* ~ The Eighth Year Universe Series ~ *
PART THREE
The Eighth Year
Chapter 27: The Failed Romantics
"Honestly, Harry, I think you need to go to bed," Hermione laughed.
Harry frowned across the sofa at his best friend, "What? It's only 8 pm."
"I know, but that's about the 10th time you've yawned in five minutes," Hermione said in amusement.
"I didn't get much sleep last night," Harry said, and he was unable to stop the slight smile that slipped onto his face with these words.
Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, "You haven't gotten much sleep since you started dating Daphne. You two do use protection, don't you?"
Harry made a face, "Uh, of course, we do. I'm not stupid, and she definitely isn't either."
"Just checking," Hermione remarked.
"Hey, that reminds me have you and Draco..." Harry trailed off.
"That is none of your business," Hermione said simply.
"But you know my business!" Harry objected.
"Everyone knows your business, half of the year group have walked in on you and Daphne half-naked somewhere in the school!" Hermione exclaimed.
"That's not fair," Harry said with a shake of his head, "I bet Draco would tell me."
"He wouldn't," Hermione assured him.
"Are you sure about that?" Harry asked with a grin as he cast his eyes across the common room and saw Draco studying with Theo at the far side, "Oi, Draco!" he shouted.
"Harry!" Hermione hissed.
"I thought you were sure he wouldn't say anything?" Harry asked her with a smirk as Draco rolled his eyes and strolled across the common room to the two best friends.
"Potter, I know we are friends now but do you really have to shout my name from the other side of the room to get my attention?" Draco drawled.
"It was easier than walking over there," Harry said offhandedly, "And it reminds me of when we used to shout across the great hall to get each other's attention."
Draco smiled slightly in amusement, "Yes, those were the days," he joked, "Now what do you want?"
"I have a question to ask you," Harry said matter of factly.
"Alright, go ahead," Draco said, crossing his arms and surveying the Gryffindor boy.
"Have you and Hermione slept together yet?" Harry asked simply.
"Harry!" Hermione objected.
Draco raised an eyebrow at the boy, "I have no idea why you feel that it concerns you, but no, we haven't. Some people have more self-control than you and Daphne," he added with a smirk.
Harry rolled his eyes, "I have self-control, just not around Daphne," he muttered.
"Yes, well, some of us have more self-control than you," Draco said offhandedly, "So butt out of everyone else's business and focus on your own, alright?"
"Alright," Harry said with a slight frown as Draco stalked back to Theo.
Harry turned back to Hermione, who was now glaring at him, "What did I say?"
"You and I are going for a little walk, Harry," Hermione said irritably. She grabbed Harry by the wrist and dragged him out of the common room. They were silent until they reached the main school because Harry knew it wasn't wise to question Hermione when she was pissed off.
Eventually, Hermione spoke but not until they were safely walking through a secret passage to the third floor, "How can you be so stupid?"
"Stupid?" Harry asked in disbelief, "It was a simple question!"
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Draco's right, Harry, this isn't your business! But I know you, and I know that you don't leave well enough alone until you know exactly what's going on."
"Force of habit, sorry," Harry said sheepishly, "But since you know me so well, you might as well just tell me what the issue is."
"We haven't slept together yet because he's self-conscious about the giant snake on his arm," Hermione snapped irritably.
Harry bit his lip, "Shit, of course, he is."
Hermione threw him a pointed glare, "And I have told him that I don't care, but he doesn't believe me."
"Why hasn't it disappeared now that Voldemort has gone?" Harry asked, "And can't he just use concealment charms on it or something?"
"No magic can cover it up," Hermione sighed, "He's tried everything he knows, and I've tried everything that I know. As for whether it should be gone, well, it is fading slowly. At the rate it's fading, it will take a good few months more until it's gone. And even then, it might remain as a scar like on my arm."
"Well, I mean, he's going to have to get over it at some point," Harry pointed out, "Because yes, sex isn't everything. I mean, it's good, don't get me wrong, but having stuff in common with a person and loving spending time with them is far more important. Still, sex has to be a part of a functioning relationship."
"No, it doesn't," Hermione argued, "Some people have profound relationships without sex."
"Yeah, and you're not one of them," Harry said in a stage whisper, "I've had sex with you, remember? You use it as an outlet, so if you're seriously telling me you aren't going to have screaming fights with Draco, then shag his-"
Hermione covered Harry's mouth and glared at him, "I get the point, Harry."
Harry smirked against her hand, and she warily pulled it away.
"Also, you have been very snappy lately," Harry said thoughtfully, "So you clearly need to get-"
"- finish that sentence, and I will hex you," Hermione threatened him.
"Alright, I won't finish that sentence then," Harry said quickly.
"I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't force him to stop feeling self-conscious about it," Hermione sighed, "So what can I do?"
"Tell him he's been a stupid prick?" Harry suggested.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Why did I ask you for advice?" she muttered.
Harry grinned in amusement as he put his arm around her shoulders, "Honestly, Mione, just talk to him about it."
"Easier said than done," Hermione sighed.
"I think you're being completely stupid!"
"What was that for?" Draco asked in disbelief from where he was sitting on his four-poster bed reading a book.
Hermione had literally just walked into his dorm room, shut the door behind her with a loud snap and then insulted him. She was now leaning against the door; they were alone in the dorm because Theo and Blaise were downstairs in the common room.
"This whole thing about the dark mark!" Hermione exclaimed, "I think you are being so stupid, Draco! I mean, honestly, it's basically just a tattoo. It's not like Voldemort is going to pop up if you touch the bloody thing!"
"It's what it symbolises, Hermione," Draco said darkly.
"Do you know what it symbolises, Draco?" Hermione asked hotly, "It symbolises your past. It doesn't symbolise anything else, just your past. It's a reminder of the shitty decisions that you made, just like the scar on my arm is a reminder of the fact that I was willing to sacrifice so much to help Harry win the war!"
Draco sighed, "Your scar is heroic, mine...isn't."
Hermione actually groaned in frustration, "Oh for the love of Godric! Don't let it remind you of all the bad stuff then! Let it remind you of the good things, like the fact you saved Harry's life in the Manor. You turned the tide of the entire war. We would never have won if you hadn't done that! Just like Harry would have had no chance if you hadn't thrown him his wand in the final battle! Maybe you aren't a hero, but you aren't a villain either. I can't hate you for the past, even though everyone tells me that I should. Do you know why that is?"
"I honestly have no idea," Draco said quietly.
"It's because I love you, Draco," Hermione said, "I love who you are in the present. Who you were in the past doesn't matter. Right now, you are caring, gentle, kind and funny. Right now, all I know is that I'm happier than I have ever been because of you, and that's all that matters. So when I say that I don't care about the mark, I really mean it, you bloody idiot!"
Draco smiled slightly at her, and Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, "What?"
"Nothing," Draco grinned as he reached out and grabbed her hand, "It's just that you're really hot when you're riled up," he said as he pulled her towards his bed. She wasn't expecting it, and she toppled down on top of him.
She caught Draco by surprise by kissing him, but he didn't push her away. He kissed her back, but with trepidation, and she could sense that.
Hermione pulled away and sighed, "I don't care."
Draco sighed, "I do."
"It's just another scar," Hermione said, her eyes meeting his.
"It's not," Draco whispered.
Hermione sighed, "Fine," she said as she pulled her shirt off and threw it onto the floor.
Draco's eyes widened, but Hermione stared defiantly at him, "Look, I have scars. Do you care?"
"No, of course, I don't care-"
"Exactly," Hermione said, "And I don't care about yours."
Draco didn't say anything; he was far too distracted by the fact his girlfriend was straddling him in nothing but her skirt and bra.
"So," Hermione continued, Draco could have sworn that she smirked at him, "Is the wonderful Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin Prince, going to act like it? Or is he going to act like a coward and tell me to leave?"
Draco's eyes flashed playfully, "Oh, now you've done it," he said as he flipped her over so that he was straddling her.
"Now that's more like it," Hermione said.
Draco captured her lips in a kiss and locked the dorm room door. He didn't take things slowly or gently; he vanished both of their clothes away and moved his mouth over every inch of her skin while she gasped and moaned in delight. He smirked and tried his best to drive her crazy; the more she squirmed, the more irritated she got, and that just turned him on.
When she eventually begged him to stop teasing her, the sex that followed was reminiscent of their relationship up until that point. It was a battle of wills, Draco would pin her arms down, and she would get free of him and flip them so that she could straddle him. Until Draco decided to turn the tide on her again, it was a fight, but it was a damn good one.
And by the time it was over, they were both sweaty and tired but sated.
"You really don't care, do you?" Draco asked breathily.
Hermione lifted her head to look at him, "That sunk in eventually, then?"
Draco couldn't help himself. He laughed loudly and got to his feet, "Come on, we need a shower, and I reckon we've got a good half hour till the guys get back."
Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, "You have changed your tune."
Draco leant in and murmured in her ear, "I've had you once now. My appetite is growing."
Hermione shuddered as a shiver went down her spine.
Draco grinned and yanked her into the bathroom with him.
"Do you think we should play a nice prank on the girls?"
"A nice prank?" Draco snorted, "Is there such a thing?"
"Not that I've ever heard of," Theo remarked.
"Of course there is," Harry said eagerly, "I think it would raise morale, you know? Hermione has been kind of down since Ron left, and with all these big essays due in at the moment, all of the girls have been tetchy."
"So you want to play a 'nice' prank to raise their morale?" Neville asked in amusement, "Why does that sound dangerous to me?"
"Probably because it would be a disaster," Dean laughed.
"What kind of prank do you have in mind?" Draco asked.
"I dunno, something like making it rain flowers," Harry said thoughtfully.
"Hermione and Hannah both have hay fever," Neville pointed out with a raised eyebrow, "So I doubt they'd appreciate that."
"Well, what else do girls like? They like flowers...and?"
"Chocolate?" Dean suggested.
"Yeah, chocolate!" Harry said with a nod, "We can make chocolate appear in front of them all at the breakfast table tomorrow!"
"Why do I have the feeling that's a bad idea?" Draco asked with narrowed eyes.
"Because it's one of Harry's plans, so it will inevitably go wrong," Neville said matter of factly.
"Oh, come on, that's not fair!" Harry said, "It will be great! They'll all love it, and they'll be sufficiently cheered up!"
"I'm in," Theo said with a grin, "Anything to get Sadie to spend more time with me instead of in the library."
"Yeah, I'm in too," Dean piped up.
"I think this is going to fail epically," Neville admitted sheepishly, "But I'm in anyway."
Harry grinned, "Sound logic there, Nev. Draco?"
"Fine," Draco replied, "But if it all goes wrong, I'm not taking the blame."
Harry grinned, "Nothing will go wrong. It will be great! Trust me!"
It turned out that trusting Harry was a terrible idea because the following morning, the prank went wrong, very wrong. The boys were sitting at the eighth year table waiting for the opportune moment, and when all of the girls were sitting down, they put their plan into motion. The charm was supposed to make a box of chocolates appear in front of every girl. However, when Harry said the trigger word for the charm, chocolate didn't appear in front of the girls. No, instead, the chocolate had melted, and it rained down on top of them.
There was a stunned silence, and then the hall erupted into laughter. The girls fled from the room as fast as they could, and Draco looked at Harry in disbelief, "Trust me, it won't go wrong? Isn't that what you said?"
"Sorry," Harry said sheepishly, "Do you think we should go after them?"
"Definitely not," Theo said with a shake of his head, "They'd kill us."
"Or castrate you," Lilly said with a raised eyebrow.
"Or that," Theo said. He swallowed hard at the very thought.
"I'm never trusting you again, Harry," Neville said with a shake of his head, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'll follow any order you give me about DADA or catching dark wizards but never again when it comes to pranks…or women."
"I think that's fair," Harry said. He bit his lip and looked at the remnants of the chocolate which had now set on the table and benches. He jumped when a squeaky amused voice from behind him at the Head Table said, "I think you need to pay more attention in my class, Mr Potter."
Harry cringed upon his friend's laughter. He turned around and looked at Professor Flitwick, "Yes, Professor, I think I do," he conceded as McGonagall shook her head in amusement and concealed a small smile.
"Are you talking to me yet?" Draco asked Hermione for the umpteenth time in the common room that night.
"I'm talking to you," Hermione said bluntly, "I've been talking to you all day."
"Alright, know-it-all, have you forgiven me yet?" Draco corrected himself.
"No," Hermione said simply.
Draco rolled his eyes and groaned, which set Daphne off, "Well, you bunch of idiots did shower us in chocolate! What did you expect?"
"We've told you, it was an accident," Harry complained, "It wasn't supposed to be melted. I don't know what went wrong."
"Your charm work clearly," Daphne said irritably.
"How many more times are we going to have to apologise?" Dean asked the girls in general.
"Several more times, at least, Dean," Tracey said coolly.
Neville sighed and said, "They'll calm down eventually, Dean."
Hannah shot her boyfriend a brief glare but said no more. She and Sadie, in particular, had been giving their other halves the silent treatment all day. Draco glared at Harry for the millionth time that day, and Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes as the common room door opened and Annie pushed her way in irritably.
"What's got your knickers in a twist, Annie?" Dean called.
Annie rolled her eyes and sat down on the arm of Tracey's chair, "Filch! He's gotten one of the teachers to put all sorts of stupid charms on the popular make-out spots! The Astronomy tower, the Trophy Room, you name it! It starts screaming if you go into those areas after curfew now!"
"Caterwauling charm," Harry said in amusement, "No such luck Annie."
"It sucks!" Annie exclaimed, "I mean, where am I supposed to hook up with people now? Everyone else is patrolled except for the Room of Doom, and that's because it's haunted."
"It's not haunted," Draco scoffed after Annie had sulked away.
"Yes, it is," Daphne said in disbelief, "Honestly, Draco, don't you know anything about this school?"
"I know who all of the ghosts in this school are, and the only two that are malicious at all are Peeves and the Baron, neither of which go anywhere near the Dark Tower," Draco said.
"You don't know about all of the ghosts then, do you?" Hermione remarked, "Just the wizarding sort."
"They are the only sort, princess," Theo cut in.
"Quit calling me princess," Hermione snapped, "And you're wrong, Theo. There are the muggle sort too. The ones who do things but can't be seen. You can just feel their presence."
Harry scoffed too, "That's a load of rubbish, Hermione."
"She's telling the truth," Daphne said firmly, "The Room of Doom is haunted. Don't you know what happened there?"
"Nothing happened there, Daphne," Neville said, "It's just a room where the walls are covered in Ancient Runes. Some people say a seer during the founders' time prophesied the fate of the school, and some things there match up with real events, but not enough to support that theory."
"No, that isn't all," Hermione said with a shake of her head, "Salazar Slytherin had a wife and two kids before he left Hogwarts, you know, but he couldn't take them with him, so he locked them into the Room of Doom. The wife was a Muggle, and the kids were squibs, so he didn't want the other founders to know. They died of starvation in there. People say their scratch marks are still on the door because they tried to claw their way out."
"Very funny, Hermione," Draco drawled, "But I'm not going to bite."
"It's just a horror story," Harry agreed with a nod.
"Fine," Daphne said, crossing her arms and staring he boyfriend down, "If you're so sure it's not true, I dare you to spend a night in the room, locked in."
Draco faltered slightly, and so did Theo. Harry and Neville glanced at each other briefly, and Harry was the first to say, "Fine."
"What?" Neville exclaimed, "Harry, what if it is true?"
"A minute ago, you were sure it wasn't. Are you wimping out on me already, Neville?" Harry asked his friend with a raised eyebrow, "I mean, I'd expect that from those two Slytherin cowards, but you're a Gryffindor, and so are you, Dean. This will be a walk in the park."
"Hey, I believe in Muggle ghosts, mate," Dean said as he raised his hands, "And I'm not ashamed to admit that they bloody terrify me. You won't catch me anywhere near that room."
Neville had a look of determination on his face now, "Nah, you're right, Harry, it's just a story. I'm up for it."
"So am I," Draco said, sounding more confident than he looked or felt.
"Yeah, alright," Theo said warily after a moment, "I'll go."
Hermione smirked, "We'll lock you in just before curfew, so you have about ten minutes to gather anything you think you'll need in there, and we'll let you out at sunrise, so that's probably going to be around 8.15 am."
"What?" Theo barked, "Granger, that's like 11 hours!"
"I thought you said you weren't scared, Theo," Daphne smirked.
"I'm...I'm not," Theo objected feebly.
"Well, go get your stuff together then," Hermione said, sharing Daphne's smirk as the boys disappeared upstairs to their dorms. The moment they knew that the boys were out of earshot Daphne and Hermione informed Hannah, Sadie and Tracey of their plan.
"Daphne and I set this whole thing up," Hermione whispered, "We asked Annie to do some acting for us."
"And we put nail marks and creepy stuff into the room earlier today. We've rigged up loads of booby traps in there too," Daphne continued with a grin.
"Genius," Tracey said in amusement.
Dean chuckled, "I'm glad I refused."
"It's not going to be very scary, is it?" Sadie asked anxiously, "Because Theo has…a complicated past."
"It's just a joke, Sade," Daphne assured her, "Nothing too scared."
Sadie still looked sceptical.
"This is cruel," Hannah whispered.
"This is payback," Daphne and Hermione chorused.
"This is fucking creepy."
Even though they had been adamant that the Room of Doom wasn't haunted, Harry, Neville and Draco were inclined to agree with the words that came out of Theo's mouth after the girls had locked them in.
The wooden door was riddled with long thin scratches as if someone had tried to claw their way out. The stone walls were covered in runes and scratches too. The word "HELP" was scrawled out shakily in that what looked like dry blood on one wall at least five times. There were three old rickety wooden beds with moth-eaten blankets and mattresses. It got worse though, on one of the beds lay a small ceramic doll, the sort that a little girl would have as a toy; it was decayed from the years it had lain there, so it had no eyes, just empty sockets where they should have been.
"Wait..." Draco frowned, "There are three single beds and four of us. I'm not sharing!"
"You can have the floor then," Harry smirked.
"What? No," Draco said, darting over to one bed and claiming it. There was a mad rush to do the same, and in it, Theo ended up with the bed that had the creepy doll on it, and Neville ended up without a bed.
"I'm not sleeping on the fucking floor," Neville said darkly, "So one of you idiots better let me share your bed."
"You can share mine," Harry said in amusement, "But you better not try and creep me out in the middle of the night."
"Deal," Neville said, sitting down on the other end of the bed that Harry had claimed. Draco and Theo snorted in amusement and looked at them across the dimly lit room. There were a few candles on the walls, but they didn't provide much light.
"Always knew there was something funny about you Gryffindorks," Draco joked.
"We just stick together," Harry said, "The floor is disgusting. There are spiders everywhere."
"These beds aren't much better," Neville said as he cast a cleaning charm on the mattress, and about a hundred dead bugs fell out of the bottom of it. In horror, Draco and Theo did the same on their beds. They had barely been sitting down when a gust of wind blew in from nowhere and extinguished all of the candles. The room was thrown immediately into darkness, and Theo let out a rather high pitched scream.
"Lumos," Harry said calmly. The spell spread a dome of light across the room, and Harry snorted when he saw that Theo had hidden underneath the covers.
"It was just a draft," Draco said in amusement.
"We're inside," Neville said a little shakily.
"And there are no windows," Theo pointed out.
Harry frowned, "Well… it's an old drafty school."
"If you say so," Neville said, although he looked thoroughly unconvinced.
"I can't keep this up forever," Harry pointed out as he waved his wand, "Should we relight the candles or create a fire in the middle of the room?"
"The candles aren't working. Try a fire," Theo said from beneath the covers.
Harry shook his head in amusement, "I'll keep my charm up so you can see what you're doing with the fire Draco."
Draco nodded, and within a few minutes, they had a magical fire set up in the middle of the room, allowing Harry to drop the lumos charm. The fire kept the room lit and warm, and nothing else out of the ordinary happened. They were lulled into a sense of security, and Harry nearly drifted off.
Things seemed to be fine until another gust of wind blew in out of nowhere. This time it extinguished the magical fire.
In the darkness, Theo panicked, "The magical fire is extinguished! Why is the magical fire extinguished? Wind shouldn't extinguish a magical fire!"
There was a lot of creaking then, "What is that sound?" Neville asked quickly.
"It's Theo climbing into my bed," Draco said dryly, "Get off of me, you big baby!"
"Lumos," Harry said in the darkness, but nothing happened.
"Lumos!" Neville tried.
"Why are our wands not working?" Draco asked, panicking a little himself now.
"I don't know," Harry said, "And I don't know why the fire went out. Wind can't extinguish a magical fire."
"And wands don't just stop working!" Neville said shakily.
"Wait...did you hear that?" Harry asked quietly, and the others fell silent to listen. It sounded like somebody was whispering in the darkness.
"It's just the wind," Draco said firmly.
"It sounds like whispering," Theo said weakly.
"It's just the wind, Theo."
If they could have believed this before, they couldn't for much longer. The whispering got louder, and words could be made out.
"Let us out. Let us out. Let us out. Don't let us die; we're starving, please. PLEASE!"
Neville shrieked as the whispering got louder and louder until eventually, it was shouting. High-pitched blood-curdling screams filled the room and echoed off of the walls, and the sound of scratching against the door filled their ears.
"I can't do it; I can't do it! I want to get out!" Theo exclaimed, now wholly terrified.
"Theo, be a man," Draco said, although he sounded quite scared himself.
"I don't want to be a man. I want to be out of here," Theo shouted.
"Shut up!" Harry said, "I think we can use magic again. My wand just started vibrating...Lumos!"
It worked; the room was filled with light once more. They all swallowed hard when they realised that new scratches and bloodstains had appeared on the walls and the door.
"This is too fucking much," Theo said, and Neville looked just as pale as he did. Theo was now gripping onto Draco, and Neville had gotten as close to Harry as possible.
"Sidekicks," Draco joked weakly, "Who'd have them?"
"Tell me about it," Harry said in amusement, "Make another magical fire."
Draco nodded and did so, and again Harry dropped the lumos charm. They were wary of how long it would stay lit for, but all seemed quiet and calm again. There was no way they were going to sleep now, so they all watched the fire warily and once more, a gust of wind blew in and extinguished it.
When they were plunged into darkness, their wands stopped working again and once more, the screaming and the scratching could be heard. It was worse this time, the scream was female, and it was almost insane. When bits of junk began to get thrown around the room, smashing off of the walls right behind them, it did get too much.
Theo was screaming, and Neville was gripping Harry's arm so tightly he was drawing blood.
Harry sighed; he wasn't going to let this continue, "FINITE INCANTATEM!"
The screaming and scratching ended, the candles along the walls roared into life, the scratches and the blood on the walls disappeared, and Peeves appeared in the middle of the room holding several pieces of china.
"Peeves, what are you doing?" Neville asked in disbelief.
"Making messes," Peeves said wickedly before disappearing through the keyhole.
Harry got to his feet and picked up his wand, "Alohomora," he said as he pointed at the lock on the door. It creaked open straight away, and Theo and Neville were the first to dart out of it.
"What the hell was that?" Draco asked, slightly out of breath.
"That was the girls trying to prank us," Harry said simply, "Hence why it all went away the second I cancelled all of the spells and booby traps they had set up."
"How did they get Peeves to help them?" Neville asked irritably.
"They probably just told him he could smash things," Harry shrugged, "He'd have agreed in seconds."
"You make a good point there," Draco said with a shake of his head, "But that was a pretty realistic prank. I mean, they must have put up timed magical limitation wards."
"Static ones, I think," Harry said with a nod, "So that they glimmered in and out. The wards were designed so that we couldn't use magic after each gust of wind. It was very cleverly done."
"Bitches," Theo muttered as they climbed the grand staircase, "I'm going to give Sadie hell for this."
"I wouldn't," Draco said darkly, "I've got a feeling this was mostly Hermione and Daphne."
"Yeah, I have that feeling too," Harry said.
"So because you two have psychotic girlfriends, we all have to suffer?" Theo asked in disbelief.
"You're friends with Harry Potter now," Neville joked weakly, "That's what his friends do, suffer because of all his stupid plans."
"How is this my fault?" Harry asked irritably.
"It was your stupid prank that went wrong," Draco agreed, "If that hadn't happened, they wouldn't have wanted revenge."
"Well, it was an accident," Harry said hotly, "It was supposed to make them happy!"
"Try telling them that!"
"I did tell them that!" Harry remarked, "They wouldn't believe me!"
They argued all the way up to the common room. It only came to a stop when Neville roared, "Shut up and listen to the riddle!"
"The more you have of me, the less you see. What am I?"
"Oh, that's fucking low, Dumbledore," Theo said irritably.
"Apologies, Mr Nott. I found it appropriate."
"Why is it low?" Harry asked, as clueless as ever.
"Because the answer is darkness," Draco replied.
"Correct."
The door swung open, and immediately they picked up the argument as they stormed into the room.
"Anyway, I did tell them that it was an accident! How is it my fault if my charm was a little bit off? It's tricky when you're handling food!"
"Then why did you decide to do a prank that involved food?"
"Because you said my original idea of flowers wouldn't work because Hermione and Hannah have hay fever!"
"BOYS!"
They all stopped and froze. The shout had come from Daphne. She was sitting on the sofa with the rest of the girls (minus Tracey who had disappeared upstairs with Dean).
"How did you get out?" Sadie asked with a frown, "We locked you in."
"Luckily, Harry realised what was going on and ended the enchantments," Draco said irritably.
"Ended the enchantments?" Hermione frowned, "How did you do that? There were magic limitation wards up."
"Yeah, which limit magic by affecting the conduit, in other words, the wand," Harry said matter of factly, "Something you taught me, Mione."
"Are you saying you used wandless magic?" Daphne asked in disbelief.
Harry simply nodded, and Hermione cut in, "Wait, you used wandless magic? To destroy the magic limitation ward so you could use your wand?"
"No," Neville said with some amusement, "He used finite incantatem to end all of the enchantments."
"With wandless magic?" Hermione asked, and her jaw dropped.
"There were like 20 enchantments on that room!" Daphne exclaimed. She was just as stunned.
Harry smirked, "Well, I'm getting better at that than I thought then," he said.
"How did you even know that it was a prank?" Hannah asked curiously.
"Oh, it didn't take me long to work it out," Harry said casually.
"You knew the whole time?" Theo asked angrily.
"No," Harry said honestly, "I had suspicions. I didn't know until I heard Peeves giggling. But I had an idea of what was going on when the magical fire was extinguished. I've only seen one spell that does that, and it happens to be the one Hermione uses to extinguish her magical fires in jars. My suspicions grew when I was pretty sure I recognised Daphne's voice with the creepy whispering too. Then Peeves giggled, and I knew what you were up to. How did you get Annie to be in on it?"
"She wants to be an actress," Daphne said with a wave of her hand, "We said it would be good practice, so she agreed."
Hermione sighed, "We thought we were really careful. Trust you to figure it out, though, Harry."
"Sorry to ruin your fun,'" Theo said coldly, "I'm going to bed. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Theo-" Sadie tried to interject.
"Goodnight, Sadie," Theo said firmly as he disappeared upstairs.
"What was that about?" Hannah asked with a slight frown.
"Oh, I don't know," Draco growled.
"Maybe it's the fact that he saw his father knock his mother unconscious when he was a child, or maybe it's because the basement his father locked him up in when he misbehaved has scratch marks all over its door from where his mother desperately tried to escape while she starved to death in there!"
"What?" Sadie said weakly, "I…I thought he killed Almina while Theo was in the room. I didn't know that he…I didn't know…"
"Well, maybe you should make an effort to get to know your boyfriend better then," Draco practically spat, "You can't know somebody inside out after dating for a few months after all."
It was clear this was directed at Hermione because he glared at her briefly before disappearing up the stairs after Theo.
Neville sighed, "I'll admit that it brought bad back memories for me too. The screaming...I know I was only a baby, but I still have nightmares about my parents screaming as they were tortured..."
"I was only a baby too, and I had nightmares for years about screams and flashes of green light," Harry said quietly, "It's not surprising Neville, it was a traumatic event."
Hannah burst into tears, "I knew it was a bad idea! It was Hermione and Daphne who came up with it."
"Wow, so much for a loyal Hufflepuff," Daphne said dryly.
Hannah got to her feet and walked to Neville, "I am loyal but to my boyfriend more than you two! I told you that plan was wicked. It wasn't funny!"
"Hannah's right," Sadie said quietly.
"Well, it didn't bother me," Harry shrugged, "But I can see why it would affect the others. I do think it was pretty inventive as far as pranks go, mind you and if that lot want to become Aurors, then they'll have to get used to things like this."
"Why?" Hermione asked weakly. She looked incredibly guilty.
"Part of Auror training is simulated situations," Harry replied, "Kingsley told me about it. They take your fears, and they warp situations from your past to try and break you. They would have to deal with something like this eventually."
"It wasn't malicious," Hermione said tearfully, "We didn't think you would all be so terrified."
"I know it wasn't, Hermione," Harry said gently as he sat down next to her and put his arm around her, "But you do have to remember that you and Draco are different. He's a pureblood, and you're a muggle-born, so while you had a fairly ordinary childhood with primary school and all, he probably had a very miserable one."
Daphne smiled slightly as she watched them, "You two really are like a big brother and his little sister."
"They've always been like that," Neville said in amusement, "As long as I can remember."
"Even though I'm the older one," Hermione chuckled as she wiped her tears away.
"Yeah, well, I had to grow up fast," Harry said, "Don't worry about it too much though, Hermione, you know what Draco's like. He'll have cooled down by tomorrow morning."
"I'm sorry, Theo," Sadie whispered as she climbed into his bed that night.
Theo kept his back to her and said nothing.
Sadie shuffled and hugged him from behind, "I didn't know about your mother until Draco told us. If I had known that, I would never have let you go to that room."
Theo stopped tensing but remained silent.
"It was a stupid idea, and I see that now. You, Draco and Neville have too much experience of being locked up during the war, but it was worse with you," Sadie whispered, "You nearly died in the Dark Tower, and I think my heart would have died if you had."
Theo sighed and turned around, "Don't talk about that."
"We need to," Sadie said, her eyes searched his, "I was terrified that I was going to lose you."
"And I was terrified that I was going to lose you when you were in the Dark Tower," Theo murmured. He ran his hand up her side, "But you didn't lose me, and I didn't lose you."
Sadie kissed him lightly, "I just want you to know that I'm sorry for making you think about that awful time again."
Theo kissed her back; he murmured against her lips, "It wasn't all bad."
Sadie drew back, "How?"
"I fell in love with you that year," Theo said honestly, his eyes locked on hers, "I realised what an idiot I had been not to see what was right in front of me for all of those years."
Sadie smiled and captured his lips in another kiss. Theo deepened it and pulled her on top of him, she shrieked in surprise, and Theo laughed.
From the bed next to his, Blaise said, "Put up a silencing charm!"
And Draco said, "Don't have sex right next to me!"
"You had sex in the bed underneath mine for the whole bloody war, Draco!" Theo called back. He grinned up at Sadie, "Revenge is sweet!"
The following morning Hermione cornered Draco the second he got out of his dorm room.
"I'm sorry that I don't know you well enough to know when something will hurt you," Hermione said instantly.
Draco sighed half-heartedly, "No, I'm sorry for snapping at you. You do know me; you don't know everything about me, but you do know me, Hermione. I was upset because it hurt Theo, and he's my best friend."
"I understand," Hermione said as she bit her lip, "It wasn't supposed to hurt anyone."
"I know that," Draco said with a slight smile as he grabbed her hand, and they began to walk towards the common room, "I don't think you have a malicious bone in your body Hermione."
Hermione frowned, "I probably do."
"Well, I don't think you do," Draco said calmly, "I mean, you can be hot-headed, yes, but malicious? No."
Hermione smiled weakly, "I'm still sorry."
"I appreciate that," Draco said honestly as they walked into the common room where the rest of their group were already gathered. The air was slightly tense and icy, but from the way Harry had everybody gathered by the fire, he clearly had a plan to fix that.
"I want to show you something," Harry said when Draco and Hermione joined the rest of the group.
"Okay," Draco said with narrowed eyes.
"I feel bad," Harry admitted sheepishly, "That this all kicked off because I tried to give the girls chocolate and failed miserably. So I want to take you somewhere really cool to apologise."
"We agreed to go out of curiosity," Daphne said with an amused smile.
"I'll agree for the same reasons," Hermione chuckled, "I thought I knew about all of the secret places you had found."
"Nope, I kept a couple of them secret," Harry chirped, "Come on then! Let's go!" he added eagerly.
Harry had decided to show them somewhere he had found a while ago while exploring the castle after curfew. He led the group of eighth years down to the bottom of the school. They passed the Hufflepuff common room and the kitchens. Then they reached a tapestry of an apple tree. Harry paused and touched each apple on the tree individually; they fell from the tree into a basket. The tapestry then rolled up away from the wall, and Harry led his friends down a narrow, steep passage that came out into a large room filled with a huge bath.
The group gaped at the room, and Hermione tentatively put her hand in the bath, "It's hot!" she exclaimed in surprise.
Harry grinned, "The founders built it when they built Hogwarts. It was supposed to be for the founders and their heirs, but it got forgotten about and lay underneath the castle for years. I found it in fifth year when I used to walk around at night exploring the castle, and it needed a bit of a clean, but it still works fine."
"Wow, this is amazing, Harry," Daphne said. She took off her socks and dipped her feet into the water, "How is it hot?"
"It's based on a Roman design. They built two floors, the bottom one supports the top floor and in-between the two floors there is hot water and steam so that the water above is always hot," Harry explained, "So who wants to go for a swim?"
"We don't have bathing suits," Hannah said.
Draco rolled his eyes, "Can't you do clothing transfiguration?"
"Uh, no," Hannah said.
Draco made a noise of disgust, "Honestly, people these days have no idea what to do with themselves."
He and Harry had already transfigured their clothes into swimming trunks, and Daphne was already in the pool with a bikini on. Sadie and Theo quickly did the same and got into the hot water. Everybody who could do clothing transfiguration did so and got into the pool, leaving only a few people standing awkwardly.
Hermione, of course, had learned how to do so. After all, if Harry had been able to learn it, he knew that she could. The only person standing in their regular clothes was Hannah. Neville transformed Hannah's jeans and t-shirt into a bikini, and she jumped into the water.
"Good call Harry," Daphne said, swimming over to him and standing up to hug him.
Harry smiled at his girlfriend, "Glad you think so," he said.
Daphne only laughed. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves in the hot water, and all of the tension was thoroughly defused.
However, Harry did make a mental note to stay away from pranking for a little while...
* ~ TBC ~ *