Filling His Shoes

🦁🦁15 - Fifteen🐍🐍 Recovery Plans

The idea? Remove Draco from Hogwarts as soon as opportunity presents itself. The execution? Flawed in a million different ways. The actual mission? Convincing an old man to allow Draco to return home without telling him Draco ran away. The chance of success? 0%.

I paced my office thinking about every possiblity. I knew Luc didn't want to go through with the idea. Voldemort now knew that Potter and Draco were on good terms. Dare I say that they were friends. I had to tell him about it to save my friend from further torture.

'Damn you Luc for putting me in such a situation.' I thought angrily. If he just let people know what Cissa and I know, maybe he could have gotten out of this. Maybe Draco would understand better.

I sighed as I remembered I had a class. With the shake of my head I walked towards the door. When I opened it I almost froze in shock. I hadn't seen Draco laugh since he was a small kid. I never thought he would be laughing with Potter either.

They were leaning on the wall across from the classroom door. Potter had mumbled something and Draco, try as he might, started laughing. He tried not to, but that was fruitless. They all scurried into my class and Draco and Potter already had all their stuff waiting.

"You'll know what to do. I expect perfection this will be half your term mark." I drawled.

Sitting behind my desk I observed the class. Longbottom and Nott were arguing again and their potion was going downhill fast. Zabini and... Weasley were actually doing a decent job. No arguing, no teasing, just silent work with the occasional "get this" or "do that". Another somewhat surprise was Parkinson and Granger. They weren't talking like usual. It seemed Granger was giving Parkinson the clod shoulder, while Parkinson was continually asking for forgiveness.

And then there was Potter and Draco. Their new found friendship really had me confused. Draco was making the potion while Potter was cutting the ingredients. Draco tried insisting Potter make it, but Potter refused. That left me even more confused because Potter had always complained about not being given a chance.

"How much longer are we going to continue this parade?"

I ears perked up at the question. I looked over the top of an essay I was holding. Potter had asked Draco the question. The frown and shrug from Draco made it obvious he was supposed to give an answer.

"I don't know. I think this batch is good for another week or so?" Draco said.

They were whispering, but my current state of hyper-awareness seemed to allow me to tune into their conversation. Potter now shrugged as he went back to cutting and crushing.

"Should I not start the next batch? We can call it quits if you want." Draco said still looking at the potion.

"I would just like to talk to..." Potter began.

Draco cut him off. "Yeah I know what you mean. I'll start with the other thing tonight. We can call it quits when this batch runs out."

All Potter did was nod. They continued their potion with pointless jabbs at each other. Unaware that I had been listening. Which left me with more questions. The class was still buzzing with idle chatter and instructions.

"Professor!" I looked at to find the intruding voice. "Or potion is done."

Of course it had to be Potter who spoke. I grumbled as I stood up and made my way to their station. I stood over them examining the potion. I could tell by the colour what potion they had chosen.

"And what, pray tell, potion was it that you both have made?" I drawled.

"Dreamless sleep." Draco said rolling his eyes.