Chapter 5 Oh shit…wherein some people are totally irrational, and others totally rational.
“FUCK!!!”
A swoosh of air and real wings carrying the sixth year girl over the crowd. Harry stared up.
“Emily?”
It was she up there all right. Wings shuddering to keep her aloft as her dark tail began whipping madly.
“Freak,” the first was muttered quietly enough, but it grew quickly in volume. Emily swept towards a door she couldn’t get out of; leaving her backed up against the wall. The Gryffindors who knew her stared on in horror, but only Hermione opened her mouth.
“Leave her alone!”
“Butt out, bookworm.” Hermione was shoved aside and onto the ground. She pulled herself back up barely in time to avoid being trampled by the half of the student body that wasn’t stunned.
“Mutant!” Harry couldn’t tell who had yelled, but as he stared at Emily he realized there was no denying it. Those red, blazing eyes seemed to be heating up physically as her wings fluttered to hold her up and her tail coiled against her back to keep it safe. She was a mutant, inhuman. But they worked with inhuman creatures everyday why did this…
There was a loud cry from Emily as someone’s dinner knife lodged itself in her arm, followed by other utensils, leaving her no time to find her wand and protect herself, if she even had it. She bellowed, and began yanking the silverware out of her body as it hit her, leaving her dripping in blood. But Hermione, watching in terror, realized that despite the fact that the wounds bleed profusely for a few minutes upon opening the closed quickly. Healing powers?
A shout filled the room as the teachers came rushing in, but not before a golden spell shot towards Emily, jamming her in the stomach and sending her crumpling towards the floor.
“Oh move!” Draco hissed, shoving a stunned Harry aside and ramming his way through the crowd, reaching Emily just in time to cushion her fall. The two lay there in a crumpled heap, leaving the hall in silence.
“EVERYONE BACK TO THEIR DORMS,” came the bellow from Dumbledore. “THE DANCE IS OVER.”
“But sir,” someone yelled. “She’s a…”
“I know,” the headmaster sighed. “Just go back to your dorms.”
The students filed out around the unconscious two some just staring,
others muttering insults (only to receive a quelling glare from Professor
Snape, who was
supervising right outside). Some of the Slytherins were gawking a Draco
rather than Emily.
“I can’t believe he saved that mutie Gryffindor slut,” someone whispered. It was their dismal luck however that Snape heard.
“It was a better thing than you’ll ever do,” he snapped. “Hurry up.”
Soon most of the students had filed out, even Ron and Neville
left, Neville staring worriedly backwards at Emily to the point that Ron
had to grab him and guide him away from running into a wall. Harry and
Hermione however remained, standing as close as possible to the fallen
and watching as the teachers levitated them
towards the infirmary. Dumbledore walked up to the two of them.
“You should go back to your dorms now.”
Hermione surprisingly, stared pleadingly up at him. “Please sir, I…let me stay with Emily. Please?”
Dumbledore looked down at her, studying her expression carefully.
“You may go now,” he said finally. “But only for a few minutes, I know you won’t sleep unless you reassure yourself. You may go back in the morning though.”
“Thank you, headmaster,” Hermione ran out. Leaving Harry standing by himself.
“None of the Slytherins stayed,” he commented finally. “And isn’t Draco a hero or something. Is there a reason they didn’t stay, Headmaster?”
Dumbledore sighed. “You are tired, Harry. That’s not so hard of a question.”
Harry nodded, “yes, I know.” And with a low sigh he headed to
his dorm.
The common room was filled with gossip, but the minute Harry entered they all went silent. Neville was the one who finally approached him.
“Is she…going to be alright, Harry?”
Harry let out an explosive sigh, gathering the shivering boy up in his arms. “Thank you, Nev. Madame Pomfrey has her, she should be fine. So should Draco.”
“What I wanna know is why he saved her,” Seamus burst out. Then
he shook his head. “That didn’t sound right. I wanna know why Draco
decided to save her. It
was obvious someone needed to. It just…well…”
“Where the fuck did Malfoy learn to do the right thing!” Ron finished for him. “I know, it’s bloody strange.”
“Oh, God forbid a Slytherin has a conscience,” Dean deadpanned.
Harry shrugged, “he did what was right, so what? He may be a little arrogant prick, but I don’t think he wants to see someone die from a concussion.”
Ron harrumphed, but Seamus and Dean nodded. They all headed up to their dorm, and ended up huddled into a circle on Seamus’ generally unused bed. Finally Seamus broke the silence.
“Isn’t she something, though?”
Neville shuddered, huddling close between Harry and Ron, listing a little towards Ron though, Harry noticed.
“The rest of the school didn’t seem to think so.”
“That was so stupid!” Neville exploded. “I mean, we work with magical creatures all the time. Winged horses, gnomes, pixies, why does a mutant bother them?”
Ron shrugged, looking confused and Harry sighed. Ron was oblivious, and Neville wanted comfort. He slipped an arm around the blond boy’s shoulder, hugging him tightly for a minute.
“Draco obviously didn’t agree with the majority,” Seamus commented.
“Neither do we,” Dean pointed out. “Though I would like to talk to her.”
“Find out why she didn’t tell us,” Harry murmured, “yes.”
“Harry…” Ron finally spoke up. “Had she even told ‘Mione?”
Harry shook his head, “not so far as I know. ‘Mione looked just as surprised as everyone else.”
“Hm”
“Why?”
“They seemed…close. That’s all. I thought she might have said.”
“Apparently not.”
“I still want to know why people are so stupid,” Neville sighed.
“I think…” Dean hesitated, tightening his arms around Seamus.
“You see…in the muggle work mutants are as, if not more disliked and feared
than wizards. They
have powers that they don’t need outside help to use, like true telepathy
or telekinesis. Mutants…they aren’t normal, not even to a wizard, that’s
the whole point. Some of us are reasonable, and realize that doesn’t really
change things. Other people…they freak out. It’s mostly because of how
they’re raised.”
“Then why Malfoy?”
“That I don’t know.”
Neville whimpered slightly, “They threw knives at her! She was bleeding.”
Ron smiled understandingly, one of his hands coming to rest comfortingly on Neville’s thigh. Harry smiled, happy…just maybe…
Dean smiled softly. “If you had watched carefully you might have seen how fast she was healing. I don’t think each wound took more than two minutes to close.”
Four sets of eyes widened in astonishment. “She…how?”
“Some sort of healing mutation I suppose.”
“Will it fix her if she gets a concussion?” Harry wondered aloud. Dean merely shrugged.
“I don’t know. Hopefully.”
Everyone else nodded. Then, yawning, one by one trailed off to bed.
Harry however, couldn’t sleep. Ron was stoically quiet, no one could tell if he was asleep or not, Seamus was tucked tightly into Dean’s arms in Dean’s bed, and Neville had fallen asleep, an old pillow clutched to his small chest. Harry just couldn’t rid his mind of those images: Emily being staked with knives, her crashing to the ground, Draco’s body crumbling under hers. Unlikely to be caught, Harry slipped from bed, donned his invisibility cloak, and headed for the hospital wing.
It was Draco he saw first, pale and vulnerable looking in the moonlight, curled uncomfortably on a hospital bed. He was bruised, but any breaks had a glowing spell covering them. Blond-white hair swept down over a perfect forehead as a slim chest rose and fell in an erratic slumber. Harry smiled slightly. Draco was beautiful, totally and entirely ethereal. Yes, perhaps he was an arrogant little snot, but look at what he had just done. Then there was the kiss, he has be so perfect, and then so…scared even, and honest to. Perhaps…just perhaps…
Fuck, Harry, you’re not falling for Draco Malfoy! That’s impossible!
But still…watching Draco there, looking so beautiful. Perhaps it wasn’t
entirely impossible. And perhaps, thinking back to the side of Draco he
had seen that evening, it wasn’t entirely awful either. None of the Slytherins
had seemed to care at all that Draco was hurt. Those bastards. Draco
was a hero, and they wouldn't care because the person he had saved was
someone who was not only a Gryffindor, but extremely different. He sighed,
dragging himself away to look for Emily, slightly worried when he wasn’t
able to find her. But finally his eyes were getting heavy and, with one
last look at Draco, he headed back to his dorm.
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Heehee! So, where is Emily? And is she ok? I seem to be on a roll…