Chapter 26
Monday dawned bright and clear, and Draco felt as prepared as he could be for the coming exams. He was unsurprised to find that he wasn't the only one up early that morning, and the tension in the dorm was palpable. Even Vaisey seemed too distracted to glower at Draco, which made for a more pleasant dressing experience.
Draco shrugged into some clean robes, thinking that he would have a nice long bath (in the prefect's bathroom, of course!) after the potions theory exam this afternoon. Hopefully that would help him unwind, and get rid of any lingering smells from whatever ingredients they would have to use in their practical exam that morning.
He caught sight of himself in the mirror that stood on Harper's bedside cabinet, that the other boy spent several minutes in front of every morning carefully styling his hair, and felt a moment of satisfaction. He looked confident and calm, and there were no bags under his eyes; he looked good.
"Are you coming to breakfast?" he said over his shoulder to a glowering Theo, who didn't bother to answer but instead just got up to follow him from the dorm.
They didn't speak as they traversed the stairs to the great hall, the corridors seeming unnaturally quiet for this time of the morning. Draco didn't recall an atmosphere like this on the morning of the first OWL, but maybe he just hadn't been as aware of stuff like that then.
Once they had both settled themselves into the bench at the Slytherin table Draco looked around the room. He could see the other seventh years all looking like they were somewhere on the spectrum between tense and terrified. Pansy and Daphne Greengrass were sitting together further down the table, eyes downcast and mouths fixed in firm lines. Over on the Hufflepuff table Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchly seemed to be shovelling food in to their mouths between giving each other slightly manic pep-talks.
Of course, over on the Gryffindor table Draco only had eyes for Granger. She was sitting with Potter and Longbottom, looking a little pale but otherwise serene; outwardly at least! Almost like she could feel his eyes on her, she looked up, gaze immediately finding his. He gave her a slight smirk, trying to convey confidence, reassurance and wish her luck all in one look.
She returned his smile, brown eyes sparking with something that made his stomach swoop in a way that had nothing to do with worry about the exams. He was going to get through today and then he was going to kiss her until he couldn't think straight, he decided.
It didn't take long before the seventh years had to report to the dungeons for their practical Potions exam. Their classroom had been set out so that there were twenty-six individual work stations, one for each of the students, all facing the blackboard which had WIGGENWELD POTION written in large letters at the top, followed by a list of ingredients and instructions.
Draco looked at the list; it had seventeen different ingredients, several of which needed to be properly prepared before adding them together in a precise order. It was an intricate and tricky potion, and it was going to test all of his skill as a potioneer. No wonder this had been chosen as the NEWT level practical!
He sat at his assigned table, Ernie MacMillan on one side or him, Theo on the other. Hermione was in front of him to the right, the curve of her cheek just visible as she cocked her head slightly whilst she read the potion recipe up on the board.
When all the students were at their assigned desks Professor Slughorn spoke up;
"Right Class, you have two and a half hours to brew the Wiggenweld Potion to the best of your ability. There will be no talking; if you need anything you are to raise your hand and I will come to you. At the end of the two hours, you will stop whatever you are doing, and Examiner Chancy will come to assess your progress and decide on the marks he is going to award. Good luck everybody, your time starts NOW!"
There was a moment of silence before there was a general scrabble to start preparing ingredients and setting up cauldrons. Draco forced himself to read the recipe through carefully before he moved, it wouldn't do to miss something simple at the beginning in his rush to get started. Finally confident that he knew how to begin, he reached for his cauldron. Potions was one subject that he was determined to do well in.
By the time Slughorn called for the students to stop what they were doing, Draco was carefully collecting a vial of his Wiggenweld potion to submit for grading. He was pleased with the results; his potion was the deep, rich green colour that was mentioned in his textbook and it smelled pleasantly woody with a hint of mint. It seemed that others in the exam had not done quite so well as there was a pervading fragrance of burnt toast in the air, but as to who the unfortunate student who had produced it was he couldn't tell.
He glanced at Theo beside him, noting that his potion didn't look as smooth and green as his own, and then over at Hermione, who already had cleaned up her work station and was sitting quietly with a perfect green-filled flask in front of her.
Draco idly wondered how the examiners would actually assess the quality of their potions; presumably they didn't actually give anyone the draught of living death to someone before testing if the student's Wiggenweld potions could counteract it?!
He busied himself tidying up whilst the examiner collected up the vials of potion to grade, then waited until they were dismissed. After lunch they would have their potions theory exam in the great hall, but for now they had about 40 minutes of free time before the great hall was set up for lunch.
As the students filed out of the room he sidled next to Hermione, and they were quickly joined by Potter and Nott.
"How did it go?" he asked the others as they got out into the corridor.
"It was fine!" said Hermione, just as Potter said "Alright," and Nott said "Shit."
Draco laughed. "I don't know which of those to ask about first!"
"I forgot to crush the Billywig stings and added them whole." Said Theo sullenly. "I don't know if that means the potion won't be any good…"
"I imagine you will get marked down," said Hermione immediately. "But as you didn't actually omit any ingredients then it shouldn't render it useless."
Draco smiled at her response; she was being honest, but I doubt that it felt particularly comforting to Theo in that moment.
Theo grunted, obviously not quite sure how to reply to Hermione's forthright statement. Potter exchanged a look with Draco; he was obviously used to Hermione's style of comfort in the midst of academic failure.
"Come on," he said to his unlikely band of companions, "Let's go and get some lunch before we have to do our theory this afternoon…"
Once lunch was over, the students were herded out of the great hall into the entrance hall whilst the room was re-arranged for the potions exam. When they were called back into the great hall it had been set up with widely spaced rows of desks facing the dais at the front of the hall for the students to sit at. Each one had an exam paper already on it turned face-down.
Draco murmured a quick "good luck" to Hermione as they entered the hall and found their assigned seats. Only another couple of hours and then he will have completed the NEWT for his first subject!
"You may begin!" the examiner called from the front of the hall. Draco turned over the paper to see what the first question would be. What are the three main ingredients of Calming Draught and describe the properties that each ingredient possesses.
Great! Thought Draco, they had covered Calming Draughts weeks ago! Picking up his quill, he started writing feverishly; he was aiming for an E grade at least!
By the time the examiner called for the students to set down their quills Draco was feeling fairly confident that he would be getting a pass grade at the very least. The exam papers were collected by a wave of the examiners wand, and the students were dismissed back to their common rooms to relax before dinner.
This became the pattern of the next four days. Any free time he typically spent either in the library or just trying to relax either outside or in the common room. He was often joined by Hermione or Theo, but they were all equally subdued, saving their energy for the exams.
Come Saturday morning, Draco was exhausted and very ready for a couple of days not thinking about potion ingredients, incantations or counter-curses. Their last exam on the Friday afternoon, the Defence Against the Dark Arts practical, had been particularly taxing and he was still aching from having to evade several training dummies that had been enchanted to act as Inferi.
Draco was slow to rise and go down to breakfast, dismayed at finding the breakfast tables much more full than he was used to. He found himself a seat next to some wide-eyed third year boys who kept eyeing him with interest, which was both disconcerting and annoying whilst he was eating his scrambled egg and sausages.
He glanced over at them, tempted to just ask what they wanted, when the smallest one spoke up.
"You're Draco Malfoy, right?" He had messy brown hair and was weedy looking, with a smattering of acne across his chin.
"Yeah. That's me." Draco replied shortly; if these kids were going to ask him something about Voldemort or Azkaban then he may have to turn them into frogs.
"You played seeker in the house cup!" the kid said excitedly. "Seeker is my favourite position! I want to try out for the team next year!"
Draco was very pleasantly surprised; someone knew his name for doing something good! He looked at the kid speculatively; he was the right build for seeker at least!
"Are you a good flier?" Draco asked him.
"I'm alright." Said the kid, raising his chin like he was anticipating a putdown. Draco recognised the same attitude from when he was a kid, hiding behind a veneer of arrogance and indifference so that no one could get to the insecure little boy beneath.
"You need to practice until you can say you're the best!" said Draco firmly. "There will be a new captain next year, hopefully someone who will be more interested in talent than keeping their mates on side, so if you go and put the work in then it should pay off."
The kids looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language; was it really so surprising that he was encouraging the boy? He supposed it was; after all the culture of Slytherin house was all about one-up-man-ship and trampling others to get what you want. Which was pretty shit when he thought about it, Draco concluded.
He gave the boys a nod and slight smile, then went back to his breakfast, feeling distinctly less awkward after they gotten up and left.
"That was nice of you…" said a voice from a little further up the table.
Draco lifted his head in surprise; this was the last person he would have expected to speak to him.
"Yeah, I guess it was." He replied, nonchalantly.
"You're different now. You know that, don't you?" Pansy was speaking to him in a more pleasant tone of voice than she had spoken to him in years.
"Yes, I've noticed that too." He said tightly. Why was Pansy speaking to him? Surely she realised that he had nothing that could benefit her, and that her insults would be to him as water off a ducks back.
"Is it because of her?" She asked, an inexplicably jealous note to her voice.
"Yes, along with everything else." He told her. He could see no reason to be dishonest about it; his actions over the last few months held no shame for him, unlike many of those that came before.
"You seem happy..." she stated wistfully. For the first time in a long time, Draco actually looked at Pansy properly. She looked tired, with dark shadows ringing her eyes, and her face was more pointed like she had lost weight recently. She was still quite nice looking, he thought, although he wasn't attracted to her any more.
"I am happy. Or at least I think I will be…" he allowed his thoughts to drift to an imagined future filled with him training to be a healer and coming home to Granger each evening.
"What about you, Pansy? Are you happy?" He couldn't recall if he had ever asked Pansy how she felt before. She had always been rather demanding and manipulative to get what she wanted, as well as having a nasty sense of humour to cover up any moments of weakness she might show. He hadn't ever really considered if she was actually happy.
Pansy gave him a half smile that he was certain was meant to look coquettish, but instead made her look tired and a little sad. "I'm fine, Draco."
"What do you want, Pansy?" he asked suddenly, realising that he had never heard her talk about the future and what it might hold.
"I was just trying to be nice Draco, there's no need to be like that…" she turned away from him to leave, but not before he saw a flicker of hurt cross her face.
"No! I mean after school! What do you want to do, or be?" he clarified, surprised to find that he was genuinely interested in what she had to say.
"Oh." She stopped her efforts to get out from the bench seat. "I don't know really. I had expected that father would have drafted an engagement agreement by now, but he is struggling to find someone suitable." She shrugged.
"Don't you want to do anything else? You can have a husband and still do something you enjoy." Draco found himself feeling sorry for her; was her only ambition to get married?
"I haven't really considered anything else. Surely you haven't forgotten what it's like, Draco? Pureblood witches are meant to concern themselves with their husbands and homes, furthering their husband interests at various functions and social events; that's how we contribute."
"I guess I have forgotten." He conceded. Either that or he just didn't care that much. He really had been a selfish little prick!
"I'm sorry Pansy." He said, not just for what he had been like with Pansy, but for his past behaviour in general.
"You don't need to be sorry for me…" she started to say, but he cut her off.
"No, I do. I didn't treat you very well Pansy, and I suspect that Harper doesn't treat you all that well either. I'm sorry that I thought that it was ok to disregard how you felt, and I hope whoever you do end up with does a better job." This little speech actually left Draco feeling a little lighter, like he was tying up loose ends or something before he left school.
"And you couldn't have had this epiphany when we were engaged and seeing each other?!" she said, feigning exasperation. He could see that she was touched by what he had said though; there was a slight flush to her cheeks and a tell-tale shine to her eyes.
"I'm done." He said with a smile, pushing his plate away and getting up from the bench. "See you, Pansy."
"Bye, Draco." She replied, turning back to her breakfast.
Draco noticed Hermione hovering in the doorway of the hall, waiting for him, he hoped.
"Good Morning," he said, leaning in to kiss her cheek before taking her arm to walk down the corridor.
"Good Morning." Said Hermione, beaming at him. They hadn't gotten far when she casually asked, "What did Pansy want?"
Ah, so Granger had been watching him at breakfast had she? And by the overtly "casual" tone she was feeling a little jealous.
"I don't really know. Making peace before school ends I guess…" Draco didn't really know how to answer that question, but that answer was close enough to the truth.
"Making peace?" asked Hermione, with a frown.
"Yeah. I feel a bit sorry for her really, I don't think she is very happy."
"Well, she certainly likes to spread her misery around," said Hermione waspishly, but seemed to accept his answer.
"Come on Granger," he said, not wanting to waste what free time that they had. "What shall we do today?"