The rest of the class was filing in as Harry was pulling out his cauldron and potions kit, waiting for Severus to enter the room and start their lesson. Beside him Draco was hurriedly finishing the essay that was due that day: two scrolls of parchment on “The uses of Hurgid root in healing and the dangers of Hurgid potion use with other potions.”
Someone flopping down on the stool on the other side of him brought Harry’s attention away from his potion’s kit and up to Hermione’s frustrated face.
“You are impossible, you know that?” she said angrily. It was more of a statement than a question.
Harry frowned, wondering what he had done to earn his friend’s wrath. She had not even spoken to him in the three weeks since the falling out with Ron.
“He knows he is,” Draco said quickly, not looking up from his near finished essay when Harry still hadn’t said anything a moment later.
Hermione took a moment to appreciate the fact that Draco had said something to her that wasn’t rude, and then turned her attention back to Harry.
“Both of you are insane.”
Assuming she was speaking of him and Ron, and not him and Draco, Harry reminded her, “I didn’t start the fight, and am still perfectly willing to remain friends with him.”
Draco scoffed, but didn’t say anything to him. If one of his friends had treated him like that he would have said to hell with them and been content never to speak to them again.
Hermione sighed and put her head in her hands, leaning on the desk. Instinctively Harry reached out to put his hand on Hermione’s shoulder for comfort. She didn’t resist, and so he left it there for a moment.
“Ginny said you weren’t speaking to Ron… does this mean you are now?”
“I don’t know,” came Hermione’s muffled voice. She took her hands away from her face. “Why couldn’t you two just keep things simple for our last year? Things aren’t this complicated with girls you know.”
“Ha!” Draco was finished with his scribbled essay now, and was rolling it up. He tied it closed and said, “That’s because you’re a girl, and to girls other girls are simple. To us normal people you are all impossible.”
Hermione spared a glare with no heart in it for him just as Snape walked in the door and tapped the board with his wand. The potion for the day appeared there and he cautioned them to use their time wisely as this potion was one quick paced in the brewing. They set to work, Hermione a step ahead of Harry and Draco the whole way.
Silently, Harry was thankful that Ron had opted out of NEWT Potions because this was the only class he had with Hermione that Ron didn’t have.
Halfway through their brewing and trying to sound innocent, Harry said, “You know Jacquelyn, right?”
Draco rolled his eyes… here it came again.
Hermione said, “Of course and I know what you’re going to ask me.”
“And?” Harry was hopeful of the answer.
“She likes you but she’d rather you talked to her instead of just mouthing wordlessly whenever you pass her in the hall.”
Draco sniggered loudly drawing a look from Snape that nobody noticed. Realizing for the first time, Severus looked up to find Harry, Draco, and Hermione all sitting together. Did this mean Granger had chosen a side in the battle?
Harry shot Draco a look as Hermione allowed a smile to creep over her face. “Don’t listen to him Hermione, he thinks he’s a lady’s man and can win over any woman’s heart.”
Draco nodded. That sounded about right. He had never had trouble getting dates with girls before.
Hermione glanced over at Draco from the corner of her eyes, secrets wandering her brain waiting to get out, but neither boy noticed.
“Well, I think you’re both pretty bad… not talking to girls that is,” Hermione clarified.
“You’re a girl,” Draco pointed out as he added several ingredients to his potion very quickly.
Hermione raised her eyebrows and said, “Thanks for noticing.”
Draco frowned and bit his lip. For the past six years he had always referred to her as mudblood. He could not deny that he had never acknowledged her as a girl.
Hermione seemed unaware of their presence again at lunch, sitting by Ron but not speaking to him. Ron sat looking as miserable as Harry knew Hermione felt. Shaking his head as he turned back from the once happy couple, Harry found Draco staring off into the distance down the Gryffindor table as if in a daydream.
Harry took a bite out of his sandwich and said, “You know, maybe you should try talking to her the next time she comes to sit with us.”
Draco’s attention snapped to Harry. “What?” Did Harry know that he had been staring down the long table at Ginny? He himself hadn’t even noticed that his gaze had automatically drifted to her when she entered the Great Hall and sat down.
“You heard me,” Harry chuckled for a moment. “She thought you didn’t like her you know… because you never look at her or talk to her when she sits with us.”
“What do you want me to say?” Draco asked sarcastically. “So how’s your brother doing? Do you know he tried to murder me in the hall last Saturday when my back was turned?”
Harry frowned. “He didn’t.”
Nodding, Draco said, “I felt the curse coming at me from behind just soon enough to duck… no idea what it was, but I’ve felt enough dirty magic to know it was dark.”
“How come you didn’t say anything?”
Draco raised an eyebrow. “Would you really have done something about it? You two were best mates for six years… I know you chose me over him when everything was quiet, but when it comes to hexing somebody…” Draco trailed off because Ginny had suddenly appeared at his side. She took a seat right next to him today, rather than across from him and next to Harry.
Harry was deep in thought now at Draco’s question, and only gave Ginny a nod hello as he chewed on a bite of his roast beef sandwich.
After a few moments when she hadn’t gotten a proper greeting, Ginny asked Draco, “What’s up with him?”
Draco shrugged. His voice caught in his throat for a moment, but he swallowed and figured that if he could exchange civil words with Granger, he could talk to Ginny.
“He’s just trying to figure out the answer to a question… I don’t think he’ll like whatever answer he comes up with.”
“Oh,” Ginny thought, and then asked, “what was the question?”
Harry looked up to see what the response might be to Ginny, but deciding to spare her the details of how stupid her brother was, Draco only said, “It has to do with family.”
Thinking he meant Harry’s mother and father, Ginny dropped the question and began talking about the last British Quidditch match, and how several officials had mysteriously turned up missing for several days, only to be found with their memories wiped clean.
“Sounds like Volde- You Know Who to me,” Harry corrected himself seeing the empty cup Draco had just picked up to aim at him.
Ginny watched the exchange interestedly, before going back to the rest of the story that had appeared in the Daily Prophet that morning.
Harry had his chance to master speaking to girls early that evening after dinner. Draco prodded him in the back to do something other than stop and stare when Harry had stopped in front of him yet again at the site of Jacquelyn.
“Hi,” Harry started off, pausing at a loss for words after that.
Draco put his head in his hand as he backed off to give Harry room, and thought that at least he had gotten one word out.
“Hi,” she smiled at him and waited patiently for him to say something else.
“So- some weather lately huh?”
Jacquelyn frowned and said, “Sure.”
Feeling an Imperius would be useful right now, as Draco had no problem speaking to the Hufflepuff, Draco sighed and watched his friend stumble awkwardly through the following conversation about being stuck inside the castle and not being able to go outside… Draco thought the same thing, but didn’t think it was a great follow up considering how Harry had just mentioned the stormy, cold, rainy weather they’d been having for the last week.
Finally it was over, and Harry was grinning as they walked up a long set of stairs to the fifth floor.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Harry said, feeling light as a feather for some reason. All he could see in front of him was her perfectly smooth, pretty face.
“Well, you didn’t have to listen to what was being said,” Draco teased him. Harry bumped into him with his shoulder playfully, making him stumble sideways slightly. Draco returned the gesture and they continued on. They had nowhere in particular to go, and had grown tired of sitting in the room of requirement lately. Even dueling hadn’t kept their interest as the feeling of being stuck in the castle had once again taken hold.
“I’ve got to finish my Defense essay,” Harry suddenly remembered.
“Me too,” Draco nodded and Harry told him to wait in the library while he ran to Gryffindor common room to retrieve his.
The castle was chilly as Draco walked through the empty corridors. The cold air made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, and it took him a minute to realize that it wasn’t the cold air doing it to him, but the fact that he felt like he was being followed.
Draco spun around and saw no one, just as in his nightmares. Eyes narrowed, he drew his wand and hid it up the sleeve of his jacket. He quickly continued on, but the feeling of being followed grew clearer and more defined. Draco never knew why, but he had always had a knack for knowing when he wasn’t alone, or when a spell was flying at him, even if he couldn’t see it. His father had told him that this was an uncommon gift, and that he should use it to it’s fullest potential. Now was one of those times Draco was glad he had the gift as a curse sailed through the cold air at him.
He spun around and dodged the sickly red light just in time. His attacker was still nowhere to be seen. Draco tried the Expelliarmus charm but no wand came flying at him. Blood pumping, Draco squinted into the dimly lit corridor, and hit the floor just as another hex came flying at him. This one was brown, and harmless he knew, but all the same, he preferred not to be covered in bat bogeys.
Just as a third hex was flying at him, and Draco was rolling away to the other side of the hall, Harry appeared and gripped something invisible, pulling hard to reveal Ron from underneath Harry’s own invisibility cloak.
Ron just stood there motionless for a moment, his nasty grin fading into the look a child gets when they are caught with their hand in a cookie jar.
Draco jumped to his feet and Harry stood looking at Ron dumbly, cloak in hand.
“What are you doing?” Harry asked him quietly.
“What do you think?” Ron asked, suddenly angry. “I’m doing what you should have done a long time ago!”
Suddenly Harry was against Ron, pushing him hard into the stone wall. His wand was out and was up under Ron’s chin, invisibility cloak dropped and forgotten on the floor behind him.
“Don’t you ever, attack one of my friends again! Do you understand me!?” Harry was furious. Suddenly all the anger he held for Ron was pumping through his veins right now, and he wasn’t sure if he knew a name dirty enough for the traitor that stood in front of him.
Ron seemed stunned for a moment as Harry continued on. “If you want to turn traitor on me go ahead and be a traitor, but don’t let me ever find out about you trying to hurt one of my friends!” Harry pulled Ron off the wall for a second and pushed him hard into it again at his last word. A mixture of fear and hurt displayed in Ron’s eyes just before a throat cleared somewhere behind them.
Harry let go of Ron’s shirt collar and spun around to see Snape standing there with his arms crossed. Draco stood there, wand at his side, looking no less guilty then Harry did. From Snape’s point of view it should have appeared as if Harry and Draco had ganged up on Ron.
“What is going on here?” Snape asked, eyes darting from Harry, to Ron, then to Draco and back again.
Harry was too angry to speak, and Draco took up his cue to tell the story. For once his story was true when speaking to a professor after being caught in a fight with another student.
“Professor, he had Harry’s invisibility cloak on and he attacked me… Harry walked up and caught him at it.”
Ron swallowed, feeling as if he wanted to sink right into the stone wall he was still up against.
“Is this true Potter?” Harry nodded, and Snape said, “Weasley, get back to your common room. Don’t let me catch you stealing or trying to harm another student when their back is turned again. I expected more from you being a Prefect. Perhaps the Headmaster was wrong to give you the position given your violent nature…”
Ron seemed in disbelief. Snape was taking their side in this? How could he? Even with Draco’s story it still looked like they had ganged up on him! Mouthing wordlessly, he glared at Draco one last time and stalked away, back towards his common room. When he was gone, Severus put a hand up to rub his forehead.
“Were you telling me the truth?” he finally asked after a long, silent moment of thought.
Harry frowned. Of course they were. Had he really taken their side not having believed a word they had said?
“Yes sir,” Draco said when Harry remained silent. Snape sighed, and said, “You two had better get back to your common rooms. I imagine Weasley is in Gryffindor right now telling them all about how I took favor over you rather than him.”
“It was the truth though!” Harry said indignantly.
Severus gave him a sympathetic look. “Truth or not, it has never stopped Gryffindors from claming that I take the side of my own house over others,” he paused, and said, “we will speak on this later.” He walked in the direction of the Headmaster’s office, and Harry stood there dumbly as he left.
After a moment, Draco walked up to him and slapped him on the back. “Life sucks mate… better get back to Gryffindor and make it suck a little less.”
“And how do I do that?”
“Lie, cheat, steal, do whatever you have to.”
Harry frowned before realizing that Draco was grinning. He had only been joking.
“Ok, see you tomorrow then.”
“Right.” They separated, Draco’s heart still pumping fast enough to make him keep his wand out and ready for another battle if one should happen to find him.
Severus had been right. Glares met Harry as soon as he stepped through the common room door.
“So, is it true Potter? You’re officially a Slytherin now?”
“What?” Harry frowned and looked around at the angry faces, some of them in disbelief. Ron stood with his arms crossed not looking at Harry.
“He must be if old Snape is sticking up for him…” Harry turned but couldn’t see who had spoken in the crowd.
Harry shook his head and said, “Maybe you’d better get your facts straight before you start making accusations. Did Ron tell you he stole something of mine from my locked trunk and then used to attack somebody from behind?”
People around him began to laugh, and a tall sixth year said, “Go on Harry, you’re getting pathetic. Just go up to bed and change your blankets and all your things to green.”
Harry shook his head incredulously. So much for Gryffindor the loyal. He stalked angrily up the boy’s staircase and feeling in a snarky mood he placed several locking charms on the door once he was inside so that it would at least take a while for his fellows to get in. He hadn’t realized until after he had done it that Neville was sitting on his bed watching him.
“Hi Harry,” he said, watching him with curiosity.
Harry dropped his invisibility cloak into his trunk and flopped down onto his bed. “Hi Neville.” He thought a moment, and said, “I’ll take the locking charms off the door if you want. I didn’t mean to lock you in here.”
Neville thought a moment and said, “That’s ok… they’re calling you Harry the Slytherin now… I don’t want any part in that. Once a Gryffindor, always a Gryffindor.”
He looked up at him, warmth spreading through him to know that not everyone in his house had turned on him yet. “Thanks Neville, that means a lot.”
Neville smiled. “My Gran said your parents and my parents were friends… and she said the Longbottoms were friends with the Potters for a few generations before that… I can’t see you going to You Know Who’s side… don’t let them get to you.”
Harry nodded. He lay back on his bed, hands behind his head. Other people were friends with people not in their house… how come he wasn’t allowed to be friends with somebody from Slytherin? Draco had fought against the death eaters last year when they had invaded Hogwarts too… who did Ron think he was suddenly putting Draco down for that?”
Harry the Slytherin