Chapter Four
With breakfast came the usual flurry of owls, each one dropping a parcel or letter into the laps of the bleary-eyed students. Draco's eagle owl swooped towards the Slytherin table and deposited a scroll of parchment addressed to him in his mother's hand, perching on the toast rack as if waiting for an instant reply.
"Mummy checking up on you already, Malfoy?"
Draco ignored Zabini's mocking comment and scanned the letter quickly. All was well at the manor, Narcissa had nothing unusual to report, but she implored him to write at least three times a week. Scribbling a hasty reply, he attached the parchment to the waiting owl's leg and turned back to his porridge,
The other students traipsed out of the the Great Hall to their first lessons, but the sixth years remained behind as the Heads of Houses moved along the tables with their timetables. Snape placed a blank one in front of Draco and tapped it with his wand, saying,
"Congratulations on your 'Outstanding' Potions OWL, though I would have expected no less."
Draco swelled with pride at the compliment and decided that there was no harm in sucking up to Snape, as he had been doing since his first year. After all, being on Snape's good side could only help him with his task.
"Well, it's thanks to your teaching that I got such a high grade, sir. You must be pleased to finally be the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, but I will miss your lessons."
Snape's thin lips curved upwards in a satisfied smirk, evidently enjoying Draco's praise. Before moving on to the other students, he added,
"You will still be in my class, Draco. I will be teaching you this afternoon."
Looking down at his timetable Draco saw that this was, indeed, the case, though learning how to defend himself from the Dark Arts seemed quite ludicrous. He shoved the parchment into his bag and slung it over his shoulder, making his way to the doors with the other Slytherins.
"A word, Draco. Move along, Miss Parkinson."
Pansy reluctantly dropped the hand she had been extending hopefully to Draco and started walking in the direction of the Charms classroom. For a moment Draco searched his memory of the morning for something which would warrant a reprimand, but realised that there was only one thing Snape would want to discuss in private.
"Have you started work on your task yet? You know that it is vital to begin as soon as possible."
Draco rolled his eyes as he answered and edged nearer the door.
"Of course I have. Everything has gone according to plan."
He made to continue out of the Great Hall, but found Snape blocking his path.
"You must understand that the Dark Lord wishes you to use cunning as opposed to magic, otherwise he would carry it out himself."
Refusing to make eye contact so as to prevent Snape from employing his customary questioning technique of Legilimency, Draco replied,
"I just said that I've got everything under control. Now, if you'll excuse me, Professor, I have a lesson to get to and I'm sure you wouldn't want me to be late."
With obvious reluctance, Snape let him pass and Draco followed a few dawdling students up the stairs. He should have known that Snape would try and interfere, but whatever he said about the Dark Lord's wishes was irrelevant when Draco had already put his brilliant plan into action. Snape obviously feared that he was losing his high status among the Death Eaters and was doing all he could to hang onto it.
Well, Draco thought with a smile, we'll soon see who's the favourite after I succeed, and he swaggered into his first lesson with confidence.
****
By the end of the day, Draco's head was beginning to ache and he would have liked nothing more than a long, uninterrupted sleep in the dormitory. Each professor had doled out a vast number of essays and chapters to read, so when he pushed open the door to Snape's new classroom, he had amassed enough work to keep him up all night.
Taking his seat towards the back of the classroom, Draco only half-listened to Snape's lecture on non-verbal spells and his subsequent sneering at Granger's encyclopedic knowledge. At Snape's request for them to divide into pairs, Pansy immediately moved her chair closer to his and, with a sigh, he faced her as they practiced silent incantations.
Draco had hoped that a lesson with the former Potions master would provide some entertainment at the expense of the Gryffindors, but it had been downright dull, until –
"Pathetic, Weasley," said Snape, after a while. "Here, let me show you."
The was a tremendous crash as Snape was knocked off-balance by Potter's Shield Charm and hit a desk. Scowling, the professor righted himself and straightened his robes.
"Do you remember me telling you we are practising non-verbal spells, Potter?"
Draco watched the scene avidly as Potter looking both abashed and defiant, answered stiffly,
"Yes."
"Yes, sir."
"There's no need to call me 'sir,' Professor."
At that remark, Draco gaped in amazement, unsure whether he admired Potter's daring or was astonished at the boy's stupidity. Surely he knew how dangerous it was to provoke Snape? Draco observed Potter more closely and realised that he seemed equally shocked. Snape's jaw clenched and he flexed his fingers as if dying to reach for his wand, before giving Potter a Friday detention.
Draco's laughter at the scene was abruptly cut short when Snape demanded two scrolls of parchment on the use of non-verbal spells in combat. Thinking of the immense workload from the other professors, Draco couldn't prevent himself from protesting,
"But, sir, I've got tons of work already. Couldn't you – "
"No, I could not," Snape snapped.
Forgetting his earlier observation of Potter's foolishness, Draco continued to argue.
"I won't be able to finish it by – "
"Detention, Malfoy! And if you don't complete it for next week's lesson, you will spend every Friday until Christmas cleaning out the Potions dungeon!"
Draco's expression of shock was mirrored on all the other students, especially the Gryffindors who had never seen Snape so much as deduct House points from Slytherin, let alone punish his favourite pupil. All previous thoughts of flattering Snape to help with his task vanished instantly as Draco shoved the open-mouthed Gryffindors aside and stormed from the classroom.
****
As the week progressed, Draco's anger at Snape increased and he spent many evenings pacing about the common room, ranting about the professor to a sympathetic Pansy and a bored Zabini.
After receiving yet another essay from McGonagall, he pushed his was through a chaotic tangle of students on the way to lunch when he was accosted by Snape.
"If you would stop sulking and consider your situation for just a minute," Snape spoke in a low tone, "you would see that I have engineered it to your advantage."
Draco's eyes widened in surprise and Snape nodded grimly.
"Of course, you have been far too busy complaining about how unfair your life is when I have actually done you a favour. Dumbledore has requested that Potter's detention is moved to next week, which can only mean that he has some business with the boy. I am moving your detention to the same time as Potter's, so you can deal him, uninterrupted. Next Friday, 8 o'clock in the trophy Room."
Without waiting for a response, Snape swept down the corridor towards the dungeons, students pressing themselves against the walls to avoid crossing his path.
****
Though Draco tried to keep a watch on Dumbledore's office, he was unable to linger there long enough to see Potter speak the password and enter. Filch soon found him lurking there and demanded to know his purpose for loitering, to which Draco had no adequate answer. He also hadn't considered what he would actually say to Potter when he caught him leaving the Headmaster's office, but he still had a week to think of something.
However, by half past seven on the following Friday, he still had no idea how to question the boy without the use of magic. As he pushed open the door to the Trophy Room, he decided to ignore Snape's warning and cast a curse. Drawing his wand, Draco opened his mouth to utter an Unforgivable when Potter looked up from a tarnished cup, asking in surprise,
"Snape moved your detention too?"
Knowing how strong Potter's Shield Charm was, Draco hastily stowed his wand away, nodding curtly as he muttered,
"Slimy git."
A thousand other unfavourable descriptions instantly sprung to mind when he thought of the professor, but Potter's sudden laughter broke into his thoughts.
"I never thought I'd see the day when you would insult Snape!"
Draco glared at the other boy and dragged the House Cup across the table, beginning to polish it as he grumbled,
"You deserved your detention, but I had done nothing wrong. Two rolls of parchment!"
He expected Potter to make a scathing remark of some sort, but instead he spoke with apparent sympathy,
"Yeah, I know. It took me hours to finish and I had to keep making my handwriting bigger to fill up the space."
Taken aback by Potter's seemingly amicable response, Draco bent his head over the silver cup and scrubbed it clean whilst considering the best way to go about gaining information. For at least half an hour only the sound of their cloths squeaking against the polished cups resonated in the Trophy Room, until Potter broke the silence, speaking more to himself than to Draco,
"When my Dad had detention he used a pair of mirrors to speak to his friends."
Jumping at the sound of Potter's voice, Draco looked up sharply and saw that the other boy was staring at his own reflection in the Quidditch cup. The name 'James Potter' gleamed brightly and Draco fund himself adding,
"My father used enchanted parchment when he needed to."
It was only after the words had left his mouth that Draco realised how out of character is was for him, sworn enemy of the Gryffindor, to converse civilly without adding a snide comment about the boy's family.
Potter, too, seemed equally taken aback by the conversation tone with with which Draco had addressed him and for a moment they stared at each other, utterly perplexed. The sudden tension in the room seemed almost tangible as they both appeared to be thinking of drawing their wands and duelling there and then.
Inexplicably grinning, Potter once again broke the silence,
"Didn't take your father for a rulebreaker, Malfoy."
Draco exhaled the breath he only just realised he'd been holding and retorted,
"Of course he wasn't one; he was a school prefect."
Potter's smile stretch even wider and he laughed,
"Yeah? Well, mine was Head Boy!"
No adequate response instantly sprung to mind, so Draco resorted to scowling at the other boy, before noticing the time and standing up. They reached for the door handle simultaneously and, after a brief awkwardness, Potter pulled it open and allowed him to pass through.
They parted without a word, though once again shared another puzzled look, and set off to their separate dormitories. It was only when he'd returned to the Slytherin common room and seen the notice about Hogsmeade visits that Draco realised he hadn't even attempted to use the joint detention to his advantage.
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