To Harry's dismay, the rest of the afternoon flew by and supper time came much too quickly. Harry didn't know why he felt so nervous about talking to Malfoy. What he did know was that the sensation was uncomfortable and set him on edge.
"It's alright, mate," Ron said reassuringly, for he, Hermione and Ginny knew of Harry's plans "what's the worst he can do?"
"Hex me? Break my nose again?"
"Or kiss you." Everyone stared at Seamus. "Oh come on! You can see he's gay!" Seamus protested as Ron kicked him under the table and Dean elbowed him. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Well if he does, hex him back!"
"Or kiss him back!" Seamus added, laughing. "You might like it." Harry groaned loudly and chucked a bread roll at Seamus. Ginny glared at him. Ron couldn't help but laugh.
"Don't listen to him, we'll get him later. Anyway, you're much better at magic than the slime ball."
"Thanks Ron," Harry smiled at him briefly, ignoring Seamus, before continuing. "But most of the spells he knows are pain inducing."
"And semi-legal."
"Thanks, Seamus. Keep this up and I'll personally kick you off this table and you'll have to eat with Hufflepuff." Seamus stuck his tongue out at Harry and grinned.
The conversation was left at that and they fell silent for a few moments.
"Malfoy's on the move." Sure enough, Ron was right and Malfoy had got up and was heading for the doors.
"Good luck, Harry," Ginny called as Harry got up to go after Malfoy. He gave her an appreciative smile and went after Malfoy.
"Malfoy!" Harry called after the disappearing figure as he followed him, walking as fast as he could down the corridor without actually running. He called again as he rounded a corner and saw Malfoy in front of him. The Slytherin stopped and turned around. He pulled a face and made to continue walking with a grunt of 'go away, Potter.' Harry grumbled and cursed inwardly. Trust Malfoy to be difficult.
"Malfoy!" Harry yelled after the retreating Slytherin. "You know we can't do this alone so why won't you co-operate! You know full well that you have to get at least an 'exceeds expectations' in every subject and without this project you'll barely get an 'Acceptable'." Malfoy stopped in his tracks and slowly turned round. Harry smiled to himself. It was quickly replaced by a sudden flood of worry. Malfoy's face was dark. A scowl creased on his forehead, his grey eyes were aflame.
"Fine," Malfoy snapped. "But don't for one second think that I'm doing what you say! Your little friends might follow you around like you're some celebrity but I'm not going to." With that, Malfoy turned on his heel and stalked off.
Harry left for the Gryffindor common room, grinning. At least Malfoy had agreed to work with him and the insults had brushed off Harry, for he was used to Malfoy's temper. He made a mental note, however, to make sure he didn't bring up Malfoy's grades, or any other painful subject. He knew how stubborn Malfoy was so he needed to be careful and stay on the right side of him, otherwise he would only get an 'acceptable' himself.
Harry slung his bag down onto the floor in the empty room. He sat on a nearby desk and waited. He was early, but only by a few minutes. He knew Malfoy would be perfectly on time and Harry hated arriving second. He'd just got out his transfiguration book when Malfoy strode in slamming the door behind him.
"Hi," Harry greeted him. Malfoy glared at him, before sighing and greeting him back. Harry grinned. "Where shall we start then?" he asked. Malfoy scowled.
"I'm not doing what you say, Potter."
"Well, you decide then!" Harry said.
"Fine, I will! You do one half, I'll do the other." Malfoy was about to start copying out his half when Harry stopped him.
"It would be much better if we worked together-" he started but Malfoy cut him off.
"No, Potter. Definitely not."
"Why not?"
"Because we're not friends! I don't want to work with you and people will start assuming things!"
"No they won't!" Harry exclaimed. "They'll just think that we are getting along, like adults should, so we can work on a project together. And besides, I'm sick of arguing with you all the time! I don't care about what happened in the past anymore, so why can't we just be friends!" Harry only then heard what he said and how pathetic it sounded. He bit his lip, waiting for the snappy comment following his outburst. Malfoy just sat quietly. Harry struggled to read his expression. Malfoy had a handful of expressions, disgust, disinterest and anger to name a few. Harry decided that the almost blank expression was deep thought. Harry was about to open his mouth to break the silence but Malfoy sighed and pinched the top of his nose before turning his attention back to Harry.
"You don't know how much you sound like a girl, Potter. But we may as well give being... friends... a go." Harry grinned and held out his hand. Malfoy looked at it for a second before shaking it. As Harry flicked his eyes up to Malfoy's, he thought that maybe he saw a hint of warmth in the usually cold grey eyes.
Both boys spent all of their free period working together on the project, chatting casually as they worked. They managed to go a whole hour with only having one minor argument over the subject of friends and they managed to get a lot of work done. When the bell rang at 1pm for lunch they were still working.
Harry sighed as he picked up his work and put it into his bag. He paused at the door.
"Coming, Malfoy?" he asked. Malfoy looked at him, unsure. "Come on!" Harry extended a hand and tugged gently at Malfoy's sleeve and smiled at him. Malfoy rolled his eyes and Harry laughed. Malfoy almost smiled back. They left together, keeping up a light conversation.
"How can you not like flying?" Harry exclaimed, laughing slightly.
"I just don't, okay," Malfoy answered. He was wearing a scowl but his tone was light and almost...friendly.
"You were a seeker for Slytherin, you seemed to enjoy it then,"
"I think the only thing I enjoyed was the prospect of beating you at your own game." Harry laughed at this. It felt almost nice to be friends with Malfoy and joking about the past. Harry started slightly as this thought crossed his mind. Joking about the past with Malfoy. This was weird. He looked across at Malfoy, who was walking next to him. Things had changed so much but this was unrealistic. Something bad was bound to happen. Malfoy glanced across at him and Harry looked away. He shrugged the feeling off, making a promise to himself to muse over this later. In the meantime, they lapsed into a comfortable silence.
They reached the Great Hall and glanced almost nervously at each other. Harry noticed his friends already there, waiting.
"See you around, Malfoy," he said, hitting the blond gently on the shoulder. Harry walked over the Gryffindor table and sat down with his friends, ignoring the looks he got.
"What's going on," Ron asked, almost the second Harry sat down.
"Nothing much," Harry replied, attempting, and failing, to hide a smile.
"Did Malfoy cooperate then?" Hermione asked him, already knowing the answer if Harry's huge grin had anything to do with it.
"Yep, we actually decided to be friends." Seamus wolf whistled.
"Are you sure you're just friends Harry, you looked pretty close. What exactly happened when you were alone together in an abandoned classroom?"
"What's going on?" Ginny sat down beside Harry with a look of confusion on her face. Ron was spluttering and coughing and Harry was kicking Seamus under the table. Hermione was blushing and giggling.
"Nothing, Gin," Harry said, kissing Ginny's cheek and slipping an arm around her waist. Ginny rested her head on his shoulder. For a reason he didn't yet understand, Harry looked across to the Slytherin table. Malfoy looked right back at him, his grey eyes cold. Harry shivered and looked away. He pushed Malfoy to the back of his mind and settled down to joke and chat with his friends.
Draco yawned and stretched. He couldn't wait for the lesson to end. For some reason he was almost looking forward to transfiguration. He'd had a rough morning. He'd woken up late, had very little breakfast, messed up his potion and gotten a detention for missing homework. On top of that, he'd been pestered by Pansy and tripped embarrassingly over his shoelaces, which were unusually untied. He'd hit his face and the graze on his cheek stung with every little movement. He felt tired and very irritable. He just wanted the whole day to be over.
When he walked in to transfiguration, Potter greeted him.
"Alright, Malfoy?" Draco rolled his eyes. Potter's cheery mood irritated Draco greatly and he snapped back at him.
"Just because we're not fighting, it doesn't mean we're suddenly best friends, Potter." Potter stuck out his tongue at Draco in a way that was extremely annoying and slightly too friendly for his liking. Stupid git, he thought to himself as he settled down for the lesson.
When they were told to pair up, Potter luckily moved over to Draco without any fuss. He was greatly relieved as he was not in the mood to mess about and argue with him.
"You do know you've got a cut on your cheek, don't you?" Potter asked him, seconds after sitting down next to him. Draco huffed, and shot a tired look at Potter. He seemed to get the message as he stayed quiet. For the rest of the lesson Potter let him take charge and didn't contradict him on every single little thing like he normally did. Draco was very relieved and to his surprise, the lesson seemed to fly by instead of dragging on like it normally did.
"Potter, what did you get for this-" Draco started but his sentence stopped abruptly when he noticed that Potter's eyes were trained on him. "What is it?" he asked, slightly worried. Potter extended his wand to his face and Draco warily watched it come towards him, almost going cross-eyed as it nearly reached his nose.
"Potter," Draco warned, his heart hammering in fear. "What are you doing?" Potter muttered a spell quietly and he flinched away but no pain came. A cool sensation came over his cheek and when it left him, the stinging from his graze left with it. Draco reached up to his face and found that the graze had gone. Draco looked back to Potter. The hand retreated and he drew his wand away. Draco looked at him. He wore a slightly surprised expression. A slow grin soon spread over Potter's features. Draco held his gaze for a moment before Potter looked away and continued with the lesson.
The bell rang much sooner than he expected and Potter's light-hearted air must have been infectious because Draco left the classroom feeling slightly calmer than he did when he entered it. He grumbled as his fingers explored his cheek, he could have healed it himself. The gesture had left Draco a little confused. Why would Potter help him? They had a truce but the Gryffindor seemed to be taking it too far. Draco shook his head, he wasn't one to ponder over things and soon dismissed the event. It didn't disappear completely though, it still stayed somewhere at the back of his mind.