What was Draco doing, trying to get Blaise Zabini into the same detention as Harry? Harry turned and glared.
Draco just looked nonchalantly back, then almost smirked when Aran shot to his feet. "Question how I run my class, will you? There's been too much of that, this year! Detention for you as well! Straight away after class, and if you miss lunch it'll be on your own head! And furthermore, Mr. Snape, that'll be ten..." Aran abruptly cleared his throat. "That'll be a detention," he finished.
Draco waited until Aran wasn't looking his way, then grinned over at Harry.
"Yeah, look at him crow," grumbled Ron. "Aran won't take points off him, either. He's too scared of Snape."
Harry chewed a bit on the end of his quill. "Um... yeah, maybe that's it."
"Maybe? What else could he be so happy about?"
"I think... I think he got us a joint detention on purpose," Harry whispered. "So he could be here to watch out for me."
"Hermione and I always stick around!"
"Yeah, but I didn't mention that when I was warning Draco what Aran was like. I just said he almost always gave me a detention, but he didn't like using Filch. Probably too worried Severus would hear about it."
Ron still looked grumpy, but after that he let Harry read.
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Aran often just told Harry what to do in detention, then fled up the short staircase to his office. This time, though, he stayed in the classroom. It was soon easy to see why. He was trying to keep Draco and Harry apart.
Assigning them a detention together seemed an odd way to proceed, Harry thought. But then again, Aran never had been very strong in the brainpower department. He sat them down in different parts of the classroom and watched them like a hawk. And it did look like he'd keep them straight through lunch, but Draco put an end to that. After only twenty minutes of practicing quiet reading, of all things, Draco gave a theatrical sigh and rubbed his stomach. "I sure hope Severus doesn't notice we're missing from the Great Hall," he said loudly. "Can you imagine how angry he'd be to hear his own sons are being starved by another teacher?"
Aran looked up and growled. "Go. Get out. Both of you."
Harry almost hooted with glee.
That feeling was short-lived, however. Almost as soon as he and Draco were out in the hall, Draco was yanking him down a side corridor and then into a small, empty room.
"Hey, what about lunch?"
"Lunch can wait," said Draco, flicking his wand to close the door. He murmured some other spell, one Harry didn't recognise. Probably something to give them privacy. "This can't. Harry... look, I know I promised last night to let you handle the whole Aran thing yourself, but you didn't really tell me how bad it was, did you?"
"It's not that bad--"
"No? He just pairs you with students who hate your guts, and lets them fire off nasty spells at you while you're forbidden to so much as defend yourself! No, that's not bad at all!" Draco abruptly snapped his fingers right in front of Harry's eyes. "Wake up, for Merlin's sake! What does he have to do to make you tell Severus about it, gouge your eyes out like Lucius did?"
"Oh, thanks for reminding me. I love thinking about that every day!"
"I'll say whatever you need to hear--"
"Who do you think you are, my father?" Harry shoved past Draco then, only to find that the other boy hadn't been casting a silencing charm before, after all! He'd sealed the room so Harry couldn't get out.
"I think you should tell your father!" Draco snapped back.
"Oh, fuck you." Harry twisted his lips. "What do you know? I've been handling Aran's shite for weeks. You've been back for two days. It's all under control."
"Really?" Draco's crossed arms tightened. "Well, I don't think so. If you can't see, it, fine. I'm seeing Severus tonight to go to my therapist, and I'll just tell him myself how Defence is going this year."
"You promised not to!"
"Oh, please. I promised Lucius I'd take the Dark Mark, you know. Want me to keep that one, too?"
"That's hardly the same thing!"
"It certainly is," said Draco coldly. "Circumstances change, and promises have to change along with them. Deal with it, Harry."
Harry had a strong urge to hex Draco, but then a better idea occurred to him. "You tell Severus about Aran and I'll tell him how Slytherin's treating you. Yeah, I'll tell him they all call you Malshite. How do you like that, eh? Or do you want to handle things yourself, too?"
Draco opened his mouth to retort, but obviously thought better of it. He spent a moment thinking, instead. "Fine, fine. I won't tell Severus about Aran, but only on one condition."
"Condition?"
"Yeah, get your head out of your arse! Crap, I can't believe I even have to tell you this. Stand up to Aran! Stop letting yourself get stomped on in class!"
"Refuse to work with anyone but you or Gryffindors, you mean?"
Draco rolled his eyes. "I mean you ought to use Parseltongue, you blithering idiot. What's he going to do about it? Expel you? Which brings me to something else. Why the hell do you serve his stupid detentions? He's not going to take points from you or me; that's pretty obvious. And what else can he do, since he's sure not going to go complaining to Severus?"
"Ron said something like that," Harry remembered.
"Well, good for him," Draco only said. "Harry... why have you been putting up with this? It's rubbish! You..." Draco shifted on his feet. "You don't still think, deep down somewhere, that Aran's views on Parseltongue have any merit, do you?"
"No!" exclaimed Harry. He meant it, too. That wasn't what was going on.
"Then why? You must have had a motive."
Harry thought then that Draco was definitely learning things from Marsha.
"I... I guess I thought he'd go to McGonagall to complain, and she'd go to Severus. And you know, he'd demand a parent-teacher conference like I'm eight years old! Come to think of it, though, I'm pretty sure now that Aran won't bother complaining about me to McGonagall at all. She practically told him to his face he was being unfair to me. Hmmm."
"Nothing to worry about there, then."
Harry smiled. "I guess not."
"So you'll start casting in Defence?"
Chewing his lip, Harry thought about it. Aran couldn't do much except yell insults, and he did that anyway. He wouldn't even give Harry poor marks for using Parseltongue, not when it would only bring Severus into his classroom.
He probably should have thought of all this a lot sooner, Harry decided. Maybe he would have, if every other year he'd spent at Hogwarts hadn't more-or-less trained him that teachers were the ones with all the power. Even mean, unreasonable teachers. Not just Snape, either. Umbridge had been even worse.
"Yeah, all right." Harry shrugged. "I'll give it a go, at least. And when Aran starts to scream, I'll... I guess I'll just let him. And I won't serve any more stupid unfair detentions. Yeah, that should be all right."
"That's settled, then." Draco blew out a breath. "Good. Let's get some lunch before Severus really does come looking for us."
They hurried down the corridor and were almost at the Great Hall when Draco asked, "Say, what was with the poodle-girl? She's not in Slytherin... I didn't think she was in Gryffindor, either. What was she doing in our class?"
Harry laughed. "Oh, Luna. Yeah, she's a good sort, but a bit odd at times. A little while back she started showing up in whatever class she felt like."
"And the professors just let her?"
"Well, I haven't seen her try it in Potions," Harry dryly said. "Severus would put a pretty quick end to it, I'm sure. But everyone else... see, it's like this. Luna started going on about how she has to follow her stars. And apparently Trelawney blathered on to everybody about how Luna was a free spirit and mustn't be stifled, something like that. So..." He cracked a grin. "The teachers decided it was easier just to let her come and go, I guess."