All's Fair

Chapter Thirteen

Harry stomped back into the Great Hall, shoved his still struggling clothes out of his seat (they realised that their master was annoyed and huddled on the floor beneath the bench), and flung himself down beside Ron and Hermione.

Ron turned to Harry with a grin. "That was brilliant! I've got to say that while we may come up with some good ideas, in the future all we really need to do is get Hermione worked up." Ron smiled blissfully.

"Do you even know who -what?- Yoda is?" asked Harry irritably.

"No, but Dean said that he would explain it to me later. With pictures, he says. Anyway, they look funny, whether it's because they look like Yoyo or not."

Glancing over at where Blaise and Pansy had perched on the Slytherin table to continue to eat, Harry had to admit that this was true.

"You don't look so happy, though," added Ron after a moment, looking a little confused. He could not fathom why on earth Harry wasn't happy at such a wonderful time.

"Oh, no," Harry sighed. "It's nothing. Just Draco being Draco."

Ron nodded wisely and continued to tuck into his meal. Harry in turn began to slowly pick his way through his own rapidly cooling plate.

Hermione, who had watched the entire exchange, was carefully eyeing Harry out of the corner of her eye. And the famous brain of one of the most intelligent students that Hogwarts had ever seen got to work...

--------------------------------------------

A couple of days later, the charm was still going strong. It was therefore very simple for Hermione to catch up with Pansy as the she scuttled down the corridor towards Transfiguration.

"Pansy!" called Hermione, running up to the shrunken Slytherin.

"Want what do you?" snapped the blonde, wrinkling her snub nose in annoyance.

"To talk to you," replied Hermione, grabbing the smaller girl by the arm. Pansy was unable to protest as she was dragged into a more private corner of the corridor that the two girls were standing in.

"About what?" asked Pansy when she had managed to wrench her arm out of the Gryffindor's grip. "Gossip? Sharing any I am certainly not! A Gryffindor you are!"

Hermione frowned at Pansy, then shook her head slightly and continued to talk. "I was just wondering-"

There was a pause as the two girls waited for Pansy's stomach to stop singing.

Hermione fought down a giggle as she restarted. "I was just wondering how Draco was at the moment."

Pansy looked at the other girl in disbelief. "Mean what do you?"

"Er..." Hermione fumbled slightly for the right words. "Well, mood-wise. Is he in a good mood, or does he seem to be brooding?"

"Very strange you are. Draco is in a good mood never."

"But is he in a particularly bad mood at the moment?"

Pansy cocked her head slightly. "Peculiar questions indeed. Why do you ask?"

Hermione stopped again. "Harry is being very irritable. He's not usually like this."

"So?"

"Do you possibly think that their bad moods might have something to do with each other?"

Pansy looked hard at Hermione. She doesn't look like she's joking, she thought.

Still...

"Granger, what you are talking about I have no idea of. Leave me alone."

Hermione glared at Pansy in response, then turned to head away. Just as she was about to pass out of sight at the end of the corridor, she turned and called back, "I'd watch for it, if I were you. You know what I'm talking about, Pansy."

Pansy looked after Hermione for a while, thinking about what she had said. Then, shaking her head, she turned to follow her to class.

When Pansy finally arrived, squeaked apologies at the teacher who was bravely trying to hide a smile, and hoisted herself onto her bench, she found herself trying to surreptitiously watch Draco.

Said boy was currently trying to transfigure a turnip into a tortoise. This was a harder task than normal (and to be honest, Draco was not great shakes at this class even when he was in his usual condition), since his tongue kept insisting on muddling the word order about.

As Pansy turned back to her own work, she heard Draco squeak a completely twisted incantation. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and she was propelled out of her seat as the world flashed blue.

Pansy raised her head from her new Professor McGonagall mattress to see Blaise lying sprawled atop of Seamus Finnigan, and a very flustered looking Draco... straddling Harry?

She vaguely noticed the teacher carefully lifting her off her back, but was far more interested in the exchange that was taking place between the two shocked boys.

"Draco, what on earth do you think you're doing?"

"Know I do not! One moment there I was, now here I am!"

"And why," Harry yelled, "are you still here?"

"Because landed this is where I did!" protested Draco.

"Well de-land yourself! You're squashing me!"

Draco blushed. "That I cannot do. My feet do not touch the ground."

Harry grabbed Draco by the shoulders and pushed. Draco thus embarked on his second flight of the hour, crashing to the floor and sliding backwards for a few metres.

Disregarding the tears of pain and humiliation springing up in Draco's eyes, Harry jumped up and began to yell at him.

"Just leave me alone! Stop touching me, I don't trust you or like you! And don't look at me like that, either! Just leave me alone, and stay the hell out of my head!"

The entire class looked at Harry in shock.

The boy blushed. "I said that last bit out loud, didn't I?" he muttered sheepishly. "Oops."

Draco was staring at Harry, a mix of emotions ranging from sorrow to horror to amusement ranging across his face. Pansy looked from one to the other, then back again very quickly. She shot a glance at Hermione, who caught her eye and raised an eyebrow.

Blaise, however, had forgotten about normal Slytherin subtleties. He jumped down from the lap of the still dazed Seamus, bounded towards Harry, and screamed the spell that they had been meant to be practicing.

And then number of things happened in very quick succession.

The first was that Harry threw himself to the side.

The second was that the spell rebounded off the desk behind him.

The third was that it hit the unsuspecting Ron on the back.

The fourth was that Ron turned into a very large purple tortoise.

The fifth, sixth, and numerous ones after that involved various people swearing at each other, so therefore the twelfth was that Professor McGonagall handed out a number of detentions.

The lucky thirteenth was the beginning of the very slow journey to the hospital wing that Harry and Hermione made with a very confused and slowly blinking tortoise.

--------------------------------------------

Harry and Hermione were sitting with Ron in the hospital wing. The redhead was now in human form, but his body was still covered in purple patches- the remains of his new 'skin.'

"So can he come back with us now, Madam Pomfrey?" asked Hermione.

The woman bustled over towards them and peered at Ron. "How do you feel now, Mr Weasley?"

"Oh," started Ron, "much be-"

The boy was cut off as, for no apparent reason, there was a loud pop and he resumed tortoise form.

Madam Pomfrey frowned, hurried over to the medicine cabinet, and selected the appropriate bottle. She returned to the now rather confused animal, pried open its mouth, and slipped in a teaspoon of the mixture.

There was a loud pop, and the unhappy creature was replaced by an equally unhappy Ron.

"That," he cried, "was fou-"

There was another pop, and he was replaced once more with the tortoise.

"Hmm," said Madam Pomfrey. "I can't have given him enough."

She gave the creature another dose of two teaspoons of the potion. After yet another pop, Ron reappeared.

"It's still foul! Am I done?"

"Not any more, I'm afraid," replied Madam Pomfrey briskly. "After that little incident, you're going to be staying here for a few days. Can't have you making another change in the middle of Care of Magical Creatures, can we?"

Ron paled a shade further. "No, Hagrid will want to keep me!"

Somewhere in the school, a bell rang.

"Sorry, Ron," said Hermione regretfully. "We have class now."

"We'll see you later, mate," added Harry apologetically. "Er. Thanks for taking the spell for me."

"No problem, that's what friends are for," smiled Ron moments before there was yet another pop...

--------------------------------------------

Harry and Hermione arrived in Care of Magical Creatures a couple of minutes late. Hagrid gave them a sympathetic smile before continuing to lecture the class on the joys of things that crept, crawled and attacked people viciously.

They shot venomous stares at three very smug looking Slytherins, who had obviously changed back to their normal forms at long last during their brief absence.

"Anyway, as I wa' sayin'," Hagrid continued loudly in an attempt to diffuse the tension that had already begun to build, "I've got a Runespoor in this here pen. Can anyone tell me what it is?"

Hermione shot a final death glare at Blaise, and then shot her hand up.

"Yes, 'ermione?"

"A magical three headed snake. The right head is the planner, the middle head is the dreamer, and the left head is the critic. The planner decides where the Runespoor goes and what it will do next, although the dreamer's visions often lead to a Runespoor remaining stationary for days, lost in its imaginings. The critic, the fangs of which are extremely venomous, hisses continually and irritably, evaluating the efforts of the planner and the dreamer. Often, the other two heads will gang up on the critic and bite it off- two-headed Runespoors are not uncommon."

Hagrid and the rest of the class looked at Hermione in pride as per usual, and then nodded in some sort of appreciation.

"Anyway, this Runespoor's got all 'is heads, so yer in luck today!"

"So you mean," drawled Draco, "that we should all be happy because the giant snake still possesses the head with the extremely venomous fangs?"

Hagrid beamed at him. "Yeh! Great, ain't it?"

Draco raised an eyebrow and did not answer.

"Now I'm gonna get you all up in small groups so that y' don't scare it. No more 'n six per group, please. Quickly!"

Within moments, the entire class had divided itself into groups- except, predictably, for a certain few Slytherins and Gryffindors. They glared at each other, then reluctantly moved to stand in a group together.

"I'm a bit confused," started Blaise in an attempt to fill the uncomfortable silence that had fallen as they waited for their turn. "What's up with you and Potter, Draco?"

"Blaise," sighed Draco, "you may not have noticed this yet, but there's always something up with me and Harry."

"So why can't he 'get you out of his head'?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to!" yelled Draco.

"I think," smirked Pansy, "that all of this has something to do with a certain love potion. And the way that Draco managed to get the Gryffindor boys to consume it."

She cast a sly glance at Harry, and noticed that his neck had gone red. Draco was staring determinedly at a nearby bush.

"Y'know," said Blaise thoughtfully, "you never did tell us how that went, Draco."

Draco scowled at him, and then stared pointedly at Hermione.

"Oh don't mind me," Hermione added brightly, "I'm just as interested as you are. I know something happened, but what was it?"

Harry spun around at this.

"I do not appreciate," he started icily, "people talking about me as if I wasn't there."

"Okay," grinned Hermione. "Harry, please tell your eager audience what happened. You can join in too, Draco."

Harry flushed red and opened his mouth.

"You lot, come over 'ere!" called Hagrid.

Draco sent a questioning glance at Harry, and then followed Pansy, Blaise and Hermione towards their teacher and his new 'pet'.

I wonder, he thought, what Harry was going to say. I wish I knew what he was thinking.

Hang on...

Draco quietly snuck up on Harry, who we staring avidly at Hagrid as the half-giant rambled on. He stood close behind him, and leant so that his lips brushed against Harry's neck.

"Regardless of what happened afterwards," he whispered, noticing the smaller boy shiver at the sensation of breath on his cheek, "you can't deny that you enjoyed that night just as much as I did."

Harry seemed determined to ignore him. With a wicked smile and a careful glance at their oblivious teacher, Draco planted a kiss just below the boy's ear.

With a muffled yell, Harry leapt forward into the enclosure. There was a startled hiss, and then a louder yelp from the raven haired boy.

Draco looked down in shock to see the head of one of the snakes being quickly pulled away from the paling Gryffindor's ankle.

"Draco..." murmured Harry, and then crumpled. Draco just about managed to catch the unconscious boy before he hit the ground.