Disclaimer: I don't own anything
a/n: Sorry for a certain part in the chapter. You'll see why. In case you've forgotten (or I accidentally made it up), the grading for the OWLs are E Exceeds Expatiations, A Acceptable, P Poor, D Dreadful, and T Toad. Also, I didn't feel like making up specific classes for Draco.
There is one quote in this chapter.
On with it.
"Boo!"
Ginny jumped out from around the corner, arms high and fingers curled to look like claws. Draco, however, simply stared. He hadn't even flinched.
"Good try," he said, patting her on the head. He proceeded towards the bathroom.
Draco could feel his old personality slowly drifting back to him. The mask of ice he usually wore had melted over the last month, but it was beginning to freeze again. Draco felt slightly better as he relieved himself, but he still felt moody.
When he finished, Draco zipped his pants and flushed the toilet. He turned sharply to the sink and jammed on the water. He did not wait for it to get warm. The water at the manor was always artic.
Draco dried his hands and threw the towel on the floor. What did he care? He reached to open the door but stopped. What was wrong with him?
Draco put the toilet lid down and sat. Hebrought his icy hands to his aching head. He knew exactly what was wrong. Today was his last day at Grimmuald Place. Nobody had received their OWL scores yet (or book lists, but Draco didn't care so much about them). Like almost any student at Hogwarts, the possibility that he could get bad scores haunted him. That thought, however, was only a little fly buzzing around his ear compared to what tomorrow would bring. Tomorrow he would ride the train to Hogwarts—along with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. Draco did not mind spending time with them, even if Ginny sometimes acted younger than her age. In fact, Draco would love to share a compartment with the goody-good-Gryffindors. That really was not the problem.
What bothered Draco were his Slytherin friends. What would they think of him now? He would want to show them that he had not changed, and ride with them. Draco could re-adopt his old personality at Hogwarts and still be nice to people. (Would that work?) He decided there would not be a problem with that. It never occurred to him that the Slytherins might not accept him.
Draco brought his pale hands away from his face. They were almost as white as the painted walls of the bathroom. Draco turned on the hot water and let it run over his hands. It felt incredibly good, and he could see their color returning. When he finished, he picked up the towel to dry his hands, folded it, and hung it back up. However, Draco still felt moody.
Frustrated that he apparently did not have the ability to make himself feel better at the moment, Draco wrenched open the door.
Draco flung the door behind him to slam it shut, but remembered the loud sound would wake Mrs. Black. He quickly turned and reached to stop the door, but instead it shut on his fingers. Cursing, Draco released his hand. He shook off the pain and then looked up to find himself outside the twin's bedroom. This is where his feet had carried him? Interesting. Very interesting.
He knocked. "Its Draco," he called.
The door swung open and he stepped inside. Draco flopped onto Fred's bed.
"Just a minute," said George.
He and Fred were huddled over an extremely long strip of parchment at the other side of the room. Sitting at a desk, they whispered a few more sentenced, and then rolled up whatever it was they were looking at. Pushing on the desk, they rolled over to Draco, letting the bed stop them.
"What seems to bet he problem?" asked Fred.
The question caught Draco completely off guard. How did they know something was bothering him?
Draco sighed. He might as well see if they could help.
"Well," he started, but hesitated, biding for time. "Tomorrow we go back to Hogwarts," he hesitated again. "I wasn't sure, first off, on the train I wasn't sure…" who I should sit with. The matter suddenly seemed extremely stupid.
"Never mind," he concluded. This is stupid. I feel like an idiot.
"No, tell us," said George.
"Everybody knows something's bothering you," said Fred.
"You've been acting—"
"Different."
"You mean I've been acting like I used to, before I switched sides?" said Draco bluntly. He knew they could see it.
"Well, yeah," agreed George.
For some reason, Draco glared at them, and then continued.
"I'd like to spend the train ride with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but I feel like I shouldn't. If feel like I should be with the Slytherins."
Fred and George glanced at each other, and then looked back at Draco.
"We could help you on this one," said Fred.
"But we think you should talk to Harry, Ron and Hermione about it," said George.
The twins pushed off the bed and wheeled back to the desk.
Draco was not sure if he should be mad or not, so he left without a word.
Down the hall, he could see Harry hurrying towards him.
"Draco!" he called quietly. "We just got our OWLs and booklists."
Draco's jaw dropped and the two hurried back to their bedroom.
Ron and Hermione were already examining their results when Harry and Draco arrived. Draco pounced on the envelope lying on his bed and ripped it open. He would have appreciated the fact that Harry had found him before looking at his own results, but Draco was too caught up in the moment to care. He let the booklist fall and unfolded his OWL scores. They were all E's and A's. He was very proud of himself. Draco looked up.
"How did you lot do?" he asked.
"Hermione got all E's," said Ron, making her blush. "I got all A's, except for one D, one T, and one E," he finished proudly.
Harry stayed silent. Draco walked over to look at his scores. His eyes were first drawn to his Defense against the Dark Arts and History of Magic scores. In Defense Against the Dark Arts he got and E, but there was a comment next to it. It said: Absolutely amazing. In History of Magic he got a T. There was also a comment. It read: Unusually unsatisfactory. The rest were all A's and one P.
"Since when do you get comments?" asked Draco. He checked his scores for any.
"Nobody ever gets comments," said Ron. He and Hermione walked over to see Harry's scores.
"Wow," said Hermione. "We know you didn't do ten minutes worth of History of Magic, but in Defense Against the Dark Arts, you must have done really well. I'm not that amazed though. Everybody knows you're excellent in that area."
"Weren't you teaching a group?" asked Draco.
"Yeah," said Harry.
"That's the only reason I got an E," said Ron.
The four quieted remembering how Draco had helped Professor Umbridge capture Harry.
"Draco," Hermione said, breaking the silence. "Who are you going to be with on the train tomorrow?"
Although it had bothered him before, Draco suddenly didn't see what the big deal was. He could split the ride if he really wanted. Draco would decide tomorrow. It didn't matter. For now, Hermione wanted an answer.
"I was—" started Draco, almost defensively.
"You're going to ride with your Slytherin friends aren't you?" asked Ron. He sounded betrayed.
"Well I—" Draco started again, but took on a different tone.
"Draco, you're going to do whatever you like," Hermione interrupted. "But honestly, after all of the information you've given the Order, how many of them do you think will actually be there?"
Draco opened his mouth to say something, but shut it. Hermione had a valid point. Most of the Death Eaters names he had given to the Order had children in Hogwarts. The parents would have to go into hiding and would probably bring their almost-of-age teens with them. Draco sighed.
"I'm not sure I know what I want to do." He said at last, forgetting his earlier plan.
"I'll hex anyone who gives you grief, Malfoy," said Harry threateningly. He was spinning his wand between his middle and ring fingers.
Draco laughed and took out his wand.
"You have to teach me how to do that."
As always when the Weasley family is involved, the next morning was crazy. Mrs. Weasley's and Mrs. Black's shouts could be heard throughout the house issuing orders and insults. The ministry, thankfully, had lent them a car again. (Draco was amazed how, including himself, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Professor Lupin, Mad Eye Moody, and Tonks could fit comfortably into the green sedan.) Despite this, the morning was so disorganized that Ron forgot his trunk and remembered when they were half way to the train station. A yelling from Mrs. Weasley, a lecture from Mr. Weasley, and another car ride later, they arrive at King's Cross. The five students managed to hurl themselves onto the train just as it began to pull out of the station.
Ginny left in search for her friends, leaving Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco to search for an empty compartment. To their surprise, they found one—the very last compartment at the very end of the train.
"I can't believe we made it," said Hermione as she flopped into a seat. Harry and Draco put their trunks on the luggage rack.
"Here," Ron said. "Have a chocolate frog."
"That seems to be your answer to everything, Ron," she said smiling, and bit into the frog.
"Works for me," shrugged Ron.
Harry and Draco sat down.
Don't you see who's frog can jump the farthest?" asked Draco.
"I never thought to do that," said Ron.
"Let's try it then," said Harry, taking out a frog of his own.
"Let's start here," said Draco. He knelt down and held his frog on a crack in the wooden train floor. "And let go when I say."
"You're not still going to eat them when you're done are you?" asked Hermione.
"Why not?" Harry replied, and knelt with Ron next to Draco.
"That's disgusting," said Hermione.
"Ready?" asked Draco. "And, let go!"
Harry's frog tripped over itself and went face first into the floor. It froze; its magic was gone. Draco's leapt sideways and ran into Ron's throwing it off course. They landed in a heap and froze.
Before the boys could laugh in amusement, a trunk appeared andsmashed them all. Standing behind it was Neville, slightly red in the face.
"Everywhere else if full. Do you mind if I stay here?" he asked.
"You squashed our chocolate frogs," said Draco, standing up.
Neville gasped. Hehadn't seen Draco. Neville took a step back. He looked from Draco to Harry.
Draco bent and tilted the trunk back. He pealed the three frogs off the floor. Draco handed Harry's over, but his and Ron's had been molded into one.
"Just rip it down the center, I guess," said Ron.
Draco ripped the blob apart and looked at his half.
"It'll taste the same," he shrugged.
The three boys stuffed their flattened chocolate into their mouths.
"You're disgusting, all of you," said Hermione. She wrinkled her nose as Ron swallowed, and disappeared behind a large book.
"Here," said Ron. He lifted Neville's trunk onto the luggage rack. "You can come in," he said after Neville didn't move.
Neville sent a wary glance at Draco, and then slowly moved into the compartment.
"Don't worry," said Harry. "He doesn't bite anymore."
Draco smacked his teeth together.
"I have a muzzle in my bag," Harry warned sarcastically.
"No, you don't," said Draco.
"No, but I could use my tie as a gag."
"You wouldn't," said Draco simply.
"You're right, I wouldn't," said Harry.
"Why is he here?" asked Neville feeling tensely ill at ease.
"Because I decided not to bite," said Draco.
Neville laughed nervously.
"Sorry about your frogs," he said. Draco seemed normal enough. If Harry trusted him, so could he.
Draco shrugged. "It was still good."
"That can be debated," said Hermione from behind her book.
"But it won't," said Draco.
"You really are staying?" asked Neville.
"Yep," Draco leaned back in his seat.
a/n: The next chapter will be fun to write.