Through The Fire

Year One: Part Two

Harry was enjoying going to classes. Draco was in all of his classes but Ron only shared Potions class with them. It was a shame. They could have used the extra company in History of Magic. That class was painfully dull with Professor Binns, the only ghost teacher, droning on and on.

Harry had been nervous about Potions class. Snape was intimidating and strict. He was rumored to favor his Slytherins, but Harry doubted that even the Slytherins would get away with much.

For their first potions class, they'd worked on a very simple potion for curing boils. Harry was paired with Draco and was pleased to find that the blond was decent at potions already. Even better, he kept Harry from making any big mistakes. Some of the others weren't so lucky.

Neville managed to melt the cauldron that he and Ron had been using. Seamus set fire to his and Dean's work table. Crabbe and Goyle's potion belched out copious amounts to black smoke.

Hermione Granger and Parvati's potion had been perfect, but Snape had merely deemed it "acceptable" before sweeping away. Draco eyed their potion with a disgruntled sigh. "I know I could have beaten them," he grumbled.

"Sorry," Harry muttered sheepishly.

Draco sighed softly and then smiled at Harry. "Don't worry about it," Draco said. "I'll work with you so you get better at this."

Overall, the class hadn't been as much of a nightmare as Harry anticipated. Snape had snapped at Harry only once for talking, while completely ignoring the fact that Draco had been talking as well.

After lunch, Harry was going to visit Hagrid. He's received an invite for tea and Harry was looking forward to seeing his friend. He'd loved visiting Hagrid when Minerva brought him to the castle during the summer. Minerva seemed reluctant to let Hagrid supervise Harry on his own, but she'd allowed it.

Draco wasn't especially interested in Hagrid, but had accepted Harry's invitation to tag along. He was a little annoyed when Ron was asked to join as well.

Draco hadn't realized how very large Hagrid was. He had to be half giant. And that wild hair! He looked feral. But Hagrid smiled so brightly when Harry greeted him and introduced his friends. Draco sighed inwardly. He was already associating with Weasley, however reluctantly. What would his father think of him socializing with a half-breed groundskeeper?

Despite Draco's reservations, he found Hagrid to be a decent enough fellow. So, he quietly sipped at the tea Hagrid offered while Harry and Ron chatted to the half-giant. Draco's gaze drifted to the table where he saw a newspaper clipping that was partially hidden under a rock cake. He picked up the paper and looked it over, frowning.

"Whatcha got there?" Hagrid asked him.

"Just part of a newspaper," Draco muttered. Then he paused thoughtfully. "They still haven't found the person responsible for the break in at Gringotts?" he asked.

Harry remembered hearing about that. It had happened on his birthday. Luckily the vault had been emptied earlier that day and so nothing had been taken. Still, Gringotts had never been broken into before.

"I wonder what they were after," Harry mused.

"Must have been pretty good to do something so mad," Ron commented. "I hear there's a dragon guarding some of the vaults."

Draco nodded his agreement, though he noted that Hagrid had gone quiet and was no longer looking directly at any of them. Harry caught his eyes and then glanced back at Hagrid curiously.

Shortly after that, the three boys were dismissed with a promise to have them back over for tea. Hagrid had looked a little uncomfortable as he waved them off though.