"I'll come with you tonight," Neville decided while we were still hugging.
I carefully pushed him away from me and looked him seriously in the eyes.
"No you don't.
You're about to go on your date with Hannah and you're going to have a nice day.
You don't look at your watch all the time and you don't stand her up just because I made a stupid mistake.
Malfoy and I are just gonna study, nothing's gonna happen.
Besides, I can take care of myself very well."
"I don't have a good feeling about this Daisy.
He may have apologised but that doesn't mean I believed it.
Malfoy doesn't change, he's an arrogant bastard."
"Who needs my help," I quickly added as if it justified it.
"Maybe so but I'd still prefer it if I came with you, just in case something does happen and Malfoy gets on your case."
"Then I'll curse him, I am a witch after all, in case you've forgotten.
I've said it once and I'll say it again, I'm perfectly capable of defending myself.
I don't need anyone to protect me.
Don't underestimate me just because I'm a small little girl."
I crossed my arms in front of my chest.
He seemed to want to say something back, but shut his mouth again without saying anything and sighed.
"No matter what I say, I'll never be able to convince you not to go alone tonight."
I shook my head.
"You really are stubborn, Daisy Harper."
He massaged the bridge of his nose.
"I know, I get it from my dad."
The basement was always damp but at this time of day it was also cold.
A really uncomfortable place.
I wrapped my arms tighter around my torso and regretted not taking my thick coat.
After school I had pulled a cosy grey cardigan over my shirt and my feet were in my winter shoes.
I had been comfortably warm and since we weren't going to study outside after all, this outfit had seemed warm enough.
I really should have brought a coat or blanket. Or at least swapped the skirt of the school uniform for a pair of long pants.
But it was too late for that now.
I still had five minutes to get to the Potions classroom and I certainly wasn't going to risk being late.
Hopefully it was warmer in the room and if it wasn't, I would build a fire somewhere.
When I arrived at the classroom Malfoy was already there, sitting on one of the desks.
He had changed his school uniform for an expensive looking suit and he looked like he was going to a very important event.
I looked around for a moment.
The room looked like it did in class this afternoon, except that there were no other students there now.
Malfoy was pretending to look at a wristwatch although he wasn't wearing one at all.
"Right on time.
Didn't think you'd show up at all."
He slid down from the table and walked towards me as I was still standing in the doorway.
"You've done your part, now it's my turn," I quoted his words from earlier.
He was now standing directly in front of me and held out his hand.
Instinctively I flinched and reached for my wand in my pocket.
But he reached behind me and pulled the still open door shut.
"Then the cold stays mostly outside."
He took another step back.
I stretched my arm back and opened the door again, feeling safer if the escape route wasn't blocked.
"The door stays open", I said firmly and Malfoy rolled his eyes and muttered, "Hufflepuffs," as he turned around.
I suppressed my trembling by clenching my teeth.
Slowly I walked over to the table Malfoy had just been sitting on and placed my bag on it.
Then I went to one of the cupboards and took out a mason jar.
With a simple spell, small blue flames developed in it and warmed me directly.
I put the jar on the table with the other things and sat down.
"I want to be back in my room in two hours, because I don't want to get into trouble with one of the prefects because of you. Because I walk through the corridors after curfew."
"Don't get so stressed out, Harper, I don't want to sit here that long either.
And even if you do, I'll take you back, because I'm also a prefect."
I let out a disdainful breath.
Who would confide in Malfoy, please?
I'd rather talk to that moaning Myrtle than to him.
Without so much as a sound, he sat down across from me.
"What do we start with?" he asked annoyed.
"Exam topic is dragons.
Not a specific one but the species in general", I began and opened my book.
First I told him everything important that could be covered in theory, about dragon species and their differences.
What to consider when keeping them and why they are classified that way.
Malfoy meticulously took notes and wrote down some things in his book.
"Did you understand that far?", I asked cautiously.
"Do you think I'm stupid, Harper?" he hissed at me.
"I didn't say that, I just wanted to know if you understood it all or I would have repeated something again."
He nodded and I hoped it was in response to the question of whether he understood everything.
"Good", I continued, "that was the easy part, now it's time for practice.
The aim is to get at least three scales from a dragon.
No problem in itself, some scales are loose and fall off in the long run.
You can just brush them out but you have to get that close first."
"Can't I just pick some off the floor that have already fallen off?", came another annoyed reply from Malfoy.
"Do you want a good grade or not?"
"I want to pass, that's all.
I don't want to make friends with a monster like that, after all."
"Dragons aren't monsters", I said gruffly, giving him a rather nasty look.
"Dangerous yes, but only if you don't know how to handle them.
I know how you can get more than three scales without getting grilled.
Now do you want my help or can I go?"
A sigh on his part.
"How do I get three or more scales of this thing without getting grilled?"
"Firstly he's a magical creature, a dragon to be more precise and not a thing.
And secondly, it's very simple, you need warm hands."
Malfoy looked at me, aghast.
"Dragons sense heat signatures, if you have cold hands they sense you as a threat.
The closer the temperature of your hands gets to the dragon's body temperature, the more it trusts you."
It was really easy, I didn't know why this was considered such a difficult test.
"I just told you the body temperatures of the individual species, so if you know which one it is, you know how warm your hands have to be."
He looked at me in amazement.
"And even if I knew that, how by Salazar, should I be able to get my hands that warm?"
"Heat regulation?! "
Now I looked at him questioningly.
How else did you control temperature?
That was one of the simplest forms of controlled magic. Something I had learned when I was six.
He still didn't seem to understand.
"Give me your arm", I ordered him, but he didn't even think to move.
"Please," I added and reluctantly Malfoy put his right arm long on the table.
I looked at his hand for a moment and remembered the lesson a few weeks ago when I had last looked at these hands with the help of Polyjuice Potion.
I put my own hand on the back of his hand and he winced briefly.
My hands were quite cold but his were not exactly warm either.
I took one deep breath and closed my eyes briefly.
I felt the warmth flowing through my body and I concentrated only on my left hand resting on his.
I opened my eyes and saw Malfoy's pupils growing larger by the second.
I let the temperature of my hand rise to a high, but not so high as to burn Malfoy.
Briefly I paused at that temperature and then very slowly lowered it again.
"No matter how high you let the temperature rise, you can't hurt yourself with it", I explained to him and withdrew my hand.
He looked at me, aghast.
"I'm going to take scales off the floor because I'll never be able to do what you just did."
"That's magic for six year old Malfoy, of course you CAN do that.
You just don't WANT to."
Now he gave me a dirty look and stood up.
"It's late, you need to go.
We don't want you to get in trouble", he said mockingly, gathering his things.
"If you think that's enough for your exam", I said in an equally mocking tone.
I extinguished the flames in the mason jar and put it back in the cupboard.
Immediately the cold crept up inside me and I gritted my teeth again to keep from shivering.
I grabbed my bag from the table and left the room without comment.
When I was back in my bed, I snuggled deep into my blanket and fell asleep so quickly that I didn't even have a chance to think about what had happened earlier.
Neville looked quite relieved when I came into the Great Hall a few minutes later than usual for breakfast.
"I told you I could take care of myself", I greeted him without wishing him good morning and sat down in my seat opposite him.
Neville laughed, I didn't know why, I hadn't been joking after all.
"You must have really done Malfoy in, he just came into the hall just before you did and looked like he hadn't slept all night."
My eyes searched the light blond Slytherin and sure enough he looked pretty tired.
"I didn't do anything, he must have met up with Astoria after studying.
He certainly didn't get much sleep then."
"Anyway, you're fine, so everything's fine."
He took a bite of his toast, looked down the Hufflepuff table we were sitting at and blushed abruptly.
That's when I remembered his date.
"How was your date with Hannah yesterday?", I asked curiously.
"Good," he said curtly, chewing on another piece of toast.
"Wow, you narrate so vividly, it's almost like I was there myself."
"Weereoldinghands," he mumbled still with far too much food in his mouth.
"Now again for those who didn't understand you with 10 kilos of toast in your mouth."
I rolled my eyes and looked at him expectantly.
You had to pull everything out of his nose this morning.
He swallowed.
"We were holding hands", he repeated quietly and blushed right back.
A euphoric squeal escaped me.
"So you're together now?", I inquired further after he stopped talking.
"I don't know," he shrugged.
"Like no idea? How do you not know?"
"I just don't know, we haven't addressed it directly."
he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Then you should sort it out, preferably this week.
There are exams next week, you two won't have time to sort it out then."
"Yes well but we can't until Thursday.
She has quidditch practice today and tutoring tomorrow."
"I'll remind you on Thursday."
It unintentionally almost sounded like a threat, which suited me just fine.
Something had really got to Malfoy, because even the next few days he looked pretty unrested when I saw him in the Great Hall.
Surely he couldn't be with Astoria that often?
And if he was, they should really get a grip and go to bed earlier.
But Astoria, unlike Malfoy, didn't look tired at all, she seemed as awake and alert as ever.
Either she was good at hiding her tiredness or she wasn't the reason why Malfoy wasn't sleeping.
But I didn't think any more about it, instead I scanned the hall for Neville, who wanted to talk to Hannah after class.
I think I was almost more nervous than he was earlier, because I was sliding back and forth in my seat and couldn't manage to sit still.
Then Hannah came into the hall, closely followed by Neville, both grinning and holding hands.
I too was grinning all over my face now.
I didn't care how ugly it made me look, I was just happy for my best friend, I didn't care about anything else right now.
To my amazement, not only Neville sat down with me but Hannah as well.
"Hannah," Neville began shyly, "Meet Daisy my best friend."
A short pause.
"Daisy, Hannah my... girlfriend."
At the last word they both grinned and I shook Hannah's hand which she held out to me.
"Nice to meet you Hannah, Neville has really spoken highly of you."
She laughed.
"I can only return that, I feel like I know you already, just from what Neville has told me all about you."
I raised my eyebrows
"Oh has he?"
We were both laughing now.
Hannah was a really nice girl.
Dinner with her was really fun and I could see how happy she made Neville.
Was I a little jealous?
Yes, but not because I was afraid of losing Neville to Hannah.
No I was jealous of what they had.
They got on so well and always blushed when they saw the other.
They glanced at each other furtively in class and always hugged each other goodbye for a long time.
They hadn't kissed yet but I had set myself the goal that if they didn't manage them self to help them a little.
They would have their first kiss together before the Christmas holidays.
