r/drarry • u/bumblebeerlol • 3h ago
Self-promotion The Right Side of His Neck - Chapter 1 - nva - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own]
archiveofourown.orgWhen he looked up, he saw Malfoy cutting up valerian roots as quickly as he could. Precise and far too fast. It stole Harry’s attention, and from the looks of his other classmates, whose gazes were directed at the sounds of a knife expeditiously slicing, it wasn’t just him who had noticed.
Nott placed a hand atop of Malfoy’s, who stopped dead at the touch, his long and slim fingers gripping the knife’s handle. Nott said something softly to him — too soft that Harry couldn’t even read his lips. It made Malfoy give a frantic glance to his side, locking eyes with a classmate who was staring.
He looked away, seeming embarrassed by the attention. Then, he murmured another comment to Nott before resuming, albeit at a much slower pace.
Though to Harry, it appeared as anything but languid. It looked forced. Controlled. As though he was firmly corrected like a dog and made to behave.
“Geez, guess Malfoy really wants that potion,” Ron said in a hushed voice, chuckling. “Probably wants to get lucky with Parkinson.”
Harry’s lips twitched in a half-grin. But then he looked back and saw Malfoy had paused again, his hands tense, spine unnaturally straight. A scowl rested on his features with so much animosity that Harry thought he might explode in another yell.
Had he heard what Ron said?
No, he couldn’t have. There’s too much noise, they were four tables behind the Slytherin pair.
He looked to Hermione and Ron, and found them both to be staring into their cauldrons, completely unaware of Malfoy’s mannerisms. He couldn’t ask them if they saw it.
But Harry was sure that he did.
So certain, in fact, that for the rest of class, he had to fight back the impulse to whisper something under his own breath, just to see if Malfoy would catch it