"I shall be putting you into partners today" Snape announced as he strode into the dungeon.

"Line up, quickly now! We don't have all day!" He then proceeded to point people onto different desks, I was sure he would partner me with Crabbe, Goyle or Pansy who, as I turned around, was grinning at me like a Cheshire cat who just drunk a gallon of Alihotsy draft. I was his favourite student after all

"Malfoy, you will be next to Potter" a smirk formed on his face.

"What?" I thought I had misheard him; I was distracted when my heart skipped a beat at the mere mention of his name.

"Next to Potter, I didn't know you were as slow as your two hit men over there." Snape gestured toward Crabbe and Goyle who were flicking bogies in Hermione's general direction then laughing hysterically and mumbling in their own deep, incomprehensible language.

"I don't want to have to tell you again, Malfoy." He drawled threateningly. I scowled at him and he returned it with "Detention."

I slumped into my seat, trying to seem like I hated the new arrangement however inside my heart was doing some kind of backflip as I felt Harry's breath faintly on my arm.

"Today we will be studying the laugh inducing potion so get out your books and turn to page 83." Snape turned around to write on the blackboard, his long black cape billowed as he spun and it like a wave washing up onto the shore, faded abruptly into just slight twitches in movement as he wrote.

"Now collect your ingredients quickly."

The scraping of stools along the uneven stone floor screeched through the room.

"I'll get equipment, you get ingredients" said a voice from next to me, it took me a moment to register and was about to respond, I turned around and Harry was already digging through the equipment on the other side of the dungeon.

"Malfoy, you're really not awake this morning are you?" Snape jeered in my ear "Wake. Up." He said menacingly as he glared at me. I muttered under my breath as I walked up to the store cupboard, crammed with students and let out a groan as I fought my way through the rabble of Muggle borns and half-bloods.

I grabbed the ingredients that we needed and headed back to my table, thinking of all the possible scenarios that could occur between Harry and I, most ending in some kind of passionate show of affection, as if that would ever happen…

I reached my desk to an unexpected burst out from Harry, burning a heart in my fantasies.

"You forgot the wormwood you idiot!" At first I was taken aback by the way he said this, especially considering he was completely different in my head.

"If you want the wormwood then get it yourself," I replied calmly back to him. I knew that if I replied calmly it would drive him insane and I couldn't have anyone in the school thinking that I would even think about showing affection to such a dirty, poor, orphaned wizard. More like a squib with the way he acts, or even a Muggle, just because he defeated the dark lord, who was actually there to see it? The spell probably just hit his poor mother…

"Fine, I will then." He said determinedly through gritted teeth. He stormed off leaving me on my own next to the old wooden desk, covered in scribbles about Mudblood and Snape's abnormally large nose. None of which seemed to amuse me today, the feeling of joy deflated into a tight knot of guilt. I slumped down into my seat like I didn't care. Harry came back, glaring at me; I thought about him so much that I forgot how much he hated me.

"We should start the potion…" I suggested, trying to get rid of the empty feeling inside me.

He nodded in agreement but said nothing. We were halfway through the potion when Pansy comes over to see what we were doing. She flicked her greasy, limp hair in a bid for my attention, I ignored it, so she should be used to that by now.

"How's it going then Draco?" she inquired as she stood purposefully between me and Harry, and for once I was thankful for something she was doing. I could no longer see his face carved into the scowl he wore too often.

"Yeah, its ok I guess" I replied casually

"Enjoying a little chat are we?" Snape scoffed from right behind me, "dear, dear Malfoy, work is really slacking…" I glared at him with a pure hatred rising up inside me; he used to be my favourite teacher. I went through, in my head, all the things that could have caused this sudden dislike.

"I'm afraid your little girlfriend will have to go back to her own desk." He said threateningly as his glaring eyes met hers, they stood silently for a few seconds until Pansy accepted defeat and stalked off back to her own disastrous potion. A smirk formed momentarily in the corner of Snape's crooked, thin lipped mouth. He surveyed our potion and with a flick of his wand it vanished.

"Very disappointing, really, I hate to take points from my own house but, given the circumstances… It seems highly appropriate." The cold eyes seemed lighter as he said this causing me to doubt everything he has ever said, he didn't like me at all. The lesson was over and Harry had left the second it finished, desperate to get away from me. I left quickly to avoid Pansy sympathising over me, again.