Destiny and the Dragon (A Draco Malfoy Love Story)

Chapter Five

 "Are you going home for the Easter Holidays, Cho?" I asked. She nodded.

"Dad's home from his trip to Japan, so we're going to visit my family in China," I attempted to strangle the part of myself that swelled with jealousy at the thought of having family anywhere at all, and smiled thinly back at her. We walked through the corridor on our way to the library, after all we only had about a month until the end of year exams.

"Hermione!" I waved. Cho and I went over to Granger's table, where she had papers and books strewn about and looked stressed beyond all reason. "Er-are you alright?" I asked, eyeing her unkempt appearance and frazzled notes.

"I hardly have any time to study!" She hissed, and I met Cho's gaze for a moment.

"When did you start?"

"Oh, I don't know, March, a few weeks ago."

"Then you have plenty of time," Cho said gently. She always talked like that, gently like a feather. "I started studying after Easter last year, and I got good marks in all of mine." I nodded, reaching an arm out to put it on Hermione's shoulder.

"You're fine, Granger. Just calm down a bit, you don't want to overload your brain, and you'll be the best in our year yet again." Hermione looked up and smiled at us gratefully, the crazy eyes subsiding.

"Cho Chang, right? Ravenclaw?" Cho nodded. "Nice to meet you, I'm Hermione Granger."

"Hermione and I have been studying together all year," I explained.

"You're Harry Potter's friend, aren't you?" Cho asked with a small flush on her cheeks. Hermione nodded.

"We're good friends."

"I've never met him," Cho explained. "But he's famous, so hopefully I will at some point."

"He's actually really normal, though I was a bit starstruck at first," I assured her. "He's nice enough, though."

"I think so," added Hermione slyly. We pulled out our textbooks after that and studied for an hour or so before Cho had to leave to meet one of her friends. I leaned forward to whisper in Hermione's ear.

"So have you found anything on that Nicholas Flamel guy you asked me about?" she shook her head.

"Nothing. I've checked every book I can think of about famous people in the last one hundred years. He's definitely not a famous author, artist, musician, potions master, auror, or the like." I placed my chin on my hand to think.

"What if he's not from the last one hundred years?" I proposed, and Hermione's brown eyes widened.

"Stay right here!" she instructed in a frantic whisper. "I'll be back." With those words she dashed out of the library.

I looked around and noticed Blaise and Theodore Nott seated at a study table nearby, so I walked over and sat on the arm of Zabini's chair.

"Phoebe," he acknowledged without looking up from his book.

"Blaise," I mimicked with a grin. I glanced over to see Nott scrubbing furiously through his parchment, tearing holes, as he apparently tried to answer a question that he did not know the answer to.

"Need help, Nott?" I offered, and he glared at me.

"From a Mudblood?" he sneered, but then looked back down at his paper with a look of utter defeat.

"Come on, Nott, just give it a rest for one minute and let me help you with that. I won't tell your daddy and get you in trouble."

"Are you referring to Mr. Nott, or Draco Malfoy," Blaise muttered with his low, dry sense of humor and I giggled.