Better Be Slytherin
V
Girl, Supposedly
It was a beautiful sunset. The outlines of the castle were black against the pinkish sky. The treetops of the Forbidden Forest swayed slightly in the light evening breeze, but other than that, everything was silent and still. Even the surface of the lake was smooth.
Down in the dungeons, in the Slytherin boys' dormitory, Draco Malfoy lay in his bed just as still as the environment outside, feeling content of both finishing the Moonstone essay for Snape and the text in Defence so Umbridge would be pleased. He had just come back from the first session of that sodding detention with Filch. He and Pansy had been forced to clean out the Owlery, wandlessly. He was not used to any type of manual labour, nor was Pansy, and they had complained all the way through it. Anger rushed through him as he mentally cursed professor McGonagall for her overreaction. She had no right to do this to him. It was positively inhumane – he would have to write to his father. The only positive thing about his row with Potter was that the latter and both Weasley twins were banned for life from Quidditch by Umbridge – the thought made him slightly more content.
He lay properly on his back on top of the covers listening to the fireplace crackling. Everybody was getting ready for bed. Goyle was already snoring behind his curtains. Zabini was boasting about something while undressing. Vincent was listening on and making some snide comment. Nott was reading some Dark Arts book in his bed in the badly-lit corner, not listening at all. Draco was pretending to pay attention, not really caring. He and Zabini had never really got on. Zabini was a big bloke and mostly just arrogant and distanced – thought himself better than everyone. Zabini bored him.
There were a lot of people Draco had never liked. Potter, for one. The Boy Who Lived to Annoy. And Weasley and Granger. And Dumbledore. And most of the teachers – well, except Snape, of course – and most of the students as well, if he were to be honest. Everybody were quite useless, Draco reckoned, except for himself and his parents. Vincent and Gregory barely passed, but they were useful – they did what Draco told them to do. Plus, they were fun to laugh at when they were being stupid. And Pansy; she could be quite all right – she entertained him.
Pansy was a special girl. That was the only way Draco could describe her. She was not like all the other ditzs. She was the only girl he would ever let hang around. From the moment he had met her, he was never fooled by her appearances – he knew she was not afraid to get her dress dirty or mess up her braids. Pansy was funny to be with – she always found a way to entertain him.
Draco continued listening to Zabini, not really having anything else to do. And when he later on lay in the dark and listened to Goyle's snoring, he thought only of one thing. And for some reason, he didn't understand it himself; he couldn't stop thinking about it.
November surpassed into December, and the cold was followed by both snow and an avalanche of school work, not to mention how their Prefect duties increased when they were supposed to decorate the castle for Christmas. Not to mention his and Pansy's wretched detentions with Filch. Ugh. The two of them were both knackered each night when they threw themselves down in front of the fire down in the common room.
Draco received an unpleasant surprise when they had walked down to Care of Magical Creatures lecture a chilly early-December afternoon. The half-wit, Hagrid, was back. He rolled his eyes irritatedly and commented to Crabbe and Goyle about it in a mutter. Hagrid was standing at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and he looked positively terrible. His face was bleeding and he had greenish bruises all over his face.
Not to mention how he had something that looked like a half dead calf slung over his shoulder. Draco frowned, God, he smelled too.
"We're workin' in here today!" Hagrid called happily to the students, jerking his head back at the dark trees behind him while the class started gathering around him. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark."
Draco suddenly felt slightly nervous. You never knew what dangerous and untrained beasts that great oaf would bring to their classes, after all. "What prefers the dark?" he asked Crabbe and Goyle sharply. "What did he say prefers the dark – did you hear?"
They both only gave grunting shrugs, however.
"Ready?" said Hagrid cheerfully, looking around at the class. "Right, well, I've been savin' a trip inter the Forest fer yer fifth year. Thought we'd go an' see these creatures in their natural habitat. Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britain who's managed ter train 'em."
"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" Draco said loudly, frowning. He wasn't too sure about it. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"
His fellow Slytherins murmured agreement and even some of the Gryffindors looked like they thought he had a point as well. Ha.
"'Course they're trained," said Hagrid, scowling and hoisting the dead cow a little higher on his shoulder.
"What happened to your face, then?" Draco demanded, he could not resist.
"Mind yer own business!" Hagrid exclaimed at him. "Now, if yeh've finished asking stupid questions, follow me!"
Draco rolled his eyes as their teacher turned around and strode straight into the Forest. For a second, he considered just walking off, enjoying a nice free period in the common room and not be bothered with it. None of the others seemed particularly interested in following him either. Potter, Weasley and Granger followed him loyally but even they seemed a little doubtful. The rest of the class reluctantly followed in their footsteps – the Slytherins were the last ones. They walked for about ten minutes (Draco made sure to always be in-between Crabbe and Goyle) until they reached a place where the trees were so tight together that it was dusk-dark and there was no snow on the ground anymore.
Hagrid put down the dead cow on the ground with a grunt and took a step back, turning around to face his students who came creeping up closer between trees. Draco did not like this at all.
"Gather roun', gather roun'," he encouraged. He gave out a peculiar cry that echoed through the trees, like the call from some huge bird. Draco grinned. He was a mad man, it was certain now. Nothing happened. Hagrid gave out the cry again. His fellow students looked around nervously. Draco looked to the side – nothing there either. He then heard a twig break right in front of them and hastily turned his attention back. But no, nothing their either. The rest of the class seemed just as confused as him.
"Oh, an' here comes another one," said Hagrid proudly. Was he daft? There was nothing there! Just trees and moss. Perhaps the giants messed him up properly, thought Draco. His classmates backed a couple of steps, doubtful.
"Now... put yer hands up, who can see 'em?"
Draco frowned and looked around. Potter, Longbottom and – Nott? – all raised their hands. Nott was looking at something in front of them with a disgusted look on his face. Why would he be in on that oaf's charade?
"Yeah... yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry," said Hagrid severely to Potter. "An' you too, Neville, eh? An'—"
Draco however interrupted him before he got the chance to address Theodore, tearing his eyes off Nott and snorting: "Excuse me, but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"
As a response, Hagrid pointed at the dead cow on the ground. The entire class stared down at it for a couple of seconds, before several students gasped and Gryffindor girl Patil gave a high-pitched exclaim. Draco felt his heart beating faster as he hastily backed off – something invisible was tearing off pieces of meat from the dead cow.
"Don't worry, it won't hurt yeh," Hagrid told Patil who was hiding behind a tree, terrified. "Righ', now, who can tell why some o' yeh can see 'em an' some can't?"
Granger naturally raised her hand."The only people who can see Thestrals are people who have seen death." Draco suddenly wished he was anywhere else.
"That's exactly right. Ten points ter Gryffindor. Now, Thestrals—"
"Hem, hem."
Professor Umbridge had arrived, clipboard at the ready.
"Oh hello!" Hagrid smiled when he finally had located the source of the noise.
"You received the note I sent your cabin this morning?" Umbridge asked him loudly and clearly as if she was talking to a very slow-minded foreigner. Draco and Crabbe shared a grin. "Telling you that I would be inspecting you lesson?"
"Oh yeah," said Hagrid brightly. "Glad yeh found the place all righ'! Well, as you can see – or, I dunno – can you? We're doin' Thestrals today—"
"I'm sorry?" said Umbridge loudly, cupping her hand around her ear and frowning. "What did you say?"
Hagrid looked confused. "Er – Thestrals! Big – er – winged horses, yeh know!"
He flapped his gigantic arms hopefully. Bloody hell. This could certainly be interesting.
Umbridge raised her eyebrows and mumbled while taking notes on the clipboard: "Has... to... resort... to... crude... sign... language."
"Well... anyway..." said Hagrid, turning back to the class and looking slightly flustered. "Erm, what was I sayin'?"
"Appears... to... have... poor... short... term... memory," muttered Umbridge loud enough for everyone to hear. Draco beamed. Hagrid looked worried.
"Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was gonna tell yeh how come we got a herd. Yeah, so, we started off with a male an' five females. This one," he patted something in the air, "name o' Tenebrus, he's my special favourite, firs' one born here in the Forest—"
"Are you aware," Umbridge interrupted him loudly, "that the Ministry of Magic has classified Thestrals as 'dangerous'?"
Draco cast a glance at Pansy on his other side – she had a broad smile on her face just like him, and a glint in her eyes. It broadened his smile.
Hagrid merely chuckled. "Thestrals aren' dangerous! All righ', they might take a bite outta you if yeh really annoy them—"
"Shows... signs... of... pleasure... at... idea... of... violence," muttered Umbridge while making a note immediately looked at Pansy again, sniggering, and they could not refrain from beginning to titter.
"No – come on!" said Hagrid, now looking a little anxious. "I mean, a dog'll bite if yeh bait it, won' it—but Thestrals have jus' got a bad reputation because o' the death thing—people used ter think they were bad omens, didn' they? Jus' didn' understand, did they?"
Umbridge did not answer; she finished writing her last note, then looked up at Hagrid and said, again very loudly and slowly, "Please continue teaching as usual. I am going to walk," she mimed walking – Draco and Pansy were having silent fits of laughter by now, "among the students" (she pointed around at individual members of the class) "and ask them questions." She pointed at her mouth to indicate talking.
Pansy's face was red, they couldn't stop laughing and Draco feared they would not be able to keep quiet for much longer. That oaf, thought Draco and laughed even more. Pansy even had to support herself on him, a grip on his arm to not fall down in a fit of laughter.
Umbridge walked towards the Slytherins, while Hagrid kept talking: "Erm… anyway, so—Thestrals. Yeah. Well, there's loads o' good stuff abou' them…"
Umbridge had approached Pansy and asked her in a ringing voice: "Do you find that you are able to understand Professor Hagrid when he talks?"
Teary-eyed from laughter, Pansy's answer was almost incoherent because she was trying to suppress her giggles. "No... because... well... it sounds... like grunting a lot of the time..."
Umbridge wrote it down at once. Draco sent Pansy an appreciative look, grinning. Hagrid turned red in the face but looked like he tried to pretend he had not heard what Pansy said.
"Er… yeah… good stuff abou' Thestrals. Well, once they're tamed, like this lot, yeh'll never be lost again. 'Mazin' sense o' direction, jus' tell 'em where yeh want ter go—"
"Assuming they can understand you, of course," Draco said loudly and Pansy collapsed in a fit of renewed giggles. Professor Umbridge smiled indulgently at them and then turned to Longbottom to question him about the Thestrals. He certainly seemed frightened. What was that half-wit thinking bringing up creatures like these?
"Well, Hagrid," she turned to look up at the latter again, "I think I've got enough to be getting along with. You will receive" (she mimed taking something from the air in front of her) "the results of your inspection" (she pointed at the clipboard) "in ten days' time." She held up ten stubby little fingers, smiling widely, and then under her green hat, she hurried off, leaving Draco and Pansy in fits of laughter.
Half an hour later the lesson was finally over. Draco and Pansy had not been able to keep focus after Umbridge's hilarious show, but had just leaned back, ignored Hagrid and hoped that justice might actually for once be on their side and that that troll would be sacked! As Draco, Gregory and Vincent made their way back to the castle through the snow, they saw Potter and his friends ahead. Draco motioned for his friends to hurry along, as they sneaked up behind them.
"… it's all right," they heard Potter say.
"I'm surprised so many could see them," said Weasley. "Three in a class—"
Draco snorted. "Yeah, Weasley, we were just wondering," he drawled. "D'you reckon if you saw someone snuff it you'd be able to see the Quaffle better?"
Draco and his friends roared with laughter as they pushed past the trio on their way to the castle, then broke into a chorus of "Weasley is our King" just because Draco felt on top of the world that afternoon. He distantly heard Granger behind his back telling Weasley to "let it go", but with a smirk on his lips, Draco knew he wouldn't have done anything anyway.
That Monday followed as grey and dull as the previous couple of weeks had been. But Theodore Nott enjoyed that sort of weather. It made it possible for him to stay inside and read without being urged to go outside and socialise himself with his 'mates' and 'hang out' on the grounds. Theodore preferred occupying a dark corner of the common room, minding his own business, and reading.
At breakfast the previous day, it had made clear that the oaf, Hagrid, was back from weeks of absence, and they were all, naturally, forced to listen to what Mr. Malfoy thought of this.
Hogwarts was lovely except for all the students.
And that Umbridge. Theodore did not like her in the least. She had started inspecting their classes for some reason he did not know, but to great entertainment to his fellow house-mates – Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson had their fits of laughter while Theodore saw Thestrals. He sometimes wished for their ignorant obliviousness – to know nothing of death and pain, to get everything served on a silver plate, to go through life talking yourself out of trouble, to not have to take responsibility, to cheat life.
He knew he would never have the same simplicity.
He escaped them all that Saturday when his house-mates went down to Hogsmeade for a day of having Butterbeers and looking through the shops. He enjoyed a deserted, low-ceilinged, common room that glowed in a greenish light, with his book.
His house-mates annoyed him. Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and the lot – they all talked big, like they were big supporters of the Dark Lord, but he saw right through it, there was not much behind it; they did not really know what it meant.
They were not worthy.
The dark dungeon was bathing in a pinkish light spreading from the cauldrons that the students were stirring. Draco could hardly make out the words on the black board from his place in the far back of the classroom because of the hazy air. The classroom was filled with babbling, everyone seemed nearly intoxicated – he supposed the love potions had its affect on all of them. Draco himself felt oddly warm inside and very drowsy, as if he could fall asleep if he would just shut his eyes. At the same time, the scent that filled Draco's nostrils was so lovely that he did his best to stay awake just to keep smelling it.
He sensed silver polish, or at least that was what he thought it was. It reminded him of Malfoy Manor. He sensed Liquorice Wands. He smelled the handle of his broomstick on a sunny summer day, and best of all… he smelled something he could not put his finger on. It smelled like all the sweet things in the world – a mixture of sweets and lollies and flowers, almost sickly sweet. He just wanted to bore his head into it.
"It's supposed to be wine red by now! But look at it… Useless piece of dung…" Pansy was sitting next to him and feverishly stirring in their cauldron which was filled with a repulsive grey-greenish liquid. She wiped the sweat from her forhead with her sleeve of her robe, an annoyed express on her face. Draco watched her, he couldn't help it, he stared at her cheeks that were slightly pink from the heat, he looked at her eyebrows that were frowning and he looked at her pug-like nose that he had used to think was so ugly.
He closed his mouth and sat up more straight. He looked around, looked at Vincent and Gregory by his other side instead, watched how they struggled with their own potion. Vincent, who was sitting closest to him, had big wet spots under his arms.
When he turned back to his own partner and potion, he discovered that Pansy had tossed off her robe. Her hair was a bit messy and he had never seen her so attractive. No, his mind told him, it was Pansy, his classmate – not attractive.
"Your potions should by now have adopted a pearl-ish shimmering, after you added the honeywater," Snape's low voice droned from the front of the classroom.
Pansy swore under her breath. "Ours isn't even wine red yet," she muttered. She turned to Draco, as if demanding an answer, and caught him staring. Draco straightened up and started, just to have something to do, gathering the frozen Ashwinder eggs that he had just cut up and that they were going to add to the potion shortly. Then he turned away to watch Vincent and Gregory, yet again, with his head resting against his palm. Vince and Greg had started arguing about what to put in next.
"You know, we're supposed to do this together, Draco," said Pansy irritably. He turned back to her.
"I just chopped up a fat bunch of Ashwinder eggs, so how are we not doing this together?" said Draco and would usually have been irritated as well, but now he was just grinning at her. She rolled her eyes, but was unable to conceal the small smile that crept onto her face.
"You look like you could fall asleep any second," she commented when she had turned back to the cauldron and continued stirring.
"I could," yawned Draco. "I'm staying awake, though, should you need my assistance."
"Don't flatter yourself," muttered Pansy and gave a snort-laugh. Draco's lip curled and their eyes locked in a moment a bit too long.
They both turned away at the same time. Draco glanced at the cauldron in front of them instead. Why did it feel odd just looking at her? Pansy picked up Magical Drafts and Potions from the table and started fanning herself with it. It did not seem to work that well, though; the book was to heavy and ungainly. Instead, she unbuttoned the three top buttons of her blouse, precisely so far as it being easy for Draco to catch a glimpse of her bra and the curve of her breasts underneath.
Draco felt his face grow hot as he looked. Frowning slightly, feeling very confused, he turned, completely stiff, and stared at the back of Longbottom's head at the table in front of them. He could not refrain, however, from glancing at Pansy once in a while.
Pansy. With breasts. Pansy. A girl. Pansy. His friend.
It was all too new for him.
Potions was their last lecture of the day – of the whole term, actually – so when the bells rang they all hurried to the End-of-Term Feast.
Vincent and Gregory placed themselfs next to Draco, and on Pansy's other side, a couple of big blokes from seventh year was sitting. Needless to say, the space got horrendously limited, and Draco and Pansy's thighs were pressed together during the entire dinner. Draco wondered why he felt odd about this all of a sudden. He had always known after all that Pansy was indeed a girl. And he was sure this was not the first time they sat close next to each other – then why did it for the first time feel odd?
