All Harry Potter Characters don't belong to me.
The Source - Chapter Fourteen
"Speaking"
<Thinking>
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Harry, Hermione and Ron were in the old Charms room first thing in the morning, waiting for their teacher to arrive. They were chatting casually when the door opened and in came Dumbledore along with three other people.
"Ah. You three are already here. That's good. Now I would like to introduce you to your teachers." Dumbledore stepped aside so that two men and a woman could be seen.
"Hermione," Dumbledore gestured to the lady, "This is Miss Lichtenstein. She will be teaching you advanced charms and spells."
Miss Lichtenstein was in her early thirties, tall and skinny with straight dark brown hair. She stepped forward and shook Hermione's hand.
"It's nice to meet you Hermione. I have heard a lot about the wonderful things you have done while helping defeat the Dark Lord and am very happy to be teaching you."
Hermione blushed while shaking her hand. "Thank you Miss Lichtenstein. It's nice to meet you too."
"Miss Lichtenstein, could you take Hermione to the room I have organised for you so you can start straight away?" Dumbledore asked.
"Of course," she answered.
Miss Lichtenstein and Hermione left the room and Hermione waved goodbye to her two friends.
Dumbledore then gesture towards a man with curly brown hair and glasses.
"Ron, this is Mr. Whiteman. He will be training you in battle strategy and other tactical skills needed in battle."
"Hi there, Ron," Mr. Whiteman said enthusiastically while shaking Ron's hand vigorously, "I've heard that you're quite the chess player. How about a game sometime?"
"That would be brilliant," Ron replied happily.
The two left the room and Ron waved goodbye to Harry.
The last person who was left had a very short hair cut and looked like he was in the army. He was standing tall and straight and was very bulky.
"Harry, this is…"
Dumbledore couldn't finish his sentence because at that instant the door flung open and in walked Draco.
"Sorry I'm late," Draco said callously.
All three people were very surprised, so no one spoke for a few seconds and just stared.
<Weasley was right. Their faces really are priceless to see> Draco thought.
Dumbledore was the first to return back to normal and cleared his throat.
"Glad you could join us, Draco. Now as I was saying, this is Mr. Gilding. He will be teaching you all forms of defence and many different curses and hexes."
Mr. Gilding gripped Harry's hand and shook it hard; he then did the same with Draco. Both boys cringed slightly at this mans strong handshake and secretly rubbed their hands after he had released it.
"I'll be leaving you to it then, Mr. Gilding," Dumbledore said before he left the room, closing the door behind him.
Draco and Harry gave each other worried glances.
"ATTENTION!"
Both boys jumped at the loud voice and turned to their new teacher, Mr. Gilding.
"Today you will be learning to shield and reflect spells and objects. Now take out your wand and repeat after me," he bellowed in a sergeant kind of voice and tone.
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Mr. Gilding had taught them the spells and had started charming little pebbles to start shooting out at them. They had to use the spells they learned to shield themselves and also to repel the stones backwards.
Draco and Harry were standing in the middle of the empty room casting shields and spells to stop pebbles from hitting them when Harry asked Draco a question.
"What made you change your mind, Malfoy?" Harry managed to say while dodging a pebble.
After reflecting a pebble, Draco took a quick glance at Harry and answered, "I just didn't want to disappoint someone."
Harry cast a quick shield to prevent himself from being hit, "Must be someone really special then."
Draco smirked, "It's also because I really want to kick your ass, Potter."
Harry smiled, "Can't wait to kick your ass too, Malfoy."
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The two morning periods were over and Mr. Gilding had left immediately. Harry and Draco were picking up their discarded cloaks and putting them on when Hermione and Ron burst into the room talking non-stop about how exciting it was.
When they notice that Draco was also in the room they fell silent and just stared.
Harry smile and Draco smirked.
"Hi guys," Harry said cheerfully.
Hermione and Ron were still staring at Draco and had questioning looks on their faces
Draco had finished putting on his cloak and was still smirking. <This really is quite funny. Too bad the little weasel isn't here to see it.>
"If you don't mind, Granger and Weasley, I do want to get out of this room some time today," he said nonchalantly
Hermione and Ron stepped aside and watched as Draco strolled out of the room. Once he was gone they bombarded Harry with questions.
"What is he doing here?" Ron asked.
"I thought he said he wasn't interested," Hermione questioned.
Harry put his arms around his two friend's shoulders and led them out of the room.
"I'll tell you guys over morning tea. Now let's go get some, I'm really hungry."
(AN: I don't know how their classes work so I'm just guessing that they have two periods then morning tea, another two periods and lunch, then the last two periods and then they have some time before dinner.)
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Ginny was already at the Gryffindor table eating an apple when the trio came in and sat next to her. Ron quickly said "Hi" to his sister and then turned his attention back to Harry.
"... and then you guys came in and he left," Harry was finishing off telling them what happened.
"The git just walked in and that's it?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, he just changed his mind overnight I guess," Harry answered while grabbing a muffin.
Hermione was peeling a banana and looked up to give her opinion, "Must be someone really important to have such a dramatic affect on Malfoy."
Harry and Ron both nodded.
"So what did you two learn?" Hermione asked excitedly.
Ginny stopped listening to their conversation and went back to eating her apple.
<So he did end up going to the lessons.> Ginny smiled behind her apple as she remembered Hermione saying someone had influence Draco's decision. Her gaze travelled over to the Slytherin table and landed on Draco. He had his head down and was engrossed in reading his potions textbook.
<Must be studying for the potions test they have next.> Ginny got up from her seat and went out of the great hall to head for her next class, which was all the way out at Hagrid's hut.
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Draco looked up from his book and his gaze followed Ginny out of the Hall. He knew she had been looking at him from the Gryffindor table. He could sense her gaze, but he didn't want her to see him looking back at her, so he pretended to read his book.
Draco slammed the book shut and grabbed a muffin from the plate. Some other Slytherin's that were gossiping at the end of the table ran up to Draco and sat next to him.
"So Malfoy, rumour goes that you've accepted Auror training with Potter, the Weasel and the Mudblood. Is it true?"
A bunch of Slytherins had surrounded him and even a few people from other houses were gathering around him.
Draco smirked at the attention he was getting. "What's it to you?" he answered evenly.
"Come on Malfoy," Exclaimed a 7th year from his house. This caused murmurs of agreement from the people gathered around. Draco just enjoyed the attention more.
A hand then slid onto his shoulder and Draco's gaze travelled up to meet Pansy's face.
"Yeah Draco. You only have to answer a yes or a no," she said very close to his ear.
The crowd went silent and waited for him to answer.
Draco was feeling very uncomfortable. Not because of everyone staring at him but because of Pansy's touch and the feeling of her breath near his ear. He hated it.
Draco cleared his throat and shook his shoulder to get her hand off his shoulder.
"Yes, I am training with Potter," he scanned everyone's faces and saw that all of them had frozen and were starring blankly at him.
Draco had a placid face on but was laughing on the inside.
<I should really take a photo.> He then got up from his seat and walked out of the great hall to go to potions.
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It was the end of period six and everyone was rushing off to meet their friends before dinner, but Ginny was walking alone down the hall towards the dungeons because Professor Snape had wanted to see her.
Ginny knocked on the door to the potions room and walked inside. Snape was writing something on the board and didn't turn around. Ginny waited at the front of the desk patiently and then Snape turned around so quickly Ginny gave a little yelp.
"Miss Weasley. Answer the question on the board within 2 minutes or I'll deduct 50 house points. Your time starts now," Snape yelled
Ginny was surprised at first but then read the question quickly and smiled. It was an easy question. She walked up to the board and started writing the answer with a piece of chalk. She finished 30 seconds early.
"Is that correct Professor?" she asked with a smile.
Snape didn't answer. Instead he threw some papers onto his desk.
"Please explain to me then, Miss. Weasley why you could answer a 7th year exam question but failed to answer a slightly difficult 6th year question?"
Ginny looked at the stack of papers and notice that it was the Exam she took a few days ago.
Snape was glaring at Ginny. "I was one of the examiners at Medica, Miss Weasley, and I found it quite interesting how you could possible answer a simple question on deedle roots wrong. I do not appreciate students who sit tests just to deliberately fail. Do you know that it is because of this that you will not be accepted into Medica?"
Ginny was ecstatic and was grinning like mad.
"So does that mean I got everything else right professor?" she asked excitedly.
Snape was confused by her reaction but still answered her, "Yes."
Ginny was grinning even more now. "So do you know if anyone from Hogwarts has been accepted into Medica Professor?"
Snape frowned, "No one from Hogwarts has been accepted. If you hadn't answered that simple question wrong, Miss Weasley I'm sure it would have been you."
Ginny had her head bowed down now; she didn't want to look at her potions teacher anymore.
"You may go now Miss Weasley," Snape said coldly.
Ginny turned around and left the potions room.
Snape sat down in his chair and was staring at Ginny's exam paper. Draco poked his head out from the back room and seeing Ginny had gone walked up to his Professor.
"Why did she do that Professor?" Draco asked.
Snape looked up at Draco, one his favourite and most talented students.
"I don't know Mr. Malfoy. I do not ignore talent when I see it. And I will admit that Miss Weasley is truly talented in potions. But the stupid girl doesn't want to show it for some reason. She could have easily advanced to the 7th year level of potions but she refused it when Dumbledore offered it to her. Don't know how the girl thinks."
Snape sighed, "Anyways, have you finished that potion, Mr. Malfoy?"
"Yes, I have Professor," Draco answered.
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Ginny was sitting in the soft comfy chair and was staring at the back of Draco's head while smiling. She was really happy that he accepted the Auror training.
"Take a picture, it lasts longer," Draco said coolly and then turned around in his chair to look at Ginny.
Ginny just smiled more, "Don't have to. I have several already."
Draco raised one of his eyebrows. "Why do I not find that surprising," he asked.
Ginny giggled, "Because you should have learned by now not to be surprised at anything I have, do or know."
Draco smirked, "Then I guess I should not be surprised at how you deliberately failed the entrance exam to Medica, and still manage to be happy about it."
Ginny frowned, "How did you know about that?" she asked.
Draco shook his head, "I'll tell you how, if you tell me why."
Ginny pouted. She sat there grumpily refusing to be blackmailed by Draco but she just couldn't think of how he could know.
"Fine," she said, giving up, "I deliberately answered that question wrong because I wanted to see how smart I am, but at the same time not get accepted into Medica."
Draco was confused. He thought about it for a moment and then it occurred to him. She didn't want to go to Medica because her family couldn't afford it, but then she also wanted to know if she was good enough to get into it. That's why she deliberately put the wrong answer to a question she knew the answer to, so that even if she didn't get accepted she would know that it wasn't because she was not intelligent enough but because she chose not to answer correctly.
"So how did you know Malfoy?" Ginny interrupted Draco's thoughts.
Draco snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her, "I was in the backroom."
Ginny nodded, "So you heard everything."
"Yeah," Draco said softly. He thought some more about it and got frustrated so he got up and paced his room. He really didn't understand how she could give up such a great opportunity.
"You know Weasley; even Snape said that you were talented in Potions. You could achieve so much if you go to that college."
Ginny sighed, "If I go there Malfoy, I won't be able to do business anymore. I have to help pay of the loan remember? I can't just forget about my family."
"Why can't you not worry about your family for once in your life and just do something for yourself," Draco said heatedly.
"Because my family is my life, I would do anything for them," Ginny said firmly.
"Even give up your whole future."
"I would even give up my life."
The room fell silent. The meaning of her words was sinking into Draco's mind. She would even die for them. His father had also risked his life for his family. Could Draco do that too?
Ginny saw that Draco was thinking hard about what she said.
<He is probably thinking about his family,> she didn't want him to remember such sad moments.
"It's really not that bad Malfoy," she said softly, "If I'm as good as Snape thinks I am, then I can still be a great Medi-witch no matter where I learn."
Draco looked into her eyes and just nodded. Ginny smiled,
"OK. Well here's your medicine. I have to go now, got customers to attend to."
Draco sat in his chair the whole night thinking about his father. <Can I be as brave as you and die for my family?>
End of Chapter Fourteen. Thanks for reading and I Hope you Review.
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