Happy New Year

Chapter 2:Potions

(A/N: This is still Christmas, only now it's that night. Don't worry though, the next part will move through to New Year's relatively quickly.)

Several hours later, Greg's rumbling laughter broke Draco's concentration as he was sorting through the various jars of ingredients that had been included with his new potion's kit. Looking up, he had to smile at the picture his rumpled friends made. Greg was easily the largest boy in their year- possibly in the entire school. Harry, on the other hand, was as small as some of the third years.

"Hullo, Draco!" The pair chorused.

His smile changed to a scowl when his fellow Slytherin reached over and ruffled his hair. "How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?" he growled. Luckily, his hair was well trained from years of being slicked back and it only took a few strokes of his hand to get it back into place.

A soft snicker from the chair that Potter had claimed made him glare in that direction as a blush crept up his cheeks.

"You are such a priss."

The honest amusement in Harry's eyes made it difficult for Draco to hold his anger and indignation. Instead, he raised a brow. " There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking pride in one's appearance." He gestured towards the other boy's hair. "I should have gotten you a brush for Christmas."

A small sheepish smile lit the Gryffindors features as he ran fingers through his own tangled mop. "Well, brushes don't seem to work all that well. 'Mione even tried a grooming spell once. It barely managed to tame it at all and it only lasted for a half hour or so."

Both Slytherins had to laugh at that. Draco shook his head. "Why am I not surprised?"

"What are you doing anyways?" Harry asked in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

The blonde turned back to his task as he answered. "I'm checking to make sure that everything that's supposed to be here is. Some of the shopkeepers can be a little devious. They'll cheat you if you're not careful." He decided to ignore Harry's muffled snort and comment of 'this from a Slytherin?'. "Also, this particular kit is so expensive because it comes with some of the more rare and difficult to obtain ingredients. Unicorn's horn, gillyweed, basilisk's blood and scales," at that point, the raven haired boy- who had been leaning in close to look as he pointed out the ingredients- pulled back sharply and shuddered. Draco and Goyle shared a curious look, but neither questioned the reaction. "Things like that. Snape is low on some of them and out of others. I won't really need them much, so I thought I'd see if I had enough to share them with him in exchange for free use of ingredients I'll need more often."

"Hm. What could basilisk ingredients possibly be good for?" There was a distant look of distaste on the boy's face as he asked the question and Draco had to wonder if he had something against snakes in general or just basilisk's in particular. He'd have thought a Parsletongue would have an affinity for all the scaly little critters.

He'd have to ask later. "Oh, all sorts of things." For the moment he had an interested audience to display his amazing potions knowledge before.

Greg apparently recognized where this was all going because he sighed and stood up. "You've done it now, Harry. Enjoy the lecture. I, for one, have better things to do." With that, their large friend ambled out of the room.

Potter looked a little wary at the warning, but seemed to have resigned himself for whatever he'd gotten himself into.

Bless that Gryffindor courage and lack of sense!

"Basilisk blood is used in some of the strongest truth serums made, such as veritaserum. Veritaserum, as you know, is mostly used when a suspected criminal goes on trial before being put in Azkaban. It only takes three drops to render a person absolutely incapable of even the tiniest fib. Jobberknoll feathers are used for the weaker ones because they're more plentiful and easier to find. The venom is a main ingredient for any number of poisons..."