Chapter Seven: Now Things Get Complicated

Harry Potter was a relatively simple man; having a psychotic mass murderer out for your blood for unknown reasons ever since you were a baby tended to give one reason to appreciate the simpler things in life, yet it also made one extremely stubborn sometimes.

However, this particular day is not one of those times, so it is not significant to this part of our story, so we'll let that sit for now... but remember it, it's an important quirk of our favorite hero.

Harry's day had started out relatively simple; he had got up, ate his breakfast, and tried to make it through his day without blasting Professor Umbridge to itty, bitty, little pieces with a viciousness that even Voldemort would find impressive. Then his afternoon rolled around.

His first surprise he had come to face being when Ron had come up to the dormitory while Harry was planning out the next DA meeting and asked him to help with a little problem that he was having...

The problem turned out to be one that Harry had no qualms with, and actually enjoyed for the few seconds they had solving it before Hermione interrupted them. The only issue was that he wasn't sure if he answered Ron's dilemma, even though he figured out one of his own.

Ron refusal to admit anything was wrong was a bit funny to watch, what with his need to throw everything in his trunk around the room-including a few items that he immediately snatched back up, ears burning red-and it was also a little sad, for it meant that his best mate wasn't ready to admit how he felt yet. Harry didn't think that would hurt him as much as did, but it did...

Then Hermione had confessed to the impossible; that she was in love, in love!, with Draco Malfoy. A Slytherin; and not just any Slytherin, the one that had been calling her a Mudblood on an almost daily basis.

Ron's reaction was predictable, not to mention very loud; but, even though his own head was thrown for a loop, Harry's attention was focused on Hermione's face and the way her eyebrows seemed permanently drawn together. That only happened when something confused her, rare as that was.

"Ron, shut up."

Harry wasn't really sure who was more surprised by his sudden demand; Ron or Hermione, but he needed to figure something out quickly and Hermione being who she was, he was pretty sure she could help him solve it... as well as the fact that if his assumption was proved correct, Draco Malfoy was going to be bumped up above Professor Umbridge on Harry's personal shite list and, unlike his professor, Harry could-and would-hurt the ferret. Badly.

"Do you love him, Hermione? Really and truly, no magic involved?"

For some strange reason, his question caused Hermione to smile slightly as she fidgeted a little before answering with a soft sigh, "Yes, Harry, really and truly, no spells involved."

Harry looked at Hermione closely, trying to see if this was their best friend or some Malfoy obsessed idiot. From his little knowledge of Love Spells/Charms, Harry knew that the person infected usually would want nothing more than to prattle on about how they loved the other and as far as he could tell, other than become more erratically nervous by each passing minute, Hermione was steering her own ship.

Just as she opened her mouth to defend her cause, Harry released a heavy sigh of his own and rested his forehead lightly against his friend's, her mouth closing as she awaited his verdict.

There was just way too much going on this year, way too much to deal with, and he was having a hard time thinking straight; but one of his friends was in love and completely happy for a change, and Harry Potter would be damned right back to the Dursleys' if he was going to get in way of that... even if the one they were in love with was Draco bloody Malfoy.

"Fine."

Hermione's sudden, relieved smile almost made up for the fact that Ron had chosen right then to break past Harry's command of silence and start hollering like a hysterical banshee again... and Ron was always saying that Hermione was the over dramatic one!

Harry's ill attempt at humor just then made Hermione's eyes widen, which he felt temporarily guilty for, but the smile she gave him a second later told him that she had got the joke and that he had been forgiven.

Ron, however, was another matter entirely.

"Are the two of you completely and utterly mad?!?" Ron howled, looking from one of his friends to the other, a tic starting under his left eye. "Are you forgetting we're talking about Draco Malfoy??? The boy whose been calling Hermione a Mudblood since Second Year? The one who nearly got Hagrid sacked?!?"

Hermione had curled up on herself as Ron's tirade started, so that she was nearly burrowing into Harry's side in rarely shown fear, which caused a flare of anger to ignite inside him and he immediately lashed out at his best friend.

"Of course she knows, Ron! Hermione's not an idiot and she's never done anything without thinking it through... thoroughly!! Malfoy is a git, but there has to be something there for Hermione to think she loves him."

Squeezing her arm as he said that, Harry managed to deter a nasty argument that probably would've ended in someone getting cursed and since he was between the two of them, Harry really didn't want to get caught in the cross fire.

"I can't believe this," Ron's voice was incredulous as he came to the realization that he wasn't going to get the 'Malfoy-is-a-scumbag' support that was usually habit from Harry and Hermione since First Year. "You're seriously going to go out with that rat and you're going to let her?!?"

"Ron, if there is one thing I know, it's that you never let Hermione do or don't do something," Harry's comment made Hermione smile and remove herself from his side. Taking advantage of the opened personal space, Harry stood up and made his way to the common room.

"Where are you going?" Hermione was right on his heels, Ron two steps behind her as Harry passed through the mostly empty Griffindor common room to get to the portrait hole and he could swear that he could hear the unspoken demand in those words.

Don't leave me alone with him!

Harry looked back at his two friends, Ron's scowl etched into his face and the frown back between Hermione's eyes. Harry couldn't help smiling and it grew at the uneasy look that his friends shared. "I'm going to have a little chat with Malfoy. Now that you've taken an interest in him, I have a few things I wish to discuss..."

Ron's expression immediately transformed into one of fiendish glee and Hermione's worried frown grew even more pronounced as she quickly stated, "That's not really necessary, Harry, I don't think we really need to go that far-"

"Hermione," Harry interjected swiftly, reaching out and put a hand on her hunched shoulder, trying to express what he felt without sounding like a complete and utter idiot. He was always rubbish at these feelings stuff... "You and Ron are the very first friends I ever had and I care for both of you very deeply... Hermione, you're like a sister to me and I'm going to make sure that Malfoy knows that if he makes you cry, I'm going to hurt him... A lot."

Hermione's chocolate orbs were brimming with unshed tears when he finished his little speech and Harry was pretty sure that it was due to the fact that he rarely told them how he felt, because he felt like such a ponce about it. Nodding once very quickly, and awkwardly patting Hermione's shoulder, Harry made to leave when her voice stopped him once more.

"Does that mean you think of Ron as your brother?"

Harry turned to face his... well, his best mate for now, to better see how he would respond, but Ron was once again avoiding Harry's persistent gaze and he had to grin slightly before turning away because, let's face it, a blushing Ronald Weasley was simply just too cute.

"Not exactly, Hermione, it goes a little further than that." That was all Harry would say before ducking out of the portrait hole and try to find the little snarf he spent most of his time avoiding; thinking it was ironic that his best friend fell in love with the self-centered arse...

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Pansy Parkinson was many things, not many of them pleasant, but the one thing that you could say about her without having a curse thrown in your face was that she was a very determined girl; she knew exactly what she wanted and would do whatever she needed to get that, kept it, and make sure that the whole world knew that it belonged to her and her alone.

Right now, what she wanted was Draco Malfoy, but she was starting to feel like he would be the one thing she wouldn't get, no mattered how hard she tried and that simply would not do.

Everything had been going according to plan until last year and that damn Yule Ball. Pansy cursed that day with every fiber of her being, for someone or something had happened that had caused Draco's unwavering devotion in her to dwindle until it was almost extinguished.

Worse still, there were whispers of Draco meeting a girl in remote places, but nothing was said of the girl's house, class or pedigree. Pansy would not allow someone beneath her to steal her Draco from her; she might be able to handle it if the girl was a pureblood, but nothing else would even be imaginable!

Now, it being said that Pansy was determined, it never meant that she was subtle; so within two weeks even the densest of males at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry knew that Pansy and Draco were on the rocky shore of relationships with Pansy trying with all her might to fix things and Draco not giving a damn either way.

Then the ill disguised whispers turned into openly discussed debates and Pansy found herself very close to crying in public. Tears of frustration were biting at the corners of her eyes every time a conversation would stop suddenly when she walked by, looks of pity being turned her way and the purrs of sympathy that were really hidden sneers of delight that kept being cooed at her.

Not able to take much more of the whispers and sidelong glances, Pansy decided to take matters into her own hands; she started following Draco around, terrified that the rumors were true ever since the day in the Slytherin common room when her Draky had suddenly pushed her away.

From a girl that knew Draco Malfoy's every move, every class, and what he ate for breakfast, Pansy was surprised at the fact that he managed to find ways to avoid her, the closest that she got was in the hallway today when he suddenly disappeared right in front of her eyes.

However, luck was on her side; later that day Pansy managed to spot Draco running from the castle half a mile ahead of her and she also managed to catch up to him and follow him without being seen this time. Her luck, and sanity, was tested when she caught up to him.

For, although he was a sexy vision in nothing but his boxers and bare chest glistening with water droplets-Pansy thanked whatever gods had created Quidditch, the fact that he was with Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom made her want to pull her hair out in sheer frustration, even when Neville hightailed it back to the castle.

Then they started talking, strange as that was, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy talking and not trying to curse each other's bits off. During this bizarre anomaly was when Pansy's frustration evaporated, then that she finally had the answer for her question, then she finally knew who was stealing her property from her and just where this bitch was on the social ladder.

Pansy Parkinson was smiling darkly when she walked back up the steps of Hogwarts later that evening and it was not a pleasant sight to behold. In fact, it frightened a First Year so bad that he immediately decided to join the DA for reasons best left to the readers' imagination.

For Pansy Parkinson was a very determined girl, as previously stated, and she was also very angry. Being very angry and very determined were not a good mix for a certain brown-haired bookworm, because this Slytherin girl was going to make Hermione Granger's life a living hell from this day forward.

Nobody takes what Pansy Parkinson has her eye on, certainly not some stuck-up Gryffindor know-it-all!

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Neville Longbottom, commonly known throughout the whole of Hogwarts as being one of the most timid boys in Gryffindor, was having his courage tested that day. He always hated it when that happened.

When we last left our not-exactly-cowardly friend, he was staring at a very moody, and sometimes volatile, Boy-Who-Lived; whose friends were lucky enough to call Harry Potter, after being caught laughing with said boy's nemesis after being caught in a botched sneak attack.

Neville was once told that if you came face-to-face with an angry lion that you were to stare it down; look it right in the eyes and show no fear, so that it wouldn't see you as prey, it would see you as an equal beast. Neville had never thought that adage would ever apply to him, the boy who studied plants for Merlin's sake, in his life until this very moment.

"Well, that's something you don't see every day..."

Harry's voice had been mostly neutral, with the barest hint of laughter in it, and so it was hard to tell if he was angry or not. As a matter of fact, it was a daily gamble trying to figure out Harry Potter felt these days and the Weasley twins even had a gamble on whether he would blow up on someone this year from suppressed feelings.

"I guess I'll have to find out what you want later," Neville barely heard Draco muttering next to him; trying to figure out if the Chosen One was going to blast you all the way to Azkaban was a little more pressing than some uppity Slytherin, even if that Slytherin was Draco Malfoy.

"Um... Neville?" Hearing his name spoken made him jump, not too much, but enough to cause Harry and Draco to frown at him, "What are doing with Draco? Are you two friends now, too?"

"W-what?" It occurred to Neville that he was saying that a lot lately, although it was due to genuine confusion this time, instead of sheer surprise. "W-what d' you mean 'you two friends now too'? Who else is f-friends with D-Draco?"

"Relax, Longbottom," Draco sighed, completely at ease as he bent down and picked up his shirt and pulled it on. Neville wished he had that kind of confidence as Draco grabbed his trousers to don as well, "You're making the ground shake."

Frowning darkly at the blond, who took no notice, Harry shot a quick look between the two and shook his head almost imperceptibly. "I guess not, then... Nice to know that some things haven't changed..."

Despite the fact that Neville was generally a timid boy, that did not mean that he was a simpleton or ignorant. Many of his classmates were apparently unable to make that distinction and he was therefore ignored by the general population. Neville was, in fact, very bright and he understood that something had happened in past couple of days that had, incredibly, changed Draco Malfoy's status with Harry and his friends.

It was also the fact that Draco suddenly became so still he looked like he was just Petrified was a major clue as well, and it scared the boy much more than Harry's sudden appearance. The tension that suddenly coated the air made it so hard to breath that Neville found himself unable to speak past a large lump in his throat.

It was silent for a few uneasy moments and Neville cast his eyes about, searching for some kind of topic to talk about, but other than a few leaves rustling around them, Neville was stuck floundering around.

"I guess you've talked to Hermione then," Draco's voice had broke the silence and Neville saw that he was staring at Harry with all the haughtiness that he ever mustered during the first three years they knew him. The boy who had been laughing freely moments ago was gone and the Ice Prince was back. "Whatever you want to say to me, Potter, say it now."

"Neville," Harry turned to the smaller boy, a look of exhaustion quickly passing across his face before it settled back into that everyday mask that Harry showed the rest of the world, including some of his friends. "Would you leave us alone for a little bit? Malfoy and I have something we need to... discuss."

Standing between the two boys was like standing between a bull and the idiotic matador waving a red flag in its face, and since this bull in question was Harry freaking Potter, Neville immediately took the opportunity to leave and booked.

Also, if either Draco or Harry came in latter with any injuries, bruises or Curse marks, Neville would fervently deny any and all responsibility of the two. He went for a walk and came back, that was his story and he was sticking to it!