The two-week Christmas holiday came to an end.
Not long after Draco returned to school, he heard that Harry had received a Firebolt as a Christmas present.
"I wish I had such a generous godfather..." said Seamus Finnigan.
"Who would not?" Ron replied with a look of longing.
It was a damp, chilly January morning, and they were in a field near the Forbidden Forest for Care of Magical Creatures.
Terrible weather and a terrible lesson! Draco lamented inwardly.
Unexpectedly, to amuse the students, Hagrid built a bonfire filled with salamanders. The students had to constantly collect firewood and leaves to keep the fire burning.
When Draco and Hermione went to search for dead branches in the nearby bushes, he noticed that she was wearing a delicate little silver ring on her slender finger.
If someone were to look closely at the ring, they might discern that it was a snake with its head and tail joined together, or perhaps, in the sunlight, they might see the eyes of the snake made of rubies. This ring had been a Christmas gift from Draco to Hermione.
Hermione noticed his gaze and confidently held out her hand for him to see. "Is it not pretty?"
"Very pretty." A slight smile appeared on Draco's lips.
"I really like it." Hermione's eyes shone with a warm, pleasant light. "It even has a defensive charm on it? Is that not rare? Where did you get it?"
"It is made through special channels. However, you only have one chance. It can deflect one attack or one minor curse," Draco reminded her. "Of course, it probably cannot withstand powerful Dark spells like the Unforgivable Curses."
This was inspired by the Shield Hats from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.
To make the ring, he had humbly sought advice from Fred for a long time, only to be ridiculed quite a bit; he had also promised to lend them the Marauder's Map for research, as they seemed to want to study some kind of comical gadget involving tethering magic... In short, it had been a deal that resulted in a complete loss for him.
The ring also carried a hint of his secret, unspeakable selfishness.
He had placed a Tracking Charm on the ring.
Draco knew it was despicable, but he simply could not help himself.
He was always inexplicably worried about her, especially with Peter Pettigrew on the run, Dementors everywhere, and a werewolf in the castle.
He told himself that he would never check where she was unless absolutely necessary.
If the Marauder's Map, lent out as it was, knew what he was thinking right now, it would probably scoff disdainfully, thinking he was just trying to cover up the truth... who was he trying to fool? Every night before he went to sleep, he spent ages checking her location on the Marauder's Map.
Unaware of this, Hermione followed the guilty-minded Draco back, throwing firewood into the fire and watching the fire-loving salamanders leap around in the crackling wood.
Draco stole a glance at the silver glint between her fingers, then changed the subject. "The model of the galaxy you gave me is beautiful. I feel like I no longer need to go to Astronomy class."
Hermione smiled smugly at him. "I knew you would like it. With it, you can finish drawing those star charts faster and focus on Quidditch training, can you not?"
He nodded and smiled.
Quidditch training did make "completing the assignments" a bit of a strain. Marcus had started acting neurotic again, demanding they be on the pitch every day for training.
A week after school started, Slytherin played a Quidditch match against Ravenclaw.
Slytherin won, and won by a hair's breadth... at the last moment, Draco perfectly dodged a feint and successfully caught the Golden Snitch, making Marcus so excited he almost cried.
"What did I tell you!" Derrick laughed in the tactics room, patting Marcus on the shoulder. "Draco has absolutely no gentlemanly manners!"
"However, I do not think Cedric was deliberately going easy on Cho Chang." Draco lazily toyed with the Golden Snitch in his hand. "She is indeed quite troublesome."
"That's right, that is the spirit we need. We cannot underestimate any opponent."
Marcus pointed at the blackboard in the tactics room.
"We still cannot be careless. We only narrowly beat Ravenclaw; the margin was not big enough. No, Draco, do not look so downcast. You were right to catch the Snitch. If we had delayed any longer, we might have lost even with the Snitch caught, and that would have been embarrassing.
The trouble is, Gryffindor now has the Firebolt. If Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff suffer a crushing defeat at Gryffindor's hands, we shall be in danger."
Gryffindor's training was in full swing. So, just as though they were competing against Gryffindor directly, the Slytherin team also intensified their training. But no one complained any more; everyone was determined to win.
Marcus had a bit of a headache after the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw match that afternoon, so he gave his players the afternoon off.
Draco finally had a moment to catch his breath amidst his busy schedule. He planned to catch up on his missed assignments at the library and tutor Crabbe and Goyle as well.
The library was not too crowded that day. Draco, while drawing a star chart, complained to Goyle and Crabbe, "Why would anyone confuse such different constellations?"
"Actually, I often make mistakes too, you know..." A sheepish expression appeared on Goyle's face.
"That is why I always tell you to be more careful!" Draco pointed mercilessly at his parchment with the back of his quill. "If you used your brain, you would have realised that you have drawn this galaxy upside down..."
Crabbe chuckled to himself, proudly unfolding his masterpiece. He heard Draco, bending down to examine his parchment, lazily say, "Very good, Crabbe, you have drawn Andromeda perfectly. It is just that Professor Sinistra asked for Orion instead..."
Crabbe's smile vanished abruptly.
"Redraw it, I shall check it when I get back!" Draco said, glancing at the bookshelf beside him and frowning.
He tossed down his quill in a huff, leaving the two unfortunate souls, who were struggling with star charts, at the library table.