A/N: Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful reviews! Updates for this story will be a bit quicker for the next couple of chapters because one of the authors has freed up his/her schedule a bit more. Also, this chapter introduces another OC. Also, spoiler alert...we have a short time jump coming up very soon XD hope you like!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling. Thanks
CHAPTER 5: THE CLEAN & THE UNCLEAN
"You look like hell," said Sirius when Draco came down for breakfast next day. "Seriously, mate...like hell."
"Thanks," Draco muttered, taking a seat next to him.
"Did you sleep at all last night?" Remus asked, concern evident in his voice.
Draco shrugged. He filled his plate with pancakes and as much syrup as could possibly keep him awake at least for the day. He then glanced over at the Slytherin table, hoping to see Snape. He wasn't there. However Draco's eyes did land on another curious Slytherin who happened to be watching him intently. Draco started and looked away quickly.
"You okay there?" Potter asked, his eyebrows raised as Draco angrily stabbed a batch of pancakes with his fork.
"Fine," Draco grumbled without meeting his eyes.
There was silence. He knew that the boys were exchanging looks and trying to figure out how to fish it out of him but he just kept his eyes on his plate as he ate. Remus suddenly changed the subject and began asking Potter about when he was going to hold Quidditch trials—an effective tactic in distracting the boy—but Draco could still feel Sirius' eyes firmly on him. He made the mistake of meeting them for a fraction of a second, and then gave himself away completely by glancing over at Lily Evans who was sitting several seats over, reading that morning's edition of the Daily Prophet. Sirius followed Draco's gaze and then made a strange sort of face that Draco did not quite understand.
After breakfast, Draco followed the boys to their first lesson of the day—Defense against the Dark Arts. They took their seats and waited for Claybrook to arrive. Draco's eyes darted at the door every time a student entered, but he was consecutively disappointed. Even after Claybrook entered the classroom and closed the door behind him, Snape had not shown up.
Draco tuned out most of the lesson, which was fine considering Claybrook had chosen to discuss inferi that day and Draco already knew all about them. He found his mind wandering a fair bit...wandering to the night before...to the moment he'd looked into those emerald green eyes that were blazing with fury as they stared back at him.
"Oy!" Sirius whispered, elbowing Draco painfully.
Draco jumped.
"What?" he said, irritably.
Sirius cocked an eyebrow at him and grinned in Lily's direction. It appeared that Draco had been watching her for a whole two minutes without even noticing. She turned around in her seat to lend some girl a quill, and flipped her dark red hair in the process of it. Draco turned to Sirius.
"I was just daydreaming," he whispered.
Sirius' grin did not fade.
As Claybrook went over to the board at the front and began drawing some diagram that the students were meant to copy, Sirius passed the talking-in-class notebook along to Draco, who frowned down at it as he read Sirius' message.
I've noticed you staring at her when you don't think I'm looking.
So? Draco wrote back.
So what, you fancy her?
Sirius grinned at him even more broadly as he passed the notebook back. Draco scoffed at it and wrote very quickly, Absolutely not.
Sirius frowned as he read the message, and it was several minutes before he replied.
What's wrong with Evans? If you ask me, she's mighty fine.
Draco tried hard not to roll his eyes as he read this message because he knew that Sirius was watching him intently. However, he hesitated before replying. Sirius was not the Black whom Draco could tell exactly why he didn't fancy Lily Evans—that would be the other Black currently enrolled at Hogwarts. However that Black was not exactly on a first name basis with Draco at the moment, so he couldn't exactly trot over to him in the Great Hall and say "That mudblood Evans is annoying as hell!" Though, Regulus Black was watching him practically everywhere he went, so perhaps that moment was not far from now.
She's just not my type, Draco finally wrote.
Sirius nodded as he read it, and then scribbled, Good, because Prongs would kill you if she was, before hastily putting the notebook away as Claybrook turned to face the class again.
"Tomorrow," he announced to the room at large, "We will be holding a practical lesson on nonverbal spells. You should all bring your wands with you, and leave these ridiculous books where they belong—on your shelves, to gather dust."
Several members of the class sniggered or cheered quietly. Claybrook took no notice of this and moved back to his diagram to add a few touch-ups here and there. Draco copied the diagram exactly, though his mind was wondering where Snape could be at that moment.
"See you later then," Sirius told Draco at the end of the lesson as they packed up their things and filed out of the classroom.
"Yeah, see you," Draco said, and Sirius waved to Potter and went off with Remus and Wormtail to enjoy their free period.
"Okay, let's go," Potter said as he began to lead the way to the Muggle Studies classroom, which was good considering Draco hadn't the slightest clue where it was—or who was the teacher, for that matter.
Back in his own timeline, he couldn't care less about Muggle Studies and thought the subject was stupid altogether. But unfortunately, he would not be able to take the same approach in this timeline. It had been a spur of the moment thing, choosing Muggle Studies when Professor McGonagall had asked him about his selections for NEWT. Yet now, he was really, really not looking forward to it at all.
"Here we are," said Potter, pointing Draco to a classroom on the left of the second-floor corridor.
They entered it together and stopped dead at the door.
"No," Potter breathed, his eyes glaring. "He took NEWT level Muggle Studies?!"
"Huh?" said Draco, following his gaze.
Snape was sitting with Mulciber in the corner of the classroom, their heads together as they had a whispered conversation. Upon Draco's and Potter's arrival, Snape looked up hopefully and frowned as he took in their presence. Potter muttered something under his breath and motioned for Draco to follow him to a pair of seats somewhere in the middle of the classroom.
"Why don't you want to sit at the back?" Draco asked, taking the seat and setting his bag to the ground.
"I have vision problems," said Potter, though Draco could see right through it.
At that precise moment, a certain redhead entered the classroom. She stopped at the door and took in the classroom. Snape glanced up at her hopefully. Lily's eyes darted from him to Draco sitting with Potter. Her smile faded and she took one of the seats at the very front by herself. Snape sighed and put his head in his hands again. Beside him, Mulciber let out a cold laugh. Draco scowled at him. What on earth was Severus Snape doing taking NEWT level Muggle Studies, and why the hell was Mulciber playing along with this?!
"Come on everyone, settle down," said a woman's voice from the front.
Several more students entered the classroom and hurried to their seats. When everyone was ready, the voice said, "Are we all here?"
The class mumbled their responses and some students—Lily Evans being among them—took out their books and flipped them to page one.
The woman at the front cleared her throat and moved from the dark shadows of the corner where she'd been standing. As she moved forwards, her appearance was revealed in the morning light that was peeking in through the windows, and the room silenced instantly. Draco saw Mulciber grin stupidly and forced his gaze away from Snape to look at the front (to where Mulciber was grinning). Draco's jaw dropped.
The woman at the front of the classroom looked like the type of woman he did not want to cross—a fair bit like McGonagall—as well as the type of woman he most definitely wanted to cross. She embodied every boy's dream—her perfect, sleek blonde hair waved down to her shoulders, her dark blue robes and black cloak stretched to the ground, and her thin arms rested on her hips as she stared out at the barely full classroom.
"Welcome to NEWT level Muggle Studies," she said.
"She's certainly changed over the summer," Draco heard Potter mutter in his ears.
"For those of you who do not know me," said the woman, her eyes lingering over Draco for a fraction of a second, "I am Arianna Livesey, but Professor Livesey will do." She paused and took a step forward. "I've taught many of you and I am delighted that you've chosen to continue my subject at the NEWT level. However, I must warn you that it won't be all fun and games as this class may have been in the past. We will of course have our fair share of experiments, but it will also be serious work."
"Definitely changed," Potter whispered.
Draco glanced at him and found him grinning. Draco looked back at Professor Livesey with amazement. She was definitely not at Hogwarts in his timeline—he would've noticed a pretty thing like that, walking about the school corridors.
"Today, I will be giving a short introduction to NEWT level Muggle Studies and then we will be working in groups on a little assignment I thought we'd begin the course with," Livesey continued. She moved to her desk and picked up a piece of paper from which she began to read. "Although Muggle Studies is considered by some to be a soft potion, it is the direct route to ministry careers involving muggles, which is definitely thought to be prestigious. This class aims specifically to acquaint witches and wizards (who do not have direct contact with Muggles) with the way they live. However, those who do have direct contact with muggles, often take this class to better expand their knowledge on how the wizarding world perceives them…"
Draco lost interest almost as soon as Livesey started her little speech. He began to doodle absentmindedly on the notebook in front of him as he waited for that group assignment to begin already. He noticed that Potter was not very engaged in the lesson either. His eyes were fixed almost permanently on Lily, who was copying Livesey's every word into her notebook. Whenever Potter noticed Draco looking at him, he quickly looked away and scribbled a word or two in his own notebook, though his eyes almost always went back to Lily.
On the other end of the classroom, Mulciber was resting his head on his arm and blinking slowly up at the front, whereas Snape was staring out the window by which he sat. Draco fought hard not to walk over there right then in the middle of class and demand to know where Snape had been that morning and why on earth he was taking—
"Alright," came Livesey's voice quite loudly, snapping Draco out of his daze. "Your assignment is as follows: In groups of 5, you will be provided with several popular muggle objects. You are to examine these objects and together discuss why they have not gained such popularity in our world. You are also to come up with our equivalents for these objects and at the end of the lesson, you will present to the class a report on how we wizards could evolve and come to accept such muggle objects for everyday use."
The students closed their books and shut them in their bags as Livesey waved them all to stand up and move to the back of the classroom. She then waved her wand in the air and moved the desks into three groups of five.
"Let's see," she said, moving over to where the students were lined up. "You five," she said, pointing at three Hufflepuff students and a Gryffindor and a Ravenclaw, "Go over there." They moved out of the line and took their seats at a group of tables. "And you five, over there." Draco frowned as he glanced over at the remaining students.
"That leaves you five to work over at this table," said Livesey, pointing Draco, Potter, Lily, Snape and Mulciber to the table at the back.
They glanced at each other resentfully but nonetheless took their seats. Livesey returned to the front of the classroom and waved her wand again. Five spectacular objects appeared at each of the tables, as well as some scrolls of parchment, quills and ink bottles. Lily instantly took to writing the group members' names on the parchment in front of her, and then folded her arms on the desk and waited for more instructions.
"Remember," said Livesey again, "You are to discuss together and present a report at the end of class together. Very well then, off you go."
And the room suddenly filled with chatter.
Everyone at Draco's table avoided eye contact with each other, though Mulciber was very much enjoying smirking at Lily, which kind of bothered Draco. Everything about Mulciber bothered Draco, and he could not believe that Snape was actually friends with this self-absorbed bloke.
"Kay, let's start then," said Potter, suddenly.
He picked up one of the objects on the table and rotated it in his hand for a few seconds before saying, "I've heard of these—they're called mobile cellulars."
"It's cellular phones," said Lily, irritably. "Not mobile cellulars."
"There is no such word as 'cellulars'," Snape mumbled, his eyes on the table.
"Right," said Potter, placing the object back in the pile. "So the cellular phone is a way muggles use to talk to each other."
"Naturally," said Lily, who began writing this down on the piece of paper in front of her.
"She ought to know," Mulciber said in a low voice, but no one besides Draco seemed to hear this.
"Okay and what is the wizarding equivalent to cellular phones?" Lily asked the group without looking up from her paper.
"Uh," said Potter.
"Letters," said Snape, quickly. "Muggles used to use them too, before Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and from it evolved the cellular phones. Before this happened, muggles were also very popular with letter writing."
Draco could tell that Lily was amazed that Snape knew all this—heck, he was amazed himself—because her jaw had dropped just a little bit, but she made a point of writing it down without even looking up at Snape or acknowledging in any way that she had heard him. This irritated Draco deeply.
"Good job, Sev," said Mulciber, sitting up in his chair. "I think you're ready to join the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office at the ministry."
"Shut up, Mul," Snape grumbled, his eyes landing on Lily hopefully again.
She ignored him.
"What else?" she asked the group.
"Uh," said Potter, who looked slightly taken aback by Snape's interruption before. "Well I was gonna say that the Protean Charm would work as well."
Both Lily and Draco gaped at him.
"What?" he said, though he couldn't suppress the grin that crossed his face now. "It's simple, really—the charm links several objects together through a common purpose. So you could charm specific notebooks so that every time you write in them, wizards of a specific group will receive these messages in their notebook and be able to write back."
"You can do it with pretty much any object," Snape added in his still low grumble, but Lily thoroughly ignored him and continued to stare at Potter with narrowed eyes.
"How did you know about the Protean Charm?" she said, suspiciously. "It's a NEWT level standard and we've only been NEWT students for about 4 days."
"I dunno," said Potter, shrugging, though the grin was back now. "I read a lot."
Mulciber let out a snort and Potter raised his eyebrows at him, but Lily ignored him too and continued to stare at Potter.
"I'm impressed," she said after several moments.
Draco swore he'd heard Snape's heart stop beating for about five seconds. He'd certainly dropped the pen in his hand at Lily's comment. And Draco also swore that she'd noticed but had chosen to ignore this.
"There is also communication by way of Patronus Charm," Lily muttered to herself, and Draco noticed Potter nodding along as he watched her write. "The Patronus Charm of course being a more advanced way of magic."
"And not one that many wizards can do," said Potter, his head turning towards Snape expectedly.
Snape gave him a look of deep loathing and turned away, while beside him, Mulciber smirked at Potter.
"Okay, moving on," Lily said, noticing the boys all glaring at each other.
Snape gathered himself again and selected an item from the pile.
"This is called a car," he said, rotating the miniature red car model in his hand for everyone to see. "Or a car on a keychain...It is also known as a vehicle. It is one of the most common muggle ways of transportation."
"Oh I know that," said Mulciber. "I've been in one of those a few years back."
"It is said to be the quickest way that muggles can get anywhere," Snape continued, his eyes landing on Lily once more. "However muggles are also notorious for using trains and buses and bicycles and scooters. The wizarding equivalents are many-varied: apparition, portkey, floo network—"
"Brooms," said Potter, his own eyes on Lily as well.
Lily was writing down everything that they were saying but still refusing to look up and meet Snape's eyes. Draco could see the desperation on his face as he fought to get her attention.
"Flight creatures too," he continued. "Dragons and hippogriffs and—"
"Thestrals," James blurted out, and he turned brilliantly red as everyone at the table turned to look at him.
"Not everyone can see them," Lily pointed out after an abrupt silence.
Draco kept his eyes firmly on the next object at the table—a blue fountain pen.
"Moving on," he said in a low voice.
Lily hesitated before writing the number 3 on the parchment in front of her.
"Okay so let's have a look at this," she said, picking up the fountain pen and holding it for everyone to see. "This is a pen—they are probably the most widely used muggle objects in the world and—"
"You would know," Mulciber grumbled with another fake cough.
Lily stared at him.
"Don't you have anything better to say than the same old insult over and over again?" she said, lazily.
Mulciber's smirk faded.
"She's right, mate," said Potter, who looked amused.
"Didn't ask you, did I?" Mulciber growled at him. "Mate."
"No," said Potter, still brightly, "No, I think you growled at me."
"And I think I'll do worse than that if you don't'—"
"Oh shut up both of you!" said Lily.
The boys stared at her in amazement.
"I'm tired of this," she said, defensively. "Let's just get this assignment done and over with."
"That's a good attitude," said Snape, again in hopes that she would look at him.
But once again, Lily ignored him completely and held up the fountain pen yet again. Draco felt a sinking in his heart.
"This pen is the evolution of the quill and ink bottle," she began. "Muggles used quills and ink in ancient historical times as well, but they eventually merged the two into a more effective object. Unfortunately, wizards have simply not caught up with the technology."
"And also not to mention that writing with a pen on a bit of parchment would prove to be quite difficult," Snape added, this time loudly and clearly so that Lily was bound to hear him.
She simply placed the pen back in the pile and bent over the parchment in front of her to write.
"Did you hear him?" Draco demanded before he could even think.
All eyes were on him again.
"He made a good point," Draco told Lily, fighting hard to suppress the anger that was building up inside of him.
Lily stared at him. Potter also looked confused, as did Snape, but Draco refused to meet either sets of eyes and kept his eyes fixed on the hypocritical little redhead that was sitting right before him.
"Would it kill you to acknowledge that you'd heard the person?" Draco went on. "Or are only your opinions valid here? I thought this was supposed to be a group assignment."
"I…" said Lily, who looked too lost for words.
Potter silently nudged Draco with his elbow, making Draco snap out of his trance and stare at him.
"Calm down," Potter mouthed.
Draco looked away.
"Let's move on," Snape said, clearing his throat loudly so that everyone would refocus.
Beside him, Mulciber was eyeing Draco with a mixture of suspicion and admiration, both of which seemed to set Draco's teeth on edge now. He resorted to looking around the classroom instead—at the other students working or even at Livesey sitting at her desk and watching them—so that he wouldn't have reason to get angry again.
"…but the only equivalent that I can think of, really, is a wand," Snape concluded as he tossed the package of bandaids and stitches to Mulciber (who gave them one disgusted look and threw them down on the table as though they were contaminated).
"What's the matter, you think you'll catch the plague if you touch them?" said Potter, smirking.
"I just might," said Mulciber, meeting his eyes. "You never know what filth lurks around muggle objects, given where they—"
"Shut up!" Snape hissed at his neighbour.
Mulciber only smirked again and leaned back in his chair, looking utterly bored. Lily's eyes were still on Draco, who was doing his best to collect himself.
"Aren't you going to write it down, Evans?" Potter asked.
"What?—oh yes…yes I will."
Lily looked away from Draco with contempt and furiously scribbled something down. Potter frowned at her but said nothing. Snape looked very uncomfortable sitting there, and Mulciber appeared to be daydreaming at that point.
"Okay so we are saying that our way, that is, the wizarding way, is more efficient and effective because it doesn't take up any resources whatsoever," said Lily to the table at large.
"Who are you to go calling it our way?" Mulciber demanded of her suddenly.
"Hey, back off!" Potter barked but Lily raised her voice over his.
"Excuse me?" she said, her eyebrows raised at Mulciber. "And what exactly do you mean by that comment?"
Mulciber opened his mouth to speak but Snape quickly nudged him and said to Lily, "He doesn't mean anything. Let's just move on."
"No, no, I want to hear this," said Lily.
"Of course you do," Draco muttered.
Lily turned to look at him.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Black, but do you have a problem with me?"
"No," said Draco, simply and honestly. "I just have a problem with hypocrisy."
"What hypocrisy are you talking about?" Lily demanded.
"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about," Draco told her, his eyes glaring into hers as he silently dared her to remember what she'd said the previous night about him being too rude to have been raised by Albus Dumbledore.
Something changed in Lily's eyes as she stared at Draco, and it was several moments before Potter—sitting somewhat between them—awkwardly said, "Shall we move on?"
"I'll go," Draco snapped, grabbing the next object before anyone else could. "This is a 20 pound bill—it's an example of muggle currency. Muggles also use coins but bills have become more popular because they are easier to carry around and the making of them also saves lots of resources."
"Right," said Potter, who looked to be extremely taken aback by the strong look that Lily was giving Draco now. "Right and they're also not as easy to lose as coins are."
All heads turned to Lily for approval of the explanation. Mulciber was snorting about something now.
"Y-yes," said Lily, her voice shaking slightly. "And we…um, I mean wizards use coins as their primary forms of currency…there's the Sickle…the Knut…and the…the…g-galleon."
Draco rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest impatiently. Great, now she was going to start crying. The filthy little—the stupid—no wonder Harry Potter was such a crybaby. He'd completely taken after his irritating mother!
"…so if there is one thing that the wizarding community could improve on, it's money," Potter concluded, "Improving our currency."
Lily nodded and wrote it all down on the parchment in front of her, which was now thoroughly filled with text. Draco started once he realised that Snape was watching him. His black eyes were pouring into Draco's so intently that it was as though he was trying desperately to read something in them. Draco refused to look away from him, but was subjected to do so only at the sound of the dismissal bell, which was quickly followed by the loud movements as students began to leave the classroom.
"We'll continue this tomorrow!" Livesey called over the noise. "Bring your scrolls of parchment with you for your presentations!"
"Come on, let's get out of here," Potter muttered, nudging Draco to get up.
They gathered their things and left the classroom together, both of them in worse moods than they'd had before.
"Everything alright?" Potter asked as they walked to the Great Hall for lunch.
"Fine," said Draco.
"You seemed really ticked off back there," Potter observed.
Draco merely shrugged. He had no interest in discussing this with Potter. It's not like the git would understand—all he cared about was his stupid Quidditch and the stupid Lily girl.
"You know," he said suddenly, moving in front of Draco to stop him walking. "You can't judge people before you get to know them."
"What genius book did you get that from?" Draco said, unable to help himself.
Potter raised his eyebrows.
"It's actually a very useful book," he said, boldly. "It's called The Bloke Who Bloody Listened. You should check it out sometime."
"Whatever," said Draco, moving past Potter to the staircase leading up to Gryffindor Tower.
"Where you going, it's lunchtime!" Potter called after him.
"Not hungry," Draco replied without turning to face him.
He did not end up going to Gryffindor Tower. He didn't really fancy bumping into any more people there, so he turned around halfway and ended up in the library again. Fortunately, Snape wasn't there this time and so Draco didn't have to come up with an excuse that would explain his behaviour back in that classroom. If Potter had questions, Snape no doubt had some too.
The rest of the day's lessons were not all that memorable. Draco kept quiet and listened to the teachers ramble about all these facts and figures that he'd already memorised long ago. He doodled absentmindedly in his notebooks and stared out of the windows into the clear blue sky or the brightly sunlit Quidditch stadium. And before long, it was dinnertime and Draco, starved, hurried with his dorm mates to the Great Hall.
"We missed you at lunch today," Remus said as they filled their plates with roast beef and mashed potatoes.
"Yeah, I had a headache," said Draco, dismissively.
His arm gave a slight tinge of pain as he reached to pour himself juice. He winced, but none of the others noticed.
"Wait so I don't get it," said Sirius, turning to Potter. "Snivellus is taking NEWT muggle studies? Why the hell is he doing that? He's the biggest pureblood supremacist we know!"
"I can think of a very good reason why he's taking muggle studies," said Potter, his eyes on Lily who was sitting on the other end of the table.
Sirius followed his gaze and then said "Oh".
"From what I've heard," said Wormtail, "They don't talk anymore—Lily and Snape."
"I can't imagine why," said Potter, sarcastically. "Maybe she finally came to her senses."
"Stop it, James," said Remus. "You shouldn't jump to conclusions—you have no idea what happened."
"But you do," said Potter and Sirius together, their arms folded.
Remus looked up from his plate.
"Um," he said, looking from one to the other.
"Come on, Moony, tell us!" Sirius pleaded. "We're your best friends! I think we've proven that we can keep a secret—Ow, don't kick me!"
Draco pretended not to notice Remus telling Sirius to shut up. He kept his eyes on his plate and his anger from earlier that day as levelled and controlled as humanly possible.
"Sorry," Sirius muttered quietly. "But come on, Moony, just please tell us!"
Remus sighed. He looked around the table to make sure no one was eavesdropping on their conversation. Then, he leaned forwards and lowered his voice.
"Snape called Lily a mudblood."
"What?!" cried Potter and Sirius together. They looked over Remus' shoulder at the Slytherin table and found Snape quickly. He was sitting with Regulus, Mulciber, and that Avery boy.
"What, again?" Potter said to Remus.
"No," said Remus. "Don't you guys remember that day we finished our OWLs?"
"Y-yeah," said Potter. "Wait, so that's it? She's mad at him because of that day?"
"Well after she refused to talk to him anymore, he started following her…stalking her…trying to get her to talk to him."
Draco slowly looked up from his plate now.
"He's…he's refusing to accept that it's over," said Remus, awkwardly.
Sirius and Potter exchanged a look.
"We'll help him accept," said Potter, and they both actually rose from their seats.
"No," said Remus. "Sit down now, both of you."
They hesitated.
"I mean it," said Remus, and he looked it too.
Potter slowly sat back down, though Sirius remained standing.
"It is none of your business," said Remus.
"I can make it my business!" said Potter, defensively. "Remus, it's…look, I…I care about Lily, alright? And...well, we're Gryffindors! We take care of our own. If someone's bothering her—"
"James, you're not the only person at this table who cares about Lily," said Remus, sharply. "Sirius, sit down."
It took another moment's hesitation but Sirius finally sat back down. He gave Draco a small smile and resumed eating.
"Well what are you doing about it then, seeing as how you're so concerned?" Potter demanded.
Remus raised his eyebrows.
"I am being there for her as much as I can," he replied, "Just like she was there for me…at a time when others couldn't be."
"Couldn't be?" repeated Potter. "Others wanted to be, but someone was keeping them in the dark for some reason."
Oh how subtle, thought Draco. They were being so damn obvious about it. Wasn't anyone able to keep a good secret these days? He, Draco, had to keep an entire lifetime a secret from all these people, but they couldn't keep their small, unimportant secrets to themselves.
"And why were you so angry in class today?" said Potter with accusatory in his voice.
It took Draco a minute to notice that Potter was talking to him. He looked up from his plate and frowned.
"How do you mean?"
"Oh come on," said Potter. "You were about ready to rip into Evans' throat!"
Draco shrugged.
"Do you not like Lily?" said Remus, quietly.
"I don't know her," said Draco, truthfully.
"Mulciber was being a bit of a git too," Potter muttered. "I swear, it was the most awkward class in my entire life."
That, it was, thought Draco.
"But you seemed to really have a problem with her," Potter continued, his eyes narrowed at Draco now.
"I dunno," said Draco, shrugging plainly.
Potter continued to stare at him suspiciously, and Sirius looked from one to the other somewhat nervously.
"Guys," he said, loudly. "Look, it's been a long day. Why don't we just skip the after-dinner hangout and call it a day?"
The others nodded slowly and quickly finished their dinners. Then, the five of them got up from the table and retreated to Gryffindor Tower.
"Wizard's Chess, anyone?" Sirius said with a loud yawn as they climbed through the portrait hole.
"Yeah okay," said Potter. "I'll go get it."
He ran upstairs.
"I'm going to do the Charms homework," said Wormtail in a small voice, and he retreated to a table at the far end of the common room.
"What are you gonna do?" Remus asked Draco, who shrugged in response.
His left arm was really bothering him now, so he placed his hands in his pockets and held the inside of his left pocket hard with his fist. Remus retreated to one of the squashy armchairs by the fireplace just as Potter returned with a Wizard's Chess set. Sirius sprawled onto the carpet by the fireplace and cracked open the set. The two of them began to set it up while Remus watched. Draco decided to join on one of the couches too, though he got out his Transfiguration book so that he could distract himself from the pain.
As the evening progressed, more and more students entered the common room until it was an hour before curfew and the common room was completely filled with noise and chatter. Sirius had won the last three games and he and Potter were wrapping up their last one now. Remus was snoozing peacefully on the couch and Wormtail had already gone off to sleep. Draco meanwhile, tried to keep his heartbeat levelled. It was accelerating fast for some reason, and he could feel panic welling up inside him again, though he did not know why.
"Okay hold on," said Potter, suddenly jumping to his feet. "I have to go to the bathroom—Draco, watch him so that he doesn't cheat."
Draco nodded in understanding and Potter quickly ran up the stairs to the dormitory. Sirius leaned back on the couch with his hands behind his head and smiled weakly at Draco.
"You okay?"
"Yeah," said Draco.
"Look, don't pay any attention to James," he began. "He gets really…over-protective when it comes to Evans. We've all had to get used to it. Remus has it worse than me and Pete do because he's actually really good friends with her."
"Pot—I mean, James really gives him a hard time then?" Draco asked.
"Yeah," said Sirius. "Yeah he's a jealous bloke, that's for sure. Then again, so is Snivellus." He laughed. "You know, they're kind of alike…not entirely, of course. Snape's still a git and James is one of my best friends. But they think alike in some ways…Don't tell him I said that though—he'll eat me."
"I won't," said Draco, with a soft grin.
"Thanks," said Sirius, relieved. He paused. "So what is your problem with Evans? James mentioned you seemed really pissed at her."
"There's no problem," said Draco.
Sirius narrowed his eyes at him.
"Honestly," Draco added, hastily.
"Alright," said Sirius, throwing his arms up. "Don't tell me—I'll find out anyway."
"Good luck with that," Draco muttered.
"So," said Sirius, grinning more broadly now. "How's Livesey looking these days?"
Draco smirked.
"Mighty fine," he admitted.
Sirius sighed happily and closed his eyes.
"I'd have taken her NEWT class if I'd actually passed that OWL," he explained. "We Marauders have been taking it for years now, and only because she teaches it. Trust me. Although, James has other reasons to take it, as I'm sure you'll have noticed."
"Marauders?" said Draco.
Sirius opened his eyes and laughed nervously.
"Uh, never mind," he said, quickly. "Look, here comes James."
Just as Potter returned from the bathroom, a voice called "Oy, James!" from the other end of the common room.
Potter looked up.
"Hiya Frank!" he called back.
A tall boy with short brown hair jumped over one of the couches and joined Potter and Sirius on the carpet.
"I didn't get your notice about trials," he said.
"I have to make a few more adjustments to the list," Potter explained. "Don't worry, I'll get it to you."
"You'd better," said the boy called Frank. "I'm holding you to your promise to include me in your selection for a beater. I can't have some nutter playing the position with me."
"Do you really think I'd let a nutter into my team?" said Potter, smirking. "I'll most likely resign before that day comes."
"Here's to hoping!" said Frank.
He turned slightly and his eyes fell on Draco, all pale-faced and sweaty.
"Uh, hi there," said Frank, frowning at him.
"Oh yeah, this is Draco," said Potter, lazily, as he watched one of Sirius' knights wreck his pawn.
"The new kid," said Frank, nodding.
"Also known as another Black," said Sirius, his eyes on the chessboard.
"Nice to see you," Frank told Draco. "I'm Frank."
"Frank's in seventh year," Sirius explained.
Draco stared at him, trying to make sense of who he reminded him of just a bit...he knew he'd heard the name Frank before...and then it hit him. No freaking way. This reserved-looking, highly-aware-of-his-good-looks boy was a Longbottom?!
"I know what you're thinking," said Frank, grinning at Draco. "What's this cool-looking seventh year doing with a bunch of dorks like Potter and Black here?" He patted them both on the backs but they shoved him away, neither looking up from their game which was growing more intense by the minute.
"Okay well I'm gonna leave you lot to it then," said Frank. He waved at Draco and went to rejoin his seventh year friends on the other end of the common room.
Draco tried to turn around and see if maybe Longbottom's mother would be anywhere near him, but the sudden surge of pain that hit his arm made him actually cry out. Both Potter and Sirius looked up from their game, alarmed.
"You okay?" said Sirius.
"Fine," said Draco, quickly. He let his Transfiguration book slide from his lap and slowly got to his feet. "I…I'm just gonna go get some air."
"Do you need us to come with you?" Potter said, slowly.
"No, don't," said Draco. "Just…" he looked down at the chessboard, panicked, and then up at Potter. "Move your bishop four squares diagonal left to get his rook."
Without waiting for either of them to react, Draco fled the common room. Down the marble steps, he ran until he was far from Gryffindor Tower. He trotted past corridors, ran right through ghosts who shouted back at him, and almost knocked into a few portraits. Finally, he stopped running. He was standing in front of the boys' washroom on the seventh floor, just a corridor away from the Room of Requirement entrance. Checking to make sure no one had followed him, Draco let himself in and shut the door behind him. He checked under all the stalls and then dropped himself to his knees by one of the sinks, his right hand fidgeting with his left sleeve rapidly. He finally managed to tear the sleeve off and gasped as he watched the black ink of the Dark Mark droop down his arm right before his very eyes.
Panicked, he pulled his entire sweater over his head and then brought himself to his feet and quickly turned on the water from the tap. He soaked his arm as much as he could, but the water wasn't making it any better. In fact, it was only making it worse. His arm was positively stinging now. He fell to his knees again and groaned as the pain worsened to the point where Draco felt himself passing out. He quickly shook his head and brought more water to his face. He then leaned against one of the stalls and rested his head. With his eyes shut, he concentrated hard on taking deep breaths, in and out.
Tears were now streaming down his cheeks quite stubbornly. Vivid pictures of memories he had tried very hard to suppress were now dancing before him. He could hear the yells and the screams from that night on the Astronomy Tower again. He could hear his mother's pleas back at home, telling him to just do as told. He could hear his father's worthless promises that everything would be alright if he just followed through with the Dark Lord's wishes.
"Please let me help you," said Dumbledore's voice now.
Draco's eyes flew open. This wasn't going to make him feel any better. He tried to think of Pansy…of Crabbe…Goyle…any other memory that he could extract from his years at Hogwarts…but nothing seemed to do the trick. He tightened his grip on his arm and closed his eyes again. If it would just stop…if he could just get back up and return to the common room as if nothing had happened, he would make sure that things went differently this time. He would pay more attention to the signs. He would do whatever it took…if it would just stop hurting.
After about eight minutes, the pain finally began to subside. Draco let his eyes open just a little to examine the completely damaged arm. The Dark Mark was still there, but about a quarter of it had faded, the ink barely visible now. Draco started. This wasn't supposed to happen, was it? He wiped his face on his right sleeve and slowly brought himself up so he could wash his face. The cool water felt really good and so Draco began to wash his hands too. He washed them over and over again, feeling completely dirty all over. A shower would feel good right about now. He felt so dirty...contaminated...as though he were carrying some deadly germ...in a way, he was. After he'd turned the tap off, his watch let out a loud beep, making him jump. It was twenty minutes until curfew. Draco quickly pulled his sweater back over his head and his sleeve securely down to his wrist. He then straightened up, washed his face one more time, and left.
Walking along the dark and deserted corridors, he forbid his mind from wandering back to that terrible place. He closed it completely—like Bellatrix had taught him to do in their Occlumency lessons—and concentrated instead on the excuse that he would give Potter and the others when they asked where the hell he'd run off to. At least he'd managed to distract them by giving Potter the ingredient to finishing that game. The poor git really was terrible at chess.
"Lily, don't be so stubborn!"
Draco froze. Not again.
"Let go, Sev!"
"Not until you talk to me!"
Lily and Snape were standing just at the end of the dark corridor. Well, standing was a bit of an understatement. Lily was trying to pull her arm free from Snape's grip, but he was pulling her towards him desperately.
"Let go, Sev!" she repeated.
"I will if you hear me out!"
"I said, let go!"
Draco gasped as a spark of red flew just past him and hit the wall on the other side. There was a small crack and a few bricks flew off. Lily quickly waved her wand to repair the wall, but her face was angrier than Draco had seen thus far, because she had finally spotted him. Snape let go of her arm quickly.
"What are you doing here?!" Lily demanded and Snape himself looked a bit startled to see Draco there.
Draco walked towards them slowly, his heart racing again from what had just happened. He stopped just in front of them, glanced at them for about a split second, and then turned to move past them.
"Stop where you are!" came Lily's voice.
Draco froze. He had to stop doing this—walking in on their little late night meetings. He turned around just in time to see Snape stalking away angrily, though Lily was completely immune to the fact that he'd left. Her eyes were still fixed firmly on Draco as she pocketed her wand.
"What do you want?" he said, quietly.
"I want to know why you're always following me!" Lily said, angrily.
"Oh don't flatter yourself, I'm not following you."
"Well, you certainly seem to be at the same place at the same time as me quite a fair often."
"I just had to go to the bathroom," said Draco, truthfully.
"Yes, as if there aren't any of those in the common room," Lily pointed out. "What is it that you want with me? Tell the truth!"
"I don't want anything from you, believe me," said Draco, with a look of deep disgust.
Lily started.
Not wanting to stick around, Draco turned away from her again, but once again she cried "STOP." He turned back, sighing.
"Why were you so angry with me earlier today?" Lily asked, this time a bit calmer.
"I wasn't," said Draco, simply.
"Oh come on!" cried Lily, letting out a cold laugh and folding her arms. "You were so mad, I don't think Professor Flitwick's students down the hall heard you well enough—don't you roll your eyes at me!—Look, I demand to know what your problem with me is."
"You demand?"
"Yes, I demand!"
There was silence.
"I told you," said Draco, finally. "You're a hypocrite. I hate hypocrites."
"How am I a hypocrite?!" cried Lily in her uttermost high-pitched voice.
"Hmm, how about you going off on me the other night about being too rude to have been raised by Dumbledore, when you refused to acknowledge that Snape was contributing in class today!" Draco snarled. Lily frowned. "It's not exactly your place to tell me that I'm rude, is it?"
"Well it's not exactly your place to tell me how to treat Snape, is it?" Lily responded. "Look, my business with Snape is just that—my business! You have no right telling me what to do—"
"Likewise," said Draco.
Lily stared at him. Her emerald green eyes were more pronounced now than ever as they blinked back at him and Draco was sorely reminded of his greatest school nemesis. He just had to have gone back to this year. He couldn't have gone back to a different year—any year at all! It had to have been this one.
"Who are you?" Lily whispered now. "You…you act like you know all of us. But you've been here for all of four seconds. How…how dare you intervene in our lives?"
Draco looked into her eyes. She was staring back at him determinedly. He did not like this at all—this interrogation from a complete nobody.
"Look, I'll leave you alone if you leave me alone, okay?" he said.
He turned to walk away but this time, Lily actually grabbed his arm and turned him back around.
"No, you will tell me what is going on, and stop walking away from me when I'm talking to you!"
Draco pulled his arm free and took a step towards her.
"Or what?" he said, darkly.
Lily took a step backwards and dropped her arms to her sides, looking somewhat startled.
"I…" she said, her breath hitching ever so slightly. "I…I just want to know what it is I did to make you hate me so much."
Draco continued taking slow steps towards her and Lily backed all the way into the wall. He could tell that she was afraid of him now—afraid of what unpredictable thing he might do. But he had no intention of doing anything to her. This was not his style. So he simply put his hands back in his pockets, turned away from her, and said "Goodnight, Evans," before leaving her alone in the moonlit corridor.
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