Author's Note: Thanks as always for the wonderful reviews. It's still Harry's POV!

Chapter 8

Harry was exhausted. No, he was beyond exhausted; he was barely even alive. The nightly crying had not stopped. For the past week, the baby would not shut up at all, despite the boys' desperate and sometimes ridiculous attempts to quiet her. And of course, she would fall right asleep in the morning when it was time for them to get to class. The doll had to be possessed or something. That could be the only explanation; Harry honestly didn't know what else it could be.

At first, he thought she might need a change or perhaps some food, but that had not satiated the little doll in the slightest. No, it was something else. And that something else had kept the four occupants of the room without a wink of proper sleep for a whole week, and everybody was starting to get a little more than a bit testy with each other—like right now, for example. It was 1AM, a relatively early start for Rebecca, but nobody was grateful for it. In fact, they were all glaring.

"Here little Becky, look what I've got—"

"Damn it Blaise, why the fuck would she want that? She's a doll, for Merlin's sake!"

"I wasn't the one stuffing socks down her throat, was I? So I'd shut it if I were you, Draco."

"I'll stuff a sock down your throat!"

"I'll stuff a brick down both of your throats!"

"Fuck off, Nott, you haven't done anything productive tonight!"

"Do you want me to sing to her again?"

"Keep your bloody fucking trap shut!"

Harry sighed and took the shrieking Rebecca gently out of Blaise's grip, which was starting to get unusually tight. He had opted not to say a word during these senseless battles the other boys got into, not wishing to have three sleep-deprived Slytherins at his throat. That would not be a smart thing to do. The boys were all sitting on the floor next to Malfoy's bed and, deciding that he'd rather sit on the soft bed than the hard ground, Harry got up and sat on it. He plopped himself down and cradled the doll in his arms gingerly, making her and himself a little more comfortable. With that, her shrieks lessened immediately.

Nott had his wand pointed at a furious Malfoy, who was pinching Blaise's arm so hard it was turning white. But at the sudden quietness, they all turned to stare at Harry and Rebecca. The doll's cries became slight whimpers.

"Bloody hell, Harry. What did you just do?" Blaise jumped up from the ground and strode over towards Malfoy's bed, inspecting Harry with suspicion.

"Nothing, I just sat down here. I guess that she likes Malfoy's bed." Harry yawned and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Anyway, I think she's quiet enough so that we can sleep for a couple hours before class. Let's move, lads."

The boys all nodded in agreement, quickly gliding over to their beds to regain some much needed rest. Harry himself was close to just passing out right where he was, except for the fact that Malfoy was standing over him looking just the slightest bit annoyed.

"Ahem, Potter," he snapped.

"Right, I'm going." Harry put Rebecca down on Malfoy's forest green silk duvet before sliding off the bed and heading towards his own. Surely, Malfoy could handle the doll during the nights, right? It's not like he had to do anything, except for try not to squish her. And if she liked to sleep in Malfoy's bed rather than the makeshift cradle, so be it. As long as Harry could have some decent sleep.

But just as suddenly as the noise had stopped, it began again, the sound of increasing wails filling the room again. He whipped around, finding Malfoy sitting there with his head in his hands, muttering angrily. The doll was on his lap, bawling.

"What the hell did you do now, Malfoy?" Harry groaned. He felt disappointment and annoyance wash over him, seeing the same expression on all of the faces around them. Nott looked sort of murderous, even.

"I didn't do anything, Potter," Malfoy spat, looking up to glare at Harry. "You left, and she started crying. So really, this is your fault! I swear I had nothing to do with it!"

Harry sighed and came back, taking the doll in his hands and bouncing her a little. Perhaps she just liked him better than Malfoy? He wouldn't blame her for it; nobody liked Malfoy. But she didn't stop crying, even when he tried to kiss her forehead. Confused and more than a little exasperated, he sat back down on the bed next to Malfoy and grumbled. Just then, the doll became completely silent. Completely. Harry looked down. She was finally asleep! He turned to look at Malfoy, who stared back at him, bewildered.

"She's quiet. She's perfectly quiet!" Nott looked as if he were about to burst out into joyful tears. In fact, his eyes already looked rather wet. Nott really needed to get some sleep.

Blaise fell down onto his bed with a triumphant whoop, already half asleep in the process. "She clearly likes the idea of her parents sharing a bed. What child doesn't? So don't you dare move, either of you," he warned menacingly before turning over and shutting the curtains tight.

"But I—we—how are we supposed to—"

"Go to sleep, damn it!"

Now Harry and Malfoy were left in darkness, awkwardly sitting next to each other on Malfoy's bed. Harry shook his head incredulously. This entire week the doll had been moaning because she wanted them to sleep together? This was ridiculous—even the damned doll was playing matchmaker now. He thought of Snape's face twisting in cruel amusement and shook his head again. The man probably did this just to spite them, the evil bastard. But Blaise did have a point, most small children liked to see their parents together and happy, and Rebecca had the wants of an actual child... Harry's stomach lurched at the thought of him and Malfoy being her 'parents' and for the third time, shook his head. Whatever. He was not going to let the idea of Malfoy spoil his sleep.

Harry looked over at his Slytherin counterpart, who was still frozen with an expression of extreme annoyance on his face. "Well, you can just sit there, Malfoy," Harry remarked. "But whether you're here or not, I'm getting some sleep."

He lay the doll carefully in between them and inched his body down, feeling incredibly uncomfortable settling himself on the foreign bed that was Malfoy's. This was some serious forbidden territory he had crossed here. For a moment it was quiet, but a rustle indicated Malfoy's movement and Harry suddenly felt a hard jab at his ribs. He turned and started to glare, only to find Malfoy leaning back on his pillow, half underneath the covers and looking back at Harry with an expression that said, 'well, are you going to sleep like that?' Harry smiled at the other boy now, grateful for the silent gesture, no matter how awkward it was. At least they could agree on something.

He climbed into the covers and arranged the doll in between them again to create a little barrier. It would do for now. He glanced over at Malfoy in the darkness, who was still looking at him with a petulant face. "Night, Malfoy," he murmured. "Thanks."

Harry took off his glasses and set them on Malfoy's bed stand. Malfoy's bed stand. Next to Malfoy's bed, which Harry was sleeping in with Malfoy. This couldn't get any more bizarre. Harry sighed and took off his shirt, trying not to care so much about it... He felt Malfoy stiffen next to him and shift away. "You all right?" he asked. He hadn't thought it would bother Malfoy at all. Besides, it was the sort of thing he'd thought that Malfoy would be rather used to—they were living in an all boys' dorm, anyway.

Malfoy merely grunted and plopped down, pointedly turning his back to Harry and ending the conversation. Harry just shrugged and turned his back too, pushing his body as far away from Malfoy as possible. This was uncomfortable, but as long as it kept the baby doll quiet, he'd be willing to do just about anything. Even if the feeling of sharing a bed was far too warm for his liking.

~x~

The next few nights carried on similarly. The dorm had come to a silent agreement not to mention it to anybody else, as it was mortifying to all that a mere baby doll had controlled their lives for a whole week, but they still shared secret glances at one point or another in gratitude that the nightly terrors seemed to be over. Personally, Harry was immensely relieved to have his regular sleep schedule back on track, though it was still a little strange to sleep in the same bed as his archenemy every night.

At first, he had thought it was horrifying, but now he found it quite a comical situation. How many times in his life could he say that he'd slept with the enemy? All right, so it wasn't like that—but every night when he crawled into bed and Malfoy got uncomfortably annoyed with him and didn't say a word, Harry decided that it was worth it. He liked quiet Malfoy better than most things and he cheerfully took this silence as a victory.

But Harry wasn't in bed with Malfoy at the moment, he was in Potions yet again, with Slughorn's voice droning on and on for what seemed like an eternity. Merlin, it was a long class. He repeatedly checked the time, finding it more and more unsatisfactory with every hopeful glance. Hm. Harry couldn't stop himself from worrying about how Malfoy was faring with Rebecca... because even though the Slytherin had promised that there would be no more sock-situations, Harry could never be too sure. Malfoy hadn't kept his promises with the diaper changes either.

Ron poked Harry's side. "Hey mate, are you okay?" he whispered. "Heard you weren't getting a lot of sleep lately." He gestured over towards Hermione, who was avidly taking notes. Harry shook his head and sighed. Trust Hermione to voice her concerns for him to Ron.

He nodded now, glancing over at Slughorn quickly before saying anything. "Yeah, we were having trouble with the baby," Harry murmured back, and noticed Ron was trying to suppress a grin at this. "She was keeping our whole dorm up with her crying. But don't worry about it, we shut her up."

Ron grinned and smacked his shoulder. "Good. I don't think I could've continued to cover for you in all our classes." He snorted. "So what did you do to make her quiet down?"

Harry bit his lip, not knowing how to respond. It was sort of a private dorm thing, but he didn't usually keep things from his best friend. Besides, it was a rather embarrassing story on his part... although, it was embarrassing for Malfoy as well, and Ron loved embarrassing stories about Malfoy. They were rare. "Um, you know," Harry mumbled. "She just wanted to be closer to me—and Malfoy." He kept his eyes trained towards the front of the room, hoping that Ron wouldn't push it further.

"What, so you put her in between your beds or something?" Ron's prodding continued, despite Harry's silent hope.

Harry smiled nervously. "Something like that."

Ron nudged him again. "Come on, I'm bored. Tell me."

Harry shot an exasperated look at his friend. "Malfoy and I have to sleep together so that she won't cry."

Ron's face turned bright red. "Seriously? What the… bloody…" Harry waited for the explosion, but it only came in the form of laughter. Ron's silent guffawing cut off his own words and he had put his head down on his desk to smother them. He was still making small whimpering noises, however.

Harry glared at him. "It's not funny," he muttered, secretly relieved that Ron hadn't reacted like he thought the redhead would. He knew that Ron seemed to hate Malfoy even more than Harry did, and the fact that they were sleeping in the same bed was a little strange. But then again, it wasn't as if Harry was confessing a secret love obsession for the Slytherin prat. They just had to share a bed and that was all. Ron understood that, right?

Hermione jabbed them both with her quill. "Will you guys pay attention for once? Honestly," she clucked, shaking her head and pointing to the board, "This is important information. You'll need it for exams!"

Ron turned so that only Harry could see and rolled his eyes. Harry grinned back at him.

~x~

Later that day, Harry found himself wedged between Malfoy and Hermione in a tight circle Snape had formed of the Marriage Sex and Family students. Something sharp was protruding from Hermione's side and he turned to look at her with an open mouth, only to find that it was a spare quill in her pocket and she was already shushing him before he could even speak. He turned back around.

"Today we will be sharing our progress with the rest of the class," Snape announced, smiling malevolently at them. "We will be doing this once a week. This way, I will be able to create an accurate representation of the final grade that you will receive and your classmates will be able to visualise your experiences at the same time."

Harry rolled his eyes, annoyed. For someone who claimed to hate teaching this class, Snape was certainly having a grand old time doing it. The man was going bonkers. Harry glanced over at Malfoy, who looked at him and rolled his eyes as well. Harry felt a small sense of camaraderie with the other boy and tried to hide his blossoming smile behind a cough.

Hermione and Blaise were first and they were already talking about their project. They had been assigned careers; Blaise was to research a muggle policeman and Hermione a muggle nurse. This clearly excited both of them, as Harry had never seen the two of them get along as they were now, animatedly discussing together. He felt pride in both his friends for that. It wasn't an easy feat. Earlier that week, Hermione had informed Harry that she had spent almost two days trying to soothe burns on her arms from one of Blaise's hexes. Obviously, progress had been made.

Next, Neville and Luna showed the class their growing plant and explained the daily care routine that they went through. It was endearing how Neville cradled the pot as he spoke and Luna hovered around it in case of spillage. They looked like proud parents. Harry absently wondered if that was what he and Malfoy were going to look like, too. He snorted. That would be highly unlikely, seeing as he and Malfoy could hardly take care of Rebecca at the same time without exploding at one another. But it was a nice thought anyway, sort of.

Ron and Pansy Parkinson went after them. They talked about their project, which was apparently just like the questioning except that they had to "step into each other's shoes" more—they had been required to spend an hour each night "discussing the heart's emotions using a spell that would bind their minds together temporarily". In short, it was a bunch of rubbish for blackmail. Harry still thought it was quite hilarious, though Ron had smacked his arm for laughing.

Nott and Ginny's project was on safe sex, which everyone took avid interest in. They had to research both wizard and muggle techniques to make sex stimulating yet safe. Nott boldly explained their "experiments", while Ginny blushed prettily next to him. Harry grinned at her, knowing that look and feeling happy for her. She seemed to fancy Nott, and Harry could tell Nott fancied her too. This project was probably an absolute blessing for them. Harry couldn't help thinking though—at least it hadn't been him and Malfoy.

Speaking of, it was now their turn. Harry shifted towards his partner in expectation. He didn't know how to start off; he was sure that he'd just make a mess of it if he did. Malfoy rolled his eyes, understanding this, but Harry could see a smile was fighting to show on his lips. Harry smiled too, finding the expression kind of... attractive. He shook his head. Did he just think something Malfoy did was attractive?

"We have been taking care of this doll here, whom we've named Rebecca." Malfoy's voice rang with confidence throughout the circle. "It's more challenging than you think, taking care of a baby. Since Rebecca has the needs and wants of an actual child, she can be very high maintenance even though she is just a doll. We've had to change her clothes and feed her the proper baby food, bathe her and entertain her." Malfoy looked over at Harry, expecting him to continue.

Harry cleared his throat nervously. "Right," he affirmed. "It's like Malfoy said, she's very much like a real baby. Sometimes she can be a nuisance, but I guess that's what parenting is about. And by that, I mean... It's not all flowers and sunshine, it's real hard work, and I think that it's something that can only be understood from experience. Of course, it's quite exhausting, but in the end, our efforts have produced several rewarding aspects as well." Malfoy looked at him with approval, but Harry heard Ron snort from across the room. He frowned.

"Do you have something to add, Mr. Weasley?" Snape's cold voice cut through Ron's laughter.

"Er, no sir," Ron said meekly. But his mouth was still somewhat twisted in a smile, as if he were trying to hide it.

"Please. Share it with the class." Snape was smirking now, as if he knew something that the rest of them didn't. Did he?

"Um, no. It's not my project," Ron insisted, and he was looking at Harry nervously. Harry stared back at him, confused. Why was he watching him like that? And why did the others in the class feel the need to do it too?

Blaise had also caught on to whatever it was, giving Harry and Malfoy small discreet looks of amusement. Harry frowned at him. Snape had seen Blaise's expression as well, and now used it to his advantage. "What about you, Mr. Zabini?" Snape asked. "Something to share?"

Blaise just smiled pleasantly. "No. Weasley's right. It is their project, we should let them explain. Lads?"

Snape had a glint in his eye as he turned to face Harry. "Well, go on then, Potter," he drawled.

Harry glanced at Malfoy, who was glaring daggers at both Blaise and Snape now. He was still puzzled. "Um, okay... Well, you see, by 'exhausting', I had meant that we had gone through quite a struggle. Rebecca had a hard time sleeping for a while and she hadn't been very quiet about it—difficult work, like I said. There was a point where we all had to stay up to try and calm her down." He shot apologetic glances at the other three boys, hoping that he wasn't crossing some sort of secret line as to which this information could not be shared. But none of them objected, not even the livid-looking Malfoy.

Snape's smile grew. "Let Malfoy continue, Potter," he offered.

Harry sighed as he was let off the hook, but then noticed that the blond next to him was stiff, as if trying to control himself. What was wrong? Harry had no idea what was going on. Then again, he never seemed to. What was it that made Malfoy so angry and Snape so giddy? He shuddered at the image of a giddy Snape. Note to self: never think about that again.

"Potter figured out a solution that helped us all get some sleep," Malfoy said, his words chosen carefully. "See, Rebecca wasn't happy with our sleeping arrangements. We just had to get her closer to us and she would remain quiet for the night."

"And how exactly did you do that?" Snape's smirk was positively evil now. Harry felt Malfoy shift uneasily next to him. Wait. How did Snape know about—? Oh. Oh Merlin. Harry finally understood what it was that they had to tell the entire class now. He felt a blush creep onto his face. Gods, he was dense.

"Ah... the situation called for Potter and myself to, well..."

Apparently Blaise couldn't handle it anymore. He jumped up and exclaimed, "they're sleeping together!"

"It's not like that!" Malfoy shouted immediately, but his attempts were lost at that point; the entire class burst out into rambunctious laughter, teasing, and taunting. Snape was actually guffawing, which was sort of disturbing and hilarious at the same time. But Harry wasn't laughing at all. He stared at the ground, willing it to swallow him up, right now.Why the fuck did that information have to come up? What sort of twisted game was this? He groaned and put his head in his hands, seeing Malfoy mimic his actions next to him.

"Fucking hell," he muttered to the other boy.

"I know." Malfoy looked up and laughed bitterly. "Why do people insist on putting us in these situations?"

Harry grumbled. "They find it funny, I suppose."

Malfoy shook his head. "Oh good, we're funny now. Fantastic."