Authors Note: Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and follows! It means so much to me! Lupa, a reviewer mentioned that Lavender could only be transformed into a werewolf if Greyback was one when he attacked her. I've done a bunch of research on this to keep it as close to canon as possible, and no one is really sure if Greyback was in his human form or not. Because in the book it's mentioned a "grey blur" which was Greyback possibly in werewolf form. That's what I'm going with for my story, because Rowling never spelled it out, and it was left ambiguous, there is some wiggle room to portray what happened to Lavender. Hope that cleared up anything that was confusing!
The months leading up the Christmas Hogsmeade visit had been pretty peaceful. The Gryffindor Quidditch team had won a big match against Ravenclaw, putting them in second place for the House Cup. Their team was strong this year, with both Harry and Ginny and Ron on the team, they were able to win most of their matches. While everyone's skills were a bit rusty from not playing for well over a year, with a few extra practices everyone was able to get up to par with the rest of the Quidditch teams. Even Ron's skill and confidence level had improved since the last time he had played.
Harry and Ginny hadn't been fighting, Harry found it not worth the head and heartache that followed a fight with his girlfriend. He did his best to not let her quirks get to him, spending a bit of time by himself, wandering the halls, or up in his bed studying. Ginny hadn't really noticed that he preferred to spend some more time by himself instead of with her and the others down in the common room and Harry wasn't sure if he should have been bothered by that. Overall he tried not to think and worry too much about his relationship with Ginny, because when that happened they tended to get into fights more often.
Harry had asked Ginny one evening if she wanted to visit Hogsmede with him, the last one before the Christmas holidays started. She happily agreed to go, eager to spend some quality time as a couple with her boyfriend. The two couples, Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione, bundled up in coats, hats and scarves to combat against the cold December day. Making their way to the castle grounds with the other students Harry couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of some students getting pelted with snowballs. He enjoyed the Christmas holidays immensely, and couldn't wait to give Ginny her Christmas gift. He had gotten her a silver necklace with two intertwining hearts. But Christmas wasn't for another few weeks, Harry wondering vaguely what his friends would get him, Hermione would probably get him a few books, Ron and Ginny would most definitely get him something Quidditch related.
The walk to the The Three Broomsticks was pretty quiet, Harry held Ginny's hand the whole way. They chatted about what they wanted to do during break, as well as the homework they had to do. It was nice to have some easy conversations about everyday life, instead of fighting about something stupid. The four of them grabbed a table by one of the windows that overlooked the streets outside, so they could students pass by, laughing and enjoying the time away from the school. "I'll get us some drinks." Harry suggests, pushing his chair back and going up to the bar to get them all pitches of butterbeer.
There were a few people in line in front of him, his thoughts drifting when he heard a voice behind him say his name. "Potter? You going to order anything, or just stand there in la-la land?" The voice asked, causing Harry to turn around and get quite a big shock. Standing behind him was none other than Draco Malfoy. Harry would never have expected to see the Slytherin out and about like a normal person. He figured the blond-haired young man spent most of this time brooding in the Slytherin dorms. "Oh..Yeah Four Butterbeers please." Harry told the witch digging into his pockets for some money to pay the older woman waiting impatiently for Harry to get out of her way so she could serve the next customer.
"Make it five." Draco said, putting money down on the counter. To say Harry was shocked would have been an understatement. Harry wondered if he had heard Draco correctly, if there was something wrong with his former nemesis. Harry was at a loss as to what to do next, he was confused about why Draco would even want to pay for him and his friends drinks, let alone want anything to do with him. "Uh..You don't have to do that…" Harry mumbled, pulling his own money out of his pocket. It was beyond awkward that Draco was paying for drinks, yet a small part of Harry was pleased with the idea of Draco having a change of heart, becoming a decent human being. "Don't worry about it Potter, I just want to buy you a drink, it won't kill you." Draco drawled, rolling his eyes slightly at how ridiculous Harry was being.
Draco wanted to prove to the Boy Who Lived that he was no longer the young man he was during their school years. He had gone through quite the transformation during his sixth year, as well as as a result of the Final Battle. To say he got knocked down a few pegs was an understatement. While it was hard to let go of most of his prejudices and views of the wizarding world, as well as the famous Harry Potter and the Golden Trio, he was doing his best. He was also doing his best to work on his anger and sharp tongue, especially when he spoke to the first years, the little ones who didn't yet know their way around the labyrinth of Hogwarts.
This was the first big step towards becoming a completely different man, to change the way people thought of not only the name Draco Malfoy, but the Malfoy family as a whole. His father and mother were already well under their way to proving to the wizarding world that they were a good family, that they were not the evil people everyone thought them to be.
Harry recovered best he could from the shock of Malfoy genuinely being kind to him, with no malicious reasoning behind his actions. "Thanks Malfoy…" Harry said, giving the Slytherin a small smile. Harry thought the appropriate response to Draco buying him and his friends drinks would be to offer him a seat at their table. Especially since it seemed as if Draco didn't have many friends this year. "Uh..Would you like to join us Malfoy?" Harry asked, trying to sound friendly, but a bit of wariness was in his voice, as if he wasn't sure if Malfoy would sit with them or not.
Draco was a bit taken aback by Harry's offer for him to sit with him and his group of friends, he had expected to pay for their drinks then go sit by the fire by himself for a while before going to look around the shops. The fact that Harry offered Draco a seat with his friends was a big step forward for both of them, it meant that Harry no longer viewed Draco as an enemy or a rival, but as an acquaintance, possibly a friend.
"I don't see why not." Draco drawled giving Harry a slight nod before following the black-haired young man over to his table. A foreign feeling flitted through Draco, he was actually nervous about sitting with the Trio and their significant others. He knew they would judge him for his past actions, but he hopped maybe if they got to talking he could let them know that he wasn't the same he was in previous school years.
Everyone's eye's widened at the sight of Draco following Harry back to the table. It looked like they all wanted to say something to Harry, akin to why they hell would he bring Draco Malfoy to sit with them. Harry was trying to think of something to say that would appease his friends. "Malfoy graciously offered to pay for our drinks.." Harry started off saying, before explaining that he had offered Malfoy to join them, and surprisingly he had agreed. Everyone gave the Slytherin a slight smile or nod before shooting Harry a look of anger and confusion.
There was silence for a few minutes before Hermione asked Draco a question. "So...how is your family doing?" She was genuinely curious about how the Malfoy family was doing. They had kept a low profile despite opening a successful apothecary in Diagon Alley. There name hadn't appeared much in the paper since the war had ended, so not much was known about their well-being.
Many things ran through Draco's mind upon hearing the girls question. There had been hard times for his family, a lot of fighting, tears, sadness and anger. They had worked through it as a family, from a broken and lost pure blood family, to one that had found its place in the world again, and making the family name better than what it was before. "We are doing quite well." Draco said rather formally. "Father and Mother run an apothecary shop in Diagon Alley now. Father wanted to change how the world viewd the Malfoy name, he set out to do that in an honest way through his shop. Mother enjoys creating wine for the shop.." Draco trailed off, a warm smile on his face at how happy both his parents seemed running the shop. "Business has picked up as well.." He added, reminiscing about how hard it had been when the shop first started out. Money hadn't been a problem when setting up shop, but reputaion had been for when peole had first heard that the Malfoys had opened an apothecary shop in Diagon Alley there had been a lot of outrage, that had been one of the times the family ahd made the Daily Prophet. 'Outrage at former death eaters shop opening.' Had been the headline, his father had quickly quelled the rumors, making his own statement and getting it on the front page of the Daily Prophet. His father had explained that he was no longer the man he once was, he had realized the error of his ways, asking for the wizarding worlds forgiveness and hoped they would come to his shop where high quality apothecary goods could be found as well as a high quality selection of wines could be purchased. It had been a bit of a blow to Lucius Malfoy's ego, but he felt he had no choice if he wanted to become a better person. His pride had to be lowered a bit if he wanted to grow to become a respectable man instead of one who was feared and hated.
Those at the table were genuinely impressed with what Malfoy had to say. The fact that the Malfoys could go from a name most people detested, to make it into something meaningful that the wizarding world would stand behind. "Malfoy that's quite impressive, a very respectable job for a former Death Eater." Hermione stated. Draco didn't know how to respond to her words, a flash of anger went through him, but he realized she wasn't being malicious with her words she was truly amazed with how far his family had come. To go from hated Death Eaters to respectable members of the wizarding world who own a shop was something not many had achieved thus it was quite an impressive feat. Draco managed to return a small smile to the girl before taking a breath to quell the anger that had built up inside of him at her comment. "Thanks Granger…" He said, "It wasn't easy…" Draco added before thoughts of all the struggles his family had to go through invaded his thoughts. He tuned everyone out for a while as they continued to talk about Diagon Alley and the state it was in. Most of the shops had been repaired that had suffered damage during the Death Eaters attacks and invasions, a few still needed some work, but that would come in time.
The group of them talked for quite a while, Harry buying everyone another round of butterbeers, Draco joining in on the conversation every once in a while. Things weren't as tense or awkward as Harry would have thought they could have been, although there were still a few heated words exchanged between the group, they weren't nearly as bad as they had been when they were younger. They debated about how Slughorn was running the Potions class as well as how absurd the Slug Club meetings were, joking about past meetings, and potions mishaps.
"Harry..it's almost time for dinner, we should get back to the castle." Ginny suddenly said, gazing out the window to see that the weak winter sun was setting. They had been at Hogsmeade far longer than normal, a few mores students had joined them at the Leaky Cauldron including Neville, Luna and Seamus Finnigan.
Draco had excused himself shortly after they had gotten there, saying he had to finish some homework but had expressed how he had actually enjoyed conversing with the group. Telling Harry that perhaps he would hang out with them another time if it was alright with him. Harry had agreed commenting that Draco was much less bratty then he had been the last time they had been in school together. Draco had quipped a small smirk and bid his farewells.
"I don't think I could eat another bite.." Ron groaned as they got left the Leaky Cauldron and headed back to the castle with the last of the Hogwarts students. "Ronald, I'm sure your massive stomach will have room for something, the walk will make you famished." Hermione teased, eliciting a laugh from everyone. "Yeah you're right…" Ron followed, taking Hermione's hand in his own as they made their way to the castle.
An unexpectedly wonderful day of chatting with friends, making possibly new ones, and having a good time was something Harry was grateful for. For there was an inkling deep inside of him that even though Voldemort was gone, he still wasn't going to have a completely drama free year at school.