TWO.
"Pansy, he's looking at me again."
"Draco, you're looking at him again."
Draco narrows his eyes at her. She smirks at him in response and then promptly busies herself with sprinkling her Valerian root into her cauldron.
Draco doesn't know what to do. Granted, he has a little more of a grip on what to do now than he has for the past few painfully awkward, extremely confusing weeks, but still. He's very confused.
First off Draco had questions: What is the protocol when someone's saved your life - and not once, but twice? Are you friends? Are you acquaintances? Do you say hi in the hallways? Is it rude to sit next to them? Is it rude not to sit next to them?
When Draco asked Pansy these things, she laughed. And not one of those soft, fond oh-you're-so-funny laughs, but rather a Draco-you're-an-idiot laugh. He didn't like those. And then, after she was done laughing, she simply said, "Darling, you're overthinking this. Just act normal. I know you've been obsessed with the boy for ages, but I promise you, it's not that complex."
But, what Pansy doesn't understand is that it is complex, or at least Draco thinks so. Ever since the day at the Hospital Wing, their dynamic has been completely turned upside down, and Draco can't tell if he likes it or not.
For one, Harry keeps glancing at him. Now, this isn't very new; Harry did that a lot when they were younger. He'd gotten used to it. But the thing is, he usually looked at Draco with either scorn or suspicion or like Draco had just hit him in the head with an apple or something. Now, he's... concerned. Or at least, he looks like it, looking over Draco whenever he can, like he's scanning for bruises or cuts or something. It's unsettling. Draco thinks that he can catch the other boy's eyes wandering over to him, particularly in the hallways and in the Great Hall during meals, but he also finds Harry looking over at him sometimes during the few classes they have together, as well.
Another thing that's rather disconcerting is how looking over and seeing Harry keeping an eye on him makes him feel safer, somehow, but Draco has decided not to unpack that one just yet.
In addition to the staring, when Draco does catch Harry's eyes on him (which, as he mentioned, is quite often) he either gives him a tiny wave or he smiles. Potter smiles. At him. When he's not being flung around in the form of a wannabe-rodent (the Ferret Incident is also something that Draco decided long ago that he'll unpack in the very, very distant future). And it's taken Draco a few tries, but he has actually managed to smile and wave back when this happens now.
The first time was... uncomfortable, to say the least - for both of them, but mostly for Draco. It was during lunch, and they were sitting at the small table that was set aside for the eighth years - to promote "unity" and "togetherness" and all that. The two were at opposite heads of the table: Harry on the far right next to Ron and Hermione, and Draco on the far left next to Pansy and Blaise. Pansy had been complaining about how much homework she had to do that night, and Blaise was trying to convince her to give him her last cookie. Or, maybe it was the other way around - Draco wasn't really paying attention. He was staring down at his food, thinking about nothing in particular.
Then, he felt someone nudge his arm, and when he looked up, Blaise was smirking in a way that meant that whatever it was he wanted to say, Draco would not like it. "Yes...?" he waved his fork in a "continue on" motion, while Blaise just looked more pleased with himself by the second.
"A certain someone has been staring at you like a lost puppy for the past five minutes. Put him out of his misery and look back before he starts drooling."
"What on earth are you on about?" He turned to Pansy. "Is he feeling alright?"
Pansy smiled herself and threw a glance towards the other end of the table, "Take a look for yourself."
That was when he saw that Harry was looking at him. Then, Harry gave him a small smile and his eyes widened. And that was when he dropped his spoon in his soup.
But, that was weeks ago, and by now, he's gotten used to having Harry's eyes on him. The only problem is he doesn't know what he has to do about it - if he has to do anything at all. And Pansy was no help. So, Draco stayed confused.
But now, Draco is in Potions, so he must concentrate.
He sighs as he stirs the pale blue liquid. "I can't believe Slughorn is making us make this potion. We're fucking eighth years, a third year could make this. Modified Calming Draught, pathetic. What's wrong with the Draught of Peace?" he mumbles as he counts out exactly seven petals of lavender.
"Well, the Draught of Peace is a pain in the ass and can kill you. This one at least only makes you drowsy for a few days if you botch it up."
"Snape would've never given us something this... bland. I mean, peppermint? I feel like a house elf baking a cake."
Pansy gives her cauldron a sad smile. "I miss him, too, Draco."
"What?" The phial of peppermint extract almost falls out of his hands. "I - I didn't mean - I never said that. I just meant that Slughorn is an incompetent fool and doesn't know what he's doing."
"It's ok to miss him, you know," she says softly, and Draco pointedly ignores her. He looks over at Harry's table and grimaces. "Merlin, it's green. How did he make it green? And Weasley's doing worse than he is."
Pansy snorts, "That's no surprise."
At that moment, Slughorn, who was making his rounds around the room, looking at the other students' progress, reaches Harry's desk.
"Wonderful job, Harry. It's coming along nicely there, I see. It's very, uh, green," Slughorn says with a smile plastered on his face. Harry looks up at him, his expression confused, and he looks like he's about to poke the concoction with his stirring rod.
"Um, sir? Isn't the potion supposed to be lavender at this stage?" Harry answers, almost afraid to add in the next ingredient.
"Trust the process, young man, I'm sure by the end it'll be perfect." He nods his head, moving to another table, while Ron and Harry share a look of exasperation.
Draco rolls his eyes and turns to Pansy. "Like I said. Incompetent. Potter will be lucky if he doesn't make his potion explode today. Maybe he's decided to take a page out of Finnegan's book." Draco smiles to himself.
"Maybe you should go over there and help him."
Draco only barely catches the stirring rod before it clatters to the floor.
"Someone's a bit clumsy today," Pansy grins, amused at how flustered Draco seems.
"Oh, piss off. It's the lavender, the petals secrete oil when exposed to the air of the potion."
"Draco, you know that's bullshit."
"Maybe you're just bad at Potions."
"Maybe you're just pining over Potter again."
"I am not nor have I ever pined over anyone!"
Pansy waves him off, stirring her potion while adding in the unicorn hair. "Whatever you say. Now, go on, help him. You asked me what to do about Potter, and this is my suggestion."
"Fine. Watch my potion." Pansy smiles, which he returns with a scowl.
"Bloody ridiculous suggestion," Draco mumbles, but he begins walking over to Harry's station anyway, shaking his head the entire way there.
When he reaches Harry, he circles to the side of the table and speaks to him in a lower voice, "Go in your bag and pretend you're giving me some parchment or a quill or something."
Harry's eyes widen when he notices Draco beside him, and Ron jumps a little when he hears Draco's voice. They were both deep in thought, flipping through their textbook trying to figure out how to salvage even a little of the potion, so neither of them really noticed Draco walking up to them.
"What are you doing here?" Ron asks, his hands still on his potions book.
Draco rolls his eyes again. "Hurry up, Potter, the parchment."
"But - " Harry begins, only to be cut off.
"I said, give me something, anything to look like an excuse for why I'm here. You don't want Slughorn to know that his Golden Boy is getting help, now, do you?" Draco says sharply (it took everything in him not to snap at the boys, but nobody's perfect).
Harry blinks and then fumbles in his bag for an extra quill (at least, he hopes it's an extra) and hands it over to Draco while Draco studies the potion.
"The peppermint extract needs to be room temperature, so keep it away from the burner flame, make sure the Valerian is a fine powder, not just crushed, and sprinkle in the unicorn hair periodically as you stir, not all in one go. Your potion shouldn't explode, then. And..." He glances at the potion again. "Before you do any of that, add in a few ounces of jewelweed extract, it should counteract... whatever the hell it is you did to this thing. Seriously, Potter, how did you get your potion dark green -"
"You were helping, Malfoy," he mutters.
"Exactly. And you're welcome." He looks at Ron's potion. "If Weasley does the same, his should be acceptable as well. Just..." He grimaces slightly. "Add in much more jewelweed..." He takes the quill from Harry's hand and holds it up slightly. "Thanks for the quill, Potter," he says a little louder, but not too loud as to sound unnatural before turning and walking back to his and Pansy's desk.
Pansy gives him a knowing look when he settles back behind his cauldron.
"If you say a word, I'm pouring this on you."
The end of class comes quickly, and Draco smiles when he sees Harry pouring lavender liquid only slightly darker than it should be into a phial. Slughorn seems to be pleased as well, Draco notes, with how he's beaming at Harry.
"I told you to trust the process, son. I knew you could do it. Excellent work." Harry gives the man a tight-lipped smile in response to his praise.
"Well, it wasn't all me. Malfoy gave me a few pointers. If it weren't for him, this would still be green." He looks back at Draco when he refers to him, then turns back to Slughorn with a confident smile. Draco's head snaps up when he hears his name. Slughorn looks over at him, surprised and maybe a little disappointed, before clearing his throat. "Well, that was good of him. Um, good job, Mister Malfoy," he says, slightly awkward.
Draco nods his head and Pansy nudges his shoulder when Slughorn looks back at Harry.
They are then dismissed, and everyone starts to gather up their things and move to their next class. However, when Harry walks out the door, he gives Draco a warm smile of thanks, making Draco's stomach twist. Maybe he could take a little of the Modified Calming Draught with him, he thinks absently, before picking up his bag. Pansy is already making her way toward the door, but she turns, taking a few steps backward, and raises an eyebrow at her friend. He throws a stalk of lavender at her.
"You will say nothing."
---------------------
Harry Potter is confused. Granted, Harry feels like he's always at least a little confused most of the time, but this is different. This time, Harry is confused because of Draco Malfoy, which is not something he'd ever imagined happening.
Ever since the school year began, Draco has been... different. This is to be expected - they all went through a war, after all. But it was something more than being depressed or subdued or in shock like most people were. It took Harry a while to realize it, but Draco almost seemed softer around the edges. Maybe it was because of how they'd entered into an unspoken truth since he'd spoken at his trial, or maybe it was because everything was finally over now. Or maybe it was the way he smiled at Pansy during lunch when she was (overdramatically) telling a story. Harry didn't know.
And that was Reason One why he was confused.
Reason Two was that ever since the lake incident, Harry has had the inexplicable urge to check up on Draco all the time. He always finds his eyes drifting whenever he sees blond hair - even though that sometimes meant that he would look at Luna instead of Draco accidentally, but no harm no foul, and Luna always waved enthusiastically on the rare occasions when he looked over at her. He then scans Draco quickly, making sure he doesn't see any marks, even though, honestly, his long sleeves and his school robe make it hard to see much of anything.
Reason Three that Harry is confused is why he feels suddenly very shy every time Draco catches him looking at him. It's not like Harry hasn't looked over at him before - ironically enough for very different reasons, yes, but still - but now it feels like he's doing something he shouldn't. So, he smiles. And now, Draco smiles back.
And that brings about Reason Four: why in the hell does any of this matter to him in the first place?
When Harry asks his friends this that night in the Eighth Year common room, they both look at him with equal expressions of exasperation.
Ron rubs his eyes with his hand and sighs, "Please, not again. I just want a peaceful year, that's all I ask."
Harry looks at them, confused, "What? Did I say something wrong?"
"Ron is just worried you're going to spend the entire year obsessing over Malfoy."
"I'm not obsessing! I just, it's weird. I don't necessarily know where all this is coming from."
"I do," Ron pipes up, "You're been through the wringer, you've literally died twice, and that's caused you to go mad. Barking mad."
"Ronald," Hermione warns, giving him a look from over the book she has rested on her folded legs.
"What! You think I'm wrong?"
"I think it's probably more to do with the fact that Harry has been expected to save people his whole life, and saving Malfoy for the second time has probably triggered that feeling in him again, the instinct to protect. It'll probably be gone in a few weeks, Harry, don't worry."
Harry looks down at the ground, thinking over what Hermione just said. On one hand, the explanation isn't that far-fetched. He has been expected to be that person since he was a boy - had always been told he'd be the one to defeat Voldemort and save countless lives. It makes sense that that would be something very hard to forget.
But on the other hand, it doesn't feel like that. There's a certain curiosity that comes with those instincts that he just can't shake. He thinks back to Potions this morning and the curiosity only intensifies. Malfoy had gone out of his way to help him, had noticed he'd needed help, and he'd even helped Ron. That wasn't the same Malfoy from when they were kids, and Harry couldn't help but wonder what this Malfoy was like.
"I mean, maybe. But, I don't know, he's changed. Maybe..."
Hermione sighs. "Maybe you want to see who he actually is this time around?" she finishes for him.
"You're both bloody insane," Ron mumbles, but they both ignore him.
"Maybe..." Harry admits.
"Well... I mean, everyone deserves a second chance, right? He did apologize at the beginning of the year, and he did seem genuine." Hermione closes the book on her lap and looks at Harry.
"Do you all not even remember everything he did to us?" Ron whispers, "I mean, come on. He was a bully and a jerk and a Death-Eater, for Merlin's sake."
"Have you seen him act like that in the past few months, though? He even helped you in Potions today."
"I still can't believe he did that."
"I'm just happy I wasn't the one you two asked for help this time. It was nice having peace and quiet during class for once," Hermione says with a smile.
"Hey, we're not that bad!" Ron responds but smiles back just the same.
"Getting back on topic," Harry says pointedly, "Look, I'm not trying to say he's suddenly an angel. I just, something is different about him. And I think that maybe it wouldn't hurt to try to figure out what." Harry shrugs, leaning back in his seat.
"He's not wrong," Hermione adds.
"Barking mad, both of you." Ron shakes his head and turns his attention back to his homework.
Hermione gives him a fond smile but then looks back at Harry. "If you're serious about this, just talk to him. It can't hurt. And who knows, maybe you'll find out something you would've never known otherwise." She opens up her book again, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts.
Maybe talking to him wouldn't be such a bad idea.