By: PepperjackCandy
Rating: PG13 (up to "second base" explicit, beyond that implied)
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling. I'm just borrowing them for a time.
Warning: This will be a slash story (Harry/Draco) eventually, though romantically-slashy, rather than erotically-slashy. Hence the PG-13 rating.
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Once he reached the library, Harry threw himself into planning the Quidditch season. He plotted out the positions everyone would be playing, and then listed their various strengths and weaknesses.
He looked down at his own entry, Harry - Seeker - strength: good eye, quick on broom - weakness: too trusting? Too distrustful?
Those aren't Quidditch weaknesses. He realized. Those are what? My problem with Draco? With Malfoy? After Potions class, even though nearly everything had gone as planned, he didn't know which the blond Slytherin was - his friend, Draco, or his rival, Malfoy.
It wasn't any one thing that had happened in Potions class. It was everything, from the ease with which Draco had seemed to settle back into his relationship with Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy, to the extra unplanned hex that Draco had put on him.
There wasn't anything to do for it now, though. He would just have to wait and see how Draco behaved towards him in the future.
He turned his thoughts back to Quidditch. First, he blotted out his questions he'd asked of himself, figuring that he didn't need Ron asking about how his level of trust would effect his Quidditch playing. He then turned his attention to plotting out the various strengths and weaknesses of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw teams. He avoided thinking about Slytherin for the moment.
Soon it was lunch, and Harry took the scroll that he'd written his Quidditch notes on and went down to the Great Hall. Neither Ron nor Hermione were there yet, so he sat with Neville and Ginny, facing the Slytherin table so that he could keep an eye on Draco.
Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy came down to lunch, but Draco didn't come with them. He itched to ask them where he was, but thought that even if he could successfully make it sound snarky, it might come too close to revealing Dumbledore's conspiracy, so he just bided his time.
Ron and Hermione arrived soon after Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy, and Harry gave Ron the scroll that he'd been taking his notes on. "What's this?" Ron asked, pointing to the blob of ink where Harry had blotted out his doubts about his judgment where Draco was concerned.
Harry shrugged offhandedly. "I guess I'm just not very good at assessing my own weaknesses." He glanced over at the Slytherin table again. Draco still wasn't there.
A few minutes after Crabbe, Pansy and Goyle left the room, Draco came in. He sat down next to a Slytherin that Harry didn't recognize and soon the two Slytherins were deep in conversation.
I wonder what that's about? Harry thought.
In Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid had a visitor from Tibet who had brought a male and female Yeti with him. He told them about their care, feeding, life and growth cycle, and the differences between the Yeti and other similar creatures such as Bigfoot and the Wildman of China.
"Wednesday," Hagrid informed them, "will be some hands-on time for you to actually help feed and care for these creatures. And anyone who wants, or needs," he looked directly at Draco, "a little extra credit can come see me about helping with bathing them tomorrow or Wednesday morning."
As would be expected, Hermione was first in line to sign up for extra-credit Yeti-bathing.
Harry's second afternoon class and supper seemed to go like lightning, and soon he and Draco were sitting in front of Snape in the dungeon, waiting to see what kind of punishment Snape would dole out.
Harry and Draco sat at separate tables, casting sidelong glances in each other's directions. Snape paced back and forth at the front of the room.
"I take it." Snape said to Draco. "That Mr. Potter didn't expect your little application of the torqueo hex?"
"No, sir." Draco responded, eyes downcast.
"But I also take it," he continued, "That you *did* expect the pedis fervens hex?"
"Yes, sir."
"I see. I want to apologize, Potter, for taking more points from Gryffindor than Slytherin, but you know how it is." He gave the two young men a crooked grin. "Business as usual.
"That being said, I gave both of you detentions because I want you to take some time to think about what it is you're doing. And whether you want to take the risk of alienating each other."
Both young men gave Snape curious looks.
"You are supposed to be working together on this." Snape reminded them. "I'd suggest you learn how to do so."
"I thought about handing you both over to Filch, but he's not in on Professor Dumbledore's plan, and I want the two of you to be able to talk to each other. And so, I've decided that you need to sort through some possibly out-of-date ingredients, and help me decide which are still good and which need to be thrown out.
"The ingredients are there." Snape indicated a box full of jars. "You will find the necessary reference materials here." He put his hand on a stack of books.
"Be sure that when you decide that an ingredient needs to be disposed of, you dispose of it properly. Do not just pour it down the sink or throw it in the dustbin. Some need to be burned or disposed of in other ways.
"Now good luck, and *please* try not to destroy my laboratory in the process." Snape gave the two young men a wider smile than Harry would have thought possible, and left the two young men together.
Harry looked over at Draco, who was still looking downwards. "Malfoy?" He asked softly.
Draco looked up. "Yes?"
"We should probably get to work."
"Yeah."
Harry arrived at the table and took out the first ingredient, which rattled in the jar. "Red wiggler worms, dehydrated." He opened the jar and was immediately assailed by a mind-numbing stench. "I think these have gone bad." He handed the jar to Draco, who seemed to wilt under the assault of the smell.
"Yeah. I think so, too. But let's look it up, just in case." He picked up the top two books and handed the first one to Harry, keeping the second for himself.
They paged through the books. "Dehydrated red wiggler worms shouldn't have an odor." Harry said. "What do you get?"
"The same."
Harry longed to get past this uncomfortable silence, back to how things had been on Saturday and Sunday nights. But he wasn't the one who had deviated from the plan, and he'd be damned if he would be the first to apologize.
"Disposal?" Harry asked.
"Fire." Draco said.
"Yep. That's what I get, too."
Draco got one of the school's cauldrons, and they poured the worms into it, lighting them on fire and watching the flames destroy them.
"Potter?" Draco said. "I'm sorry."
"What happened? Why'd you do that to me? I had a welt under my robe."
"Crabbe and Goyle were egging me on. I had to. If I hadn't, they'd've known that something was going on."
Harry looked at Draco, who finally raised his eyes. Green eyes met silver, and all Harry saw in their lustrous depths was repentance.
"That's all right." Harry said, offering a half-smile. "I can see why you'd do it, under those circumstances."
"I didn't mean to use that much, but I just wanted them to *shut* *up.* Did you do anything about the welt?" Draco's arms twitched towards Harry, as he was uncertain whether to reach out and touch the injured spot.
Harry nodded. "I had some ointment left over from last Quidditch season that cleared it right up."
"That's good."
Harry wanted to ask Draco about the Slytherin he'd seen Draco talking to at lunch, but instead pulled out the next jar. "Powdered aniseed. Should be easy." He opened it, and was greeted with the smell of licorice. "Smells good to me. What do you think?" He handed the jar to Draco.
Draco dutifully sniffed and nodded. "Yep."
They put the jar to one side.
As Harry pulled out the next jar, Draco said, "I really am tired of them." Harry knew who Draco meant. "And so I've decided to widen my circle of acquaintances."
"Oh?" Harry wondered if Draco was going to explain who he'd been sitting with at lunch. "Ragweed pollen?"
"The muggle allergen?" Draco asked, perplexed.
"Looks like it."
As they examined the ragweed pollen, Draco continued. "Today at lunch, I ducked out on Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy and went to lunch by myself." He smiled at Harry. "Well, anyway, I got to talking with another Slytherin - a sixth year named Erik, whom I know from Quidditch - and really found myself enjoying myself at the Slytherin table for the first time in a long time.
"I'm pretty sure that he's not interested in serving the Dark Lord." Draco continued. "In fact, he told me all about himself, and how he got into Slytherin."
Draco grinned. "He's from an old wizarding family, most of whom become Gryffindors." Draco's grin widened. "His grandmother has the Sight, and she made a prediction that it would be a Slytherin who'd defeat the Dark Lord. So, when he came to Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat picked up on his desire to be the one his grandmother had foreseen, and Sorted him into Slytherin."
Harry smiled back. "Sounds like a change from your usual group."
"Yeah. He's got his own little group, who all want to be Minister of Magic and things like that - ambitious without the evil."
"So," Harry said, "keep it or toss it?"
"Huh?"
"The pollen. Is it good or should we get rid of it?"
"Oh. I think it's good."
"So do I." Harry put the jar of pollen with the jar of aniseed and took out the next jar.
"Powdered griffin egg yolks?" He looked at it skeptically. It was filled with a bright orange powder. "I wouldn't even know where to start with this one."
"I do." Draco took the jar from Harry and opened it, sniffing gingerly. The look on Draco's face made Harry think that Draco's eyebrows were going to be burned off by the fumes. "Pfauugh! Yep. Smells like it's still good to me."
"Let's double-check, just in case." Harry picked up his book and began leafing through it.
After a minute, Harry said, "I'm sorry, too."
"For what?"
"For being such a . . . child about the torqueo hex. I sulked, and pitied myself, and doubted you . . .r commitment to Dumbledore's plan. After all I've been through . . ."
"After all you've been through, *I* should have been more understanding." Draco corrected him, looking deeply into Harry's eyes.
As they stood there, Harry felt a thrill of . . . something run through him and he wanted to reach forward and touch the Slytherin, but he didn't dare. Instead, he held out his right hand. "Am I forgiven?"
"Only if I am." Draco took Harry's hand, shaking it tightly, like he was drowning and Harry's hand was all that was keeping him afloat.
Draco held onto his hand a moment longer than necessary. And then picked up the vile-smelling jar. "I vote that it's good."
Harry nodded. "Me, too."
They put that jar aside and then moved on to the next one.
As they pondered the freshness of a jar of black widow spiders' eyes (this test required them to set fire to them and analyze the ashes), Draco broke the silence. "You know, your friend Longbottom's not at all bad in Herbology. He's actually quite good. But don't tell him I said so."
Harry smiled at Draco. "I'll be sure not to."
Soon enough, they were finished with the box of ingredients, and had an exactly equal number of empty jars and full ones. Harry noticed this with interest. It's almost like Snape knew how many of these had gone bad, and he gave us this to do just to keep us busy.
Once he'd returned to the room, Snape sniffed at a few of the still-full jars. "Very well-done. You made sure to destroy the red wigglers by fire?"
"Yes, sir." Harry and Draco said.
"Very well, then. You may both go back to your rooms And I hope this gave you some time to iron out your differences." Then Snape left the room.
"So, Draco? Did we iron out our differences?"
"I like to think we did."
Harry suddenly felt nervous. "Well, see you Wednesday morning, then?"
Draco nodded. "Yeah."
Harry turned to leave, but Draco called him back. "Harry! You want to get together again late tomorrow night? It was . . . nice just sitting and doing homework with you on Sunday."
"It was, wasn't it?" Harry smiled. "1:00 a.m.? Astronomy tower?"
"Some of my housemates are still up around then. How about 2:00?"
Harry nodded. "See you then."