1 A/N: I don't own ANYTHING. Except the plot and a few characters.

2

3 Chapter 19

Even Ice can Melt

Hermione had come to visit Harry, finally. He was in the middle of a bowl of chicken soup the next day after the trip to the library when she suddenly approached his bed. They looked at each other for a while without saying anything, then Hermione let out the word: " Hello."

" Hi." Harry put the bowl aside on the table beside the hospital bed. He stared at her in an uncertainty that surprised him. He didn't expect her to visit him.

" I . . . someone told me that you were really sorry." Hermione began, just as Harry said:

" Look, I'm really, really sorry about . . ."

They both looked at each other for a moment, then Hermione smiled. " I realized it was a bit stupid of me to be mad at you, Harry. I'm glad it didn't last long."

" I know."

" You had every right to keep your secret to Ron, I practically pushed you into making a promise with me. It was only fair that you'd keep his promise before mine." She smiled, her hand holding out to Harry. " So, are we . . . friends again?"

Harry took her hand and pulled her towards him. She staggered with the pressure he had pulled her with, then blushed as she fell into his arms on the bed. He hugged her tightly. "Friends? Just friends?" He whispered in her ear.

She curled her legs under herself, on the bed, so that she was pretty much sitting right under his arm. She shook her head, a strand of dark hair falling over her face.

Hermione then looked down, her eyelashes covering her eyes, and she said: " No. Not just friends."

Harry let go of her and she sat back, hands on her knees, her robes spread out over Harry's legs on the bed. " I saw Draco in the library yesterday. I was poring through books."

" Draco?" Harry pretended to be surprised.

" Yes." She nodded. " He's a strange person, isn't he? He just appeared out of nowhere, and then helped get me out of the library from Filch." Hermione rested her chin on her left knee, her eyes leaking out the puzzlement that filled her. " It's almost as if he wanted to help me."

" Maybe he did." Harry said. " He's working with us now, after all." He laughed as Hermione's mouth fell open in surprise.

" He's WHAT?" She gasped.

" Don't tell me you didn't suspect he might want to help us." Harry said. He added: " Draco has the Beauxbaxton book of students records with him. He was supposed to come see me today, but his father visited the school today. I really wonder why Lucius Malfoy would be doing, visiting Hogwarts in the middle of the year."

" I've always thought he was a bit severe with Draco." Hermione said.

" Yeah." Harry simply said. " He's helping us, though, and that's what matters. I don't know why he is. Perhaps its pity or revenge on Rebecca, or some other things . . ." Harry said. " . . .but he is helping us."

" He did help convince me to go visit you." Hermione told Harry.

" Did he?" Harry put on his best surprised/delighted face, the kind you use when you open a gift on Christmas and you already knew what it was and have to act like you're surprised anyway.

" Yes." She shrugged her shoulders. " I simply don't know what's happening to him. It's like he's changing, you know, as if all the ice melted from his heart."

" Maybe." Harry said.

" Did you get any farther with the mystery, while you were here?" Hermione asked.

" Not really." Harry admitted. " Draco did tell me some new clues. I don't think he'd mind if I told you them."

" What are they?" She cocked her head.

" He wrote those notes to you, for instance."

" WHAT!" Hermione shouted.

" Keep it down, dears, we have a headache patient over here." Madame Pomfrey shouted from across the hospital room. She was sitting at the beside of some third-year, who was wearing the Hufflepuff colors and clutching his head.

" Sorry." Hermione called back, then turned to Harry, her eyes shining with fury. " He wrote them to me? I thought he wanted to help us, not scare the stuffing out of us."

Harry laughed. " Draco didn't write them on purpose."

" Oh, really?" She put her hands on her hips. " How do you accidentally write someone a threat letter?" She was laughing, too, her eyes slowly letting go of that tinge of fury.

Harry shook his head and explained: " No, you see. . . he didn't know they were to you. Rebecca asked him to write a few threat letters for her, saying that she wanted to scare some girl she knew. She set him up, you see."

" Oh." Hermione said, softly.

" He's mad at Rebecca for that, and he's also freaked out by her anyhow with how she attempted to kill Hedwig." Harry said.

" I don't blame him." Hermione replied.

" Well, in any case, Draco isn't on our suspect list in any way. He's helping us, and so we should give him a lot of credit for that." Harry took a spoonful of soup into his mouth, and Hermione waited until he finished eating. Harry finally swallowed, then continued: "Malfoy also said that Rebecca never, ever takes her shoes off."

" And I did hear a rumor that the person that you were chasing had been barefoot." Hermione suddenly said: " Would that be her, though?"

" I don't see that big of a connection, yet."

" I suppose." She sighed.

" This is going to be the hardest case yet, for us, isn't it, Hermione?" Harry asked.

" At least we have Draco helping us out." She said, trying to be optimistic. She succeeded in making Harry smile. Hermione continued: " I'm sure Malfoy is clever enough to help us solve it in time."

She made a face. " I can't believe I'm complimenting him."

" It'll take some getting used to." Harry grinned. " You're not mad at Ron either now, right?"

" Right." She hugged her knees. " I feel so stupid! I shouldn't have been mad at you or Ron! Oh, I should be beginning YOU for forgiveness, Harry."

" It's okay. As long as you're not mad anymore." Harry said.

" I'm not." She grinned.

" Then, good." He leaned back onto the pillows behind his back and then sighed happily. " I'm getting used to being here all day. It's kind of fun, now, with having you, Ron, Ginny, and Draco visiting me all the time. No classes to worry about."

" I have news - lots of scoop - on Snape and Thea." Hermione giggled.

" Tell me." Harry laughed. It was finally something amusing and odd that they had discovered - Snape and Thea as a couple. The two were complete opposites, after all! Snape was tall, dark, dirty, and frightening, while Thea was small, frail, and beautiful; with robes either white or pink or some other cheery color, and with long and clean blonde hair.

" Professor Sprout from Herbology told me that Snape took Thea out to Hogsmeade yesterday. And this is really something - he bought her a beautiful necklace, it's absolutely gorgeous, Harry!" She grinned. " Not as nice as the rings you bought me, though."

Harry grinned.

Hermione continued: " I saw her necklace in Defense Against the Dark Arts yesterday. Oh, would you believe it? It has the teardrops of a phoenix frozen into the stone! It's marvelous." Hermione then added: " We finished the unit on defending oneself against possessed dragons."

" Really?" Harry looked upset. " I wanted to find out more things. It was so cool, the thing with the light. . ."

" Thea showed us how to magnify that light on the wand - she made the entire room burst into flames."

" What?" Harry gaped at her.

" Yes!" She laughed. " Oh, it was glorious! The whole entire room was in flames, and nobody got burned, since it would only damage those with the darkness inside them. For instance, it would probably damage someone like You-Know-Who." She shuddered at the name.

Harry asked her: " Any new observations of Rebecca?"

" She had a big meeting with the Hufflepuff team, being the captain and all. They are plotting a dangerous cheating game on Gryffindor - the one on the day after Thanksgiving."

" That's in less than two weeks." Harry groaned. " I won't be out by then!"

" Exactly." She's taking advantage of it." Hermione said. "Just like her, to do something like that!"

" I know." Harry shuddered. " Sometimes I just can't stand her." Harry suddenly asked: " Hermione?"

" What is it?"

" Do you think you could ask Draco to come see me tomorrow or something? I need to go through that book on Beauxbaxton records with him."

" Sure." She nodded. " If he can."

" Oh, and here's something else." Harry said. " What happened to Neville? He never visited us."

" You mean you don't know?" She looked surprised.

" No." Harry shook his head.

Hermione stood up, her eyes widening. " I thought everyone knew. He's away for the next few weeks - his grandmother died. Everyone's saying that he might have to go to live in France with his other closest relatives." She sighed. " I feel so horrible for him - that would mean he can't go to Hogwarts anymore."

" No! So you mean . . . he's not coming back?"

" Probably not." She saw Harry's horrified, worried eyes and she said: " Oh, please, Harry, I'm sorry, but don't get too sad. I can invite him over to my house, maybe, when we're away for Christmas break."

" I forgot about that." Harry admitted.

" I can't wait, you know." She grinned. " I've always wanted to spend a holiday away from Hogwarts with you somewhere." Her cheeks reddened.

" Really?" He was flattered. " I always thought it would be awesome to spend the holiday away with you, too!"

" I can't believe Neville's grandmother - - just dead - - wow." Harry's eyes widened. " Things sure change, and fast."

" I know." She let out a slow breath. " I suppose these holidays aren't going to be the happiest for some people." Suddenly, she said: " Do you know what Draco's doing over the holidays?"

" No." Harry shook his head.

" Pity. Maybe we can ask him to . . . nah." She shook her head.

" What?"

" Nothing. Don't worry about it. I had one of those crazy ideas again." Hermione smiled at him. " Just forget it, okay?"

" Okay." Harry then watched as she readied herself to leave.

" I should go - Professor McGonagall isn't too gracious about having me visit you too long - but she did say that it would be good if I visit you everyday while you're in here." Hermione pushed her hands into her pockets. " Anything else you want to say before I go?"

" Yeah." He smiled.

" What is it?" She asked.

Harry motioned with his finger to come closer. She looked at him, puzzled, then came closer. He leaned forwards to whisper in her ear. She listened intently, her ear ready to hear something, but felt two warm lips instead. He kissed her eyelid, missing her mouth by a mile, then laughed and found her lips. She smiled and told him:

" Harry, I miss you a lot. It's not the same with you locked up in here."

" And it's no fun without you." He told her. Then, he watched her go, reluctantly, but he realized it was for his best - or was it? The Ministry had him locked up like a bird in a cage, and he had no freedom to leave. What if they don't release him in time for winter holidays? It was quite possible.

*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*

Draco and Harry met after three weeks, since both Draco and Harry had busy schedules. Draco's classes demanded all his attention while Harry kept being taken to the Ministry to sort things out, to answer questions, and to in general be in people's way.

Harry was still inside the hospital room, having absolutely no freedom at all, waiting until his release would come but it never did. The Ministry didn't allow him to play Quidditch. His muscles were probably deteriorating, slowly melting into layers of fat, and pretty soon he'd be about as skilled with a broom as Neville Longbottom would.

Harry had missed the match with Hufflepuff against Gryffindor, and now his team was knocked back a few rounds, making the Quidditch Cup slowly drift away from the team's reach once again. Rebecca Crick had supposedly been so overjoyed she'd cried, then shouted: " That's for you, Potter!"

People had begun to talk, saying that Rebecca was only playing for Hufflepuff to ruin Harry Potter's career as the captain. She wanted to make his fifth year, supposedly, hellish. At the same time, everyone was dead afraid of the strange girl with the thick accent.

It was the tenth day of December and Draco and Harry had finally met to discuss things. They went through the book of Beauxbaxton records with feverish intensity, going through dozens of names. Finally, they passed the C's and were going into the D's when Draco exclaimed: "It's not here!"

" What do you mean?" Harry pulled the book from Draco's fingers and then stared at the C's by himself. " It has to be. She went there, didn't she?"

" So she said."

" So she. . . ah." Harry's finger stopped on a name. " There's Rebecca, right there."

" Let me see." Draco leaned forwards, his light hair falling over his forehead. He had to brush it away, and he then took the book out of Harry's hands again. " No, this isn't her, look at the picture."

They looked at it.

It was a girl, very short, with tiny grayish-green eyes that seemed pressed into her face and curly black hair sheared close to her head like a boy's. Her cheeks were covered with freckles and her lips were painted a dark brown color. Her picture moved and she grinned wider, revealing a mouth of crooked teeth.

" My God." Draco leaned back, his eyes moving away from the picture.

Harry then read: " Listen to her information: Rebecca Crick. Born in the United States on Friday the thirteenth of October. She's about thirteen now, and she goes to Beauxbaxton since her family moved to France. She was supposed to go to Hogwarts." Harry stopped reading. " This isn't the right Rebecca Crick."

" There's no other." Draco murmured.

" Unless the Rebecca we know is . . ."

" Fake." Draco slammed the book shut. " I knew it. She's FAKE."

" No kidding."

" You know what this means, Potter? She's someone in disguise. Someone that must be very against you." Draco smiled to himself. " And against Mudblood, too."

" Hey! What did I say about that name. . ."

" Shut up." Draco pushed the book back into Harry's hands. "Listen. You've already told me all the clues you've found, right?"

" Right."

" Well, Hagrid's stolen dragon, for instance. Being a young dragon, it's skin could be used to transform a person into someone else." Draco began.

" Yeah . . .?"

" Rebecca never takes off her shoes, right?"

" Right."

" And then you saw someone without shoes spying on you, ready to ATTACK you, and when you ran after them they used a Dark Curse." Draco was satisfied with himself. " And didn't Rebecca practice Dark Curses?"

" I see what you're getting at. So Rebecca could be a Death Eater, or something, in disguise? Using her shoes of dragon hide to become her girl- self?" Harry frowned. " But she had the shoes even before Hagrid's dragon was stolen."

" Shoes wear out. That giant oaf found that golden button outside, didn't he? It could have been from Rebecca's shoes. She needed new ones, to remain in her disguise." Draco stood up, pacing the room. " She had to take them off though, in order to use her real powers - the ones belonging to her other identity, the one she's hiding."

" And that's when she was spying on me, waiting to attack?" Harry asked.

" Yeah."

" So . . . I'm beginning to get it. And she stole Rebecca Crick's identity from Beauxbaxton." Harry suddenly shot out of the hospital bed as well. "The Ministry has to release me! We need to find Rebecca and. . . and do something."

" We can't just confront her. Some things aren't fitting together yet." Draco said. " Here, how about we forget that thing, where I only do research when you are with me?"

" Are you serious?"

" Yes." Draco sat down at the foot of Harry's bed. " I think I'll try and put things together. I'll be back in a month - in January - my dad's taking me out of Hogwarts for a while." Draco looked sad.

" Why's would your dad take you out of Hogwarts for a whole month!" Harry exclaimed.

" I don't know." He replied, his eyes moving from Harry's.

" Yeah you do." Harry said. " You have to know. I mean. . ."

" Okay, fine!" Draco looked tired of hiding things. His eyes seemed to reflect the pain and agony of years of torturing, mind-numbing cruelty. Harry watched him speak with interest: " My dad. . . well, he feels I'm a bit of a weak link in the Malfoy family. Okay? I don't know why. He finds it amusing to have me around to kick and lock up in the basement of our mansion and all sorts of things."

" That's terrible." Harry whispered.

" Yeah, it's terrible. And painful, too." Draco grumbled. Harry just now noticed the bruise on Draco's collarbone, which he had never paid attention to before. Draco looked down, seeing the bruise, and whispered: " My dad visited Hogwarts a few days ago to inform Dumbledore that he's taking me out of school soon. Probably next week or so, unless something comes up." This explained why and when the bruise had appeared.

Harry was at loss of words.

Draco's eyes exploded with pain and he said:

"Are you happy now? My dad wants to take me to Greenland for a month, to my grandfather's estate. He. . ." Draco shivered. "They both think I need - - extra discipline." He spat the words as if he were saying a horrible insult.

" I'm so sorry." Harry said, softly, not knowing what else to do.

" Don't be." Draco said, vaguely making Harry recall the time he and his friends had made fun of him on the Hogwarts steps after a trip to Hogsmeade.

" So I guess the mystery lies still until you come back?" Harry asked, a bit stunned to think of any other question.

" Not really. I'm sure Mud - - Hermione - - will help you out in bits. But don't do anything drastic until I come back, okay?" Draco seemed really into the case now. Harry wouldn't have done anything even if Draco hadn't told him.

" Okay." Harry smiled. " I hope Greenland is. . . fun."

" I wish it was January." Draco replied, his eyes shimmering with tears. Then, he stood, grasping at the book. " I . . . I'll go return this to the library. You can - - you. . ." His voice cracked, and Draco quickly walked from the hospital room, the book clutched tightly in his hands.

" Wait!" Harry suddenly called out.

" What?" Draco turned, his teeth biting his lower lip, pulling back anything that would make him seem any weaker then he felt right now in his heart.

" Hermione invited me to her house over the winter break. Maybe you can come with us, to her home. It would be some sort of plans, and I think your dad is honorable enough to pull out of something like that."

" My father wouldn't allow it. Spending the vacation with . . . Muggles . . ." Draco stopped speaking, his head turning away. "Thanks for the offer, anyhow. But nothing can save my skin right now."

" I'm sorry." Harry said, lamely, to the back of the figure moving out of the room: strong, silent, unbroken. Harry thought, vaguely:

' Was this why Draco turned his heart to stone and ice before? To keep himself from breaking apart mentally?'

A sudden concern and understanding blossomed inside Harry for Draco. Now, more then ever, Harry realized that he was wrong about Draco Malfoy. He was horribly, horribly wrong and so was nearly everyone in Hogwarts.

*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*

Hermione came to see Harry about three days later, just as it began to snow heavily outside, the first snow that year. It had come rather late, for England's conditions, but Harry didn't really mind, as long as Christmas was white and beautiful then it was all okay.

The trees outside were no longer naked. Their branches were wrapped in beautiful white fur coats, their bark dark and beautiful next to the white of the snow. Rabbit tracks crossed the Quidditch field outside and Dumbledore officially declared a day off for the students, due to the fresh and exciting snowfall being such a distraction to students, and so Harry got a lot of visitors that day. Harry was lying on the bed, bored, flipping through a magazine on Quidditch that Ron brought in. The magazine wasn't very interesting, and Ron had circled or highlighted things with his quill (one page looked at if Ron dipped it into yellow ink). It was about some woman on the professional Quidditch team from Canada, and the picture of her was a bit mesmerizing to Harry.

Hermione cleared her throat behind him.

Harry turned his head, not knowing who to expect behind him, then saw Hermione and exclaimed: " Oh! Hi, Hermione."

" I thought I'd stop by and have a chat." She sat down opposite him on the bed. " I can't believe the Ministry is still keeping you in here."

" Just like Charlie . . ." Harry said. " Any news of him, by the way?"

" Ron said that the Ministry is removing the mark from him tomorrow. They decided that endangering his life wouldn't be worth it. But they are taking a tissue sample to identify the wand the mark came from, anyhow." Hermione said.

" Then they've finally took care of Charlie. What about me?" Harry exclaimed. " They keep asking me the same questions, and they're afraid I'll get attacked again. They act like I'm a poor little egg, and if they take their eyes off me I'll crack in half and be destroyed."

" Poor Harry." She gave Harry a sympathetic smile. " I'm sure you'll get out of this rut soon."

" What if I don't, and you told me I could go to your home over Christmas break?" Harry asked.

" They can't keep you away from me!" Hermione laughed.

Harry shrugged. " The Ministry isn't going to just release the case so that I could have the BEST winter break of my life."

" The best?" She smiled.

" Sure." Harry told her.

" I'm . . . well, you know what, Harry? I think I'm feeling a bit guilty. Don't you think we should have asked Ron to come with us, and Ginny, and the others? I mean, it seems sort of selfish now." Hermione said.

Harry hadn't thought of that. " I don't think Ron would mind. He's pretty okay with it, from what I know. I've talked to him about it already, after all."

" Oh." She suddenly said: " Did you and Draco figure out anything new about the case?"

" Yes!" Harry exclaimed. " Listen to this . . . we have found out that the Rebecca Crick we know never went to Beauxbaxton. The Rebecca we know quite possibly had killed Hagrid's baby dragon and then used its skin to morph herself into the identity she has now."

" Wow! It makes sense. . ."

" And here's more!" Harry said. " Draco, see, you were right. He is clever. He was able to also figure some other things out. For instance, he told me that he thinks Rebecca might not even be a girl. She could be a Death Eater, here to get me. Rebecca's shoes are the ones made of the dragon hide, and that is why she never removes them. She is practicing Dark Spells to kill me, and then she was stalking outside, waiting for me. I caught her, though, and she tried a spell but it backfired. She didn't have her shoes on, since perhaps her true form is more powerful."

" Goodness." Hermione cried out. " We need to turn her in to the Ministry for investigation right now!"

" I promised Draco we'd wait until he's back from Greenland. He left yesterday, remember?" Harry felt a painful sickening feeling in his stomach at the thought. Poor Draco!

" Then we have to wait for him." She sighed. " I guess the Ministry would release you quicker, though, if they don't know what we are suspecting of Rebecca."

" That's what I think, too." Harry said.

" Well, whatever will happen, we'll rise up to meet it, won't we Harry?" Hermione spoke without knowing what will happen in the future . . . if she only knew . . .

Author's Note: Yeah spooky way to end a chapter but hey! I assure you Harry won't die in this story since then what about books 6 and 7? Will they be about his corpse or something? ::snickers:: um yeah I should really work on my funny jokes. . . Next chapter: Harry goes to Hermione's home for the holidays! Fluffy goodness for everyone! Oy I can't believe it! 285 pages on Microsoft Word. I'm on a roll, baby. Not bad for someone who can barely speak English. By the way! Winter break is 2 weeks, right?