Hogwarts, A New History

Chapter Two

"Damn that child!" Lucius Malfoy's voice echoed off the cavernous walls of his mansion's foyer. "He's still learning, he can't understand why this is important."

"Darling, calm yourself. He's still just a boy," Narcissa cooed soothingly.

"He's fifteen years old!" he yelled back. "He should be able to do what I say!" For a minute he fumed silently, hands trembling with outrage. "But he doesn't want to do what I tell him to."

Narcissa put down her needlework. "Maybe he's changed...he used to be like a pawn to you." She rose from the bench and stalked off.

"What could've changed him? He was the same during the summer, what happened to him? He hated Dumbledore and Potter-" Lucius stopped himself in mid-sentence. "Potter. This...could be his doing! He's made Draco afraid, soft..... I will have Draco back the way I want him!"

Narcissa returned. "Really, is talking to yourself healthy, dear? I say let Draco be, he is his own person. And he's a Malfoy, he'll certainly be loyal to our side."

"Oh yeah? How can you be so sure?" Lucius turned to the window. " He needs to be tested. Proof that he's still what I brought him up to be..." The sky was a deepening black, occasional balls of lightning streaking across the horizon. Lucius Malfoy's lip curled as he thought, fought with an idea. " I wonder why he wouldn't use the truth potion on Dumbledore...then I would have all the information I need!"

"How would he have been expected to get away with it?" called Narcissa, counting stitches.

"He knows the strongest memory charms!" Lucius snapped impatiently. "And it would look a lot worse if I came up to the school and suddenly Dumbledore's a little tipsy!"

"Maybe you should just talk to him. Have you ever tried that?"

"No!" retorted Lucius. "That's not the Malfoy way of doing things! The Malfoy way of doing things is to insult everyone,lie, be lazy, threaten, and thrown temper tantrums until we get a friggin' wowwypop!!"

"...What?..." Narcissa said in amazement.

"You heard me!"

"Well...none of that applies to Draco.."

"Exactly!" snapped Lucius. "That's my problem, how will I get through to him?"

Narcissa sighed. "It's late Lucius, won't you come to bed?"

"No!" he said again.

She threw him a disgusted look. "Fine then. Oh, and just so you know, you'll be sleeping on that bench next to you."

He shot her a glare as she stalked into the hall, then kicked the bench. "Ouch!"

*************************************************************

The lake rippled lightly under his fingers. He looked up into the pink sky, slowly settling into dusk. Lately, Harry had been spending a lot of his free time sitting by the lake, as it was the perfect place to get away from the taunts inside of the school. It was the perfect place to shake off Draco Malfoy, too, as he'd been following Harry around since the weekend. At the beginning and end of breakfast, lunch and dinner in the Great Hall, Draco would call a hearty greeting to him, or come over and punch him friendly on the arm. The Slytherins had fun with this, informing Harry that Draco had fallen desperately in love with him. It was even worse than having Colin Creevey in his shadow all the time.

Harry was in the worst of moods. Since four days ago, Hermione had not spoken to him unless absolutely necessary, and she was spending more and more time with Ron, who also seemed to have abandoned him. Top it off with bad Quidditch practices (now that Fred and George were the captains) and he might as well be at the Dursley's. Sighing, he got up to go inside, knowing he wouldn't be allowed out after dark and Filch would have his head.

The doors swung open noisily. Harry peered in and saw that there were still lots of people in the Great Hall. Not wanting to be mocked anymore today, he headed off in the other direction.

"Hey, Harry!"

"Oh no, not you."

"What?" said Draco, catching up with him. "I just wanted to tell you that Alicia Spinnet got a new broomstick. She's one of the Gryffindor chasers, right?:

"Look!" yelled Harry, wheeling around in the entrance hall. "I don't care the reason you came to talk to me, but why are you doing this?"

"Doing what-" Draco started innocently.

"-acting like you care about my life? Is this some new joke of yours!? Just get away!" He started to walk off.

"YOU were the one who told me to turn over a new leaf, so I'm trying!" Draco called angrily. "I don't know how to be nice to you, and I can't be absolutely horrible to you anymore, so what should I do?"

"Why don't you- not talk to me at all?? That would make me happy, seeing as you're being an annoying git!"

To Harry's horror, Draco came running at him with the force of a bull. Just in time Harry got over his shock when Draco's shoulder plunged into his ribs. The two of them were sent flying back against the wall, with Draco sprawled on top of him. Before he could regain his senses, Draco's fist collided with the side of his skull. The world went black and swirled before his eyes.

Harry avoided another walloping and caught Draco's hand in the air. He could see people piling out of the Great Hall doors and pointing at the pair of them. Draco took the time to slap Harry with his other hand.

"Yeah, fight, fight, fight!" chanted Fred.

"Get 'em, Harry!" came a shout from George.

Harry threw Draco to the side and got up, kicking Malfoy on the floor. Girls from Slytherin were screaming behind them, but Harry didn't care. Draco got back on his feet, his lower lip bleeding. He was panting heavily. Glaring at Harry, he kicked him in the stomach. All the air escaped him.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Before he knew what was happening, Harry was floating at least ten feet in the air. With a swoosh of his wand, Draco sent Harry flying up towards the ceiling, and Harry just managed to prevent his head from hitting it.

"I may not be able to insult you, Potter, but I can still hurt you!" Harry wondered where Filch was, his presence for the first time needed. As Draco flicked his wand around, Harry was sent tumbling through the air, banging off the walls.

"Stop! Stop this madness!" came Professor McGonagall's stern voice. Harry came down hard through the air, but Malfoy was nowhere to be seen.

Draco hurried off up a separate flight of stairs and down the corridors, arriving in an empty classroom. Chuckling to himself, he replayed the fight in his head, how the Slytherins had cheered him on. He'd been having a bad week, and had needed something to boost his mood.

It was now a distant memory that Draco had met with his father five days ago, had been asked a risky favor, and had refused. Now, it seemed almost as if Draco had nothing to lose, his status with the school lost, and even his glossy looks fading. Dark shadows had formed below his eyes; his face had become a dull gray color. Ever since his ability to annoy Harry had fled he'd had trouble sleeping. These days his hair stood on end, its sheen lost. True, he'd tried to turn his attitude around as Harry had suggested, but it made an odd clash with his true personality.

Draco peered around the classroom, the Charms class taught by Professor Flitwick. Remembering suddenly that his homework had yet to be finished, he headed back to the common room.

A noise came from behind him and he whipped around, instinctively aiming his wand. Through the flicker of the torchlight, a shadow slinked across the corridor. His brow furrowed. Cautiously he went after the moving shadow. Was it some new ghost residing in the castle? Curiosity got the best of him and he followed it upstairs, the idea of completing his homework forgotten.

As he shot around the staircase, he caught of glimpse of the shadow's whereabouts; it was heading up the astronomy tower. His robes billowed behind him as he pursued his chase, and it wasn't until he was at the roof that he stopped, the phantom out of sight.

Another noise came from behind. Turning, Draco saw the staircase back into the school close and lock as if an invisible hand were moving it. Eyes wide, he fell to the ground, peering up at a dark mist that was slowly taking shape.

"Hello, Draco Malfoy." The voice seemed to be coming from the mist, and it sounded feminine. Amazed, he stood up and reached out to touch it.

"AAAARRGGHH!" His hand was flaming before his eyes, his fingers melting into his palm. It was the worst pain he'd ever felt in his life. The voice was laughing at him.

"Calm down, it's only an illusion." Immediately the process stopped and Draco was able to see the body that owned the voice. It was like looking at a flame that could take shape, curve and bend. The figure was only about a foot high, made of red fire, but definitely in the shape of a woman.

"Are you- a fire faery?" He asked the being cautiously.

It laughed scornfully. "I am much more than a faery. I am more than a human."

He sat there in still shock for a moment, and then a wild answer was revealed to him, but it was an absurd one. "V-Voldemort?"

The flaming head looked down on him. "Close enough, my slave. I can see just from looking at you that you'll be very useful to my plans."

As scared as he was, anger was able to rise from him. "Did Voldemort send you? Slave? I'm no one's slave!"

The figure soared closer to him. "You've been your father's slave. Don't you want to be free from that?"

His chin jutted out stubbornly. "He used to use me like a slave, like I was good for nothing....but no more!"

It hovered in the air for a few seconds staring at him, as if it were concentrating. Then, without warning, it rose high in the air and zoomed up to his ear. In a whisper, it began chanting in a strange tongue, words that sounded violent and cruel. Other voices seemed to whisper with it, and the air began to tingle around Draco's body.

In an instant the fire being was gone, but the whispers were still fading away, the air sparking and crackling as it was filled with an ancient magic. He couldn't do anything for a minute, his eyes still wide with amazement and ears ringing with the words. Then he made up his mind not to mention this to anyone and headed for the Slytherin common room.

"Ron, what are you doing?" Hermione asked. "Where are we going?" Ron had blindfolded her and was now leading her down a deserted corridor. "And what's on top of my head?" Having convinced himself that Harry wouldn't need it tonight, Ron had also taken Harry's invisibility cloak so they could sneak around the school without being caught.

"Come on, keep quiet. In here," he told her in a hoarse whisper, leading the way. Inside he took off the cloak and carefully shut the door. "Now we can be alone."

"Ron, what are we doing here?" she asked suspiciously.

He smirked mischievously. "We've been going out for five days now, but I've known you for five years."

"So?"

"Hermione, do you know how long I've liked you?"

"Hmm, I don't know," she started sarcastically, "maybe since you saw me with Victor last year and got wickedly jealous?"

"Ok, I admit that it did seem that way....but I've liked you ever since our second year, and I had just been too afraid to say anything."

"And- what does that have to do with us being in an empty classroom at midnight?"

He chuckled. "There has been no difference so far in our relationship, though we are going out. You owe me something." Unhampered by the disgusted look on Hermione's face, he crossed the length between them and kissed her. Hermione bit his tongue.

"Ouch, what was that for?!"

She snorted. "Don't advance on me like that, what did you think you were doing?"

"I don't know, but it didn't involve bleeding to death!" He wiped the edge of his lip where a trickle of blood was coming down. "What was I supposed to say! 'I'm going to kiss you now, is that ok?'" He glared at her. "You're violating the contract!"

Hermione sighed tiredly and pulled herself onto a desk. "You're not going to let me go back to my room until this is over, are you?"

He sighed. "I'm- lonely. I guess it was just instinct." He kissed her again.

Around the corner came a crooked noise. "Yeeeeecchhhhh!" spouted Dumbledore. "This has happened three times already tonight!"

Hermione fell off the desk. "P-prof-fessor!" she gasped. "What are you doing here?"

His face formed a sad look. "Trying to find someone to talk to.......I'm very bored."

"Huh?" said Ron blankly.

"Do you know how boring it is to be able to always win at board games and draw anything out of the air? My only problem is-"

"Yes?" said Ron anxiously.

"I- I can't make shadow puppets," Dumbledore confessed. He sighed heavily. "I guess I'll leave you two alone then, shall I?"

Hermione looked confused. "Aren't we going to get in trouble?"

He chuckled lightly. "Miss Granger, if I punished everyone I caught doing this the school would be empty. Young love is something to be cherished, not punished."

"Huh?" Ron said again. Dumbledore closed the door softly. Deciding that their time of fun was over, Hermione and Ron threw the invisibility cloak back on and went back to Gryffindor Tower.

Harry had been making sure to avoid Draco Malfoy the past three days whenever he could, because he kept getting dark glares whenever they met. He wasn't too keen to start bouncing off the walls anytime soon. It seemed the Slytherins had forgiven Draco, because Pansy was following at his heels again, Crabbe and Goyle were stuck to his sides, and the rest of them kept laughing at Harry, remembering how Draco had made a fool of him.. Draco left Harry completely alone, and Harry couldn't figure out if this was weirderhan his attempts to be kind. Once again, however, Snape was more of a worry than Draco, who'd embarrassed Harry completely yesterday.

Harry had been playing a game of Exploding Snap under his desk with Ron when the whole pile blew up all over Professor Snape's shoes. "Since Potter is playing around like a baby, perhaps he should be treated like one."

He took Harry by the ear and put him in a chair behind his desk, facing the wall. "Time Out for Potter," he sneered. The Slytherins howled with laughter.

Ron was back on his side at a regular basis, though he was in a very bad mood. Harry wondered why. Hermione also joined with him again, finally having forgiven him, but suspiciously avoiding Ron's eyes when the three of them were together.

The next day, in an effort to get the two of them in a better mood, Harry suggested something that he would only do once in a blue moon. "Hey, why don't we go visit Dobby? Hermione, you can check on the house elves?"

Immediately she arose from her stupor in a common room chair, a book called Wars of the Muggles dropping to the floor. "Ok!" she said, grabbing him and Ron by the hands and pulling them to the portrait hole. Just like an excited three year-old, Harry thought. They went down to the familiar painting of a fruit bowl, tickled the pear until it went into hysterics and finally got inside.

"Harry Potter, sir!" squeaked a tiny creature as it launched itself at him. Knocked to floor, Harry managed to croak "Hello, Dobby," before the house elf let him go.

Dobby again looked different from the last time Harry had seen him. He was wearing a black top hat that seemed to be part of a Halloween costume on his large head. On his chest was an orange and white t-shirt, finished with a violet bowtie. His pants were the same soccer shorts as last time, but now he was wearing matching socks and expensive-looking loafers.

"Wow, Dobby!" Hermione exclaimed. "You look- great!" Compared to his last outfit, Harry would agree, but Dobby still looked abnormal.

"Thank you, miss!" He squeaked happily, wiping a small tear from his eye. "Harry Potter is finally visited Dobby again, sir!" Dobby hugged him tight around the knees. He let out of gasp, and yelled excitedly, "Harry Potter must see Winky, sir!

"She's still here?" he asked, bewildered. "I would've thought she'd died from misery."

Dobby grinned good naturally and grabbed him by the arm. "Harry Potter must see her, sir!" Ron and Hermione followed him, puzzled, to the back of the cavernous kitchen, where barrels labeled with various food names stood against the wall. An elf was digging in one of them from atop a stool.

"Winky!" Dobby called." Harry Potter is here, Winky!"

The elf by the barrels turned on the stool, a measuring cup of flour in hand. It was Winky, and she was barely recognizable in her neat clothes. She wore a small white sundress under an apron, a white beret over one flapping ear, which had both been pierced and had golden hoops dangling from them. Very small sandals were on her feet. "Hello sirs and miss!" she said, bowing to the three of them.

With these words, a troop of twelve house elves came running from around the corner. Harry couldn't believe his eyes.

"Oh, my- Dobby-" she started, but couldn't finish.

Every single house elf coming from around the corner was no longer draped with a tea towel, but actual clothes. The females (as far as anyone could tell) were wearing something similar to Winky's apparel, the males in robes of pure white. They bowed repeatedly, but when they rose, all of them were beaming at Hermione.

"It was thanks to you, miss!" one said from the crowd. "We's house elves took a look at Dobby, and we's saw that what yous saying is true!"

Hermione mouthed noiselessly for a moment, then cleared her throat and said, "Are you taking wages now?"

A couple nods came from the group, and Hermione turned to Harry and Ron. "See? I told you that with a little prompting, they could finally be treated as equals!"

"Yeah, but that was Dobby's doing, not yours, "Ron said, taking a jam tart offered by an elf.

A flash of lightning scarred the sky as Lucius stomped into his foyer. "Whoa! whoa!!!! Ouch! What the-?"

"Sorry sir!" said the frail house elf, mop in one hand, bucket in the other.

"You little troll! You- ruined- my dramatic entrance!" He hit the elf over the head with the Evening Prophet in his hand.

"Narcissa!" Lucius called down the expansive hallway. "Is my dinner ready yet!?"

Her head came out from around the corner of the kitchen door. "No, it hasn't even started!" Grunting, he went to the living room door. "And don't you dare go in there, I just waxed the floor!"

"Sheesh, it only takes you two seconds anyway," he yawned. He strolled into the kitchen and sat at the table. With a flick of his wrist, he unrolled the newspaper and scanned the front page. "Ministry of Magic is still trying to catch those Azkaban dementors........... Fudge's interview this afternoon was a mess.....what?"

"What is it, dear?" Narcissa asked, a pot of water in her hands.

"Arthur Weasley of the Ministry of Magic imposes new Dark Arts security program in Muggle streets.......suspicion of transformation of You-Know-Who walking among the non- magic....what a load of rubbish!"

"Have you heard anything about Voldemort lately?"

He pulled his fingers through his hair, sighing heavily. "Only minor details......says he's gone back into hiding, he's weak once again. At least he is in his human form anyway. But the Ministry of Magic isn't too worried. Nobody is, they all think he's dead since that explosion at the last Death Eaters meeting."

"Ha! That was some act you pulled up, dear. I'm sure he was proud?"

"Oh, yes! Except......he did get hurt a little."

She frowned. "How so?

"Oh, just a little.....toasted. He didn't move out of the way when I told him to!" In silence, he read the rest of the newspaper's interesting articles, then chucked it into the trash. "Narcissa, have you sent any packages to Draco lately?"

"I was just going to send him one tomorrow, why?"

"Oh, nothing. There's just something I want to include. Sibby!" he bellowed.

The small house elf came scurrying into the kitchen, looking apprehensive. "Yes, sirs?"

"Help my wife with those pots, now," and he kicked him through the doorway.

"I'll see you later!" Hermione called behind her.

"Where are you going?" shouted Ron across the Great Hall, spraying some pumpkin juice on the table.

"Library!!"

He snorted. "Oh, of course. She can't even stick around to finish eating before running off to do her homework."

"Hey, we got to leave, too," Harry reminded him. "Fred and George wanted a practice tonight."

They raced up the marble staircase and down the corridors to the Gryffindor tower, fetched their brooms and retraced their paces. When they arrived in the locker rooms the whole teams was already there.

"Ok, here's what we're going to do in the first match against Slytherin," Fred explained. "George, will you demonstrate? Now, when the Slytherins come to take the Quaffle, all you have to do is this, Alicia." He smacked George in the nose with his broomstick. "Simple, right?"

Alicia let out a long huff. "We'd better start acting serious, guys, if you want that cup." Harry knew she had a point, but they'd been telling Fred and George this for the last couple weeks and nothing got through to them. Harry was beginning to think they should vote for a new coach.

After getting out onto the pitch and warming up, they began to work through some of their strategies. Harry zoomed around after the Snitch, Alicia, Angelina and Katie worked on passing, Fred and George hit a bludger back and forth and Ron waited by the goalposts for someone to throw the Quaffle over. The whole team seemed disconnected.

Elsewhere, Hermione was finishing scribbling a letter in runes for her homework. Having finished, she gathered up her things in her book bag.

"Oh, no," she sighed as the seams stretched and ripped. Heaving it over her shoulder, she exited the library. The quickest way to Gryffindor tower was a shortcut through the tapestry down the hall, so she decided to take that way.

As carefully as she could, she walked down the corridor, still hearing the threads come apart. "Renervate!" she said, poking her wand at the holes, but since the seams were ripped it hardly did a bit of good.

Suddenly, her bag felt lighter than air, and she turned around. "Ah!"

"Haha. You look like you need some help," Draco sneered.

Hermione blushed crimson, remembering their last confrontation. "I'm quite fine on my own, thanks."

He pulled her bag off her shoulder and muttered a few words, waving his wand. "Now you can fit everything in there."

She looked at him in shock. Then, with as much dignity as she could muster, she said, "I was going to do that as soon as I got back to the common room." She turned on her heel to go, but was grabbed on the arm.

"Wait!" Draco said anxiously. She turned to face him and was surprised at what she saw. His eyes spoke to her as if to say please don't leave me. She was drawn to him, pitied him, and decided to stay and see what this was about. "I-I need your help with something."

"What?"

His hand was still on her arm. "You've probably read the whole library by now" (she scowled at him)"it's just- what do you know about ancient magic?"

Her eyes brightened. "Oh! Well- you mean magick?"

"Whatever. I just need to know."

She removed his hand. "I won't pry..... but all I really know is that it was a practice said to have been developed by the gods of the land. Instead of drawing power from the world, it drew power from them." She pulled on a strand of her hair. "But today magick is considered to be a stronger level of Dark Arts, it's illegal, and the practice has died anyway."

"Are you sure about that?" he asked sincerely.

"Yes, I'm- why? Draco, why are you asking about it?"

She saw him swallow nervously. "I-can't tell you."

The scowl came back to her face. "Fine, then. I won't help you!" She stalked off up the corridor.

"Granger, please!" He sighed helplessly in a way Hermione had never seen him do before. "I- can't tell you what it's about- because I don't even know myself. I need you to help me find out."

She came back over to him, wonder filling her eyes. "Well, whatever we're going to find, it probably won't be here. We'll have to search a lot of libraries, but I don't know when we could."

"Well- what about vacations?"

She looked taken aback. "I'm not going on any vacations with you! Just because I'm helping you doesn't mean-"

He held up a hand to silence her and smirked in his evil way." We'll just see."

"And what does that mean? You're evil Malfoy, I would never-"

"-oh, wouldn't you?" he interrupted. "I see the way you look at me Granger, you know it's true."

She scoffed. "First you accuse me about Harry, and now yourself? What are you, jealous or just self-centered?"

Hermione had expected him to get agitated, but he merely laughed. "Maybe a bit of both?" He continued to laugh at her, and it irked her in an odd way. It was strange to see Draco conversing so lightly with anyone, especially herself, as if she were a childhood friend. And looking into his eyes, they weren't filled with any of the emotions they normally held; hate, distrust, anger.....it was all gone.

She felt an overwhelming urge to hug him, because he also looked so pitiful in this way. Besides acting cheery, she could still see some of the sadness coming from gray eyes. Why hadn't she ever noticed this before this year. "D-draco, I-"

"-you don't have to say anything. It's ok."

Something crossed her mind at that moment. "Hey, won't the Slytherins think something's up if you start hanging around me?"

"What do I care?" he asked, looking irritated at the thought. "They're all stupid anyway, I could win them back with a wink."

Hermione couldn't help smirking. "Okay. I'll help you."

"Really?" he asked her, a true smile spreading his face. "But why? Like you'd said yourself, I'm a Slytherin, I should have nothing to do with you."

She looked down away from his gaze, afraid that she might blush again. "I-can't explain it. Maybe....it's because you're acting respectful for once, but" she paused, wondering if she should go on. "But now when I look at you-"

"Yes?" he asked patiently.

She looked up into his face again, trying to figure out a way to explain it. "When I look at you, I don't see a Slytherin anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I guess that's practically all I thought of you before." His smile flickered. "But now I'm getting to know you and- you seem like an actual person now."

"Hermione-"he started, grabbing her hand. "You promise you'll help me?"

"I promise."

"I- have another favor to ask."

She laughed. "It's okay, what is it?"

He grinned at her hopefully, eyes more pleading than ever. "Will you go steady with me?"

Somewhat scared, she turned to run, but he was still holding her hand tightly. "What's wrong? Hermione!"

"I don't even know you!" she exclaimed, still trying to pull away. "This is all a big joke again!"

"Hey, look at me! Listen to me!" He wasn't angry, but his voice rose to a demanding tone. More scared than ever, she turned to face him.

"It's not a joke," he assured her. "I- really didn't mean to ask you, it just came over me."

"Oh," she replied, looking thoroughly relieved.

"But now that I've asked you, I might as well get an answer." He grabbed her other hand too, preventing any escape.

"Draco, I can't!!!" she yelled, looking away from his eyes. They had almost forced her to say 'yes.'

"Why not?" he asked, the frustration coming back into his eyes. After a long pause, he turned her face towards his. "Why not!" He was frightening close, she could feel his restless breath on her face.

"Draco, leave me alone!" she cried, closing her eyes.

"I'm not until you answer me! Hermione," he said, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Just please- I need to know."

She couldn't tell him, she wouldn't. But she knew he wouldn't let her move until she said something.

"I don't know how I feel about you, Draco." He looked slightly hurt. "It's nothing wrong with you!" she said "I just- don't know you that well, that's all."

He stared at her for a moment, then finally let her go. "Oh." A kind of gloom came over his face, and Hermione felt disconnected from him once more.

"Draco, are you mad at me?"

She got no answer.

"Draco?"

He turned to face her, and her first thought was that this was a trick of

a male veela. He looked positively irresistible, eyes shining bright and clear like raindrops, his cheekbones pronounced by the flickering torchlight, hair radiating and glowing. His robes parted slightly, revealing his smooth neck. Hermione never felt so attracted to anyone. Her first instinct was to get as close to him as possible, but her common sense held her back. Had Draco actually learned how to use this fatal attraction? Was he, perhaps, part-veela?

"Hermione, please." He came right in front of her, grabbing her waist abruptly.. With an insane urge she couldn't help she leaned against him and looked deep into his eyes. He closed his as he kissed her. Such bliss she'd never felt. Was this what it was like kissing a male veela, or was something just wrong with Ron? Warmth spread throughout her body, she was shaking, kissing him back passionately. He held her in his arms for what seemed like hours, and her body felt electrified by his touch.

She was beginning to wonder if even Draco knew what he was doing. He had begun to kiss her even more fiercely, almost painfully, and his hands seemed to be everywhere. Normally Hermione would've smacked him by now, but she felt like she was in some sort of dreamy trance. It was only until his hand started creeping up her shirt that she snapped out of it.

"Draco!" she yelled, stepping away from him and adjusting her top. She refused to look at him, thinking he would put on the charm again and she would be stuck there for another ten minutes. Instead she looked at the floor. Clearing her throat she announced, "It's getting late, and I still have homework to do." Saying no more and keeping her head down, she started to walk off.

"Can we meet like this again?" he called after her. She faced him, saw the veela effects were wearing off now, but could still hold her in captivation.

Smiling despite herself she simply answered, "We'll see."

The next day came the Halloween feast. The Great Hall was decked out with hundreds of floating jack- o- lanterns, live bats, and included great black fogs surrounding the house tables. Harry, Ron and Hermione headed down together at five 'o' clock, and met Hagrid by the doors.

"Hello, Hagrid!" Harry, greeted him from behind the large pumpkin he was carrying in.

"Alo, Harry! Ron, Hermione. Just takin' this o'er to the stairs." And he disappeared.

Later in the night, the whole school was packed inside the Great Hall, staring expectantly at their golden plates. Dumbledore stood up, announced the feast to begin, and they magically filled before their eyes. The enchanted ceiling was clouded over, except a crescent moon shown clearly in the sky.

After several minutes, something happened so fast and abrupt that Harry didn't have time to take it in. One second, he was looking at the staff table, glaring at Snape and then fixing his gaze on Dumbledore; the next, Dumbledore had vanished from his seat.

"Albus!" Professor McGonagall cried, standing up. In shock, she reached over to his vacant seat and felt the air, as if hoping he were invisible. Murmuring spread through the hall, and the staff had trouble calming everyone down.

"Silence!!" Snape hissed. "If the prefects would please, lead their students back up to the dormitories." Harry wondered why Professor Snape was suddenly taking charge, when Professor McGonagall was Deputy Headmistress. Ron mouthed, astonished, next to him.

"I don't understand," Harry whispered fiercely. "What would make Dumbledore disappear?