Walking through the halls the next morning, Hermione found it hard to hide the small smile that kept creeping on her face. She and Draco didn't return until just before sunrise, and while her body and mind were exhausted, her heart was high on life. But one small foreboding thought kept her from skipping to her next class. The knowledge of their secret weighed heavy on her, and the fact that it was going to be impossible for her to tell anyone about anything having to do with it. Although Draco said he felt the same way, she knew it was harder for her. If his family and friends found out, they'd probably try to kill her. She snorted when she imagined the look on his parents faces. His mother would probably die of mortification and his father... god only knew the twisted and evil things that man was capable of doing to his own flesh and blood, she thought to herself as she sat down next to Harry in Potions. Although lost in her thoughts, she was fully aware of Draco's presence across the dungeon classroom.
Harry glanced at her, and elbowed her arm. "Everything ok, Hermione? You're off in another world again." he whispered. "You know no matter what it is you can tell me. I know Ron is pissed you're occupied with someone, but I think it's about time you found some happiness outside of everything."
She smiled at him and nodded. "I don't think I can tell you, but thank you for being such a friend." She quietly took a deep breath, feeling eyes on her, knowing one pair belonged to Ron, and another to Draco. Unknown to her, a third pair of eyes were on her, curiosity filled as they watched.
Returning to the common room with her fellow Gryffindors after dinner, she collapsed on her bed. She and Draco both agreed to rest tonight, having not slept at all the night before. It wasn't arguable that they didn't want to spend the night without one another, but they both had circles under their eyes and needed to sleep. She ran her fingers through her hair, stretching her body out and sighed.
In the boy's dormitory, Harry sat in the window looking out onto the grounds, thinking hard about Hermione. He wasn't jealous of whatever she had with whomever, but desperately wanted to know who it was just to make sure she wouldn't get hurt. He tried to run though his head who it could be, but no one he thought of would be worthy of her keeping so silent about it. The thought of the guy being someone he wouldn't of thought of made him shiver.
"Bollocks! We've been friends for how long and she can't tell us about it!" Ron shot at him from behind his curtains, somehow reading Harry's train of thought. "Maybe it's a teacher… but damn it, I wanna know why she can't trust her two closest friends and tell us!" he grumbled.
Harry shook his head, smiling. "Mate, it's no business of ours if she doesn't want to say anything. It can't be a teacher, and you're jealous." he said. Tossing a Chocolate Frog wrapper out from behind the curtains at him, he snorted.
"So what, maybe I'm just worried about her, huh? She could have been slipped a love potion and is carrying on with this bloke against her will… maybe she's under the Imperious Curse, who bloody knows!? It's just pissing me off!"
Harry tuned him out, trying not to snicker at his best mates ranting. He saw a figure, cloaked and running towards the Forbbidon Forest from the castle gardens, a broom carried alongside. He straightened and looked harder, trying to tell if it was a boy or girl, student or teacher. He noticed the broom was black, and sat back a moment. 'Nimbus 2001's are black… and the Slytherin Quidditch team members are the only ones with those…' he thought quickly. His automatic thought went to Draco Malfoy, and he leaned his head back against the wall. 'What's he up to,' he thought. In the silence he realized Ron had finally shut up and was snoring away. Harry got up and went to his trunk, pulling out the Invisibility cloak. He pulled it over him and left, heading on the path where who he assumed was Draco had headed.
/
Walking as quietly as he could, Draco slipped through the trees in the Forbiddon Forest, glancing about from beneath his hood. The eerie silence of the forest did nothing to slow his pace, but made him clench his teeth and keep going.
A little ways behind him, Harry followed under his Invisibility cloak, as quiet as he could be. Where the hell is he going and why? he thought, narrowly avoiding a fall into a dip in the path. He narrowed his eyes and kept after him.
Moments later, the twang of an arrow hitting the ground in front of Draco stopped his pace. Hoof beats echoed near as Draco pulled the hood from his head as he came face to face with Firenze.
"What can I do for you, young Malfoy? Whatever brings you this deep into the woods must be urgent indeed. Perhaps I can help you, something within your heart drives you to seek guidance…"
Malfoy cleared his throat, a little taken aback by the centaur and took a breath. "I… I just need to speak to someone outside of it all, well for the most part at least. Um… it's a personal matter but one you might be able to help me with." Firenze nodded, and gestured for him to walk alongside him as they talked.
Harry was far enough to remain hidden but close enough to hear their conversation. He knew Firenze well, and knew he was aware of his presence but also knew he would never alert Draco to it.
After overhearing Draco explain his entire story to the centaur, Harry was beyond surprised. Ron's name coming out of the Goblet of Fire last Halloween as a FIFTH contestant would have been less surprising then this. Malfoy, the bigoted self-righteous pompous ass, in LOVE with Hermione "the mudblood" Granger! It was unbelieveable! Unlikely!
Half him wanted to charge over to Malfoy and pummel him straight into his 7th year, but the other half understood as Dumbledore's closest student that maybe this kind of love is worth encouraging. He stumbled backwards a bit turning around, and walked slowly back to the castle, letting it all sink in.
Firenze glanced in Harry's direction briefly when Draco wasn't looking, and hid a smile, as he was afraid to let him hear and have him over-react. Turning back to the task at hand, he smiled down at Draco.
"When I first laid eyes on you, young Malfoy, I thought your heart closed off and your eyes blind to all but what your upbringing has taught. But I see Dumbledore's influence and guidance is affecting you in the way he had intended. Follow your heart, young one. The Dark Lord's most powerful weapon is the lack and acknowledgement of love. Unlocking the door that divides your world and hers gives your kind and others around you the greatest defense against the darkness. Now that the evil has again revealed itself, I hope we have a chance. If you are confused, I repeat myself. Follow your heart and..." and he trailed off gazing at the stars.
Draco let his words settle in his mind, and sighed. Firenze broke his gaze from the night sky and back at the young wizard. "I must return to my duty and you to your bed. I hope my words have eased your hectic thoughts. I do hope we meet again." Charging off, he left Draco standing and staring up through the trees at the nearly full moon.
Harry was deep in thought, sitting on a stump near Hagrid's cabin, and like Draco he was also looking up at the moon. A small part of him wished he hadn't followed Draco. 'I'll never be able to play dumb about this,' he thought. 'And just think, Ron is going to blow his top off!'
Draco was just passing away from the forest when he looked to his right and spotted a figure sitting outside Hagrid's hut. Curiosity fought his fatigue but lost to the latter, and he kept walking, still deep in thought.
Getting up and heading back as well, Harry spotted him many yards ahead, and fought the urge to run up to him. 'Leave it alone, Harry. Stay out of this one,' he told himself, and took a roundabout way back to bed.
"HARRY! WAKE UP MATE!"
Startled from his conflicting dreams, Harry sat up, still in bed, the sun blazing through the window. Ron stood next to his head, a weird look on his face.
"You slept through breakfast and Transfiguration! I had to tell McGonagall you had some issues with your scar all night and barely slept. She's mad as hell and told me to wake you now or we'll both lose 20 points. What's wrong, Harry? Was I right? Is your scar bothering you?" he asked, looking worried.
Harry took a breath. "Yeah… something like that…" and got out of bed, not looking at his best friend, hating himself he had to lie to him. While he got dressed, Ron chattered away, going on about missing Seamus turning Dean's hair into a bird's nest on accident.
"Hermione was worried too, you know." Ron continued as Harry shook his robes out that had been rumpled on the floor beside his bed. "When I told her you were still asleep, she got all funny and stammered to let you sleep. What is with everyone?" He looked closer at Harry, who refused to meet his eyes. "Are you involved in this thing that she's keeping a secret?" he inquired, gazing suspiciously at his best friend.
Laughing to the point where he was almost in tears and raising a surprised look from Ron, "Yeah ok Ron, I'm having sex with my best friend…" he replied sarcastically, "and we've been meaning to ask, would you wanna join?"
Ron's face turned up in disgust and he looked away, but not before he heard the bite of humor in that remark. "Alright, alright, never mind. I should've known not to ask that. But now both of you are acting weird… I hate being left out." He turned to look at Harry one more time before heading out. "Potions is in 15 minutes… you better hurry."
Harry nodded, still off in space. He wandered to the window, looking out at the trees. 'Should I talk to Hermione? Of course she'll be upset but I'm her friend, damn it. I told her I'd support whatever she wanted to do… even if that doing is Malfoy…' He sighed, and headed to the dungeons.
When he entered and sat down next to Hermione, many eyes turned to him in curiosity. No one failed to note his absence at breakfast and Transfiguration, and like always, the whispers commenced. Hermione shot dirty looks at many of them and looked sideways at her friend. "I know Ron was lying to McGonagall about your scar giving you problems. Your face is always pale when that happens, and right now you have more color than normal. I'll second what you told me yesterday. If there's anything going on, you can trust me…" she whispered, suspicion and worry in her eyes.
Harry sighed, still arguing with himself on what to do. He relented on his first instinct. "Meet me at DA Headquarters after Dinner. We need to talk." he muttered, glancing up at her briefly to catch her face paling. They snapped to attention as Snape entered the room with his usual slamming of the door, and class began.
They avoided each other all day, confusing the hell out of Ron even more. McGonagall stopped him after lunch as he was leaving the Great Hall. "Potter, whether or not I believe Mr. Weasley's story on why you slept through my class is irrelevant to the fact that if you pull that again, you'll be writing out my lessons every night as detention for the remainder of the year." She glanced sharply at him. "Whatever it is bothering you, you may come to my office after classes if it's needed." She said quietly, and walked away. Pansy Parkinson and her little cackling group watched him from the stairs, snickering at him for getting a lecture. He glared at them, and took off outside, needing some air.
Harry paced the gardens for a while, trying to figure out how he was going to explain to Hermione that he knew her secret, and even harder was going to be explaining he didn't hate her for it being Malfoy.
Somewhere nearby hidden behind the shrubbery, someone watched Harry pace, the eyes narrowing in thought. Those same eyes had seen the very thing he was pacing about, lost in thought. The eyes; belonging to a student in normal everyday Hogwarts robes with a bright red and gold tie, shifted away from Harry as they walked off.
