16. Chapter 16: Draco

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And thanks to TaKeFlIgHtDrAcOLuVr, meh 300th reviewer! A tub of ice cream for you! And of course, tubs of ice cream to all my other reviewers too. :D

& this is...

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10 Ways to Kill Draco Malfoy

Chapter 16

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DRACO

I could have sworn that stupid sneaky Granger had added a little extra in her petrifying spell so that my nose would start itching exactly five minutes after she left. Which it did. And it wasn't a little itch that went away, either; it was one of those itches that made your eyes water if you didn't scratch it. When Crabbe and Goyle finally had the brilliant idea of finding a teacher to get me down about half an hour later, tears were practically streaming from my eyes.

Good thing, though, that Pansy isn't here. She would probably have warped the situation in her mind so that I had really strung myself up in the air to get her attention, and I am crying because I miss her. Then she would get me down, and not in a particularly nice way. What would follow would make anyone shudder and feel ill.

After a few more excruciating moments of torture by itch, Professor McGonagall finally appears with Crabbe and Goyle in tow. They look rather pleased with themselves that they'd had the sense to get an adult to help me down, but I am thinking of some creative methods of getting them to pay for making me stay up here with my unscratchable itch for so long. "Grrraghvootoaaaaaaoon!" I manage to make a small and rather muffled protest. Looks like the Petrificus Totalus is starting to wear off a bit, or at least around my mouth. I decide to try struggling a bit.

To my amazement, my arms can move around a little and my feet and legs are no longer frozen. I am about to whoop in joy but the sight of the stone floor looming up closer and closer at a very frightening speed dampens my mood. "Ooof!" I utter when I hit the ground and roll around in pain. "Owwwww! My back! I just got it repaired a few weeks ago... urrgh. If I can't play Quidditch for my team in a few days you can be sure I'm going to complain to Dumbledore." I glare at the people who had come around as spectators and most of them quickly look away. The rest run off in fright.

McGonagall raises an eyebrow at me. I imitate her and her mouth purses into a very thin line. I quickly lower my eyebrow and give her my most sweet and innocent look. "I hope I didn't just hear you make such a rude comment to me, Mr Malfoy. It is certainly not my fault that your back is hurt. But I am sincerely sorry I didn't conjure up a stretcher for you in time..." She gives me an apologetic look.

I repress the urge to roll my eyes at her. "Oh, that's perfectly alright, Professor. My back is - oooah - fine. For now at least. I should be able to hobble my way to the Hospital Wing myself."

"Good, good. Then you should start hobbling as soon as possible." McGonagall gives me a shadow of a smile and walks off. "I hope that it is nothing too serious."

Is is just me, or was McGonagall being sarcastic? I make a rude gesture at her back and saunter off towards the Hospital Wing. Actually, I feel fine except for a few bruises here and there from my rather abrupt fall from ten feet about the ground.

"And please don't saunter, Mr Malfoy," her voice calls from behind me. I freeze in mid-stride and start hobbling like an old man, coughing and patting myself on the back to look the part. I can almost hear McGonagall's eyebrows raising, but as she doesn't say anything else I stop hobbling after I turn the corner and go back to my normal walk.

When I reach the Hospital Wing, I knock loudly on the door. Pomfrey opens it and sighs when she sees me. "Not you again?" she barks, ushering me in. "You're so accident-prone. You and Mr Weasley... -Sigh- Teenagers these days... when I was at Hogwarts, the nurse was often bored because hardly anyone ever needed to go see her. Yabba yabba yabba..."

I ignore her complaints and tell her politely that I would like something for bruises. "Just something to stop the pain... ouch, it hurts... ohhhhhaaa!"

She doesn't look convinced by my wounded animal sounds and whips out a small bottle of something green. "Here. Put some of this on your bruises. It should stop the pain. Not too much, mind you, dragon dung is very strong."

"D-dragon dung!" I ask, nearly choking as I am about to apply the green something onto a bruise on my shoulder. I quickly wipe the gook onto a tissue and toss it into the bin. "You can't give students dragon dung to apply! I may not be the smartest person in the Hogwarts (like Hermione Granger, damn her) but even I know that dragon dung is very toxic!"

"Don't you worry about what goes into these ointments! I'm the one that gives them out, so I know perfectly well what dragon dung is like. And it's not like the creator of this medicine would give you fresh dung to apply. This is a weakened state of dragon dung and it eases pain by paralyzing the nerves under the skin where it is applied." Pomfrey crosses her arms, looking a tad bit pissed off that I am arguing with her about medicine, of all things. "Now be a good boy and put the dung on. Or you can suffer the pain until your bruises heal."

I mutter something about tyrannic school nurses these days and quickly smear a little of the ointment onto the worst bruises. Immediately the dung was absorbed and I start to feel a bit numb. "Gyaahh. Help. I'm going to fall over. I can't control my arms! They won't move!" I flail them about to make my point.

Pomfrey sighs as she hands me a late pass. "The lies students tell these days just to miss out on lessons..." I hear her mumbling to herself, before she kicks me out of the Wing and tells me that I can endure the numbness on the grass outside if it gets any worse.

After about 20 minutes of hobbling (again) to Herbology, I arrive at Greenhouse 3 and push open the door. The first thing I see is Granger's face staring at me from about an inch away. "ARGGHHHH!" she screams and falls back. "Professor! There's a hobo outside! I just opened the door and was about to go outside when he suddenly appeared right in front of me!" Half the class erupt into hilarious laughter, while the other half glare at them. Oh no. Double Herbology. I can't believe I'd forgotten.

I scowl at her. I do look a bit worse for wear with dragon dung smeared over some parts of my face, but it was all her fault to begin with anyway. And hobo? That was a bit harsh. I grab her and pull her up. "I. Am. Not. A. Hobo." I snarl at her. She pokes her tongue out at me and grins. "Got that? And don't you go poking your tongue out at people, or you might find that it'll be cut off in a few moments."

She pretends to shiver. The whole room watches in silence. Either Professor Sprout isn't here, or she's finding this rather interesting to watch too. "Ooooh, soooooo scary." She smirks. "An eye for an eye, they say. If you cut off my tongue I'll be sure to wrench yours out." Behind her, Potty and Weasel stifle laughs. I give them an extra glare and they stop to glare right back at me. Eventually, however, they give up and and blink rapidly.

"Ha. I doubt you'd want to put your hand into my mouth," I sneer, turning back to her. "And I certainly wouldn't want it there."

She glares at me. I can tell that she is bursting to make a comeback but at that moment Sprout decides to break it up. "Mr Malfoy. You're very late. Care to tell us why?" She motions for Granger to go and do what she was meant to do. I quickly explain to her and hand her the pass. The Professor looks satisfied enough with it and pockets the piece of paper.

Granger heads towards the door and when she passes me, mutters in my ear, "I'll be seeing you later, ferret. Hope you enjoyed your time hanging up there in the air. How was your nose?"

So she had been the one who was the cause for my ever-itching nose. I give her the evil eye and she laughs. "That's not going to scare me, Malfoy," she hisses and leaves. The atmosphere in the greenhouse changes immediately from one of tense anticipation to relative calmness.

I nod blankly as Sprout fills me in on what we are doing right now, which is working in groups of four to milk a large, poisonous plant called the Stone Tentacula (named because of its hard and brittle tentacles that are not flexible like most tentacle plants, but are fixed in shape and the force of the stone tentacle, if it hits you, can cause concussion. The ones we are working with are babies and have been put under a sleeping spell), and to my horror I am put in the group with Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy. The first two I don't mind, but Parkinson...!

"Darling! You're hurt! What happened? Who did this to you!" The look on her face is enough to make me look away. I didn't really want to imagine what she might do to Her- er, Granger, if she knew that she was responsible.

Must stop thinking of Granger by her first name! Must stop! Now!

"Don't worry about it." I wave her away and concentrate on getting through the lesson and ignoring Pansy's fussing.

After the class I trudge back to my common room, bored and tired from the Quidditch match. It's just before dinnertime, anyway, so I won't get in trouble. I yawn and start to take out a book, deciding to use this time to revise for the Charms quiz tomorrow.

Blaise appears in the doorway a little after I open the book. Behind him is a few other more popular Slytherin boys. I roll my eyes at them and they sit down beside me. "Yo," Blaise says, winking at me. I pretend not to have noticed. "Want to play a game?"

"Not really..." I mutter, glaring at him. The other guys look a bit scared of Blaise's constant winking and raising eyebrows at me.

"Oh, come on. It's just Truth or Dare. Knowing you, no dare is too hard." Blaise grins at me. I perk up, starting to get interested. Truth and Dare is my favorite game. And he's right. No one who has dared me so far has seen me chicken out. Whether it's jumping off something, seducing a girl or even getting them into bed, I can do all of that without blinking. Unless it's Pansy, of course. I'd puke if someone dared me to seduce her.

"Alright." I nod slowly, and lazily lean my arm on the table. "How will we play?"

Blaise looks surprised. "Why, Paper, Scissors, Rock, of course! I'm gonna play against you. The others are just here to be witnesses in case you chicken out." He glances at the three people sitting around us, who nods.

Hmmm. I wonder what kind of dare they are setting up, that they would need 3 witnesses. And Paper, Scissors, Rock? Not exactly the most creative way for Truth or Dare. However, against my wise inner voice, I shrug. "Yeah, whatever."

A few rounds of Paper, Scissors, Rock later, I've won twice and Blaise has won once. "I would ask Truth or Dare, but Truth is so boring. So let's just play dares." Blaise nods nonchalantly. "First... bow at my feet." I smirk as his eyes widen, but his pride doesn't let him refuse and he slowly does what I ask. Kneeling down on the carpet, he makes a face and slowly does a kowtow, at my shoe. I help him up, and he squeezes my hand. Quickly I release it, making a disgusted face. He laughs.

"Second... I dare you to kiss Ginny Weasley in front of Potty and Weasel, if possible. You can do that later if you want. And I want to see it." Blaise has a funny gleam in his eye as he smiles. I am satisfied. Looks like Blaise won't weasel out of this one. No pun intended.

"Sure. Now, your turn. I want you, Draco, to french m-" - he looks at the other people and turns pink - "-er, Pansy, with me as witness. You have 3 days from now to do that. Tell me when you're ready to do it." He grins wickedly as my mouth drops open. Quickly I close it before a fly comes zooming into it, like those stories I've heard so often.

"What! Pansy? No fucking way!" I protest. "You know what she's like. If I french her she'll take it as a sign to, er, take it much further."

Blaise shakes his head, with that infuriating grin still on his face. "Sorry, Draco. You said you'd do any dare. So here it is." He stares at the witnesses. "Right? He did say that, didn't he?" They quickly nod, not wanting to infuriate one of the most popular and rich boys in the school. He turns back to me and gives me a triumphant look.

I stand up ever so slowly and give him my best shark smile. "Blaise... come over here. Into the dormitory. I'd like a word with you."

He leaps up eagerly and quickly follows me to the stairs. "Stay there, or go somewhere else!" he barks at the other guys, who shrug and stand up, ready to leave. I lead Blaise over towards a corner. He looks as though he is trying hard not to pounce on me and drag me into the nearest closet. I shudder but continue anyway.

"Blaise. I will do that dare. But for a price," I purr in my best Pansy purr (sometimes being around that woman does help). I grab the front of his shirt. He is practically panting and starts to grab for me. "Oh yeah! That's good... you little SON OF A BITCH!" I yell and give him a award-winning punch to the face. He staggers backward and his nose begins bleeding, but I show no mercy and continue on my quest to give Blaise the beating he deserves for daring me such a stupid dare. Oh, I'd have to do the dare, for sure, but right now I might as well have some fun.

A few minutes later I emerge from the dormitory. "Phew!" I say, wiping my brow with a satisfied smirk. "That felt good." I may have to kiss Pansy, but that was practically worth it. I wipe the small amount of blood from my hands onto my black robes and make a mental note to throw it to the elves to wash later.

Throughout dinner, I kept thinking of ways that I could french Pansy without actually frenching Pansy. The situation seemed hopeless as I thought and thought, but to no avail. When I start to walk slowly back to the Slytherin common room and get ready for my Prefect duties tonight, I pass the Gryffindor table. When I spot Granger, an idea suddenly pops into my head.

Granger. Parkinson. Deceiving spell.

Seeing how the kiss with Granger in the baths hadn't been too bad (better than with Pansy, at least), I decided I'd rather snog her again and risk her wrath instead of frenching Pansy and risk getting molested in public. Urgh. Just the thought of doing either makes me squirm with discomfort, but since the latter makes me nearly choke, I make up my mind to stick with the first one.

"Hey, Mudblood," I call out. She freezes and turns around to face me, ever-so-slowly. Potty, Weasel, Weaslette and all the other Gryffindors become silent and glare at me. I resist the urge to run away from the force of their glares but mentally plant my feet on the ground so stop myself from moving.

"What?" she snaps, venom dripping from her voice. Even some other Gryffindors flinch at her voice, and Crabbe and Goyle fidget nervously behind me. Potty and Weasel, however practically cheer her on and Weaslette looks down her nose at me.

I wonder if it such a good idea to tell her to meet me somewhere tomorrow night for the dare, in front of all these people. But then, when have I ever gotten embarassed about something like this before? "Meet me beside the Transfiguration classroom after dinner tomorrow night." I smirk. "You know you don't want to miss it. So be there." With that, I walk off.

"Hey, what are you going to do to her?" I hear Weasel yell behind me. I laugh to myself when I hear that and Potter warning her not to listen to a word I say. Somehow I don't think that Hermione will listen to them at all.

At least, I hope she doesn't.

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Wooo... Draco called her by her first name in his head and didn't notice/try to correct himself:D What will the dare lead to? Find out, in the next chapter of 10WtKDM!

Dunno... I think I made the dare thing a bit sudden... but I couldn't think of any other way to make them french kiss. And I just know you'll love that. The scene will most likely happen in chapter 17. So keep reading! Hehehe.