Draco sighed. McGonagall always seemed to go out of her way to ruin his fun.
He picked up his spoon and slurped at his porridge, returning his attention to the view from the window. The Ravenclaw team was training outside on the Quidditch pitch. Unfortunately they were too far away for him to see exactly what they were doing, or he might have been able to work out their playing strategy. As it was, they were just blue blobs flitting about over the ground.
He wondered again what to do about his Beater dilemma. Was it really worth sacrificing his dignity in the hopes of finding a better person for the job? Even if his team lost every game because of that bloody Beater, Draco could still save face by calling that "brilliant shot" which had landed him here beginner's luck. Of course he could also get rid of the Beater after the first match, but if that happened too often that might start making Draco look bad... but damn it, he wanted to win!
He wished he had someone whose advice he could ask. He would have to tell his friends the same story he told everyone else, or, Slytherins that they were, they might just go blabbing. Of course, Crabbe and Goyle would just blab because they were stupid and easily manipulated. Sometimes Draco wondered how they had ever got into Slytherin, which was, after all, meant to be for the clever and ambitious. While Draco himself of course exhibited both these qualities in abundance, he had yet to discover them in Crabbe and Goyle.
Still, he was glad to have them. If nothing else, they made a good sounding board for his nefarious schemes, of which he was sadly lacking at the moment. His plan to make Granger suffer for all eternity was ruined, since it appeared he couldn't make her suffer much more than she already was.
He scowled to himself. He had really been looking forward to that.
As usual, the ruination of his plan was all Potter's fault, since it was his apparent ignoring of Granger which had caused it. He would have to pay, of course, though how Draco could make him pay was another question. A question he didn't have an answer to yet. Thankfully there were over sixteen months left until Lord Voldemort exacted his own revenge on Potter. Plenty of time for many, many nasty things to happen to him.
As if summoned by Draco's thoughts, Potter and Weasley came running into the room.
"Hermione?" Weasley cried, eyes darting around. "Hermione!"
He was carrying a ridiculous bouquet of yellow flowers.
Draco laughed.
"What's so funny, Malfoy?" asked Harry, striding over to Draco's bed.
"Only everything about you, Potter," Draco answered.
Unfortunately Professor McGonagall pulled back the curtain and re-emerged before Draco could say anything else, but he still grinned in amusement as he watched Potter and Weasley run to Hermione's side. They obviously hadn't even realized they were at least partly responsible for her being here. As soon as the opportunity arose he would absolutely have to make them aware of it...
"Come to pay your last respects then, have you Potter?" Draco drawled, pretending to be distracted by scraping the porridge off the bottom of his bowl. "Madam Pomfrey tells me she'll be dead by tomorrow."
All three Gryffindors sneered at Draco. "I don't see any of your friends visiting you, Malfoy," said Potter. "Oh wait! Maybe that's because you haven't got an-"
Before Potter could finish his sentence, the entire complement of Slytherin sixth-years barged through the door.
Draco smirked at Potter smugly. "At least my friends don't make me want to top myself," he told him.
Visibly shaken by this, Potter still managed to stutter a response after a second or two. "Well, at least I don't get knocked off my broom by third years who aren't even on the Quidditch team."
Draco smirked again before turning his attention to his friends. Making sure he was blocked from Potter's view by Goyle's large frame, he looked up at Pansy. "Does everyone know?" he asked in a low voice, his expression now deadly serious.
Pansy nodded. "It's all over the school," she told him. "It's not often you embarrass yourself in public."
"Damn." Draco looked down at his empty bowl, wondering what to do.
"Er, Draco?" Blaise asked nervously. "You will be out of hospital by Wednesday, won't you? Because it'll have been thirty-three days, and we have to-"
"Yes!" Draco hissed. "Tell the whole world, why don't you?"
"Tell us what?" Millicent whined. "It's not fair, Draco, we wouldn't tell anyone..."
"Shut up!" Draco looked at her angrily. "For Merlin's sake, Harry Potter is right over there!"
Millicent had the decency to look suitably mortified.
"I think you'd better go," Draco told the others. "Before Millicent goes and ruins Lord Voldemort's plans with her big mouth."
"Your friends leaving already, Malfoy?" Potter called as they started to file out.
Draco glared at him. Then he made a decision.
"Pansy?" he called. "Hang on a minute."
Pansy came back to his side, looking curious.
"Tell Bernard Vipertooth to organize another Beater-selecting session," Draco told her. "We need to find the very best person for the job."
Pansy nodded, then ran to catch up with the others.
Draco nodded to himself. He would find a brilliant Beater, win the Quidditch Cup, and beat Potter to a bloody pulp in the process.
If it meant getting the better of Potter in the end, Draco decided he could handle a little humiliation.
Madam Pomfrey came over to take his breakfast tray away, and then, to Draco's great delight, shooed Potter and Weasley out, telling them Granger needed rest.
Draco sighed melodramatically. "Poor Granger, all alone again..." he said, purposely looking in the other direction.
"Get stuffed, Malfoy," she told him, picking up the book that Potter had brought her.
Draco shrugged and went back to looking out of the window. He found himself slightly jealous that Granger's friends had thought to bring her something to do, while all his had done was to almost get him killed by Lord Voldemort for making Potter aware of his plan.
He hoped the book was really boring. Though, knowing Granger, that wouldn't keep her from reading it.
He sighed loudly and began to whistle.
Granger ignored him.
Draco gave up. Granger was annoying him more than he was her, and that simply wouldn't do.
He sighed and lay back on his bed, drumming his fingers on the side.
"Mr. Malfoy." Madam Pomfrey came up to him and handed him a jar containing a thick purple liquid. It smelled extremely unpleasant. "Put this on your face wherever it still hurts," she told him.
Draco made a face. Madam Pomfrey ignored him and headed back to the other end of the room, where picked up a Witch Weekly and began to read.
Sighing, he stuck his finger in the jar and lifted it up to his face, trying not to gag as it passed his nose. Just as he was about to put it on, he noticed Granger looking at him.
Draco grinned. He had just thought of the perfect way to stop Granger from reading that bloody book, at least for a while.
Getting out of bed, the jar still in his hand, Draco went to stand next to Granger's bed.
"What're you reading?" he asked, leaning forward to get a better look. Then, before Granger could answer, he "accidentally" spilled the entire contents of the jar on her precious book.
"Malfoy!" she shouted angrily.
Draco smiled. "Oops," he said, raising his eyebrows and putting on an innocent expression.
He got back into bed and watched smugly as Granger tried in vain to dry her book and rid it of the stench. He barely noticed the glare Madam Pomfrey gave him as she went over to tell Granger she would have to let the book dry in front of the fire before a de-odouring spell would work on it, something Draco was delighted to hear
When Madam Pomfrey finally left Granger's bedside after having to change the sheets, Granger glared at Draco.
He looked away, pretending not to notice.
"Why did you do that?" she asked in a calm, cold voice.
Draco shrugged.
"For that matter, why the hell did you tell Harry and Ron what I told you in confidence?!"
He turned to look at her. "First of all, Granger, you never told me not to tell anyone. Second of all, even if you had, you should know me well enough to know that you should never trust me. I'm above such things. And third..." He grinned. "I really wanted to see the expression on Potter's face."
"He didn't believe you." Granger was still glaring at him. "Not after I'd convinced him that you'd just said it because you were an evil git, which is true anyway."
"Oh Granger, I'm so hurt!" Draco said, then stroked his chin for a second, looking thoughtful. "Oh wait!" He laughed. "No I'm not!"
"Oh calm down, you two!" Madam Pomfrey called from her armchair at the other end of the room. She looked at them angrily for a moment before standing up and opening one of the many huge cupboards in the room. She took out a large wooden box, wheeled a table in-between Draco's bed and Granger's, and dumped the box on it. "Play a game, why don't you?" she said to them in a very annoyed voice. "And for goodness' sake stop bickering!"
She went back to her chair in a huff.
Draco looked back to Granger, who continued to glare at him even as she opened the box and started to examine its contents.
"Exploding Snap?" she asked, her voice carefully neutral.
Draco snorted. "Please. I haven't played that since before Hogwarts." Technically that was a lie, but it got his point across.
"Fine." She glared at him some more, which was getting rather tiring, Draco thought. "Is there anything you do play?" she asked.
"Chess," Draco responded. He was quite good at chess, and it would be fun to beat Granger.
Granger took a chess board and pieces out of the box in silence. She dumped the white pieces in front of him and started making the black ones arrange themselves on her side of the board.
"Hey," Draco protested, "I'm black! I'm always black."
"Tough." Granger folded her arms.
Draco sighed and looked at his pieces. One of his bishops was asleep, and got quite upset when Draco poked it to make it wake up.
"Fine," Draco said, pushing his pieces onto the board, then moving his knight forward.
Granger smirked.
Draco sneered.
They were still playing, and still making the same expressions, by the time it started to get dark.
Draco was extremely frustrated. Not only had he not beaten Granger, he was pretty sure he wasn't going to. For the past hour they had both only had the king and a knight left, and what that meant was a stalemate.
Of course, he wasn't going to tell that to Granger.
"Time for bed!" Madam Pomfrey said suddenly, coming over and taking hold of the table to wheel it back to its place in the corner.
"No!" Draco and Granger shouted simultaneously, both grabbing hold of the table as well.
"Now now," Madam Pomfrey said, pulling the table away from them forcefully. She looked at the board. "It's a stalemate anyway."
"No it's not!" Granger cried.
"Yeah," said Draco, "I was just about to beat her!"
Madam Pomfrey looked at them both incredulously, but left the board on the table instead of clearing it back into the box. She made them both eat supper and clean their teeth, then turned out the light.
"Now behave yourselves and go to sleep," she told them, going into the small room at the other side of the wing, where she slept.
Draco sighed and tried to get comfortable. His head still hurt and he could hear Granger breathing. It was annoying, to say the least.
He lay there for quite some time before he realized he wasn't going to get to sleep. He carefully got out of bed and crept over to the table where the chess board was. If he could move his pieces to just the right place...
"Ow! That was my foot, you moron!" came a familiar female voice from somewhere in the darkness.
"Granger? What are you doing?"
"Nothing! What are you doing?"
"Nothing."
"You were trying to cheat, weren't you!"
"So were you!"
"I was not!" she said defensively.
"Perfect Granger, going to cheat just so you could beat me."
A pause, then an exasperated sigh. "I'm going back to bed."
"Yeah, you do that. At least you're slightlyless annoying when you're asleep."
Draco managed to get back to his bed without colliding with Granger again. He quickly found his dressing gown and his wand, then made his way towards the door.
"Lumos," he whispered.
"Where are you going?!" Granger hissed, sitting up in bed.
"To find something more interesting to do," he replied, not looking back.
"Wait!" Granger grabbed her own dressing gown and came running to his side. "You can't go wandering around the castle in the middle of the night! What if you get caught?"
"Why should you care? Leave me alone!"
"No. I don't want to have to explain where you've gone when Madam Pomfrey gets back."
"Just say you were asleep!"
"She won't believe me! I'm a terrible liar."
Draco sighed in exasperation. She was really getting on his nerves.
"Oh, sod this," he said finally, swooping out of the room at a rapid pace.
Granger hurried after him, her bare feet slapping loudly against the marble floor. Draco winced. They were sure to get caught at this rate.
He didn't understand why she wanted to come anyway. She was just going to get in the way, asking stupid questions, talking when he wanted quiet, and generally being the most annoying creature on the planet.
Oh, how he hated her! He could understand why Potter and Weasley didn't want to be around her anymore. Although he didn't understand why they had wanted to be friends with her in the first place. She was an annoying know-it-all, and a Mudblood at that. And he certainly didn't understand why she didn't want Potter and Weasley to know why she had slashed her wrists. If they knew they would stop ignoring her, right? Wouldn't that be better for her?
Bloody Gryffindors. They always confused him. He understood his fellow Slytherins. Slytherins were simple. Slytherins did what was best for themselves. Gryffindors... They had all that bloody bravery and honour and stuff. If brave meant having no fear, then Draco was braver than all the Gryffindors put together. He didn't get afraid. He felt angry, or annoyed, but never afraid. But somehow he didn't think the Gryffindors thought bravery meant quite the same thing as he did. And as for honour...! As far as he could see, it only made you do things you didn't want to, and stopped you from getting what you really wanted. He quite honestly couldn't see the point.
Draco shook his head and continued walking. And he would have continued walking right into Filch, if Granger hadn't grabbed his arm.
"Well, well, well..." Filch grinned. "And what are you two doing out of bed at this late hour?"
Draco smiled. "Going to Potions. Mustn't be late, Professor Snape will be upset. It's almost nine! We'll have to miss lunch."
He turned to grin maniacally at Granger, hoping she would understand what he meant by this nonsense.
"Um, yes," she said nervously. "Er... Malfoy got hit on the head. He's delirious. I just caught up with him. I'll take him back to the hospital wing now." She tugged at Draco's sleeve.
Draco smiled at Filch again.
Filch seemed to buy it. "You'd better get 'im back to the hospital wing," he told Granger, grinning again as he looked at Draco. "Nasty things, bludgers..."
With that, he walked off in the opposite direction.
"Hmm," Draco told Granger when Filch was out of earshot. "Maybe you're not quite as hopeless as I thought you were. Though you are a terrible liar."
"Thank you, Malfoy," she said sarcastically. "Coming from you that's a real compliment."
Draco grinned as he started walking again. "Don't worry Granger, I would never pay you a compliment."
Not replying, Granger followed him.
They walked through the deserted corridors until they reached the small stone staircase leading to the tallest tower. Draco climbed it quickly, not bothering to check if Granger was keeping up. Then he was there, right at the top of the castle. He walked over to the wall and leaned over, looking first down at the castle and the grounds and then up at the stars in the clear night sky.
He smiled.
He heard Granger step outside, slightly out of breath. She came to stand next to him.
"What are we doing here?" she asked.
Draco shrugged. "I like being up here. I like the way it makes everything look so small." He looked down at the small cluster of lights that was Hogsmeade. "It makes me feel powerful." He paused thoughtfully. "Not that I'm not powerful, of course."
Granger laughed. "I should have known your greatest wish was to be all-powerful."
"Why?" Draco asked, turning to look at her. "What's yours?"
Maybe this could help him understand the Gryffindors a little better. Know your enemy, that was what his father always said.
Granger was looking up at the stars. "To be happy," she said.
Oh-kay, so maybe this would just confuse him even more...
"If I was all-powerful I would be happy," he told her.
"I wouldn't."
Draco smirked. "Well, you're never going to be all-powerful anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it."
"And you are?" Granger asked, snorting.
He grinned. "Maybe." He looked at the stars and pointed to a particularly bright pattern. "You see that? That means great power."
She laughed. "Malfoy, I know you don't take Divination."
"So what? Neither do you."
"True... But," she said, "I can still see a great deal of trouble in our future if we don't get back to the hospital wing before Madam Pomfrey comes to check on us."
Draco sighed. He had known she was too goody-two-shoes to be any real fun. "Since when do I take orders from you?"
"Since I'm going to put away the chess things?" she said, taking a few steps towards the door before turning to look at him. "Unless you want a rematch, of course."
Draco turned around and idly leaned against the wall. "Not afraid I'll beat you this time, Granger?"
"I'm not afraid to find out." She fixed him with a challenging look. "Are you?"
Draco pondered it for a minute, then decided that refusing the challenge might make her think he was a coward, which was certainly not an impression he wanted her to have.
He stood up straight. "Not at all," he told her.
And he strode confidently down the staircase before she could say another
word.