Disclaimer: I don't own HP. JK Rowling does.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews, they really mean a lot to me. So if you read, please leave a comment, it takes you little time and makes my day! Now, on with the story, hope you'll like this chapter. I surely did writing it! lol
Chapter Three
"War"
Next day, Goyle, who had seen them at the Quidditch pitch reported it to the Head Boy.
"She was laughing and chatting with that insect"
"Son of bitch" Draco muttered. "It's time to eliminate that cancer"
"Ah, don't worry. We're gonna pass a blast of a Christmas"
"Wish I could. I'm gonna have Christmas dinner at Hermione's"
"Sounds special. Will Potter be there too?" his friend asked, teasing him.
Just then Marietta entered. "Hi, Draco. Anything I can do for you today?"
A great idea came to Malfoy's mind.
He made Marietta write a letter to Harry, feigning to be Hermione.
"Dear Harry…" then they sent it to him on Christmas' Eve.
He received it while attending a party he had organised.
"…I'm waiting for you tonight. Hermione" he finished reading. "She's invited me over at her parents' house. This is big" he said to Neville. "I'm going"
"Doesn't she have a boyfriend?" the boy objected.
"Details. Just details"
"Harry, wait, the party…" once again Neville tried stopping him. He sensed something was amiss.
"You and Ron will manage without me. You know why I've chosen you as my assistant? That's because I've seen potential to be great in you" he said, then flew with his broom to Hogsmeade, and from there he Apparated in front of Hermione's house. The address was on the letter.
He shrunk his broom and put it in his pocket, conjured flowers and champagne, then rang the bell.
Hermione's mother opened.
"Hello"
"Hi" Harry said politely.
"Can I help you?" she asked smiling, looking at the flowers and the champagne.
"Yeah, I'm Harry…"
"Harry, you made it!" Malfoy said, appearing in the entrance.
That was the moment Harry understood maybe Neville had been right in his insistence of not letting him go there.
"Helen, this is a friend of Hermione's from school. There's room for him, isn't it?" Draco continued politely.
"Oh, of course. Come in please" she said.
Harry smiled uncertainly, then entered, offering the wine and the flowers to Helen.
Draco proceeded to present him to all the people in the house.
"Excuse me gentlemen. Harry, that's doctor McFrairy, surgeon"
"Oh, holy crap, I hope you're not here on duty" Harry said, shaking the man's hand.
"Doctor Sandlerton" Draco continued.
"Harry Potter, really G.L.A.D. to know you" Harry said.
"And finally Hermione's father"
"Oh, here's difficult. Doctor…Granger?" Harry joked.
Robert Granger looked at him icily. "Indeed" he said shaking the boy's hand.
"Indeed. Super" Harry said. "So, are you here to check up me? I'll need some cocktails before I start coughing for you" he added then, once again trying to light the mood that was not really joyous in that room.
Then they heard steps from behind. They turned and Hermione was there.
"What are you doing here?" she mouthed to Harry, an hint of a smile at the corner of her lips. She was oblivious of Malfoy.
"If only I knew" he mouthed back.
However, dinner passed smoothly. Hermione sat between Harry and Draco, trying to include the surprise guest in the conversation going on as often as she could, trying to not make him feel secluded.
After that, they reunited in the living room for some chatting.
"Mr. Potter is quite the Hogwarts veteran. He's in his ninth year there, is it?" Draco said.
"No. It's tenth, actually. Round number" Harry corrected him.
"What are you studying, son?" Dr. Sandlerton asked.
"Well, more or less everything. All what Hogwarts can offer me"
Malfoy looked at the others like saying: "Excuse him, he's a poor dement" but no one apart from Hermione noticed.
"Surely you've a career in mind?" Robert asked.
"No, not really. I'm looking for "being great" situations"
Draco rolled his eyes.
"Maybe he's looking for a "be employed" situation" he said. Hermione glared at him.
If looks could kill, Draco Malfoy would have died that night with that single look.
"The student population finds him so intriguing that my boss at the newspaper has asked me to write an article on him" she said, trying to help Harry, and unthinkingly placing her hand on his one.
"It's great!" Helen said excitedly.
Draco decided to try and be civil to not expose himself too much. "The newspaper will sell a lot"
"Well, Mione is a very talented reporter" Harry said, looking at her. She blushed a little.
"Are you and Draco in the same club?" Dr. McFrairy's wife asked.
"No. Harry is not exactly material for the "Delta Iota Kappa"" Draco said, underlining it like if he was implying Harry was some kind of disturbed and retarded boy.
"Draco, you rascal, you never told me you were a DIK!" Harry blurted out, earning himself an icy stare from Robert and Hermione's boyfriend.
"I'm gonna take more champagne" Hermione said, standing up. "Draco, care to help me?"
"Of course" he said, following her.
"Wow. If he's here, who's running hell?" Harry said, when they were out of earshot.
Once in the kitchen, she vented her anger at him.
"What exactly do you think you're doing right now?" she spat.
"Proving a point. He's a illness, I'm the cure" Draco replied calmly.
"I can't believe you're doing this"
"Pop quiz for you. True or false. Have you spent lots of time with that buffoon lately?"
"True. Now a quiz for you. You are a) an asshole b) an asshole who isn't staying at my place tonight, c) both"
"Can you repeat the b option?" he said attempting a joke. But he was not Harry, so he had no success. She simply stomped away fuming.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Saving Harry. God knows what my parents and those arrogant friends of theirs are doing to him"
But when she entered the living room, a funny show was there.
Harry had managed to get the adults enjoy the night, so some of them were dancing, others were drinking, her parents were playing a sexy game in which Helen had something in her bra and Robert had to retrieve it just using his mouth…
"Hey, you're really a pro, do you know that, Dr. G?" he said to her father. Then it was time for Dr. Sandlerton and his wife to try. "Change of field, my dear" he announced to Hermione's parents. They all laughed.
She couldn't help to laugh. He winked at her.
A week later, classed had restarted. On Sunday, Harry went flying early in the morning with Neville. They met Snape.
"What has happened to you Potter? You at least had the decency to come to lessons once. Remember, boy: "Apathy is the glove where devil slips his hand"".
"I'll write it down" Harry said, walking past the teacher.
"You don't fool anyone, Potter. You just fool yourself!" Snape bellowed behind him.
Later, when they were flying back to the castle, he saw Hermione in the grounds, looking up in the sky. She was prettily dressed, with her hair in a ponytail, fitting jeans, a light violet shirt and a matching sweater on it. She looked directly at him, seductively.
"Why don't you go ahead?" he said to his assistant.
"I'll wait for you in your flat" Neville said contemporarily, flying away.
She crooked her lips in a hint of a smile seeing the scene.
"Are you stalking me?" Harry asked playfully, landing near her. "Because that would be super"
"Ah, my mother wanted for you to come over for a tea with her friends" she said teasing him.
"What's that, a punishment? Oh, I got it. You were joking, weren't you?" he asked, and looked at her.
She grinned at him, but soon her smile faltered a bit.
She couldn't believe how much she felt melting in his green pools.
For some moments they lost themselves in each other eyes.
Finally she managed to shake herself from the daze. "I wanted to apologize for Draco's behaviour. He's so immature at times"
"Yeah, I know. But sometimes we guys do silly things" he said, a devilish gleam in his eye. She didn't notice though, and smiled warmly at him while they started walking back to the castle.
That afternoon, Harry, Ron and Neville charmed an old sock of Ron's as a Portkey and landed in Ron's twin brothers' shop.
"Hey Fred, George!" Ron called.
"Fred! Come, Ickle Ronniekins is here!" George said, appearing from behind some shelves.
They chatted a little, then Harry explained the problem.
"So you want revenge on him, don't you?" Fred said.
"Yeah, you can count on it!" Harry exclaimed. "Give me the foulest prank you have!"
The twins grinned devilishly.
"This our latest production. It's a paste that turns you in a dog"
"Ah, that's not foul enough" Harry said, dismissing it.
"Wait a moment, Vengeance Man. If you combine it with this other product…" Fred said, "…you'll see what happens next! Don't want to spoil your fun"
Neville looked scared.
Harry grinned. "I'm sure it will do. The two of you can be pretty scary when it comes to pranks…"
So they Portkeyed back to the castle and there they proceeded to mix the small cakes with the clear yellow liquid.
Then they packed all and sent the basket to the "Delta Iota Kappa" common room with a school owl.
There, Marietta took the gift from the animal.
"Hey, guys! Here's a gift from the… "Hogwarts Cheerleaders"?" she said.
"I've never heard of such a club" Goyle said.
"Well, you don't know all the clubs in the school do you? Let's enjoy what our charming selves have brought to us" Draco said, and so they started eating.
"They're still hot" Malfoy said, taking one.
"Never eaten something better" Goyle mumbled with his mouth full.
Soon they were all transformed in dogs, running into the common room like mad, Marietta stalking Draco in their dog forms, female birds entering from the windows and chasing them, female snakes coming up from the grounds and slithering into the room, following the crazy dogs.
The liquid made the dog-form student attract every female in the range of twenty miles, without race differences…animal, girls, everyone stalked them!
After few hours of total madness, and their common room ruined, they transformed back to normal. They lay on the floor exhausted.
That night, Neville had his big date with Naomi. Harry and Ron had left him the dorm, and had gone out to give them privacy.
So he started the music, soft one as Harry had suggested. He had chosen the Beatles, as Monique had told him she liked that Muggle band.
Then he lighted the candles. Ron had recommended them to him, as "nothing is cosier than some good perfumed candles", and he was trying not to be nervous.
"I love those songs" she said.
"I know, those are the Beatles"
"You know, I'm a bit hot here. Wouldn't you like to have a nice bath?" she said seductively.
"Oh, well…why not?" he said. So they slowly undressed.
"And now what I'm going to tell her?" Neville muttered when he saw her in her underwear. Then they entered the tub Harry had in the middle of their "flat".
Neville started soaping her, and now and then the soap would slip from his hand, so he would have to search it underwater, thus touching Monique even in her most intimate parts. That would made her shudder.
"Sorry" he would say then.
"Don't be" she replied huskily. Then the soap fell from Neville's hand on the floor and so he had to exit the tub to retrieve it. But he was wet and soapy too, so he slipped and crashed some candles.
In the meantime Monique had exited the tub too, and was now lying on the bed, a towel under her. She was aroused by the bath they had shared together, so she closed her eyes, waiting for Nev to come to her.
She didn't notice the flames taking the curtains, a small box on the ground, and worse of all, the back of Neville's hair, that was still dry so took on fire quickly.
He didn't notice too at first, so he neared her.
"I'm so aroused" she said wantonly.
"I'm too. This is the peak of my life" Nev said.
"Baby, I'm almost on MY peak. Come here" she said.
He did, kneeling on the bed in front of her.
"I'm so hot" he said.
"I'm hot too"
"I'm burning!" he screamed then, finally noticing the pain of his hair on fire. She noticed too then, and screamed at the top of her lungs. Neville ran to the tub, but tripped on a carpet and so he knocked it over, the water extinguishing the fire in the flat, but leaving him with the problem.
Outside, Harry and Ron were walking back to the castle.
"Wonder how did Neville's date go" Ron said, sipping a Butterbeer.
"Beatles, cosy setting…we can't be too far from the climax, eh?" Harry mused chuckling. Just then their friend crashed a window and flew himself into the lake with all his broom.
Harry and Ron looked at each other.
Later, they sat with him.
"Why do I always fail?" he whined.
"Don't worry. You put too much pressure on yourself. And don't worry about the money, I'll find a solution. What's important is: when time will be right, it will happen. You'll find the one"
In that moment, Ron came with the wooden box the money for the bank was.
"Look" he said, passing it to Harry.
He took one Galleon out and looked at it.
It was half melted, just like all the others..
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