Chapter 12

Draco and Sage walked into the trophy room, gawking at the amount of work they had to do. They found the cleaning supplies McGonagall had left them and set to work without a single word to each other. They sat at opposite ends of the room, dusting off plaques and polishing trophies. The work was difficult; neither Sage nor Draco had done anything without magic before.

Sage's arm quickly got tired from polishing. Half an hour had passed, and the polish smell was giving her a headache. Draco had stopped working twenty-eight minutes ago and was sitting against the wall, head back and eyes closed. Sage considered throwing the large trophy she was holding at him. It was completely unfair that he wasn't doing anything while she was working hard.

Sighing in frustration, she picked up another trophy and started to polish it. This one was considerably smaller and lighter than the previous one. It could be thrown and most likely hit its target. Draco still had his eyes closed; maybe he was asleep. Straightening up, she took the trophy and heaved it. The trophy didn't hit Draco's head like she had hoped. Instead, it hit his arm, and his eyes snapped open. His body jerked, and he shouted, "Ow!" He glared at Sage.

"What did you do that for?" he shouted.

"For not doing your work! For being a lazy piece of hippogriff dung!" Sage shouted back. After a few moments, she calmed down a little and said, "For hurting my best friend."

Turning away from Draco, she muttered, "Get back to work," and picked up another plaque.

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George and Pansy were lost. Neither of them had ever been to the library before. For ten minutes, they wandered around, arguing about which way to go. George finally had the sense to ask a passing student. While Pansy stood sulking behind him, George grabbed Neville Longbottom's arm.

"Oi, Neville!" he said, "Mind telling us where the library is? We're a bit late for detention." Neville's eyes widened, unsure if George was kidding or not. Looking at Pansy and then back at George, he stammered out, "Go down the stairs and take two lefts, and then a right." George grinned and thanked Neville, then set off down the corridor at a brisk pace, Pansy reluctantly following.

Walking into the library, Madam Pince swooped down upon them, angry.

"Do you realize you are fifteen minutes late to detention?! Never mind that. Get to work re-shelving those books! Report back to me when you're done." She glared at them, waiting for a response. George nodded and gave the furious librarian what he hoped was a respectful smile. Pansy rolled her eyes. They walked towards the large levitating stack of books Madam Pince had pointed at. Pansy stepped in front of George.

"Listen, Greg. Do what she said and come find me when you're done." She was about to walk away when George grabbed her shoulder and spun her around.

"My name is George. And you're going to help me with this, or else you'll regret it." Pansy had heard of the Weasley twins' pranks and knew that they could make her life miserable with simple joke items. George's face was completely serious and Pansy realized she wouldn't be able to back out of this one. Sighing angrily, she followed George, who took out his wand and made the stack of books follow him. Over his shoulder, he said to Pansy, "Look for where the first book needs to go." Pansy sighed again. Taking a look at the tattered copy of Hogwarts, a History, Pansy walked around looking for its home shelf. Locating it, George let the book float up to its place.

Re-shelving all the books took nearly an hour and a  half. It was an extremely unpleasant hour and a half because Pansy and George couldn't stand each other. They argued several times, causing Madam Pince's wrath to be unleashed on them for making noise in the quiet and peaceful library. After completing the arduous task, the two of them approached Madam Pince, ready for their next assignment.

She directed them to the study area, commanding them to manually clean up any spare pieces of parchment and spilled ink blotches. Pansy tried to get out of working again, but George changed her mind again, leaving the image of charmed food making its way onto her plate at the next meal in her head.

Cleaning took only fifteen minutes, and the Professor McGonagall came around to let them out of detention. Pansy took off as if she was being chased by a banshee. Halfway to the Gryffindor common room, George ran into Sage and Draco, who had just been let go from detention. Draco gave a small nod to Sage and walked away. George blinked, unsure if he had seen right. While he had been staring at the back of Draco's head, Sage had gotten to the end of the hall. Sprinting to catch up to her, George thought about what to say.

"Hey," he said, slightly out of breath. "Did Malfoy nod at you back there? You guys acknowledge each other now? All buddy-buddy?" Sage kept walking at a brisk pace and didn't look at George as she spoke.

"Yeah. I, uhh, threw a trophy at him, and then we sort of had a talk after that. ...About some stuff. Came to a bit of an understanding afterwards."

"So, what, you guys are friends now?" George demanded.

"Don't see how it's any of your business," Sage said coldly. "But I guess it makes us... acquaintances. It was a pretty meaningful talk. Well, not really, but whatever."

Abruptly changing the subject, George said, "How long are you going to stay mad at me? All I did was stop you from getting into more trouble."

"No. What you did was stop me from teaching that thing a lesson. Pansy humiliated my best friend and ended up hurting her when she mentioned her parents. It's a sensitive subject with Stacy, so you stopping me from hurting her back is something I'll stay mad at for a very long time."

George stopped Sage and stepped in front of her.

"I'm really sorry, Sage," he said. "I couldn't have known that about Stacy. But if I had, I wouldn't have interfered." Sage was about to interrupt, but George quickly continued, "Let me make it up to you, alright? Meet me in the common room at eleven tonight, okay?" And then George hurried away before Sage could utter a word.