Tabs and Pages
Chapter two: Tabs and Pages
Harry wondered if it would be a passing fad, Draco’s fascination with muggle stationary, but he seemed to have given all his quills and supplies away. Hermionie looked shocked as she watched Draco pull out a campus notebook that had colored tabs, and a pencil case filled and organized with his favorite pens and highlighters.
“Close your jaw or you’ll end up swallowing one of your boyfriend’s rogue flees.”
Hermione ignored the comment and Harry swatted Draco on the head as Ron’s ears blushed bright crimson.
She leaned over to ask about the tabs he was using, interested to know his color coding system.
”I don’t usually tab my notes,” Hermione admitted. “I tab fiction.”
”Fiction?” Draco looked baffled. And Harry felt dread growing in his stomach. “Like…. Stories? Those are worth tabbing?”
”The long ones are. They’re good for tracking emotional reactions.” Hermione pulled out a book and blushed slightly as she tried to do her best to hide the cover. Draco nudged Harry from his spot and hopped over his lap in order to sit closer to Hermione and the two started discussing it in whispered conversations. Harry spotted Ron peeking over Hermione's bushy hair looking absolutely baffled. Harry just shrugged.
………
The next weekend, Hermoine and Draco returned to the eighth year dormitory with two large totes on each arm, full to the brim of books. Most of them seemed to be for Draco, though one bag was full of books that Hermione clutched at tightly, thanking Draco profusely. It was an odd sight to be sure, knowing the history between the two. Apparently, a few years, a war, and some common interests could bridge the gap.
The two made piles around the fire, Hermonie organizing her own stacks by what order she wished to read them, all while giving Draco advice on where he should start.
“That series is a bit difficult to follow, it's also long and still ongoing, that other one… here. This series is finished, and by the same author. I would start there.”
Both seemed to ignore Harry and Ron as they instantly fell into silence reading on the floor.
“I thought she was bad with textbooks…” Ron mumbled. “Fancy losing at chess?”
Harry shrugged and followed Ron over to a set by a window. He didn’t put too much effort into the game, usually glancing over to watch the pair read. Apparently his sporadic movements made for a much better game of wizards chess. He hadn’t won, but Ron seemed distracted enough to not notice the glances.
Harry thought this hobby would mean he would see less of Draco, but apparently fiction outside of children stories or the occasional trashy romance were quite rare in the wizarding world. Harry wasn’t surprised. Why would wizards and witches bother reading stories about magic from muggles when they had real magical stories that actually happened.
Draco seemed to favor science fiction and he seemed to prefer to read only in the common area when Harry was around so he could ask questions about different muggle things in the book. He sat with his pen case of highlighters and tabs and Harry noticed whenever Draco found a word he didn’t understand he would ask Harry, mark it in green, tab the page, then write a memo down in a notebook.
”I think you’re over-thinking these books.” Harry said, peeking over this month's copy of the quibbler, the story about werewolf colonies on Mars wasn’t nearly as interesting as it had sounded. “It’s like you’re studying them.”
Draco had found a spot on the floor in front of Harry like a clingy cat, curled up, knees to his chest, using Harry’s legs as a headrest. Draco swatted Harry’s comment away like an annoying fly.
”Unlike you, I have much catching up to do.”
This was true. Draco had asked for recommendations and reading was one of the only freedoms Harry had been allowed as a kid. Books were the thing Dudley hated the most, and only fools of the family, or coworkers were dumb enough to offer the latest books to the pudgy boy. Though nothing with magic, that was quickly thrown out. Or anything magic adjacent. But Harry had read several stories, mostly science fiction and was able to recommend a few he remembered.
“But most of these things, jets, atoms, magnets… you don’t really need them in the wizarding world. Right?”
“Mmmm..” Draco said, making another notation. “I’ve once found and read some of the unedited accounts of some of my relatives who thought their lives would be noteworthy. Apparently before toilets, the wizard community would simply go in a corner and vanish it away.” Draco cringed, and Harry laughed. It was hard not to picture someone grunting in a corner, a soft plop and then the wave of a wand before the smell reached anyone. “It took someone pretending they were a wizard invention to be able for wizards to accept them. Who knows what ideas we are missing out on.” To drive his point home, he waggled his pen at Harry.
It had been the one Harry had gifted him. The normal black ink he had filled it with was long gone now, replaced with a vibrant rich green which matched the pen itself. Harry simply agreed and allowed Draco to return to his ‘research’. His eyes mindlessly scanned the quibbler while he watched the blond from the side of his vision.
…..
Thankfully he wasn’t the only one to explain things to Draco, though Harry seemed to be the only one patent enough.
While walking by the Muggle studies class he saw Draco talking with Professor April Abbot. Anyone who knew Hannah Abbot would never guess April Abbot was her sister, say for the round face and green eyes. April had short pixie cut hair and a tired, constantly angry expression she called ‘resting bitch face’. She also had a slight American accent having studied there for a few years before coming back sometime after the passing of Hannah’s mother.
Harry saw April pinch the bridge of her nose as she counted to ten.
”Can you just explain it again, it definitely happened.”
”Yes. The moon landing happened.” Her voice was harsh.
“But how? Why?”
“Mr. Malfoy,” April Abbot was new to being a teacher but she already sounded tired and older than others their age. “Beyond the time of our lesson I can not give you extra instruction. Try the library, or a muggle library, or if you want me to recommend books…”
“I've got some.” Harry interrupted. Draco jumped slightly but he had been waiting out of his line of sight, Apr- professor Abbot had probably noticed him right away.
“Books… on muggle sciences. They’re kids books though.”
Draco didn’t seem to mind, his eyes sparkled and he seemed to struggle keeping his usual cool and composed face together. It kept twitching into a grin.
“Very well, that level seems appropriate for wizards anyway.”
Harry knew Abbot meant no offense, or if she had she was well within a right to be slightly rude in the wizarding world that had shunned her for being a ‘useless squib’ apparently she was quite good at potions and her and her sister Hannah had done research into the physical differences between squibs, wizards, and muggles.
Abbot left swiftly, her billowing cloak reminding Harry slightly of how Snape's cloak would billow like big bat wings. Her simple brown one had less of that effect, but Harry couldn’t help but smile. Snape would have liked her, he bet.
“Do you.. Have them here?” Draco started, calling Harry's attention back to him. “Or if you need an owl-” Draco started, but Harry held up his hand.
“We’ll have to go get them. Shouldn’t take long.”
“Can we go this weekend?” No longer able to mask his excitement, Draco seemed to almost bounce. It was unfair for someone as conventionally attractive as Draco to act so adorably without it seeming off putting. In fact, Harry was very much on put. It was on putting. Whatever. Harry just nodded, afraid if he opened his mouth more stupidity would fly out.
Harry realized he really liked listening to Draco talk. He almost never used his old snide sarcastic tone unless he was provoked, and Harry couldn’t judge, Draco calling out his own casual sassy remarks every so often. But the excitement in his voice as he read over something or asked questions, more to himself not really waiting for an answer, it was calming. Like white noise but interesting. It swallowed up the panning thoughts in his mind about his future or what people were saying about him with each release of the daily profit or whatever normal twenty year old's stress over when they’re not scrambling across the country side, looking for parts of a dark wizard to kill him and then going into an all out war.
Draco was reading “The Science of Magic”. The book seemed old but barely touched. It was apparently a comparison between muggle sciences and their own Magic abilities.
“It all comes down to Energy.” Draco explained, jotting something down in one of his notebooks. “Potions are chemical reactions, like cooking or chemistry, that's why there are debates over how often or how many times to mix your potion and which way. Its kinetic energy affecting the reaction. But while muggles have radioactive materials, or contained glasses we have unicorn hair or other byproducts of the magical world.”
“So, what’s the difference between muggle elements and the stuff we use in potions.”
Malfoy hummed. “It seems as though this research is a bit dated. But simply put magic seems to operate with more energy. The changes muggles can make are simple in terms of matter, we can manipulate elements, matter.. Even brain chemistry.”
“Like imperio?”
“Or Amortentia… Or while muggles burn petrol to move cars we can apparate by squeezing ourselves through microscopic wormholes we create.”
“No wonder I hate apperating, I feel like I'm being squished. I prefer flying.”
“You would. Natural flyer. Bet you didn’t even have a broom as a child.”
“I had one.. At one.” Harry laughed. Malfoy looked up at him shocked.
“Surely your parents didn’t let you ride-”
“I’ll show you the picture sometime. But yeah, after Voldemort, no broomsticks till Hogwarts.”
“Show off.” Draco mumbled. Turning the page in his book, thus ending the conversation. He kept mumbling though. And Harry decided to shamelessly watch his former enemy and new friend as their tongue started to wrap atop their upper lip in concentration.
Harry felt his chest puff up with a bit of pride at having received a compliment from Draco, wondering if asking to go for a fly would seem too much like a date.
Better stick to shopping for stationary.