Disclaimer: I don't own any of the character of Harry Potter, any of the spells, magical devises etc. that are the property of JK Rowling. I am only borrowing them and they will be returned to the owner undamaged and in their original packaging.
Chapter Four: Notes
A few days later, Harry didn't any more idea of what the dragon-thing might be or what it might want, than he had had before. He hadn't seen it since, for which he was very grateful. The only plus side to this, apart from terrible, weird creatures not trying to kill him at that moment, was that it meant that he didn't have to have any contact with Malfoy, apart from the occasional paper aeroplane demanding, You found out anything yet?
However, he had other, more pressing problems than Malfoy irritating him.
'Did you ask Sirius yet?' George asked him at breakfast.
Harry scowled at his goblet of pumpkin juice and was saved from answering by the arrival of the post owls. Hedwig appeared beside him carrying his subscription of Quidditch Weekly and he fed her some of his toast.
George persisted, 'Well, Harry? Have you?'
'No,' Harry said shortly. In fact, he had totally forgotten about asking Sirius about the theft from Azkaban in all he excitement, or bewilderment, of the smoke-dragon. He had also hoped that the others had also forgotten.
'Are you going to?' Fred asked impatiently. 'Come on, Harry, you might as well just ask him. What harm can it do?'
'Fine!' Harry snapped. He grabbed a piece of blank parchment and scribbled on it quickly and untidily.
Hi Sirius,
Sorry to ask this but my friends won't stop nagging me about it – do you anything about that theft from Azkaban? Hope you are well,
Harry
He fastened it to Hedwig's leg and said, 'Take it to Sirius, please.' She flew off and he turned back to his breakfast, ignoring the startled expressions on the faces of his friends.
'Something wrong, Harry?' Ginny asked him carefully.
'No,' he said quickly.
'Whatever,' Ginny muttered.
The others all exchanged glances.
'You sure, Harry?' Ron asked him. 'You've been a bit – moody recently.'
'Yes, I'm sure,' Harry said shortly. He scowled around the table and growled, 'Has anyone got anything else they'd like to say?'
'No,' they all chorused hastily.
'Good,' Harry muttered. He glanced up and saw Malfoy walk past and give him a hard stare and slight frown as he did so, a questioning look. Harry shook his head almost imperceptibly. Malfoy's stare turned into a furious scowl and he shook his head angrily before storming off to the Slytherin table.
Harry glared at his toast and stabbed it with his knife until it disintegrated into crumbs. The others all exchanged startled glances and silently went back to their own breakfasts, deliberately not looking at Harry.
You are a moron.
Harry screwed up the paper aeroplane and glowered over his shoulder at Malfoy who simply smirked. He swore quietly under his breath and got back to trying to mix up the antidote to the Hiccoughing Potion they had made the week before.
A few minutes later, another one hit him in the back at the head.
Meet me in the library after class.
Harry glanced over his shoulder but Malfoy wasn't looking in his direction; instead he was concentrating on his potion, scowling at the seething brew.
With a sigh, Harry went back to his antidote, wondering how he could get to the library after class, which wasn't a problem, but alone without any of his friends, which was.
He came up with a simple plan during the rest of the class. He handed in his potion, which even he had to admit, wasn't too bad and might actually scrape him a pass grade. For once Snape had ignored him for the entire class and didn't take a single chance to try and humiliate Harry or try and find an excuse to fail him.
He left the class feeling a little more cheerful. Whatever was wrong with Snape, it caused the ugly git to completely overlook him and Harry was quite happy with anything that did that. He followed Ron and Hermione up to the common room silently and, before they reached the room and whilst they were arguing over the potion recipe, in that Hermione was telling Ron what he had done wrong and he was begging her to shut up and leave him alone, he hung back and before anyone noticed him, he sneaked back in the direction he had just come from and headed back to the library.
Malfoy was already there, for once leaving his cronies behind and was alone. He was sat at a table, out of sight of anyone else, idly leafing through a book. He looked up as Harry approached and scowled slightly.
'You took your time,' he said coldly.
'Unlike you, I have friends,' Harry replied.
'What's the supposed to mean, Potter?'
'It means my friends ask me where I'm going and I have to make sure that they won't – '
'Ah, so what you're saying is that your friends dog your footsteps, never leave you alone and you have to lie to them or deceive them in order to speak to me,' Malfoy said, grinning.
'Shut up, Malfoy,' Harry said, slamming his books down on the table and sat down, glaring at the other boy. 'What do you want?'
'Seen that dragon thing recently?' Malfoy asked briskly.
Harry blinked at the sudden change of tone and said, 'No. You?'
'No.' Malfoy sniffed. 'You know what it is yet?'
'No,' Harry said, hesitating.
'Have you been trying to find out?'
Harry shrugged. 'Been busy,' he said abruptly.
'So you haven't.'
'What do you care?'
'If it was just your neck possibly on the line, then believe me Potter, I would stand back and enjoy the show,' Malfoy said venomously. 'Unfortunately, my neck might also be in danger.'
'Right, and you expect me to care?' Harry said shortly.
'Did you ask any of your mad friends?'
'No. You asked any friends or family?'
Malfoy shrugged, a gesture similar to Harry's. 'I did some reading. Unfortunately, since we don't know what it was, all I had to go on was a description which didn't get me very far.' He gave Harry a sanctimonious look. 'At least I got off my backside and tried, until some useless prats around here.'
Harry clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and said, 'Fine. I should have tried to find out myself, okay?' he said with difficulty. 'I'll do something this week.'
'You better,' Malfoy said crossly. 'I am not going to be responsible for actually helping Harry Potter. Do you know what that would do for my reputation?'
'Pretty much what it would do to mine,' Harry retorted. 'When I find something out, I'll tell you, all right?'
'All right,' Malfoy replied, rising and picking up his books. 'I cannot believe this situation,' he muttered moodily as he stamped away.
'Neither can I,' Harry said under his breath, glaring at the retreating Slytherin's back.
'Where did you disappear to after class?' Ron asked when Harry returned to the common room. He was sat at a table, looking mournfully at his untidy notes from class.
'I went to the library,' Harry said truthfully. He wasn't much good at lying to his friends so he was going to try and stick as closely to the truth as possible.
'Oh,' Ron said. 'Why didn't you tell us?'
'You two were arguing,' Harry said, shrugging.
'Okay,' Ron said.
Hermione was less easy to convince. She frowned at Harry. 'So where are your books?'
He started. 'My what?'
'Your books. From the library.'
'I didn't get any out,' he said. 'I just wanted to look for something.'
'What was that, then?'
'Nothing important.'
'So why did you go to the library if it wasn't important?'
Harry gritted his teeth. 'Why are you so interested, anyway? I just went to the library, no mystery! I didn't find what I wanted, no mystery! Why are you going on about this?'
She stared at him, then said, 'I just wondered.'
'Sometimes you wonder too much,' Harry growled, slumping into a comfortable armchair.
'Sometimes you act very strangely,' Hermione said crossly. 'Harry, when you're ready to tell us what's up with you, we'll be here. As usual.' With that, she spun and stormed off up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.
Ron and Harry looked at each other, open-mouthed, for a moment. Then Ron shrugged and said, 'She's right mate,' and went back to his notes.
Harry looked at his friend and felt terrible.