DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter
"Hey guys!"
"Where have you been?" Hermione glared up at him, "We've been working on our Potion's essay for almost an hour!"
"It's entirely my fault Hermione---I drug Ron to practice with me." Gwen smiled warmly at the girl and casually slipped her arm in Ron's.
Hermione's eyes flashed jealously and Harry momentarily appeared interested in something other than wallowing in self pity.
"Well," Hermione chose her words carefully, stubbornly avoiding looking up to see the close proximity of the two, "Maybe next time you should think about Ron's schoolwork first."
"Um...I'm sorry," Gwen raised an eyebrow, "Are you his mother?"
"No, but he's my friend and I care about how he does in school. Fun and games aren't the only important things in life you know!" Hermione's voice started to rise with emotion and her eyes filled with tears, "With you two gallivanting around the school, I don't know how you expect him to---"
"What? That doesn't even make sense! Ron isn't stupid he can---"
"OKAY THEN!" Ron stepped between the two girls, "I think we all need to calm down!" He exchanged a glance with Harry, who looked like he wanted to laugh, "Hermione! What's wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me?!?" Hermione stared incredulously at him, "What's wrong with you? You're the one who keeps ditching your friends to hang out with---with---some girl!--and a SNAPE no less!"
Gwen recoiled slightly at Hermione's words.
"Well who am I supposed to hang out with? YOU?" Ron glared at her, "Every thing I say or do makes you mad---how am I supposed to talk to you?"
"Well, Harry needs us right now--you can't just ditch him to make out with the first hot girl you meet."
"I don't think Harry cares what I do with Gwen." He rolled his eyes.
"Oh..." Hermione looked as though she'd been slapped, "So--so--you were making out with her?"
"What?" He frowned in confusion, "I didn't say that! What---what is wrong with you?"
Gwen raised her eyebrows in slight exasperation. Right...there was no heat between them. She winked at Harry and slipped out of the room.
"Hey!"
"Yeah?" She turned to smile at the green eyed boy who'd followed her out of the room.
"Sorry about all that," Harry blushed, "Hermione is...not usually like that."
"Love makes people do crazy things." She shrugged easily.
"Love?" He took a step back, "They aren't in love--I mean, they fight all the time!"
"That's true. They do fight...but they're definitely in love," She sighed wistfully, "It's too bad really, he's awfully cute." She paused momentarily to listen to the screaming voices that were coming from the common room, "How long does this usually go on?"
"It varies," He laughed, "But...well...Hermione was really mad---I think she finally understands how Ron felt when she was spending all her time with Krum."
"Ah young love." She smiled nostalgically, "You might want to go console someone."
"What?"
"I just heard a door slam...I think they're done--one of them is probably down there, all upset and stuff." She grinned in amusement.
"I guess you're right." He rolled his eyes and walked back to the common room.
"Gwen! Gwen!"
She ignored him.
"Gwen!" Draco sighed in frustration, "God! Would you stop acting like such a baby?"
"What?" She whirled around to face him, "I'm not acting like a baby!"
"Really? You're giving me the silent treatment!" He chided.
"Yes...well..." Her face flushed with anger, "I just can't believe how you treat people!"
"Who?"
"Oh, I don't know--everyone who isn't a pure blooded, cold hearted, Slytherin?" She snapped.
"I think it's so cute how you're still so naive."
"God Draco---will you stop patronizing me for one second?" She sat down on the ground in the middle of the stairwell.
"Gwen..." He seemed to be thinking about how to explain something as he sank to the floor beside her, "They're different people than we are."
"Correction: Different than you are," Her eyes met his, pleading for him to understand, "I'm just like them! I'm not a pure blood...I'm not a Slytherin! You can't say that they're different than me because they aren't!"
"Not exactly but---"
"But nothing!" She interrupted, "And you can't logically be friends with me when you hate them for qualities I possess."
Draco stared obstinately at the ground. It was different...somehow.
"You're my best friend--and I don't want to lose you," She sighed helplessly, "But I can't be friends with you if you don't make up your mind."
"Are you threatening me?" His voice mocked her.
"No..." She shrugged, "Not really...just telling you how things are."
"You're issuing me an ultimatum?" He sounded incredulous.
"You don't have to like anyone--or even be nice to them really..." She struggled to find the right words, "but you need to stop being cruel."
Draco sat silently for a moment, fighting an inward battle with his pride, "Okay, I'll try it---to everyone but them!"
"Who?" She yawned, suddenly very tired.
"Weasley, Mudblood, and Potter." He sneered.
"No dice."
"What?" He glared at her.
"It has to be to everybody---but especially them." She gently adjusted a stray piece of hair on Draco's head, "They're really nice. I think you have a lot in common with Harry--you two would be friends if you'd give each other a chance."
"Why do you hate me?"
"And by the way, you should probably get over your obvious infatuation with Hermione."
"WHAT?"
"Because she and Ron are meant to be together."
"What the hell are you talking about? He was too defensive.
"I'm talking about how you're secretly in love with Hermione."
"I am not---"
"Somebody's blushing!" She teased him gently.
"I am not---"
"There's no need to deny anything with me---I know the secrets of your inner soul," She smiled sleepily and laid her head on his shoulder, "She's the 'cute smart girl'
you've liked since first year...nice trick saying she was in Slytherin, but not good enough to fool me." She closed her eyes and began to doze off.
"Don't you have class?" He asked quietly.
"I'm skipping." She murmured.
"Well that's responsible." He laughed.
"My bad reputation can't get much worse." She yawned again.
"I don't like Hermione," He whispered as he closed his eyes.
"Of course not dear," She replied as she drifted off to sleep.
"Are they sleeping in the middle of a stairwell?"
"Yup."
"Does that...um...strike anybody else as odd?" Ron asked hesitantly.
"Yup." Harry stared down at them in slight surprise.
"I guess that explains why she wasn't in class." Hermione suggested. She and Ron had reached an awkward stalemate. They were both stubbornly pretending their argument had never taken place.
"Um...should we wake them?" Ron stammered nervously.
"Aww, but they look so peaceful." Harry was obviously amused by the situation.
"Harry this isn't a laughing matter---they skipped class!" Hermione chided him,
"We should alert a teacher."
"Oh come on, Hermione," Ron protested, "I think that's a little unnecessary---"
"Oh, hello!" Gwen opened her eyes groggily.
"Shut up I'm trying to sleep," Draco groaned.
"We have company dear heart!" She gently shook him.
"What?"
"Good morning sunshine!" She smiled at him.
"Good morning beautiful---what are you three doing here?" He glared. Gwen elbowed him, "I mean...um...hello." There wasn't a lot of kindness in his greeting...but it was definitely a start.
"What's up with you Malfoy?" Harry glared at him, instantly on the defensive.
"Oi vay." Gwen sighed. There was no way she could get Draco to be nice if Harry was going to be mean to him.
"What are you doing here Potter?" Malfoy instantly readopted his hateful sneer, "shouldn't you be off crying over your dead parents and your dead friends---I hear you're the reason that Sirius Black got killed." Harry's fist was clenched around his wand, "I should thank you---he was a real pain to the death eaters."
Harry was beyond words. He drew his wand and muttered a curse.
"Would you two stop it!" Gwen stepped between them an easily blocked Harry's attack.
"How did you block that?" Harry glared at her, partly in anger, partly in awe.
"Durmstrang may not have spent a lot of time focusing on charms or transfiguration or herbology--but we certainly focused on curses...and hence, how to block them---but that is beside the point." She quickly brought herself back to the subject, "Draco Malfoy, you need to apologize or leave!"
"I'm not apologizing to that---"
"Perhaps I forgot to mention that I was at the head of my class in Curses and Hexes," Gwen scowled, reaching for her wand.
Draco shook his head and stalked away.
"Listen...um...I'm sorry about that, but---"
"Are you a death eater?" Harry asked her suddenly, his face still clouded with fury.
"Excuse me?" She was offended, "Why would you ask me something like that?"
"Draco is, and your dad was...and that doesn't seem to bother you at all." Harry stared her down, "Don't you know that they kill people?"
"First of all, Draco is NOT a death eater---his father is," She did her best to keep her voice level, and not to show that he was irritating her, "He has no desire to be a death eater, he simply plays along because it makes his father happy."
Harry gave a derisive snort, "Yeah right, believe me, I know that pratt and he was born a death eater and he'll never----"
"AND as for the fact that my father was a death eater," She interrupted him impatiently, "I believe that the operative word in that phrase is was, he now works for the
good guys...and how you know any of that I'm sure I don't know."
Harry changed tactics and went back to his attack on Malfoy, "How are you friends with him?" He shouted angrily, "His family is the reason people are dying! His family is--is--the reason that--that---"
"That your godfather died?" She prompted gently.
Harry's stony silence answered her question.
"You can't blame Draco for the sins of his father," She said simply, "Just as I hope you don't blame me for the sins of mine. If you didn't notice, Draco was trying to be friendly before you bit off his head."
"You--you're standing up for him?" Harry was incredulous, "Did you even hear what he said?"
"Of course I did," She replied, "That's just Draco. Obviously it was uncalled for, but he was embarrassed that you responded negatively to his outreach of kindness."
"What 'outreach of kindness'?"
"He said hello."
"Oh, how could I have missed that?" He muttered sarcastically.
"I'm not saying what he did was right---it obviously wasn't, I'm just saying you don't really understand why he does the stuff that he does," She explained, "Besides, I think the fact that he brought up your godfather's death is good...you seem to have a lot of unresolved anger with that issue."
"Get out."
"Excuse me?" She glanced up, startled.
"Go away." Harry was seething, "I thought you were different, I wanted to give you a chance, but you're just like your dad and just like Draco. So leave. Now."
Gwen opened her mouth to protest, but decided against it, walking away with a characteristically uncaring, "Whatever."
Ron and Hermione watched, open mouthed, as she walked away, both too afraid of Harry's reaction to say anything.
Review if you have time---I'll love you forever!