Forbidden [d.m.] || rewritten

chapter 5

I felt like I was in the library from dawn to dusk. It must have been hours. Hours of desperately searching for a specific book to help me in writing my Potions essay for prissy little Professor Snape. I didn't need a million marks on my paper like last time. I swear that man had it out for me. Potions was truly an intolerable subject to begin with. Now with Hermione being petrified, I was all on my own with homework considering Harry and Ron couldn't be bothered to ever do any of their own work.

The library was empty nowadays anyway. Most students were terror-stricken to set a toe out of their dormitories since the attacks on muggle-borns started happening left and right. I wasn't too concerned. As long as I had my wand with me and kept aware of my surroundings, what was there to shudder about?

Dobby had given Harry and I a countless number of warnings, to which I ignored. Given that he was a house-elf, I had an inkling he served the Malfoy family. House-elves only served rich families that resided in a castle or manor or some sort of fortress.

A gasp escaped my lips at the sight of the book I had been looking for all afternoon and evening. I reached for the book, but before it could even come in tact with my fingertips, it disappeared through the other side. I peeked slightly through the bookshelf to see no one other than Draco Malfoy snickering right at me.

"Aw, did you need this, Potter?" He came around from the other side of the shelf to stand beside me. I swear, I had no clue what his parents must have been feeding him back home. Three months since we last saw each other and he must have grown six inches. Not only that, but his voice grew octaves lower and his facial features matured as well.

"Yes, Malfoy. I need it." I snapped out of my daze and back into my state of irritation. "I need to work on my essay for Potions, alright? And I can only do it tonight—"

"That makes two of us. I take it Potions isn't your strong point?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He chucked in a condescending way that I always hated. "That means I'll give it back—" He held out the book towards me, but pulled it away right when the tips of my fingers grazed the side, "—if you help me with Charms."

Oh, lovely. A negotiation.

"Crabbe and Goyle are supreme idiots. They don't know half as much as you in the sort. And as annoying as I find you, you're one of the smartest in our year."

I grabbed the book from his hands and put on a sarcastic smile for him. "Fine. Let's go, study buddy. I'll help you with your work, but you better do the same or else I'll hex every little hair off your head."

We stalked over to the first empty table we could find in the back of the library and situated ourselves in the two empty seats. The surrounding tables were deserted. The bookshelf aisles were lifeless. Just how I liked it. We unpacked all of our materials and sprawled them all over the desk. Within twenty minutes, there were piles of textbooks for Charms and Potions including the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2's and Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger.

The two of us diligently got to work in an instant, reaching over one another and speaking in a hushed tone over the other to sporadically get our work done. If there was anything indistinguishable about Malfoy and I, it's that we never liked to lose. We always had to be the best in whatever it was we were doing. Particularly school.

I would never guess Malfoy was as brilliant as he was deep down. He never showcased his knowledge like Hermione did by shooting her hand up in class any chance she got, faintly muttering 'ooo' under her breath. He might have been smarter than she was.

"D'you know that you could have much higher marks if you applied yourself in class like you are now?" I pondered as I watched him frantically search for a passage in the Charms textbook.