Chapter Seven: Befriend the Enemy
"If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."
--Sun Tzu
So it was Granger. Draco concluded for the nth time. Granger. Hermione. Gorgeous. He groaned as he tousled around in his bed, why did she have to be so fucking gorgeous? Memories of the Ball streamed into his head, the feel of her soft, angelic skin and his lips consuming her. He placed his head in his hands as he got up, there was no point on reminiscing on old thoughts, once Granger finds out she'd been snogging with Malfoy…again, and she won't be pleased.
He glanced at his messy, distorted table filled with pieces of past and present assignments he'd been working on for the last few days rather than spending time with friends. He didn't even visit Pansy since she left the house. He needed to think. At the corner of his desk, underneath the Potions assignment was the letter he'd started to his father.
God, what's the point?
He basically disowned me as his child and probably found someone else to do his dirty work. This letter was proof of Draco's inability to tell his father that he can't hurt Hermione. At least he's admitting it, that's the first step towards solving the problem. He snorted, what problem? Granger was probably frolicking with her so called friends without a care in the world and here he was agonizing over his feelings for her. He needed to confront her and tell her that he cared but what if she questions his intentions; he doesn't have an answer for that. Soon word will get out that the Slytherin prince and is dating the Gryffindor nerd; he could hear the laughter ringing in his ears now. He blankly looked at the calendar on the wall; every month had a famous Quidditch player zooming through the page. December was none other than Victor Krum, He suddenly realized that Christmas was only a week away, he had to go shopping.He pulled himself out of bed and nearly had a heart attack looking at his reflection, he looked worse than death. With the lack of sleep, there were dark circles around his eyes and his hair were a wreck.
Draco walked through Hogsmeade aimlessly trying to find a gift for Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise and Granger? She'd be insulted if he gave her anything, a gift for letting him snog her endlessly. He could picture her reaction; a piercing look accompanied by an insult or two.
"Draco," he turned around to see Blaise Zabini struggling to carry his bags.
"Hey," Draco said, as he walked up to help him with his bags. "Shopping?" he added with a smirk.
"How could you guess?" Blaise said innocently. "I need to talk to you," He said seriously.
"Should I be worried?"
"No, just meet me in Hog's Head after your done, ok?" he added and took the bags from Draco slowly making his way to the pub across the street. Draco was surprised, what did Blaise have to say to him; suddenly he didn't feel like going Christmas shopping anymore but decided to get it over with.
"Butterbeer?" Blaise asked. They'd been sitting around for the past half hour catching up with what's been happening in school and Quidditch. Draco was waiting for Blaise to bring up the topic.
"You wanted to talk to me about something?" He couldn't resist, the suspense was killing him.
"Yeah," Blaise added seriously. "You know that I came to school a week later than everyone else right?"
"Right, because you were ill. My father mentioned it, weren't you at Mungos?"
"Yeah, while I was at Mungos Pansy's father came over and had a chat with my father, and yours," he said quietly. Draco leaned over to hear better, the place was packed, and Blaise was close to whispering. Interesting, Draco thought, father never mentioned this.
"I overheard them saying that Voldemort—" his voice was barely a whisper now.
"Speak up," Draco said irritably.
"Ok, I overheard them saying that you-know-who is building an army."
"What?" Draco said, confused. "He's too weak, right now all he wants is Potter," He contradicted.
"No Draco, he's out there building an army of Death Eaters, brain washing muggles and rallying them in,"
"He's using muggles!" Draco said. Blaise violently signaled for him to stay silent.
"Yeah, muggles." He said. Draco's mind was racing, An army for what?
"On a lighter note, heard you snogged Granger" he said, grinning.
"You heard right," Draco said sipping from his mug. His mind was still stuck on Blaise's confession; the army would be for Potter and Dumbledore.
"Did you visit Pansy?"
"No, not yet."
"Poor girl, I pity her. Rest of the year with Potter, that's harsh."
"Yeah," he said distantly, his mind wasn't on Blaise's small talk. They finished their drinks and walked out with their bags
Befriend the enemy.
Pansy read the line once more before setting the letter on her desk. How the hell was she supposed to do that? Potter isn't even in her vicinity half of the time. They live across each other but rarely ever spoke. She sighed, the letter clearly stated not to tell anyone so she couldn't talk to Draco about this. Part of her didn't want to tell Draco, he isn't thinking straight for the past few days and she knew the cause of his agitation, Granger. She sighed again wishing Draco would just open up to her but brushed these thoughts away to concentrate on the task at hand. She walked out of the door and found Potter sitting in their common room working on homework. She took a seat beside him.
"Yes?" he asked, confused.
"Look Potter, this is our last year together and we shouldn't waste it by bickeing at each other," she said calmly.
"Ok?" he asked, even more confused.
"Great, then its settled," she said as she got up and extended her hand. "Truce?" she asked. Harry looked at her confused. Women, he thought again. He thought of declining but decided to take a chance. He extended his hand and accepted.
"Arithmacy homework?" she asked. Harry looked down and frowned.
"Always hated this class"
"It's not that bad Potter," she said sitting next to him, looking over his work. Harry took this time to study her features, she had a delicate face that was nearly flawless except for a small, birth mark just above the corner of her lips. Her eyes were mesmorizing, light, almost translucent blue with specks of gray that reflected the fire. He wasn't sure why she wanted a truce but he had to be careful with her, you can never trust a Slytherin.
Ok. YAY, another update. Had to make up for lost time. Umm, im not sure what the army is about. I have a rough sketch but I have to go back to the real books and check out a few things. I'm sorry for not including a LOT of dramoine
Hope I didnt move a little too fast with Pansy's truce but I felt it was necessary. Promise to include Dramoine in my next chappie!! lol..maybe..depends...u gotta wait!!..lol...Um, I edited this, but if u find any mistakes, tell me! Im really anal about tht.
next chapter, its Christmas..
Ill TRY to update ONCE more before I leave OR I'll give u a preview of the next chapter at least. I'll try my best.
Thanks, dont forget to R&R
bye!
