Chapter 13: News

Hargrid's bulky frame towered over the students, Draco silver eyes watched the half giant wearily. He didn't want to be here or anywhere near this atrocity and whatever monster he has kept behind the paddock. Knowing the half-giant it would probably be something with a lot of teeth and 'scuttley'. 

The dominant Origo sighed and glanced at the his mate, Harry was only standing a few meters away with Hermione and Ron close by his side. He didn't think however that even this lesson would turn out well, not with how everything had gone so far. Almost killing the Werewolf (no matter how much he wished to have killed him), blowing up Snape's classroom, and now being here with the possibility of being surrounded by more threats.

His mind was working on overdrive, with every sound he heard, every excited murmur from the other students, chirping birds, or rustling leaves he would twitch in agitation. Everything posed a danger from him, this was a bad idea. Being out here with a pregnant was not a good idea, he should have fought harder with Harry about taking this stupid subject. Made him understand how badly being out here, in the open, was effecting his senses. 

"Al'ight then class, I've got somethin' special for yer all today!" Hargrid's voice boomed, shushing all the students. Everyone was focused at the half-giant now, hanging onto every word he said.

Draco couldn't help but tense up, although he couldn't scent or feel anything dangerous from past experiences with this nutcase he couldn't help but feel worried. And Harry was so close to front, stupid boy didn't he realise how dangerous this could be. Draco wanted to do nothing more then move towards the front and force Harry behind himself, but he restrained himself. 

Acting like that would only draw even more attention.

"So ar'ya all ready?" Hargrid asked. No he wasn't ready, not even a slight bit.

Hargrid large hand came to rest on the paddock door, he unlatched the flimsy lock and slowly pried it open with a creak. Draco watched it all happen in slow motion, a clump of trepidation growing in his throat. 

He did not want to know what was inside. Chapter 13: It hasn't ended

The lesson with Remus dragged on for what seemed forever; Harry's green eyes glanced around the room with barely suppressed excitement. He hadn't seen the older man in ages and did not want to waste time in lessons while he could be having a nice chat over hot chocolate with his father figure. A smile made its way to his lips when he saw Remus nodding at him, but stopped when he heard the whispered snarl from beside him. A sigh left the submissive's body, and he tried to nonchalantly glance at the ill-tempered blonde beside him.

Draco was trying to subdue his instincts, but whenever it seemed like Harry was paying more attention to the older man than he should the dominant would growl or snarl. Well it was only loud enough for him to hear, yet just enough to keep Harry from being too 'eager'. It told him how agitated Draco was; he understood that Draco didn't particularly like Remus. Even Harry's own instincts were telling him to be weary of the werewolf.

But this was Mooney of all people, one of his father's best friends, a father figure to him, role model and friend. Remus wouldn't hurt him. So he ignored his baser instincts (sadly Draco didn't), and was trying everything subtly possible to deter him. Not that it really worked.

Now while Harry was quite bored and Draco was just… angry, the rest of class was captured under Remus' spell. His words danced through their minds as he explained all the amazing spells, the creatures they would be learning about. Even the possibility of bringing in another boggart for the students to train on. But for now he gave them all a simple assignment to do: a review of the spells they had learned in their previous years so that Remus could assess how well the students were doing and what they could have missed out.

The bell rang indicating that the lesson had ended, but Harry stayed behind, and by default Draco waited with him. There was no way he was going to leave Harry alone with the mutt.

"So how are you two doing so far?" Remus asked, his voice filled with genuine concern.

"Er…" he mumbled, glancing between the nonchalant blonde and his own stomach. "We are adjusting." Well, what else could he say? As scary and confusing as this whole situation was, he felt that everything was going to be alright.

"That's good to hear," the sandy-haired man replied, his weak frame sinking into the chair with relief. "I was so worried when I heard, this doesn't happen often…"

Draco snorted in the background, muttering something under his breath. Harry just shot him a heated glare. Remus watched the two teens interact and couldn't help but smile. Even though Draco was trying to act distant and aloof, he would glance in Harry's direction every few seconds as if to check that the raven-haired boy was still there. Same with Harry and his shy glances. There was no real hostility between them, not at all like it would have been the year before.

Remus had drifted off into his own thoughts when he suddenly remembered something very important. "Harry, I meant to tell you this earlier, but Sirius will be coming back soon," he said excitedly.

"Really?" he asked, green eyes wide and full of hope. After finding out about Wormtail's betrayal, Dumbledore had instantly petitioned for the clearance of Sirius' name. His name had been cleared before the summer, but Sirius had gone so far in hiding that no one knew how to contact him, and to now hear he was coming back…

Remus nodded. "Yes, I heard he will be here in a few days; he asked about you."

Harry froze. "Does he know?" he asked, referring to his recently discovered creature side.

"No," the older man replied, shaking his head. "I thought it would be best if you talked privately to him about it."

Harry nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that would be best…"

Draco, seeing that they'd reached a sore point for his mate, decided it was time to divert attention. "We should get moving or we'll be late," he interjected.

"Oh yeah," Harry looked up, startled. Remus handed them both an excuse note and they said their goodbyes (well Harry did, Draco just grunted) and left for their next lesson, Potions.

Oh, this should be interesting.

As they exited the classroom Draco dragged Harry to the nearby boy's toilets and pulled him into a fierce hug.

"God I hate this," Draco murmured into Harry's ear.

Harry chuckled and hugged him back. "Nothing's ever easy."

"Tch… you smell of werewolf."

"He won't do anything," the submissive cooed in reassurance.

Draco grunted again, but didn't say anything else and then reluctantly pulled away from the smaller teen; he pulled out his wand and aimed it at Harry, flicking it so that a light blue glow surrounded him. It was a bubble charm that would stop potion fumes from being inhaled. With their next lesson precautions had to be taken.

"Ready to go?" the blonde asked.

"Yeah," he nodded back. "You go first."

Draco nodded back. He opened the door, and peaked out to make sure that no one was around before striding out in all his aristocratic pride. Then Harry followed in a more 'normal' manner. The blonde acted as irritated as possible when he entered the classroom, as if being around Harry was a lifetime of torture. Snape hardly paid them any attention when they came in late, rather took their notes and ordered them with a stern tone to get their seats. Luckily their seats were right next to each other so there would be no chance of their bond being stretched.

"Alright then, I must confess I was surprised at the amount of students that actually managed to attend my class. It seems like you aren't all as idiotic as you all make out to be. It does not however mean that things will be any easier for you; from now on you will all be pushed even further, broken to your limits so that you can call yourself a Potions Master," he finished his speech with a billow of his robes.

"Today you're going to attempt to make a simple Swelling Potion with the person sitting next to you; the instructions are on the board. You may begin," he waved at the blackboard, and the instructions appeared in chalk.

Draco instantly stood up and went to the nearby cabinets to take the necessary ingredients while Harry got the cauldron and started up a fire. Then he went with Hermione to another set of cupboards where the cutting boards and knives were held. He carefully brought them back, knowing full well that Draco was keeping a watchful eye over him. But he repressed the urge to stick his tongue out at the blonde as he put the equipment down on the work table.

They soon got to work on their potion, with only minimal communication; some snide remarks from the blonde, nothing too cutting, yet they were working quite efficiently. The potion was almost done, turning dark green as Draco stirred it counter clockwise for three minutes.

"Add the musc scales now, Potter," he instructed Harry. Instantly the colour changed to the aquamarine, and the potion started to froth. "Get the cloud ear mushrooms ready!"

Harry did so, and when Draco gave the signal he dropped the cut mushrooms into the cauldron. They waited; suddenly smoke exploded from the cauldron and with a 'pop' it disappeared, leaving the potion to simmer down with a sickly yellow tinge.

They were done, and somehow without any mishaps. Carefully Draco picked up an enchanted test tube, filling it with the potion before corking it, ready to hand it over to Snape. For now they didn't have anything else to do, so Harry decided to start cleaning up their work station. He was putting away the cutting board when one of the cauldrons nearby exploded with smoke, indicating that it was finished. Just like Draco they corked their formula and were walking towards Snape's table; the boy didn't notice the bag on the floor, tripping over it and stumbling into Harry.

From there everything happened quickly; the test tube in his hands dropped, Harry saw it fall, his green eyes wide with fear. He grabbed the other student and pulled him away before the tube shatter on the hard stone floor. For a second nothing happened, and then he noticed how the floor seemed to bloat and bubble, slowly swelling like a puss-filled pimple.

"It's gonna burst!" someone in the background shouted. It was enough to startle Harry out of his reverie; he scrambled up, rushing with the other students away from the bloating floor. Someone tugged at his arm; he looked up and saw that it was Draco, who had grabbed him and was now dragging him out of the potions lab.

'BOOM'

That didn't go at all how it was planned.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Hagrid's bulky frame towered over the students as Draco's silver eyes watched the half-giant wearily. He didn't want to be here or anywhere near this atrocity and whatever monster he has kept in the paddock. Knowing the half-giant it would probably be something with a lot of teeth and 'wriggly'.

The dominant Origo sighed and glanced at his mate; Harry was only standing a few meters away with Hermione and Ron close by his side. He didn't think however that even this lesson would turn out well, not with how everything had gone so far. Almost killing the werewolf (no matter how much Harry tried to reassure him, he still wished to have killed him), blowing up Snape's classroom, and now being here with the possibility of being surrounded by more threats.

His mind was working on overdrive; with every sound he heard, every excited murmur from the other students, chirping birds, or rustling leaves he would twitch in agitation. Everything posed a danger for him, this was a bad idea. Being out here with a pregnant mate was the worst idea, he should have fought harder with Harry about taking this stupid subject. Made him understand how badly being out here, in the open, was affecting his instincts.

"Al'ight then class, I've got somethin' special for yer all today!" Hagrid's voice boomed, shushing all the students. Everyone was focused at the half-giant now, hanging onto every word he said.

"I though' that it would be a good idea for yer first day to tackle somethin' easy."

Draco couldn't help but tense up, although he couldn't scent or feel anything dangerous, from past experiences with this nutcase he couldn't help but feel worried. And Harry was so close to the front. Stupid boy, didn't he realize how dangerous this could be? Draco wanted to do nothing more than move towards the front and force Harry behind himself, but he restrained himself.

Acting like that would only draw even more attention.

"So ar'ya all ready?" Hagrid asked.

No he wasn't ready, not even a slight bit.

Hagrid's large hand came to rest on the paddock door; he unlatched the flimsy lock and slowly pried it open with a creak. Draco watched it all happen in slow motion, a clump of trepidation growing in his throat.

He did not want to know what was inside.

But his mental pleading wasn't heard and the door swung wide open; Draco tensed up, closed his eyes and waited…

"Pip?"

"AWWW!"

'Aww?' No terror-filled screaming? No screeches, or growls, just an 'aww'? If he hadn't been confused before, he was now.

Hesitantly Draco opened his mercury eyes, expecting to see some sort of carnage, but instead he was met by the oddest sight ever.

That 'pip' sound came from a little fluff ball about the size of Draco's palm, light brown in colour and, with as far as he could tell, no eyes. Although they could just have been hidden under all that fur, and no recognizable mouth, then again it must have made that 'pip' sound somehow. The fluff ball looked as if it was sniffing around on the grass, hesitantly squirming out of the open gate. Others soon came after it, furry creatures in different colours, sniffing the air to attain their surroundings.

"Meet the Pygme Pipton, the Serbian cousin of ya' well known Puffskein," came Hagrid's bemused voice.

The girls were already in love with the furballs, but Draco was still weary; as cute as these 'Piption' things looked there had to be something dangerous about them, but no, so far they were just harmless puff balls. He watched as the little brown one made its way to Harry, curiously sniffing at his feet. A wide grin spread on Harry's face; his green eyes literally lit up as he bent down to pick up the creature.

"Ah very good 'Arry, you've got the trust of that little 'un, means that you'll hav' to take care of it with yer partner."

"Take care of it with a partner, what you mean?" Harry asked looking confused, so did everyone else.

"I'm settin' you all an assignment, an' that will be to adopt one of the 'Pygmy Piptons' and take care of 'em with an assigned partner. You'll have to find out what the critters like to eat, play with 'em, an' simply give 'em a nice home!"

Well this was different, they were actually going to be learning how to take care of a creature… without the possibility of getting mauled. Although Hagrid did say 'assigned' partners, so there was still a chance of things going belly up. Hopefully he would be with Draco… wow that would be one thing he would have never said before.

"Yer partners have already been chosen," came Hagrid's cheerful voice as he pulled out a piece of parchment paper, and started reading out names.

"'Mione an' Ron, Seamus an' Midgen, Sally an' Katie…" the list of names continued, and pairs went off collecting little Pygmy Piptons of their own, and then finally Harry's name was called.

"Harry an' Draco, now I want you's two to behave and do this properly. It will go down in your final grade!"

"Of all the damn things, I'm stuck with Potter…" Draco muttered as he walked towards Harry. If the dark-haired teen didn't know this was an act he would have been hurt.

"That's all fo'today, next time I sees ya'll you'll have to hav' named an' taken good care of them."

The students nodded, already falling in love with their fluff balls. Draco just sneered with disgust at the display. "C'mon Potter, we got research to do."

Harry sighed and followed.