Harry ran over to Ron and skidded to a halt next to him, panting to recover his breath. "Hey…Ron…" he said, breathing deeply. "Have…you seen…Lavender?"
"Uh…yeah, yeah I think she just went passed us. You coming to dinner? You'll see her there."
Harry nodded and they walked on into the hall. Harry sat purposely down next to Lavender and smiled at her. She ignored him. "Lavender?" Harry said. "Lav-en-derrr?" he said in a sing song voice. Still she ignored him. "I'm sorry for being an asshole, mate," Harry said in a really stupid obviously-fake low voice. He punched Lavender playfully on the shoulder.
The sides of Lavender's mouth tugged and she laughed. "Don't swear," she said, trying to sound scolding.
"Yes, ma'am!" Harry saluted her and she laughed again.
Hesitating, Lavender stopped laughing and turned to Harry. "Look, she said, I'm sorry for going on at you before. Whatever's going on with you, it really isn't any of my business. Even though I do wish you trusted me more…" she smiled. "I understand. But you do know I'm here for you, right?"
Harry nodded. "Thanks, Lavender." He hugged her and as he did so his head turned towards the Slytherin table. He gasped and stood up at the sight he saw. Time had slowed down. Everyone one of the Slytherins had blood dripping from their mouths. Harry gasped in horror. They looked normal enough other than that; they were all eating and laughing with each other, in slow motion. But the food…they were eating animals…live animals…they were eating live animals like, like barbarians. Harry scanned quickly for Cassandra. She was just the same as everyone else. She was eating a lion. It was a horrible sight; she ripped an ear off and stuffed it into her mouth, laughing as she did so. Then Harry quickly looked for Malfoy, and opened his mouth in surprise. Malfoy was the only one with no blood, no wild animals in his grasp. He looked pretty uncomfortable, and at the same time annoyed, that everyone around him was – different, to him.
"Harry?" Lavender stood up and stared at Harry. She looked over to the Slytherin table and back again. "What is it?" she asked, worried by Harry's horrified expression.
Harry looked at her and blinked. "Huh? What?" he said, having not fully heard what she'd said to him. Harry looked back at the Slytherin table. Things had turned back to normal. Cassandra was just pilling some peas onto her plate, and her mouth was as clean as ever. Just like everyone else's'. But Malfoy looked the same. Still angry, still uncomfortable, still not eating.
"Harry?" Lavender said again. She poked him in the shoulder, bringing him back to reality.
He turned to her. "Did you…" he stopped and looked back to the Slytherin table.
Ron leaned back in his chair to look past Lavender to Harry. "What's going on?" he asked at the looks on his friends faces.
"No idea. Ask him."
Harry frowned. "Nothing. Nothing's going on." Harry then squinted over at Cassandra. Something had just come to him. He looked back at Malfoy. Harry caught him looking over at Cassandra. Cassandra noticed and looked back at him, but Malfoy merely turned away in what appeared to be disgust. Harry closed his eyes and opened them again. Of course – how could he have been so stupid?
"Hello? Planet Hogwarts to Harry?" Ron had stood and he moved his hand up and down in front of Harry's face. Harry walked over to the Slytherin table, ignoring Ron completely, with all thoughts of visions vanished from his mind. He walked over to where Malfoy was sitting. There was an empty space next to him (his bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle, were nowhere to be seen). Harry took in a deep, brave breath and sat down. Almost the entire hall fell silent. What was he doing? A Griffindor at a Slytherin's table? A Potter next to a Malfoy? Ridiculous!
Malfoy looked around and then raised his eyebrows at Harry. "Are you lost, Potter?"
"Ok, shut up Malfoy. You might wanna get something straight before you take all this out of proportion. One, I hate you more than almost anything and everything. And two, no I'm not lost. We…need to talk."
" 'We need to talk' ? Oh no, you're not breaking up with me, are you?"
"Malfoy –"
"'Cause I really couldn't take that kind of heartbreak!"
Malfoy pretended to be sobbing, and a few Slytherins burst out with laughter. Harry rolled his eyes and stood up, grabbing Malfoy by the shoulder and pulling him up with him. "Hey, I haven't finished my dinner!" he complained.
"I don't care, let's go." Harry walked out of the hall, knowing that Malfoy would follow him.
Harry walked up the stairs, along a corridor and into an empty classroom. Malfoy walked inside and Harry shut the door behind him. Malfoy looked around. "Wow – so this is your 'Make-out Room' all the girls are always going on about is it?" He turned and stared at a furious red-eared Harry. "Sorry, Potter, but you really aren't my type."
Harry forced himself to calm down, he wasn't going to let Malfoy get to him – again. He sat down in a chair. "I'm sorry," he said.
Malfoy showed no expression. Potter had never apologised to him before. "For what?" he asked, all sarcasm gone from his tone.
"For not telling you about Cassandra."
Malfoy sat down slowly. "Oh yeah – I was wondering when we'd get round to talking about that."
"That's what you were talking about at the game, wasn't it?"
Draco nodded. "Potter, lemme ask you something –"
Harry nodded, and Draco hesitated, searching for the right words. "What's Dumbledore's plan?"
Harry raised an eyebrow and slowly sat himself down. "What?"
"I happen to be at the very high top of a lot of my classes, Potter. I'd be useful to you."
Harry blinked. "…What?" he asked again.
Draco sighed. "Ok, listen – in all seriousness… I want you to know that I would never ever join the...you-kn...Voldemort," he finished.
"Oh really?" asked Harry sarcastically. "Oh come on, Malfoy - how am I supposed to believe that? You've always loved your daddy and all his friends. Why wouldn't you join..."
"Voldemort killed my mother."
"…Oh." Harry sat in stunned silence. "He killed your mum?" he asked more sympathetically.
"Yeah." Malfoy wasn't avoiding Harry's eyes, he didn't look uncomfortable, he didn't even looked pissed off or upset. He just looked like he always did. Harry realised that he had never been able to tell what Malfoy was feeling very easily. But then again, the longest time Harry had probably ever spent with his enemy was during a Quidditch Match. "Look, Potter, I don't need your sympathy, and I don't need you telling everyone about this, ok? The only people who know are Dumbledore and Snape."
Harry nodded. "Ok. You wanna tell me what happened?"
"Ok, let's get one thing straight here before you get all buddy-buddy on me," Malfoy said standing up. "We are not friends, we never will be friends, and I don't like you. I hate Voldemort and would quite like to get revenge on him for killing my mother just because she didn't want to join the dark side. So yeah, I would like to help you kill the bastard, but other than that, I will try to spend as little time as possible by your side venting about our lost families as if we had something in common." Malfoy moved towards the door.
"We do have something in common," came Harry's voice from behind him.
Malfoy turned. "Yeah? And what would that be, then? We both hate orange hats?"
"Other than that." Harry walked up to his most hated enemy for over six years. His face was so close to Malfoy's that their noses were almost touching. "We both hate Voldemort." Harry turned and walked over to the door. "I'll tell Dumbledore about what you said," he said shortly, before leaving the classroom. Draco felt pissed. Potter had had the last word again. "Dammit. How does he do that?"
Harry hurried along the corridors having no intention on returning to dinner. Having not taken Divination for several years, he wasn't sure whether it would still be in the stuffy almost un-findable room right at the top of Hogwarts. When he got there, he opened the trapdoor and climbed through. He hadn't actually been expecting to find the divination professor there – he thought she'd be down at dinner. All he'd been expecting to find was a few crystal balls he could look into.
"Hello Harry," came the soft voice from Professor Thystle. She was a very young looking witch though from the few times Harry had ever spoken to her or seen her he thought she seemed much older. Wise beyond her years. Her hair was short and black and curved underneath her pierced ears which had a moon dangling from one and a row of stars dangling from the other. Harry had always thought she was extremely weird, but he liked her much more than Professor Trelawney. Thystle was much easier to talk to and she didn't hand out death warnings to you ever five minutes.
"Hi professor," Harry said, stepping into the classroom. "Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you." Thystle was sitting at her desk with seven crystal balls on it surrounding her in a neat semi-circle.
"That's quite alright, Harry," she said kindly, standing up. Harry looked around the classroom. It was the same that it had been last time he was in here three years ago. Although the smell was quite different. Instead of the stuffy smoky smell he remembered, it smelled of lavender incense. Harry turned to Thystle and smiled at her. There was something about her that just made you smile. She was so friendly, so warm and welcoming. "Is there anything I can do for you, Harry?" He opened his mouth to speak but she stopped him. "Or is this just about that vision you just had?"
Harry had given up being astonished when Thystle said things like that. She had been at Hogwarts for three years now, ever since Trelawney had left, and even just walking around corners and bumping into her, she had told him once she was ever so sorry that there was no pumpkin juice left. After several hours of extreme confusion, Harry had arrived at dinner late after a detention with Filch to find that all the pumpkin juice had gone. After many occasions like this, Ron and Hermione had made jokes that Thystle had a soft spot for Harry; she didn't make predictions and apologise in advance to anyone else. Harry had blushed and denied all teases, but he did wonder now why Thystle always told him things about the future but didn't tell anyone else.
"Yeah, it's about the vision," he said, moving around to the edge of a table and sitting on it.
Thystle nodded and sat back down into her chair. "Well, I assume by now you've had that little chat with Master Malfoy." Harry nodded. "You can't decide whether or not to trust him, can you?" Thystle said, sounding understanding. Harry nodded again. Conversations with Thystle usually tended to be one-sided, as she already knew what the other thought anyway. "Well, tell me what you think," she said, offering him the chance to voice what she already knew.
"Well, I do need to trust him really," Harry said, "I mean, I haven't got a choice, have I? He knows a lot of people, he could be really useful, and he told me about his mum which of course could be a lie but for some strange reason I do believe him and…" Harry stopped, realising that everything he was saying wouldn't make any sense to most people. Then, remembering Thystle probably already knew about the plan for Voldemort and the death of Draco's mum, he continued. "And he knows about Cassandra now. Surely if he knew and he wanted to be with Voldemort he would have talked and schemed with her, but I saw him today, and he was looking at her with such a homicidal look in his eyes…I do trust him. I have to."
Thystle smiled and leaned back. "But…"
Harry frowned. "But I hate him," he said. "I hate him so much. I hate him for being spiteful, for being the arrogant, cocky, sarcastic, careless, filthy Malfoy that he is. I hate him for making fun of Ron's…financial situation," Harry said, wanting to put it lightly, "for making fun of his family and his red hair and his freckles which finally he's grown out of." Thystle smiled. "I hate him for calling Hermione a mud blood when she is the best person I know…" Harry stopped, swallowed and corrected himself. "The best person I knew. And the best wizard in our year. I hate him for making fun about me being an orphan when he has no idea how hard it is. And I hate him for hating me when I've given him no reason to."
"Well, maybe you have," Thystle said. She leaned forward and placed her hands on the table. "You say he made no attempt to become friends with you. He offered his hand to you and you refused it because he'd made fun of two of your new friends. Then he vowed a hatred upon you which I believe has lasted for almost seven years now. But you vowed the same thing." She smiled. "First appearances can be deceiving. How much do you know Malfoy?" Harry opened his mouth to speak but Thystle cut him off. "Let me rephrase that. How much do you think you know Malfoy?" Harry was silenced. "After all, you didn't know about the death of his much beloved mother, did you? You don't know how much he cried for her in the long weeks after she'd 'disappeared' and he'd given up hope of her ever coming back, do you? You didn't know he was capable of such love, until you saw him with Cassandra, happy and smiling until she dumped him for you – did you? And you don't know how hard it is for him to be Mr Tough Guy, the most powerful Slytherin here at Hogwarts, whom everyone respects and fears…when all he really wants, is a true friend, who he can trust – do you?"
Harry felt stunned into silence. Slowly, he grinned. "How do you know all this, professor?" he asked.
She smiled and stood up. She held up her hands. "I'm a divination teacher, what do you expect?"
"But how can you know so much about Malfoy when I've obviously only just grazed the surface?" Harry asked.
Thystle came around the edge of her table and leaned against it. "That's because I never let myself become blinded with emotion." She looked down, and back up again. "Now, onto this vision of yours. Tell me exactly what you saw."
Harry described to her his vision in full detail, and when he finished, she nodded wisely. "Yes. Yes, I see. Now, Harry, can you think at all of what this dream might mean?"
"That all Slytherins are barbaric pigs?" he tried.
Thystle smiled. "Close, but no."
Harry sighed and thought about it. "That…Malfoy isn't as bad as the others? As bad as I always thought he was?"
"And?" Thystle asked, prompting him.
Harry frowned, then it came to him. "And that Cassandra's just as bad as I always thought she was."
Thystle smiled, but didn't say anything. "So, do you trust Malfoy more now?"
Harry nodded. "I guess. But professor – why did I have the vision? I'm not a diviner."
"No, no you're not. But everything happens for a reason. You saw that vision because it helps you to see things more clearly. You've been so blinded for years through your hate of Malfoy, that you've never seen him properly." Harry looked confused. Thystle smiled, mockingly at him. "You'll understand next time you see him." She stood and so did Harry. "Thank you for coming, Harry."
"Thanks for all your help," Harry said. He turned and walked out of the classroom without another word.
A/N: Did you like the chapter? DID YOU? I hope so. I liked writing it, anyway! :D so, anyone like Staind? I got their new album it's REALLY good! Listening to it now, yum. Ok, so ignore me…………………….. REVIEW please. I could really do with some to inspire me to write the next chappie. :D *looks round* what? It's not blackmail. Saying you won't write the next chapter till you get reviews ISN'T blackmail :P just a little…um…helpful tip for you to be able to read the next chapter. See? There's a difference isn't there? Do you see the difference? *runs away from angry mob*. ~rowanx