"Miss Weasley and Mr Malfoy, why am I not surprised?" Snape drawled, standing before the four students. He turned to Flitwick. "Am I correct in assuming they're the instigators?"
"Yes." Flitwick nodded. "I thought perhaps their heads of houses should decide their punishment."
"Oh, dear." Pomona Sprout said. "What could have possessed you to turn your wands on each other?" Alex and Malfoy just glared at each other. "Twenty points from each house, to start."
"I think perhaps a warning for Mr Zabini and Miss Jones." Snape suggested. "And detention for Mr Malfoy and Miss Weasley. Every day for a week, perhaps? I have a lot of cauldrons in need of scrubbing."
"What, no!" Alex looked up.
"You have another punishment in mind?" By the look on Snape's face, she knew there was no getting out of detention. So she stayed silent, looking at her feet. "Report to the potions classroom at 7 o clock."
That evening, Alex made her way to the dungeons. She exited through the hidden tunnel and walked down the corridor to the potions lab.
"Where did you come from?" Malfoy's haughty tone accused. She turned to see that he'd turned around the corner right before her tunnel. It was hidden, so he wouldn't know it was there.
"The sky." She replied sarcastically.
"I didn't even see you. How did you get in front of me?" Alex just shrugged and walked faster. "You know, this detention thing is all your fault. If you hadn't pulled your wand-"
"If you hadn't discriminated against Charlie for being a muggleborn, I wouldn't have."
"I didn't even call her a mudblood. In case you didn't realize, I stopped myself."
"Only because you knew I'd tell off you."
"I still stopped myself, didn't I?"
"I suppose I did jump the wand there." She sighed. "Sorry."
"What?"
"I said sorry. I shouldn't have pulled my wand on you. I just got really irritated." Malfoy looked at her suspiciously. "What?"
"Didn't expect an apology."
"What did you expect?"
"To stick your nose up at me with that holier-than-thou attitude your family favours." Alex laughed. "What's so funny?"
"You think my family's stuck up, and I think yours is."
"If the next words out of your mouth are 'we're not so different after all', I'll take your wand and hex myself."
"If I ever say anything like that, you can hex me first."
"Deal."
"If you two are quite done making up, there are eighty cauldrons waiting to be scrubbed cleaned." Snape called. Alex and Malfoy walked into the lab.
"Yes Professor." She took off her outer robes and hung it on the back of a chair before pulling on her thick dragonhide gloves.
"We should probably work more on our poster tomorrow." Malfoy suggested, halfway through their class.
"Sure. Lunch? At the library."
"I'll tell Blaise."
"Try not to be such a prat, though." She teased. He looked offended until he saw her expression.
"As long as you aren't such a freak." His eyes sparkled with humour.
"Don't make me take points off." Snape called. He was supervising the two of them. Probably because of the chemicals they had to use to clean the cauldrons.
"It's all in good fun, Professor." Alex said. "Friendly banter."
"Yeah, but without the friendly bit." Malfoy added.
"More frenemies." She added.
"Acquaintances." He continued.
"Competitors."
"Nemeses."
"But we don't hate each other."
"Not completely."
"There are definitely things we find abhorrent about each other."
"Like her muggleborn loving tendencies."
"His prejudiced way of thinking."
"She's a know-it-all."
"He's a snob."
"She's too much of a freak when it comes to her studies."
"He's too much of a prat when around other people."
"She can be-"
"I do believe the two of you have painted quite the picture." Snape cut them off. "That's enough."
"Yes, sir." Alex muttered and they continued working in silence. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. She looked up and saw Laila, one of the girls who did arithmancy. She walked over to Snape and said something in too low a voice for either second year to overhear. He stood from his table.
"Stay here and keep an eye on those two." He said, before walking out. Laila walked up to them, leaning against a wall nearby.
"Alex Weasley in trouble. And here I thought you were just a goody goody."
"I resent that accusation." Alex said, as she squirted a little more lava soap into her cauldron.
"So what are you in for? Let me guess, you wrote a foot more for an essay than you were supposed to?"
"Tried to hex Malfoy." She said.
"Hexing a fellow student? I'd never have guessed."
"Oh please, ask any Hufflepuff."
"I'm sure it'll come up on Friday." She smirked. Snape walked back in. "I've got to go. You are still coming Friday, aren't you?"
"Yeah. Have I missed a session yet?"
"Touché. See you." Laila blew her a kiss and left the room. As soon as she was out of sight, Malfoy turned to her.
"You know Laila Shafiq?"
"Yeah, so?"
"She's an old pureblood family, that's so! And a fourth year Slytherin." Alex just shrugged. "She doesn't speak to just anyone! Especially not second year Hufflepuffs."
"I know a few fourth years."
"How?" Alex just shrugged. She wasn't sure if any of the fourth years would care for anyone to know there was a second year in their study group.
"Through Cedric." She said eventually. "He's my friend, and they know each other through class."
"Still, Laila Shafiq?"
"My brother Bill's a curse breaker at Gringotts. Probably just networking." She continued. "And I'm probably the least annoying Weasley here." Malfoy accepted that answer.
