Behind the faces

Cheapter 2

"Satisfied Granger?" snorted Malfoy as he tried to scrape the potion off the table.

I laughed. "Most definitely, I couldn't think of anything better than cleaning the table with you."

Annoyed, he rolled his eyes. "You brought it on yourself." "Why did I bring this on myself?", I asked angrily. He was as much to blame for the whole thing as I was.

He was silent for a moment and seemed to be feverishly searching for an answer. Then he suddenly started grinning stupidly. "Things don't seem to be going so well with you and the weasel."

"Don't change the subject," I replied. However, my fingers were now itching for Malfoy to bring up my personal life.

"I was just saying. One-sided love must hurt, I'm sure."

"Self-love hurts too!"

His eyes narrowed to slits and I waited for a snide comment. But none came. He returned his attention to the sticky remains of the potion and kept his grim countenance.

"I see you haven't really made much progress. "Slughorn re-entered the room and surveyed our table sadly.

"If she'd been paying attention, this wouldn't have happened at all," Malfoy objected. I snorted. "Oh now it's all my fault again?" "It was your fault from the start Granger!"

"Silence!" boomed Slughorn's voice across the room "I'm about to send them both to the Headmistress's office."

"That's where I'd like to be right now," I grumbled. Maybe then McGonagall would realise that Malfoy and I could never be friends.

"I'll be back in ten minutes and if you haven't cleaned up the mess by then, I'll be forced to give you a punishment assignment!"

"I have transfiguration in ten minutes," I complained. "I am aware of your ambition Miss Granger, but you have to be able to deal with consequences." The professor waddled back out of the room and pulled the door shut behind him.

Sullenly, I lifted my potions book from the laughter and tried to dry it with a spell.

Malfoy just grinned stupidly when he saw this. "Stop grinning so stupidly," I snapped at him. My mood was in the basement thanks to him and that stupid potion.

Malfoy's expression also narrowed and he pressed his lips together, possibly to stifle a comment.

It was better that way for him, otherwise I couldn't guarantee to turn him into a toad or something.

At the thought of Malfoy as a toad, my expression brightened again.

I pulled my wand from my pocket, pointed it at the potion and muttered: "Ratzeputz," as I waved the wand lightly.

As if by magic, the sticky remains came off and disappeared into nothingness.

Malfoy stared for a while at the table where the potion had been bubbling a few seconds ago. Then he shrugged his shoulders and left the classroom without a word.

"A thank you would be nice," I grumbled as I grabbed my things and hurried to get to transfiguration on time.

Even in transfiguration, I couldn't get the disastrous Potions lesson out of my mind, no matter how hard I concentrated on the assignment.

Sullenly, I wrote the transfiguration spell in my notebook. Malfoy hadn't changed a bit. But had she really believed that? Actually, no. It would border on a miracle if Malfoy even had a visibly good day or walked through the corridors smiling. If he did, it was only with a fat grin that made one suspect he had cooked up something again.

In fact, she had never seen Malfoy smile honestly. I wonder if he even knew how to do that.

And I should be friends with someone like that!

Hadn't McGonagall noticed that their enmity didn't necessarily depend on blood status? Ok with Malfoy maybe, but she needed friends with whom she could laugh about something and whom she could trust. Malfoy didn't seem to be the best candidate for that.

Pravati was the only Gryffendorin who had transformed with her. Accordingly, she sat next to the dark-haired witch.

"Have you actually heard about the new Slytherin captain?" she asked me in the middle of the lesson. I shook my head, rather less interested. Quiddtich was really not my thing. Even if Goyle was the new captain, I wouldn't care much. Although, I would really wonder how Goyle had managed it, especially since he was far and away lacking in elegance when it came to flying.

"It's Malfoy," Pravati whispered with an awestruck face. I just shrugged and wrote down the effect from the Incendio.

"Aren't you surprised?" "Not really," I just returned, whereupon Pravati raised an eyebrow in confusion. I groaned slightly. "He's bought his way into the team before, so I wouldn't be surprised if he bought his place as captain too."

Pravati smirked slightly and I couldn't suppress a small grin either.

Later, when I trudged to Hagrid's hut with Ginny, I was in high spirits again. Even the redhead didn't miss that, because she squinted at me from the side and just gave me a knowing wink.

"Watch out," Ginny said suddenly, laughing. "Watch out for what?", I asked, confused. "Ron's just coming running at us like the last oaf."

I have to grin at the idea as well, but as I turn around I just feel my courage leave me and my heart drop.

"Sorry," he mumbles out of breath as he arrives at our house. "But I got held up by Seamus and Dean. Some new joke from Fred and Georg came out. They suggested we go to Hogsmeade on Saturday and visit them in their new shop."

Somehow it stung me that Ron probably wouldn't ask me out again this Saturday.

Ginny seemed to notice because she nudged me from the side. "Hey let's go see what my crazy brothers have come up with again."

I just nodded, but continued to stare at Hagrid's hut, around which a crowd of students had already gathered.

When my gaze fell on a shock of platinum blonde hair, I groaned in agony. I had completely forgotten that Malfoy had also taken this course.