Draco was limping.
It was the last day of lessons before winter holidays, and Draco was certain he was going to murder Harry somehow before the end of the day.
His healing spells were complete shite, and he couldn't very well go to Madam Pomfrey. When he'd skipped breakfast to ask Neville for help, he'd only laughed. Some brilliant friend he was.
Draco supposed maybe he should have exercised a bit more patience in the moment, but...no, he was still going to blame everything on Harry.
He was standing imposingly by the blackboard when his Third Years filed in. He gave a short summary of their tasks and waved his wand to make the instructions appear on the board. He began to walk to his desk, when a student called out, sounding concerned.
"Professor Malfoy, what happened?"
"What do you mean 'what happened', Mister Brilla?"
"You're limping. Did you get hurt?"
"Obviously." Draco injected as much disdain as possible into those four short syllables.
"Why didn't you go to Madam Pomfrey? What happened?" another student joined in.
"I didn't go to the hospital wing because I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow. And I was...attacked," he fabricated quickly, "by a dark creature in the Forbidden Forest. That's why you should never go in there alone."
"Why did you go alone?"
"I didn't. Professor Potter was with me."
"Did he fight off the creature?"
"He was...an integral part of the process."
"It's a good job you had him with you, then. Who knows what might have happened otherwise."
"Yes, well, he's the one who got me into this mess in the first place," Draco snapped.
He limped quickly over to his desk, figuring it was best if he didn't draw any more attention to his abnormal gait. He tried to sit and hissed in pain.
"MERLin's saggy...cloak," he censored himself.
"What happened?" Several students asked in alarm.
Draco forced himself to sit, and flinched at the pain, quickly grabbing onto his knee as if that was what hurt.
"I just smacked the injured part of my leg on the desk. It's fine."
Many of the students continued to stare.
"Do your work," he snapped.
~*~
Harry's second class was buzzing with chatter as they took their seats. The Third Years always gossiped, but today was much worse than usual.
A student raised their hand, and the rest of the room quieted down.
"Sir, what happened last night?"
For a moment, Harry looked alarmed, briefly entertaining the idea that these children really knew everything. He quickly reasoned that that was impossible, though, and schooled his features into careful confusion.
"I'm not sure what you're referring to, Charlotte."
"Professor Malfoy said he was attacked by a dark creature in the Forbidden Forest, and you helped fight it off. But he said it was your fault in the first place."
Harry's mouth twitched in amusement at the last bit, but he managed to keep his face impassive for the most part.
"Hmm. Yes, but it's okay, I believe the creature's gone now."
"What was it? Was it a werewolf?" another student asked.
"It wasn't even a full moon last night, stupid," the person behind them corrected.
"It was...a badger," Harry said seriously.
"But a badger's not even a dark creature!"
"Yes, well Draco exaggerates when he's angry," Harry said curtly. "Now if I could begin my lesson, today we'll be talking about Boggarts."
