Coveting Thy Enemy

Chapter 4: Silence

That weekend was a living hell for Harry. It began Saturday morning at breakfast. The Gryffindors could not miss the point posting on the wall. They had lost two hundred points, and since they really didn't have two hundred points this early in the year, the points posted were in the negative range. They knew of course that this had to do with Ron and Harry's fight with Malfoy and the entire house, including Malfoy, decided that the two needed taught a lesson. They used the old Gryffindor punishment of silence. Even Ginny was ignoring them, and Ron had been defending her! It was painful for Harry and Ron to be ignored by their mates, but they knew they would eventually get over it. It was torture, however, to be on the outs with Hermione. Silence was not Hermione's cup of tea.

"What exactly were you two thinking? Getting into a fight with Malfoy of all people? You two have had six years of experience with Malfoy; I thought you had learned by now that ignoring him was the best answer!" She was seething. She turned to Ron, "And you, you threw the first punch! I can't believe you, Ronald Weasely, you're lucky all you received was a broken nose because if I had been there . . . I would have done something far worse!"

"Ah, Herm, I uh . . ." was all Ron could sputter. He looked at her as pitifully as he could, which wasn't hard since his nose still hadn't full healed and was still a little puffy.

"Don't you use your pet name with me, Ron, " Hermione spat, "It won't work. I think I have to do quite a bit of thinking about why I'm your girlfriend!" With that, she stormed out of the Great Hall. She hadn't even touched her breakfast.

"Don't worry Ron, she'll get over it. She always gets over it when we get in trouble," Harry said as soothingly as he could.

Ron shrugged, "Yea, I know that. It's just I feel really bad. I mean, she is Head Girl and all, and our actions reflect really badly on her." With that, he placed his chin in his hands and began nervously tracing patterns in his oatmeal with his spoon.

Harry sighed, too bad the Gryffindors hadn't taken the point reduction as well as the Slytherins. He looked over at the Slytherin table. Draco Malfoy seemed to be back and better than ever with his house. He had lost a whopping three hundred points for his house, but they seemed to think the torture Harry and Ron were receiving were well worth it. Draco was receiving quite a bit of attention from his mates. Blaise Zambini couldn't seem to stop slapping him on the back and saying, "Well done, mate!" Crabbe and Goyle were back at Draco's side, and Pansy Parkinson was practically sitting on his lap. Even though Harry was upset, he couldn't help but to feel a tiny twinge of happiness for Malfoy. After all, they had treated him pretty rottenly before. Not only that, there was always the Dark Mark thing to reconsider. Harry mentally shook himself. I will not feel kindly toward Draco Malfoy. He may not be a Death Eater, but he is still a slimy bastard! He then quickly turned to Ron and attempted to draw him out of his self-pity.

Draco couldn't help but to be happy. No, happy wasn't the word, he was ecstatic! The last week had been hell for him. He had suffered not only silence from his housemates, but plenty of hexes and tricks as well. He unconsciously shivered. The paste in his hair gel had been the worst. It had taken him four showers and a lot of rough combing to get that mess out.

He looked over to the Gryffindor table. He knew he should feel pleased about Harry and Ron's predicament, but he knew how it felt to be the outsider in your house. Weasely seemed to be taking it the worst, especially after the deafening chastisement Hermione had given him earlier. Boy when Granger was mad, the whole world had to know it!

He assessed the two Gryffindors, who were busy trying to reassure one another. Weasely had grown quite a bit, but only in height. His face still had that little boy look that it had had the year before. Harry, however, was another story. He had gotten broader and taller. His face had a mark of maturity about it now and so did his eyes. His eyes were his most remarkable feature. They were the color of brightly polished jade and they seemed to glow as if lit from inside. Even Potters hair had changed. Sure it was still messy, but the messiness added to his attractiveness. Draco slapped himself in the head with the heel of his hand. What was he doing thinking of Potter's attractiveness? Maybe he needed to get laid. Yea, that was it. He would have to take Pansy up on her offer after dinner.

The rest of the weekend went very much the same for Harry. On Monday, Harry woke up in a very bad mood. Not only were his housemates still not talking to him, but he also had Potions after breakfast. He and Ron tried to drag out breakfast as long as they could. They knew there would be hell to pay with Professor Snape. Snape of course favored the Slytherins, so he would probably find a way to blame him and Ron for the Slytherin reduction of points.

Harry and Ron slid into their seats just as Professor Snape entered the room. Snape scanned the crowd until his eyes lit on them. "Ah, Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy. I must admit I'm surprised to see you two had enough guts to show up today." He smirked at them, as if daring them to say a word. They didn't. "After the commotion you caused last Friday, I was sure you two would be cowering away somewhere with your tails between your legs. It's not everyday you manage to lose five hundred points."

Ron and Harry looked at each other. Yes, Snape did blame them. They refused to say a word though. They had learned along time ago that it was better to just take Snape's abuse without objection. The Slytherins in the class seemed to think Snape's comments were rather funny, however. The room was full of their sniggers.

The only Slytherin not sniggering was Malfoy. Snape had been saying all of this with his hand on Malfoy's shoulder. Harry wondered what was up with Snape and Malfoy. During the last six years Malfoy had been Snape's pet. Malfoy had never missed an opportunity to brownnose his favorite teacher. This year, however, Malfoy had been rather quiet in Potions. Although Snape had still treated him with the same favoritism as any other year, Harry had noticed Malfoy's glares whenever Snape spoke to him. What did Snape do to Malfoy? Harry wondered.

The Potions class went much the same as it always did. The only exception was Malfoy's silence and the fact that Snape seemed to verbally abuse Harry and Ron more than ever. Upon leaving the class Harry sighed, one obstacle down, one more to go. He had detention with Malfoy after dinner.