Unctuous Unction

Chapter One-

Authors note- Parts of the sixth book dismissed in the name of plot. My plot.

Warnings- Slashy, Bitter Dean Thomas, Cliché use of potions class.

And just for good assurance I would like you all to know that I am not in fact, JKR. I am, in actuality, a rougish American. Just think about how far we have come in the last month where I feel secure enough to admit that just now.

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The air smelt of dirt and water boiling; two smells which even separate were unnerving enough. Together they intertwined their fingertips like sisters, irritable sisters that were now found together gossiping over tea sandwiches; soft, uneasy and repulsive.

The gag reflex that Harry regularly found he needed to check, set off for something like the fourteenth time in an hour. Hermione watched him choke dismissively. "Oh really Harry, pinch your nose."

Harry looked down at the potion he found himself stirring, thick and bubbling and thought that to pinch his nose would require giving up on moving the potion at all. "Is it supposed to look like this 'Mione?"

"Er, yes."

Harry looked up to find Hermione's nose buried deep in her book. Looking back at his potion he reasoned that she had probably not checked his at all. "Oh," The potion gave a great bubbling gulp, surging up over the side and over the toe of his trainer, "ok then." His eyes wandered distractedly as he rubbed his foot against the table leg. Pavarti Patil, partnered with Neville Longbottom appeared to be suffering some sort of breakdown. Her soft brown fists were in tight balls at her sides, her eyes though seen from a full room away, looked red. Ron, though closer was presenting his back to Harry as he was rubbing a knife over the end of a half spliced breathing turnip. His partner Seamus seemed to be equally inclined, staring off into space and sighing as their potion evaporated slowly. Snape had never, in all of his years teaching them set such a difficult brew for the first lesson of the year. Harry cast a peak at what was their own Unctuous Unction, a potion that was developed in the middle ages and supposed to convince the receiver that the giver was their best friend. Harry ginned slightly, wondering what on earth his thick potion would convince someone of if her presented it to them. Probably that he hated them and that the world was cold, empty place, free of love and happiness.

"I. Can't. Turn. It. Clockwise-" Startled Harry looked at his own partner Dean, attempting to push the spoon through their sloppily prepared draught.

"Yeah, I think we might have to hang the towel on this one."

Dean looked back at him, panic etched into his once carefree eyes. "Potter, this is only the first one of the year!" Harry watched as Dean's potion heavy spoon touched the reference book. "I said I didn't mind being partners but I can't fail N.E.W.T level potions! Me Mam would murder me."

Harry sighed and pressed his fingertips to the edge of his nose. "Dean it's ok. I'm sure Snape will allow us to make it up."

Perhaps Dean was looking more than a little skeptical when Snape himself overtook them in their desperate fixing efforts. He paused in his stride to sneer down at them from behind a curtain of ever greasy hair. "Unprepared and poorly represented? It must be September Potter."

Harry tried very hard not grimace. Dean's misery was less succinct; he howled in an animal like misery that made half of the room jump. "This is just great! I'm partnered with Potter for the year! Not only will I fail every examination but I'll be bullied and suspected just for going near him. Professor this is unfair, he's a curse!"

Snape's lips twitched at this act of Gryffindor disloyalty. His small dark eyes turned on his. Harry swallowed, hard, clamping down the urge to seize the spoon and belt the greasy man with it. "Indeed, and what have you to say for yourself Mr. Potter. It appears the time has finally come where you have begun repulse even your own kind." Somewhere to the near left of him, Harry heard Draco Malfoy laugh softly.

"Professor, if you gave us some extra time to make it up,"

"-and why, Potter, would I grant you any special treatment. The rest of the class has not been given extra time and so I see no need to award you such." Snape smiled softly.

Harry felt his stomach churn, annoyance heightened by Dean's flustered sighs, "Could we write a paper?"

Snape sneered silkily, "I've been asking myself that very same question for years." A commencement of hearty Slytherin laughter rang in Harry's ears, which began to warm. Snape moved past them and commented idly that Hermione's potion was, "Passable."

Dean, shooting murderous sidelong looks at Harry began to put away their ingredients. Harry sighed and stuffed the books in his bag. The bell tolled in the hallway and there was a ruckus of eager students hanging about the door. Dean waved his wand and emptied the cauldron with his wand, "Useless!" Shoving his wand in his bag Dean thrust his back pack on his shoulder and snagged his book off the desk, disrupting Harry's supplies there, scattering papers and knocking the wet spoon across the floor. Dean moved past Harry and disappeared into crowd. Flushing, Harry bent over and pushed the papers back in his bag. Laughter behind him made him stiffen.

"Missed this Potter-" Harry turned and saw Malfoy, eyes glinting, holding the potions spoon. He inspected the mess on the end and laughed nastily. "Have it back then." Bringing the spoon down through the air, Harry was showered in spittle like potion.

Ron cussed. "Leave off Malfoy!" Eyes shining pointedly, Malfoy gave Harry one final look before leaving the dungeon. Ron leant down and helped Harry to his feet. "Hey. Don't worry Harry. Thing's get easier."

Harry nodded absently, shaking his head. What had he been thinking about? Snape? Dean? Malfoy?

"Harry?"

Harry's eyes snapped back onto his friend. "Yeah?"

"Are you alright mate? It's was only Malfoy."

Harry wiped his face, thinking he was beginning to feel lightheaded. "I'm fine." There was a strange lurch in his stomach. One that felt fleetingly high before Harry suddenly began to feel physically nauseous.

"Do you want to sit down?" Ron's face was a mask of worry.

Harry, hands still clutching his chest shook his head. "I'm fine. Lets just get to the great hall."

Ron followed him out of the room, an uncharacteristic worry evident in his eyes. Harry stumbled along, doing his best to remain walking evenly. A real fear leapt up in his chest. Something was wrong. Very wrong. Something that made him feel ghostly and thin, as though his flesh were missing. Shivering Harry took his seat at the Gryffindor table. Beside him he could hear Ron conversing with Hermione, but the content was unimportant to him; "Dunno, something just came over him in Potions."

"When? Was it Professor-"

"Nah, he seemed fine until the bell rang."

"Did you ask him what was wrong."

"He say's he is fine. I think Malfoy said something but who cares what Malfoy says?"

Malfoy. Harry felt his stomach clench. Eyes flipping up, he caught sight of the blonde as he sat at the Slytherin table. His grey eyes were narrowed and intent on Parkinson who was whispering something to the group. Something inside him whispered viciously. The light fell on Draco's hair softly and Harry found himself resolutely transfixed. Blinking stupidly, he followed the line of Malfoy's aristocratic nose, his long fingers working his fork and knife in what was likely the stiff if not pompous table etiquette taught by his mother, his face a blaze of haughty indifference. Leaning forward onto the table, Harry let his eyes wonder lower, his pressed school shirt and his tie resolutely uniform, though he wore them well tucked under his Hogwarts sweater. The black fabric moved with him as he leaned away from Pansy laughing disdainfully. "Harry?"

Harry jumped a foot out of his seat, Malfoy's eyes flicked over to their table and Harry only barely managed to rip his away before he was caught positively leering. "Harry, are you feeling well?" Hermione's kind eyes implored him.

"No." Malfoy was watching them talking now. "I don't feel well."

0-0-0

Harry took refuge in the fact the History of Magic class involved very little studying. The effort put fort to look attentive was nothing less than sleeping and students sometimes failed in that. This was a good thing for Harry because as it was he did not think he would be able to concentrate. Smothered in between Ron and Hermione's thick fall cloaks he occupied the middle of the desk and surrounded as he was he felt, for the moment safe. He was not sure what he was afraid of but he was positive it involved Malfoy and that Malfoy, whether he knew it or not currently exercised some kind of horrific interest in Harry. Harry himself was disgusted. How could this have happened? The thought of Malfoy made him sweat in the most intriguing way, like fear mixed with a kind of reckless desire. He knew this feeling but could find no word for it except perhaps misplaced. Whatever the emotion was he was positive he shouldn't have it for Malfoy. He. Malfoy, at the moment occupied a desk several feet to their left over Hermione's head and Harry, biting his lip hard, did his best not to look at him.

He looked at professor Binns for a time but that soon lost it's hold so he began to examine his notebook which, being new, had little interest to supply. He gazed intently at Ron, whose nose was very red. He wondered how Hermione brushed her hair, though it looked very soft. He considered throwing things at the twins in front of him, anything to keep from looking at Malfoy, who was making paper planes. He watched his reflection in the window, thinking that he was at least not looking at the actual boy. Malfoy took turns ripping Crabbe's parchment into sizable squares and massaging them into triangles, then eventually into flying contraptions. Goyle watched them entranced as they hovered at book level and Malfoy sighed leaning back in his chair. Any attempts now to extract his eyes from the scene would be ignored. Swallowing, he observed Malfoy's immaculate hair, the silver wrist band of a watch, a detail he had never before noticed gleamed where his robes met his arm in a perfectly tailored size.

Ron sighed and Harry's eyes flicked for a moment back onto his face. Ron was spotted and sleepy in the hazy reflective world of the window. Draco tilted his head back slightly, eyes absently tracing the outline of Binns's desk. Harry watched Malfoy's throat as he swallowed, his own pulse quickening with the bob of Draco's Addams apple. Unwilling to look anywhere else Harry closed his eyes and breathed. He wished he could be away from the room. He wished he could be in his dormitory, ensconced in darkness where he might think about this logically. What sudden change had come over him? What dreaded obsession had he formed in the course of only two hours? Something must have formed it, something that Harry couldn't rightly remember. Breakfast, Snape, Dean, and potions.

He froze, his muscles taut. Potions where they had made Unctuous Unction. Could someone have slipped him some? The potion had to be given to work so surely someone had given it to him. Someone being Malfoy. He opened his eyes and looked at his quill earnestly. Yes. Malfoy could have given it to him, that would certainly explain why he seemed to feel so favorable toward him at the moment. Yet, even as he thought it his heart began to race. Slowly he traces a finger over his face and taking it away looked at his fingers intently, remembering the sling of his own brew from the spoon. His hands shook at the thought of what his awful potion might be doing to him even now.

"Harry?" Harry's eyes flew open. "Did you hear the class leaving?" Both Ron and Hermione were looking at him.

"Oh yeah." Harry stood, still feeling more than a little absent.

"Harry, maybe you should get some rest." Hermione smiled soothingly. "We can bring you some dinner."

Harry agreed readily, amazed at the speed of his speech. "You go ahead, I'll meet you back in the tower." In his mind he knew he had at least one stop off before reaching it himself.

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About the potions... I did warn you about the tired use of potions. Thoughts and comments much appreciated!