Note One: Yet again, thanks and dedication to moonshine and mustard seed.
Note Two: Thanks to fifespice for catching my Pince/Hooch error (that is now corrected)!
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:Chapter Fourteen: Gryffindor vs Slytherin Quidditch Game
Hermione woke up feeling uncomfortable. When she looked down, she realized why. She had fallen asleep in her costume from last night, which was very tight and constricting. Getting up, she quickly changed into some comfortable pajamas and rushed out the door.
A few minutes later, she cracked a door open and peered into the room. Noticing that all the boys were still asleep, she tiptoed towards Harry's bed and crawled in, thankful that he hadn't put another spell on the curtains after she left.
"Uhhh." He groaned.
"Morning Harry. I just wanted to come check on you. How do you feel?"
"Nnnhhh. Head hurts." Harry said into his pillow.
"I'll get you something for that. You look like you've been crying the whole night. Did you get any sleep?"
"Not really."
"I'll be right back." Hermione said as she got up. Five minutes later, she was placing a couple of pills into Harry's hand and a glass of water into the other.
After he swallowing the pills, he handed her the glass and lay back down.
"You said we could talk today, remember?" Hermione said.
"Can it wait until later? Right now's too early."
"Sure, if you eat breakfast with me."
"I'm really not hungry though."
"And I really don't care. You're going to eat."
"Okay, can we eat some where besides the Great Hall?"
"You can't avoid him forever!"
"I know."
"Hermione? Is that you?" Ron asked nearby.
"Yes."
"No offense, but it's Sunday. Some of us are trying to sleep." Ron said, as he pulled the curtains back from Harry's bed, climbed in and got under the covers. "What's going on? Harry, what's wrong?"
"He met his Quill-Pal last night." Hermione offered when Harry didn't.
"Oh right! How'd that go?"
"My match is Draco Malfoy." Harry said, finally speaking up.
"Malfoy? No bloody way! It's a mistake, right?"
"Ron, the Sorting Hat knows what he's doing!" Hermione said.
"Right, so some how he tricked it?"
"No, Ronald! Harry's match is Draco Malfoy."
"But it has to be a set up!"
"Why is that?"
"Because just last week, I caught Malfoy harassing Harry right outside of my brother's store."
"Well, I'm sure it wasn't what it seemed."
"Suuure." Ron announced, looking like he didn't believe her. "Well, this was fun. Maybe next time we have a morning chat we should try it in your room, Hermione." Ron said with a wink.
"Ronald!"
"Oh right, the Sliding Stairs of Doom! How could I forget?" Ron said as he stood up. "Do you want to talk about it, Harry?" Ron asked.
Harry shook his head. "Not right now, but thanks."
"All right, I'll see you two at breakfast." Ron announced as he stood up and walked over to his own bed.
"Bye Ron." Hermione called after him. "And I'll see you in a couple hours, Harry." Hermione said, giving Harry a hug before getting to her feet.
"Sure." He answered.
-o-O-o-
The next time Harry woke up, it was because his roommates were awake and having a very loud and animated conversation about the Ball last night.
"Yeah, but did you see her costume? I swear towards the end of the night, her funbags were almost hanging out!"
"No, they weren't! You just had too much to drink by then!"
"Can you believe that Hermione's match is Pansy Parkinson?" Someone else asked.
"I know! And they both looked so happy at the beginning of the dance, making out on the dance floor! Who would have ever guessed?"
"Yeah, but did you see them at the end of the night? It almost looked like they got into a fight or something."
"Hey, do any of you know who Harry's match ended up being?"
"Ron, you know, right?"
"Um, well, I think you should ask Harry that. It's really his news to tell."
The next thing Harry knew, he had a few hyper boys jumping on him in bed.
Seamus was shaking his shoulders and Dean was trying to tickle his feet.
"So, who's the lucky guy?" Seamus asked.
"I really don't want to go into it yet."
"Was it that bad?"
"Yeah."
"Hm.. Colin Creevey?"
"Stop guessing. I'll just say no even if you're right."
"Oh, you're no fun!" Seamus said as he climbed off Harry's bed and walked towards Ron and put his arm around his shoulder. "Time to shower and go eat."
"Seamus!" Harry shouted.
"Yeah?" Seamus mischieviously asked.
"Don't go trying to bribe it out of Ron either. He's not allowed to say."
"Oh fine!" Seamus responded while walking away from Ron, as if caught.
Harry got up out of bed, hoping that his face didn't give away the fact that he had been crying almost the entire night.
Out of habit, he looked at his mailbox. He wasn't sure why, but he was slightly disappointed to see that it wasn't glowing, not that he really expected it to be. After all, the joke was over and Malfoy had clearly won the round. He wondered how long it would be before the entire school knew about it. His heart gave a lurch when he realized that Malfoy could even show people his letters to get an even better revenge on him!
Realizing this, he considered refusing to go to breakfast with Hermione.
Less than an hour later, after the shower and getting ready, Harry was in his room pretending to look busy, but Hermione caught on and practically dragged him towards the Great Hall. The closer they got, the more struggling Harry put up. He fully expected to enter the room and have everyone waiting for him to show up so they could all hold up his letters and laugh at him. Though, what actually happened when Hermione pulled him through the door was a complete shock to him.
Not only were people not laughing at him, but they didn't seem to even know about the joke Malfoy pulled on him yet. In fact, the only stares happening that morning were towards Hermione. Harry assumed people were still shocked about seeing her with Pansy last night.
"See Harry, nothing to worry about." Hermione said, not caring about the looks she got.
"Wait until the newspaper arrives." Harry said.
Hermione sat down and started filling her plate. She put some pancakes onto Harry's plate and glared at him. He picked up his fork and took a bite. He ate a few bites and then couldn't stomach any more.
When the owls came in with the mail, Harry actually considered getting up and running out of the hall, but when he saw Hedwig flying towards him, his feet became frozen to its spot. He immediately wondered if the letter could be from Malfoy with a threat of blackmail. Suddenly having courage to do something he had been wanting to do since he first walked through the door, he glanced towards the Slytherin table, certain he would see a blond boy sitting there with a very smug look on his face.
For the second time that morning, he was wrong. Malfoy's usual seat was empty and he wasn't anywhere at his table.
By the time Hedwig dropped off the letter, Hermione had already placed her newspaper on top of Harry's empty plate.
"Nothing, see. It would have made the front page for sure." Hermione pointed out.
Relief washed through Harry, then he picked up the letter. It was from Brent. He quickly opened it. It was the typical, 'How are you, how are things going with this guy you say you are 'sort of' seeing, hopefully we can hang out if you come back during Holiday break,' etcetera type of letter. Harry pocketed it, telling himself that he would reply later.
About ten minutes later he noticed Malfoy entering the Hall. Harry watched him walk in and sit down next to Pansy. He waited for Malfoy to look up at him, so he could try to figure out what the boy's next move was, but he couldn't catch his eye.
Eventually Harry and his friends left the Great Hall.
Draco watched Harry leave, with regret filling his stomach. He wanted to run over to the boy and explain how he felt, but he knew it wouldn't do any good.
"Harry looks like he didn't get any sleep. He looks like crap, actually." Pansy said.
"Well thankfully my mother taught me a spell to make you appear well rested. Luckily, it also removes all the evidence of crying and baggy eyes. Otherwise, I would look the same as him, because I definitely feel like crap."
"I'm shocked you didn't go running after him when he was leaving, just now."
"Well I'm not chasing after him forever. If he doesn't want to be with me, fine. I guess I'm just damned to be miserable for the rest of my life. Hey - if I can't be happy, at least I can make my jailbird Father happy. Maybe I'll go find some girl who is good breeding stock - marry and have a bunch of kids to carry on the family name."
"Keep thinking that. Maybe if you say it enough times, you'll actually start to believe it. Besides, if you run off and find some random girl to give your Malfoy fortune to after I finally found someone I'm willing to settle down with, I swear I will Avada Kedavra her."
-o-O-o-
Harry spent the rest of the day sulking in his bedroom. The first few people who offered their concern was shooed off by Ron. Eventually, everyone just left him alone.
He went to bed early that night, although he still didn't get much sleep. He refused to let himself cry over the incident again, so he just stayed up pitying himself until he finally drifted off. Unfortunately, a couple hours later, he woke up from having nightmares and refused to go back to sleep again.
The next morning was Monday and Harry didn't feel like he could be very productive. He didn't want to go to classes, but he assumed they would help take his mind off the Malfoy issue.
Again, the first thing he noticed after he woke up was his non-glowing mailbox. He wanted to kick himself for even looking.
After breakfast, when Harry and Ron were walking towards the Quidditch Pitch, Harry spotted Malfoy ahead of him.
Groaning, Harry said, "I forgot he even had this class."
"Don't worry about him mate, I've got your back." Ron said.
"Thanks." Harry said, smiling.
After the stretches, which Harry almost couldn't do, due to his lack of sleep, lack of energy, and lack of want, all of the students took to the air.
"Today, we're going to practice some extreme moves, so I hope you all brought some energy." Madame Hooch said after casting the Sonorus spell. She continued to give them all directions and then let the dozen bludgers into the air.
Class had been going all right for Draco. He didn't get much sleep last night and didn't feel like coming to class. He would much rather have stayed in bed for the rest of the week – but his Malfoy pride wouldn't let him.
Hearing something coming towards him at a fast speed broke him out of his daydream and Draco did one of the new moves they were learning and then used his bat to hit the bludger away from him. They had been at this for over half an hour and his arm was starting to get tired. Some of the students were getting so hot from practicing, you could see them hurrying to take of their winter jackets and drop them. Looking down, there were random coats and scarves all over the ground of the Pitch.
Draco had just happened to glance over and see that Harry was about to hit a bludger. Harry was focused on the one in front of him, holding his bat out to swing - when another one whacked him on the arm he was using to hold onto his broom; he almost fell off. The bludger that he missed batting, due to getting hit in the arm, continued forward until it collided with his gut. Harry aimed his broom towards the ground, and flew down one-handed and hunched over.
Madame Hooch noticed this and started to fly down. She pointed at the first person she saw, and said, "You, follow me."
Draco turned to Theo and said, "You stay, I'll go take care of this." With what he hoped was a smug look on his face and hoping Ron was too busy to notice that Harry got hit.
When Draco made it to the ground, Madame Hooch was kneeling down next to a hunched over Harry, checking out his arm.
"Yes, your arm is definitely broken and you need to get your body looked at. I'm surprised Harry, you're a natural dodger. Are you feeling okay today?"
Trying not to show the pain he was in from having the two iron bludgers hit him, he answered, "I'm a little tired, haven't slept much lately. I think maybe I shouldn't have come to class." He said, while being thankful that he didn't eat much at breakfast, otherwise he would be throwing up everything right then.
"Okay, well I'm sending you to see Madame Pomfrey. And you," she said while pointing at Draco, "go with him to make sure he gets there okay."
Harry didn't bother to look up as someone grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet. He was too busy hunching over, holding his stomach, and squeezing his eyes shut. His feet started walking in the direction that the arm was guiding him. He kind of assumed it was Ron helping him, until a second hand started rubbing circles on his back.
Harry opened his eyes and looked over. He was so shocked to see Malfoy standing next to him, that he completely stopped walking.
"Hi Harry. Can we talk?" Draco asked, breaking the silence when he noticed that Harry was gawking at him.
Pulling his arm out of Malfoy's hold, Harry said, "Sure we can talk - the jokes over after all. You should be proud of yourself because you totally fooled me!" He said in a mocking tone. "When are you going to contact Rita Skeeter and sell her the story? I'm sure the Wizarding World would love to hear how easily The Great Harry Potter fell for some imaginary person."
"Stop acting like that! I meant everything I said to you, Jolt! What is it going to take for you to believe me?"
"For Mischief to be someone else. Anyone else! I just find it very convenient that you knew it was me the whole time. Perfect set up, really."
"I wasn't sure it was you until the second week after we started writing." Draco said, clearly getting upset.
Harry then remembered the letter from Draco's Aunt. "I'm curious. Do you think it's funny that your wonderful Aunt Bellatrix is threatening to kill me?"
That did it. Draco was furious. "What would make you think that? The fact that I was beaten within an inch of my life by my father when I refused to take the Dark Mark last year? My mother spent the entire summer healing me and hiding me from my father so he couldn't hand me over to the Dark Lord after I disobeyed him."
Harry looked shocked and started to walk off towards the castle, not sure what to say.
Draco reached out and grabbed Harry's arm to finish walking him to the hospital wing.
"Look, I'm fine Malfoy, I can get there on my own." Harry says, shaking his arm out of Malfoy's grasp again.
"The teacher told me to make sure you get there okay, so now I'm bound." Draco said while grabbing Harry's arm for the third time - thankful that Harry didn't have his wand on him; they always locked them up for Quidditch games and practices. Of course if he did have it on him, it most likely would have been snapped in half by the second bludger that hit him.
Harry stopped fighting and let Malfoy guide him through the castle. They made it up the first flight of stairs very slowly, but being in so much pain and having to walk hunched over made Harry pause to get energy before the second flight.
Draco scooped Harry up in his arms before he could fight him off, knowing that Harry was in more pain than he was letting on.
"Put me down!" Harry whined.
"No." Draco replied, while starting to climb the stairs. "You know, this isn't the first time I've carried you up a flight of stairs."
Harry's face scrunched up, trying to think of what Malfoy meant. Draco noticed the look, and laughed.
"You remember the Hufflepuff Party? How do you think you got to your bed? You came out of the bathroom drunk, and practically fell on me. Of course I was planning on helping you any way, Jolt."
Harry looked to be in deep thought, trying to remember that event.
Draco added, "After I tucked you in, you pulled me down on top of you and I almost gave in. Glad I didn't sleep there because I could just imagine how badly you would have hexed me the next morning."
Getting closer to the hospital wing, Draco considered walking slowly so this moment could last longer, but he knew Harry was in pain.
Draco pushed the swinging door open with his foot and walked towards the beds. He gently laid Harry down, who immediately curled sideways into a ball.
Madame Pomfrey came bustling out. "What happened?"
"He was hit by two bludgers during Flying Class. One here, and the second here." Draco said, pointing to the spots.
"Okay, let's have a look, Mister Potter." Pomfrey said as she started to lift up Harry's shirt. She was having a bit of difficulty taking it off due to the curled-up position Harry was laying in.
Draco leaned over and gently lifted Harry partially up and then helped Pomfrey remove the shirt from Harry's small frame.
"Oh my." Pomfrey said, noticing the bruising that was already starting on his arm, she rolled him gently onto his back to look at the large swelling and bruising starting on his stomach. She waved her wand and said, "Your arm is broken and there is some slight internal damage. Nothing I can't fix. Though I wish they would stop using lead for bludgers, and switch to something less damaging."
Pomfrey walked off to her storage cabinet to get the medicines she needed, leaving Harry and Draco alone.
Harry curled back onto his side. Draco wanted to touch Harry and comfort him, but in the end he just pulled the covers up from the bottom of the bed and placed them on top of Harry.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" Harry said quietly.
"Because I care." Draco answered.
"But why?"
"I have for years. I don't know… I guess one day, I just started to care about your feelings. Of course, I hid it and tried to do everything possible to make myself stop thinking about you in that way. Then one day it dawned on me - I truly care for you and knew it wouldn't ever go away. I've had time to come to terms with it."
Draco could hear Pomfrey start to come out of the storage room, with a couple of bottles of medicine. He quickly leaned over and pressed a kiss to Harry's temple, shocking the raven-haired boy, before walking through the doors, not looking back.
"Can you sit up, Harry? I need you to drink these." Harry wiggled and twisted, and eventually made it to a semi-sitting position and drank down the potions.
-o-O-o-
Draco made it back out to the Pitch just before practice was over. Ron flew straight to him.
"Hey, Malfoy." Ron started.
Rolling his eyes, Draco said, "The teacher wanted me to take him to the hospital wing. He's there now and should be fine." He walked off towards the showers, leaving Ron standing there.
After all of the classes were over for the day, Draco ran into Pansy and Hermione in the Dungeons.
"Is Harry okay?" Hermione asked. "Pomfrey wouldn't let anyone in to see him because he was sleeping."
"He should be fine, Pomfrey was just giving him medicine when I left. She seemed confident that she could heal him."
"I feel so bad! I was the one who talked him into going to classes today. I knew he was tired and hadn't been eating much, but I told him it would be good for him – to get his mind off... things."
"It's not your fault," Pansy said while rubbing Hermione's back, "you couldn't have known this would happen."
"Either of you care to go for a walk around the lake?" Draco asked.
Both girls nodded. They went up to their rooms to retrieve some winter jackets, scarves and gloves. Pansy let Hermione borrow some of her winter gear. When all were bundled up, they left the castle.
"So how are you doing, Draco?" Hermione asked him.
"How do you think I'm doing?" Draco said with a little more venom than he meant.
"Sorry. Did you get to talk to Harry when you were helping him to the hospital wing?" Hermione pressed on, hoping to not get snapped at again.
"A little bit, yeah. When he wasn't busy trying to run away after he realized it was me helping him."
"You have to understand, Harry has issues trusting people. Growing up in an environment like he did…" Hermione trailed off.
"What do you mean? I thought all those rumors were false." Draco asked.
"Well, he definitely wouldn't want me telling you this, but I think it will help you to understand him better. At his Aunt's house, he was treated like a house elf. He had to cook and clean for everyone, got called names, and was beat up by his cousin for years. Um, he never got to eat unless there were scraps of food left over, even though he cooked all the meals. And I heard his cousin is huge because he would purposefully eat as much as he could so that Harry wouldn't have much to eat. His cousin is like three times the size of Vincent Crabbe. That's why Harry's clothes never fit - he had to wear his cousin's hand-me-downs because they refused to waste their money on him. And for eleven years, he was locked inside a tiny broom closet under the stairs – that was his bedroom. I could go on, but I've definitely told you more than I should have. One thing for sure though – I am positive it was much worse than he let on."
Draco's jaw had dropped open and he was so angry, he was literally shaking with fury. Pansy looked shocked as well.
After a few minutes of silence, Draco cleared his throat and said, "I had no clue. I mean, I assumed he grew up being treated like a prince. I don't understand how he could live through all that and still be so nice to everyone."
"I guess he was so relieved to be able to move out of that house, that he kind of viewed the world in a different light. Of course, he dreads having to go back every summer."
"Not any more, he will never have to go back to that place again." Draco promised and then added, "By the way, I told Harry about me carrying him back to his room after the Hufflepuff party last month. You're probably going to have some explaining to do."
"Great." Hermione said.
-o-O-o-
Tuesday came and went. Harry was still having issues sleeping, but on Monday he told Pomfrey about his sleeping problem and the issue of nightmares during the few times he actually managed to fall asleep. She gave him a bottle of sleeping draught that should last him a couple of weeks. Last night he tried to fall asleep naturally, but after midnight when he still hadn't been able to, he took it and slept restful for a few hours before class.
During all the classes that Gryffindor shared with Slytherin and even during the meals at the Great Hall, Harry pretended that Draco didn't exist. He wasn't ready to deal with that issue yet. His heart was still aching.
The next few days had all the students and teachers excited because of the Gryffindor versus Slytherin match that was happening on Friday. The students were wearing ribbons and buttons to support their favorite team, and there was a lot of heckling in the hallways as well as bets being placed.
Friday morning, the atmosphere in the Great Hall was thick. After the last class of the day, which was at two o'clock, everyone was getting ready to go to the Pitch.
"Is your arm and stomach feeling better?" Hermione asked Harry.
"Yeah, I still have some bruising, but I'm feeling pretty good overall."
"Good. I'll see you later. Good luck!" Hermione offered as she hugged him just outside of the Gryffindor locker room and started heading towards the stands.
After Gryffindor's team pep talk, they took to the field feeling very confident.
Once in the air, Harry flew high above the action, trying to look around for the Golden Snitch. He wanted this game over as fast as possible. Draco kept trying to talk to him and it was breaking his concentration. Harry flew around the field and Draco was following his every move.
"Harry, will you listen to me? I don't even care about this stupid game! I just want to talk to you and you've been ignoring me since I took you to the hospital on Monday."
Harry looked over towards Draco for the first time, giving in. At this point, it had been over half an hour and Draco had not stopped trying to talk to him. The first thing Harry noticed when he turned around was the serious look on Malfoy's face. The second thing he noticed were his pink lips that were slightly open. Harry then forced himself to look away from Malfoy's face; because some part of him was beginning to want to believe in the things Malfoy was telling him.
Harry said, "Look, I really don't want to discuss this now-" but, suddenly he broke off and his eyes opened wide. He took off at a fast speed and swooped down with his arm held out in front of him. Harry then held his hand up in the air and the students cheered when they saw the Snitch.
"Looks like the first victory of the year for the Gryffindor team!" The announcer said.
Harry started to fly down to the ground to join his team in giving hugs, patting each other on the back, and congratulating each other.
Draco yelled, "Jolt, wait!"
Harry paused and turned around, Malfoy was right behind him holding his hand out. Without thinking, Harry reached out and took the envelope. Draco smiled and started flying in the opposite direction towards his teammates and then Harry continued flying down towards the ground.
Harry stuffed the envelope Malfoy gave him into his pocket before turning around to congratulate his team.
After taking a shower, Gryffindor team was heading back up to their Common Room for a celebration. By the time they got there, the party was already happening. All the students started cheering at the winning team as they walked through the portrait.
Harry ran up the stairs to drop off his Quidditch gear and hurried back down to the party.
Everyone was drinking, dancing, playing games, and having a good time. Colin Creevey was going around taking photographs of everything. By the time he talked the Quidditch team into standing together for a photo, his camera wouldn't work.
"What's the matter Colin? We're not that hideous!" The team laughed.
"Aw no. I'm out of film! This was my last roll too. I wish we could go to Hogsmeade every Saturday instead of just once a Season. At least you seventh years get to go once a month! Hey, would one of you mind buying me some rolls of film next weekend when you go?" Colin asked hopefully.
"Why don't we just go tomorrow?" Seamus asked.
"Because, we're not allowed." Hermione said from the couch.
"What, are they going to ground all of us seventh years? I somehow doubt that."
"Well they could if they wanted to, even give us all detention."
"I think it would be fun, to sneak out." Dean added.
A lot of the students were nodding their heads.
"So let's do it then!" Seamus said.
"You're only saying that because you're tipsy." Hermione commented.
"No, I'm serious. Us seventh years should go to Hogsmeade tomorrow!"
"Hey, what about us lower years?" Colin asked.
"No way. You better not rat on us either, if you know what's good for you." Ron said, giving them an intimidating look.
"Hey, let's invite the other Houses!" Seamus said.
"This is definitely not a good idea, you guys! What about us Prefects and Head boy and girl? We're supposed to put a stop to this!"
"Quit nagging us! Come on, let's go tell the others!" Seamus announced. Quite a few students stood up to go with him.
"I know how to get to Ravenclaw, because I've walked Luna to her Common Room a few times." Ron offered.
"Great, we'll go there first." Seamus replied.
Harry and Ron started walking with the group of students now leaving through the portrait. Hermione walked up to them and grabbed their arms.
"Ron! You're a prefect. You can't do this!"
"Well, technically, it's not too late to be out walking around yet. We still have a couple more hours before curfew."
"That's not what I meant and you know it. I'm talking about sneaking out to Hogsmeade tomorrow."
"I'm sure Pansy won't have an issue with it, and she's a Prefect too."
That made Hermione shut her mouth really fast. She followed the group out into the hall, muttering to herself.
"Ravenclaw first, where's it at Ron?" Seamus asked.
"Um, the tower on the other side of the castle. The Knight is their Common Room entrance, although I don't know the password."
As they made their way across the castle, they were trying to be quiet and sneaky but some of them had already had too much to drink. There was lots of giggling going on and everyone was talking.
"It's a good thing we're not out past curfew, otherwise we'd be caught for sure." Hermione stated outloud, though not many people heard her.
They finally made it to the Ravenclaw area.
"What do we do now?" Someone asked.
"Try knocking on the portrait." Someone else offered.
"I'll handle this." Seamus said while pushing through the crowd.
"I thought the Irish could handle their alcohol better?" Ron asked.
"He's not sluring his words or falling down," Dean said, "he just gets a little more bold when he's been drinking."
After Seamus knocked on the portrait, the Knight asked for the password.
"We don't know it. Can you tell Luna Lovegood that she has company?"
A minute later, Luna stepped through the portrait and most of the Gryffindors pushed their way into the Common Room.
"Hey, what's going on?" Mandy Brocklehurst asked.
"Man, this is a lot of blue!" Ron said to Luna while looking around the room.
"We came to talk to the seventh years." Seamus announced with a wicked smile.
"Sure. Let's go out into the hall." Terry Boot said.
They all went into the hall and the Gryffindors invited them to Hogsmeade the next morning.
When the Gryffindors said their goodbyes and started to head towards Hufflepuff territory, some of the seventh year Ravenclaws followed – making the crowd much larger.
They headed down the stairs.
"Does anyone know how to get to the Hufflepuff Common Room?"
"Isn't that where they hold their parties?"
"No, that's just an unused staff room near them. But, we'll head in that direction anyway."
When they made it down all the staircases, and were standing near the abandoned staff room, they split up and started knocking on the different portraits and parts of the wall.
Eventually Lavender Brown yelled out, "Over here! It's this way!"
By the time the rest of the students made it over to Lavender, the seventh year Hufflepuffs were already standing in the hallway. Some of the Gryffindors were explaining the plan for tomorrow.
About ten minutes later, the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and now some Hufflepuffs started walking towards the other side of the castle towards the Dungeons.
"Why are we inviting them again?" Ron asked as they got closer to Slytherin territory.
"Because it wouldn't be fair not to." Hermione said.
"Does anyone know how to get to their Common Room?"
"Um, I do." Hermione said, and her classmates started giggling. "Well, I have been seeing Pansy for a couple of weeks now!"
They made it to the Dungeons and had to walk through a labyrinth of passages just to get close to the Slytherin Common Room.
"It did take me a few times coming here to remember the way." Hermione offered, now leading the group. "All of you, keep up and be quiet! I think Professor Snape's chamber is down here."
Instant silence.
Hermione took something out of her pocket and played with it.
"What's that?" Harry asked her.
"Oh, something similar to the D.A. coins I made. This way Pansy and I can meet up without having to plan in advance." She said with a huge grin.
A few minutes later, Pansy came strolling out of a stone passageway.
"Hi." Pansy said, looking unapprovingly at all the other students. "What's this?"
"We wanted to invite the seventh years out to Hogsmeade tomorrow. We're sneaking out." Seamus said.
"I've already tried to talk them out of it." Hermione told Pansy. "I may as well go along with them and have fun, because I'll be getting the same punishment regardless."
Pansy smiled, "All right. I'll tell my classmates about it."
A lot of the students looked weary standing there in the Dungeons right near the Slytherin Common Room. It didn't help when Draco stepped out and gave an evil look to the huge group standing in front of him. A horde of Slytherins were standing behind him with the same intimidating look.
"Time to go!" Someone announced as the crowd eagerly turned around and started walking away.
"Hold up, I'll guide you." Hermione offered. "Trust me you do not want to get lost in these passages."
She gave a quick kiss to Pansy before she pushed her way through the crowd to take the lead.
Draco spotted Harry in the back of the crowd and yelled his name. Harry turned around. Draco blew a kiss to him and Harry gave a slight smile before Ron grabbed his arm and dragged him off with the rest of the crowd.
"What was all of that?" Draco asked Pansy with a huge wave of his hands to imitate the size of the crowd that had just left.
"Let's gather up all the seventh years. We have something to discuss." She answered as she walked back into the Common Room.
-o-O-o-
When Harry made it back to his room some time later, he walked over to his wardrobe and pulled out his pajamas. As he was taking off his clothes, he felt something in his pocket. He reached in and pulled out an envelope. 'I forgot about this.' He thought, tossing it onto his bed so he could finish changing.
A few minutes later he sat down on his bed and picked up the envelope. He ran his fingers over the black parchment paper gingerly. He flipped it over and saw that it had Jolt, written on it in gray. He paused to consider his options. Part of him wanted to throw it away without reading it, because he was still hurt. But part of him was curious and desperately missed communicating with Mischief… er, Malfoy.
Harry did a couple of wandless spells and was happy to see that there were no curses or a portkey inside.
Opening it, he found a letter and the necklace that Mischief gave him. He briefly considered throwing the necklace out of the window, but ended up deciding to keep it to remember Mischief by. He set the necklace on his nightstand and pulled out the letter.
Dear Harry,
I'm not sure what to say that will make you believe my intentions. I truly do care about you, more than anything else. However, I can see you are having a hard time believing me. I do realize this is my fault for harassing you for all those years and I can see how it would be hard for you to trust me. I wish I could take back all the times I was an arse to you.
I am going to stop chasing you around and trying to talk to you. I know that you need time to think about things. I hope in the end, you will realize how perfect we are for each other – but if you don't, I promise to stop trying to force you to see it.
My understanding from Hermione is that you still think I am playing a joke on you. If you want the letters destroyed, just give Hermione the word. I really want to keep them, but I also want to prove to you that I won't be running around showing them off or sending them to the Daily Prophet.
In the end, it's your decision. I already know what I want.
Much love,
Draco
-o-O-o-
Love? Harry wasn't sure what to think anymore. Malfoy sure seemed sincere and Harry was starting to doubt that this was all a hoax. Plus, didn't he tell Ron to give Luna a chance just a few weeks ago? And look at them now… a couple. Harry pulled out his sleeping draught and took a swig. He wanted to fall asleep without dwelling on this situation any longer. He could always think about it tomorrow during the thirty minute walk to Hogsmeade.
-end of chapter-
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Note One: If you are curious about the reason behind most of my dedications - Sometimes people leave good ideas in their reviews (that I may or may not use). Occasionally they leave an idea that I already had planned out, but sometimes it's cute stuff that I think will be good to use. If I do use an idea from someone, I will dedicate that chapter to them.
PS – Please read In response to someone's question about whether or not I came up with the idea of this story on my own, or used someone else's idea. Let me clear this up!
I do not steal from people and then claim it to be my own. I came up with this story by myself and when I did - I had never read or even heard of a story line with penpals in fanfiction.
Actually, before I sat down and wrote Chapter One - I did a brief search on this site for penpals and quillpals and didn't find ANYTHING. Then in one of my reviews after I posted my first few chapters, someone mentioned that they had read a story in the past that had a similar story line. So I did another search, and found the other Quill Pal story on this site (not sure how I missed it during the first search, but I promise it didn't come up for me the first time I looked).
So anyway, after I found that story, I refused to read it because I didn't want any part of their story to influence mine!! So I hope there aren't a bunch of similarities, because if there are – it is purely coincidental!!!
Lastly, any ideas I use that I didn't come up with on my own, I always credit to the person who put them in my head. So to answer your question, no, I didn't take the story line or title from someone else's story. This was something that had been floating around in my head many months before I started to write it. But, Flower, thank you for the question because it gives me a chance to clear this up! I'm not upset – just glad to be able to clear the air.
