You Find It In The Strangest Places

You Find It In The Strangest Places

Chapter 2: Detention

The door slamming left a resounding echo in the room for a moment, and then Harry picked up one of the buckets Filch had left and walked over to the opposite end of the room. This was going to take forever! He got to his knees and started scrubbing.

Behind him, Malfoy made a disgusted sound, but he got to his knees and started scrubbing nonetheless.

"I really fucking hate you."

Harry looked up when he heard Malfoy's voice. Draco mentally slapped himself, how the hell was he meant to be getting onto Potter's good side when he was throwing comments like that around so casually?

Harry just rolled his eyes and went back to the task at hand, if he just ignored Malfoy and did the work he might get it done in time to actually get some sleep tonight. This was not going to be easy... Ignore Malfoy? Yeah Right! He'd been doing exactly the opposite of that since they started school together, and old habits die hard after all.

Across the room Malfoy was still scrubbing, amazingly enough he'd actually managed to keep his mouth shut for a few minutes. Draco had somehow managed to become absorbed in the work, how incredibly un-Malfoy-like of him to not find something to complain about. His head was slightly foggy and he wasn't completely aware of what he was doing, his knees were cold, he knew that, and his hands were damp, his fingers slightly wrinkled. How long had they been scrubbing for?

Suddenly Malfoy shook his head and scowled. He glanced up in the general direction that Harry had moved to and threw his sponge down, standing up and walking over to the nearest table to sit down on and watch Harry work.

Harry saw Malfoy moving out of the corner of his eye and looked up. He stopped and sat back on his haunches and stared.

"Malfoy, what the hell are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm quitting! I've done more than enough work, I shouldn't be subjected to this kind of manual labour in the first place, and Filch doesn't have a right to make me do his job."

Harry glared at Malfoy and then stood up, throwing his own sponge down.

"You're such a fucking self-righteous prat! You don't think of anything or anyone but yourself and I'm getting really fucking sick and tired of it!" Harry would have wrapped his hands around Malfoy's throat and rung his neck right then and there if they hadn't been on opposite sides of the room.

"I really just want to get the work done so I can go, so will you just stop whining and scrub?"

"Make me."

Draco was suddenly struck in the face with a wet sponge. Water dribbled down his face and into his collar, it wasn't a very pleasant feeling, to say the least. He looked up to see Harry stifling giggles.

"Very mature of you Potter" Draco remarked dryly.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time" Harry replied stifling more giggles.

Draco scowled, how was he meant to be nice to Potter if Potter was royally pissing him off?

Potter walked over and plucked the sponge from Draco's lap and went back to scrubbing the floor, he really did just want to get it done. Draco rolled his eyes, grabbed the second sponge from out of the bucket and dropped to his knees. Was he really about to actually do what he was told for their detention? Well at least it would get it done quicker.

"You know we wouldn't be here in the first place if you didn't insist on starting fights with me all the time Potter." Draco really felt like blaming it all on Potter, not that that was a new feeling or anything, but he felt it necessary to let the other boy know how he felt on the situation.

Harry glared at him and growled, "If I recall correctly Malfoy, you were the one who threw the first punch because you couldn't think of a better way to respond."

"You started the argument in the first place."

"No, that was you too."

Draco knew perfectly well that he was the one that had started the whole thing, but he wasn't about to let Potter know that.

"Whatever you reckon Potter, I stand by my opinion that this is entirely your fault."

Harry just sighed and kept working. It was turning out to be quite an uneventful detention, not that he was complaining or anything, but an uneventful detention with Draco Malfoy was very strange to say the least.

Harry was deep in thought, still scrubbing, when his thoughts were interrupted by Draco speaking.

"You know what, Potter? This is really getting old, we get into fights all the time and it's really quite pathetic."

"Really? Great observation skills you've got there Malfoy, what's your point?"

"My point is that I think we should call a truce, no more fighting for the year, yeah? I'd really rather not have all these bloody detentions."

Harry stopped scrubbing and looked up at him; there really was something wrong with Malfoy today. He had to be up to something, no way would Malfoy back down like that. Nonetheless it was an appealing proposition, no more fights with Malfoy? He'd really like to see Malfoy keep that promise, what did he have to lose?

"Alright then Malfoy, as much as I doubt you'd be able to go the entire year without fighting with me, I'm up for it."

"Alright, truce then," he stood and walked over to where Harry was scrubbing and stuck his hand in Potter's face. Harry just stared at it and looked up at him questioningly, then took his hand.

"Right, now if you don't mind I'd like to get this done so I might actually get some sleep tonight."

Draco smiled to himself, it appeared that if he played this right he might actually be able to win this bet and be able to laugh in Zabini's face.

To Harry's amazement, Draco just nodded and went back to scrubbing, uneventful detention, indeed.