Gone Awry

One week back to school, the whole student body was in rumour fever. Something had happened between Draco Malfoy and Ash Weasley. Something big.

They had been the royalty of Slytherin, the pair that had been as different as day and night, black and white, lollipops and sour cream, but they had fit.

Now they weren't even talking to each other any more. Malfoy was with Pansy, Daphne and the goons and Weasley was sitting with Tracy, Blaise and Chase.

If words needed exchange, they were passed through the friends. If they had seats next to each other in class, they swiftly exchanged places with their peers. What happened? Did they have a fight? Did they really break up? - Nobody knew. Neither of the groups gave any comment about it to anyone.

"Ash!" the voice of a frustrated Ron reached her ear and she look up to greet him. "What did he do to you?" the red head demanded.

The reddish blond girl looked up at her cousin and sighed. It was time to leak the truth. "The git cheated on me with Pug-face. We're over."

"Malfoy did what?!" Ron screamed with his full voice volume. "Malfoy cheated on you?"

Finally it leaked. The hall started to erupt in loud chatter as the news spread along the rows of students and was discussed. Every now and then she saw a few heads turn towards her, pity in their eyes, or they turned to look at Malfoy - glares all the way.

"I can't believe he did this to her, poor Ash. But I bet she's already planning her revenge! I can't wait to see what she comes up with!"

"Did you hear what Malfoy did to Weasley! Poor Girl. I hope she kicks his ass!"

"Bloody Hell, I've just heard what that git Malfoy did! I hope Weasley is alright. They looked so good together."

"I'm sure she'll find an awesome way to get revenge."

"How can she not? She's the number one prankster of the school right now! Can you remember the time with Parkinson and Greengrass? Merlin that was bloody brilliant!"

"I'm sure she'll top it this time!"

"Have you heard? I hear her next cue against Malfoy will be her Masterpiece!"

"When do you think she will strike?"

"Its already been over a week that its out that the spineless git Malfoy cheated on her... Do you think she will really do something now? Maybe she's gotten weak..."

"It's a bit disappointing, I thought I'd be able to see the greatest prank/revenge in the century, but nothing. I'm starting to believe that she still loves him..."

"It's unforgivable what he did"

"She's getting weak..."

Rumour after rumour spread through the school. Two weeks after the announcement and three weeks after the Holidays, people despised Draco more and more, while they started believing Ash had gotten to weak, lost her fight, lost her something.

After two weeks of hearing how she's gotten weak, she had enough.

Malfoy was sitting in the Great Hall, when Ash came in and send him a small smirk. Quickly she glanced over the Hall - it was packed. Her smirk grew.

She quickly walked to her own place and waited for somebody to start a conversation with her victim. Finally one of the Goons came and asked the blond something. While Malfoy was distracted, Ash quietly used the levitating spell to put some nice bloody newt and goat eyes - which she had gotten out of the potions lab into his cereals.

As soon as she had finished, she just needed to wait.

One minutes passed, two minutes passed, three minu- "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" came a ear piercing scream from Malfoy's direction. Quickly he jumped up from his chair, while pushing away the bowl and making it spill over the table.

The scream had reached the whole hall, and every head turned to look at the freaking boy, who was scratching his tongue and glaring at the table, where a few of the eyes were happily rolling around the table.

Seeing his reaction Ash burst out laughing and soon the whole hall followed, cheering for the Weasley, who seemed to have finally started her revenge.

Malfoy was sitting in front of Ash in potions class. Shortly before class ended, she quickly muttered a transformation spell at the things inside of her Nemesis's bag - which was soon filled with a wonderful collection of frogs.

When he picked up the bag to pack away his notes, she heard a grossed out scream, as one of the frogs jumped into his face.

Parkinson was slowly walking down the filled hallway. Smirking she hid herself behind a statue and muttered Wingardium Leviosa making Pansy's skirt turn up side down.

On and on a series of small harmless but entertaining pranks followed Malfoy and Parkinson through their school days for a couple of days. However, - even though they where entertaining, people expected something more, something bigger.

And soon the big finale came.

It was hard work, preparing this vengeance. Getting the people to work with her... To get them to do what she wanted... especially this far into the year... but it was the only thing she could think of that would get the student body satisfied with her revenge.

Malfoy was sitting in the Great Hall once again, when Ash, Chase and four other Slytherins entered the hall and spotted him.

"Malfoy," Ash called loud enough so that he - and a couple of other students - looked up at them. "We need to talk," she said confidently and nodded her head towards the door.

The boy looked at the people around his ex-girlfriend. "Why is the whole Quidditch team here?" he asked silently, not moving from the spot.

"We need to discuss something outside," Ash repeated.

"Well I don't want to."

Ash sighed. "Well, lets get this over with then," she said and looked at her fellow Quidditch players, who nodded at her, confirming that they were all behind her.

However it wasn't Ash that spoke, but Isabel Breaker. "We voted for you to be removed from the Quidditch team," she said icily, handing him a piece of paper which held the signature of all Slytherin players. "We do not trust you to lead us any more. Therefore, we will be searching for a new Seeker this afternoon and we made Ash our new Captain," she added as Draco just started at the piece of paper, speechless.

"You what?"

"Basically, we threw you of the Quidditch team," Chase told him in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You did what?" he asked, his voice getting louder with every word, so that the whole school could here him furiously scream the last words.

"You heard us. Do not come to any more trainings and we will need you to return your seeker uniform by tomorrow," Christina Donot said, crossing her arms over her chest determinedly.

"What seems to be the problem here?" a low voice asked from the side and all their heads turned to look at Snape.

"We are throwing Draco out of the Quidditch team," Graham Montague answered him.

"And why? In the middle of the season?"

"We do not believe him fit to lead us any more. He broke our trust in him."

"But why throw him of the team completely? Why not just change the Captain?"

"We don't want him to drag us down any further then he already has," Graham answered again.

Snape scowled at them and then looked at Draco, "what do you say Mr. Malfoy?"

Draco looked at Snape for a second then his gaze wandered to Ash as he remembered their conversation just a few days ago.

+++++++

"Draco. Follow me," she ordered quietly when she saw him walking down a corridor alone. Quietly she nodded her head towards the direction of an empty classroom.

Knowing that he was on her heels, she never looked over her shoulder, as she walked away from the people and into the classroom.

"Ash. I knew you'd -" he had said, hoping she wanted to forgive him.

"No Malfoy," she cut him off, pushing him away from her with the whole strength of a beater. "We're over. For whatever reason you did it. You knew that as soon as you slipped under the covers of Pansy's bed, we were over," she snapped and finally looked at him - her eyes were stone cold and emotionless.

The boy swallowed hard and looked on the ground, grinding his teeth together.

"Draco," she said more softly, seeing his sadness. "You don't really expect me to forgive you, do you?"

Draco looked up at her, "Would you?"

Ash shook her head in answer and Draco let his eyes settle on the floor again. "Now Draco... I know this sounds... harsh... But people are expecting me to do something big. A masterpiece of revenge that will leave you lying on the ground forever and always."

Draco scrunched up his face when he heard that, although he knew that she was right, "and to be honest with you... I would love to fulfil their expectations. Make you scream, make you weep and rip you to pieces..."

The blond boy in front of her look up in shock, fearing what would come next.

"...But I can't," she whispered, nearly not audible at the distance between them. But Draco heard.

"What do you mean you can't?"

"Every time I see you, you seem so... distant.. so... unreachable. I have no idea what happened during the winter holidays, but I know one thing for certain, I can't take revenge on you because you and the Draco I loved are not the same people," she told him coldly and stared into his eyes.

Draco returned her face with a grimace and asked what she meant.

"You know what I mean, Malfoy. Don't try to hide it from me. I know you better then most people out there. I know your secret. You're lucky that I'm not like my cousin and his friends, rushing into every adventure as if their lives weren't on the line."

He looked at her with wide eyes and swallowed.

"Frankly, I don't care. But you are dead for me!" she spat.

"Now back to my problem. I can't take my revenge on you. Sucks for me, but it also sucks for you. As long as I didn't come square, your reputation will never go back to normal and I will be seen as weak - which I am not!" When she saw that this wasn't enough she added, "Furthermore, I would hate to accidentally say something about that new trademark of yours..."

Now the blond boy put on his poker face and leaned against one of the tables. "What do you want me to do?"

Ash smirked. "Now we're talking business."
+++++++++++

Faking a glare at her and swallowing hard, he looked at his former team members and bit down any further comments. "No sir" he spat, before hitting the table so hard that he still felt the hard wood hours later and then storming out of the Great Hall.