A/N I've been extra motivated lately and I finished this chapter early. I'm kinda going in a different direction than what I originally planned but I think I know where I'm headed now. And I know I keep switching from first to last names I just feel like some fit better with different circumstances. As always thanks for reading and please review!

Chapter 5

Harry had followed Malfoy and Snape after they'd left the library. They'd gone to Snape's office and Harry had positioned himself right outside the door. He pressed his ear against it and listened to as much as he could. He hadn't heard much, until the very end when he heard something about plan and Harry. He could only assume that meant Draco was planning to kill him. Now that he thought about it, he'd probably just overreacted but he wasn't about to admit that to anyone. It was strange, the spell wasn't supposed to wear off after a while. It certainly seemed to be. Harry hadn't felt this much since Sirius had died. After Draco had made some sort of proclamation in the bathroom Harry had gotten annoyed and left. He'd forgotten how it felt to be angry, or sad. Curfew was rapidly approaching but instead of going to bed he went to the Astronomy Tower. Harry considered just redoing the spell but something stopped him.

"Can I join you?" It wasn't Draco this time, but Ginny. Harry turned to look at her.

"Sure." He said uncertainly. He was looking down at the grounds and heard Ginny come up next to him. She glanced over at him but not awkwardly. It was rather peaceful, up here with Ginny. She wasn't like Ron, or Hermione. And now Draco too apparently. She let them stand here in silence without it being weird. Harry wondered if he should tell her about the spell, it had worn off completely now and honestly he didn't think he was going to do it again.

"Harry." He turned to look at her. "Are you alright?" She wasn't looking at him, rather straight ahead.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, uh I haven't been myself lately." He swallowed. "I am sorry." She turned to him in surprise.

"You're back to normal now?" She looked stunned. "We thought you were going to be like that forever."
He smiled a little. "I did something sorta stupid. But I won't do it again."

Ginny laughed. "I bet you did. And you better not."

Harry laughed. It felt so good to feel something again. Not to be like some hollowed out rock.

"Has Draco been like…" He trailed off. He didn't know how to explain.

"Uh, like a mother hen when it comes to you?" Ginny giggled. "Yeah, I dunno what's up with him but he's alright now."
"And Snape?"

Ginny thought for a moment. "I don't know, it's scary actually. He seems to care about you and Malfoy." She shrugged.

"It's just weird. Like he hasn't picked on me at all lately. Or anyone actually." Now that he thought about it, maybe he should be worried. Perhaps Snape was going to murder him in his sleep. He shuddered. Nice Snape.

"You and me both." Ginny muttered. Nice Malfoy. What was really going on?

"Ready to go back?" asked Harry. He'd had enough of contemplating Snape and Malfoy's weird actions.

"Yeah." Ginny shook her head. "I'm glad you're back to normal Harry but you're gonna have one hell of a time explaining all of this to Ron and Hermione." Oh man, he'd honestly forgotten about that.

"Come on." Ginny led the way from the tower. On their way down they bumped into Draco and Hermione. Harry raised his eyebrows at them.

"Harry." said Hermione cautiously. He smiled at her sheepishly.

"Hey Hermione." Her face broke into a radiant smile.

"Oh Harry! I thought we'd lost you!" She hugged him tightly and Harry looked over her shoulder at Draco. He stood there awkwardly with his hands in the pockets of his robes. Hermione stepped back to look at him.

"Were you under some sort of spell? Or, I don't know a potion?" He should've known the questions would come immediately.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Harry felt his stomach drop. Snape. The four of them looked at each other.

"We were just looking for Ron. Haven't seen him since dinner and we were worried." The words were out of Harry's mouth before he could think.

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Detention. Tomorrow night at my office at eight. Don't be late. All four of you." He glowered at them. It was strangely comforting, Snape acting normal and not… however he'd been acting.

"Off to bed. Now!" They quickly scurried away from the professor. Harry noticed Draco made sure to go well around Snape. Had he really gone to the library to have Malfoy spill his guts to him? Was Draco really that desperate for someone to talk to? Malfoy went his separate way to the Slytherin dormitory and the three of them headed to theirs.

"I can't believe we have detention! It's completely unfair!" Hermione was saying.

"Have you had detention since our first year?" wondered Harry aloud.

"No." sniffed Hermione. "I haven't." Ginny snorted and tried to pass it off as a sneeze. Hermione glared at her. And Harry smiled.
"Where is Ron?" he asked as they muttered the password and climbed in through the portrait.
Ginny rolled her eyes.
"With his girlfriend." Harry immediately looked at Hermione and she looked rather annoyed.

"He has a girlfriend?" How much had he missed, how long had they been at Hogwarts anyway? He'd lost track of time.

"Well he hasn't said so but…" Ginny trailed off, glancing nervously at Hermione.

"He's always off right after dinner. Has to go do homework." Hermione used her hands as quotations. "Well I'm going to go to bed. And Harry don't think I forgot about it." She didn't need to say what it was. Harry groaned internally.

"Right, yeah. Night Hermione." She smiled at Ginny and walked up to her dormitory.

"Ron's seeing Pansy." Ginny blurted out. Harry nearly fell over on his way to the chair.

"What? But I thought he liked Hermione." He sat a particularly squashy chair and Ginny sat in the one next to him.

"Well I guess all those times we thought he was following Hermione he was with Pansy." She shrugged. "Hermione doesn't know."

"How do you know?"

"I followed him." said Ginny unashamedly.

"Oh man. Hermione's gonna be…" He dragged a hand down his face. "And isn't she Draco's girlfriend?"

Ginny nodded.

"I've missed everything haven't I." he groaned.

"Harry it wasn't your fault. Well I suppose it was for doing whatever you did but still. You weren't thinking rationally when you did it." Ginny put a hand on his arm.

"Thanks Ginny."

She stood up. "Any time Harry." Within moments she was gone and Harry was alone again.

The next day Draco was fuming at himself. At everyone, the whole world. He'd nearly spilled his guts to Harry and… he didn't want to do it anymore. He didn't want to kill Dumbledore. Then you're going to die. Whatever. At least he wouldn't be a murderer. Maybe if he was really lucky Dumbledore would die of old age, but the Dark Lord would just have him kill someone else. He nearly screamed in frustration as he headed to potions. He stormed into potions glaring at everyone daring them to say something. He threw himself into his usual seat and stared pointedly at the wall. He had no interest in learning about how to make Amortentia. He probably wouldn't even live long enough to use it anyway. Well that was a depressing thought. For an hour he tried to think about anything but Dumbledore, anything but his stupid mission. After class was over he stormed out, not wanting Snape to ask him to stay. He nearly knocked over Harry and Granger on his way out.

"Sorry." he muttered, heading to the bathroom. He decided to just cut his next class, what was the point anyway. What am I going to do? He thought miserably. He was going to die. He was going to die. Choking back a sob he slid to the floor and put his head in his hands. There were so many things he'd wanted to do. He was pathetic wasn't he. After feeling sorry for himself for a solid half hour he dragged himself out to the Great Hall for lunch. He watched as Harry and his friends wandered over to their usual spot. At least Harry looked better. To his great surprise Harry, Ginny, and Granger made their way over to him. He wondered if he should run in the other direction.

"Malfoy." snapped Granger, standing right in front of him with a nasty glare on her face.

"Uh, yes?" he asked cautiously.

"We need your help." said Ginny. Draco noticed that Harry didn't say anything.

"With what?" Draco wondered if this was about Snape, they probably thought he was up to something. Which to be fair, he probably was.

"It's about Snape." Harry said finally. Knew it.

"Well what do you want me to do?" Draco asked carefully. "And where is Weaselbee?" Ginny and Harry gave each other a knowing glance.

"Dunno, but he's not important right now." said Ginny.

"We want you to get Snape to spill his guts." said Hermione. Draco nearly laughed aloud.

"How exactly do you suggest I do that?!" Snape wasn't going to talk to Draco, only to pester him about murdering Dumbledore which he no longer had any intention of doing so…

"Listen whatever Snape's up to can't be any good and this has to do with both of you. He's hiding something that he obviously doesn't want anyone to know about. It seems to annoy him when you're mean to Harry, even though you haven't been, and maybe you two can trick him into saying something after he sees you bullying Harry." said Ginny. Draco thought this was the most he'd ever heard her say.

"Right, but no offense Harry I don't think that's going to work. I'm not sure Snape cares that much." Well maybe he did, he had been about to go into the bathroom to Harry after all.

"I'm pretty sure he does." Hermione said sternly. "I know you probably don't think this but it's a huge deal when Snape is even halfway decent."

"She's right." said Harry. "Nice Snape is ten times more scary than mean Snape." Wasn't that true.

"At detention tonight bully Harry." Hermione ordered. "Be nasty, can't be too hard for you." Ouch.

"Fine." snapped Draco, he turned and left the Great Hall.

Harry couldn't stop thinking about it, nice Snape, decent Malfoy, absent Ron. What was this world coming to? Harry had only seen Ron a few times since last night. He hadn't been at lunch and neither had Pansy. This was going to all blow up pretty soon. Great, more drama. Harry dropped his potions book, he'd lost all his motivations to study. His grades were rather crappy right now due to his time as an unfeeling blob.

"So." Hermione slammed her books down on the table next to Harry and Ginny. Both of them looked at her cautiously.

"Yes?" asked Harry.

"Time to tell us about whatever was going on with you." she said. Harry groaned internally.
"Okay don't hex me when I tell you what I did." he warned. Hermione nodded although Harry wasn't reassured.

"Listen after Sirius died, I wasn't in like good headspace or whatever. I was just tired I guess of losing people and having to deal with the aftermath. Before we left school I found this spell in one of your books, Hermione." He paused. "I wasn't serious about it until I found the spell. Uhm, increortus?" Hermione's face turned red with anger.

"I can't believe you would something so incredibly stupid! You have less brains than I thought Harry Potter!" she yelled.

"I told you I wasn't in a good headspace." He shot back.

"You didn't think about the consequences!" She hissed.

"It was impulsive." He snapped.

"It was stupid."

"Wait what did you do?" asked Ginny, looking very confused.

"He wiped all of his feelings away and he's certainly lucky that he didn't do it permanently!" Hermione screamed.

Ginny shrugged. "It was pretty stupid but I mean he did say he wasn't in the right headspace. I mean come on first Cedric than Sirius?" She shook her head. "Go easy on him Hermione."

Hermione sighed. "Oh I guess. I'm sorry Harry but I still can't believe you would be so stupid."

He smiled a little. "Thought you would've learned by now."

A/N Hello again I just wanted to say thanks to all who have reviewed it means a lot!