Chapter Text
It was a glorious day. On top of all the other nice things that happened (Pansy finally took a hint and moved on to her next victim, his pre-order of the newest broom peripherals arrived), there was some truly spicy action in Potions.
Draco had already been enjoying the drama unfolding at the table across the room. Granger looked extra maniac as her signature potions brewing look of exploded hair and heated face had been accentuated by her rage. The weasel looked pathetic, clearly trying to shoot back quips at her but it looked more painful than anything else. Potter topped it all by trying to look like nothing was happening around him and actually succeeding, looking like a man enjoying his daily routine while the world around him was on fire.
The best part was when the weasel finally tried to make amends and helped Granger with her potion. The resulting sticky explosion had Slughorn freeing them all from class. That gave Draco an extra hour to tinker with the new compass, navigation, and stability gadgets he received at breakfast.
It looked horrible when it happened though. Granger's face, hair and robes were all drenched in thick black potion and she was screaming in pain. That part wasn't hilarious, and if the damage had been permanent, it wouldn't have been funny at all. But now that they were told she will be fine, it was okay to find it hilarious that her own boyfriend had just blown up a cauldron in her face. Oh, and the weasel got detention for a month. As said, it was glorious.
No one saw her for two weeks after the incident. When she finally re-emerged in Charms on a rainy Wednesday morning, the skin of her face still looked irritated and partially scarred, her hair had been cut slightly shorter, and there was a weird looking device attached to her head. It looked like a bunch of filters and lenses, with a small metallic part rotating quietly at the side. The largest part seemed to be shielding her eyes from light. She looked like a mad researcher. Of course Draco couldn't keep his mouth shut about it. It was too juicy.
The weasel of course tried to defend her honour in the only savage way he knew. It made Draco chuckle. And the way Potter had to drag the weasel away and threaten him with expulsion from the Quidditch team if he missed more practice because of more detention felt like a great success.
The only problem was that Granger looked defeated and didn't acknowledge Draco in any way. It irked him greatly. One of the joys in life was getting a reaction out of her.
Perplexed, he observed as she didn't take notes, or didn't read when they were to start research for their homework essay. Potter was just whispering to her from time to time and she was nodding. Highly irregular.
Draco noticed she behaved similarly in Transfiguration and Herbology as well, and he already had a theory or two formed on what was going on. The confirmation finally came with Arithmancy on Friday.
Professor Vector called him to stay after class. Briefly, he panicked thinking about how he had failed his latest project completely and was now kicked from the class, but it was nothing of the sort. She just informed him that Granger needed a tutor.
He looked at his Professor, not really understanding why he had to be informed of this fact. The silence continued for some time, before she continued, "Would you be able to meet her in an hour?"
It still took some time to process what was being asked of him.
"What?" he managed.
"Ms. Granger has requested to be tutored by the best available classmate. I had an arrangement set up with Mr. Macmillan, but he cancelled. You, Mr. Malfoy, are holding the third place in assignment rankings, which makes you the next choice. You will meet Ms. Granger here in an hour." Professor Vector vanished their latest essays from the table, cleaned the chalkboard with a flick of a wand, and walked out.
"What?" said Draco again, but the closed door had no answers.
Clearly dear Septima was not partaking in the juicy staff rumour sessions over coffee, where the intricate dynamics between the students were shared. Otherwise she would have known to not set up such an arrangement. It’s not like he and Granger had bickered a lot in her classes. A neutral Granger without her two dumb appendages rarely triggered Draco’s thrist for true provocation and Granger herself was so into numbers and their applications that she probably forgot they even shared a class. Either way, Professor Vector wasn’t aware that this was not going to happen.
Draco bolted after her.
"Professor! Professor!" he called. She finally turned at the end of the corridor.
"I'm sorry Professor," he panted, finally reaching her, “but we don't really get along with Granger. I'm sure someone else can help her."
Professor Vector lifted an eyebrow. "She requested the best. This is not something I disclose lightly, but aside from Mr. Macmillan and yourself, there really aren't any other suitable choices for Ms. Granger."
No way.
He must have looked desperate. She continued, "Ms. Granger would not benefit from knowledge of anyone else in your class." She turned to walk away again.
"But–" he started, but Professor Vector was done with the discussion.
He groaned and decided they would find another arrangement when he just didn't show up. Desperation is the mother of inventions and all that.
So naturally, five minutes before it was their time to meet, Draco found himself sitting down in the dim Arithmancy classroom. He didn’t really know what had gotten into him. It felt good to know he was among the best in class by a large margin, but that wasn’t the reason he didn’t stand Granger up. The biggest reason was probably that he didn’t want to get on Professor Vector’s bad side. He would get extra credit for it after all, and it could possibly land him in the first place in the assignment rankings. He was also extremely curious about what was going on, and this was an opportunity to learn more.
He was leaning back with his chair and adjusting the hood of his cloak when the door opened.
“–to worry about it, we can get back by ourselves. Thanks.” Granger was talking to someone outside.
Draco crossed his arms expectantly and swallowed away a sudden rush of nervousness that tried to take him. Outside the door, footsteps started receding into the distance. Granger stepped in and gasped.
“You!?”
Draco couldn’t suppress a smug grin. Another sweet reaction he got out of her. Another great reason to accept the task, more chances to tease her. Provoke her, that is.
"Yes, me," he revealed, but then he also frowned, confused. "But how did you know? I thought you were blind?"
She crossed her arms as well, and now they were both frowning at each other. “To all intents and purposes I am, but even if I wasn’t, I sure would be now. That hair of yours just blinds people who happen to cross paths with you."
Draco lifted an eyebrow. It was an exceptionally weak insult. "You sure you're the right person to talk about other people's hair?" he asked, drawling.
She sighed in defeat. Good. He inspected his nails, glancing at her as she was looking around, quite unfocused.
"What happened to Ernie?“ Granger asked, finally.
Draco shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Apparently he cancelled."
"I have to talk to Professor Vector," she mumbled, running her fingers through her curls. She still hadn’t moved from the door.
Draco let his chair fall forward and its front legs hit the floor with a loud clack. He leaned his forearms to the table. "Oh, I already tried. You think I came here without protest?"
Granger just shrugged, and he continued, “Apparently only I am worthy to share the secrets of Arithmancy with you."
She sighed impatiently. "Alright. Maybe I can fix this then."
He arched an eyebrow. "So why do you need tutoring if you can see? I thought I had it figured out. And what was that mad researcher thing you were wearing for two days?"
She sighed again, approached, and took a seat at the table next to him. She looked in his direction, but somehow through him, like she was focusing on something behind his head.
"I told you, I am practically blind. I wouldn't have recognised you if it wasn't for your hair. I can navigate the castle, I can see the walls, stairs, and doors… it's just all quite blurred."
"Didn't the lense thing help you then?" he asked, frowning. How was there not a spell to fix something like that?
She was picking a cuticle as she continued her explanation. "It was helping me at the start. Keeping the light entering my eyes low. Fixing the angles so that I could navigate. The healing progress was actually quite fast at that point. I was supposed to wear it for a week, but it doesn't give any additional benefit anymore. Everything is blurry and no gadget will help with that." She looked down at her hands.
“I assume it’s because of the magical aspect of the accident? It doesn’t sound like a very complicated problem to fix out of context.” Of course his brain went into the problem solving mode. As if she hadn’t already been examined by actual experts. She just nodded solemnly.
So, now he knew what was going on. What was left was the actual reason they were there. He sighed.
"So you need help to read all the material and make notes and stuff?"
"In short, yes,” she said, looking thoughtful. “But now I think I will try the self-reading book spell. I haven't looked into it before because I like reading myself, but if I can make it work, we don't have to do this."
"Sounds good. Can I go?" he said, tapping the table impatiently with his fingers. Draco was glad to hear his services weren't needed after all. He was actually about to suggest something similar. He knew about the spell, and there were quills that wrote by themselves, so Granger's situation wasn't really that bad.
She hesitated. She didn't want to be there, but apparently there was something she needed from him still.
"Well, I'd really like to start with the Arithmancy homework today, so if you could just help me find the correct book and the spell from there, that would be enough.“ She looked determined.
He sighed and stood up, his chair scraping the floor. "Let's go then."
"Thanks," she said quite matter-of-factly and followed him through the door.
Whatever. The faster they worked the sooner he was rid of her.
The journey to the library three floors down went surprisingly well. Granger was a bit slow, but able, and thank heavens didn't need any help. Not like Draco would have offered anyway.
They drew some weirded out looks from people passing by, but he didn't particularly care, and even if Granger would have cared, she didn't see, so it was all good. In their destination, even Madam Pince gave them a once over, slightly more thorough than normal. They greeted her quietly.
Draco observed with mild interest just how far Granger could get just on her own. She walked quite determined until the section for advanced charms approached. There, she tried to squint at the signs that indicated the topic of the shelf. She had limited her choice to three shelves, but wasn't sure which one was correct. She turned to look at him with her unfocused eyes, like a child waiting for a present.
Draco huffed, impressed, and walked between the two shelves that were right next to her. She truly lived here, it seemed.
"It's probably in Advanced Charms for Academia," she said quietly, more to herself, running her fingers along the spines.
"Or Encyclopaedia of Advanced Helpful Charmwork," he suggested, and pulled out the book.
She crossed her arms, waiting for him to go through the table of contents.
"I don't know how a singing book is helpful," he muttered to himself as he turned a page, "Or books that walk back to their shelf when you put them down…"
"Check the singing book," she whispered, instinctively glancing behind her back to check Madam Pince was not glaring at them for talking. As if she would see that. Draco flipped to the correct page, reading the introduction. It was all useless.
"It just sings songs, not its contents or anything useful," he concluded after a minute, rolling his eyes at the stupid invention.
"Alright, keep looking then," she said with a sigh.
He did. The table of contents itself was at least ten pages.
"Automatic combing of hair," he read aloud, shooting a meaningful look in her direction. It fell flat, as she probably couldn't see it. If looks could kill though, he would have been a dead man. He resumed his quest for the right spell, smirking to himself. Three more pages were flipped in silence.
"Here. Talking book." He quickly flipped to that spell and glanced through the introduction. "Yes, I think this is what you're after."
She let out a hopeful gasp and headed for the table next to the window at the end of the shelves. He followed with the book and sat down opposite of her.
"Can you read the instructions for me?" she asked, with glee.
"The incantation is Teneo Fabulor," he started, and read further to understand the required movements, form and intentions.
"And that was the correct pronunciation?“ she inquired.
"Yes," Draco said, annoyed. How hard was it to pronounce latin? Then again, she did spend most of her time with simpletons, who probably didn't know how to pronounce their names, so maybe the question was justified from her perspective.
"Just making sure…" she said quietly under her breath, further strengthening his impression of the matter.
He continued, "The movement is quite similar to the one we used for the singing teacups in fourth year, you remember that?"
"Yes," she said, drawing her wand and doing the motion.
"Now just do the last part mirrored," he instructed, and she obeyed. Of course it was perfect on the first try.
"Alright, that was quite simple," he said, continuing on. "Then the intention needs to be you asking the book to spill its secrets. You have to want to know what it has to say."
"That should be easy enough," she said, confidently extending her hand for him.
He gave her the book. "You can use it on specific parts as well, if you do the spell when the book is opened at the part of interest," he concluded the talking book tutorial.
Granger set the book on the table, open at the entry of Talking Book. She looked at it for a short moment, concentrating, and placed her wand on top of it.
"Do the movement first, then the incantation," Draco added quickly before she started.
She shot the annoyed glance Draco loved in his direction, and then looked at the book again, lifted her wand, did the movement, and whispered, "Teneo Fabulor."
Nothing happened. They both frowned. Draco leaned forward to grab the book again–
"TALKING BOOK – THIS HIGHLY HELPFUL CHARM WILL–"
They both shot up from their seats to slam the obnoxiously loud shrieking book shut at the same time.
"Finite. Holy fucking shit," breathed Granger quickly, leaning on the book to keep it closed. It felt like its voice was still echoing through the corridors. Draco's heart was beating through his chest. There was panic in Granger's unseeing eyes as well. He was still holding on to the book when the dreaded sound of sharp footsteps started getting closer to their location.
"Fuck," whispered Draco, just in time before they were assaulted by the infamous wrath of Madam Pince.
"What do you think you're doing in my library? GET OUT!“
Draco bolted, Granger right behind him, out of the library before Madam Pince hexed any furniture to hunt them down.
Outside, they leaned against the wall, panting. Granger let her head hit the wall behind her, as she muttered, "What. Was. That?“
Draco chuckled between breaths. "All I know is that it was not helpful at all."
"No," groaned Granger, dragging a hand over her face. "I can't use that spell. Even if I silence the area, I can't listen to something like that."
"Maybe if you just make the books bigger?“ Draco suggested, quite out of ideas at this point. He pushed stands of hair back from his face, thinking.
"I'm pretty sure they'd need to be the size of a large rug for that to work," Granger said, defeated.
"That bad?" he asked, wincing. She nodded. Draco knew next to nothing about the Gryffindor common room, but if it was anything like the Slytherin one, there was no room for books that big. Classrooms were always too crammed and the library was out of the question. But there was one place that would be suitable.
"Go to the Room of Requirement, it should be big enough for rug sized books."
She was shaking her head. "Some of the books I need can't be checked out from the library. I really can't use any modifying magic on them if I don't want to die in the hands of Madam Pince."
That was the truth.
Draco fidgeted with his signet ring as he thought. Granger frowned in concentration as well.
"I'll find Ernie, ask him if he would change his mind," said Granger finally, pushing herself off the wall.
"I'll do that. I'm faster and can actually, you know, discern him from a crowd,” said Draco pointedly.
"Yeah… right," she said, defeated.
"You can wait in a classroom or something," he said, opening the first door he could see. A classroom used for storage. Perfect. He left her there.
Draco returned after some 20 minutes, and found Granger with the largest book he had ever seen. She was literally walking along the edge as she squinted at the letters size of his arm.
"It's useless, the script is too messy," she reported her findings, "And I don't want to walk on my book." She gestured at the book and it was quite clear she could only read the bottom row without stepping on the page. "It was a good suggestion though."
She shrank the book back to its original size and placed it back to the pile it had come from. "So, did you find Ernie?"
Draco sighed with disappointment. "Yes, and I'm quite certain the man is one of the dumbest people I've met. Be glad he’s not tutoring you."
She looked through him, coldly. "That is quite severe, coming from you," she said accusingly.
He crossed his arms. "Well, I'll let you make your own judgement then. I asked him why I had to be the one tutoring you and not him. He looked horrified of course, smart of him to think about the agony he's putting me through–"
Granger scoffed.
"–and before he could answer, there was a girl at his arm. And let me tell you, never in my precious life have I seen a glare so hostile. And I've known you for years."
She glared at him but it felt nothing after the experience from not so many minutes ago. And she still wasn't focusing on him correctly.
Draco pointed at her. "That's exactly what I mean. But even worse."
She rolled her eyes.
"Anyway, as it turns out, Ernie has found a girlfriend. And not just your friendly everyday girlfriend. A murderously possessive, overly jealous, protective girlfriend. Now that I think about it, I probably should have checked if he tried to secretly communicate with blinks or something. Maybe he needs help?“
Granger laughed weakly.
"So yeah, there's your answer. Ernie won't tutor you because his girlfriend doesn't want him to talk to you. Or look at you. Or even think about you, probably."
Draco had lost count of all the defeated sighs from Granger today.
"Great. So I really am stuck with you?" she asked.
"Seems so," he answered, absentmindedly kicking the wall, not really happy with how it all had turned out either. It had been fun though, he had to admit that.
"Okay, could I just… I don't know. Can I have a copy of your notes from the past two weeks? I can ask Harry to read them for me or something. Meanwhile we can think about this more." She was fidgeting with her hair again.
"Yeah, whatever," he said, reaching for his bag to pull out his notebook, "We covered the rest of the combinations and applied predictions on the first week, and then had a worksheet on the second. Today was the feedback session and intro to unknown parameters."
"Yes, I was there today," she quipped.
"Right. I'll give you copies of all those topics." He flicked his wand at his notebook, and looked at the resulting parchments in his hand for a moment, before setting them on fire.
Granger flinched back from the smouldering parchments he dropped on the floor. "What the hell, Malfoy?!”
"I have a better idea," he said, and approached her. "Give me your notebook."
She looked through him funny, and pulled out a neat notebook full of even neater notes. She squinted at him, trying to observe his actions.
“Don’t you dare to set it on fire,” she warned him, and he grinned.
“That would mean more work for me. No thanks.”
He flipped until he found the first blank page, and cast a well practised Protean charm. He let the spell range start from the first pages he meant to copy, and watched as Granger's notebook successfully updated to reflect the notes on his notebook.
"Such a useful spell," he basically thought to himself.
"Did you just cast Protean wordlessly?" screeched Granger.
"I did. Surprised at what us real wizards can do?“ he smirked at her, hoping she would see even some of it.
She grabbed her notebook with quite a bit of force, and retorted with, "Fuck off, Malfoy. I’ve had enough of your presence."
He still smirked when she stormed through the door and slammed it behind her.
He vanished the remains of the parchments and packed his notebook. When he opened the door to leave, he was met with an angry, yet ashamed Granger.
"Forgot something?" he asked, trying to suppress a laugh at her mortified expression.
"I need someone to see me to the Gryffindor Tower," she muttered to the floor, clenching her fists.
"Well, good luck finding that someone," he said, and walked away. How he was not hexed will forever remain a mystery.