Chapter 14

Hermione walked over to Harry and shook his shoulder, 'Come on Harry, we better get to detention before Snape gives us another nights worth.'

Stretching, Harry stood up out of his chair and said, 'Is it that time already?'

'Yeah, Ron left a couple minutes ago in a bit of a huff. I don't know what you said Harry-'

'Don't worry about it, 'Mione. I'm sure we'll get past it soon enough. We always do in the end.'

Harry smiled comfortingly at his friend while walking to the portrait hole.

'Yeah, you're right.'

Smirking, Harry gave a forced laugh and said, 'What do you think Snape will have us doing?'

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'Now that we're all here I'll be handing out your projects.'

Ron snarled over at the Slytherins, the Slytherins kept cool, expressionless masks on. Harry looked from his best mate to the subject of his snarling. Looking at Draco he could have sworn he'd seen an unknown emotion skitter across the blonde's face.

'Draco, Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Potter shall be doing clean up duty in the Great Hall. Granger and Weasley shall be working on another flood in the girl's bathroom. Better known to most as, ahem, 'Moaning Myrtle's' bathroom. In about two hour's time I shall come and check to see how far you have gotten on your given tasks.'

Hermione looked up at the Professor and said, 'Sir, would it not be better for the houses to be kept separate of one another?'

Snape sneered down at her and said, 'Ms. Granger, the Head Master and myself have our own reasons for what we see fit to do. Is that all?'

Seven separate heads nodded in acceptance of the given orders.

'Should we expect the supplies to be there, sir? Or should we expect to conjure our own supplies as needed?'

The other students looked to Harry questioningly, some even with admiration for a clear head to have asked such a question.

Snape raised an eyebrow and said, 'Well Potter, I would normally have the students conjure their supplies, but with you and your friend Weasley involved I would rather have the rest of the school kept out of harm's way. So the supplies shall be supplied, if you will.'

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Draco looked into the room and raised a disgusted lip into a curl as he surveyed the Great Hall.

'Well, this should be fun.'

Pansy looked over at the dark haired boy to Draco's right and said in a voice filled with disgust, 'Maybe to you Potter, but I am not used to having to clean up after the filth of others.'

Draco looked to her and gave a curt shake of her head. Looking to the leader of the group, she gave a quizzical gaze that he shook off.

Harry looked to the four Slytherins and, sighing, said, 'Look, I know we'll never be close friends, but for tonight could we at least lose the snide comments.'

Draco stood silent for a second, looking the dark haired beauty over. What could he be thinking in that head? Was he actually asking for this, or just putting up pretenses to save his Golden Boy reputation? Meanwhile the other three looked to him for his judgment.

'Alright Pot-Harry. We'll play nice, but only for tonight.'

Harry nodded his head in acceptance and then walked over to where a pile of supplies was, 'I think I'll start on scraping the gum from under the tables.'

Soon the four Slytherins were also working on cleaning up the Great Hall. Crabbe and Goyle were sliding back and forth across the floor with broom brushes strapped to their feet. Pansy was cleaning the top of tables, using much the same technique as the other two, but instead of brushes using cloths. Draco settled himself down to help Harry in scraping off the tables, choosing to start with Ravenclaw table while Harry worked on Hufflepuff.

As the five students worked, a silence fell over them, a stiff and awkward silence that made chills run up and down Draco's arms. Before he could say something to ease the tension, a singing could be heard.

'Why, you wanna tell me how to live my life?
Who are you to tell me if it's black or white?
Mama, can you hear me? Try to understand.
Is innocence the difference between a boy and man?
My daddy lived the lie, it's just the price that he paid.
Sacrificed his life, just slavin' away…'

The four Slytherins stopped what they were doing and looked at one another over the top of the tables. When all four seen that it was none of them singing they turned towards the Hufflepuff table. Draco stood up and walked over, wanting a respite from the disgusting amounts of gum he found glued to the bottom of the tables.

'…Ohhh, if there's one thing I hang onto,
It gets me through the night.
I ain't gonna do what I don't want to,
I'm gonna live my life.
Shining like a diamond, rolling with the dice,
Standing on the ledge, show the wind how to fly.
When the world gets in my face,
I say, Have a nice day.
Have a nice day…'

Smiling at each other, the four others nodded their heads and joined their songs to merge with his. Each adding to the marvel that was the song.

'…Take a look around you, look it's what he sees.
We're living in a broken home of hopes and dreams,
Let me be the first to shake a helping hand.
Everybody, pray enough to take a stand,
I knocked on every door, on every dead end street,
Looking for forgiveness,
What's left to believe?...'

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Ron silently thought to himself while mopping the floor of the girl's lavatory.

How could he think I'd started it? I mean, I was just looking out for him, the way that blonde was walking beside him was just an introduction to a snide dig. And after everything Malfoy's done to him he'd still pick that prat's side over mine? Doesn't he still want me as a friend? I mean, I never once stopped wanting him as a friend. Then I'd never be able to laugh with him as his emerald green eyes dance with humor, never see his delicious lips curl into a mocking smile…Good God! I'm in love with my best mate!

'Ron...Ron! RON!'

Startling Ron, he turned to Hermione, blushing furiously at the girl that the whole school figured he'd get together with.

'Ron, will you please help me? We need to actually calm her down so we make some progress with this mopping; otherwise she's just going to keep flooding it.'

'Right…I know the exact thing that would cheer her up. But it's too bad he's with those insufferable, slimy, two faced-'

'Ron!'

'What?'

'Who were you saying would cheer Myrtle up?'

Ron shook his head and said, 'Right, well, Harry-'

From behind the two Gryffindors an excited voice breathed, 'Harry? Where is he? He hasn't come to see me like he'd promised. But they never do.'

Hermione put a hand over Ron's mouth to keep him from snorting or saying something rude, 'Actually Myrtle, we were just saying how sad it was he was down in the Great Hall. But we could probably get him to come up here and visit afterwards.'

Giving a wail, Moaning Myrtle said, 'B-but it's such a mess! He'll never come in with all this water!'

Hermione put on a consoling voice and said in a soothing tone, 'Oh Myrtle, we'll help. We'll mop it all up for you if you'd let us. That way Harry will be surprised when he comes in.'

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Draco smiled over at Harry and, laughing, said, 'I can't believe it; out of all the tables, Dumbledore's seat is the one with the most gum stuck under it!'

Smirking, Harry said, 'Of course, he may be old and contain a lot of wisdom, but the man is like a kid when it comes to his food and taste.'

Pansy laughed as she skidded across the top of the table, 'I heard that at one time, the old man's password was 'lemon drop'. Can you imagine? How corny is that?'

Laughing out loud, like he hadn't done forever, Harry said, 'Well, whoever your source is, is bang on. And he's actually refused to use anything besides the many different muggle, and wizard confection names.'

Laughing overly hard, Pansy slipped and almost fell to the ground, but instantly Crabbe had appeared and caught her, 'Easy does it Panse, you need all your bones in order to do dominate the sex scene of Hogwarts.'

Smirking, Pansy got out of his arms and struck several poses, each one hot and seductive, 'Rowr, I'll have the masses clawing to get to my side.'

Harry and the other Slytherin's joined in her laughing, 'Fer sure. And you'll give all the guys their wet dream fantasies.'

Putting a finger in her mouth and twisting another in her hair, she said innocently, 'Now how could I possibly do that?'

The four guys laughed and she threw them a cheeky smile. But a voice called from across the hall, interrupting their moments of camaraderie, 'Harry, hey Harry!'

The Slytherins instantly put on cold masks of disdain and Pansy said in a voice that only the four boys could hear, 'Here comes your little puppy Harry.'

Harry gave a sad smirk as he took in the validity of her statement.

'Hey Harry, we need you to come and do us a huge favor.'

Harry looked up at the breathless red head, 'I thought that you didn't know me?'

Ron looked stunned for a minute before he said, 'That was before, I mean, come on, having to put up with these four was punishment enough, what else-'

Before Ron could finish his sentence, or any of the Slytherins could make a comment Harry stood up and walked briskly over to the red head, 'Look, I don't ever want to hear you saying something like that again. Got it? And as for their company, it wasn't so much a punishment as a reward.'

Ron looked at Harry with open mouthed astonishment; this was the same Harry potter, right? The same one who he had hung out with since the first year. But in that moment Ron noticed a difference in his tall friend. The twinkle of innocence was now gone, along with the slight, scrawny build of the boy. Now before him stood a hardened man who had grown up, grown into his own. Here was a man, who looked like a normal person.

'You see Ronald, unlike you, they don't continually demand my full attention. They don't want me to praise every small thing they accomplish; they can see for themselves that they did a good job and are satisfied.'

Behind Harry the four Slytherins let their amazement show on their faces, but it didn't matter anyway, because Ron was too absorbed in what his best mate was saying.

'You know Ron, I was almost sorted into Slytherin. You know that I am a good person; I have taken everything that has come at me and beaten it. But I have to ask you this, if I was in Slytherin, would you still think of me as the Boy-Who-Lived? Or would I simply be another slimy git, like the rest of those in Slytherin?'

Ron was speechless, his mouth open in the room. Before he came back to his senses the Slytherins came to theirs. Pansy moved over to Ron and shut his chin with one finger, 'Hey copper top, best thing to do once you've been dissed, is to fire back a retort as fast as possible.'

Ron snarled and whirled on Pansy, 'Bimbo pug blonde faced you…'

Harry laughed and said, 'Ron, the second thing to do is to make sure you can understand the retort.'

Amidst the laughter and catcalls Ron stumbled from the room, right into the front of Professor Severus Snape's robes.

'Well, well, I wonder. What are you doing here, Weasley, when I assigned you and Ms. Granger to the flooded bathroom?'

'Sir, we'd finished up, and I assumed that-'

Behind him Harry said, 'You see Weasley, when you assume, it only makes and ass out of you and me. And it gives Gryffindor's a very bad name.'

Snape looked up at the tousle haired boy and gave a glimmer of a smile, 'My. Weasley, two weeks detention for not following explicit orders.'

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After Ron had stormed out of the Great Hall, a pair of emerald green eyes caught and focused on the purest of silver.

'I think I'd better go and try to smooth things over.'

Nodding his head in understanding, Draco's eyes flashed with curiosity as he tried to understand this raven haired marvel.

'Why would you do that? I mean, he was in the wrong, all you did, really, was stand up for us.'

Harry looked to Pansy and said in a calm, understanding voice, 'Panse, he may have been in the wrong, but my attacking him like that will only make things worse for us in the long run.'

As Pansy thought over what Harry had said, the three Slytherin males waved off the before stated Gryffindor.

'You know, he may have been put in Gryffindor, but in truth, he's a Slytherin through and through,' Goyle mused quietly.

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A half hour later, after a long talking to from Hermione, Harry finally walked through the door leading to the seventh year, Gryffindor, dormitory.

'Ron?...Ron?...'

BANG

'For Merlin's sake! Who in the world put their trunk in front of the door?'

From Harry's right he heard a groggy Neville, 'That was Ron. Poor bugger was so angry that when he tried to lock you out, he forgot the door opens out and not in.'

Harry rubbed his sore shin, hobbled to his bed and sat down, facing Ron's four poster bed.

'Hey mate.'

When he was greeted by nothing but silence Harry continued on.

'I know I was a but harsh earlier. But, you know, Slytherins are just like Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and the Hufflepuffs. If you call them a name they still hear it. And you and 'Mione both know I was almost in Slytherin-'

'Look, Harry, do you have a point?'

Running a hand through his unruly hair, Harry said,' Yeah, I guess the point is that I'm sorry.'

A shuffling of sheets could be heard and then Ron's voice, muffled by a pillow, said, 'Look, this is our last night before our new sleeping arrangements, and I'm going to need my strength to put up with those Slytherin blokes sharing the same room and showers as me. So for now, could you just shut up and let me sleep?'

Harry sat still on his bed for a second before dropping back into the sheets. He'd fucked up. He'd fucked up real good.

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Thanks again to my fantabulous beta, please forgive my grammer.
And I'd like to say, that I'll be writing up chapter 15 as soon as possible, and I need at least two reviews before I post it. So you better review.
Love you as always, Puissance.