Chapter 8

The next day, Harry woke up in his dormitory. Wondering vaguely how he had managed to get himself there, he dressed quickly and went down to breakfast. He found Ron hovering outside the entrance to the Great Hall, looking at him sheepishly.

"Look, Harry, I'm sorry about last Friday…" Ron trailed off uncertainly.

"It's okay Ron. It's my fault. I shouldn't have mentioned—"

"No it's my fault. I should've been happy for her; it's what she wanted all along."

"Look, she's a great Chaser, and we're on the same team alright? She'll do her best as a Chaser, and you'll be a superb Keeper." Harry said.

Ron smiled. "Right." They entered the Great Hall together, both feeling considerably lighter. They took seats on each side of Hermione. Harry reached out for the bacon and eggs, suddenly hungry.

"So how did it go?" Hermione said in an undertone.

"It went pretty well, actually. Malfoy's a pretty good teacher."

"So you didn't bite each other's heads off?" she asked skeptically

"Well, Malfoy came pretty close, but that was only because I was such a bad student. He really liked the Room of Requirement, you know. It was a Potions dungeon then, with a lot more potion ingredients than the one of Snape. And he was absolutely enthralled by it. He loved it, Hermione." Harry was smiling widely. Hermione had half a mind to slap the silly grin off his face. Since when did Harry care about Malfoy's happiness?

"That's great, Harry. I'm glad you're getting along fine." She smiled at him warmly.

Students had begun to leave to go to their classes. Harry got up with a sigh.

"Well, here goes," he said, heading towards the dungeons.

Draco eyed Harry as he entered the Potions classroom. His black hair was messier than usual, and there were light shadows under his eyes. Draco squirmed guiltily. Maybe he should have given him another Energizing Tonic.

Harry set up his cauldron three tables away. He caught Draco's eye and gave a small smile. Draco frowned back, promptly turning to face Snape, who had just entered the room. He couldn't have anyone suspect what he and Potter were up to.

"Today, we will be making a simple Sleeping Potion. Instructions are on the board. Ingredients are in the store cupboard. Start."

Draco smiled as he heard Snape, following the others to get his ingredients. He went back his arms full. He put water up to the ½ mark and waited for it to boil. In the meantime, he shredded his daisy roots. He sneaked a glance at Harry. He was shredding his roots too, but he hadn't lit his fire so the water could heat up while he was doing other things.

Hasn't he ever heard of multi-tasking? He thought, annoyed. He's going to take up more time that way. Oh well, he'll get it right anyway. It'll just take him longer.

Thirty minutes later, Draco put out his fire and watched as the potion grew steadily thicker. It stopped bubbling and was turning into a nice bubblegum purple. He ladled a portion of it into a flask, and walked up to Snape's table, looking around the room. He had been the first one to finish. Everyone else was still peering over their cauldrons, adding ingredients here and there. Hermione Granger might have finished first if she weren't so busy helping Neville; his potion was emitting pink sparks and she was feverishly whispering instructions out of the corner of her mouth.

"Well done, Draco. Ten points to Slytherin," Snape said, smiling as he took the flask. Out of the corner of his eye, Draco saw Ron pretending to gag into his cauldron. He smirked, eyeing Ron's watery potion. On the other side of the room, he noticed Goyle approaching Draco's cauldron, flask in hand. No doubt he was trying to get some of his potion and pass it off as his work. Snape frowned at Goyle.

"Evanesco," Snape said. The rest of Draco's potion vanished in a flash.

Draco strode back to his place, watching as Harry scooped some of his potion and put in a flask. It was a perfect color, but it was not as thick as Draco's in consistency. It was still a pretty good potion. Harry walked towards the desk, flask in hand, and gave it to a mildly surprised Snape, who looked at the flask suspiciously. Harry went back, feeling quite pleased with himself.

Snape proceeded to collect all the flasks and mark them. "I have decided to display the grades you got for this particular potion. This potion, after all, is just a level below the potions I will be assigning my N.E.W.T. class. He tapped the board with his wand, and their grades appeared.

Name Grade Name Grade

Brown, Lavender A Malfoy, Draco O

Bulstrode, Millicent P Murdock, Anne A

Crabbe, Vincent P Nott, Richard E

Creek, Hector A Parkinson. Pansy P

Davis, Tracey E Patil, Parvati A

Finnigan, Seamus A Potter, Harry E

Goyle, Gregory D Thomas, Dean A

Granger, Hermione O Weasley, Ron P

Greengrass, Genevieve A Wolfcastle, Chelsey A

Longbottom, Neville D Zabini, Blaise P

Draco's heart skipped a beat as he looked at his grade. Outstanding. He smiled happily. He eye roved over the rest of the names, pausing every now and then. He smirked with satisfaction as he noted that Harry had gotten a grade of Exceeds Expectations. He saw Hermione congratulating Harry and Ron gaping at Snape, probably trying to figure out if Snape was in his right mind at all.

"He must be on drugs," Draco heard Ron mutter as he walked out of the room in a daze, with Harry and Hermione close behind. Harry looked back at Draco and mouthed 'Thank you.' Then he blew him a flying kiss, chortled at Draco's reaction, and walked swiftly out of the room.

That Wednesday afternoon, Harry found himself walking towards the Quidditch Pitch. All he knew was that the Slytherin team had reserved the pitch for that time, and he wanted to watch them practice. He slipped on his Invisibility Cloak; he did not feel like confronting Malfoy just then.

It will have to wait until tonight, he thought. He and Malfoy had decided on meeting every Wednesday and Friday night for their tutorial sessions. He walked on silently and sat one of the highest benches. Harry looked down at Draco. He was shouting at Crabbe and Goyle.

"We're working on our defensive strategy now, you hear me?! Will you stop trying to beat the Bludgers at us?! We're your teammates for crying out loud! You're supposed to keep them away from us!" He gestured wildly at the rest of the team. The brunette whose name was Tracey Davis had a bruise on her right arm. Blaise had a cut lip. The rest of them were looking very harassed, their hair sticking out in every direction. Crabbe and Goyle mumbled to themselves, nodding dumbly.

"Now, Blaise, don't fly so haphazardly. Fly fast, but with precision. Don't just hurtle through the air. Be sure of where you're going. Watch me first." Blaise nodded.

Draco gestured at the three Chasers to kick off as well. He took Blaise's position as Keeper, hovering in front of the center hoop. The Chasers bore down on him, using the Hawkshead Attacking Formation, with Tracey in the center, holding the Quaffle. She suddenly passed it to the player on her right, who threw it to the player on the left, who shot it towards the left hoop. Draco darted quickly to the left, leaned in towards his broom, pulled up the handle just as he flew in front of the hoop, and caught the Quaffle easily, throwing it back to Tracy.

Harry blinked. Draco's reflexes were amazing. It was an altogether different thing to watch him play as Keeper. He guided his broom through the air with a certain grace, but his movements were precise.

Harry personally thought that Draco had much more style than him. He had seen the way he flew through Dean's moving drawings and Ron's Omnioculars, and he could think of only one word to describe it—reckless. Whenever he was up in the air, he felt no fear. Draco, on the other hand, was a more cautious flyer. It was the reason Harry would win against him. Draco would always pull out of dives earlier. Harry lost himself in the clouds. Draco was aware of the ground beneath him. And somehow, this gave Draco's flying style a sense of dignity.

Draco had let Blaise play now. He flew to the side and told the Chasers to resume play. Of course, Blaise wasn't able to pull it off with the same agility as Draco, but he improved all the same. Meanwhile, Crabbe and Goyle had managed to keep the Bludgers away from their teammates. Draco ended their practice session. Harry checked his watch. It was 7:00. Draco had stayed behind to do some laps. Harry left the field and went to the Great Hall.