Chapter Six |Year Three|

"Draco, please go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?" Pansy relentlessly. The young Malfoy was extremely aggravated by her constant pleading, and he scowled at her.

"How many times do I have to say no, Parkinson?" he replied irritably. Pansy pouted.

"I thought I told you to call me Pansy! But, of course, Pansy-poo or Pansy-kins will work, too," suggested Pansy, eyes wide. Pansy was aiming for looking adorable, but instead she just made her face look more like a pug's than ever.

Draco saw Blaise walking with Crabbe and Goyle towards him, and he sighed with relief when they reached him and the whiny girl.

"Having fun, Draco?" asked Blaise, raising an eyebrow. He'd recently waxed his eyebrows and was now raising his eyebrows often. Draco glared at Pansy and sent her a mental message to leave. She, fortunately, obeyed.

"Parkinson wishes," grumbled Draco. He crossed his arms and looked over at his two lackeys, Crabbe and Goyle. "For now, c'mon, we have Care of Magical Creatures."

Draco folded up his timetable and sighed. The big buffoon, Hagrid, the expelled half-breed, was teaching the class. He wondered why he'd ever signed up for the class.

The foursome walked quickly towards Hagrid's hut, where there was a space beside it. That would be where they would be learning about, well, magical creatures. Draco saw the golden trio and the Sytherin blood traitor coming, and unconsciously reached up to touch his bleach-blonde hair.

"Well, well," he drawled as swaggered towards the four. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Amelie all spun aroudn to glare at him. He ignored Amelie the way he always did, because although he would not admit it, he was quite fond of her. "What do we have here?"

Ron's face grew visibly redder. "Sod off, Malfoy," he said rudely. Draco grinned.

"Why should I, when Crabbe, Goyle, and I here can have some fun with you all?" he shot back. They all took out their wands, but Amelie frowned at all of them.

"Hagrid's here, and class is starting! Stop fighting, and pay attention!" she told all six of them, shushing them all. Draco liked her accent. It was cute - and plus, it made her sound original. And cute.

Hagrid had indeed arrived, and students quieted down when he clapped his hands together. What a great oaf, Draco thought with contempt.

"Welcome, class, ter Care o' Magical Creatures- ," Hagrid cleared his throat, then continued, " - 's abou' time we started, ay?"

Then came a chorus of "yes's" from the student body gathered around Hagrid. He grinned.

"Alrigh', I 'spected yeh bin wanting to start a'ready," He said, and beckoned towards a majestic, grey animal of some sort with great, big feathery wings and a hostile gleam in it's eye. "Here is a hippogriff, a very proud creatyre, could'a bin a Slytherin if it had bin sorted," he said, and gave a chuckle.

No Slytherin laughed at that, except for Amelie. Her laugh was as pleasant as her face, and Draco suspected that many boys would now like to make her laugh again. Not, of course, that he himself would.

"Who'd like to vol'nteer to pet the hippogriff, his name's Buckbeak, yeh?" Hagrid asked, then looked expectantly to the students. They all fidgeted and swarmed backwards. Amelie raised her hand, however, and Hagrid smiled at her.

"Alrigh', 'n. Amelie! Remember ter say compliments an' nice things," reminded Hagrid. Amelie shot him a grin and made her way towards Buckbeak.

The young French girl gave Buckbeak an adoring look. "Aw, look at your handsome face, your strong muscles, I bet you're very talented at flying," she cooed. "You're so majestic and well-built, I would be surprised if the lady hippogriffs aren't all fawning for you,"

That did it, and Buckbeak bowed for Amelie. Draco appraised her from afar, watching next to Crabbe and Goyle. They watched as Amelie clambered onto the hippogriff, encouraged by Hagrid.

She flew out into the sky, and many eyes followed her and Buckbeak. She looked absolutely beautiful, her daark blonde hair fanning out behind her and her cheeks rosy from excitement.

"Dammit, she's hot," whispered Blaise to Draco. He scowled.

"Yeah, but you'd do well to remember she's a filthy blood traitor,"

"True," replied Blaise thoughtfully, acknowledging the exterior of Draco's statement. His real purpose for saying that, however, was far from the fact that she was a blood traitor.

When she landed, a confident, smug Draco decided to give it a try. If blood traitor Santerre could do it, then any Malfoy could.

"You big great brute, you're as dumb as you're ugly, aren't you?" mocked Draco challengingly to the hippogriff. It snarled, and attacked him.

Draco, at first, wasn't fazed by the attack. Somehow, he already knew it was going to happen. After all, didn't Hagrid say that if you insulted it, it would attack you? Something like that.

He gave a cry of pain, however, when it actually chomped down on his flesh. Hagrid got it sorted out, but Draco lay on the ground, bleeding and crying out in pain.

"Ah! It's killed me! The great brute's killed me!" he yelled, and Pansy, of course, was the first to rush up to him and ask if he was alright.

"Draco! Oh, Drakeypoo, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm alright," he snapped.

"But - you said - "

"Yes, I said that! Now get me to the hospital wing! My father will hear about this!" he yelled loudly at Hagrid, who only looked embarrassed and shuffled away. The Golden trio crossed their arms and spoke in hushed voices, throwing an occasional glance at him. Amelie had left them to join the Pucey girl and Daphne Greengrass. The youngest Greengrass was pretty hot, he had to admit.

In the end, Hagrid commanded Amelie to lead him to the hospital wing.

"Are you alright?" she asked him as she tugged him gently towards the infirmary. Draco raised his eyes to meet her's.

"Yes, why?"

"I don't know. You seemed like you were in pain," she said, shrugging. Amelie seemed embarrassed, and Draco chuckled a bit.

"What?"

"Nothing. You're just hot when you're embarrassed," Draco said, the normal smugness creeping back into his voice.

"Now - don't you. Remember, I'm a filthy blood traitor!" she joked. It clearly was a joke on her part, but Draco couldn't refrain from saying back to her,

"You don't need to remind me. Just your presence right now taints me too much."

Amelie was hurt by that snide remark. And she thought that Draco Mafoy and her were actually having a decent conversation. "I hate you."

"What was that?"

"I hate you," she repeated, this time louder. She glared at Draco, which made him feel taken aback. "You act like being a pureblood means so much - which it doesn't - and you treat muggle-borns and half-bloods as if they're totally worthless! Look at Hermione, who's a muggleborn! She's better than you than pretty much every subject! You have no right - hear that, no right to be so prejudiced about them. And I'm a blood traitor, so? Just because I have the ability to befriend muggle-borns and half-bloods and be civilized and diplomatic about it, which, by the way, makes me clearly better than you - " she paused, catching breath. " - doesn't make me any jot less useful. Because, if I might say so myself, that's more useful than any of your prejudiced rubbish!"

She turned away, because they had reached the hospital wing, spun on her hee, and left, walking down the long hallway quickly. Draco thought about her words. Sure, it was against everything he'd been taught, but - but - what if she had a point?

He told Madam Pomfrey what happened, and she settled him down for the night. He thought back to what Amelie had said, her outburst. Why had he been such a jerk?

"Good night, Draco," he said to himself, and soon, he fell asleep on the soft infirmary pillows.

***

Sorry for the short chapter :(