Chapter 10
"You know none of you are going to be ready for transfiguration at the rate you're all going?" an annoyed Hermione sighed as she watched her fellow classmates doodling on Ron's homework.
Some had the decency to look up as she glared at each and every one of them before looking away uncomfortably.
Only Draco responded to her.
"Well don't look at me. I'm done with transfig already."
His tablemates stared at him.
"What? It wasn't that much. Besides, Hermione's finished it already."
"Well of course Hermione finished it already," Padma Patil responded.
"But there's no way you're done already, you've been distracted about as much as the rest of us," Seamus exclaimed as pointed his dripping quill at Draco, messing up his own work. "Let me see that," he said while he grabbed Draco's parchment from under his nose as if that was the most normal thing to do.
"Hey," Draco shouted since he was too late to grab it back.
Seamus' eyes scanned over the paper before turning back at the rest of the table.
"This is Potions!" he proclaimed officially.
"Well of course it is," Draco hissed as he pulled it from the Irish boy's grasp. "Or do you really think I'm going to find answers to the history of Transfiguration in a book on Herbology?"
Attention moved from Draco's essay to the books that sat beside him.
"1000 plants with hallucinogenic properties, Poisonous flowers and what to do with them, How to grow your own garden, these are all books on plants," Dean said as he shifted through the pile.
"And they've been lying there for the whole day already, how could you all not have noticed that?" Draco sighed exasperatedly.
"Wait, how can books on herbology help with an essay on the practical execution of a potion of your choice?" Ron said.
Draco practically face-palmed right there.
"Idiots, I'm surrounded by idiots," he breathed in his hand. "We're talking about potions, Weasel, where do you think the ingredients come from?"
"No no no," Harry pitched in, "I get that but how does knowing the original birthplace of a poisonous purple plant help in explaining why you have to stir three times clockwise to finish a cauldron of Felix Fortunatis? And How to grow your own garden? Seriously?"
"It's actually quite clever," Hermione answered in an impressed tone. "If you know how a plant grows and what all its properties are, you can explain why it respond the way it does in certain conditions. By turning the thought pattern upside-down, you can give an exact explanation to the amount of stirs a potion needs."
The table stared at her.
"How?"
"For example; you have a plant that cannot withstand water and one that is incredibly water resistant, that have to be mixed together. The first one, when placed in water, will grow weak immediately so if you stir it once or twice it will start falling apart. The second one will do nothing if it isn't stirred long enough," she finished as if that explained all. Clearly it didn't , considering all the looks her friends were giving her.
"So," she continued, getting tired of it and wanting to return to her own work as soon as she could, "let's say the first one will fall apart completely if you stir it five times and let's say that when it falls apart, it releases a high dose of powder that will ruin your potion while the second one doesn't even start to react if it isn't stirred at least three times. The last question is how much of both do you need for your potion. If the second one is incredibly important you'll want to stir as long as possible, which is exactly four times. If the first one is incredibly dangerous, you'll want to stir as little as possible which is 3 in this case."
A pause followed.
"Isn't that just way too much work for a single answer. I mean, you'd have to look up both plants and compare and there's no such thing as a potions that's made up of only two plants," Padma said in a small voice.
"Yeah, aren't you the little over-achiever?" Ron bit at Draco.
"That just depends on your point of view." He seemed bored with the conversation and started to write his essay again, as if that was all there was to say about the matter.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Draco sneered as he put down his quill and looked Ron in the eyes. "What's it to you?" His icy tone almost froze the air in the room. There was no doubt about it that he could still piss of Ron with the least amount of words.
"What the heck!"
"Calm down, Ron," Harry said.
"Who does the git even think he is, looking down on us like that."
"He's not, Ron," Harry's voice sounded slightly annoyed.
"He's not then, is he? Then what do you propose he's doing right now? You're always just saying he's not as bad as he seems but I'm not going to put up with his insults just 'cause you say he doesn't mean it!"
"I don't mean it?" Draco frowned, "I'm always very serious." His sarcasm was lost on all the others, save one. That one just growled at him to shut UP because he wasn't helping the situation in any way while Ron was just about to break out in shouting which would get them thrown out of the library. After months of living with the git under one roof, the redhead seemed to have finally reached his limit.
But Draco was getting to his limit as well so when Ron started complaining about his jibes and telling him that he had to stop doing that, he closed his books and with a voice that could freeze over Hell replied, "I don't care what you think about me Weasel but I am not going to stand for you dictating my choice of words. You're not the ruler of the castle and you're not speaking for all of the students. You're just one measly weak guy with a closed off opinion about me and I do not take orders from you so don't tell me what I can or can't say or do."
"Oh yeah, then what is this right now? You bastard. You're just ordering me not to complain to you. So I'm not allowed to talk back at you, is that it? Well, let me tell you, I'm not a Slytherin so I'm not your little slave. You can't boss me around."
"Hey!" Pansy shouted at that.
It was only now that they realized everyone'd gone quiet and stopped working to listen to their conversation.
"We're not Draco's little slaves!" she continued. "What depraved image do you guys have from Slytherin?"
"Well, you do always follow him around everywhere," Seamus admitted.
"And nobody follows Harry around?" She retorted, eyebrows raised, "He's like a God if you believe the Gryffindors."
"Comparing me to the Chose One now?" Draco asked, his tone back to normal sneer since he wasn't talking to Ron anymore. "No thank you," he said and looked disgusted by the idea.
"Look!" Ron said, sounding frantic now as his voice rose louder, making some look around for the librarian who seemed to have turned deaf today. On any other occasion she would've interfered a long time ago. "There he goes again, the git. Always looking down on us like we're nothing."
"Wow, and what if I just joke like this?" Draco's voice turned perfectly in the threatening voice from before; low, cold, dangerous and it scared the audience how quickly he could do that.
"You call that joking while it's just plain offensive. If you want us to be kind to you then you shouldn't go around insulting us every time."
"Want you to be kind to me?" His voice was just a whisper now, "I don't need your pity Weasel," he sneered, saying the name like the lowest insult he could think of. "And you're just sprouting your own opinion. Or are you telling me this is a rule? Like I'm not allowed to join your secret little club if I don't go change myself completely? That doesn't sound very Gryffindor, now does it? Or is that just special treatment? Just 'cause it's me and you don't like me?"
Ron huffed as he needed a second to get over the incredibly indignation he felt at the response.
"This is not just my opinion," he started, "you're a bastard and a stupid git and for years you've been nothing but the enemy, it's only natural that I you decide you want to be friends you'd have to prove you're indeed-"
He got cut off rudely as Harry rose next to him and slammed a book closed on the table. He sent a death glare at his friend, boring him into the ground before grabbing his stuff and storming out of the library, robes fluttering behind him.
Nobody moved while they stared at the door of the library as it slowly closed after their angry friend.
Then they all turned back at the two fighters that remained.
Draco shrugged his shoulders and looked at Ron. "I think you'd better go after him," he said in the same tone, only slightly less vicious.
Ron bristled at him to show he didn't want to be ordered around but after a look from Hermione and seven years of experience he decided against another fight and walked out after his friend.
Draco looked at him go and then grabbed his books again to continue his work. An eerie silence had fallen over the tables as a scribble was heard every now and then.
Finally Hermione broke the silence, unable to take it anymore. "You should go after him too if you want to."
Draco looked up from his work. He managed a small smile as he said that that would be a bad idea, considering the Weasel was still shouting at Harry and wouldn't finish within fifteen minutes.
"How can you say that?"
He shrugged it off, "That's the way it's always been. If the Weasel screws up like that Harry will either not talk to him for at least three days or they'll have an argument of twenty to fifty minutes, depending on the subject."
"And how can you say that with so much certainty?"
He put his quill down, sorted his parchments and gave her his undivided attention. "Hermione, I've been his sworn enemy for the past seven years. I think I know him better than anyone else does." He then turned back to his work.
"Now what makes you say that?" somebody said while he tried to block out their conversations.
He sighed and without looking up answered, "He knows me better than my parents know me, it's only natural to assume the same thing. It's not a long stretch considering we've been observing each other for every waking hour."
"Don't you mean you've been stalking him?" Pansy said, wiggling her eyebrows.
"Hilarious Pansy, actually trying to imply I'd go as low as you would."
"Well, it is true," Pansy said.
"I've never noticed Draco following us around," Hermione said, "but I do recall Harry doing such things at times."
Draco raised an eyebrow at that while trying to feign disinterest.
"Oh, Draco did that all the time," Pansy said.
"I'm warning you, keep talking like that and I'm gonna start talking as well."
"Ow, Draco, don't be like that. I'm pretty sure I've got more dirt on you than you do on me."
"Is that so? I do recall a small incident with alcohol in fourth year. How would you feel about that?"
"I'd retort with the one from third year."
Draco furrowed his eyebrows at the memory and retorted with some new threat.
"Oooh, Christmas, Draco"
"Last year," he answered.
"What happened in sixth is nothing compared to that," she smirked, not noticing how Draco's left hand turned to a fist and he had to struggle not to grab his wrist.
She hadn't realized her mistake before Blaise hit her in the side.
"Ow shit," she said as she repeated the sentence in her head. "Man, I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that, really I didn't."
"It's fine," Draco said but his tone was slightly glazed.
"I'm really sorry." Nobody really knew what this was about but they all had some bad memories from sixth so they could imagine, they thought.
"You know, I'm not going to get any work done here, am I?" He grabbed his stuff and floated a pile of books to the desk to take them with him.
The rest just watched him leave as they sat in silence.
Finally Pansy laughed which earned her a surprised look from Blaise and Hermione.
"You know what I think?" she asked. "Fifteen minutes have passed, he's gone to see Harry. What great timing." She smirked as she grabbed her books and turned back to the infernal transfiguration questionnaire.