Chapter 4.
Harry Potter walked towards the Great Hall slowly. It was breakfast time, and he knew that Ron would be in there, eating. Draco had said last night that he could eat with them, but in the daylight that seemed less and less likely. He hadn't paid much attention to the fact that Draco was being so unusual last night, but the more he thought about it, the more it didn't make any sense. But he was hungry, and he did want to at least see if he had a chance at being around friendly faces. The more he thought back over the past month of school, he realized that Malfoy... no, Draco, had been behaving less arrogantly. Sure, he still made fun of people, but now his words didn't really hold any malice. It was more like he was used to being sarcastic, and so that was what he was.
Still, Harry decided that he would be cautious about accepting this newfound friendship. He would allow it, but he would keep his eyes open. "After all," he thought, "it's just as likely he is a death eater and he's trying to take me to Volemort. Not that I'd mind. He's gonna kill me one way or another. Might as well be now. No sense in prolonging this torture."
He pushed the doors of the Great Hall open, and quickly looked around. Like always the Gryfindors had spread out and occupied he entire table once they saw him. But the Slytherin table had pushed together and opened a spot for him next to Draco. He thought it as good a chance getting hexed at either table, so he decided to pick the ones with the friendly faces. He sat down in between Draco and Blaise.
"Hello Harry." Draco said, moving over so he had more room. "Glad you decided to join us. The weasel looks positivily enraged. Look! His face is as red as that stuff he calls hair!" He laughed loudly, pointing at Ron.
Blaise nearly choked on his pumpkin juice. "Gods! That Granger bitch looks like she's about to pop a blood vessel! You better watch out Harry, they'll probably try to hex you as soon as you leave the Hall."
"I'm used to it." Harry said darkly, pushing the food around on his plate.
"Well, that's going to stop! Draco told us about the whole situation. I can't believe those arseholes are so closeminded! Don't worry, if they try anything around us, we'll hex them into next century!" Blaise laughed loudly, standing up. "Well, I'm off. I'm glad it's Saturday, I've got tons of homework. Plus, I believe a certain someone wants to meet me later in the Astronomy tower." He winked at Pansy Parkinson, who was sitting across the table from them.
"EWW! Blaise, you know you're the wrong gender for me!" Pansy cringed. "Suddenly, I'm not hungry. I'm off to the bathroom. Snow White waits for no one!"
By this point Harry was totally confused. "Pansy's a lesbian!"
Draco laughed. "Yeah, but we tell everybody that Blaise is shagging her. She doesn't want her parents to find out. They'd disown her in a heartbeat." Draco shook his head. "People can be such arseholes. Harry, you have to understand, nobody out there" he tilted his head towards the other tables "gives a shit about us. From the moment we were born, we were either told that Voldemort was the best thing ever, or we were told that we should only look out for ourselves. Most of our parents completely ignored us our whole lives, or worse. I know you understand, having to live with those muggles."
"How do you know about the Dursleys?" Harry asked, confused.
Draco blushed. "Well, see, I was curious as to exactly how the Boy-Who-Lived spent his summers, and so I went on a little field trip this last summer... I didn't see much, but from what I saw.. well, you know." Harry nodded, not nearly as embaressed as he would have been two days ago. "So anyway, from the moment we were born, people had these ideas about what we were, or who we were. Not unlike yourself, only, because of our names and the house we were sorted into when we got here, the entire wizarding world views us as miniture death eaters, evil, vile creatures bent on ruining the world. Because of who your parents were, and events which you had no control over, the entire wizarding world thinks that you're going to save their sorry arses. If it was me, I'd tell them to sod off and fix their mistakes themselves. But, you're nicer than I am."
"There's also the prophecy to contend with." Harry said wearily.
"What prophecy?"
"The one that says Voldemort and I can't live while the other does, and one must die by the other's hand. So either I'm a murderer, or I'm a murderee. Either way I'm fucked. I can see it already, I come back, with Voldie's dead body, and suddenly, everyone loves me again until they decide that I'm the next Dark Lord because I'm not cheerful all the fucking time. Like they'd be peachy keen if they'd been put into my shoes."
"You know, Potter, it's kinda fucked up that you have a pet name for the Dark Lord."
Harry snorted. "Yeah, well, I'm going to either die by him, or kill him, so I think if anybody has a right to call him nicknames, it would be me."
"Damn. And I thought my life was bad. I've only got to deal with my father. You have to live with the most powerful dark wizard in a century trying desperatly to kill you. No wonder you cut yourself."
"Speaking of which. You said that everybody's got a way to cope. What's yours?"
Draco laughed. "I'm a royal bitch to everyone."
"That's your way of coping? I thought that was just you're charming personality." Pansy said, sitting back down.
"Uh, Pansy..." Draco wiped under his nose. "You missed a spot."
"Oh!" she laughed, wiping under her nose. "Thanks. Wouldn't want Dumbledore to see that. Although he's so crazy he'd probably just offer me a lemon drop and twinkle."
Harry looked at Draco with a puzzled look. Draco laughed. "That's Pansy's way of coping. She has a date with Snow White every hour or so in the bathroom."
"What does that mean?" Harry asked, still confused.
Pansy laughed, then leaned in conspiritorily. "It means that I snort cocaine." She leaned back. "I've been doing it since second year, and nobody's caught on yet. Though I think Snape's begining to notice. I know for a fact he knows about your affair with Ana, Draco."
"Anorexia. That's my other coping mechanisim. I eat as little food as possible." He answered before Harry could ask. "Almost all the Slytherins are fucked up. But, we take care of each other. if I start to black out, they help me. We never send each other to that Pomfrey bitch. We just help each other." Draco looked up. "Unlike Gryfindors, who, for all their bravery, are too busy trying to do what's right to help each other out." He pointed behind Harry. "Dear me, Potter, I believe you have company."
Harry stood up slowly and turned around. Ron was walking towards him quickly, followed by Ginny Weasley, Hermione, and several other Gryfindors. They stopped in front of Harry.
"Well well well, if it isn't Harry "I like to fuck other boys" Potter! Fraternising with the enemy are we now? Thinking of getting a nice little tattoo on your forearm?" Ron spat out.
"If you recall, Weasley, you are the one who who kicked me out of my dorm, and won't let me sit with my own table." Harry said, calmly. He had been expecting this. He motioned for Draco to stay out of it.
"Well if you weren't such a freak, maybe you could still be sitting among normal people!" Ron was getting livid, his voice raising an octave.
"I'm a freak now am I? So I guess the instant I stop behaving like Harry Perfect Potter, Saviour of the Wizarding world, I'm a freak. Well, at least I know now how you really feel. Nice to know you were only ever my friend because of my scar!" Harry hissed, feeling a ball of energy growing in his chest.
"It's a good thing Sirius dies when he did! He'd hate to see his godson playing nice with You-Know-Who's lackeys! Your parents would be ashamed of you!" Draco had to hand it to the Weasel, he knew where to hit that hurt the most.
"FUCK YOU WEASLEY!" Harry shouted, the ball of energy errupting out of him, flooding the entire hall with a blinding white light that knocked Ron off his feet, and backwards about twenty feet. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!" He screamed, narrowing the beam of light right onto Ron, who was screaming in pain. Draco grabbed Harry, and shook him.
"Harry, calm down, come on, come back to the present, you're gonna kill him!" he yelled. Harry stopped the beam of light, looked around, then collapsed into a heap at Draco's feet. "Shit..." Draco whispered as the Professors finally got to the scene. "Sorry Potter, can't save you from Pomfrey this time..." he said softly as he gently laid Harry down onto the floor.
A/N: so that's chapter four. I hope that it was good. I tried to make it a bit longer, and explain things more in depth. Sorry, I can't thank each reviewer individually, although I did read each one and they made my day! But I really have to go right now, so expect the next chapter sometime tomorrow afternoon (that's EST...) (BTW, sorry about the spelling mistakes, I'm sure there are many. I don't have a spell check, but I am doing the best I can.)