Chapter Three - A little more conversation
Hermione pushed her way through the crowd of excited students gathering near the wall near the Charms classroom, trying to see what they were looking at. She finally managed to nudge through to the front of the pack, joining Harry and Ron as they were virtually squished against the large announcement hung on stone wall.
"What's going on?" Hermione gasped out, as she was violently flung into Harry, while the other students swarmed forward.
"The sixth years are taking some sort of test," Ron panted, sounding winded. "Top three candidates get to go to Romania for some dragon exposure trips or something." His eyes brightened. "Imagine that! A free trip to Romania! I'd probably get to meet Charlie - "
"It's a good thing it's free, you'd never be able to afford it anyway, Weasley," an all too familiar voice drawled out. "And even if you did get in - heaven forbid - you'd probably get eaten up on first sight."
The three of them whirled around to meet Draco Malfoy, who was smirking as he took in Ron's slightly worn attire. His gaze then flickered to Hermione, who glared back into his icy gray eyes. "Pity, Granger," he said coldly. "The test isn't a written one, so there isn't very much you can do about it, is there?"
Hermione's face burned with hatred. "Get a life, Malfoy," she snapped. "There's no way I'll lose to some ferret-face pureblood."
"Care to bet on that, Mudblood?" Draco Malfoy's eyes flashed dangerously, and Hermione took and involuntary step backwards as Harry and Ron tackled him to the ground. Snapping out of her daze, she hastily tried to detach Ron, who looked as if he was ready to gnaw Malfoy's arm off. Harry was too busy exchanging blows with Malfoy to notice Hermione trying to pull the both of them away from the scene, which happened to be near the Potions office -
"Well, well," Snape said silkily, a sadistic smile crossing his features, as the crowd of remaining students dispersed quickly. "What have we here?"
"Damn Snape," Ron spat out, as he practically flung the yellow-spotted toad he was carrying into a jar. It hit the bottom of the jar with an ominous thud.
Hermione was too tired to complain much. They had already been in the dungeon for about three hours, transferring yellow-spotted toads into separate jars. Unfortunately, the toads did not seem to want to cooperate, and there seemed to be more slime on their clothes than on the toads themselves.
Harry halfheartedly poked at a toad, which ended up squirting more slime at him. "It's not like we can do anything about it," he reasoned, ignoring the green muck dripping down his front.
"I'm really sorry, guys," Hermione said, staring at the ground. "You didn't really have to hurt him on my account."
"Don't think too much about it," Harry said with a small smile. "What are friends for?"
"He had it coming anyway," Ron decided. "Did you hear? He supports the Silver Serpents - and they beat the Chudley Cannons 250 to 20!"
"They had it coming anyway," Harry remarked, and had to duck as a yellow-spotted toad went flying in his direction.
Hermione groaned as she practically collapsed on her bed. Once again, Harry and Ron had bickered all the way back to the Gryffindor common room, and she wondered if it was possible to die from a earache. Glancing at the sleeping forms of Lavender, Parvati, and the other sleeping roommates, she lifted her logbook out from under her pillow and reached for her quill.
Spottedtoads: Hey! Sorry, were you waiting for a long time?
She waited impatiently for a response, and grinned as new blotted words started to form below hers.
SilverSerpent: Not Really. What's with the new nickname?
SilverSerpent: Wait. You're not Neville, are you?
Hermione burst out laughing. Neville?!?
Spottedtoads: I don't think so.
SilverSerpent: Good. I've had enough head trauma for one day. Another blow like that and I'd be on the floor.
Spottedtoads: Bad day?
SilverSerpent: Quite. If getting beaten up counts...
Hermione took a sharp intake of breath. Beaten up? Was this Draco Malfoy she was talking to? Nah, it couldn't be... the person she was talking to was nicer, humorous - and Draco Malfoy was anything but nice and humorous. She shook the thought out of her head.
Spottedtoads: Poor thing. Wanna talk about it?
SilverSerpent. Not really. Did you check out the test thing the sixth years are supposed to take?
Spottedtoads: Yeah. You're taking it too?
SilverSerpent: I suppose so. I've heard that it's a hands-on thing - they're testing your strength and stuff.
Spottedtoads: Strength?
SilverSerpent: Something like that.
Hermione felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. If the test was based on strength, then... didn't it mean that Malfoy would have the advantage?
SilverSerpent: Don't be too worried about it.
Spottedtoads: Thanks. Oh, and did you hear about Neville's new girlfriend?
SilverSerpent: You're kidding me again, right?
Spottedtoads: No!
SilverSerpent: Head trauma... trauma...
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