“No, you utter moron.” Draco snarled out in a whisper. “The instructions clearly read to add one bat spleen not two.”
It took a lot of self-control for Harry to reign in the urge to commit murder. There were too many witnesses and Snape would probably enact revenge before he could even blink. He had thought that maybe after the war things would mellow down between the two of them, but it would seem that arguing was the only familiar action either of them could resort to.
“If your ginormous head and ego wasn’t in the way, I might have been able to see that.”
Draco narrowed his eyes dangerously as he wondered if Snape would look the other way if he just dunked Potter’s head in the cauldron. It would have to improve the Gryffindor’s stupidly handsome appearance. Part of him—a small part—didn’t want to fight with the brunette but the rest of him loved the normalcy to it. The simple but yet established argufy.
“I will have you know that my ego could do with more inflation and my head is proportionate to my body.” The ‘unlike yours’ was left out but Draco felt as if his point had been met.
That had Harry arching a lone brow. “If you inflate your ego any more than it already is, I fear what will happen to the rest of us. We will be collateral damage to your impending disaster.”
“Salazar, I swear if you don’t start improving our potion instead of standing around like the gaping fool that you are, I will—”
“You’ll what?” Harry interrupted, folding his arms across his chest and glaring angrily.
“Potter, quit talking and actually participate in today’s potion.” Snape’s voice rang out, catching the rest of the class’ attention.
Before Harry could point out that Malfoy had been talking too, the man continued with a smirk. “Ten points from Gryffindor.”
For a brief—nearly minuscule—moment, Harry thought about telling the man exactly what he thought of his unfair treatment, but common sense kicked in and he wisely kept his mouth shut. He had also thought that the man would improve after nearly dying but of course that was just asking too much.
It wasn’t until Snape turned around that Harry looked back to the potion. He pointedly ignored Malfoy’s smug smirk.
“Karma; such a beautiful thing.” Draco whispered, loving the way the brunette clenched his jaw angrily. Merlin, he never felt more alive than when he was baiting Potter.
“I fucking hate you.” Harry whispered back, shaking his head firmly when the smirk widened. He was too distracted by the Slytherin’s pretentious but perfect teeth that it wasn’t until the cauldron emitted a horrible smell that he knew a mistake had been made.
“I deserve an Order of Merlin for having to deal with you.” Draco growled as he shoved the other boy to the side and began trying to fix whatever the idiot just did.
Ron looked to the ceiling briefly as the arguing increased and a headache was beginning to form behind his eyes. “I can’t take much more of this.” Harry was his best friend and a part of his family, but he couldn’t’ take the fights, the sneering, the insults or the obvious stalking that was happening with Malfoy.
Blaise, who was working as Weasley’s partner for the day snorted loudly. “You and me both. If I have to hear Draco talk about Potter and his ‘stupidly handsome face’ one more time, I am going to transfigure him into a bug and squish him. It would be a painful death but satisfying for me nonetheless.”
“Well.” Ron began, alarmed and definitely wary of the other boy as he scooted to the side a couple inches. “Harry talks about Malfoy too. Quite a lot actually.” He didn’t bother to mention that it was in regard to ‘suspicious’ activity. But there was only so many times that Ron could believe that Malfoy doing absolutely nothing by himself was suspicious. Harry’s excuses were weak at best. A pattern was forming and he knew that Harry was blind to the reality of the situation.
“Really, now?” Blaise leaned forward, ignoring their potion for a moment. This was far more important. “They say there is a thin line between love and hate.”
“Who says that?” Ron wondered curiously as he checked the board before stirring counterclockwise. “Sounds like they don’t know the real definition of love.”
Blaise rolled his eyes. “I heard a muggleborn say it. So, your guess is as good as mine.” He paused to make sure the redhead was following the instructions correctly. “But what I am trying to say is that perhaps these two don’t really hate each other. Sexual tension is a great definition as well.”
The statement had Ron choking slightly as he barely avoided jerking the entire cauldron. He turned to face Zabini directly, ignoring the amusement in the Slytherin’s eyes.
Ron’s first instinct was to vehemently deny this altogether but the more he thought about it, the more it was beginning to make sense. “What about when they were younger? That wasn’t sexual tension.”
“Does it look like I am an expert on the behavior of two idiots in love?” Blaise countered raising his hands. “I am offering you my opinion as a third-party observer.”
“Hmm.” Ron hummed in thought as he watched Zabini add in a few rat tails for their potion. It wasn’t until the Slytherin reached forward to stir, that he covered a surprisingly warm hand with his own. “The instructions said to wait for the tails to dissolve before you stir it.”
Blaise looked down at Weasley’s hand, surprised by the contact but not perturbed by it either. “Well, you are turning out to be an excellent potion’s partner.” He watched the way a bright red hue stained Weasley’s cheeks in slight fascination. This wasn’t the first time they had been forced to partner but it was the first time they had done so with such familiarity.
The praise wasn’t something Ron knew what to do with. People didn’t praise him often. If ever. “Thanks?”
It sounded more like a question than anything, but Blaise found it endearing. Which was an unsettling realization. Weasley shouldn’t be able to shake his foundation, not after carefully building it up over the years.
“Perhaps they aren’t the only ones who could benefit from being paired together?” Blaise mumbled just to see the flush spread. There was truth to his statement which was still unsettling.
Ron looked down at his hands, just to realize that his own was still covering Zabini’s. He slowly pulled it away as he felt his face heat up. He wasn’t sure what to make of the flirting. Romance was so far from his capabilities that is was laughable. For the longest time, he had always thought that Hermione would be his forever, but they weren’t compatible. Not in the way that mattered. Not in the way that he had hoped they would be. Love isn’t always enough.
“You tell me.” Ron retorted, meeting warm but surprised brown eyes. Perhaps if this had been before the war, he might have fought or even disagreed. But things were different, he was different, and this was something that he wanted to explore.
“You are just full of surprises.” Blaise whispered, unsure of how to proceed. Weasley was intriguing him in ways that he had never experienced before.
A throat clearing had them both jumping. They turned as one to see Snape peering at them with furrowed brows. “Pay attention to your potion.”
There was suspicion his tone, as if he wasn’t sure what was happening between them, but he said nothing more as a billowing of a cloak showed his departure from their table.
“If you elbow me one more time with your bony sticks of a limb, I will stab you with this flobber worm.” Harry’s voice floated over, causing Ron and Blaise to sigh heavily.
“Oi!” Draco cried out indignantly. “I will have you know—”
“We have to do something.” Blaise spoke up, tuning out the renewed arguing. “I am going to murder him if this continues much longer.”
“I’m waiting for when that was supposed to have been a bad thing.”
It took a moment for Blaise to realize that Weasley was teasing him. He couldn’t help the small smile that quirked at the corner of his lips.
“I can’t exactly propose an outing with you if I get thrown into Azkaban for murder.”
“An outing?” Ron stirred the potion once more, wincing when he realized that he had gone counter clock wise when he shouldn’t have. “Is this a trip to the courtyard? Because that’s pretty vague.”
Blaise took over the stirring as he attempted to fix their potion. “I was thinking more along the lines of Rome. My mother has a summer house there and perhaps a date would be a better descriptor.”
Rome. Ron blinked rapidly as he tried not to become flustered. A small part of his brain wanted to tell Zabini that he didn’t need to try and impress him, but a larger part of his brain was adamantly quashing the objection. Because he really wanted to go to Rome with the Slytherin. Screw the courtyard.
“Alright.” Ron whispered, peering at the other boy. “I’ll go on an outing with you, if we can figure out how to stop them.” He gestured to where Harry and Malfoy were still arguing, only now in whispers and grunts.
A fluttering of Blaise’s heart had him trying to stop from showing his pleasure at the agreement of a date. Potions was turning out to be his favorite class.
Before Blaise could suggest anything, someone yelled loud enough to have everyone freezing all movement.
“No!” Snape called out loudly, causing Harry to jump and the bottle in his hands dropped into the cauldron.
Blaise grabbed Weasley and ducked under the table in time to avoid a giant explosion.
Screams, smoke and Snape’s voice was the first thing that either of them registered before they scrambled up to check on their friends.
Harry and Draco were sprawled on their backs, feet the only thing visible as their bodies were underneath the table.
“Potter! Malfoy!” Snape barked out menacingly.
The sounds of frantic whispers could be heard as neither Harry nor Draco responded to their names.
“Potter get out here and explain exactly what you just did!” There was a dangerous quality to the man’s voice and it had Ron wanting to back away and never come back. Harry was grown, this was all on him. It wasn’t his potion after all.
“Hey!” A tiny voice squeaked out angrily before a small child crawled out from under the table. “Don’t yell at him. It was an accident.”
Blaise dropped his mouth open in horror as he realized that this was Draco. He would recognize his friend anywhere. Draco couldn’t be more than five. If that.
Little Draco was pulling an equally small child that was obviously Potter, out from under the table as well. Blaise clutched Weasley tightly as he felt his mind go blank.
Ron blinked rapidly as he looked to a little boy with a mop of messy hair and glasses too big for his face. His friend was tiny. So tiny. The Gryffindor robes were massive on the child that was now Harry. He almost didn’t want to know what had happened but one look into scared green eyes vanished that thought process.
Harry trembled a little as he looked around the room and wondered where he was and why he was here. Usually dreams weren’t this vivid. The last thing he remembered, Aunt Petunia had sent him to his cupboard without dinner for not adding seasoning to their chicken. He tried explaining that he couldn’t reach the spices, even with the chair, but no one cared.
Draco wasn’t sure why he was in Uncle Severus’ work but he didn’t like the tone of voice from him. Nor did he like that his godfather was making his new friend scared. He wrapped an arm around his friend and glared at Uncle Sev.
“Be nice.” Draco chided, his other hand coming to his hip.
Someone choked in the background and it took Ron a moment to realize that it was Neville. He too realized the irony of the choice of words.
“I don’t get paid enough for this.” Severus whispered before turning to the rest of the room. “Class is dismissed. I want a three-foot essay on today’s potion done by the end of the week. You will all redo this potion next class.” He waited until most of the class left before sighing at the sight of Zabini and Weasley.
“I suppose you can come with me to see Madam Pompfrey.”
Harry and Draco inched closer when the three of them turned to the both of them expectantly.
“I don’t have all day.” Severus drawled, gesturing them forward.
Draco grabbed Harry’s hand and they both shot suspicious eyes towards the rest of the group.
“I’m Draco Malfoy.” The whisper wasn’t as quiet as he hoped it would be and it was heard by the rest as they made their way out of the room and down the hall.
“It’s nice to meet you, Draco.” Harry whispered back just as loudly but also shyly, eyes roaming the halls and looking at the paintings with pinched brows. “I’m Harry Potter.”
A small gasp had Harry peering back at his friend.
“Really? Dobby read me books about you! But you are prettier than I imagined.”
“You read about me?” Harry wasn’t sure what to think of that. Why would he be in any books? “You think I’m pretty?”
Draco nodded firmly, tightening his hold on Harry’s hand. “I can’t believe my first friend is Harry Potter!”
“Friend.” Harry whispered, testing the word on his tongue. “I’ve never had a friend before. Dudley says I’m not allowed to have friends.”
“Cousin.” Ron mouthed to Blaise when the boy looked at him curiously. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Snape had turned to him as well.
“Well Dudley can lay in a field of Devil’s Snare.” Draco retorted, clenching his free hand tightly. “I say you are allowed to have friends. And my word means a lot, ‘cus I’m important.”
“Does it?” Harry wondered if that meant that Draco was royalty.
“Uh huh.” The nod Draco released had his hair falling forward. “My father says that being a Malfoy is the only good thing I am. But he also said that Malfoy’s are the best, so it must be a good thing.”
It didn’t sound like a compliment to Harry but he didn’t want to tell his only friend that. He moved closer to Draco, not wanting to be by the adults. They couldn’t be trusted.
“Don’t worry.” Draco whispered, turning his head towards Harry’s ear. “I’ll protect you.”
There was fierceness to Draco’s tone and it was welcoming, warm and promised safety. Harry wasn’t one to trust other people but every fiber of his being told him that Draco meant it.
“I’ll protect you too.” Harry vowed, wondering if he could actually do that. He wasn’t sure how to fight but he was good at hiding! Perhaps that could count?
Draco looked down at the ground as his face heated up. Usually only Dobby was the one who bothered to be around him and that was because he was ordered to. “We’ll protect each other.” He offered softly.
“Like a team?”
“Yeah!” Draco nearly yelled in excitement. “A team! Me and you forever!”
“Forever?” Harry asked, eyes roaming his new friend’s face.
“I like that.” He whispered when Draco nodded quickly.
Harry wouldn’t mind having Draco forever.
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I’m supposed to be working on a chapter for a story but this has been in my head for a while. I will write more to this soon!
