So far:
Harriet really loves the earrings Draco's given her. Of course, she doesn't know if they work, but what other place than Umbridge's class to check them out? He might call it an "allies gift" thing or whatever, but she personally thinks the gift is particularly thoughtful, and she thinks they're on the way to becoming pretty good friends. (Even if he says that they're only allies who don't keep count of favours.) She hopes introducing him to Muggle history and racial discrimination will help him get his world view set right, because she really does want to be friends with him, but that's only if he can move past his bigotry. Of course, she'll still have to get him something meaningful, because apparently an autobiography of a great leader does not cut it.
Also, is it just her, or does Draco have one too many migraines?
NOTEWORTHY BOREDOM
CHAPTER 8
UNINTENTIONAL LUNACY
'Did you start reading the book?'
'Yes.'
'Did you get the schedule I sent you last night?'
'Yes.'
'Did you know that you're a moron?'
'Yes.'
"Draco!" she admonished him, smacking his left hand which was still on the parchment.
It was the way his name rolled off so easily from her mouth that actually woke him up.
According to Draco, whichever genius came up with the brilliant idea of having History of Magic as the first lesson of the week should have been lynched by the centaurs ages ago. And then that same genius should have been chopped into mincemeat and fed to the Giant Squid.
He bit back his irritation at the stupidity of his timetable and massaged his temples, his migraine having become exponentially worse.
"Are you okay? You look a little pale. Paler than usual, that is. Do you want to go to the hospital wing?" she whispered, her eyebrows furrowed in concern.
He had no idea why Harriet Potter was talking in such a low tone. After all, he had placed a privacy ward around them, so that no one else could hear them talk. As she had rightly pointed out the other day, they didn't need Pansy, Patil and Brown besmirching their reputations.
"Just a head ache," he replied, when he noticed that she was still waiting for an answer from him.
"What about that potion?"
"I finished them all, Potter," he bit out, trying not to get annoyed at the black-haired witch sitting next to him. It wasn't her fault.
"Jesus, don't be such a bloody git! I'm just trying to help you!" she exclaimed loudly, scowling, before her face took on a sheepish expression. She looked around, biting her lower lip.
"Wait, I just yelled, and no one heard it?" she asked, looking around incredulously.
"I placed a charm, Harriet. Now please let me sleep," he begged her weakly, placing his forehead on the desk. A voice that sounded much like his father's reprimanded him in his head, Malfoys never beg.
"Do you want to get out of class?" she asked him, and he turned his face to see her green eyes glinting mischievously. Oh, Merlin.
She rummaged around in that bag of hers, before holding up a what looked like a square sweet, wrapped up in wax paper.
"You have to trust me, okay? Remove this charm thing you've placed on us, and then eat this sweet. It's nothing serious, and you can get the whole day off," she said, that sparkle in her eye becoming stronger with every word she uttered.
He was about to say no, when he caught sight of the earrings she was wearing. They were the ones he'd given her on Friday. And somehow, before his brain could comprehend what he was saying, his mouth had said yes.
"Excellent! Now remove the charm," she ordered him, slightly bossily, before unwrapping the sweet. It looked suspiciously ordinary and was a dull purple in colour. She grabbed hold of his palm, which was on his lap, and pressed it into his hand.
"Once you leave the classroom, eat this other one. It's the antidote," she continued in her bossy tone, placing a completely wrapped sweet next to the purple one.
He wearily raised his head from the desk and waved around his wand while muttering the counter-spell.
And then he took a leap of faith and popped the nougat into his mouth.
The last thing he expected was for his nose to start gushing out blood. His blood. And so much!
"Professor! Professor! Malfoy's nose is bleeding!" she yelled dramatically, even waving her hands a little.
Draco wanted to kill her in the slowest way possible.
"Drakie! My darling!" came a cry from next to Daphne, and Draco couldn't decide which was more painful – the sniggering Gryffindors, his bleeding nose, or Pansy's concern.
Binns, on the other hand, seemed to be stunned that there were actual students in the classroom, not just a set of empty desks.
"The hospital wing should be able to sort you out, Mr. Mason," said the ghost distantly, before going back to droning about some Modred damned war.
Har - Potter shot him a triumphant look, and he rolled his eyes as best as he could do (considering the endless amount of blood that seemed to be spouting out of his nostrils) and left the classroom.
A couple of corridors away, he leaned against the wall and unwrapped the other sweet. It looked exactly like the previous one. Deciding to not over-think things, he tossed it into his mouth, only to find that his nose was now throbbing.
He tried to stare down his nose in horror as he felt the stream of blood become thicker. Cursing, he changed directions and started running. Hopefully, the school nurse would be able to sort him out.
It was only when he was nearing the hospital wing that he realised that his grey school vest had a large blood stain on it.
Potter was a lunatic.
But then, the pathway to hell was paved with good intentions.
OoOoO
Harriet was pretty sure that Draco was highly displeased with her solution. She'd waited for him anxiously during Potions, but the blond had never turned up.
And now, he still hadn't turned up during lunch.
Ron, of course, had been singing her praises all morning, thinking that she'd tricked the Slytherin into eating one of Fred and George's creations. And the poor boy looked so gleefully happy (he still did) that she didn't have the heart to tell him that it had been no prank.
Hermione had given her a knowing look, and had left it at that. And that had indeed surprised Harry.
She was digging into her mutton chops, wondering whether Mal - Draco's gift would really work during Umbitch's class, when a familiar set of arms were slung across her shoulders from either side.
"So, Harry."
"Our sister from another mister."
"Is it true-"
"-what we heard-"
"-About Malfoy?" finished both of them at the same time.
"It depends on what you heard," she replied, grinning a little, as Ron started guffawing. And when he started choking, Hermione had to bang him on the back a few times. Harry suspected that the other witch was only too willing to hit the redhead.
"So what's the verdict?" asked Fred. Or was it George?
"I don't know, it worked the way you said it would. His nose bled," she replied.
"And that's why we're naming it our Nosebleed Nougat," said the other twin, grinning maniacally.
"Need I remind you that Ron and I are prefects? If you distribute it in the school, we'll have to report the two of you and confiscate all your materials," said Hermione snootily, nudging Ron hard in his chest when he chose to not meet her eyes and stuff his mouth with a roll instead.
"C'mon, Hermione! I thought you'd be impressed by our creativity and intellect," said the first twin, waggling his eyebrows a little. Harry did not miss the pink tinge that appeared on Mione's face.
"Anyway, we ought to warn you. Malfoy may not have taken too kindly to the sweet," said the other twin, presumably George, seeing as Mione only tended to blush when Fred spoke to her.
"Why?" she asked, turning to each side to look at both the twins.
"The first years we tested it out on Friday said that their noses hurt and that the insides of their noses felt swollen for a few hours even after having the antidote," answered Fred.
"Malfoy's going to try and take revenge," she said, knowing that the blond would most likely throw a hissy fit the next she met with him alone.
"Or he could go complain to Snape," suggested Ron, and Harry made a face.
"I don't think he'll do either," said Hermione a little quietly, even as Harriet glared at the girl in warning. Thankfully, Ron had latched on to a new topic of discussion.
"So how is it Harriet gets freebies from you when I , your own brother, have to buy them?" protested Ron. Unfortunately for him, Hermione had been far from distracted, and had been listening to every word he'd spoken.
"Ron! You can't encourage their illegal business. They could harm someone or land them in the hospital wing! And then they'd have to go to Azkaban, or worse, be expelled!" she cried, smacking him on the head.
That phrase took Harriet back to their First Year, and she tried not to smile and give Hermione a reason to turn on her next.
"And that's our cue to leave," said the twins jointly, before ruffling Harriet's hair at the same time and getting up. It was only after the two of them had joined Angelina and Alicia further down the table that Harry realised there were two breadsticks missing from her plate.
She simply rolled her eyes and went back to eating lunch, as Hermione continued to lecture Ron about how dangerous non-Ministry-approved potions could be.
OoOoO
Draco couldn't sleep, having napped away the majority of the evening. He was still in the hospital wing, courtesy Potter. And Madam Pomfrey had refused to discharge him till his nose regained its natural colour.
Despite Pansy hovering about his bed for most of the evening, Draco had managed to catch up on lost sleep. All his Slytherin yearmates had visited him, alarmed by the amount of blood that they'd seen pouring out in class earlier that day.
Thankfully, they'd ensured that his reputation was not ruined by hexing any student they heard talking about it. Draco was glad that they'd thought of appropriate contingency measures.
But he knew that it must have looked serious, because even Uncle Severus had visited him. And when Pansy had told him how it was Harriet who had raised the alarm, Sev had narrowed his eyes and looked intently at Draco.
He had avoided his godfather's gaze and studied the Chocolate Frog in his hand carefully, wondering if Sev was going to use Legilimency on him any time soon. Thankfully, Madam Pomfrey had ushered everyone out right after that, saying Draco needed his rest.
Draco shuffled in his bed, twisting to make his pillow fluffier.
The door to the infirmary creaked open slowly, before a figure darted across. Draco tried to stay still, wishing he had his wand in his hand.
"Draco?" whispered a voice, and he turned around to see that it was Harriet Potter.
"What are you doing here at this time of the night?" he asked, glaring at her, as he sat up.
"I brought you the antidote," she said a little excitedly, handing out another sweet.
"As you can see, Madam Pomfrey's fixed my nose."
"Yeah, but this new antidote will fix your nose properly. The earlier one apparently only stems the bleeding."
"What do you mean, Potter? The earlier antidote made my bleeding worse. I would have bled to death."
"What! Of course not! Stop exaggerating, Draco," she said, as if to emphasise how she was still using his first name to address him.
"I'll eat this if you eat it and show me that it works," he said, not wanting to risk his poor nose once again.
"Just trust me, okay? It's the newest antidote. I collected it only this afternoon at lunch. Your nose will be pointy and pale once you have this," she said, waving a circular blue sweet in front of his face. It was surprising, how much he could see in the moonlight seeping through the window.
"Was the antidote always this colour? And circular?" he asked, a suspicion having cropped up into his head. His idea was completely plausible, though it would only prove that Harriet was yet another inattentive Gryffindor.
"Yeah, why?" she asked, puzzled. She proceeded to push him slightly so that she could sit down sideways on his bed, still holding out the sweet.
"The sweet you gave me earlier was purple and square," he told her carefully.
"Yes," she said slowly, as if speaking to a three year old. "That's the one which causes the nosebleed."
"No, Harriet, the first antidote that you gave me was purple and square," he said slowly, speaking to her as if she were the three year old, not him.
"Wha-" she said, stopping abruptly, her mouth hanging a little, as she paled. "Shit, I'm so sorry Malfoy! I must have taken out the wrong sweet in my hurry!"
"Promise me that this antidote won't hurt, Potter," he said coolly, not really accepting her apology.
"You're setting a pretty poor precedent here, Malfoy," she said, narrowing her eyes, before running a hand across her forehead and pushing her hair out of her eyes. "What happened to 'trust' and 'alliances'?"
She gave him a sullen look before dropping her hand onto the gap between them on the bed. Draco gave a long suffering sigh before trying to pry the sweet out of her hand. He liked how her hand felt against his. They seemed to fit perfectly! But nope, he was supposed to be annoyed with her right now.
Swallowing dryly, he unwrapped the sweet slowly, not making eye contact with her. Just as he was about to place it in his mouth, she caught him by the wrist.
"Thanks for trusting me," she said, before removing her hand. Draco tried not to think of how warm her fingers had felt, but he failed miserably.
He briefly nodded his head to acknowledge her thanks, before finally putting the sweet into his mouth. He chewed it slowly and warily, half expecting his nose to become a fountain of blood once again.
Surprisingly, it felt like someone had placed a cooling charm on his nose, and he caught Harriet beaming at him, her eyes so wide and well, pretty, in the semi-darkness.
"Your nose looks ferrety again," she said, chuckling at her own joke.
Draco glared at her, and that only made her chuckle some more.
"Don't be like that, Drakie-poo," she said in a baby voice, before leaning towards him and pinching his cheeks.
Harriet bloody Potter had just pinched his cheeks like he was some tiny little wizardling or witchling! This was unacceptable!
But then she was leaning closer, and he could smell and fell her warm breath on his face. He could almost taste the peppermint toothpaste she'd probably used. And almost of their own volition, his hands went to her waist, as if to stop her from coming any closer. Or maybe it was to stop her from moving away?
Draco decided that the blue sweet had probably turned his brain to mush.
"Your face is pink, Draco. You're embarrassed, aren't you?" she asked, smirking. And that only drew his attention to her mouth. Which wasn't painted today but still looked attractive, in all its delectable glory.
The sound of heavy footsteps made them break apart, and Harriet's eyes were wide. When the door opened slowly, the black-haired Gryffindor threw herself under his hospital bed, as he buried his face into his pillow, feigning sleep.
The footsteps became louder than ever, and less than a minute later, Draco felt a hand brush the back of his head, brushing his hair, as the person sat down on his bed, right next to him. The brushing was gentle and consistent, almost soothing.
Draco started to relax, even feel slightly sleepy.
"Why don't you even like me, Draco? Can't you see I love you?" came the familiarly horrifying voice of his ex-sort-of-girlfriend after a while.
"I try so hard, you know? I nearly got caught by Filch coming here. I've even taken down notes for you for all that you missed today. And when I came to see you earlier, I know that you said you wanted to sleep just to get rid of me. I don't know why you keep pushing me away. You said you'll marry me when we were younger, but now you just hate me."
Draco felt something bump into his bed from the underside. It was probably Harriet having sat up from shock, because frankly, he was pretty shocked too. He'd been six when he'd promised Pansy that he'd marry her because Blaise had refused to be the groom in her silly tea-party game. How was Draco to have known that the bint would take him seriously?
Finally, after uncomfortably listening to ten more minutes of Pansy pouring her heart out, he was glad when she made to leave.
"I should go catch my beauty sleep, so that maybe you'll hate me less. And the shipment I placed for the rosemary scented oil is finally coming in tomorrow. I remember how you said you liked the smell of rosemary the other day. So hopefully, you'll partner with me instead of stupid Potter in CoMC. Love you!" she exclaimed, placing a wet kiss onto his neck, before literally running to the door. Draco had to stay still despite wanting to squirm and wipe that kiss off.
Finally, after the door banged shut, Draco rubbed at his neck with the bed-sheet and tried not to scowl as Harriet came out snickering.
"Wow, that girl has it bad," she said, sitting right next to him, taking the place of Pansy, not even waiting for him to move.
"She said she loves me," he said, choking on the words in horror.
"You should probably let her know gently that you're not into her, you know? If this continues, when you finally date someone seriously, she's going to be heartbroken. And then she's probably going to try killing your future girlfriend," she said, her voice serious, all of a sudden.
"Why are you even bothered about Pansy, Harriet? The girl literally called you stupid before leaving. And you're defending her?" he asked, having twisted partly sideways to look up at her face.
"It's just, well, she might be nasty and bigoted and just be a general bitch, but seeing her this way, it makes it all so human. Her love for you sounds just as shallow as she is, but it's just – well, I feel sorry for her. Because she comes across as pathetic and desperate. She's trying too hard," she finished, and to Draco, it seemed like she'd struggled to find the right words to do so.
"Well, as my ally, what do you suggest?" he asked her lazily, quirking up one eyebrow. He tried to keep his breath stable, because her proximity to him and that sparkling in her eyes were making it very hard for him to inhale.
"I might have a plan, but it depends on the cooperation of certain other people," she said softly, as a smile formed on her face.
From his angle, Draco could see a dimple on her left cheek, and he couldn't help but want to touch it with his finger and feel the dip of the soft skin.
When he realised that she'd turned her gaze onto him, staring at him intently, he said, "Gold isn't a problem, if that's what you're asking."
OoOoO
By the time Harriet made her way back to her dorm under the cover of her cloak, her mind was racing. Would Fred and George accept an anonymous donation to their organisation? If they ever found out the money was from a Malfoy, would they forgive her for it?
As Harriet threw herself onto her bed in the darkness, a lump of fur lashed out and scratched her, hissing loudly, before jumping off her bed and jumping onto Hermione's bed.
"Crookshanks, you idiotic cat," she muttered, clutching her right arm which was burning. It wasn't fair. First she'd bumped her head so hard while hiding under Draco's bed, and now she'd been attacked by the cat.
"Crookshanks is a half-kneazle, not a cat, thank you very much. And need I remind you? He was intelligent enough to go rat out Pettigrew," came a stiff voice from the adjacent bed, and Harriet stifled a groan.
"Why are you up, Mione? Don't tell me you waited up for me after getting back from your Prefect rounds."
"Actually, that's exactly what I did. So what are you hiding from me?" she asked, and Harry was pretty sure that if Hermione had been standing, she'd have her hands on her hips.
"Nothing, Hermione, I just was brainstorming," she said, wishing the other girl wouldn't be so annoyingly nosy. Harriet only put up with Hermione's relentless questioning because she was her best friend (after Ron, that is,) but even then, the questioning could get tiring.
"About?" asked the other witch sharply.
"Giving Fred and George ideas for new products. And I can't tell you what it is, because it'll be a breach of confidentiality and such. Now, goodnight," she said in a hurry, removing her shoes and socks and tossing them onto the floor.
"If you're going to be like that, fine, I'm reporting the twins to McGonagall," came her snarky reply, but Harriet ignored her. She knew that Hermione would never actually do it; she fancied Fred too much to do so.
But wait. Hermione was the type to do the right thing. Harriet made a mental note to warn the twins about Hermione's threat.
Harry pulled the curtains around her and shimmied out of her skirt as she lay on her bed, trying not to remember how it had felt to have Draco's hands on her waist. If Draco had charmed Pansy similarly, then she couldn't blame the Slytherin girl for letting it get to her head. Draco Malfoy was a charming little snake, and it was all his fault that Pansy was head-over-heels for him.
Huffing a bit angrily, she loosened her braid and undid her shirt. For some reason, despite it being the last week of September, it was irrationally hot. It was only as she whispered a cooling charm nonverbally that she realised she hadn't checked with Draco on his progress.
Sighing, she closed her eyes and prayed to Merlin that she wouldn't have another nightmare.
OoOoO
Friendly Reminder: Draco's physical attraction to Harriet may not be entirely of his own volition... ~shoddy foreshadowing~
AN: First update of 2018! My grand plan was to update or post something or the other every two weeks, but I totally forgot. But then, laurenslines reminded me earlier today, and ta da, here we are! (Thank you! :D)
I received a prompt for an omake (200 reviews, cheers!) but that's turned into a full-fledged monster, so yup, still working on that. I can't wait for you to read chapters 9 and 10 of this story, because they're my favourite so far!
You've left me such wonderful reviews for the previous chapter, so thank you, thank you so so much. I'll reply to them tomorrow, but just know that each of them makes my day better.
Oh, have you ever wondered about an AU where Draco Malfoy is the Boy Who Lived? Mindfucking, right? If you're intrigued right now, do check out Theodora Snowbird's Draco Malfoy: The Boy Who Lived because it has exactly that AU, and is fantastic to read. (You won't regret it, I promise.) If I could just put into words the way the story blows my mind, I'd be a better author. Also, its Draco/fem!Harry, so... ;)
Reviews are love, as always. :)