A Chance Conversation Between Books
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, Somewhere in Scotland - 3 September, 1991
Draco went through the rest of that Tuesday not really paying anyone any mind. He still talked with the Slytherins but mostly tried to stick to the background in his classes. Most importantly he tried to get a better feel of his professors and his classmates from other houses.
~1~
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, Somewhere in Scotland - 4 September, 1991
Wednesday wasn’t much better, the only thing that stuck out was Herbology with the Gryffindors. Potter still seemed to be obsessed with trying to talk to Draco, the most annoying part of that being when Pansy kept pointing out that Potter was staring every five minutes.
Thankfully that had been their only class together that day, and when Draco double checked his schedule after class he realised they wouldn’t have a class together until Friday, due to Flying class being put off until the second week of school. That news in itself made Draco almost sigh in relief. He couldn't take three days of Potter staring at him in a row without exploding, and if his father heard about that then he was sure to be shipped off the Durmstrang. Well not really, Mother would never let him, but Draco would be in for a huge lecture.
~2~
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, Somewhere in Scotland - 5 September, 1991
The next day, Thursday, began with Draco’s second least favourite class, History of Magic. ‘Purebloods should get to opt out, it’s not like we didn’t learn all of this by the time we were walking.’ Draco complained as the ghostly Professor Binns droned on.
Even though he loathed the boring class, he didn't sleep like many of his peers, even the Ravenclaws could barely stay awake. Instead he continued his studies that he had started during lunch and ignored the boring lecture their ghostly teacher was speaking on.
The boring, basically free period, was followed by Draco’s number one least favourite class, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Thankfully it was the last they saw of Quirrell in class until Monday. ‘I should write to my father about banning the smell of garlic.’ Draco thought as he struggled to focus, his headache pounding.
When DADA was finally finished Draco rushed out of the room to try and escape with the smell of garlic. Thankfully the awful, infuriating class was followed by Charms with the Hufflepuff’s. It had quickly become one of Draco's favourite classes. Not only was the class interesting but Flitwick was an amazing teacher. He was fair and didn't seem to be as against the Slytherin's nearly as much as some other teachers.
However, Flitwick opened up the class that day with some positively horrible, life ending news. "Now this class will have many projects and assignments where you will need to partner with someone.” Flitwick began the class with. Many of the students sat up a bit straighter, looking to their friends and silently making alliances with them. Draco knew he would most likely partner with either Pansy, Blaise or Theo, all of them being smart enough to be an adequate partner for him to make the O’s his father expected.
This thought process was quickly squashed, however, when Flitwick finished his announcement, “I took the liberty of partnering you all with students from another house!”
This immediately made all excitement zip from the room as Flitwick swished his wand, “The partnerships have been posted, and there will be no changes unless you can give me a very good reason as to why you cannot partner together.” And just like that Draco’s fate was sealed. The class all rushed to see the list, to see who would be partnered with who. He quickly got up and went to the list himself, wanting to get this dreadful moment out of the way before having to work with some softhearted Hufflepuff. His name was not difficult to find and when he saw who he was unluckily partnered with he was surprised that he recognized it.
“Hello,” a girl's voice called from behind him, making Draco turn to look at a redheaded girl he recognized. “My name is Susan Bones, of the noble house of Bones.” She did a shallow curtsey while inclining her head to Draco, before straightening and looking at him. “I believe we have met before, we rode on the boat ride across the lake, did we not?” Bones clarified with a curious tilt of her head.
Draco inclined his head slightly in greeting, “Hello Bones, I am Draco Malfoy, Heir to the ancient and most noble house of Malfoy.” Draco introduced, before nodding his head to her question, “And yes, we did.” He remembered her very vaguely, since she hadn’t seemed very interesting on the boat or at the feast. However he also recognized her last name as one of a pureblood family— and he remembered the last name from one of his Father's many ramblings of work.
“It seems we will be working together this year.” Bones commented, sizing Draco up.
“Seems so, you should know that I am not getting anything lower than an O on any assignments.” Draco informed her, a slight sneer in his voice, that he couldn’t restrain no matter how much he tried, which was not a lot.
“Good, since I’m not getting anything less than an O either.” Bones quipped back, crossing her arms. “I hope we can agree that grades are important, so no matter our differences in political views we need to work together to get good grades.”
Draco hated to say it, even inside his head, that she was right. Flitwick definitely seemed like the type of professor who would take points away and give you a lower score if he thought that you weren’t putting in equal effort as your partner so working alone wasn't an option. “Unfortunately we will have to agree on that, Miss Bones.”
Soon after that Flitwick allowed the rest of the class time to be used as free time, which was heavily implied to be time where you got to know your partner. However, nothing sounded more horrible than having to sit and have a conversation with an emotional and weak hufflepuff. So of course Draco decided the best course of action would be to go to his seat and pull out one of the books he got from the library, more specifically— “ ‘A Guide to Oneiromancy’ huh?” Bones called, plopping down to sit next to him. “What is that about?”
Draco quickly pulled the book away from Bones, trying to hide it from her sight, “None of your business.” He spit and glared, stuffing the book quickly into his bag.
“You don’t need to be so rude, we are supposed to be talking and getting to know each other.” Bones snapped back, narrowing her dark brown eyes at Draco.
“I don’t see how that relates to school work, so no thank you.” Draco shot down, ‘Besides I wouldn’t talk about my dreams to her of all people even if I wanted to torment myself with that conversation.’
Bones continued to be a bother for the rest of the day, even after charms due to the fact that after lunch the Slytherin’s had Transfiguration and Astronomy with the Hufflepuff’s. She wouldn’t stop her bothering, sitting near him in the other two classes. Thankfully, however, the Slytherin’s helped to be a buffer. Pansy and Blaise sat next to Draco on his right and left, Crabbe, Goyle and Theo sitting near to also help.
~3~
Draco wasn’t able to find any peace until later that evening, where in place of the flying class that would follow the next week he decided to find solace in the library. It was tricky to sneak away from his bodyguards (aka Crabbe and Goyle) but all he had to do was distract them a bit with some of the candy his mother had sent him earlier in the week.
The silence of the library had never been so nice, and the feeling was made even better when he found his spot empty in the corner. He quickly set up shop, pulling out the book he had tried to read earlier during charms. The front of the book was a deep burgundy-purple colour with golden words that wrote out “A Guide to Oneiromancy” by Isolde Byrne. ‘What is Oneiromancy anyway?’ Draco asked himself.
He looked around one more time, checking that the coast was clear before opening the book.
What is Oneiromancy?
Oneiromancy is a form of divination(1) based upon dreams, where the dreamer uses dreams to help predict the future.Oneirogen(2) plants are thought to once be used to help produce a similar dream-like state of consciousness. The dreamer can occasionally feel as if they are transported to another time or place. Prominent practitioners of the craft are Cassandra Treylawney and Inigo Imago–
Draco blinked, well that answered his question as to what it was, but why was it happening to him? What caused it? The book said a plant could copy the effects, but he definitely had not come into contact with a plant called that. Although he should probably ask his mother if they did keep it in the garden.
He shook his head and skipped a few paragraphs, which just went on to describe more witches and wizards who saw dreams of the future or some kind of alternate reality. ‘But why me? Why is this happening to me? There hasn’t been a seer in the Malfoy or Black lines in generations. Even then, the visions didn’t just happen while I’m asleep.’ Finally, after a bit of searching, Draco found the paragraph he was searching for.
—no one knows exactly why only some experience this phenomena, even those who have previously had no seers in their lineage. The common belief is that the visions are not passed down by blood but by the soul from some kind of gods or the dead.
‘The dead?’ Draco questioned, ‘Who could possibly be dead and sending me visions of a future?’ The thought left Draco scrambling, however the explanation of his dreams and visions being oneiromancy didn’t feel exactly correct.
“Hey Draco.” A familiar voice called from in front of Draco’s table, causing Draco to startle out of his thoughts and his reading.
Draco quickly looked up after a moment, seeing a grinning Potter standing alone in front of his table. “Potter?” Draco called back, confused for a moment before remembering that he had been avoiding this very predicament. ‘And now I’m cornered, alone, and defenceless.’ his subconscious called nervously.
“I finally was able to catch you alone, it’s really hard ya know?” Potter pouted a bit before his grin returned.
“How— How did you know where I was?” Draco asked back, ‘Malfoy’s don’t stutter.’ He thought hatefully.
At this Potter’s grin turned guilty and a bit– shy? “I asked Hermione, she’s in here a lot and she mentioned in passing that you’re here a lot too. So I asked and guessed you’d probably be here.” Potter explained, scratching the back of the nest he called hair. ’Who is this "Hermione"?’ Draco questioned quietly.
“What are you studying anyway? It’s only the first week—” Potter moved to look over at the book, which made Draco instinctually slam the book shut and slide it away.
“It’s personal.” Draco responded darkly, hoping that his tone would stop any questions that the nosey Gryffindor would put forward.
Luckily it seemed to work, as Potter backed off quickly. “Sorry, I was just curious if it was for potions. You seem really good at that class,” Potter apologised and– complimented? “I just wanted to see if it was something that could help me. I’m pants at it and it doesn’t help that Snape seems to hate me.” Potter lamented. “‘Course it makes sense for you to be good, you said you’ve been doing potions since you were crawling right?”
“Oh.” was all Draco could respond with, as that was one of the most confusing sentences he had ever heard. ‘Harry Potter is apologising to me. He’s complimenting me.’ Draco’s mind supplies unhelpfully. Unluckily Draco’s mouth and vocal cords seemed to have a mind of their own.
“Snape doesn’t seem to,” Draco says without thinking, causing Potter to blink and move to stand a little straighter. “He does hate you.”
Potter deflates immediately, looking sad yet accepting. “Yeah, that seems to be the case.” Potter responded woefully before pulling out a chair and sitting across from Draco.
“What are you doing?” Draco quickly questioned, quickly snapping to look around to see if anyone was seeing this. ‘A Gryffindor–not just a Gryffindor but the Gryffindor of all Gryffindor’s– sitting with the Slytherin prince, I have t0 be dreaming.’ Draco thought almost hysterically.
“Sitting down? I didn’t want to be standing for who knows how long.” Potter said, getting comfortable in his seat.
“What?” Draco questions dumbly, his mind still blank at the idea that Potter would want to sit with him.
Potter threw him a confused look but it quickly smoothed over as he pulled out the potions book, some parchment and a quill. “Wanna help me with the potions essay? You would probably be my only hope for not getting an F.” Potter offered, his eyes and his smile full of hope and of questions.
“And why should I help you?” Draco asked, “What’s in it for me?” He couldn't just stop being a slytherin all for Potter, it was in his blood after all. ‘And what does the letter F have to do with a potions essay?’
“Well…” Potter trails off, seemingly thinking to himself, “How about if you help me with this I’ll help you with DADA? I seem to be pretty alright with that class.” Potter offered.
‘How did he know that’s my worst subject?’ Draco thought, panicking for a moment silently before quickly pushing it down. “Even with that stuttering fool Quirrell as a professor?” He questioned.
“Well actually I do it mostly out of class, I always seem to get this splitting headache in his class.” Potter responded.
“Probably because of all that garlic, I swear I can barely focus in that class.” Draco said before thinking, and then becoming instantly horrified that he just openly admitted a weakness.
“Yeah, probably. But anyway, I actually find the subject pretty interesting so maybe I could help you with the essay for it if you help me with the potions one?” Potter offered again, the hope still shining in his eyes.
“Well— Oh fine! What do you have so far?” Draco finally caved, knowing the stubborn Gryffindor wouldn’t give up his pestering. ‘Plus there is no way I would be able to make sense of the DADA homework.’
“Uh– Well nothing…” Potter mumbled out, scratching the back of his head and showing Draco the empty parchment.
“Potter! It’s due tomorrow! How have you not done it yet? We’ve had since Tuesday to finish it and it’s only about the basic properties of a potion!” Draco bursted out, forgetting that they were in a library. Of course he was immediately shushed and glared at by Pince.
“I just haven’t had time—” Protter quickly excused.
‘More like he put it off until the last second.’
“-and I have no idea what the basic properties even are. This book isn’t helpful at all!” He lamented again, glaring at the textbook like it was his fault.
“Have you even read it? The properties, ingredients, steps and vocabulary are all in the first chapter.” Draco gave Potter a flat look, before taking out his own textbook that already was covered in notes. He turned to the first chapter and pointed at the first heading, showing it to Potter. “See? Literally the first heading.”
Potions and their Properties
Potions are the backbone of the wizarding world as we know it, from medical grade Skele-Gro created by Linfred to the recently invented Sleekkeazy’s Hair Potion by world renowned Fleamont Potter–
Potter seemed to snap his eyes up to Draco at the sound of his last name, “Potter?” he questioned, “What is that doing in there? Who’s that?”
Draco blinked at that before offering up, unthinkingly, “Fleamont was one of the most well known potioneers in his prime, he married Euphemia Black and ended up having your father, James Potter.” Draco explained, remembering the Potter family tree he memorised when he was younger. “He ended up selling his patent for a lot, that’s how the Potter’s got most of their money. Of course they had always been a wealthy and well known family, although they had a stronger foothold outside of England. It helped that Fleamont married into an extremely distant branch of the Black’s.”
He snapped his lips shut at that, before he could start going on about blood and how the Potter’s were relatively pure, just blood traitors, before James Potter sullied that blood. Draco didn’t know why he wanted to hide that part of himself, he never had before.
He looked to Potter, sure to find him bored and uninterested in his own family tree. However he found the opposite, he seemed extremely interested in his family’s history.
“Why’d you stop?” Potter asked after a moment, seemingly sitting on the edge of his chair and eagerly awaiting more.
“Well— we are meant to be doing Potions, not talking about your grandparents.” Draco quickly said, coming up with the excuse on the fly, quickly making himself busy by pulling out his (completed) potions essay.
Potter groaned at this, instantly looking more regretful, but he didn’t move from his seat. “Can’t I just copy you?” Potter asked.
“No, you cannot copy off of me. Professor Snape would count points off of you and me for doing something so stupid.” Draco explained, ‘I mean really, cheating? On a potions assignment?’ Draco shook his head a bit disappointedly.
Potter looked guilty for a moment, “Can I just look at your essay? Get a better idea of what the heck Snape means by ‘Properties’.” Potter said, slowly reaching a hand out to grab Draco’s essay.
Draco, of course, snatched it away, “How am I supposed to know you won’t just copy it? You just offered up that idea not even a second ago.” Draco glowered, ‘Saint Potter, thinking he won’t get in trouble for copying.’
“I won’t! Promise I won’t copy you, especially since you gave a pretty good reason not to.” Potter swore, making an X over his heart, “Cross my heart that I won’t.”
“What? What would crossing your heart have to do with copying?” Draco asked, extremely confused.
“Oh, sorry, it’s a muggle saying. It’s like- binding your heart to tell the truth or something.” Potter explains, making a circular motion with his hand. “Basically it means I promise.”
Draco tilted his head slightly, “So it’s like an unbreakable vow?” ‘Muggles are able to make an unbreakable vow? But they can’t do magic!’
“If it has magic then nope.” Potter says matter of factly. “What’s an unbreakable vow?” He asks curiously, tilting his head slightly.
Before Draco can even open his mouth, the bushy-haired mud- muggleborn materialises right beside the table, “An unbreakable vow is a vow that cannot be broken, if you break it then you die. It’s barbaric if you ask me!” The muggleborn’s explanation makes Potter blink and Draco glare at her.
“It is not barbaric! It is part of our traditions!” Draco argues, turning to look at Potter. “An unbreakable vow is a magical vow taken by two willing participants with a witness who is of sane mind. It is like a contract, terms are written and agreed upon. If you break the terms then you die.” Draco explains calmly, although his blood is still boiling from the muggleborn daring to speak ill of their traditions.
“But why death? Isn’t that a bit extreme? And what practical use does that have?” Potter questioned, a bit stupidly. ‘Have they not looked into any history books?’
“Because it’s a deterrent. It was primarily used as a way to make sure treaties weren’t broken between different families or the wizarding royal families, back before the Ministry took over.” Draco explained, “Not all agreed on its use, some were cursed with blood curses and ended up dying out. This was much better because it wouldn’t cause whole bloodlines to die. Plus it was rare for someone to actually die, all you have to do is keep up the terms and you will be fine.”
“Wizarding royal families?” Potter questioned, looking lost.
“You’ll learn about it in History of Magic, it’s boring.” Draco says, waving Potter off, “Now, we need to focus on other things.” He throws a look to the muggleborn, making sure it’s full of scorn.
She huffs, turning around and leaving in a flurry of a tangled mane of hair and disappearing into the aisle of books. “Well that was rude of her.” Draco comments.
“Yeah, she does that a lot in the common room, butting into peoples conversations.” Potter remarks, “Now about that potions essay.”