Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, blah blah JK Rowling owns everything blah blah
except the stuff I made up blah blah blah blah and maybe I didn't even make
that up blah blah blah so get over it already!
Warning; this story finally ends up with a HP/DM pairing slashy thingy, and some other stuff, so if you don't like male male pairings, turn back!
Ok, I know this has taken longer to come out, even longer than when I was on holiday. But all I can say is sorry. And thanx to Sarah, Malfoyslova15 and Rascal.
Chapter Five: It's all right and'a, it's ok.
Harry woke up with Professors McGonagall and Hagrid standing over him. "Up you get 'arry." Hagrid said offering Harry an enormous had. Harry took it and was hoisted to his feet a little fast, he stood there for a minute fighting the urge to fall back to sleep. "Glad to see you weren't involved in all the commotion, there's going to be some right punishments handed out today." "That's enough Hagrid." McGonagall said without her usual sternness. She then moved over to the twins and Hermione. "Enervate!" She said pointing her wand to Harry's three unconscious friends.
"Old Dumbledore is in a right fit Harry." Hagrid said under his breath, although Professor McGonagall gave him a disapproving stare from three meters away. "It looks like all the houses are going to have a right tough time getting into positive numbers with their house points." Hagrid shook his head disapprovingly. "Why, how many did he deduct?" Harry said as Hermione come to stand with them. "Five points for everyone who was involved." "Five for everyone! But that will add up in the hundreds." Hermione complained. "That's right, and detention for everyone involved. Filch is going to have a lot of fun in the next couple of weeks." "Detention!" Harry now cried. He could maybe handle the depression of losing the house points, but detention for a couple of weeks!"
"Don't worry 'arry." Hagrid said reassuringly. "Only for those involved. By the look of things you and Hermione weren't in that whole mess. Dumbledore's little spell made everyone drop where they stood." Harry and Hermione sighed in relief. "Where's Ron Harry?" Harry kept quiet, knowing what Hagrid would say. "He was part of that mob wasn't he Harry." Harry nodded. "Ahh 'arry, I would have thought you would have kept him back, you being his friend and all." "It's not my fault that he stormed of Hagrid." Harry tried to explain. "He was with Dean and Seamus, I thought he would be alright." "You know what this means don't you Harry." Hermione cut in thankfully, even though she looked a little pale. "What?" Fred said as he and George and Professor McGonagall came to join them. "What means what?" George asked? "Slytherin is going to win the house cup." The boys looked at her blankly. "Well hardly any of them were involved in the fight." "First good thing they done in a couple of years." Harry said gloomily. "Yes it is." McGonagall said. "Now please remove yourselves to your common room so that we can deal with the rest of these students." Harry looked around the Great Hall; there was still the great mess of the mob seemingly untouched in their unconsciousness. The other teachers went around waking up other students like Harry and his friends, the ones who weren't involved. "You are to stay there until I come and speak to the house, classes will be suspended until lunch." "Yes professor." The four said as they ran back up to the common room.
As they entered the fat lady shook her head disapprovingly. "Fighting in the Great Hall! You students just have no respect for each other these days. Why in mfghffmmm." Fred grinned as he closed the portrait door muffling the Fat Lady's voice. "I never really listened to her before, why now?" "How can you make jokes at a time like this?" Hermione said crossly. "Because my girl," George said smiling as he rapped an arm around her shoulder. "What my dear brother is cheered up about is that these are exciting times." "Shut up you fruitcake." She said shrugging her way out of his arm and walking over to a bunch of couches.
The common room was depressingly empty. Unsurprisingly Neville was there to greet them; he also had Ginny in tow. There were only about ten others in the common room. Harry hoped Professor McGonagall found more Gryffindors who weren't involved, he didn't even want to try and count the number of house points they were going to loose. Harry didn't give it much hope though; the ten were mostly first and second years who were probably too intimidated by the whole thing.
The now six strong group of friends sat together and listened as Neville told how he and Ginny had hid under the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Ginny put in now and then how brave Neville had been when he had shielded her with his own body when a spell had exploded on the table next to them. Harry smiled as he saw her give Neville her full attention, big eye's included.
He felt happy that Neville was finally getting some spotlight of his own, and that Ginny was providing it. Hopefully she would forget about her long time crush on Harry, and get on with her life. Great, Harry thought, now if only you could take your own advice and stop thinking about Draco and his funny looks, screw him. NO! Harry blushed despite himself. Luckily no one was paying attention to him.
Hermione was trading whispers with Ginny as Neville told his story again, chest puffed out and all. Fred and George were having their own little discussion which reminded Harry of George's earlier comment. "George," Harry cut in. "What did you mean when you said 'these are exciting times'" The twins lent in towards Harry with large grins across their faces. Everyone else also lent in to hear what they had to say. Hermione even seemed to overlook her irritability.
"You explain it to him George." Fred said "It was your idea after all." "Well not quite mine," George mused. "But I did draw the final conclusions that lead to this proposed scheme." George then looked to Harry again and said. "Harry, if you haven't noticed there was almost a war in the Great Hall about half an hour ago."
Harry couldn't seem to piece the connection between the fight in the Great Hall and what it had to do with 'exciting times'. Sure it meant that there was going to be a whole lot more friction between Slytherin and the other houses, but Dumbledore and the other teachers would be able to handle that. Harry looked over to Hermione who gave him a 'don't look at me' shrug. "Don't worry if at first you don't see it Harry." Fred said patting him on the shoulder. "It took George and me a few minutes to even see the pattern of the riddle, and its solution."
Harry looked at them sceptically. "What riddle?" He finally asked. "Glad you asked Harry," George grinned. "Its not that difficult, which isn't surprising since it's a Death Eater plan." Those two words, Death Eater, doubled everyone's concentration. They crowded round George as he carried on. "Well we can now be certain from this last attack that old He- Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is weeding out weeds in his little circle of cronies." They all nodded. "We also know that Malfoy the younger has denied that he has any involvement with the Death Eaters." "He even said that he hate's You-Know-Who." Fred added. "Yes," George continued. "He also has a few companions who are willing to stand and fight for him when he makes these comments." "While the rest of his house distances themselves from him." Fred added again. "Exactly!" George cried happily. "So therefore Malfoy is helping You-Know- Who by distancing himself from the Dark Lord, gaining the trust of students whose parents are Death Eaters looking to get out." "And WHAM!" Fred bellowed jumping up, causing everyone's life span to shrink a bit. "You-Know-Who gets his information and starts weeding." George said softly.
"That's terrible!" Said Ginny. "That's right Ginny." Fred said a little more soberly. "And that's exactly way we have to counter Malfoy's little plan." George said waving his finger. "This is were it gets exciting Harry." Fred said answering Harry's first question. "Since Malfoy has got his little group of stand strong followers behind him." "Who would do anything to help their leaders cause," Fred cut in again eagerly. "I mean they attacked students in full view of Dumbledore." George gave his twin a dirty look to which he got a toothy smile as apology. "We should counteract this evil company with our own force of light!" George seemed pretty happy with himself with this final statement. As before Harry was as sceptical as that first talk at breakfast. "So what you mean is we form a group of our own and fight Malfoy's plans?" Hermione asked. "Yes." Fred said happily. "We were just thinking about a name for our brave band when Harry asked." Harry chuckled hollowly as he heard himself say. "How bout the 'Gryffindor War Council'." He said half heartedly. He already new that it would be a great name, simple and to the point. No misinterpretations could be gathered from something so direct. It was a name that only great scepticism could have thought up while listening to a similar conversation yesterday.
"That's GREAT Harry!" George cried. "To the point and simple enough for any daft Death Eater wanna be to understand." "And be scared of!" Neville said grinning. It seemed he was warming up to this bravery thing if Ginny came with it, Harry thought.
"As soon as the rest of the house gets back we'll put it to them, I'm sure there will be quite a few who would want to join." Fred said. "We'll have our first meeting tonight, and Harry." Harry looked up as if expecting a punch. "Since the wicked white ferret is leading You-Know-Whose forces, it's only good reasoning that you lead ours." George, Hermione, Neville and Ginny all agreed instantly. Harry just smiled and nodded as fate seemed to sweep him in one direction, while his feelings looked else where.
* * *
It was Friday night in the Slytherin common room and everyone there was trying to relax. Corven was succeeding more than most. He had just finished a five foot essay on an overview of 1312 Troll Wars. He still had about another fifteen feet of essays to write for various subjects, but that could wait, he had the whole weekend to do them. Corven opened a letter that he had received from Mike and settled into his couch. His fellow first years gave him dirty looks; they were only half way through the essay.
As usual Mike wrote about his day, which was Thursday. So far he had kept his promise and written every day, Corven on the other hand hadn't. Mike had noticed this and said so in the letter. He even mentioned that if he didn't get a letter soon he would send a Howler, he had read about them and wasn't scared to use one. Corven would explain and beg forgiveness, in his letter that he was about to write, that the past three days had been somewhat hectic.
First off there had been the initial punishment that the Headmaster had dished out; lots of house points deducted and endless detention. That detention really had been endless. Every nook and cranny around the castle shone. The gardens outside were in immaculate condition, all perfectly cut, trimmed and shaped. Then there had been the triple homework from every teacher. Worst had been Professor Binns, he usually gave a lot of homework and in the last few days he almost seemed to smile.
Then there had been the lectures before every meal about how it was important to stick together as a school, and not let the outside world shape what we do here on the inside. The school was a foundation of the wizarding world and not the other way around.
Counting all those things and you already had a schedule that would cut into your sleep time. But there were more things to do. Like the classes that Draco had insisted on teaching at the end of every day when normal people would be going to bed. They were hard. Way way way, way harder than the simple first year stuff that Corven had mastered, but Draco had told him that he was pleased with the progress that he had achieved.
Then there was also the 'special assignments' that Draco had had him doing. Corven had kind of become a personal assistant to Draco. Corven would never have believed that he would 'lower' himself to such a thing; he being the genius wanted to have the personal assistant. Further more Corven would never ever have believed that he would be enjoying it. Draco seemed to trust him after that whole thing with that potion, and Draco was incredibly powerful, maybe one of the most powerful people in the school. Corven was happy to be Draco's right hand man.
This brought him back to the 'special assignments'. The most important of those was going to happen tonight. Draco had cancelled his classes when he heard that Corven had only been able to organize the meeting at the same time. He had told the 'class' that they were expected to revise and to expect their first test tomorrow. Corven could look around the common room and see his fellow Followers as they thought of themselves now. One or two were reading through their notes while others were idly tracing patterns in the air with their hands. All of them were in some form or another revising.
Corven just hoped that the meeting would go as expected this evening. Draco was to meet with Grant McNeal in an unused class room tonight. Officially they and Grant's brother had been meeting with each other in the Headmaster's office as Dumbledore tried to persuade the remaining McNeals that Draco wasn't involved in their parents' demise. But Draco wanted a more personal meeting with Grant, and Draco had told Corven why.
The whole thing with Mike had come out when Draco had given him that potion that made you tell the truth. Since they were 'similar' Draco had explained under pain of death the situation and what he wanted to happen, then told him to organize. And so he had, that annoying second year Hufflepuff girl had played a key role, and she had done it out of the goodness of her heart. Although Corven suspected otherwise, she was probably using this as an excuse to get close to Grant McNeal, and once he saw that she had been so helpful he would turn to her for other things. Shame.
Corven finished reading Mike's letter and settled down to finally write back to his boyfriend. There, he finally said it, or thought it. Strangely Corven was growing more attached to Mike the more he was away from him. He would put that in the letter too. Mike would like that. Corven smiled as he imagined Mike himself smiling at reading that.
"What's so amusing?" Josh said breaking Corven out of his daydream. "Nothing, just thinking." "You told us to remind you when it was ten o-clock." "Thanks." Corven got up and walked over to Draco. He saw Josh and Edward quickly grab his essay and laughed, this was not the first time. Corven looked at Draco, he looked tired. Corven wondered how he was surviving on one or two hours of sleep a night. After the lessons with his followers Draco stayed in the common room while the rest went of and collapsed into bed. He would sit as he sat now, in front of a portrait listening as it whispered to him.
It was a very freaky portrait. When Corven had first see it there was a man in a black robe holding a dagger in one hand and a wand in the other. He had stood in the middle of a medieval battle with dead and dieing soldiers around him. Now the same man in black sat on a sort of throne. A throne made of the dead soldiers bodies. Right now Draco talked to the man who looked quite relaxed, he was even smiling warmly.
The portrait stopped talking as it saw Corven walking towards Draco and it. Draco turned looking somewhat annoyed, however his face brightened as he saw it was Corven. "Is it time?" Draco asked expectantly. Corven nodded. "Good luck my boy." The portrait said in quiet voice. It would seem that Corven wasn't Draco's only confidant.
Draco got up and squeezed Corven's shoulder. Some of the tiredness had disappeared from his eyes. "I owe you one if this works out." With that Draco walked out the common room at a trot. Corven looked back to the portrait which looked back at him. The portrait smiled at Corven, Corven smiled back at the portrait. Both turned away and Corven walked back to write his letter.
* * *
Draco had to stop and calm himself down as he reached the door to the appointed classroom. He had jogged the whole way, having a burst of energy that he hadn't felt for the whole week. He wiped the slight covering of sweat from his forehead with his sleeve before opening the door. Grant was sitting there at a desk looking expectantly at Draco. Draco gave a week smile and closed the door behind him. He covered hands in his robe to hide their shaking.
"I'm glad you came." Draco finally said. Grant gave him a week smile. He had smudge of mud on his left cheek and his hair looked slightly damp. "Have fun at Quidditch practice?" "It was ok; we're planning on not coming last again this year." Draco's heart seemed to lighten at the slight joke, Grants voice made it magical. More energy seemed to pour into Draco, and a little of his old self awakened. "Weren't you afraid to come here tonight?" It was a comment that usually would be accompanied with a smirk, but this time there was a genuine smile. Those meetings with Dumbledore were paying off. Grant didn't see him as evil monster anymore; they had even nodded to each other in the corridor today.
However Grant's answer dispelled anymore positive thoughts. "I'm not alone Malfoy." That single sentence seemed to drain all newly acquired energy. New tired Draco was back. He took a deep breath and looked around the room. Nothing. "Where?" He asked. "Over here ferret!" Draco spun round and found Ron Weasley and Harry Potter appear out of thin air. "We've found about your little plan ferret. It's not going to work." Weasley stormed up to him and stuck his face in Draco's. Potter was more cautious and stayed in the back ground.
Draco ignored Weasley's bad breath and turned to face the boy he had started to develop a crush for. It must have been the lack of sleep in the last couple of days cause he couldn't read Grant's face. Draco knew what had happened. Potter's little group of good doers had somehow found out about the meeting. They didn't believe that he wasn't in with the Dark Lord. They thought that he was here to harm Grant.
Draco was literally too tired to care at that moment in time. "Why?" was all he said to Grant. "I'll tell you why you git." Weasley fumed again. "We've found out about your plan to ferret out all your master's traitors." Draco spun round in honest surprise at this. Weasley smiled. "That's right, we know. And we're going to stop you right here, right now." Draco looked at Potter, his face was just as intense as his friends.
Something broke in Draco. He came to the realization that the situation was actually very funny. He had been working so hard to get free of Voldemort, and in the end it seemed that everyone thought him to be closer. A broad grin appeared on Draco's face. He turned to Grant. "Is this what you think as well?" "They put it in a very believable way." Draco burst out laughing. This seemed to infuriate Weasley because Draco was suddenly shoved to the ground. Weasley stood over him fists up ready for a fight. Draco just lay on the ground and relaxed still laughing.
"Leave him Ron." Potter said taking his friends arm. "He's gone mad." Ron spat on the floor near to where Draco lay and then left with Potter. What made it worse was the quick look of pity that Potter had given him. It just added fuel to Draco's laugh. "You coming with us McNeal?" Weasley said as he reached the door. "No, I think I can handle him like this." Weasley nodded and was gone.
Draco lay on the floor for a while longer before he could get a hold on himself. His eyes were closed and he wondered if Grant was still in the room. "You look and sound worse than I feel." That voice was magical Draco thought. "The Headmaster told me that you weren't doing so well." Draco shivered as he felt a hand o his forehead. "How much sleep have you had." Sleep! Who had the time, Draco thought. Though right now didn't seem like such a bad idea.
"Hey! I didn't say sleep now." Draco felt a hand shake him, it didn't do much good. "I didn't really believe them Draco." Grants voice was now just above a whisper. "I may be a Hufflepuff, but I'm a popular Hufflepuff. I get looks like yours all the time if I think about it. Just not from boys." There was a long silence before the magic voice came back. "Shit, I don't believe I'm going to do this. Come on Draco, get up, if I leave you here the Gryffindor's will probably kill you." Wouldn't want that, Draco snickered.
It took them a long time, but Draco didn't mind, he was totally oblivious and in all intensive purposes, sleep walking. He leaned heavily on Grant, and as soon as his head touched his pillow he was dead to the world. What a guy, Draco thought, what a buddy to make sure I got to bed.
The End.. For now
Ok if you find any mistakes, tell me. It will only help you. you know what they say, help me help you.
Warning; this story finally ends up with a HP/DM pairing slashy thingy, and some other stuff, so if you don't like male male pairings, turn back!
Ok, I know this has taken longer to come out, even longer than when I was on holiday. But all I can say is sorry. And thanx to Sarah, Malfoyslova15 and Rascal.
Chapter Five: It's all right and'a, it's ok.
Harry woke up with Professors McGonagall and Hagrid standing over him. "Up you get 'arry." Hagrid said offering Harry an enormous had. Harry took it and was hoisted to his feet a little fast, he stood there for a minute fighting the urge to fall back to sleep. "Glad to see you weren't involved in all the commotion, there's going to be some right punishments handed out today." "That's enough Hagrid." McGonagall said without her usual sternness. She then moved over to the twins and Hermione. "Enervate!" She said pointing her wand to Harry's three unconscious friends.
"Old Dumbledore is in a right fit Harry." Hagrid said under his breath, although Professor McGonagall gave him a disapproving stare from three meters away. "It looks like all the houses are going to have a right tough time getting into positive numbers with their house points." Hagrid shook his head disapprovingly. "Why, how many did he deduct?" Harry said as Hermione come to stand with them. "Five points for everyone who was involved." "Five for everyone! But that will add up in the hundreds." Hermione complained. "That's right, and detention for everyone involved. Filch is going to have a lot of fun in the next couple of weeks." "Detention!" Harry now cried. He could maybe handle the depression of losing the house points, but detention for a couple of weeks!"
"Don't worry 'arry." Hagrid said reassuringly. "Only for those involved. By the look of things you and Hermione weren't in that whole mess. Dumbledore's little spell made everyone drop where they stood." Harry and Hermione sighed in relief. "Where's Ron Harry?" Harry kept quiet, knowing what Hagrid would say. "He was part of that mob wasn't he Harry." Harry nodded. "Ahh 'arry, I would have thought you would have kept him back, you being his friend and all." "It's not my fault that he stormed of Hagrid." Harry tried to explain. "He was with Dean and Seamus, I thought he would be alright." "You know what this means don't you Harry." Hermione cut in thankfully, even though she looked a little pale. "What?" Fred said as he and George and Professor McGonagall came to join them. "What means what?" George asked? "Slytherin is going to win the house cup." The boys looked at her blankly. "Well hardly any of them were involved in the fight." "First good thing they done in a couple of years." Harry said gloomily. "Yes it is." McGonagall said. "Now please remove yourselves to your common room so that we can deal with the rest of these students." Harry looked around the Great Hall; there was still the great mess of the mob seemingly untouched in their unconsciousness. The other teachers went around waking up other students like Harry and his friends, the ones who weren't involved. "You are to stay there until I come and speak to the house, classes will be suspended until lunch." "Yes professor." The four said as they ran back up to the common room.
As they entered the fat lady shook her head disapprovingly. "Fighting in the Great Hall! You students just have no respect for each other these days. Why in mfghffmmm." Fred grinned as he closed the portrait door muffling the Fat Lady's voice. "I never really listened to her before, why now?" "How can you make jokes at a time like this?" Hermione said crossly. "Because my girl," George said smiling as he rapped an arm around her shoulder. "What my dear brother is cheered up about is that these are exciting times." "Shut up you fruitcake." She said shrugging her way out of his arm and walking over to a bunch of couches.
The common room was depressingly empty. Unsurprisingly Neville was there to greet them; he also had Ginny in tow. There were only about ten others in the common room. Harry hoped Professor McGonagall found more Gryffindors who weren't involved, he didn't even want to try and count the number of house points they were going to loose. Harry didn't give it much hope though; the ten were mostly first and second years who were probably too intimidated by the whole thing.
The now six strong group of friends sat together and listened as Neville told how he and Ginny had hid under the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Ginny put in now and then how brave Neville had been when he had shielded her with his own body when a spell had exploded on the table next to them. Harry smiled as he saw her give Neville her full attention, big eye's included.
He felt happy that Neville was finally getting some spotlight of his own, and that Ginny was providing it. Hopefully she would forget about her long time crush on Harry, and get on with her life. Great, Harry thought, now if only you could take your own advice and stop thinking about Draco and his funny looks, screw him. NO! Harry blushed despite himself. Luckily no one was paying attention to him.
Hermione was trading whispers with Ginny as Neville told his story again, chest puffed out and all. Fred and George were having their own little discussion which reminded Harry of George's earlier comment. "George," Harry cut in. "What did you mean when you said 'these are exciting times'" The twins lent in towards Harry with large grins across their faces. Everyone else also lent in to hear what they had to say. Hermione even seemed to overlook her irritability.
"You explain it to him George." Fred said "It was your idea after all." "Well not quite mine," George mused. "But I did draw the final conclusions that lead to this proposed scheme." George then looked to Harry again and said. "Harry, if you haven't noticed there was almost a war in the Great Hall about half an hour ago."
Harry couldn't seem to piece the connection between the fight in the Great Hall and what it had to do with 'exciting times'. Sure it meant that there was going to be a whole lot more friction between Slytherin and the other houses, but Dumbledore and the other teachers would be able to handle that. Harry looked over to Hermione who gave him a 'don't look at me' shrug. "Don't worry if at first you don't see it Harry." Fred said patting him on the shoulder. "It took George and me a few minutes to even see the pattern of the riddle, and its solution."
Harry looked at them sceptically. "What riddle?" He finally asked. "Glad you asked Harry," George grinned. "Its not that difficult, which isn't surprising since it's a Death Eater plan." Those two words, Death Eater, doubled everyone's concentration. They crowded round George as he carried on. "Well we can now be certain from this last attack that old He- Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is weeding out weeds in his little circle of cronies." They all nodded. "We also know that Malfoy the younger has denied that he has any involvement with the Death Eaters." "He even said that he hate's You-Know-Who." Fred added. "Yes," George continued. "He also has a few companions who are willing to stand and fight for him when he makes these comments." "While the rest of his house distances themselves from him." Fred added again. "Exactly!" George cried happily. "So therefore Malfoy is helping You-Know- Who by distancing himself from the Dark Lord, gaining the trust of students whose parents are Death Eaters looking to get out." "And WHAM!" Fred bellowed jumping up, causing everyone's life span to shrink a bit. "You-Know-Who gets his information and starts weeding." George said softly.
"That's terrible!" Said Ginny. "That's right Ginny." Fred said a little more soberly. "And that's exactly way we have to counter Malfoy's little plan." George said waving his finger. "This is were it gets exciting Harry." Fred said answering Harry's first question. "Since Malfoy has got his little group of stand strong followers behind him." "Who would do anything to help their leaders cause," Fred cut in again eagerly. "I mean they attacked students in full view of Dumbledore." George gave his twin a dirty look to which he got a toothy smile as apology. "We should counteract this evil company with our own force of light!" George seemed pretty happy with himself with this final statement. As before Harry was as sceptical as that first talk at breakfast. "So what you mean is we form a group of our own and fight Malfoy's plans?" Hermione asked. "Yes." Fred said happily. "We were just thinking about a name for our brave band when Harry asked." Harry chuckled hollowly as he heard himself say. "How bout the 'Gryffindor War Council'." He said half heartedly. He already new that it would be a great name, simple and to the point. No misinterpretations could be gathered from something so direct. It was a name that only great scepticism could have thought up while listening to a similar conversation yesterday.
"That's GREAT Harry!" George cried. "To the point and simple enough for any daft Death Eater wanna be to understand." "And be scared of!" Neville said grinning. It seemed he was warming up to this bravery thing if Ginny came with it, Harry thought.
"As soon as the rest of the house gets back we'll put it to them, I'm sure there will be quite a few who would want to join." Fred said. "We'll have our first meeting tonight, and Harry." Harry looked up as if expecting a punch. "Since the wicked white ferret is leading You-Know-Whose forces, it's only good reasoning that you lead ours." George, Hermione, Neville and Ginny all agreed instantly. Harry just smiled and nodded as fate seemed to sweep him in one direction, while his feelings looked else where.
* * *
It was Friday night in the Slytherin common room and everyone there was trying to relax. Corven was succeeding more than most. He had just finished a five foot essay on an overview of 1312 Troll Wars. He still had about another fifteen feet of essays to write for various subjects, but that could wait, he had the whole weekend to do them. Corven opened a letter that he had received from Mike and settled into his couch. His fellow first years gave him dirty looks; they were only half way through the essay.
As usual Mike wrote about his day, which was Thursday. So far he had kept his promise and written every day, Corven on the other hand hadn't. Mike had noticed this and said so in the letter. He even mentioned that if he didn't get a letter soon he would send a Howler, he had read about them and wasn't scared to use one. Corven would explain and beg forgiveness, in his letter that he was about to write, that the past three days had been somewhat hectic.
First off there had been the initial punishment that the Headmaster had dished out; lots of house points deducted and endless detention. That detention really had been endless. Every nook and cranny around the castle shone. The gardens outside were in immaculate condition, all perfectly cut, trimmed and shaped. Then there had been the triple homework from every teacher. Worst had been Professor Binns, he usually gave a lot of homework and in the last few days he almost seemed to smile.
Then there had been the lectures before every meal about how it was important to stick together as a school, and not let the outside world shape what we do here on the inside. The school was a foundation of the wizarding world and not the other way around.
Counting all those things and you already had a schedule that would cut into your sleep time. But there were more things to do. Like the classes that Draco had insisted on teaching at the end of every day when normal people would be going to bed. They were hard. Way way way, way harder than the simple first year stuff that Corven had mastered, but Draco had told him that he was pleased with the progress that he had achieved.
Then there was also the 'special assignments' that Draco had had him doing. Corven had kind of become a personal assistant to Draco. Corven would never have believed that he would 'lower' himself to such a thing; he being the genius wanted to have the personal assistant. Further more Corven would never ever have believed that he would be enjoying it. Draco seemed to trust him after that whole thing with that potion, and Draco was incredibly powerful, maybe one of the most powerful people in the school. Corven was happy to be Draco's right hand man.
This brought him back to the 'special assignments'. The most important of those was going to happen tonight. Draco had cancelled his classes when he heard that Corven had only been able to organize the meeting at the same time. He had told the 'class' that they were expected to revise and to expect their first test tomorrow. Corven could look around the common room and see his fellow Followers as they thought of themselves now. One or two were reading through their notes while others were idly tracing patterns in the air with their hands. All of them were in some form or another revising.
Corven just hoped that the meeting would go as expected this evening. Draco was to meet with Grant McNeal in an unused class room tonight. Officially they and Grant's brother had been meeting with each other in the Headmaster's office as Dumbledore tried to persuade the remaining McNeals that Draco wasn't involved in their parents' demise. But Draco wanted a more personal meeting with Grant, and Draco had told Corven why.
The whole thing with Mike had come out when Draco had given him that potion that made you tell the truth. Since they were 'similar' Draco had explained under pain of death the situation and what he wanted to happen, then told him to organize. And so he had, that annoying second year Hufflepuff girl had played a key role, and she had done it out of the goodness of her heart. Although Corven suspected otherwise, she was probably using this as an excuse to get close to Grant McNeal, and once he saw that she had been so helpful he would turn to her for other things. Shame.
Corven finished reading Mike's letter and settled down to finally write back to his boyfriend. There, he finally said it, or thought it. Strangely Corven was growing more attached to Mike the more he was away from him. He would put that in the letter too. Mike would like that. Corven smiled as he imagined Mike himself smiling at reading that.
"What's so amusing?" Josh said breaking Corven out of his daydream. "Nothing, just thinking." "You told us to remind you when it was ten o-clock." "Thanks." Corven got up and walked over to Draco. He saw Josh and Edward quickly grab his essay and laughed, this was not the first time. Corven looked at Draco, he looked tired. Corven wondered how he was surviving on one or two hours of sleep a night. After the lessons with his followers Draco stayed in the common room while the rest went of and collapsed into bed. He would sit as he sat now, in front of a portrait listening as it whispered to him.
It was a very freaky portrait. When Corven had first see it there was a man in a black robe holding a dagger in one hand and a wand in the other. He had stood in the middle of a medieval battle with dead and dieing soldiers around him. Now the same man in black sat on a sort of throne. A throne made of the dead soldiers bodies. Right now Draco talked to the man who looked quite relaxed, he was even smiling warmly.
The portrait stopped talking as it saw Corven walking towards Draco and it. Draco turned looking somewhat annoyed, however his face brightened as he saw it was Corven. "Is it time?" Draco asked expectantly. Corven nodded. "Good luck my boy." The portrait said in quiet voice. It would seem that Corven wasn't Draco's only confidant.
Draco got up and squeezed Corven's shoulder. Some of the tiredness had disappeared from his eyes. "I owe you one if this works out." With that Draco walked out the common room at a trot. Corven looked back to the portrait which looked back at him. The portrait smiled at Corven, Corven smiled back at the portrait. Both turned away and Corven walked back to write his letter.
* * *
Draco had to stop and calm himself down as he reached the door to the appointed classroom. He had jogged the whole way, having a burst of energy that he hadn't felt for the whole week. He wiped the slight covering of sweat from his forehead with his sleeve before opening the door. Grant was sitting there at a desk looking expectantly at Draco. Draco gave a week smile and closed the door behind him. He covered hands in his robe to hide their shaking.
"I'm glad you came." Draco finally said. Grant gave him a week smile. He had smudge of mud on his left cheek and his hair looked slightly damp. "Have fun at Quidditch practice?" "It was ok; we're planning on not coming last again this year." Draco's heart seemed to lighten at the slight joke, Grants voice made it magical. More energy seemed to pour into Draco, and a little of his old self awakened. "Weren't you afraid to come here tonight?" It was a comment that usually would be accompanied with a smirk, but this time there was a genuine smile. Those meetings with Dumbledore were paying off. Grant didn't see him as evil monster anymore; they had even nodded to each other in the corridor today.
However Grant's answer dispelled anymore positive thoughts. "I'm not alone Malfoy." That single sentence seemed to drain all newly acquired energy. New tired Draco was back. He took a deep breath and looked around the room. Nothing. "Where?" He asked. "Over here ferret!" Draco spun round and found Ron Weasley and Harry Potter appear out of thin air. "We've found about your little plan ferret. It's not going to work." Weasley stormed up to him and stuck his face in Draco's. Potter was more cautious and stayed in the back ground.
Draco ignored Weasley's bad breath and turned to face the boy he had started to develop a crush for. It must have been the lack of sleep in the last couple of days cause he couldn't read Grant's face. Draco knew what had happened. Potter's little group of good doers had somehow found out about the meeting. They didn't believe that he wasn't in with the Dark Lord. They thought that he was here to harm Grant.
Draco was literally too tired to care at that moment in time. "Why?" was all he said to Grant. "I'll tell you why you git." Weasley fumed again. "We've found out about your plan to ferret out all your master's traitors." Draco spun round in honest surprise at this. Weasley smiled. "That's right, we know. And we're going to stop you right here, right now." Draco looked at Potter, his face was just as intense as his friends.
Something broke in Draco. He came to the realization that the situation was actually very funny. He had been working so hard to get free of Voldemort, and in the end it seemed that everyone thought him to be closer. A broad grin appeared on Draco's face. He turned to Grant. "Is this what you think as well?" "They put it in a very believable way." Draco burst out laughing. This seemed to infuriate Weasley because Draco was suddenly shoved to the ground. Weasley stood over him fists up ready for a fight. Draco just lay on the ground and relaxed still laughing.
"Leave him Ron." Potter said taking his friends arm. "He's gone mad." Ron spat on the floor near to where Draco lay and then left with Potter. What made it worse was the quick look of pity that Potter had given him. It just added fuel to Draco's laugh. "You coming with us McNeal?" Weasley said as he reached the door. "No, I think I can handle him like this." Weasley nodded and was gone.
Draco lay on the floor for a while longer before he could get a hold on himself. His eyes were closed and he wondered if Grant was still in the room. "You look and sound worse than I feel." That voice was magical Draco thought. "The Headmaster told me that you weren't doing so well." Draco shivered as he felt a hand o his forehead. "How much sleep have you had." Sleep! Who had the time, Draco thought. Though right now didn't seem like such a bad idea.
"Hey! I didn't say sleep now." Draco felt a hand shake him, it didn't do much good. "I didn't really believe them Draco." Grants voice was now just above a whisper. "I may be a Hufflepuff, but I'm a popular Hufflepuff. I get looks like yours all the time if I think about it. Just not from boys." There was a long silence before the magic voice came back. "Shit, I don't believe I'm going to do this. Come on Draco, get up, if I leave you here the Gryffindor's will probably kill you." Wouldn't want that, Draco snickered.
It took them a long time, but Draco didn't mind, he was totally oblivious and in all intensive purposes, sleep walking. He leaned heavily on Grant, and as soon as his head touched his pillow he was dead to the world. What a guy, Draco thought, what a buddy to make sure I got to bed.
The End.. For now
Ok if you find any mistakes, tell me. It will only help you. you know what they say, help me help you.