was nice to the other houses and flirted with girls of all houses, he held most of them in contempt when allowed the luxury of being alone with Millicent. He felt the Ravenclaws were snobbish, Hufflepuffs were too innocent, and Gryffindors were true cowards.

Millicent once had asked him about this view, and he had replied that Slytherins and Griffindors were basically the same; the only difference was Gryffindors were too ashamed to admit they were selfish, and that they were heroes for cowardly reasons. Slytherins on the other hand, weren't ashamed, they acknowledged that they had faults, and accepted it. Millicent had thought it over, and after a while, she had agreed. She glanced up, now thoroughly bored. Draco had sat down next to Anthony, who was now sulking at his table, as Harry had laughed off his problem and moved to sit with Ginny and Luna. Luna had an odd grin on her face, and kept glancing in Millicent's direction. When Millicent caught her at it, Luna raised one eyebrow, and cocked her head to the side. Millicent turned away, confused. As she did, Luna smirked, and turned to wink at Ginny.

" Blaise, just how did you and Draco work this out? It looks like you've been planning this for weeks, but you both only just got detention yesterday! How on earth did you pull it off?" Aluthera questioned with a curious grin. Blaise opened his mouth to respond to his girlfriend, but as he did, the alarm went off. Snape was coming.

" Get to your seats!" Draco hissed as he leapt to his feet to snatch the radio, and then plopped in a very ungraceful way to his seat. He looked at the radio with a horrified expression, then grinned and stuffed it under his robes. Blaise grabbed the Butterbeer bottles and waved his wand, transfiguring the bottles to pieces of parchment, a trick he had learned in fifth year. Snape glided into the room, a sneer on his face as he saw the seating arrangements, with Ginny, Harry, and Luna at one table, Draco and Anthony at another, and Millicent, Aluthera and Blaise at the third.

"Well, doesn't this look cozy? Did I say to sit next to your friends? No!" He barked suddenly.

" Mr. Malfoy, you and Miss Weasley sit at this table. Lovegood, Potter and Zabini here. Bulstrode, you Goldstein and Macnair at this table." He gestured at the tables, a snarl on his face.

" Mr. Malfoy, were there any problems?" Snape asked snidely.

"No sir. We were just sitting, I assume we were all working on our assignments." Draco said it with a perfectly serious expression on his face. " Is everything alright with you?" He inquired gravely.

" Yes, I'm fine. I'm leaving again. Hopefully with this seating arrangement, you won't be... distracted." With that, he glared at Harry, and walked out of the room.

Everyone in the room sighed in relief. Draco and Blaise stood up and reinstated the wards.

"I have a question," Harry declared.

"That's fantastic Potter. However, nobody cares!" Draco exclaimed in a faux-excited tone.

"Shove off Malfoy," Ginny spat. "Harry has something to say, so stuff it."

"Lovely words from the Harry Potter fan-club president!" Draco replied scathingly.

"Ginny hasn't been the head of the fan-club since the end of third year," said Luna in a musing tone. "Colin Creevey is now. I wonder if he isn't gay?"

Everyone in the room turned to stare at Luna. Harry was making odd whuffling noises in the back of his throat, and Draco just stared, as if Luna had begun pulling house elves from her skirt and had started chucking them at him. Ginny was hooting with laughter, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Harry, didn't you have a question?" Luna asked. "I'm sure you did...."

"Oh, uh...er. Does anyone... has anyone...never mind." Harry trailed off, with an odd look on his face. He looked up at Luna, who smiled vaguely at him.

"Lovegood, no one has ever shut Draco up like that before. You are now my hero," Aluthera chortled. "Seriously, that was brilliant."

Draco sat back down, much more gracefully this time, and glanced at Ginny from the corner of his eye. He didn't really enjoy teasing Harry anymore, since Pansy... Harry just didn't respond the same way anymore. Draco felt the pitying glances, and hated it. He had taken to just baiting Ginny, as she still leapt to the challenge every time. Ginny had a very sharp tongue, and never failed to insult him when given the chance. Harry was only a very mild annoyance now, but that Weasley girl... he loved the fact that she presented an actual challenge. The girl may have been hideous, with all that red hair and freckles, but she gave him a run for his money every time with her sarcastic and foul tongue. She cursed like a sailor, and she knew all the things to say to get under his skin. She was even more fun than Ron, whom he had previously assumed to be the most foul-tempered git to ever walk the planet.

She should have been a Slytherin. Draco mused. She would have been a good one.

Ginny turned to Luna, her face still tomato red from laughing so hard. "Oh Luna, that was fabulous, I cannot believe you said that to Malfoy! That was so good!"

"Yes, well, I do wonder if he is, so I saw no reason to not speak my mind. Do you think Harry found it amusing?" Luna asked, with what passed for a concerned look on her pale, typically bemused face.

"Why, Luna, I thought you still fancied my brother! This is an interesting development."

"Yes, well, I do still find Ronald fascinating, but Hermione is in love with him, and he with her. It's quite obvious. However, Harry does have a certain charm that intrigues me... and it doesn't hurt that he's utterly lick-worthy in his Quidditch uniform."

" Luna!" Ginny would have said more, but she was laughing too hard. In fact, if this hadn't been the longest and worst day of her life, she would have been thoroughly enjoying herself, she supposed.