I'm on holiday. I shouldn't be writing! From threats to bribes… how can I refuse?

Thanks for your ratings; some overly flatters, whilst others explained just where I went a little wrong! Thanks! Ummm… perhaps you can keep rating it out of a 100 with your usual comments? Perhaps?

No, I did not copy anything in the last chapter from anywhere.

Congrats…(HU R U??? I can't find you. Dammit. Review again so I can congratulate you!!!)… your presumption was right!!! You shrewd devil! Go you and your good… detectiveness?

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"Malfoy. In there, now." Harry caught up to the Slytherin who was shrouded in a thick cloak of venomous housemates. He had to catch the sly devil before the resolution that just leapt on him flew away.

"Potter." Draco grimaced.

Harry stood still, holding out his palm to the room. Anna whined as Draco moved towards it.

"Must go and ruin what is left of the Gryffindor's life!" Draco called out as he fluttered away from his fellow Slytherins. Anna, Blaise, Pansy and Malcolm grimaced but followed his command.

"Potter." Draco repeated.

"Where is the list?" Harry asked in a tone below a whisper,

"Taken care of." Draco replied steadily, a cold façade on his face and what was left of his merry hand-over mood disintegrated.

"The disappearances." Harry brought up. Draco never wavered and waited for Harry to continue. "You have something to do with this! Where is the bloody list?"

"Taken care of." Draco repeated.

"Where is the list?" Harry asked again. "WHERE IS THE GOD DAMN LIST??"

Only inches away from Harry, Draco didn't even blink.

"Taken care of." He said again, repeating it in the exact calm tone as before, unfazed.

"You know something." Harry squinted. They stared at each other in silence; Harry daring Draco to admit something – anything -, as Draco measured his words.

"Yes." Draco admitted.

"What is it?" Harry replied through clenched teeth. Draco shrugged calmly, agitating Harry so much by his sickening calmness. "People are disappearing. Voldemort has them. They could be dead or going through much worse. You know something. You can help. AND YOU WON'T SAY ANYTHING??"

"People?" Draco scoffed, a sardonic glint of… Malfoy showed itself. "Mudbloods, remember Potter? Mudbloods are disappearing. Why would I want to say anything?"

Harry stared at the Malfoy in all his malice in front of him, dumbfounded.

"I thought…"

"I'm a Slytherin, Potter." Draco reminded bluntly. "I'm a Malfoy."

"I thought you were different. I thought…" Harry spluttered the first thing the came into his head.

"Didn't you have enough before? Stretch your pathetic memory to last year. Do you really think I can change? Do you really?" Draco asked of him, sneering at the thought.

"Why?" Harry pleaded,

"I'm a Slytherin." Draco explained bluntly, as if the three words were enough explanation, as if the three words could excuse and justify what he's doing.

"…But…" The Boy Who Lived looked slightly lost. "Hermione?"

"Don't worry about her." Draco offered Harry some comfort. He didn't take it.

"Don't worry? Don't worry? What are you on, Malfoy? Muggle borns are disappearing from the school! No one knows how or why they are, only that Voldemort has them! They are probably dead, if not worse! DON'T WORRY ABOUT HER? I love her. She's in love with the one person that, apparently, could hate muggle borns more than the Dark Lord himself. What the hell are you on?" Harry panted, gasping for breath. The nervous strain from all the abductions and Harry's latter statement made Draco release a nervous chuckle.

"What are you talking about? She doesn't love me." Draco failed to ease Harry's fear by ignoring everything else he just said; by not denying it. It was Harry's turn to give a nervous chuckle.

"Have you even talked to her?" Harry asked. Stupid question. "Like, properly. Out of your free will, have you actually talked to her?"

"A Slytherin never consorts with a Gryffindor by choice." The simple law of Hogwarts. Too blinded by his own beliefs, Harry didn't see the hurt and despair as Draco recited it.

"What did you do with the list?" Harry asked again, shaking his head but left Malfoy to believe what he wants.

"I took care of it." Draco didn't miss a beat.

"Please." He pleaded, "For…"

House unity?

Hogwarts?

What would Draco fall for?

"Whatever, Potter. I'm not entirely incompetent as you Gryffindors. It's taken care of." Draco assured for the sake of…

"But then…" Harry sighed. "I was sure…" he thought aloud.

Sitting down on the chair and sighing, leaving Harry to find his own seat, Draco rubbed his temples.

"The list I took when you were with me is taken care of." Harry noticed the lack of the word 'we' in Malfoy's sentence, "No longer could it be any use to them."

Them! He doesn't consider himself one of them! Harry beamed.

"But there are two explanations I can think of: one, either the list I took was only part of other, longer lists and your Mudblood that you're so besotted with is safe; or, two, if you can compile one list, you can always make another. I think it's the latter, Potter. I believe they conjured up another list, somehow. I think your Mudblood is in danger."

You're besotted with her too. Harry had to bite his lip to refrain from blurting it out.

"There's another list." Harry repeated, making sure he understood, the shock of the news made him sit on the near-by bench for support as he took it in.

"Voldemort has another list." Draco clarified. Harry cringed back at the name, caught off guard. It was only a name.

"And you, who knows probably more than anybody in this school, are a Slytherin. You are a bad, muggle hating Slytherin." Harry stated. Draco shrugged.

"I could be a… good… Slytherin? Just this once. In secret. Living a double life? No one knowing about it." Draco alternated, choking on the very words.

Is he suggesting something?

"A GOOD SLYTHERIN??" Harry exploded, first he wants nothing to do with it… now… "The words don't make sense, the sentence won't make sense!"

"Oxymoron." Draco chanced and asked. What was he playing at, first he doesn't want anything to do with Hermione, now he's leaping at the chance to… do what exactly?

"I am not!" Harry denied indignantly; he wasn't sure what an oxymoron was, but this was Draco; it must've been something bad.

Draco burst out laughing, shaking his head. Judging by the confused expression on Potter's face, Draco decided to let it slide.

"Then what do you propose we do?" Draco asked, humbled,

"You could-" Harry began,

"You had your chance, Potter. I am now the evil supreme ruler of nasty Mudblood detesting Slytherins. Did I mention evil in there somewhere?" Draco announced as he held up his hand for silence.

"I already knew that." Harry piped in.

"Well. If I am to do anything that might be close to helping you, well, it can't be public. At all. I will not risk tainting my reputation with the likes of, well; you." Draco made sure; Potter only rolled his eyes which Malfoy took as a confirmation. "So I must be off and rejoin my fellow vile Mudblood loathing housemates. Must plot your doom and once again be the arch foe to you as I was seven years ago. Will discuss the situation with you later when you haven't announced it to the entire school."

Draco leapt up and was out of the door before Harry could object. The Boy Who Lived just shook his head, wondering what the Slytherin was up to. Why so eager to help him?

---

"Uh… Hermione?" Harry approached her, slightly timid,

"Yes, Harry." Hermione acknowledged,

"I was wondering…" he inched closer to her on the scarlet velvet couch in their common room, "What is an Oxymoron?" he whispered very closely to her ear.

I must make sure no one hears. Must make sure this never reaches the ears of Dr- Malfoy.

Hermione smiled at him seeking her out for knowledge. He had changed.

"A figure of speech, Harry. In which apparent contradictory terms appear together in conjunction. Like… deafening silence." Hermione explained, beaming as she shared her knowledge.

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Sorry… again. (remember… out of 100!)