Draco and Hermione

Chapter 44

Chapter 44

When the Care of Magical Creatures class concluded, Ron offered to help Hagrid take the unicorns back into the forest in the hopes that maybe he will get to pat one at the last moment. Harry decided to head back to the common room alone, having no desire to see any more unicorns as he was constantly reminded of Voldemort. He walked to the top of the hill in the Hogwart's grounds, and laughed as he watched the unicorns dodge and avoid Ron. Pansy was walking up the hill towards him, giggling as the largest unicorn was still following her. Hagrid said it'd give up when it got closer to Hogwarts, as unicorns avoided buildings even more than people. Sure enough, it stopped on the hill and neighed as Pansy waved to it, before it bolted with dizzying speed back to Hagrid. Harry quickly continued walking, hoping that she hadn't seen him and cursing himself for even paying attention to her in the first place.

"Jealous?"

He couldn't help himself, her snide single-worded question simply warranted a response. It wasn't like he could ignore her.

"Of what?" Harry asked, turning and walking backwards to look at her.

"You didn't get to pat any unicorns," she said with a smug smile.

"I didn't want to," he answered. There was a pause as she raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Yeah, right. Everyone loves unicorns, why wouldn't you want to pat one?"

"Not everyone likes them," Harry blurted out, unable to rid his mind of Voldemort. He realised that he probably sounded strange to Pansy, and went on, "and so I think unicorns should be left alone."

"You're saying you don't like unicorns?" asked Pansy with a perplexed expression, as though this was worse than anything else about him.

"No not me, someone else."

"Who?"

"No one, it doesn't matter. Why are you even talking to me?" Harry snapped in annoyance, turning around and walking straight again. She went on, unrelenting.

"Maybe because we're walking the same way to the same common room," said Pansy sardonically.

"Go a different way then," Harry snapped back.

"How about you do that?"

"I was walking this way first."

"I better not walk the same way as 'The Boy Who Lived', since he's so much more important than everyone else," Pansy mocked him with all of the sarcasm that she could muster. Harry felt a flicker of anger surge through him as he stopped in his tracks and turned around to glare at her.

"You say that like I chose to be who I am. I'm famous because my parents were murdered when I was a kid, that's not something that I'm proud of," Harry said angrily, surprising even himself by the sudden outburst. Pansy stopped and hesitated, opened her mouth, closed it, went slightly red and then blurted out, "I was just joking."

"Hilarious. Now I know why everyone likes you so much," Harry said jadedly. He kept walking and Pansy followed, disheartened.

"I don't care what people think of me, so there's that. And you're not famous just because of your parents, you're famous because you, well, defeated him," said Pansy, sounding genuine. She quickly went on, "it was a joke."

"His name is Voldemort, you shouldn't be afraid to say it, after all you were on his side," Harry said over his shoulder.

"Wait, what? I've never claimed to be on his side, and you shouldn't say his name," Pansy hissed in a quieter tone, as she rushed to move beside him.