in which Draco attempts normality
Turned out, the caretaker (some filthy old guy named Filch) did not want Draco to have a sleepover. No matter what Theo had had to say, Draco had had to go sleep in his room eventually.
It had already been a couple of days, and it wasn't going as badly as Theo had predicted. Actually, it only went so good because Draco and Neville didn't have any interaction. And not just "not talking". They actually never were in the room together. When Draco had gotten there the first evening, the boy was already sleeping. The next morning when Draco awakened, he was gone.
It had been like that ever since. It was already mid-week, and Draco hadn't even seen the guy's face properly. Not that he cared, far from it. He was simply craving interaction more interesting than Pansy bragging about her roommate.
She really did have it luckier than Draco. Apparently, Granger and her went along great. The girl had even introduced her to her tiger. Draco had never felt more betrayed than when Pansy told him she actually liked Crookshanks (that was his name. Who even called a grown tiger Crookshanks ? It was terrible misleading. Sounded like some bloody kitten nickname).
From what Pansy had said, Granger was the first person she met from her Crown that didn't crawled at her feet as soon as they knew she was their princess. For some reason she found that even more attractive, the fact that Granger treated her like any other person.
Pansy also informed Draco that even if their Crown's nobility system wasn't the same as Draco's, Granger was, in fact, a noble. A low-ranking one, but one all the same. Draco found that even more infuriating. The more he learned about his rival the more he wanted to shove paper down her throat.
Still, whatever had been going on between the two girls had been alright with him as long as Pansy was still sitting next to him in class. If she hadn't been, there were high chances he would actually have to sit with Longbottom, and he'd rather their first conversation not be in a classroom.
So, obviously, Pansy decided sharing a room with her crush wasn't enough, and chose precisely the day where Longbottom was sitting by himself to sit with Granger.
Draco was going to shoot her then himself.
To his credit, Longbottom stayed polite despite his clear surprise. Draco shot him a polite nod before sitting in silence.
He just had the time to get his things out before their teacher started the lesson. Merlin, Draco hated history.
Besides, the teacher (Weasel, or something) was barely a few years older than them, and Draco has the creeping need of screaming at the man that he was unqualified for the job, to go back to his little family farm or whatever. He knew the man was from his Crown. His accent gave that away ; and Draco was most certain that he wasn't a noble. He couldn't fathom the fact that a middleclass man could teach to the future of many Crowns.
Who even said he was a middleclass man ? What indicated that he wasn't in fact a farmer ? Draco was going to have a stroke if he kept thinking about it.
Then he realised he had missed 10 minutes of lesson brewing. No matter how much he listened to Wealsey (turned ot that was his name, not Weasel), he couldn't understand what he was talking about. Well, fucking great. Talk about a good first lesson.
Draco felt something slide under his left elbow. It was a piece of parchment, with what looked like the lesson on it. Draco turned to Longbottom. No doubt had he slid him his notes for Draco to copy. Great, so his dormmate had realised he wasn't paying attention in class. Fucking wonderful.
For a second, Draco wonder if the boy wasn't trying to prank him somehow by giving him false information about the lesson.
But he realised eventually it was either this or he would have missed the whole entire first lesson. And no matter what, Draco was a good student.
Draco copied the notes.
***
At the end of class, Draco slid back his notes to Neville, and took a second to look at the guy. Really look at him.
Neville was very good looking, which was unsettling because Draco was pretty sure he used to be very awkward-looking when they were younger. He also caught a bunch of girls looking at him. Well, more like drooling in his general direction, but it was all the same. Neville had very short hair and brown eyes. Draco guessed he was quite tall, but it was hard to tell when they were sitting down. What he was very sure used to be a chubby boy seemed quite lean now. Neville was tanned, but Draco didn't see any tan lines peeking out of his uniform. Must have spent the whole summer in the sun. Maybe at sea. It would make sense if he came from a pirate family.
His handwriting was smart and neat, which showed of a good education. Well, Draco guess it made sense if the boy had made it to the Academy of Hogwarts, but it kind of killed the idea Draco had of pirates.
When Neville collected his things and got up to leave, Draco noticed he had been right ; Neville really was tall.
As Draco turned to his friends, he noticed something that very much displeased him : Pansy had brought Granger to chat with Blaise and Theo. Draco saw red, and even if he felt the creeping need to go and shove the girl away, he knew there would be consequences ; one of them probably being Pansy not talking to him anymore. And he wouldn't have that.
So Draco went to his friend ans stood tall in an attempt to intimidate Granger. She didn't look intimidated, neither did she make any move to leave. So Draco let it be. After a politely greeting him, the girl simply went back to her animated discussion with Blaise about god knew what.
Pansy finally broke out of drooling at the girl and turned to Draco. He half-expected her to brag about Granger some more, but instead she grabbed his hand, stopping him in his walk to their next class, falling behind the rest of the group.
"Im sorry to have let you down to sit with Hermione. I knew it wasn't right to just leave you to yourself."
Draco had not been expecting this. Therefore, instead of scolding the girl, he simply said :
"It's fine, Im glad you finally found the guts to spend time with her."
Draco mentally slapped himself. It definitely wasn't fine. Pansy knew about Longbottom and the shenanigans between both their families. How could she let him sit with the guy ? Merlin he wanted to take it out on her, but he knew he couldn't. So, in lack of anything better to say, he grabbed her wrist and started walking faster to catch up with the group.
They had mathematics next. Draco knew Pansy hated it, which was ironic because she was actually quite good.
Well, once again, you wouldn't at the Academy if you weren't good. If your grades were too low, you had exactly one warning to get yourself together before getting kicked out.
But it didn't stop them from hating a specific subject. For Pansy, it was mathematics. For Granger, it was horse riding, but this one was non-mandatory, so she simply didn't take that class.
Draco didn't have one before the year prior. He was thirsty for knowledge, always was. No matter what was the subject, he would drown his brain in information until he blacked out. Then Weasley happened, and history classes didn't feel the same anymore. He still liked it, it just became his least favourite class.
He was glad it was over.
It was also their first time this year having mathematics. Draco knew it was the Headmistress who taught mathematics to the 7th years, but it was something else actually seeing her do so.
He knew she was very authoritarian of course. But it was different seeing it in a classroom.
Draco felt powered by the strictness of the lesson, by the knowledge he was actually doing good. The Headmistress was great at explaining how everything worked, and by the end of the period, Draco found himself multiple exercises ahead of the others. He was truly thriving.
He was just telling himself this year would be much better than he had anticipated when everything blew up.