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Merick

Chapter Nine

Ron's group had assembled an hour before dinner, so they would have time to discuss their traps, which left me that time to wait in the deserted dorm, I left them the common room for their discussion, and I'm sure they had spies posted to check for extendable ears and the like. I had no desire to spy on them, or even give the impression. It seemed all the Gryffindors were gone to join in the fun. It was a little hard for me to believe that they had all chosen Ron's side over mine, but I hoped perhaps that I was over thinking the situation, and that they had all just simply sided with their house, and the chance to compete against Slytherin. I guess I felt vulnerable after the talk with Hermione. She had pointed out that I had been isolating myself, and I wondered if others had seen that, and were reacting to it as well. I hated self-doubt, I still do, and that had been a rough twenty-four hours for my psyche.

While I was laying there on my bed, waiting to grab some dinner and meet up with my group I went over everything I had done that day, trying to see it through the eyes of my friends, trying to sort out if I had compounded my mistakes. I wanted to believe that I hadn't, but the night was still young.

Charms was Charms, Ron and I sat in the back, taking notes and following the Professor's train of thought as we went over the chapters he had assigned for review. I felt pretty good about myself, and the extra hours I had put in over the weekend reading and re-reading. We went from there to Transfiguration, where I noticed Draco in the back, but didn't try to make eye contact or anything. I just followed Ron closer to the front of the class and focused on Minerva as we worked through transfiguring states of matter, just the thing Draco and I had been studying in the Great Hall. I felt good that I could keep up with the task at hand, transfiguring water to ice to steam. But I wanted to look back and check in on Draco, to see if he was okay.

I had lunch with everyone; that being Ron and Hermione and Ginny, and the table around us was buzzing about the night's activities; to a degree, because no one wanted to give away any of their secrets in so public a venue as the Great Hall. It was nice to see everyone so animated. I wanted to talk to Ginny, at least casually, but she had a look on her face, with half a grin, and her eyes sort of scrunched up, and everything she seemed to say to me came out like a challenge. Not in a wholly bad way, but like she was looking forward to besting me that evening in the DADA class. I couldn't quite call it a good-natured look though.

I headed off to Astronomy feeling a little heavy hearted, and as a result arrived just before Professor Sinistra descended the stairs from the upper observatory; that explained why I hadn't heard her footsteps on the winding staircase before the first class. I grabbed a seat at the back; because I was auditing I didn't feel right about sitting up at the front, or even asking questions really. Draco was already there, in the same spot as before. I held up a hand in a silent wave, he acknowledged it, but the Professor was beginning her lesson and I didn't want to interrupt. I tried to focus on her, she was beginning a discussion of the fall night sky, and explaining that she would begin opening the tower for us that week, after nine pm, but that if we wanted to be up there we had to let our Head of Houses know, because we might be coming back past curfew.

I took some notes this time, when the lights were high enough to do it, and chanced to glance over at Draco a few times; I felt bad for ignoring him that morning. Seems I felt bad about everything all of a sudden.

When class ended I packed up my things and determined to settle my concern about Draco by actually talking to him. Much as I hate to admit it, it helped that none of my other friends were there to observe it. I rose from my chair and went around to where Draco was packing up, I put out a hand to touch him on the arm, but as I did he jumped, visibly, as if my touch had burned him or something.

"Oh Draco, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." He had not looked at me angrily, but more fearfully and that worried me, and was one of the things that kept circling around in my head as I lay on my bed waiting for Ron to leave the common room.

"It's okay." But his head was downcast as he spoke, and it didn't seem okay.

"I was just going to ask you if you were coming out to the DADA class tonight in the Great Hall?"

"I don't think so." He was paying more attention to packing his books at that moment than me.

"I could, I could use your help." I don't know why I stuttered, but at that he looked up at me.

"My help?"

"Ron's turned it into a competition."

"So I heard."

"I haven't had much of a chance to work with the Slytherins and the Hufflepuffs."

"I suppose not." Most of them hadn't been part of the Battle of Hogwarts, and everything else I'd been through, fighting wise and all, had either been with my Gryffindor friends or the Order. Not that I thought any less of their talents. Cedric Diggory had been in Hufflepuff, and he had been one of the most intelligent students I had ever had the privilege of working with. It would have been great if he had been around on my team. I hadn't known him too well, mostly just our time together during the Tri-wizard tournament, and of course the help his spirit had given me when I faced Voldemort for the last time. I like to believe that he and I would have been good friends had fate, and Pettigrew not destroyed that chance. He would have understood why I needed to put everything behind me; maybe it would have been a good thing to work with some more Hufflepuffs, they were always intuitive like that. But again, I digress.

"I need someone else in my corner Draco." I didn't mean it to sound as needy as it did, and I wished after I had said it, that I could have taken it back. Draco took it a different way entirely though.

"So you thought someone with experience casting dark spells would be a good ally? Is that why you came to me Harry?" He was keeping his voice low, and everyone else, expect the Professor had already left the classroom.

It took me a minute to compose myself to respond to him.

"That's not it at all Draco."

"Really?" His voice carried some of the sarcastic lilt I was more used to hearing from him.

"Really. You're a quick thinker; I remember our dueling classes together. And you are powerful. And you know what," I gained some courage from somewhere, "Voldemort showed you some of his most evil spells, just as he showed me." I left it at that for some reason. "I haven't had the time to work with a proper team for tonight, not like before."

"When you had your friends around you."

"I'll give you that one Draco, Ron and Hermione and Ginny and I worked well together because we'd been doing it for so long." I looked right into his eyes. "You and I know each other just as well, though maybe we came about it as adversaries. I'm asking for your help. You can say no if you want, but I hope you won't."

He looked at me, and I could see his expression lift just a little, a curve to the side of his mouth, and his lips pursed together. Even those pale blue eyes seemed to have a bit more of a sparkle all of a sudden.

"Fine, if it means a chance to beat Weasley. But we had better win Potter."

"I'll do everything I can."

"I'll do better. See if you can round up any of the seventh year Hufflepuffs who don't have a class now, I'll see who I can find of the Slytherin, we'll meet in the Room of Requirement in ten minutes and practice till next period." I liked the grin that was crawling over his face, and I liked his idea, so I held out my hand to him to seal our deal. He took it, shook it, and ran off down the stairs. I was about to follow when the Professor called my name from the front of the room.

"Harry?"

"Yes Professor?"

"What you did back there was a very good thing."

"Thank you Professor."

"Your maturity never ceases to amaze me."

I think I must have blushed a little at that one.

"I'll send a message to Pomona to bring the seventh year Hufflepuffs to your practice, and I'll send the Slytherins myself." She was the new head of house for Slytherin.

"Thank you professor, thank you very much."

"You do us all proud Harry." She cast a patronus just as I was leaving the tower; it streaked past me at the door and up the stairs, presumably out the windows in the observatory to find Professor Sprout. "Oh and Harry," she called to me, as an after thought. "I think you should challenge the NEWT level in my course as well. I will give you whatever extra help you need to catch up to the others."

For the first time in the last few days I felt really good about myself as I ran down the stairs and headed for the Room of Requirement. It was a good feeling, and one I was going to be able to keep for a good portion of the evening.