Hey guys! A big thanks to HogwartsApprentice for being a fabulous beta. All comments and constructive criticism is extremely appreciated!
Love,
~Hermione's Daughter
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"You'd think he would have grown out of it by now," Hermione said, shaking her head in exasperation. Harry agreed. They both looked at their best friend Ron, who currently had two chicken drumsticks in both hands and was alternating bites between them. Feeling the weight of their stares, he looked up.
"Whaygt?" he exclaimed indignantly, a few bits of chicken flying out of his mouth. Hermione, sitting opposite him, ducked; the chicken landed on a blonde Hufflepuff sitting on the table behind.
Harry grinned.
It was their fifth year at Hogwarts, and judging by the absolutely horrendous, hideous, pink – thing – sitting at the Staff Table, the quality of DADA class wasn't going to change much either.
Harry chanced a look over at the Slytherin table. A flash of white hair, a wide smirk and a shiny Prefects badge corrupted his glimpse. Malfoy. Harry rolled his eyes. The boy – or should it be man? – in question glanced up and coincidentally met his enemy seeker's bright green eyes.
Harry felt a bizarre fluttering in his stomach he hadn't felt before. The molten lead of Draco Malfoy's eyes stared at him; a questioning raise of one pale, delicate eyebrow, and the weight was gone.
Harry frowned into his plate. What in Merlin's name was that? He looked back up to see if it would happen again, but Malfoy refused to meet his gaze again.
Harry was pulled out of his thoughts when Ron captured Harry's attention with an intriguing story from the summer involving the twins, a toad, and an unruly garden gnome. He would ponder over this new development later.
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Draco Lucius Malfoy was sitting at the Slytherin table at the opening feast for his fifth year inside the esteemed school he was forced to learn at, only half listening to his best friend Blaise, who was chatting his ear off about something or other that had happened that summer. Theo was not-so-subtly eyeing off a rather hot looking Ravenclaw.
Draco rolled his eyes, looked up at the Head Table and nodded at his godfather, who nodded back with the barest hint of a smile on his truthfully greasy-haired face. Mental note: remind Uncle Sev to buy Sleekeazy's Super Strong Serum – maybe, just maybe, it might do something to that mop. Draco grinned to himself. He took a delicate bite off a delicious chicken drumstick. The elves at home were good cooks, sure, but nothing could beat the food at Hogwarts.
Just as he had finished off his delectable chicken drumstick, Draco felt the weight of someone gazing at him. Black hair, green eyes that could stare into your soul, and of course, the scar. Potter. Who else?
He met the other boy's eyes, raising an eyebrow in question. Bright green assaulted his vision. His stomach suddenly lurched, almost painfully. What had Potter done to him?
Draco immediately looked away, and though he felt his gaze on him multiple times after that, he refused to look back up. He would have to ask Blaise about this later, or consult some books from the Slytherin library. This was not normal.
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The first class of the year just had to be with the Slytherins. In fact, practically every class this year was with them. Oh, except for Creatures, but Harry was pretty sure no Slytherin was taking the class anyway. Did the world just hate him, or had he done terrible things in a past life he didn't know of?
Harry inwardly shrugged. He'd just have to suffer through it for now. He bumped shoulders with Neville as a way of greeting as they filed into the fume-filled room. Neville looked up, and his face betrayed… almost… constipation? No, it must be nerves. Of course, it was Potions. Sorry, Nev.
He shot a glare at the green and silver ties that were shoving through the Gryffindors to reach seats at the front, but feeling a gentle punch as one swept past, he shot a small grin at Theo. He had met the blatantly homosexual boy in Charms last year, when they had to work together for a project.
The Slytherin had helped Harry to accept his own bisexuality though they both had a mutual agreement that they were just friends, and nothing more. Theo also had some weird notion that Harry was perfect for someone he knew, but no matter how much Harry tried, he could not get a name out of him.
"You'll figure it out," Theo would say, every single time, "and if you don't, well, let's just say I am not adverse to locking you two in a closet and not letting you out until you finally snog."
Harry knew that this threat was not a bluff, either, though Theo would always say it with a god-damn know-it-all twinkle in his eyes.
Theo and Hermione together were completely too much to take. The two boys had forced their friends to be civil, at the very least, to each other, and Harry now knew that Blaise, and to a lesser extent, Draco, were not nearly as bad as he thought.
Draco. Weirdly, Harry's stomach fluttered at the thought. Malfoy was such an enigma. Harry and he had been mutual enemies since First Year. Somehow, that had dissolved into just ignoring each other. It was better than before, at least.
Theo was delighted when they finally stopped glaring at each other in the hallways. Harry had been shocked to realise that Malfoy actually did not follow the Death Eater ideologies – neither did Blaise or Theo, for that fact. Apparently Draco had a Muggle friend when he was very small; Harry didn't know much about it, but he was still extremely happy he was not 'evil'.
Harry got jolted out of his thoughts by a particularly greasy looking professor, who immediately zoned in on poor Neville, sending him a glare that made the mousy boy quiver in his seat.
"As you should hopefully already know, at the end of the year you will be sitting the OWLs examinations, which will be the sole factor in deciding which NEWT standard classes you will take next year. It is for this reason that there must be absolutely no distractions in this class. I have surmised the only resolution is to put you all in a seating plan," Snape sneered at the class.
Everyone groaned. The last time Slytherins and Gryffindors were forced to work together in Potions, it had ended with the classroom reeking of flobberworm mucus for a week and looking like a rainbow had melted inside the room (they had been making colour change potions).
"And before you remind me of that… incident… I find it prudent to let you all know that if I discover one person not collaborating productively with their partner, every single one of you will be helping Professor Hagrid bathe infant Blast-Ended Skrewts."
Harry had to give it to him, Snape sure did know how to keep a class in line.
"I would like the people called to immediately join their partner at a desk, and begin making Boil-Cure Potion by memory. Millicent Bulstrode and Pavarti Patel…"
Harry zoned out. He shot Ron a sympathetic grimace when Crabbe dragged his stuff next to the regretful red-head. Praying to be put with Theo, or at least Blaise, he sighed as Hermione started chatting happily to Theo and Blaise looked on boredly when Dean Thomas sat next to him.
"…and last, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy."
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Draco was having a very bad day.
First, he couldn't find anything to remedy the symptoms that arose whenever Potter was near to him, and he had read 1001 Jinxes and Curses and their Cures three times straight.
Secondly, Blaise just rolled his eyes and redirected him to Theo who, upon confiding in his symptoms, had grinned almost maliciously and refused to tell him anything.
And last of all, he had been partnered with the devil himself thanks to his dear godfather. Draco would tell him of his problem later and plead with him to find a cure.
"Alright Malfoy, let's just get this done." Potter was looking down at him, hints of annoyance arising in his eyes.
Draco sighed, looking down. "Fine."
As Potter headed over to the Potions storeroom, Draco glared at his back. What was the reason for all this? His palms felt clammy from that small encounter.
Potter dumped items unceremoniously on the desk upon returning.
"You forgot the horned slugs."
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