Chapter 4: Lesson in the Dungeons

It was early when Draco pulled the covers from Eriol's bed.

"Rise and shine!" he cheered almost evilly at the moaning Eriol.

"Come on now Potter Jr. If you don't get up we will be late for breakfast!" he lectured on dragging the covers off the boy.

Eriol rubbed his eyes violently and searched for his glasses, "This can so be considered a violation of privacy Mr. Malfoy."

Draco handed him his glasses.

Eriol snatched them, "And I HAVE a name."

"Grouchy.." Draco mused while throwing on the last layer to his own ensemble. "I don't know what you were doing so much last night, that could have made you sooo tired." he snickered on, "But I had a great sleep."

"You would.." Eriol started, almost revealing to everyone in the room what had happened.

"Ermm I need to ask you something later." he finished.

Draco shrugged, "Whatever."

With that he pulled the young mage towards the door.

Before he knew it, they were sitting at the Slytherin table hogging down their breakfast. Harry walked into the Great Hall a moment later, followed by his usual swarm. Eriol waved to him, a movement large enough as to catch his attention. Harry beamed offering him an equally exuberant wave of his own. Both actions were met with a death glare from Draco, and with something so obvious going on, it had sparked a fit of whispers among all the house tables, especially Gryffindor and Slytherin.

Draco, noticing the trouble his pocket Potter had caused, grit his teeth angrily, "You just don't learn do you Eriol. How can you stomach him? His overwhelming and totally undeserved fame should be enough to churn the stomach! You'll find out soon enough what an insolent git he and his friends are."

Eriol could only guess why there was so much anger clung to the air between them and perhaps it had something to do with what he heard last night. He put a hand to his mate's angry shoulder.

"Say, Draco..can I ask you something?" He almost hesitated as he could tell Draco was not in the mood.

"Well go on.." snapped the irritated boy.

"About last night..what exactly was it that you were dreaming about?" he questioned.

Draco rubbed his nose and sneered, "I haven't the faintest what you are referring to. I had about the most peaceful nights rest last night."

Eriol cursed himself as he suddenly realized his sleeping spell might have made Draco completely forget his nightmare.

"All right pay no mind then, my mistake."

Draco smiled and turned away from Eriol suddenly, hiding a slightly disturbed and alarmed look to his face just then.

Breakfast continued on normally, that is until Harry decided to pay the Slytherin table a visit.

"Ready to go?" he asked approaching the boys, but referring to Eriol only.

Draco looked up from his empty plate (which all too soon refilled) only to vivisect the Boy Who Lived with his eyes. The rest of the table went quiet as all attention fell upon the three boys and whatever would happen next.

Draco stood up abruptly, unable to stand the proximity of his rival. He had had enough Potter-ness for one day. Glaring at Harry's smug face, he motioned to his goons.

"Crabbe, Goyle..we have a class to get to." He ordered pushing past the spectacled boy.

He stopped suddenly as if forgetting something and turned to Eriol smiling almost sweetly, "Please meet me on the Quidditch pitch after class ok?" He asked politely before turning on his heel and storming out of the room once again.

Harry twitched, "That was odd of him. No slandering insult launched, or anything..and then to smile at you like that..scary."

Eriol laughed, getting up from his table, "It's called friendship Harry, you should try it sometime."

Harry stuttered, "Wh-what? With HIM?!"

Eriol shrugged and motioned for Harry to follow as they left together on their way to Potions, followed by a very distant Hermione and Ron.

~*~

Snape burst into the classroom as usual, his robes billowing wildly behind him. He was, as always, grouchy to be the least.

"Welcome students to your second term in Potions. If you had read your pamphlets owled to you over the summer, most of you should already know what lies in store for you this year..this course will focus on the more advanced forms of potions practiced last year with some introduction to curse and hex curing brews and anti-toxins." the greasy haired man sneered.

He paused for a moment eyeing each student individually as if to assess who he should pick on ermm -educate- early in the day. His eyes fell to rest on Eriol who was sitting next to his least favorite student. He blinked his eyes uncharacteristically for a moment trying to discern between the two.

"Well..well. This is an unexpected surprise. It seems we have two Potters in class this semester, don't we?" he scrutinized.

Harry began to grumble but Eriol gave him a reassuring nudge under the table.

"State your name." the potions master bellowed.

"Hiiragizawa Eriol sir." the boy stated with a smile, sunny enough to blind.

Snape's eyebrow twitched.

"I see. Well Mr. Hiiragizawa..this being your first year in a second year class, I presume you must be quite advanced, let me start out by seeing what you know. Shall we?"

Eriol nodded confidently while Harry only gave looks of pity mixed with dread at his friend.

"Tell me, where would you find Mandrake leaves and for what purpose are they used?" the professor asked platonically, while clasping his hands neatly on his podium.

Harry nearly passed out from suspense. He could already hear the gossiping among the Slytherins in the back of the room. Before he had a chance to do so, Eriol had quickly and precisely answered Snape's question, followed by a lengthy explanation on it's many uses and the correct way to cultivate and harvest the leaves, asking the stunned professor in the end if he also wanted information on the guy who discovered them.

Not to be made a fool of so early in the day, Snape proceeded to throw more questions at the boy, who merely answered them without a single blink of thought.

"And Wolf's Bane?"

"Used in amulets to protect against Werewolves.."

Snape's jaw nearly dropped to the floor comically and to save face he quickly snapped the class out of it's whispers and began his lesson. Not before narrowing his cold eyes at the young Slytherin that had completely upstaged him, of course. House or no house, just the fact the boy resembled the Gryffindor celebrity was enough to make Snape wary of him.

"How did you know that?" Harry asked Eriol after class, remembering the pitiful attempt his first year under the knife.

"Clow Reed had an extensive library and it's no surprise he had books on magical herbs, hairs and their uses. I just happened to read them all." he smiled as usual while picking up his books.

They finished gathering up their materials and nearly flew out of the class until they felt Snape's scowl upon them as he snaked silently in their direction.

"Well done today Hiiragizawa. As expected of a Slytherin. 15 points to our house." He said briefly before turning on heel and heading back into the dark dungeon classroom.

Harry slapped his forehead, "I don't know whether to be happy for you or bummed that Slytherin had points added so early in the game."

Eriol merely laughed and pulled him along to the Quidditch field where he was to meet up with Draco for flying lessons.