You know, I didn't really think that many people read this story. I mean, I only get like three or four reviews at most each chapter, so I just thought, "Well, I like this story and a small handful of people also seem to enjoy it." But then, out of curiosity, I went to look at my stats and they tell a completely different story. I didn't realize more than like five people were reading it. Go me! (And hey, it'll be six soon, Teresa hasn't read any of it!) Maybe this is a few people's guilty pleasure reading. Which makes me feel self conscious. Well, on with the story!

NOTE: Yes, I've read the six book but once again, I started writing this story and planned out before it came out. The events of the sixth book have no effect on this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Warnings: Oh…stuff.

Ghosts

Chapter Seven

The next day was September first, the day that school started. As it was, Harry was a little relieved that they would be going back to Hogwarts, where Ron and Draco would be well separated. Harry sighed as he thought about yesterday while folding up socks.

Harry wasn't sure what had been happening, he was making sure that he indeed had all his homework done, when he heard Ron yelling at the top of his lungs. Hermione came bustling by the room, muttering something to herself and he had a sudden inkling as to what was going on.

He raced up the stairs after Hermione, who was definitely in a hurry herself. When they reached Draco's room, both with wide-eyed, worried expressions, they saw their suspicions confirmed. Ron was yelling, going red in the face, with Ginny standing there with a resolute look, her jaw jutting out. Draco was sitting on his bed with a bored expression on his face which was clearly only exacerbating Ron's already angry mood.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!" Ron yelled.

"Ron!" Hermione immediately grabbed him by the shoulders and was trying to shove him back from Ginny and Draco, but with little success. "Calm down!"

"CALM DOWN? CALM DOWN!" Ron threw his hands up into the air. Hermione took a step back from him so she wouldn't accidentally get hit. "What were they doing!"

"Nothing, Ron!" Ginny spoke insistently. "We were just talking!"

"You have to sit that close to him when you talk?" Ron questioned her furiously. Then he turned on Draco. "You stay the hell away from my sister, do you hear me?" Harry just stood there, unsure why he hadn't moved yet. He had to do something, he couldn't just sit here.

"You can't tell me who I can't talk to!" Ginny shrieked at him, trying to lunge at him but Hermione stopped her.

"Yes I can!" Ron glared at her. "I can when it's about him!" His eyes swung from his younger sister back towards Draco. "I swear, if I find out you did anything—"

"I have absolutely no interest in your sister, Weasley." Draco tilted his head up to look at the ceiling. Then a funny, cruel smile spread across his face. "But I can't help what she does, can I?"

Ron's face nearly went purple. "You think that just because Dumbledore sent you here, that you have the right to be a bastard to the rest of us, but you don't. You were sent here because no one else wanted you! Your family threw you out!"

Draco's eyes narrowed, almost to pale blue slits. He didn't say anything at all and Harry knew that Ron had gone too far and he saw that Ginny was looking directly at him, knew that he had to do this.

He crossed the room and planted his feet directly in front of Ron, so that his face was inches away. Ron, even though he was taller than Harry, instinctively took a step back.

"Ron, get out." Harry told him in a hard voice. "They weren't doing anything."

"Are you standing up for him!" Ron asked in a demanding, accusatory tone.

"That's right!" Harry poked him in the chest with his index finger. "I am standing up for him. Maybe now you'll see what an asshole you're being! So what if Ginny and him were talking? You aren't even trying to be nice; you're just shunning him, just like he wanted me to do to you our first year. But did I!"

"No…" Ron was starting to look ashamed.

"Okay then." Harry straightened up. "Then apologize."

"What!" Ron quickly snapped out of being ashamed. "Why?"

"Because of what you said." Harry adjusted his glasses. "It was completely uncalled for."

"Harry…" Hermione tried to break in gently.

"No, Hermione." Harry shook his head at her. "Let him apologize, I know he will, because he's my best friend, and my best friend is a decent human being." He gave Ron an expectant look. Ron stared at him for a few moments, trying to take in what he said. There wasn't any attack in there. Sticking up for Draco, being friends with him…it didn't have to mean he had to be enemies with everyone else. That's what Ginny already knew.

"I'm sorry." Ron didn't look like he completely meant it and he sounded like he was trying to swallow something unpleasant. Harry turned to see Draco's reaction but Draco just sat there, his eyes wide with shock. He didn't say anything at all.

"Let's…let's go downstairs." Hermione sounded almost faint. "It's tea time." And she ushered Ron away. Ginny took one last look at Harry and Draco before going after her brother. Harry was about to follow them but just as he went to go forward, Draco stopped him.

"Wait." Draco sounded hoarse, almost as though he wasn't sure how to speak.

"What?" Harry turned around to look at him.

"You just stood up to Weasley…" Draco trailed off. "Why?"

"All those times you made comments like that to him, didn't I stand up to you?" Harry's voice made the question have a thousand different meanings at once. Then he smiled a little. "I think Dumbledore said something like that in our first year, 'It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.' Something like that. I think I really know what he means now…But I always stick up for my friends."

There. He had said it. Friends. The two of them. Draco regarded him for a moment and Harry knew that this moment was important, though he couldn't for the life of him say why. If Draco laughed at him…well, that would be it for that idea, he wouldn't bother bringing up again.

And then Draco smiled. But not his usual smirk, a true, genuine smile. It was very brief, but Harry remembered that in that very moment, that was how they had become friends.

Still, it didn't mean Draco and Ron liked each other any better. And that was why today, Harry was glad that they were all about to go off to school. Someone called for him to come downstairs and he dropped the last pair of socks into the trunk. He went down the stairs and saw Mrs. Weasley telling Hermione, Ron, and Ginny something with a grave expression on her face. Ron looked surprised by whatever it was, Ginny was biting her lip and looking really worried, and Hermione was just nodding her head with a distant expression on her face.

He didn't know how he knew, he just knew someone was dead.

"What's going on?" He asked and he heard someone coming down the stairs behind him. Draco.

"We just got a message…" Mrs. Weasley looked past Harry at Draco. "Severus Snape was killed last night."

It surprised Harry more than anything. He couldn't say he was sad, not in the least, but he knew at that moment that moment that the real effect it would have would be on Draco. He turned to look at him but Draco's eyes had gone cold, his whole face was an expressionless mask. He didn't say anything, he just turned and went up the stairs. Hermione made as if she were going to say something but then refrained. How do you say anything of comfort at a moment like that? When it hasn't even sunk in that someone you know is dead? You don't even have to like them to experience that chill.

I should talk to him…

But how? And would he want to talk right now? Harry just stood there and he knew that was all he could at that point in time. There was no magical solution to pull out to this problem. Nothing he could do.

Hermione always said he had a saving people thing.

The night air was cool, but warm enough for it not to be uncomfortable. The roof was definitely a little uncomfortable. Where the attic hit a window was a flat area where you could easily lay down and look up at the night sky. It was hard to see the stars but they were still there, twinkling high above them.

And there they were, lying on this flat part of the roof. It was a little past midnight and he couldn't explain how they decided to go up there. For the longest time, neither of them said anything, just stared up at the sky.

"He saved my life you know." The words came out and he could hear the slight edge to them, the way that he used to say things about the person he had lost to this war. "That's why they killed him."

"How do you know that's what it was?" He asked and looked over to see that sharp, elegant profile that almost looked unreal in the darkness.

"That night…" He trailed off, his head moving to look at the person next to him, a bang falling across his forehead. "It was me and Theodore. Except that he hated it when I called him Theodore. He hated a lot of things, especially his father. Then my father came in, my mother right behind him, and a dozen Death Eaters…They told us we could join or be killed.

"I didn't think about it really. I'd join. I wouldn't be a Malfoy if I didn't join. But then…he showed up and my father got down on his knees to kiss the ends of his robes…it was disgusting. I've never seen him like that. And then I knew that I would have to do that too…but Theodore, he hated what his dad was. When he was asked, he said no. And they killed him. They just killed him and he fell down next to me. And everything I was told, about purebloods, and all that…it was lies. They would just kill him because he didn't want to be one of them and he was…he was the closest thing I've ever had to a friend.

"I just stood there while they asked and then he knew that they would kill me if I didn't say something and he saved my life." He finished his story. "He got me out of there, even though it meant everyone would know that he was a traitor."

He looked away from him and looked up at the sky again. He didn't know what to say this…this story, which told of a different side of a person he never liked. Maybe, if things had all gone differently, if his father hadn't…maybe he would have known the person that the blonde-haired boy next to him knew.

"She told me about…your godfather." The blonde-haired boy said in a voice that didn't show sympathy, nor any hint of meanness. He didn't know what to say for a few moments.

"It was a couple years ago. Sometimes, I think I'm finally…I don't know, better. And then…I have these nightmares." He adjusted his glasses. "They make it hard to sleep."

"Is that what…?" The question wasn't finished and it didn't have to be.

"That's what I had a nightmare about that night." He answered. And then his head turned towards the other one again. "And…thanks."

"For what?" The person's voice was strange, a little afraid if anything.

"For what you did." He answered cryptically. Another pause.

"Tomorrow, you'll hate me." The pronouncement was so matter o' fact that he wondered where it had come from. "Tomorrow, all of this disappears."

"It doesn't have to." He insisted.

"It will anyways." The blonde-haired boy shook his head forlornly and he had to do something to show that he disagreed. And though he couldn't explain why, he reached over and grabbed hold of his hand—startling the other boy completely.

And they didn't say anything else for the rest of the night. They just lay there, looking up at the sky. Each one wondering when the other would let go.

I won't go, I won't sleep, I can't breathe until you're resting here with meeee. Sorry, singing. Um…that was kind of a weird chapter. Hmm. Next chapter, going back to Hogwarts! Woot! Of course that's when the story gets really complicated…so…yeah. Tune in!