Chapter Text
Draco sprinkled a handful of lacewing flies into his potion, turning it a vivid green. He stirred clockwise seven times, then counterclockwise once.
“Now let it sit for a moment before you add the boomslang skin and powdered rhinoceros horn.”
All of this information was coming from Fenugreek who had memorised the instructions of several potions for Draco. She had a knack for the class and seemed to enjoy hissing orders into Draco’s ear.
He looked up and locked eyes with Harry, who was watching his exchange with Fenugreek with great interest.
“Keep going,” Fenugreek hissed in his ear.
This wasn’t enough to jolt him back to his potion, though. In his distraction, Draco grabbed the wrong ingredient and poured some in the cauldron. As soon as he set the container down, he could smell the now acrid quality of the smoke permeating the air.
“What are you doing?” Fenugreek hissed, “Get away, quickly!”
The green liquid was starting to boil obnoxiously and more clouds of the smelly mist were alerting other students to Draco’s situation.
“I told you to add the boomslang skin next! The Gilly fruit rind doesn’t go in until the very end!”
An ear splitting bang sounded as the contents of Draco’s cauldron splattered onto the ceiling. A few of the students shrieked in response and Snape marched over in a fury.
“Who’s fault is this?” He demanded.
Silence ensued and Draco hesitated a moment before he raised his hand.
“It’s my fault, sir.”
”Draco?” a look of surprise flashed across his face so quickly that Draco thought he’d imagined it. “Come with me,” Snape led his student into the hall and closed the door. “I’d expect this from Mr. Thomas, but you? If you want to pass your owls, I suggest you pay more attention to what you put in your cauldron.”
”Yes, sir. It won’t happen again.”
”I expect that it won’t. If it does, that’s five points from Slytherin.”
——————
“Dreadful creatures,” the lady in the portrait griped as she swung forward. “Why did you have to pick the Gryffindor common room? Merlin knows I’ve been through enough in the past five years.”
After nearly two months, Draco was used to the woman’s complaints, but Fenugreek still hissed whenever she had to interact with the portrait. Other than a few first and second years, most of the students either avoided the snake or were intrigued by her presence. Fenugreek didn’t seem to care either way unless it affected her negatively. However, she very much did mind when someone outright complained about her.
When Draco entered the common room, he scanned it for a familiar cloud of brown hair. When he had determined Harry wasn’t in the room, he slithered over to Hermione, who was curled around a textbook. She caught a glimpse of his white scales and —without looking up— pointed at the stairs.
”He’s in the dorm.”
Draco slithered away and started up the spiral stairs, Fenugreek a few feet behind him. Soon after they had arrived at Hogwarts, she had expressed distaste for the way he climbed the stairs as a snake so she had spent an entire evening teaching him to go up and down stairs until she was satisfied with his performance.
Harry was amused by the display, even bringing over a few of the younger Gryffindors to join him in cheering the snake on. Draco himself had found great delight every time he caught Harry smiling at him, intentionally playing up the drama of the situation to make his spectators laugh.
“Hey, I was just about to come down,” Harry was sitting in bed with a book in his hand. “I heard Lady Allard yelling. I’m surprised she’s not more used to you by now. It’s been weeks.”
”People never change their ways,” Fenugreek grumbled as she slithered past him to her favourite spot in the dorm, “They take whatever they want and don’t learn from their mistakes.”
”Hey, I learn things all the time!”
“The fact that you make the mistakes you do in the first place proves my point, Dra— Dragon .” Fenugreek finished her ascent to the seat of Harry’s desk chair and stared down at Draco.
“Alright, fine, snakes are wonderful, and infallible. The only perfect creature.”
“So you are an animagus, then?” Harry interrupted.
Draco hesitated. He hadn’t meant to let that particular owl out of the cage yet. He needed to tread cautiously so Harry didn’t discover who he was.
”I suppose you could say that.”
”For how long? I’ve heard it’s really difficult.”
”I did it over summer break. And it is quite. Though, not as strenuous as I expected. It’s more mentally exhausting than anything”
“Do you get to pick the animal you become?” Harry set his book aside and moved to the edge of his bed to listen.
”Yes, although some of the more dangerous or antisocial creatures are more difficult to become. You have to form a bond and take a piece of the animal to use for the spell.”
”Why did you pick a snake? Was Fenugreek already your pet?”
”No, he caught me in the garden one day.”
”I picked her because I wanted to be able to sneak around. There’s sort of an . . . Unwelcome visitor in my home.”
”Is it a stepparent?”
Draco shuddered at the thought of anyone having Voldemort as a step parent.
”Not exactly.”
”I understand how you feel. My family all despises me, and often I just wish I could escape them for a while.” He lay back on his bed and sighed, “I actually ran away the summer before third year.”
”Really?”
”Yeah, I packed my trunk and stayed at the leaky cauldron for a few nights. I didn’t think I’d ever go back, really. They were pretty upset with me.”
“Why?”
”I blew up my aunt.”
”What?” Draco had been expecting something like Harry forgetting a chore or talking back, but blowing someone up was serious.
”Like a balloon, I mean. She floated away. I didn’t make her explode.” Harry laughed and Draco was so relieved he had to join in.
“Too bad,” Fenugreek hissed, “We could have done with one less insufferable human.”
“I’m sure you’re not wrong, Fenugreek,” Harry said once he regained his composure, “But I would never want to be the cause of someone’s death. There’s always someone that cares even if it doesn’t seem possible at first glance.”