In Between The Lines

Chapter 11

Draco's POV:

I was never going to go duel Potter and Weasley, I only wanted to get them in more trouble because it hadn't seemed like Potter got the proper punishment for disobeying Madam Hooch's orders. I didn't care about the rules myself, but I did care that Hermione cared about them, up until she tried to tell me off in front of my other friends.

Where did she get off telling me what to do anyway? I was a Malfoy and she was from some unknown pureblood family, the Weasleys were more well known than her family. I didn't need her telling me what to do and bringing me down in front of the people I was a leader of. If it had been Zabini or Nott, who didn't care about my standing either way, I may have let her know I wasn't planning on risking the House Cup, but it wasn't and she needed to be put in her place. She tried to talk to me the morning after, maybe to thank me for listening to her but I stuck to the Slytherins the whole day, and after that she got the message to leave me alone.

That morning, I also noticed Potter and Weasley were still cheerfully sitting at the Gryffindor table, and Gryffindor was up five points from yesterday, not down twenty like I had hoped for. The two of them sat at the end of the Gryffindor table, going from whispering to cheering to Weasley sending Hermione dirty looks. Hermione was once again sitting alone with Neville, who didn't seem in the mood for talking that morning.

I continued ignoring Hermione whilst watching her get ignored by her housemates also. The weeks dragged on and when it came out that instead of getting punished for flying without a teacher outside, Potter had been rewarded with the first position given to a first year in a century, the weeks dug the heels in the ground and refused to pass. Two months passed like this, and then Hogwarts was preparing itself for the famous Halloween feast.

The halls were filled with the smell of baking pumpkins all day, the only thing that could distract the first years from the delicious thoughts of the feast was Professor Flitwick's announcement that they would finally begin real wand work, such as making things fly. Immediately, I noticed Hermione was paired with her least favorite person, Weasley. Neither one of them looked too happy about it, but as she had done the past two months, Hermione ignored the red head and got straight to work. It was hard to tell who was more put out about the arrangement between the two.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" Professor Flitwick squeaked on his pile of books. "Swish and Flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too - never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

Instead of making a spectacle of myself by doing something idiotic, like poking the feather with my wand and setting it aflame like one Gryffindor did, I looked around the room and watched to see what not to do before starting on my own. Blaise had already started, swishing and flicking his wand around the feather to no avail, but two tables in front of me I noticed Hermione had not attempted the spell yet and was trying to help Weasley, also to no avail.

"You're saying it wrong," Hermione snapped. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' sound nice and long." It was good advice, because whatever Weasley had been saying was obviously not the correct words.

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Weasley snarled at Hermione, narrowing his eyes at her while I narrowed my eyes at him.

Hermione did not back down from the challenge, despite everyone watching the argument between the two. She rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand with a swish, and clearly stated, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The feather slowly began to rise off the desk and hovered four feet above everyone's head.