The next morning I walked out to the edge of the forbidden forrest with Ron, Hermione and Harry, where we had a Care of magical Beasts class. I had been looking forward to this class and when Ron mentioned that it was taught by Hagrid, a half-giant who had become their friend over the years, my enthusiasm grew even greater.

On the way there, however, we caught up with a group of Slytherins with Malfoy in the lead. His arrogant expression did not bode well.
"Ah Potter, on your way to your boyfriend?"

"Just make sure you stay whole this time!" Harry snapped back.

"Oh that will be best for your boyfriend, or I will personally make sure he gets sent away!" Malfoy spat back.

I didn't know what it was about, but it was clear to me that he was threatening a friend of my friends

"Careful now, Malfoy. People might  start to think you like us if you keep visiting us like this", I said calmly.

His icy blue eyes were now looking into mine and I thought I saw a sparkle in them.
“You ba careful, Dhanes. Before you know there will be no escape from these three”

“I don't feel that I should escape  them. Thanks for your concern though! ”

Hermione chuckled and the blond boy's face froze. His eyes still fixed firmly on mine. He didn't know what to say anymore and I smiled at him as gently as possible to throw him off even more.

The corners of his mouth curled up now and again I saw a twinkle in his eyes. My heart pounded in my throat and my hands became clammy, confused I looked away.

"Suit yourself", he snorted. "Don't say I didn't warn you!" Then he continued on his way to class.

So quickly he had suddenly turned the tables, luckily my friends didn't really notice. “Draco Malfius”, said Ron “The biggest bastard you will meet here.”

For the next few weeks I forced myself to hate Malfoy and everything he did. The harder I tried, the more I caught myself looking at him, I couldn't help it. Something about the boy intrigued me.

So I forced myself to stop looking at him entirely, this only worked for two days.

Especially because he seemed to make a sport out of confronting Harry. I kept jumping in for Harry, but the rougher I got against him, the more I perceived his grin differently than my friends did.

After two weeks, I gave up my hopeless attempts to hate him and just decided to hide it. Whenever we bumped into each other, this resulted in verbal conflict. The more arrogant he got, the more I wanted to shut him up, the more his grin came towards me.

His grin seemed less and less arrogant to me, it almost seemed like teasing, but only I saw it that way. So I tried to hide that my hatred for this boy was not as deep as it should be.

The conflicts with Malfoy did make me grow closer to my new friends. Even though it was very clear to me that Harry, Hermione and Ron would always be close friends who tolerated me. The same was true for the twins and Leo.

These people had known each other for years, I was the outsider. Still they liked me, Hermione liked that there was another girl who could stay close to her. I also learned to tell Fred and George apart, which was given to few and earned me a lot of praise. Mainly from Fred and George themselves.

These guys were really great, nothing was worth giving up on these friendships. I was therefore determined to try to avoid Malfoy more.

However, Professor Snape overturned my perfect plan, announcing on a Tuesday afternoon that we would soon be split into pairs. We planned it well, I would work with Ron and Hermione would work with Harry. Leaving the two boys alone would be just too pathetic.

However, Snape messed up our plans. "Well, today I'll split you into pairs," he said in his slow, dragging voice. "Weasley and Goyle, you are a couple, Potter and Crabbe, Granger perfect for Park Dhanes with Malfoy, Longbottom ..."

"Ohno," I thought silentely.  I looked at Malfoy, who first looked irritated and then grinned. There it was again, that grin. A mean grin? It didn't seem like it, at least not to me.

I took my things and sauntered over to Malfoy's table against my will.
"Not too disappointed?" he said."I mean you look like you're in the forbidden forest collecting hippogrives shit or something", he continued with his grin.

"We both don't like it, so let's just try to make the most of it", I replied aggitated.
"Whatever you want", he sighed with a shrug.

We did not speak for the rest of the lesson. Every now and then our hands accidentally touched and we pulled them back as if we were burning ourselves at touch. In the back of the classroom, Patty Park did nothing and Hermione made their potion alone, Harry and Ron cursed their partners, who were even worse at potions than themselves.

This is also what she told me afterwards, but I just mumbled that Potions were by definition my least favorite subject now. Strangely, it seemed some new trend to work in pairs.

In divination and herbology I worked with Leo and later that week I was assigned for defense against the dark arts with Goyle. We would be allowed to duel from time to time in the weeks that followed to practice protection spells. We came out cursing.

“Fortunately we can switch partners  next week”, said Harry grimly, this time he had been paired with Malfoy.
"In my other courses I work together with Leo. Why are the professors so determined to make the houses work together in this year?"
Hermione shook her head: "I don't get it either"

"I get a lot more work done with Leo than with any Slytherin", I complained as we climbed through the portrait.

"That is what I like to hear!" Leo sounded enthusiastically from the couch and I smiled at him.

"I would think it makes reasonable sense", George answered. And Leo shrugged. "A compliment is a compliment!" George rolled his eyes and Fred grinned at me.