Chapter Eleven: A Strange Breakfast, or Freaking Out the Great Hall

Harry wasn't really sure what to expect when he went down to the Great Hall for breakfast that morning: After one of the only dreams he had that did not involve a certain corridor-but was slowly torturing him just as much as his other dream was, if not more-and then teasing Neville(after the rest of the guys left and Ron was in the shower) about inviting Luna to eat at the Gryffindor table, Harry cautiously made his way down the Gryffindor Tower, Ron chattering away in his ear about the upcoming Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Quidditch tournament... One of the many reasons he loved the redheaded boy; the clear and utter focus on a single subject, no matter what else was going on.

Ron's constant chatter only partially distracted him from the fact that many of the students they passed gave him the evil eye or even made ancient gestures against evil as he passed them. As a matter of fact, Ron's voice got even louder as they passed these people, almost as if he could get Harry to ignore them by sheer force of will. It was a nice effort but it just pointed out when they where doing it and brought up how often it happened to Harry's attention

As soon as they entered the Great Hall, Harry's gaze immediately went to the Slytherin table to see if Malfoy was serious about his late night confession and that it wasn't some sort of prank on Hermione(although, based on Neville's reaction to when he had teasingly offered the same Vow that Malfoy had, Harry had to admit that Malfoy may have been sincere)... Refocusing his attention, Harry found who he was looking for and when he realized just what he was looking at, his mouth dropping open in shock. As soon as Ron realized that Harry was not walking beside him-which was only halfway to the Gryffindor Table-Ron gaze darted back to him, and then over to see what he was looking at. Eyes widening as his brain processed that what he was seeing wasn't some sort of spell or enchantment, Ron's jaw joined Harry's on the floor as he uttered a very audible, "Bloody hell!"

Draco Malfoy was sitting at the Slytherin Table like a king holding court, which was how he sat at every meal, usually to gloat about something his father or mother sent him; but this morning some of his 'subjects' were looking at him like he had lost his mind. Harry was inclined to agree with the Slytherins for the first time in his life for a very simple reason; sitting next to Malfoy were, not only Hermione, but Luna Lovegood telling Neville Longbottom about some sort of unheard of magical creature if the perplexed, but interested look on his face was anything to go by, Ginny Weasely who looked like she was trying to disappear under the table, and the Weasely twins, who were either looking like they wondering about their own sanity or making sure that the Slytherins sitting next to Ginny kept their hands to themselves.

"Malfoy's finally done it... he's totally lost his marbles... He's gone completely barking..." Ron's voice held what sounded like, well, amazement as he and Harry watched Malfoy lean over and pour Hermione a glass of pumpkin juice as if it were a regular occurrence and not something that had the entire Great Hall watching in wonder, speculating what he had put in the goblet that had her sitting there or what he had done to get the lot of them over there in the first place. "If Pansy doesn't kill him, Snape is going to murder him!"

Harry took in the fact that Pansy(who was, as far as anyone knew, still Malfoy's girlfriend)had been glaring at Malfoy like he had just insulted her entire family tree and personal hygiene in one breath before he dared to look up at the High Table, letting his gaze sweep over the other teachers before landing on Snape: Professor Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling so much, Harry suspected that someone had switched them for a pair of sapphire jewels(at least for the few seconds he saw them), Hagrid looked completely flummoxed to see the Weaselys at the Slytherin Table without there being bloodshed and looked like he hoped this was some kind of wonderful practical joke, Professor McGongall's lips were the thinnest Harry had ever seen-not to mention it looked like her eyebrows had disappeared into her hairline-and all of the other professor's expressions were some variation of Hagrid's and Professor McGongall's.

Except for Umbridge, sitting in the seat that many people believed(and Harry was really being to hope for in this particular case) was cursed; as usual, the frog-like teacher was simply eating her breakfast and staring out at the Great Hall as if she was at a picnic with a bunch of five year old children and she was a much loved kindergarten teacher. It amazed Harry that she seemed to completely missing the fact that most of the population was glaring back at her with thinly veiled disgust or, with a few brave exceptions, open loathing. No, wait, scratch that; anyone that covered up Cedric's death as an 'unfortunate accident' was more obtuse than Professor Binn in lecture mode.

Then Harry's gaze slowly, finally, went to where Professor Snape was sitting and he had to swallow down a cry of warning for Mal-Draco, damn, that's going to take some time to get used to-because Snape had that special look on that he originally reserved just for Harry; it was a very talented combination of a glare, sneer and frown that Harry believed Snape had to take a special class to perfect and never would have thought he'd see it aimed at another student... To be precise, as soon as the Potion Master realized Harry had entered the Great Hall, Snape's gaze snapped to The-Boy-Who-Lived and grew ever more darker... something that Harry had not even thought possible until that moment, something that had him worried for Draco's well being for the very first time since he met the boy.

It seemed to be a morning for firsts...

"Harry! Ron! There you are! Come over here!" As if shocking the Great Hall with letting people who were not Slytherins sit with him, even talking and laughing with those people, Draco decided to go the extra mile by calling Harry and Ron by their surnames. It was such a surprise that even they didn't recognize who was calling them and Draco had to repeat himself a few times, making several people look st their oatmeal as if they strongly suspected that the House-elves put more than the usual herbs and spices in it.

"Alright, Malfoy, time to get to whatever you wanted to say," Fred Weasely stated, glaring as one particularly stalwart Slytherin-Blaine or Cain, or something like that-tried to strike up a conversation with Ginny once again. The boy was pretty determined and could actually stand up to Fred's glaring for quite a bit, but having a one-sided conversation with a girl whose speechless with embarrassment is a feat in itself and not even the most determined Slytherin was able to do it for very long.

"Tsk, tsk, Weasely, you'd think I was up to no good," Draco chided, grinning at Fred and shocking him into silence with the simple action. For Draco had smirked before, sneered like it was his personal trademark, but never had before had the platinum blond Slytherin smiled at any of them-well, other than Hermione, of course-with any kind of warmth in his gaze. It derailed the Gryffindor Beater so much that Blaine(or whatever his name happened to be) was actually able to nudge Ginny out of her embarrassment and have a few words with the girl before George stepped in for his twin and sent the boy packing.

"We know you're up to no good, Malfoy," Fred growled darkly, the only sign of his embarrassment that he had been surprised by Malfoy's good nature ribbing was a slight redness about his ears, a Weasely temper sign that Harry was beginning to think he'd see a lot in the coming days if Draco was as serious about dating Hermione as he said he was. "So why don't you just get to the point so that we can tell you to piss off once and for all?"

Once more, Draco tutted at Fred and quipped, "Such rude behavior! Here I am, inviting you special few to dine with me and have a civilized conversation, yet most of you are treating me as if I were going to Curse you all! Now, is that really fair?"

"Stop teasing them, Draco, and tell them what you wanted to say," Hermione cut across Fred-who had gone red again, this time it covered his entire face-seeming to be the only one that wasn't thrown off by all of this; as a matter of fact, the brain of what people were beginning to call 'the Golden Trio' was beaming so brightly that the sunlight streaming through the window was having a hard time competing with her on lighting up the place. To coin a popular phrase, Harry's 'sister' was practically glowing.

"Very well, Hermione, I'll get right to the point." Draco sighed dramatically as Hermione nudged him good naturally, shocking the other occupants of the table from one end to the other even further by not only agreeing to Hermione's request-or rather, her demand-but by calling her by her surname as if he had done it ever since the two of them had met. It was enough of a breach of the norm for the other Slytherins to stop doing that 'I'm-listening-but-am-pretending-to-be-interested-in-the-bacon' thing they all usually did and openly stare at Draco in shock, which seemed to only buoy the blond's unnatural good mood even farther.

"I've called you all here-with some very careful persuasion on some of your parts-to inform you all that any ill blood between us... I hope to wash it away and begin anew with all of you. As of now, I am going to do everything in my power to prove that I have turned over a new leaf, become a new man and have left the old 'Draco Malfoy' behind me," Waiting a few minutes for the cacophonous clamor that followed that statement to quiet down, Malfoy took a sip of his pumpkin juice before continuing, "That is not saying that my father and other members of my family will feel as kindly toward all of you... most of all you, Harry, my father really can't stand you... Can't really understand why..."-there was an almost normally evil looking grin on Draco's face now-"I believe they will feel unkindly toward the lot of you even more so when they hear of my break from the Malfoy's bad name, starting by openly dating one Miss Hermione Granger... if there is anything left of me after I accept all of the retribution for the damage to the people gathered here that I caused, either directly or indirectly."

There was utter silence at the Slytherin Table that seemed to spread to the farthest corners of Great Hall; it was as if the entire Hogwart's population was holding its breath, waiting for the first blow to land, first spell to be cast or something. Harry found himself wondering where Draco had learned to talk like that as he subtly removed all the sharp objects from the Weasely twins' side of the Slytherin Table with a simple Summoning charm, grinning widely when a few of them collided with the ones flying toward Hermione, who had the foresight to remove them from the more violent Slytherins that where now looking at Draco as if they wanted nothing more than to take him up on his offer of retribution.

After a few heartbeats, George Weasely, who had been utterly silent up to this point, asked, "Are you on some sort of personality altering drug? Potion?" His gaze swept over the other Gryffindors at the table and lingered for a moment on Luna before dismissing her as impossible for whatever he was thinking of. "Did one of you guys slip him something while we weren't looking, to see if we would fall for it? A Malfoy turning over a new leaf? That's pretty good... almost had me believing it for a couple of seconds before I remembered who I was talking to. So, what did you guys do to get to the ferret to go along with it? A bribe, possibly? Blackmail, maybe?"

The fact that the last part had an almost wistful note to it was not lost on Draco, nor did he miss the backhanded nickname, but it did not garner the explosion that George was obviously expecting. If anything, it lit a determined glint in Draco's eyes as he accepted the suspicion and distrust with a small, short, bow of his head. "Very well, you do not believe me. You don't really have any reason to accept my word at face value, as I have never really given you just cause to do so, therefore I will render this compromise: Will you believe that I have well and truly changed my ways if I promise, in front of all gathered and on my magic, to do one thing that you say, no questions asked, no matter how humiliating?"

"Okay, I was just kidding last time, but this time I'm dead serious: Malfoy haslost his mind," Ron hissed as the twins shared a look that was all too familiar to Harry: they couldn't believe the golden treasure that dropped ever so willingly into their lap. It was the look they got when Ginny first told them about Percy having a girlfriend, when they found out that Sirius Black was one of the Marauders, then whenever a First Year agreed to be one of their guinea pigs. It wasn't very good for the nerves and Hermione once described it as having a 'wonderfully awful' quality to it. Ron agreed once Harry explained the reference, even going as far to add that there were days when he strongly suspected the fact that they weren't power hungry arses was all that kept them from being in Slytherin.

"Anything we want, huh?" The Weasely twins chorused, interrupting the quiet mini-argument that was going on between the newly announced couple, and bringing Draco's attention back to them, Something of what they were planning must have been reflected there, because Harry saw Draco's Adam's apple bob as he swallowed, which only caused the two sitting across from him grin even wider. "Do you want to make the Vow before-

"-or after we tell you what we want you to do-

"-to make it square between us? We can't-"

"-say the same for our brother and sister, however-"

"-considering that you've been more of an evil berk to them than to us-"

"-but we do have a few ideas if they can't think of anything-"

"-especially thought up-"

"-given careful consideration-"

"-even almost put into action-"

"-all for the little ex-Death Eater."

"George!"

"Public nudity might work for the ponce-"

"-but Hermione would like that too much-"

"Fred!"

"-so we were thinking something a little more personal..."

"Maybe an indentured servitude-"

"-Malfoy admitting his blood is no better than anyone else's-"

"-or something like that?"

"I reserve the right to fully and utterly beat the blue blood he believes he has out of him if he hurts Hermione," Ron stated, interrupting one of Hermione's lectures and making the other Weaselys near him jump in surprise. They had obviously forgotten he was sitting at the table with them, even Neville had twitched a little at Ron's first words (Luna, of course, simply blinked while smiling that slightly mad smile of hers). Ron's gaze flickered over to the boy that had been trying to chat up Ginny earlier as he continued, "Hermione is like a sister to me and Harry, has been since First Year and the deal with the troll, and we take care of our family and anyone who tries to harm them, no matter who they are or what family they come from."

Whatever-his-name-was and Ron locked eyes for the barest of seconds and the ebony haired Slytherin's head dipped forward in what could be called a nod if one was feeling gracious, but Ron turned in his seat and sent the same glare at Draco, who also gave the slightest of nods. He then leaned back in his seat, glad that the message had been sent and completely oblivious to the fact that his thigh kept rubbing against Harry's leg and it was slowly driving him crazy...

Is he so focused on other people's romances that he has no time figuring out his own problems? Harry sighed and was about to bring up the fact that Ginny had yet to say anything when the girl cut him off by actually speaking up, taking her turn locking eyes with Draco as she gave her own condition for forgiving him:.

"I want to take Veritiserum for my questions, and I want a Truth Spell cast afterward, with just me and Malfoy in the room," Ginny raised her voice to be heard over her brothers, her brown orbs never leaving Draco's icy blues as she went on in a tone like sharpened steel, "The questions I want to ask have to deal with something everyone here was happy forgetting even happened, including me. I would prefer to bring up as few bad memories as I can; if it were possible, I wouldn't bring them up at all, but there are some things I need to know..."

There was nothing any of them could say after that, and Draco agreed to swear on his magic before the Weasely twins even told him what they wanted. All that was left was to figure out where all of this was going to take place and the group sat around discussing it for a while before the absurdity of their situation decided to make itself known in one of the most unpleasant of ways: Professor Delores Umbridge, teacher of the Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Hem, hem," Could you hate the sound of someone clearing their throat? Or was it the fact that Umbridge did it like an overbearing grandmother? Or maybe it was that she treated them all like mentally retarded toddlers? "I do believe that the bell for classes rang some time ago, maybe you didn't hear it over your no doubt entertaining chatter. May I inquire as to what the lot of you are discussing? It is rare that I see the Houses as mixed as this, and the teachers have told me they have never witnessed this during their many years teaching as well... It seems Cornelius was right in turning the Ministry's loving gaze toward Hogwarts..."

Confused, Harry lifted his gaze and looked down the Slytherin Table, trying to figure out how a bunch of Gryffindors and Slytherins were 'the Houses'. Slightly shocked, Harry saw that Umbridge was right(for once); as they had been talking amonst themselves and not really paying that much attention to anything else, several different students had wandered over and had started talking with various Slytherins, Hufflepuffs and so forth. True, some parts of the table were completely ignoring the other, but for the most part, nearly every one was talking with someone from another House and it wouldn't have surprised Harry if some sort of magic had lengthened the Slytherin Table to accommodate all of the student now seated at it.

Blinking beside him, Ron once more muttered, "Bloody hell, everybody's here!" while Harry took in the sight that down the table Alicia Spinnet was arguing Quidditch tactics with Cho Chang, Colin Creevey was talking photos with Justin Flinch-Fletchley, Luna was trying to convince Hannah Abbott that she needed a charm to ward off the creature that was making her voice so high and Hermione's eyes were shining like twin shooting stars when she mouthed, "Inter-house co-operation! WE did it, Harry!" at him as she grasped Draco's hand in time for him to place a gentle kiss on the back of hers.

"Hem, hem," Unfortunately, Harry did not have time to marvel at the crowd of students that were milling about, even through they were now heading off to the first class of the day, because Umbridge was once more demanding his attention with a sickly sweet smile, "Mr. Potter, if you would be so kind as to answer me? It is considered extremely rude to totally ignore someone when they ask you a question, and it is considered even more, if not especially, rude when a teacher asks you a direct question and you do not answer it. I answer all of the questions posed to me to the best of my ability, don't I?"

"Yeah, but that the difference between the two of us, Umbridge," Harry snapped harshly, utterly annoyed that one of his very few peaceful mornings was being ruined with a completely pointless lecture by someone who sprouted more lies than Fudge did, totally irritated by the fact that she was using the fact that the Houses were getting along for the first time in a long while as a basis for the Ministry's new regiment at Hogwarts to be working, not to mention her own all consuming banning of everything that pointed out the slightest hint of the Ministry being wrong, and just downright pissed off that she was trying to make him out to be the bad guy... again. Ignoring Hermione's rapidly shaking head, as well as the fact that she keep hitting Draco in the face with her brunette tresses, Harry gave Umbridge a simpering smile of his own that was more growl than grin. "I actually tell the truth when I answer and you just spout a bunch of Ministry approved lies."

Umbridge's face drained of all color, turning absolutely white so fast that Harry was almost positive that she was going to pass out at any second; Ron even moved out of her way so that she wouldn't land on him, doing it in such a hasty manner that it made the people sitting next to him quickly smoother random bursts of sniggers. That, in turn, made some of the anger that was growing in Harry's chest ease a bit as Umbridge's finally cottoned on to the fact that most of Hogwarts despised her, if not outright hated having her there, her face flushing into such a deep garnet that it rivaled the Gyffindor colors in their Tower.

"I do apologize for my friend's behavior, Professor Umbridge," Draco interjected, rising up and coming to stand next to Harry, even going as far to place a hand on the taller boy's shoulder. "Or I should say, lack there of. You see; he was raised by this particularly nasty family of Muggles, a really messed up group in my humble opinion, one of the worst cases of what my father has been trying to inform the Wizarding World of. It has become so bad that Harry here has realized just how ignorant of our ways he is and has now-after several painful years of trying my utter best to persuade him to see reason, mind you-accepted my invitation to teach him how to behave how a proper Wizard acts in polite society... starting with how to show respect to teachers who deserve it and conduct oneself in a public setting."

Draco must have told the Weaselys what he had intended to do before he moved to Harry's side, or they were just so completely shocked that he was defending (in a way) Harry instead of jumping on the 'Harry-Deserves-To-Be-Punished' bandwagon, for none of them said a word during his little monologue. Harry, himself, restrained from commenting because of the simple fact that, during points of his little speech to Umbridge, Draco had given Harry's shoulder a very subtle squeeze of restraint; a gesture that Harry probably wouldn't have felt if not for the fact that he was in that hyper-aware point of anger were every nerve seemed to be on edge and the cutlery around him was humming like an orchestra tuning up... something that caused the few students still sitting at the table to lean away from it in alarm.

"Very well," Umbridge was saying, pulling Harry's attention back to the fact that she was still standing in front of him, smiling like she was doing him a huge favor. "I do hope that you have better luck with him than I had; for my own dealings have brought to light the fact that the boy has a terrible and very hot temper. Perhaps you could use my supervision in your own lessons, just in case he decides to become violent? Your father is very prominent in the Ministry and I am sure he would be grateful to the fact that I was making sure his son was safe."

You didn't need X-ray vision to see the grip that Draco had on Harry's shoulder now, nor did you need it to see both boys' smiles had become a lot more forced than they were a few minutes ago. Harry was only a few seconds away from moving his shoulder to get some blood flow back into it as he blasted Umbridge back to whatever hell she came from and made sure she stayed there this time when he was saved by-of all people!-Snape descending on the Slytherin table like the bird of prey many First Years believed he turned into at night.

"I do believe that Lucius would be more appreciative of the fact that his son was on time to class, for which many of you have only five minutes to get to," Snape gave the hand Draco had on Harry's shoulder a particularly evil glare before he practically spat, "Although, if this is going to be a regular occurrence, I would suggest that Mr. Malfoy pick his friendships a little more carefully. It is not my place to dictate the life of my students, but I would simply suggest that Malfoy venture in safer circles. Those that hold ties to Potter tend to have nasty... accidents."

Once more, Harry was saved from throttling the life out of one of his teachers by Draco, both by the tightly restraining hand on his shoulder and by the fact that Draco decided to add his own unique spin on the conversation: "Ron and Hermione still seem to be in one piece, sir, and this is after several years of Harry's company, so I think I'll take my chances; but I do thank you both, however, for your concern for my safety. I'll be sure my father hears of the caring staff we have here at Hogwarts."

Leaving the two shell shocked professors standing behind them as they retrieved their various supplies and made their ways to their respective classes-Hermione with a bit of a shriek of panic when she realized that Ancient Runes was halfway across the castle before darting off, Draco a few steps behind her, hollering that she'd see them later over her shoulder-Ron pulled Harry close and hissed in his ear, "Did Malfoy just mouth off to Snape?"

Once more hyper-aware of the proximity of the person holding him, for a much more personal reason this time, Harry just managed to get out, "You're going to have to start calling him Draco now, if he's going to be hanging out with us." At Ron's incredulous look, Harry tried to ignore the fact that he was only inches away as he tacked on, "You know Hermione will bug you about it if you don't and you won't remember if you keep calling him 'Malfoy' now..."

Giving him a look that was pure Weasely, amusement, annoyance and mostly acceptance, Ron grinned as he exaggeratedly rolled his eyes and started jogging toward their class. After a few seconds of just speeding down the hallway, Ron finally conceded to Harry's point in his usual roundabout fashion that Harry had learned was the closest he'd get to Ron saying he was right, "Hermione would nag Dumbledore about running the school! …Did Draco just mouth off to Snape? That's got to be a first!"

Grinning in return as he caught up with and then sprinted alongside his best mate (and maybe someday something so much more) Harry gave voice to the thought he had earlier that morning, the almost prophetic thought that was becoming even more prominent now than when it first strayed into his head as he cut off Ron around the corner leading to the Transfiguration classroom: "This seems to be a morning for that!"

Ron's laughter chased them through the castle halls.