"We exchanged letters all summer." Harry spoke breathlessly, his head spinning with the information he was starting to let stream in. "

Somehow you sent them with a different owl than your own so your father wouldn't be able to intercept them or know that you were even corresponding with me. We promised to try and be friends of some kind when we returned to Hogwarts because we didn't agree on a lot."

"Yeah, we did, but that didn't really work out." Draco shrugged. "We were never meant to be friends, I'm pretty sure, given as soon as we saw each other without others around-"

"-I dragged you into a secret passage that I knew and we snogged for an hour after you attempted to push me away from you before we went and snuck into Hogsmeade that night and had a butterbeer together in the corner where no one could see us."

"That's right." Draco nodded, seemingly pleased, but still rather weary as he watched Harry's face tick a little as he was trying to make sense of all of this. "We started meeting up out of sight after that, especially when my father got involved in things he shouldn't have been, like Buckbeak's execution, when Hermoine found out about us."

"Wait, no, you were with two other students. You were laughing about it."

"I can assure you I was not. Just because the brute thing scraped me up doesn't mean I hated it." Draco grit his teeth, eyes now somewhere further away than Kings Cross or even Hogwarts could be. "I was being impulsively stupid to cover up what I was really feeling to save my reputation and I told Father that, but he never listens to a word me or Mother say anymore since Voldermort returned. Even before that."

"I'm sorry." Harry had to apologize,but Draco just shook his head. "Don't be. I've told you a hundred times I'm used to it." The silence stretched between them before Harry suddenly laughed and Draco looked confused. "What's so funny?"

"She wasn't very bloody happy about it, was she?"

Draco smiled cheekily, even though it was still twisted with something Harry couldn't identify. "Not in the slightest, thankfully Ronald is oblivious to everything or otherwise, I would have expected both of them to come charging on me like a pack of dogs."

"Are you sure there was nothing you could do?" As soon as Harry had gotten the news from Hagrid that Buckbeak was sentenced to death, he'd sought out Draco as best he could while keeping the trail off from his friends.

Of course, meeting up on the grounds wasn't the best idea on the execution date, but they'd managed somehow and were now hiding behind some stones next to the stairs that led down to Hagrid's Hut, whispering between each other, hoping they couldn't be seen.

"I did try, but you know my father. Once something either minor or major claws under that skin of his, he's never going to let it go. Especially if it involves me, given I'm supposed to be the "example of what Pure-Bloods are meant to be" or whatever." Draco sneered, shaking his head. "Mother said as soon as the mediwitches oweled him about me being scratched, he'd started proceedings immediately. It was like he was waiting for a moment to strike."

"Lucius is always waiting to strike, Dre, you know that." Harry reached out to palm his face in a moment of impulsiveness and Draco shuddered before he kissed the inside, looking dissolute. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop him. Really I am."

"I know you are." Hearing footsteps, Harry quickly took his hand away as Hermoine and Ron appeared, Hermoine all guns practically blazing as she stormed towards him. "You! You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!" She pushed him up against the rock with her wand to his neck, him shaking under it as Ron quickly sauntered next to Harry. "Hermoine, no! He's not worth it."

"Now listen, Granger." Draco held up his hands. "I can assure you that whatever you saw, it was not what you were thinking. Me and Potter-" He spat the name in Harry's direction. "-were just having a little squif, given the circumstances. Nothing too insulting."

Hermoine huffed, her nostrils flaring before she pulled him back to ground. "Ron, you start towards Hagrid's. Me and Harry will follow you in a minute."

"Sure, whatever, just don't kill him. You'd never survive in Azkaban." Ron quickly sauntered off before Hermoine could slap him and she turned back to them. "You two need to be more careful. Can you imagine what would happen if one of the pure-blood students saw you together? Draco would be punished a lot harder than you, Harry."

"Wait, you know?" Harry swallowed, a whole slew of bad scenarios flashing across his eyes as Draco just stood there aghast as Hermoine just shrugged, still looking quite mad, but now with a softness in her eyes Harry had only seen around him, Ron or her parents.

"Of course I do, you sneaking off isn't new, but Draco-" She nodded in his direction. "Given what happened in first year, after that night we spent detention and Draco asked me to tutor him, I could see the change of behaviour almost overnight. Despite being as pure-blood as you are, Draco, you can't hide your emotions like most pure-bloods are trained to do from an early age. Or at least, you don't want to, I'm guessing."

Neither boy knew what to say to each other before Draco blew out a breath that condensed in the cold afternoon air. "She's bloody smarter than Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff put together, christ." Guess that was the highest honour Draco could give to someone.

"Hush it, Draco, though I thank you for the compliment." Hermione nodded, but still looked rather concerned. "I won't tell Ron, given he's a menace as it is and this will just make him so much worse, but I'll have to do something to make him see I'm supposed to be insulting you before we catch up with him on the grounds, so sorry for this."

Before anyone could blink, Hermoine went and threw a hook that landed on the side of Draco's temple, making him stumble back, but not in pain. Guess she knew where to hit so it wouldn't hurt him, but it would leave a mark.

Still, knowing that Weasley was most likely eyeing them, he pretended that it did, making Harry smirk as he pretended to run off, yelling about how his father would hear about this and all sorts of obscenities, before he and Hermoine shared a look between them and started moving quickly.

"She kept it a secret, despite how much it could have hurt you and brought you down."

"She also patched me up that time I got turned into a ferret while the whole school hated you instead of me and my whole house for once."

"That's a lot like her, yeah." Harry had to agree. Hermoine could qualify for sainthood at this point, whether she and anyone else that had met her and had the privilege of her being in their lives would know it.

"She even covered for us when that damned Skeeter journalist woman tried to get into the tents at the Triwizard and saw you talking to me."

"Psst, psst?" The whispered male sounding voice came from one of the tent flaps nearby and Harry, ever so curious, stood still as he tried to listen. "Potter, is that you?"

"Yeah." He kept his voice low so that the others, Krum, Fleur and Cedric couldn't see or hear him as they waited for their turns against the dragons that would be coming soon.

There was a silence before the voice, clearly Malfoy given his last name being pronounced so heavily, hesitantly asked. "How are you feeling, Potter?"

"I'm…" He honestly wasn't sure how he felt. Scared shitless? Annoyed? "...I'm alright, Dre."

"The key to this whole bloody ponyshow is to concentrate." Draco spit, thankful that Harry couldn't see the look of fear itching on his face as he spoke. "It's not your best skill, but if you can get the hang of it, after that is just-"

"Battle a dragon, yeah, I'm aware."

"Of course you bloody are." Draco was silent for another few moments before he reached under the tent flap and sought out Harry's hand, holding it tightly. "You better not die on me Potter or I swear to god, I'll find your grave and incendio your bones to ash."

Harry wanted to respond, but a sudden flash of a camera made him jump, seeing Rita Skeeter standing there, looking lovingly at him. "Ah, young love. So who might this be? Harry Potter and his secret partner? Do tell me all!"

Draco had already let go of his hand by the time the old hag was sauntered out.