Thrill (Drarry)

3. So what if Hagrid is a half-giant?

Harry and Ron's dance partners ended up being the Patil twins. Parvarti Patil currently stood beside Harry, waiting for their cue to walk inside with their partners. Harry smiled as he watched Parvati gape at Hermione, who turned out to be Victor Krum's partner.

She looked beautiful. Her normally bushy hair was shiny and sleek and she was wearing beautiful blue robes. Ron did not even recognize her and just passed them. Harry saw Draco Malfoy enter and he stood up straighter. He almost laughed at the disbelieving face Pansy Parkinson, Malfoy's partner, made at Hermione.

Malfoy did not pay attention to Hermione though, maybe he did not even notice her. Instead, he focused on Harry. A gloating grin took over his face. "Excited to be in the centre of attention again, Potter? Be careful that you don't stumble over something invisible. You already have a permanent scar."

Harry ignored the last comment. He turned away from Parvati, who still had not gotten over her shock of seeing the changed Hermione, and focused on Malfoy. "I bet you would love to be in the centre of attention. Jealous much?"

"You wish." Malfoy held his nose up high.

Harry smirked as an idea came to him. "Well, we all know you love to be in the centre of attention." Hiding one hand behind his back, he did a slight bow and held the other hand out like a proper gentleman. "Care to join me?"

For a second, Malfoy looked thrown off. Harry was satisfied to see the colour on his cheeks. Then, he composed himself and glared. "You wish." He said again before pulling Parkinson away into the crowd of students. Harry had seen the pink on his cheeks still present though. He had to curb his grin when Parvati led him through the crowd forcefully, following Victor Krum and Hermione and the other Champions.

The rest of the Yuleball was quite uneventful for Harry. He had to dance the first dance with Parvati, but as soon as that was over, he fled to join Ron at the tables. The Patil twins were quite unsatisfied with their partners, but they just joined some Beauxbatons boys and Harry was left alone with Ron, who kept staring at Hermione and Krum.

Harry, strangely enough, did not feel the need to watch Cho Chang dance with Cedric Diggory. He wanted to go to the ball with Cho because he had a crush on her, and he still felt disappointed that she chose Cedric over him, but her rejecting Harry just made his crush disappear. That just showed how small that crush was.

Harry also noticed that albeit Draco Malfoy coming with Pansy Parkinson, he was not really dancing with her except for the occasional dutiful slow dance. The rest of the time, he was dancing, quite gracefully as Harry had to grudgingly admit, with a group of Slytherins and Beauxbatons. One of them was the sixth year that Malfoy had caught Harry and Hermione in the classroom with. Harry had a strange feeling when he watched them. It was like they were paying the most attention to each other and somehow, Harry felt something twisting inside his stomach every time they smiled at each other. He tried to ignore that though.

The only remarkable thing about that evening was Ron and Hermione fighting. Apparently, Ron did not approve of Hermione coming with Victor Krum and Hermione defended her partner. Harry was quite grateful when he and Ron left the Great Hall, for several reasons. Those had nothing to do with Malfoy. They did not.

Outside, they overheard a conversation between Hagrid and Madame Maxime, revealing Hagrid as a half-giant. Hagrid also tried to talk about Madame Maxime's origin, but she just stormed off angrily.

#

It was quite a shock when Malfoy showed them them an article about Hagrid being a half-giant the next day. That happened in Care of Magical Creatures, to which their teacher did not show up. Instead, a woman called Professor Grubby-Plank substituted him.

Harry was so mad at Malfoy that he was not able to come up with a come back to embarrass him. Malfoy gloated over Hagrid's misfortune of the whole wizarding world finding out about his dangerous descent. He and his friends had told awful lies to Rita Skeeter, the journalist who wrote this article.

"A bad bite of a Flobberworm." Harry quoted to Ron and Hermione angrily. They had just gotten back from Hagrid's hut but their friend had not opened the door for them. Now, they were walking through the Entrance Hall to the stairs. "They don't even have teeth! Stupid Malfoy. I hate Slytherins."

"No need to bash all Slytherins." A brown haired girl, who happened to stand in ear shot, said. On her robes was the Slytherin emblem. "We're not all the same." She glared and walked away, her head held up high.

"Impressive." Hermione nodded approvingly. "She's right though."

"Whatever." Harry said. His head snapped into the direction where a familiar voice came from. Malfoy was holding the Daily Prophet, laughing about it with his Slytherin pals. Promptly, Harry changed the direction, stomping over to the group. He ignored Hermione and Ron's calls. "Malfoy!" Harry called when he got close.

Malfoy turned to him with a cheery grin. "Sup, Potter? Seen your friend Hagrid? Has he tried to bite off your head yet?" Malfoy's peers sniggered.

"So you're scared of Hagrid, eh?" Harry referred to the article where Malfoy had told Rita Skeeter, 'We all hate Hagrid, but we're just too scared to say anything.' Harry stepped closer to Malfoy confidently. He saw him struggling with staying still but evidently, he refused to step back and show any sign of intimidation. Defiantly, he looked back into Harry's eyes. Softening his voice, Harry spoke, "Want me to hold your hand, Draco?"

A thrill ran down Harry's spine as he watched Malfoy's cheeks colour and finally break the stare to look down. Harry's grin widened as he saw Malfoy's pink intensify further at what he saw, and the blonde escaped Harry's personal space by stepping back. He did not look back as he demanded, "Crabbe, Goyle. We're done here." Harry's heart gave a jolt at the way Malfoy's voice cracked. He watched as the trio hurried into the direction of the Dungeons, feeling much lighter.

#