You Find It In The Strangest Places

You Find It in the Strangest Places

Chapter 1: House Rivalries

He stormed up the stairs and into his dorm room, face flushed with anger and panting slightly from his quick pace up to Gryffindor Tower. Ron looked up at Harry from where he was lying on his bed reading a Quidditch magazine.

"What's it for this time?" he said.

"What's what for?" Harry replied in an irritated tone scowling at his best friend.

"The detention."

"Who says I got a detention?"

Ron sighed and got up off the bed, putting his magazine down on his bed-side table on the way to stand in front of Harry.

"Harry, it's the same every time. You get a detention from Snape, you storm up here all pissed off and breathing funny because you've run up here so quickly to avoid getting another detention for... I dunno... Standing around or something, and you expect me not to know that you've just gotten another detention? Come on Harry, what'd you supposedly do this time?" Harry gave him a look and gave in, sighing.

"Fighting with Malfoy."

"Again?"

"Again," Harry always hated admitting what he'd gotten a detention for; Ron just rolled his eyes and went back to his bed. Harry laughed suddenly and he was given a questioning look.

"At least Malfoy got one too, I'd take a thousand detentions just to see Malfoy doing one, we have one together tonight," Harry scowled at that, he'd always loved the thought of Malfoy not being able to weasel his way out of trouble but the fact that he had to do a detention with Malfoy did kind of put a damper on things.

"Ah well, mate, too bad at least you're not the only one that's going to be... What have they got you doing anyway?"

"Scrubbing floors."

"Of course, how original," Ron said rolling his eyes, he figured their detentions had probably been assigned by filch, he always did give out the grotty manual labour type punishments.

"When do you have it?"

"Eight o'clock, we get to scrub the whole Great Hall until it's sparkling clean, without magic, lucky us," Harry said flatly in a bored tone.

"Just try not to rip Malfoy apart while you're there, you don't want to go getting another detention because of the stupid little ferret," oh how he loved to insult the... Well... Stupid little ferret.

"I'm going down to the common room, I have to get Hermione's notes off her for History of Magic, before anyone else does," with that Harry turned on his heel and strode out of the room and down the stairs.

***

"Hey Hermione," Harry greeted as he walked up to the desk she was sitting at.

Hermione looked up from the book she was using for research and smiled.

"Hi Harry, come to get my History of Magic notes? They're in my bag; you should be able to find them."

"Yes, all I have to do is be able to tell them apart from you're Transfiguration notes... And you're Potions notes... And you're Charms notes... Shall I go on?"

"Well at least I have notes, if it weren't for me you and Ron would still be in first year trying to figure out how the hell to change a match stick into a needle."

"What do you mean 'would be'? I still don't know how to do that properly!" Ron said as he made his way down the stairs.

Hermione gave him a strange look.

"But I remember you managed it eventually when you actually were in first year."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean he remembers how to now does it?" Harry interrupted. Hermione made to say something but Harry held up his hand, cutting her off.

"Hermione, History of Magic Notes? I need to get my homework done before eight o'clock preferably please," at that Hermione looked up and for a second she thought the impossible had happened. Harry was actually starting to care about his studies? Well he had always cared about his studies, but not in the sense that Hermione did, she knew that they were important and needed for later life, but Harry had never been as serious about homework and exams and assignments as she had.

She shook herself and realised how stupid a possibility that was, Harry must have gotten a detention again, he'd had so many in the past few weeks that she had to stop and think about why she hadn't jumped to that conclusion straight away.

"You've been fighting with Malfoy again haven't you?"

"Hermione, you know me too well. To cut a long story short... Well really it wasn't a long story to start off with, so I'll just tell you the whole thing. I was fighting with Malfoy and Filch was the one to assign our detentions seeing as he's the one that had to clean up the mess we'd made."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him.

"Last time I checked we were in seventh year, not first, shouldn't you two be able to get over your differences and get along? Or at least not get into fist fights every five minutes?"

"They don't get into fights every five minutes, Hermione! It's more like ten... Fifteen even!" Ron interjected. Harry was looking at them both alternately, a scowl forming on his face.

"I don't get in fights every five or ten minutes, I get in fights when he pisses me off, he deserves to be punched in the bloody face with the comments he makes!"

Taken aback, Ron and Hermione just stared at him. Ron muttered something about just joking and Harry grabbed Hermione's notes and walked out the portrait hole, tossing over his shoulder that he would be in the library if they needed him. Ron turned to Hermione when Harry was gone, raising his eyebrows.

"What's his problem?"

"I don't know, he's probably still annoyed over the detention and doesn't feel like us bagging him out for it, but honestly, Harry and Malfoy have gotten even worse than when we were in first year! At least back then they couldn't inflict that much physical harm on each other. He's getting detentions at least once a week now!"

"Yes, but at least Malfoy is too," Ron pointed out. Hermione shot him a withering look.

"Yes... Well... I had better be going now, I have to get my own homework done too you know," he said while backing up slowly away from Hermione's glare.

"Goodbye, Ron."

***

Draco walked down the corridor to the library muttering under his breath.

"Bloody Potter, always landing me in detention. Bloody Filch, always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bloody detentions, I hate fucking detentions, I could think of a million better things to be doing."

"Well of course there are better things to do Malfoy, unless your life is just that boring that you actually have to sit and think about what better things there are to do than have a detention."

"Piss off, Potter," Draco wasn't in the mood to see him at all, really he wasn't.

"My pleasure, Malfoy, I was on my way to the library to finish some homework that I need to have done before eight o'clock thanks to you. I really appreciate getting a black eye and a detention as well as having to have my homework done earlier than I needed to."

"Oh yes, Potter, this is entirely my fault, please forgive me, it's not like I have homework that needs to be done before eight o'clock as well and I didn't get injured at all."

Harry snorted and kept on walking, he passed Malfoy and got five steps before Malfoy caught up and started walking with him.

"What in hell do you think you're doing, Malfoy?" Harry stopped and stared at him as if he'd suddenly sprouted tentacles and turned blue.

"Why, I'm walking with you, Potter, what does it look like I'm doing? You're going to the library and I have to go to the library as well so I might as well walk with you." Harry stared at him.

"Malfoy, are you feeling alright?" Harry pushed the doors to the library open and walked in still staring at the other boy.

"I'm feeling perfectly fine, Potter, now if you don't mind I have to get some Charms homework done before eight o'clock so I'll thank you to leave me alone. Preferably for the rest of the school year if that wouldn't trouble you too much. I would prefer to spend my nights differently and after school we won't ever have to see each other again, won't that be nice?"

"Very nice, but you know perfectly well that you are always the one to start the fights, Malfoy."

"Bullshit." Harry sighed and turned away.

"Forget it, Malfoy; I'll see you in detention."

***

He pulled a book from the shelf and blew dust off it. It obviously hadn't been used in quite a while. He moved back to his table and sat down to complete the essay that was due the next day. He hadn't gotten around to finishing it yet. He'd been in the library for a few hours now and Potter was gone, either finished his homework or disappeared back to his common room to finish it. They'd gotten in that fight because he was pissed and Potter was there, it was better than breaking his fist on a brick wall, Potter was much softer, not to mention more of a challenge. So he'd picked a fight with him to let off some steam, that's all.

They'd gotten caught by Filch of course, who had, as per usual, given them a detention full of cleaning, to undoubtedly save himself some scrubbing time. He couldn't believe he'd have to spend all night with Potter on his hands and knees scrubbing. A Malfoy did not scrub! How bloody undignified manual labour was.

It didn't come as a surprise to any of his 'friends' when they'd found out he'd have yet another detention for fighting with Potter. He'd gotten the oh-so-familiar lecture from Pansy about how they weren't first years any more, how much more violent he was now, and of course the same question she asked all the time in these situations, 'why can't you just learn to get along or at least not bash the shit out of each other all the time?'

It was then that Blaise, the smartass that he was, and always will be, had said that Draco couldn't get along with Potter if his life depended on it. Draco could hardly back down from a challenge, and of course they'd made a bet that Draco couldn't befriend Potter before the end of the school year. How clichéd that was, how the hell he managed to get himself into these things was beyond him. He despised Potter, now he'd be forced to get along with him? Like hell he would!

He really hadn't made too good a start with Potter. He'd been staring at him like he'd sprouted an extra head or something. When he thought about it, if Potter had all of a sudden started being nice to him like that, he would've given him a strange look as well.

But anyway, he had to get back to work, a few more paragraphs to go and he'd be finished, then he'd have... He looked at his watch... An extra hour to spare before dinner.

He wrote the last few words with a flourish, feeling proud that he'd managed to finish with time to spare, and didn't have to rush to finish before having to leave. He could have stayed through dinner if he couldn't finish by then, but that didn't mean he would have.

He got up and put the book he'd been using back on its shelf and packed up his things. As he made his way down the corridor to where the Slytherin common room was, he heard someone calling his name, he stopped and turned around to see who it was.

"Oh... Pansy," he said in a bored tone and promptly turned around and kept walking without waiting for her. To tell the truth, he couldn't stand her. He only put up with her because she was a Slytherin and hardly ever left him alone. He didn't have much of a choice really; no matter how subtle he was she just never got the hint that he didn't like her. Especially in the kind of way that she supposedly liked him.

"Draco, wait for me!"

"No, I don't think I will, I do believe I have better things to do than try to get it through your thick skull that I don't like you, because it's a lost cause, you just wont accept it!"

He continued his speech all the way through the common room and up the stairs to his dormitory.

"But-"

He walked into his room and slammed the door in her face, muffling whatever her next words were.

***

Harry went down to dinner with Hermione and Ron after he'd finished all the homework he needed done for the next day. They walked into the Great Hall and sat down in their usual seats.

Harry spotted Malfoy across the hall and as he watched, Malfoy looked up, spotted Harry watching him, shot him a smile and winked. Harry's jaw dropped, there was definitely something wrong with Malfoy today.

They're conversation was mainly on either Quidditch or Muggle Studies, as Ron and Hermione kept interrupting each other, arguing over which subject was more interesting. Harry, of course, was with Ron in that Quidditch was definitely a more worthwhile topic of conversation, but he wasn't about to tell Hermione that, lest he receive a long lecture on 'the joys of Muggle Studies'. He couldn't really think of any 'joys' but he was sure, being the study freak she was, that Hermione would, and obviously did.

When dinner ended everyone went back up to their common rooms. Harry, Hermione and Ron all sat around and talked, lazing in front of the fire until eight o'clock. At ten to eight, Harry stood and bid them goodbye and told them not to wait up for him. It was going to be a long night.

When he arrived, Malfoy was already there. They stood around in silence, waiting for Filch to arrive with the supplies they'd need to clean the great hall. Why Filch was so harsh on this punishment they didn't know, probably because he was just sick and tired of them fighting and sought to finally get it through their heads that physical violence was unacceptable in his hallways.

Filch arrived carrying their supplies and shoved them into their hands.

"Well what are you waiting for? Get to work! I'll be back in a few hours to check your progress," he laughed bitterly, "you two have got a long night ahead of you, maybe that'll teach you to repeatedly fight and mess up my corridors."

Harry and Draco walked into the Great Hall and Filch slammed the door behind them.