Unlikely Beginnings

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Chapter Nine

Draco had gone straight to the Slytherin common room after Potions, having
ten minutes of free time before he had to be in Care of Magical Creatures.
He\'d gone to his room, and had gotten his Quidditch robes together, along
with his Nimbus 2001, and had set them all in place for tomorrow. They had
practice right after lunch, and afternoon classes were canceled for the day,
due to the first Quidditch match of sea season.

There were posters noting the event all over the school, and when Draco left
his room, he went to the Slytherin notice board to look at one. He knew he
wasn\'t the best player in the world, but he enjoyed the game and that was
what counted. He scoffed quietly to himself; he\'d never thought he\'d hear
himself think something like that before. He really hoped the recent
proximity to Potter wasn\'t wearing off some of the Gryffindor\'s morals on
him.

Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff, first weekend in November, classes canceled, what
could go wrong? Slytherin was sure to win, and have the rest of the
afternoon off to do whatever they wanted. Just as Draco was about to head
for the door, it swungn, rn, revealing their Head of House. Snape burst
through the large stone door with a medium sized box in his arms, which
strangely had a few vines twisting out from the corners it\'d obviously
broken through.

\"I need a volunteer,\" he called out. Several people came forward, eyeing the
box curiously, but not wanting to get too close. \"This box needs to go to
Professor Sprout, and as I\'m not in the right mood to deal with her, I\'m
leaving it up to one of you.\" No one showed any interest in the task, and
Snape sighed. \"Ten points if someone takes it,\" he added.

Crabbe pushed his way past a Fourth Year, \"I\'ll take it.\"

Snape raised his eyebrow, fighting the urge to ask to see the large boy\'s
hands. \"As much as I\'d really not let you do this for me based on common
logic, I\'d disallow it for your safety as well. I doubt any kind or color of
frosting would react well with this particular sentient plant. Any others?\"
Snape glanced around, and caught sight of Draco, who had sat down to wait
until Snape had left before he went up to the main floor. Draco had one
eyebrow slightly raised, and Snape thought it was due to the fact that he\'d
offered back the points he\'d taken away for Draco\'s laughter earlier.

A few students had followed his gaze over to Draco, who had swung a leg over
the edge of the chair he was sitting in, staring right back at Snape.
\"Alright,\" Snape growled, drawing their attention again. \"Take it,\" Snape
said, thrusting the box into Crabbe\'s arms, and dismissed them all from his
immediate presence. As he made his way back up the steps to the door, he
almost looked back over his shoulder, but he knew full well that Draco was
still watching him. Draco knew he knew something.

The only class held in thngeongeons was Potions, and very rarely did
Prefects roam the dark corridors of the basement. The only other time
students were down there was for an occasional detention with Snape, or if
Filch had a particularly bad problem with fungi in a damp room, used for
nothing else but storage. If it wasn\'t a personal slight against Snape,
Potter must have had some other reason to be in the dungeons. Perhaps he was
looking for someone, or waiting for them.

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After Potions, Harry had made his way to the kitchens and got himself a
snack. He had to politely decline the feast that Dobby kept offering, as he
had to get to class, and didn\'t think he could eat that much, let alone do
it in ten minutes. Hermione hadn\'t even wanted to let him out of her sight,
but she relented, and she and Ron had gone out to meet Hagrid before class
started. Harry was on his way there now, across the Hogwarts grounds,
towards Hagrid\'s hut.

He might not actually have liked Care of Magical Creatures all that much,
since Hagrid tended to have wild creatures about, but he enjoyed spending
time with his friend. Since this was a double class, they\'d be joined by the
Slytherins again. Maybe Harry would be able to sit near Malfoy or something,
maybe talk to him. He had no idea what he\'d ever say to the other boy, but
he just didn\'t like the fact that he couldn\'t at all without a teacher
ng ang about, or others around who might think their speaking while
remaining civil was a sign of impending apocalypse.

Ron looked up from trying to calm his Monster Book of Monsters into
submission, and saw Harry almost to where they were waiting, just outside of
Hagrid\'s. After Hagrid had told them how to train the books, most of them
still rebelled, and several people usually conveniently forgot their books
when their teacher asked. More like they were still trapped in a cage of
some sort. He retied his Gryffindor colored scarf around the book again, not
having much luck, and dropped it onto the table in front of them. \"Oi,
Harry\'s here,\" he said, and nudged Hermione in the side.

\"Ow, Ron,\" Hermione said, rubbing slightly at her injured ribs. \"Don\'t poke
so hard,\" she complained, before ducking her head slightly, realizing what
she\'d said. She looked in the direction Ron was pointing in and most other
unnecessary thoughts were pushed to the side for the moment when she saw
Harry. Hermione waved at him as he walked over, but before he got there, she
leaned to whisper to Ron. \"Did he tell you what was up with him in Potions?
He really was acting a bit odd.\"

Ron shook his head, turning his head to look at Hermione. \"Nope,\" he
shrugged. \"I tried asking during class, but Snape kept watching us, and I
definitely didn\'t want a detention with that slimy git.\" Harry was just
getting to their table, not having heard their conversation. He had been
pretty much enveloped in his own thoughts to do anything but stare at them
as he approached.

\"Hi,\" Harry said, setting his own book down on the table. Ron\'s gave a
little type of jiggle, trying to get out of the scarf and to sniff the other
book, or something. With those books, you never knew. Before Hermione could
ask Harry anything, Hagrid came out of his hut with a large crate. It seemed
to have some type of mud and twigs and maybe even water in it, and all kinds
of things came sloshing out of the cracks as he walked to their table.

\"Dugbogs,\" he leaned down to them and said, adding a wink. He grinned and
turned away, and they really hoped Dugbogs weren\'t anything dangerous. More
students were arriving and eyeing the muddy crate suspiciously.

\"Oh, please tell me we\'re not studying earthworms,\" drawled a voice from
behind thend Hnd Harry\'s heart started a faster pace, and he tried hard not
to twist his head around to see the owner of that voice.

\"Alrigh\' now,\" Hagrid boomed as he came back to them and started poking
around in the crate. \"This \'ere,\" he said, holding up what looked like a
stick, \"is a Dugbog.\"

\"It\'s a hunk of dead wood,\" Malfoy called out, having sat himself on top of
a table and reclining backwards on it. Harry didn\'t even hear Hagrid\'s
response, as his attention was drawn to Draco\'s body. He was taller than
Harry, but not by too much, Har Harry thought he might be a bit more
muscular, or else they were even on that front. He\'d never seen Draco\'s bare
chest, had he? He frowned as he found he could barely picture the first time
that Draco had taken him on the grounds.

He looked around himself, and realized that they hadn\'t even been far from
where the tables were set up. It hadn\'t even been that long ago, either.
Hermione\'s voice broke through his own thoughts, her \'answer my damn
question or I\'ll never shut up\' tone always seemed to do that. \"Have they
ever killed anyone?\" she asked. She\'d had to stop asking more politely,
since Hagrid never gave her a good answer to \'Are they dangerous?\' Hagrid
had a very different perception of what was dangerous or not.

Hagrid look affronted at the question, but answered it none the less. \"Well,
no. Bu\' they \'ave bin known ter gnaw off a finger er two, bu\' tha\'s only
when they\'re very, very aggravated.\" He nodded his huge head, looking quite
serious about it. Draco had gotten off the table when some of their
classmates set their struggling books onto it, and Ron looked a little put
down that he wasn\'t the only one to think of tying their scarf around the
Monster Book of Monsters. At least he\'d had a good excuse to give Hagrid
when he saw that the book was apparently tied shut. \'Honestly, I thought it
was a bit cold, Hagrid.\'

Harry\'s attention was caught now, as Hagrid began to show them the hidden
limbs of the Dugbogs. Finned paws and very sharp teeth which one attempted
to bite into Hagrid\'s glove, but not getting much anywhere with that. It
looked angry, and Hagrid put it back into the muddy crate, and it crawled up
into a lump of grass that had been dug up. Hagrid had gone out to the small
marsh in the Forbidden Forest, where these particular Dugbogs had come from.

He learned that the dead wood resembling creatures did more injury to
humans, their ankles as they passed, as Hagrid continued, and he gave a
small apologetic glance at Hermione when he mentioned that. A few had even
slithered their way onto the grounds a few years back, when Professor Sprout
had pots full of Mandrakes, the Dugbogs favorite food.

At the end of the lesson, Hagrid summed up his talk on Dugbogs with saying
that any competent wizard should be able to cope with them, but it was
preferable to wear gloves and tall boots if you\'re ever near a marsh. Harry
had missed large parts of conversation in the class, as he was still
sneaking looks at Draco. Once, he\'d even caught Draco\'s eyes, and smiled
slightly. The blond had looked a bit alarmed, but Harry thought it must have
been because it was a bit blatant the way he\'d done it.

When they heard the bell ring from the castle, they started to gather their
books from the tables, and not even Hermione wanted to stay and risk getting
a finger chomped on to help Hagrid with the Dugbogs. They waved goodbye and
headed back to the castle. Harry had lingered behind his friends a bit, and
they were already into a conversation with each other about something or
other, but Harry didn\'t feel like talking. He\'d listen, but he didn\'t want
to take part.

Draco was a little way ahead of him, too, and when they all got to the steps
of the castle, turned to his side letting a group of Slytherin girls go in
front of him and Goyle. Harry watched him as he came up the steps, and Draco
looked right back at him. Harry passed him, and carried on into the castle,
but Draco was still thinking about him. He\'d looked happier now than he had
been in the past few days, and he was a bit unsure of how he\'d actually
deduced that. The only time he spent much time thinking about Potter was
when he had his cock stuck up the Gryffindor\'s arse.

He went in the door himself, Crabbe and Goyle following behind at a small
distance. Harry was going in the opposite direction as he was about to, and
he felt a small pull to follow, but held back on that urge. He did have work
to do, and he had no idea where Potter was off to; he could be going six
floors away for all Draco knew. What he did know, though, was that he
couldn\'t get the image of Harry smiling at him out of his head.

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