Harry Potter & the Slytherin Rivals of Hogwarts

Chapter 3: Odd Alliance

The Hogwarts Express had been at a standstill for the past twenty minutes, and Draco Malfoy was close to losing his head if he had to endure... this... any longer.

The small compartment that held two claustrophobic Gryffindors and three bored (and one closeted claustrophobic) Slytherins was quickly becoming a breeding ground for one of Draco's most loathed pet peeves.

Drip!

Oh, that was it! He couldn't take it anymore!

"Will you do something about that, Potty? It's disgusting!" Malfoy snapped out of nowhere. Everyone glanced his way.

Harry blinked a bit before he realized what it was that was peeving Malfoy off (aside from his existence, that is).

"Sorry if I've offended your delicate sensibilities, Malfoy, but I don't happen to know any spells that get rid of body sweat," the Gryffindoodle sniped back before nodding in thanks to the Weaslette when she aimed a mini breeze his way.

Snickers touched the blond Slytherin's ears from beside him. "Aww, does Potter leaking man juice unsettle you, Dracooo?" Blaise poked fun at his friend, not much better off in the small, humid compartment than that of the green-eyed Seeker.

Draco's eyes narrowed. Betrayed. By his own comrades no less.

"I'm going to peel the skin from your ugly hide, Zabini!" Draco growled, a whine still constant in the back of his throat. Of all the things to put up with before the Entrance Ceremony, THIS had never even managed to make it into Draco's Book of Woes.

Potter apparently found the scene rather amusing because the next moment he, too, was prodding at Draco's barely-there patience. "Geez, Malfoy, if you get this bothered by a little sweat, I'd really hate to know how much sex overwhelms yo-"

"I'll fucking overwhelm YOU, Potter!-..." the grey-eyed Slytherin blinked, his mind catching up. "Bugger!" Draco cursed himself for having fallen into that one, turning a very slight shade of coral as he turned his body to stare out the window in stubborn ignorance.

The guffawing around the compartment continued on for another few minutes before slowing fading back into awkward silence, each occupant caught in their own thoughts of what could have possibly happened further up the train to held up the students THIS far back.

"I wonder what's got the whole lot backed up," Ginny Weasley asked aloud, getting up and trying her best to wiggle the door open but to no avail; the people on the other side shook their heads in shared annoyance. There was just no room for them to move out of the way for those that happened to be stuck in their compartments.

"Give up, there's no point," Malfoy said, looking at no one in particular. A wicked gleam appeared in his eye the next moment as he brought his wand out, pointing it at the glass window he sat next to. "I say we just blow the window out."

"Are you out of your mind, Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed.

Draco merely stared at the sweaty black-haired-mop-head, shrugging. He very well could be, he supposed, what with being stuck in a tiny car like they were, noxious sweat fumes annoyingly abundant. Blaise whispered conspiratorially beside him, sympathizing, "Worth a shot."

The blond snickered.

A sudden jolt rippled down the train, throwing the students within against the train walls and each other.

"Damnit, Potter!" the Slytherin yelled out, pushing himself as far away as possible from the Gryffindor. Ew, ew, ew! He frantically grabbed at his robes that he'd put off to the side, wiping at the moisture on his skin that was definitely NOT his own. "Maybe if you weren't such a brain-damaged scar-face you'd have enough sense to wait until you got OUT of the damn train to put your robes on and not try to suffocate us to death with your excessive skin problems!"

Harry, in return, glared unamused, looking as if he were about to say something in retort, before seeming to simply rethink his actions and take a different course altogether...

...one which, in Draco's mind, was almost as bad as a sweaty Potter.

And that was a robeless, shirtless Potter. Staring at him smugly.

Draco's face surely held the expression of pure and utter horror. That cheeky twat!

"H-Harry!" the Weaslette gasped, blushing, her glance switching from the surprised on lookers stuck outside their cab to that of the Slytherins'.

The reaction from the ginger-haired girl was predictable, as were the ones of the random students stuck in the corridor... But if he'd had a choice in the matter, he'd rather not have seen the excited blush that heated what he could see of Pansy's face in his peripheral vision.

The traitorous bint.

"Damnit, Potter, cover yourself at least! How indecent are you half-bloods anyway!" the Slytherin growled, his own cheeks coloring in embarrassment.

Harry carried on as if he hadn't even heard the blonde's complaint. "Well, Malfoy, looks like it is a lot cooler without that scratchy old thing on. Thanks for the advice." Damn him, but the Gryffindor looked smug at how uncomfortable he was making the nearly irate pureblood.

"I'd hardly call that advice, Potter. Never mind the fact that-" Draco shook his head, cutting himself off and clearing his train of thought. So not the time to get into a heated argument with the idiot of whether he should or should not have clothes on. Ugh.

Instead of instigating yet another fight, Draco chose to instead look out the window again, anywhere but at the stupid oaf sitting half-naked in front of his friends and him.

It was only a few moments later that anyone in the compartment noticed the line outside their door was slowly but surely moving, until finally there was room enough outside and between passing students to open it and slip out.

Draco growled under his breath as he walked down the hall with his friends, glaring mini-Cruciatus curses at the back of Potter's head, a head that was part of a person that still had yet to cover himself to the point of decency.

---


"Oi! Mate! Over here!"

Harry glanced around all the students, finally spotting his friend's waving hand near the back. Making his way over, the Gryffindor smiled.

"Ron!" Harry grinned, finally walking up to an obscenely taller, somehow more muscular version of his best mate that he'd seen three months ago. "Wow, what happened to you? Did you eat a Romanian wrestler when visiting your brother?"

"Shut it, Harry," the ginger-haired male laughed, embracing his friend. "Where's Ginny?" he asked, looking around. Harry turned his head as well.

"Think she went looking for a friend of hers."

"Ah." A moment of silence passed easily enough between the two before, "Uh, Harry? I hate to break it to ya, mate, but... You're half-naked."

The green-eyed Gryffindor blinked before looking down at himself and remembering. He chuckled, "Oh, this. Malfoy was pissing himself because I'd put my robes on in the cab-"

"You shared a cab with Malfoy?" Ron asked surprised. "Bet that was entertaining."

"Mm," Harry murmured, shuffling his clothing around in his hands and slipping it back over his body.

"Aw, 'Clothed Harry' is definitely a sight for the sore eyes 'Naked Harry' gave me- OW!" Ron laughed, dodging his friend's jabs.

"So where's 'mione? I figured she'd have been on the platform by now..." Harry asked, moving his eyes over the crowd.

"Not sure, mate. Haven't actually seen her myself, and the last time I heard from her was in an owl a couple days ago."

"Oh, I see..." Harry trailed off as he turned around, catching sight of the nervous expression his friend had, looking around the platform anxiously himself.

Harry smiled to himself, turning around to hide his amusement.

Ron and Hermione. It was really surprising his two best friends had yet to get together considering all they'd been through, not only with him but with each other. They'd faced death, seen it more than any adolescent ever should, and faced an infamous anomaly to their world that not many teenagers, magical or muggle, would have ever been able to handle. And through it all, they'd had a soul-deep look at the other's soul, an element many friendships, couplings and even marriages weren’t privy to within so short a time of knowing one another, if ever.

So when would they bloody well get over their awkward attraction stage and hook up?

Harry blew a stray piece of hair out of his eyes, sighing as he took a seat on a nearby, though somewhat out of the way, bench while Ron was tackled by some Third Year Quidditch fangirls. He'd take isolation and loneliness over THAT any day!

"Shying away from the limelight, Potter?"

Harry turned his head toward the sudden voice addressing him. And without skipping a beat he replied, "I hear it's good for ones preceding reputation to every once in a while step away from the public eye, let them pine for a bit."

"To ensure your immortality?" the other offered smirking, now coming to stand directly in front of him.

"Exactly."

The two stood in a strange, comfortable silence for a moment.

"What brings you to the inferior side of the platform?" Harry asked his unexpected companion.

"Mm," the other murmured noncommittally, leaning against the bench. "I wish to be knowledgeable in all areas of life, so I thought dumbing myself down for a few moments would give me a better outlook on how the peons live."

"How humble of you," the Gryffindor said dryly.

"Hn, I thought so."

It was an odd acquaintance he'd made during the last part of the war, and after, when they ran into each other every so often. He couldn't quite make heads or tails of this one, she just... showed up randomly, said weird things, humorous, sarcastic things, and sometimes made some thought provoking comments. Much like Luna Lovegood did, but in a... more understandable way. But while Luna was more airy and floaty in her observations (that were rather on the spot usually), this one was... very blunt and sharp.

"So, P-" he started asking.

"Call me by my first name, Potter."

"Um," he stumbled on that one for a moment, before testing it on his tongue, "Pansy..."

"Very good, Potter," she praised him. "You have finally managed to say a word a toddler could accomplish. Congratulations."

Harry gave her a look from his seat. "If I'm calling you by your first name, it's only right that you call me by min-"

"No," she said abruptly, casually. "It would just be weird to call a Gryffindor by their first name."

Said Gryffndor stared. Yes, because that made SO much sense.

"Uh, you realize that made absolutely no se-"

"I'd love to stay and chat, Potter, but our love is sadly forbidden, and I'm afraid I'm getting the stink eye from my House leader. Ciao," Pansy said suddenly, and, just as soon, she left.

He was loathed to admit it, but encounters with her were just exhausting. Harry sighed, his glance moving over toward the direction Pansy was skipping off to.

Stink eye indeed, Harry thought, eyebrows raised in question at the look Malfoy was giving him.

It was a rather miraculous thing, having Malfoy look at him with annoyance and indifference rather than outright contempt and hate. But, Harry supposed, a war would do that to a person, but still...

To go from a git that hated his guts, having been involved with the Death Eaters and attempting to kill Dumbledore, never mind having professed his never ending prejudice of "mudbloods" at one time... And then to go and change to JUST getting annoyed with the Gryffindor for sweating in a compartment they shared, to rolling his eyes at some stupid comment Harry would make or giving him the stink eye when he talked to one of the blonde's best friends?...

Bloody hell.

"Why do Slytherins have to be so exhausting?" he asked himself, sighing.

He smiled the next moment however, a content feeling encompassing his being in the hope that this year would indeed be one he actually full heartedly enjoyed.

If only he looked behind him and saw that the calm he was in now, that what he saw between Malfoy and he, two rivals turned... not-so-much rivals...

...was all really just a prelude to the storm ahead.



~ * ~


Chapter end.

Author's Note: Hope you liked this chapter as well!

Thanks to the following readers for reviewing this story so far (from AFF, FF, and y!G)!!: thrnbrooke, Eros, SP777, LadyFireCrab, Akira Kushrenada Merquize, glitterball, lady foxzy, bsxhpdr, Chocola Emo Shizzle, lanakoh, wuup, evanescenceangel18, bleachTHEsky, bangaxelhxc, CookieNinja, ash365, creepella, Winterimage, Rikku22, zhem1x5, boltlover101.

And then a few replies to some reviews:

SP777: Ahh! Long time no see! Psh, I got pretty far in the original (it was my first fic, have some pity! XD)! And it was wasn't "10 years ago"! T_T It was like... four? o.O I dunno if I can incorporate anything new to the HP fandom with my humor but there'll definitely (hopefully) be parts that are funny and make readers laugh! ^^ We'll see how that goes. Lemme know if you read something that you haven't seen in the HP fandom before! I don't read as much HP fics as I do IY so... I'm a little dry on what's been done and what hasn't. :P

LadyFireCrab: Glad you like! Not sure when Draco's cousin will show up, but I'm going to estimate in about two or so chapters. I'm basically re-writing this chapter by chapter, so when I start Chapter 4 I'll be writing with no technical outline. I just decide what seems best, heh. But he will come soon! Hopefully he (and I) won't disappoint!

Akira Kushrenada Merquize: Thanks so much for your compliment! Ahh, HPCoF is such a great fic! I remember when I first read it way back when! I wrote a side-shot, one-shot or whatever, for it when it first came out, actually maybe two now that I think about it ^^ Anywho! It's good to see some readers that have read the original Rivals and now the rewrite! I'd love your opinion on how you think it's progressing compared to the original! ^^