p class="MsoNormal"strongA/N- I know this story is supposed to be focussed around Harry and Neville, but I really wanted a Draco chapter. I also really like writing Draco because he's such a complicated character, but he hides it so well. You can really project onto him. /strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongOne other thing- a private message asked me why I put Harry in Slytherin, Hermione in Ravenclaw but not one of the golden trio in Hufflepuff. Basically, I wanted to separate the golden trio and add more Neville and Draco, But didn't want to put Ron in Hufflepuff because I find that hard to write for some reason. Ironic, because I really identified as a Hufflepuff growing up. Oh well. /strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongSo please enjoy, and leave a review if you'd like- it would be really helpful!/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Draco Malfoy still couldn't believe he was in Gryffindor./p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Gryffindor. /em/p
p class="MsoNormal"Of all the houses./p
p class="MsoNormal"He might as well leave Hogwarts right now. Maybe Durmstrang would still accept him. Curse his mother, insisting he stayed close to home. He didn't feel close to home, in the red and gold filled tower, surrounded by people he didn't know or particularly like. He felt a pang when he thought of how easily Pansy had latched onto Harry, as though he were the new Draco Malfoy./p
p class="MsoNormal"Breakfast was particularly painful that first week. The Banquet was manageable because people at least tried to talk to him, even though he was blunt and rude. But now everyone was ignoring him because they knew how rude he was, and it was somehow even worse./p
p class="MsoNormal"Not that he'd admit that to anyone, of course./p
p class="MsoNormal"He could barely take two bites of his toast before he left the table on Friday morning, reaching the first lesson of the day early. He chose a seat near the back and tried to focus on the class instead, which turned out to be a futile task. Twenty minutes in, and he had given up on any hope of this class being of any use to him. He scribbled in the half inch of margin he left blank in his roll of parchment, frustrated, and glanced up at the board. Professor Binns, the History of Magic teacher, seemed to have made it his personal goal to kill his students through sheer boredom. He droned on about some inconsequential troll attack, at some point in the 11supth/sup century, triggering the Wizarding Convention of 1294… and Draco had stopped listening again. He turned the scribble into a small black square, then added sharp spikes sticking out of the sides…/p
p class="MsoNormal"He glared at the back of Potter's head as he whispered something to Pansy, and she giggled. Malfoy suddenly felt small, replaceable. It wasn't a nice feeling./p
p class="MsoNormal"After class had finished, he collected his stuff and left in a hurry, avoiding eye contact- and crashed into the Granger girl as she turned the corner. "Watch out," he snarled as they scrambled to pick up their books./p
p class="MsoNormal""Sorry," she said in a small voice, then looked up at him. They both looked paler and more shrunken than they had a mere week earlier. Even Hermione's bushy hair seemed flatter, if that was possible. Immediately she broke eye contact and sidestepped him to get into the classroom he had just left. Of course, Ravenclaw must have History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs, second period. he shook his head and waked on to his next lesson, double Potions, with the Slytherin head of house, Professor Snape./p
p class="MsoNormal"He immediately seemed to have it out for the Gryffindors./p
p class="MsoNormal"As soon as they entered the dungeon, he hissed at them to sit down and be quiet. They scrambled into their seats, and he began pacing up and down between the tables, finishing at the looming desk at the front. Malfoy, to his dismay, was seated with Potter, Pansy and Neville. Two of them he could not have had less in common with, and one he felt had replaced him within minutes of being separated./p
p class="MsoNormal"Professor Snape took the register, pausing after several names with a nasty smirk momentarily wrapping across his face. Fortunately, he did not pause at Malfoy's name. when he was done he rolled up the parchment and began stalking the room once again./p
p class="MsoNormal""Welcome to your first Potions lesson," said Snape, not in a particularly welcoming tone. "This will be one of the more… practical classes you will be taking throughout your educational career. Here, you will learn everything from death, despair and misery, to joy, elation and truth." He didn't sound particularly joyful or elated, either./p
p class="MsoNormal""This term we will be covering the basics, as many of you will not have any previous potions experience." He looked down at the roll of parchment in his hand. "Let's see how many of you have any knowledge at all. Longbottom!" he shouted without warning. Longbottom trembled in his seat. "What would I get if I added powdered root of Asphodel to an infusion of Wormwood?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Neville looked around, with panicked eyes. "I… don't know, sir."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Snape's smirk got even wider. "Tut, tut… it seems fame isn't everything. Let's try again. Where would you look if I asked you to find a Bezoar?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Once again, Neville looked panicky. "I…"/p
p class="MsoNormal"The whole class was quiet and still now, waiting for either Neville or Snape to speak. Neville's mouth opened again, but no sound came out. Snape tutted again./p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, well… clearly, you need to study some more. Five points from Gryffindor." He turned and began the class, with every Gryffindor glaring at him. Within the hour, tenspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanmore Gryffindor points were lost, five by Ron for talking to Seamus and Dean, and five by Paravati Patil who accidentally added a touch too much lacewood flies to her potion./p
p class="MsoNormal"Malfoy seemed to avoid the worst of Snape's anger, but maybe that was because he knew his father. Old Pureblood families- ones that weren't blood traitors, at least- tended to stick together. It asuited him perfectly, and gave him time to reflect on Hermione Granger./p
p class="MsoNormal"But by the end of the two hour class, every other Gryffindor was ready to murder Snape./p
p class="MsoNormal""Nightmare, honestly," said Ron as he walked to lunch with Dean, Seamus and Draco. Who was brooding, of course. "How are we supposed to pass Potions when he hates us?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm dropping it as soon as I can," said Seamus darkly. "Imagine having him for OWLs, let alone NEWTs!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Draco wasn't listening. He was watching the Ravenclaw table to see if Granger had turned up. After seeing how thin and pale she had gotten, he wanted to make sure she was turning up for meals. He didn't know why he cared. He just did./p
p class="MsoNormal"She came in late and sat at the end of the table closest to the door by herself. He watched as she ate just a few bites of her stew, before giving up and opening a heavy-looking book that wasn't on the textbook list, and rapidly started taking notes. A few moments later, the Ravenclaw prefect walked past and gave her a supportive smile and pat on the shoulder, which Hermione returned before turning back to the book. Her eyes met Draco's momentarily, and an electric jolt hit his stomach and he dropped his eyes to his own plate. Every so often, he would glance up, and he could swear he felt her doing the same thing but didn't catch her eye again./p
p class="MsoNormal"strongOne other thing- a private message asked me why I put Harry in Slytherin, Hermione in Ravenclaw but not one of the golden trio in Hufflepuff. Basically, I wanted to separate the golden trio and add more Neville and Draco, But didn't want to put Ron in Hufflepuff because I find that hard to write for some reason. Ironic, because I really identified as a Hufflepuff growing up. Oh well. /strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongSo please enjoy, and leave a review if you'd like- it would be really helpful!/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Draco Malfoy still couldn't believe he was in Gryffindor./p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Gryffindor. /em/p
p class="MsoNormal"Of all the houses./p
p class="MsoNormal"He might as well leave Hogwarts right now. Maybe Durmstrang would still accept him. Curse his mother, insisting he stayed close to home. He didn't feel close to home, in the red and gold filled tower, surrounded by people he didn't know or particularly like. He felt a pang when he thought of how easily Pansy had latched onto Harry, as though he were the new Draco Malfoy./p
p class="MsoNormal"Breakfast was particularly painful that first week. The Banquet was manageable because people at least tried to talk to him, even though he was blunt and rude. But now everyone was ignoring him because they knew how rude he was, and it was somehow even worse./p
p class="MsoNormal"Not that he'd admit that to anyone, of course./p
p class="MsoNormal"He could barely take two bites of his toast before he left the table on Friday morning, reaching the first lesson of the day early. He chose a seat near the back and tried to focus on the class instead, which turned out to be a futile task. Twenty minutes in, and he had given up on any hope of this class being of any use to him. He scribbled in the half inch of margin he left blank in his roll of parchment, frustrated, and glanced up at the board. Professor Binns, the History of Magic teacher, seemed to have made it his personal goal to kill his students through sheer boredom. He droned on about some inconsequential troll attack, at some point in the 11supth/sup century, triggering the Wizarding Convention of 1294… and Draco had stopped listening again. He turned the scribble into a small black square, then added sharp spikes sticking out of the sides…/p
p class="MsoNormal"He glared at the back of Potter's head as he whispered something to Pansy, and she giggled. Malfoy suddenly felt small, replaceable. It wasn't a nice feeling./p
p class="MsoNormal"After class had finished, he collected his stuff and left in a hurry, avoiding eye contact- and crashed into the Granger girl as she turned the corner. "Watch out," he snarled as they scrambled to pick up their books./p
p class="MsoNormal""Sorry," she said in a small voice, then looked up at him. They both looked paler and more shrunken than they had a mere week earlier. Even Hermione's bushy hair seemed flatter, if that was possible. Immediately she broke eye contact and sidestepped him to get into the classroom he had just left. Of course, Ravenclaw must have History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs, second period. he shook his head and waked on to his next lesson, double Potions, with the Slytherin head of house, Professor Snape./p
p class="MsoNormal"He immediately seemed to have it out for the Gryffindors./p
p class="MsoNormal"As soon as they entered the dungeon, he hissed at them to sit down and be quiet. They scrambled into their seats, and he began pacing up and down between the tables, finishing at the looming desk at the front. Malfoy, to his dismay, was seated with Potter, Pansy and Neville. Two of them he could not have had less in common with, and one he felt had replaced him within minutes of being separated./p
p class="MsoNormal"Professor Snape took the register, pausing after several names with a nasty smirk momentarily wrapping across his face. Fortunately, he did not pause at Malfoy's name. when he was done he rolled up the parchment and began stalking the room once again./p
p class="MsoNormal""Welcome to your first Potions lesson," said Snape, not in a particularly welcoming tone. "This will be one of the more… practical classes you will be taking throughout your educational career. Here, you will learn everything from death, despair and misery, to joy, elation and truth." He didn't sound particularly joyful or elated, either./p
p class="MsoNormal""This term we will be covering the basics, as many of you will not have any previous potions experience." He looked down at the roll of parchment in his hand. "Let's see how many of you have any knowledge at all. Longbottom!" he shouted without warning. Longbottom trembled in his seat. "What would I get if I added powdered root of Asphodel to an infusion of Wormwood?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Neville looked around, with panicked eyes. "I… don't know, sir."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Snape's smirk got even wider. "Tut, tut… it seems fame isn't everything. Let's try again. Where would you look if I asked you to find a Bezoar?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Once again, Neville looked panicky. "I…"/p
p class="MsoNormal"The whole class was quiet and still now, waiting for either Neville or Snape to speak. Neville's mouth opened again, but no sound came out. Snape tutted again./p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, well… clearly, you need to study some more. Five points from Gryffindor." He turned and began the class, with every Gryffindor glaring at him. Within the hour, tenspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanmore Gryffindor points were lost, five by Ron for talking to Seamus and Dean, and five by Paravati Patil who accidentally added a touch too much lacewood flies to her potion./p
p class="MsoNormal"Malfoy seemed to avoid the worst of Snape's anger, but maybe that was because he knew his father. Old Pureblood families- ones that weren't blood traitors, at least- tended to stick together. It asuited him perfectly, and gave him time to reflect on Hermione Granger./p
p class="MsoNormal"But by the end of the two hour class, every other Gryffindor was ready to murder Snape./p
p class="MsoNormal""Nightmare, honestly," said Ron as he walked to lunch with Dean, Seamus and Draco. Who was brooding, of course. "How are we supposed to pass Potions when he hates us?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm dropping it as soon as I can," said Seamus darkly. "Imagine having him for OWLs, let alone NEWTs!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Draco wasn't listening. He was watching the Ravenclaw table to see if Granger had turned up. After seeing how thin and pale she had gotten, he wanted to make sure she was turning up for meals. He didn't know why he cared. He just did./p
p class="MsoNormal"She came in late and sat at the end of the table closest to the door by herself. He watched as she ate just a few bites of her stew, before giving up and opening a heavy-looking book that wasn't on the textbook list, and rapidly started taking notes. A few moments later, the Ravenclaw prefect walked past and gave her a supportive smile and pat on the shoulder, which Hermione returned before turning back to the book. Her eyes met Draco's momentarily, and an electric jolt hit his stomach and he dropped his eyes to his own plate. Every so often, he would glance up, and he could swear he felt her doing the same thing but didn't catch her eye again./p