Set Fire to Rain

“Haven’t you heard?” a voice droned behind me. “This isn’t a first years class.” I glanced beside me and saw Pansy smirking at me as she sat down, narrowing her eyes at me. I turned in my seat and gave her a sickly sweet smile that was anything but friendly and in an honest voiced asked, “Are you sure you’re in the right class Pansy?”
She sneered and answered, “Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be, Potter.”
“Oh I apologize, I thought maybe the professor of Care for Magical Creatures would be upset when his subject for his first years went missing.”

Snickers erupted around the room as I full on glared at Pansy, curling my upper lip in a nasty sneer. She opened her mouth to say something but was silenced as Professor Slughorn walked in, walking like a penguin to the front of the class. He had the same strange look on his face as he always did and frowned down at Pansy who made a noise in anger directed towards me.

“Hello sixth years!” He said cheerily. He was a heavyset man who in my opinion had eyes that were a little too far apart. “I am professor Slughorn and this is advanced potions. Come now, gather round this table I’ve got here.” Everyone stood and gathered in a half-ring, looking at the caldron that was in the middle of a table. Next to it stood also, a small vile of something unknown to any in the classroom.

The professor opened his mouth to say something again when the door opened and two kids walked in. I glowered at Harry as he paused and looked at me, eyes quickly darting away. The other kid was a tall red-head, who clearly had hand-me-down robes, an unintelligent stare and bright green eyes. I assumed that this boy was part of the blood traitor family Draco had informed me of.

“Ah, Harry come right in,” Professor Slughorn said, looking more than a little happy to have Harry as a student.
“We don’t have books, sir.”
“Grab one from the back,” Professor Slughorn directed before turning back to us. I watched with annoyance as Harry and the red head fought over a book, there very presence annoyed every fiber of my being. The only solace I found in that classroom was the fact that I would be out of this classroom within the time, and I would have Draco in the next class.
“Now,” Professor Slughorn said once the two idiots joined us. “Can anyone identify the potion I have here?”
Hermione, the Harry’s mudblood of a friend raised her hand like the annoying know it all she was. “It’s the most powerful love potion in the world,” She explained, stepping forward with her book clutched to her chest. “It’s rumored to smell different to everyone. For example I smell freshly mowed grass, parchment, speremint… tooth paste.”

The things Professor Slughorn was saying went completely unnoticed as I inhaled the potion sitting on the table in front of me. Closing my eyes for a moment I could smell aftershave of some sort, and peppermint, and the smell of new books when you first get them, and the smell of a fresh, clean quidditch field. The smell was so overwhelming that it took all my will power to simple open my eyes and look around. It seemed the potion had the same affect on the others, for they all stumbled forward towards it. I had been the only one to maintain composure.

I hardly listened throughout the rest of the class, barely picking up that I was to make a potion perfectly, and whoever finished first and without a fault, would get a small vial of liquid luck. I was not interested in the vile in the least. I wasn’t here to learn, although it would pass the time and I appreciated the fact that I would be able to learn things I did not already know. But I was here for a greater task, and that came before anything else.

I talked with Blaise quietly and some of the other Slytherin’s, fallowing the directions from my potions book leisurely. Sometimes I added to much of this and not enough of that. It didn’t matter to me. I looked up to notice Slughorn excuse himself from the room for a moment. Everyone seemed to wait for the teacher to leave before they instantly stopped what they were doing, talking to one another much more loudly than they dared with the professor around. I leaned on the table, fully aware of a green pair of eyes on my back. I ignored them completely and took interested in small paper birds in flight, flittering around the room and giggling girls looking up at them. I smirked and with my target in mind muttered, “Oppugno.”

The birds shot in a direct line right behind me and I heard a grunt and many sniggers from the Slytherin’s as the target was hit. I turned to see Harry glaring at me, rubbing the back of his head. His mudblood friend threw me a sneer as well but all I did was smile.
I was increasingly curious as to how long Harry would let my onslaught of torture go. First the bag this morning as well as the gemino curse, then the birds in class, and on the way out of class and on my way to potions, the accidental muttering of densaugeo, making his friend Ron’s teeth grow at an alarming rate. But each time he would look at me with the same disappointment, but some kind of lingering hope. It was futile.

“I hear you’re quiet the charmer,” a voice drawled along side me. I looked up and smiled to see Draco’s blue eyes looking down on me, happy and searching my face.
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” he said, throwing his arm around my shoulder. “You’ve one the hearts of many Slytherin’s today, the way you’ve gone about screwing with Potter. Saw Weasle-bee after your last curse, his teeth were bloody huge. You’re much more attractive now in the eyes of the boys.”
I sighed, mockingly wistful. “There’s just so many boys out there, which to choose? Decisions, decisions.”
Draco’s arm tightened around me. “I think not. You’re not dating anyone here. Especially when we’ve got things to take care of.”
“Merlin know’s what ‘things’ you’ve got to take care of Malfoy but I didn’t think a simple something could distract you from preying on the entire female population.”
I watched in disgust as Draco’s eyes lingering on a passing girls ass a little longer then need be. “I think you’re very right, mate.”

*
Classes went by much quicker and with less annoyance with Draco. He never hesitated to step forward and become daunting when Pansy walked by, knowing as well as I did she was planning to do something. Pansy seemed like a dumb girl, but she certainly was in Slytherin for a reason. You had to be cunning to get into Slyhterin, and that she was, it seemed.

Watching the way other people reacted to Draco was amazing. Many girls would look over at him, and a moment of wonder and wistfulness would cross they’re face, even if a moment before it held disgust. Many of the guys either looked up to him and laughed with him, wanting to be his best friends. Some glared in either jealousy, or hate. Others looked down right fearful of him. The dynamic of emotion was puzzling, and looking up at Draco I could understand. He looked hard and Malfoy-like right now, with Blaise and a bunch of other Slytherin’s around, but he was still nice. I’d seen him not so nice before, and it was quiet different than the Draco I was seeing now.

“Why are you staring at Draco?” a voice next to me asked. Without flinching I looked up and saw a boy about my age in green Slytherin robe. He had dark brown hair, and bright blue eyes that were quite different from Draco’s. His face was handsome and striking, and I was curious as to why I hadn’t seen him in the common room or in the great hall.
“Why are you staring at me?” I asked, not in the most inviting voice. He smirked, still examining my face.
“You’re hard to miss.”
“Okay, well I don’t know if that’s an insult or not but-“
“It wasn’t an insult,” he laughed. His laugh was beautiful. “You’re very beautiful.”
“And you’re very forward.”

I walked away from the boy without learning who he was and what he wanted. Just because someone told me they thought I was beautiful didn’t mean I was going to stand there and talk to them. I wasn’t interested in having some stupid relationship. Love didn’t exist, and if it did I had not seen it yet. Even Draco’s parents did not love one another, I think. Not anymore, with all the things that have been going on with death eater business.

I glanced around at different couples, or at students flirting and smiling, and laughing with their friends. I almost laughed myself, knowing that they had no idea what was to come. This time next year, they would be only in Slytherin. This time next year, if they had a single mishap in their bloodlines, they would be gone. This time next year, Draco and I would be who we were meant to be.