CHAPTER 8

"Oh. My. God." The world starts spinning rapidly and I feel as if I might throw up. Violently. Standing in front of me is… Merlin, you don't even want to know. It's horrible. It's unbelievable. It's… not happening. Nope, not happening sorry. Must be in the wrong compartment. My mind is a little in the gutter today. Dragon is not… no. He can't be… Malfoy.

I turn to leave. I swear Dragon said to meet him in this compartment but silly me must have read his letter wrong.

"…Harry?" I hear faintly behind me. I roll my eyes and turn around expecting to hear some uncalled for name-calling or a hex flying my way… wait. Did he just call me…?

"Harry? Are you ok? You look like you're about to faint," he looks up at me through his fringe, embarrassed looking.

Me? Faint? No. Of course not, what is he thinking? Drop dead of sheer confusion more accurately describes what I am two steps of doing.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" I say. Good going, Harry. Act mean. That always gets him.

"What do you mean? I came here to see you," he gives me a puzzled look. Okay, definitely not the reaction I was aiming for.

"…The hell would you want to see me for? Listen, I really don't care actually. I'm looking for someone," Even better, apathy. He gives me another one of his damned puzzled looks and I feel a very strong urge to hit him.

"Merlin, I knew this was going to happen. Couldn't keep your mouth shut could ya, Draco? Of course not, you just had to tell him. Gah, you're such an…" He mutters to himself and I swear to you he's gone mental. No, I mean off the rocker, coo-coo, insane, I see dead people mental.

"Uhh… right. I'm just gonna go now, ok?" I say and turn to leave once more. I need to get back to my compartment, find the letter, and make sure I didn't read it wrong, as I obviously have.

"Harry! You're going to look for Dragon aren't you?" He says softly to me.

What did he just say?

"What did you just say?"

He stands up and shuffles on his feet for a moment looking down at his shoes as he talks.. "Dragon. Harry… I'm Dragon,"

…

WHAT? No. I mean, Dragon is sweet and nice and funny and… everything that Malfoy is not. But… how does he know about Dragon? This is obviously some sick joke. That's it. It's a joke.

"Nice one, Malfoy," I tell him.

"Nice one… what?" Oh he's a good actor. He looks thoroughly confused. I almost even believe him. Keyword in that last sentence, almost.

" What is this, some sick joke? Oh I get it; this was some ploy thought up by you and your cronies to make me look like an idiot. Get me to fall for some made up character and then get your kicks for the week. Well guess what, Malfoy it's not. Going. To. Work," Hah. Got you there didn't I? But… How could he be fake? Dragon? He just seems so real. I really thought that there might have some sort of… chance… between him and I you know. Like we maybe, had something special. But damn it all to hell, Malfoy just HAD to go and ruin it. Because that's what he does, did I mention, destroy everything in his path and I happen to be in his path, unfortunately.

"It's not a joke, I swear to you. Harry, I really am Dragon. And it's not a sick joke or however you put it. Everything I put in those letters was true, everything," He goes on desperately. Well, I should say, fake desperately.

I don't let that deter me and open the sliding door and walk out. I sneer at his still desperate (hurt?) look. I close the door and lean against the wall opposite it. How can this be possible? I wanted so desperately to have someone to you know… love? Well maybe not love but at least… be with. Ug, everything always has to end up badly for me, doesn't it? Of course it does because I'm the fucking Boy-Who-Lived-To-Have-Everything-End-Up-Badly.

I stand up and walk slowly back to our compartment, thinking about all that had transpired in the last ten minutes. Shit. That's the only word for it. Shit.

When I arrive back Hermione and Ron are sharing a very heated looking snogging session and don't notice me walk in. I shake my head and roll my eyes good-naturedly and sit down across from them. At about this time they finally decide to come up for air and Hermione looks my way. She jumps a little bit and wiggles her way out of Ron's grasp and off his lap.

"Harry! Oh, my God, what are you doing back so early? We didn't expect you'd be back for at least an hour or so," She says while trying to smooth down her hair.

"Um… Dragon's not exactly…," I start. Gosh how do I explain this? "He's not… who I expected him to be,"

She looks at me blankly. "What do you mean? Harry, you can't have expected him to be anyone because frankly, you didn't have any clue as to who he was,"

Merlin, I hate it when she's right. " I know that, 'Mione. It's just… you'd have to know to understand," Yeah, understand that it was all a fucking plot to humiliate me.

"Well, then can't you tell us, Mate?" Ron asks tentatively.

Should I? They are my best friends but… what the hell.

"It was… Malfoy. It was Malfoy," I mumble quietly but loud enough for them to hear. Hermione gasps and covers her mouth with her hand and Ron pulls a face.

"Oh, my God," she whispers. "Harry, what did he say?"

Say? Well not much of anything now that I come to think of it. I didn't give him much of a chance.

" He said he was Dragon and I of course figured out that it was just a sick joke thought up by the Slytherins and left" That's the short version, but less is more right? Right.

" Oh, Harry love, are you alright? What with Dragon being fake and all. You must be terribly upset," Hermione tries to tell me. No shit I'm upset. Here I was thinking I'd found someone but no. There's that dream smashed to bits.

"I'm fine. I'll be fine. I'm just… going to go for a walk. To clear my head for awhile" I stand up and walk past their bewildered faces and out the door. I'm not sure where I'm going but anywhere is better than here. I can't stand those two staring at me all the goddamned time, it's unnerving. I walk around and around the train hoping to find somewhere quiet where I can find at least one minute of fucking peace but no such luck. I run into Neville, Seamus, Dean, and Justin while I'm walking and just stop to say a polite hello. I'm not really in any mood to talk at the moment. I keep walking and head to the boys lavatory.

Inside, I'm glad to note, was empty. I heave a sigh and walk to the wall and slowly slide down it until I'm in a cross-legged sitting position. I hit my head gently but firmly against the wall a couple of times, just for good measure. What was I thinking? Me, actually being happy. What are the chances of that happening? I'll tell you they're definitely slim to nil. But Dragon just seemed so… perfect. Wonder how long it took Malfoy to think him up. Must've been ages considering Malfoy is denser than a brick. Very cute but…

Anyway, you know what? Malfoy deserves to hear a piece of my mind. I'm gonna march in there and tear him limb from limb. He had no right whatsoever to mess with my mind. Fuck him. I'm gonna go in there and tell him exactly what I think of…

Wait, how did I get outside his compartment?

…

It doesn't matter. I open the door and see him sitting staring out the window. He jumps slightly at my arrival. I walk right up to him and sneer in his face. Yeah that's right, he's not the only one who can sneer.

"What the hell is your problem?" I start to yell at him. His eyes get wide and he just stares at me. " Thinking you could just do that shit to me? I don't know what the fuck you have against me, or have had against me for the past six years but how the hell does that constitute you fucking with my feelings? You are an insufferable prat, Malfoy. I mean it," I finish off my slight rant and pause to catch my breath. He stares up at me kind of hurt. But it is quickly replaced with a look of determination. He stands up and looks down at me.

"You know what, Harry?" He says before grabbing my shoulders and pushing me onto the seat behind me. I resist slightly but he holds me down with his hands and puts his face very close to mine. " I tried to tell you my true feelings for you. I told you I was sorry for everything I ever did to you and this is how you fucking treat me? Sure, I knew it was going to be a shock for you but come on, I'M NOT FUCKING WITH YOU. It was not a ploy or whatever you seem to think it is. It's true I realized I liked you a long time ago and I also realized that I don't want to go through my life being angry and jealous of you. I…" His face softens down a bit before he speaks again. He sighs. " You made a promise to me saying that you wouldn't judge me on who I've been in the past. I'm not using that as a guilt trip I'm just saying that I'm not the same person I used to be. I thought you might understand that after two months of talking to you and letting you get to know who I truly am. I like you, okay. I first wrote to you in hopes that we might have at least a small chance of getting together. But…" he trails off and looks away from me. He lets go of my shoulders and falls back against the seats behind him. I just stare at him. I'm not sure exactly what's going through my head right now. I'm still trying to register everything that he's said to me. He presses his fingers to the bridge of his nose and stares out the window. I'm not sure what to say. I think I can officially say I may believe him now but… what am I supposed to say to someone who I've spent the better part of six years hating and now just realized that he likes me?

"Oh," Oh? That was smooth, Harry. Great going. You are the ultimate master with words, I'm telling you.

He looks over at me after my oh so eloquent words are spoken. "So, do you finally believe me?" He asks quietly. I look up at him and stare into his eyes. I realize that yes, I believe him but… I don't know. There's still this feeling of resentment, maybe? Hatred? I can't just let go of that all in one day.

I nod at him. "Yeah I do but Malfoy, I… I don't even know what to say,"

"Don't say anything then. Just… I know you still have bad feelings towards me and I understand that but can we… at least be… friends or something?" He asks. He looks kind of pained like being "friends" wasn't exactly what he wanted to be with me but I'm not ready for a relationship with the guy. And to be honest, I don't know if I could be just friends with him.

"Malfoy, I don't know. I don't know if I can be friends with you," He looks hurt. Shit. " No I mean, don't take it the wrong way but… I'm not going to date you as of yet because… well, because it's you. You know what I'm trying to say. But… I can't be friends with you because of some feelings that I have toward you. And I'm not just talking about the bad ones. When you wrote me as "Dragon" I started to… fall for you and it would be just too hard to be friends," I mumble on pointlessly. He stares at me intently. Damn, his silver eyes are so… full of life. He sighs once more and opens his mouth as if he's going to speak. But then he closes it. Damn, just say something. This silence is getting awkward.

He opens his mouth again. " Then go on a date with me," I feel my eyes widen. " If you can't be friends with me or be in a relationship with me, at least give me a chance and go on an actual date with me,"

"Are you serious?" Again, not so great choice of words there. He nods. "Umm… well then sure. When?"

He pauses. " How about Start-Of-Term dance. We can go together," I hesitate before nodding.

We sit there in silence for a couple of minutes before I stand up to go. "I'm just going to go. Okay, Umm I'll see you around, Dragon," He nods politely to me and I walk to the door. I walk out but before I shut it completely I say "And Dragon?" He looks up. "Thanks for the necklace,"

Thank you to all of you for bearing with me on this and reviewing the last chapter. I haven't updated in a LONG time I know but that's because my computer crashed and then I went out and bought a new one and it took me awhile to remember everything that I had written down and such.

So, I sincerely hope you like this chapter. It was kind of hard to figure out if I wanted Harry to be mad, or happy, or confused, or all mixed into one.

I hope I did a good job. And you can let me know by REVIEWING! Please and thank you.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for the story let me know, I'm just kind of writing it as I go along so anything is welcome.

Pee ess: don't worry. I wont take so long in updating next time.