The Gloriana Set

"We Have To Stop Meeting Like This"

Thank you, everyone, for all the kind, insightful and HILARIOUS comments. One of my favorite Wattpad features is the ability to comment line by line. I feel like I'm reading this story aloud to a group and hearing your responses. 

Very busy chapter here with tons of dialogue. Nearly every encounter advances the story's plot, even when it doesn't seem like it. Prepare for suggestive plant imagery and lots of Harry.

Love,

Thebe

Hermione found Monday classes very trying. News of the fallen stone block was all over the school; half the student body thought she wanted to marry Draco and the other half thought she wanted to murder him. Any day they'd see the headline in the Prophet: "Is She Kissing Him or Hexing Him? Answers, Page 6!"

Amused, Draco just made things worse, kissing her sweetly outside Ancient Runes and acting afraid of her in Potions. "Watch, she's going to try to poison me," he whispered hoarsely to Romilda. Theo looked at Draco disapprovingly but said nothing. He had quite enough to do fending off Lavender, who had taken Draco's shameless lie to heart.

"Don't you think Theo is shredding his fluxweed wonderfully?" Draco asked the witch sitting beside him.

"Oh yes," Lavender said, looking at Theo with shining eyes. "Would you like me handle your gurdyroot, Theo?"

"I don't think you even need to ask, Brown," Draco said. Lavender giggled. Hermione and Theo glared.

Draco's antics continued throughout the morning; he saw Hermione coming down the corridor after Arithmancy and stepped behind Leila. "Save me, I'm about to be hexed," he intoned as Leila rolled her eyes.

"Poisons, hexes—just keep it up, Draco," Hermione told him in the Great Hall after lunch. "You're only giving me ideas. And stop tormenting Theo. Hasn't he suffered enough?"

"Certainly not," Draco said, suddenly cold. "I've made myself very clear to him; he is to stay the hell away from you and—"

"Draco, you can't—"

"Mr. Malfoy!" The Squeaky Mice raced into the hall and between the tables, skidding to a stop before the couple. Then they began jostling each other to be in front. Hermione eyed them with a slight frown. Out of their "Why I Won't Break Into Potion Labs" essays, only Leila and Bertie's had been truly adequate, although she'd lifted the Rainbow Hex on all the Mice anyway.

"Yes?" Draco asked coolly.

"Can you oversee our detention tonight?" Imogene asked.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Another one? What did you do this time?"

"We offended a portrait," Bertie said. "He ah, didn't appreciate being called a bat."

"In our defense, he does look like a bat," Leila said. "We didn't know it was a former Headmaster."

Hermione and Draco exchanged looks. "What was the portrait's name?" Hermione asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"Snoop," Bertie said.

"No, Snipe," said Imogene.

"Sneep?"

"Snurp?"

"That's a stupid name."

"I wouldn't talk, Percival."

"Excuse me," Draco said in glacial tones. "Am I to understand that you are speaking of former Hogwarts Headmaster Severus Snape?"