My Beautiful Readers,
Thank-you everyone for the comments on my story so far! The reason I've been updating soooo much is because... err... well: I can't stop writing! Found out, that writing is a definite passion of mine, I absolutely love it. Expect this story to go up to a possible 30plus Chapters! I try to make each chapter at least 1,000 words – and that isn't too hard to achieve. I've been getting some info from my friends on what types of things to write... and that's helped me tons. I have about 1 million ideas fluttering around in my head.... YAA! ON TO THE CHAPTER!
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Chapter 13:: Friends At Last
The news of Harry and Draco spread through the school like wildfire. By Saturday morning, everybody knew. The only people, who were really opposed to the idea, were a few Slytherin's. Everyone seemed to already know the truth. Though it was still a huge shock - they had all seemed to almost get over it over one nights sleep. The other thing that everyone had heard about was the fight that happened between Ron, Hermione, and Melissa. This year, the school was full of scandals.
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Ron sat in the Gryffindor common room alone early on Saturday morning. Hermione had just finished getting ready for the day, and she was on her way down to the same place. When Hermione had reached the entrance to the common room, she saw a shock of red hair and froze.
"... Hermione..." Ron called her name quietly as he sobbed.
Hermione wasn't sure if he was calling to her or not, so she quietly walked towards his chair. When she reached him, she kneeled down beside the armrest. He looked over at her. Tears streaked his face.
"Oh Ron..." Hermione reached over and wiped away his tears.
"Hermione I'm so sorry for last night... I – I don't know what..." Ron started to cry again. Hermione got up, took his hands, and pulled him out of the chair. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Ron put his arms around her waist and hugged her tightly as he sobbed. "I'm so sorry Hermione..." Her cloak muffled his voice.
Hermione pulled back and put her hands on his cheeks. She looked into his eyes, and spoke in a whisper. "Please Ron... Don't cry. It's okay, I forgive you." She kissed his cheek and put her arms around his neck again. "I love you Ronald Weasley." She whispered into his ear.
Ron pulled away from her. "You know that I love you more than anything, right...?" He was still crying.
She smiled and nodded. Ron let out a muffled laugh as he smiled and kissed her. "You have a good right hook 'Moine."
Hermione laughed. "That's what Harry told me when he watched me punch Draco in third year." She smiled, as she walked towards the table to organize the centerpiece. "Go wash your face and we'll go eat breakfast together, okay?" Ron nodded and walked off in the direction of the bathroom. Before he disappeared, he asked one more question.
"This means we're back together... right?"
"Of course it does." Hermione smiled and rushed him off to the washroom. "But it also means that we still have to talk about what happened last night."
"I know..." Ron yelled to her over the running water. "I know..." he said more quietly to himself. He was glad that she was his again, after last night – and what he said... he didn't think that anything he could say would make her talk to him again.
Melissa had been standing at the top of the stairs of the girls' dorm. She heard everything that had happened downstairs. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat as she walked downstairs to greet Hermione.
"Good morning Hermione."
Hermione looked up at Melissa and offered a small smile. "Morning."
"You and Ron are... back together then...?"
Hermione nodded her head. "Yes, it does Melissa. I do not expect that you will further chase him?" She looked at Melissa from the corner of her eye.
Melissa looked down at the wooden chair that she had placed her hands on. "No... I don't suppose I will." She sighed heavily and looked back at Hermione. "Now it's my turn... I need to tell you why it happened."
"I thought you told me everything last night Melissa...?"
"Not everything..."
Hermione stood back and crossed her arms. She looked at Melissa and held her head high. "What is left to tell me then?"
"Umm... the fact that the reason he kissed me was because I cast a spell over him when we were spending those two weeks together. It acts sort of like a love charm. I wanted him to love me instead of you so badly – so I researched a spell and made it to give to him. Even though I knew that the way he felt was fake, I so wanted to kiss him, and have him tell me all the beautiful things he did..." Melissa was looking at her fingers and picking at a piece of loose wood on top of the chair. "I'm sorry for deceiving you," She looked up at Hermione. "Will you accept my apology?"
Hermione unfolded her arms and placed a hand on Melissa's arm. "Of course. But know if you mess with my love life, or any part of my life for that matter – you will suffer the consequences." She squeezed Melissa's arm to make sure Melissa had understood her. Melissa nodded and began to walk back upstairs to change.
Ron came out of the bathroom in time to see Melissa's hair swish behind the wall. "What did she want...?"
"She apologized for casting a spell on you in order to make you have feelings for her. The spell is the reason why you acted the way you did last night." Hermione took the elastic from around her wrist and tied up her hair.
"What?"
"Some sort of love charm... So really, I should be the one apologizing to you. I did break your nose..."
"That's alright – even if I was under a spell, I shouldn't have done what I did."
"You had no control over that Ron, you were being controlled by the spell." Hermione smiled as she walked out of the portrait. "Now lets hurry, people are starting to wake up... Oh! Have you seen Harry since the party?"
"No... well I did hear a rumor that he was holding hands with Draco as he came back into the school last night."
"I heard the same one actually. Do you think it's true?"
"Yeah, the story was the same from every student I saw last night. They can't all be lying. If it is true, then I'm happy for them."
Hermione smiled and slid her arm around Ron's waist and rested her head on his shoulder. "Yes, I hope it's true as well. Harry deserves to be happy for once in his life."
Ron nodded and opened the door to the Hall.
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Draco stirred as the sunlight fell across his face. He woke with a start when he noticed that he was sleeping next to someone. He soon settled when he remembered the night before, and that he was sleeping next to Harry. Draco smiled at the sleeping boy and smoothed his wild hair out of his face. He placed a kiss on Harry's scar and watched as Harry stirred in his sleep, first his eyebrows wrinkled at the touch, but a small smile soon spread across his lips. Draco marveled at Harry. He looked so blissfully happy and angelic when he slept. Draco's stomach suddenly started to become full of butterflies as he looked at Harry. He was suddenly overcome with a complete sense of happiness. Draco tried his very best to suppress the urge to scream aloud in joy.
Harry's eyes slowly opened. He slowly got up on his elbow and looked around the room rubbing his eyes. He wondered why everything was fuzzy. Harry looked around until he met eyes with Draco. A smile spread across his lips. "Good morning."
Draco repositioned himself as Harry lay back down next to him and snuggled against his chest. "Morning."
"Did you sleep well...?"
Draco nodded. "It was the best sleep of my life I would suspect."
"Mine too." Harry smiled and began to play with one of the buttons attached to Draco's shirt. "What time is it?"
Draco shifted slightly and looked at the clock. "10:23am, Saturday morning."
"Oh... Okay...."
"Something's wrong?"
"No, I was just thinking about last night. So many things happened... Are you afraid of what people are going to say when we leave your room?"
Draco remained quiet as he fiddled with the seam on the bottom of Harry's shirt, he didn't answer for a while. "... Yes, but as long as you are there with me – I'll be alright." Harry smiled and moved to give Draco a kiss.
"I'll always be here for you when you need me," He smiled softly as he kissed Draco again. "Always." Draco smiled and rested his head atop Harry's.
"I love you, Harry."
"I love you too."
The boys lay in bed in silence for a long while until they decided that they had better get ready to face the day, and their fellow students. They left Draco's room, dressed casually and holding hands. They walked through the Slytherin common room smiling and laughing – completely ignoring all of the looks they received. The boys walked confidently towards the Hall to have an early lunch, not letting go of each other's hands as they walked. When they reached the hall, Hermione and Ron greeted them.
"Are you both alright?"
Harry smiled and looked up at Draco. "We're alright. You and Ron are alright?"
"Did you two enjoy your evening after the party which is now henceforth been dubbed as 'the night of living hell'?" Ron laughed, and winked at Harry.
"Well... right after the dance wasn't too enjoyable – but after was... alright." Draco smiled and looked down at Harry, he didn't want to share what had happened between them, but somehow – Ron and Hermione already knew. They simply nodded and giggled quietly.
"Join us for lunch?"
"Ahhh... Yes! I'm absolutely famished!" Harry laughed as they entered the Hall.
The conversation over lunch was relaxed. But by the end of it, both couples were engaged in conversation with their mate, and almost completely ignored the couple opposite to them. No one interrupted them, but plenty of people stared. It was only to be expected.
"Hey guy's and gals!!" Elle bounded happily over towards the table they were sitting at. Hermione's face lit up, and she jumped up to hug her.
"Good afternoon Elle! How are you?"
Elle held on to Hermione's hands and smiled happily. "I'm absolutely fantastic!"
"Aren't you always?" Hermione laughed and embraced Elle again with a huge smile on her face.
"What's this all about?" Harry looked at Hermione and Elle with one eyebrow raised. "Why are you two so close all of a sudden...?" The girls turned to look at Harry, and gave him a look that – if it were to be translated, would sound like something along the lines of "Don't you know anything?".
"Oh... well Elle and I have been friends for a lifetime and a half, I met her a long time ago. She lived next door to me until about 2 years before we came to Hogwarts. We've been friends pretty much our whole lives – we just haven't really seen nor spoke to eachother a lot since we've been here this year."
"Yeah! We got into a huge fight over the summer holidays. We met last night by chance and started to speak again... worked things out and I comforted Hermy tons – she was a basket case." Elle smiled down at Ron and winked. Hermione's eyes went wide and her cheeks bright red – she hadn't expected Elle to say that she had been crying about Ron the whole night and into the early morning. So she smiled and sat back down next to Ron.
He looked at her and smiled crookedly from the side of his mouth, a trademark Ron smile. Elle leaned on the table and eyed Draco and Harry.
"So... the rumors are true, ne?"
Draco looked up from Harry's eyes smiling. "What?"
"The rumors, are they true?"
"Err... Yeah." Draco nodded his head and took Harry's hand under the table. Harry looked over at the Hall door. Melissa had come down for lunch.
"Oh no..."
Ron looked up from his lunch at Harry and then towards the door. Melissa began to walk over towards their table and sat next to Harry.
"Morning..."
Ron looked up at her and smiled. "Morning." He had answered before anyone else. Elle looked between Ron and Melissa and smiled.
"Morning sunshine!" Elle winked at Melissa.
Melissa looked at her friend and gave her a huge smile. "Morning moonbeam!" The whole table started to laugh at them. Melissa and Elle sat there with their eyes wide, looking first at eachother then at everyone else.
"What?" They both said in unison.
Hermione stopped laughing and looked over at Melissa and Elle. "Nothing, it's just funny how you two greet eachother – that's all."
"It's not funny... it's normal. Are you saying we're weird because we greet eachother like that?" Elle frowned slightly.
"Of course not Elle! You aren't weird – you're just both... err... different, that's all." Harry smiled.
"I happen to prefer being different, rather than a sheep like the rest of you." Melissa scoffed and looked towards Elle with a private smile across her lips. Elle joined in and emitted a loud "Baaahhh!"
Everyone burst into laughter again. They had all consciously decided to drop what had happened the night before, and decided to simply be friends, it was much easier in the long run than talking about what had happened.
"This is what I'm going to have to put up with if I'm going to be with Harry? Oh God..." Draco moaned and rolled his eyes smiling.
"Of course it is! It'll do you some good – we'll help you wrench that precious stick out of your ass!" Elle laughed. Draco's eyes went wide and the whole table erupted in loud laughter.
"Hey now – leave my boyfriends ass alone, that's mine to tend to." Harry laughed and winked at Draco, this had only added to the already loud laughter.
"What is this? Pick on Malfoy day? Jesus!" Draco said in-between gulps of laughter.
"No, this is initiation into our slightly perverted secret society. I believe that you have just been accepted – don't you think?" Elle looked around at the table and smiled.
"Definitely!" Ron smiled. He looked over at Melissa. "You're welcome to join aswell if you'd like?" Melissa's lips spread into a smile as she nodded.
"Any friend of Harry's is a friend of ours, Draco." Hermione reached over, laid her hand on Draco's, and smiled.
It seemed that the disastrous party had brought everyone together in one fowl swoop. They were an unlikely group of friends, but that only made the mix all the more interesting.
"I'm suppose that you have all sorted out your differences...?" Dumbledore smiled as he approached the table. The 6 people looked around at eachother. None of them were sure what to say.
"It seems so, Headmaster." Hermione offered as she looked at Melissa and smiled. Dumbledore nodded and winked at Hermione as he walked towards the front of the Hall, to take his place among the few other teachers who were already seated there, eating their lunches.