BG: heh…
A quick warning:
This fanfic contains slash…not 'M' rated slash but still…
I might consider a disclaimer:
The wonderful world of Harry Potter does not belong to me, as much as I day dream and tell myself it does…no…it belongs to the fabulous JK Rowling and I praise her work time and time again (bows)
Maybe a few notes…:So I'm still totally slow when it comes to this fic, but within reason…ish. I've been trying to get rid of the half baked plot lines for random one-shots that keep floating unhelpfully around my head! Admittedly this is a stupidly short chapter to match the last stupidly short chapter…and I'm sorry about that. I just need to sort myself out : D.
So, I'll let you decide whether I need brutally punishing for my inconsistantness (is that a word? Haha…) and go ahead and read this apology chapter…
I still love you, even if you don't love me!
101 Ways to be an Angel
Decision
"…Malfoy and Potter- " Harry sighed deeply and tried desperately not to irritably slam his head onto the desk that his elbow was leaning on. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen it coming from the very moment the he had walked through the potion classroom door and Snape had smugly locked eyes with him, no, but that didn't stop Harry from feeling frustrated with the sadistic potions master at all.
Ron shrugged in a helpless manner before sympathetically patted him on the back, "sorry mate, I guess you're stuck with the ferret, again…" Harry rolled his eyes, ignoring Snape's menacing glare and vacating his space so that Nott could take it instead. With as much calm as he could manage, the raven haired boy slung his bag over his shoulder, headed past a crowd of sneering Slytherins and dumped his things next to an ignorant Malfoy.
"Shall I get the ingredients?" Harry asked, trying to keep as civil as possible. The last thing he needed was a month full of detentions because a petty fight.
Malfoy, however, chose not to answer; he simply glared at his quill. Harry sighed deeply "yes please Potter, I would like you to be so considerate as to collect all eighteen necessary ingredients for our paired work, I'm so glad that at least one of us is being constructive…" his mocking voice trailed away as he headed towards the store cupboard.
Draco's scowl deepened, who did Potter think he was? Acting all high and mighty…at least he had stopped trying to befriend Draco. That was a relief. He sighed slightly and rubbed the tip of his quill into the table, his rocky friendship with Blaise was starting to finally smooth out, they'd had several bitter arguments about trust and accusations but now they were beginning to relax and have faith in each other once more. Pansy had instantly accepted Draco back, and for that he was glad. He knew that if there was anybody that he could trust to understand him, it was Pansy. Several of the other Slytherins had once mocked Draco for having a female best friend, but Pansy had soon set them straight with a few well hidden curses and cunningly leaked rumours. She had certainly showed them that a Slytherin female was not someone to be messed with.
Draco allowed a small smile to grace his thin lips as he thought of that memory, back then things were a lot simpler, the only troubles that they had were essays and Gryffindors. If only they could go back to that, back to when the Dark Lord had simply seemed like a distant notion used to scare younger children, where death happened to those who deserved it, their parents would always take care of everything and when money could most definitely buy their happiness.
The Malfoy heir pulled a horrible face at Potter when he reappeared with an armful of some of the ingredients needed, which he unceremoniously dumped on the table and headed back to the store cupboard. Draco roved his gaze across the classroom, catching Blaise's discreet smile that was flashed in his direction before the other boy's face slid back into its cool expression of indifference as Thomas tried his hardest to negotiate a successful working situation. Draco had slowly recovered from his unstable phase over the past month with the help from Pansy and Blaise, the overwhelming memories of what had happened over the summer had finally caught up with him and seriously messed with his thoughts. He was suddenly finding it hard to handle the idea that he had killed roughly ten to fifteen death eaters without a second thought, but figured it was simply the adrenalin of the battle affecting his actions; he also couldn't believe that he had been so careless as to suddenly strike up a friendship of sorts with Potter. But however much he tried, he could not tell himself that he had not been happy for a good part of that week, he had enjoyed how casual life had became for those few days.
Then came the murder of his father…that was most certainly an out of body experience, Draco had reacted so violently –instinctively- to the threat on the life of the person who had caused him to feel so at peace. It still made his skin crawl to think about it, but what is done stayed done and he couldn't possible go back and change that. So many nasty comments had come his way about his missing parents from sour death eater sons and daughters, Draco had tried gamely to ignore all of them but it was difficult, even with his two best friends by his side once again. They had both come through for him spectacularly, as soon as he'd apologized for being so inconsiderate. It had taken a lot of coaxing, but Pansy eventually got him to confess about not feeling entirely stable, she had then proceeded to prepare several mood improving potions for him with the aid of Blaise and professor Snape, including a supply of anti-depression potions, cheering potions and even a thoughtful batch of dreamless sleep potions.
As if sensing his thoughts, Pansy passed by his chair on the way to talk to Nott and brushed a hand across his shoulders in a reassuring manner and he gave a grateful look in return, he could understand why Potter clung so closely to Weasley and Granger now. Draco watched as Granger determinedly followed her notes as she began to prepare her potion, ignoring Millicent who was gossiping with Pansy and Nott because the Slytherin girl was secure with the knowledge that she'd get all of the credit for the potion anyway. He smirked at Weasley who was chopping his ingredients in such a brutal manner that even a Neanderthal could have done a neater job; no doubt the three chatting Slytherins had offended him in some subtle manner.
Potter returned once more with the last of the necessary ingredients and said something that Draco couldn't be bothered to concern himself with. His lack of response made the raven haired boy huff and squint at the purposefully vague instructions written on the black board. To be honest, Draco had never understood why Potter had never bothered to have his vision corrected, or at least bothered to buy more stylish frames as he surely had inherited enough money to do so. He allowed himself to think about this a little more before generously preparing the cauldron that they were brewing their blood replenishing potion in.
It was odd in a way, that quite a few of the people that were currently in the room had taken part in quite a large battle only a few weeks ago, and yet now they were all fussing and arguing about an unimportant potion and school rivalries. Life could be so ridiculously trivial sometimes. Draco watched in a detached manner as Harry nicked his thumb with the knife that he was using to slice leeches with and hissed irritably.
"You know" he said mildly, "with all of the blood that you're losing from that cut; this potion might actually come in handy."
Harry glared at him as he instinctively sucked on his injured thumb and Draco sighed, well that's what he got for trying to be slightly helpful then. The blond knew that being scowled at was better than being punched at any rate, so he didn't bother with the sharp comment that perched on the tip of his tongue and instead took the knife from Harry and resumed the Gryffindor's work.
It was only once the potion was complete enough to simply simmer and bubble that Potter actually bothered to speak to him.
"You can be a really irritating ass sometimes, Malfoy." He simply grumbled.
Draco raised his eyebrows "yes people do tend to think that." Harry made an agitated noise and scowled at their potion. He tended to do a lot of scowling and grumbling, Draco noticed. He could tell that Potter was trying to get a rise of some sort out him, but Draco just thought it would be a bit pointless of them to argue, they'd only end up ruining their potion and disrupting the lesson. Then all that they'd gain was a week full of detentions on Potter's side and a disapproving glare for Draco.
No, that wouldn't do at all.
Besides, sometimes the best way to get at Potter was to annoyingly pleasant and ignorant.
"You alright mate?"
Harry took a deep and slightly unsteady breath before forcing a smile on his face and nodding to Ron. He leant forward and added potatoes to his plate in order to avoid having to speak, because if he opened his mouth, Harry was sure that all that would come out would be a furious scream. And that would attract a lot of unwanted attention from the dining people surrounding them.
Malfoy had wound Harry up so much that it had taken both a considerable amount of self restraint and the looming threat of detentions galore from Snape, to prevent Harry from knocking the infuriating prat to the floor and kicking the shit out of him. Of course nothing had prevented him from mentally enacting his desires and so he had eventually just shut Malfoy out and allowed his imagination to take over.
Hermione smiled sympathetically at him over the textbook that she was reading, "just try not to let him get to you, Harry." He smiled back weakly, toying with his food in disinterest. It easy for her to say that, she often didn't have to deal with Malfoy first hand, she didn't have the remains of an almost close friendship toying with her mind.
Harry glanced at Dumbledore and thought of the conversation that he had had with the Headmaster the previous night. He had told Hermione and Ron about his vision, although he had skirted around some of the details, such as the behaviour of the strange creatures and Malfoy kicking him back into consciousness. The thought of what he had seen still disturbed Harry, and although Dumbledore had told him that it wasn't really anything to worry about, the idea that Voldemort had such monsters in his control still sent a shiver down Harry's spine.
"Harry?" Hermione suddenly asked, peering concernedly at him.
Harry attempted a smile, pushing all thoughts of the bizarre creatures to the back of his mind as he picked up his fork which he had dropped at some point during his daydreaming. "I'm okay," he reassured her, spearing some broccoli as if to prove his point.
She gave him an uncertain look, "listen Harry, if it's about that vision last night, I-"
The rest of her sentence was lost as the great hall doors opened and Malfoy strolled in, laughing loudly with Blaise and Pansy, the blond's eyes met Harry and he gave him a dark smirk that let the Gryffindor think that they were most likely laughing at something related to him.
'This' Harry suddenly thought, 'is not something that I should have to deal with on top everything else, right now!' With the decision to remove this current distraction from his life in mind, Harry stood up and purposefully strode over to Malfoy and his friends. His own friends called out something but he didn't really pay attention as he walked away from them.
"Malfoy," he called and the blond turned to face him, a challenging eyebrow raised as if daring Harry to pick a fight in the middle of the Great Hall and in front of the entire body of staff. Harry, instead, decided to do the exact opposite, "I want to talk."
"Well go ahead, I'm not stopping you" was Malfoy's smart answer and Harry ignored the surge of dislike that suddenly reared up.
"You know what I mean, meet me by the lake when you've finished eating, please."
Malfoy scowled "who says I have to go?"
"It's up to you" Harry simply replied, turning away and leaving the Hall. Intending to wait by the lake and think about what he would say when -if- Malfoy turned up.
Draco finished his dinner at a decidedly leisurely pace. He would let Potter wait for him, in return for having to give up precious moments of his time, just to listen to Potter no doubt whine and complain about just how much he hated him.
The Slytherin had seriously considered just letting the Gryffindor prat wait for him all night, by the lake, in the forecasted rain, until he caught a cold. But then he decided that he try out Blaise and Pansy's advice and attempt to be a good person, and that involved meeting Potter and listening to his whiny voice for a little while.
If it prevented Draco from having to listen to Pansy's whiny voice as she nagged him, then it was a small price to pay, he supposed.
Eventually, he decided that he had finished mashing up his trifle, and really couldn't get away with wasting anymore time by pretending that he was eating. With a heavy sigh, he stood up, ignoring Pansy's encouraging smile, and took a slow stroll down to the lake where he found Potter.
The Gryffindor made an impressive picture, gazing over the vast lake in deep thought, with the sunset casting odd shadows everywhere, glinting off of the boy's glasses and highlighting his face in warm tones and soft outlines. Harry was sitting on a small mound, with his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms wrapped securely around them.
Draco almost felt the urge not to disturb such a peaceful scene.
Almost.
"Potter," he coldly greeted the other boy.
Potter nodded in response, swivelling his head upwards to glance at Draco before turning back. He didn't bother to stand up to greet Draco formally, and Draco didn't sit down when Potter indicated the patch of grass beside him.
"I came, you wanted to talk?" Draco irritably asked after a minute of pointless silence.
The Gryffindor surveyed at him again, "I wanted to ask you to stop being petty."
Draco was taken aback by this request; it was the last thing he had expected. "What?" He raised a curious eyebrow.
"This silly little ongoing rival thing that we have is ridiculous, and it's a waste of time."
"So?" Draco slowly said.
"So" Harry sighed "I just want you to leave me alone. That way we can both get on with our lives and things here will be a little less difficult."
Draco thought about this, it was true that he was starting to get fed up of seeing Potter's miserable face all the time, and he accepted the fact that if they just left each other the hell alone then life would be so much simpler.
"Fair enough," Draco conceded holding his hand out for Harry to shake, in order seal the pact. Harry grasped his in return and they shook on it, but things were made awkward by Harry still not bothering to stand up.
"From now on we avoid each other, and upon meeting, act civilly." The Gryffindor summarised and Draco smirked a little.
"This has to be the strangest pact that I have ever made." He shook his head, "well, bye Potter. Hopefully I won't be seeing you around." As he trekked slowly back to the castle in the first trickles of the forecasted rain, Draco could have sworn that he had seen a faint smile on Harry's face.
BG: I think I'll leave it there just to be annoying, haha…
As if I'm going to let them ignore each other for long!
Well…the next chapter will be a while, this time I'm not making any promises! So please bear in mind that I am working on rounding up and posting little unfinished project one-shots to clear up my mind a little.
So remember that I have not forgotten you guys, updates will still be coming!!
A little review maybe?Xx