FicWad

It was Tuesday morning at Hogwarts, and the sun was shining brightly over the castle, casting a warm glow into the corridors and classrooms as the scent of toast and bacon wandered through the school, lingering from breakfast. The air was cool and crisp, seeing as it was still early, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were making their way to Hagrid's hut to attend their Care for Magical Creatures lesson, which their house, Gryffindor, shared with their rival house, Slytherin. Their last lesson had been a discussion on the Giant Squid which made it's home in the Great Lake surrounding the Hogwarts Castle, which Harry and Hermione quiet enjoyed, Ron on the other hand, found it quite "bof" - he insisted it was a word, Hermione eventually gave up in telling him otherwise.

When the trio found themselves at Hagrid's hut - a rickety wooden shack which creaked and moaned when you walked along the floorboards - Hagrid was nowhere in sight, though the shallow pants of his dog, Fang, could be heard from inside. The rest of the students, a mix of both houses, attending the lesson were making their way toward them.
Ron gave Harry an elbow to the ribs when he spotted Malfoy and his sidekicks, Crabbe and Goyle walking behind Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, two Gryffindors Harry was good friends with. He saw Goyle step on the back of Dean's robes, which where gently grazing the short grass, causing the boy to trip and curse loudly, earning a snorting laugh from the Slytherin.

Draco Malfoy was one of the few people Harry absolutely despised.

His white-blonde hair was luminous in the bright spring sunlight, his usually pale skin had an added warmth to it from the rays of the sun, the leaves from nearby trees caused dark shadows to dance over his skin and his grey eyes scanned the crowd until his gaze landed on Harry and his friends.

Usually, Harry would ignore Malfoy and his followers to the best of his ability, but he couldn't help but look at the face the blonde was making as the three strode toward Harry, Ron, and Hermione. It was as if he had just walked into Slug and Jiggers Apothecary store in Diagon Alley, which smelt awfully of a mixture of bad eggs and rotten cabbage.

"What's up with your face, Malfoy?" Ron teased, earning a pointed glare from Hermione.

Harry heard her quickly tell Ron to keep quiet, but Ron just huffed and crossed his arms. Harry knew exactly why he had reacted this way, Malfoy had recently been relentless in teasing Harry and his friends, and even Hexed Neville during Potions on Monday, which, of course, went unnoticed by Professor Snape.

Malfoy sneered and turned to Crabbe and Goyle, "Can you smell that?" He asked, they both looked astonishingly confused, which isn't a rarity. "Is it you, Potter?" He turned back to Harry, the 'something smells awful' look back on his face. Harry rolled his eyes, he really wasn't in the mood for Draco's nonsense, though he was beginning to become increasingly worried about how he smelt. Did he forget to put deodorant on this morning? Surely Malfoy couldn't smell him from this distance. He estimated the space between them, which was roughly ten feet, too far to catch another person's scent. He remembered he had showered today and quickly pushed his worries to the back of his mind.

This time, it was Goyle who spoke, "Oh yeah! I can smell him, Draco. It's gross!" He laughed obnoxiously, snorts emerging from the boy. He might as well have just begged for Malfoy's praise as he was laughing haughtily at Goyle's remark, Crabbe's laughter followed. Took him long enough to catch up with the conversation.

"You smell like the stink pellets you get from Zonko's!" Goyle finally joined in, pointing at Harry with a fat grin on his face. Harry remembered Fred and George showing him the small pellets they bought from a joke shop in Hogsmead and thought of the time they had thrown some into Argus Filch's small office, he wondered what mischief they could be up to right now. Draco chuckled at Goyle but gave him a sort of sideways glare.

Hermione suddenly piped up, "You're not even close enough to catch any scent!" She cried. Malfoy, startled, fixed his gaze on he bushy-haired girl as a sinister grin emerged on his face.

"He doesn't need to be any closer for me to smell him, you stinking mud-blood!" Was the retort. A sudden hush spread through the students nearby, silence hung heavily over the crowd. Draco crossed his arms and smirked, clearly proud of his comeback. Harry felt Ron tense up beside him and saw Hermione go as red as the Weasley's hair as she lowered her head, embarrassed. It was a rather strong insult for something so little.

"That was a low blow, Malfoy." Ron hissed, talking through his teeth and clenching his fist, defending his friend. Draco was glancing between the three of them, waiting for an outburst. The other students watched on intently, looking from one trio to the other, as if spectating a tennis match.

Harry wondered why he hadn't said anything yet as he usually finds something to spit back at Malfoy, and was beginning to think of something to retaliate with when he thought it would be a better idea to just leave it, which was a good idea because he saw Hagrid thumping his way toward them from within the forest, his beard and hair swaying with his huge strides.

"Sorry 'am late kippers." Hagrid said, out of breath, many of the students wondered what their teacher had been doing. Harry looked back at Draco and glared at him, Draco stopped smirking and avoided eye-contact with the dark-haired Gryffindor.

The lesson went on with a few more sniggers from the Slytherins - mainly Draco - as he held his nose and pretended to waft away a stink with his hand. Harry ignored him - well, he tried to - and concentrated on Hagrid's lesson.

When the lesson had ended Ron wouldn't shut up about how disgusting Malfoy was for calling Hermione a mud-blood. She continually told him she didn't care, but the three of them knew she wasn't telling the truth.