A/N- So sorry for the long wait; it has been an insane couple of months for me, but things are looking up, now. On another note, my Beta and I are working tirelessly to ensure the rest of this story is complete and can be uploaded regularly. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/followed/favourited this story, I greatly appreciate it.
Chapter Six: Fall Term
Narcissa Malfoy was absolutely livid. She had received Draco's owl, which informed her that not only had Dumbledore threatened to switch Harry's house, but that he tried to convince him to stay at the school over the holidays and her son was then attacked by three older boys.
"As much as I understand the desire, you cannot just go marching in there causing a scene," Lucius was telling his wife as he sipped at his morning tea. If she had it her way, Narcissa would have been at the castle before Harry and Draco were even awake.
"I need to make sure that Harry is okay," she said, seating herself to her husband's right at the dining table and turning her eyes to him. "He was attacked, Lucius."
"I know, and we will definitely be going to the castle, but we need to make sure we have ourselves covered. I'm going to send a missive to the Minister about the problems at the school; the problems Dumbledore is causing. I will call a meeting with the Board of Directors sometime this week and see what we can do from that standpoint."
Narcissa gave a terse nod, waiting impatiently for her husband to finish his breakfast so they could get to the school and ensure their son was fine.
"What if he wants to homeschool?" Narcissa asked in worry. "He hasn't had enough socialization, and I hate to say this but I think it's important that he at least try for the year."
"If he asks to homeschool we will just have to deny it for now. I'd like to see him try for longer as well, and I don't want Draco to feel left out by being at school."
"Draco wouldn't want to homeschool, I don't think," Narcissa agreed. "He enjoys spending time with his friends."
Lucius finished the last of his tea and rose, Narcissa joining him almost immediately. She was feeling very anxious and conflicted, and she was worried that if Harry was truly miserable and asked to come home that she wouldn't be able to deny his request.
"Let's wait to see him before we let ourselves get too stressed out. You know how protective Draco is, he could have been exaggerating."
Narcissa nodded and grasped Lucius' arm, letting him pull her into Apparation.
The Great Hall was jammed full of students enjoying their breakfast, Harry sitting beside Draco and sporting a black eye. He didn't remember any of the Ravenclaw boys physically touching him, but Snape figured he'd been stupefied before anything overtly physical took place.
The students who had attacked him were smart, as there wasn't any technical proof of them harming the boy too badly if he couldn't even remember it.
Harry hadn't gone to see Madame Pomfrey, as the older students in his house warned him that the matron wasn't overly kind to Slytherin students and probably wouldn't help him anyway. Hermione had disregarded any pretense of being a Gryffindor that morning and was sitting on the opposite side of the bench, grumbling about how it was Madame Pomfrey's duty to attend to all students, and didn't the woman have to take some sort of oath?!
Draco was listening to Hermione's almost silent tirade, as she was mostly talking to herself under her breath, taking in what she was saying but not commenting. He knew there was nothing they could do about the way the school had been run for decades.
He was completely taken off guard when Harry jerked upright beside him and yelled "Mum! Dad!"
Draco turned so he could see the doorway of the Great Hall and Harry all but jumped to his feet and ran to his mum and dad, hugging Narcissa tightly. Draco stood and watched as Lucius held Harry at an arm's length, taking in his son's black eye.
Harry was always small in stature, but Draco noticed just how tiny he looked when standing beside their dad. He saw their parents look up, searching for him, and noted how his mum smiled widely upon seeing him.
Once he joined the group, Narcissa put an arm around each of her children and steered them out of the Great Hall. Lucius broke away from the group, informing them he was going to request a meeting with Dumbledore to take place as soon as possible.
"I can't believe you're here," Harry said, beaming up at his mum as they stopped in the Entrance Hall, Lucius walking away from them and picking his way between the students.
"I was worried sick when I got Draco's letter last night. I barely slept a wink."
"I didn't know you wrote," Harry said, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment. Sometimes he felt like a weakling.
"Of course I wrote! You were attacked by three older students!"
"Thank you," Harry murmured, and Narcissa was about to start questioning them when they were approached by their friends.
"Hello, Lady Malfoy," the children coursed, and she was glad to see Blaise, Pansy, and Theo approaching. There was another girl trailing behind slightly, but she wasn't familiar to Narcissa.
"Children," she greeted warmly. "Have you all been behaving?"
Blaise and Theo looked at each other before bursting into laughter. Pansy rolled her eyes and shoved them aside, ensuring Narcissa that of course they were all behaving, and she felt like they were all doing very well in their studies. "Not as well as Hermione, though", she added, and Narcissa's ears perked up.
"Hermione?" She asked curiously.
The girl she didn't recognize reddened slightly, but took a brave step forward. She was an adorable little thing, peaches and cream complexion and wildly curly hair, her eyes were an interesting dark amber colour and she had a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her excellently shaped nose. As Narcissa focused on the small girl she felt something in her magic click into place; she knew exactly what it was and she smiled at her, trying to tone down her excitement.
"Nice to meet you, Lady Malfoy. I'm Hermione Granger."
Narcissa took in the Gryffindor tie and crest on the girl, but smiled warmly as the girl dipped into a small curtsey.
"Nice to meet you too."
"We all became friends on the train but poor Hermione got sorted into Gryffindor. I swear she almost burst into tears while still sitting on the stool," Pansy informed Narcissa quietly.
Narcissa turned her ice blue eyes back to the young girl, watching with interest as she interacted with her children. Hermione seemed genuinely concerned about Harry, telling him that if Madam Pomfrey wasn't going to help them, then she'd learn every healing spell she could and be the healer for all of Slytherin House.
Narcissa was intrigued; the girl seemed like a firecracker.
"Draco told me in confidence that Hermione had gone to the headmaster and asked to be transferred to Slytherin House, but he refused. Don't tell him I told you that, though."
Narcissa agreed quietly and turned her attention back to her blond son, raising an eyebrow at Draco's red cheeks as he watched the Gryffindor girl continue to rant on about healing spells. Apparently he was also interested in the girl, although Narcissa knew that Draco didn't understand what the pull on his magic meant.
Pansy wanted to keep Narcissa's attention on herself a little bit longer, always feeling important when the older woman smiled at her and listened intently when she spoke.
"We were studying in the library the other night and she told me that her parents don't want much to do with her. I guess they basically told her to stop writing."
Narcissa's eyebrows raised as she eyed up the cute little Gryffindor again, wondering why her parents didn't want anything to do with her. There had to be a reason and Narcissa was intrigued.
She watched as the children interacted, and noted that while Harry spoke with the other kids, he didn't move away from her side at all. She could feel him pressed into her side and wondered, not for the first time, when he'd finally stop being afraid of everything.
Students started streaming from the Great Hall as they finished their meals and headed for class, causing the first year students surrounding Lady Malfoy to jump to attention.
"Draco, Harry, stay with me please. I'm sure I'll see the rest of you soon! Miss Granger, it was a pleasure to meet you."
Hermione gave Narcissa an embarrassed sort of smile, before following Pansy to their first class.
"Why have I never heard of that girl?" Narcissa asked, turning to her children.
"She's a muggleborn," Harry answered flippantly.
Narcissa raised an eyebrow and already knew deep in her bones that Hermione Granger wouldn't be part of the muggle world for long. The girl had only been at school for two months and her parents were already cutting off contact.
She otherwise didn't react to the information because she had noticed that Draco was watching her reaction to the news closely. She smiled warmly at her son and extended her hand to him, pulling him close to her other side once he latched on.
"I'm sorry I'm causing so much trouble," Harry suddenly said, looking at his shoes.
Narcissa was stricken. She squatted down so she was looking into Harry's emerald eyes and the sadness radiating from them could break her heart clean in two.
"You are not causing trouble, Harry. Everything that happened to you yesterday was out of your control, and I want to make sure it's all taken care of. You will not be switching houses and you will of course be coming home with your family for the holidays. If one more person lays so much as a finger on you in a threatening manner you will be pulled from this castle faster than Dumbledore can say 'Gryffindor'."
Harry looked up at Narcissa happily and she could see the unshed tears in his eyes.
"Let's fix that bruise up," she offered, pulling her wand from the sleeve of her tailored robes.
"Dad," Draco called, seeing that Lucius was making his way back to them.
"Of course he's just "too busy" to see us anytime today," Lucius spat once he was standing beside Draco. "I guess I'll have to take it to the board."
Narcissa was nodding, not seemingly surprised in the slightest.
"Harry, I want you writing at least twice a week until the holidays. Yule is in less than two months, and I will reevaluate your place at Hogwarts at that time."
Harry nodded in understanding, but as much as he was being picked on, he didn't want to be homeschooled. He did have friends here and he would miss them if he was pulled from the castle, plus he'd barely ever get to see Draco.
The family said their farewells, a little more tearful on Harry's part as he watched his parents walk through the front doors.
"Let's get to potions," Draco encouraged, glad that his mother had at least taken care of Harry's black eye.
By mid-November Harry was feeling confident, he hadn't so much as had one word with the Headmaster, and he and Draco both knew that Dumbledore had been scolded harshly for his actions by the Board. Apparently if he stepped out of line with Harry one more time, the Board would be looking for a replacement.
According to the letter Lucius had sent his sons about the matter, anyway.
Harry hadn't been overtly picked on by another student since the Ravenclaw incident and he was even starting to answer questions in some of his classes.
So when Defense Against the Dark Arts rolled around with Professor Quirrell, Harry was as unsuspecting as he could have been.
He was sitting with his brother as they went over the counter spell for rictumsempra, a tickling curse, when he felt eyes on him. He looked around self consciously, but he wasn't sure where the feeling was originating from. All the other students were working on their assignments diligently and their teacher had his back to the class, as he shuffled through some books.
Harry's eyes narrowed as he looked at Quirrell, and he jumped slightly, a small squeak escaping him, when he caught a glimpse of something in between the folds of fabric perched on his Professor's head.
"What is it?" Draco asked, lifting a single eyebrow; a trait he'd gotten from Lucius.
"Nothing," Harry responded quickly. He didn't want Draco to think he was going crazy if he told him he thought he had seen a pair of eyes peering out from the back of Professor Quirrell's head.
Draco gave him a suspicious look before turning his attention back to his text.
Harry was distracted for the rest of the class but figured it must have just been a trick of the light. He had continued trying to look at his professor's turban throughout the class and didn't see anything suspicious at all.
It was the beginning of December and Draco was making his way to the Owlery with a letter for his parents, letting them know that everything had been going surprisingly well lately and both he and Harry were excited for the upcoming holidays. He had a little jaunt to his step, feeling happy, when he faltered. He could hear sniffling through the door and wondered if someone was in the Owlery crying.
He opened it slowly and recognized the telltale hair of Hermione's silhouette. She was sitting on a bench at the far side of the circular room, her head resting on her knees, which she had tucked into her chest.
"What's wrong?" Draco asked, watching as she jumped and quickly wiped her face.
"Oh, Draco," she replied breathily, surprised but happy that it was him that entered the room.
"Why are you crying?" He asked, keeping a bit of distance between them. He didn't know what to do and wasn't sure how to handle sobbing witches.
"It's nothing," she replied, resolutely not meeting his eyes.
Draco stayed quiet for a moment before he whistled for his owl Hermes, but before he could tie the letter to her leg, Hermione started speaking.
"I thought," she choked, still avoiding his gaze, "I don't know, it's been weeks, I thought they'd want me to come home." Her ribs heaved with a muffled sob.
"Your parents?" Draco asked, surprised.
Hermione nodded, her breath a shuddering exhale, turning to condensation in the cold air. "They said they were going on vacation and maybe I could go with them for the Easter hols, instead.. I don't know," she quavered, "they've never missed a Christmas."
Draco had never previously given much thought to how Muggle parents would accept suddenly having a magical child, and figured this was the point the Dark Lord had been trying to get across during the last war.
The small voice was forlorn. "I don't know what I did wrong."
Draco felt awkward. He liked Hermione and wanted to be close with her, but he had never spent much time around witches, especially emotional ones.
"Well, do you want to come to our house?" He asked after a moment of heavy silence. "I'm sure you don't want to stay at the castle by yourself."
"I hate it here," Hermione admitted, still sniffling rather heavily. "I enjoy learning how to control my magic, but that's all. Everyone hates me," she said. "My entire house, my parents, everyone."
Hermione's voice cracked on the last word and Draco hovered beside her awkwardly, his owl perched on his arm, while she cried.
"I don't hate you," he finally said, once she had begun to calm down and he knew she'd hear him. "Neither does Harry, or Pansy and Daphne, and I know Blaise and Theo like you."
Hermione took a deep breath and nodded, but Draco didn't feel like he was actually cheering her up.
"So what do you say? I'm sending this letter to my mum, but I can add in a quick post script and ask if you'd be welcome for the holidays. I can pretty much guarantee you that they won't mind."
"You'd do that?" Hermione whispered, her eyes meeting his for the first time in the dying light.
"Of course," Draco replied, nodding.
"And you really think they would let me come? I don't want to be a bother."
"They'll agree," he told her confidently.
She gave Draco a small nod before Hermes settled on her arm so Draco could add a quick note to the bottom of his letter. He was feeling rather sorry for Hermione and knew that none of his friends should be spending the Yule holidays alone.
"Thanks Draco," she whispered to him as they watched his owl fly into the darkening sky. "You're a good friend."
They smiled at each other through the darkness, Draco giving her hand a squeeze before they got too cold and had to go back into the castle.