Slughorn had gathered the entire class just outside of Hagrid's pumpkin patch.  Draco was nowhere to be found, but Vega went down to the hut all the same.  He'd given her fair warning that he was planning to skip, so it came as no surprise to her. 

It appeared as though she was the last to arrive when Professor Slughorn took note of her and began to give his speech.  "Now then," he motioned for silence, "Miss Candlewood, Mr. Longbottom, and Miss Brenner will demonstrate the effects of the Vadon potion for us today.  I must ask all of you to not go running around the forest like a herd of beasts.  I'm old, not dim.  This potion won't give you animal impulses.  You'll still be you, very cognitively aware, just temporarily in the skin of the animal that closely represents your spirits."  Neville was fidgeting nervously with his wand, clearly wishing his partner hadn't volunteered.

"Where's Malfoy?  Why doesn't he have to do it?" Blaise piped up from the middle of the crowd.

"Mr. Malfoy is with our Headmistress this morning.  He'll be back with us tomorrow, Mr. Zabini, no need to worry," said Slughorn impatiently.  "Let's get a bit deeper into the forest before we begin.  I don't want to startle any first or second years when a dragon starts running around in the pumpkin patch."

"Dragons?" Pansy screeched.

"You never know," he said and tromped into the woods. 

"Poor Draco," Pansy pouted dramatically beside Vega.

"Why poor Draco?" Vega took the bait. Her regret was instantaneous.

"It must be so exhausting having to constantly put on a face to work with you," she said matter-of-fact.  "It's no wonder he needed a break."

Vega turned to look at the girl.  "For your information," she snapped back, "Draco just didn't want to take the potion.  I don't blame him.  I don't want it either."

"Is that what he told you?" She held a cocksure air about her that rubbed Vega the wrong way.  "Funny, that's not what he told Blaise and I in the common room last night."

Pansy began to walk a bit faster, leaving Vega behind.  "What did he say?" Vega asked, despite her better judgement.  She noticed Pansy's ears quirk a bit and knew she was smiling.

"Oh, just how he doesn't think he can keep up this facade much longer.  You see, he still hasn't forgiven his parents for what happened last year." She toyed with the ends of her short, black bob.

Vega narrowed her eyes.  "What's that got to do with me?" She had meant to sound irritated, but her words tumbled out in a pathetic whine.

"Poor Vega, don't you get it?  Nothing would get under Lucius Malfoy's skin more than finding out his only son was bedding a filthy little halfblood."  Vega felt her chest tighten, her air supply slowly depleting as her words sunk in.  "Don't be mad at him, though.  Its nothing personal really.  In fact, he made certain to tell us that it could have been any one of these muggle born girls, but you were the easiest.  You were just the quickest to spread your legs," she cackled.

Vega put her hand over her mouth and muttered, "Confundus."  Pansy looked a bit dazed before walking directly into a tree and smacking her nose rather hard.  Blood gushed out and she howled in pain.

"You did that!" Pansy snarled.  She dropped her hand, letting her blood flow as she leapt at Vega.  They both fell over into the heap of fallen leaves covering the ground.  Vega rolled her over, vaguely aware of the shouts to stop from students and Slughorn alike.

"Get off me!" Pansy cried under her.  Vega raised her fist and brought it crashing down over Pansy's cheekbone.  A small cut opened as it swelled immediately. 

"Miss Candlewood!  Miss Parkinson!" Slughorn was bellowing uselessly.

Vega ignored him, hitting her again.  Pansy clawed at Vega's face, drawing blood from the side of her jaw in a desperate attempt to escape.  Vega hissed and fell back as Pansy pounced on her, sending a blow to her temple.  Vega saw stars and blinked rapidly to regain her composure.

She reached for her wand, but felt a giant hand hoist her up by her cloak as if she weighed no more than a sack of flour.  "Yer not te be fightin' in these woods!"  It was Hagrid.

"Thank you Hagrid, I was just about to put a stop to this nonsense," babbled Slughorn.  "Detention for the both of you," he stammered with an accusing finger at the two of them. "And...and ten points from each of your houses," he added as an afterthought.

Hagrid looked down at the girls with a disapproving frown.  "Get te Pomfrey.  She'll fix ya up right." He gently set Vega down on her feet while Pansy was kicking and cursing in the air.  He huffed, unimpressed with the Slytherin, and let go of her cloak.  She fell to the ground and landed on her backside.

"You dropped me you oaf!" Pansy grumbled, dusting herself off.

"Go!" Hagrid half shouted.  Pansy flinched at his volume and sprinted towards the castle.  Vega gave him an apologetic smile and made her way to the hospital wing as well.

Madam Pomfrey received them both with pursed lips and a shake of her grey curls before healing their cuts. 

Vega was delighted to see that Pansy's pug nose had been broken by her doing, and smiled to herself when she heard it snap back into place.  Pansy cried like a child, screaming how it was all Vega's fault, and insisting she not be punished for Vega's choices.  "I was defending myself!"

"Yes, I'm sure Miss Parkinson."  Madam Pomfrey scoffed in disbelief.  "The headmistress will decide for herself."

Pansy didn't like her answer and mumbled something about old crones before slumping onto her bed in muffled distress. She was only relaxed for a few minutes before McGonagall came rushing into the room.

"Am I hearing right that the two of you were fighting in class?" Her eyes were harsh, her wrinkled lips pressed together in a hard line.  "This is unacceptable, a low even for you Miss Parkinson."

"She started it!  I was only trying to protect myself!" Pansy had sat up straight and pointed to where Vega sat calmly on the bed. 

The thought of getting Pansy thrown in detention was tempting, but she'd rather not be forced to spend time with her.  "Its true, Headmistress.  I started the fight, Pansy was only defending herself."  She decided to take the blame.

McGonagall craned her neck around to stare at Vega, unsure she'd heard right.  "You started the fight?"

"It was a petty argument we were having and I lost my temper.  Pansy shouldn't have detention over my lapse in judgment."  She could have sworn she saw McGonagall smile, but it faded as quickly as it came. Even Pansy seemed shocked.

"I see.  Well, noble as her intentions were, and I'm sure they were just that, fighting is not tolerated in any sense.  I'm afraid the both of you will serve detention, but not together.  Miss Candlewood, you will be serving your detention with Hagrid.  He's expressed to me that he needs help ridding his garden of gnomes."

"And what of me?" Pansy was sitting with crossed arms, clearly not happy with the decision.  "Am I to toss gnomes like some servant as well?"

"You'll be helping Filch with his duties tonight.  Polishing the doorknobs and knockers, dusting the knick knacks, that sort of thing.  I trust you know how to use a broom?"  Vega struggled to contain her laughter as Pansy sputtered at the idea of cleaning.

"I expect the both of you to be dressed and waiting outside my office by six o'clock sharp."  With that, she spun on her heel to leave, but over her shoulder she threw out, "Oh, and twenty points from Ravenclaw.  Fifty from Slytherin."

"That's not fair!  She even admitted she started it!" Pansy wailed.

"I reward honesty, Miss Parkinson, not poor attitudes."  Vega covered her mouth with the generic blue hospital pillow and giggled into it.

"You think that's funny do you?"  Pansy seethed from clenched teeth.  "You won't be laughing when Draco tosses you aside for a pureblood after his father finds out."

Vega swallowed and turned away from her.  Her cuts were healed without so much as a scar in their place.  Pansy's nose, on the other hand, was still slightly crooked.  She slipped her boots back on and strode from the room intent on spending the rest of the day lying in bed.  Pansy's laughter echoed in the corridor, following her until she turned a corner.  She had made it to the third floor before she ran into her father.  He was bent over studying a bouquet of flowers in a blue vase that seemed to be writhing around inside.  She took a step back, not wanting to see him, but he spotted her.

His eyes darkened and he stood up straight, reaching her in a few strides of his long legs.  "I heard what you did you stupid girl," he said venomously.  His voice was low and quiet, but she didn't miss how every word was deliberate and menacing. 

"I don't know what you're talking about," she tried to feign confusion.

His hands shot and grasped her upper arms.  She hissed when he dug his fingers into her.  "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear when I first told you my expectations.  Let me rephrase," he leaned in closer and she smelled his rancid breath, "if you make me look bad here, I'll rip every hair from your head and see to it that someone worthy of the Candlewood name takes your place." 

"You'd rather have someone guzzling the Polyjuice potion than your own daughter?" she checked with a tinge of fear.

"If your muggle of a mother had birthed a decent child instead of an insolent little whore, I wouldn't have to consider it." He grinned devilishly when her eyes began to water.  "That's right," he chuckled, "I know all about your little escapades with the Head Boy.  I overheard a few Slytherins laughing about it in the halls.  My daughter, the whore." He grunted.  She felt a tear slip down her cheek.  Pansy hadn't been lying.  Draco truly had been boasting about their nights together.

"Vega?" They both whipped around to see Draco standing at the end of the corridor.  It was almost always empty at that time of day.  Most students had classes and the ones that didn't weren't wasting their time on the third floor when there were a myriad of other places to explore.

"This doesn't concern you, Mr. Malfoy," her father spat.

Draco took a few more steps towards them before letting his eyes swoop across her arms still encompassed in her father's vice grip.  "I'll be needing you to take your hands off her before I can be on my way."

Vega gulped at his misplaced bravery.  It was a death wish to defy her dad.  He laughed at his feeble attempt.  "And what is some sniveling, spoiled, little prat like you going to do about it?  Worthless as your cowardly father, you are," her father said, gripping her tighter.  Vega whimpered under his strength.

Draco glanced over at her and pulled out his wand.  He flicked it twice, not bothering to say an incantation, and flung her father against the stone wall.  Vega staggered back, clutching her arm in shock.  Her father was pinned, unmoving aside from his head that craned towards Draco.  "You think there won't be consequences to using magic on a teacher, boy?" He glowered down at Draco.

Vega didn't dare speak, she didn't know if any words would come out if she did open her mouth.  She stood, fixed in her spot, and watched through wide eyes as Draco swaggered up with a cocky smirk on his pale face.  "My father may be coward, but I assure you I'm not.  Consider this your first and only warning, Professor Candlewood." He leaned in close, nearly touching noses while they both glared at one another.  "I managed to infiltrate Hogwarts right under Albus Dumbledore's nose by fixing a broken vanishing cabinet when I was sixteen.  I disarmed him in the astronomy tower and set him up for his death. I could shield my thoughts from even Voldemort himself before I started my third year."

Her father tried to thrash about, but Draco's spell held him firmly to the wall.  "I single handedly went behind the backs of my father, Dumbledore, and even Voldemort to slip a girl a page from a book that quite honestly saved her life as well as Potter and Weaslebee.  If you think for even a moment that I'm going to bow down in fear of this years Defense Against the Dark Arts, then you haven't been paying attention."  Vega thought she was going to faint when she saw Draco reach out and give a condescending pat to her father's increasingly paling face.  "You'll be gone by this time next year just like the others.  It could be because this position is cursed, or it could be that I get rid of you.  All you need to realize is that either way, no one will ask questions."

He pulled his wand back and her father dropped from the wall, panting as if he'd ran a mile. He looked at Vega with contempt before storming down the hall, his dark robes swirling around him.  "Are you alright?" His gaze settled on Vega.

"Fine," she breathed.  Despite his heroic efforts, she knew his motives and didn't wish to be his pawn any longer.  Her heart ached. She turned and walked off, opting to take a different route to her common room.

"Wait, Vega!" He jogged up to her and grabbed her arm impulsively.  She winced at the contact and he quickly released her.  "Sorry," he mumbled.  "Where are you going?"

"To my dorm," replied Vega shortly.

Draco's dark blond brows knit together at her tone.  "Is everything okay?"

"Listen," she rolled her eyes, "I don't need you to stick up for me.  I do just fine on my own."

He let out one humorless, "Ha!", before seeing her expression harden.  "He was hurting you, I was only trying to help."

"Well I don't need your help, Malfoy."  He grimaced when she called him by his last name.  "I'm going to go study for Potions in my room," she said softer and walked off.

"Did I do something?"  Vega shook her head, keeping her pace and forcing him to walk with her.  "Vega stop!" His sharp tone made her freeze.  "What's the matter with you?"

"What's the matter with me?  You've got all of Slytherin, and Merlin only knows who else, going on about how easy I am!  Pansy told me everything.  I wouldn't have believed her if my own father hadn't confirmed her story.  I can't believe I wasted a single speck of my time with you."  She spun away, but he pulled her arm back.  With an exasperated cry she slapped him across the face.  Draco didn't move a muscle.  He didn't so much as touch his reddening cheek.  His head remained turned to the side from the force as his eyes fixed to a spot on the floor.  "I hate you," she sobbed and ran the rest of the way to her common room.