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Post by Blaise Zabini on Feb 7, 2011 5:01:03 GMT -5
Blaise looked amused at the thought of the classes that he'd always hated being shut down, and looked even more amused when Draco said that the half-bloods would be the ones that were picked on. Sure he hated the mudbloods and the blood traitors more, but the thought of certain half-bloods in specific getting what they deserved was what put the expression on Blaise's face. “Even that filthy old hat can make mistakes,” [/color] he said casually. He thought that perhaps it was time to turn the old thing in anyway, as he was tired of hearing its speeches and songs every year. Shalie ignored the looks that the two Slytherins were giving her. Learning about the school was actually quite a relief, even if Malfoy was apparently trying to be mysterious in his avoidance of certain questions. She did like most of the professors but let his comment slide. When he said Ravenclaws were supposed to be the bright ones she shrugged a bit. “Yes, well, Slytherins are supposed to be ambitious and cunning but your Crabbe and Goyle don't really fit the bill, do they?”[/color] She didn't care that she'd just called herself stupid. Maybe she was for wanting to go back to school. But there were a lot of worse things she could be. “I expect you'll be there then?”[/color] she said in a superior tone to imitate the pair. [/blockquote]
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Post by draco on Feb 7, 2011 5:08:12 GMT -5
Draco stared hard at her for a moment then gave a sort of injured sniff. "Of course we will be there. With the pathetic mudbloods out of the way, the school will be better than ever before and I see no reason to miss that. It will be like christmas every day...especially with the staffing changes." Again he adopted a sort of mysterious air to his tone, leaning back comfortably in his chair.
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Post by Shalie Matsuoka on Feb 7, 2011 5:25:26 GMT -5
Shalie raised her eyebrows just slightly. “If you really want to brag about things that you know, why don't you just go out and say it instead of hinting until someone tries to drag it out?” [/color] Still, she sat down and ignored the possible looks that she got from either of them for having to suffer her company. Because she was pretty sure that alone wouldn’t stop Draco from being mysterious she rested her chin on her hand and decided to question more. “If you know more about the staff changes, why don't you tell us? Everyone will revere you for knowing, of course, and if you don't say we'll only think that you're trying to make yourself look smart.”[/color] Blaise hid a small laugh with his hand.[/blockquote]
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Post by draco on Feb 7, 2011 5:37:17 GMT -5
Draco shouldn't have let her get to him with those comments but he felt his insides crawl with annoyance and irritation start to boil within his blood. He gave another injured sniff and abandoned all pretenses, turning to look right at her, now ignoring Blaise and all the others in the pub staring at him curiously. "The two new teachers being brought in are Amycus and Alecto Carrow. Amycus, the brother, will teach Dark Arts. Yes, just Dark Arts. No more of this pansy defense against the dark arts. His sister will be teaching a compulsory muggle studies class since the old teacher...left." It was the only falter in his so far very bossy, arrogant speech. He could still see her being eaten by Nagini as he fell out of his chair several weeks ago at the meeting that discussed Potter's move.
He cleared his throat, scraped back his chair and stood up. "And although you understand that I can't officially announce anything until the papers do, I can tell you unofficially that the potions teacher is going to be Horace Slughorn again, which leaves only one teacher without a position and one position without a teacher." He took a step towards Shalie's chair with the slightest hint of a smile on his face. "We've already declared that Ravenclaws are the bright ones...can you figure it out?"
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Post by Shalie Matsuoka on Feb 7, 2011 6:02:03 GMT -5
Shalie actually was a little surprised that Draco went out and said all that. What was even more surprising was how little any of what he said about the Dark Arts class surprised her. In some ways she thought that it might turn out to be the undoing of the Death Eaters because they would be teaching the students what could be used against them if the students were pushed so. And besides, other than Lupin the only Defense Against the Dark Arts classes she had learned much in were the ones taught by people who ended up being Death Eaters. “Well at least we know he won't be there long, what with the record in that class.” [/color] The muggle studies thing had her a little less comfortable. “What... do you mean? Muggle Studies class?”[/color] What would they teach in there? That was what made her really nervous... She had never seen the anti-muggle sort actually react with a muggle until the summer, when her father died. The memory made her face a bit pale, which was saying something as she was a bit pale naturally. Looking up at Malfoy was hard work considering he was rather tall and she was sitting. But you know, she managed it. It didn't take her long to come to a conclusion anyway. It was obvious with the way he had worded it, and in a strange way she had been expecting this. “So the curse continues... Though I doubt that Snape considers it a curse,”[/color] she said in a quiet voice. She had always liked Snape as a teacher, though that may have been because she wasn't a terrible Potions student and she wasn't in Gryffindor house. Slytherin was still favored, but Shalie didn't care about the house system anyway. Most of the time she could fly under the radar. “Why did they trust you with knowing all this?”[/color] she asked, though not in the rude way that you would expect such words to be. Blaise remained quiet throughout this conversation because he didn't really like trying to force Draco to talk about things, and now that he was, he didn't want to interrupt. He thought it odd that he was letting a half-blood Ravenclaw in on the information but maybe that would make her rethink coming back to school anyway. He could hope so. And maybe she would spread the word onto other friends... assuming that she had any. He glanced once more at the Daily Prophet a bit darkly as though he blamed it for not having the information that Draco did already.[/blockquote]
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Post by draco on Feb 7, 2011 6:09:29 GMT -5
Draco gave an important laugh when she asked why he was being informed of all this important stuff. "I am trusted" was all he would say on the matter, though his left hand began clenching and unclenching a few times absently. "As for your question on muggle studies...I believe that Professor Carrow will be teaching everyone about the dangers that muggles pose to our peaceful society but on that one, I am not sure as the curriculum has not been officially decided yet." He noticed that she had gone a bit pale but said nothing as he himself had also gone a bit pale, for different reasons of course. He was thinking about the person who "officially decided" the curriculum this term and with this thought, he ordered another round of butterbeer, not wanting to go home.
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Post by Shalie Matsuoka on Feb 7, 2011 6:30:41 GMT -5
Shalie nibbled on her bottom lip a little as she thought about the muggle studies class, the course it was taking now. She felt a little rush of pride to think that they had a right to worry. In the end her father had died but he had gotten the Crabbe guy good. They never took into account that the muggles really could fight back, even if they had the disadvantage of being unaware of the wizarding world. That was all it was, really, in her opinion, since she'd experienced both worlds and saw the good and bad from each.
Blaise, on the other hand, now decided to comment on Shalie's expression. “Which of your parents is a muggle anyway?” [/color] he asked, remembering something that she'd said or he'd heard somewhere before, he couldn't quite place which it was. It led to the same thing anyway. “Maybe we can use them as an example for what will happen to others.”[/color] He smirked. The conversation had finally taken a turn for which Blaise thought was interesting enough to talk again. As expected those were the wrong words to use. Shalie just stared at Blaise, then looked down at the table. “Maybe someone's already ruined that for you,”[/color] she said in a voice that was full of warning. Another insult or threat to her parent, even if it was pointless given the circumstances, and she would have trouble not doing something about it. [/blockquote]
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Post by draco on Feb 7, 2011 6:36:55 GMT -5
Dracoraised an eyebrow and drawled, "Oh really? And who was that? We should send them a present, right Blaise?" He took a seat again, now that his big speech was over and others were beginning to go back to whatever they had previously been doing. He wasn't sure what made him say that about Shalie's muggle parent but it didn't much matter. His focus was more on the two cloaked men that had entered the leaky cauldron and had ordered a pair of firewhiskeys before taking a seat. The area around them had cleared out fast.
Draco recognized them as Yaxley and Runcorn, two ministry workers; one of which was also a death eater.
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Post by Shalie Matsuoka on Feb 7, 2011 6:57:50 GMT -5
Shalie gripped her wand, which was in the same place as usual, tucked away in her sleeve for safekeeping. How low it was to say such things about family members, especially people who weren't there to defend themselves. She had the urge to take Draco's butterbeer and pour it all over those nice clothes. Then he could have fun explaining to his parents what had happened to him as well. Then she thought better of it, for three reasons. She didn't want to stoop to childish forms of revenge, she didn't want to make this into something serious, and really... she didn't want to do this in front of the men who had just entered the pub, though she didn't know them. There was just that sense of danger and mundane importance she really didn't care to get into. She just looked from Draco's distracted face to Blaise's contemptuous one. “Go on and send him a present if he's not been killed yet. I've heard they're not that patient with failure, you know.” [/color] She wondered if Draco was 'important' enough that he would have heard about Harry's near-capture. [/blockquote]
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Post by draco on Feb 7, 2011 14:20:47 GMT -5
Draco would have pointed out that she had yet to give a name so it would be quite difficult to send them a gift anyway, but her next words drew his focus and his heart did this little dive bomb into his stomach. He knew first hand how unpatient "they" were with failure as his father had suffered a great deal for his failure to get the prophecy two years ago and the dark lord's threats about what would happen if Draco should fail in his own mission last year still rang quite clearly in his ears.
It took him a few minutes of just staring at Yaxley and Runcorn's backs to realize that he hadn't actually said anything to Shalie but he couldn't come up with anything so he just sat there numbly, a deer in the headlights expression on his face.
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Post by Blaise Zabini on Feb 7, 2011 19:57:12 GMT -5
Blaise mostly paid attention to the two who had entered because Draco seemed more interested in them than the current conversation. Blaise recognized that they were from the Ministry... It was in the way that they moved, and the way that people moved away from them. He nudged Draco, trying to ignore the expression on his face. “Who are they, anyway?” [/color] he asked in a casual voice. Yet he ruined the impression by talking too quietly for the pair to overhear him speaking. It was tough work because the place had suddenly gotten quiet. Shalie noticed that even her grandfather had gone quiet. But they had already upset her, so she leaned toward Draco and whispered, “It was Crabbe.”[/color] She straightened up with a smirk on her face. Her own pain magnified her hatred for the Death Eater. “Send him my regards if he's still allowed near the important ones like you.”[/color] Eirnan (her grandpa) stood and came over. “We should be leaving soon, Shalie.”[/color] He nodded to Draco and Blaise. He didn't mistake them for actual school friends, but thought to be polite anyway.[/blockquote]
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Post by draco on Feb 8, 2011 3:09:58 GMT -5
Draco was snapped from his staring by Blaise's voice near his ear. "The one on the left is Runcorn and the one on the right is Yaxley." He had to bring his voice way down from its usual level in order to ensure that the men wouldn't overhear them.
Since he was still so focused on the pair of men, when Shalie mentioned Crabbe without saying Senior after it, his distracted mind went right to his friend Crabbe instead which was more than a little confusing. He frowned and repeated, "Crabbe?" He couldn't see Crabbe being capable of murder, especially without then telling Draco about it and besides Crabbe wasn't a death eater. And there went his left hand, clenching and unclenching systamatically and unconsciously.
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Post by Shalie Matsuoka on Feb 9, 2011 21:33:53 GMT -5
Shalie glanced back as her grandfather led her out. She realized the mistake that she had made in not clarifying that it was the father of Malfoy's school friend, but it was too late for that and she wasn't completely regretting not being more clear. He hadn't done that much to her personally but she knew other things he'd done and figured that he deserved to wonder a little bit... Meanwhile, Blaise ruined that for her not long after she had gone. “That's right, Crabbe's father is a Death Eater too, isn't he?” he asked, though he kept his voice down. It was as though he was afraid that the two Ministry workers were going to come over then because their voices were louder than the rest of the people in there... Now that Shalie was gone that is.
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Post by draco on Feb 10, 2011 3:20:02 GMT -5
His father. Duh. Malfoy was silently glad that he hadn't said anything stupid out loud following Shalie's remark. "Yeah, he is" he replied, back to his lofty, important, somewhat loud drawl, causing Yaxley and Runcorn's eyes to flicker their way and then they resumed their conversation though they were speaking so softly it was almost as though they were simply mouthing the words. He drained the last of his third butterbeer and looked around the pub with a bored expression.
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Post by lunalovegood on Feb 12, 2011 23:34:32 GMT -5
Luna stepped into the pub with her book in hand and her glasses on. She asked for a butterbeer to be delivered to where ever she chose to sit and the man nodded. To most he would look frightning but to her he was fairly normal for she did not know what his life was like. She turned to look around pub and saw Draco Malfoy sitting at a table. She came up and smiled. "Draco. Your head seems to filled with Nargoles. Is something bothering you?" She asked.
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