Mere Damnable and Detestable Curiosity DRARRY

Chapter One

Malfoy was wearing a braided silver circlet.

Harry kept an eye on him around the bowls and platters being passed up and down the Gryffindor table for breakfast. Malfoy was sitting back in his seat, toying with the circlet, which hung on his left wrist though it looked large enough to sit on his head. But perhaps that would have been too ostentatious for him.

Harry snorted to himself in the next moment. Too ostentatious for Malfoy? I can't believe I just seriously thought that.

But it was true that Malfoy had been more subdued since the end of the Battle of Hogwarts, never mind since they arrived at Hogwarts for a "regular" school year combined with the tutoring sessions that Hermione insisted were necessary if they were going to sit their NEWTS. (And they were going to sit their NEWTS; Hermione had been driven too near tears for Harry's comfort when Harry had said he didn't really think he wanted to take the exams). This was the first time he'd done something that reminded Harry of the boy he'd known before the war.

Now, though, Malfoy held up his hand and let the circlet flash in the September sunlight through the windows of the Great Hall. Pansy Parkinson, who tended to remain warily in her circle of Slytherin friends thanks to what she'd said about giving Harry to Voldemort, touched his shoulder and made some comment that was probably tender and admiring. Malfoy turned his head, winked at her, and then went back to playing with the circlet. Parkinson flicked a spoonful of porridge at him.

Harry blinked. He didn't think he remembered seeing a gesture like that at the Slytherin table before.

"What are you staring at, Harry?" Hermione's voice was gentle, but stern enough that Harry had the feeling she'd tried to get his attention more than once.

He shook his head a little and turned back to Hermione. "Malfoy has a bracelet on," he said. "Probably some gift from his parents."

Hermione turned her head and scrutinized Malfoy with narrow eyes. Already she was planning on entering the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Harry knew-her jibe to Scrimgeour the previous year notwithstanding-and she was probably checking the circlet against the newly absorbed knowledge of illegal Dark artifacts in her mind.

"Yes," she murmured at last, in a tone of such deep abstraction that both Harry and Ron, who sat on Hermione's other side, leaned forwards automatically. "I'm sure it's only a gift."

"Well, what can we do if it's not?" Ron leaned back and reached for his fork again, but his eyes were cautious. Harry smiled at him over Hermione's shoulder, though Ron didn't seem to notice. He'd grown over the summer, and in more ways than the obvious, which involved his getting so tall so fast he regularly hit doorframes he'd been able to pass under a month before. He'd actually been gracious to some of the Ministry officials who wanted to interview him, Harry, and Hermione about their experiences on the run from Voldemort, and he'd attended the Death Eater trials with this same look on his face. It was an intent, listening look. Though Harry had tried to absorb every detail of what was happening to the people who might still want his life for defeating the Dark Lord, he thought Ron had learned more than he had.

"Nothing for right now," said Hermione decisively. "We can't let him know that we suspect anything if it really is a plot, and he'll just hide the circlet and pretend nothing is wrong if we press too hard." She scooped up the book that she'd braced on her knee beneath the table. Harry and Ron had argued her out of doing any lecturing during breakfast, but they couldn't prevent her from bringing books. "Besides, it's about time we go and study some of the Reversal Charms again."

Harry groaned on cue, letting his head slump into his hands. He was having trouble mastering Reversal Charms, which exchanged the place of two objects or people within a certain small distance. You had to be able to picture exactly what the objects or people would look like when they reversed positions, and Harry couldn't, no matter how much Hermione scolded him that this should be easy next to the Patronus Charm. He just did things impulsively in the midst of dangerous situations and they worked. That didn't translate to instant mastery of every piece of magic ever.