Spur of the Moment

Chapter 5

A hex hit. A seam broke. Books, ink, parchment, and quills fell to the floor. Ink smashed. Harry Potter groaned as his belongings fell from his bag when a hex hit it, causing a seam to break. Harry recognized the hex. It was the same one he had used on Cedric Diggory's bag in fourth year in order to talk to him alone and tell him about the dragons for the First Task in the Triwizard Tournament.

Harry sighed irritably and knelt down on the floor. He waved his wand, and repaired his ink and bag before gathering his things and shoving them back in his bag. He now had no ink for the day and it was only going on second period. All in all, it had not been a good day thus far. His night had been plagued by visions of the Death Eater meeting that had been called last night. Clearly, Voldemort had been in a mood, torturing every Death Eater, but had, predictably, focused most of his anger on Severus Snape. He had been furious that Snape had hid the information that Snape was now having lessons with Harry every night. He didn't know the reason for the lessons, but he didn't seem to care much. He was also angry that no one had found where Harry lived yet. Needless to say, all the Death Eaters had gone home after a round of Cruciatus. Well, except Snape, who had returned home after five long Cruciatus Curses and a couple Cutting Curses.

Despite not liking the man, Harry had felt worried and had wanted to go make sure his professor was alright, but decided against it. Any presence would not be welcome and add that the presence would be Harry Potter...well, Harry knew he would be less than welcome than anyone else.

As for his day, it had been marginally better. He had managed to forget his Transfiguration textbook and had had to share with Draco as Ron and Hermione were too caught up with each other to notice Harry had needed assistance. McGonagall hadn't been impressed, but hadn't said much. Harry knew she was angry though. Her eyes had narrowed and she had pursed her lips. She was holding back angry remarks and Harry was thankful for it. He knew that if she had said anything, he would have argued back and would have just wound up in detention.

Now, he was going to be late to Potions. Potions! Of all classes to be late to, it had to be Potions. The class with the teacher that was probably going to be in a worse mood than usual due to his horrible night. No one knew he saw the Death Eater meetings, except maybe Dumbledore or even Snape if the Potions Master had seen anything in his memories, but he doubted it. It had only started this past summer that he could see the Death Eater meetings. He had been partly happy because then he could see things and find things out and watch out for Snape indirectly. Of course, he hadn't completely been expecting the agonizing pain that came with the visions. Feeling every Cruciatus Curse and every other painful hex the dark wizard knew was not pleasant, and he more often than not woke up shaking, breathing hard, and in cold sweats. However, he had learned a lot that he would never have been told otherwise, so he supposed it was worth it...just not at the time.

"They're together, you know," someone said, kneeling beside him. Harry was startled, but didn't jump. He had known someone was coming, but didn't know who or if they were going to stop.

"What?" Harry said, looking at Draco as he picked up his Potions text that had, oddly, been the only one not to get covered in black ink.

"Them." Draco nodded his head in the direction of the two Slytherins that had been the cause of Harry's bag tearing. It had been Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson. "They're dating."

"Really? Odd couple. I thought Pansy hated him?" Harry said, taking some parchment from Draco.

"She does, but, since I've switched sides and been disowned, her father had to find her another rich pureblood to marry," Draco told him.

"You two had had an arranged marriage?" Harry asked, somewhat surprised.

"Yeah," Draco said bitterly. "I'd never been less excited or less happy for anything than I had been about the idea of being with her."