Mella deRanged - his change in temperament and maturity will be explained soon, as well as Hermione's.
Isabella Grace - He who has the password can enter - canon stuff -
and as far at the slight at the engagement ring ... I think you are right. that might explain his hard time with Luna ... but I haven't gotten that far yet ...shhhh.
Kris-tina4, and MarMar2, and Twigs, and emerald girl- thank you!
Weatherbee - Percy, you prat ... is that you! Kidding. Yes the appointment might cause a stir. I'm only on the fourth day of school, give me a chance. I'll go back and take a look at the Defense lesson with Dumbledore and reanalyze it. I basically said what I wanted to say, but it might need more, Thanks.
Lightingbult sorry about the misspelling ... oops did it again. I'm writing all freakin' day ... give me a break!
Chapter 14
Harry strode back from his Transfiguration lesson with Professor McGonagall with almost a skip in his step. The lesson had gone particularly well which resulted in skipping this day's homework which would have been more practice with minute detailed changes of color and textures of transfigured inanimate objects. It sounded harder than it actually turned out to be.
"Tangled tentacles."
The Fat Lady smiled, "How goes the new teaching job, young Potter?"
"Good thanks."
He stepped into the Gryffindor common room and spotted Ron and Hermione in front of the fire in their favorite armchairs; Hermione studying and Ron looking far off as if he was in a daze until he spotted Harry.
"Harry!"
Hermione lowered her book and turned in her chair to see her boyfriend approaching, "Hi Harry. Lesson go well?"
He nodded, "Nailed it on the first try! McGonagall was speechless. Don't get see that too often."
He sat down on the couch, in between the two chairs and Hermione joined him, snuggling up against him. Ron turned and laid crossways in the chair to face them, hanging his excessively-long legs over the arm.
"So how are things with Luna" Harry asked.
Ron rolled his eyes and covered his face.
"Ron has a new girlfriend," Hermione said matter-of-factly. Then she giggled just to torture him.
"I don't want to talk about it."
Harry quickly changed the subject, "Have either of you seen Malfoy since Defense class?"
They thought about it briefly and shook their heads.
"Come to think of it I didn't see him at lunch," Hermione mentioned.
"No, he wasn't there, I checked," Harry confirmed.
Ron sat up, "You think he's up to something, don't you?"
Harry shrugged, "Dunno."
Hermione shook her head again, "You think maybe he sees that Harry isn't going to take points away just to be mean and now he has a newfound respect for him?"
She thought on it for a half-second, "No, that too much of a stretch even for me."
Harry looked at his watch, "Well dinner is in fifteen minutes. I'd doubt he'd miss more than one meal. If something is going on it would be too suspicious to go missing for too long."
Ron jumped up and ran toward the dormitory stairs, "Be right back."
The couple shared a quick kiss or two when they were sure nobody was looking, displays of public affection and all. As a prefect, Hermione still had to put on proper airs.
A couple of minutes later they heard the clomping of feet running back down the staircase. Harry almost laughed out loud until Hermione pinched his arm.
"You look very nice, Ron," she commented.
His hair was freshly combed and he was obviously wearing new robes.
He paused as if trying to think of a reason for the change, "Oh, um ... I spilled some ink on my other robes and wanted to change before dinner. Let's go."
Harry didn't believe a word of it, mainly because it was obviously these robes he spilled something on; trailing behind Ron, he almost choked on the smell of really bad cologne.
"Don't say a word," chided Hermione under her breath.
Harry leaned in, "But he stinks. I'm not sitting next to him if he's gonna smell like that."
Ron was first through the portrait hole, "He's going to make an excuse and go on a evening picnic with Luna."
"You're joking!" he almost yelled.
"No, I overheard them talking in the hallway earlier."
"You guys comin' or what?" called Ron.
********************
Ron kept glancing over his shoulder to Harry annoyance. So he decided to tease him a bit.
"Ron, is something wrong?"
The red-head's eyes shifted alarmingly back to Harry, "Um .. no. What makes you say somethin's wrong?"
Harry pointed at Ron's plate, "Well for starters you haven't eaten anything. That in itself is cause to send you to the hospital wing."
Ron frowned and took a small bite of mincemeat pie. He winced. It was the most pathetic acting job in his life. He was always a bad liar, "Yunno, I do feel a bit squeamish at the moment. I'll think I'll go out and get some fresh air."
"You do that," Harry shook his head.
Ron was off and it was generally felt that he didn't hear a word Harry said.
"I think it's cute."
Harry smirked, "I think it's not ... hey look."
He pointed with his fork at the sullen figure of Draco Malfoy entering the Great Hall and they watched as he walked to the head of the Slytherin table taking an arbitrary glass that belonged to a first-year and filling it full of pumpkin juice only to drain the entire contents seconds later.
He filled the glass once more and sipped at it this time looking around the Hall, first at the head table and then back along Gryffindor table until he reached the eyes of Harry and Hermione.
Their eyes locked and he pulled the glass away and set it down abruptly. Malfoy was the first to break contact and twist his neck to the side as if to work out some unseen tension. Then for the second time that day he did something that Harry wasn't expecting ... he walked over to Gryffindor table.
Harry looked at his girlfriend to see if she had any insight, she just shrugged her shoulders.
The Gryffindor students quieted down a bit when they saw the bane of the house approach their newest assistant professor and stand there looking as if he was about to toss his lunch.
"May I speak to you outside, Pott ..., " he shook his head, " Harry."
Harry was stunned as were the nearby Gryffindors, "Um ... sure, I guess."
He made it a point to look at Hermione before he got up. She gave him a look of warning and Harry gripped her leg underneath the table in reassurance, "Be right back."
Malfoy led the way out of the Great Hall. Harry took a moment to make sure Professor Dumbledore saw that he was going, if nothing more than to have an official witness to him leaving with Malfoy just in case his motives were something more on the evil side.
Dumbledore raised his goblet in a small toast and Harry nodded back in response.
They exited to the front grounds and stopped short in front of the school. Harry had his arms crossed, fingering his wand as he checked from side to side.
"What's this about, Malfoy?"
Draco Malfoy turned and held his hands to the side so that Harry could see he was wandless, "It's about what happened this summer, Pott ...," he shook his head again, "Harry."
He smiled a bit, "Old habits do die hard."
Harry was thoroughly confused.
"When your band of D.A.'s and Dumbledore arrested my father and many of the other Death Eaters, I found out something when I returned home."
Harry was curious but still nervous about a trap that Malfoy might be setting, "What?"
He watched as the blonde-haired Slytherin shuffled back and forth nervously and obviously hating what he was doing.
"I returned home to find my mother in a very bad state."
Harry didn't want to say anything.
"She spent the following two weeks after my father had been arrested at St. Mungo's."
Harry's curiosity had gotten the best of him, "What happened?"
Malfoy looked up, annoyed, "I'm coming to that."
"Sorry."
"After she was released she came back home and told me what she had gone through for the last five years." He looked down and back up at Harry with a resolute look on his face, "My father has had her under the Imperious Curse."
Harry almost stepped back in horror, but held his ground.
"I am telling you this because I want an understanding between the two of us and also you have Dumbledore's ear." He took a deep breath, "I love my mother, Potter ... DAMMIT, "he stomped his foot in frustration, " ... Harry. I love her and what my father has done is inexcusable.
"She found out that he was in league with the Dark Lord and she didn't want me involved. He saw things differently."
Harry relaxed his posture and dropped his arms. "I'm sorry about your mother, but why are you telling me, of all people, something so personal," he said as politely as possible seeing as how it was obviously affecting Malfoy.
"Because I'm out of it," he snapped, "I'm out of their silly game of controlling the world. I will never be a Death Eater knowing what my father has done to my mother."
He moved over to one of the numerous wooden benches that trailed up and down the cobblestone walkway and sat down. "I want to be left alone. I want my mother to be left alone. In turn I won't bother you or your friends and I'll make sure that Slytherin house doesn't bother Gryffindor as long as I'm still at Hogwarts."
Harry looked him up and down, not knowing whether or not to trust a word he had said. then he remembered the daily owls that Malfoy has received from his mother with sweets and cakes and anything he wants. He knew how she doted on her son.
But he also remembered the threats from the end of last term, "Perhaps you should talk to Dumbledore."
Malfoy was short-tempered, "I don't want to talk to Dumbledore. I'm have a bad enough time of it talking to you. I don't need looking down upon."
Harry shored up his face, "Actually I was speaking of any information you could give him about the workings of the Death Eaters and the whereabouts of Voldemort."
He saw Malfoy flinch slightly at the Dark Lord's name.
Malfoy stood up, "I don't know anything useful. I'm not a Death Eater; I wasn't privileged to know anything yet. I just want to be left alone. Is that so hard to understand."
Actually Harry understood better than anyone in existence about wanting to be left alone.
"No ... not hard."
He thought on it for a moment, "Look, I'll talk to Dumbledore and let him know. I'm sure he already knows about your mother anyway; he knows about everything else that ever happens, then we'll see, okay?"
Malfoy rose from the bench and stood before Harry, "I don't want to join your little band of do-gooders. I don't want to be friends, and I don't want to be involved with the Dark Lord in any way. I still don't like you. I just want to make that clear. Do we have an agreement?"
Harry nodded, "For now."