Draco Malfoy and The Prisoner of Azkaban

Draco stayed in his dorm trying to recover from his injury. Without any real medication the burning pain had turned to an aching numb by Thursday morning. Draco didn't want to miss double potions, when the Slytherins and Gryffindors would be paired for their practical cauldron lessons. He didn't want to admit that the other reason he so desperately wanted to go to class was to see Harry.

Sirius had taken to sneaking out of Draco's dorm room while the boy was in class, but after Malfoy's injury the child had been allowed a few days of rest. He paced in the small room, sniffing at the crack under the door. Gryffindor towers always had huge windows to look out from, but as the Slytherins were tucked underneath the lake, there weren't many good views to the outside world.

Draco yawned, cursing as he stretched his arm too far. He looked over to see his dog sitting by the door. "I guess you want to go out, don't you boy?"

Sirius barked happily, bringing the boy's robes over to his bed, wagging his tail in excitement.

"Alright, alright." Draco painstakingly put his robes on, fastening a sling over them to rest his arm into.

He took the dog out, pleading with the big black beast to go quickly, as he was already late. Sirius huffed, whining at Draco. With a sigh Draco coaxed, "When I get out of potions I will take you out for a proper walk, how about that?"

Draco locked his dog back into his dorm room, rushing towards the potions classroom, finding he was later then he'd expected. Professor Snape looked up disapprovingly, but motioned for him to sit with the other Slytherins. Scanning the room his eyes found Harry's, but before he could really drink in the green orbs, a shrill voice invaded his ears.

"How is it, Draco?" simpered Pansy Parkinson. "Does it hurt much?"

"Yeah," said Draco said nonchalantly. Draco looked to see Harry was watching him, he grinned.

"Settle down, settle down," said Professor Snape idly.

Harry and Ron scowled at each other, looking not too pleased Draco had gotten off with less than a warning. They were making a new potion today, a Shrinking Solution, and soon enough they were split into groups. Draco moved towards Harry, expecting to be paired with the Golden boy once again. He dropped his supplies on their table, setting up his cauldron right next to Harry and Ron.

He sat next to Harry, his good arm going in the air. "Sir," Draco called, "sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm —"

"Weasley, cut up Malfoy's roots for him," said Snape without looking up.

Ron went brick red. Draco looked over Harry to the redhead, his grin getting bigger. Oh this was going to be even better.

"There's nothing wrong with your arm," Weasley hissed at Draco.

"Weasley, you heard Professor Snape; cut up these roots." Draco pushed his roots in front of Harry, the Golden boy giving him a sideways glare.

The weasel grabbed his knife forcefully, pulling Draco's roots toward him, and began to chop them roughly, so that they were all different sizes. Draco put his good arm on the table, leaning his head on his palm.

"Professor," Draco said with a smile on his face, "Weasley's mutilating my roots, sir."

Severus sighed and approached their table, he stared down at the roots, then gave Ron an

unpleasant smile from beneath his long black hair. "Change roots with Malfoy, Weasley."

"But, sir —!"

Ron had spent the last quarter of an hour carefully shredding his own roots into exactly equal

pieces.

"Now," said Snape in his most dangerous voice.

Weasley shoved his own beautifully cut roots across the table at Draco, then took up the knife again.

"And, sir, I'll need this shrivelfig skinned," said Draco, eying Ron evilly.

"Potter, you can skin Malfoy's shrivelfig," said Snape, giving Harry the look of loathing he

always reserved just for the Golden boy.

Harry took Malfoy's shrivelfig as Ron began trying to repair the damage to the roots he now had

to use. Draco leaned closer to Harry whispering, "Are you mad at me?"

Harry looked over to Ron, seeing the red-headed boy concentrating so hard that his tongue was peaking between his lips as he measured. He turned to Draco. "No, how could I be mad at you for causing me nothing but headache." He said sarcastically.

Draco looked around, "Come on Harry, what do you want from me?"

Harry skinned the shrivelfig as fast as he could, trying to concentrate on the task instead of Draco. Draco quietly added, "I'm sorry that stupid creature injured me. It's not like I wanted to get hurt."

Harry flung the shrivelfig back towards Draco, his eyes meeting the cold grey ones, not saying a word to the Slytherin.

"Seen your pal Hagrid lately?" Draco asked Harry quietly.

"None of your business," said Ron jerkily, without looking up. Draco looked surprised to find Ron was now interested in their conversation. Harry rolled his eyes, knowing how this would end up.

"I'm afraid he won't be a teacher much longer," Draco said in a tone of mock sorrow. "Father's

not very happy about my injury —"

"Keep talking, Malfoy, and I'll give you a real injury," snarled the weasel.

"– he's complained to the school governors. And to the Ministry of Magic. Father's got a lot of

influence, you know. And a lasting injury like this" — he gave a big sigh— "who knows

if my arm'll ever be the same again?"

"So that's why you're putting it on," said Harry, accidentally beheading a dead caterpillar

because his hand was shaking in anger, "To try to get Hagrid fired." He looked at Draco with such maliciousness, that it actually took the Slytherin back.

"Well," he started to stutter, lowering his voice to a whisper, "partly, Potter. But there are other benefits too. Weasley, slice my caterpillars for me."

Draco slid the creature over to the ginger, continuing to speak with Harry. "Listen, I know you like Hagrid...but come on, he's a terrible teacher."

"So you want him to become homeless, get him kicked out of Hogwarts?" Harry growled.

Draco frowned, "Come on, Harry, he doesn't belong here."

This seemed to set Harry off even more, he clutched his knife angrily.

A few cauldrons away, Neville was in trouble. Neville regularly went to pieces in Potions

lessons; it was his worst subject, and his great fear of Professor Snape made things ten times

worse. His potion, which was supposed to be a bright, acid green, had turned —

"Orange, Longbottom," said Snape, ladling some up and allowing to splash back into the

cauldron, so that everyone could see.

"Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me

say, quite clearly, that only one cat spleen was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?"

They both looked back to see Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears.

"Please, sir," said Hermione, "please, I could help Neville put it right —"

"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," said Snape coldly, and Hermione

went as pink as Neville. "Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this

potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly."

Snape moved away, leaving Neville breathless with fear.

"Help me!" he moaned to Hermione.

"Hey, Harry," said Seamus Finnigan, leaning over to borrow Harry's brass scales, "have you

heard? Daily Prophet this morning — they reckon Sirius Black's been sighted."

"Where?" said Harry and Ron quickly. On the other side of the table, Draco looked up,

listening closely.

"Not too far from here," said Seamus, who looked excited. "It was a Muggle who saw him.

'Course, she didn't really understand. The Muggles think he's just an ordinary criminal, don't

they? So she phoned the telephone hot line. By the time the Ministry of Magic got there, he was

gone."

"Not too far from here…" Ron repeated, looking significantly at Harry. Draco locked eyes with Ron, a sneer coming across the weasel's face. "What, Malfoy? Need something else skinned?"

Draco's eyes fixated on Harry, he leaned over the table, a real smile on his face. "Thinking of trying to catch Black single-handed, Potter?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah, that's right," said Harry.

Draco smiled, "Of course, if it was me, I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be

staying in school like a good boy, I'd be out there looking for him." Draco's eyes looked deeply into Harry's and he could tell the boy understood what he meant. I'd look for him with you.

"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" said Ron roughly.

"Don't you know, Potter?" Draco asked.

"Know what?" Harry asked, and Draco cocked his head.

"Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," he said. "Want to leave it to the Dementors, do you?

But if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself." Did he not know who Sirius Black was?

"What are you talking about?" said Harry a hint of anger in his voice, but at that moment Snape called, "You should have finished adding your ingredients by now; this potion needs to stew before it can be drunk, so clear away while it simmers and then we'll test Longbottom's…"

Crabbe and Goyle laughed openly, watching Neville sweat as he stirred his potion feverishly.

Hermione was muttering instructions to him out of the corner of her mouth, so that Snape

wouldn't see. Harry and Ron packed away their unused ingredients and went to wash their hands

and ladles in the stone basin in the corner.

"What did Malfoy mean?" Harry muttered to Ron as he stuck his hands under the icy jet that

poured from the gargoyle's mouth "Why would I want revenge on Black? He hasn't done

anything to me — yet."

"He's making it up," said Ron savagely. "He's trying to make you do something stupid…"

The end of the lesson in sight, Snape strode over to Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron.

"Everyone gather 'round," said Snape, his black eyes glittering, "and watch what happens to

Longbottom's toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a

tadpole. If, as I don't doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned."

The Gryffindors watched fearfully. The Slytherins looked excited. Snape picked up Trevor the

toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into Neville's potion, which was now green. He

trickled a few drops down Trevor's throat.

There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there was a small pop, and

Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape's palm.

The Gryffindors burst into applause. Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket

of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.

"Five points from Gryffindor," said Snape, which wiped the smiles from every face. "I told you

not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed."

Draco quickly wrote a note, a time, a location, and the words 'I know who Sirius Black is' on it. He walked close to Harry, sliding the note into his palm as he brushed past them, walking between Crabbe and Goyle. He smirked at Harry and disappeared.

As promised once potions was over Draco released Sirius from his new prison. Once outside Sirius ran across the grass, bouncing across the fields while Draco took a seat on one of the stone benches.

A cry from the sky sounded as Draco's hawk-owl, Rancor, swooped down, landing on the blond's shoulder. Not far away the white owl that belonged to Harry chirped from her perch in a nearby tree. Rancor called to her, settling himself against Draco, fluffing his feathers.

Sirius's nose caught a light scent, it was faint, but it called to him. He padded across the lawn, running past the shouting Draco towards the school. He followed the scent to a small window on the ground, it was the teacher's lounge.

Inside Remus Lupin was teaching Gryffindor students, completely focused on his class. Sirius laid close to the ground, his nose pushing against the glass. Not much longer a hand touched his back, "Blackie? What are you looking at?"

Draco bent down, looking into the window to see Harry, " You watching the class?"

The dog wagged his tail a few times, but continued starring at the werewolf. Draco sat next to the dog, looking in on the class, his hand soothing the dog's back. Sirius's mind drifted to the first time he had met the professor.

Sirius had just been placed in Gryffindor, his line had always been Slytherin's, but somehow the sorting hat had put him into the wrong house. When he slumped into a seat on the Gryffindor table he found the cheering and excited housemates to be nothing but hassle. The seats beside him stayed empty until a small brown haired boy came up to him, he trembled slightly as he put out his hand, "I'm Remus, what's your name?"

Sirius looked up under his dark hair, glaring at the boy. "Sirius Black."

His hand stayed in the air, waiting to be shook, but Sirius ignored it. Instead Remus reached down and grabbed Sirius's hand, shaking it. "Nice to meet you. I hope we become good friends, Sirius."

Sirius had been taken back by the boy's persistence, and although he shook with nervousness he had a streak of bravery. "I'm sure we will be."

The only thing that had kept him sane in Azkaban was his memories of Remus, but seeing him only a few feet away was killing him. If he could just explain, if he could just touch Remus, just kiss him, but doing nothing was more torture then any dementor could do.

Draco pulled on Sirius's collar, coaxing the dog to come back with him towards the dorms.