CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE LESSONS

Harry and Ron were distracted.  Of course, that wasn't unusual, seeing as they were sitting in Professor Snape's classroom in the coldness of the dungeons, but they were distracted because of their girlfriends.  Well, that wasn't entirely unusual either, but the reason they were distracted by their girlfriends was because their girlfriends weren't there.

When Buffy had announced that she would be taking her sixth and seventh year combined, Harry hadn't really thought about what it would mean, and so had never really considered that Buffy wouldn't be in class with him all the time.  As it turned out, the only classes that Hermione and Buffy shared with Ron and Harry was Defence Against the Dark Arts and Transfigurations.  The rest of their classes were being taken with the Seventh Year students.

Of course, for Buffy and Hermione, it meant that they needed to adapt to being around students that they'd never really met before.  They were friendly enough with students in the lower years, mainly because of Ginny's friends constantly coming and going into their shared room, but they'd never really associated with the year directly above them.

So, while Ron and Harry suffered through Potions with Snape snapping at them for their lack of attention and deducting house points like there was no tomorrow, Buffy and Hermione were seated in the Seventh Year Muggle Studies class.  And, with both of them being brought up as muggles, it was more than slightly easy. 

Professor Kelness, the Muggle Studies Professor, was a particularly lenient Professor.  As a muggle born wizard, he was extremely laid back, and tended to look over students who chatted during class.

"God I miss Harry," Buffy whispered to Hermione.

Hermione nodded her agreement.  "Me too."

Buffy shot her friend a cheeky grin.

"There something going on between you and Harry that I should worry about?"

Hermione looked at her friend for a moment before working out what Buffy had just implied.  She rolled her eyes and hit Buffy's shoulder sharply.  Buffy held back a yelp and rubbed at her shoulder, still not used to not having tremendous amounts of strength. 

"I meant Ron," Hermione whispered.

Buffy just grinned and pretended to pay attention to the Professor when he turned to look at them. 

Meanwhile, down in the dungeons, Harry and Ron were miserably trying to put together a potion that needed delicacy.  Something which neither of the two boys had in great amounts.  Harry glanced over at Draco to see how the Slytherin boy was coping, but he seemed to have his own potion under control.

"Mr Potter," Snape growled angrily.  "Eyes on your own work."

Harry sighed and looked back at his own work.  When he was certain Snape had moved to torment another student, he glanced up again and saw Draco smirking at him.  Harry just returned the smirk and rolled his eyes.

"Good work Mr Malfoy," Snape complimented. 

Draco held back a grin and nodded his thanks to the Potions Master. 

"Pity that Miss Zabini can't comprehend the meaning of one drop of dragon's saliva, instead of two," Snape said angrily as the potion in question began to boil dangerously.  "Evanesca."

Blaise Zabini's potion disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a spotless cauldron.  Blaise sighed and moved to gather new ingredients. 

"Mind if I steal your leftover dragon's saliva?" Blaise asked Draco.

Draco just shrugged, not particularly caring one way or the other.  Blaise flashed him a predatory smile and took the vial of leftover saliva.  She held it up in front of her eyes and wrinkled her nose daintily.

"Disgusting isn't it?" she asked.

He narrowed his eyes and looked at her questioningly.  "What do you want?"

Blaise huffed with anger and shot him an angry glare.  "I was just trying to be nice."

"Well, here's a tip," Draco said, lowering his voice.  "You're not nice.  You'll never be nice, and even if you were, I wouldn't care one way or the other."

He turned away from her, not wanting to see the angry red tinge of Blaise's face.  He caught Harry's eye and saw the Gryffindor boy looking at him as though he was crazy.  Ever since the conversation in the hospital wing between the two of them about Draco's love life, or lack thereof, Harry had been extremely conscious of the girls who spoke to Harry.  He couldn't believe that Draco was turning down each and every one of them, especially when the girl seemed to have made a genuine effort to strike up a conversation with the sullen platinum blonde boy.

"Get over her Malfoy," Blaise whispered angrily, leaning towards Draco so that he would be the only one to hear her.  "She's not worth it."

Draco turned to lo0ok at her, not quite understanding what she was saying.

"What the bloody hell are you on about woman?" he demanded.

"You know what I'm talking about," she replied.  "Just get over her.  You've convinced yourself you're in love with her, but she's not worth it.  You're so much better than that filthy Gryffindor."

Draco suddenly stood up and looked down at her, leaning towards her in a threatening manner.

"Don't ever talk about her like that again Zabini," he said quietly.  "You don't know the first thing about me or her, so don't go there."

"I mean to have you Malfoy," she said quietly, her eyes narrowed.  "And I will."

He shook his head, wondering whether or not Blaise was aware that she was insane.  "You'll never get your hands on me.  Ever.  You're not my type."

The smile that came to Blaise's face was incredibly creepy, and Draco couldn't help but wonder what it meant. 

"Not yet I'm not."

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Ooo, evil Blaise.  Very hard to switch between WYD Blaise and AWF Blaise.  Kinda fun though…