the lion and the serpent

chapter one

It was in a dull day in potions class when Draco overheard two Gryffindor girls speaking in hushed tones whilst trying to focus on perfecting the draught of peace behind Snapes back.

Dracos head turned discreetly upwards trying to listen in better to the girls conversation.

'She said to meet at the Hogs Head on the next Hogsmeade trip,' said one of the two girls, who had long black hair that reached the small of her back.

'But why there? I've never seen any student even go near that place,' replied the other, adding powdered unicorns horn to her cauldron.

'I'm not exactly sure, she just said to meet there at ten am, I mean, Umbridge is a terrible teacher, having someone to teach us actual defense skills against the dark arts would be quite useful, especially since you-know-who is back,' the girl muttered mournfully, stirring her potion gently for the eight time, smiling in content as it turned out the way it was supposed to.

Dracos eyebrow was cocked, the idea of learning skills from an experienced person in DADA would be extremely helpful in the future. He was aware of Voldemort being back, due to the fact that his father was there when he arose once again.

The slytherin added the final ingredient at the exact time that was required, the finished product illumining a light silver vapour and became a turquoise blue. He gave a cocky smirk at the success and began to clear his space in an orderly manner, making sure everything went back to its rightful place.

Just as Draco had exited the potions closet, the bell sounded throughout the schools grounds, and the slytherins and Gryffindors began to file out of the classroom. Draco mendered throughout the hustle of students, trying to catch up with Blaise and Pansy.

Draco suddenly stopped in his tracks realizing he had left the ashwinder eggs out on his work space. He groaned before walking swiftly back towards his desktop.

Sighing in frustration, Draco carefully took them back to the dank storage room, only to be greeted by the pestering presence of Harry Potter.

Draco inwardly groaned yet again, quickly getting fed up by the string of unfortunate events.

'Potter'

'Malfoy,' the raven shot back, not looking up at him.

Draco sauntered to the opposite side of Harry, his back facing him. He searched the shelves trying to find the supplies correct place. On the other side; Harry looked kept switching his gaze from whatever ingredients he had to put away, to the rightful place where it was meant to go. He reached above him, standing on his tippy toes and put the powdered moonstone next to a jar of what looked like brown herbs and let out a breath.

Draco turned around just as Harry had put the moonstone powder in the wrong place, he sighed for what seemed like the millionth time today and pinched the bridge of his nose at the boys arrogance. He pondered on weather or not if he should tell the hopeless boy or not.

He decided against the latter.

'Potter you idiot, the moonstone powder goes there,' he voiced, pointing towards shelves down from where he had placed it.

'Where?' Harry asked turning towards the imperious blonde.

'There,' he said pointing yet again towards one of the many shelves, Harry not being able to follow his finger simply drew a confused look and shrugged.

'Bloody hell Potter, you really are insufferable,' Draco said in an agitated tone, snatching the bottle out of of Harrys hands, their fingertips just brushing over each other's momentarily. Harry looked up towards Draco watching him stretch only slightly and placing the powder between two bottles, one with a liquid, and another an alien substance to Harry.

Draco didn't need to step upon his tippy toes due to his height, and Harry goggled Draco once he came back down to his usual height. He looked up at Draco, their eyes meeting one anothers, Harry wasn't sure how long he had his eyes fixated upon Dracos, but he snapped out of it once he had heard the shuffling of feet towards the storage rooms door.

Harry watched Draco leave the classroom all in all, still feeling the slight tingle in his fingers where he and Dracos hands hand touched. Harry sighed, confused by his own thoughts and feelings, deciding to just push then into the back of his mind. He didn't need anything more on his plate as it is.

~

Draco had a prominent scowl on his face all throughout the day, his usual flat lined emotions had just gone everywhere. He wasn't sure if what had caused it but since potions his eyebrows had been furrowed and usually had his arms wrapped securely around his chest. Pansy tried to capture his attention multiple times to ask what was wrong, but failed miserably.

Up in the Gryffindor tower, Harry sat on the comfy love seat by the fire next to Hermione, thoughts running at a rapid pace. He couldn't grasp a single thought and kept rereading the same line over and over again in his text book, the words still not sticking.

He gazed over to Hermione, the nimble-witted girl had already finished her potions and runes homework, and was halfway through her astronomy work. Harry sighed in defeat, giving up on his uncompleted work and tilting his head against the back of the seat. He was aware of how far behind he would be but with this mind a muddle, there really was no point.

'I'm going to sleep Herm,' Harry piped up, gathering his piles of homework.
'Alright then, goodnight Harry,' she voiced without looking up from her work.
Harry took his work into his arms and drifted towards the boys dormitories.

'Wait, Harry!' Hermione called out, putting down her quill and snapping her head up to face him.
Harry gave a nod to motion to her to continue.
'Remember we have the alliance tomorrow, yeah?' she checked.
'Yeah, i remember,' he said softly,
'night 'Mione,' he bid goodnight.

Harry walked up the stairs stiffly, making sure not to make a noise when he entered his dormitory, he placed his homework into his bag before he changed into his pajamas and took off his glasses.

The raven let out a small breath before slipping into his single bed and drew the curtains, sleep overcoming his almost instantly into a dreamless sleep.

                                   ~