Ex-Friends || A Drarry Story

Three: Five

Draco Malfoy was in quite the nasty mood, walking outside to Care of Magical Creatures. Of course, the Slytherin third years were paired with the Gryffindors. Potter was a little ways ahead of him, eyes on the sky. Draco looked up.

Yesterday had been a rainy day, but it had cleared, and the sky was a pale grey, with no sun in sight. The grass beneath them was springy and damp, dew nipping at Draco's ankles. It was warm, but thankfully, the clouds provided maximum shade.

Potter, Draco noticed, stood between his two friends, who weren't speaking to each other. Instead, they turned their noses up to the other, and Draco heard the quiet pleading of the Boy Who Lived. "Can you two stop this? It was just one class."

"The Grim, Harry!" said Weasley in a hot whisper.

"It's a pocket of pus!" hissed Granger. Draco hated it, but he could agree somewhat with her. His father wasn't a fan of superstitions, and Draco was the same way. Then again, there were several things to look out for, such as the Sirius Black man who had escaped the darkest place on earth, Azkaban, and the Dementors that were around the school.

Winding down the slope of the hill the oaf Hagrid's hut lay, the group made their way to the very edge of the Forbidden Forest, and Draco not-so-fondly remembered what had happened here last year.

He, Potter, and Weasley had almost been killed by giant spiders and almost run over by a crazed Muggle car, and in their first year, they had almost been killed by the professor. Draco shuddered. Too many close brushes with death.

"Gather 'round, gather 'round!" Hagrid said in his deep, gruff voice.

Draco's silver eyes lay on the gate of a paddock, but there was nothing in there.

"Firs' thing yer want ter do is open yer books---"

"How?" Draco asked, his voice cold and drawling. Beside him, Blaise shifted. He was the only one of his friends to choose Care of Magical Creatures. Theo had chosen Alchemy and Pansy had picked Study of Ancient Runes.

"Eh?" said Hagrid, his beetle black eyes blinking in confusion. Potter and his friends all looked back at Draco, who scowled at Hagrid.

"How do we open our books?" he repeated, taking out his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which he had bound shut with a belt.

"Yeh've got to stroke 'em," Hagrid explained, and lifted Granger's book from her hands. Running a giant forefinger down the length of the spine, the book shuddered, then fell open, unmoving.

"Oh, how silly we've all been!" Draco sneered, waving his book about. The entire class turned to look at him, Gryffindors in front of him holding back their anger, Slytherins behind him snickering. "Why didn't we guess?"

"I---I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly. What little skin showing on his face turned pink and Draco felt a rush of power. If he could make this big dumb oaf turn red from embarrassment, nothing could stop him.

"Oh, yes, tremendously funny!" he continued, shrugging and grinning nastily. "Really witty, Merlin, this place has gone to the dogs."

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry said quietly. He wanted Hagrid's first lesson to be a success, not a failure as Malfoy so wanted it to be.

"Righ' then," Hagrid, who had lost his thread, said, "so---so yeh've got yer books sorted. . .an', an' now yeh need the Magical Creatures. Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on."

He strode away into the forest and out of sight.

"What an idiot," Draco said loudly to the Slytherins behind him. They snickered some more, some nodding, all with smirks. "This oaf isn't even educated, it seems like!"