Thank you again court2010 and lovegoodpotter. I know I've kind of thrown a lot of chapters at you both recently.

I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 25

Harriet was pleased when she managed to sneak into her dorm the night before without Draco or any of the other Slytherins noticing her. When she had woken up that morning Harriet made sure to take her time getting ready before she finally had to leave for breakfast. Though she was surprised to find Draco still sleeping on a chair by the common room entrance. She slipped past him unnoticed and headed down to breakfast.

Harriet was sitting at the end of the breakfast table on her own watching absentmindedly Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table. Hermione wasn't too far away from them. Harriet felt sorry for Hermione and wished that Harry and Ron would just give her a chance Harriet was positive that they would all get on really well.

Then Draco came in; he spotted Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table almost at once. And couldn't seem to believe his eyes. When Draco saw the boys still there he instantly looked along the Slytherin table for Harriet. He found her and he looked at her for a moment before heading over towards her and sitting down next to her.

"I thought you had been expelled." It wasn't so much of a question as a statement. However Harriet could also notice the pain in there that so few others ever heard. Draco was genuinely sorry for what he had done.

"Well, I had to get back at you some way didn't I?" She wasn't unkind about it but it showed Draco that he wasn't getting off lightly either.

"Yeah, I'll admit I did deserve it. I was being a twat*."

"Yeah, you can say that again." replied Harriet. She actually hadn't expected Draco to apologise and especially not so quickly. She briefly wondered if that was why he had slept in the chair last night. So she decided to ask him. "I noticed you were asleep in a chair in the common room this morning?"

"I was waiting for you to come back, though I must have missed you. When did you get back anyway?"

"About half an hour before curfew. Why did you wait for me, even though you knew that I probably wouldn't talk to you?" Asked Harriet.

"I had to try, you're the best friend I have, and if you had been expelled then I couldn't have let you leave without at least trying to apologise and tell you how sorry I was." From the moment that Harriet had heard Draco say that she was the best friend that he had her mouth was opened in shock. She had thought that Crabbe and Goyle were his best friends. She had defiantly considered him one of her closest friends and she spent more time with him than she did any of her other friends.

"What did I say something wrong?" asked Draco he was looking nervous now.

"No, it's just I've never had a best friend before and I thought Crabbe and Goyle were yours." Replied Harriet, she was blushing now, it seemed stupid of her not to have consider that Draco might think of her as a best friend, but she really didn't know if boys minds worked the same way as girls when it came to best friends. Draco had a slight pink tinge to his cheeks now as well.

"Well, I just assumed, I mean if you don't want to then I'll understand." Draco rushed.

"No, wait, I want to be best friends. Though…" Harriet trailed off.

"What. You can tell me."

"Is it okay if I keep a best friend space open for Hermione as well? No wait. It's just that she has no one except from me and maybe Neville I don't know if they talk at all in the Gryffindor common room or just when I'm there to initiate any conversations between them." Harriet could feel herself starting to get off the topic, so she closed her mouth and waited for Draco to say something. Draco was smiling.

"Of course, you can have more than one best friend you know." Draco smirked a little at Harriet. "And besides I wouldn't expect anything less from you." Harriet gave a small laugh and pushed Draco's arm. Then turned back to her breakfast. Draco just smiled at her and served himself some cereal.

Harriet and Draco both left together for double potions first thing. As soon as Harriet saw Hermione standing along her rushed over to her. Both the girls were surprised when Draco left Crabbe and Goyle, and approached both of them and started hanging out and even joining in with their conversations. What Harriet was most surprised at was Draco was nice to Hermione. He didn't utter a single uncivil word to her.

When Snape let them into the dungeons he too was surprised though he didn't show it. Harriet and Hermione sat in their usual seats and Draco and Crabbe sat down at the table next to theirs. Harry and Ron were also at tables nearby and didn't seem particularly happy with the new seating arrangements.

It wasn't just Potions either. Draco seemed to be making an effort to show Harriet exactly how much their friendship meant to him by leaving Crabbe and Goyle and by sitting next to Harriet in Herbology as well despite the presence of Mandy, Morag and Michael as well. Harriet was touched by what Draco was doing, and she liked having him there but she was also worried that Draco was ditching his friends so often. She didn't want Draco to be left friendless if for whatever reason they were to fall out. She didn't think she would be able to live with that guilt. So Harriet pulled Draco to the side after class to have a word with him.

"Draco, I'm touched with what you are doing, and I'm happy to be spending more time with you, but I'm worried that you're going to start neglecting your other friends." Explained Harriet in a gentle tone. She didn't want to offend Draco or give him the idea that she didn't want him around because that wasn't true she was looking out for his best interests.

"What do you mean I spend plenty of time with Crabbe and Goyle?" Harriet could hear the defensiveness creeping into Draco's tone.

"I know you do. But you haven't spent any time with them today and I don't want you to lose their friendship. I'm happy to for us all to hang out together. I just didn't want you to neglect them in case we stopped being friends for some reason. I don't want you to be left alone without any other friends." She could see Draco start to soften his posture he was becoming less defensive now.

"All right I understand. So I can still spend more time with you?" Draco looked so hopeful that Harriet had to laugh as she answered.

"Of course, you can." Then Harriet took them both by surprise and gave Draco a hug. She felt him stiffen for a second then he relaxed and she felt his arms wrap around her as well as he returned the hug. "I'm glad you understand." Harriet whispered into his ear. Then they pulled away from each other and headed up towards the castle to get cleaned up before dinner.

After dinner Harriet tried out the new relationship with Draco and asked him if he wanted to go with her to do some homework in the library with Hermione. Draco agreed though he did wonder how Harriet knew that Hermione would be in the library.

"It's simple," explained Harriet. "Hermione is always in the library. There is no one in the Gryffindor house that will talk to her so she goes where other can talk to her if they want to and where she can keep herself busy if no one does want to talk to her."

"So that's why she is the top of every class. Because she has no friends she spends all of her time studying." Theorised Draco.

"Erm, not exactly I have a feeling Hermione would be the top of her class regardless of if she had friends or not in her own house. She has the work motive and already had her books all memorised before getting on the Hogwarts express. I think she has mainly been studying other things such as wizard culture and history. The sort of things that people who grew up in the wizarding world would already know."

Draco nodded as he thought through what Harriet had said. "Actually a lot of the things she has found out have actually been quite useful. It has helped me when around you for example; it helps me to understand how you act sometimes. "Harriet went on. At the look of complete shock on Draco's face Harriet smirked. "What you thought you were acting perfectly around me?" mocked Harriet.

"No, I mean yes; I thought I had managed to stop pointing out my pure blood status." Murmured Draco as they turned a corner.

"Well, you're not quite there yet. It's just small things like the way you seem to take note of a person's surname when you first hear it as if you are noting if it's a wizards surname. Small things but I believe you'll overcome that with time." Their conversation was cut short there as they ran into peeves as they turned into another corridor.

"Ickle wee firs ties out on their own. Not lost are you?" Hollered Peeves as he picked up a nearby bin and threw it over Draco's head. He was picking up some chalk when Harriet grabbed Draco's hand and pulled him along the corridor; Draco unable to see anything with the bin still covering his eyes he was just trying not to trip. There was a split in the corridor and a broom cupboard, Harriet pulled the bin off of Draco's head and threw it down on of the corridors and pulled Draco into the broom cupboard to hide from Peeves. He went bouncing along the corridor in the direction of the bin thinking that the first years had dropped the bin as they ran down the corridor.

"I think he's gone," whispered Harriet who had had her ear pressed against the door listening to Peeves' shouts getting further and further away.

"Why is it we always seem to end up in a broom cupboard together?" asked Draco with a smirk.

"Oh, shut up, Draco." Exclaimed Harriet as she pushed him gently and made her way out of the broom cupboard and down the opposite corridor from the one they had sent peeves down. It had been a good pit of quick thinking she had done to throw it in the opposite direction from the library otherwise they would have had a lot more trouble from peeves than they did have. It was only a couple of minutes later that they joined Hermione at her usual table in the library.

"Hi, Hermione; Draco decided to join us I hope that's ok." Greeted Harriet as her and Draco took seats at the table.

"Yeah, of course, that's fine." Said Hermione distractedly as she took a note of something from a book. Then Hermione seemed to think of something. "Actually, Draco, if you don't mind could I ask you some questions about the British wizarding lifestyle?" Asked Hermione, she looked excited and her eyes sparkled like they always did at the prospect of learning something new.

"Of course." Said Draco a little put out at her directness. Harriet blocked the pair out as they started their discussion. Instead Harriet got out the last of her homework that she had been given that week which was professor Snape's essay on the properties of the ingredients they had used that day in their potion for clearing hiccups.

American Annotations

**Overseas, the name twat is just a name to call someone. It doesn't carry any sexual meaning as it does here, in the USA.