Strange Happenings Around The School
Now that they had nothing to think or, more accurately, worry about until the end of March came, Harry and Draco finally found themselves relaxing for once at school and in classes, and, due to the endless free time, they started to find themselves… noticing some things.
First off, Harry had seen, to an extent, that Draco was becoming a much better person, but he hadn’t at all seen it much to the lengths as he did now, when the blonde boy defended him from a snide remark made by Snape and showed their two potions were almost exactly the same, the one difference being a missing ingredient that Snape had forgotten on their instructions and written on the board, which Harry couldn’t read because of the amount of smoke in the room conflicting with his prescription, but even then the potion was passable with a substitute Harry had smartly used, showing he actually did possess aticute skill in potions, and blah blah blah blah blah…
Harry hadn’t caught the rest of the argument Draco was making after this point, as it became clear--and the students shifting in their seats to get a look at the two boys revealed this--that Draco had made his point and was now simply rambling about Harry Potter’s potions skill long neglected that he had only just noticed now that he was his friend.
And while Seamus and Dean had snickered before the former’s cauldron burst into flames, as usual, Harry had caught himself watching Draco talk and wave his hands with his usual air of dramatics, occasionally flicking back his slick hair, and it seemed… weirdly endearing.
(Overall class had ended that day with Harry getting his first one hundred on a potions and extra credit for remembering the substitute, and Hermione and Ron--mostly Hermione--had practically trampled them once they exited the classroom talking madly about how they--she--never noticed how good Harry was at potions before, and how ‘brilliant’ it was that Draco had stood up to Snape like that. The blonde had only shrugged his shoulders and muttered something about, “It wasn’t special or anything” and “He doesn’t understand” and “Harry’s brilliant” before turning pink and shouting he had forgotten something in the Slytherin Common Room and bolting off.)
The next weird thing came out the day after that incident, that very weekend, when the Quartet ventured to Hogsmeade, and Draco got to be confused for a change. Firstly, the trio of Gryffindor’s abandoned him almost immediately right when he had tried to explain what he had planned for this weekend’s trip, and told him to get seats at the Three Broomsticks before dashing away, sneaking behind an alley just as Draco saw Harry whip out his Invisibility Cloak. He’d shrugged that incident off, because the Gryffindor’s always seemed to act like this, especially before he was their friend, and did as they had asked.
Then things went from weird to gross as Draco found himself sitting alone at a booth next to a two person table where Tess Whitlock and Percy Weasley sat chatting and--not very slyly at all--flirting. The half hour Draco had to listen to their little date while trying in vain to get some homework done was probably the worst he’d ever spent in his life, but eventually they left, the trio came back, and Draco got to lament to them about how disgusting Ron’s brother was.
The weirder thing being the group just took it with a sigh, Harry seeming the most annoyed, but they all seemed rather accustomed to Tess and Percy dating.
“Fred and George have been trying to add merch to the Weasley Wizard Wheezes.” Ron was saying, stopping to briefly explain the joke items to the once again confused Slytherin before continuing. “They’ve been wearing the same ‘Pessy’ shirts under their robes since the Second Task.” Harry and Hermione nodded to confirm that the youngest Weasley son was telling the truth.
And to finish off the days skew of events Draco wasn’t privy to but his three friends were was the startling arrival of Ludo Bagman asking many wild and fast paced questions about how Harry was doing in the Tournament and getting dry, practiced responses from a clearly annoyed Harry Potter. Once he’d gone, Draco asked about this too, but was met with the usual tired response, and the feeling that he had missed something very important…
The final, noticeable change the two boys both came to see as the weeks of February droned on, and Valentine’s Day approached--a day Hermione had been looking forward to a date with Viktor for, and Ron had been pretending didn’t exist--was that of the Slytherins.
Throughout three full years and September and October of this year Draco had been their pride and joy; their King they would carry on their shoulders if he wasn’t worried about them messing up his hair or robes. But now came the time when they’d have to pick a new King, as there was no way they were sending Valentines to the muggle lover their friend had become, but who would they send the Valentines to instead?
Pansy Parkinson, of course.
It was in that week Harry and Draco realized that Pansy, once a pug-faced, lovesick girl that clung to Draco whenever she could but never really held any power outside of that over her small gang, had turned into the Queen Bee of Slytherin House, sitting in the middle of a mob of boys everyday, her appearance experiencing a serious glow up to something that could possibly be considered pretty, and her bullying increasing tenfold.
“Hey, Malfoy! Wanna hear a little bet my friends and I made about you?”
“Hey, Potter! Like our new badges? Design inspired specifically by your friend Draco, of course, thank you Draco… We’re thinking of writing a song to cheer you on for the Third Task, what do ya think?”
“Hey, Weasley knows how to do the Densaugeo spell! Oh you don’t? Oh that’s too bad, I thought you did, seeing as how Granger’s teeth are quite larger today then usual--”
It was endless torture, seeing her parade down halls, push past students, laugh and point fingers in class, act like, well, Malfoy. Or at least, act how he had acted before growing a brain and seeing what a better friend Harry Potter could be rather than a rival. Though he thought, or, hoped, that Pansy wouldn’t think the same, because even though her bullying taunts were torture, spending actual time with her like he used to would be much worse.
Besides, he thought he deserved this bullying after those years jeering at the Trio.
-*-*-*-
“Remind me again how Granger has a boyfriend.” Draco whispered to Harry the day after Valentine’s day on the way to Care of Magical Creatures when said Granger girl stopped to wave at the Durmstrang boat where Krum was leaning over on the deck towards her while talking to Hugo and Anya. “And then remind me how that boyfriend could possibly have been a star Quidditch player?”
Harry stopped and watched the two as well, shaking his head. “I have no clue…” “I’ll tell you when you tell me why you turned down Marietta Edgecombe for a date at Hogsmeade yesterday?” Hermione turned and said smartly, placing one hand on her hip and tilting her head. When she caught Draco at a loss for words, she smirked and continued to walk down the path to class.
That day they were finishing their lessons on Unicorns with a quiz, though it was relatively short and everyone was done super early, so instead Hagrid led out a fully grown Unicorn for the class to marvel at and pet. However, being used to babies or the occasional dead Unicorn--for the blood, Hagrid had claimed, though had to deal with a whole class except for Harry, Hermione, and Draco, who’d of course seen a Unicorn corpse in their First Year, being disgusted--the class was as scared as they had been upon first meeting the Hippogriff Buckbeak, and Harry had eagerly stepped forward to be the Unicorn’s first victim, remembering how much he had enjoyed that experience.
“How about someone other than Harry, eh?” Hagrid then unexpectedly called, however, leaning down to whisper in Harry’s ear for only him to hear, “Ought to give that Malfoy a second chance, don't you think?” He nodded over to the blonde who was furiously writing down notes that Harry suspected by the amused looks on Hermione and Ron’s faces as they peeked at the page to be a drawing instead, and Harry knew then he must’ve been referring to the incident that had also occurred in the Buckbeak lesson.
“Sure. Yeah that’s a good idea Hagrid!” Harry exclaimed and the Half-Giant grinned, beady eyes alight with pride from the praise to his teaching and he straightened, clearing his throat. “Alright then. Malfoy, mind coming up here to demonstrate to the class for us?”
The blonde jerked his head up from his ‘notes’, eyes widened in horror as he exclaimed, “Me?”, glancing around at his other classmates but only seeing that they were all stepping back and staring at the Unicorn as it pranced around in a circle in the same horror. “Why me?!”
“Well you’ve been doing a very good job in classes this year so far. C’mon, Draco, what harm can be done?” The blonde bit his lip, looking very uncomfortable but Harry walked over and raised a hand, hesitant for a moment, before letting it rest on his shoulder, squeezing just lightly in encouragement. “Hagrid’s right. What harm can be done?” He said, then, leaning in, he whispered, “I believe in you.” And the Slytherin sighed, giving his friend a smile, then swallowing down the lump in his throat, and stepping towards the Unicorn.
He took a couple more steps and it took notice of him, startling, and stumbling back on its hooves a bit.
“Now, you won’t want to startle it.” Hagrid said, coming to stand just a few feet behind his student if things went wrong. “They don’t like males as much as females, ye see. Just come near it carefully… Just like that, yeah…” Draco started to take a couple tentative shuffles forwards and the Unicorn froze. He did too.
C’mon Draco… He found his mind telling him as he raised his hand, licking his lips. You rode a Giant Squid. How hard can this be? His hand made contact with the Unicorn’s soft white head and it snorted, eyes narrowed defensively, while Draco shivered then, taking a deep breath, slid his hand up to pet the creature's head and scratch it lightly between the ears.
Its ears twitched and its tail swished as the blonde noticed, to his joy, it seemed to enjoy it.
“There you go! That’s it!” Hagrid exclaimed as the class began to applaud politely. He walked up beside the Malfoy boy, setting one of his great hands on his shoulder, though Draco hardly noticed, as he had seemed to become entranced by the Unicorn’s dark eyed gaze. “See, it isn’t all that hard. Now you could just go on and ride it if you’d like.” Draco gasped, whipping his head up.
“What?!” He exclaimed and Hagrid laughed. “You heard me! Can’t be harder than that squid of yours, can it? C’mere,” And, just as he had with Harry the year before, Hagrid lifted Draco easily up by the waist and set him on top of the Unicorn’s back, where it immediately startled.
“Now they don’t like riding with people, so just don’t grip him or anything. But don’t fall off. Ah, you’ll get the hang of it.” Hagrid settled for saying with a wave of his hand, then slapped the Unicorn’s backside and it kicked off in a wild prance, leaving only the high pitched shriek of Draco Malfoy and the laughs of his classmates behind.
Eventually, Draco did get the hang of it, once he’d calmed down, and was comfortable enough to lean forward and rest his hand on the Unicorn’s mane, grasping it just enough to not slip off, enjoying the wind brushing against his cheeks as the Unicorn moved at quite the surprising speed through the trees. They glided gracefully over logs and ponds, past Centaur’s and strange fauna he could only glimpse at in blurs. It was much like riding on a broomstick, he gathered, and nothing like riding horseback at the Manor.
At some point the Unicorn must’ve grown tired as it slowed to a stop by a pond for a drink, and Draco glanced around, reeling they were quite deep in the woods now, and knowing they should probably turn back before class ended. He let the creature have its drink though, as he needed a break to breathe and collect his wild, joyful thoughts himself too.
He was petting the Unicorn’s mane, smiling softly, when a twig snapped, and voices met his ears. He turned around sharply and saw, moving through the trees, just far enough away they probably wouldn’t notice him, Karkaroff and Anya, looking angry as they spoke. In spite of himself, Draco listened.
“I’m positive it was planned, Headmaster.” Anya was saying, hurrying forwards and walking backwards to force the man to look her in the eye. “All of this. It can be no coincidence. Someone either thinks their really sly--”
“Or quite the opposite.” Karkaroff came to a halt, dangerous eyes narrowed. “Who do you think would have the guts to take action at a time like this? On school grounds--” “You know exactly who I think.” Anya interrupted, stepping back to cross her arms tight. Karkaroff’s eyes go wide, “No…” then he looks away, pointedly.
Draco carefully drops down from the Unicorn and creeps up behind a tree to get a closer look, quite intrigued now.
“C’mon… You know I’m right. The World Cup, the burning…” The Headmaster’s head whips around to his student, eyes now wide and out of control for the first time Draco’s seen. “How do you know about the--” “Don’t you forget who my father was. I have my ways, you know that. Also…” Her eyes flicked to the man’s left arm. “Word spreads fast among teenagers.” His hand immediately grips that arm, his whole body stiffening protectively, as Draco feels his throat go dry, hoping beyond hope they aren’t talking about what he knows they must be.
“They’d have no reason to strike so openly like this. It’s dangerous. Not to mention throwing a Death Eater’s son in the mix? Headmaster Karkaroff,” Anya’s voice is stern with a dark seriousness Draco had never expected to hear from the girl he’d thought had been fun loving. “I’m the only girl you brought here for the Tournament, you must have some respect for me. Please, tell me what’s going on. I deserve to know, I’m of age--”
“I can’t tell you what is happening as I have no clue myself.” The man cut her off, eyes narrowed in their usual manner again. “I have tried to talk to Severus--” Draco flinched. “--But he has disregarded me. Clearly, he is either in full control or out of the loop of the situation just as we are. There is nothing more I can do, even though I have tried.” Anya pursed her lips, looking unconvinced, but Karkaroff places a would-be comforting hand on her shoulder, smiling with all his yellowed teeth.
“Don’t worry about all of this drama, Sallow, focus on the Tournament. You and Viktor are winners, I know that. Try not to let the loss of Hugo distract you, okay?” His voice sounds weirdly comforting, but of course Draco recognizes fake when he hears it. Anya seems to fall for his act hook line and sinker, however, despite sharply changing the course of the conversation.
“That’s another thing… Hugo says he has no memory of the Lake at all--that he blanked out right when he dived in the water. Plus, he doesn’t even have Gillyweed. He was going to use the Transfiguration like Viktor and Potter, you know that.” The hand on Anya’s shoulder tightened and the girl flinched just slightly. “What are you saying?” “It’s not what I’m saying, sir, it’s what he’s saying.”
“He says he was Imperiused.”
There was a long, suspenseful silence in which Karkaroff gazes into his Champion’s eyes testily, an emotion Draco can’t dissect trapped in his ice chip-like eyes. “How could that have happened? There would have had to have been…”
“...A Death Eater on the grounds.” Anya finished for him. “One who wouldn’t want us to win, so no one from Durmstrang.” Karkaroff licked his lips, glancing around at the surrounding woods for a moment before turning and wrapping an arm around Anya’s shoulders and leading her back out of Draco’s sight--into a thicket of trees, their now very hushed voices fading out into silence.
“We’ll have to talk about this at the ship, wouldn’t want anyone…”
And then they were gone, and the blonde was left alone sitting on the grass, heart pounding, Unicorn angrily patting its hooves as if to say, ‘I’ll leave without you.’
He couldn’t process what he just heard even if he tried, and boy, he tried. It all came out of left field for him. His father was a Death Eater and had participated in humiliating Muggles over the summer at the World Cup, but he’d said nothing nor shown nothing indicating his dark mark was hurting. Plus, if a fellow Death Eater really was behind putting Harry and Draco’s names in the Goblet, then why put in a Death Eater’s son? What was the motive here? Draco couldn’t quite grasp it right then, so he instead slung himself back onto the Unicorn, and kicked off towards class.
After class, it took hardly a minute for Draco to lead his friends farther away from the chattering kids around them and explain the conversation he’d heard, briefly, in low tones to his friends. They all immediately were staring at him, bug eyed, slack jawed, unable to believe their ears, most likely, at the disturbing news.
“I know it’s a lot to take in…” Draco started to say slowly but Harry, surprisingly, cut him off when exclaiming, “Sirius was right!” Then letting his shock change to horror on his face as he realized what he just said, and Draco blinked at him, dubiously.
“Huh?” Hermione waved a hand. “Don’t worry about--” “No, I won’t ‘not worry about it.’ I tolerate a lot of secrets from all of you because everyone’s allowed to have secrets and I understand if you aren’t ready to share everything with me at the moment. But this is too much. Disappearing at Hogsmeade, huddling together to have secret conversations in the Halls when I’m not with you, and now two mentions of the mass murderer who broke into the school to kill you last year?” Draco shook his head, looking angry at them for the first time in months. “I can’t let this slide, Harry. Where did you go in Hogsmeade, and why do you keep mentioning Sirius Black?”
The Gryffindor Trio glanced at each other, debating with just their eyes if Draco could be trusted, and seemed to decide yes, he could, after everything he’d done, because Harry stepped forward, leaned forward, and in the lowest whisper he could manage said, “Sirius Black is my Godfather.” That shut Draco up real quick, pure shock allowing Harry to continue to explain everything that had been explained to him in the Shrieking Shack, then about his Fireside chat and Sirius’ theories then, and finally, their secret talk at Hogsmeade.
By the time he’d finished speaking, Draco was blinking at him incredulously, trying very hard to process what was just told to him. Eventually he seemed to, and Harry could wipe the sweat of his brow, as he took a deep breath in, than out, and the next words out of his mouth became, “So we’re looking for a Death Eater with a thing against ‘traitors’ and sly enough to be hiding among us but also possibly able to cast an Imperius Charm, right?”
The Trio grinned, clearly thrilled to see Draco was accepting the truth about Sirius with stride, and then Hermione turned serious and cleared her throat, leading the group down back to the school as they all discussed their theories over who it might be.
-*-*-*-
Wednesday night, Thursday, and Friday morning were well spent. By the end of the week, the group had successfully ruled out Karkaroff because as a ‘traitor’ himself it would seemed ridiculous for him to hate other ‘traitors’, and many more Death Eater’s simply because they died or were in Azkaban and Draco was the only who knew it because the news didn’t cover anyone but the important prisoners like his Aunt and Augustus Rookwood, the latter of which would have proven a great suspect if he wasn’t in jail.
That still left plenty more to research and try to unravel the mysteries of, however.
What seemed most obvious to Draco was Death Eater’s whose children were in Hogwarts and of age, as that would make the child easily able to put the boys’ names in the Goblet and sneak their parent onto grounds to Imperius a student and do whatever they could possibly have up their sleeve next.
(The only problems that rose up through all of this was when Draco would slip up and say something like, “Dolohov’s a friend of my Father,” or, “I know him” and have to avoid his friends' not so nice looks they sent his way.)
By the end of the week their suspect list was small and they had become frustrated with how so many Death Eaters could be great candidates but were imprisoned, or were free to roam the world but were ‘traitors’ themselves. At the end of the day, or, rather, at the end of lunch on Friday, they had come up with a list of four people; Peter Pettigrew, Fenrir Greyback, and Viola or Rodney Parkinson, simply because they had become desperate and they hated Pansy so it seemed like a reasonable option.
“This is ridiculous.” Draco said as he folded the slip of paper with those names and tucked it in his robes. “At this rate, you could put your father on this list, Weasley, and he would be more likely to try and kill me.”
They were walking down the steps to the Dungeons to have their final class, Potions with Snape, and immediately were reminded as to why they put her parents on their list as they turned the corner and saw Pansy and her gang laughing their arses off as they read a magazine in her hands over her shoulders.
“Oh, hey Draco!” She looked up and called, waving, and the blonde rolled his eyes, slowing to a stop on the way to his favorite class and muttering to the others, “Can we just skip Potions today? Please… It would be so easy…”
“We had to suffer through you for three years, and we still came to class.” Hermione said, smirking as she and Ron grabbed Draco by the arms and dragged him forwards. Meanwhile Harry stepped up to Pansy, eyes narrowed. “What is it now…?” He groaned, stopping to examine the cover of their magazine; Witch Weekly.
Pansy giggled, holding it out for them to take, “You’ll want to read this Potter. You too, Granger.” She winked at the bushy haired girl and Harry yanked the thing away while Snape pushed the door open and told them class was commencing and they all crammed into class.
The Quartet chose a table in the back corner and huddled around the magazine in Harry’s hands as he opened it and read, and Snape wrote the ingredient for the potion of the day on the board.
Harry Potter’s Secret Heartache
A boy like no other, perhaps - yet a boy suffering all the usual pangs of adolescence, writes Rita Skeeter. Deprived of love since the tragic demise of his parents, fourteen-year-old Harry Potter thought he had found solace in his steady girlfriend at Hogwarts, Muggle-born Hermione Granger. Little did he know that he would shortly be suffering yet another emotional blow in a life already littered with personal loss.
Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards that Harry alone cannot satisfy. Since the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgarian Seeker and hero of the last World Quidditch Cup, Miss Granger has been toying with both boys' affections. Krum, who is openly smitten with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to visit him in Bulgaria over the summer holidays, and insists that he has "never felt this way about any other girl."
However, it might not be Miss Granger's doubtful natural charms that have captured these unfortunate boys' interest.
"She's really ugly," says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth-year student, "but she'd be well up to making a Love Potion, she's quite brainy. I think that's how she's doing it."
Love Potions are, of course, banned at Hogwarts, and no doubt Albus Dumbledore will want to investigate these claims. In the meantime, Harry Potter's well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart on a worthier candidate.
“Oh my Merlin…” Draco whispered as Hermione slammed the magazine down on the table, red and furious. “I told you not to mess with her, Hermione,” Ron said, looking worried for his friend more than he wanted to be proud of being right, for once. “Now look at what she’s done!” She’s made you into some sort of… scarlet woman!”
Draco snorted, pressing a fist to his mouth to stop laughing, while Hermione outright barked a sarcastic laugh, turning to face Ron and shaking her head while Harry gripped the table hard as he tried to stop himself from laughing as well, looking like he might burst. “Scarlet woman?” She repeated, and Ron went red in the ears.
“It’s what my Mum calls them…” Draco burst out laughing as Hermione threw the magazine into his lap since he sat across her and he tossed it back at the Slytherins without a second glance while she said, “If that’s the best Rita can do, she’s losing her touch. What a pile of old rubbish.”
They all turned to see how the Slytherins were looking and saw Pansy turn around sharply in her seat and shove her beetles at Crabbe beside her, ordering him to pound them while she pouted, no doubt about Hermione’s lack of reaction to the news. Hermione rolled her eyes and turned back to her own beetles, beginning to pound them as they all readied their cauldrons for the Wit-Sharpening Potion.
Thinking of the incident last week, Draco ripped out a piece of parchment and scribbled down the notes on the board that Snape wrote that he knew Harry couldn’t possibly see, and passed them over to him. The boy smiled and nodded his thanks, and their eyes both lingered on each other for a moment longer, before looking away sharply.
“There’s something funny, though,” Hermione commented when she poured the grinded scarab beetles into her cauldron a few minutes later. “How could Rita Skeeter have known…?” Ron looked up quickly, his pestle slipped as he still tried in vain to ground the beatles. “Known what?” He exclaimed quickly. “You aren’t really mixing up Love Potions, are you?”
Hermione gasped, jerking her head up and accidently dropping a few beetle pieces on the table. “Don’t be stupid!” She snapped, picking them up and throwing them in again. “No, it’s just… how did she know Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer?” Draco, who had been ahead of them and was already mixing the beatles and watching his potion slowly change color to red, now slipped and nearly dropped his spoon from shock.
“What?!” Both he and Ron exclaimed as Hermione turned a bright scarlet and Harry, clearly very uncomfortable, stood up and declared he needed to get more Armadillo bile (he didn’t).
“He er--he asked me right after he’d pulled me out of the lake,” Hermione muttered. “After he’d got rid of his shark’s head. Madam Pomfrey gave us both blankets and then sort of pulled me away from the judges so they wouldn’t hear and he said, if I wasn't doing anything over the summer, would I like to--”
“And what did you say?” Asked Ron, who was now attempting to grind the table, not the bowl, oblivious as he stared wide eyed at Hermione.
“And he did say he’d never felt the same way about anyone else,” Hermione ignored him and continued, focusing only on stirring the beatles, her face going red as her mixture did. “But how could Rita have heard him? She wasn’t there… or was she? Maybe she has got an Invisibility Cloak; maybe she sneaked onto the grounds to watch the Second Task…"
"What did you say, Hermione?" Ron practically growled, voice serious as the pettle began to dent the desk. Harry had returned now and Draco looked up from his mixing to give him a 'help me' plead before pouring in the bile Harry had gotten into his mixture and mixing once more.
"Well, I was too busy seeing whether you and Harry were okay to–"
"How fascinating." Hermione jumped, spinning around in her seat, Harry slipped and jerked his head up from where he was stirring in his beatles, dropping his spoon in the red goo, while Ron continued to grind at the table, no less oblivious as he looked up at the source of the disturbance. Draco focused on stirring in the bile, unfazed.
"As fascinating though your social life undoubtedly is, Miss Granger," It was Snape, standing right above them, and staring down at the girl with a hint of a sick smile playing on his lips. “I must ask you not to discuss it in my class. Ten points from Gryffindor.” Harry looked around, ignoring Snape, to see that the whole class had turned in its seats and, using the opportunity of Draco having his head down, focused on his cauldron, Pansy turned and revealed a POTTER AND MALFOY STINK badge right at them.
“Ah… reading magazines under the table as well?” Snape added, kneeling down the snatch up the copy of Witch Weekly Draco had thrown away with no thought. “A further ten points from Gryffindor… oh but of course…” The smile grew wide as Snape’s eyes fell on the dreaded article. “Potter has to keep up with his press cuttings…” The Slytherin’s all around the room roared with laughter and Draco jerked his head up, glancing around at them all in shame as Snape began to, to his further horror, read out the article.
“Harry Potter’s Secret Heartache... dear, dear. Potter, what’s ailing you now?” The Slytherin’s grew louder and Harry felt himself go red, no longer able to ignore Snape’s cold stare and instead looking him in the eye as Draco scowled at his former friends. “‘A boy like no other, perhaps…’” Snape was noticeably giving pause time to let the Slytherin’s laugh.
It hit Draco then, harder than it had a week ago, how unfair his favorite Professor really had been treating his new friend.
“‘...Harry Potter’s well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart upon a worthier candidate.’ How very touching,” Snape sneered, rolling up the magazine and letting the Slytherins laughter ring around the classroom. "Well, I think I had better separate the four of you, so you can keep your minds on your potions rather than on your tangled love lives. Malfoy, stay here, you seem to be the only one doing sufficient work after all. Weasley, kindly leave my table alone and get a new pettle, and take a seat with Nott and Zabini. Miss Granger, over there, beside Miss Parkinson. And Potter--that table in front of my desk. Move. Now.” He slapped the rolled up magazine on their table for good measure and the Gryffindor’s scattered while Draco felt himself go pink with shame and embarrassment, but kept his head bent as low as possible, methodically stirring the potion.
Eventually, once he had to start cutting more Ginger roots to stir in as well, Draco did lift his head, and shifted around his table so he could face the front of the room and see Harry and Snape, feeling something stir inside his mind.
He remembered Dumbledore’s words about Occlumency, and closed his eyes, letting the thing grow and grow, rear its head and roar, and consume his thoughts. When he opened his eyes he no longer saw his favorite Professor; he saw a man unfairly abusing his best friend. The thing in his head roared loud and strong.
He heard him call him a ‘nasty little boy.’ His knife slipped. He then heard him say he was giving him a ‘warning’ and Draco looked down at his hands as he slipped the roots off the cutting board and into the pot and saw that they were shaking, possibly even harder as he tried to calm them in vain.
He heard him accuse Harry of theft with no evidence except that they were spotted leaving the Prefect’s bathroom in the early morning a month ago and therefore Snape was convinced they had been there all night. Which was true. The accusation of stealing from his private stores of supplies, however, was not. The shaking in his hands got worse, and Draco began to wish they’d keep their voices shut. Or the class would start laughing again. Anything so he didn’t have to listen to this and add it to the list of things his mind was having an emotional turmoil over finding an opinion on.
Instead, Harry made a smart comeback. Draco smirked, head flicking up to see Snape’s reaction, but he immediately regretted it upon seeing what the Professor was holding.
“Veritaserum.” Draco dropped his cutting board and stood up from his seat, striding towards the table at the front of the room with his chin high, ignoring the horrific looks he got from Ron and Hermione--who were no doubt listening as well--as he passed. “A Truth Potion so powerful that three drops would have you--” “Spilling so many secrets about your mistreatment of my dear friend Harry here that Dumbledore could easily put you out of a job,” Draco cut off smoothly, raising one eyebrow in challenge as he placed a hand protectively on Harry’s shoulder. “Professor.”
Snape showed no signs of reaction, eyes narrowing only slightly and Draco felt all of a sudden as if someone had placed a hand on the monster in his head. In an instant, he kick started his Occlumency, protecting the roaring beast with the dark hand he’d removed on Astronomy Tower and feeling himself smirk a bit in pride as Snape’s hand recoiled, real life Snape’s eyes widening and the hand on the bottle flinching a bit.
There was silence. No one in the class moved to continue brewing their potions but no one said anything at all, not even a whisper. Every eye was on Draco and Snape, who only had eyes for each other as they stared each other down. He was a student that had the teacher wrapped around his finger, and had for three and a half years now, and here was a teacher ruthless in punishing, except when it came to those of his House.
Eventually, Snape quietly set the bottle down on his desk, folding his hands together, and curled his lip back a little as he said, “Mr. Malfoy, if you would be so kind as to take Mr. Potter back to your table to help him with his Potion, please. He seems to have mutilated his beatles beyond repair, and it looks like yours are almost finished.”
Draco nodded curtly, not showing any signs that he knew he just won. Instead, he muttered a simple, “Of course, Professor.” and helped Harry gather his stuff together, then they walked back together to the table at the back of the class. As they passed Ron, they saw he was grinning like next year’s Christmas had come early and raising his hand. He high fived the blonde Slytherin as he passed and for the first time in his life carried a respect for him in his eyes as he exclaimed, “You did it, Draco!”
Once they reached the table Draco practically collapsed into his chair, breathing out a heavy sigh while Harry sat down across from him and simply blinked, wide eyed in stunned disbelief. “How did you--” “Don’t.” Draco cut him off with, raising a finger. “Just know that’s never happening again. I just played my last favorite student card to get you out of that so… you’re welcome.” Harry started to smirk, the smirk widening to a grin every second, and nodded, looking as if he very much wanted to keep talking about this but somehow restraining himself from doing so.
“Thanks.” He settled for saying as Draco scooped up a vile of his potion and nodded, shrugging. “Yeah, yeah, sure thing…” He would never admit to the small smile he gave when Harry looked away, however, or to how his stomach suddenly felt as if it was stirring just as his potion was.
Suddenly, there was a sharp knock on the dungeon door, right behind Draco and Harry’s table, and they turned in curiosity as Snape said, “Enter.”
The door swung open, and Draco and Harry both felt themselves go frozen still and cold as Professor Karkaroff strode in, walking purposefully right up to Snape’s desk while twisting his finger around his goatee, looking quite agitated, more so than he had in the woods two days ago even. “We need to talk.” He declared, with a clear, ‘you don’t have a choice’ urgency in his voice but also a, ‘in private’ undertone too.
Snape looked up, quite agitated himself, as he seemed to be winning no battles today, and looked around at the classroom, eyes settling testily on the boys in the back, who glared back defiantly. “I’ll talk to you after my lesson, Karkaroff.” He said, sounding as if he’d rather do anything then talk to Karkaroff right then. Draco remembered the Headmaster’s words about Snape refusing to speak with him, and knew that this had to be an important discussion they needed to hear.
“I want to talk now, while you can’t slip off, Severus. You’ve been avoiding me.” Yep.
Draco hurriedly hopped off his seat, waving Harry off as he started to question his movements, and left to get more Armadillo Bile. He then set it on the desk and the two boys only pretended to work for the rest of class as Karkaroff hovered behind Snape’s desk, clearly determined to speak with him as much as he was determined to not leave. Once the class was about to end, Draco enacted his plan, deliberately knocking over all of the Armadillo Bile just two minutes before the bell, giving he and Harry a perfect excuse to duck under the table to mop it up.
“What’s so urgent?” Snape hissed quietly. Too quietly. He and Harry scurried across the floor and under tables, unbeknownst to the two Professor’s, to listen better.
“This,” Karkaroff said, and the boys, peering around a table leg, saw Karkaroff pull up the left-hand sleeve of his robe and show Snape his inner forearm, as if there was something supposed to be there, though they couldn’t see what. “Well?” Karkaroff asked, hurriedly. “Do you see? It’s never been this clear, never since--”
“Put it away!” Snape cut him off, black eyes sweeping the classroom as the boys hurriedly scurried back under the table and out of sight. “But you must have noticed--” Karkaroff sounded really mad now, but Snape also clearly wasn’t having this conversation. It wasn’t about worrying someone might hear them--he didn’t want to hear it himself.
“We can talk later, Karkaroff!” He spat, glaring at Karkaroff once more. The two men locked eyes, a pure rage passing through them, before the Durmstrang Headmaster turned sharply on his heel and strode out of the dungeon just as he had come in, twirling his mustache again and all.
A moment past, then Snape turned as well and headed into his back office, and in a blink of an eye the boys had scurried back to their table across the floor, stood up and gathered their stuff, and burst out of the room at top speed, bounding up the steps to the Great Hall to tell Ron and Hermione everything they’d heard.
It was clear then to them, with two strange conversations from Karkaroff, a burning and clear Dark Mark, and of course, a new whirl of drama around the school with Queen B Pansy Parkinson, that even with a long wait until the Third Task, Harry and Draco would never get a break from the strangeness that was their school, and the mysteries that seemed to surround their lives.