Warning: If you don't know by now that I don't own HP, then you really do have something seriously wrong with you. This fic also contains H/D slash, and references to RL/SS slash. If you don't like slash, then don't read it. That simple. Flames will be used to burn my enemies at the stake
Others: I know that it's been a very, very long time since I've updated, and I'm sorry. With the starting of the IB program I barely have time to myself, so I wasn't able to write. I'll try to have the last chapters of this fic up in the next few weeks. I'll be at tennis camp all next week, so I'll try to write a lot there.
Also: I'm kind of sick of writing this fic (I know, it's awful for me to say), so if the ending is corny and cliché… well… that's just how it's gonna be.
Thank you:
Liz- Oh, I'm glad you like sappy. Trust me, you're going to get a lot of sappiness before this fic is over
Zile- Glad you like the ship! Didn't include it in this chapter though, sorry!
Lizi- Yes, I wish it could happen in the books too. That would make life so much funner and happier
Karmalysis- I'm glad that you loved the last chapter. Now, I know that this one isn't quite as good, but I hope that you enjoy it too!
DarkJade1- Thank you very much for the review, even though it's been a while since I've updated
Lisa Ann- yea , my truest reader! I hope that you can forgive me for not updating in so long. I hope you like this chapter.
Ciceronian- very glad that you liked it, and that you like the R/S Thank you for reviewing
psycho tabby cat- I'm sorry that the last chapter wasn't long enough for you. This chapter isn't that long either, but it's a filler as a transition in-between the next event.
Lastly, a big thank you to my 'gifted' amiga, Micaela for her support and almost weekly reminders that I haven't updated in forever. You've been very helpful with helping me pick songs, and 'other things' for this chapter and the ones to come. Me encanta ti amiga! Ya Ya!!!
Chapter 11: An Understanding between friends
Unlike the previous characters, Draco Malfoy was not encountered by a various older witch or wizard, and was therefore not given a wealth of ancient history. He had stormed from the classroom to the hallways outside the Hufflepuff common room. He paused at a picture and tickled the pear, turning the handle as soon as it appeared. At once, he was greeted by a host of house elves whom were at his feet to do whatever he pleased. He asked for a few butterbeers, and upon better recollection of why he was angry, a bottle of Ogden's Fire Whiskey. The House elves were only too happy to comply with his requests.
After putting his wealth of somewhat and very alcoholic drinks into a basket that the elves supplied, Draco walked out of the kitchens and headed outside. He didn't want to be in the school any longer when it was a decent day outside. Besides, it was better to get wasted where the teachers had a slim chance of finding him. He popped the top off of the first bottle of Butterbeer and downed the entire bottle in under a minute. He threw it aside and flopped onto the ground. Stupid Potter.
Draco was very angry with both Harry and himself. Potter did not have the right to blow up in his face about something that Draco could not control. Draco realized that Harry probably felt horribly about the way he had acted, but that didn't really make his anger ebb away. Draco was angry with himself for letting Potter yell at him and not putting it straight to him earlier. Gryffindors, who needs them?
He grabbed another bottle of Butterbeer, but then chucked it back into the basket. Grabbing the bottle of Fire Whiskey, he pulled off the top and took a swig. As his throat began to burn, he regretted his decision on Whiskey and wished he had thought of Vodka or plain beer. But Fire Whiskey was pumped full of alcohol, so Draco gritted his teeth and took another pull. It wasn't long before Draco was almost totally smashed, as was giggling at the clouds in the sky above.
"Malfoy?" He heard someone say from behind him, and the bottle of Fire Whiskey was snatched away from his hand. "What do you think you are doing?"
Malfoy squinted his eyes against the rays of the setting sun and could make out a blurry tangle of bushy hair.
"Hello Mud- er.. Hermione," he giggled as he found it was funny that he had almost called her a Mudblood. Mudblood, what a funny thought. Someone with mud running through their veins. He laughed even harder. "To what do I owe this visit?" His voice was slurred.
"I'm not stupid Malfoy," she said haughtily. "You're out here getting smashed and Harry's up in his room cussing the life out of both you and Ron. Whatever you fought about, I want you to apologize so that he won't hurt himself!"
"Can't do that Granger." More giggling.
"Why, pray tell, not?"
"I wasn't the one who got angry and started the fight." His laughing became almost hysterical. "He's the one who got angry, yelled at me, and told me to leave him."
"Why?"
Draco slowly sat up from the ground and turned to look Hermione in the eye. Although he was a trifle intoxicated, he could still see that she had a worried look on her face. Ah, how nice it would be to have friends that truly cared about you.
"Well, Granger, it's not really your business why he's angry at me," he gave her a very drunken smile. "But I am easily bribed when I am under the influence of less than savory drinks."
"I'll give you your Whiskey back." She held the bottle in her hand.
"Oh… hmm… well, alright. I," he pointed to himself stupidly and Hermione had to keep herself from snorting, "am a death eater, but not by my choice. Good 'ole Voldy-baby decided that a good round of the Imperious curse was good for me and made me tell him who was closest to Harry." He snorted and chuckled morosely. "You better run Granger, you're one of the first I said." He eyed her hand. "Now I've told you why he was mad at me, I demand that you give me my Whiskey back."
"I lied. First of all, you have no right to have alcohol drinks of this potency on school grounds so I'll have to take 20 points from Slytherin," Hermione said, using her wand to destroy the bottle. "But you've had a rather trying day and unfortunately had a fight with someone who can be a bit dense, so 20 points to Slytherin."
"Whiskey!" Draco demanded.
"No! Now get up and get back into your common room before a professor finds you and you're suspended or expelled." Hermione turned on her heel and stalked back into the school.
Draco blinked at the retreating girl. What a weird one, but then again, she was muggle born. He tried to stand up on his wobbly feet, but only succeeded into falling flat on his ass. He tried again, and began to slowly put one foot in front of the other, stumbling back into the great hall. He made his way down a flight of stairs, falling down a few, and into the Slytherin common room. He winced as he was met with a crash of noise from a group huddled by the announcement board.
"Oh Draky!" He scowled as Pansy Parkinson leeched herself onto his arm. "Isn't it wonderful! Now you can profess your love to me in front of the entire school."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Draco growled at her, rubbing his temples.
"There's going to be a talent show, and since you're so talented, you can sing a love song to me!" Her shrilly voice only added to the head ache that he was beginning to have, and he wanted nothing more but to pull out his wand, say the magic A and K words, and get rid of the pug-faced girl forever. "Please Draco? I know that your father would only approve of it if you confessed to loving me in front of the entire school."
"Parkinson, must I repeat myself everyday? I am not in love with you, nor was I ever, nor will I ever be," Draco snarled.
"Aww, you're tired," she wrinkled her nose. "Draky, have you been drinking again? You reek of alcohol."
Draco sighed and stumbled over to where everyone was reading over the paper their head of house had written.
Attention
By the order of your head master, Hogwarts shall be putting on a talent show. This show is only open to those year four and up and it is required that everyone attends. If interested, sign your name below. I will personally contact you to make sure that your talent is an appropriate one. This paper is a magical contract, so once you sign, you're in unless you're kicked out.
SS
Draco blinked at the paper. He blinked a lot when he was drunk. He had the terrible urge to begin giggling again, but knew that he shouldn't be giggling in a common room filled with other Slytherins. He saw that Pansy had already signed up to sing something, and he winced. He wouldn't wish her voice on anyone. Other members of his house were looking at him expectantly, as if they wanted him to sign the paper.
"Come on Draco, you should sing something," he heard Millicent say from behind him.
"Your Father would probably tell you to do it," he heard Blaise Zambini mutter behind him, and he fixed the boy with a glare.
"Why should I sing?" Draco asked the people who had gathered around him. "How does it benefit me in anyway?"
No one said anything, but all stared at him with a knowing gaze in there eyes. He sighed, perhaps it hadn't been a good time to get smashed. He was known to do weird things while he was drunk, such as telling Pansy she was pretty (in which he knew he probably was hallucinating) or talking to house elves about flowers. He began to turn red as he remembered the truly embarrassing time involving him and a bunch of whipped cream.
He picked up the quill that was sitting next to the board and hastily signed his name and checked the box under singing. He set the quill down and shakily turned back around and pointed his wand at the people looking at him.
"If words of this gets out, I will hex you all to oblivion," he groaned as a new wave of pain hit him in the head. "Come to think of it, if any of you talk to me before the talent show next week, I'll hex you all into slimy pulp and force feed your remains to flobberworms."
Everyone took a step back and cleared a path for the grumpy blond as he began to make his way up to his room. It wouldn't be until morning that he would come to realize what he had done.
"Harry?"
"GET OUT!"
As soon as Hermione had left Draco, she had quickly returned to the tower and to the dormitory for the sixth year boys. Seamus and Dean were sitting outside on the landing playing exploding snap as they tried to ignore the screaming that was coming from inside of their room. Often with the screams, banging was soon to follow. They had looked at Hermione like she was crazy when she explained to them she was going to calm him down. In fact, everyone in Gryffindor Tower who could hear Harry (which was almost everyone) looked at her like she was crazy. They all had assumed that Harry had finally lost it.
She had asked to see if anyone had seen Ron, with whom she was still angry with, but no one had seen him since breakfast in the great hall. She rolled her eyes; he was probably flying it off on the Quidditch pitch. Stupid boy, he had a temper that was too fiery for this day and age.
"Harry, please calm down and listen to me." Hermione's voice was sharp and clear.
"… stupid, red head git…. Could never understand what it's like…. Ferret, shouldn't do stuff like that…" Harry kicked his trunk, which was already battered looking, as where the legs of his bed.
"Harold James Potter!" Hermione rarely raised her voice, but she bellowed across the room to Harry. "You will sit down and calm down or I will force you to do so." She had pulled out her wand and pointed it at him.
He turned and looked at her. He saw her wand and gave her a sneer that gave her the distinct impression of Malfoy. They were already rubbing off on one another.
"I don't want to listen to you, get out of my dormitory." He spat at her. "You couldn't understand."
"Harry, don't make me hurt you."
"You can't hurt me, I'm the perfect Harry Potter, doing that would-"
"Petrificus Totalus," Hermione mutter the incantation and watched as Harry froze and fell backwards on his bed. "Now, you will listen to every word that I have to say and weigh them carefully in your mind. Your boyfriend, for lack of better words, is smashed beyond belief right now. He told me that you yelled at him and not the other way around. He is obviously very hurt and angry at what you said, or else he wouldn't be getting drunk right now. You're very lucky that I found him before he hurt himself." She unfroze him, and he sat up with a scowl on his face.
"Well he was being stupid too," Harry protested. "He basically betrayed me."
"Harry, I am ashamed that you would say something like that about someone who has been put under the Imperious curse. Stop victimizing yourself before it's too late and Malfoy never forgives you."
Harry stared at Hermione for a minute, stunned that she would say something like that. Hermione did not normally get angry and say things in that fashion or nature. Her face had flushed red and her wand was still pointed at him, as if he might try something rash.
He flopped back down on his bed and stared at the canopy. Occasionally he shot a glance at Hermione, who was glowering at him, but then would look out the window or back at his canopy again. It wasn't long at all before they heard the sounds of someone clomping up the stairs, and a flash of red burst into the room.
"Harry! I was hoping that I would find you're here." It was Ron who had burst into the room and stood in the middle of the room.
"Lovely. If you fell off your broom, hit your head, and forgot, you're mad at me Ron," Harry said morosely. "So unless you're here to apologize, get out."
"I'm sorry mate, I was wrong," Ron looked down at his hands as he began to apologize to Harry. "It's not up to me to decide who is okay for you to date. If you want to date the fer- err.. Malfoy, then it's up to you."
"… Okay… apology accepted then," Harry glanced at Ron. "Is there something else, you look like you were sick."
Harry and Hermione both looked at Ron, who looked a bit green. In fact, he looked like a watermelon, green and red. He felt for the edge of his bed and perched himself on the edge of it.
"I just had a nice long talk with Professor Lupin." Ron began, crossing his long legs beneath him. "He hasn't really been himself lately it seems. He's really beat up looking."
"Is he hurt?" Harry questioned, very concerned for the well being of his father's last friend.
"His hand was bandaged and there were cuts and bruises all over his face, and there hasn't been a full moon for almost a month now. He told me that he had been fighting with himself and that's how he was hurt." Ron shuddered. "But that's not the worse of it. I found out the reason why he seems to be aging and pulling away from the world so fast."
Harry and Hermione both leaned towards Ron, eyes open in curiosity.
"Professor Lupin has…umm… well… mated in his werewolf sense, but split with his mate." Ron was rapidly turning greener.
"Well, it all makes sense now." Hermione said somewhat snippily to Ron. "He shows all the classic signs of it."
"Did he tell you what happened?" Harry interrupted Hermione, who was peeved that Ron had not apologized for accusing her and yelling at her.
"He said that his friends couldn't accept it and that they grew apart. His mate never forgave him… that is, until now." Ron's freckles really stood out against the green pallor his skin had turned.
"You know who it is, don't you," Harry asked. "Just please don't tell me who I think it is."
"That over grown bat!" Ron wailed, flopping down on his bed. "I can't believe that Lupin would even look twice at Snape. But he was telling me about it, and Snape was at Grimauld Place and he heard everything. I had to leave before I puked. This is way to weird."
"Well it makes sense." Hermione informed him airily. "They have both always been somewhat of social pariah's for different reasons. Professor Snape always looked at Professor Lupin when he taught here, and it wasn't always a look of hatred." Harry now also looked green, and Ron looked on the edge of dying. "Honestly you two, do you not think that it is up to them to decide who they fall in love with. Harry, is your relationship with Draco any different or forbidden than theirs was?"
Harry arched an eyebrow at the bushy haired girl as she stopped to take a breath and leaned against the pillar on the bed. He knew that she didn't really believe in love, at least that's what she had always told them. But for not believing in something like love, she sure knew a lot about it. He wondered if there was anyone that she secretly pined away for under her somewhat quietness about romance. He glanced at Ron. Well, that would be a lost case.
"Harry?" Her voice was now soft as it probed itself away from his thoughts.
"Professor Snape talked to me today after Draco and I fought." Harry told them. "He said that if Draco and I don't talk or forgive each other soon, we'll end up like he did." He wrinkled his nose. "And no matter how stupid Draco can be, I don't want him to end up like Snape."
"Professor Lupin told me the same thing," Ron told him. "He said that he had listened to his friends and things had ended up horribly for him. I mean, look at the poor guy, he looks like he's wasting away." 'Although that might change now,' Ron thought to himself as he remembered what he had witnessed. He shuddered.
"How?" Harry asked. "How am I supposed to apologize to him? He's going to ignore me if I just walk up to him and say that I'm sorry. He'll want something big an extravagant, the slimy bugger."
"Umm… as much as it pains me to say this, you could apologize in front of everyone at dinner one night," Ron said.
"No! That would be embarrassing. Besides, I don't think he wants everyone to know about it. It has to be big, but discreet at the same time."
They all sat in silence for a few moments, each trying to figure out a way for Harry to apologize to Malfoy. They shot down a gift basket of sweets, seeing to how he normally got them from his mother, and they shot down gifts of any kind because then Malfoy would think that Harry was trying to buy his forgiveness. That didn't leave much, even Ron's suggestion of a Howler that screamed "I'm sorry, I love you" was a bit too much.
They had been sitting there for a good ten minutes when Hermione got the familiar gleam in her eyes.
"Harry, do you like to sing?" She asked him, a somewhat vicious gleam on her face.
"Umm… yeah I guess. I like playing the piano better," Harry said.
"I didn't know that you played the piano mate," Ron said.
"Mrs. Figg would teach me whenever I was at her house. The Dursley's went to Majorca for a month this summer and I spent the time with her learning to play the piano. I've been practicing in the Room of Requirement whenever I have the chance." His friends looked at him strangely. "What?"
"Nothing, I just didn't picture you as musically inclined Harry," Hermione told him. "Not that you wouldn't be good. It's just somewhat of a surprise." He looked at her, as if waiting for her to go on, and she remembered she had brought it up in the first place. "Oh! Well, I was reading the announcement board this morning-"
"Surprise, surprise," Ron muttered under his breath, causing Harry to smile.
"- and I saw that there is going to be a talent show next week. You could always sing or act something out for him."
"Are you daft?" Ron burst out laughing. "Harry? Singing in front of the entire school?" Ron laughed even harder, while Hermione pursed her lips. "C'mon Harry mate, you should do it! It would be hilarious!"
"Well, I think it's a good idea," Hermione said snippily.
"I do too Hermione." Harry said quietly.
Ron stopped laughing and sat up to stare at his two best friends.
"You both are mad! Absolutely barking mad!" He stated, his eyebrows arched with disbelief. "Even if you do sing in the talent show, how do you know he'll even be there to watch it. How will you find a song that fits?"
"Because everyone's required to attend," Hermione told him. "And if Harry's been playing the piano for this long, I'm sure he can find something that he can play and sing."
"Well, I'm not really that good at singing, but I guess I can give it a shot," Harry mumbled. "If I have the sheet music for it, it won't be a problem."
"How are you going to get sheet music? There isn't a Hogsmead weekend until after the talent show and there's no way you can send out for sheet music and find the right song and learn it in time."
"Stop being a pessimist Ronald," Hermione snapped, annoyed with the red headed boy. "You're overlooking the easiest answer." Harry and Ron both looked at her as if they had no clue what she was talking about. She sighed. "The room of requirement. It could have countless pieces of music for Harry to choose from."
"Good idea Hermione."
Harry stood up from where he was sitting and moved towards the door, Ron and Hermione following him. He opened it and walked out onto the landing, Seamus and Dean ogling him warily, and down the stairs. The people in the tower turned to stare at him, those who had heard him screaming anyway, as he made his way over to the announcement board. He saw a few names had already been signed underneath, including Ginny, the Creevey's (he shuddered), and a duet from Lavender and Parvati. Picking up the quill, he quickly signed his name. The then turned on his heel and, with the other two members of the Golden Trio following, exited the common room and headed for the room of requirement.
TBC….
Okay, not exactly a cliff hanger. You guys will have to hang on until I get back from tennis camp and then I PROMISE that I'll update this. So… you guys can do your part by hitting the pretty button that says 'Go' and review. Also, this fic hasn't been beta'd yet because I wanted it up before I left for camp, so forgive any mistakes until then.