Chapter 8: New Allies, Old Friends

"Potter! Potter, wake up," a loud voice said commandingly.

Harry turned his head to the side, not opening his eyes, trying to get away from the voice. He had a pounding headache, and all he wanted to do was sleep it off. But the owner of the voice wouldn't have that.

"Come on, Potter, stay with me," the voice said, tapping the side of his face rather hard.

"What's wrong with him?" a new voice asked frantically. The voices were vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't put them with faces. All he knew was that one was male and the other was female.

"I don't know, Lovegood, now quit hovering. I can't work with you breathing down my neck," the first person snapped. Yes, the voice was decidedly masculine. The girl gave a snort.

"Work?" she asked skeptically. Harry could almost see the scowl on the man's face as he spoke.

"Why don't you make yourself useful and go get the nurse," the voice suggested, a trace of anger present.

"No way, Malfoy," the girl, Lovegood, said stubbornly. Harry suddenly knew who the people were, and opened his eyes. Draco and Luna didn't seem to notice. "He's my friend, and I'm staying. Why don't you go get the nurse?"

"Because I actually know what I'm doing here," Draco said coldly.

"Why do you even care?" Luna asked. "You're not even friends with him."

"If you had actually bee paying attention instead of snoring away over there, you would know otherwise," Draco retorted.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Luna snapped, her eyes narrowing. She started suddenly. "Hey…I don't snore!" she exclaimed. Draco laughed.

"You are such a blonde," he sneered.

"What does that make you then?" Luna shot back.

Draco smirked. "I am one of the few intelligent blondes," he said smoothly.

"If you were so smart, you would have noticed ten minutes ago that your fly is undone."

Draco's eyes widened and he glanced down. He scowled and looked back up at Luna, who was giggling madly. He opened his mouth to say that it was not undone, and that she was just trying to annoy him, but Harry cut them off.

"Honestly, the two of you sound like an old married couple," he stated. Luna, who had been kneeling by Harry's head, jumped at the sound of his voice and flung herself backwards reflexively, toppling over and landing hard on her butt. Draco began laughing, then stopped suddenly and looked down at Harry.

"You're awake!" he said, rather stupidly. Harry chuckled.

"We to state the obvious, Sherlock," he said sarcastically.

"Who's Sherlock?" Draco asked.

"He's a book character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887. He was one of the most prominent fictitious detectives of the time. He and his partner, Watson, solved all kinds of mysteries. Like in this one…"

"Okay, Hermione, I don't need a blow by blow description," Draco said teasingly. Harry looked outraged.

"I am not anything like Hermione!" he said in horror. Draco laughed and hauled Harry to his feet.

"Whatever, Potter," he said, then suddenly became serious. "Are you okay?"

Harry shrugged slowly. "I really don't know. I'm really confused right now."

"What happened, Harry?" Luna asked anxiously, shoving Draco aside and throwing her arms around Harry. "You scared me to death. Was it another one of those vision things?"

"I'm not sure," Harry said, ignoring the bewildered look Draco threw him. "I think it was, but I really don't know."

"I think maybe you should talk to Dumbledore," Draco suggested. "He might actually know what you're rambling about."

Harry made a face but agreed with Draco. They began to walk across the grounds, and Harry suddenly realized that Luna had intertwined her fingers with his. He smiled slightly but didn't pull away. Draco glanced at them and smirked. Harry frowned.

"What?" he asked. Draco only shook his head and kept walking.

"No, you're not pulling that one on me!" Harry exclaimed. "What's so funny?" Draco opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a shout.

"Draco!"

The trio looked up to see Hermione running across the grounds toward them, her shiny brown curls bouncing on her shoulders. She threw her arms around Draco, hugging him tightly. She pulled away, glaring fiercely at him.

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" she exclaimed, hitting him on the chest. Draco looked surprised.

"What did I do?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She glared at him.

"Don't act as if you don't know, Draco Edward Malfoy!" she practically screamed. Draco paled and looked around wildly.

"Don't say that out loud, people will hear you!" he hissed, glaring at Harry, who was sniggering.

"Edward?" the black haired boy whispered. Draco scowled.

"Shut up, Potter."

"I wake up this morning to find the bed empty," Hermione exclaimed, completely ignoring Draco's protests. "I though you had been kidnapped or something!"

"Why on Earth would you think that?" Draco asked his frantic girlfriend. She pulled a wand out of her robes and slapped it against his chest.

"Next time you leave the room early like that, don't leave your wand in the middle of the floor," she huffed. Draco grinned.

"Sorry, love," he said, swooping down and planting a kiss on her lips. "Won't happen again."

Hermione sighed. "OF course it will, Draco. It will probably happen again tomorrow."

"But you still love me," Draco said. "You can't help it. I'm just so gosh darn sexy." (A/N: My ex used that line on me whenever I got mad at him for doing something stupid. Trust me, in real life, that line doesn't work. Why do you think he's my ex?)

"Of course I do, and you know you are," Hermione said, laughing. "So, are you going to tell me where you've been, or am I just going to have to assume you're in trouble?"

Draco drew himself up haughtily. "Never assume, Hermione. You know what they say about it. But if you must know, I was not in trouble. I merely took a walk down to the lake, ran into Potter here, and then he decided he was going to take a nap, so I stuck around till he woke up."

"It's not like I had a choice in the matter!" Harry said defensively, then realized that the blonde was joking. He grinned. Hermione, however, was not satisfied.

"Nap?" she asked.

"It's nothing, Hermione" Harry said quickly. Hermione smiled nervously.

"So…you're speaking to mea gain?" she asked. Harry grinned.

"Apparently," he said. Hermione squealed and threw herself into his arms, hugging him so tightly she nearly crushed his lungs.

"Hermione," Harry gasped. "You're suffocating me." She let him go, blushing.

"I'm sorry, Harry. It's just that I really missed you," she said quietly. She grabbed his hand suddenly and pulled him away from the other two. Draco looked annoyed at being left with Luna. Luan, on the other hand, winked slyly at Harry and grabbed Draco's arm, wrapping herself around him seductively. Harry snickered as Draco's eyes widened in horror.

Hermione stopped a short distance away and turned to look at Harry. Harry was startled to see that her brown eyes were filled with tears.

"Hermione, what's wrong?" he asked. She broke down completely and threw herself into his arms.

"Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry!" she sobbed into his chest, soaking his shirt. "I'm so sorry!"

"For what?" Harry asked, completely bewildered.

"I completely abandoned you! I hurt you so badly, and I didn't even realize it! And now you're having visions again, and I'm not there to help you through it. I'm such a horrible friend, a horrible person!" she cried, nearly in hysterics.

Harry began stroking her hair unconsciously. "No, 'Mione, you're not. You're the best friend anyone could ask for. It's my fault for getting to angry," he said, trying to calm her down. It worked. She stopped crying and looked up at him, her face tearstained.

"Please forgive me, Harry," she whispered. Harry smiled and brushed the remaining tears from her cheeks.

"I already have," he said. He took her arm and led her back to the other two.

Draco was busy trying to detach himself from Luna, who was stubbornly refusing to let go. Harry walked up and pried her off, and Draco immediately placed Hermione in between him and Luna. Hermione laughed.

"Draco, I heard your stomach rumble," she said playfully. "Let's go get some breakfast. It's only ten, and it's Saturday."

The four students began making their way back up to the castle. An unlikely group, Harry thought. But, hey, a friend was a friend, and now Harry had three good ones.


A/N: Wow, totally lame ending. Seriously. But anyways, now Harry's got friends! Yay for him! Oh, and by the way, I lied in the last chapter. This story isn't almost done. I've already got up to chapter 11 written, and I've still got a ton of ideas for this story. So I'm not sure how long it's gonna be, but I do know that it will be at least fifteen chapters. And I decided to post it now, because tomorrow (February 5, Saturday) I am going up to Manteno, Illinois for a Show Choir competition. It's going to be so much fun!

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy! I've finally gotten a total of 50 reviews! It's party time! Yay! I'm still not sure exactly when I'm going to have it, but I promise that I will let you know as soon as I know. I think actually I have 51 or 52, but I don't know for sure. I wish I had that many for one story, but hey, I'll take any review you can throw at me.

I do, however, want to thank Danu3 greatly. This person has been my one true reviewer the whole time. Look at this, hun, I'm dedicating a whole entire paragraph to you! You're so cool, I love you so much (in a non sicko, stalker kind of way, of course)! You have loyally reviewed every single—I repeat—EVERY SINGLE chapter I have posted. You have totally made my day more than once. I owe a lot to you. Because of your positive reaction to the story, people have started reading it, and now I have almost twenty reviews for this story alone. I am so sending you virtual cookies! You are totally going to be my guest of honor at my party. I mean it. Once again, thank you so much!

And, yes, I am going to have an actual party, for those of you in doubt. It's not just a saying that I use, I'm actually going to have a party. I don't know when exactly, but I will let you know.

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Oh, BTW, the next few chapters are going to end in major cliffhangers. Just a heads up!

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