A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update, thanks to all those who sent reviews, and blah blah blah, on with the fic already!
--------------------------Chapter 3. Cruel and Unusual Punishment-----------------
POV: Harry
"Damn her!" I shouted, punching the wall in frustration. How could she say that about me! I punched the wall again (vaguely aware of Ron trying to stop me).
So thank you, for showing me
Another "scheme"! The only one I told was her (punch!)!
That best friends, cannot be trusted,
I trusted her with the knowledge that I was gay (punch!), confessed to her my feeling about my rival (punch!), and she goes and dates him anyways (punch!)!
And thank you, for lying to me,
(Punch!)
Your friendship, the good times we had,
(PUNCH!)
You can have 'em back!
I punched the wall one final time (before Ron grabbed my arm and stopped me).
("Harry, stop," he pleaded. He pulled out a handkerchief and began to wrap it around my knuckles, which were torn up and bleeding pretty badly from being slammed into the wall so many times.)
(As soon as he was done,) I left the room and went down to the dungeons for Potions. When I got there, I saw something that made me want to start punching the wall again: Hermione and Draco, standing by Draco's desk, kissing!
Draco noticed me and immediately broke the kiss. Blushing, he sat down. Hermione turned to go to her seat, glaring at me as though I had planned to interrupt the little make-out session just to spite her.
Glaring right back at her, I chose to sit as far away from her as I could (with Ron following loyally).
Snape walked in a few seconds later and informed us that we would be starting a new and very difficult potion, so we would be working in pairs. The groups had already been chosen by him and were listed on the top, left hand corner of the board, and blahdy blah blah, who gives a damn? Right now I'm too damned stressed out to even pretend to give a shit about whatever it is Snape's blabbering on about. Besides, I already had a good idea about who I would be working with.
It took just one glance at the board to confirm my fears. Yep, I was partnered up with none other than Draco Malfoy. How typical… Under normal circumstances, this would have been wonderful (c'mon, who wouldn't cherish the opportunity?), but seeing as how he's going out with Hermione, it was the worst thing that could have happened. Oh well, might as well get it over with.
Sighing, I grudgingly made my way over to Draco.
"Hi," he muttered as he began to set up his cauldron.
I didn't trust myself to speak civilly to him, so I just shrugged and began helping him set up the potion. We worked in silence for the first few minutes of class (just the simple stuff, like preparing the ingredients), but as class progressed, we started arguing. It was inevitable, of course; I'm surprised we were able to last this long.
"Don't you dare!" Draco hissed, reaching over and snatching the next ingredient (eye of newt) from my hand as I tried to add it to the potion.
"What now!" I asked, feeling exasperated and well beyond the point of frustration. He had been bossing me around and hovering over my shoulder for the past twelve minutes, obviously trying to make sure I didn't screw up.
Draco rolled his eyes at me. "You're supposed to let the potion boil for exactly five minutes before adding the eye of newt."
"I did!"
"No, it's only been three minutes so far, you have to wait," Draco said with the tone of someone trying to explain why one-plus-one equaled two. He was really pissing me off…
"Does it even matter?" I hissed through clenched teeth. I knew it did, but I asked anyways.
Draco gave me one of those "no shit, Sherlock!" looks. "Yes, it does," he said. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Just sit over there, please," he pointed over to a nearby chair, "you can help by reading off the directions, okay? I'll do the rest."
"Whatever…" Muttering curses under my breath, I obediently went and sat down in the chair, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at Draco as I did so. Who the hell does this punk think he is, ordering me around like this!
Draco shook his head and sighed again. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm just a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to potions, so… yeah…" he said a bit uncertainly.
"Whatever…"
Draco frowned slightly. "You're going to make this difficult for me, aren't you?"
Shrugging, I smirked. "Whatever…" I said again, my icy tone telling him that that was the only response he would get out of me.
"Fine, be that way, see if I care!" Draco hissed before turning around and continuing to work on the potion.
After a little while, I smiled, once again feeling grateful to the school board for giving us alternate uniforms (which Draco was now wearing). Instead of wizard robes, the alternate uniform for the boys consisted of black pants, a long-sleeved white oxford shirt, and a tie with the student's house colors on it. Plain and simple? Maybe. A nice change from the wizard robes? Hell yeah! These were not only comfortable, but they allowed me a much better view of Draco's body. God that boy is hot!
I think I might have been staring, because a minute later Draco looked over at me. "You're supposed to be reading out the directions, not watching as I do all the work," he said with his trademark smirk.
I blushed and quickly turned to the board. "Right, umm, the next step is to add the crushed rose thorns and stir the potion counter clockwise for—"
"I've already done that, Potter."
"Oh… umm, which part are you at?"
I glanced at him and saw him roll his eyes. "Never mind," he muttered and once again started working on the potion.
And as I watched him working, I couldn't help but admire the dedication and concentration he was giving the potion. He was right when he said he was a perfectionist! He seemed totally focused as he delicately handled each ingredient, biting his lower lip in concentration as he carefully measured them out. I noticed other cute little habits of his, like how he would begin to play with his tie when he had to let the potion sit, or run his fingers through his hair as read and reread the direction he was on before actually doing what it said.
I also noticed how a good majority of the class was "noticing" him too, but most importantly was the fact that, even though he didn't pay any attention to the rest of the class, every now and then he would glance at me to see if I was still watching him. The first few times it happened, I would blush and begin to look away, but he would give me a small smile as if to tell me that it was okay if I wanted to watch him. I asked myself over and over again why he was doing this, why he was encouraging me to check him out. But I'm pretty sure it all meant nothing. After all, he chose Hermione, not me.
After a while, however, Snape observed my lack of work and came over to investigate. "Potter!" he snapped, "Just because you're too dense to produce a proper potion does not mean you can just sit around and let Mr. Malfoy do all the work!" And with a flick of his wand, Snape vanished the potion. "Start over! You two will not leave until you complete the assignment together; that means you actually have to work Potter!"
"But Professor, what about our other classes? You can't expect us to miss them!" I argued.
"I'll write you a note excusing you from showing up, but you will need to go get your missed assignments on your own time."
The bell rang, and as soon as the rest of the class left, Snape made his way to the door. "I will be locking this door to make sure you don't leave before finishing the potion, and don't give me that look Potter. It will unlock itself when you are through with the potion." Snape exited.
"He can't really have locked the door!" I hissed, striding over to the door and trying the handle. It was locked. That bastard actually locked it!
I stood there in a stunned silence for a few minutes before I heard Draco speak. "We really should start working on the potion; I don't want to be locked in here all day," he said, starting to re-setup the work area.
I nodded and walked over to help him. "Sorry about all this," I murmured.
"It's not your fault, I—I should've let you help," he said, blushing. Why is he blushing? This guy confuses me beyond all reason…
With one last glance at Draco, I got back to work.
-----------------------------------------------------End Chapter 3-----------------------------------------------
A/N: The song clip that was used is "Thank You" by Simple Plan. Oh, and in case you didn't get it, the (punch) was Harry punching the wall, not Ron (someone had asked me about that). I'm not too happy with this chapter and, grr, when I first wrote this the next chapter had lost all of its magic when I transferred it from my head to paper, so I'm hoping that when I type it, some of the spark will come back… Oh, and in case I haven't mentioned it before (actually I know I haven't), this takes place during their sixth year, so they're all about sixteen.