Yours Regardless

A Hippogriff's Ego

          The next day or so passed without memorable events for Charlize and her friends. Other than Charlize reuniting with Taylor of Hufflepuff, her only childhood friend.

For Draco, the opposite was true. Since the train to Hogwarts, Draco had been seeing Charlize different, whether it be due to her growing up over the summer or the fact that her witty retorts in response to his misbehavings were satirically flirty, either way Draco didn't fail to notice the way his heart jumped a bit, much to his dismay, when he heard her laugh while passing in the halls, or the way his fists clenched and stomach lurched when George Weasley had bumped into her side a bit too hard and she fell into the grass in the courtyard. Draco Malfoy did not like how sweaty he got when her name was mentioned nor the amount of times his mind had drifted to her face concentrating deeply on something someone was telling her. He didn't like it one bit.

The next class of the day Gryffindor had with Slytherin, much to each house's dismay, yet Draco Malfoy couldn't help the infinitesimal inkling of excitement he harboured when thinking of class with Charlize. The white haired twat was nearly giddy as he walked through the halls with his housemates and down the path outside of the school toward the Forbidden Forest.

Slytherin was last to arrive, Gryffindor having been standing with Hagrid for a few minutes already. Charlize stood at the front of the group with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and a few other friends. She paid no mind to the newcomers, her fingers twiddling nervously as she held her giant grumbling book, and she swayed ever so slightly. Draco subconsciously craned his neck to catch a glimpse of where Charlize could be, and of course he found her up front with her friends and Hagrid in deep conversation. He put on the nastiest smirk he could muster and called his group of Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy to follow him to the front and they did so without hesitation. As they reached a point Draco thought was adequate he turned to talk to Crabbe and Goyle quite animatedly, surely getting at least Harry's attention.

The group of Slytherins succeeded in not only getting Harry's attention, but Ron, Charlize, and Hermione were also glancing over at the snickering group with looks of distaste. Hagrid began leading the group just as Draco had opened his mouth to jab at one of the four, leaving a sour twist of annoyance painted on Draco's pale face but he trudged along nevertheless. After around five minutes of walking, Hagrid came to a stop in front of what seemed to be a paddock.

           "Alright, firs' things firs', yeh'll want to open yer books." Hagrid started, turning towards the group.

Draco's drawling voice let out, "How?"

          "Eh?" Hagrid said with a furrowed brow.

Draco let out an exasperated sigh, "How do we open our books?"

         "Well, yeh stroke the spine of course." Hagrid explained while grabbing Hermione's book and stroking the spine, the book shivering before it fell open complacently.

           "Oh how silly we've been! Why didn't we guess to stroke them?" Draco bit back with an incredible sneer.

Hagrid looked off to Charlize who kept glancing at the paddocks not giving her full attention to the giant as he said, "I thought they were funny." She offered a nod, she knew how to open the book, but only because she'd seen her father with one.

           "Terribly funny, really witty! God this place has gone to the dogs, wait 'till my father hears Dumbledore's got this oaf teaching classes." Draco jeered loudly enough to be heard by all but directed the words to Crabbe and Goyle.

Charlize looked to Hagrid, who was now a bit downcast, and tried to cheer him up by telling him she actually enjoyed the feisty book. Harry on the other hand looked to confront Draco.