Warning: text from original book
Chapter 9- To be Forgotten
Harry's lesson with Dumbledore had been more of the same as last time. Dumbledore had shown him a memory, his own this time, and given him cryptic explanations that Harry had yet to figure out. Voldemort had been a young boy living in an orphanage when Dumbledore had visited, and he'd been… interesting. Disturbing. It had been obvious he'd been using his powers, stealing, even bullying the other children there, but when Dumbledore had told him about magic, he had looked almost happy.
Harry didn't really know what to make of it, but then he had the vaguest of ideas he wasn't really supposed to. He half wanted to talk to Draco about everything he'd seen, but then since Draco hadn't gone with him, he'd have to reexplain the whole memory to him, and after the last conversation they'd had, Harry just couldn't bring himself to do it.
Dumbledore had asked where Draco was, raising an eyebrow, and murmuring, "alone this time, Harry?" so low Harry knew he disapproved. Harry hadn't exactly meant not to bring Draco along, but he hadn't been there when Ginny delivered the note and then he had never been there, and then they had fought and…
"Yes, sir," he'd hesitated. He wanted to tell someone, anyone his suspicions about Draco, and if he couldn't trust Dumbledore than he couldn't trust anyone.
Dumbledore had stared at him for a long time after he'd finished speaking, his face almost blank as he looked back at Harry. When he finally spoke, it wasn't what Harry thought he was going to say.
"I don't think you give Draco enough credit, Harry," he'd said.
"What?" Harry had answered.
"Draco is a very complicated person, dealing with much right now. You would do well to remember this." Dumbledore had said, looking over his half-moon spectacles, and Harry got the distinct impression that he knew much more than he was telling. "But what concerns me now, Harry, is our lesson."
He hadn't said anything else about it, and Harry hadn't asked.
He'd told Hermione and Ron about his lesson though, leaving out the part about Draco, and they had talked briefly about it before Herbology. Draco had been conspicuously missing from class, but then what else was new?
"I think its fascinating," Hermione said as they stepped out of the greenhouse, heading up the path toward the castle. "It makes absolute sense to know as much about Voldemort as possible. How else will you find out his weakness?"
"I guess," Harry frowned. "I just keep feeling like I'm missing something. Like there's some deeper meaning Dumbledore wants me to see."
"Have you talked to Draco about it?" she answered, and they both ignored the way Ron scowled at them. He really should have been used to it by now.
"I haven't talked to Draco since Hogsmeade."
"Wow," Ron whistled. "What'd he do? And how can I get him to do it again?" Hermione promptly smacked him on the arm.
"You're not helping," she snapped, and he just shrugged at her.
"It wasn't his fault," well it actually kind of was, but Harry wasn't going to tell Ron that. He didn't exactly need anymore cannon fodder to throw at Draco. "I said something a shouldn't have." Even though what Harry said had been true.
He really believed Draco didn't trust him. Otherwise, Draco would have told him what was going on; it was as simple as that. He'd had enough of being protected or whatever the Hell Draco thought he was doing. Harry frankly didn't care. He just wanted to know.
He should have, however, said that he trusted Draco. That just because he was following him didn't mean he thought he was evil. Because while he thought something was going on, he really didn't believe Draco was back on Voldemort's side. Especially not after his talk with Dumbledore.
He just wanted to know.
"I think you should talk to him," Hermione said, which wasn't exactly new advice.
"How?" Harry snapped. "He's made it very clear he doesn't want to talk to me."
"Please, Draco's always like that," Hermione rolled her eyes. "He acts like he doesn't want to talk, but he actually does," she stopped abruptly, her hand falling on his arm and halting his forward motion. "You remember last year; just don't end up fight about some horrible misunderstanding again." Harry shifted uncomfortably under her arm. What exactly was he supposed to say to that? He couldn't make that promise. Not when Draco wouldn't listen to him, because really it was him Hermione should be lecturing.
"Ugh," Ron groaned. "Can we please talk about something besides Harry's relationship problems?" Harry looked over at him to see Ron's face was bright red with embarrassment. Probably he knew more about Draco than he'd ever wanted to. He smiled and started walking again. Ron had really taken to everything with Draco rather well, though he did have his moments.
But it wasn't as if Harry had expected Ron to change. That would have been absurd.
"Oh," Hermione said. "I almost forgot. Slughorn's have this Christmas Party, Harry, and there's no way you'll be able to wriggle out of this one because he actually asked me to check your free evenings."
"Merlin, he really doesn't give up, does he?" Harry muttered. They stepped into the castle, letting out a breath as the warm air encased them. Ron immediately swerved toward the Great Hall for lunch and Hermione and Harry were quick to follow.
"Yes, well," Hermione answered. "We're allowed to bring guests to this one, so maybe this is a good excuse to speak to Draco again."
"But wouldn't he already be invited?" Harry answered.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't ask him before someone else does," Hermione rolled her eyes as if it was the most obvious thing. "Or he asks someone else."
"Who, like you?" Ron snapped as he sat down at the Gryffindor bench. Harry was silent as he sat down beside him, leaving plenty of space for Hermione, who was staring at Ron as if he had a second head.
"What? Why would I ask Draco to Slughorn's Party?" Hermione asked. Ron turned around in his seat, an ugly sneer on his face as he turned to face Hermione.
"I…" Ron's face died down as soon as he saw the confusion written across Hermione's. "Never mind," he said sullenly. Harry kept his head down as Hermione took a careful seat. It had been easy to spot the jealousy leaking into Ron's voice, and maybe just because Harry had been there to see Hermione talking to Draco, to see Draco talking to Hermione, but he understood. In fact, he was jealous enough to have to remind himself that Hermione would never do that to him. Besides, he knew Draco could never do that to him.
Even if they were having problems and Draco was disappearing more than he was actually around, he was still never… Harry wouldn't even entertain the idea. But still, that didn't mean he couldn't understand Ron's dilemma. Except of course, that he had yet to tell Hermione how he felt.
And Harry had firsthand experience that it was sometimes harder than it should have been.
"I was going to ask you," Hermione said softly. It had been such a long time since any of them had spoken that Harry almost wasn't sure what any of them were talking about. But from the way Ron looked up, his eyes locked on Hermione's with such a satisfied expression, Harry was sure Ron didn't share the sentiment.
"You were?" Ron asked.
"Yes," Hermione answered, and Harry resolved himself to being invisible for at least a week after they got together. He could deal with being invisible for a little while as long as they eventually remembered he was still there. He frowned a little to himself, he couldn't deal with them breaking up and never speaking to each other again, but hopefully that would never happen.
They'd just won their quidditch game against Slytherin, which was really no wonder, what with Draco off the team and some oaf playing chaser. Still Harry did have to play a stunt on Ron, making him think Harry had poured the Felix Felicity in his drink. He was still somewhat surprised that Hermione really thought he would do something like that. He wouldn't, if only because he was afraid of the look Draco would give him for wasting something as precious as Felix Felicity on a quidditch game.
Not that Draco was speaking to him.
In fact, Harry hadn't made any progress with Draco since the Hogsmeade trip and it had been nearly a week, but it was hard to talk to someone when they appeared to have no interest in even looking at you. And that was when they were around. Besides, the fact that every time he saw Draco it was like a pit opened up in the middle of his stomach, making him want to scream. What was he supposed to say? He wasn't sorry.
If he had the chance to do it again, he would probably do the same thing, except he would probably bring everything up when Draco wasn't feeling defensive, and with words that didn't make him jump down Harry's throat. But that still didn't solve the main problem that Harry wasn't sorry that he'd followed Draco or snooped around. So, if Draco wouldn't tell him what was going on, what was he supposed to say to him.
Harry sighed as he waded through the crowd in the Gryffindor common room. He'd seen neither Hermione or Ron since the ending of the match, and he was beginning to become rather tired of Romilda Vane trying to talk to him. Apparently there were rumors going around the school that Draco and he had broken up, leaving the impression that Romilda was free to stalk him all she liked.
He didn't really know what to think or say about the rumors. He didn't even know if they were true. Draco and him had never talked about breaking up, but then they had never actually talked about dating either, and that had seemed to be true.
He stopped abruptly in front of Ginny, smiling when she did. He was vaguely surprised she wasn't in a corner somewhere lip-locked with Dean. He'd caught them snogging more than once. It had been a rather strange sight, catching him more off guard than he truly wanted to admit.
Really, just Ginny had caught him off guard more than he wanted to admit this year. She was a good flier, smart, pretty even with her long red hair and sharp eyes. She reminded him of Cho in a strange kind of way. It wasn't that she was anything at all like Cho, they were complete opposites, but the the feeling he had when he was around her was the same. That he could love her if he tried. In his mind, he knew Ginny was everything he wanted, funny, smart, and he was physically attracted to her, but when he looked at her, all he really saw was how she wasn't Draco.
"Looking for Ron?" she asked, one side of her mouth lifting in a smirk. "He's over there, the filthy hypocrite."
Harry looked over where she was pointed and immediately looked away again. Ron was snogging in full view of the room with what looked to be Lavender Brown. Harry wondered vaguely just how that had happened, then he decided he really would rather not know.
"It looks like he's eating her, doesn't it?" Ginny continued, sounding immensely bored with the whole affair, and Harry almost envied her; he wished he could not care who Ron was in a lip-lock with. "But I suppose he's got to refine his technique somehow. Good game, Harry."
"Oh, right, good game," he answered distractedly, and Ginny patted his arm as she passed him by.
Flicking his eyes once at Ron, who looked as if he'd be busy for quite a while before looking around the room for Hermione again. Just as the portrait hole was opening, he managed to catch sight of bushy brown hair on the edge of his vision. He darted after Hermione, pushing open the portrait and stepping into the corridor. He was rather done with the celebration anyway.
When he managed to get out of the common room, the corridor was empty though Harry figured Hermione couldn't have gotten that far. He took a step forward and immediately heard the sounds of hushed conversations coming from just down the corridor, from a little cubby hole that Harry had seen several people shove themselves in to in order to have a quick snog. It was out of the way of prying eyes, and most people avoided it unless they were going for a snog. He moved a little closer, curiosity driving him forward; surely Hermione hadn't stopped right outside the Gryffindor common room.
Harry stopped dead when he recognized the voices.
"Come now, the Weasel can't have done anything that horrible," Draco's voice echoed from the space in front of Harry, and then he was sure he heard a sniffled laugh that sounded vaguely like Hermione.
"He was snogging her in full view of everyone," definitely Hermione's voice answered, her voice pitched with hurt and anger. "After he already agreed to go to Slughorn's Christmas Party with me." There was a beat of silence as Draco seemed to register what Hermione was saying.
"Why didn't you slap the bint?" he asked finally, and Harry was struck by the absolute Draconess of the question. And it hurt that he was barely 5 feet away, talking to Hermione and not Harry. That Draco was shoved in a cubby where people stopped to snog with Hermione and not Harry. And he almost stepped forwards and shoved the two of them apart right then, but Hermione's next question stopped him.
"Would you have slapped Ginny if Harry snogged her?" Hermione's voice echoed back, and Harry couldn't stop himself from leaning forward, from wanting to know the answer. As much as it bothered him that it seemed to be in question that Harry could even kiss Ginny when Draco was around.
"No," Draco said after a long moment, and before Harry even knew what he was doing, he was turning on his heel and running back to the common room, leaving Draco and Hermione to do whatever they wanted to their stupid bloody cubby together. Without him.
Goodness, don't hate me. They're not going to be at each other's throats for that much longer...
