Sometimes Bad is Good

Chapter Fourteen

It was Blaise's turn now in the test, Malfoy having gone just before him and Theodore before him. Which left Ernie to be last, most likely Sprout's last hope that the pale and shaking Hufflepuff would soak up some of the tactics and strategies they used and would actually stand a fighting chance, if nothing else than to protect himself. Harry just saw it as a way of prolonging Ernie's torture.

Harry was sitting a good few feet away from his silent friends and family, annoyed but unsurprised by their lack of greeting or talking. He'd shocked them too much, he supposed. What with the wings and things; he'd had a rather awestruck Centaur practically worship him when it came time to 'fight'. Loral, his name was, a young one that had been caught by one of Greyback's traps and found by Hagrid. Harry had been very angry to see rope burns all over the poor Centaur's limbs, some welling up with blood, but Loral had assured him that he was fine and had laid his head back in Harry's lap where he stayed until someone stunned him and exchanged him for another poor creature.

After Harry had tended to his last creature and finished the test, Dumbledore had led him away from the Weasley's almost as soon as he'd passed through the wards on the fence, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder as he took him to a place behind the scattered groups where he could sit under a tree and relax. Not that he could under the stares, but still. "It's not that they are afraid, my dear boy, but rather that they don't understand," he had said.

They would never understand, Harry thought, frowning as he watched the Weasley's watch Blaise parry and attack a different and much larger and fiercer Acromantula. I've always been different to them, but now I'm too different. A different person, a differentspecies to them. A rotten apple in a basket of ripe oranges.

"You were quite impressive, Lord Potter."

Harry blinked in surprise at the gentle voice, not having seen her walking up to him as he'd been so deep in thought. He spared Narcissa a small smile and shuffled in his spot, his wings fluttering anxiously behind him and imitating arms as they pressed against his sides comfortingly. She looked at them for a moment, but wasn't rude enough to stare at them like everyone else had. "Thank you," he said politely. "But no one seems to share your opinion."

Narcissa levelled him with a soft stare, her usual chips of ice blue eyes warm. She let out a refined tinkling laugh. "My husband is quite enamored with your transformations, it is unlikely that you would ever catch him saying so, but then again, praise from Lucius would be like a butterfly biting," she said, her eyes crinkling up. "May I sit with you?" She asked, gesturing to the place on his right.

Harry agreed and shuffled to the left, allowing her more space to sit. Narcissa swept up her long elegant light blue ropes and gracefully lowered herself onto the slightly warmed grass, her legs folding up underneath her delicately. "Thank you, all this standing around makes my feet hurt," she said, as if confiding something secret.

Harry noticed two small but expensive looking high heeled shoes sitting by her knees, and laughed quietly.

They were silent for a few moments, enjoying the gentle breeze ruffling the trees around and behind them and watching as Blaise threw around the hissing and pained Acromantula, Harry had to squeeze his eyes closed and clench his hands to ignore its cries. There was a final hiss and explosion, and then someone stunning the Acromantula, and Blaise's first challenge was over.

"I've always despised the idea of fighting, you know," Narcissa said suddenly, breaking Harry from his concentration with her soft voice. "I'd never thought that my child would be involved in situations where he could be harmed. Such a thing was always frowned upon when I was a child, my mother would never have allowed Draco to do this. I almost didn't."