Hermione's Pov
I sighed and looked up from the parchment at Ginny as she paced across the shore of the Black Lake. She crossed her arms and looked over at me. "Since they're in Slytherin, should we consider their ambition as a positive or a negative?"
I frowned, thinking of the different scenarios that could play out because of that trait. One on hand, they could be very tenacious and never give up on something they're passionate about; and on the other, they could be ruthless and not care about those they hurt to get what they want.
"I'm not sure," I said, as I bit down on my pen. "Maybe it's neutral."
Ginny rolled her eyes as she leaned down to pick up a small stone, "Nearly everything we have written down so far is in the neutral column." She tossed the rock and watched as it skimmed across the water, leaving ripples in its path, "We can't just have a list with barely any pros or cons on it."
My eyes traveled back down to the parchment, ignoring the obvious difference between the middle section and the other two surrounding it. It was already a given that when dealing with a Slytherin, you needed to be careful.
There were plenty of people I knew, alive and dead, that had gotten their hearts broken by a Slytherin during their time here.
And on top of that, this was Zabini and Malfoy we were talking about.
My redheaded friend looked down on her towel and waved her wand, levitating her parchment to write something down.
I looked up at her, "What are you adding?"
"There was something I just remembered," she said, glancing over at me as she clicked her pen, "they're both pretty strong."
I nodded as I remembered the incident between Ginny and Blaise in the classroom the other night. Without warning, Blaise had tossed that desk aside like it was made of plastic.
Something near my stomach stirred.
Was Mafloy able to do that?
The cat looked over at me and I shook my head as I looked back down at my lap, ignoring the strange feeling that was now starting to spread out across my body.
I cleared my throat. "Which column?"
She groaned and plopped down next to me, "Probably neutral again."
"Okay," I murmured, as I scribbled down the new bullet point. Meanwhile trying to ignore the curiosity of what Malfoy was capable of that was now replaying in the back of my mind.
Ginny looked over at me and sighed, unaware of me noticing through my hair. She watched me for a few moments, almost as if she were contemplating saying something.
"Gin," I started, setting down my pen and looking up at her. "Something's bothering you and you've been avoiding telling me."
She looked down at her hands, "I ... I can't help but feel a little guilty."
"What do you mean?" I asked, searching her face. Her eyes were filled with sadness. No matter how hard she tried to hide it, I already knew exactly what it was about.
Sometimes, I wished that I wasn't so observant. The look she had right now was the same look that she had during the summer when some guy would try to talk to her on the beach or in a restaurant.
Each time she would wave them off or ignore them, and she did, she was still left to think about a person that she hadn't been able to take her mind off since she was 11.
The person that left us both without so much of a word.
"About Harry?" I asked, gently reaching over and grasping her arm.
She nodded and looked up at me, trying to hold back the tears in her eyes.
My chest grew heavy as I continued to watch her. This wasn't fair. Harry wasn't the kind of person that would just disappear on someone that he loved. No matter what was happening.
Obviously, he wasn't hurt or missing; because if he were, the entire wizarding world would be talking about it. One of the countless Daily Prophet copies would wind its way to one of us and we would then be forced to read about something that had happened with someone we knew better than anyone else in this world.
Much less some journalists.
Then again, maybe not hearing about them was even more painful.
I reached out and grabbed her hands, matching her gaze as she looked up at me, "There's nothing that we can do that we haven't already tried," I said, smiling at her, "and we are witches that are capable of anything."
She sniffled and looked up at me, smirking as she sat back, "Someone's gotten a little bit of an ego."
I laughed and gently folded my paper in half, slowly tracing my finger along the edge, "Well I think that we've both earned it."
"Mhmm," she hummed, clicking her pen and passing me her list.
"Come on," I said as I reached out for her copy and gently set it alongside mine inside my bag, "I'm feeling hungry and I think that lunch is about to start soon."
We crossed through the Great Hall doors and weaved our way around other students until we found our spot in the middle. Dean and Seamus weren't in their spot across from us, so I guess it meant that it was just going to be Ginny and me.
The hall was filled with excited chatter and I smiled as a couple of first years stumbled into the room and accidentally sat down at the wrong table.
Ginny had already started to fill her plate and after watching her for a few moments, I relaxed and started to fill up my plate as well.
"Oh yeah," Ginny murmured between bites, "we still need to boobytrap the couch that Blaise is sleeping on."
I laughed and rolled my eyes, "I hope you're not being serious."
"Uh, I absolutely am. Now hurry up, we need to get it finished."
"We?" I asked, taking a sip of pumpkin juice, "I didn't remember signing up for this."
"You didn't, but I need you in order to get into the room," she said, smiling sweetly at me before replacing her all the sudden empty plate with another serving.
"You're a villain."
"And you're about to be an accomplice!"
Draco's Pov
I had just about spit out my pumpkin juice as Blaise groaned beside me.
"Mate, it's bad enough that Theo destroyed my room," he said, trying to not smile, "but now my mate is going to start setting traps for me?"
I shrugged and watched as the two girls laughed from where they were sitting, "Seems like you attract this kind of thing."
"You think so?" he asked, reaching out and grabbing more food, "if that's the case then how do I stop it?"
I smirked as we both watched the girls from our seats. Neither of us said it, but there was something almost perfect about this moment.
Every now and again, we stopped to listen to the girls when one of them would make a joke or laugh about something the other had said. My chest was filled with joy and it felt like I was on some sort of crazy drug.
I could get used to this.
Blaise let out a small growl from next to me, pulling me back to reality. I followed his gaze to where the girls were now standing and talking to Seamus and Dean.
I patted his shoulder as I turned my attention back to the table, "Jealous are we?" I smirked and looked over at my friend, "I doubt that you'll need to worry about those two bothering her."
He looked down and sighed as he ripped one of his rolls in half, "It's their friends we gotta worry about the most."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh come on," he said, gesturing out across the Great Hall, "You're telling me that a single one of the guys in here wouldn't want to be with one of the girls they claim to be friends with?"
I followed his gaze and frowned as I thought about it. As much as I hated to admit it, he was completely right. Not once, have I ever been friends with a girl that I wasn't interested in.
Yes, this is really how guys are.
"Alright fine," I said, looking back over at the small group, "but they would never admit it and you know it."
He smirked and picked up his cup, "that's what Veritaserum is for."
We decided that after our lunch, we would try to stay away from the Head Dorm for the time being. The last thing we needed was to walk in on the girls planting a bunch of Weasley fireworks in the sofa or something.
So instead, we decided to take care of a few errands. Apparently, Blaise had gotten sidetracked on his trip to Hogsmeade, so now we were both going.
Somewhere behind us, a clock began to chime as we turned out of the castle and headed towards the carriages.
I grunted as I sat down, watching Blaise as he stroked the thestral that was pulling the carriage. "You better not touch me with that hand."
He rolled his eyes as he sat down across from me, "What do you have against thestrals? We've been able to see them since first year."
"I don't know," I said, looking over the lean creature, "they just look greasy or something."
"I'm going to try to ignore the irony there," he smirked as he stretched out his legs and looked out towards the castle, "it'll be good to get away for a little bit."
I nodded and followed his gaze. It would be nice to get some distance from the castle. After everything that's happened in the past few days alone, I think we definitely earned an hour or two of peace.
There was no way that Blaise had accidentally gotten side-tracked earlier. I knew he didn't go the moment I found him in the Great Hall.
I crossed my arms and kicked his leg, "You planned this didn't you?"
He looked back over at me and shrugged, "I don't know what you're talking about."
I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could a sharp voice rang out across the courtyard-
"THERE YOU TWO ARE!!!"
We both jumped and followed the direction of the voice until we found our downfall. About 50 yards to our right, Pansy was standing at the entrance of the grounds with her arms crossed against her chest.
She stepped off the stone stairs and started to make her way towards us. Slowly, rolling up her sleeves and glaring holes into our heads.
"Blaise," I hissed, kicking his leg, "tell your friend to get us out of here."
Without looking away from the now-running and screaming Pansy, he tapped the side of the carriage frantically, "We're ready to go when you are!"
The thestral snorted as it began to start moving. I sighed as I sat back into the carriage. There was no way she was going to make it over here fast enough.
Blaise sat back down and looked out across the courtyard at Pansy, "she's not going to rest until we tell her where Theo is."
"At least we bought ourselves a couple of minutes."
Suddenly, the carriage came to a stop. Blaise and I jumped up and looked out the windows to see what caused the thestral to stop.
Sitting in the exit of the courtyard was one of the freaking cats that hung out with us last night.
"You've got to be kidding me," I groaned as I pinched the bridge of my nose and leaned back into the seat.
We were going to go to Hogsmeade with Pansy.
Blaise stepped out of the now-stopped carriage and turned to face Pansy as she continued to walk over to where we were waiting.
"Hello boys," she smiled as stepped up into the carriage and crossed her legs as she sat down.
I nodded, as Blaise held the door open for the cat as it hopped into the carriage and nestled itself into Pansy's arms.
"Do you know this cat?" Blaise asked, as he sat down and made eye contact with me.
I followed his gaze to her lap where the Nebelung was watching me and Blaise from across the carriage. It was muscular like an outdoor cat, but its fur was perfect as if it had lived at one of our manors its whole life.
Its dark green eyes were filled with mischief and its, tail often flicked when it looked around at everyone.
"Actually, I was going to ask the same," Pansy said, looking down at her lap and gently massaging the grey stowaway.
"There's two of them running around," Blaise said, rubbing his hands together and looking outside, "the other one is smaller and it's silver."
"They're probably mates," I said, looking up from it and following his gaze outside the carriage. The carriage had started to move again and by now we were about halfway to Hogsmeade.
The countryside slowly became more wooded and the mountains that made up the valley we sat in seemed to have been getting closer.
"How ironic," Blaise murmured as we continued to watch the scenery around us.
Pansy smiled to herself, as the cat looked up at her and mewed.
"I think it likes you," I said, looking across the carriage.
"It had better!"