Serpensortia

Chapter Five: Sonoran Sidewinder

"What a waste! Hope that hits some sense into a Gryffindor at least," Draco announced, leaning over the railing of the moving staircase to peer down at its depths. A book from the pile Granger clutched in her hands had fallen over the side when the staircase had abruptly changed course. The sudden jostle caused her to stumble and lose the book from the top of her precarious stack. Draco could've grabbed her arm and righted her easily, but that would require purposely helping and touching her. That book could've been important to his research though. He frowned and shrugged before turning to address her. "You are quite possibly the worst servant I've ever had."

"I told you: I'm not a house elf!"

"I didn't say 'elf'. I said 'servant'."

"THAT'S IT!" Hermione bellowed, completely frustrated, before gently setting the books down on the stone steps. "You can take these books to the potions lab by yourself, Malfoy. I'm sure even wizards as incompetent as you can leviosa if you're too delicate to carry them yourself." She started to march back up the steps, but she didn't get far. Draco reached out and grabbed her wrist to pull her back down a few steps towards him.

"Wait!" he said, cringing at having to placate her. "I'll…try to be civil…while we brew?"

"Why bother? You're obviously incapable of it." Her brown eyes sparkled with anger, and Malfoy looked directly into their depths in hopes of conveying his sincerity. She yanked her hand out of his light grasp and crossed her arms resolutely.

"What about a truce for the sake of this project? I can't complete it without your help."

"Get someone else to help you!" A group of Hufflepuffs tried to pass them on the stairway. They worked their way around the pair who didn't budge one inch from their hostile stances and their stack of books left strewn on the steps, but the Puffs didn't bother to involve themselves as the pair having a row at every inconvenient locale in Hogwarts was nothing new.

"No, it has to be you. Your blood."

"Oh, I should've known better. I'm a lab experiment to you now, is that it? Because of my normal blood no less! It's not unclean or muddy brown or somehow different in any way!" Her yelling resounded in the stairwell punctuated by the grinding of stairwells moving and coming together with landings.

"I'm just trying to find answers to questions I have, Granger! Surely you can relate to that?"

While Draco did want these answers to satisfy his own curiosity, he knew his appeal to her insatiable quest for knowledge wouldn't fail to entice her. Granger did raise an interesting point, he mentally conceded. Was he attempting this specifically to prove that muggleborns were as inhuman as he'd been raised by his father to believe? She obviously thought he was. However, he'd certainly be responsible for his own failure to best a lesser witch like Granger then. Alternatively, was he doing this in hopes that he could prove muggleborns were human, and therefore, it wasn't unreasonable to lose occasionally to a peer? If that conclusion came to fruition, the moral complication of knowing muggleborns were equals would surely put him in a perilous disadvantage with his parents, their pureblood social circles, and the Dark Lord. It would difficult to bear witness to any revels with the cool detachment he'd adopted before at such gruesome occasions if that were the case. He was soon to be Marked by the Dark Lord this year and muggle bloodshed at the initiation would be expected. He honestly didn't know which conclusion to hope for, and he felt that perhaps that's acceptable at present, since his expectations wouldn't impede his objective research then. He internally admitted to possibly being a coward by not wanting to commit to hypothesis just yet.

"I understand, but I have a few conditions then, Malfoy."

"Spit them out then."

"Like you said, a truce. I want you and your vile girlfriend to stop tormenting me. I'll be sacrificing my study time on this, and I don't want to waste even more time feuding over nothing."

"Don't push your luck. I can attempt polite, but it's laughable that I'd suddenly be friendly with you without raising suspicion. Parkinson is not my anything. I didn't realize her completely ignoring your existence since first year was considered an ongoing attack to you. Expecting everyone to sing your praises at all times, are you?"

"I've been granted the misfortune of her attention this year, and I won't help if she's involved."

"Look at you, becoming fast friends with all these snakes suddenly."

"It's best we keep this whole project quiet too."

"I couldn't agree more. Now, are you ready to get off this bloody staircase already? You took so long whining it's not even going the right way any longer."

"I'm not finished with my demands."

"Merlin's beard, wrap it up. I'm losing patience."

"Stay out of my friendship with Nott. Interhouse unity is important, and well...it's nice having someone to study with in the library."

"As if I cared who you associated with? I just don't want you prioritizing social visits over this project after all." Draco said, lamely. Admittedly, he knew Granger's fervor for work, and he had no doubts about her dedication. He had a lot of questions about the sudden acquaintance between Granger and Nott as Nott was a very calculated bloke with little use for friends he didn't have designs on. Obviously, he wanted Granger's rapport for something. Draco decided to keep an eye on this development Theo had probably purposely neglected to mention. You know, for the sake of keeping his friend out of trouble. Not at all out of curiosity or mistrustfulness of Nott's intentions towards Granger, he assured himself. Simply, Draco felt entitled to using her as his personal target and outlet for degradation. He'd resolved to dissuade Nott from this silly involvement with the Gryffindor if he couldn't successfully talk Granger out of it. At least, Nott could see reason and the disadvantages of angering a Malfoy were clear, whereas Granger was stubbornly resolute in her decisions regardless of consequences. If anything, he figured, just publicly pointing out the acquaintance would damage both of their reputations enough for them to ensure withdrawal of their friendship as Slytherins and Gryffindors were bitter rivals, but then, he risked Granger backing out of the project with him in retaliation. Perhaps, he will talk to Pansy about her treatment of Granger while also dropping the subtle hint that Nott and Granger are becoming close pals so that Pansy could play the gossipmonger instead of him.

"You're making a terribly wicked face right now, did you know?" Hermione looked mistrusting. His eyes were shining with gleeful mischief, and rightfully so, this gave her cause to worry. That look always preluded creative attempts to demean her or her friends, so he couldn't blame her for being wary.

"I just had some brilliant ideas for our project is all, not to worry." he said, evasively, using his hand to make a sweeping, gentlemanly gesture to prompt her down the stairs in the direction of the potions lab.

"I'll be the judge of that." she said, brandishing the books and turning on her heel down the stairs with a humph at his chivalrous mannerism. The flourish of her robes swirling around her gave him a preview of long, slender legs leading to a grey skirt. Pureblood were a conservative culture, even in fashions, and Draco blamed his taking visceral notice of her legs on the instincts of any boy his age confronted with the surprise of a flattering physique. After composing himself, he followed her lead, and he realized as he observed her that for such a bookworm, she must be fit under those bulky robes to carry that mountain of books and march down these stairs so briskly. As soon as the thought came unbidden to his mind, he frowned. What on earth has gotten into him all of a sudden? There were plenty other suitable girls to be imagining, and a thought like that about Granger deserved no indulgence in his mind. He wouldn't think about it again, he determined.

When they arrived to the potions lab, they thankfully had the place to themselves. Professor Slughorn must've retired to his quarters for the day. Hermione proceeded to her normal worktable, and she began immediately digging into the information Draco had gathered. Draco figured that they would quickly agree on a potion and collect the ingredients they'd need from the lab since the new professor was unlikely to be knowledge on the stock levels of the potion storeroom yet. Then, Draco decided they'd seek a more private brewing location out of the way of fellow student and teacher interference. If caught, he'd say it was an extracurricular assignment from Professor Snape as was the stretched truth he told Nott anyway. He planned to feed the same lie to Granger if she asked too, knowing that she'd be staunchly against any rule breaking. Severus would likely vouch for him albeit with a touch of exasperation.

"How did you intend to test the blood? We could try to identify any magical properties contained in the blood samples, but that's unlikely to completely answer the question of the effectiveness of one's magical ability. It would be best –"

"—to test the relative strengths with two identical potions each containing a different blood sample, yes." Draco finished, with a pointed look daring her to contradict him. He didn't enjoy her pretending he was obtuse. "I'm second best behind you in lessons, Granger. You don't have to explain everything as if I'm Potty or Weasel."

"My apologies. I'd always assumed you bought your grades. Your family is a generous donor to Hogwarts, after all." Hermione mumbled, critically. "I mean, there were those broomsticks that got you on the Quidditch team…"

"You think that old coot Dumbledore would let me pass exams through bribery, do you? I'll have to try that. He's partial to sweets. A classroom full of Bertie's beans from Honeydukes should do it." Draco countered sarcastically.

"That's an absurd idea."

"That was an absurd accusation."

"Fine," she relented, "I shouldn't be shocked. Cleverness is expected of a Slytherin, I suppose."

"Yet I'm shocked that somehow an annoying Gryffindor swot beats me each year."

Hermione missed his latest retort as she was lost in reading. After a few silent moments of hearing nothing but castle creaking and dungeon drippings, Hermione excitedly pushed the book forward for Draco to examine.

"How about this potion for testing? It should do for our purpose."

A/N : Thanks for reading another chapter, sneks! I'm really enjoying playing games with all these Slytherin characters. I didn't realize how much I needed a story like this with each of them having all these ulterior motives and schemes. I'll get the next chapter up soon! Really excited about the next chapter as the potion they're experimenting with gets revealed, and we discover why Theo gave her a blank paper (spoiler: it's a charmed parchment). I feel like I've fleshed out enough of the Slytherins personalities and motivations to get this plot rolling, so I'm looking forward to lots of drama and an intense, slow burning, realistic ( I mean as realistic as magical students in a wizarding world can be) romance! I rated this fic M with the intention of addressing adult content through violence and war themes, etc. as this fic will get into the nitty gritty of the battles with the Dark Lord, but I'm debating how on "vivid" scenes of sexual nature should be between Draco and Hermione later on. I'd love to hear opinions on that issue and any thought you had about this chapter! Thanks again for reading! Until next time, sneks!