Chapter Text
This was just ridiculous. Makkari was a good student, always turning in her assignments on time, offering to tutor other students, and keeping her grades up because if they started to slip, she wouldn’t be allowed to play Quidditch. She had just been selected as a Prefect and was honestly really hoping to be chosen as Head Girl in 2 years. She was usually on time for her classes, even if it meant running down the corridors, but other than minor infractions, Makkari had always tried to be the best student possible. She was determined to outshine the others and show that just because she was put in Slytherin, it didn’t make her a bad person, just extra motivated. However, at this exact moment, she couldn’t help but wish that she did have a little bit of a mean streak, because if so then she would have no trouble jinxing the idiot that landed her in detention for something that she wasn’t even to blame for.
He was a fifth year too and a Prefect, so he should have known better than to pull a prank that landed them both out past curfew. Makkari had just finished studying at the library and was on her way back to the Slytherin dormitory when the Hufflepuff ran around the corner and grabbed her by the arm, yanking her away from the dungeons. She ran alongside him and could see that he was yelling something, but she wasn’t able to read lips and run at the same time.
He finally slowed down after they had turned a few corners and looked at her, his eyes glowing gold in the light of the torches on the wall.
“What’s wrong? Why did you drag me here?” she questioned while catching her breath.
He looked taken aback at the questions and she worried he didn’t know BSL, but after a few seconds of pause, he raised his hands and replied, “There was a blast-ended skrewt chasing me.”
“Is this a joke?” She was getting frustrated and knew that she didn’t have a lot of time before they got in trouble for being out so late. “Blast-ended skrewts are extinct,” she explained.
He shook his head and signed, “I thought that too, but I saw it.”
She was about to point out that even if he had seen one, they aren’t fast so he could’ve just stunned it and didn’t need to run when she saw movement just past him and stepped to the side to see Professor Snape walking up.
“What are you two doing out so late?” he demanded and Makkari looked over at the Hufflepuff to see him answer, but between how dark it was and how quickly the two of them were talking, Makkari couldn’t keep up and missed almost all of the conversation except for the very end when Snape said, “detention. Both of you, tomorrow after dinner.”
Her Head of House then walked them both back to their dorms, dropping him off at the kitchens before taking Makkari to the dungeons and sending her in. She was exhausted and annoyed, especially given that the entire way back, she hadn’t seen any skrewts or beasts of any kind.
Emerald, her half Kneazle half cat, lay at the foot of her bed and woke up as Makkari layed down, coming up to cuddle with her owner. She was more affectionate with Makkari than anyone could have predicted and hissed at anyone else, but that was what drew Makkari to the hybrid.
A fast movement brought Makkari back to the present and she watched as a vial slipped out of the boy’s hand. Makkari’s quick reflexes came in handy as she caught it, knowing they likely would have gotten in even more trouble if he had broken something.
“Thanks,” he signed when she handed it back and instead of replying she just got back to work. Snape had assigned them to do inventory for his potion ingredients and the sooner they finished, the sooner Makkari could get back to her homework. She was determined to do well on her OWLs and even though the year had just started, it was never too early to prepare.
The Hufflepuff kept trying to get her attention, but she was determined to ignore him the entire time, considering she was only in this mess because of him. However, he was relentless and walked over to be standing right in front of her and she figured it would be easier to just see what he has to say than to keep dodging him the whole time.
She looked up at him, eyebrows raised as if to say what do you want now? He smiled a little before turning serious and signing, “I’m sorry. I could’ve sworn there was a skrewt chasing me. I don’t know what happened.” His blue eyes shone with sincerity and Makkari was strongly considering forgiving him, if nothing else because so few people here know BSL and it would be nice to talk to someone without struggling to understand half of - wait, blue eyes? Makkari could have sworn his eyes were gold the night before.
She wracked her brain before remembering what she had read in one of her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbooks. One hex came to mind and she shook her head as the pieces came together.
“You were hexed,” she signed to him, “your eyes were gold last night. That’s a telltale sign of a hallucination hex.” She was honestly kicking herself for not thinking of it last night, but she didn’t know this boy and just assumed that he was trying to prank her. Looking back, his fear should have been a clue that he was innocent in this, but she had been too clouded with her frustration to figure it out earlier.
The Hufflepuff nodded, a look of understanding passing over his face. “That actually makes a lot of sense now. I had just run into some students that don’t like me and everything after that feels a little fuzzy to remember. Still, I’m sorry for dragging you into this,” he apologized again and any of her residual annoyance dissipated.
“It’s okay,” she replied, “I’m Makkari.”
“Nice to meet you. My name is Druig.”
She smiled and without her previous anger, the Hufflepuff was actually pretty cute and funny. They continued to work on inventory, both agreeing that Snape wouldn’t accept their excuse and they might as well just finish the work they had started. They signed the whole time, which slowed them down a little at first but soon they had figured out a system where they worked together instead of separate and then they were moving faster than they had before and having fun while doing so.
By the time they had gone through all of the ingredients they were instructed to check, they still had a few hours left in the day, so after Snape dismissed them, they went to the library together.
Makkari was struggling with some of the charms they were supposed to work on this week so Druig offered to help. Most students don’t learn nonverbal spells until their sixth year, but Makkari had been doing them since her second year, because she refused to fall behind and instead she excelled. After one year of being told that as long as she learned the motions, it was okay if she couldn’t do the spell, she was even more determined, so she learned how to do the same spells as her peers, just nonverbal from the start.
Druig was patient, showing her several times and correcting her wand motions until she was able to replicate it perfectly. She was learning faster with him than she did by herself and they agreed to become study buddies, with him helping her in Charms and Transfiguration and her helping him in Potions and ironically, Herbology.
When it was nearing curfew, they left the library together, only parting when they had to. She was really glad that they had figured out what really happened, not just so they could study together, but also because Druig was just really sweet and they got along great. She went to bed that night feeling glad that even though she now had a detention on her record, at least she got a new friend out of it.