Harry Potter and Claire Smith Adventures: Book Three

The Fender, The Drums, and The Solo

"Well," Malfoy said, lowering his voice to a whisper, "partly, Potter. But there are other benefits too. Smith, slice my caterpillars for me."

A few cauldrons away Neville was in trouble. Neville regularly went to pieces in Potions lessons; it was his worst subject, and his great fear of Professor Snape made things ten times worse. Snape was currently yelling at Neville for not adding the correct amount of rat spleens and leech juice. Hermione had offered to help but Snape wouldn't hear it.

"Heard about the Black sighting, Smith, Potter?" Malfoy said, casually.

"Yeah," Harry said. "He was last spotted in Achintee."

"Thinking of trying to catch Black single-handed, Potter?" Malfoy asked.

"Yeah, that's right," Harry said offhandedly.

Malfoy's thin mouth was curving in a mean smile.

"Of course, if it was me," he said quietly, "I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like a good boy, I'd be out there looking for him."

"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" Claire said roughly.

"Don't you know, Potter?" Malfoy breathed, his pale eyes narrowed.

"Know what?"

Malfoy let out a low, sneering laugh.

"Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," he said. "Want to leave it to the dementors, do you? But if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself."

"What are you talking about?" Harry said angrily.

"Or maybe you just don't want to upset Smith," Malfoy said. "After all, Black is her uncle and is technically all the family she has left. Though you probably shouldn't worry seeing as he would probably abandon her just like her parents."

The bell rang at the moment, which was a good thing, because Claire would've hexed Malfoy into oblivion. She threw her bag over her shoulder and practically ran out of the classroom to get to their next class. Several thoughts ran through her head. First, how the hell did Malfoy know Sirius Black was her uncle? Second, how could he just say that Black would just leave her like her parents? Maybe he's right though. She thought. This is Malfoy we're talking about. Since when is he right? Besides Black is a murdering, lunatic. I wouldn't want him to take me in.

"Smith!"

"Listen, Mal-," Claire turned around and found herself face to face with Jason Saxton. "You're not Malfoy. What do you want Saxton?"

"I just wanted to see if you were alright." Saxton said. "You sort of just ran out of the classroom. Looked like something Malfoy said made you angry."

"First of all, since when do you care about how I feel?" Claire questioned. "And as far as Malfoy goes, everything he does makes me irritated."

"Just because I come from Durmstrang Institute and I'm in Slytherin doesn't mean that I can't care about other people's feelings." Saxton replied.

"Really? Because if I recall you didn't seem to care about those girls' feelings when they were fighting over that book in the bookshop." Claire said.

"It seems whenever I try to have a civil conversation with you, you're mind is clouded with that incident," Saxton said, growing a bit agitated.

"Don't go quoting Professor Trelawney," Claire said. "And yes it is because that was my first impression of you as a person and it definitely was not the best one."

"OK, I admit, I sort of came off as an arse," Saxton admitted.

"You got that right," Claire muttered.