Harry Potter and the Fifth House

Chapter 6: Malfoy Promises.

"Penguins are weird," Draco declared, moving his fork around. "They're all wobbly and stuff."

"Oh yes, very wobbly and stuff," Harry agreed with a snort. The blonde promptly elbowed him hard enough to send Harry into Neville on his other side. "Ow!"

Hermione barely glanced at them as she rejoined their table, a Daily Prophet borrowed from one of the Ravenclaw girls in her hand. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Penguins," Draco replied simply.

"Penguins?"

"Yup."

Harry was shifting off of Neville when he noticed the front page of the paper. "Hey, I know that place. Hagrid went to that vault when we went to Diagon Alley."

"Someone broke into it," Hermione reported as she smoothed the paper out on top of the table, showing Harry the article. After each of them had read the article, looks laced with confusion and worry were exchanged between them.

(-)

"I don't understand why it's such a hard concept for you to grasp!" exclaimed Hermione as they made their way out of the castle.

Ron huffed, "Well I'm sorry we can't all be perfect!"

"I'm not claiming to be perfect!" Hermione argued. "I'm just saying that if you would actually try then maybe you wouldn't get such bad grades."

Ron bristled, "I do not get bad grades! There just not as good as yours!"

"Guys," Blaise cut in, slipping inbetween them and putting an arm around each of them, "calm down. Let's all be friends here."

"Get off me," Ron snapped, shrugging Blaise off and picking up his pace so he was in front of the other four.

They watched him for a moment before Harry spoke, "So um, does anyone know where Neville is? I haven't seen him today."

"He went to open that package his grandmother sent," Hermione declared after a moment. She tore her eyes away from Ron's back and focused on the boys around her. "He said he'd meet us on the pitch."

Blaise grinned as he let his arm fall from her shoulders. "Our first flying lesson - the only even remotely fun thing we have to do today." At Hermione's frown, he bumped his shoulder against hers. "I know you find the rest of our classes fun but I do not enjoy listening to a ghost talk for an hour."

"Have you ever noticed how many stories he has?" questioned Draco, peering over at them from Harry's left side. "He's constantly drifting off topic."

Hermione nodded vehemently, "It's so irritating! It's hard to take notes when you don't know when he's going to start talking about what he's supposed to be talking about."

Blaise just smiled smugly as she went into a rant. He leaned back on his heels and mouthed behind her back, Everything is back to normal. Harry quirked an eyebrow and jabbed a thumb at Ron's back.

Blaise's face fell.

(-)

"Neville!" exclaimed Hermione, rushing to his side when he hit the floor. Her eyes were shaking with worry as she dropped next to him. "Are you okay?" Blaise moved with her, standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders.

As Madam Hooch gave him a quick once over, the other Tigerlily boys hovered around them. "I'll have to take him to the nurses office," she declared after a moment. "Do you think you could walk, Mr. Longbottom?"

The only response was a groan as he turned onto his side.

"I'll do it," Blaise interrupted when she moved to pick Neville up. She looked like she was about to protest, but held her hands up at the glare he was directing towards her. He struggled under Neville's weight for a minute before beginning to walk.

"I'm coming with you," Hermione declared a moment later, clearing the space between them. She glanced back at the others. "Be careful."

"Everybody stay on the ground!" Madam Hooch showed as she followed behind the trio.

The other half of Tigerlily was left behind watched them for a minute before turning back around. The group had turned to each other, ready to start a conversation when they heard someone drawl, "Someone dropped a Rememball."

"Isn't that what Neville's grandma sent him?" questioned Ron.

All three men whipped around to see a Slytherin in possession of Neville's gift. Draco took a step forward, "Goyle, give it here. It's Neville's."

"Why do you care?" the Slytherin sneered.

"He's my friend," Draco answered. "Just give it here."

For a second, Harry thought he might actually do it, then his eyes narrowed and he spat at Draco, "I think you need to remember who your real friends are."

"What're you-"

Goyle pulled his wand out, mumbled a few words, and tossed the ball up. Harry watched with a sort of horrified fascination as the ball lifted up and seemed to fly on its own.

Beside him, Ron muttered, "Floating charm. It's not coming back down."

"What is someone were to go grab it?" questioned Harry, green eyes tracking the ball.

"If that was the case I think we could get it uncharmed by one of the professors," Draco mused. "But there's no way-"

"Yes there is."

Before either of the others could stop him, Harry had pushed off the ground.

(-)

"Harry!" Charity exclaimed as she busted into McGonagall's office. Brushing past the fifth year in the doorway, she bent down and ran her hands over Harry's body – inspecting for any scratches. "Are you okay? Does this hurt? Should I go get-"

"I'm fine," he answered and pulled his arm from her grip softly.

Charity chewed on her lip before pulling him into a hug. "Oh god, don't do that to me again. I was so worried when Draco and Ron told me something had happened with you and McGonagall." As Harry settled into the embrace, she tilted her head ever so slightly to look at McGonagall. "Minerva what is this about if he's not hurt?" She pushed the boy away from her and looked into his eyes. "Harry what did you do?"

"Nothing!" he exclaimed. Then amended, "Well I went against what Madam Hooch told me and flew even though-"

"Harry! You could have gotten hurt!"

"'I know but that stupid Slytherin charmed Neville's present and I just wanted to get it back for him."

McGonagall cleared her throat and both of them turned to her. She spoke carefully, "Mr. Potter isn't in trouble, Professor Burbage. In fact, I've awarded him points for his bravery but that's not why you're here."

Standing up, keeping only a hand on Harry's hair as the dark haired boy fiddled with his hands in the chair, Charity asked, "Then what is it?"

"Well, since Tigerlily has never been a particularly large house," she explained, "it's common for another house to allow its members a place on their Quidditch team. We'd like to run it by you before we offered Harry the Seeker position on the Gryffindor team."

Charity blinked several times before answering, "Oh…Are you sure? I mean Harry is only a first year and-"

"I was rather impressed with his flying skills earlier," McGonagall assured.

Charity looked down at Harry. "Well, what do you think? Do you want to play Quidditch?"

"I uh… I don't know what Quidditch is," he admitted shyly.

"Quidditch is a sport," Charity tried to explain.

The fifth year boy by the door snorted and corrected, "Quidditch is a life style. It's a bit like a girlfriend, I suppose. You may get clipped by her nails occasionally but you'll always love it again in the morning."

"I don't know if that's the best explanation, Wood," Charity laughed. "It is a bit like that though, Harry."

The others in the room watched as Harry's face twisted with thought, thinking of all the sports kids on the playground used to play and how badly he had always wanted to join but was never allowed, before he nodded with a happy smile. "Okay. I'll give it a try."

"Great!" McGonagall clapped her hands together. "Then after dinner Wood will show you to the Quidditch pitch and you can get started on your training."

"Well then, Harry you should go to the infirmary and see Neville," Charity declared with a clap of her own hands. "He's feeling better now but I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

"Okay Professor," Harry agreed as he scrambled out of the room. He mumbled a soft see you later to the boy by the door.

"Oh! And Harry?"

"Yes Professor?"

"Remind Draco about tonight will you? I'm sure he'll know what you mean."

"Okay Professor."

(-)

When Draco and Charity arrived at Snape's classroom, his mother was already deep in conversation with Snape about how her son was doing in school. Noticing the way he hesitated to cross the threshold, squeezed his shoulders and she pressed a quick kiss to his hair, "Remember what you said, your mother will love you no matter what."

He nodded his head, hands squeezing into fists at his sides, before walking forward. He called softly, "Hello mother."

"Draco!" Narcissa exclaimed walking over to wrap her son in a tight hug. She pressed a kiss to each of his cheeks. "It's been so long since I've seen you. I was so worried something had happened to you when Severus requested I come here."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Charity apologized from behind Draco. "That was on my request. Charity Burbage, muggle studies."

Narcissa stood up, having bent down to interact with her son. "Narcissa Malfoy. I can only assume this means, Draco has been causing you trouble?"

"He is an excellent student!" Charity assured. "He tries his hardest to understand and even when he can't he's got plenty of smart friends that can help him."

"I'm afraid I don't understand then," she admitted. ""If he's not having trouble in school then…?"

Charity looked down at Draco. He met her eyes briefly before looking at his mother. Draco took a deep breath, "Mother, I'm not a Slytherin."

"W-what?" she stuttered, looking taken aback. "Honey you told me you were-"

"Draco's been sorted into Tigerlily, Narcissa," Severus said, joining the conversation. "Professor Burbage is their head of house."

"Oh my," she took a shaky breath. She glanced down at her son, "Draco, why did you lie to me?"

He hesitated before saying, "I was afraid of what you would think. You and father always made it seem like me not being a Slytherin was unacceptable."

Narcissa dropped to her knees and enveloped her son in a hug. She held him tightly as she muttered, "I'll always love you Draco. No matter what."

A moment later, Draco was shaking with sobs. "Two of my best friends are a Muggleborn and a Weasley."

"That's okay," she muttered, rubbing his back as he cried. "You're aunt married a Muggleborn and I'll always love her no matter what anyone tells me. Maybe I'll take you to see her one day. Honey, you have to know if it comes down to it I will fight your father every step of the way for shunning you for this."

"Promise?" Draco sniffled as his sobs fell into hiccups.

"Promise."

E/n: Sorry this took so long guys.

The fact that I'm following the movie plot now (since I've just moved and my books are packed away downstairs) makes this a lot harder to write. Before I was writing whatever felt right and now I've got to sift through and change what JK wrote to fit into my story.

It's really frustrating too!

Anyways,

I TOLD YOU GUYS I HAD A PLAN FOR HARRY TO PLAY QUIDDITCH!

Blaise insisting on taking Neville to the hospital wing as less to do with the future romance of theirs and more to do with just being fiercely protective of the members of Tigerlily. They're literally all he has if his mother full out rejects him for his sorting.