The Snake in the Grass {Draco Malfoy}

2| T H E M I S S E D L E S S O N

By the next time I've encountered the greenhouse door, the frost had melted, and thankfully Draco is no where to be found.

Hannah raises her voice as she attempts to grasp anyone's attention that she could. "It's true, Sirius Black can transform into a flowering shrub to avoid being captured. I'm telling you guys. It's proven!" She exclaims looking to a disbelieving Justin Finch-Fletchley for his support.

His eyebrows crease together as he considers the possibility of that being true. He then meets my eyes, to which I shake my head, baffled that he may believe such a bizarre accusation.

I begrudgingly turn my attention back to repotting my Snake plant. As much as I love listening to their bickering, the bloody thing won't repot itself. I watched Hannah as she picked at her plant, caring for any plant came naturally to her and I was jealous. I've never been good at keeping a plant alive, but with Hufflepuff, comes Herbology.

Cedric stood beside me, however he hasn't touched his plant once. He's been speaking to his classmates about their Christmas Breaks, and how he got tickets to the Quidditch World Cup as a gift.

"What happened?" He laughs turning his attention to me as he begins to water his plant. Cedric flicks the torn leaf, his laugh growing as he noticed that's the only leaf that's severed.

"Did you neighbour with me just to make fun of me?" I reply, faint attitude can be sensed in my tone, however I'm not irritated with him, it's Draco I'm frustrated by. "Draco Malfoy ripped it." I grumble, pushing the plant away from me with a huff. Whenever I look at the plant, I see Slytherin. Whenever I look at the plant, I see Draco Malfoy.

So I ceased taking care of the plant. Unfortunately Snake plants thrive when they're ignored. The plant grew taller, much to my disappointment. Draco also seemed to grow taller over the Christmas Break, much to my disappointment. The next week we were face to face, and that's when I came to the conclusion he had definitely grown taller.

My classmates filed out of the room to set off towards their next class, as I stood at a lone worktable, my belongings scattered about. I got the opportunity to stay late to finish my Potion, and I'm currently waiting for it to cool down before I add the last ingredient. Draco approached the table, his smug smile directed at me once again.

"Have you joined our class?" Draco places his book in the only free space among the table. His eyes flicker down to my schedule, which clearly reads that I haven't.

"No." I state bluntly, adding the remaining ingredient gingerly to the potion.

In one fell swoop, Draco shoves my books and papers onto the floor. They land with a crash, my eyes snap up to meet his cold stare. His smile has dropped, his mouth now pressed in a thin line. As I kneel down, collecting my things his eyes wander towards my Potion.

"What?" I slam my books to my table as I stand, my patience running low. His eyebrows raise, a teasing smile tugging at his lips. Draco's gaze drop down to the potion again, and with that I let out a frustrated groan.

"This is my table Fawley, your time is up." He mutters, my potion consuming his interest. His nose scrunches up with a scowl as he meets my eyes, he then looks down again. "Add more of that." Draco instructs vaguely, taking a seat on the opposing stool.

I cluelessly look down at the array of ingredients. Draco grumbles under his breath as he picks up the small vile, shaking the orange liquid within.

"I don't know what it's called, but I know you have need more of it." He tosses it towards me, to which I thankfully catch with ease. His eyebrows raise as if he were expecting me to miss it.

"The book said add one drop-"

"Did you not listen to the lesson? The book is wrong, Snape said add two." He retorts, his eyes show a sense of concern as he peers into the cauldron. The look in his eyes spark a sense of insecurity within me. Despite beginning to believe him, I still have my doubts. Why would a printed book that's been used for years, be wrong?

"How would you know?" I murmur, inspecting the vile with vigilance.

"We had the same lesson yesterday." He shrugs simply. "You can ignore me if you-"

And with that, I added another drop. If I did well on this potion, I'd be propelled to the top of my class. See, I woke up late this morning, and missed the lesson. Of course Snape deducted points, but with me being in such a good standing with my grade, he said I could stay late to finish it. Everyone knows Draco is skilled at potions, and I'm sure he wants me gone just as much as I want to leave.

"Professor, I'm finished." I call over the growing class.

Hermione Granger surveys the room, searching for who spoke. She pauses as she reaches me, her eyes flicking between Draco and I. She raises an eyebrow, turning her attention back to Harry Potter, and Ron Weasley.

"Perfect. A potion that exhibits your- incompetence." Snape drones, inspecting the potion with a look of disgust. "The simplicity of this potion was profound, yet you still made it incorrectly-" He trails off, looking to me with narrowed eyes of suspicion. "Have you been cheating in my class?"

My mouth drops open, taken aback by Snape's claim. "No! Never! It was perfect, then- Malfoy told me-" I gesture to the snickering blonde boy. His gaze is firmly set on me as I grow silent.

Just then, Blaise Zabini, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson approach the table, Draco's entourage. Draco presses a quick kiss to Pansy's temple, his eyes glistening as he returns to watching me. Pansy giggles softly, covering her mouth with her hand, as her other rests on his arm. Draco remains sat on the stool, kicking his legs back and forth as he absentmindedly fiddles with her fingers.

"How would Malfoy know the potion? He's learning it today." Professor Snape counters, I turn to Draco with widened eyes. Furious. He risked my potion grade for his own humour.

"Malfoy!" I exclaim, causing him to burst out laughing followed by the others. Snape watches the uncontained Slytherins with a raised eyebrow.

"Fawley, Ten points from Hufflepuff for-" He pauses, thinking of a viable excuse. "Listening to Malfoy."

"Honestly, you should know better." Draco shrugs, feigning a pout as Snape is out of earshot.

"Our little Hufflepuff." Pansy coos, she breaks into laughter as she turns to face Blaise. He's made a comment that I didn't hear, one that got Crabbe and Goyle to laugh as well.

My face hardened as I watched her. A nickname? She gave me a cute, little, nickname? Who does she think she- I cut my own thoughts off as I spoke up, "What?" I snapped.

"Why would I ever even attempt to help an insufferable Hufflepuff like you?" Draco runs the back of his finger softly along my temple and down my cheek, as his finger drops off my jaw, he smiles. "You must be special in some way." It's almost as if he were admiring me, which couldn't be possible with how he treats me everyday.

I took his wrist in my grasp, where he twirled a dark strand of hair around his finger. The deepness of my hair contrasted greatly to his pale skin. As I threw his wrist to the side, his attention snapped back to me.

"Who do you think you are." He snarled as he looked down to his hand, disgusted that it was mistreated in that way. I raised my eyebrows while I watched him sweep his wrist against his robes repeatedly.

Him saying the same thing to me, as I thought about Pansy made
me smile. A cynical smile, yet it was instinctive, intrusive. It felt wrong, it didn't feel like my nature to act this way. Which is what snapped me out of it, my eyes widened briefly as my back straightened. As if I were a robot that was just turned on.

"I-" I clutched my potions book against my chest as I momentarily stared at each of the Slytherin students that faced me. When I met Draco's eyes for the second time, is when the fear was gone. "I think you can clean my workstation, considering what you did to my grade." I said, my voice coming out hushed, and breathy as I spoke.

He tilted his head to the side as he watched me leave. Pansy's eyes were narrowed at him, jealous that another girl has since caught Draco Malfoy's attention.