Of Silver and Green

Ch. 19 The "Great Defender"

Practice had been excruciatingly long, but overall had been beneficial. Brynne and Blaise had almost mastered the Dopplebeater Defense. Unfortunately, Blaise wouldn't let the matter drop of Brynne and Draco's "performance" earlier, so Brynne had been extraordinarily tempted to use a Backbeat to aim the Bludger at him.

At five-thirty, when practice had ended, Brynne and Blaise had stayed behind. Draco was still floating up about eighty feet from the ground. He circled lazily a few times and then angled into a steep dive, hurtling towards the ground at a frightening speed. He was making no move to pull up, and Brynne gasped as, three feet above the ground, Draco pulled up and evened out, the bristles of his broom just grazing the grass beneath him. A perfectly executed Wronski Feint.

Draco flew over to them, grey eyes sparkling mischieviously. "You like that?" Brynne and Blaise nodded, too stunned to speak. "Well, he didn't," he stated, indicating a shadow in the stands.

Blaise squinted, trying to make out who it was. Brynne didn't bother; she already had a pretty good idea who it was. She had felt the familiar eyes on her.

"Potter," Draco spat, confirming Brynne's suspicions. "Probably spying since we're the Gryffindork's only real competition. So I thought I'd give him something to stare at."

"Well, I think he got the point," Blaise commented, nodding towards the now-empty seat.

"I'd hate to cut in on your Potter-bashing boys," Brynne said, a bit too defensively, "but we've got dinner in fifteen, so I'm going to shower. See ya." She sped away before either by could respond.

"What got into her?" Draco asked, bewildered.

~~~***~~~

Dinner went off without a hitch. Draco and Blaise appeared to have forgotten about Brynne's little outburst. It had been three hours that Draco and Brynne had been studying Transfiguration. Draco had already gotten through the pertinent information in three of the six books Brynne was making him study, and she was, yet again, impressed with his progress.

"I'm going to the library while you're meditating. I need to study for Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms. Those classes appear to be Granger's strengths."

Draco nodded and, as she left, he thought he heard her grumble something about "Flitwick's Pet".

Brynne retreated to her room to gather the materials she would need. She was about to leave when she heard a yipping. She felt a pang of guilt when she realized she hadn't spent very much time with Aidynn over the past few days. She went back to his basket and lifted him out. "If you promise to be quiet, I'll take you with me. I would have been lonely by myself." She put the little fox in her book bag on top of her books. "Stay," she told him as he started to wriggle out. Once he was settled, Brynne left.

Brynne entered the library and chose a table as far from the Restricted Section as possible. She didn't want Madame Pince to see Aidynn. She removed her Hogwarts robe and laid it on the chair beside her. She took Aidynn out of her bag and put him on the robe and covered everything but his face. Satisfied that no one would notice him, Brynne began to lay out her books on the table.

She was just opening her Charms textbook when she heard three people enter the library whose voices she recognized. She groaned as she heard their footsteps approach. What were they doing in the library at ten-thirty at night on a Saturday? Brynne didn't have time to think on that, or the fact that she too was in the library on a Saturday night, before they came up to her table.

"You're sitting at our table," Granger said, sounding more than a little annoyed.

Brynne fixed the other girl with a perfectly vicious glare before turning her gaze on Potter. "Hello Potter."

"Brynne," she replied with a slight nod.

"Why are you being polite? She's a Slytherin," she heard Weasley hiss.

"Astute observation, Weasley," she sneered. "You have Granger here figure that out for you?"

Weasley turned red and growled, stepping forward menacingly. Brynne's eyes narrowed. She stood up to face the taller redhead. "You have something you want to say to me, Weasley," she asked in a low voice.

"I have lots of things I'd like to say to you, Slytherin scum," he snarled back.

At the threatening tone in his voice, Brynne's robe began to growl. Weasley took a confused step back. Brynne leaned down and whispered reassuringly to the bundle containing her fox.

"Ron," Potter said in a warning tone. "Don't speak to her like that, she's not like the other Slytherins."

"Why are you defending her? You heard exactly what she said! She is just like the other Slytherins! If I didn't know any better, I'd say she'd taken a page out of Malfoy's book. For all we know, she has!" Weasley screeched.

"I agree, and anyways Harry, how would you know whether she is or is not like other Slytherins? I must admit she certainly is acting like your typical Slytherin," said Granger, shooting Brynne a poisonous look.

Potter started to answer, but Brynne got there first. "Potter and I have an understanding," she said, winking at him.

"God, Harry, tell me you're not dating her!" Weasley exclaimed.

"No," Potter replied, turning a lovely shade of pink. "We're just friends."

"Friends with a Slytherin? What's next? Tea with Malfoy?" asked Granger sarcastically.

"Actually," Brynne cut in, "Draco doesn't drink tea. He prefers coffee."

"This is ridiculous!" Granger exclaimed. "You say she isn't like other Slytherins, and yet she behaves like sodding Malfoy!"

"You have no idea what you're talking about, Mudblood," Brynne growled. Granger backed up a step at her dangerous tone. "You want your damn table so badly? Fine. Just don't ever presume to understand me, or Draco. I am almost assured of your ignorance when it comes to those areas." Brynne shoved her books into her book bag and shouldered it. Then she lifted Aidynn and wrapped her robe around him gently. With one last imploring look at Potter, Brynne turned and walked away, to a table in a shadowy corner a few tables from where she had been sitting.

Brynne sank into the first chair she saw and put Aidynn on the table in front of her. She buried her face in his soft fur, crying silently as the little fox attempted to lick away her tears. She tensed as Aidynn began to growl, trying valiantly to get her tears under control so the Gryffindors wouldn't see her in a weak moment. "Come back to hit me while I'm down? More of a Slytherin thing to do, really. I suggest you go back the way you came. I'm not in the mood," she said quietly, her voice still thick with unshed tears.

"And neither, it appears, is your fox," said a playful voice.

"Not funny," she said, turning to face him, her eyes glistening. "Potter, he would eat you up if I told him he could."

"No doubt. Look, I'm sorry about that. I should have explained things to them earlier. They had no right to attack you. If it makes you feel better, I think they're angrier at me than at you," he said, taking the seat beside her. Aidynn began to growl.

"It's ok, Aidynn," she whispered to the fox soothingly. Brynne looked into the green eyes of the boy beside her. "That does little to make me feel better. As a matter of fact, it probably makes me feel worse. I should have known we couldn't be friends without facing the prejudices of our friends. It could have been my imagination, but these two were just as bad as some of my housemates," she told him bitterly. "I can't blame them though. They are just judging me from what they know of every other Slytherin, and I can't hold it against them. They were part right. I certainly did nothing to make them think otherwise. But I couldn't take hearing them speak of Draco like that. He's not like that anymore. No one sees him the way I do," she said sadly.

"You can't really blame them for not believing that after only a few days, can you?" he asked, wiping a tear from her cheek.

"It still hurts to hear them talk like that. But I don't want to discuss it anymore. And if you tell anyone you saw me like this, I will hunt you down and turn you into a mushroom, friend or not."

Potter laughed. "Fair enough. Anyways, what are you doing in the library at this hour?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"Hermione is forcing Ron and me to study for our O.W.L.'s. But since she's mad at me, I don't have to study anymore," he said triumphantly. "What about you?"

"Studying," she replied with a smirk. "Neither my dorm nor the common room is very conducive for it, so I came up here while Draco's meditating. How are you in Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

"Defense Against the Dark Arts is my best subject, and I'm fairly good at Charms. Why?"

"You can study with me. They are some of my weaker subjects," Brynne replied, pulling out her books.

He grinned, scooting closer to her. "And here I'd thought I'd escaped homework."

It continued that way for almost a week: Brynne going to the library and Potter joining her there. It was hardly secret though. Potter even brought Seamus Finnegan with him a few times. Brynne and Seamus got along fine, and Brynne learned that he didn't even live very far from her mansion in Monaghan, Ireland. However, Harry (she had begun to call him that in her head) had never brought Granger or Weasley again, and Brynne was just fine with that. She was happy talking with Harry and occasionally Seamus. Little did she know, that everything was about to change...