Obviously, I own nothing, unless you spot any OCs. Those are mine.
This is a product of my sleeplessness, but who knows, if you guys like it enough, maybe I'll continue. Please feel free to leave constructive criticism, I want to improve.
Anyway, enjoy (hopefully)
"Would it kill you to stop making asinine comments and focus for once?" Hermoine Granger snapped at her blonde lab partner, who was currently smirking and leaning backwards with perfect grace on two legs of his stool. She muttered something that sounded remarkably like 'insufferable git' under her breath, then turned back to the thick volume before her.
Draco Malfoy's grin widened, thoroughly pleased with his efforts. Admittedly, when he had plucked Granger's name out of the (still slightly sticky) jar that had once housed crystallised pineapple chunks, he hadn't bothered to hide his grimace of distaste. He had even tried to surreptitiously pick another name, prepared even to settle for the walking calamity that was Neville Longbottom, but Slughorn had slapped his hand away. However, he had soon realised that even though the next few months would not be pleasant, he could at least make them bearable by annoying Granger. He shot the bushy-haired girl a quick glance, as though trying to spot any weak points in her fortress of untamed brown curls. At that instant, she turned and brown eyes met grey. Malfoy held her stare unwaveringly, waiting for her to crack and look away first. To his surprise, she didn't, and instead her dark eyes melted to unfathomable depths. Malfoy tore himself away, almost embarrassed. Out of the corner of his eye (while he scrutinised the dusty jars lining the walls on the other side of the classroom with more care than was entirely necessary), he saw one corner of her mouth quirk upwards with poorly suppressed humour, before she turned back to her book once more.
From this position, with her back turned to him, she spoke.
"You'd better help me pick a potion, if you don't want to fail completely."
"Granger, asking me for help? Never thought I'd live to see the day," he replied lazily.
"I'm not asking, I'm ordering. I'm not about to let some slimy idiot get in the way of my NEWTS," she bit back, still leafing through the potions book.
It pained him to admit it, but she did have a point. Slughorn had made it very clear that they would be graded on teamwork, so these decisions had to be made together. The thought of working in such close quarters with Granger had him positively missing Snape's teaching… But Snape was gone, killed in the war that had claimed his entire family. The memories rose unbidden to his eyes, and the solid walls of the potions classroom faded away.
His mother gripped his hand tightly as they fled through the Forbidden Forest, mere paces behind his father. Suddenly, pain seared through his forearm. He gasped and stumbled over a protruding root, clutching his arm to his chest. Lucius had also halted and was leaning against a tree, looking even more ashen than usual. Draco watched from the ground as his father wrenched up the sleeve of his robe to reveal the Dark Mark. Except it was no longer dark – it was white hot. A great wave of cheering reverberated through the trees, and in that instant their marks split open and blinding white broke through their skin. Draco's eyes rolled back in his head as the pain consumed him.
Draco blinked, realising his cheek was no longer pressed against the damp forest floor, but against cold, unyielding stone. He sat up groggily and took in the site before him: walls out of which huge chunks had been carved as easily as if they had been made of butter. He rubbed his eyes with his good hand to clear the last of the black spots from them, and located the unconscious bodies of his mother and father, a few metres away. At least, he hoped they were unconscious. He made to stand and move closer to his parents, but a gruff voice from the corner halted his steps.
"I wouldn't do tha' if I were you". The oaf was giving him orders? He sneered, and began picking his way through the rubble. He hadn't made much progress when a freezing spell caught him square in the back.
"You never forget, y'know. It's like riding a broom" Hagrid said, waving a wand proudly, seemingly unaware that the movements caused sparks to fly out of the end and ignite his beard. Briefly, Draco wondered who in their right minds would have given the idiot half-breed a wand, but he remembered that the war left no one in their right minds. The war… Given that the oaf was still alive, and brandishing a wand no less, Draco could only assume that the Dark Lord had lost. Which meant that he was in no small amount of trouble.
Thankfully, Granger's whining shook him from his less-than-pleasant reverie. He sighed and picked up his own potions book, turning to the table of contents. He closed his eyes and jabbed his finger on the page at random. Opening his eyes again, he read the words 'Heart's Compass – Page 239'.
Draco nudged Granger with the tip of his quill and said simply, "This one."
She turned to the corresponding page, and after a few moments, nodded almost happily.
That, if anything, should have warned him that it would not be an easy potion to make.
As the scraping of chairs and gathering of books announced the end of the lesson (and not a moment too soon for Draco's liking), Granger handed him a piece of parchment.
"What's this, Granger, a declaration of your undying love for me?" he said with his characteristic smirk. She snorted, almost singing "You wish" over her shoulder as she disappeared into the corridor. He glanced down at the paper and saw that it was a list of things he had to do in order to prepare the potion. It was double-sided.
His eyes narrowed – if she thought he was going to be doing all the work for this 'team', she was sorely mistaken.