...
"Good, that makes all of you." His Transfiguration professor remarked the moment he and Malfoy reached the entrance to the hall- An hour before midnight.
A small part of him had been expecting the so-called detention to be a prank of sorts- The professor eyeing the group said otherwise.
Hogwarts really had detentions held in the Forbidden Forest, close to midnight.
"Rodrick," The woman quickly turned her attention towards him, "I was not aware you were a part of those-" Her gaze swiveled from them towards the three Gryffindors before turning back to him and Malfoy. "-been punished."
He shrugged in response. "Figured I'd get some experience in it seeing as I can't break a rule to save my life."
His professor was unamused at his response.
Coughing once, he tilted his head towards the twitching blonde beside him.
"Just here to keep him out of another house point loss."
After a moment of staring, the woman elected to let out a sigh. "I suppose he was in his rights to ask for help, considering Argus's choice of detention." A single beat passed. "Well, it's certainly reassuring to have someone trying to avoid breaking any rules." With that said, the woman promptly swiveled on her feet and started leading them away.
Malfoy gave him an irritated look.
"Couldn't help yourself, could you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." He snorted and promptly caught up to the most reserved of the three Gryffindors, the blonde electing to shake his head and mutter something he couldn't make out, his hands finding comfort in his pockets.
"I see you jumped friendships to get yourself into Davy Jones' locker?" He questioned the morose Granger. His words caused her to blink a few times owlishly before frowning heavily.
"That's a terrible joke." A single beat passed. "A detention is not the equivalent of Davy Jones' Locker." The girls gaze dropped towards the floor, not giving him a chance to respond. "It's so much worse."
"...Look on the bright side, if we run into a werewolf or two, it'llll stop being the worst thing to happen to you."
The girl's frown turned more prominent.
"You know, maybe the puns aren't so bad after all."
...
It didn't take very long before the two groups split up, or as much as they could at any rate, the moment they arrived at Hagrid's hut- The three Gryffindors, Hermione included surprisingly, practically bombarded the half-giant with questions about the safety of the dragon that got them all in this mess, while Malfoy had elected to glare daggers at him for 'fraternizing with the enemy.' As he put it.
"We're supposed to show a united front," The blonde drawled beside him. "We can't exactly do that with you been so... Friendly with a..." Whatever he'd been about to say died down as the blonde shook his head. "Look, Slytherin's stick together, alright? I didn't ask you to come here to play catch up with 'em."
He rolled his eyes in response, the view of the Forbidden Forest coming up before them.
"Pretty sure Slytherins are supposed to be model students too, so I guess that makes failures out of both of us?" He deadpanned towards the blonde, earning another twitch in response.
"...Are you mocking me?"
"I'd mock our house but you've done a pretty good job of it on your own." He grinned at the blonde, earning a glare in response.
"...Careful, orphan. A Favor doesn't give you the right to insult me."
He snorted in response.
"I don't need to insult you, the fifty points you lost spying on Potter does that plenty well on its own." A beat passed. "Is it an obsession, or a crush, by the way? I've been meaning to ask."
That time, he drew his wand at him.
A moment later, the Half-giant noticed something was wrong as he turned his gaze towards Malfoy picking up said wand a few feet away in the opposite direction.
"...Being good at magic doesn't give you the right to insult me either," The blonde remarked petulantly.
"Sure makes it easier,"
"...At least I have a home to go to at the end of the year." The blonde fired back, a condescending smile quickly growing on his face at the words.
"At least I don't have any parents to disappoint at the end of the year,"
And just as quickly, said smile left.
It was astounding what one could get away with when dealing with a narcissistic blonde who wouldn't admit to any form of embarrassment even if it killed him.
...
Hagrid turned around just as they reached the entrance. "Righ', yeh've got a simple job ter do fer your detention. Professor snape wants a few rat-spleens an' leaping toadstools- yeh'll be splitting inter two groups, one fer each."
...What? Did... Did they just make this up or something? He'd been in the professor's office- He hadn't been missing either of the ingredients.
"Professor McGonagall wants yeh boys ter get along, so Malfoy, yeh'll be goin' with Harry here."
Both two houses, barring him made faces at the thought.
He idly put a hand up to cover a side of his face and told the blonde he had the chance to shoot his shot.
"...I will end you..." The blonde whispered back in a warning, low enough for the others not to hear him.
"I dunno if that's such a good idea..." Ron deadpanned in response to Hagrid's suggestion, saying the most reasonable thing since they'd gotten here.
"Professor's orders," The half-giant shrugged.
"Fine, but Rodrick's with my group." Malfoy remarked through grit teeth.
Hagrid considered the words for a moment before shrugging in agreement.
"Professor said nothin' abou' 'im." Before he turned towards a downtrodden Granger and worried Weasley. "You two will be with me, we'll be hunting fer some ratspleen."
He was fairly certain you just collected that...
...
For the most part, the journey into the forest had started off silent and rather tame- The most dangerous thing they'd come across were a pair of foxes, some bugbears (which surprisingly enough, weren't big), and a bowtruckle.
Of course, the two wizards before him, between picking up what they'd come after, and overall spending all their time glaring at each other, hadn't noticed them.
It hadn't taken long before they'd fallen into their first argument.
"What would you know about muggles?" Harry Potter questioned, the boy no longer bothering with their fake assignment.
"Enough to know they're worthless!" The blonde responded, his hands dropping the leaping toadstools he'd been carrying. "I've heard the rumors you know-"
Rodrick let out a sigh as he used a spell to levitate the dropped resource towards him.
"-your own muggle family's so stupid they had to send them a hundred letters before they understood you were a wizard!"
He couldn't help the snort that came out at that- Because really?
A hundred letters!? That had to be wrong, yet the look of sheer embarrassment on Harry Potter's face said otherwise.
Malfoy promptly crossed his arms, a smirk on his face as he turned towards him.
"You live with muggles, don't you? What do you think of 'em?"
To his surprise, even Potter looked curious, the boy either not caring about Malfoy's insult or just not caring about Malfoy himself and by extension his opinions.
Really could be one or the other.
As for the question... Rodrick let a frown grow on his transfigured face.
"Can't really say much, if I am honest..." He remarked, a finger on his chin- The two boys finally noticed the fact he'd been carrying their punishment using magic. "I had my own room so, never really spent much time with the others. Didn't see much of a reason." He shrugged. At the look on the two boy's faces, he felt the need to clarify. "Ate alone, watched alone, read alone, etc-" He waved his hands. "Can't really give you an opinion on 'em."
Harry Potter was openly frowning at him, bemusement clear in his face as he looked between him and Malfoy.
Malfoy' looked incredulous for a moment before letting out a snort of laughter.
"Forget thinking they're worthless." The blonde deadpanned. "You don't even consider their existence at all!" A single beat passed, one that Malfoy used to look right back at Potter. "And he lives with them!"
...Was... Was he worse than Malfoy?
He'd never really thought of it that way- Most of the others avoided him, to begin with. Though, he couldn't really recall ever putting too much of an effort himself. A result of his grandfather's perhaps? He wasn't entirely sure- He just...
He'd never really taken their disregard of him to heart if he was honest with himself... Never really tried to change the status queue, even when new orphans arrived...
Wasn't like the caretaker helped either, with her constantly keeping him away from the others... Giving him his own room while the others shared a dorm...
He blinked a few times at that, whatever arguments between the two before him ignored as he came to a startling realization.
Had his caretaker known he was capable of magic? Was that the reason for the 'special' treatment?
He wasn't exactly the oldest nor the longest resident of that place yet- He'd been the only one with his own room...
A pit started forming in his stomach at the thought as another suspicion filtered its way onto his head- If she did know he was a wizard... Did she know who he really was?
He was quickly broken out of his stupor as a loud growl quickly filled their clearing, the sound ending whatever argument the other two had as Malfoy turned pale as snow while Harry Potter's jaw dropped. The two of them, both, staring straight at him.
Letting out a sigh at his luck, he calmly turned his gaze behind him and found a giant three-headed dog staring down at him.
He should've picked Durmstrang.
...
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