AN/ Sorry that I am later than I had said that I would be! I was really busy looking up Harry/Draco music videos! Lol! I’ll put the link to the videos at the end of this chapter and on my profile page… Hopefully I remember… Lol, jk! Well, read on and enjoy! Oh! By the way, gratz to those of you who has realized that I was using backwards words (e.g. Lasib Basil).

Chapter 3/ Confrontation of sorts, Day 2

- “The way things are depends on where you are.” -

Snape turned shortly toward the classroom that was only half-full of students. (The rest only had five minutes to get there. Hopefully they ran…) “Set up your cauldrons in preparation for the Neklis Exam,” he practically ordered. The Gryffindor Trio regrettably retrieved parchment, quills and inkwells from their bags and searched for their ingredients that were set on a table at the front of the classroom.

Harry was setting his Lasib and Wormwood Roots on his desk when a certain blonde Slytherin entered the room. Harry couldn’t help but stop and stare. He had always watched Draco when he entered the classroom, mostly just to make sure that the other didn’t turn and hex him into next week. But this time… he was intrigued by something. What was drawing his attention was unsure to Harry, but he certainly didn’t like it! Draco looked toward him and their eyes met for mere seconds. Malfoy sent off a horrible vibe of hatred, which was normal. So then, why was Harry surprised to feel it?

Draco tore away from Harry’s gaze and began preparing for the creation of his potion. After that, it seemed as if he was trying extra hard not to look in the direction of the dark-haired boy. Malfoy hadn’t known what exactly happened the night before, or why for that matter. But whatever it was, he simply wanted to forget about it now.

Hermione and Ron soon joined Harry and the girl caught him staring at the blonde right before he noticed that they were coming. “Harry, what’s wrong?” she asked, sitting next the scarred boy, trying to be discreet about knowing about the Slytherin connection.

“Nothing, Hermione,” he reassured, focusing on his potion.

Snape stood at the front of the class, glaring across the faces of his students. “Begin,” he murmured. Everyone started up, moving robotically, attempting to brew the potion perfectly. Throughout the class, Harry found himself looking up at Draco and constantly being distracted from his Exam. Each time Draco sneezed, Harry felt for him. As he stirred in the Lisab, his potion grew horribly red, which he knew for a fact was not supposed to happen. Predictably, Professor Snape was heading in his direction, peeking into the cauldrons of all the students as he passed by.

Harry frantically stirred in the other direction, trying and hoping to reverse his mistake, and to no avail. When Snape reached his desk, the teacher glared profusely at the youth. “Mr. Potter? Just what are you trying to create?”

Harry answered in the only way he could. “A Neklis potion, Sir.” Just then, Draco sneezed, and Harry sent him a sympathetic look, one that was thankfully missed by the professor.

Severus waved his wand over Harry’s foul-scented concoction, erasing it from the Earth and leaving it clean. “Because you made a mess of your potion and failed miserably, ten points from Gryffindor. And you will serve detention this Saturday to make up the Exam for half credit. Understood?” Harry nodded, biting back his desired reply. “Now, since you have found such interest in Mr. Malfoy during this class, perhaps you would like to escort him to the hospital wing.”

Draco glanced up at the professor, at Harry, and then back at Snape. “Pardon me, Professor. But why do I need to go to the hospital wing?”

“I cannot have you sneezing into your classmates potions and ruining them,” he explained shortly as he returned to his desk to write a pass. “You, too, will return tomorrow to make up your exam.”

Draco looked at Harry again. “I really don’t need an escort, Professor.” Snape handed the note to Harry and glared at them both. To say the least, they got the hint. Packing up their things silently, Hermione shot Harry a look of suspicion. He didn’t quite understand, but he’d ask her about it later.

The two boys left their classroom quietly and started towards the hospital wing. Draco glared at the hallway in front of him the entire way there, while Harry was just trying to catch his eye. Finally Draco stopped dead in his tracks and turned sharply towards the Gryffindor. “Will you stop staring at me!”

Slightly taken aback, Harry just blinked. “Sorry…” Draco let out a frustrated sigh and began walking again, and Harry continued to watch him. When the Slytherin stopped again, Harry realized that he had done something terribly wrong.

“Why do you keeping looking at me like that! What’s wrong with you?”

Harry stood with his mouth partially open, thinking this over and finding no response. “I… don’t know…”

“Well, stop it! It’s annoying and sickening!”

“I said ‘sorry.’ ”

“Ever think that it may be disturbing to have someone stare at you for an hour and a half?”

“You’re talking to someone who gets stared at on a daily basis.”

“Then you should know what it’s like.”

“I do… I was just concerned about your cold.”

“Did I ask for your concern? Since when have you ever cared how I felt, or vice versa?”

“I don’t know. Since yesterday?” Harry snapped back.

“Because you saw me in the rain? Or was it the paint? Or maybe the dormitory?”

“Why are you acting so nasty all of a sudden?”

“I’ve always been this way, in case you’ve forgotten! And I want to forget about what happened yesterday! So just shut up about it!”

“No! That was the first time that I have ever seen you act civil and normal in any sense of the word!”

“Exactly!”

“So you want to keep your reputation as the slimy git? Fine by me! But I at least know that you are capable of laughing at a normal joke and can feel concern for someone else!”

“What?”

“The only reason you invited me into the Slytherin dormitory was because you didn’t want me to get a lifetime supply of detentions!’

“So what? Maybe we have a common enemy in Filch. It doesn’t matter much anyway seeing as you just got yourself a detention for tomorrow and points taken from your house.”

“And whose fault is that?”

Draco looked at him as if Harry was the stupidest person in the world. “Yours,” he said simply. “I didn’t make you stare at me the whole time! That was your own doing. And it was your fault that your potion was screwed up. Pay more attention, Potter!”

“Oh yeah, that’s another thing, Draco. You were calling me Harry last night. Did you just forget about having to only use our last names when referring to each other?”

“Don’t you ever call me Draco,” said the youth, advancing toward Harry threateningly. “I told you to just forget about last night. It was stupid and I don’t understand why those things happened.”

“Neither do I! They just did! It’s not something that has to be understood, Draco!”

“Don’t call me that!” he said aggressively, taking another step toward the other boy, closing the gap between their bodies so as to be literally face-to-face with the Gryffindor.

“You were fine with it last night!”

“Shut up!”

“Make me!”

“You’d like to see me try wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, actually,” responded Harry, pressing forward against the other boy. What was he doing?

Malfoy took a step back, drew his wand, and held it to Harry’s neck before Potter really understood what was going on. “You don’t get it, do you, Potter? We’re still enemies. Always have been, always will be!”

Harry blinked slowly at the blonde boy. Ignoring the posed wand, he spoke softly. “Since when?”

Draco wasn’t prepared for this kind of reaction, for the lack of yelling, for the sincerity in Harry’s eyes. His wand arm slowly dropped to his side and his eyes searched the floor for an answer. Since Harry was so popular. Since Harry made Quidditch Seeker in his first year. Since Harry befriended a Mudblood and a hand-me-down family. Since Harry rejected his hand…

Draco looked up at Harry, eyes quivering with bared hatred. Turning on his heel, he headed straight for the hospital wing, leaving Potter alone in the corridor.

Harry watched helplessly as the other boy fled. After he turned the corner, Harry unfroze. Kicking the air and burying his face in his hands, he yelled at himself mentally. ‘What was I thinking! Oh my gosh!” Taking a deep breath, he leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. He leaned his head back against the cold stone. “I’m an idiot,” he whispered to himself. Drawing up his knees to his chest, he wrapped his arms around his legs and hid his face in his arms. “Agh… Stupid Draco…”

XXXXXXXXXX

‘Damn Potter. Damn him to hell,’ he thought bitterly to himself, holding back tears of frustration and confusion. ‘Who does he think he is, getting to me like this!’ He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. He had hated Harry since he first met the boy. He hated him since he first heard of him, since his father talked about him more than he talked to his only son, since the Dark Lord wanted nothing else other than Harry. He had always hated Harry! And now what? One night of acting humane towards the boy has made him think that they were on good terms? No… he still hated the Gryffindor, even more so now that he knew one of his weaknesses. But if he hated him so much, then why did he already want to go back to him?

XXXXXXXXXX

An hour had passed since Draco had abandoned him, and Harry was now out on the grounds sitting on the boulder by the lake where he had found Draco the previous evening. The sky was gray and thickened my heavy clouds. Rain wouldn’t be a surprise. Nevertheless, Harry would rather not go back to the Common Room with Ron and Hermione. There would be no way to avoid their questions, but he could avert from them for now. Besides, it was peaceful and calm out here, and he could think over what had occurred between himself and the Malfoy child. Sighing lightly, he placed his hands behind his head and lay back against the stone, and then Malfoy came into sight. Startled, Harry sat up and turned towards the boy who had been standing behind him. “How long have you been standing there?”

Draco shrugged. “Not very long. I’m not too shocked to find you here, either. Hmm… why does this seem so familiar?”

Harry smiled. True, had their positions been switched, they would be reliving the past. “You are out of the hospital wing, already?”

“Madame Pomfrey just gave me a simple tonic. She said that it was so minor that I had no reason to stay.”

“Were Crabbe and Goyle still in there?”

“Yeah. They’re going to be able to leave later today, though,” explained the blonde as he sat down next to Harry,

“Good to hear. Are you glad that they will be back?”

Draco nearly laughed. “No. I’m only friends with them because… actually, I’m not sure why.” He smiled at Harry.

The dark-haired boy looked down at his hands as he tried to form words to suit what he was trying to say. “Um, Malfoy, about earlier-“

The Slytherin swatted his hand in front of his face as if there was a fly there that was irritating him. “Don’t worry about it. It was as much my fault as it was yours… I think…” he added, good naturedly.

“See? Why can’t we act like this all of the time?”

Draco frowned to himself. “Dunno. But I don’t really care anymore. I’ve said that phrase more times today then I can remember.”

Harry laughed and hugged at his knees. Resting his chin on his arms, he gazed over the lake. Draco spread his legs out in front of him and leaned back on his hands. Harry’s eyes flickered over to Draco before returning to the water’s surface. “Don’t you think this is kind of strange?”

“Of course this is strange, Potter,” smirked Draco. “Two days ago, we would have hexed each other to death.”

“And now we are just sitting here as if we were normal people…”

Harry and Draco looked at each other and held their gaze. Silver and emerald melted together. How strange indeed… How odd that they may get along and not fight. How peculiar that they may speak and not argue. How ridiculous that they had never been able to do so before then. Although, this moment of clarity could never last forever, and the disruption was most unwelcome.

“Harry!” The two boys turned to the castle to see Hermione and Ron coming towards them. They glanced at each other before Harry nodded a good-bye. “See you tomorrow,” he whispered, and went off after his friends. Hermione was glaring daggers at Harry and Ron was gawking at Draco. ‘Great… this should be fun…’ the two accused boys thought to themselves. The girl grabbed Harry’s arm and the Gryffindor Trio headed back inside the castle and to the Common Room, leaving Draco sitting on the boulder wondering just what he was trying to do.

TBC…

AN/ Yay! Hope that this one was a little better than the last! Anywho, I will not have access to a computer until mid to late July. Think you guys can live without an update for that long? Trust me, I would rather post sooner, but I’ll be in Europe and away from my home for quite some time. Well, leave me a review about what you all thought about this chappie and how these confrontations made you feel. I love hearing what you guys were thinking while you were reading. Well, TTFN, ne? Ta Ta For Now! (Just take out all of the spaces from the below link to go watch all of the Harry/Draco music videos that I have found. Currently, there are 34, but I’m still looking! -)

http // www. youtube. com/ view play list?p E56C8536C1C3E92E