First Day
"Rise and shine sleeping beauty." Draco said to Blaise - he woke up at six am, had a shower, did his morning routine now he had loads of skincare products, styled his hair, changed, and Blaise still wasn't up. Theodore was awake, though barely. "It's almost half eight, and doesn't breakfast finish at nine?"
"Shit." Blaise cursed in a level tone and turned to bury his head in his pillow. Theo rolled his eyes, ungracefully feeling around the bedside table for his wand to then cast a Stinging Hex at Blaise. "Fuck, Theo, that hurts you bastard."
"You're the bastard, Blaise, not me." Corrected Theo, finally ready to leave the comfort of his warm bed for the cold wooden floor.
When they were on their way to the hall, Draco passed Harry, who was by himself. Ron and Hermione went earlier because Harry was very focused on the map when he woke up. He was looking for Draco's name, only to check he wasn't lost, but saw Florian's on the way to the seventh floor for his name to just disappear. What was Florian Malfoy doing in the Room of Requirement?
"Hey." Draco tried. Maybe they were somewhat friends.
But Harry didn't reply. He took one glance, then Harry looked away with red cheeks and hurried off. Strange, but not entirely unexpected. Then why was there a hallow part now in Draco's chest?
"What was that?" Blaise asked, looking between him and Harry.
"I... don't know." They carried on to the hall, no more questions asked.
When they got the schedules that day, Draco kept looking at Florian, wanting to spend time with him, to get to know him. Looking at his schedule, Draco saw he and Florian had Care of Magical Creatures first. "Florian?" He asked quietly and softly, "We've got Care now, we need to go." Florian looked up, looking tired and pale. Draco didn't know what he looked like normally, but a person is never that pale.
On their way there, Draco was frowning, trying to figure out how to start a conversation. But Florian went first, "Mother and Father owled me this morning. There was an article in the Daily Prophet, splashed on the front page speculating about you and the family.
"They told me you were a squib, that's the reason they gave you up. Because you tarnished their blood and the family... But," Florian looked him in the eye, "you wouldn't be here if you were a squib. So they-" he swallowed, like the word was stuck in his throat, "-they were... wrong. About you."
"Glad I have your seal of approval." Draco rolled his eyes, pace matching Florian's. "You have mine." Florian showed a little shock at that, "You're my twin, we're family."
"Family comes first."
"In some cases."
Draco didn't know what to think of Hagrid's teaching methods. He just... gave them an animal and off they went. There was no explanation about habitat, what they do, if they hibernate or not, if they're endangered, how they survive. It was just here's your animal, do this task.
Thankfully, Draco did read up about Plimpy's in the recommended book before school started. Harry seemed to be struggling feeding his one water snails, getting his hands into the tub of water but being afraid of being stung. Although it does look like a pufferfish just with long and thin limbs, Draco knew they were harmless.
Stroking its head, Draco gave his Plimpy a water snail. "How are you doing that?" Asked Harry. "It's going to sting you!"
"They're harmless. They will only nibble at your feet if you're swimming with them." Draco informed him. "Merpeople don't like them: they tie its legs in a knot and let it drift away, then they're eaten by other sea creatures. But they give birth to a dozen at a time, so by no means are they endangers."
Draco grabbed Harry's hand, gently placing his palm on top to relax Harry. His shoulders relaxed and his hands untensed. Gently, Harry's hand touched the top of the Plimpy's head and Harry's other hand fed him the snail.
"Thanks." Whispered Harry. Turning his head, their faces were close, so Draco pulled away.
"Well maybe you'll answer why you've been ignoring me since we arrived here." Draco wiped his hands on a towel waiting for an answer.
Sheepishly, Harry looked away and he blushed, "Well... you're in Slytherin... Just... every wizard put in Slytherin has gone bad before..."
"Oh? So that's your excuse?" Draco didn't look at him, pretending this was a casual conversation and was too busy with the work to be bothered. "How about the fact that you kidnapped me, Gryffindor? Or that you knew me before I was sorted and it seemed like you wanted to be friends."
"I do wanna be friends!" Harry exclaimed. "I do! Really!"
"Then why are you acting like such an arse?"
"I..." Harry's defensiveness turned to confusion, "don't know. I've always been told Slytherin's are, well, evil. It just... took some getting used to."
Well, Draco played it cool. He didn't want to show Harry he forgave him immediately and so shrugged it off. When Harry made an annoyed noise, Draco smiled to himself.
He met up with Blaise and Theo on his way to potions, them telling him about Ancient Runes and wondering why he decided to take Care instead of something more sophisticated. Draco said they were starting to sound like Florian and Pansy, and he almost got hexed if he didn't dodge it.
In potions, Harry and Ron arrived late. Draco didn't know how because they were just in Care together, but somehow they were. When they got started, Draco already had an idea of how to get around the difficult aspects of the Amortentia potion. And, he even had ways to make it stronger, which he did (he added one Monarch butterfly wing).
Everyone else seemed to be struggling with the potion, even Hermione - who he believed to be the Brainiac of the little group - was struggling. Her hair was all over the place, which could be said to be the opposite to Florian, whose hair was perfectly kept.
Harry was doing well, following the weird instructions in his book. However, he did almost stir one too many times clockwise because he couldn’t take his eyes off Draco. When concentrated, his brows furrowed and his lips pinched into a thin line. There was a stray strand in front of his face that Harry wanted to tuck away.
At the end of the lesson (Ron was seriously ready for lunch now, Slughorn better hurry this up) Slughorn surveyed everyone’s potion. When he came to Draco’s he stopped, looking in the cauldron. “What did you do, Mister Malfoy?”
“Excuse me?” Politely, Draco asked back.
“It’s only slightly off colour, where did you go wrong?”
“I added a Monarch Butterfly wing, to make it stronger.” He said proudly, ready to receive the vial of liquid luck. However, Slughorn shook his head and moved on. Draco was already embarrassed enough, he didn’t speak up even though he wanted to. Florian chuckled at his twin’s misfortune, and Draco kept that saved for later.
When he stopped at Harry’s cauldron, it was like Harry had achieved something only one percent of the population could. “Perfect, Harry my boy, just perfect!” He praised, “We have a clear winner.”
After the lesson Draco stayed behind to talk to Slughorn. When Harry hesitated at the door, Draco looked at him, made a gesture, and Harry left, waiting outside the door. “Professor.” Draco began, waiting for an answer.
“Ah, hello, Mister Malfoy.” Slughorn continued to fiddle with his papers. “What can I do for you?”
“I want to know why I didn’t win the Felix Felicis.”
Slughorn sighed, “Because Mister Potter made the potion, to a T.”
“But I made it better. I improved the potion.”
“Mister Malfoy, I asked for Amortentia, you did not give me Amortentia.” Draco was pissed, but he nodded and turned to leave.
“Part of being a teacher is to inspire and encourage kids, not humiliate them in front of their peers.” Was his closing statement before he closed the door. Draco wanted to go into every lesson with a clear mind, not passing judgement on his first day with these teachers, but he hated Slughorn.
“What did you want to talk to Slughorn about?” Harry asked him when he stepped out of the classroom. In all honesty, Draco forgot he waited.
“Nothing important.” Replied Draco: Harry dropped it. “I thought you said potions was your worst subject?”
“Well,” he scratched the back of his neck, “there was this potions book in the pile that has loads of shortcuts for potions.” Harry pulled it out of his bag and let Draco skim through and observe it, “It says it was property of the Half-blood Prince.” Along the margins and in-between the lines was writing that was so cursive Draco could barely read it.
“So you cheated. Well done.” Draco tried not to sound sarcastic, but it didn’t seem to work out well.
Harry denied, “It’s not cheating!” Draco raised an eyebrow, “It isn’t! They’re shortcuts.”