Still a prat
Draco stirred the bubbling lilac liquid listlessly. Potions usually was his favourite class and he usually looked forward to it on the days they had it with immense pleasure. But today he was pouting. Internally of course, the Malfoy heir and Prince of Slytherin couldn't be seen pouting. While Severus was okay about their relationship, he was staying true to his promise. Instead of Harry and Draco working together on a potion like they usually do, the professor had paired Draco up with Blaise and Harry with the Weasel. While it was fun to spend time with Blaise, he couldn't help but scowl at Ron's back the entire class.
Meanwhile, Harry felt sufficiently awkward. The once best friends worked in almost complete silence with only the occasional "pass the asphodel" to break the tense atmosphere sparking between them. Throughout the process of brewing their potion, Ron kept opening and closing his mouth searching for something to say that could possibly fix the rift he had caused between them.
"You look happy." He blurted out suddenly. Harry froze in his action of adding crushed chizpurfle fang to the cauldron. "I am?" He answered confusedly. "With Malf- Draco, I mean." Ron added. Harry put the jar down abruptly. "I am." He said tightly. Ron nodded, at a lost for what to say and drummed his fingers on the desk. "Look, can you just hear me out?" He asked in a rush. At Harry's disapproving stare Ron held up his hands appeasingly. "You don't have to say anything, just hear me out and then I can know I've done everything I can. And I'll leave you alone." Harry remained silent but gazed at him expectantly as he threw finely chopped dandelion root into the mix.
Ron nodded, breathed deeply and launched into his hushed plea. "I don't expect you to forgive me immediately for what I did and said. I was completely out of line. I should have been more supportive and making you choose between him and your friends was not okay." He eyed Harry warily and since a hex didn't get sent his way, he continued tentatively. "I just-it was a shock. Here I was thinking we were mortal enemies and suddenly you two are snogging like horny Hufflepuffs! And….I wasn't really angry at you anyway. I…seeing Hermione with Krum just really annoyed me for some reason and then there's all that bad blood between mine and Malfoy's family and I saw you and just….exploded."
Harry stirred the potion counterclockwise seven times then clockwise twice before he prodded the fire with his wand to lower it. "I didn't mean what I said. I mean, in the heat of the moment I did mean it, I'm not going to lie. But I don't believe it. And if you would just be willing to hang out with me, just let me back in, I could try to get along with Malfoy." Ron stared at him hopefully. "I'm not saying we're going to be best friends but you two are….good for each other. He seems better, less pratish and less…pureblood manic. And I've never seen you happier. And that's all that matters, your happiness."
Suddenly uncomfortable with the amount of emotion in the conversation, Ron fell silent and shuffled the jars on their table awkwardly. "So…yeah….that's all I wanted to say." He muttered. Harry breathed out in a huff. He turned to Ron, abandoning the potion. "You're still a prat." He said with a small smile. Ron nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, course!" Harry grinned back at his best friend. He had been beginning to mope about the loss of his friend and was getting fed up with the tension if he was being honest. It felt good to have him back. For the rest of the class they tentatively exchanged jokes and stories of what happened during their break.
Draco watched on in slight discontent but he couldn't really be annoyed. He knew Harry was missing the Weasel even though he refused to tell him, not wanting Draco to think it was his fault and so seeing him so happy to have his best friend back was good. He knew it would make Harry feel better and that's all he wanted. Well, that and cuddles of course. That was practically a prerequisite.
When the bell rang, the class filed out, Ron and Harry with their arms slung around each other and Draco held Harry's other hand with a wry smile. Ron nodded warily at the Slytherin who nodded back easily. Before he could say anything, Draco spoke with a cold breeziness that had Ron gulping in slight terror. "While I am prepared to tolerate you Weasel for the sake of Harry, I am going to say this once and only once so listen carefully." He continued slowly and deliberately with a hardened frostiness in his tone. "If you hurt Harry again the way that you did, I will come after you this time. And I will not hold back." Ron nodded quickly and slowly inched slightly away from Harry, as much as he could without letting him go. The group walked off, Slytherins and Gryffindors mixed in a unlikely relationship that was slowly inching its way towards true friendship.
Back in the classroom, Snape smirked as he heard their echoing footsteps fade away. Walking around the room banishing potion and cauldrons alike he grumbled lowly to himself. "Finally. The tension was bloody killing the dungeon atmosphere." He muttered. He reached their cauldron and scoffed at the potion inside it. "T" he declared to the empty room before he banished the potion. He may have plotted to reunite the two friends but he most certainly was not going to go easy on them in Potions.
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Merlin, I was reading over my earlier chapters of this and they're so bad! God, how anyone could get through that is incomprehensible. I will definitely be tweaking them soon. No changes to the plot, don't worry, I'll just be making them better and less cringy.
Sorry for the shortness of this, it was sort of just a filler (?) XD Hope you liked it anyway! <3