Harry had a trick or two up his sleeve. But he wanted to do this right, and to do it right had to look like he hadn't been ... cheating. Not that Slytherins seemed to care about cheating... other houses.
It was why he was here in the Library. He'd gotten here with a fifth year who was busy panicking about not having studied for Transfiguration enough. It was only the first week, Harry had wanted to reassure. But... he remembered what it was like to be a fifth year, and figured that without Hermione, the Slytherin was probably better off studying.
Harry had a stack of History of Magic books that was higher than he was tall. Well, he gingerly put half of them down beside him.
He couldn't help but look over at Hermione, just as much a duck in water in the library as Harry was not. He was jealous, for a moment, before he looked harder. Hermione didn't ... look happy to be there. Like, this was sanctuary just as much as anything.
That, Harry was familiar with. He'd hidden in the school library (and the public one) early and often. Dudley hated the library, and there were always books for Harry to read.
Which just brought to mind, who was Hermione hiding from?
Probably the girls in her dorm - and maybe Ron as well. The rest of the boys hadn't cared enough about her know-it-all ways to really care about insulting her. But Ron? Ron saw it as a personal affront that someone corrected him. And, Hermione might not know it wasn't because she was a Muggleborn, either.
Still, it wasn't that which had Harry standing up out of his seat.
It was a perfectly placid Hermione, who nonethless looked so miserable.
Surely he couldn't hurt her mood, just by saying something nice?
Harry was half-up out of his seat, when Draco appeared across from him.
"Harry!" Draco Malfoy said, "How lovely to see you!"
The former-eleven-year-old in Harry wanted a scrap. The planning, scheming Slytherin side wanted to punch Draco in the face for ruining a perfectly good opportunity. And the shy kid that Harry'd been, noticed Hermione's eyes flicking over them both. Probably lumping us both into the same barrel.
"Want to study for History of Magic?" Harry said, smiling placidly. There was nothing so boring as History of Magic, and that had been Gryffindors talking. Malfoy had probably studied this from when he was four.
"What on?" Malfoy said, his pompous manner still cladding every word.
Harry gave a mental shrug, and started to explain.
"Why are you working on fifth year work? Have you even read the first year book?" Malfoy asked.
Harry gave a shrug, not wanting to commit to telling Malfoy any of his plans, even the ones that would come out within the week. Bastard had probably stolen his chance to talk with Hermione.
And Harry needed, wanted, Hermione to be his friend. She was worth giving Malfoy the shove, and always had been and always would be.
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