This may be a little patchy as it was written over several days with minimal editing.
Please leave a review/follow if you enjoyed!
Have a great day!
Fez.
Draco did not appear for dinner that night, nor breakfast the next day.
It was only in Potions- Harry's fifth lesson that day- that Harry saw Draco. He met the boy's eyes for a second before he pretended he hadn't been looking at all.
"Before you all sit down," Snape said in his flat voice to the already seated students. "You will be working in partners for this experiment."
Ron looked at Hermione immediately. He wanted to pass this class. That was all. Harry smiled at Neville; their 'skills' in Potions were okay when put together.
"I will choose the partners for you." Snape finished and everyone quickly stifled their groans.
"Weasley and Longbottom. Hermione and Vance. Potter and Malfoy." Snape read out and Harry winced.
This lesson might actually be worse than yesterday's.
Everyone changed seats to be with their partner and Harry shuffled over to Draco, who wasn't even looking at him but was instead staring outraged at the professor.
"Sir! You can't expect me to work with him?" Draco protested. The offense Harry felt at the comment was washed away by the knowledge that he was Draco's amortentia.
Snape swept his way to their desk, leaning down in front of Draco in a way that made Harry cringe even though Snape wasn't even near him.
"Consider it punishment for being late and interrupting my lesson in such a way yesterday." Snape told Draco in a mutter that was somehow broadcast to the whole class.
Snape left in a swirl of robes and Draco turned to the cauldron in front of them silently.
"Punishment?" Harry muttered under his breath, flicking through the textbook with more force than necessary. He saw Draco look at him sideways, and the flush across the other boy's pale cheeks.
"Let's just get this over with." Draco replied like they were doing some awful task, and not just chopping some leaves up for a potion.
"Right. You cut the roots, I'll get the wormwood ready." Harry directed Draco, steadfastly ignoring the wide eyes of his partner. After a moment, Draco turned to the ingredients and did as he was told.
They worked in silence before Draco looked over at Harry again, who immediately fumbled with his knife under his gaze.
"You need to cut them into smaller places so we can get all the juice for the infusion." Draco said, with a hint of his old mocking sneer.
Harry grit his teeth and made an effort to slice it even smaller without cutting his fingers off.
"That's better." Draco added, and Harry stopped again, in surprise at the… compliment? before trying to pretend like he hadn't.
Draco focused on his own task again allowing Harry to breathe easy again.
XXX
After twenty minutes they had finally finished preparing the ingredients and had to let the whole thing stew in the cauldron for five minutes. Harry sat back, looking around to see Ron and Hermione still engrossed with their partners and potions.
He turned to look at Draco, resignedly.
"So, about yesterday-" he started, wanting at least some answers. He saw Draco's jaw clench.
"That was a pretty good prank. How long were you behind that door for?" This was the only explanation right?
"A prank?" Draco repeated. His eyes widened just a fraction. "Yes, yes. I knew we were doing amortentia. You believed me though, didn't you? Did the Greatest Wizard of All Time actually think I liked him?"
He gave Harry a sneer that made the smaller boy grimace and turn away with a roll of his eyes. Of course it was just a prank.
"Good one Malfoy." He muttered, but it sounded hollow even to him.
He couldn't stop a disappointed feeling welling up in him, and he pointedly refused to even look at Draco.
When the other boy finally spoke, Harry had managed to convince himself that he didn't like Draco. He was perfectly happy with their rivalry.
"It's finished." Draco announced, inhaling the smoke that spiralled up from their cauldron.
Harry stood next to him, peering at the shimmering potion. "I can't smell anything. Did we do it right?"
"Of course, I made it." Draco smirked. Harry sniffed the potion.
"Maybe If you didn't drown yourself in cologne this morning I could smell something."
"Shut up Potter. You don't smell much better." Draco spat.
At the sound of their bickering, Snape made his way over, and looked at their potion with a distasteful look on his face.
"It seems you haven't managed to completely fail this one, Potter. Well done Malfoy." He told them before moving unhurriedly towards Neville and Ron, whose potion was dark and bubbling thickly.
Draco gave Harry a pointed smirk. "No thanks to you, Potter."
Harry realised with a cold shock that he had just confessed that Draco's cologne was his amortentia but he hoped that the other boy was too busy gloating to remember. The smirk that Draco gave him almost made Harry think otherwise but he didn't bring it up, which Harry was thankful for.
The last thing he needed was for Draco to hold it over his head that he had managed to fall in love with his enemy.