It’s almost Christmas now   von Ryuuzaki
                      (a drarry christmas.. developement)
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                          Kapitel 11: December, 11th
                          --------------------------


Harry felt exhausted, but the day was only just beginning. Hermione had made
good on her promise to prevent him from sleeping until he finished his homework
and the two of them plus Ron had stayed up until one in the morning. 

And any hopes of being tired enough to fall asleep quickly when he eventually
went to bed flew straight out of the window, when, as soon as he lay down, his
mind provided him with visions of wand movements, white-blond air touched by the
wind, effects and properties of potions and stormy grey eyes.  

So Harry spent another night tossing and turning until his body gave in to
exhaustion and only felt able to face the morning because all students off age
were allowed to have coffee (if younger students tried to pour, nothing would
spill from the jug).
He detested the bitter stuff, but it woke him up like nothing else. Three
morning cups of bearable white coffee later the ravenette could keep his eyes
open and even participate in the conversation Ron and Hermione were trying to
have with him.

“So you’re coming with us mate?” Ron was referring to the Hogsmeade trip
on this week’s Saturday, as they made their way to the dungeons. Apparently
the announcement had appeared overnight on the board in the common room.  

“Of course he is it’s our last opportunity for last minute Christmas
shopping.” The not-as-bushy-haired-as-she-used-to-be woman agreed for him from
the other side of the red head. 

“I’m sure you boys need it.” She teased them.

Ron let out a caught laugh and awkwardly shrugged his shoulders and Harry gave
her a sheepish smile.

“Erm.. wouldn’t hurt. But are you sure you two’d not rather.. you know, go
alone?” 
The green eyed man felt embarrassment by addressing their relationship status.
To be happy for them was all very well, but he had the feeling he’d always be
weird with the practical experience.

In the past it had been natural to always be three of them (separation due to
their arguments excluded), but now Harry wasn’t sure he could just stroll
along, even if they asked him. Maybe they only offered to not feel bad about
leaving him out, but actually wanted him to say ‘no’?   

Hermione smiled at him and he had the suspicious feeling he was like an open
book to her (which strangely brought up the thought if Hermione did regard
humans as books…). 
She did get some colour in her cheeks though.

“We’re sure Harry. Besides, when Ron still needs to look for Christmas
presents we’ll be to busy for a date anyway.” Ron seemed to colour as well
now and Harry quickly wanted to end the topic.

“Okay. Great. I mean… I’ll join you then.”
As they arrived in the corridor leading to the potions class they saw students
file in to the already unlocked room. Harry believed he might have seen some
white-blond hair and suddenly something lit up in his mind. He addressed
Hermione again.

“Could you work with Ron today, if teamwork’s required?”

Hermione looked at him curiously. “Sure, but why… oh…”

“Thank you.” Harry hastily said, but Ron just looked confused.

“Oh? What do you mean oh? And what’s your problem all of a sudden mate?”

“Nothing, there is no problem, really.” Harry tried to reassure him with an
apologetic look. 

“Especially not with you! Erm… I’ll talk to you guys later.” 
With those words he dashed the last feet ahead to the classroom and the last
thing he heard was Ron’s still confused voice as he asked Hermione “What had
that been about…?” before his attention shifted.

With a sweep of his gaze through the room he could see that his classmates were
setting up their cauldrons at the usual places, which meant the usual unoccupied
seats also remained that. He quickly picked up his cauldron and work utensils
from where they’re stored and determinedly set it down in front of the free
seat next to Draco Malfoy.
For that he received an incredulous stare and a sharp hiss from the
aforementioned blond. 

“What in Merlin’s name do you think you’re doing?”

Harry gave him something he’d like to think of as a winning smile.

“Good morning to you as well.”

But Malfoy was apparently not amused. “If you do not remove yourself
immediately, I swear you’ll thoroughly reg-”

At this moment, Slughorn waddled into the room.

“Ah! Wonderful, wonderful! Everyone already setting up, that’s what I like
to see.” He jovially acclaimed through his moustache. “No haste though, I
have to do my own preparations as well. Those of you already done can put their
essays on my desk, if you may. I’ll be with you shortly.” 

And the bald potions teacher scurried off into the back room, while Malfoy had
once again moved faster then Harry could blink and lay his homework on
Slughorn’s desk, followed by other students. Harry arranged his tools on the
table before he too went to hand in his poorly written potions essay, which
probably would put a damper on Slughorn’s mood once again. The man was easy to
impress, but just as easily disappointed and since Harry didn’t use the
Prince’s book anymore the teen did the latter to him a lot.  
When he came back to his seat he found his tools placed back in the cauldron and
frowned.

“What…”

“I did you the favour of packing your stuff, now you can move back to your
golden table.”
Malfoy declared in a hushed voice but without looking at him. 

Harry looked at him akin to Malfoy’s expression when the ravenette had claimed
the seat, before turning to his cauldron and getting the utensils out again. 

“I’m staying. Get over it.” He could feel the blond scowl at him, but
calmly set up his work place and Slughorn returned in the next moment to the
room and started the lesson.

“Alright, everybody. I’ll make it simple today. We’re going to repeat the
topic of antidotes until the holidays. Now I want you to make all those advanced
potions that I mentioned in your sixth year already and you now have the actual
knowledge to brew. We’ll start with the Antidote to Veritaserum, which you may
have noticed, is not listed in your book. Therefore kindly follow the
instructions on the board. Begin!”

With his words, Slughorn waved his wand and the instructions wrote themselves on
the chalkboard, while the bald man shuffled over to sit behind his desk and
start on the scrolls.
Malfoy was already moving when Harry still was reading and trying to wrap his
head around the words that ought to help him brew the potion.
The first thought shooting through his head was: Slughorn is calling that
simple?? He was already confused before he reached the bottom of the
instructions, but since he didn’t have another chance than to try, he got up
to get the ingredients for a start. 
 
As the hour progressed he sneaked glances at how Malfoy worked on the antidote
in hopes of catching some pointers. Harry knew the Slytherin did well in this
class, but he still was surprised that the guy not only had Hermione’s
efficiency, but also Snape’s natural grace when it came to potions. It was
fascinating to watch.

Harry’s own attempt meanwhile, bubbled sadly as it resembled more a dirty
swamp than the shimmering bronze it should have been at this point.

“Stop trying to copy my work, Potter. If you can’t do it alone, you don’t
belong in this class.” Malfoy suddenly mumbled from the corner of his mouth
and Harry felt caught, quickly looking away. He glanced at the board before
going over to the next step and measuring half a cup Convallaria dew to add it
to his brew. Before he could so much as tilt the cup though, a hand abruptly
shot out and held his wrist in a death grip. Green eyes looked up to meet with
horrified silver ones.       

“Put that down. Now.” The owner of the surprisingly strong hand demanded in
a dangerous tone and pulled Harry’s hand away from the failing potion and back
to the table again. Harry couldn’t comprehend what was going on, too
concentrated on the pressure around the transition between his hand and arm and
the strange tickling heat curling in his stomach when he found himself unable to
look away from Malfoy’s eyes.
The cup was back on the table and the pressure disappeared, but Malfoy still
looked exasperated.

“Are you even thinking Potter?!” The blond was still speaking in that hushed
voice, but that didn’t decrease the intensity of his words.
 “Or reading at least? Can you read?” 

Somehow Harry, still a little befuddled by the turn of events, came to the
conclusion that this question warranted an answer.

“Of course I can read.” He too spoke quietly, but shifted closer to Malfoy
so he didn’t miss a word. The Slytherin looked doubtfully at him.

“And you are sure about that?” When Harry gave him a mixture of a confused
and annoyed look Malfoy pointed at the board.
“Half a spoon of Convallaria dew. A spoon, Potter! You’re not even trying to
pay attention are you? An overdose of the dew in combination with the powdered
Chizpurfle pincers develops one of the deadliest gases known to exist. You could
have wiped the whole class out!” 

Harry’s eyes widened in shock and his head whipped to the front to read over
the instructions again. With horror he realized that Malfoy was right and his
eyes somehow had slipped to the next line when reading, confusing the measures
and nearly making a deadly mistake. Malfoy meanwhile seemed to be working up a
rant.  

“Were you trying to imitate Longbottom or what?! We can be glad enough he
isn’t taking this class anymore, he doesn’t need a substitute! And why are
you laughing now, Potter?!”

By now they were drawing attention. Harry had looked back to the blond and was
suddenly struck with the similarity to Hermione’s rants of him not doing his
homework properly and not paying enough attention and the comparison was so
hilarious that he started chuckling. Malfoy on the other hand, looked livid
until Slughorn came strutting over asking if they had a problem.

“No, sir. No problem. Just Potter trying to kill us all.” The blond said
sulkily, glowering at his own potion now that he had neglected for the last five
minutes. The expression really did nothing to calm Harry’s giggling fit. He
swallowed it down as best as he could though, while Slughorn eyed him with
concern.

“No, I apologize sir. I confused something, probably had too much coffee this
morning, but Malfoy here was kind enough to explain it to me.” He tried his
best to look reassuring to his professor.

“Well Harry… if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. That goes
for all of you by the way.” Slughorn reminded the class. “Now, finish your
potions, boys.” And he waddled away again. 

At least Harry wasn’t laughing anymore by now and sounded sincerely again when
he turned to his table partner.
“Thanks for stopping me.”

There was the typical sneer again, but somehow it didn’t look so hostile
today.
“I just don’t fancy dying, that’s all.”

“Okay…” Harry said and tried one of those assumingly winning smiles again.
“Still thanks.”

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