Further Down the Dungeons
You can tell that this hallway was built underground, as
it seems quite a bit colder than the corridor before it. The hall seems to reach a dead end, except
for a door to the side which is labeled by a gold plaque that reads 'Potions -
Professor S. Snape'.
This area would be quite spooky, were it completely dark, but torches
attached to the wall provide enough light to dispell
that thought. A short flight of stairs
leads you back up to the corridor before.
He sees it coming, but avoiding it is another story,
completely. The blonde Slytherin manages to pull
back, but he can't escape the line of fire. Harry's fist catches him across the
face as it had intended to, but at least he managed to save the nose from
punishment by turning his cheek to it. Draco stumbles
backwards, his hands steadying himself against the wall. "Ah, yes, Potter.
Defender of the weak." He stays there a moment
and then pushes himself up to stand properly, the ice blue eyes alive with anger.
"I haven't even tired to make Cho
miserable." He snarls, "But I'll tell you when I do!" Which won't be anytime soon. He knows how things are...
probably more than Potter ever will, at the moment. And with that, the pale boy
lunges forwards, shoving himself away from the wall. You hit him,
first, he's now going to defend himself by repaying the favor to your stomach.
>.<
Harry is satisfied that his fist connected. So what if he
didn't break your nose a second time? "Cho's
been miserable enough! You better back off and not make things worse for
her!" Hrmph. So what if he's a defender of what you call the weak? He
can't stand to see people picked on now that he's learning to stand up for his own self. And before he can add anything else to his
commentary, he expels a breath in an audible woosh as
Malfoy's fist connects with his stomach. Pardon him
for a moment while he regains his breath.. then you'll pay for that. >.<
You know, originally Cho was
just coming down to the Potions classroom to get some extra remedy components
for Madam Pomfrey, but that mission is completely
forgotten as she hears her name called out and the sounds of an obvious
struggle. She starts down the dungeon's hallways at a run until she reaches the
area where she can see the disturbance, eyes widening at the scene before her.
This is not happening. This is not happening. ... Well, too bad, because it's
happening. She was doing so well at avoiding Draco
too! But she can't really turn around and pretend she didn't walk in on this so
she starts towards them saying, "Stop it! Both of you stop!" She
doesn't try to physically get between them yet, as she still has a small
distance to cover before she can do that.
"You..." Draco
snarls. "What makes you so sure that I've done anything at all to cause
her misery?" He just... seethes, his fist retracting so that he may strike
Potter a second time, when he wants to. However, because that's just the way
things go, that happy opportunity to knock the Gryffindor completely senseless is
taken away from him but... he won't settle for ending the fight like this. The Slytherin purposely ignores Cho,
his hand moving from waist-height upwards, then stretching out to shove the
breathless Potter over. Go lay with the dirt where you belong, you filthy git.
Harry curls an arm around his stomach as he catches his
breath, "... That.. article..
and yesterday.. I could tell.."
Could tell that she was thoroughly embarrassed and uncomfortable. And.. she's right behind me, isn't
she? Harry's eyes widen as he looks over towards the stairs. Yup, there's Cho and.. down
he goes. Thanks for the distraction, Malfoy
successfully shoves him over. He's been knocked onto the stone floor of the
dungeon more than he'd like the past term. He grits his teeth, wincing from the
jarring. Once on the ground, he whips his wand out and aims at Malfoy, casting a severing charm. Now if this works right,
the boy's pants should fall right down to his ankles.
Neither of them are listening to
her! Cho looks absolutely horrified as the 'fight'
doesn't break up right away, but she didn't really expect it to. She's knows
they don't like each other, and she'd heard about their fight earlier in the
year. She starts towards Harry, as if she means to help him up, but as he whips
out his wand she gasps, "No! Harry stop it! This
isn't solving anything! The article wasn't Draco's
fault!" She hopes it wasn't at least. A few Ravenclaws
put some thoughts in her mind that it could be all his
fault, but she isn't sure if she believes that. He had just as much to be embarrassed
by in that article after all. It doesn't make sense that he would leak what had
happened. At least the spell isn't a horrible curse. She'd probably be even
more upset if it was.
Huh? The spell hits, and the desired effect comes to
pass, his pants drop to his ankles leaving Draco to
go all sorts of shades of red... from anger to pure and absolute embarrassment.
There are many other things that could of been done,
he is well aware, and the young Slytherin would have
honestly preferred that, but no... >.< He has to be further humiliated. "Potter, you ickle pervert."
~.~ Draco attempts to turn his horrified expression
into a neutral one, chanting over and over again in his head that he must
preserve his dignity, first, before counter-attacking. He reaches down, takes
the tops of his pants and pulls them back up over his pale legs and green
cotton boxers (With little golden snitches on the waistband! Whoot!), looking rather ridiculous as he holds them... just
in case the other boy tries that a second time. "I'm sorry. It was a nice
offer and all, but I'm not really interested." ~.~
Harry does look well... a bit ashamed at being caught
fighting with Malfoy by Cho,
particularly since it was kinda about her. He gets up
off the floor once the spell is fired off. "... Sorry Cho..."
That you had to see that. That's twice this year that
a fight between him and Malfoy has been disrupted by
the subject of said fight. "Don't /you/ wish Malfoy." He only wanted to humiliate you and that has
been achieved. With someone like Malfoy, humiliation
works better than actually hitting them. He has no intention on continuing the
fight unless it's to defend himself.. or Cho.. even
if she's capable of doing so on her own.
As her eyes catch the effect of the charm and she can't
help but blush a bit against her will. Poor Draco.. He always seems to get humiliated around her. But is
that... /SNITCHes/ on his boxers!? She refrains from
making any sound of amusement, mainly because her parents bought her something
quite similar (though girls boxers, obviously) when she first got the position
of Seeker. And they weren't green. She politely diverts her eyes as he
straightens himself, though the Slytherin does get a
/look/ as he says that bit about the offer. In the moment of partial peace she
tries to put herself between them, just in case they decide to throw more at each
other, whether they be curses or punches or more
charms with embarrassing effects. "Are you both all right?" She looks
from one to the other. She isn't going to ask what this fight was about, or
even comment on it. She heard enough to have an idea after all. )
WHAT IN HELL ARE YOU DOING, LOOKING THERE, WOMAN?! Hmph. Draco's hands remain at his
waist, holding up the pants, mostly out of paranoia that Potter just may try
something again if his guard falters. He'd say something else in order to
defend such an accusation, but that look makes him think better, so he chooses
to just answer the question, licking a bit of dried blood from his lips, his
pale cheek sporting the beginnings of a nice-sized bruise. "I'm okay,
though I'd be much better if Potter hadn't insisted on attempting to break my
face, again."
Harry much to his credit does not laugh. He'll laugh
later on. Back in his dorm after sharing this with Ron.
A scathing glance is thrown at Malfoy, "Shut up.
I wouldn't have hit you if you had kept your trap shut." He nods to Cho, "m'fine." He's
been hurt worse.
Cho sighs softly, looking at
both of them, though this time Harry gets a slightly longer look. But she can
sympathize, she hit Draco once because of stuff that
came out of his mouth, but that isn't the point! Sigh. "If you want to get
that taken care of, I can help." She says to Draco,
he's the one with blood on his lips after all. "I need to get some Remedy
Components from the Potions classroom really quick though, before Madam Pomfrey wonders what's keeping me. Will you two try not to
do any more damage each other before I can get back? I don't think either of you
want Professor McGonagall to change her mind about re-opening Quidditch." With that said,
if she gets some kind of agreement, she moves to get said components.
He frowns. Then thinks better of it,
mostly because it kind of hurts his cheek. "Tut, tut. Perhaps you'll
need to see someone about that violent temper of yours, Potter." Cheap shot. "I'll wait here for you, Cho. Whenever you're ready."
A bit of a shrug and that's it. Perhaps, while she's gone, he'll start heckling
the other boy, again, because he certainly didn't agree NOT to beat the crap
out of him. Draco avoided the topic, entirely!
Harry nods slowly in response to Cho.
He can't help the slight surge of..eerrr
anger, as Cho offers to help mop up Malfoy. Let him mop himself up for
once. But Cho has a point.. if a teacher catches the fighting. Particularly if Snape were to walk out.. "Nevermind my temper, what about
your insulting verbage?" He doesn't
normally lose his temper... but Malfoy's an
exception.
One last look at both the boys, Cho
does indeed move towards the Potion classroom again. She just hopes she isn't
lured back out by the sounds of another fight. She'd rather not have Quidditch canceled again before it's even back on because
two of the Seekers are fighting over another Seeker... She hopes she doesn't
read about this tomorrow in the Prophet... Sigh.
Later:
There are times when Cho takes
her time on jobs, and there are other times when she moves as quickly as
possible. This would be the last case. Even though she got distracted by the
fight, she managed to get the components to Madam Pomfrey
in the same time that she expected, taking every short cut through the castle
that she knew of (which is no where near as many as certain Gryffindors,
you can rest assured). As it is it took her a little bit of time to break away
from Madam Pomfrey's care, helping put away the acquired
components and managing to pocket a few good for fixing bruises and cuts into
her robes as she did. When she gets away from the Hospital Wing, she's honestly
expecting to find both the boys long gone; even though Draco
did stay he would remain. "Draco? You still
here?" she calls out not too loudly as she rounds the corner.
He almost resembles a certain Gryffindor named Neville Longbottom, seated outside of his dormitory due to
forgetting the password to enter. Very far from being true, but for the moment,
it makes a good comparison. He said that he would wait and wait he certainly
did. Potter, however, has already gone, probably with more 'important' things
to do. Draco lifts his head and peers down the dark
hallway, moving away from leaning against the uncomfortable stone wall.
"I'm still here."
There's a soft relieved sound as Cho
quickly heads over to where the young man is seated. She takes note of the
disappearance of Harry, but isn't really surprised. She drops down onto her
knees in front of him and reaching out to touch his face, trying to move his
head so she can better see where he was hit. She actually manages to keep from
blushing, mainly because she's completely focused on just getting him fixed up
and nothing else at all that she can ignore certain things, like closeness.
"Does it still hurt? Is your vision messed up at all?" Questions not
uncommon, but she's not really looking as if she is going to rely on his word
for anything either way. She's trying to get a good look at where he was hit
after all. Besides, if he didn't want her to actually fix him up, he likely
wouldn't have stayed.
When he said that he would be staying behind to wait, Draco meant it. Potter had no sort of obligation to hang
about so he didn't. It's that simple. Sure, they don't do well in one another's
company, but that's a different reason entirely. "Vision is fine. My cheek
throbs, though. He hit me pretty hard." And it certainly shows. Harry must
have put a lot into that punch because the bruise is the most brilliant shade
of purple and blue. His blue eyes, though, give her a rather irritated look,
silently expressing his discontent with having to be kept waiting for so long.
Hands are pulled back, reaching into her robes to pull
out a few small jars and a couple pieces of cloth. Cho
must recognize the look he gives her cause she says, "Madam Pomfrey wanted me to help her put away what I got."
She offers a apologetic smile, but actually refrains
from saying sorry this time as she gets to work on a salve to put over the
bruise. He likely recognizes the components from Potions, but the mixture
itself might not be familiar, either way she's doing it with some talent. She
isn't sloppy when it comes to remedies, but she isn't slow at it either.
"I won't ask what you said to make him do that. Unfortunately you do have
a tendency to say things that inspire reactions like that." She should
know. He inspired it in her once.
Oh, don't worry, he's well aware that what he says cuts
to the bone, but he keeps doing it anyways. He's a bully; he says mean and
nasty things, a few bumps and bruises won't cause him to change, either. For
five years, Draco Malfoy
has faced numerous forms of humiliation and punishment; nothing has curbed his
behavior to date. The guy is the exact same as he was back when he entered
Hogwarts at age eleven. "It wasn't what /I/ said that started it, because
I said nothing. Potter saw fit to mock me about some article in the Daily
Prophet, then proceeded to accuse me of going about, intentionally trying to
make you miserable." Said all in the bored drawl.
Again, details get left out, but that's the way he plays the game to make it go
in his favor. The blonde Slytherin waits patiently
for the salve, however.
The mention of the article is the first thing that can
cause her hands to pause in their work, becoming distracted for a moment. Cho shakes it off and finishes up the salve. "Well,
I'm not miserable, so whether it was your intention or not, Harry
overreacted." She was embarrassed and somewhat bothered by the article,
more because it was based on actual events and all her friends kept telling her
they didn't believe it at all to make her feel better! She doesn't like lying
when she doesn't have to, but she wasn't about to correct them either. It
wasn't intended to be thrown into the public after all. "I'll try to make
sure he understands that, so this doesn't happen again." She hates the
ideas of fights over her. The salve ready, she reaches forward to spread it
onto the bruise, "This will be a bit cold, but it should start to soothe
right away. It'd be a good idea not to breathe through your nose though."
While it doesn't stink, it has an extremely sharp scent that almost feels like
it burns.
So, when he talks, it sounds rather nasal, because he
takes her advice and doesn't inhale through his nose. And...
hey! Draco flinches. That is
cold! But, eh, he'll live. "Hmph.
You make it sound just like him, making it seem as though I'm out to get you.
But, 'overreacted' is an understatement. He tried to take my head off. Then he
saw fit to attempt to remove my pants." Cough. u.u He still maintains his dignity, even while saying
that, his voice not wavering, but the tip of the unbruised
cheek pinkens. That can't be helped.
Cho's fingers are extremely
gentle as they run in the salve. Her own advise is
also taken, as she's careful to not inhale through her nose. "I didn't say
that. You always interpretate the bad things out of
what I say..." She seems to be disappointed with that, but she doesn't
stop rubbing it in. Within a few moments there shouldn't even be a tinge of
pain when her fingers move and in a minute or two the bruise will be gone
completely. "I don't think you're out to get me at all. You've done
everything to try to make me leave you alone, at least until the other night,
so that cancels /that/ theory." She glances from his cheek to catch his
eyes for a second. "But I do wonder how Ms. Skeeter
managed to get her information. I'm not implying that you told, but..." She /knows/ she didn't, and she's pretty sure no one else
was up there. She wasn't /that/ preoccupied with the young man in front of her.
"Potter would beg to differ." He begins, on the
topic of being out to get people, but then changes it as Cho
does to answer her question. "She's an animagus."
He replies with the move of a hand for some added effect. If Rita chooses to
spill secrets of his, then he will gladly do the same in return because fair is
fair and he's a believer in revenge against those who have done him wrong.
"She can transform into a small, black beetle, which enables her to get
places she wouldn't otherwise be allowed. I bet that's how she listened in on
the conversation. If the ministry knew..." He sneers, able to use
expressions more freely as the pain fades away, "But they don't, of
course. They have better things to do then catch some snoopy animagus cow." He used to have a fair amount of
respect for Rita, but now, nope... Draco has
absolutely none.
At the answer, Cho blinks
lightly, finishing with the salve and sitting back on her heels, wiping her
hands off on a cloth. "That explains it." At least she knows now for
sure that he didn't send the story to the paper. Some of her friends were
telling her it must have been him, that he sent it in as some kind of mock
'conquest' of his to impress people. But she couldn't believe that. It isn't
like him at all. "I'm sure she'll eventually get what's coming to
her." She's not vengeful, honestly, but she certainly doesn't want an
article like that published again. "I hope the Slytherins
at least have left you alone about it." They're generally the worse
teasers when it comes to those articles, especially when they usually involve
Potter and his friends, but would they tease one of their own? Now /her/ on the
other hand...
Draco's sneer remains in place.
"I don't need to worry about them. We don't tend to ridicule one another.
If it weren't for Potter telling me, I probably wouldn't of
known about it. Came as a bit of a surprise, but now, I could
honestly care less." A simple shrug. It's
very true, he COULD care less. His frustration was immediately vented onto
Potter, otherwise, it just may of been still bugging
him, but... eh. "When I can I take this stuff off my cheek, anyways?"
"I'll remove it in a minute." Cho responds immediately, looking at him for a long moment.
"You really don't care that it was all in the paper? Even the... exaggerations?"
Like the mention of love certainly bothered her more than it likely should. And
of course bringing up Cedric... well... That touched wounds that had just
started to get healed. They'd never be /gone/ but they were just starting to
hurt less. "Oh, you probably didn't read all of it if you just heard about
it from Harry..." She shakes her head, chiding herself for asking those
questions when he very well couldn't answer them. "At least it doesn't
bother you."
"I haven't even read it at all. Not that I want to.
I know the kind of stuff that Skeeter-cow writes. It
wouldn't surprise me if the article was just like the others." He settles
back against the wall again, shifting a little to find the spot which offers
the most comfort for him. The blue eyes disappear as he closes his eyes, dark
eyelashes dusting across the pale cheeks. "Has it healed, yet?" It's ickle slimy stuff and Draco wants it off his face!
Since his eyes are closed when she starts giving him this
particular look, he misses out on it. Perhaps for the best.
It isn't sympathetic, but it certainly is different from a look of annoyance or
indifference that he may want to inspire. Cho doesn't
say anything for a while, just grabbing another cloth and starting to rub the
harsh smelling stuff from his cheek. Once it's all off, she damps another cloth
with a small bit of water and rinses his skin so the smell doesn't linger too
much. She drops the cloth aside and brings her fingers back to his cheek to run
over the dampened skin, checking for any signs of residual damage. "All
healed. Back to normal." She offers a smile; even
if he keeps his eyes closed and can't see it. And no, she doesn't pull her hand
back just yet.
He remains silent as she wipes the smelly stuff off his
cheek, then cleans his face much like a mother would to a child who made a mess
while eating. Even while she places her hand on his cheek, he still doesn't
seem to have anything to say, besides a muttered, "Thank you." Draco honestly is thankful, too, kinda.
How would he explain a nasty bruise like that to his house-mates, anyways? 'Oh,
I got into a bit of a brawl with Potter over a girl. Imagine that.' Nah. Probably wouldn't go over very well.
"You're welcome." Cho
responds immediately, finally allowing her hand to lower into her lap. She
starts to pick up the bottles and cloths she used, putting them away into
pockets in her robes. She also doesn't want to have him explain the bruise to
anyone, which is why she offered. Not only to save him the trouble over the
questions, but to save Harry from the possible retribution over the fight. Not
to mention protecting the re-opening of Quidditch.
"You should probably get into your dorm. It's starting to get late. I'm
going to need to take some shortcuts to get back to the Ravenclaw
Common before the curfew as it is." Before she moves to get up though, she
leans forward and aims a brief kiss on his previously uninjured cheek. This is
meant as a friendly gesture. Plus, he deserves /something/ for getting pounded
in the face over a misunderstanding. Even if his mouth
probably did prompt it. And also, it's kind of an apology for her
backhand, which she /didn't/ fix up for him... But that's another story.
It may have been a friendly gesture or an apology type of
kiss on the cheek, but it sure does wonders to mess with his head even further.
Keep doing things that like and he just may start getting oddball ideas, not that he hasn't been already. Draco's
cheeks pinken once again, only a faint difference in
his otherwise pale features. And then, he reaches out, to attempt a grab at her
hand and keep her from just escaping without another word, if that's what she
had planned on doing. "If anyone bugs you about what happened up in the
The hand does indeed stop her, holding her in place as
she listens to what he has to say. Cho blinks at what
he does, obviously a bit surprised. Why is he asking her that? Is he-- Oh. If he had intended to come off as charming
again, it worked. If not, this was completely unintentional, but it /does/ come
off that way to her. "I can fight my own battles, Draco."
Something that Harry certainly doesn't understand, but she
can't be too upset about it. He's had enough stress this last month
without the article being printed. He had good intentions, that is enough to
keep her from getting mad about it. "But I'll tell you if it's too bad. So
far it's mainly just been Ravenclaws saying they
don't believe a word of the article." She actually smiles sheepishly at
that bit. She didn't correct them, after all.
He's not out to save her from anything, like Potter is,
but he can very easily tell the other Slytherins to
keep their mouths shut. Draco knows how terrible
their ridicule can get, being a ringleader of it, after all. His hand snaps
back as though bitten; if he were capable of making that wounded look, that's
probably what he would have just done right at the moment, but, eh. The answer
is sufficient. He nods his head. "Better get going, then."
Now, she isn't the only one who's unintentionally messing
with people's heads. Cho looks at the blonde Slytherin as if he did something very odd when he pulls his
hand back like he did. He's so... difficult to figure out. She isn't sure if
she'll ever manage to successfully read him. Most people would probably think
she's insane for even trying. "I'll see you later..." She says,
instead of offering another farewell. She pulls back now, standing up. She
gives her robes a quick straighten, before she turns and starts towards the
stairs.