Gods atop a mountain

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, his world or anything in it. That'll do, won't it? And any familiar lines have been borrowed from 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' the book and I obviously didn't invent them.

Sorry this chapter's taken so long to get out. I haven't felt like writing recently. Then there's school, and it always seems like I feel like writing when I can't. Like during badminton. And don't ever diss badminton. It's a very good sport for someone who finds it hard to pick a sport to play during sport. Next term, I think I'll do Squash, then Ultimate Frisby then something else. I think my friends are doing Judo.

~*Chapter 10 - Malfoy and the Wizards' Sport*~

The day after Halloween, November 1st, Harry began thinking. The brush with the Death Eaters was a bit of a wake up call. They could attack the school at any time. They needed a plan to stop Voldemort once and for all.

The upside of the day, besides winning the Quidditch match and gaining the lead in the cup, was making a new friend in Joanna. There are some things you can't share without ending up friends with each other, knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them, hiding from Death Eaters under an invisibility cloak is another one.

It turned out that Joanna, was a bit of a loner. She wasn't able to make friends easily so instead, didn't try and just studied. But she was a Hufflepuff and so was extremely loyal. The next week there was a Hogsmeade weekend.

"Joanna," Harry said, seeing the fourth year girl in a corridor. "Want to come to Hogsmeade with me, Hermione and Jennifer Smith, Ginny and her buddy and Ron and Suzanne Delany? You can bring your buddy, too."

Jennifer smiled. Suddenly she'd just gotten a whole lot more friends. "Sorry, I have to go with my cousin to buy my mum's birthday present. His dad wants him to buy it for him."

"Bring him, too," Harry said.

"I don't know if he'll agree to it. What if I join you for lunch and he can go off with his friends for lunch."

"That's cool," Harry said. "But if he wants to join us then he's welcome too."

"I'll tell him, but I don't think he'll want to."

Harry shrugged and walked away.

---

Harry, Hermione, Ron, Suzanne, Ginny, Felicity (Ginny's buddy from Ravenclaw) and Jennifer were in the three broomsticks having butterbeers when Malfoy walked in with a scowl on his face followed by Joanna. Harry waved her over and was surprised when Malfoy followed her over to their crowded table.

"Why are you here Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"I was invited by you if I remember correctly," Malfoy said, smirking.

Harry was puzzled; he didn't remember inviting Malfoy along. Then he realised. "You're Joanna's cousin?"

"One of six, yes," Malfoy replied.

Harry shrugged as Ron and Hermione gave him looks. He wasn't about to turn away someone who he'd inadvertently invited and if Malfoy wanted to stay, why stop him? Hang on, why did Malfoy want to stay?

"How's your shopping going?" Harry asked Joanna.

"Terrible, we can't find a thing in the entire Hogsmeade village," Joanna said.

"That's only because we spent hours Zonko's and Honeydukes so far thanks to Joanna." Malfoy added.

"Zonko's had a new line. And I met Kathryn in Honeydukes." Joanna retorted.

"I wouldn't have to be sitting here with the mudblood, weasel and toilet if we'd just looked in Jeremiad's Charms in the first place."

"How are you so sure there'll be something good there anyway, Draco?"

"That's where I buy everyone presents. That's where I buy Aunt Amita's present every year. Or don't you remember?"

"I don't want to buy my mother another stupid toilet seat cover. THEY'RE ALL COVERED! I don't like sitting on the words 'love from Draco' every time I need to shit."

The rest of the table tried to stifle their snickers as they imagined frilly pink toilet seat covers with the words 'love from Draco' embroidered there in red surrounded by hearts.

"What are you snickering about, Potter?" Draco asked, looking at him.

"You," Harry said, simply. Draco was going red.

"At least my aunt's not a muggle with no taste."

"But your uncle is," Joanna said. Draco got redder.

"Malfoy's going red," Hermione stated, sending everyone except Harry and Draco into roars of laughter.

Draco left the table. Joanna followed him shortly, then Harry (a/n: I don't know why except that it makes the next scene work).

"Draco, wait. We still need to buy mum a birthday present and you're going to buy one or Uncle Lucius won't like that too much." Joanna called after her cousin.

Draco stopped and turned around to face Joanna. "Potter?" Joanna turned around to look at Harry.

"All I wanted to say was that I'm sorry for laughing at you before. And," he said the next bit rather hesitantly. "I was thinking-"

"I guess there's a first time for everything," Malfoy interrupted. Harry scowled at him, knowing that the comment just made what he was about to say even harder to say.

"Could we be friends?" Harry asked. Malfoy was in obvious shock. If years of etiquette training hadn't trained him for this his jaw would have dropped.

"Friends?" he spat out the word. "With you, Potter? I don't think so."

Harry shrugged. It had been worth a shot. Maybe Malfoy was just like that… what was he thinking? Of course Malfoy wouldn't want to be friends with him! Why was he even asking? Because he was tired and immensely pissed off. He hated Voldemort and didn't have enough hate to share with Malfoy. Harry went back inside.

---

"GO GRYFFINDORRR!!!" The crowd cheered. It was a Gryffindor vs. Slytherin Quidditch game. And because it was against Slytherin, it was more like everyone against Slytherin.

Harry was hovering above the pitch, being careful not to fly out of bounds. Malfoy had obviously been avoiding him not only during the entire game, but all week. Suddenly Malfoy headed toward Harry. There was only one reason why he would head toward Harry. Where was the snitch?

There were glints all around the stadium. Which one was the golden glint of the snidget lookalike? Malfoy was steadily nearing him. Harry followed his gaze. Malfoy wasn't heading toward the ground, so it couldn't have been a Wronski Feint. Harry looked up. The snitch was hovering above his head. As if it realised Harry had spotted him, the snitch suddenly took off toward the goals.

Harry feared a repeat of the previous Quidditch game. He sped toward the goals realising that this time it was headed toward the Slytherin Keeper. This wasn't a good sign. The keeper probably wasn't going to let Harry get the snitch. Harry raised an arm and lowered his middle finger. That was the sign for 'the great divide' a play Harry had invented where all the chasers headed toward the Slytherin goal regardless of whether they had the Quaffle or not. It was to be used mainly for this situation. The keeper wouldn't be expecting all three chasers to turn around in mid air and start heading for the goals.

Harry focused completely on the golden ball, he watched the wings flap up and down comically slowly. It darted left and right. Through one of the hoops. Harry followed it, speeding up. He hadn't grown much and could still fit easily through the hoops.

That really confused the Slytherin keeper. He stopped paying attention to the Gryffindor chasers and watched the seeker fly through the goals. He reached out a hand -

"Watch out!" someone called out as out of nowhere, a bludger came speeding straight for Harry's head, bypassing every other player on the way there.

The wind almost knocked the Slytherin keeper off his broom. He clung on as the sound of bludger against head shook the entire stadium. There was silence as the entire school watched Harry Potter fall off his broom. Somehow, he had managed to grab the snitch as he was hit, Gryffindor once again winning… yet another loss for Draco Malfoy.

There was no time to celebrate. No one seemed able to react. Fourteen others on brooms all seemed unable to move. Then a slender Slytherin on Nimbus 2001 shot forward. A green blur tried to catch the unconscious scarlet-robed figure. He barely missed. Harry continued to fall. The action of this lone Slytherin seemed to spur the others in the air into motion. Madam Hooch the umpire, as well as the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team headed as fast as possible before there was another sickening crunch of broken bones - where Harry Potter would be brought past the point of no return.

Suddenly, Harry was no longer falling. Someone in the crowd had come to their senses and cast a hover charm on him. The Slytherin caught him and gently drew the star player of the Gryffindor team onto his broom. The two headed downwards where Madam Pomfrey was waiting with a stretcher.

The entire crowd all seemed to gain their voices at once as soon as Harry was inside the castle.

---

"I can't believe he did that,"

"I can't believe no one else did it,"

"At least H2 got his broom"

Harry was slowly gaining consciousness in a bright room. It was a room all too familiar. Once again he'd managed to get himself into an accident on the Quidditch pitch.

"What happened?" Harry asked. His last memories were of the snitch. He'd followed it through the hoops and between the second and third ones. Then everything after that was a bit of a blank. There were blurs of what he thought were dreams in his half-waking state.

"Bludger hit you hard on the head," a voice recognisable as Hermione's said.

"I'm surprised you weren't out for longer," Ron's blurry voice said. "You would've hit the ground, too if it wasn't for Hermione's hover charm."

"Then Malfoy got you," Hermione added.

"Malfoy?" Harry questioned. Maybe he hadn't heard right. From what he'd heard so far, his head probably wasn't in the best state.

"We all thought that was weird, too," Ron said.

"Thought I might have heard wrong," Harry said.

"You heard fine," Hermione said.

"Now, I think it's time you all left Mr. Potter to get more sleep," Madam Pomfrey said.

"Bye Harry," Hermione and Ron said. Hermione and Ron left. Madam Pomfrey fed him a potion then Harry was left alone with his thoughts.

Malfoy had saved him? Someone who'd been his enemy for years had saved him from death? Someone who'd refused his friendship the week before? Malfoy did have a heart. Unlike some people. But, Voldemort probably didn't count as a person.

In the morning, Harry woke up and knew there was someone else in the room.

"Who's there?"

"Someone who loves you."

Who would use a cheesy Star Wars quote at a time like this?

"Seamus?" Harry inquired.

"The one and only."

"I'm sure there's more than one Seamus in the world. Actually, there's probably another one in the school somewhere."

"Ah well," Seamus said.

"Why are you here?"

"I don't know. I got up early, couldn't get back to sleep and decided to visit you before breakfast. I was about to leave because you weren't waking up."

"Is it breakfast time?" Harry asked.

"Sure is," Seamus said. "Is the food any good here?"

"Same as down in the great hall," Harry said. "But they might add potions to it here. How would I know?"

"Guess I'd better go eat downstairs, then," Seamus said. "See you later."

"Bye Seamus," Harry called as the other boy left the room.

After breakfast, Madam Pomfrey deemed him fit to leave the hospital wing. Harry left and immediately went in search of his friends. He wandered the halls aimlessly before deciding to head to the Gryffindor Common room.

"Hey Potter," a familiar voice said.

"Malfoy," Harry greeted him.

"I know the answers to your questions," he said.

"What questions?" Harry asked.

"Well I'll tell you the answers and you can tell me the questions after." Harry nodded. Malfoy had been confusing him lately. And this was another strange thing to further confuse H1. "Firstly, yes I did finally manage to get a present for my aunt that both Joanna and I agreed on."

Harry nodded again. "And?"

"I saved you to prove to the world that I'm not a mean and heartless git. Besides, no one else around there had reflexes good enough to catch you."

To Harry, the smirk on Draco's face seemed to tell him that there was another reason behind Draco's rescue. But he left the topic alone.

They walked along the hallway together, again wandering aimlessly. Neither one spoke, but it was a comfortable silence. Both had achieved what they'd wanted and asked for - friendship. (a/n: Matthew Reilly's right. Those do read quickly) Walking the hallways together, neither felt the need to talk or explain anything. They'd never talked much before except for an insult here and there and even this hadn't changed. Friendship isn't about telling each other how you feel; it's about knowing even when you haven't said anything at all.

~*~

A/N: For anyone who wants to know. No, this is not slash and will not be, even though I'm a real Harry/Draco fan. So much so, that in non-slash stories I can't ever put them with anyone else except O.C.s (very crappily made, O.C.s at that) and I can't write them as enemies.

And I'm kind of sorry this chapter isn't very long. But I'm not really sorry, because I had nothing else to write in it.

So anyways, perhaps I'll post more of this soon. Most likely not sooner but later. And maybe, just maybe, I'll post one of my stupid slashy stories.