The Breakfast Club of Hogwarts

“Alright, everyone! Wake up, you bunch of sniveling idiots,” Snape snarled at the sleeping bunch of students that lay in various positions in his classroom. His lip curled at the way the teenagers were sprawled out on his desk, one or two of them actually drooling. As they began to stir he growled, “Who has to go to the lavatory?”

A hand from every one of the rumpled forms made its way into the air groggily and there were a few groans from the boys in the room. Snape growled to himself and nodded his head curtly.

“You have five minutes. Starting now,” he said contemptuously watching the students walk out of the classroom hurriedly. He waited impatiently for them to filter back in slowly and once they were all back he continued to say, “I'll be back when it's time for you miscreants to eat. Until then, I better not hear another sound from this room.”

He swept out of the room with another glowering look, once again leaving the group to their own devices. Malfoy sighed after the door closed and leaned back in his chair, relaxing. Harry stretched as well, popping his neck silently and rolling his eyes at Malfoy's theatrics.

Hermione watched curiously as Luna sat in her corner undisturbed sketching earnestly. All of a sudden the girl shook her hair furiously, and dandruff flew from the girl's drably blonde hair. Hermione frowned in disgust and looked away as Luna proceeded to shake the white dandruff onto her picture. Ginny cleared her throat as she saw Hermione's reaction and exchanged a knowing look with her.

The hours passed a little more quickly and soon it was midmorning. Malfoy had begun to rustle around the room again and he started to take books off Snape's shelf, inspecting them. In one book, he began to suddenly tear at the pages furiously, scattering the pages everywhere.

“That's real intelligent,” Hermione commented snidely. She shook her head disapprovingly at him and pursed her lips.

“You're right, Granger...” he said pointedly as he tore out a few more pages. “It's wrong to destroy such literature.” He held the book up so the room could see the title that scrolled DARK MAGIC AND ITS USES. He continued on without detriment tearing the pages out and throwing them to the floor. “It's…such…fun…to…read…” he said laboriously, punctuating each word with another page torn out of the book.

“Merlin, Granger,” Malfoy continued, “nobody even cares about books anymore, except you, if you hadn't noticed.” He smirked at her and turned back to the book he had in his hands, studying the damage he had done.

“Speak for yourself,” Harry snorted in derision. Hermione shot him a thankful glance as she tried to cover up the wound Malfoy had caused her.

“Do you think I would be speaking for you?” Malfoy replied savagely, turning his cold glare on Harry. He sneered and continued evenly, “I don't even know your language, Golden Boy.”

Harry turned to Ginny, ignoring Malfoy's barb pointedly, and asked her, “What are you doing tonight? Going into Hogsmeade?” She shrugged in response and sighed.

“I don't know. My parents don't want me to go into town anymore, but Ron told me to just blow them off,” she explained with a rueful half-smile. He twisted around in his chair so he could see her better and she ran a hand through her hair unhappily.

“Well, there's a bunch of us getting together at The Three Broomsticks. Should be pretty fun…” Harry continued, his eyes fixed on her as she continued to play with her hair.

“Yeah?” she asked, perking up a little.

“Yeah, can you go?' he asked offhandedly, ignoring a doubtful snort that came from Malfoy's direction.

“I doubt it…” she replied with another big sigh. Harry shrank back in his chair in a moment before asking her continuing.

“How come?” he asked curiously, not noticing that he had attracted the looks of everyone sitting in the room with this conversation.

Ginny leaned forward and continued in a more theatrical tone, “Well, because if I do what my parents tell me not to do, it's because my brother says it's okay.” She sighed and went on, “Then, there would be this whole big deal about how they knew better than he did and it's just like any minute…they'll blow up on him just like they did with Percy.”

“Who do you like better?” Malfoy suddenly jumped into the conversation. His cold blue eyes were lit with a strange inquisitiveness at Ginny's plight. Ginny started from her position and looked over to him in surprise.

“What?” she asked incredulously, her face puzzled at his question.

“You like your brother better than your parents?” he the question again, slowly this time as if she hadn't comprehended his words the first time and not that she just hadn't understood his meaning.

“They're both a bit overprotective, I guess,” Ginny finally replied after a moment of thoughtfulness.

“No...” He shook his head as he spoke, as if amazed by her stupidity regarding his question. “I mean, if you had to choose between them, who would you pick?” His eyes sparkled dangerously with the subject of tearing apart families. It seemed such a strange fascination to him that it made everyone else stagger for a moment.

“I don't know…” Ginny answered slowly, her voice laden with careful thought. “I guess I'd go live with Charlie. I mean I don't think my parents or Ron really care, they just use me to get back at each other most of the time. Hazards of being the youngest child, I guess.”

“HA!” Luna laughed suddenly and everyone in the room jumped and looked around at her. She smiled mysteriously as Ginny and then turned back to her bottle cap necklace.

“Shut up!” Ginny cried, wounded at the laughter.

“You're just feeling sorry for yourself anyways,” Hermione broke in, shaking her head in disbelief. Ginny leveled her with a glare and opened her mouth a few times before responding.

“Yeah, well if I didn't nobody else would,” Ginny finally responded turning away from everyone and burying her head in her arms.

“You're breaking my heart, Weasley,” Malfoy commented snidely, leaning back in his chair again. His eyes fixed on her thirstily, drinking in her negative emotions. Then he cocked his head suddenly and swung around to face Hermione. “Granger…do you get along with your parents?”

He jumped up from his chair and went over to Hermione's table. He pulled up a chair and pretended to study her intently. Hermione shifted uncomfortably and scooted to the farthest end of the table away from him as if it would make a difference. She tossed her hair and sniffed a little before answering.

“Well, if I say yes I'm an idiot for liking them, right?” she challenged the snarky Slytherin with a cutting tone. He shifted and leaned toward her, closing the distance between them.

“You're an idiot anyways, Granger. But…if you say you get along with your parents you're a liar too!” Malfoy replied softly and then jumped out of his chair, returning to his own. Harry rose from his chair in Hermione's defense.

“You know something, Malfoy, if we weren't in detention right now, I would waste you,” Harry snarled and hit the desk Malfoy was sitting at for emphasis. Malfoy curled his lip and waved his middle finger at Harry menacingly.

“It's not like it bothers Granger…she must be used to it by now. Almost as used to it as the Weasel over there,” Malfoy gibed, throwing a nasty sidelong look at Ginny.

“She's got a name, you know!” Harry yelled at Malfoy. Malfoy looked quickly at everyone in the room as if in shock at such an exclamation. He then sauntered over to Ginny as if looking at her for the first time.

“Really, I would have never guessed. What's your name, Weasel?” Malfoy asked in an innocent tone.

“Ginny,” she answered coldly, crossing her arms in front of her in defense.

“Ginny?” Malfoy asked incredulously. “What kind of name is that?”

“It's a family name!” she cried out.

“No, it's a fat girl's name,” he corrected her and sniggered at his own joke. She glared at him and sputtered, her face growing a deep scarlet red.

“I'm not fat!” she argued desperately, leaning towards him in defense.

“Well…not at the present, but I could see you really pushing maximum density one day,” Malfoy observed as he continued looking Ginny up and down. He sat down next to her and continued, “You see, I'm not sure if you realize this but there are two kinds of fat people in the world, Ginny. There's the fat people that were born to be fat, say like Pansy Parkinson, and then there are fat people that were once thin but have become fat…so when you look at them you can still see that thin person inside.”

He paused and looked sideways at her again and then looked around the room. He leaned back satisfied at having the whole room's attention before continuing by saying, “You see, you're going to get married, you're gonna squeeze out a whole litter of red-headed brats just like your mother did and then…well…” He stopped as if at a loss for words and gestured a huge human shape in the air.

Ginny huffed and showed him a rude gesture with her hand. She glared and crossed her arms again, setting her jaw defiantly.

“Ohh, obscene finger gestures from such a pristine girl!” Malfoy sneered contemptuously, looking strangely pleased after a moment.

“I'm not so pristine!” Ginny dissented angrily.

Malfoy stirred from his position and scooted his chair so he sat a little closer to Ginny. He dropped his voice to a dramatic whisper and asked, “Are you a virgin? I'll bet you a million galleons that you are! Let's save us all the suspense…is it going to be a white wedding?”

“Why don't you just shut up?” Ginny turned away from him in frustration. Her hands ran through her hair nervously and a small spasm went through her as Malfoy started up his questioning again.

“Have you ever even kissed a boy on the mouth?” he asked doubtfully. Ginny turned to look at him again with an annoyed countenance. She opened her mouth to respond but he continued before she could. “Have you ever been felt up?” He leaned dangerously close to her before saying, “Over the bra, under the blouse, shoes off…hoping to Merlin no one walks in on you?”

Ginny turned away again, her eyes watering a bit. She seemed to gather herself up before asking, “Do you want me to puke or something?”

Malfoy looked as if he might continue but Harry interjected with, “Leave her alone, Malfoy.” Malfoy stood and walked over to where Harry was leaning against a desk.

“You going to make me, Golden Boy?” Malfoy challenged with another sneer.

“Yeah,” Harry laughed as he nodded.

“You and how many of your friends?” the Slytherin snarled threateningly. He reached for his wand a second before realizing that it has been taken up. He then took up a defensive stance and glared at Harry.

Harry shrugged and answered, “Just me. Two hits. Me hitting you and you hitting the ground. Anytime you're ready, scum!” Malfoy swung clumsily at Harry, but Harry ducked with ease and wrestled Malfoy to the ground. Malfoy wrenched himself free and smoothed his hair back.

“I don't want to get into this with you, Potter,” Malfoy said after he had fixed his hair to his satisfaction. Harry stopped and studied him for a moment.

“Why not?” Harry asked with a dry laugh.

“Cause…I'd kill you.” Malfoy shrugged noncommittally. “It's real simple, I'd kill you and fucking Dumbledore would come after me and it would be a big mess. I just don't care about you enough to risk it.”

Harry walked away, muttering about Malfoy under his breath.

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

Review please!