Chapter Eleven

Arya was not in the mood to focus on any of her classes so she took it upon herself to sneak out to the hospital wing halfway through her potions class. It was easy to spot Dany's head full of silvery blonde hair laying in a bed in the far right corner of the room. Arya was a little hesitant to walk into the room, remembering the way her sister collapsed to the ground after the dementor attack, but she found strength in her need to make sure her best friend was okay. When she reached Dany's bed, she was able to tell that the girl was peacefully sleeping. That made her smile. Arya reached out and petted Daenerys's hair softly, not wanting to wake her up. Unfortunately for the Stark girl, Dany was an extremely light sleeper. Her eyelids fluttered open to reveal beautiful, violet eyes.

"Hi," Arya squeaked out. Dany's face morphed into one of confusion, then realization, then guilt.

"You shouldn't be here, Arya," Dany muttered, "you should be in class."

"Class is boring. You're fun." Arya put simply. A small smile played out across the silver-haired girl's lips. She shifted a little in her bed, forgetting for a second about her ribs. A subdued whine involuntarily came out of Dany. Arya's concern was clearly displayed on her face. She quickly surged forward and helped the girl turn towards her without getting hurt.

"Dany... what happened..." Arya took one of her hands and grasped it in a comforting, tight grip. A tear leaked out of Dany's eye. She looked like she was struggling with something for a second before she blurted out, "I'm a mudblood."

Arya gasped and looked around the hospital wing to make sure that there was no one else there. "Dany you can't say that word."

"Why not, it's what I am isn't it?" Dany muttered out, miserably. Arya leaned forward and kissed her cheek in a friendly manner, an action that still made Dany blush profusely. "I don't care if you're muggle-born or from the purest blood family that's out there. You're my best friend, Dany. That will never change."

"You promise?" Hopefully, violet eyes met serious grey ones.

"I would make an unbreakable vow right now if I knew how to." Dany's eyes widened in surprise.

"Now, who did this to you?" Arya growled angrily. Daenerys looked hesitant. "You have to promise me something else," Dany whispered, softly. Arya's hardened eyes softened a bit and she whispered back just as softly, "anything."

"You can't hurt him." Arya felt her heartbreak for the second time that day. Even laying in a hospital bed, Daenerys didn't want to hurt a fly-- or the rat that put her in the hospital wing in the first place. "I can't promise that--"

"You have to..." Dany gave one of Arya's hands a light squeeze, "I can't have you getting in trouble over this."

Arya sat there for a few moments, looking into Daenerys's pleading eyes. "Fine. I promise that I won't hurt them."

"It was Joffrey." Arya stood up violently from the chair. All Arya could hear was the violent pounding of her heartbeat in her ears and all she could see was red. She balled her hands into such tight fists that her fingernails actually started to draw blood. She wanted to hit something, anything, but mostly just Joffrey's face.

"Arya please," Dany's eyes filled with tears. The sound was enough for Arya to break out of her anger episode and sit back down, grabbing Dany's cheeks in between her hands, wiping tears that were falling down her cheeks. The blood from Arya's palms smeared onto Daenerys's cheeks. Arya panicked and tried to rub off the blood smears. Dany gently took Arya's wrists and held them close to her body. She took bandages from the table next to her bed and began to gently wrap Arya's bloody palms.

"I'm sorry... sometimes I get so angry..." Dany shushed her and finished wrapping her hands. "Promise me... promise me you won't go after Joffrey."

"I already promised..." Arya responded, hesitantly. Dany gave her a soft smile.

"Good."

***

Dany didn't make her promise not to tell Jon and Robb and make them angry enough to go after Joffrey while Arya sat back and watched.

After Dany fell asleep again, she marched straight to the Gryffindor common room and found her two older brothers sitting by the fireplace, homework sprawled out all over the floor. Angry tears were falling down the girl's face, which caught the boys' attention right away--Arya almost never cries.

"What? What's wrong?" Jon noticed her bandaged hands and became more frantic, "what happened??"

"We need to kill Joffrey Baratheon."

"Whoa, kill is a strong word."

Arya then proceeded to tell the two boys about what happened to Dany and how Joffrey was involved.

"Alright, we're killing Joffrey Baratheon."

The three Starks marched out of the Gryffindor common room, leaving the boys' homework haphazardly spread across the floor. They had more important things to do than pick it up.

They found Joffrey with a group of about five other Slytherin first year, not including Margaery, standing outside the entrance to the Slytherin Common room. He was obviously telling some grand story about something, which made Arya even more angry with him. He had just beat up an innocent girl and he was acting like nothing was wrong.

"Baratheon," a low growl came out of Robb's mouth, causing Joffrey to turn and face the Stark siblings. "Oh, it's the Stark children," A large, fake, smile played across his lips, "what do I owe the pleasure."

"Flipendo!"

Before he could even react, a shot of light came out of Jon's wand, knocking him back a few feet. The rest of the Slytherin first years scattered, leaving just Joffrey and the Stark children. Joffrey tried to scramble up and point his wand at Jon, but another Knockback Jinx from Robb kept him on the ground. "Levicorpus!" Joffrey's body lifted and hung in the air upside down. Per Dany's request, Arya hung back and didn't participate in the punishment of Joffrey. She left that up to her brothers, who she knew would be much more ruthless than her. Jon sucker-punched Joffrey once in the face, hard enough that it would bruise but not hard enough to do any permanent damage.

"Next time you decide to pick on an innocent person," Robb whispered menacingly at Joffrey, "remember this."

"Melofors!" Joffrey's head was encased in a pumpkin. Arya watched with glee as he struggled to pull the gourd off of his head to no avail.

"And know that if you tell anyone about this," Robb leaned closer, "they'll know that the minister's perfect son beat up a girl, who do you think your mom is gonna like that?" Joffrey offered a muffled response. Arya couldn't understand what he said, but Robb obviously could because he smirked and flicked his wand again, causing Joffrey to fall onto his head, the pumpkin smashing into pieces on the ground. The boy was gasping for air, giving Arya a death glare as she smirked and crossed her arms at him.

"One more thing, Baratheon," Jon picked him up by the collar of his robes, "you will apologize to Daenerys." Joffrey nodded his head violently, a scared look in his eyes when he looked at the two older, stronger boys in front of him. Jon let go of him and he scrambled off into the Slytherin common room. Jon dusted off his robes with his hands. Robb gave Arya a knowing smirk. Both boys then left, Arya trailing close behind, to go to the hospital wing and see Dany.

Daenerys's face light up when she saw the Stark boys but contorted into anger--which Arya had never seen--when she saw Arya trailing behind them and Jon's slightly bruised hand.

"Arya I told you not to get back at Joffrey!" Dany exclaimed, frustrated.

"Technically, she wasn't involved. She just told us. We were the ones who put Joffrey's head in a pumpkin." Robb explained, pleased with himself. Dany looked at all the Stark children with disbelief. Then, the door to the hospital wing creaked open and a pumpkin covered Joffrey slide in. He was looking straight at the ground, never looking at any of the Stark children in the eyes as he slinked across the hospital wing floor until he stood about three feet away from Dany's bed. He mumbled something not even Daenerys could hear what he said.

"Again," Joffrey stiffened, "louder."

"I'm sorry."

"What're you sorry for?" Jon quipped. Daenerys tensed.

"I'm sorry for calling you a... a bad name."

"And?" This time it was Arya who spoke up. Daenerys shot her a death glare.

"Attacking you."

"Alright now let's put that all together." Robb retorted. Daenerys gave him a stink eye as well.

"I'm sorry for calling you a bad name and attacking you."

Joffrey then bolted out of the hospital wing leaving three sheepish Stark children and a seething Daenerys. Dany chewed them out for not listening to what she had told Arya earlier but eventually calmed down. The boys eventually left to go back and do their homework and were replaced by Sana and Margaery who joined them after they finished eating dinner. Margaery was caught up on what went down between Dany and Joffrey, Sansa and Margaery were both caught up on what happened between Arya, Jon, Robb, and Joffrey. Sansa, like Dany, chewed Arya out for being so reckless. They decided that they were going to do their dragon study session in the Hospital wing, laying their multiple dragon books across Daenerys's bed as each girl quickly skimmed through one. Throughout the night, Daenerys's smile got dimmer and dimmer as she realized that she may never figure out how to hatch her eggs. Sansa noticed her frown progressively getting etched deeper and deeper into her face. She slammed her book closed.

"I have a theory." She announced. Three pairs of eyes looked up from their books in disbelief.

"A... A theory?" Dany said, hope flickering in her eyes.

"Yeah. Fire. I think if we put the eggs in a fire they'll hatch."

"That'll be easy!" Arya exclaimed, slamming her book closed in excitement.

"I'm not sure it'll be easy... per se." Sansa trailed off.

"I'm just excited to see what these dragons are gonna look like," Margaery stated. Daenerys gave her a shy smile.

"Now, all we need is a fire."