Black Truth [READ DESCRIPTION]

chapter four

hapter Four: Lifemate Sighted

Harry silently fumed as he took his seat next to Hermione for Potions. Still no sign of Malfoy anywhere, and the git had two minutes to get to class. But, Harry stopped himself, why in Merlin's name did he care? After Draco had "calmed down" and the wings had receded, the insufferable prat had left, going in the direction of the Slytherin dormitories (as Harry's experience from Second Year had taught him), probably to change his robes. And he'd probably be five to ten minutes late to class but would Snape care? Not at all. So Harry sat fuming at the unfairness of it all.

Harry was so buried in his internal rant that he didn't notice the arrival of Draco Malfoy, or the sudden hush that went around the room as all eyes (but Harry's) turned to look at the young aristocrat. If Draco was bothered by their looks, he didn't show it, and Harry, finally realizing the blonde's existence in class not thirty seconds before class began, thought that Malfoy would probably enjoy being in the spotlight.

Draco pointedly ignored the stares from his classmates as he made his way to his customary workplace. He was the only one at his table as he preferred to work alone, which now Draco realized was a good thing, as he didn't have to worry about working with a partner who was fretting about him sprouting wings every two seconds.

"Well if you would all be so kind as to stop looking at Mr. Malfoy, I believe you all have work to do," Snape snapped as he entered the classroom in the same manner he had done so since Harry's first Potions class in First Year. "But before you get to that, I am going to assign the next project that you will be working on and your partners."

A collective shudder went around the room. Snape's regular work was hard enough, but when he assigned projects... well they normally had the effect that the wooden horse had on Troy. The only two who had survived--much less passed--the last project were Draco and Hermione, who had worked by themselves. Everyone else had been sent to the infirmary for various reasons. Harry himself had enjoyed an interesting time where his eyes changed colors every few minutes. Really it had made for a quite interesting week, where the world was red one minute, then green the next, shifting into purple, and then black where he really couldn't see what was going on. Harry personally thought that Snape went through the library picking the hardest potions to assign for projects... and Harry wasn't too far off, except Snape didn't need to go to the library for he had already memorized all the information that was in those books already. Harry was shaken from this train of thought when his name and partner's were called out.

"Potter, Malfoy."

Harry fought back the urge to groan and glared in Malfoy's direction, a bit miffed by the fact that Malfoy was looking half in shock at Snape who was ignoring him.

Well this is just great, Draco thought. Not only had his beloved godfather thought to pair him with Potter of all people, but the same godfather seemed to have found a twisted sense of humor in all this. Draco scowled at the parchment in front of him on which some witch or wizard had painstakingly copied out all the information available on the--surprise surprise--Veriae potion which Draco, in all reverence to the book he'd found it in, had torn out. His father most likely thought the whole thing was funny, as he had hardly been able to conceal the smirk on his face when he had read the potion's name and purpose. Of course, for wizards who were not Veriae, the potion might be something useful if they were trying to find their perfect match. But... he was working with Potter! The whole thing was wrong just because of that little, somewhat unimportant detail. Potter. Just-

Wait... why was he obsessing over Potter anyway? It was just a stupid assignment which would take less than a week anyway. And besides... the whole point of this particular project was to be able to identify the ingredients for potions "in the field" just in case you couldn't walk down to whatever local apothecary you lived near. This meant that some of the ingredients for his (and Potter's) potion would be in the Forbidden Forest. Oh this would be fun. Draco was starting to enjoy the Forest. His father had woken him at dawn nearly every day for a stroll through the Forest. Draco could remember the smirk that had been prominent on his father's face when Draco had heard that Dumbledore had given his permission for Lucius to teach his son the proper control and use of his wings in the Forest. Draco was starting to think that this particular smirk was his father's form of laughter.