Harry opened the door to see a nervous Hermione.
¡°Hey, what¡¯s wrong?¡±
Hermione darted her eyes around and put on a weary smile.
¡°Can I come in?¡±
¡°Sure.¡±
She walked in slowly, with her tired shoulders slumped down as she took her seat on the couch.
¡°Harry, you know I wouldn¡¯t ask you for help unless it was really important right?¡±
¡°Uh oh, what now?¡±
¡°What do you mean what now? Make it sound like I do this all the time.¡±
¡°Hey, no point in getting angry at me, you¡¯re the one here for help.¡±
¡°Right anyways, well, I might as well tell you straight out. Draco¡¦¡±
¡°What the hell did he do now?!¡±
¡°Harry, you don¡¯t have to get so worked up! Now just take a seat in listen for a moment ok?¡±
¡°Fine. Now, tell me.¡±
¡°Well, I know I didn¡¯t have much of a chance to tell you yet, but I was hoping that Ron would tell you that¡¦¡±
¡°Draco is living the muggle world and is going to your school.¡±
¡°Well, I guess he did. Anyhow, Draco was having big time problems with Lucius and left. Trouble brewed so Lucius took anger out on me and Rory¡¦¡±
¡°WHAT?!¡±
¡°Harry, please, will you calm down? Let¡¯s just say I am fine now, and so is my cousin Rory. But Lucius is still out there and I¡¯m worried about what he is going to do next. No point in just be a sitting duck right?¡±
¡°And that¡¯s why you need my help?¡±
¡°Well, yes¡¦¡±
Harry sighed.
¡°Hermione, you know you are one of my oldest and best friends in the world. I would do everything to help you. But Draco?¡±
¡°Look Harry, if you don¡¯t help Draco, you might as well kiss my life goodbye too.¡±
¡°Then get out of his life.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t abandon a friend like that!¡±
¡°Since when did he become your friend?!¡±
¡°Since we had a truce. Look Harry, I wouldn¡¯t have come here unless I really needed the help.¡±
¡°I know that. But do you really think I can put seven years of hell behind just because you befriended him?¡±
¡°People change. Draco changed. And he deserves another chance. If he were anyone else, you would have given him a chance.¡±
¡°But he¡¯s Draco.¡±
Hermione was getting tired of this argument. And it was slowing her down tremendously.
¡°Fine then, be a cynical boy and don¡¯t help your best friend out when she most needs you!¡±
¡°But what does this have to do with you?¡±
¡°Weren¡¯t you listening? Lucius took out his anger out on me, not Draco. He took the closest thing Draco had to a friend and tortured her and her cousin in a cell for a whole day. If a man is willing to do that to me, can you imagine what he will do to his son? Have you no heart?!¡±
With such a dilemma at hand, Harry¡¯s head was spinning. To help his worst enemy, to ignore all those years of teasing and fighting. But this was his best friend in need of help. And if she were in the same position he was in, she wouldn¡¯t have had a second thought.
¡°Are you going to ask Ron?¡±
¡°He¡¯s next.¡±
¡°You¡¯re going to need reinforcements.¡±
¡°Is that a yes?!¡±
¡°I guess.¡±
She flung her arms around his neck.
¡°Thank you thank you thank you!!!¡±
¡°Gerroff Hermione, your gonna snap my neck off!¡±
*~*~*
Hermione got Anne and Jessica before getting to Ron. Harry talked it over with Jessica. Of course, since she attended Starlington, she didn¡¯t know anything about Draco, but did know the vicious Malfoy name. Anne was a different story. It took a good thirty minutes to calm her down. Anne had this tendency to get to this motherly role and check up on everyone as though she were his or her mother.
So there they were, all for of them, getting ready to calm down Ron. Anne knocked on the door. Ron opened and widened his eyes. But out of nowhere, he shut them for a long pause and nodded his head.
¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡±
Hermione gave him a questionable look.
¡°What?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll help with the damn Malfoy shit.¡±
¡°Wait how did you¡¦¡±
¡°I knew four hours ago when you went to Harry¡¯s house. He forgot about me again. I was in the floo network. And you were right, I blew a fuse.¡±
¡°And you changed your mind because¡¦¡±
¡°Your one of my best friends Herm, and if this was vice versa, you would have done it for me.¡±
¡°Wow, I was preparing for this too, and nothing.¡±
¡°So when do we leave?¡±
¡°Oh, we should leave now. I¡¯ll tell you everything when we get there.¡±
And with five simultaneous pops, they were gone.
*~*~*
Draco was slowly mapping out a plan with Tristan in the living room while Rory was still silently sleeping in the room.
¡°So, we need to remove the both of you because neither of you have magic and can¡¯t really defend yourself.¡±
¡°Hey, I can defend myself just fine.¡±
¡°Not against magic you can¡¯t you know it. Now, Lucius is probably planning something out too, but it won¡¯t be too big because he can¡¯t risk getting caught himself. Now¡¦¡±
There came a sudden noise of a loud pop, and Hermione, Harry, Ron, Anne, and Jessica appeared. Tristan jumped up from the sudden appearance.
¡°Who are you?¡±
Draco got up slowly and looked directly into the eyes of his enemy, or the golden trio of Hogwarts. Who knew that a few days could change everything? The other two, he recognized as his cousin, Anne Black, whom he had never gotten along with at all, and the very well publicized Jessica Neely, Scar-heads girlfriend.
¡°No point in wasting time. We need to get Hermione and my muggle cousins somewhere safe and go from there.¡±
Ron was as red as a tomato. Here he was, the enemy that tormented him, and he was to help him.
Harry was a different story. He had learned long ago that people do change, even the most unlikely. And he knew that deep down, if Malfoy did hate him that much, Harry would have been dead long ago.
But Ron wasn¡¯t going to be bossed around in the least bit.
¡°Hey, we didn¡¯t come all the way here to take orders from a jackass like you alright. We are here for Hermione only, get it straight, do don¡¯t you dare even try to boss us around.¡±
Hermione glared towards Ron direction and nearly slapped him.
¡°RON!¡±
Tristan, watching from the side, could figure everything out. He knew Anne from the massive family portrait Draco had once shown him. And he was able to pinpoint Harry from the distinctive scar that lied on his forehead. Ron¡¯s red hair gave him away. He knew Draco hated them, and that they hated him. He felt like injecting a word before anything else was to happen.
¡°Hey, I would love to listen to this all day, but right now, we are all still sitting ducks and Lucius and show up at any given time. I say we take care of Rory.¡±
Tristan pointed towards Rory¡¯s directions and walked into the room, hoping that the argument was to end soon. He didn¡¯t know how much longer it would be before Lucius would strike again.
Draco sighed and put out his hand to Ron. Ron looked at it in disgust.
¡°Look Weasley, I don¡¯t want to do this just as much as you want to help me ok? But we have no choice and too bad for you, Hermione is in danger too ok? So let¡¯s just have a truce, at least until we get out of this crap alright?¡±
Ron stiffened, and looked like all he wanted to do was sock Draco. But Anne calmly took his hand and kissed his cheek slowly.
¡°Do it for me too.¡±
Ron¡¯s heart gave out and he smiled a little, whispering back to her.
¡°For you.¡±
He took Draco¡¯s hand and shook it. As Draco turned to Harry, Harry offered his hand first.
¡°Truce.¡±
Draco let out a sigh of relief and took his hand.
¡°Truce.¡±