Lacerta: Hey people we're back! Happy Xmas!

Augurey: Actually Happy Christmahanauhkwanzahka to you!

Lacerta: So yeah we've been busy getting this chappie ready for you guys and its LONG! Well, actually, Augurey did most of it.

Augurey: Yeah, well I got really bored. Sorry it took so long though, it was a really busy time for me, with Xmas and New Years, a big essay due for English, my friend moving at the end of January, and my other really good friend having his dad die in a car accident...It was really hard.

Lacerta: Omg! Yes, bad time of year for us.

Augurey: Well, I won't hold you up any longer I know you guys want to read the chapter! So here you go! It's my late Xmas present to you, and it gave me joy in my times of sadness over the past few weeks too. So enjoy!

Lacerta: Yes, enjoy the chappie and we'll see you at the end!

Chapter 5

Reuniting

The brains slowly wrapped themselves around Ron's body. He was stunned for a moment before trying to rip the tentacles off.

"Get them off me!" he screamed. "They hurt!"

His best friend just stood there and watched as the brains tightened.

"Harry don't just stand there-help me!"

"Ron, Ron wake up!" Hermione shook him, trying frantically to wake him from the horrible nightmare he must be having.

Ron sat straight up, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. "Oh my god, they're gone," he said in relief, still panting.

"Ron what's the matter? What's wrong?" cried Hermione.

Ron just stared at her, as if he just noticed she was in the room. "Oh, Mione! Um…what are you doing in here?" he asked, trying to pretend everything was all right.

"I came in here to tell you that it's almost time to go, but then I heard you screaming about something. What was that nightmare all about?"

"Umm… nothing Mione just a stupid little dream." He was purposely avoiding her eyes and playing with the edge of his Chudley Cannons quilt.

"Ronald Weasley! Don't you dare lie to me! I know perfectly well that it wasn't just a 'stupid little dream'! Tell me what's wrong right now, or we won't get Harry at all!"

"Quiet down or you'll wake the whole house! It's none of your business what I was dreaming about. I don't have to tell you!"

"You're my best friend Ron, please tell me. That's what friends are for-to comfort and try to understand each other."

"I told you, it was nothing. I was just trying to hold Neville back from trying to pound Malfoy, and I was telling Harry to stop standing there and help me."

Hermione just raised an eyebrow and looked at Ron like she didn't believe him. "Whatever, Ron. Get dressed and come downstairs now. We're leaving in 10 minutes, so hurry up-you don't want to miss the portkey! I'll leave with or without you." And with that she turned on her heel and walked out the door muttering to herself about last minute preparations to make everything safe and untraceable.

"Mental, that one. Always muttering to herself," Ron said to himself while shaking his head sadly. "Well I suppose I should probably get dressed then, maybe I'll have time for a quick bite-I am quite famished."

Ron opened the doors to his wardrobe and looked inside the bare closet. Finally he decided he better wear some Muggle clothing, seeing as he was going to a Muggle house. He pulled on some worn blue jeans with a few holes in the knees and rips up the sides. Then he pulled a blue t-shirt over his head, followed by one of his mother's famous maroon sweaters. When he stepped into the kitchen he saws some leftover homemade bread. It looked so scrumptious that he just had to have some. Just as he finished a slice, Hermione walked in with the baseball, looked at her watch, and said, "We've got exactly one minute until we leave."

"Just in time, I just got done satisfying my hunger. Yum that bread was good." Ton said after patting his stomach.

Hermione just shook her head at him. "30 seconds to go. Come stand by me and touch the baseball. I can't believe we've finally going to get to see Harry! I hope he's doing okay with…well…you know what."

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. Just as long as we get him out of that horrid place in time."

"Okay…if you say so… 10 seconds to go! 9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…"

They felt that all to familiar tug behind the navel, then went flying through a tunnel; finally landing with a big thud on Harry's bedroom floor.

Harry opened his eyes slowly, trying to figure out what his arms were wrapped around. He dearly hoped it wasn't his cousin. No, that would be impossible-Dudley is much too fat to be this thing. When his eyes finally opened, Harry saw the pale face of Draco Malfoy, who was sleeping peacefully. The memories of the last few days flooded into Harry's mind and he groaned softly as the pain from the beating a couple nights ago returned. Draco was laying right on two of the biggest bruises-his back was resting on Harry's upper arm and his head on Harry's chest.

While Harry was lying here in pain, he thought of all that Draco had done for him-it was amazing really, Draco Malfoy running from his evil Death Eater of a father and wanting to become friends with Harry. It made Harry wonder if it was all a trap, but then he realized that he trusted Draco and that it probably wasn't a trap. He reminded himself to keep an eye out though, because you never know about these kinds of things in the Wizarding World.

Harry finally dozed off a few minutes later with thoughts of going back to Hogwarts filling his head.

THUD "Shit"

Not even half a second after Harry had heard the thud; he had sat straight up in bed, which had successfully resulted in Draco landing on the floor with a thud of his own, and grabbed his wand. He now had the wand at the ready, waiting for another sound. When Draco started to get up, Harry motioned for him to stay down, because he was on the side of the bed opposite from where all the noise came from and Harry didn't need anyone seeing Draco, especially if these were Death Eaters.

The boys heard footsteps coming towards the bed and Draco slowly crawled under it so he wouldn't be seen. Now it sounded like two people walking. Draco started shaking and hoping Death Eaters hadn't finally found him.

Harry then stuck his wand out further, wishing he could do magic because a hex, or even just "Lumos" would really help right now.

"Hiya Harry!"

"Ron?"

"No, Percy. Who did you think?"

"Why are you here?"

"Because I accidentally got dropped off here instead of at Neville's house."

"Really?"

"Of course not, idiot! We're here to get you!"

"Wait, did you just say 'we're'?"

"Well, yes he did. If you two would shut up for just five seconds I could say hi too. Hullo Harry."

"Hermione?"

"Who else would I be?"

"I dunno. Did you guys really come here to get me?"

"Yes, we did."

"Where are you staying at?"

"Ron's house. We've been having a quite boring time, actually. With you not being there and all."

"How did you get here?"

"Portkey."

"Who made it?"

"I did."

"Does anyone else know?"

"No, if they did we obviously wouldn't be here right now, would we?"

"True, true."

"Are you gonna get packed or what? We have to get home before Mom notices we're gone!"

"Okay, okay."

Harry then went around and made sure all his school stuff got packed into his trunk. The last thing he did was lie down on his stomach and pry up the loose floorboard. When he gotten all the food and cards up, he looked up and there, staring at him from under the bed was Draco.

"Shit," he cursed.

"Is something wrong, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Um, no," he replied and then started to curse under his breath.

"Harry, why are you cursing so much?" Hermione looked at him curiously. "We really should get out of here."

"Er, I have something to tell you guys…"

"What is it?"

"I have a guest here right now…"

"Who? Can we meet him?" Ron asked. Then he added, "Or her, whichever one," after seeing the look on Hermione's face.

"Give him space Ron, don't just start bombarding him with questions. I'm sure he'll tell us when he's ready," Hermione said strictly.

"Oh, er, right. Sorry bout that Harry."

"Quite alright, mate."

"Um, before you show us who it is that's staying here with you could you please show me where the lavatory is? I really need to use the toilet."

"Ron! I thought I told you to before we left!"

"Um…I, um…forgot?"

At the Hermione sighed exasperatedly. "I tell you, sometimes I just- ugh!"

"It's the third door on down on the right side of the hall."

"Thanks a lot."

Ron then left the room, turning right after opening the door. Harry watched him leave and made sure he was out of earshot before tuning to Hermione.

"I need your help Mione."

"With what?"

"Well, I know Ron isn't going to be happy about who my guest is and you might not be either, but I know you'll be able to deal with it. Promise me you won't get mad of freak out when you see who my guest is."

"I- I promise Harry."

"Thank you," he gave her a relieved smile. "Um, you can come out now, coast is clear."

Draco crawled out from under the bed and stood up unsurely. He was feeling nervous but, of course, he didn't show it.

Hermione, obviously startled, backed up into Harry and he caught her before she fell. She seemed to almost relax in his arms, so he held her. "Malfoy? Malfoy is your guest Harry?" She looked up into his eyes as if searching for his answer there.

"Um, yes Hermione."

"Well, you see, I'm not really so much his guest but I'm find of a refugee that he's helping He didn't invite me here, I just kind of crashed through his window one night," Draco winced at the memories the last fact had recalled.

"Why do you trust him Harry?"

"I don't know, I just do I guess. Besides if he were here to kill me he would have by now with as many chances as he's had."

"I suppose you're right But Harry? What did you need my help with?"

"Well, like I said before, Ron isn't going to be happy about this, and then the whole idea of a Malfoy going to a Weasley house…"

"I see what you mean. It'll be easy enough to convince Mrs. Weasley that he's been mistreated all his life and Finny would probably do anything for you. So, of the Weasleys living in the Burrow, Ron and Mr. Weasley would probably have the most problems."

"Yeah, that's what I figured, but then again, if Mrs. Weasley takes him in- she does have a certain amount of power over Mr. Weasley. And it wouldn't take TOO much to convince Mr. Weasley after we show him some sound proof that Malfoy's okay. So I'm just worrying about Ron. Wait a minute, what about the twins- why aren't they at the Burrow?"

"They were doing so well at the shop that they decided to get an apartment of their own."

"Ah, I see. Back onto the subject at hand though, how are we going to tell Ron?"

"Tell me what?" Ron asked as he entered the room eyeing them curiously. Then he realized that Hermione was in Harry's arms and his eyes widened, "Are you two together?"

"What!" they asked in unison.

"Well you sure do seem comfortable in Harry's arms there, Mione."

"No, Ron we are not together. Hermione fell but I caught her before she hit the ground and I was just trying to comfort her," Harry said.

"Oh, alright then. But why did she need to comforted?"

"Well, Ron, you'll see in a few minutes. Now, on the subject of my guest…I don't think you're going to like him very much, but just remember- I have my reasons and I will explain them to you when we get to your house."

"Okay then, but it can't be so bad can it? It's not like it's Malfoy right?"

"Wrong." Draco stepped out from the shadows where he had hidden once Ron had entered the room. "Not surprising though Weasley- you never seem to get anything right."

"Malfoy? Harry what the hell is HE doing in YOUR house?" Ron finally turned from Malfoy to look at Harry with a face truing as red as his hair.

Harry looked down at Hermione for support and at that moment she thought she saw something she had never seen in his eyes before- fear. In the next second it had disappeared and Hermione concluded that she must have just imagined it.

"Ron, don't you dare start yelling at Harry until you've heard both sides of the story, and especially no yelling in this house! The portkey will take us back to your room Ron as soon as we all touch it. We can talk there."

Harry then unwrapped his arms from around Hermione and she walked over to Ron. Harry grabbed his trunk and Hedwig's cage and stood on the other side of Ron. Draco finally walked up and stood between Harry and Hermione, while staring daggers at Ron. "Ron stared back as if challenging him. 'Scared Weasley?' smirked Draco. 'You wish...' stated Ron, before muttering 'Well, maybe a little…" They all put a finger on the baseball, felt a tug at the navel and went flying through the tunnel back to the Burrow.

Lacerta: So, did y'all like it? Ron and Draco aren't too happy about this arrangement...we'll see what happens...

Augurey: Yeah, we'll see. I really hope you liked it, review to tell us if you did! If you hated it…review and tell us what you hated and why so we can improve please! We do accept flamers, well… I do anyways.

Lacerta: Hey so do I! Anything please! I'd like to thank all of our 10 reviews so far! We love you guys!

Augurey: Until next time, Lacerta and Augurey, signing out.

Okay...that's the end of the original chappies that were written anywhere from 6 to 10 months ago...seems like a long time, I know. Well, there will be a new one soon...thanks for sticking with us guys. We'll tell you more at the beginning of the next chappie. Sianara!