Only Time

Chapter 7 – When ferrets and weasels meet

It was breakfast, and the students were entering the Great Hall. Draco was already seated at Slytn’s n’s table, with his friend Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.

\"So, boss… did you lose anything at the other side of the hall?\" asked Crabbe with his mouth full to Draco by his side.

\"Don\'t call me boss and don\'t talk with your mouth full,\" said Draco, turning to his friend with a killer expression on his face.

\"Err. Forget it,\" said Crabbe weakly, turning back to cramming his mouth with pancakes.

\"You moron! Can\'t you see the boss is in a bad mood because he got detention thanks to that damned book?\" said Goyle excitedly, spitting scrambled eggs over Crabbe and also over Draco, sitting between them.

\"I really don\'t know why I waste my time talking to you,\" complained Draco sadly, trying to wipe off her face with her hands, making her friends laugh. \"It\'s useless!\", she said, trying to peek over Gryffindor\'s table.

\"Planning our next prank on Potter?\", insisted Crabbe.

\"No pranks!\" retorted Draco quickly. \"I mean… er… never mind\", Draco tried to add, noticing she talked too much.

\"Why, boss?\" asked Goyle, deeply confused. \"Are we friends with him now?\"

\"Friends? I\'d say more than that\", thought Draco. \"Of course we are not friends with him… it\'s just… just that…\" stalled Draco, until he was distracted by the unending giggling that filled the hall, meanwhile Crabbe and Goyle exchanged glances. \"But what on earth is that?\" she asked, observing the two boys entering the Great Hall.

As Ron and Harry entered the Great Hall, many laughs were heard from the students as well as from the high table, making Harry heartily wish the ground opened up a big hole and swallowed him up.

\"Do you think it\'s really necessary to walk with this over your head, Ron?\" asked Harry, his faces deeply flushed, looking at the ground. \"I think there\'s no need to walk with a helmet in school.\"

\"Hermione said it\'s the best Muggle object to avoid being hit on the head,\" he answered, his voice muffled by the huge device. \"Today that stupid owl won\'t catch me off guard,\" he said, shooting an angry look at the Slytherin table.

\"I knew she was involved somehow\", said Harry under his breath, looking at his friend, who had come down before them to breakfast and now was laughing herself to tears at the table beside Gina and the twins. \"People are staring,\" said Harry, as he reachis his place at Gryffindor table.

\"People always stare at you. You\'re the Boy-Who-Lived\", retorted Ron, picking up his pace to match Harry\'s. \"Geroff, Colin!\" he yelled, after hearing a click followed by a blinding flash light.

\"Great, I can already see the headlines of the front page tomorrow – Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived-to-Embarrass-Himself\", complained Harry unhappily as he sat on his spot. \"Thanks a lot for that, Mione,\" he said moodily staring at his friend.

\"That what friends are for, Harry,\" said Hermione, chuckling. \"You can always count on me,\" she said, with a warm smile on her lips, making Ginny laugh even harder.

Breakfast went on as uneventfully as possible until mail arrived. Crabbe and Goyle still insisted on knowing why Draco didn\'t want them to play pranks on Potter. But hey were distracted when the Malfoys\' astonishing owl entered the Hall and swooped over students\' heads until it landed on Slytherin table.

\"Hi Satan,\" greeted Draco, petting the owl and gathering the mail, that consisted in some letters from her mother and grandmother, a small box with candy and… a red envelope!

\"Oh, no\", said Draco, holding the red envelope with both hands.

\"Hey, Malfoo\'s got \'imself a \'owler!\", said Ron, his words muffled by the huge Muggle object.

\"We can\'t hear you, Ronniekins\", said Fred, knocking on his brother\'s helmet. \"Why don\'t try and talk without this thing on?\" added George, also knocking on the helmet.

\"Wow! This thing really works!\" said Ron delighted, taking the object off his head. \"Thanks a bunch, Mione,\" he said, smiling to his friend.

\"You\'re evil, you know that?\" whispered Harry to Hermione, who was busy ignoring him.

\"We are…\" started Fred to Ron.

\"… waiting, Ronniekins\", finished George.

\"Oh, yes. It\'s just Malfoy got himself a howler,\" said Ron loud and clear, pointing to the other table, making good part of the people in the hall turn to that direction.

Hearing this, Harry turned quickly, trying to see his girlfriend\'s face. That was a bit hard, since the students were all standing up trying to watch first hand the big embarrassment of the Draco Malfoy, Prince of Slytherin.

\"No way I\'m going to open this!” said Draco, throwing the envelope on the table, as almost all students murmured their disappointment.

\"Chickening out, Malfoy?” laughed out Ron. \"Open it up! Open it up! Open it up!\", he started, clapping his hands in rhythm, and some other students picked it up, escalating it quickly into a cheer.

\"If you don\'t open it up, it\'s gonna explode, boss!” said Crabbe, stepping away from the envelope.

\"YEAH!” cheered the crowd.

\"Then let it blow up and take Hogwarts with it. I don\'t care,\" retorted Draco hotly, earning shouts of \"YOU BLOW UP, JERK!\"

\"If you won\'t open, then I will,\" said Goyle, bravely opening the red envelope as the shouts rose to \"YEAH!\"

The riot ceased, however, when Lucius Malfoy\'s powerful voice rang magically amplified throughout the entire Hall, draining all color from Draco\'s face and making some people muffle their ears with theirs hands.

\"DRACO,

YOUR MOTHER AND I RECEIVED MANY HOWLERS. ONE FROM THE SCHOOL AND ANOTHER ONE FROM THE SCHOOL\'S HEADMASTER COMPLAINING THAT YOU DO NOT CARE FOR OTHER PEOPLE\'S RESEARCH MATERIAL. AND SIX, I REPEAT, SIX BLOODY HOWLERS FROM THE LIBRARIAN, TELLING US ABOUT THE HEAVY FINE, YOUR SUSPENSION AND DETENTION AND COMPLAINING WE DON\'T EDUCATE YOU AT HOME!

NEEDLESS TO SAY YOUR MOTHER BECAME EXTREMELY UPSET. NOT TO MENTION THAT YOUR DEAR GODFATHER HAS BEEN HOVERING ALL OVER ME FOR HOURS SHOUTING IN MY EARS THAT I SHOULD HAVE SENT YOU TO DURMSTRANG!

I REALLY HOPE YOU HAVE ENJOYED THESE INCIDENTS, BECAUSE I MOST DEFINETELY NOT!

TO THINK THAT ALL THIS WAS CAUSED BY A BLOODY OLD BOOK. IF IT WERE 20, OR THE WHOLE LIBRARY... BUT NO! YOU HAD TO THINK SMALL! THINK BIG! YOU\'RE A MALFOY. ACT LIKE ONE.

YOU FATHER,

LUCIUS MALFOY.

P.S.: You sister thought it was extremely funny.\"

After that, the howler consumed itself in flames. Head down, Draco didn\'t take her eyes off the ashes that sprinkled her breakfast. No one in the Great Hall dared make a noise. Everybody was gaping at the message. Teachers traded worried glances, and Prof. Snape, without taking his eyes off his favorite pupil, rose from the table and went to his house\'s table.

\"Boss?” risked Crabbe. \"Boss?” he tried once more, his voice stronger, since the first time wasn\'t successful.

\"Is he in shock?” asked Goyle, shaking his boss gently by the shoulder, as a hysterical laughter filled the Great Hall.

Draco raised his head abruptly, scaring most students around him, making them step back. Not so much because of the act itself, but because of the expression of sheer wrath on her face. Her anger was palpable, her ire distilled through every pore of her face.

\"It\'s… all… your…” she began in a cold tone, marching up to the owner of the bloody laugh that pierced her ears \"… FAULT!” she finished, as she threw herself over the tall boy with red hair. \"I\'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT, WEASEL!” she yelled on the top of her lungs, her hair flying wildly and her eyes burning, before smacking up the other kid\'s face.

\"GEROFF ME, YOU ALBINO FERRET!\" answered Ron, trying to protect from the non-stop, angry blows on him. \"IF YOU WANT IT TOUGH, THEN YOU\'LL HAVE IT TOUGH!\" he yelled, matching the Slytherin\'s wrath, making the students who gaped around to leave their catatonic state and begin cheering.

Harry was appalled at the situation developing right beside him. First a howler sent by no one else than… Lucius Malfoy! Now his best friend was rolling on the ground with Draco Malfoy, who happened to be no one other than his girlfriend. Good heavens, Ron was beating up his girlfriend!

\"Stop it, Ron!” shouted Harry, trying to make way among the students that circled the fighting duo. \"Stop both of you, now!” ordered Harry, getting between them and trying to break the fight.

Seeing his boyfriend desperate, Draco finally settled down, making it possible for Crabbe and Goyle to get near, as well as Prof. Snape, who immediately went to see the damage on his student. The same, unfortunately, could not be told about the nervous boy with fierce red hair that was trying to hit Draco some more. Hermione and the twins were putting a huge effort to contain him, and he almost got away from them. Faster than them, Harry got in Ron\'s way, obstructing him by throwing his body\'s weight over his friend.

\"If you hit Isabelle again, I swear I\'m gonna kick your arse!” threatened Harry in a low tone, causing his friend to become still.

\"Hum?” was the most coherent answer Ron could give him.

\"You heard me\", said Harry in a serious tone, getting off his friend as the Potions Master went their way.

\"Oh! Ohhhhhhhh!\" Ron tried to say, looking from Harry to Draco and back again repeatedly, incapable of hearing a single word his teacher, showing an expression that was even more unfriendly than his usual, was saying. \"Holy shit, Harry!\" he said weakly before falling unconscious at Snape\'s feet.