Heart and Soul

Chapter 3: Draco Malfoy, A Hero

Halfway through double potions, Draco Malfoy swaggered into the room with his arm wrapped in gauze and a sling holding it up, causing both Clara and Tracey to roll their eyes at his dramatics. Behind them, Pansy had different thoughts on Draco's predicament. "How is it, Draco? Does it hurt much?"

Clara had to bury her face into her hands to keep from bursting into laughter. After all, in Snape's class, especially, Slytherin's were expected to maintain a united front. It had been pounded into their brains since the first year since the rest of the school hated them; they had to stand together because they couldn't rely on anyone else.

"Yeah," Draco said bravely, the grimace on his face almost causing Tracey to lose her composure too.

Turning around, Clara put an over-the-top look of adoration on her face, "Wow, Draco Malfoy, a hero, really. How did you possibly survive?"

"Well, I-" Draco cut off and narrowed his eyes, "you're messing with me, aren't you, Clara?"

Catching on, Tracey turned around with a broad grin, "Wow, and he's smart too!"

"Oh my god, imagine being Draco? Can you imagine? I can't. Wow. What an icon." Clara continued, staring at Tracey earnestly.

Draco did his best to give Clara his nastiest glare but couldn't. Despite Clara and Tracey's sometimes harsh judgments of Draco, the three of them were rather close. So instead, he just rolled his eyes and messed up their hair to get payback.

Draco enjoyed Clara Lupin and Tracey Davis because they didn't make him a big deal just because he happened to be a Malfoy, which was akin to a royal family in the pureblood world. Instead, they often brought him down to Earth but were always there when he really needed back up. The three of them know that if any one of them needed help, they had the other two to fall back on, it was a pact made last year when people whispered about Draco being the Heir of Slytherin. Clara quickly made it clear that if they wanted to make those claims that they had better have more substantial proof than he's a pureblood who hates muggle-borns, because as much as she doesn't agree with the ideology, it hardly makes him a prime attempted murder suspect.

"Settle down, settle down," Professor Snape drawled at the front of the class, prompting Clara and Tracey to regain their composure. Clara furrowed her eyebrows as Draco walked past where all of the Slytherins were sitting and set up his things right next to Harry Potter and Ron Weasely.

Nudging Tracey, Clara pointed the move out to her. Tracey groaned in realization. "Draco's going to start something, isn't he?"

"When does he not?" Clara asked before sighing, "It's not really our problem, though, is it? I mean, what's the worse that could happen? Let's just focus on the assignment."

"Easy fo you to say, Miss Potions-Extraordinaire," Tracey teased lightly as they both started brewing their potions, Tracey checking with Clara every step of the way. With time to spare, Clara and Tracey finished their potions and turned them into Snape before returning to their seats for the class to be dismissed.

Clara glanced over to see Harry and Ron talking about something with Draco, who looked rather smug. "Wondering what Draco is saying to your boyfriend?" Tracey asked lightly.

"Yeah, I mean, it's never good when he has that smug smile on his face. Wait, no, hold up, he isn't my boyfriend!" Clara said, hissing the last bit softly so that no one could hear.

Tracey laughed but stopped when Snape grinned maliciously, "Everyone gather 'round, and watch what happens to Longbottom's toad," Clara and Tracey shared wide-eyed glances and rushed over to see what was happening. "If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don't doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned."