FINAL CHANCE

By: Shadowedheart89

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, nor do I claim to.

Chapter 3: First Night

As Professor Dumbledore and I walked into the Great Hall, it fell silent as everyone watched us intently. Dumbledore motioned for me to stand to the side as he approached a podium.

"Students, welcome to another great year at Hogwarts. Before we begin the feast there are a few things that need to be tended to. First of all, we are happy to say that we have a new transfer student who will be joining our 6th years, Marlene Wizidore. Please make sure to make her feel welcomed. Ms. Wizidore, if you would be so kind as to step forward to be sorted," he said, indicating a stool in the middle of the room.

As I crossed the room, I felt everyone's eyes on my, making me feel a bit unerved. I reached the stool and sat on in nervously, and Professor McGonagall placed an old hat on my head.

"Well, well, I've never seen anything like this before," the hat said causing me to jump. "Relax. I'm not going to do anything to hurt you. I couldn't even if I tried. It's my duty to place you into the correct house, one where you will be the most successful.

"Now let me see. You have great power. More than I have ever seen in all my years. You've also seen a lot of pain and hardship within you lifetime." Tell me something I didn't know. "You also have wit and sarcasm it seems. I see that you are brave and loyal to those you care for, and very manipulative when need be, even sneaky. You have a kind heart, and a great mind.

"Now where should I put you? You could fit in anywhere, but where will you thrive and reach your potential? Which one of your qualities will make you the most successful? I think I'll put you in GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted the last word, and then was removed. I was greeted by the cheers of a red and gold table, at which I could see Harry, Ron and Hermione, cheering enthusiastically with the rest.

As I approached the table, Harry moved over so I could sit among him and his friends. "You look a lot better now," he told me as I took my seat.

"I feel better. Thanks for all your help," I told him.

Then Dumbledore regained his place at the podium, but I became distracted, searching the hall for any sign of Draco. Finally I spotted him at a green and silver table, Slytherin, I recalled. He was staring into space with a blank look on his face, but even from our distance, I was able to sense the disappointment radiating off of him.

Draco? I asked carefully getting his attention. He looked at me for a few seconds, but wouldn't reply, and kept his thoughts carefully trained on what Dumbledore was saying. Draco, are you mad at me? I tried again, and once again he wouldn't respond. Please, just answer me.

I'm not mad, his thought came carefully as if he was afraid to let something show. Disappointed is more like it.

I'm sorry. It's not like I had a choice. I didn't mean to hurt you.

You didn't hurt me, he said with incredulity. Besides it may be better this way. It'd be dangerous for you here, with all the Death Eater's children. They'd be bound to get hint of your power sooner or later, and then their parents would come for you. You should be safe in Gryffindor with all the fighters in the Light.

Maybe you right, I agreed reluctantly.

I must say that I wish you weren't in such bloody close quarters with Potter and his friends. I bet they'll try and turn you against me.

You know that won't happen. My parents couldn't even turn me against you. He doesn't stand a chance. Besides, do I detect a hint of jealousy from you, Draco?

Me? Jealous? That's a laugh. You have no interest with him whatsoever, right?

I could help but laugh a bit, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione all gave me weird looks that I shrugged off. No Draco. He was just kind enough to help me out. That's all.

He better keep his distance, that's all I have to say, he replied grumpily.

My dear Draco, you are forgetting two parts. One, he is the good guy, and two I choose my own company as you very well know.

I sensed a few flashes of anger from him, but he wouldn't reply. I was still trying to connect to him, when plates of food magically appeared on the table, startling me.

Harry noticed and laughed. "Pretty great huh?"

I laughed and nodded, but when I looked back at Draco, he was looking at me, and betrayal was radiating off of him. My laughter died immediately.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked seeing the change in my demeanor.

"It's nothing, I guess I'm just still a little bit unsettled," I told him hoping I was being convincing.

He studied me for a few more seconds, and then turned back to his friends. I started to eat a bit sullenly, upset that Draco wouldn't talk to me. He set up some kind of barrier around his thoughts, and although I could tell it would have been easy for me to break through, I didn't want to invade his private thoughts and make him angrier.

After awhile Harry and his friends started including me in their conversations. Some that hadn't met me came over to say hello and to talk to Harry. As they exchanged pleasantries about their summers, I kept looking over at Draco, hoping that he would glance my way, but he remained absorbed in his conversations with his friends. Finally I just decided to give up trying to get him to talk to me.

I was lost in my own thoughts, eating my desert, when the tables began to clear, and students started to be lead away to their rooms. I started to stall, not really wanting to go to my room and meet and talk with more people.

Harry seemed to notice my reluctance to leave and whispered, "Don't feel like going to the tower yet?" I shook my head, and he smiled comfortingly. "Don't worry about it. I can wait here with you if you want." I thanked him, and then he called to Ron and Hermione, telling them that I wasn't finished eating my desert and that he was going to stay with me to show me back to the tower.

"Are you sure Harry?" Hermione asked. He nodded, and then she whispered something and his ear before leaving with Ron to help the Gryffindors to the common room.

"You didn't have to stay with me," I told Harry once most of the table had left.

"It's alright. I needed a break from those two. Besides, I doubt that you would have been able to find the common room. The castle is very confusing until you get used to it. You can still get lost even if you are," he told me laughing.

I just smiled at him. "Well why did you want to get away from Ron and Hermione? I thought they were your best friends."

His smile and laughter died. "They are. I just I guess I'm tired of the fussing over me like I'm a little kid. I mean, a lot of things have happened over the last few months, and I know that they are just trying to make sure I'm okay and handling everything without going crazy, but right now I just want to forget everything, but they always want to talk about it."

"Oh, I think I understand. Well at least you know that they care."

"I guess so," he replied a bit grumpily. "I guess the good part is that they are starting to get wrapped up in each other. I must say it's about time though."

I laughed. "Well what about you? The famous Harry Potter is bound to have girls swooning over him all the time."

He rolled his eyes. "No, I'm single, and I plan on staying that way for awhile."

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"It's a long boring story that I would rather not get in to," he told me, but the word "prophecy" flashed strongly through my mind.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said lamely.

"It's okay."

We fell silent for a few moments, and then Professor McGonagall approached us. "It's started to get late. You two should start heading back to the common room before you miss curfew. I'd hate for you two to have a detention on your first night here."

"Yes Professor," we said simultaneously, then started laughing.

As we left the Great Hall, he asked, "Mind if we walk around a bit, or would you rather just go to the common room?"

"We can walk around."

He laughed. "Why don't you want to go to the common room? It's not scary or anything."

It was my turn to laugh. "I'm not sure. I guess I just want to see some more of the castle. Get used to this place a bit. It's a lot different from the other places I've been too."

"That makes sense. Well it's fine with me. I'd rather walk around too." After a bit of an awkward silence, Harry asked, "So what's the deal with you and Malfoy? You two seem pretty well acquainted."

"Me and Draco?" I asked laughing. I thought about making something up for a moment, but decided on telling the truth. "We had some what of a summer romance 3 years ago. We got pretty close, but then as always, I moved away. I hadn't seen him since then, well until today on the train."

"I suppose you're going to tell me that he's a good guy and is just misunderstood. He's had a hard life and just needs some help," he said a bit bitterly.

"Actually, no I'm not. Draco is a pompous, arrogant, snob, who has a very easy life as long as he listens to his father. He doesn't listen to his father though, and tries to be a rebel, only to cause trouble for him. His notions are not noble in the slightest. He just hates living in his father's shadow."

"So do you think that he's in league with Voldemort?" he asked, his voice sounding a bit strained.

"No, I don't. If his father is with him, I really doubt Draco would be, unless his life is on the line."

"If he's so bad, why did you like him?"

I laughed again. "He's not completely bad. To those few he deems worthy enough to befriend, he is a great friend. To everyone else, he probably treats like slime or worse."

Harry grumbled for a moment, and then asked, "So how did you get him to befriend you?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Well neither of us had anyone else to talk to that summer. It might have just been circumstance. Who knows, maybe now that I'm here, he won't even talk to me."

"I wouldn't doubt that. Not only are you in Gryffindor, but you're also becoming my friend. Those are two major strikes against you in his book."

I just shrugged. "Maybe, only time will tell."

After a few minutes of silence, he asked, "Did you have strong feelings for him?"

"Yes, I think I did."

"What about now?" I thought his voice would hold some contempt or disgust, but it was only filled with curiosity.

I thought about if for a few minutes. Did I still have feelings for him? When I saw him again, all those old memories came back to me, but it felt like something was missing. How am I to know that I don't just have feeling about the memory of what used to be? "I can't say. It's been a long time. We've both changed a lot, well I know I have. We're like two different people."

He stopped in front of a portrait of a fat lady and turned to me. "Well we're here finally," he told me softly.

"Well finally is right! I thought you didn't come back this year Mr. Potter when I didn't see you come in with the others," the lady in the portrait said to Harry.

Harry blushed a bit. "I was just, um, helping our new student Marlene here become acquainted with the school."

"I see," the portrait said before falling silent again and letting us finish our conversation.

"Thanks again Harry. I don't know why you've been so nice to me. You don't even know me."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, before he replied. "I think you and I have a lot of things in common. I'm not sure why, but I want to find out."

I smiled at him, honestly glad that I was here. "Well I'm glad. Maybe I'll actually have friends here."

"You can bet on that," he told me, then turned to the portrait and said "Lion's Heart." The portrait swung open, revealing a hole in the wall. "You may want to remember that. It's the password to get inside," he told me, then began to climb through the opening.

I followed him and heard the portrait close behind me. When I got out of the hole, I was confronted with a large, round room adorned with squishy armchairs, and decorated in gold and red.

I didn't get to look around long, because Hermione, who was sitting in an armchair near a fireplace with Ron, started yelling at us. "Well it's about time. We thought that something had happened to you two!"

"Yeah, Hermione was about to send out a search team. You two are ten minutes past curfew," Ron added humorously.

Harry rolled his eyes at his friends' antics. "You guys can relax. On our way here the stairs moved and wouldn't move back so we had to take a detour. It was no big deal. We are here, alive, and intact."

Hermione gave me a suspicious look, as if to say that it was my entire fault. "I'm giving you two a warning. If you start coming in after curfew all the time, I'm going to start giving you detentions."

I glance at Harry, who looked exasperated, and began to worry that I had gotten him in trouble after all the help he gave me. "I'm sorry. It's my fault. I didn't mean for us to get into trouble. I wanted to look around the school and Harry just wanted to make sure that I was alright. Don't be mad at him."

The three fell silent, looking at me confused, and then Harry started to laugh. Ron was the one to start talking. "Don't worry, you're not in trouble. Hermione here is just a little too by the books." She scoffed and looked hurt, but he grinned at her to show that he was just playing with her. "Hermione, why not instead of scaring the poor girl her first night here, you show her where she's going to be sleeping? I'm sure she must be tired."

She sighed. "Oh alright, follow me Marlene. Night you guys."

I said good night to Harry and Ron, and then followed Hermione as she led me up a staircase and to a room with 6 beds, 4 of which were occupied, and one of the remaining had my bag sitting on it.

"Is that all you brought?" she asked eyeing my bag.

"Yeah, it's a bottomless bag. I got tired of always having to pack my stuff up and forgetting things a while back so I just got this so I can keep everything in here."

"That's a good idea. Maybe I should get one for my books," she said, seemingly more to herself than to me.

I just shrugged, and then reached into my bag to get my pajamas. I changed and climbed into my bed, where despite my whirling thoughts, I immediately feel asleep. Unfortunately, like always in a new place, my dreams were plagued with nightmares. I ended up waking in the middle of the night on the verge of screaming. Shadows of my dream followed me into consciousness and for a few moments I was surrounded by fire, screaming and evil laughter, before they faded into the darkness of the room.

Finally I was able to calm myself down, and clear my head of the images of my dream. I didn't want to go back to sleep right away, so I decided to go down to the common room to see if there was anything warm to drink since my dream left me feeling cold.

As I reached the final steps, I noticed a lone figure sitting in a chair near the fireplace. I recognized the unruly hair immediately.

"Isn't it a bit late to be up?" I asked startling Harry, as I made my way over to the chair next to him.

He spun around to look at me. "What are you doing up?" he asked as I sat down.

"I had a nightmare," I said simply.

"You too?"

"Yeah, I thought I'd see if there was something warm and soothing to drink down here."

"Unfortunately there is nothing. I'd do anything for a butterbeer or even some hot chocolate."

I grinned, and then waved my hand over the table that was in front of us, and two mugs of butterbeer appeared. "Enjoy," I told him taking one of the mugs.

He took the other one, and shook his head. "You are amazing."

I rolled my eyes. "It's not that difficult. You just have to be patient enough to learn."

He shrugged. "Patience isn't one of my strong points, and I'm not too good at learning new things."

I scoffed, "You are a very powerful wizard Harry. You're probably more powerful than you know. You just have to learn how to harness that power. I could help you, you know."

I saw an angry spark in his eyes. "That's easy for you to say. You don't know what it's like to have people calling you "The Chosen One" and expecting you to save the world. I don't feel powerful, so how am I supposed to do anything. I'm just a kid still."

I was a bit taken back. For a brief moment, I was tempted to blurt out that I did know what it was like, and that's why I was here, hiding. But instead I swallowed my words and replied politely. "I'm sorry. It's not any of my business. I wasn't trying to assume anything, just trying to help."

He looked at me a moment then said, "It's alright. I'm just frustrated I guess. I'm the one that should be sorry."

I nodded looking down into my mug. The warm swirling liquid oddly reminded me of Draco, and I started to feel an almost overwhelming need to be with him, to lay with him after my nightmares like I did that summer. It was almost as if I could see him staring back at me through the liquid.

"Well I think I'll try and get back to sleep. You should do the same," Harry said, startling me out of my thoughts. "Oh, and thank you for the butterbeer," he added draining his mug.

"Anytime," I said as I watched him head up to his room.

I sat there for a while longer, mulling over my thoughts, which were still trained on Draco. Finally I started to dose off, so I vanished the two mugs and headed back to my room.

When I opened the hangings around my bed, I found a pale sleeping form lying on my bed. "Draco?"

AN-I know that boys aren't able to get into the girls' dormitory, things aren't exactly as they seem.