Chapter Eleven: Some Family
(This chapter is from the point of view of Harry Potter)
"He should be fired!" I yelled, so angry that I could barely control myself.
"Be that as it may, you had no right to hold your wand to the throat of a teacher, Harry Potter. To threaten his life! Professor Moody believed young Mr. Malfoy was attacking you…" McGonagall said tightly.
"And that excuses it? Is he not going to be punished at all? He's allowed to prance around the castle turning students into ferrets as he pleases?" I demanded furiously.
"Now that Professor Moody is aware of the rules—"
"If it had been me, he would be gone!" I cried, and McGonagall blinked in stunned silence. "If that evil codger had transformed me into a bloody ferret, you know that he wouldn't be spending another night in the castle."
"Mr. Potter, you don't have to convince me of anything. He should be fired. But we need a teacher, and he must stay, at least for this year. You're lucky you won't be punished for your actions today, but that is only if you apologize to Professor Moody," McGonagall said steadily.
"If he apologizes to Draco…I'll think about it," I replied coldly, and McGonagall just sighed tiredly and walked away. I sighed heavily and sat down on the edge of Draco's bed, and was ashamed of myself when I saw that I had woken him.
"I'm in the hospital wing," he observed quietly, looking around. I nodded, my voice caught in my throat. "It was a ferret that he turned me into, then? I couldn't really tell," he said, his voice still small and distant.
"I'm so sorry, Draco," I burst out, my hands clenched in the sheets and my eyes on the opposite wall. "He just…I didn't have time to block the spell…" I went on, so filled with unappeased anger and shame that I could barely stand speaking to Draco. I hadn't protected him.
"You threatened to kill him?" he asked, and I blinked in surprise. "I couldn't really understand what was going on at the time, but McGonagall said you threatened to kill Moody."
"Yeah," I said, letting out a pent up breath of air and not feeling any relief. "The wand-to-his-throat thing just kind of happened, and I told him to turn you back. He said he thought you were attacking me. You had your wand pointed at my back. I told him you were casting shields around me. He grunted and stood there for another few seconds. And then I told him if he didn't turn you back I was going to kill him. More like screamed it at him, actually. And then he turned you back."
"You're blaming yourself," he said, and I felt his hand on my shoulder. I managed to look at him and his sad little smile brought the same rush of helpless affection that it always did. "You did all that you possible could. You always do. It wasn't your fault." And somehow, having him say it, to know he believed that, made the tightness in my chest relax to nearly comfortable.
"I know," I replied, reaching out and ruffling his hair, and his smile grew a bit. "I'll just be insufferable for a few days until I feel better. Did it hurt you?" I asked.
"No," he lied. "What happened to Weasely and the others?" he asked, partially out of curiosity but mostly to change the subject a bit. I let him.
"Oh, they've got detention this weekend. I do, too. For fighting, you know. Like the bloody duel was my fault," I complained. "We'll probably be shining trophies until midnight or something just as boring. But we could have taken them if no one had interfered."
"I need to practice that shield. I could tell it was still blocking a couple of your spells, as well as theirs. It's tricky, shielding someone else," Draco said, frowning thoughtfully.
"We can work on it tonight after Madam Pomphry releases you. She just wanted to check you over once you woke up, but her diagnostic spells while you were sleeping told her that you were fine, only unconscious," I told him, and he nodded.
"I feel alright," he shrugged. "Will you go find her so I can get out of here?" he requested and I grinned, going to find the medi-witch. She declared him healthy and let us go, and after we'd found Hermione and Luna and they had expressed their outrage at what had happened, we spent the rest of our Saturday out on the grounds perfecting Draco's shields and working on a couple of the new spells I'd learned over the summer. All things considered, the remainder of our day was good.
The same couldn't be said for the remainder of our week. Moody apologized to Draco through his teeth with McGonagall staring him down, and I apologized to Moody in the same fashion directly following. And in his class the next day, he tortured a very large spider and killed it in front of the class using the three Unforgivable Curses. Neville nearly had a nervous breakdown in the middle of class, and I was so angry that I couldn't speak when Moody asked me for the final curse, the Avada Kedavra, and it had been Hermione that had answered him, even though she hadn't been asked.
Neville was the first out of the classroom when the bell rang. "His parents, Harry," Draco hissed, and it was almost a whine, full of sympathy.
"I know, come on," I said, jogging to catch up with Neville and then coming to a halt when we found him standing in an alcove off the hallway staring at a bit of stone wall with the same horrified expression he'd worn when Moody had cast the Cruciatus on the spider.
"Hey, Neville…you alright?" I asked gently, trying to channel the way I spoke to Draco when he had nightmares.
"Oh, yeah. Great lesson," he replied, his voice higher than usual and his smile all wrong. "What do you think is for dinner? Oh, hi Hermione," he said, and I looked over my shoulder to find her standing there, looking concerned. "Great dinner. I wonder what's for lesson," he said, looking straight through us.
"Neville, I'm sorry," Draco said abruptly, and I looked at him in surprise. His gray eyes were wide and full of emotion, and his body was tensed. And then I realized that Neville was looking at him, too, and not through him. "I…I mean…I'm sorry…" he paused, taking a deep breath, and then in a rush he said, "It was my aunt and I'm sorry."
Neville stared at Draco for a long silent moment, and then, slowly, he relaxed and nodded. "Me too," he said with a shaky sigh. "Let's go to dinner," he said then, sounding mostly like himself again. Hermione looked baffled, but knew better than to ask what the hell had just happened while we were still in front of Neville. When we reached the Great Hall, instead of sitting with Weasely, Neville sat down beside Draco at the Gryffindor table. I tried not to smile too much as I took the seat across from the blonde and Hermione sat beside me.
(AN: Eesh. That was short. But I guess all my chapters are pretty short. Oh well. I've been without internet for a little while, so sorry for the wait. And I may not have mentioned it, but I just kind of skim over my chapters before I post them, so please forgive any mistakes I miss. And please review! I really do love reviews!)
(AN2: Story recommendation if you're interested: What Goes Around, by HarleyD. I just read what she's got so far in one sitting, and it's still in progress. Her Harry kills my soul a little bit, but I do adore her Draco, who is in serious need of hugs. I highly recommend you go check it out.)
