Unexpected Series of Events

Draco Déjà Vu

In the Slytherin common room Draco attempted to lay out on one of the couches in the way he'd done many times before. Since he'd grown taller over the years, it's become more and more difficult to find a comfortable position. He sometimes hated that he'd become so angular and lanky, and that his legs would spill over his bed or right now, the couch. He'd been feeling an odd sense of incompleteness since he'd arrived at Hogwarts, and no amount of distraction was helping to alleviate the sensation.

Crabe and Goyle laughed at his inability to fit properly on the couch, that it made Draco throw his hands up in exasperation. He gave up and sat upright, giving Pansy Parkinson room to sit down next to him.

"Draco, you don't seem well," she said. Draco looked into her eyes, as if searching for an answer. "Is something bothering you?"

"Not a good day," he replied. "I feel like I've forgotten something, or lost— I don't know." He rubbed his temples, he felt as if it would help him remember.

"Listen to yourself," said Pansy, "You're starting to sound like Longbottom." She sidled up next to him and put her arms around him. "Why don't you let me help you," she then pushed Draco off of the couch.

Startled, and beginning to grow irate, Draco was about to retaliate when Pansy put her hands on his shoulders and began to massage him. It was an old ritual between the two of them, and it comforted Draco a little that she was still willing to put up with old traditions for their friendship. He put a hand up to touch hers, and she immediately pulled away to work on the lower part of his back.

"Tell me about your summer," she said after a long pause.

Draco opened his mouth to reply only to find that he wasn't quite sure where to begin. "France," he said finally.

"Bordeux again?" said Pansy.

"No," said Draco, "We went to Nice."

"We?"

"Yes, mother and I," said Draco, "She rather insisted on it. Said that 'Bordeux was passé.'"

Pansy stopped massaging his back, and pushed off of him. She leaned back onto the dark setee, and looked at him curiously. Tilting her head, and then finally resting it on the setee's arm she let her eyes close and then yawned.

"Say," said Draco. He hopped back onto the couch and leaned over Pansy's resting figure. "I know something that will help me de-stress," he said softly into her ears. Pansy's eyes fluttered open, and she pushed him out of her space.

"We've been through this before," said Pansy, "We are better friends that we ever were as a couple. Doing that thing you want to do right now, will just ruin what we have going now."

She got up and headed towards the girls dormitories, but before disappearing for the night she looked back and called to Draco: "Get some sleep, dream of lovely things." It was another of their traditions between them, a sign that she wasn't mad at him.

The next morning Draco had gotten a very small amount of sleep, and resulted in him being cross with many of the new first years as they headed towards breakfast in the Great Hall. He took a seat in between Crabbe and Pansy and began picking at his food, he normally had a sensible appetite, but today it was not present. He looked around the hall at the cheery faces, new faces that were both excited and scared about what their day might bring and he felt an irrepressible hatred towards them. He seethed with jealousy for a reason unknown to him, and wanted them all to know his pain. Crabbe moved to rise from the table and accidentally knocked over his pumpkin juice all over Draco's trousers.

"Crabbe you idiot!" shouted Draco. He stood up and began wiping off the excess with his napkin.

"Sorry," muttered Crabbe, but by then many of the students had turned to look at the commotion and had started to laugh. Fuming, Draco marched out of the Great Hall in a hurry. On his way out he hit the three people he did not want to see most at that moment.

"Watch it," said Ron. He would have stayed to fight, but his stomach commanded that he sit down and begin shoveling food into his mouth. Harry and Hermione were mildly startled by Draco's appearance. His eyes wide with fury, and his clothes disheveled, even they knew that it was quite uncharacteristic of him to appear in such a state.

"You've got juice on your pants mate," said Harry with a laugh, and he too walked around Draco and headed toward the Gryffindor table.

"Go on," said Draco to the remaining Hermione," have your laugh." He fully expected Hermione to comment on his appearance, but she didn't.

"Potion's starts in twenty minutes," she remarked while she passed him by, "if you're going to get that cleaned up, I suggest you hurry."

Draco raced to the prefects bathroom to inspect the damage. He pulled out his wand and muttered a quick cleaning spell on his clothes. He checked his watch only to find that it was broken and stopped at 1:07. He took a closer look at the relic and wondered why he'd even put it on this morning. Grabbing his things, he raced to the dungeons to get to the class that Draco was almost one hundred percent sure he was late for.

"Mr. Malfoy," said Snape after Draco wrenched open the classroom door, "How nice of you to grace us with your presence." The Potions Master gave him a very rare cross look and indicated that Draco should take a seat before his patience wore thin. Draco went to the back of the class and unpacked his books.

"As I was saying," continued Snape, "Today, you will be brewing one half of a potion. Once you have brewed your half of the potion you will pair with another student who has the completed the other half of potion."

Confused looks were exchanged among the students.

"You shall combine your work, and I shall grade the final product. In this jar are slips of paper with two numbers, those who draw the number thirty five shall prepare the potion on that page, and vice versa for the number seventy six. Any questions?" without waiting for a reply he continued with, "Good. Begin."

One by one students went to the front of the class to draw their number and gather their ingredients. As Draco made his way to the front of the class he noticed that the Head Girl had already finished gathering her ingredients and had set to work on her half of the potion they were brewing today. She looked as if she'd be finished with this potion in no time flat, she could probably even brew the second half by herself if she wanted.

"Professor," inquired Blaise Zabini, "What is it we're making exactly?" He was already at his cauldron ready to work. "These ingredients are all poisonous."

"We're brewing Bliss," replied Hermione.

"Wasn't asking you know-it-all," spat Blaise.

"Perhaps someone other than Ms. Granger can enlighten the class as to why Bliss has so many poisonous elements," said Snape.

Before Draco knew what he was doing he was answering Snape's question. "The ingredients are poisonous but they also contain highly hallucinogenic attributes that trick the user into a false sense of euphoria, much of the poison is dissipated by the addition of a simple restorative potion, which is the only way this potion is allowed to be distributed in England. It's used on prisoners in Azkaban to sedate them before they are transported there."

"That's so cruel," said Pansy.

"Ten points to Slytherin," said Snape. "All of you could stand to do some reading like Mr. Malfoy. Now get back to work."

Draco drew out the last slip of paper in the jar: thirty five. Opening his potion's book to that page he went to the ingredients cabinet, he noticed there were already minute notes in the margin of his book. It was his writing, but he didn't quite remember putting it there. Returning to his seat, he set out to finish his part of the potion. His, was not the potion that contained the poisons, but the medicinal herbs, and worts, and roots of the like. He chopped and measured meticulously, mostly because that was what the margin notes told him to do.

His work paid off as he stirred his cauldron and the liquid turned a pearlescent white. Looking around at other cauldron's and he could see that they were merely murky soups that would take much longer time to reach the desired state before it could be combined to make the Bliss potion.

"If you are finished with your potion set about finding someone who is also finished with theirs so you may combine and turn in your final product. Bottles for the combined potion can be found at the front of the class," announced Snape.

Only two students moved to the front of the class to retrieve a bottle, Hermione and Draco, and to Draco's chagrin Hermione brewed the poisonous potion. Snape loomed behind them, and snatched from their hands their individual potions.

"Class, these are prime examples of what your end products should look like," said Snape. He held up Draco's luminous potion in one hand, and Hermione's glowing potion in the other. Students craned to see Snape holding up the two vials, and checked the color of their potions against it. "It seems, that many of you actually need the full time allotted for this exercise," said Snape bitterly, "Zabini, you'll have to start again." Blaise looked at his pathetic, yellowing brew and frowned.

Snape turned and returned the two vials to Hermione and Draco. "Mix, and leave," he said sharply. The two Heads exchanged looks and returned to the closer work station, which was Hermione's at the front of the class.

"Let's get this over with," said Draco. He uncorked the two vials and consulted Hermione's book on potion's procedure. He opened the book to the page for his potion and was surprised to see similar notes in her text, in fact they were identical to the ones in his book.

"You're on the wrong page," said Hermione. She took the book from his hands and flipped to the correct page with the word Bliss emblazoned at the top. "Pour Phantasma into bottle using a glass funnel, followed by Recoup Reginald's Cure All. Cap, and shake for thirty seconds, then swirl for forty five seconds."

Hermione shook, then handed the bottle to Draco, "Your turn."

Draco took the bottle and began the task of swirling the bottle. Hermione set about to gathering her things. She took care to not look Draco in the face, but the reflection from his watch face momentarily sparkled in her field of vision. Draco finished swirling and turned it in to Snape.

"I notice that your watch is broken," remarked Hermione on their way out of the dungeons. "You should get that fixed, I don't want you being late to any of the prefect meetings."

"Don't be stupid Granger," said Draco, "I'm not wearing a watch."

"It's Hermione," she said, "and YES you are too wearing a watch." She grabbed his wrist and held it up for him to see. "Large leather band, big silver watch," she said, "Kind of hard to – OW!" Hermione dropped his wrist, as a painful pinch coursed up her right arm.

Draco gave his arm a confused look. Hermione was right, he was indeed wearing a watch, but he couldn't remember why he had forgotten. It tightened uncomfortably around his wrist the moment Hermione grabbed his arm, but to his surprise he didn't want to do anything about the pain. He was snapped out of his reverie when Hermione dropped like a rock beside him.

AN: Thanks for all the reviews and favs, hope you enjoyed reading. Please review!