The Harsh Reality that Perhaps Malfoy is a Nice Person

"Dreamless…Essence of Insanity…Amorentia?"

Ila picked up a small pink vial of a potion labelled Amortentia and showed to Hermione who was busy looking out of the Potions cupboard, unable to trust Ron to do his job as look out well.

"Mione," Ila said, tapping her shoulder.

"Sorry," Hermione said. "Did you find it?"

"No, but I found this," Ila said, showing her the bottle. Hermione peered closer before pulling the bottle in her hand and inspected it while Ila went back to the shelves of potions.

"Murtlap and Dittany-"

"Oh, take those," Hermione said, making Ila turn around in confusion. "It's helpful for when getting hurt…in case Trelewany tries to do something else…"

Ila pocketed the potion. "Occulus – I might take that one…Pepper Up…ah-ha! Polyjuice!" Ila picked up three vials of Polyjuice Potion. "Found it."

"Er – Ila…" Hermione said. When she didn't finish her sentence, Ila turned around.

"Everything alright?" Ila asked.

"I wanted to ask the same to you," Hermione said gently. "When you came to Potions, you…it looked like you were crying."

Ila knew that she shouldn't feel guilty. She didn't do anything wrong.

"Right," Ila muttered. "I – I – er – I wasn't crying. Well…something had gotten into my eye – I'm not too sure what it was, but I just wouldn't leave no matter how many times I blinked, which is probably why it looked like I was crying. But I wasn't."

"Ok," Hermione said. Ila wasn't sure if Hermione believed her. "You sure?"
Ila nodded enthusiastically.

"Ok…but what about generally? Everything alright? I don't know if that talk about Malfoy freaked you out. It did for Ron and me."

Ila nodded as if she regarded the information and did not completely blank out when she was talking. "It's fine…what can you do? Besides, this" – Ila held up the vial – "will help us with everything."

"You know there's a chance that this won't work, Ila," Hermione said, taking one of the vials into her hands. Their conversation has gone back to normal. "Don't you remember last time?"

"You won't turn into a cat Mione," Ila said soothingly, who was only met by a blank face from Hermione. She began walking out of the cupboard, Ila following her closely.

"I'm not scared of turning into a cat Ila," Hermione said as they took their seats at the back of the classroom. Luckily for them, Ron had done his job properly, as no one seemed to take notice of the sudden appearance of Ila and Hermione. Or maybe it was because everyone was too busy talking since Snape hadn't arrived at their lesson. "How exactly are we going to know anything with this?"

"The same way we did in second year," Ila said. "We'll grab some hairs from those three" – Ila nodded in the direction of Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson – "turn into them, and then…interrogate Malfoy."

"Ok, sounds good, but how're we going to get their hair without making it obvious that it was us that plucked them?" Ron asked.

"Er – well, we could…."

"Go up to their dorms and take it from there?"

"Fist fight?" Hermione and Ron said simultaneously.

"Fist fight?" Ila repeated Ron's suggestion. "What the hell is a fist fight going to do?"

"Cos, you know when you're" – Ron punched the air a few times – "you're going to end up getting a couple of hairs out of their head through it."

"I think that might have been the worst idea you've had, Ron," Hermione said bluntly.

"No," Ron replied defensively. "It's logical."

"You do realise there are two boys that we'd have to fight, and there are two girls here," Hermione said slowly. "Which one of us is going to be fighting them?"

"Who said anything about you two fighting the guys?"

"You're seriously telling us that you, out of all people, would be able to take on both Crabbe and Goyle?"

"I'm tall enough," Ron said.

"Yeah, but not strong enough," Ila added. "Look at them, there's a reason why they're bodyguards for Malfoy."

It was true that while Ron exceeded most students in fourth year, he didn't have the willpower that either henchman has. Sometimes Ila wondered why they weren't Slytherin's beaters until she realised that if they were, they probably would have killed every single member on the opposing team. On a couple on their own team too.

"As my two of best friends, I'm actually quite hurt at the lack of faith the two of you have in me," Ron said, mock hurt. Or at least Ila thought it was mock hurt. Hermione on the other hand, couldn't care less if his feelings were real or not.

"Well, go on then," Hermione dared, leaning forward.

"What?"
"I have faith in you," Hermione said. "This is me giving you my faith, so…" She nodded her head to the boys. "Go on then."

Ron cleared his throat, fixed his collar before scraping his chair, and started walking towards the Slytherin table at the front of the classroom.

"I thought you were supposed to be the sensible one out of three of us," Ila said to Hermione.

"Oh, I still am, and the reason why I know that is because he isn't going to do that," Hermione said, slightly smiling. Ron reached the table and looked back, still looking for a way to escape. With the hand wave, motioning Ron to move forward, Hermione was blocking the only exit.

"You're not usually like this," Ila said suspiciously. "Literally two seconds ago, you were worrying about how well my plan was going to work."

"That's because it's you," Hermione said, tearing her eyes away from Ron to look at Ila. "Ron's different because – oh, he's doing it."

Ila and Hermione watched closely as Ron cleared his throat before tapping on Crabbe's shoulder. It wasn't him that Ron had gotten the attention of, the entire table noticing too. Malfoy, who was sitting between the two boys had turned around too, staring at Ron before his eyes travelled all the way to the back of the class to see his two friends observing everything.

"The fuck do you want Weasel?" Malfoy spat.

Ron took no notice of Malfoy, focusing his attention on Crabbe who had decided to turn around. Big mistake. The moment he faced Ron, he was instantly met with a fist to the face, and the sound of what seemed like bone-breaking startled the entire class into silence. Ila and Hermione's eyes bulged out of their sockets as the entire thing played out. Crabbe stumbled back, clutching his bloody nose, only realising how bloody it was when he took his hand away.

"AH! - What the fuck Weasel?" Crabbe shouted.

Ila would never have been able to predict what the next sequence of events would have been. However, something in the back of her mind told her that if you're going to punch someone, especially if it was a Gryffindor to a Slytherin, you have to expect a bit of a reaction from the Slytherins.

And well, a bit was an understatement.

Crabbe immediately lunged at Ron, who just about managed to dodge it, causing Crabbe to crash into the table behind him. Ron backed away into the table of Slytherins, some of whom pushed him back into the space in the middle. Crabbe had finally gotten up and found Ron, his eyes locking onto his prey. Ron threw the first punch. He missed, only to kneed in the stomach. The table full of Slytherins began shouting at Crabbe, telling him to take Ron down, while the rest of the Gryffindors had rushed over to the other side of the classroom. Some tried to break up the fight, like Dean and Neville trying to pull Ron away, while others were…stirring the fight.

"Personally, I wouldn't have that, mate!" Seamus yelled after Ron received a pretty horrific punch to the gut. Ron stumbled into the Gryffindors, who pushing him to carry on – well, everyone apart from Dean and Neville who were pushing him away from Crabbe. But Ron pushed past the two and kicked Crabbe in the…a place where it would hurt.

The class groaned as they watched Crabbe's face turn red as he fell to the floor, his hands around his crotch. Goyle thought that enough was enough, and it was finally his turn to honour the Slytherins. While Ron was still celebrating his victory of winning over Crabbe, Goyle sneaked upon him, kicking the back of his knees, pushing Ron to the floor. The Gryffindors roared in anger ("That's out of order! He wasn't even ready!"), while the Slytherins were too busy sticking up for Goyle, ("It's a fight! He should've been ready all the time!")

Ila and Hermione pushed past the crowd of students that formed around the two boys.

"Ron, stop it!" Hermione shouted, grabbing Ron's arms and tried pulling him away. Ila followed her, grabbing his other arm so that he would stop (it didn't work as Ron realised he could still use his legs), only to be slightly surprised to see Malfoy, of all people, pulling Goyle away from the fight. Crabbe had just managed to get up and made a lunge at Ron once more.

"Get a grip, Crabbe!" Malfoy exclaimed, pulling the other boy by the neck of his collar. "It's not worth it!"

Another example Ila would add to the list of what the hell was going on with Malfoy. Seriously, what was going on with him? It's only been a month, and he's probably been the…nicest he's been in the past three years that Ila's known him. Nice? Malfoy? All in the same sentence?

Maybe it wasn't Voldemort's plan. Maybe it was the universe's. Some strange way of –

"ARGH!"

A sharp pain shot up Ila's nose, her hands covering her nose reflexively. There was a wet liquid sprouting out of her nose, collecting in her hands. Her eyes teared up, and it felt like her nose had been broken into a million pieces. She looked down to hear the sound of a clatter, and suddenly everything went blurry. She could just about make the details of Hermione's concerned face, but apart from that…there was a slight red blur to her left, while a blond blur in front of her.

"Fuck! Shit! I'm so sorry Ila." Ila assumed that the voice was coming in the direction of the red blur.

"This is what happens when you decided to be an idiot!" Another voice said, this time coming ahead of her.

Ila felt something tickle her throat and she coughed into her already bloody hand, scared to see even more blood splatter on to it. By now, the fight had stopped, Crabbe getting calmed down by Goyle on the other side of the table while Ron was busy trying to see how bad Ila's injuries were. The rest of the class remained silent. The only noise was Ron and Hermione's questions.

But soon, even those would be silenced as the unfortunate happened.

"WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED?"

A voice that Ila hadn't heard be so angry in a long time yelled, though the entire class was already silent. At that moment, Ila was kind of glad that her glasses had broken, so she didn't have to see the deadly glare that Snape was giving the entire class, mainly to the trio of Gryffindors that stood in the middle of the crowd.

"I asked you a question, so I expect an answer!" Snape demanded, dropping a pile of…books? "Someone answer me before I give the entire class a month's worth of -"

"It was me sir," Ron said bravely.

"Ron!"

"Shut up, Mione."

Snape scoffed as the group separated to allow a pathway for him. He walked to the middle, taking in the situation. He observed Ron's injuries, not even realising that the other person involved was on the other side of the table. "Of course it was…I don't even need to hear the reason. Detention! For the three of you!"

"But Ila and Hermione were only here to help. They weren't involved!"

Snape raised a brow before turning his attention to Ila and her bloody nose, which was beginning to dry. "So then how did you manage to receive an injury like this then?"
"I…tripped?" Ila suggested.

"For a month," Snape said sternly.

"What about Crabbe?" Ron said, pointing to the boys on the other side. "He was the only one who was fighting me in the first place."

"Says the one who punched me in the first place," Crabbe mimicked.

"Make that two months," Snape said, before walking back to his desk. "Malfoy, take the two idiots to the Hospital Wing and explain exactly to Madame Pomfrey what they were up to."

Hermione picked up Ila's glasses and handed them to her. Not wanting to anger Snape, even more, the class quietly went back to their seats while Malfoy and Crabbe walked out of the classroom.

"Hurry up, Potter," Malfoy sneered as he waited for Ila to make her way out of the classroom, unable to see anything but a blur.

"Yeah, it's kind of hard when I can't see anything," Ila said, walking out of the classroom.

"You deserve that broken nose," Crabbe muttered.

Ila rolled her eyes, even though it did hurt more than she thought so and carried on following the two boys around ten steps behind them. She didn't really know where she was going, making sure to keep the blur of blond in her view at all times. But even without her glasses, Ila had made the trip to the Hospital Wing countless times, so much so, she knew the way like it was the back of her hand. She didn't need her glasses to realise that they were going the wrong way.

She cursed herself. She should have known that this was going to happen. Of course, they weren't going to just take to the Hospital Wing; her best friend literally just attacked a Slytherin and the unfortunate thing about the house, along with a lot of other things, is that if you attack one, you've attacked the entire house. Ila supposed that that was why Hermione thought Ron wouldn't fight Crabbe. No sane person would want to do that, having the entire house constantly breathing down your back for the next three and half years.

Her suspicions were proven right when she saw the two guys enter an old and empty classroom. Ila stopped before slowly walking backwards, her wand in her hand. She heard a thump coming from the classroom before a blond blur came back into her vision.

"What're you doing?" Malfoy asked.

"I could ask the same to you," Ila said, her wand directly pointing to the direction of the blur. Or at least what she thought it was. "This isn't the Hospital Wing."

"Good to see you aren't that useless," Malfoy said, walking closer to her. Ila remained to point her wand at him, as he became less like a blob. She could see more of his features, but not his expression, struggling to see what his intentions were going to be. Regardless, Ila still held her wand out of her. He became clearer until Ila could see his eyes properly, his outline became more defined until she felt something hit the end of her wand. His chest.

He glanced at the wand before looking back up at her.

"Go on then," he goaded. She remained silent. Maybe if she ignored him, he would end up getting bored and then take her to the Hospital Wing. "After all these years of me making fun of you, your friends, you finally have the chance to do something, Potter. I'm practically giving it to you."

A few moments later, when Ila stayed where she was. She heard a scoff before her arm was pushed down. Surprisingly, she had let him. She didn't know why. She didn't know why she let him come close. She didn't know he hadn't done anything to her. She didn't know why he held her head in between his hands. She didn't why he gently guided his thumbs down her nose. She didn't know why the hell he was doing that.

But any of those thoughts that appeared were immediately pushed down. Ila knew that she was going to have deal with it later. If she dealt with it now, her headache was going to get worse. So rather than constantly question his every move, Ila let it happen. She tried not to that that her supposed enemy was now making sure her nose wasn't broken. If she tried hard enough, she could just pretend that those hands that were cradling her head, running the length of her up and down were someone else's. Cedric's. Yeah, Malfoy had actually left her, and Cedric just so happened to bump into her and being the good Hufflepuff that he was, decided that he would help her.

"Your nose doesn't seem to be broken," Malfoy muttered.

There goes that coping mechanism.

Ila slowly opened her eyes, slightly surprised at how close he had gotten to her. She didn't need her glasses to see him. She could clearly make it blue flecks within his eyes, small scars scattered around his face. She could even feel him breath, inhaling and exhaling on her face. Ila could see the concentration on his face as he made sure not to hurt her. Ila felt his thumb wipe a tear that had fallen from her eye.

"Does it still hurt?" he whispered. Did he even know what he was doing?

"A bit," Ila said hoarsely. Was this a part of His plan? Was making sure Ila didn't get hurt a part of their plan? Or was making Ila so confused that she couldn't even think properly anymore part of it.

"You should still go," he said, looking at her. "I'd help but I don't have any Dittany."

There was a weird feeling in Ila's stomach when Malfoy stared at her at such a close distance. To be honest, not a lot of people tend to stare at her from such a distance. It was surprising that her supposed enemy was one of the few who had done it.

"I have some in my pocket," Ila said quietly. She dug her hand in her pocket while Malfoy's hands were still wrapped around her head. It was only when she showed him the vial that he let go of her and grabbed the vial. He didn't look like his actions weirded him out. What was he even thinking?

"Come with me," he said, not waiting for her to respond and began walking to the classroom where he and Crabbe were. Where was Crabbe?

Ila's question was answered when she entered the classroom. Without her glasses, she saw who she assumed to be Crabbe, slumped on the chair.

"Don't worry about him," Malfoy said, dragging her away from the ideas of how he came to be in that position and walked over to where the dust-ridden desks were. Ila took the desk closest to the door, something Malfoy wasn't pleased about. "Can you really not see anything?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm all the over here, and you decided to pick the desk furtherst away," Malfoy huffed before making his way over to Ila.

"I'm sorry that I'm not really trustworthy of the same person who made his friend unconscious."

"He isn't my friend," Malfoy whispered as he unscrewed the lid of the bottle.

"Then you must have fooled the whole of Hogwarts then," Ila said, watching the bottle, not wanting to look anywhere else. "Seemed like the two of you were pretty good friends."

"You shouldn't take anything at face value – look up." Ila obeyed, moving her head as slowly as possible, trying not to hurt her head any more than it already did. "Take any longer, why don't you."

"It's not my fault that I got punched," Ila said, finally looking up at him.

"You're right," Malfoy said, "it was Weasel's fault. What the hell was he thinking in the first place?"

He wasn't, Ila wanted to say, but agreeing with Malfoy was too far.

Then again, so was letting him heal your broken nose.

"What did you mean that I shouldn't take everything at face value?" Ila asked, unable to bear the silence that brewed.

"It's going to hurt," Malfoy warned, taking the dropper. He placed a hand under her chin and gently lifted her head slightly higher.

"You're not answering my question."

"I'll count from three – three –"

"Why aren't you answering it?"

" – two –"

"Is it that hard to answer it?"
" – one –"

"ARGH!"

For the second time that day, Ila felt a sharp pain travel up her nose, except this time, rather than breaking her nose, it felt like her nose was getting fixed. That didn't make it less painful.

"I told you it was going to hurt," Malfoy said, and she could have sworn she saw him smirk at the sight of her.

"You're some sort of sadist, you know that right?" Ila said, pushing herself off the desk and towards the door.

"I doubt you're going to get very far if you can't see properly," he said, making Ila stop. Her glasses! They favourite pair. Albeit, they were her only pair, but she didn't like them any less because of it. A wave of déjà vu washed over her. Behind her, she could hear him muttered a few words before he said, "Here."

Ila turned around to see him hold a pair of glasses in her hand that had been fixed.

"You never answered my question," Ila said as she took her glasses and gently placed them on her healing nose. She could finally see everything properly. It then was that she took the chance to see where she was. It was a dingy classroom, and she had been right about Crabbe. He was facing flat on his face on the desk as if he was unconscious. Malfoy had done that. Looking back at him, it wouldn't have mattered if she was wearing her glasses or not. He remained blank.

"I thought it was obvious enough not to answer," he simply said, confusing her further. "Not everything is as it seems…Ila."

Malfoy pushed past Ila, and walked out of the classroom, leaving Ila with more than just a headache.