A/N: Ok, honestly I've been writing tons and I'll probably finish writing the entire thing within this week (lol jokes) but here's the longest chapter to date, capping at 2k words so enjoy! Also, I've made some minor changes to the previous chapters and fixing discrepancies.
"You invited that loon to your house?" Harry practically screeched.
"You've picked up a rather nasty habit of Granger's," Draco said rubbing his ear and shuffling away from Harry, "and I didn't invite her, mother did."
"Why would you tell your mum about her? She's with the lot of them nasty death eate-"
"Don't you mouth off about my mother, Potter!" Draco whipped around angrily, "And of course you don't understand why I told my mother, it wasn't like you ever had one." The biting remark was a challenge that Harry wasn't about to rise up to.
"Draco- Look, what do you hope to achieve with this?"
"I don't know, find out what she really wants and who she really is." He shrugged, watching Harry as he thrusted both his hands into his hair and making it messier than it already was.
"Do you really think that's the best way to find out?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
"Well, no," Harry dropped to the ground and found his fall cushioned by a fluffy rug.
The room of requirement was set up rather cosily for the boys. There was what looked like a double decker bed frame in one corner with a tent on the top bunk, suspended by nothing and a foxhole down the bottom. A ladder led to an entrance within and they've been up there multiple times, playing with the various gadgets they found on the carpeted floor and cabinets. It was enchanted like the Weasley's tent and held many fascinating objects.
Around them lay piles of rugs, beanbags and a grand table rose on a pedestal behind the two, in the middle of the room, decorated with swords.
"Argh, I suppose you're right. Better to figure her out sooner than later, but what if she is in league with Voldemort and becomes his most valuable spy?"
The thought clearly hadn't occurred to Draco as he sat down beside Harry, "Honestly," he began, "I never thought about it." At this Harry emitted another groan and glared at the blonde lithe boy by his side.
"Draco..."
"What?"
"You're not very good at planning."
Draco got up and grabbed one of the swords from the table and pointed it at Harry, "How dare you impugn my honour!"
Harry pushed the sword away and spun from under Draco, jumping up and drawing one of the other swords. Their swords clashed and clanged together as they began to play fight. The situation with Selgentar all but forgotten.
After a few minutes, Harry dropped the sword on the floor and said breathlessly, "These are heavier than they look."
"Right you are," Draco said in return and placed the sword back on the round table.
The two faced each other and Harry muttered, "Have a good holiday."
"Er, sure. Bye." Draco said before leaving first.
Harry went to the edge of the room and picked up a Sneakoscope and sighed. There was nothing untrustworthy about Draco. He was a right slimy git and they had the tendency to stand on opposing teams but having gotten to know him, Harry's realized that Draco never really had a chance to be anything more. Until Hermione.
A shudder went through him and he thought about the effect they were having on each other. Hermione's sharpened tongue and Draco's kind demeanour. He has been helpful and proven himself to not be that same boy spiteful boy, full of himself. And If Harry was completely honest with himself, he didn't mind being here in this room with him too much.
"Oi, where've you been, mate? I've been waiting for hours!" Ron accused as Harry entered the common room, having waited half an hour before emerging from the room of requirement.
"Oh, sorry, Ron. I got lost."
Ron's eyes narrowed, "Got. Lost?"
"No, you're right. I just... Sorry mate." He argued with himself, debating whether to tell Ron what's going on and just as he was about to say something, Ron interrupted his thoughts and said, "Are you going to keep me waiting forever? Come on, get on with it."
"Right," Harry grabbed a seat opposite of Ron and began playing Wizard's Chess with him.
"Ron, there's something I need to tell you. But before I do, you need to promise me that you won't lose your head or anything like that," Harry said in between moves.
"It's your move," Ron said, "and if it's about you and Hermione, I don't want to hear it."
"Wha- Hermione?" Harry laughed. "Castle to L4." The chess piece glided across the board and stopped, gesturing wildly.
"Don't be cheeky, mate, I've seen you two sneaking off. It's not a big deal. I just wish you two had the decency to tell me." The crackle of from the fireplace seemed to increase in volume as Harry realized just how much Ron had seen and felt suddenly guilty he's kept it from him all this time.
"No, Ron, you've got it all wrong. There's nothing going on with Hermione and me." He waited for that to sink in.
"Oh, yeah? So what have you two been up to? Knight to L4." Ron said, and watched with gratification as his knight took out Harry's castle.
"That's what I'm trying to tell you... we have, err... Look, there's no easy way to say this but apparently Draco's not who we think he is."
Ron looked quizzically at Harry, "... Draco? What's he got to do with anything? Your move."
"I've been.. Well, I've been sneaking off to see him. We both have."
"WHAT? Have the both of you gone completely mental? He's the enemy. Have he got you under some kind of spell? Are you alright? Is this some kind of practical joke? Ha-ha not funny. C'mon Harry, what's really going on?"
"That's the truth, Ron. We've been speaking to him secretly because he's helping us."
The look on Ron's face could not be any clearer. He gave him a disgusted look and said, "Look, it's fine if you don't want me to know what you're really doing, but that is possibly the worse lie you could've told me. Friends with Malfoy." He scoffed.
"Ron, I'm seri-"
"YOUR MOVE!" He suddenly bellowed, frightening the chess pieces and they scattered around the board. Harry sat, shell shocked by this sudden turn of events and Ron stood up to spit, "I'm not as stupid as you think I am, Harry. But you know what? I thought you were my friend."
"But I am telling you the truth!" Harry said, agitated and getting to his feet, "Look, why don't I get Hermione and she can tell you about it herself."
"What? Let's both of us lie to poor, dim-witted Ron? Who needs to be kept in the dark about everything? Let's leave him out of this because he's clearly too stupid to understand." He gestured wildly, hitting the chess board and sending everything clattering to the floor.
"Why are you being like this?" Harry beseeched. His own temper was rising but he kept pushing it down because he knew that he was to blame for neglecting his first friend at Hogwarts. If he could turn back the clock now, he would have spilled everything he'd seen at the library that fateful day, but he hadn't want to relive it. He was ashamed of how he had acted and now he's pushed his best friend away because of pride.
"Oh, so that's it then? You've gotten sick of me now, have you? You're both cutting me off-" The expression on his face was thunderous, but the voice that followed was more frightening.
"What is the matter with the both of you, squabbling like an old married couple while the rest of us are trying to sleep?"
Hermione came down the stairs, wrapped in her Gryffindor robes and she sat on the chair next to the one Ron was sitting on. "Well? What's wrong? Did you lose to Harry?"
"I never lose, and it's about the both of you." Ron said in such a way that he expected her to show some decorum of shame and acting offended that she was looking at him with an ignorant expression.
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"Harry's just told me that you're both friends with that Slytherin git and too good for me now."
"Hang on, I never said anything like that!" Harry said from his armchair. He'd sunk back into it in relief when Hermione came to the rescue. "I was just telling him that Draco isn't who we thought he was." He repeated. "And that we've been talking to him." He said rather quickly and the words blurred together. Hermione gave him a curious look and spoke slowly, appealing to Ron.
"Ron- Harry's right, Draco is... not what he appears to be," Hermione said his name in a softer voice because she didn't want anyone else to hear, her eyes never leaving Harry who spoke next.
"Well, go on then, sit down. We've kept this from you long enough, and we didn't mean for you to feel left out... It's just, we didn't know how to tell you."
"Right, so it was easier for Harry to tell you then?" Ron muttered darkly, hurt that he was the last to know but his anger receding as he settled in and picked up a few chess pieces that lay near his feet.
"No... Harry caught Draco and I sitting together in the library."
Ron turned to look at her, slack-jawed. "You mean, you and Draco..?"
"Well, I saw him in the library one day and we started talking." Hermione said, a little flustered at Ron's implication and brushed her hair out of her face.
Ron set his teeth and said flatly, "You two just happened to chance on each other and started talking." Then he leaned back and kicked up his feet against the table, sweeping the two chess pieces onto the floor again. The Queen picked herself up and shook her tiny fists at him. "Great, nothing odd about that at all. Yeah, tomorrow I'm going to walk out onto that Quidditch field and start scoring like Dragomir Gorgovitch... Alright, let's just say you're both telling the tru-"
"We are." Harry insisted.
"How can you trust someone who's practically family with You-Know-Who?" Ron shot an accusing look at Hermione, "You're supposed to be smart, but how do you know he's not using you to get close to Harry?"
A look of indignant hurt crossed Hermione's features and she said defensively, "Not once has he asked me about Harry and-"
"But they are friends now, aren't they?" Ron said in a voice that clearly screamed 'traitor' at Harry, "He probably got what he was after."
"I know how this all looks and seems, but we trust him and we're your friends, don't you trust us?" Hermione gave Ron an earnest look and was disappointed to see Ron turn away from her to face the fire.
"Friends don't keep things from each other." He said sullenly, "How long has this been going on, and why didn't either of you say anything?"
"Because it didn't seem like a big deal at the time! Ron, stop being unreasonable. Who cares about Malfoy?" Ron seemed to perk up at this a little, although he didn't stop staring into the fire.
"Yeah, Malfoy isn't important and that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about," Harry jumped in, "we think that Selgentar isn't who she says she is."
"Wait, what?" It was Hermione's turn to sit up now and she looked to Harry for an explanation. "And since when have you spoken with Draco? I never saw you in the library again after that day."
Harry shifted in his seat uncomfortably and reached for the poker so he had something to do, rather than look at their expectant expressions. He poked a red hot coal and fidgeted with it before confessing, "We... have been meeting up in the Room of Requirement," Harry confessed.
