Never Again 4 – Pre Beta (since I don't have one)

Disclamer: Don't own. Don't have a beta(no one has volunteered). I write when the mood strikes me, which so far has turned into one chapter every six months...sorry guys.

Anyway, please forgive my misspelling or any mistakes I make. And yes I know this story is a bit on the over-used side...ok, maybe more than a little but I need it gone. Out of my head and finished. Hopefully it will be done some day. Technically I have 22 chapters plotted out and even then the story will not be done but since my chapters are rarely over 5 pages it shouldn't be too long. I am in the middle of writing chapter 5 so that will most likely be posted soon after 4. After that I have no idea. Thanks for sticking with me, for those of you that have, and sorry if you have to wait for a while for this to be finished, to everyone. Once again, if I had a beta I would have a better chance of writing. Yes, I know, not a very subtle hint. Lol Enjoy!

Chapter 4: "Bring it on!"

Harry wasn't particularly excited about being back in potions. Really, he had been convinced that he would be able to escape that class, with the not perfect grades and all that. He shouldn't have hoped at all, of course, with Dumbledore as a headmaster. That man did as he liked whether he liked it or not. Harry should really had gotten used to it by now but, really, two days after his potions class he was still mad about it. The fact that no one from the other years, or houses, would tell him, or anyone else, how the Defense teacher was when they had her, rubbed him in the wrong place as well. Dimitree had made the mood better at one point the day before when they were approached by Malfoy and Dimitree had blown him off, once again.

The good mood didn't last long, however, when he had gotten in a fight with Ron over his hanging out with the foreign boy. Jealousy didn't sit well with Ron, Harry knew, so he didn't put it much against him, but Ron wasn't speaking to him which really made him spend even more time with the Bulgarian. The rest of the Griffindor's didn't seem to mind, really. They had seen the confrontation from the day before and while they considered Dimitree something of an anomaly, they found it amusing. Or so they had told him.

On his third day of classes, Harry was finally able to obtain an opinion about the new teacher several hours before he had the class himself. The twins had jokingly mentioned that they should hire Montgomery when they got their joke shop running. Harry wasn't exactly sure what that meant but he thought that at least it meant that the twins approved of her.

At lunch, things had gotten tense again when Dimitree had, very casually, sat beside him to eat. Ron had left his food untouched and left the hall as fast as he could. Hermione had just given them an apologizing look and had run off after her new boyfriend. The Griffindor's didn't seem too comfortable until the twins tried to pull a prank on the Bulgarian and he had turned it on them. It seemed that anyone who could make the twins have to walk around all day covered in canary feathers got the good graces of the rest of the Griffindors and was allowed to eat with them. Harry wasn't too sure how Dimitree had done it, but the result was, he had to admit, pretty funny. The twins, of course, took it gracefully even though they publicly, and laughingly, declared war. Dimitree had just smiled and told them to "Bring it on!" That had scared Harry a bit. He really didn't want to get in the middle of the crossfire but he thought he could risk it, especially now when his friendship with his best friends was so strained.

When he walked into DADA class, fallowed closely by Dimitree who seemed to tag along everywhere he went, Harry was surprised to see that his teacher looked incredibly normal. That is, more normal than she had looked at the head table. He hair was a mousy brown and Harry thought that everything about her seemed to be a non-threatening, normal, brown. Her clothes were no exception. There were no flashing colors at all. That is, until Dimitree entered behind him. The teacher's head snapped up and suddenly her hair and eyes seemed to flash to completely white and after a second went back to the boring brown. Harry wasn't sure what that meant and Dimitree had just seemed to stare back at the teacher until Harry decided to ask if there was anything wrong. He opened his mouth but before he could ask, Dimitree was moving towards one of the front desks as if nothing had happened. A look at the teacher told Harry that she was back to being absorbed by the piece of parchment in her hands. Dimitree was in the middle of taking out his book and writing utensils by the time Harry snapped out of it and sat beside him. He wasn't sure what was going on and decided to ask after class.

Harry forgot all about talking to Dimitree about his reaction in the beginning of the class by the time class was over. If there was one thing he had to say about the new teacher it was "Don't get on her bad side!". In fact, he thought he should probably stay away from her all together.

The class had started with her introducing herself in a quiet voice that made all of them sit up and forward to hear her better. She had explained that she planned a mostly practical class for them after the first two weeks when they would be writing and defining things as a way of catching up. Harry hadn't been too excited about the idea of nothing but writing for two weeks but since she planned on having mostly practical after that he had to admit she was definitely better than Umbridge. Then again, mostly everyone was better than Umbridge. Even Quirrel, having Voldemort sticking out the back of his head at the time, was better than Umbridge.

Montgomery had seemed pretty nice until halfway though class when one of the Slytherins, after a half an hour of copying definitions off the board, had whispered, pretty loudly, something negative about Dumbledore. Harry had expected it to be either ignored or for points to be deducted. What he hadn't expected was for their teacher to explode, turn completely red, her hair, clothes, and eyes, and order the Slytherin out of her classroom. After the Slytherin had rushed out, dropping his bag halfway through and coming back to get it, they had all been warned to never insult anyone, and especially not the headmaster, in her class. Harry had to admit, the scare tactic had been pretty successful. There had been no negative comments from any of the houses for the rest of the class. He had, however, spend the rest of the period incredibly tense. When the teacher had exploded, his wand was in his hand ready to hex her and he had spend the rest of the period holding it in his left hand, under his table, ready to react if the need came even though after he outburst, she was back to the brown.

At the end of class, Harry was ready to be one of the first to leave. That, however, didn't happen when the professor called out to him and asked him to stay so she could talk to him. Harry had slumped in his seat, waiting for everyone to leave before he would approach the professor's desk. On his way out, Dimitree had shot him look and had pointed at the door. Harry assumed it meant that he would be waiting outside for him.

"Mr. Potter," started the teacher when everyone was out of the classroom and Harry had finally approached her desk, "I appreciate that you are ready to protect your classmates, but I would appreciate it even more if you didn't spend the whole of my period with your wand in your hand ready to hex me." Harry was stumped. "Off you go." She said and turned to the parchment she had been obsessing over all period. Before Harry could say anything in return, the professor had looked up and given him a confused look, as if to say "You're still here?". Harry left.

Dimitree had been outside, waiting for him, but when Harry came out, still confused and he had to admit a bit spooked, Dimitree didn't ask him anything. He just grabbed Harry at the shoulder and dragged him away towards the Library, it being a free period they both had. By the time they reached the Library, Harry was finally able to talk but all he said was:

"She's weird!" at which Dimitree had laughed, earning himself a nasty look from Mrs. Pince, and had continued stirring the Griffindor to a table towards the back of the library. It was good table, Harry had to admit. He could see the doors but he thought it doubtful that someone just coming in would be able to see him right away. The rest of the day was spend in doing homework, which Dimitree seemed to think should be done the same day it was given to them and Harry, missing Hermione a bit, went along with his wishes and started on his "Magical Creatures I know of" essay for the professor whose classroom he had just left. She had wanted to know what kind of creatures they all knew, most likely to know what she should cover. While Harry thought her confusing and creepy, he still thought that the essay he was writing was a good idea for the class. Having, somewhat, thought a DADA class, of a sort, he recognized good methods of teaching others his age.

Dimitree didn't say much the whole time they were in the Library. He seemed really absorbed in his work and while Harry was curious to get his opinion on Montgomery, he knew that if the boy was anything like Hermione about studying, he wouldn't appreciate being interrupted. Especially not in the library.

Dinner time came pretty fast and Harry was surprised to see that his mandatory three feet parchment essay had turned out to be about two times the required length.

"You got a bit excited about that class, didn't you?" Dimitree seemed amused.

"What about yours, then?" asked Harry, expecting the same answer that would come out of Hermione. Dimitree reminded him a lot of her, except for the fact that he didn't seem to care much about the rules and he was a boy with green hair.

"It's exactly three feet." He said a bit too proudly, Harry thought, and then showed him the homework he had finished for the rest of his classes. Harry was a bit amazed. They were all the exact length that was supposed to be the minimum.

"For someone who likes doing his homework right away and does a lot of research on it," at which point he pointed towards the load of books on Dimitree's side of the table, "you sure like to do the bare minimum." The Bulgarian boy just smiled, satisfied, and without saying anything back got up to return his books. Every time Harry thought he had figured him out, the Slytherin did something else to completely throw him off.

While heading to the great hall for dinner, Harry tried to get some kind of explanation from Dimitree about his homework but all he was able to get out was that Dimitree didn't want to write more than he could get away with. That still didn't explain all the research he had done for the little he wrote but those were all the answers Harry could get out of him. In fact, getting answers out of Dimitree about anything at all was like squeezing water out of a stone. Practically impossible. In a way it seemed like he had a REALLY short attention span always changing the topic. Even if it was a topic he himself had introduced, Harry could have been in the middle of saying something about it and Dimitree would interrupt him and change the topic again. It was like he just couldn't keep up with him. Several times he wasn't even sure what exactly they were talking about or whether they were talking about the same thing.

Once they got to the Great Hall, Harry didn't really expect a repeat of lunch, but Dimitree didn't even hesitate to fallow him to the Griffindor table. They were stopped halfway there by Snape.

"Mr. Zahariev, you would do well to sit at your own table at dinnertime. While I can not change your choice of friends, I would appreciate it if you do not embarrass your house mates." His piercing gaze was not fixed on Dimitree, through his speech, but rather was on Harry. It seemed accusatory, as if it was all Harry's fault that Dimitree preferred to sit with the Griffindor's than the Slytherins. Then again, Harry wasn't really surprised that he was being blamed. As far as Snape was concerned, Harry was always the one at fault.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, professor." Dimitree's voice was dripping with amusement and satisfaction. "They embarrass themselves all on their own." Harry nudged Dimitree. Snape looked like he was about to hex them but Dimitree seemed oblivious and continued. "Why, Davis got himself kicked out of Defense Against the Dark Arts today. I don't think I can do much better than that, don't you think?" Harry was waiting for the steam to start pouring out of Snape nostrils. He looked like an enraged dragon. Maybe the fire will be soon to fallow the smoke. Instead of answering, however, Snape turned sharply around, his robes snapping in the air, and headed towards the Slytherin table. Harry was really glad it wasn't him that would be on the end of that anger. Dimitree smirked, once again reminding Harry that he was related to Malfoy. No one smirked the way Malfoy did. Dimitree came the closest so far.

"I have to go, sorry." Was all that his companion said and headed towards the table he was supposed to sit at, a slight bounce in his step. Harry was ready to swear that Dimitree was trying to piss off Snape on purpose, but who would be that stupid?

~*~*~

Draco had missed lunch. Really, it was on purpose since he knew that his cousin would just ruin his appetite, he hadn't eaten almost anything in the last few days. So at lunch, instead of submitting to the torture, he decided to visit the kitchens. There, at least, he could order exactly what he wanted. As long as he didn't happen on his old house elf. Dibbi or something. He was in luck and came in on some of the regular house elves. After an exquisite meal, Draco headed towards his DADA class. As it had become usual, in the classes that his cousin and the Griffindork shared, they were sitting together. Draco tried his best to ignore them. He really didn't want a repeat of the day before in front of even more audience. He was still sore over the inbreeding comment coming from his pureblood cousin. Davis's expulsion from the class didn't help matters and the rumors about the Slytherin sitting with the Golden Boy made his mood bad enough that by dinnertime he was back to wishing his father would have just forgotten that they were related to the Zaharievs. Either that or that Dimitree had fallen in a hole and died on the way to Brittan. Even better, splinched himself to the point that he would never have been able to leave the hospital bed again.

Draco prided himself on being well informed, being able to understand people and know how to manipulate them and he knew exactly why his cousin was, at dinner, trying to go sit with the Griffindors. He wanted to piss off Draco. That was all there was to it. He had to admit, however, that getting Snape off his back by sicking him on Davis was smart and very Slytherin. There had, of course, never been a question of whether or not Dimitree was a Slytherin. The question was more of what can one do not to get in his bad graces, if they weren't Draco, and what can he do to piss him off back, if it WAS Draco. He had brainstormed for the last few days and nothing had come out of it. The insulting Potter strategy had backfired yesterday so now he was back at square one, that is, until he heard a first year Slytherin admire his cousin and his boldness and then he had it. The best way to piss off his cousin and this time he knew it will not fail.

With the new plan on mind, Draco enjoyed every bite of his dinner. Even when dinner was over and Dimitree blatantly headed towards Potter, Draco's good mood did not waver. He had been in such a bad mood the last few days that now he enjoyed every moment of the horrible mood he knew his cousin will be in. And the best part was, he would never come in contact with him for it and it was completely fallowing the rules, so there will be no detention for him. It was perfect!