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The Rivalry	By : Pseudonymous_Entity Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 4959 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: If you recognize it from the Harry Potter books, I didn't come up with it. I'm not making any money off of this story nor do I intend to. It's purely for entertainment.

Chapter List
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Harry spent most of Saturday morning in Gryffindor tower, sitting in a seat near the fireplace he'd long since claimed as his, looking through books, some from the library and some his own. As usual unless Ron or Hermione was sat beside him no one approached him. He didn't mind. He got more done without social distraction.
Potions wasn't his favourite subject, Alchemy and Warding were far more interesting, but Hell would freeze before he would allow Malfoy to control a school project that had his name on it too. It was actually an interesting project in a way, choosing what you thought was the most dangerous potion currently available through legal means that was technically, non lethal. You had to choose your potion and then defend your choice to the class. Grades were awarded according not the amount of effort one put into it, but how cleverly they managed to convince the class of their choice. Perhaps this was why Hermione was so upset yesterday, things like public speaking and debating were once part of Hogwarts curriculum to both prepare future Lords and Ladies for their responsibilities in an objective forum, apart from the family specific lessons taught in the home prior to Hogwarts, and to enlighten the muggleborn or muggle raised students in the ways of the wizarding world and help them manage living in it a bit better. Hermione could certainly use an wizarding etiquette class because even he knew better than to do and say some of the things she did, no matter how well meaning they might be intentioned. He couldn't say any of this of course, or she'd never stop angsting to him about her academic dissatisfactions.
Normally he had Ron nearby to say something insensitive and distract her attentions from Harry but that wasn't possible for the moment. Harry might like Ron, they were friends for a very long time, but friendship and affection did not grant ownership and it did not mean Ron was automatically give forgiveness for his transgressions, if anything he ought to be punished harsher than a stranger would be. Friends weren't supposed to be the people who hurt you and Harry had had more than enough people in his life who hurt him for his own good. If he let Ron off the hook so quickly then he was giving him permission to act this way again in the future and that wouldn't do. And, in all honesty, he probably would have forgiven the other boy sooner if he'd been sorry. Oh he was sorry that Harry was mad at him and he was apologizing for making him mad but he wasn't acknowledging that he did anything wrong or why it upset Harry in the first place. And that didn't make it a worthy apology. If you accidentally shot someone because you pointed a gun at them and fired without checking to see if the safety was on, you don't say sorry just because they're upset. You say you're sorry because you damn well shot them.
Maybe he was being too muggle about this, Harry mused. Maybe there was some sort of pureblood, because Ron was a pureblood, ideology or custom he was missing here that could help him understand. He still wouldn't forgive Ron, not yet, but it would be nice to have an actual reason for Ron to be so stupid and unrepentant instead of him just honestly not realizing after four years of knowing one another that saying what he did was not okay. What hurt even more, was that Ron truly meant what he said.
He shifted his position in the chair and flipped the page of his book.
"Unacceptable."
Harry marked his place in the book he was reading and looked up to meet the agitated eyes of Hermione Granger.
"Pardon?" His eye were dull and unemotional, general expression neutral verging on polite interest. The safest expression to wear when dealing with an upset female, Hermione in particular.
She uncrossed her arms and placed them on her hips. "Your behavior with Ronald. What were you thinking Harry? Goading Malfoy into joining you in humiliating him? You can be upset if you like but being needlessly vindictive just to please your petty hurts, especially against you best friend whom I might add was trying to apologize, is despicable. You purposely went out of your way to bully someone. We aren't Slytherin's Harry and we don't get to hurt other people whenever we feel like it, other people have feelings and that matters. He apologized several times so...so quite sulking and forgive him and stop this..." she trailed off and made a vague motion in his direction.
It was a simple, everyday action but when Harry shut his book and set it down, took off his glasses, put them in his pocket and stood up the entire common room went still. He took two steps and stopped directly in front of her. Brown eyes widened and Hermione took an aborted step backward.
Harry raised one finger, speaking in a low, even voice as though discussing the weather. "This is between Ron and myself, we do not request nor do we require an owl intermediary in the form of yourself." He raised another finger. "What Ron said was thoughtless and I am not ready to forgive him for it no matter how much you harp at me about it." He raised a third finger. "I told him not to speak to me. I told him I was upset with him. I told him not to follow me. He ignored what I wanted, focused entirely on his need to earn my forgiveness and didn't spare a thought as to why I was upset in the first place. He's lucky I didn't petrify him on sight and leave him there to Malfoy's mercy. And I was tempted to do so. It is only because he is the first friend I made in the wizarding world, and an inconvenient desire to retain him as such, that I did not."
He tilted his head, face the picture of innocent curiosity. "Questions?"
She shook her head, face pale. He felt the slightest built of guilt that he pushed aside as quickly as it came.
"Excellent."
Harry glanced at his watch, decided he might as well head to the library, picked up his book, put in his bag, turned and gave a bow to the common room at large and swept out of the portrait hole.
A neatly combed head of blonde hair was visible when Harry entered his small study area, relishing in the silence of the library. Silver eyes watched him unpack his things and sit down, immediately open a book and start taking notes.
"What no witty unfounded insult against my character? No idiotic quips about books? I'm a bit offended."
He arranged his face to look apologetic. "I apologize dearest nemesis, next time I shall come better prepared to wound you verbally."
"See that you do."
He looked up when he felt Malfoy continuing to look at him. The blonde gave a smirk then, and in his best impression of Harry himself asked, "How was your day?"
Harry let out a startled laugh. "Yeah, I was a bit desperate to get rid of him."
"Obviously."
"It sucked."
A fair brow rose. "Could you be more specific?"
"It really sucked."
"Your mastery of the English language astounds." Malfoy deadpanned.
"Unfortunately a lot of people miss the subtler art of word plays and sarcasm."
"Tragic that. You wouldn't want to go around lying to people or anything."
Harry started on a second piece of parchment. "Merlin forbid that." He muttered.
"Which potion have you decided on?"
He slide his first sheet over. "Veritaserum."
"I was thinking more along the line of Amortentia. I know it isn't legal to use on another person for its intended purpose but they are legal to make and to buy to be used in medications as a partial sedative effect. It's still available and technically legal."
Harry finished scritching his sentence then set his quill aside and looked up. "Defend."
Draco closed his book and moved it, bringing his chair in closer to the table and laying his arms across it in front of him. "To me, having your emotions trifled with, just in a normal everyday way, sounds horrible. To have a love potion...to have all of these feelings you didn't have before flooding through you and unable to understand where they came from and eventually unable to remember why you shouldn't feel them, to be utterly unable to fight against or indeed even aware there is something to fight against. It's a rose coloured version of the Imperious." He gestured at Harry. "Defend."
"I picked Veritaserum because the truth, to me, is dangerous. In the wrong hands the truth becomes a weapon. The truth contains the secret to controlling anyone. You learn someone's fears, someone's weakness, someone's skeletons and you own them. The things people think but never say can destroy families, reputations and kingdoms."
Malfoy leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs, looking very pureblooded and smug about it, and thought for a minute.
"I propose an experiment. We each must try to prove to the other why our chosen potion is the better choice. The winning potion is used for our project and we'll even site the experiment in our essay. Snape will have to give us extra credit if we do that, he may hate you but I'm his godson and he won't deny me if I put in the effort."
"...I'm listening. But if you come anywhere near me with either of those potions I'm going to-"
The Slytherin waved a hand, slight sneer in place. "I'm not about to waste my time humiliating you with a potion that allows you to tell everyone exactly whom did it in a way that's admissible in court."
"I can't tell if that's meant to reassure me or threaten me."
"And anyway, we duel in the halls often enough I could probably manage to kill you off accidentally. Or at least make it look accidental. Everyone knows we fight, they'll tell the aurors that, and you of course entered into the duel willingly. I'm sure I wouldn't get more than a fine for it, maybe have to pay to erect a statue in your honour or some such ridiculous nonsense."
"Comforting."
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The Rivalry