DISCLAIMER: All canon characters and the Harry Potter-verse belongs to J K Rowling, and all "Malfoy Ambition" related things belong to Goddess Blue. Everything else belongs to me.

WARNINGS: Female Harry, Draco/Harry pairing, spoilers from possibly all the Harry Potter books, slight OOCness, cliches, and a bit of coarse language that will appear here and there.

A/N: Woot! Thanks for all the ideas, guys! I can't promise to use all of 'em 'cause I've already planned a huge part of this fic (I just need to shove in Seamus and his antics in there), but I really appreciate them. Also, the actual "stunts" won't start happening immediately - I've got some some other stuff planned for the next few chappies before Seamus can steal the show. ^v^'

Just a PS to -soaring high-: Do you have ESP or something? 'Cause I had almost the exact same idea as yours! XD

CHAPTER SEVEN: PERVERTS, POTIONS AND PARTNERS

'GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE!'

Harry shot up in bed with a startled yell as freezing water drenched her body, all traces of sleep and drowsiness vanishing in an instant.

'What – wha - what ...' she spluttered as she coughed out the small amount of water that had entered her mouth. As her coughing fit came to an end, her ears were greeted with the sound of hearty laughter. She pushed the sopping hair out of her face and reached for her glasses which were on her bedside table.

'Parvati!' Harry exclaimed in outrage when she saw the pretty Indian girl standing over her bed, holding an empty bucket in her hand and laughing uproariously at her. In the background, she could see Lavender Brown doubled over as she guffawed and Hermione perched on her bed, looking like she was biting back her mirth. 'What the heck was that for?!'

'You,' Parvati Patil continued to laugh, 'needed a little persuasion to wake up.'

'What are you talking about?' Harry huffed as she swung her legs off the soaked bed and stood up. Her pyjamas clung to her body and she winced as she felt the coldness of the water seeping into her skin. She shivered.

'We've been trying to wake you up for the past twenty minutes, Harry,' Hermione explained gently, though her face still held poorly disguised amusement at her best friend's wake up call, 'but you were too deeply asleep and it's the first day of school and already time for breakfast. So, Parvati here decided that, er, some drastic measures needed to be taken.'

'Drastic measures,' Harry snorted as she whipped out her wand and quickly dried her bed and night clothes. 'And you couldn't think of anything besides soaking me in a bucketful of water?'

'Oldest trick in the book and it works better than magic,' Parvati snickered. 'Or I could've just done the more obvious and set your underwear on fire. That would've been equally effective.' She began to laugh again.

Harry frowned at her dormmates as she bent down to find her school robes in her trunk, but decided not to snap at them.

'So, Harry,' Lavender said innocently, watching the raven-haired girl with a smirk as she carefully combed her hair.

'Hmm?'

'Just out of mild curiosity, what kind of erotic dreams were you having that you just could not bring yourself to wake up and greet the day, huh?'

'Hmm?' Harry repeated distractedly as she tried to find her tie. It took a few moments for the meaning of the question to dawn on her. Harry froze and turned around slowly to stare at her dormmates. Parvati and Lavender promptly dissolved into giggles while Hermione shot them scandalised looks before smiling reassuringly at her friend.

Harry scowled at them before turning back to the task at hand. 'I wasn't dreaming about anything,' she muttered. 'Perverts,' she added, causing the other two girls' boisterous laughter to increase in volume which she decided to ignore. Finally having had found her tie, she gathered her clothes in her arms and proceeded to hurry to the bathroom. But as luck would have it, her foot caught on one of the legs of her bed and she stumbled; her clothes spilled out of her arms.

'Oh,' Lavender, who had finally calmed down, said, 'here, let me help you.'

'Thanks,' Harry said rather grudgingly, still embarrassed at her blunt question. Hermione came over to help them while Parvati began to rush around the dorm room, screeching about a missing hair ribbon.

'Oh, for Merlin's sake, just wear your hair down and forget about the ribbon,' Hermione said to Parvati impatiently as she placed Harry's school shirt back in her arms.

'But, it's a silk ribbon! I can't lose it, it cost a fortune!'

Lavender rolled her eyes and was about to snap at her best friend when she suddenly frowned. 'Harry,' she said slowly, 'why are you wearing a glove?'

The girl in question froze. 'Er, umm ... that ...' she stammered, glancing down uncomfortably at the black, fingerless glove on her left hand. Harry struggled to come up with an excuse, but her mind had gone blank and she could not think of anything to say. Lavender was looking at her curiously, suspicion dawning in her eyes. Harry looked back, mentally screaming at her brain to think up a lie but could come up with nothing. Why? Why now? She might not be an excellent liar, but when the situation called for it, she had been able to come up with some passable fibs in the past. Come on, think!

It was Hermione, as usual, who came to her rescue.

'Harry cut her hand on a barbed wire this summer,' she said airily, pushing a pair of socks into Harry's hands. 'It was a deep cut. She had to have her hand bandaged and she's wearing the glove now for extra protection against germs until her palm fully heals.'

'Oh,' said Lavender sympathetically while Harry shot Hermione a look of gratitude. 'How's your hand now? You have to wear it for long? 'Cause, no offense, but wearing that thing really doesn't compliment you.'

'Ah, I'll be able to take it off soon,' Harry said quickly. 'I hope,' she added, thinking about what everyone had told her about the chances of being able to remove that damned ring of Malfoy's.

Lavender handed her the tie and Harry quickly stood up, thanking her, eager to escape to the bathroom. On the way, Hermione stopped her with a hand and murmured in a low voice, 'And I thought you said that no one would bother to look at anyone's hands!'

'Good morning,' Ron yawned when Harry and Hermione joined him in the common room. They hurried down to breakfast together where they found that most of the students had already arrived at the Great Hall and that the Heads of Houses were moving down the tables, passing out their timetables. The Gryffindor table was attended to by Headmistress McGonagall and the three of them realised that this meant that another Professor had not been chosen to be the Gryffindor Head of House.

'I wonder why that is?' Hermione murmured as they watched McGonagall drawing closer to them. It was unusual for a headmaster or mistress to be a Head of House.

'Probably couldn't find another one at such short notice,' Ron said wisely. 'The War just ended after all.'

'Do you think this means that she'll continue to teach us Transfiguration?' Harry asked thoughtfully.

'Let's find out.'

Professor McGonagall finally reached them and briskly handed them their timetables; she bestowed a kind, rare smile on all three of them, nonverbally welcoming them back to the school.

'Hello, Professor,' Hermione smiled back at her.

'Miss Granger, Miss Potter, Mr Weasley.'

'Are you still teaching us Transfiguration, Professor?' Hermione asked, getting right to the point.

'Yes, I am; we were unable to find another teacher for the post so soon, so I shall be taking over the responsibilities and duties of both headmistress and your teacher.'

'We wish you good luck, Professor.'

'Thank you, Miss Granger and – ah, there you are, Longbottom. Here's your timetable.'

A sleepy looking Neville accepted the offered piece of paper politely before dropping into a seat across from the trio. Mumbling a morning greeting which they returned, Neville scanned his timetable before he frowned with dissatisfaction.

'This is just like it used to be before,' he grumbled. 'Double Potions! Ugh, why must they always start Mondays with double Potions?'

Ron groaned in irritation and promptly dropped his head onto the table with a resounding bang that caused three passing girls to jump in fright.

'Oh, cheer up, Neville,' said Hermione, shooting an exasperated look at Ron who must have lost a few brain cells with his head banging. 'With Slughorn teaching us, it's not too bad, is it?'

'Maybe not,' Neville muttered, 'but after all those years with Snape, I still hate it.'

Harry coughed slightly into her porridge. It made her feel awkward to hear others talk negatively about Severus Snape now, but she still had not told anyone apart from Ron and Hermione that their former teacher had been a good person all along; someday, she supposed that she would, but not now. It was still too soon. Of course, there was still the fatc that she had pretty much screamed out that Snape had been on their side when she had confronted Voldemort in the Great Hall during the final battle, but she was still unsure about how many of the onlookers had actually registered her words. Most had been too focussed on the fight, and she still occasionally heard people badmouthing Snape. Such words almost sent her over the edge.

'Morning,' two voices said. All four of them looked up to see Seamus and Dean.

'So, what are we having today?' the latter asked as the two of them joined the four at the table.

'Double Potions,' Harry answered in a neutral voice. She raised her eyebrows when she saw Seamus' eyes lighting up instantly.

'Awesome!' the Irishman rubbed his hands together gleefully like he had done the night before.

'What are you so happy about?' grunted a still irritated Ron as he buttered his toast. 'It's Potions!'

'There'll be a considerable number of Slytherins with us,' Seamus said happily.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville looked round at Seamus questioningly. It was Dean who answered their unvoiced question: 'He's eager to get started on the whole friendship-with-the-Slytherins thing.'

'Ah,' said Neville in understanding as Hermione smiled in approval at the sandy-haired teen.

Ron still looked irritated. 'I get that what the Sorting Hat said last night about unity and friendship is important; what I don't get is why you' – he pointed an accusing half-eaten sausage at the grinning Irishman – 'are so freaking enthusiastic about it! And what's with the obsession with the snakes? Can't we start befriending the Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs before moving onto the Slytherins?'

'Oh, stop it, Ron,' said Hermione patronizingly, 'this is a good thing, remember? Besides, we're already on good terms with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.'

'But why do we have to become all buddy-buddy with the snakes so soon?' Ron positively whined. It was obvious that he still did not find the idea of being friendly with Slytherins very appealing.

'The sooner, the better, mate,' Seamus said exuberantly as he shovelled porridge into his mouth at a sickeningly awe-inspiring speed that could rival that of Ron's. 'And don't forget, playing nice with the snakes won't be easy; and I like a challenge!' His eyes sparkled happily.

'Bottom line: Finnegan is suicidal and has got a death wish,' Ron said deadpanned. 'I can just imagine the reactions you'll get when you sashay up to the Slytherins and plead with them to be your best friends for life and to play in the sandbox with you.'

Even Hermione had to laugh at that.

'I can't believe that you actually said that with a straight face,' Harry snickered, looking amusedly at her male best friend. 'But I agree with them, Ron, we have to give the Slytherins a chance.'

'I never said we shouldn't,' he protested.

'Well, stop whining like a three year old about it, then, and let's get to class,' said Hermione smiling as she stood up. Harry and Ron followed, the latter predictably arguing with the girl about the "three year old" comment. They were soon joined by their three other friends and they made their way to the dungeons.

Professor Slughorn, they found out, was the same as he had ever been when they entered the cold dungeon classroom. He did not look like a man who had fought in a War against one of the most feared Dark Wizards in a century, but was as enthusiastic and bouncy as he had been back when he had first taken up the position of Potions Master at the school.

When Harry stepped into the classroom after her friends, he welcomed her back to Hogwarts with much more energy than the occasion warranted (or so Harry felt, in any case) and very loudly congratulated her on her victory over Voldemort to her great embarrassment, for this, of course, brought the attention of all the students present on her.

Mumbling an incoherent answer, she turned to hurry away from her embarrassing teacher only to find Draco Malfoy's silvery eyes watching her with cold amusement at her very obvious humiliation, his lips twisted in what appeared to be a half-smirk. She looked coldly back at the aristocrat, hating the mocking smile on his face and the silent laughter in his eyes. Her cheeks began to heat up when she suddenly grew extremely conscious of the ring on her finger and she stomped towards the back of the classroom where Ron and Hermione had saved her a seat. She could have sworn she heard Malfoy chuckle slightly when she swept past him, but decided that he was not worth her time and the trouble when the very tempting idea of drowning him in his cauldron made itself known.

Hermione, being the perceptive (annoyingly so, sometimes) witch that she was, immediately noticed the figurative thundercloud that flashed with lightening hanging above Harry's head, and she looked at her with raised eyebrows as Harry sat down beside her, but the raven-haired girl ignored her. The first day of her last year at her beloved school had just started and already her mood was a foul one.

Damn Malfoy! She scowled at her desk, only vaguely aware that her teacher was writing instructions on the board. Him and his goddamned smirk! She had seen that smirk too many times in the past seven years and not only on Draco Malfoy's face either, but also on his father's, and they were absolutely infuriating. The mocking smiles were identical. It was surely a Malfoy thing; something to do with genetics. There was no other way that the smirks could look so identical on two different (but very similar) faces. The Malfoys should copyright that bloody smirk of theirs, Harry thought with a snort. She bit back a harsh snigger when she realised the possibility that it might already be copyrighted. Well, that wouldn't surprise me.

'Are you alright?' Hermione asked quietly, startling the girl from her thoughts. Ron, too, was looking at his best friend with concern.

'What? Yes, of course I am.'

'Really?' Ron said sceptically. 'Because for a moment there, you looked like you were about to set your desk on fire; you were glaring so hard at it.'

Harry blinked. 'I was?'

Hermione rolled her eyes. 'It's Malfoy, isn't it?' she asked bluntly.

Ron was immediately on his guard. 'What did he do?' He growled, turning his head to glare at the back of Malfoy's white-blond head. Hermione threw the red-head an irate look.

'Relax, Ron, he didn't exactly do anything.' Harry shook her head slightly, her frown coming back onto her face.

Ron calmed down, but only very slightly. 'So, why were you so angry just now?' He asked, looking suspiciously at Harry.

'Because he was being a sadistic jerk,' Harry scowled. And fully aware that she sounded extremely childish and petulant, she ground out, 'When Slughorn ... you know, just embarrassed me like that, he just smirked at me like he used to and ...' she groaned in frustration, 'he's just like he used to be! He still enjoys it when I get humiliated and is hell bent on rubbing it in my face! He still thinks he's superior to me! He – he ... ugh, you would think he'd be a little grateful since I practically saved his undeserving sorry ass from Azkaban and ... what?' she snapped when she saw Ron's confused expression and Hermione's knowing smile.

'That is why you were so angry just now?' Ron said blankly.

Harry frowned at him uncomprehendingly. 'And your point is?'

The auburn-haired male shook his head slightly. 'Harry, I like Malfoy as much as you do, but, seriously, don't you think you're overreacting?'

'What'd you mean?'

'Harry,' Ron said pointedly, 'Malfoy's been smirking at us everyday for the past seven years. I would think you'd be immune to it by now.'

Harry opened her mouth to protest, feeling a little embarrassed but Hermione beat her to it. 'Well, Ron,' the bushy-haired girl grinned slyly, reminding Harry of Ginny when she was plotting something, 'you know what Harry's like; she always "overreacts" to Malfoy because he's the only one that can wind her up like no one else can!'

Harry saw red. 'What's that supposed to mean?' she hissed furiously, emerald eyes crackling with electricity as she glared at the girl while Ron looked like he had just had an extra-heavy toilet seat dropped on his head as understanding dawned in his blue eyes.

Hermione was saved the trouble of coming up with a placating answer that would calm down the ferocious Potter when Slughorn, who had finally finished his preparations, boomed, 'All right, class, pay attention now!' He clapped his hands together as he grinned round at them all disarmingly. 'You're all in your seventh, or should I say, eighth year now and, to impress upon you the high level standard of these classes, I'm going to assign you a potion that is as advanced a one as you can come across in your NEWT exams: the Verita Potion!'

He looked around at them keenly with his arms spread wide, waiting for a reaction, but none came except from Hermione who gasped softly, her eyes going wide. The rest of the class looked up at Slughorn with blank eyes.

The Potion's Master looked disappointed and appeared to deflate slightly. One would almost expect him to pout like a three year old. 'Does no one here know what the Verita Potion is?' he asked, looking beseechingly around the dungeon room.

As expected, Hermione's hand shot up, successfully thwacking Harry's head on the way and almost knocking off her glasses.

A huge grin unfolded on their teacher's face. 'Ah, Miss Granger, of course.'

'The Verita Potion is a concoction that prevents the drinker from speaking lies. It is much like Veritaserum; however, the Verita Potion does not force one to reveal truths that one would rather conceal like Veritaserum does, but it only prevents the drinker from lying outright when questioned,' Hermione reeled off, once more displaying the bewildering photographic memory she possessed when it came to reading their school textbooks.

'Excellent,' Slughorn exclaimed exuberantly. 'Take ten points for Gryffindor!'

Hermione glowed with modest pride (Was that even possible? Harry wondered.)

'Know-it-all,' muttered Ron, but he said it fondly and grinned cheekily at Hermione when she mock-glared at him. Harry chuckled slightly, mind taken off of Malfoy temporarily.

'Like Miss Granger said, the Verita Potion is very much like Veritaserum but it is not as strong as the truth serum and does not force the drinker to reveal anything, but merely prevents him or her from outright lying. The drinker would have the right to withhold as much information as he or she wishes or maintain silence. Because of this, the potion can be used legally without supervision unlike Veritaserum.

'However,' Professor Slughorn continued, 'this potion has a potential weakness. Does anyone know what it is?'

Hermione's hand waved enthusiastically in the air again. Ron snorted while Harry just rolled her eyes at them both.

'Go ahead,' Slughorn grinned at Hermione.

'Since the Verita Potion gives the drinker the right to withhold information and only prevents him from speaking lies, the questioner cannot fully rely on what the drinker does choose to reveal, because the drinker can speak half-truths or words whose meaning can be twisted or distorted.'

'Exactly,' Slughorn gave Hermione another dazzling grin, 'another ten points for Gryffindor.'

'Teacher's pet,' Ron coughed, looking teasingly at Hermione out of the corner of his eyes. She smacked him upside the head without turning her head, but Harry could easily see the small, shy smile that graced her face as she looked at their teacher with rapt attention.

'Now, the Verita Potion is not as difficult to make as Veritaserum which includes wand work (by the way, you'll all be learning to make it in the next term), but this potion takes a longer time to make because it requires a lot of ingredients and can be prepared through a very complex procedure. All in all, this will take nearly a month and a half to make!'

The class stared at him, most of them with wide eyes.

Slughorn chuckled good-naturedly at them. 'I understand how you feel. This is the first time you've been given such a complex potion to prepare. For this reason, I have decided to make this a class project and before you ask, yes, a percentage of this will be counted in your overall grade.'

Groans sounded out throughout the classroom. 'A project on the first day of school?' Seamus moaned loudly from his place next to Dean, who wore a similar expression to that of his best friend's.

Their teacher chuckled again. 'This is going to be a hard year for you; might as well get started now and prepare yourselves for the upcoming NEWTs. Preparing this potion will be a good experience for you. Besides, you don't have to do this alone,' Slughorn continued brightly. 'This project will be done with partners.'

All the students looked up at their teacher, most of them slightly mollified. Beside Harry, Ron heaved a sigh of relief, and Harry could not help but agree with him. She had sneaked a peek at the pages on Verita Potion in her Potions textbook and the number of ingredients had been great and the procedure had indeed looked extremely complicated to her. A partner would certainly be helpful.

'I would advise you to spend some time with your partners after school hours to collect information and plan on how to make the potion; a lot of time will be required to go through the procedures so that when you are finally ready to begin preparing the Verita Potion, you can do it right. I promise you now that this will not be easy to make and I expect every single one of you to pass with at least an A grade. You may work on the manual part of the project during our double periods and whenever else you and your partner are free; your potions, until finished, will be stored here in the classroom and you and your partner may retrieve them whenever you want after school hours to finish it. Is that understood?'

The students nodded.

'Good. Also, when you turn in your potions, I expect each of you to turn in a 3 foot essay on the effects and uses of this potion, which, by the way, is an individual work.' He shot them a sunny smile when they all promptly groaned at their workload.

'Ah, well,' Professor Slughorn grinned at them, 'let's get started on dividing you into pairs, shall we?'

Conversation immediately started in the classroom as the students began to search for suitable potion-partners.

'So, who should be with whom?' Ron asked, turning to Harry and Hermione. Hermione gazed wistfully at Ron for a long second before her eyes turned to her female best friend and uncertainty dawned in her brown eyes.

'I ... I don't know ... um, what do you think, Harry?'

Harry suppressed an amused snort. Even a person with less than half a brain could see that the two of them were just dying to be partnered together. She did not want Hermione to think that she was obligated to be Harry's partner because of their friendship, when it was so obvious that she would rather be with the man she had been in love with for, what, six years now?

'You two team up,' Harry said airily, 'and I'll ... er ...' she glanced around and spotted the Hufflepuff Ernie Macmillan seated at the neighbouring table, 'I'll go with Ernie.'

The happiness on Ron and Hermione's faces could not be masked, but nevertheless, Hermione asked with some uncertainly, 'Are you sure about that, Harry?'

She waved them away. 'Sure, sure, I'll be fine. You too go ahead and, er ... have fun.' She winked at them at which Hermione went pink and Ron looked away in embarrassment. Harry almost laughed.

They had already shared the much long-awaited kiss (and, what a kiss it had been, too, in the middle of the Great War and everything!) but it was obvious that they had still not exactly made their relationship official. In spite of the constant bickering, her best friends were still actually shy around each other! She shook her head slightly. As entertaining as their current relationship was, her patience was beginning to wear thin and she was eager for them to just properly confess their feelings and "hit it off", to put it in Ginny's words. At least that would be one problem out of the way.

Slughorn's booming laugh caught the attention of the class at that moment.

'Hasty, aren't you?' He looked around at them with twinkling eyes. 'I had not finished my instructions yet. Yes, I said you would be working with partners, but I did not say that you would be choosing your partners, now, did I?'

Silence reigned in the classroom for the few seconds it took for the meaning of his words to sink in, and then another round of disappointed groans sounded. 'That's not fair!' a Ravenclaw girl whined.

'On the contrary, my dear girl,' Slughorn replied brightly as he unfolded a scroll of parchment, 'it is very fair. This way, you all stand a good chance of working properly and equally. Now, I have the list of partners here and I'll call them out. Every double period you will sit with your assigned partner, understood? Alright then, let's start: Susan Bones and Dean Thomas. Terry Boot and Ernie Macmillan ...'

As he called out their names, Harry could not help but notice that not one of the pairs were of the same House. Every student was paired off with a person who was from a different House. She was not the only one to notice, either.

'It looks like at least Slughorn is taking the Sorting Hat's song very seriously,' Hermione murmured to Harry and Ron a few minutes after Slughorn had started announcing the pairs.

'... Seamus Finnegan and Millicent Bulstrode ...'

The rest of the class watched in bemusement as Seamus whooped and punched a fist into the air in ecstasy before picking up his bag and sauntering over to his Slytherin partner happily. Millicent Bulstrode raised her eyebrows coolly at him as he plopped down into the seat next to hers, but he only flashed all thirty two of his teeth at her in a ten thousand volt grin and she turned away with a confused look on her face.

'I don't know who I feel sorrier for: Seamus or Bulstrode,' muttered Ron and Harry could not help but snicker. She had to agree with him on that one.

'... Hariah Potter and Blaise Zabini ...'

Harry blinked slightly in mild surprise before she gazed around the classroom, seeking her partner. He was not hard to find. Zabini was seated next to Malfoy, and he had turned slightly in his seat to look at her. When their eyes met, he gave her a small nod before turning to face the front again. Harry continued to gaze at the back of his head.

She did not personally know Blaise Zabini and the only time she had been in close proximity with him had been when Slughorn had invited them both to lunch in his compartment during the train ride at the beginning of their sixth year. Zabini had not liked her back then, if the looks he had given her during that long-winded lunch were anything to go by, and she did not know if they would get along well now. Harry sighed as she turned away from him. If they could not work as a team, then this project was utterly screwed. And since Slughorn had said that it would be counted in their grade, her dreams of getting good marks in Potions and becoming a respectable Auror were as good as over. She winced at the thought of failing and being the dead last. He just had to pair me up with a Slytherin, didn't he?

Hermione did not look as perturbed by this arrangement as Harry felt, but Ron on the other hand, looked sympathetic. Harry gave him a small smile, but inside she was crushed. Why do I get the feeling that this project is going to be very long and unpleasant?

'... Draco Malfoy and Ronald Weasley ...'

Well, maybe not as unpleasant as it'll be for Ron...

To say that Ron's jaw had hit the ground would be an understatement. He stared with incredulous horror at his teacher, eyes bulging and mouth closing and opening like that of a goldfish. 'Wha – wha ... I don't ...' he stammered, his face growing redder with every passing second, causing Hermione to look at him with worry.

Harry watched her best friend silently, feeling genuinely sorry for him, but, at the same time, also felt a hint of amusement at the rather comical expression on his face. She glanced around at Malfoy who had visibly stiffened and was sitting stock straight in his seat. As she watched, Blaise Zabini clapped Malfoy on the shoulder and said something with a laughing look on his face. Malfoy shrugged off his hand and growled something back, at which Zabini threw back his head and laughed with open amusement.

She turned back to Ron who was now glaring daggers at both the Potions Master and his partner, and resisted the urge to bang her head on the table. The first day of school was turning out to be a truly unlucky one. As Slughorn continued to call out the pairs, blissfully oblivious to the ominous atmosphere that had gripped the dungeon classroom, Harry noticed that a lot of students were now eagerly watching her best friend and Malfoy. They're expecting a good fight, she realised with some alarm. Ron had better hold in his temper – his tongue and fists, too; not to mention his wand.

Professor Slughorn finished calling the rest of the names soon after that. Harry and Ron were both of the opinion that Hermione was one very lucky witch; she had been teamed up with Justin Finch-Fletchly, a Hufflepuff with whom all three of them were on very good terms. Harry sighed as she packed her bag so that she could join Zabini as Slughorn had instructed, so that they could spend the rest of the period going through the potion and its procedures, and plan their project. Hermione is really very lucky, she thought gloomily.

'Aren't you coming, Ron?' Harry asked, when she noticed that Ron had made no move to get his bag and join Malfoy. He gave her a withering look before pointedly turning to frown at his desk. Harry rolled her eyes. Of course, his pride would not allow him to get up and go to his enemy. But, if she was to be truthful to herself, she did not exactly think Malfoy would come to sit by Ron, either. After all, the blond aristocrat had a bigger ego than her fiery best friend.

Deciding that Ron and Malfoy were definitely going to spend the rest of class glaring at each other from across the room, both unwilling to get up and join their partners, Harry turned away from her friend to move to the front of class and collided into what felt like a hard wall.

'Oh, sorry.'

'Watch where you're going, Potter.'

Harry blinked in surprise when she realised what - or rather whom - she had bumped into.

'What – what are you doing here?'

Malfoy raised a thin, elegant eyebrow as his eyes dipped down to meet with hers. 'Perhaps you are unaware of it, Potter, but Weasley over here is my project partner and according to our teacher's instructions, we are supposed to sit with our partners today. Or is your brain capacity so pitiful that you could not quite grasp that concept?'

Any other day, the insult would have sent Harry's temper flaring, but today, she could only stare with dumbstruck shock at her rival, who had actually gotten off his ridiculously high horse and had come to sit with Ronald Weasley of all people; something that would have never ever happened under any circumstances that could be considered normal.

Something very wrong is happening to the world...

A glance at the open shock on Ron's face told her that his thoughts were going along the same tangent as hers.

'Well, Potter, are you going to move or should I run you over? I'd be happy to oblige.'

The shock had begun to wear off somewhat and irritation began to take hold. She bristled, narrowing her eyes at him. 'Whatever,' she growled and brushed past him; but even then, her mind remained focussed on the two people behind her and she looked over her shoulder at them; Malfoy had sat down in the empty chair beside Ron who was watching him with undisguised suspicion and caution. The blond, on the other hand, was completely expressionless.

What in the world...?

She was still lost in thought when she finally reached her destination. Blaise Zabini, who had been lounging in his seat waiting for Harry to join him, eyed her distracted face lazily before drawling, 'About time; took you long enough to get here.'

Shaken from her thoughts, Harry turned her eyes on the Slytherin in front of her and his words slowly sunk into her hazy mind. She regarded him warily, unsure whether she should make a retort or just sit down and ignore him for the rest of the period, project be damned.

Zabini met her eyes boldly and his lips twitched up in an amused half-smile. 'You are allowed to sit down, you know. I don't bite ... at least, not hard.' He smirked at her.

The green-eyed girl stared at him, not knowing what to make of his friendly-slash-mocking attitude. He returned her gaze, still smirking slightly. Harry heaved a mental sigh. Snakes were really hard creatures to understand; any effort on her part to try to figure them out would be a waste. Giving up, she dropped her bag unceremoniously onto the ground beside the table she would have to share with Zabini and sat down unenthusiastically next to him. He chuckled at the gloomy look on her face.

'Alright,' Professor Slughorn spoke up suddenly from the front of the class. Harry turned to him at once, glad for the distraction. 'You're all with your partners! Don't waste time now. Start planning. Only through teamwork can you get this potion right!'

Harry almost groaned. His last words had not been encouraging in the least.

'So, how do you want to do this?'

'Huh?' was Harry's intelligent reply to the unexpected question. Zabini, who was flipping though his Potions text book, glanced at her briefly before looking back down at the book.

'I asked how you wanted to go about making the potion.' He paused, having had finally found the page he was looking for. 'Slughorn's right: this is a very complex potion and the procedures are very complicated. He's written some helpful tips on the board, but they won't make this much easier. This is going to need a lot of planning; we need to decide which one of us is going to do which part of the potion and I also suggest that we look up all the information we can about it and its ingredients; a better understanding of it will make it easier for us to actually make it.'

'Right,' mumbled Harry, as she opened her book to the right page.

'Also, since we can only get started on making it during the double period next week, we can use this week to do research. If we have time, we can also get a good start on our essays and that will certainly be helpful to grasp the inner workings of Verita. Is that fine with you?'

'Yeah, I guess.'

'So, what are your free nights?'

Harry looked up at him at that.

'I need to know when you'll be free so that we can arrange to meet up in the library to gather information,' he explained patiently with just a hint of condescension in his tone.

'Oh, right,' Harry muttered. 'I'm free every night.'

'Are you sure?' Zabini raised an eyebrow. 'Don't you have any Quidditch practices or anything?'

Harry was startled. She had completely forgotten about Quidditch, her favourite sport in the world. Since she had ditched school last year, she was pretty sure that she was no longer on the Gryffindor team, let alone the captain. Nor had she received any notices from the headmistress that she had been reinstated in the team. She sighed sadly; there was no doubt: her Hogwarts Quidditch days were most likely over.

'Yes, I'm sure,' she finally said, a touch of wistful regret in her voice.

Zabini looked at her for a long moment. 'Alright. Well, I'm free most nights, too, but we need to leave some nights free for homework ... I suppose two nights will be enough. Tuesday and Thursday nights fine with you?'

'Sure, Zabini,' Harry said indifferently, 'Tuesday and Thursday it is.'

'Blaise.'

'What?'

'Call me Blaise.'

The girl stared at him, taken aback. He smirked wryly at her.

'You and I are going to be spending a lot of time together for the next month and half. We might as well be civil to each other. Being on first name terms seems like a pretty good start.'

'Oh, um ... right, Zabi – er, Blaise,' Harry stammered, still surprised.

He grinned. 'Thank you, Harry ... or would you rather that I called you Hariah?'

She faltered for a second, thinking. Only her closest friends called her Harry. She was Hariah Potter to the rest of the world. And here was Blaise Zabini, a man with whom she had never exchanged words before now...

'Harry is fine,' she said, and immediately wondered what had driven her to permit him to call her by her pet name.

His grin broadened. 'Alright then, Harry.'

The rest of the period passed with the both of them diligently planning their assigned work and going through the procedures. Blaise, Harry found out, was excellent in Potions and he helped her understand the more difficult parts of the Verita Potion. Before she knew it, the bell had rung and class was over. Blaise gave her a lopsided smile and left with an airy, 'See you tomorrow night at seven thirty, Harry.' She returned his smile as she packed her things. She had to admit, working with Blaise Zabini had not been as bad as she had initially thought it would be. It had been strange to say the least, working amiably with a Slytherin she had been sure had hated her, but it had not been unpleasant. Definitely strange, but it was something that she felt that she could get used to.

Maybe this project won't be such a screw up after all.

It was with a lighter heart that she approached the back of the classroom to join her friends. Ron was stuffing his books into his bag and Hermione, Harry saw, was having a few last words with her partner. Malfoy, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen.

Harry hesitated when she was the strange look on Ron's face and immediately grew worried. Having had been rather caught up with the conversation with Blaise, she had completely forgotten to check up on her best friend and his partner. However, there had not been any sounds of a fight between him and Malfoy (thank Merlin for that!), but something must have definitely happened; she had never seen such a weird look on Ron's face – and that was saying a lot since she had seen a lot of odd expressions on her best friend's features. She approached him uncertainly, but he did not appear to notice her.

'So ... um, Ron,' Harry ventured cautiously, 'how was it with you and Malfoy?'

A/N: So ... who saw the Harry-Blaise and Draco-Ron partnerships coming, eh? ;)

Verita Potion and its dynamics are both a modification of J K Rowling's Veritaserum, and partly my own invention; so the parts that came from the inner workings of my twisted mind belong to yours truly. Also (as is obvious) I just manipulated Veritaserum to Verita Potion to give it a name 'cause I was too lazy to crawl through Latin dictionaries in search of cooler names; I know - I'm so creative, aren't I? ~Note the sarcasm~

One more thing! I put up a POLL on my profile page 'cause I wanna know what you guys are thinking about how Draco is going to ... ah, well, just go there to find out and put in a vote if you haven't already, K? Please? :)

Some bad news: My unit tests are coming up and stuff, so I'm going to have to stop procrastinating and get on with my studies. So, I'm afraid that there will be no updates for a little while; maybe not months, but it'll probably be some weeks before I can update again. :( Sorry, guys, but education comes first.

ON THE WAY: CHAPTER EIGHT: The Draco Malfoy Fan Club ;P