Opium || Draco Malfoy

7

"We have a little over an hour left to us, which should be time for you to make a decent attempt at the Draught of Living Death. I know it is more complex than anything you have attempted before, and I do not expect a perfect potion from anybody." Slughorn was explaining the difficulty of the potion, entire class carefully listening to his words. "Get to work."

My entire focus however was on last night's events. I had received some cursing from the girls in the room after slamming the door just as Draco had.
In the morning our tension was going strong. At breakfast, we hadn't looked at each other nor spoke a word. When two first years came up to us, asking where the library was located, we both had glared at each other. I still unfortunately could remember the scene of him kissing Pansy in the staff room.
On top of that, he had the audacity to ask to be repaired by Slughorn. As if he could've find a better partner than me, his request was rejected.

"Added the Infusion of Wornwood, next is what?" He asked, eyes on the ingredients laid in front of us.

"Powdered Root of Asphodel." I added it with anger building up in me once again. "Stir twice clockwise."

He did as I said so. His hands holding the wood spoon firmly. "Adding the Sloth brain." That thing looked disgusting. "Now the Sopophorous bean juice-"

"No!" I slapped his hand gently, and my voice was enough to attract eyes to our table. "The bean should be crushed with a silver dagger, not sliced, as it releases juices more efficiently in that manner."

His eyes were empty and lost, he stared at me like I was a crazy person. "And who says that?"

"Half-Blood Prince." I said whispering. "Now do it."

He rolled his eyes at me before following my orders, what a good boy honestly. "Stir seven times anti-clockwise but add a clockwise stir after seventh counterclockwise stir."

I watched the potion turn into clear from light lilac. Everything was looking perfect, meanwhile I could hear the other tables blowing up things or spilling up the potion everywhere, it was indeed Longbottom.

"Professor Slughorn?" Draco called out for him, all heads turning to us. "I believe we are done."

"See Professor we told you, it's unfair!" Said Lavender Brown. She earned two pairs of rolled eyes at her ugly face. That's why I had despised Gryffindors, always whining about something.

"Shhh!" Slughorn placed his glasses on his face, looking directly at our potion, smelling it, shaking it five times, talking to it. Everybody else had stopped working on theirs as ours was being examined.

My heart was beating so fast, I was actually nervous even though deep down I knew Professor Snape wouldn't be making any mistakes. I felt a cold hand on my right thigh, making me stop from shaking it under the table. Then Draco's gaze fell on me, as if he was reassuring me that it was going to be okay. I calmed down shortly after, controlling my breath with his hand slightly moving up and down on my thigh, the skin getting exposed from my black skirt was burning under his gentle, meaningless touch. All the anger, all the hate was gone, thrown into garbage.

But it was weird. I reminded myself to not read too much into it but it was awkward. It was awkward that both of our reactions to each other this year was heightened for some reason. I mean, of course, I didn't mind him touching me, he had been doing that for years in so many occasions, he was one of my closest friends. Blaise or Theo had done the same to me or Lucy, there was nothing to read into and feed delusions. It just felt deeper than that now. The feeling that was causing inside me was the thing that was bothering me. I hadn't even thought twice about these things last year or year before that or even year before that, only in the first two years... No. That childish phase was done and I never wanted to think about it again as how embarrassing it really was.