Kylia: Thank you to all those people who have reviewed!! (claps hands together and bows to audience) You guys to totally ROCK!........ Special thanx to SilverxSerpent, girl you rock even more!!.......PS: love your stories!! Okay, so now I'm done and on with the next chapter.

'Cole,

We've decided to stay at Hogwarts for a while longer, and we don't really know when we'll be back. As always, you have free reign of my house – just don't go into my bedroom. I'm sure you'd know about the protection spells around my house, but even still - watch it for me.

Thanks, and talk later.

-Harry'

Draco watched as Harry sealed the envelope and whistled for a owl to come down from the rafters, where he attached the small piece of parchment to the birds leg and told it where to fly. Draco smiled, watching Harry scratch the bird's feathers and coo at it. He was always so kind towards animals, though he seemed to have a special soft spot for owls. Absently, the blond man wondered where Harry's snowy owl had gone, as he hadn't seen the bird at all.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?" Harry answered as he turned and walked back to where Draco was standing by the door, his arms folded across his chest.

"What happened to that owl that you used to have?" Draco asked as they began to make their way down from the Owlery, "I haven't seen it anywhere."

Harry sighed, "Her name was Hedwig, and she's gone," before Draco could ask where, though he had a pretty good idea, Harry added in a sad tone, "she died in the war."

"...Oh. I'm sorry."

Harry wrapped his arm around Draco's shoulders and kissed his cheek. "Don't be. It wasn't your fault that she died."

Draco smiled in return, wrapping his own arm around Harry's waist, resting his head on Harry's shoulder. "What did you and Remus talk about when you asked me to leave?"

"Sirius." Harry rounded the corner, ignoring the looks he and Draco received from some of the students. "He was your cousin you know."

"What?" Draco stopped abruptly and turned to look at Harry. "He was not my cousin, I would have known about that."

"Your mother was Narcissa Black right?"

"...Yes."

Harry smiled. "Draco, Sirius Black was your mother's cousin. Everyone in his family is interconnected somehow." Harry suddenly frowned upon coming to that conclusion. "So that makes us..."

"Not related. We are NOT related. Don't even go there." Draco snapped back at Harry quickly before Harry could finish his sentence. "Besides, he's my cousin by blood - he's just your godfather, no blood relations. That makes us nothing more than lovers."

"True..." Harry grabbed Draco's hand and began to walk again in the direction of the Great Hall. "I'm hungry."

Rolling his eyes, Draco followed Harry down the hall. "You're always hungry, Harry."

"Well after what went on in the classroom..." he replied wincing at the memory of being slammed into the desk. That bruise across his hips was not going to go away for at least a few weeks.

As if Draco had picked up on his thought, the blond asked, "Did I hurt you that bad?" tugging on Harry's hand to get him to stop walking.

Harry nodded and pulled his hand from Draco, hooking his thumbs into the waist band of his jeans, pulling them down to show the long horizontal bruise that ran from hip to hip, and two separate bruises that were darker in color just above the longer one. The two separate bruises were the size of Draco's hands and on each hipbone. Harry winced again when Draco reached out and touched one tentatively.

"Wow... I'm so sorry..." Draco bit down on his lips, trying to hide his smile.

"My ass is sorry." Harry narrowed his eyes, pulling his pants back up again to cover the scars.

Draco giggled slightly before biting down on his lips again. "Well... for being small I'm quite powerful."

"Uh-huh." Harry rolled his eyes and resumed his walk towards the Great

Hall. "I won't be the only one with bruises by the time we get home..."

"What was that?"

"Noothingg..." Harry smiled as he called back over his shoulder. "Hurry up! I'm hungry!"

Upon entering the hall, Harry and Draco were met with a number of stares from the students; some admiring, some forlorn, and some disgusted. Draco's gaze fell on the girl from a few days ago, and he found himself glaring at her while sneering. Harry didn't notice a thing as he led Draco by the hand towards the teacher's table.

Hermione had saved them a place between herself and Remus, both of them looking extremely happy about something. Harry took the chair next to Remus, forcing Draco down into his seat next to Hermione, an act that Harry knew Draco detested. Hermione too for that matter.

Shrugging at the long rivals, Harry turned to Remus and spoke as he reached for his glass of wine, secretly pleased that he could drink in front of the students, "How are you?"

"Oh I'm fine, thank-you. And yourself?" Remus glanced up from his vegetables and smiled briefly before looking back down.

"Fine... I've decided to stay a while."

"Oh! That's wonderful!" Remus looked up at Harry. "Will you be staying at the school then?"

"No, I was planning on moving over to Hogsmeade." Harry smiled as he took another sip of his wine. "It's a lot more private, I don't like having little children running around and staring at me all the time. It's un-nerving."

"You're only in most cases, a few years their elder, Harry."

Harry paused. "Yeah... Right. But still... I hate it when people stare at Draco and myself all the time."

"Yes, well-"

"So why didn't you die? You should, rightfully, be dead." Draco sneered as he looked over at Hermione.

Hermione took a deep breath and sneered right back. "Well, I'm sorry to remain alive and ruin your perfect world, Draco."

Harry rolled his eyes and smacked Draco's arm. "Stop being a prat, Draco."

"Well I'm sorry, she brings it out in me..."

"I do not! You bring it out all by yourself, you don't need any help being rude from me." Hermione huffed as she speared her meat with her fork glaring over at Draco.

Draco eyed her meat and narrowed his eyes. "I'm not rude, you're just insignificant."

"Why thank-you, Draco, we're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view." Remus scowled at Draco and Harry seconded his opinion.

"Just shut-up Draco. It's the least you can do."

"Augh... fine. Whatever. I hate Hogwarts." Draco scowled as he began to cut his meat rather violently.

Hermione stared at the man beside her before leaning over and looking at Harry, a look of 'what-were-you-thinking' written on her face. "Tell me again why you fell for this miserable excuse for a wizard who dare call himself a man?"

Harry fought down the sudden urge to slap Hermione, and settled for, "You obviously do not know him, Hermione. You don't know anything about love, it seems, because you're emotionally dead."

Hermione's eyes went wide, though thankfully, she didn't get teary-eyed and start to sob at the insult. Instead, she glared right back at Harry and replied, "Emotionally dead? Oh that's rich coming from someone who fell in love with the first person to come along whom had a prick! Honestly Harry, a Malfoy?!"

Her voice rose to the point where Remus was waving a hand at her to try and make her lower her voice. She ignored him.

"Excuse me," Draco interrupted, pointing his knife in Hermione's direction, "while I enjoy the fact that Harry is royally pissed off at you," he paused to smile satisfactorily to himself before continuing, "you are NOT allowed to insult him like that. At least he fell for someone who had a brain, unlike you and your Weasel boy."

Harry abruptly stood, shoving his chair back with such force that it made the people within a ten foot radius jump at the sound. Glaring at both Hermione and, more pointedly, at Draco, Harry snarled, "Do not ever dare to speak ill of the dead in my presence." and with that, he stormed out of the Great Hall.

Draco stared after Harry for a few moments before pushing his own seat back and hurrying from the hall, Hermione at his heals. Draco had managed to grab Harry's wrist and spin him around, forcing him to stop.

Harry's voice was unnervingly soft as he spoke. "Let go, Draco."

"No, not until you let me explain!"

Harry paused for a moment before leaning forward, his eyes flashing with anger. "There's nothing to explain."

Draco felt Harry's arm leave his hand as he flew backwards into Hermione's arms, causing her to fall over. Harry glared at them both before turning on his heels and walking briskly from the scene. At this point, the Great Hall had emptied out and everyone was staring at Hermione and Draco, who were lying in a heap on the stone floor.

"...That went well."

Draco turned and scoffed at Hermione. "Yes. It went well."

Hermione moved out from underneath Draco and stood, holding out her hand. "We should at least try to act civil towards eachother... for Harry's sake, if nothing else."

Draco nervously eyed her hand before taking it, allowing her to help him up. "Mmm... I suppose I could manage."

"There will be no 'I suppose I can manage', you will do it Draco." Hermione instructed, putting on her teaching expression and tone.

Draco sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah, you're right I guess," he adjusted his shirt front and added, "but don't expect me to start hugging you or anything repulsive like that."

Hermione snorted, "I would never care for a hug from you, Draco. The very thought of it alone causes me to cringe."

Eyeing the woman in front of him with a look of mild distain, Draco brushed past her and called over his shoulder, "I'm going to find Harry and fix the mess you caused."

He was gone before Hermione had the chance to say anything. Pursing her lips, she turned and fixed the crowd of students with a withering glare. "GET TO YOUR COMMON ROOMS!"

The students scattered at the menacing tone of her voice and ran to their Common Rooms. Hermione smiled.

Draco had found Harry sitting in their room beside the fire, his face blocked partially by a shock of pink hair. Cole turned and flashed a smile in Draco's direction, his movement promptly followed by Luke turning and looking at him.

"Why, Draco dear, you look absolutely distraught." Cole smiled as he stood up, and walked over to Draco, placing a hand on his forehead. "Are you feeing okay?"

"What are you doing here?!" Draco demanded as he brushed Cole's hand away glaring at him.

"We decided to drop by instead of sending an owl back." Cole happily announced. "It seems that you and Harry got into a fight, am I right?"

"Your powerful skills of deduction astound me. Now please leave... I need to talk to Harry." Draco pushed Cole aside as he walked towards Harry.

"I have nothing to speak to you about, Draco." Harry stood and brushed past him, his arm caught by Draco's hand.

"Yes, you do. Now sit down," Draco pushed Harry back in the direction he had come from. "before I make you."

"HAH." Harry shook his head as his laugh wore off. "I'm going for a walk." He ripped his hand from Draco's grip and shoved past him, slamming the door behind himself.

"... Angsty." Luke commented as he lit a smoke, which was promptly ripped from his lips and torn up.

"No smoking." Cole narrowed his eyes at Luke. "Not while I'm around."

"...Damnit..." Luke grumbled as he folded his arms over his chest and leaned back into the chair he was sitting in, his eyes traveling to Draco, who had slumped into the opposite chair. The blond man looked as though he was ready to break down at any minute, and Luke felt a sudden pang of sympathy for him. Sighing, he got up from his seat and crossed the short distance between them, pulling Draco from his position before sitting down in the chair himself and settling Draco in his lap. "What happened?"

Draco tried to squirm away from Luke's grip, but stopped when the dark haired man held onto him tighter, "I said something that I shouldn't have."

Cole sat down near the fire and propped his elbows on his knees, holding his head up, "Tell." was all he said as he watched Luke stroke Draco's back.

Taking a deep breath, Draco relayed briefly what had happened in the Great Hall, his voice becoming hoarse when he got to the part when Harry had shoved him in the hallway. "...I don't like fighting with him," Draco finished, "but I just couldn't help myself. Granger brings out the worst in me."

Cole tilted his head to the side and replied, "Who's this Weasel then?"

Luke shot him a warning glance, but Cole ignored it.

Draco looked at the pink haired man, "His name is actually Ron Weasley, but I used to call him Weasel when we were in school," he paused, then added with a hint of scorn, "... he called me the amazing bouncing ferret..."

"Ferret?" Luke tilted his head to the side.

"...Nevermind about that. You don't need to know." Draco frowned and sniffed as he looked down at the ring Harry had given him. "Why do I always manage to mess things up?"

Luke didn't answer but pulled Draco closer, hugging the smaller boy as he finally broke down into the tears he had been holding in. Rubbing Draco's back with one hand as the other held onto his waist, Luke made comforting noises as Cole sat and looked down at the carpet, his pink hair falling over his eyes. The three friends sat in silence for a short while, the only sounds being the soft sobs coming from Draco as he began to calm down.

Resting his head on Luke's broad shoulder, Draco frowned and asked as he wiped away the last of his tears, "How the hell did you get in here? You're a muggle. Muggles aren't allowed near Hogwarts."

"Actually, his mother was a squib, meaning that he does have magic residing in his veins making him somewhat... err..." Cole stopped, realizing he was stating the obvious. "Magical..." He looked off to the side and narrowed his eyes at himself before breaking out into a nervous smile.

"...Oh. Does the Headmistress know you're here?"

"...Funny that," Cole looked up at Draco, scratching his cheek, "mind keeping a secret for a while...?"

"Where are you going to stay?" Draco stood up and placed his hands on his hips.

"Currently, we're staying in this room."

"Oh no... no, no, no!" Draco waved his hands infront of his body. "There's only one bed-"

"That can comfortably fit four people." Cole stood and smiled, as he bounded over to the bed - flinging himself onto the mattress. "It's very comfortable..."

Draco rolled his eyes and sat down in a chair beside the fire, crossing his arms and staring at the dancing flames. "Goodnight then."

Taking that as a direct hint, Luke moved from his position and joined Cole on the bed. The two of them slipped under the covers and snuggled close to eachother, leaving enough room beside them for Draco and Harry to sleep comfortably. Draco remained in the chair for an hour after Cole and Luke had fallen asleep. He had finished reading the large book he had started reading the previous night, and set it down on the floor beside the chair.

Sighing as he looked towards the door, Draco put out the fire and walked over to the bed. He made a face as he watched Cole and Luke sleep, before crawling into the bed himself, lying on his back. A while later, he heard the door open as Harry returned to the room. Squinting at the sudden addition of light, Draco turned onto his side facing Luke's back, listening to the sounds of Harry kicking his shoes off. A second later, Draco felt the bed sink down as Harry slipped under the blankets behind him, and he smiled to himself when Harry put an arm around his waist and pulled Draco close against his chest.

"I love you." Harry whispered as he kissed Draco's neck.

Putting his hand over Harry's, Draco replied, "I love you too."

Kylia: Yeah, so that was a relatively short chapter, compared to some of our other's, but....... suck it up and deal (sticks tongue out while pulling down her right bottom eyelid)

Raei: You can't blame us for having a short chapter, can you? It's hot, we're irritated, this keyboard is the devil, and this room is small... (NOT that that has anything to do with this, but it counts...) Anyhow, next chapter is coming soon. (Hopefully within the next week or two)

Cole: (grins) I like being here!! It's so...

Luke: Shut up (smacks Cole upside the head)

Cole: OOWWIEE!!!

Kylia and Raei: (sweatdrops) Who invited them?

McGonagall: What's this?! Unauthorized persons in my school?! GET OUT-

Raei: FADE TO BLACKKKK!!!!!!

-FADES-

Reviews please! Yes, reviews are life...