Cold Beauty (Harry Potter)

Sirius Black: The Escapee

Draco Malfoy didn't turn up to lessons until Thursday morning when the Gryffindors and Slytherins were halfway through Potions. He appeared to be wearing a cast on his injured arm. I sat at a table with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Seamus Finnigan and Nicholas but we were joined by Draco Malfoy later on. Nicholas was already in the seat to my right, so he sat in the seat to my left, right beside Harry Potter. Mainly because it was the only seat left in the class. Although he did not exactly seem happy to do so."Professor, I can't cut my roots because of my arm!" Draco whined. ''Weasley, chop up Mr Malfoy's roots for him,' my father ordered. Weasley grabbed Draco's roots and purposely chopped them unevenly. "How's your arm?" I asked Draco.

"It's considerably better, but it still hurts,' he told me dramatically. I couldn't decide whether he was joking or not because Draco Malfoy is always dramatic. "I really don't know if my arm would be the same," he paused, noticing Weasley cutting his roots wrong. "Professor, Weasley's sabotaging my roots!" he complained. 

"Weasley put your own roots in Malfoy's Potion."
"But-"

"Now!"

Weasley hesitantly put his own roots in Draco's cauldron. "I'll also need someone to skin my-"

"Potter, skin Mr Malfoy's shrivelfigs."

I silently snickered as I found this situation quite funny. Nicholas noticed and gave me a mischievous smile, noticing why I was snickering. "Hey, Harry?" Seamus Finnigan, who sat across from me called out to Harry. "Do you know that Black's recently been sighted?" he said.

"Don't joke around about this stuff Finnigan," Nicholas said.

"I am not!" Seamus Finnigan defensively. 

"It's true though," I finally spoke. Suddenly, Draco and Nicholas's eyes were on me. I could feel Finnigan, Weasley and Potter quietly listening too. "I was eating lunch with Bella the other day," I said, "It's in the Daily Prophet too. Apparently, a muggle woman sighted him. She called the hotline but by the time the Ministry of Magic arrived, he was gone. He's not too far from here."

I noticed that Draco suddenly had a devious smirk plastered on his face as he turned to look at Harry. "Don't you want revenge, Potter? If I were you, I'd be out there doing something about Sirius Black, you know."

"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" Harry asked angrily. It was clear that Draco was getting on his nerves. "Ahem," I heard my father clear his throat, "You should be half done with your Potion by now Weasley. What have you been doing this long?"

"But Sir, you told me to cut Malfoy's roo-" Ron protested.

"That is a foul and highly unnecessary excuse. 5 points from Gryffindor for being lazy in class," my father said with a satisfied smirk. Draco, Nicholas and I shared some silent laughter. "Did, you see his face?" Nicholas said smiling. 

"I know right?" Draco replied.

"But Draco, what did you mean?" I asked, remembering what he said to Harry about wanting revenge against Sirius Black. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I'm talking about that thing you said to Potter," I said.

"Nothing," he said, but I could tell he was lying, "It's none of your concern." I decided to act oblivious. After all, he was probably just trying to get on Potter's nerves...right? 

"Orange, Longbottom," I hear my father say as he stood in front of the table where Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger sat. Neville quivered at the sight of Snape. "Professor, if I could just help him make the potion-" Hermione Granger started. 

"You will not help Longbottom in any way, Granger," he said strictly.

By the end of the class, we all took turns feeding our Shrinking Solution to a toad. Mine turned out fine. Even Longbottom did well. But turns out, Granger was whispering the ingredients to Neville Longbottom. My father cut 5 points from Gryffindor for that. I was leaving the classroom with Draco and Nicholas beside me when I caught my father sending me an approving smile. I must've done really well with my Shrinking Solution to get a reaction like that. Father usually has high expectations for me, so it's not always easy to satisfy him. "See you around, Fathe-" I stopped talking, realizing my mistake," uh, I mean, Professor." Father nodded in reply.