A Valentine Rhyme (part 2)
The next morning, Ron rose to find Harry sifting through a list of their classmates, sent out at the beginning of the year with parent's names and addresses for floo networks.
"Nope, nope, nope." He crossed the names off with his quill. "No one I know would like me!"
"Harry, it was a joke. A really bad one." Ron reflected. "Anyway, if it was a joke it would be someone who didn't like you, I bet. If it wasn't a joke…" He pondered the implications of the sentence, looking around their shared dorm room. "D' you suppose someone in the room…is gay?" he whispered.
"Are you agreeing with me?" Harry didn't look up, intent on the names, "What if it's someone I don't know?"
"I am not. Well. There's no harm in asking. We could present it as a joke. Or, ''Scuse me, but I believe you sent me a Valentine?'" Ron brightened.
"No, someone honestly likes me, I can tell." Or maybe he just wanted someone to honestly like him for him. Not Voldemort's destroyer, or Quidditch seeker, or anything else. "I'll just have to ask people today. Hmmm…"
While Harry went through the Great Hall asking people if it was them who sent him a message, Draco left early, taking a roll and his minions to the common-room. "Fancy that, Potter thinks he actually has a chance at getting a boyfriend."
Crabbe snickered, "I wonder who it was. Imagine it being someone we knew! A fag, right here at Hogwarts!"
Goyle agreed, "Yeah, the fags and the mudbloods should be killed this year with that monster."
Malfoy whipped around and scowled, "You two brutes are awfully talkative today."
The loutish boys hung their heads in shame and the walk continued on without any more conversation.
On the other side of the castle, Harry was having no luck. People either laughed or wished him well in his search, but no one came forward.
"Maybe he's not here?" Ron suggested, and Harry thought he was right. He couldn't see anyone who was missing from his list. He went down the names, but he had checked everyone off. Perhaps the person was someone who he had eliminated earlier as not being close enough to him. A thought occurred to him.
"Hey, Ron?" Harry said, trying to sound cheerful.
"Yeah?" Ron was suspicious.
"It's not…well, it's not…you, by any chance?" For a reply, Harry got a smack on the head. "Ow! Ok, ok!"
That night, after enduring Crabbe and Goyle all day, Draco allowed himself to sneak out and look for the boy who required so much of his attention. Instead, he found him with Ginny Weasley, standing in front of a hideous picture of a fat lady.
"That brat! If she says anything…" He knew of her crush. In fact, the whole school knew. Harry was an idiot.
"…Can I borrow your notes from last year? I can't seem to understand…" her voice was inaudible. The blonde strained to hear their conversation, "Well," Harry was saying, "I don't know, I'll see if I have them, come on up to my room and we can root around. I'll need help going through all the notes. I really have no idea." That's it! The wench! She was going to lure him upstairs and…Malfoy could hardly think. He managed to casually walk by. "Hello, Potter. Weasley. Bit late for a stroll?"
"You as well, Malfoy. What are you doing?"
"Professor Snape wanted to see me about my age potions- said they were exceptionally good." He didn't even think about what a jealous boyfriend he was being. He wasn't even his boyfriend!
"Right, I'm sure. Well, Ginny, come—"
"Ahh, Weasley, McGonagall wanted to see you about something." Malfoy hurriedly made something up.
"Really?"
"Would I lie to you?" Malfoy smiled, hoping to look sweet.
"Uhhh…"
"Now…" His eyes glinted, and Ginny got the message. She blanched, and turned to Harry.
"Sorry Harry, I need to go." And the two students turned and walked off in opposite directions, leaving Harry very confused.
"You know, I have a feeling that something important just happened, but I can't think what it was."
The Fat Lady opened an eye tiredly, "Ahhh, young love."
"What?! Not that again!" Harry was even more confused, and decided to make it a night.
That afternoon, he used lunchtime to ask the other half of the list. As he walked down the Slytherin table, trying to decide if any Slytherins could possibly like him, Malfoy jeered, "Still looking for your love, Potter? You don't have any chance!" Harry turned.
"Do you know who it is?"
"I know that you don't."
"Who?"
"Is he talking?" Malfoy asked Crabbe.
Crabbe erupted into laughter. "Y-yeah, you can't here him? He said, 'Who?' Like, you know…"
Malfoy was disgusted. "Never mind." To Harry, he said, "Stop looking. You won't find him."
Harry was taken aback. Malfoy seemed so serious. "O-ok. I won't stop, though."
"Whatever, Potter."
After dinner, Harry went to the library to find Draco Malfoy and Ginny sitting next to each other, earnestly talking.
"Ginny!"
"Harry!" Ginny said, surprised. Draco was sullenly silent.
"Ginny, what are you doing hanging around with a Malfoy?"
She threw a pained look at the boy beside her, "Harry, that's not nice. He's—"
"I'm helping her with her charms. Is that a problem?" Draco looked up evenly, not betraying his thoughts.
"Charms? I'm sure. Look, Ginny, he's not a person to stick with. You aren't…going out, are you?" He positively reeked of disapproval and shock.
"NO!" she yelled, and got a look from the librarian. "No. He just happened to be here when I needed help, that's all. I've got a test tomorrow and I need help from someone!"
"You seem to bump into Malfoy an awful lot these days."
"Well, we have something in common."
"What?"
Draco looked angrily at Ginny, "We both like the same Quidditch team! Isn't that great?" Ginny announced
"What?"
"Yeah! So we talk about the team." She grinned happily at the two boys glaring daggers at each other. "Umm…I really have to go…"
She looked at Harry and Draco, thought about each boy carefully, weighing the chances. She really wanted Harry to be happy, and knew she was too shy, or scared, to reveal her crush to him. Besides, the crush was fading, now just a habit, a known fact, rather than actual emotions. She decided to help them both, knowing full well Harry would never seriously consider Draco as the boy and Draco would never tell him. She actually looked forward to being a matchmaker.
"Heeyy, Draco, would you mind going to Professor Flitwick's office tonight and asking him about it, since you're all done with homework. Oh, Harry, he had something to give you…did you hand in anything late? It's all graded." She lied. She felt it was quite an obvious one, an idiotic one. But Draco agreed, for some strange reason. Harry had no reason not to believe her. She was the shy sister of his best friend, so why would she lie?
Draco didn't know where she was going with it- he didn't have a question to ask. But she looked so determined. In the last few days, their common bond- not quidditch, actually, but Harry, had formed into a covert friendship. So he obliged, for once. Harry followed him out.
"Oh, Harry?" He turned around, "I've been thinking, make sure to ask all the boys about the poem!"
Harry thought the comment a little random, but he nodded and trotted off after the Slytherin. Who hadn't he asked? Well, he had time; Flitwick's office was all the way across the castle. He absently followed the boy in front of him
Draco, after hearing Ginny's last remark, took a very long time to walk across the school. He made a lengthy circle, thinking about whether to talk to Harry. Harry seemed to be in a trance behind him. The secret he had kept for so long was begging to come out. Telling Ginny had relieved it a little. He would have told Crabbe and Goyle, they wouldn't have told anyone, but that was like telling two rocks. Crabbe and Goyle didn't count. Actually, he had to admit to himself that he was pretty mean to Ginny, taking her privately aside and yelling at her about her crush. She had been so startled, but soon figured out that Draco liked Harry as well. So Draco threatened her. Of course, Ginny still had the upper hand. If news got out, his school life would be destroyed, not to mention his family would be ruined. A gay Malfoy? A pureblood? No threats would stop that. So he had decided to plead with her again. And again. Until he realized that it was no good, he would have to be nice. So they became fairly friendly, in a way. But all that was out of his mind now, as he led Harry deeper into the dungeons, taking the exact opposite way.