Chapter Two: OSCILLATING BOYS AND GIRLS

Whether it's the sunshine whether it's the rain
Doesn't make a difference 'til you complain
Whether it's the water coming in from the roof
Does it piss you off that you're not water proof?

Whether you fall means nothing at all
it's whether you get up it's…whether you get up

-Tracy Bonham

Draco turned the corner and saw Hermione pressed against the wall, Blaise keeping her in place. Upon seeing that, he quickly disappeared in a dark corner to observe. Hermione gasped.

"Ten points from Slytherin…" her voice was breathy and her eyes fluttered close as Blaise leaned into her. He began to kiss her jaw-line seductively as Hermione shook in his arms. "Twenty points from Slytherin!" she hissed, her arms going around his neck. He brought his lips down onto hers, silencing her. Draco felt sick as the kissing noise met his ears. It stopped however.

Hermione had pushed Blaise off of her with amazing strength.

"I don't know who the bloody hell you think you are Zabini! I haven't said more than three words to you in all my seven years at Hogwarts! How dare you!" she shouted. "This is sexual assault, and I'm giving you a weeks worth of—"

"—c'mon Granger, you loved it—" Draco quietly injected with a smirk.

"—detention with Professor Weasley in the Forbidden Forest. For fuck's sake, it hasn't even been a week of school and you're receiving a detention!" Her cheeks were red with anger as she stomped away from Blaise, pulling out a long scroll and tapping her wand onto it. In dark curly writing, Blaise's name showed up on the detention list.

Blaise, who had been quiet during the punishment, turned the opposite direction and left. Draco was about to leave when Ginny Weasley exited from a dark corner, her eyes wide with complete disbelief and jealousy. She then turned her head and looked directly at the spot where Draco currently stood. Immediately, his heart felt as if it would explode in fear. Her eyes glittered with interest, and before she turned to leave, she gave him a dangerous smirk.

When the coast was clear, Draco left his dark corner and continued his way to Transfiguration, trying his hardest to keep his mind from off of the eerie smirk Weaselette had given him. Instead, he thought about how much he hated his pink-haired distant cousin. His mother used to talk down about her often, saying that she was a failure to the Black family. He was about ten minutes early to class, and decided to take a seat in the back of class this year, not wanting to sit so close the metamorphosing creature. The classroom was as dark and dreary as McGonagall had left it, he realized while looking about the room. He pulled out his parch pad, ink, and very expensive quills. He had leaned back comfortably in his chair, annoyed at the lack of school spirit.

Suddenly, there was a loud slam behind Draco, nearly making him fall out of his seat. He turned around and saw none other than Harry Potter enter the room.

"Tonks?" Harry shouted, entering the room beside the entrance, which was the teacher's room. He had not seen Draco sitting in the seat.

"She's not here Potter…" Draco drawled from his seat. Harry jumped at the cold voice and turned to see Draco at last.

"Malfoy!" Harry shouted angrily. "What are you doing here?" Draco rolled his eyes.

"I got a high enough score on my exams last year to be put in an extremely advanced level class," Draco bit back. He saw Harry's cheeks flash with a little bit of red while playing with his sleeves. Draco continued, "Although, I would never had believed that you would score high enough to be in such a class. I mean, with your killing, fame, and saving the world thing going on," Draco said, swishing his hand about in the air in front of him.

"You're a rotten bastard, Malfoy." Harry's whole demeanor had suddenly become very dark. Draco turned in his seat to see Harry moving towards him, his fist rising. "I HAD to kill those people, and it was people like your sorry arse who contributed to the problem!"

"Get out of my face, Potter. Bloody murderer..." Draco wanted Harry to move definitely, he was strikingly beautiful, and it disgusted Draco to a degree of infinity. Harry scowled.

"I saved your arse, Malfoy. I could've left you and your treacherous father in the hands of Voldemort!" Draco turned to stare at Harry in disbelief.

"If it weren't for my father, you wouldn't have found Voldemort! If it weren't for you—" Draco started, but bit his tongue. He blinked in confusion, seeing that he had leaped from his chair in the middle of his argument.

"What, Malfoy? If it "weren't for me" what…c'mon, go ahead and say it!" Harry hissed. Draco was now eye to eye with Harry.

"If it weren't for you, MY MUM WOULD STILL BE ALIVE!" Draco growled.

He brought his two balled up fists to Harry's chest, making the young boy fall back onto a table, nearly toppling over it. The injured boy made no attempt to hit Draco back; instead, he stared at him with large, sorrowful eyes.

"DON'T LOOK AT ME!" Draco screamed, turning away to hide his disgust. Fuck, he thought. He couldn't stand to look into Potter's eyes at the moment. While Harry was struggling to sit up, Draco grabbed his bag and left the classroom. On his way, he passed the rest of the incoming students, chattering about the new, young professor.

"She's just gorgeous," said Ernie Macmillan. Susan Bones giggled at his comment and swatted at his arm. Hermione Granger, bustling passed the two gossiping teens, accidentally knocked over Daphne Greengrass with her backpack. The Slytherin fell into the wall with an "oomph!" making the rest of the students laugh at Hermione's red face. Behind her, was Blaise Zabini, equally as frustrated as her.

"I'm not going to be late because of you two gossiping fools!" Hermione barked.

Harry was quickly drawing himself together, feeling for the bottom of his stomach, which had previously fallen to the ground. He turned to see Hermione enter the room.

"Oh! Good, Harry you're already here." She pulled on his arm, leading him to the front of the class, where she then pushed him down in his seat, and sat beside him.

"But my bag—" before he could finished, Hermione had whipped out her wand.

"Accio backpack!" the bag zoomed to land neatly beside Harry's foot.

"What's wrong with you today?"

"I could ask you the same thing," she responded hotly, situating herself on the stool. She smiled grimily at him before turning on Ernie for his actions in the Hallway. "—I ought to take points away from your house Macmillan! It's highly inappropriate to talk about professors in such a manner…and my Head of House, of all professors—!"

Harry droned her out, and was instead reliving the hurt that had flashed in Draco's dead-colored eyes when he had blamed Harry for the death of his mother. He couldn't shake the image from his mind.

A low whistle came from a student behind Harry. He turned to see what could have caused such a wolfish whistle, and he saw a tall, blonde girl walk into the room. She had her backpack swung over her shoulder, her robes open revealing a tight school blouse, and most importantly, was her scandalously short skirt.

"Well in all my bloody years…" he heard Hermione whispered distastefully. The new student smiled as she stood in front of the classroom.

"Um, excuse me," Hermione started, standing from her seat. "That's the professor's desk. You should take a seat at your designated House's seat."

"Thank you, Ms. Granger, but this is my rightful position," replied the young girl. Hermione was about to protest when suddenly, the girl's body began to change: her once lengthy form became thicker and shorter and her blonde hair shrank and turned into a bright pink color. "Welcome to Transfiguration, my name is Professor Tonks, and it is a pleasure to teach this new addition to the Hogwarts curriculum!" The class clapped, and Harry saw an all-knowing smirk cross Ernie's face as he watched Hermione sit back down in pure embarrassment.

It was late when Draco returned to his tower. He was thankful that it was a Wednesday, knowing that Granger would probably be asleep, holding tight to her sleep-early policy on school nights. He didn't expect, however, to come back to his tower to see Potter, Weasley, and Weaselette crowded on the couch together.

"Go back to your own towers! You're all out after hours and breaking the rules…" Draco scowled.

"We can stay where we're wanted, Malfoy!" Weasley retorted.

"And who told you were wanted here Weasel?"

"Hermione, of course!" he shot back.

"Well Granger doesn't know what she's talking about. You're all to go back to your dorm now! Or I'll take twenty points away from each of you!" He knew Weasley was lying, having listened to Hermione repeatedly tell him not to have people over after hours during the weekday.

"Whatever, I'm out of here anyways!" the redhead shouted. "C'mon Harry…let's go…" he stood up and headed for the door, his sister close at his heels, but with Harry lingering back.

"I'll catch up with you in a bit, I…I err…need to leave Hermione a note."

"Alright, we'll meet you in the common room…" Ron said, leaving the common room with Ginny, who gave Harry a small knowing smile.

Draco was heading to the stairs when he turned to see Harry standing by the circle of armchairs watching him.

"I thought I told you and your filthy gang to get out of here!" Draco shouted.

"They left, but I wanted to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk to you Potter."

"Please," Harry said, making his way to the stairs. Draco's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I said no—!" Draco strangled out. However, his voice left him and he turned to see that Harry was holding out his hand, as if to signal him to stop. Draco's cold gray eyes turned icy blue with rage.

"I'm sorry," he said, reaching out to grab Draco's shoulders. Draco mouthed "fuck you" as he tried to push Harry away. "It's the only way I'll be able to talk to you." Harry pushed him against the wall of the stairs with brute force. It was then that Draco, startled into submission, fell silent to Harry.

"So this is how you get your way!" Draco said, surprised to see that Harry had lifted the charm. Harry grinned.

"Only around you, Malfoy," Harry commented. Draco scowled, but only to hide the soft rise of color that had taken to his pale cheeks.

"What do you want?!"

"I need to apologize for earlier. I…I don't want to fight with you anymore. Here, why don't you calm down?" Harry asked, watching Draco's eyes light with fire once more.

"I don't need to calm down, or hear your petty apologies!"

"Listen to me…"

"I DON'T WANT TO!" his voice became hoarse as he tried to bite back the emotion that was crying to seep into his words. "I'm TIRED of people telling me to listen!" he shouted.

"Fine," Harry said, releasing Draco. "I don't care anymore. I'm tired of playing nice with everyone. You've clearly got issues Malfoy and it's a simple waste of my time…" Draco stomped his foot in frustration as he watched the young Gryffindor take his leave.

The next morning, while Draco was heading towards the Slytherin table for breakfast, Weasley had bumped into him on purpose, sending him flying across the Great Hall's floor. The group of people who had taken their breakfast early broke into laughter, and there was loud murmuring coming from incoming students.

"Fuck!" Draco swore, touching his bleeding lip. He had bit down on it during his fall. He pushed himself back onto his knees, searching in his pocket for his wand.

"On your knees begging, like you should be, Malfoy," Weasley said, mocking Draco's infamous drawl. Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas hooted with laughter beside the fiery redhead.

"Fuck you, Weasley!" Draco crowed, spluttering blood at the taller boy. Weasley was pushed aside by Potter.

"Ron! What the hell did you do?" Harry shouted while waving his hand over Draco's bleeding lip. It healed and cleaned itself up. Draco couldn't believe what happened next. Harry offered a hand to Draco, who was still shocked at the tender feel of Harry's healing charm that had shot through his face.

"You pompous arse!" he growled. Harry withdrew his hand in shock, as if Draco had spit in it. Draco stood from his position on the floor, and quickly grabbed his bag and exited the Great Hall. Ron grabbed Harry by the elbow and led him to the Gryffindor table, where they sat down.

"What's going on between you and him?"

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

"You tried helping him, that's unlike you! You hate him…not to mention your whole attitude has changed recently. Hermione told me what happened last Saturday!"

"Damn it," Harry swore, looking up to see that Hermione had removed herself from the seat across from them, and instead was up at the teacher's table, talking animatedly to Professor Krum. "It's nothing Ron…"

"The hell it isn't! Harry, I want to know what's gotten into you." Ron turned concerned blue eyes on to him. "Please, just tell me what you really did this summer after you defeated You-Know-Who." Harry shook his head.

"Ron, please, can we talk about something else?"

"And Hermione told me about your arm!" Ron exclaimed, grabbing hold of Harry's right arm. "Why would you do this to yourself Harry?"

"JUST EASE OFF!" Harry shouted, pulling away. "I told you I'm fine! Do you want something to be wrong with me? Honestly now, Ron. It's becoming too bloody much!"

Before Ron could say anything, Hermione had made her way back to the table.

"Oh, it's so refreshing to know that we have a new face to look at in Potions…well…not new, I guess we could call it familiar," Hermione beamed. Her face fell, however, when she saw the haughty expression on Harry's face.

"You just can't keep quiet, can you Hermione?"

"I beg your pardon?" she asked coldly.

"Why'd you have to go spilling your guts to Ron about my so-called issues? If I supposedly have any, they're all do to your intoxicated gossip!" Harry snapped. Hermione gasped while her eyes began stinging with tears. Immediately Harry began to feel the guilt consume him. Maybe in his younger years, he would have apologized. Actually, he wouldn't have said the insult at all. He would have kept his feelings to himself. But he's seen, done, and felt too much now to not have the leisure to do and say as he pleased.

"Harry, I—"

"Later, Hermione…whatever you have to say, it will have to be later. I just lost my appetite…" Harry stood from his seat, leaving behind a bewildered Ron, and a tearful Hermione.

"They don't understand you like I do Harry," came a voice. He turned around to see Ginny leaning against the wall outside of the corridor. She brought what looked like a poisonous green-colored apple to her red lips and bit into it.

"And what do you know Ginny?"

"Just that you are very different this year: you're not taking anyone's shite, as I've witnessed on several brilliant occasions!" she answered with a glittery smile.

"What do you want Ginny?" Harry asked out of exhaustion.

"I saw Malfoy run pass here," she changed the subject. "He was crying…"

"What?"

"He was crying," she repeated. "I was coming down from the Gryffindor Tower when I saw him stumble into a secret passageway, it's one I take often, and I thought I was the only one that knew of it. He dropped his bag and started to cry. He began to hold himself, claiming that he was "letting this illness get the best of him…" it was quite scary."

"What do you mean illness?

"I don't know what he meant Harry, but he's clearly off his rocker."

"Well, what am I to do?" he asked with a shrug. "I hate him, and he clearly hates me. End of story."

"You're exactly right, Harry. It is the end of a story, but a beginning to a very interesting sequel," she said eerily, heading back to the Great Hall. Harry shook his head in confusion and made his way to the Dungeons for Potions.

PLEASE REVIEW! TRFHP will be updated tomorrow!!!!!!!

Coming up next: a very crazy party, a drunk Draco and a tormented Harry...not to mention an explanation for Blaise's attraction to Hermione. And Ginny keeps getting creepier, especially when she realizes Blaise's attraction for Hermione!