Disclaimer: Obviously Harry Potter is not mine. When it would be I would live in a big house and….
A/N: Hey you like my story. Yippee *dances around in joy* So, I will continue it. Maybe I will even manage it to get every chapter out with a chapter from my other story. And like I know myself the chapters will get bigger every time. Well, enjoy this and don't forget to review. *goes away to begin a new chapter*
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Chapter 2
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With a deep sigh, Harry sat up, carefully freeing his legs from the entangled sheet. He wouldn't find anymore sleep this night. And he didn't want to sleep any more. This dream--or rather the memory--had disturbed him. Why had he remembered it now, after so many years?
His meeting with this stranger had happened when he had been nine years old, more than seven years ago. Even in his dream, he couldn't remember how this man had looked. Maybe he already had met him and just didn't recognize him because he had forgotten how he looked.
"Ahh." Frustrated Harry let his head fall into his hands, moaning loudly. All this thinking in the middle of the night was nothing for him. He needed a long sleep; preferable from the moment he went to bed until he awoke in the morning.
He raised his head and blinked at the magical watch on his bedside table that was formed like a snitch--a present from Ginny to his sixthteenth birthday. The only reason why he kept it was that it was a present from Ginny.
Cruelly in its brightness, the clock showed him the time--four o'clock in the morning.
"Noooo."
Moaning Harry fell back on the bed, into the tempting soft bed sheets, which still held his body warmth. He couldn't believe this.
"What's wrong with me? Go back to sleep Harry Potter and don't think about this dream, memory, whatever."
Just silence answered him. Not that he expected an answer. One reason was that he was the only one in the sleeping room. All his roommates had left to celebrate Christmas at home with their family. And the other reason was--he already knew the answer.
He wouldn't be able to sleep any longer and he wouldn't stop thinking about the dream, so he could as well give it up.
Silent curses on his lips Harry stood up and stretched himself slowly, raising his arms over his head, moaning slightly as stiff muscles protested against the movement. The big mirror standing at the wall opposite of him reflected him in the cruel way every mirror did--showing nothing else than the truth.
Well, not every mirror. Nevertheless, the Mirror of Erised was obviously different, showing the person greatest wish instead of the truth.
Harry felt a slight pain in his heart and shook his head. The time where he had longed to look in the mirror to see, his dead parents again lie in the past.
Slowly he looked at the mirror again. He hated the fact that it stood there so that he had to look at it every morning. However, it had been placed there in order of the Headmaster. Many spells had been cast on the glass, spells that should prevent Voldemort to torture Harry with cruel dreams as he had done in fifth year and the beginning of the sixth.
Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonacall had explained how it worked before they had brought the mirror to his room, but Harry hadn't understood everything of the complicated function of it. For him the only thing important was that he wasn't tortured from any dreams anymore where he had to watch how the Dark Lord killed people. He was very thankful for that.
Harry let out a deep sigh and took a few steps forward until he stood before the mirror. Sceptical he looked at his own reflection staring back at him. His raven-black hair was even more unruly than usual, looking as if it had never seen a brush before, a mass of bangs covering the scar he hated so much. Under the hair, bright green eyes returned his look with dislike, with sleeping bags under them that it looked as if he had two similar bruised eyes.
His eyes were the only thing Harry liked from himself, because every one said they were like his mothers. However, the rest of him….
Harry let out a deep sigh and turned to look at himself from the side. He still was smaller than everybody else in his year was, smaller even than the girls. Nobody made jokes about him because of it, but it still hurt Harry. Sometimes he wondered how he would look if he had been raised by his parents or by any other wizard family instead of the Dursley's. Would he be larger?
Happier he would have been, of that he was sure. Everybody who mustn't live with the Dursleys' would be happier.
Letting out another sigh Harry grimaced at his reflection.
"I really don't know what he sees in you." He mumbled and with a shrug, he made his way into the bathroom.
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"Harry."
Surprised Harry turned around at the shout--and couldn't prevent a silent grown as he noticed Colin Creevey jumping out of the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower. A bright smile was on his face as he ran toward Harry, like always his camera in his hands.
Harry hoped he wouldn't take any more pictures of him. It really annoyed him sometimes to hear the characteristically 'click, click' of the camera when he wanted to be with his friends, or have lunch or--well, let just say that there didn't was a situation that Colin hadn't take a picture from.
Harry hid a smile behind one quickly raised hand. Well, maybe there where one or two situation that Colin hadn't caught with his camera yet. Moreover, Harry would make sure that he never had a chance to.
"Harry, Harry, where are you going?" Gasping for air Colin stopped before Harry, one hand on his heaving chest.
Harry raised one eyebrow. Colin must have heard him using the bathroom and had probably decided to join him wherever he wanted to go, otherwise he wouldn't be awake. Sometimes Harry wondered how far Colin would go with his admiration for him. Would he do everything Harry demanded him to do?
Maybe it had been the same thing for Tom Riddle, before he became Voldemort. Maybe he had somebody who had done everything for him and he had liked it, liked it so much that he had wanted more.
Harry shook his head. Where had these thoughts come from? He didn't want to think about Voldemort.
He turned and resumed his walk. "I couldn't sleep anymore, so I decided to take a walk. However, there is no need for you to be here. Go back to bed."
Colin hurried to walk beside him, shaking his head so that his blond hair flew around. "No, no. I'm not tired. I will accompany you."
From the corner of his eyes Harry saw how Colin hid a wide yawn, but he decided not to mention it. Surely, Colin would soon be bored and would decide to leave Harry.
"Say, Harry." Colin piped up after a few minutes of strolling through the dark corridors of Hogwarts, just barely lit by the light of the full moon shining through the windows.
"Yes?"
"Well, I wanted to know…." Colin nervously pulled at the hem of his shirt. "Do you truly love Draco Malfoy?"
To shocked to say anything Harry stopped and stared at the younger boy. Of the entire question, he had imagined Colin could ask him; this special one was not under them.
"Why……why do you ask me something like this?" He stuttered, feeling a blush covering his face.
Colin stumbled backwards a little, fudging with his camera. Never before had Harry been happier that Filch didn't light the corridors in the night. If there had been enough light he was sure that Colin would take a picture of him. Harry was sure that a picture with the title 'Embarrassed Harry' wasn't in Colin's collection yet.
"I……I just wanted to know, because….." Colin bit his lip, a pure picture of uncertainly if he should continue. After a second then he raised his eyes and looked into Harry's. "Well, all say that you're not really in love with Malfoy and that he doesn't love you either. They say that you two just want to……well…….."
A bright blush appeared on Colin's face and he stared at the ground.
"They say that you two just want somebody for the bed, somebody to have sex with."
Harry would give everything to know whom this 'They' were, however now he was more occupied with hiding his blush. He had knew that everybody in school had been in shock when He had announced that Draco and he were together, but he had never thought that everybody would think this.
Unconsciously his hand gripped onto the necklace around his neck as he continued to stare at Colin.
"Why do you want to know this?" He repeated, keeping his voice emotionless.
Colin kept stuttering, seemingly not feeling fell in his body. "I just wanted to know if it is true. If you would do such a thing."
"What, having sex with another boy just for the fun of it?" Harry couldn't hold back. Why was it so hard to understand for the others that one could fall in love with a former rival? Especially after what happened to Draco just weeks after the summer holidays and where their finally had begun to really know each other.
Why couldn't they understand that Draco and him that they both had found the one their were searching for in each other?
"More having sex with Malfoy without love," Colin said hesitantly, not looking at Harry anymore, instead staring at his shoes. Then he raised pleading eyes at Harry. "And when you really love him, Harry, than…. You should leave him before it is to late."
Harry flinched and took a step back. "What?"
"Harry, he will hurt you. He doesn't love you."
Harry felt how anger rose in him. What was that all about?
He tightened his grip around the necklace. "And how do you know that Malfoy doesn't love me?" He asked in a mock calm voice. In him, he felt like screaming at Colin and something of his anger must be visible in his eyes as the other boy flinched away from him.
"Well, he…he is a Slytherin." Was the slightly trembling answer. "And he is Draco Malfoy. He is not able to love somebody except himself."
Harry closed his eyes. His hand was clenched so tightly around the object on the necklace that it started to bury itself into his palm. He ignored it, wasn't even aware of it. He just tried to keep his anger down.
This all wasn't really Colin's fault, he repeated in his head, however it took him some time before he could open his eyes again to look at the frightened boy.
"I think it is better when you go back to your room, Colin." He managed to say.
Colin nodded and after a pleading look at Harry that he ignored, the fifth year stormed away, down the corridor and back to Gryffindor tower.
When even the sound of the footsteps couldn't be heard anymore, Harry opened his hand and with slow movements he opened the necklace, letting it slide into his awaiting hand.
With burning eyes he stared down at the silver ring lying in his palm, softly shining in the pale moonlight streaming through the a window. It seem to be a plain ring for the eyes of someone who didn't know what he should been looking for, however for Harry it was clearly to see: the image of a proud dragon curling around the silver, artful being enchanted into the metal so that it seemed as if he was swimming through the silver with every movement.
As it noticed his gaze, the dragon opened his mouth and even when Harry couldn't hear its call, he could feel the slight vibration of the ring in his hand.
He loved the ring and the dragon on it. As much as he loved the one who had given it to him.
Harry let out a deep sigh and closed his fingers around the ring.
"As long as I know that you love me I don't need the acceptance of the others for our relationship. They don't know you as I do."
Harry shook his head and slowly continued walking down the corridor. However, he couldn't stop thinking about Colin's comments.
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Harry was the first to arrive to breakfast--well, the first one of the students. He greeted Professor Dumbledore with a tired nod, who smiled at him with twinkling eyes and motioned him to sit beside him on the big table in the middle of the hall. The usual tables from the four houses were gone, even the table for the teachers.
That was something that Harry rather liked about the old Headmaster. Every holiday, when there were just a few students left in the school, he ordered that they all had the meals together at one table. In the holidays there was no rivalry between the houses--or at least while the meals lasted.
"Good morning, Harry. How did you sleep?" Dumbledore asked, stirring his tea with one of the golden spoons.
A sweet and at the same time bitter scent hung in the air. Harry frowned. It smelled strangely like liquorice.
Dumbledore noticed his puzzled look. His smile widened and he held his cup in front of Harry so that he could look into it. The tea was a deep black--and smelled like liquorice.
"I made this tea myself. In addition, I think I never tasted something this good. I have to congratulate myself."
Harry shuddered, but smiled nonetheless. In the fifth and a half-year, he now knew the Headmaster, nothing could surprise him anymore. Well, not nothing.
With a sigh Harry sat himself down beside Dumbledore and immediately a plate full of his favourite breakfast appeared before him, together with a cup of tea. The scent of the tea tickled in his nose and as he leaned forward to take a deeper breath Harry felt how his tiredness disappeared from him.
"So, Harry, what disturbed you that much that you had to wander Hogwarts in the middle of the night?"
Harry's eyes widened in surprise, but just for a second. Then he let out a sigh and leaned back. There was not much that escaped the Headmaster in his school. Surely, he even knew from his talk with Colin.
"I can't really explain it. First, I thought it was a dream, but then I realised that it was a memory from my childhood, when I didn't know anything from Hogwarts or even that something as magic existed at all." He shook his head and stared down at his plate full of food. At his time with his relatives such a plate full of food just for him would have been magic.
"I don't know why I suddenly remember it."
// I promise that I come back to you. I promise……//
Harry flinched. This promise. When he just would be able to remember what he had promised. Somehow, he knew that there had been more than the dream had shown him. Something important.
"Well, because of the mirror we put in your room it just can be a dream from within you. Usually this kind of memories come back to us, years after years, because we saw something that awoke it, without us even knowing it."
Slowly Harry shook his head, trying to remember the last days. He couldn't say that this Christmas had been different from any other on this school. However……
A slight blush darkened his cheeks. Well, there was one change. This was his first Christmas with Draco.
"Whatever it was, when you dream about it again and it disturbs you, you can come to me, Harry. Even in the middle of the night."
Harry nodded thankful and finally started to eat his breakfast. Dumbledore was right. He shouldn't worry about a dream that much. He had better thinks to do in the last remaining school free days.
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Well, no Draco yet. But he will appear in the next chapter, I promise. Until then……Bye
A/N: Hey you like my story. Yippee *dances around in joy* So, I will continue it. Maybe I will even manage it to get every chapter out with a chapter from my other story. And like I know myself the chapters will get bigger every time. Well, enjoy this and don't forget to review. *goes away to begin a new chapter*
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Chapter 2
*********
With a deep sigh, Harry sat up, carefully freeing his legs from the entangled sheet. He wouldn't find anymore sleep this night. And he didn't want to sleep any more. This dream--or rather the memory--had disturbed him. Why had he remembered it now, after so many years?
His meeting with this stranger had happened when he had been nine years old, more than seven years ago. Even in his dream, he couldn't remember how this man had looked. Maybe he already had met him and just didn't recognize him because he had forgotten how he looked.
"Ahh." Frustrated Harry let his head fall into his hands, moaning loudly. All this thinking in the middle of the night was nothing for him. He needed a long sleep; preferable from the moment he went to bed until he awoke in the morning.
He raised his head and blinked at the magical watch on his bedside table that was formed like a snitch--a present from Ginny to his sixthteenth birthday. The only reason why he kept it was that it was a present from Ginny.
Cruelly in its brightness, the clock showed him the time--four o'clock in the morning.
"Noooo."
Moaning Harry fell back on the bed, into the tempting soft bed sheets, which still held his body warmth. He couldn't believe this.
"What's wrong with me? Go back to sleep Harry Potter and don't think about this dream, memory, whatever."
Just silence answered him. Not that he expected an answer. One reason was that he was the only one in the sleeping room. All his roommates had left to celebrate Christmas at home with their family. And the other reason was--he already knew the answer.
He wouldn't be able to sleep any longer and he wouldn't stop thinking about the dream, so he could as well give it up.
Silent curses on his lips Harry stood up and stretched himself slowly, raising his arms over his head, moaning slightly as stiff muscles protested against the movement. The big mirror standing at the wall opposite of him reflected him in the cruel way every mirror did--showing nothing else than the truth.
Well, not every mirror. Nevertheless, the Mirror of Erised was obviously different, showing the person greatest wish instead of the truth.
Harry felt a slight pain in his heart and shook his head. The time where he had longed to look in the mirror to see, his dead parents again lie in the past.
Slowly he looked at the mirror again. He hated the fact that it stood there so that he had to look at it every morning. However, it had been placed there in order of the Headmaster. Many spells had been cast on the glass, spells that should prevent Voldemort to torture Harry with cruel dreams as he had done in fifth year and the beginning of the sixth.
Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonacall had explained how it worked before they had brought the mirror to his room, but Harry hadn't understood everything of the complicated function of it. For him the only thing important was that he wasn't tortured from any dreams anymore where he had to watch how the Dark Lord killed people. He was very thankful for that.
Harry let out a deep sigh and took a few steps forward until he stood before the mirror. Sceptical he looked at his own reflection staring back at him. His raven-black hair was even more unruly than usual, looking as if it had never seen a brush before, a mass of bangs covering the scar he hated so much. Under the hair, bright green eyes returned his look with dislike, with sleeping bags under them that it looked as if he had two similar bruised eyes.
His eyes were the only thing Harry liked from himself, because every one said they were like his mothers. However, the rest of him….
Harry let out a deep sigh and turned to look at himself from the side. He still was smaller than everybody else in his year was, smaller even than the girls. Nobody made jokes about him because of it, but it still hurt Harry. Sometimes he wondered how he would look if he had been raised by his parents or by any other wizard family instead of the Dursley's. Would he be larger?
Happier he would have been, of that he was sure. Everybody who mustn't live with the Dursleys' would be happier.
Letting out another sigh Harry grimaced at his reflection.
"I really don't know what he sees in you." He mumbled and with a shrug, he made his way into the bathroom.
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"Harry."
Surprised Harry turned around at the shout--and couldn't prevent a silent grown as he noticed Colin Creevey jumping out of the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower. A bright smile was on his face as he ran toward Harry, like always his camera in his hands.
Harry hoped he wouldn't take any more pictures of him. It really annoyed him sometimes to hear the characteristically 'click, click' of the camera when he wanted to be with his friends, or have lunch or--well, let just say that there didn't was a situation that Colin hadn't take a picture from.
Harry hid a smile behind one quickly raised hand. Well, maybe there where one or two situation that Colin hadn't caught with his camera yet. Moreover, Harry would make sure that he never had a chance to.
"Harry, Harry, where are you going?" Gasping for air Colin stopped before Harry, one hand on his heaving chest.
Harry raised one eyebrow. Colin must have heard him using the bathroom and had probably decided to join him wherever he wanted to go, otherwise he wouldn't be awake. Sometimes Harry wondered how far Colin would go with his admiration for him. Would he do everything Harry demanded him to do?
Maybe it had been the same thing for Tom Riddle, before he became Voldemort. Maybe he had somebody who had done everything for him and he had liked it, liked it so much that he had wanted more.
Harry shook his head. Where had these thoughts come from? He didn't want to think about Voldemort.
He turned and resumed his walk. "I couldn't sleep anymore, so I decided to take a walk. However, there is no need for you to be here. Go back to bed."
Colin hurried to walk beside him, shaking his head so that his blond hair flew around. "No, no. I'm not tired. I will accompany you."
From the corner of his eyes Harry saw how Colin hid a wide yawn, but he decided not to mention it. Surely, Colin would soon be bored and would decide to leave Harry.
"Say, Harry." Colin piped up after a few minutes of strolling through the dark corridors of Hogwarts, just barely lit by the light of the full moon shining through the windows.
"Yes?"
"Well, I wanted to know…." Colin nervously pulled at the hem of his shirt. "Do you truly love Draco Malfoy?"
To shocked to say anything Harry stopped and stared at the younger boy. Of the entire question, he had imagined Colin could ask him; this special one was not under them.
"Why……why do you ask me something like this?" He stuttered, feeling a blush covering his face.
Colin stumbled backwards a little, fudging with his camera. Never before had Harry been happier that Filch didn't light the corridors in the night. If there had been enough light he was sure that Colin would take a picture of him. Harry was sure that a picture with the title 'Embarrassed Harry' wasn't in Colin's collection yet.
"I……I just wanted to know, because….." Colin bit his lip, a pure picture of uncertainly if he should continue. After a second then he raised his eyes and looked into Harry's. "Well, all say that you're not really in love with Malfoy and that he doesn't love you either. They say that you two just want to……well…….."
A bright blush appeared on Colin's face and he stared at the ground.
"They say that you two just want somebody for the bed, somebody to have sex with."
Harry would give everything to know whom this 'They' were, however now he was more occupied with hiding his blush. He had knew that everybody in school had been in shock when He had announced that Draco and he were together, but he had never thought that everybody would think this.
Unconsciously his hand gripped onto the necklace around his neck as he continued to stare at Colin.
"Why do you want to know this?" He repeated, keeping his voice emotionless.
Colin kept stuttering, seemingly not feeling fell in his body. "I just wanted to know if it is true. If you would do such a thing."
"What, having sex with another boy just for the fun of it?" Harry couldn't hold back. Why was it so hard to understand for the others that one could fall in love with a former rival? Especially after what happened to Draco just weeks after the summer holidays and where their finally had begun to really know each other.
Why couldn't they understand that Draco and him that they both had found the one their were searching for in each other?
"More having sex with Malfoy without love," Colin said hesitantly, not looking at Harry anymore, instead staring at his shoes. Then he raised pleading eyes at Harry. "And when you really love him, Harry, than…. You should leave him before it is to late."
Harry flinched and took a step back. "What?"
"Harry, he will hurt you. He doesn't love you."
Harry felt how anger rose in him. What was that all about?
He tightened his grip around the necklace. "And how do you know that Malfoy doesn't love me?" He asked in a mock calm voice. In him, he felt like screaming at Colin and something of his anger must be visible in his eyes as the other boy flinched away from him.
"Well, he…he is a Slytherin." Was the slightly trembling answer. "And he is Draco Malfoy. He is not able to love somebody except himself."
Harry closed his eyes. His hand was clenched so tightly around the object on the necklace that it started to bury itself into his palm. He ignored it, wasn't even aware of it. He just tried to keep his anger down.
This all wasn't really Colin's fault, he repeated in his head, however it took him some time before he could open his eyes again to look at the frightened boy.
"I think it is better when you go back to your room, Colin." He managed to say.
Colin nodded and after a pleading look at Harry that he ignored, the fifth year stormed away, down the corridor and back to Gryffindor tower.
When even the sound of the footsteps couldn't be heard anymore, Harry opened his hand and with slow movements he opened the necklace, letting it slide into his awaiting hand.
With burning eyes he stared down at the silver ring lying in his palm, softly shining in the pale moonlight streaming through the a window. It seem to be a plain ring for the eyes of someone who didn't know what he should been looking for, however for Harry it was clearly to see: the image of a proud dragon curling around the silver, artful being enchanted into the metal so that it seemed as if he was swimming through the silver with every movement.
As it noticed his gaze, the dragon opened his mouth and even when Harry couldn't hear its call, he could feel the slight vibration of the ring in his hand.
He loved the ring and the dragon on it. As much as he loved the one who had given it to him.
Harry let out a deep sigh and closed his fingers around the ring.
"As long as I know that you love me I don't need the acceptance of the others for our relationship. They don't know you as I do."
Harry shook his head and slowly continued walking down the corridor. However, he couldn't stop thinking about Colin's comments.
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Harry was the first to arrive to breakfast--well, the first one of the students. He greeted Professor Dumbledore with a tired nod, who smiled at him with twinkling eyes and motioned him to sit beside him on the big table in the middle of the hall. The usual tables from the four houses were gone, even the table for the teachers.
That was something that Harry rather liked about the old Headmaster. Every holiday, when there were just a few students left in the school, he ordered that they all had the meals together at one table. In the holidays there was no rivalry between the houses--or at least while the meals lasted.
"Good morning, Harry. How did you sleep?" Dumbledore asked, stirring his tea with one of the golden spoons.
A sweet and at the same time bitter scent hung in the air. Harry frowned. It smelled strangely like liquorice.
Dumbledore noticed his puzzled look. His smile widened and he held his cup in front of Harry so that he could look into it. The tea was a deep black--and smelled like liquorice.
"I made this tea myself. In addition, I think I never tasted something this good. I have to congratulate myself."
Harry shuddered, but smiled nonetheless. In the fifth and a half-year, he now knew the Headmaster, nothing could surprise him anymore. Well, not nothing.
With a sigh Harry sat himself down beside Dumbledore and immediately a plate full of his favourite breakfast appeared before him, together with a cup of tea. The scent of the tea tickled in his nose and as he leaned forward to take a deeper breath Harry felt how his tiredness disappeared from him.
"So, Harry, what disturbed you that much that you had to wander Hogwarts in the middle of the night?"
Harry's eyes widened in surprise, but just for a second. Then he let out a sigh and leaned back. There was not much that escaped the Headmaster in his school. Surely, he even knew from his talk with Colin.
"I can't really explain it. First, I thought it was a dream, but then I realised that it was a memory from my childhood, when I didn't know anything from Hogwarts or even that something as magic existed at all." He shook his head and stared down at his plate full of food. At his time with his relatives such a plate full of food just for him would have been magic.
"I don't know why I suddenly remember it."
// I promise that I come back to you. I promise……//
Harry flinched. This promise. When he just would be able to remember what he had promised. Somehow, he knew that there had been more than the dream had shown him. Something important.
"Well, because of the mirror we put in your room it just can be a dream from within you. Usually this kind of memories come back to us, years after years, because we saw something that awoke it, without us even knowing it."
Slowly Harry shook his head, trying to remember the last days. He couldn't say that this Christmas had been different from any other on this school. However……
A slight blush darkened his cheeks. Well, there was one change. This was his first Christmas with Draco.
"Whatever it was, when you dream about it again and it disturbs you, you can come to me, Harry. Even in the middle of the night."
Harry nodded thankful and finally started to eat his breakfast. Dumbledore was right. He shouldn't worry about a dream that much. He had better thinks to do in the last remaining school free days.
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Well, no Draco yet. But he will appear in the next chapter, I promise. Until then……Bye