And if we dream - Draco Malfoy/ OC
Chapter 14- Seeds of different colours.
Summary: Like some magnetic force, like some unbreakable bond she was drawn back to him again and again. And now, staying away was an inconceivable notion. "Always." she murmured, one hand finding his, the other tangling into his platinum hair, "Always."
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I'm re writing it to my story so the dialogue is not that same as it is in the books or films in the scenes you may recognise =]
Much more Draco in this chapter! Hope you enjoy!
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"It's not fair!" Avery whined petulantly, as she lagged behind Hermione on their way down the hall from he Gryffindor common room, "Harry and Ron have so many more free periods than us." The mentioned boys were currently sitting gleefully in the common room enjoying their free time.
"That's because we have more subjects than them." Hermione explained patiently.
"But you like this lesson, I have Herbology. Why do I even have to take Herbology?" she continued to complain, dreading making her way to the greenhouses.
"Because you received a Troll in your OWLS Avery."
"Yes. So I shouldn't be taking it at NEWT level, I'm liable to kill everyone in the class!"
"That is true."
"Besides, I could really use this time to complete Snapes homework. What sort of teacher decides to give you homework after you have left the class? Thirteen inches on the benefit of non verbal spells. It's ridiculous." she glanced at Hermione who seemed completely unfazed, "I take it you've already finished." She received a nod in confirmation, "Bloody hell 'Mione, we only got it yesterday."
"It's not difficult Avery. Honestly, if you ever read your textbooks."
"I have been 'Mione, in fact both my started essay and my Defence book are in my bag. I've just run out of things to say. I've got about six inches and I think I'm finished. It's ridiculous."
"You can keep saying that Avery but keep saying it on your way to Herbology. Off you go!" Hermione laughed, turning off in the opposite direction towards her own class.
Avery sighed and began her descent to the bottom floor.
"Avery!" A breathless voice called from the hall behind her, "Avery!"
"Hi Neville!" she smiled as the boy lugged himself onto the stairs just moments before they moved, in the right direction Avery noticed despairingly, having hoped that she would have been able to take a detour and missed some of the class.
"You have Herbology right?"
"Yeah, I assume you do too." she said, feeling her lips pull into a smile at her friends obvious excitement.
"Definitely. It's the only thing I'm really good at." Avery heard no sign of self pity in his voice.
"You're good at a lot of things Nev." she said, "And even if you weren't, you're a great person and you're strong and that's all that matters."
"Thanks Ave. It's a good thing I'm good at Herbology though, it's the only thing I can find myself doing in the future, I've always had cacti and stuff at home so it's only natural."
"It's a shame you had to leave them at home this year."
"Well gran is taking care of them, they'll be fine." he said softly, "Come on, we should hurry or we'll be late."
Avery barely managed to hold back a groan as she followed behind him. It seemed that Neville noticed her reluctance because he turned back and held out his arm for her to take, "It's okay Ave, you helped me when you were my potions partner in fifth year so I have to repay you. I'll sit with you so we'll be partnered together and I'll help you."
-…-
"Ah, Mr Longbottom," Professor Sprout smiled as Neville and Avery stepped into the biggest greenhouse, "Miss Greenwood, stay there. Mr Longbottom if you would like to take a seat over by Miss Lovegood."
Avery's heart sank to her stomach as Neville opened his mouth to speak but was gestured quickly to a stool by the chubby professor. Avery let her eyes scan the room and felt herself blanch at the image of Draco Malfoy, sat regally if uncomfortably on one of the stools.
"Miss Greenwood." Professor Sprout said, with much less enthusiasm, probably remembering all of the bad, bad things that Avery had caused to happen in that class. Most of which had been with Harry who had somehow managed to scrape a passable grade in this class. Avery would never know how, "As you are here under… different circumstances, you can take a seat over there. I will be sending extra help your way throughout the classes."
Avery nodded and reluctantly moved away towards the side of the table that the professor had gestured to. She heard a loud, put upon sigh as she unceremoniously dropped into the only available seat next to, of all the horrors, Draco Malfoy, she nodded to the Hufflepuff duo opposite her who looked just as unhappy to be there as she did. She found herself praying at that moment that Professor Spout would pair the four not so good students with students like Neville and Luna who were good to even out the partners. If that were the case then she wouldn't have to partner with Malfoy, if that was not the case then there was no doubt in her mind that the two Hufflepuffs would be together, leaving her with Malfoy and that thought didn't even bare thinking about. The pointy git beside her seemed to lift his nose higher than usual as she pulled her books and supplies from her bag, her Defence book coming up with them,, she glanced to her side and noticed that Malfoy also had his book out, his homework for Snape out beside him. Maybe there would be breaks to do homework, she thought as she left her own book on the table next to his. Or, she wondered as she dropped her bag back to the floor, Malfoy just had no intention of actually performing in this class.
"Why are you here Malfoy?" she found herself asking before she had even realised she had opened her mouth.
The blond, and only Slytherin in the room hesitated and then responded coldly, "Apparently receiving a Troll grade in my OWLS is not acceptable. Your house head seems to have convinced the fool of a head master to instate a new rule based on your worst grades and insisted that I retake Herbology." He sighed again, " And the situation seems to have gotten infinitely worse with your arrival."
"The feeling is mutual Malfoy. I have to retake it too, I also got a Troll grade."
"I don't believe I asked Greenwood."
"Well I thought I would tell you anyway." Avery said, a small pout pulling at her lips, "You cant be that bad at Herbology though, I mean, you probably aced everything else."
Malfoy glanced down his nose at her, "Yes, Greenwood. I did." his voice sounded petulant as if he were simply humouring a small child. He paused and Avery crossed her arms across her chest, "A mandrake bit me in first year."
Avery's face shot towards him, shocked, "What?"
"You heard."
She bit her lip, a grin pulling at her mouth as she felt the laughter bubbling up into her throat, "It bit you?" she asked incredulously around a laugh. Once it had subsided she said, "I managed to give a small tree by Hagrids hut fangs and a hunger for flesh."
Malfoys usually expressionless face, when not occupied by a sneer in any case, suddenly looked incredulous, "Fangs?"
"I was supposed to be replenishing the leaves." Avery explained, fighting a smile at the memory of Ron running away, shrieking as if he had just seen a spider as the tree's makeshift mouth snapped at him.
"Now now. Your attention please." Professor Sprouts voice called over the small hum of chat and Malfoys attention moved from Avery to the professor, as if they hadn't been speaking almost civilly at all, "I want you all to look to the person to your right," Malfoy. Great. She heard Malfoy groan lowly in agreement," those people will be your partners until the end of your NEWT lessons. I will be giving extra help to those who may need it." The professor didn't bother to hide the fact that she blatantly stared at the four students to her own right hand side. Avery flinched. "You're first assignment will be to plant these seeds." she gestured to numerous small wooden boxes littering the table, "that may seem easy. However, you will soon find that these seeds do not wish to be planted."
Avery felt a thrill of apprehension, or was that fear? She didn't know.
"What does she mean?" The blonde Hufflepuff opposite asked over the table as her dark skinned partner shrugged her shoulders. Avery shook her head and Malfoy, predictably, paid none of them any heed.
With a flick of her wand Professor Sprout distributed the boxes that had seemingly, at the touch of magic began vibrating almost violently. "Each box contains seeds marked with a different colour, this way when it comes to grading, I will now which group did which work. You may begin."
Avery sat blankly as most of the groups began, this was part of the reason that she had not wanted to do Herbology at NEWT level, the students present were expected to know what these seeds were and how to handle them without being told. There was very little information given and this made Averys job that much harder, as did her partner, who was currently sighing loudly and calling her name. Her second name at least.
"Greenwood! Are you going to sit there all day?" Slightly dazed Avery moved her attention to the large plant pot that had materialized before each group and pushed her seat back, only slightly perplexed that Malfoy seemed to actually be planning on doing the work.
"Yes." she swept the DADA books to the side in a rustle of papers and hesitantly pulled the box closer to herself, "What are these?"
"I don't know Greenwood. I would hazard a guess and say seeds."
"Oh. I would never have guessed, brilliant help you are." she grumbled.
"I have much better things to be doing than sitting here with you Greenwood." Malfoy said with a degrading glance and a sneer. And the animosity has returned from it's momentary break, Avery thought.
"And I don't?" she shot back, "Lets just get on with this!" She pulled the lid off of the box and shrieked loudly as the dotted seeds shot from the box in a cloud of darkness.
"What did you do?" Malfoy cried, suddenly undignified as he glanced around wildly. Avery noticed that Professor Sprout barely spared them a glance, and the Hufflepuff girl opposite quickly dropped the lid back on her own box. She saw that every other group in the room were concentrating hard on their tasks and no one had noticed their problem, also no one else had opened their boxes full.
Avery cursed fluently, believing she may had adopted Ron's speech recently. She looked to Neville beseechingly and he seemed to notice because both he and Luna began to move slower, more deliberately.
"I need a seed!" Avery hissed and Malfoy handed her one he had managed to grab. As it transferred hands it began to vibrate more violently, a low humming sound emitting from it, she wrestled the seed into the dirt as it pushed back against her hand as if repelled by a magneto or whatever it was Hermione had explained to her once. She smiled triumphantly as she copied Lunas moving hand, and patted the soil she had thrown over it three times.
"There." she grinned to Malfoy, gesturing the pot, "There's one done."
"Why is the Earth moving then?" Malfoy asked from a few feet away.
"It's not- it is!" Avery stepped back level with the Slytherin as the soil in the pot began to rise slowly, "What is happening now?" The seed rose slowly and shot like a bullet out of the pot, ricocheting off of one of the lighting fixtures above them.
"Well done Greenwood. Absolutely brilliant!"
"You do better then!" she shouted, "Plant a bloody seed yourself!" She realised how ridiculous that sounded but managed to stop a smile creeping across her face.
"I can't see any seeds, you let them all out!"
"Accio one seed!" Avery said, pulling her wand from her robes.
"There." she said, catching one as it shot through the air towards her, "Do it."
It took less than five minutes for Malfoy, who had obviously come to the same conclusion as Avery had to copy another team who seemed to be doing brilliantly in comparison, to come out with the same outcome.
"I don't get it." Avery mused, "I copied Neville and Luna exactly."
"You copied Longbottom and Loony? No wonder you didn't manage it."
"Shut up Malfoy. They both received top marks in their Herbology OWLS. Better than us." she argued.
"Well as I said, you copied them, you failed."
"Do you ever shut up?" she spat moving forward after conjuring another colour dotted seed, "Just for a minute?"
"No."
Avery rolled her eyes angrily and moved to copy Neville again, move for move, patting the soil the same amount of times, she noticed, watching carefully that Neville was whispering something, he looked relaxed. An idea struck her and feeling ridiculous she whispered, "It's okay. Its okay, go in there where its warm and just- it'll be okay." the vibrating stopped almost immediately and she laughed.
"We have to talk to the seeds." Malfoy deadpanned, face expressionless. Avery noticed the two Hufflepuff failures opposite, Amanda and Lexi as she had remembered, glancing around the room too, copying a better team.
She shifted her attention back to Malfoy, "Yes. Your go."
"I'm not talking to a seed Greenwood. Malfoy's do not talk to seeds."
"Okay." she sighed painstakingly, deciding she was far too exasperated to argue, "You get the seeds and I'll plant them. You think you can do that?"
"I'm not an invalid." he said petulantly, pulling his wand from his immaculate robes.
"Could have fooled me."
For the next half of the lesson, Avery found herself managing to tentatively work alongside Malfoy, planting the seeds one by one, fingers brushing against his as they transferred the seeds from hand to hand trying hard not to drop and consequently lose them.
"Greenwood, will you take this seed?" Malfoy asked for the second time, growling impatiently.
"I'm still planting this one. Wait." she growled before whispering softly to the soil and waiting for it to stop vibrating.
"Uh, Greenwood?" Malfoy's voice sounded uncertainly, as she turned back towards him, ready to take the next seed.
"Yes?"
"What colour seed did you just plant?"
"Yellow."
"Ours are blue."
"No. Ours are yellow." Avery argued, frantically turning back to the pot and looking or the latest planting, "They've all been yellow."
"Are you sure? All of them?"
"Yes. Malfoy, I'm sure." At least I think so, she thought. "If I'm wrong then it's your fault for not checking."
She heard Malfoy grumbling something unintelligible under his breath as she snatched the next seed from his hand but before she could plant anything Professor Sprouts voice sounded, "Stop. Every one stop. Time is up." The class slowly wound down and Avery let go of her seed, ignoring it as it buzzed around the room, noticing that the other teams looked considerably less haggard than herself and dare she say it Malfoy. It almost made her smile to see Malfoy looking less put together than he usually did.
"Now, water your seeds and see the outcome."
Avery moved to grab the watering can, a distinctly muggle invention, Hermione had once told her, that Professor Sprout insisted her students use and poured water over the now thankfully still soil. She stepped back from the soil and watched in awe as the seeds began to grow immediately, even in the wizarding world plants didn't often grow this fast. Beautiful blue and yellow mixes began to sprout from the pot, entwining and growing together. "I told you they were yellow." Avery said, pointing to the pot, the majority of the flowers yellow.
"But there are blue." Malfoy argued, "It doesn't matter anyway- there's nothing wrong with-" He stopped mid sentence as the plants began to move erratically, the colours that were once entwined suddenly repelling each other, sparking gently.
"Uh Professor Sprout?" Avery called, "I think we did something wrong here."
"She mixed the coloured seeds."
"We mixed the seeds Malfoy." Avery shot back angrily.
"Stop arguing and watch." The stocky professor snapped, "You might actually learn something that will help you pass."
Avery turned her attention from the infuriating boy to the pot, that was now shaking violently, having garnered the attention from the entire class. "This is what happens if you mix two volatile and different seeds." Professor Sprout announced loudly.
The plants began moving faster, as if they were circling each other, readying for a stand off and to Avery's and seemingly every one else's amazement they did begin to fight, violently and angrily, the losing flower immediately turning to an ash like substance when 'killed' by the other. After a few minutes the blue flower had fully won out and with what sounded like a sigh of relief began to settle comfortably into the sopping soil. Having grown up in the wizarding world Avery was happy that she could still be surprised by some things and a quick glance at the Slytherin ice prince told her that he was rather surprised too.
"Now before you all leave I want to give you your homework." The only groans received in response came from the four unwanted students, "I want a page on why this happened, on why certain plants are more territorial than others. How they win the fights and why they must fight like they did." She paused, before vanishing all of the work in the room, "You are dismissed."
"Thank Merlin." Avery grumbled, moving to grab all of her belongings.
"Glad that's over." Lexi, the darker Hufflepuff said conversationally, "Shame yours did all that though, now we've got homework."
"Sorry." Avery said as Malfoy snorted.
Avery rolled her eyes and grabbed the nearest DADA book and shoved it into her bag. She took one more glance at the table to check she hadn't forgotten anything and fled the room without another word to anyone. Thankful that it was over for a week. She needed to find Hermione and vent. A lot.
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So late! Must sleep! Will continue soon! =]
Thanks for reading! More up soon!