Draco was not hiding. He wasn't. He just decided that the mountain of blankets on his dorm bed was his new home. It was very comfortable, too. A knock came at the door.
"Draco, is everything alright in there?"
At the sound of Pansy's voice, Draco burrowed his way deeper into the blankets.
"Go away, I'm sleeping."
"You've been 'sleeping' for the past two days."
Silence.
"...Is it something Potter said to you?
At that name, Draco shot out of bed and opened the door to the dorm room. Pansy was standing there, hand posed to knock once again. She looked surprised by his appearance and once Draco looked down he could see why. It was after noon on Sunday and Draco was still in his pajamas. Yes, muggle pajamas. Since his father was locked away, his mother had become obsessed with muggle culture—in particular, the fashion aspect. His mother then ordered the elves to replace all his sleeping-wear with multiple pairs of silver-grey pajamas. She had said they really make his eyes 'pop'—a term she had picked up from the muggles. Draco just sighed in defeat at Pansy's obvious gawking.
"Why did you mention Potter, Pansy?"
She blushed slightly at being caught staring as she tucked a strand of dark brown hair behind her ear before responding, "Well after you practically ran out of the Great Hall during dinner Friday, Potter ran out of the hall right after you so I assumed he was going to speak with you. I was right, wasn't I? What did he say? You two haven't spoken since the school year began."
Pansy was practically drooling at the potentially juicy drama that was about to unfold. Draco refused to let her start any rumors, not until he could sort through everything Potter said. Draco turned around, going to gather some casual robes for a relaxing Sunday. He responded to Pansy over his shoulder, "It was nothing, really, just a minor disagreement."
The dark-haired witch pouted slightly while looking relieved all the while. She had invited herself through the doorway and was now pacing back and forth in the dorm room.
"That's good because while you might not like to hear it, the magical community is very wary of you right now. And getting into a fight with the Savior of the Wizarding World is not going to help matters. You have to start thinking about your future, Draco. You want to get a job at the Ministry, right? I can help you submit an application, it's important that you…"
Draco ignored anything else Pansy had to say after that. Why did everyone think he wanted to work at the Ministry? What, so he could be like his father? Life there would be so…
Boring.
…
Bollocks.
The only sound that could be heard was the scratching of quills on parchment, which is common for the library—especially when Pince was in a sour mood like she was today. Harry looked up from his Charms text to study his surroundings. While the majority of the library was unharmed in the attack, a small number of books had sadly been destroyed. While most of the books were replaced by donations or purchases—a few of them were unrecoverable, leaving the librarian in a prolonged foul mood.
Harry looked back down at the text, but his attention flitted away from it not a second later. The boy sighed. The only thing—well, person he could think about was Draco Malfoy. Harry wanted to punch himself. He had been so stupid! The boy hadn't even given time for Malfoy to think the proposition over before asking for a response. And did he really think Malfoy was going to go for it, of all people? He had just been so desperate to not end the year with nothing to show for. That's not how the Marauders acted—Merlin knows what they did for their graduating prank. Even Fred and George went out with a blast of fireworks! Harry couldn't help but want to try to one-up them, and pretending to date Malfoy would blow any previous prank out of the water. But he had been too eager, he didn't think things through—
"You had the same look on your face when Snape assigned you personally a four-foot essay on the effects of toad droppings in potions. What could possibly have gotten your knickers in such a twist, Potter?"
Harry never thought he would feel so relieved to hear that snide tone. The dark-haired wizard looked over to meet Malfoy's strong, grey eyes.
"How did you find me?"
"You're a Gryffindor. Of course you're going to save your assignments for the last minute. Except for Granger, of course."
The blonde-haired teen was staring at him over the table, where he had taken a seat across from Harry. Malfoy held the other boys gaze for a moment before finally speaking again.
"Have you thought about the future impacts your little prank would have? What is the school going to think? What would The Prophet say?"
There was no real heat behind the words. It seemed Malfoy already had an idea of how Harry was going to answer. Harry humored him anyway.
"If you think I give a rat's arse about what The Prophet thinks of me, I don't. And the school's reaction is the most amusing part. I hope we get a big reaction out of them! And I promise I don't mean this offensively, but can they really write anything worse about you than they already have?"
Harry was too nervous to look Malfoy head-on, instead choosing to look out a nearby window. Merlin balls, he let his mouth get ahead of him again. Hesitatingly making eye-contact with Malfoy once again, Harry was surprised to note the amused expression on Malfoy's face. The black-haired teen let out a relieved gust of air. He thought he had just messed up his final chance to get Malfoy to agree because he knew the boy wouldn't come to him again. He had to sell the idea then and there.
Malfoy was still looking at him in amusement when he answered, "Truthfully, being associated with you would only help my reputation. Even if it is that way."
At the last sentence, a smirk widened across Malfoy's face, his eyes filled with mirth. Harry gave a startled laugh at those words. Harry drew in a deep breath before asking for the last time,
"So, what do you say, Malfoy?"
The blonde-haired teen's smirk widened before he held out his hand across the table, "Let's put on a real show."
Harry gave his own smirk in return, as he met Malfoy's hand across the table. His grip was cool against Harry's clammy one.
"Here's to not having a boring final year at Hogwarts, Draco."
They would have to start calling each other by the first names at some point, the other boy just had to get used to it. Draco seemed to catch on to Harry's line of thought.
"I'll shake to that, Harry."
McGonagall's quill clattered onto her desk from her slackened fingers. Dumbledore looked over curiously from his portrait.
"Minerva, is everything alright?"
The aging witch shivered fiercely before standing up.
"I just got a terrible feeling that this year is about to start running much less smoothly than before. I'm going to bed. Merlin knows when the next full night of sleep I might get will be…"
Dumbledore watched as McGonagall made her way to her living quarters. This was deeply unsettling. Albus himself had once felt the same thing before, like Hogwarts herself was warning him of something that was building up speed. He felt it when the Marauders were at Hogwarts—right before their final prank, and the Weasley twins—right before their grand finale against Umbridge.
Merlin help them all, because there is only one boy in the castle that would cause that kind of reaction.
"Harry, my boy, just what are you planning?"
A/N:
Unedited
Wow! Has it only been a day? I don't know about you guys, but I personally hate not knowing when the next chapter of a work is going to come out, if ever. So I looked at the overwhelming positive response I received and I decided to post the story a little differently. Part of it is I'm really excited myself for this story so I want everyone to see it as soon as I'm able to write it. So instead of really long chapters, I'm going to post in smaller chapters so you guys get updates quicker. When it's all done, I'll combine everything together like I originally planned. Sound good to you guys? Make sure to leave a like and review if you enjoy!
