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All Harry wanted to do was work through the stupid project Slughorn had decided to throw at the returning eighth years. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Harry would’ve had a chance to work with someone other than Malfoy. Because of course he had to work with the pointy git. He took it as the universe’s way of shitting on him since Voldemort was now dead. But now because of Slughorn Harry now had to deal with Malfoy for not only their double potions class, which he was used to for the last seven years, deal with him in the eighth year shared common room but now they were expected to log at least an extra six hours a week on research. Harry didn’t have the time or patience to deal with this. Seething, Harry ignored the sympathetic gazes of his fellow Gryffindor classmates and stomped to the desk Malfoy occupied at the back of the room, farthest away from the other students. At least it was the closest to the door. Silver lining and all that rot.
Not that Harry blamed the Slytherin from wanting to be as far away from everyone as possible. If it had been Harry, he doubted he would have dared to come back to the school. Especially since so many students died because of him but Harry chalked it up to Malfoy’s arrogance to come back to the scene of the crime. Harry tore his mind away from those thoughts before his anger spiked and his magic lashed out. Ron would’ve encouraged it on the off chance it would attack Malfoy. Harry smiled at that thought and looked up to meet Malfoy’s gaze. He smiled wider when the Death Eater paled and averted his gaze. Hermione had told him that when he smiled while he was seething he looked very sinister. A flash of satisfaction bolted through him at Malfoy’s flinch when Harry tossed his books on the desk and plopped down on the stool.
“Harry my boy.”
Harry turned to face the old potions professor. “Yes sir?” He asked, ever playing the patient Savior.
“I know that working with Mr. Malfoy is, shall we say, less desirable,” Harry almost wasn’t able to suppress a snort of derision, “but I felt that the rest of your classmates would appreciate you keeping an eye on him. And who knows, you might even be able to show Mr. Malfoy a few things about potions.” With a pat on the shoulder Slughorn waddled back to the board to begin class. He cast a glance at his potion’s partner noticing the older boy’s face was flushed red and he was clearly fighting himself from throwing a hex if his twitchy fingers indicated anything but he finally got a hold of himself and settled back onto his stool, a cool mask of indifference slipping over his face. Malfoy glanced over at him and caught Harry staring. But Harry didn’t stop. He continued to stare. Malfoy blinked slowly, he would’ve looked stupid if it hadn’t been for his ridiculously long eyelashes framing those alexandrite eyes.
When had they gotten so close?
Malfoy seemed to have the same thought because he leaned back quickly, turning away and pulling out his parchment along with a quill. He kept his eyes averted and, quickly ignoring Harry, started taking notes. The bored look was back on his face but the blush that was splashed across his cheekbones told a different story. Harry turned away and started taking notes, not even paying attention because it seemed no matter how hard he tried, his focus kept wandering back to the person beside him. Today was really their first time having to interact with each other, the first time actually since the night the Snatcher had caught them. They had been in close proximity to each other and Harry wasn’t sure how to handle it. As he stared off at Slughorn going over the notes on the board and droning on Harry snuck glances from the corner of his eye at his unfortunate potions partner. During the whole class the Slytherin didn’t raise his head once. Malfoy didn’t speak, he didn’t look at Harry again (to his disappointment), he didn’t raise his and to answer Slughorn’s questions even though Harry knew the blonde knew the answers. He didn’t do anything but take notes and when the bell rang to dismiss Malfoy had packed and quickly stepped into the hall before Harry even finished rolling up his parchment.
“Tough luck mate.” Ron said as he clapped Harry on the shoulder.
“It honestly wasn’t that bad. I’d say that was the best we’ve interacted together since we were eleven.” Harry chuckled as they walked down to the Great Hall for lunch. “Really I’d be so lucky if that's how the rest of the year turned out.”
Harry smiled at Hermione as they sat down. “Who are we talking about?” She asked after receiving a kiss from Ron. Harry rolled his eyes and pushed his sleeves up, reaching for his plate.
“Malfoy.” Harry answered as he served himself several roast beef sandwiches and a handful of grapes.
“Ah. What’s he done now?” Hermione asked.
“Apparently nothing which has gotten Harry’s knickers in a bunch.”
Ron ducked and the grape Harry had threw at him soared into the back of Justin Finch-Fletch;ey’s head. Hermone giggled as Ron and Harry pretended to be engrossed with their food. It didn’t take Ron that long to actually become engrossed with his food and he started promptly stuffed two sandwiches in his mouth at once.