all the usual disclamers. i don't like typing it.
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They made it down to the Great Hall before Ron and Hermione did for which Harry was grateful, because they both would have asked a million embarrassing questions when they saw him.
"Crap," Draco said suddenly, looking up from whatever dream world he had been lost in and noticing Harry's stiff movements. Two minutes and a muttered charm later, Harry was walking normally again, and very grateful.
"Thanks, Drake." He glanced at Draco through his eyelashes, then looked away quickly. The blond was staring at him, an unreadable expression in his eyes.
He nodded, eyes never leaving Harry's face, noting the soft blush that had spread across his cheeks when he noticed Draco's gaze. He smirked slightly. From what he could see, this could go two ways. Either Harry was embarrassed, and would likely attempt to avoid him as much as possible, or Harry was attracted to him. Of course, the second option would likely lead to just as much avoidance as the first, as he was fairly sure that Harry had never realized he was bi, though Draco had seen him checking both guys and girls out. If he hadn't, he never would have dared to ask that of him. He'd have felt like it was rape, even if it was consensual.
Ron and Hermione's entrance interrupted his musings, as they sat one on each side of Harry, who had sat across from Draco. It was a very lonely feeling, but he was used to it. They always left him sitting alone. Most people did. Harry would usually sit by him, but was likely going to be touchy around him for a couple of days. On the upside, though, he sat wherever he liked and nobody said anything. He'd never sat at the Gryffindor table before, not wanting to push his luck, but the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs accepted him easily, though suspiciously. But hey, it was the last day of school, and he was sitting with the three acknowledged leaders of Gryffindor, so what the hell?
"May I ask, just what you're doing at the Gryffindor table, Malfoy?" A painfully polite voice spoke next to him.
"Eating breakfast." Harry snickered at his response, and Draco smirked at him. Looking up, he caught the glare the petite redhead sent him, apparently for nothing more than sitting here and making Harry laugh. "Good morning, Weaslette." Now she and Ron were both glaring at him. "What? I said good morning in a perfectly pleasant manner."
"They don't like the nickname, Draco," Harry laughed, making Ginny gasp with his casual use of the blonde's first name.
"So sue me, Scarhead." Now all the nearby Gryffindors except Harry were glaring at him. Fortunately it was still early, and most of Gryffindor was still in bed. Still, there were enough to do him serious damage if he didn't watch his step. Harry, however, merely grinned at him, and his housemates relaxed.
"Whatever, Blondie." Draco glared at him. Trust Harry to go straight for his vanity points. Harry knew his hair was the part he spent the most time on, and any comments about his hair got under his skin really easily. Harry grinned. "See? You have names you just don't like." Draco pouted at him. He hated it when Harry bested him, but he didn't have an appropriate comeback that wouldn't get him murdered by the surrounding Gryffindorks. Ginny was staring at them in shock; she had never seen them together since they had ended hostilities. At least he'd managed to bewilder her, that would have to do for now. When she noticed his renewed smirk, her lips tightened, and she stomped away. "So, Drake, why did you call her that, anyway?"
"She shouldn't have glared at me when you laughed." Harry grinned, a pleased glint in his eye. He liked Draco paying attention to him, always had, actually . . ..
"It irritated you that she glared when I laughed?"
"Yes. I was being perfectly polite to her, and she gets mad at me because of something beyond my control. I didn't make you laugh. You just thought it was funny." Yes, Draco had definitely been defending him, wasn't that cute? Harry smiled happily.
"So I did." Ron and Hermione exchanged looks, both sure they were missing something, but totally unable to see what it was.
"She's a jealous b- broad." He changed mid-word, sure that Ron would take exception to his calling his sister a bitch, no matter how deserved it was.
"Hmm." He couldn't tell if the sound Harry made was agreement of dissent, and from the looks on their faces, nobody else could either.
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"Wait- that last piece, describe it again."
"A large gold chalice, with four rubies inset into each quarter on the sides of the top, and again on the base."
"What's up Malfoy, you look pale. Not that that's anything new, but you're paler than usual." Harry sounded concerned and amused at the same time.
"I've seen it."
"Where?"
"Gringotts."
"OK." Hermione noted it down, Malfoy-chalice-Gringotts. "And that's the last of Gryffindor's known items. Next-"
"Why did we start with Gryffindor, anyway? He'd be more likely to go after Slytherin's things."
"Because Gryffindor left the most items." Hermione sounded exasperated; she'd explained this before they started going over the list, he'd asked just to irritate her. "Next, is Slytherin's. First up, a locket, silver, with a snake in the form of an 's', having an emerald set as the eye -man, who actually talks like that?-"
"A collector, an auctioneer-"
"Yes, thank you." Hermione said dryly, cutting off Draco's litany of exactly who spoke like that.
"So it's a silver locket, with a snake with an emerald eye, that's curled into an 's'." Draco rattled off, just in case she was having trouble translating it. Ok, so once again, he'd done it merely to annoy her, but it seemed he'd hit a chord somewhere. Hermione looked up suddenly, a look of total shock on her face.
"And we agreed that it would likely be somewhere associated with either current or former Death Eaters?" They all nodded. "Sirius' brother was a Death Eater, remember? And that locket we found?" Ron and Harry both started cursing furiously. Draco looked curious.
"Where is it? We were going to throw it out."
"It looked valuable, so Kreacher probably stole it back and hid it somewhere." Apparently, they really didn't like Kreacher . . ..
"Kreacher's the house elf at Headquarters. He's nutty as a fruitcake, and won't listen to any of us. He has to obey Harry because Sirius left him the house and everything associated with it, but he totally hates him. Mutters insults and curses whenever he's in earshot, and he's just a general pain." Wow. The longest speech Ron had ever made in Draco's presence, and it was spent on a house elf. Draco totally missed Hermione's response to this little speech, thinking about what they should do next. The lists and everything could be moved, they could take them to this headquarters, so they could set up base there instead of here at the school, which was going to be deserted soon.
"Right, that's two items, I think we should work on that before we find any more. I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting tired of just sitting here reading, and both are places we can get to without you having to sit a broom." This last part was ostensibly to Hermione, who hated flying, but the wording made it obvious he was talking to Harry, who blushed. Draco suppressed a chuckle. "So, you and Weasley go to wherever it is you saw the locket, and I'll take Harry to Gringotts to look for the chalice."
"We should go together . . .."
"You think I'm going to let you into my Gringotts vaults? Think again, Granger. Also, I thing we should move to this Headquarters you guys were talking about, since everyone's going to be gone here soon." Harry nodded.
"Actually, I think that's a good idea. Neither place is really dangerous. We'll go together to places we can't trust, but neither Grimmauld nor Gringotts are places we have to worry about. The Order has protections on one, and the goblins protect the other. And I don't really fancy staying here once the place is empty." Having gotten Harry's approval, there was now no use protesting Draco's plan. That was one good thing about being the golden boy. As long as his plan was thought out, no one questioned him. Any plan he approved went.
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Hermione looked between the two bickering boys. Something had changed between them; the constant fighting was covering something. She just couldn't see what. She didn't understand what would suddenly change their relationship, but something obviously had, though Ron was oblivious, as usual.
"'Mi, you ready?" She started at Ron's voice, right next to her. She hadn't heard him approach, lost in her thoughts as she was. "We'd best be going. It'll take time to find that blasted locket." She nodded. The mansion was huge, and there was no telling where Kreacher would have hidden it.
"Yeah, let's go." She turned to Harry and Draco. "You boys ready?" They both nodded, then turned to grin at each other, Harry with a nearly unnoticeable blush. Nobody except Draco noticed it, as the others were to wrapped-up in their last minute departure minutiae. "Good. After you." Harry shrugged, and grabbed a handful of Floo powder, Draco right behind him, one hand resting on Harry's shoulder until Harry shrugged it off. Draco stepped in front of Harry, blocking his access to the fire. Harry scowled, but allowed Draco to go first. He did, however, punch Draco's shoulder, hard. Draco acted as if he didn't notice, other than a small wince when his fist connected.
"Gringotts!" Draco said as he threw his fistful of shimmering green powder into the fire, turning it a bright emerald, then stepped into the flames, seemingly disappearing.
"Gringotts!" Harry called a couple of seconds later, following his actions. Hermione turned to Ron.
"Well, let's go."
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Draco caught Harry's arm as he tumbled out of the fire, keeping him from falling.
"Nice entrance, Potter."
"Thanks!" Harry grinned at him. He sighed.
"Let's get this over with." Harry headed over towards the line of tellers. Draco slid into a booth, presenting his signet ring to the goblin within.
"I'd like to visit the main vault, please." The goblin examined both the ring and the wearer closely, then nodded.
"Of course. Follow me, please." He opened a small door, and led them both down a short hallway towards the vaults.