Thanks so much to – Broken Sun & QueenNarca for their great reviews, here's the third chapter for you.
"I still don't understand?" That was from Pansy, the two girls were sitting on a bed watching while the four guys were trying to move all the luggage into one space. For some reason they seemed to think that the two of them had brought too much in Diagon Alley yesterday. "Don't understand what?" Drey asked as she dispassionately watched her brother get clobbered by a book on elemental magic. "I don't understand how you and Bill got back together when you didn't even talk about the Fleur thing." It took a few seconds for Drey to translate Pansy's sentence as she was speaking around a huge multicoloured lollipop. "I knew that he was sorry about the whole thing, if that's a strong enough word. I mean he was crying and Bill Weasley doesn't cry. Once I explained the how I was why I never told anyone about my name and who I was, he just kissed me. And I knew that we were back together. God I can't believe how dumb that sounds. Besides there wasn't a lot of time to talk, if I'd stayed away too long Draco would have come looking and Merlin knows how that would have ended." They were thrown backwards by a loud clap of imploding air as their luggage shrunk to pocket size. Straightening they sorted out their hair, and once everyone was ready and looking suitably Slytherin they left the room and walked downstairs, out of the pub and into the black stretch limousine that was waiting for them outside. On their way they passed the Weasley brood, all with faces the same colour as their hair as they struggled with their trunks. The court passed by and smirked as they saw them; Ron seemed to have some very inventive curses stored in his brain judging by what they could hear.
"Kings Cross Station please", and off they went.
"Bloody Malfoys!" Ron started sputtering when he couldn't think of any more words to describe how awful they were. Bill laughed under his breath when he compared the group of friends he spent last night with to the manipulative creeps his brother was describing.
"Ron you shouldn't talk about people like that." His mother told to him absent-mindedly. "Harry agrees with me, dontcha Harry?" Turning to his best friend expecting immediate agreement he was surprised to find him staring at the door the Malfoy group had passed through on their way out. He was startled from his reverie when a finger poked his shoulder. "What. Oh God Ron, you're not still going on about how awful Malfoy is are you." To the surprise of everyone in their group he sounded angry at the accusation his friend was making. "Has it ever occurred to you Ron that you're doing is exactly the same as what you're doing to him? Making assumptions because of his name." With that Harry turned and got into the Ministry car that was waiting for them. And while the others who climbed in after him were either thinking of his outburst or what the new year would hold, Harry was wondering when Malfoy had got those muscles and the hair, and whether it was his reunion with his sister that had made his eyes so silver. He was also trying to decide what he was going to do about what he heard last night.
When Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys stepped onto Platform 9 and 3/4 they were astounded by the silence enveloping the platform. It seemed as though the twins and their court had come through here and left quite and impression.
Once the train had started on its way Harry caught Bills attention and gestured that he wanted to talk to him outside. They walked down the corridor a little way until they found an alcove and settled themselves into it. Bill was curious about what Harry wanted and Harry was wondering how to start. Just when Bill was about to ask what was going on Harry blurted out, "I heard you in Malfoy's room last night, are you really dating his sister?" He was staring straight at Bill when he asked, wanting to see what his reaction was. Bill turned completely white under his tan and his mind started to whip through possible explanations when he was interrupted, "It doesn't matter if you are or anything I'd just like to know how it started, I mean, I though all your family hated the Malfoys?" Sighing Bill leant on the windowsill and wondered where to start. "I didn't know she was a Malfoy when I met her, I only found that out last night. She came out to the site in Egypt and for a year she was my best friend, only then, things grew. We got together and I fell in love with her, only I never broke up with Fleur. About a week ago she found out, and she left me. But it doesn't matter that she's a Malfoy, I still love her, and she's forgiven me about Fleur and I've sent her a letter breaking up with her. Look, Harry, please don't tell the others, Charlie'll be okay but God knows what Ron and Mum'll do." His eyes were begging the boy in front of him. "Don't worry, I won't tell them, I know what Ron's like when he gets his teeth into something and he definitely won't like this."
"Harry, don't take this the wrong way or anything, but has something happened between you and Ron, you seem to be snapping at him a lot lately."
"Nothing's happened exactly, it's just that him and Hermione were crowding me so much after Sirius's death, they just kept asking if I was all right and wrapping me in cotton wool, and when they weren't doing that they were just so loud. And they still are, and all I want is quiet before I have to go and face Voldemort again." He was nearly crying at the end of his speech he was just so frustrated. Bill stared off into space for a few seconds thinking before he stood up and grabbed Harry's arms and started pulling him down the train.
"Where are we going?" Harry got out while trying not to trip over.
"You wanted quiet, but still with friends, right, people who'll leave you alone when you need it but still be there without crowding you? And you were talking about Drey, so you're going to meet her, I think her and the court might be just what you need." Harry opened his mouth aghast at the suggestion and tried to dig his heels into the floor but it didn't stop Bill.
When they reached the opposite end of the train Bill threw open a compartment door and pulled Harry inside before closing it again. When Harry turned around he found himself staring into the coolly surprised faces of six Slytherins. They all stared at each other for a moment while Bill was wondering whether or not this had been such a good idea when Drey spoke. "Babe, what's going on?"
"It was getting a bit crowded down there so I thought I'd come and see you, and Harry wasn't having such a good time down there so I brought him along." While he'd been speaking he'd sat down next to his girlfriend, pulled her into his arms and given her a light kiss on the temple. When he'd finished speaking everyone in the compartment stared at Harry, assessing him, then they all looked at each other, the twins nodded and the tension that had built up eased. Drey stood up and pulled Harry down onto the seat next to Draco who moved to make room for him. "So, Potter, the Golden Boy decided to lower himself to the Slytherin level and come sit with us." Malfoy was smirking at the raven-haired boy opposite him and talking in his usual sneer, Harry was so incensed at the thought that he'd been dragged down here, being told that they weren't that bad and they were just what he needed, that he completely missed the conspiratorial looks being sent between Draco and the rest of his court. "Look, Malfoy I don't need your shit right now, all right, and..." He was cut off in mid-flow by Malfoy's offer of a chocolate frog. Surprised he was told by Drey that, "It's no fun to have someone in here who doesn't rise to the bait, I mean, most people are just scared of us and do what we tell them, we had to make sure you weren't one of them." The smile on her face was infectious, the kind of smile he never expected to see on the face of a Malfoy, looking around he saw the rest of the court were smiling as well, and he couldn't help but join in and let a smile fall on to his face, accepting his enemy's (ex-enemy?) offer of a chocolate frog.
Throughout the trip there were periods of amicable silence and conversations about everything from Quidditch teams to the death of Sirius and the problems the Slytherins had at home. It was very strange to think of these people who had hated each other for years, except for Drey who had never met Harry before. But they had never really hated each other, Draco and the others had had to keep up the front for their house and their families, and Harry had been told by Ron what they were like and just carried on the idea of hating the Malfoys. But they all knew that they would never tell what had been told in this compartment outside of it, unless they were talking to each other, in fact they had used magic to ensure it. That being the only way Harry would talk about Sirius, they laughed and some cried a few time, Harry and Drey mainly. But it had to have been the best train ride Harry had ever had. When they arrived Harry was loath to depart from his new friends, but he and Bill had to go find Ron, Hermione and the rest of their crowd while the court went to take Drey to Dumbledore to prepare for the sorting.
At the feast, Harry's headache had grown incredibly from the amount of questions he had been asked and the volume they were asked at. After the first year sorting Bill and Charlie were introduced as new teachers and applauded accordingly. Then the moment came for Dracaena's sorting.
"Malfoy, Dracaena", when the name was called the hall went quiet, the rumours about the twins had been spreading through the school like wildfire after their appearance in the platform. When she walked up to the hat her walk was brimming with confidence. A few seconds after the hat had been placed on her head it screamed out "SLYTHERIN" and the riotous applause from that table drowned out anything else that had been heard that night.
When she sat down with her brother and the court at the head of the table, you could see that they ruled the house. As the food appeared everyone was talking about her appearance and what it could mean to have the twins back together. The purebloods were telling everyone who didn't know about them all the stories.
Before they ate the twins looked over at Harry and smiled, Drey looked down to her food almost immediately, but Draco locked eyes with him a little longer, making him blush. He knew Draco was gay, he had told him on the train earlier, but what he hadn't said was that he was fairly sure he was too, and he had a very bad feeling that he was going to end up falling head over heels for the Slytherin King.
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