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// 7692
//== Frontal Override

// 7693
//The biting January wind howled around the vast, blank stone walls that
//demarcated the material bounds of the castle Hogwarts, whispering and whistling
//in odd pitches as it blew past closed windows and stone turrets. The most
//recent snow had mostly blown away, but occasional patches of melted and
//refrozen ice still stuck to the stone face and blazed reflected sunlight. From
//a distance, it must have looked like Hogwarts was blinking hundreds of eyes.

// 7694
//A sudden gust made Draco flinch, and try, impossibly, to press his body even
//closer to the stone, which felt like ice and smelled like ice. Some utterly
//pointless instinct seemed convinced that he was about to be blown off the outer
//wall of Hogwarts, and that the best way to prevent this was to jerk around in
//helpless reflex and possibly throw up.

// 7695
//Draco was trying very hard __not__ to think about the six stories worth of
//empty air underneath him, and focus, instead, on how he was going to kill Harry
//Potter.

// 7696
//“You know, Mr. Malfoy,” said the young girl beside him in a conversational
//voice, “if a seer had told me that someday I’d be hanging onto the side of a
//castle by my fingertips, trying not to look down or think about how loud Mum’d
//scream if she saw me, I wouldn’t’ve had __any__ idea of how it’d happen,
//__except__ that it’d be Harry Potter’s fault.”

// 7697
//__Earlier:__

// 7698
//The two allied Generals stepped together over Longbottom’s body, their boots
//hitting the floor in almost perfect synchrony.

// 7699
//Only a single soldier now stood between them and Harry, a Slytherin boy named
//Samuel Clamons, whose hand was clenched white around his wand, held upward to
//sustain his Prismatic Wall. The boy’s breathing was coming rapidly, but his
//face showed the same cold determination that lit the eyes of his general, Harry
//Potter, who was standing behind the Prismatic Wall at the dead end of the
//corridor next to an open window, with his hands held mysteriously behind his
//back.

// 7700
//The battle had been ridiculously difficult, for the enemy being outnumbered
//two-to-one. It should have been easy, Dragon Army and the Sunshine Regiment had
//melded together easily in practice sessions, they’d fought each other long
//enough to know each other very well indeed. Morale was high, both armies
//knowing that this time they weren’t just fighting to win for themselves, but
//fighting for a world free of traitors. Despite the surprised protests of both
//generals, the soldiers of the combined army had insisted on calling themselves
//Dramione’s Sungon Argiment, and produced patches for their insignia of a
//smiling face wreathed in flames.

// 7701
//But Harry’s soldiers had all blackened their own insignia - it didn’t look like
//paint, more like they’d __burned__ that part of their uniforms - and
//they’d fought all through the upper levels of Hogwarts with a desperate fury.
//The cold rage that Draco sometimes saw in Harry had seemed to trickle down into
//his soldiers, and they’d fought like it hadn’t been play. And Harry had emptied
//out his entire bag of tricks, there’d been tiny metal balls (Granger had
//identified them as “ball bearings”) on floors and staircases, rendering them
//impassable until cleared, only Harry’s army had already practiced coordinated
//Hover Charms and they could fly their own people __right over__ the
//obstacles they’d made…

// 7702
//You couldn’t bring devices into the game from outside, but you could
//Transfigure anything you wanted __during__ the game, so long as it was
//safe. And that just wasn’t fair when you were fighting a boy raised by
//scientists, who knew about things like ball bearings and skateboards and bungee
//cords.

// 7703
//And so it had come to this.

// 7704
//The survivors of the allied forces had cornered the last remnants of Harry
//Potter’s army in a dead-end corridor.

// 7705
//Weasley and Vincent had rushed Longbottom at the same time, moving together
//like they’d practiced for weeks instead of hours, and somehow Longbottom had
//managed to hex them __both__ before falling himself.

// 7706
//And now it was Draco and Granger and Padma and Samuel and Harry, and by the
//looks of Samuel, his Prismatic Wall couldn’t last much longer.

// 7707
//Draco had already leveled his wand at Harry, waiting for the Prismatic Wall to
//fall of its own accord; there was no need to waste a Breaking Drill Hex before
//then. Padma leveled her own wand at Samuel, Granger leveled hers at Harry…

// 7708
//Harry was still hiding his hands behind his back, instead of aiming his wand;
//and looking at them with a face that could have been carved out of ice.

// 7709
//It might be a bluff. It probably wasn’t.

// 7710
//There was a brief, tense silence.

// 7711
//And then Harry spoke.

// 7712
//“I’m the villain now,” the young boy said coldly, “and if you think villains
//are this easy to finish off, you’d better think again. Beat me when I’m
//fighting seriously, and I’ll stay beaten; but lose, and we’ll be doing this all
//over again next time.”

// 7713
//The boy brought his hands forward, and Draco saw that Harry was wearing strange
//gloves, with a peculiar grayish material on the fingertips, and buckles that
//stapped the gloves tightly to his wrists.

// 7714
//Beside Draco, the Sunshine General gasped in horror; and Draco, without even
//asking why, fired a Breaking Drill Hex.

// 7715
//Samuel staggered, he let out a scream as he staggered, but he held the Wall;
//and if Padma or Granger fired now, they would exhaust their own forces so badly
//that they might just lose.

// 7716
//“__Harry!__” shouted Granger. ”__You can’t be serious!__”

// 7717
//Harry was already in motion.

// 7718
//And as he swung out the open window, his cold voice said, “Follow if you dare.”

// 7719
//The icy wind howled around them.

// 7720
//Draco’s arms were already starting to feel tired.

// 7721
//…It had developed that, yesterday, Harry had carefully demonstrated to Granger
//exactly how to Transfigure the gloves he was currently wearing, which used
//something called ‘gecko setae’; and how to glue Transfigured patches of the
//same material to the toes of their shoes; and Harry and Granger had, in
//innocent childish play, tried climbing around the walls and ceiling a little.

// 7722
//And that, also yesterday, Harry had supplied Granger with a grand total of
//exactly two doses of Feather-Falling Potion to carry around in her pouch, “just
//in case”.

// 7723
//Not that Padma would have followed them, anyway. __She__ wasn’t crazy.

// 7724
//Draco carefully peeled loose his right hand, stretched it over as far as he
//could, and slapped it down on the stone again. Beside him, Granger did the
//same.

// 7725
//They’d already swallowed the Feather-Falling Potion. It was skirting the edges
//of the game rules, but the potion wouldn’t be activated unless one of them
//actually fell, and so long as they __didn’t__ fall they weren’t using the
//item.

// 7726
//Professor Quirrell was watching them.

// 7727
//The two of them were __perfectly, completely, utterly safe.__

// 7728
//Harry Potter, on the other hand, was going to die.

// 7729
//“I wonder why Harry is doing this,” said General Granger in a reflective tone,
//as she slowly peeled the fingertips of one hand off the wall with an extended
//sticky sound. Her hand plopped back down again almost as soon as it was lifted.
//“I’ll have to ask him that after I kill him.”

// 7730
//It was amazing how much the two of them were turning out to have in common.

// 7731
//Draco didn’t really feel like talking right now, but he managed to say, through
//gritted teeth, “Could be revenge. For the date.”

// 7732
//“Really,” said Granger. “After all this time.”

// 7733
//Stick. Plop.

// 7734
//“How sweet of him,” said Granger.

// 7735
//Stick. Plop.

// 7736
//“I guess I’ll find some truly romantic way to thank him,” said Granger.

// 7737
//Stick. Plop.

// 7738
//“What’s he got against __you?__” said Granger.

// 7739
//Stick. Plop.

// 7740
//The icy wind howled around them.

// 7741
//One might have thought it would feel safer to have ground under your feet
//again.

// 7742
//But if that ground was a slanted roof tiled with rough slats, which had rather
//a lot more ice on it than the stone walls, and you were running across it at a
//high rate of speed…

// 7743
//Then you would be __sadly mistaken.__

// 7744
//“__Luminos!__” shouted Draco.

// 7745
//“__Luminos!__” shouted Granger.

// 7746
//“__Luminos!__” shouted Draco.

// 7747
//“__Luminos!__” shouted Granger.

// 7748
//The distant figure was dodging and scrambling as it ran, and not a single shot
//hit, but they were gaining.

// 7749
//Until Granger slipped.

// 7750
//It was inevitable, in retrospect, in real life you couldn’t __actually__
//run across icy slanted rooftops at a high rate of speed.

// 7751
//And also inevitably, because it happened without the slightest thought, Draco
//spun and grabbed for Granger’s right arm, and he __caught__ her, only she
//was already too far off balance, she was falling and pulling Draco with her, it
//all happened so quickly -

// 7752
//There was a hard, painful impact, not just Draco’s weight hitting the rooftop
//but some of Granger’s weight too, and if she’d hit just a little bit closer to
//the edge they could have made it, but instead her body tipped again and her
//legs slipped off and her other hand grabbed frantically…

// 7753
//And that was how Draco ended up holding onto Granger’s arm in a white grip,
//while her other hand clenched frantically at the edge of the rooftop and the
//toes of Draco’s shoes dug into the edge of a roof tile.

// 7754
//“__Hermione!__” Harry’s voice shrieked distantly.

// 7755
//“Draco,” whispered Granger’s voice, and Draco looked down.

// 7756
//That might have been a mistake. There was a lot of air underneath her, nothing
//but air, they were on the edge of a rooftop that had jutted out from the main
//stone wall of Hogwarts.

// 7757
//“He’s going to come help me,” whispered the girl, “but first he’s going to
//__Luminos__ both of us, there’s no way he wouldn’t. You have to let me
//go.”

// 7758
//It should have been the easiest thing in the world.

// 7759
//She was just a mudblood, just a mudblood, __just a mudblood!__

// 7760
//She wouldn’t even be __hurt!__

// 7761
//…Draco’s brain wasn’t listening to anything Draco was telling it right now.

// 7762
//“Do it,” Hermione Granger whispered, her eyes blazing without a single trace of
//fear, “do it, Draco, do it, you can beat him yourself __we have to win
//Draco!__”

// 7763
//There was a sound of someone running and it was coming closer.

// 7764
//__Oh, be rational…__

// 7765
//The voice in Draco’s head sounded an awful lot like Harry Potter teaching
//lessons.

// 7766
//…__are you going to let your brain run your life?__

// 7767
//__Aftermath, 1:__

// 7768
//It was taking a bit of an effort for Daphne Greengrass to keep herself quiet,
//as Millicent Bulstrode retold the story in the Slytherin girls’ common room (a
//cozy cool place in the dungeons running beneath the Hogwarts Lake, with fish
//swimming past every window, and couches you could lie down in if you wanted).
//Mostly because, in Daphne’s opinion, it was a perfectly good story already
//without all of Millicent’s __improvements__.

// 7769
//“And then what?” gasped Flora and Hestia Carrow.

// 7770
//“General Granger looked up at him,” Millicent said dramatically, “and she said,
//‘Draco! You’ve got to let go of me! Don’t worry about me, Draco, I promise I’ll
//be all right! And what do you suppose Malfoy did then?”

// 7771
//“He said ‘Never!’,” shouted Charlotte Wiland, “and held on even tighter!”

// 7772
//All the listening girls except Pansy Parkinson nodded.

// 7773
//“Nope!” said Millicent. “He dropped her. And then he jumped up and shot General
//Potter. The end.”

// 7774
//There was a stunned pause.

// 7775
//“You can’t __do__ that!” said Charlotte.

// 7776
//“She’s a __mudblood,__” said Pansy, sounding confused. “Of __course__
//he let go!”

// 7777
//“Well, Malfoy shouldn’t have grabbed her in the first place, then!” said
//Charlotte. “But once he grabbed her, he __had__ to hang on!
//__Especially__ in the face of approaching certain doom!” Tracey Davis,
//sitting next to Daphne, was nodding along in firm agreement.

// 7778
//“I don’t see why,” said Pansy.

// 7779
//“That’s because you don’t have the tiniest smidgin of romance in you,” said
//Tracey. “Besides, you can’t just go dropping girls. A boy who’d drop a girl
//like that… he’d drop __anyone.__ He’d drop __you,__ Pansy.”

// 7780
//“What d’you mean, __drop me?__” Pansy said.

// 7781
//Daphne couldn’t resist any more. “You know,” Daphne said darkly, “you’re eating
//breakfast one day at our table, and the next thing you know, Malfoy
//__lets go of you,__ and you’re falling off the top of Hogwarts! That’s
//what!”

// 7782
//“Yeah!” said Charlotte. “He’s a witch dropper!”

// 7783
//“You know why Atlantis fell?” said Tracey. “‘Cause someone like Malfoy
//__dropped__ it, that’s why!”

// 7784
//Daphne lowered her voice. “In fact… what if Malfoy’s the one who made Hermione,
//I mean General Granger, slip in the first place? What if he’s out to make
//__all__ the Muggleborns trip and fall?”

// 7785
//“You mean - ?” gasped Tracey.

// 7786
//“That’s right!” Daphne said dramatically. “What if Malfoy is - __the heir
//of Slipperin?__”

// 7787
//“The next Drop Lord!” said Tracey.

// 7788
//Which was far too good a line for anyone to keep to themselves, so by nightfall
//it was all over Hogwarts, and the next morning it was the __Quibbler’s__
//headline.

// 7789
//__Aftermath, 2:__

// 7790
//Hermione made sure she got to their usual classroom nice and early that
//evening, just so that she would be by herself, in a chair, peacefully reading a
//book, when Harry got there.

// 7791
//If there was any way for a door to creak open apologetically, that was how the
//door was creaking open.

// 7792
//“Um,” said Harry Potter’s voice.

// 7793
//Hermione kept reading.

// 7794
//“I’m, um, kinda sorry, I didn’t mean for you to __actually__ fall off the
//roof or anything…”

// 7795
//It had been quite an entertaining experience, in fact.

// 7796
//“I, ah… I don’t have much experience apologizing, I’ll fall to my knees if you
//want, or buy you something expensive, __Hermione I don’t know how to
//apologize to you for this what can I do just tell me?__”

// 7797
//She kept reading the book in silence.

// 7798
//It wasn’t as if __she__ had any idea how Harry could apologize, either.

// 7799
//Right now she was just feeling a sort of odd curiosity as to what would happen
//if she kept reading her book for a while.