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Chapter 4

Over then next few weeks people slowly began to accept Harry and Malfoy's odd friendship. All exept Hermione and Ron. There was no reason to be jealous. Harry spent hardly any time with Malfoy. They just 'hung out' when they were together. His other friends just couldn't accept that. And as for Draco, he had regained his natural composure, although he was nicer to Harry's friends now. He became best friends with Blaise Zabini and together they conquered the Slytherin house. Crabbe and Goyle no longer picked on him and Pansy had told him that Goyle had put a spell on her and she begged for his forgiveness.

Harry was planning to go to Grimmauld place for Christmas. Hermione and Ron were coming with him. He hadn't told them about Sirius yet so they were in for a big surprise.

Hermione couldn't understand why Harry was so happy about going to his dead godfathers house for Christmas. She was still pondering this as she walked, snugly wrapped in a jacket, to the final Prefect meeting of the term. She usually walked with Ron but he had Quidditch training so he would be late.

When she reached the meeting room she found that most of the prefects were already there. Malfoy was sitting at the end of the table pouring over a scrap of paper. Hermione rolled her eyes and stared at him. He was shaking and his eyes were watering.

"For gods sake!" Hermione frowned. He was really upset. She moved forward then stopped. She hesitated and bit her lip. Maybe she should talk to him. He had, after all, made a huge effort to be nicer to her and Ron. Ernie was starting the meeting so Hermione slipped round behind him, handed him her report then took a seat next to Malfoy.

"What's up?" she asked, forcing a smile to her face. Malfoy looked up, startled, and then handed her the slip of paper. Hermione straightened it out and began to read.

Draco,

I have been given the honour of writing to you on behalf of the dark lord. He had graciously accepted you as one of his junior recruits and knows you will become a valued member of his allegiance in the fight against Potter. You shall receive your mark during the Christmas break. Do not let this letter reach the wrong hands.

Lucius Malfoy.

Hermione bit her lip again.

"Can I keep this?" she asked. Malfoy shrugged. "Do you want to join Voldemort?" Draco shook his head furiously.

Hermione barely listened for the rest of the meeting and the moment it finished she was out of her seat and running to the headmasters office. Harry and Ron bumped into her on the way back from training.

"Harry come with me." She grabbed him and dragged him away, leaving Ron to walk back by himself.

"Hermione, what…?" Dumbledore looked up, startled as Hermione slammed through the door, dragging Harry by his Robes.

"What can I do for you, miss Granger?" Hermione plonked herself in one of the guest seats and tossed the note on Dumbledore's desk.

"What's going on, Hermione? If this is about me joining Voldemort…"

"Shh!" Hermione gestured with her finger while Dumbledore was reading the note for the second time.

"Hermione where did you get this?"

"From Malfoy, sir"

Harry was looking from Hermione to Dumbledore. "Can I read it?" he asked finally, snatching the note from the headmaster. He wasn't in the mood for being polite. He was cold and covered in snow and his toes were getting frostbite. He read through it and felt an eerie chill roll down his spine.

"Let him come to Grimmauld place." Harry said suddenly. Dumbledore looked weary.

"What? Don't you trust him?"

"I do trust him, Harry, but for all we know he could be joining Voldemort. His friends did."

"HIS SO CALLED FRIENDS BASHED THE SHIT OUT OF HIM!"

"Harry, stop it!" Hermione said. She looked worried. Harry took a breath and lowered his voice.

"How do you know you can trust the other order members? You must have done something to know they wont go tell Voldemort"

Dumbledore sighed. "I guess it would be best if he went into hiding" he tapped his pen on the desk then turned to Hermione.

"Miss Granger, could you please go and fetch Professor Nixon and Professor Snape? Harry, you go and get Draco"

Harry didn't need telling twice. He ran the whole way to the dungeons where he hoped to find his friend. He stopped outside the Slytherin common room just as Blaise came out.

"Blaise" he said quickly "can you go get Malfoy?"

"Sure" the brown haired boy turned back into the common room. It was ten minutes before he emerged again. He was half carrying Malfoy who had blood all over him.

"Fucking hell!" Harry ran forward and took half the load. "What happen?"

"He cut himself." Blaise gasped under the weight Malfoy's limp body. "He went for the kill because it usually isn't this bad!"

He must have tried to kill himself because, instead of across the wrist, he had a huge gash from wrist to elbow on each arm.

The boys half dragged, half carried him to the entrance hall where they ran into Ron who was looking for Harry.

"What the hell happened?" Ron backed off, not liking the blood.

"Ron get Dumbledore…quick!" Ron turned and ran back the way he came. Blaise and Harry continued their struggle to the hospital wing with Malfoy slipping in and out of consciousness.

"Harry," Malfoy mumbled when they were three quarters of the way to the hospital wing. "I'm sorry, Harry. I know it's the coward way out but death cant be worse then getting that stupid mark and being tortured by you-know-who…" Harry didn't know what to say but Blaise had a few reassuring words for him.

"Don't worry, Draco, you don't have to do that. We're going to help you. Just hang on."

They were on the home stretch when Malfoy lost too much blood to stay awake. The boys kept on moving. There were footsteps behind them but they didn't look back.

They finally reached the door of the hospital wing and a hand reached out from behind them to push the door open.

"Poppy!" the owner of the hand called out. Madam Pomfrey came bustling out of her office, saw the three boys covered in blood, two of which were collapsing under the thirds weight, and uttered a soft scream before Helping Harry and Blaise place the third on a bed. She immediately set out conjuring bandages and pressure packs to put on the wounds. Several cloudy white hands appeared out of nowhere and began to assist.

Harry looked at his hands which where covered in fresh blood then he looked at the door to see who had opened it. Snape.

The potions master was still standing at the door watching his favourite student being sewed back together by the school nurse.

Dumbledore, Nixon, Hermione and Ron joined him at the door a few moments later. Harry didn't meet their gaze; instead he looked at the sparkling white floor that was now tainted with a trail of bloody footsteps leading to the bed.

Madam Pomfrey worked hard for about ten minutes before she stood back and surveyed her work with her hands on her hips. Everyone else in the room crowded around.

"He'll be fine," the nurse said and everyone let out a breath. "He did lose a lot of blood though, can anyone tell me why he did it?"

"His father bashes him," Blaise informed her, carefully leaving out the information about the mark.

"Isn't that Potter who got bashed?" Pomfrey narrowed her eyes at the boy who lived.

"Both of us" Harry said, he was staring at Malfoy who was breathing regularly now and he just seemed to be sleeping, apart from the fact that he was covered in blood. And there were no scars at all. Madam Pomfrey had indeed worked her magic.

At that Moment Pansy Parkinson came flying into the room.

"Oh Draco!" she wailed, running to the bed and flinging herself across his chest. "Millie just told me! Oh you poor thing!"

Malfoy woke up with a jolt. "Get off" he murmured, trying to push her away.

Hermione reached in and pulled the other girl off by the back of her robes. Dumbledore was looking thoughtfully at Harry who raised his eyebrow in question.

"Could everybody leave please, the Professors and I would like a word with mister Malfoy."

The five students backed slowly out of the room. The door slammed shut on its own accord.

"What do you think they're doing in there?" Ron whispered so Pansy couldn't hear. It would have been hard for her to hear anyway; she was banging on the door and screaming Draco's name over and over. Hermione finally stood up from the floor where the rest were sitting and hexed the stupid Slytherin girl. Pansy fell to the ground, limp as jelly, her mouth clamped shut with an invisible hand.

"That's better" Hermione said heavily. "I bet they're doing that test so he can go into hiding." Blaise tipped his head to the side.

"That'd be good for him. I've been in hiding ever since You-know-who came back"

"Isn't your dad a death eater?" Ron asked rudely. Blaise didn't care.

"He is. But he hates it. When you-know-who began recruiting juniors my dad put a secret keeping spell on our house to keep me and my mother and sister safe. Dad is three ranks down so it'll probably be a while before I get that letter."

"Does your dad know any of Voldemort's plans? Like what he's plotting to do to Harry?" Hermione seemed fascinated by the fact that Blaise could become a spy for the good side.

"I'm sure it gets down the line somehow…but they don't tell Snape everything. They don't exactly trust him so near to Dumbledore. I can find out a few plans for you if you like…"

"Oh please!" Hermione clapped her hands together. Harry didn't mind. Blaise seemed like a decent guy.

Dumbledore opened the door and smiled. Hermione quickly sent a counter-spell at Pansy who jumped up and began to cry.

"Oh Professor! Is he all right? Can I see him?" Dumbledore moved out of the way and Pansy ran through the door. The headmaster turned back to the group sitting on the floor.

"Mister Malfoy shall be joining you for Christmas." He informed them. Ron had a sour look on his face. So did Hermione but at least she understood why.

"I am going to inform HQ and Draco's mother. It would be best if you went back to you common rooms now. Draco will stay here over night. Mister Zabini, could you please pack Draco's bags tonight so he can take the train tomorrow? Thank you. Good night!"

The headmaster strolled off and Harry shook hands with Blaise.

"Thanks for your help. See you later" Harry told him. Blaise raised a hand in farewell and walked off in the other direction.

Hermione Harry and Ron went back to their tower.

The common room met them with loud music and shouting.

"End of term party!" Seamus called out, passing Harry a bottle of butterbeer. Harry took a swig and felt the hot taste of alcohol burn his throat. He immediately felt light headed.

"What's in this?" He called out to Seamus who was so drunk he could hardly stand. He flung his arm around Parvati's hips and called back "straight Vodka, mate!" Harry took another drink, then another.

Ron, much to Hermione's protests, got hold of another spiked bottle and began his own binge.

In half an hour Ron and Harry were as drunk as Seamus and they had joined Neville in his horrible singing of the weird sisters latest track that was booming throughout the room. Hermione had even given into temptation and was on her second bottle of spiked butterbeer. It was getting late now, around midnight, and most of the youngsters, first, second and third years, had gone to bed leaving the older student to have more room for their wild rave.

A song with a lot of bass began to play and the mob all moved to the middle of the room and began dancing wildly; it was like a big mosh pit with everyone tripping over their partners.

Harry had been dancing with Lavender when she tripped. Harry laughed and turned around. Claire was standing right behind him. She looked pretty out of it, her makeup was smeared and her hair was tangled but she was still shouting uncontrollably. She caught sight of Harry and grabbed him round the neck and planted a ferocious kiss on his lips.

The rest of the party members cheered.

Harry tried to steady himself. This was the first time he'd been drunk and he'd had a fair bit to drink. He took a step backwards, with his lips still joined to Claire's, and tripped over Lavender who was trying to get up. This caused a chain reaction and in minutes everyone, exept Hermione who was dancing on a table, was on the ground.

Harry woke up with a splitting headache the next morning. He sat up and found he had spent the night on the common room floor. Half of the partygoers had made it to bed around three in the morning but the majority was spread across the trashed Common room. The young students were coming down from their dormitories with disgusted looks on their faces. They soon left for breakfast and everyone else began to wake up.

"Damn!" Dean said, rubbing his temples. He had spent the night on the lounge with Ginny.

Hermione snorted in her sleep; she was still on the table.

Harry rolled over and found that he had one arm around Claire. He wondered quickly what had happened between them. Hopefully it was only a kiss and they hadn't gone over the top. Harry wanted to actually remember his first time. Clair rolled over as well and looked at Harry.

"Morning, baby" she muttered. Great, Harry thought, we're going out now. He sat up and tried to clear his head but it was useless.

"WE'RE LATE!" Ron yelled, running down the stairs, he'd made it to bed. His shouting woke the rest of the disgruntled people and the common room began to move. Most people had packed their bags the night before so all they had to do was drag them to the entrance hall and have breakfast.

Harry, not feeling up to lugging his trunk, charmed it so it floated in front of him and he lest the Gryffindor tower. Everyone else followed his lead to soon it was just floating trunks and hung-over teens walking through the corridors. Claire caught up to Harry who was at the front of the pack with Neville and slipped her hand into his. Their fingers entwined and Harry felt warm inside. Maybe Claire would be good to have as a girlfriend. Cho was to upset with her own thoughts to show affection.

He would stick with her for a while. He decided. Claire would be his girlfriend.

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