A/N: I normally don't put A/N's but I just wanted to say that this could probably be considered a filler chapter. It's not vital in particular to the storyline (if there is a storyline?) other than to introduce Draco and Abraxas Malfoy and even that could've been done more creatively but I've reached a block and I liked this scene that played out in my head and I've missed writing even if it was for short chapters.

You'll note – I made Abraxas and Draco cousins in this one. I know it diverges completely from canon lineages but I simply couldn't choose between the two. I promise I'm not that ignorant. To paraphrase, it's not a mistake.

Much love,

HLS


"You look like shit."

She glared at Malfoy – the minutely less tolerable one – and sneered. Normally, she was above such things but she felt like her lack of self-care today was warranted.

His cousin, the second Malfoy seated next to him, nodded solemnly which made her scowl. "He's right. You do look like shit."

She didn't feel like explaining to them; she couldn't bring herself to spit the words out.

"Fuck off, Malfoy."

"You're gonna have to be a bit more specific, Potter. We're both Malfoy's," the first one reminded him.

"Then both Malfoy's should fuck off."

She watched Draco turn to his cousin. "They must've realized the she-weasel is probably dead."

Harry stood up so fast that his chair flew back with a clang and he was immediately leaping across the table to wring his neck while Hermione yelped and grasped his sweater, trying to pull him back. He slipped out of her grasp when the combined forces of gravity and inertia had them tumbling onto the floor.

Organic Chemistry had always been a difficult subject, made more difficult by the Professor that taught it. What had turned the class downright shitty to attend were the two Malfoy cousins seated across from them at their small table in the back.

"Brax!" Draco shouted.

"I'm gonna kill you," Harry chanted.

Abraxas, the second Malfoy, stepped back smoothly, avoiding flailing arms with an amused expression.

The fighting had paused immediately when a silent but overbearing presence made itself known. "So, Potter has decided that learning about Grignard reactions are beneath him, is that it?"

Both boys looked up from their places on the floor – Draco with a triumph and Harry with dread.

"It's not his fault, Professor Snape," Hermione started, stepping forward to protect her friend. "Draco-"

"I'm not interested in whatever poor excuse you have lined up to save your friend. If he's going to fight like a common thug then he's not welcome in here. You're excused from my classroom, Potter."

Hermione inhaled, outraged. "It wasn't his fault!"

"I won't tolerate any sort of disruption during my lectures, Ms. Granger," Snape said with distaste.

"Well, you can shove it," Hermione snarled as she swung her open backpack over her shoulder and gathered her haphazardly-strewn notes. She knew she shouldn't say that to a teacher. She knew she never would have. She knew it was out of character because everybody knew that Hermione Granger would never raise her voice at a teacher. Everybody stared at her. Harry's jaw had dropped.

She stormed toward the door and when she heard no footsteps behind her, she turned sharply and snapped, "Harry, are you coming?"

Harry shut his mouth with an audible click and swiped his notebook off the table.

No, normally she would have swallowed her rising temper and stewed internally, but with the emotional hell she'd been enduring for the past three days, she deserved a fucking break.

Harry, wisely, kept his mouth shut.