Chapter 12

Draco POV

Two weeks later and the Gryffindor-Slytherin quidditch team was looking better than ever. The team dynamics had gotten better after the two houses started to get along, and there was no longer a male ginger idiot on the team. Draco and Hermione had told Harry about what Ron had done, and without a second thought, Harry had kicked Ron off the team. Not only this, but when Professor Dumbledore had caught wind of the incident, he sentenced Ron to detention for the twelve weeks until school ended for the summer.

Harry was having trouble finding a new keeper, however. The Slytherin house team keeper refused to be part of the team due to the fact that he had not originally been chosen, and neither house had a backup keeper. For the time being, the team was practicing without a keeper in the hopes that their developing offensive skills would keep the quaffle away from the goalposts.

Draco knew that Harry was under a lot of stress and was trying to make his job as easy as he could. There had even been some practice sessions where Draco had completely run practice so that Harry could scour for a replacement. All attempts so far, however, had failed. Finally, one day, Harry had broken down and offered the spot to Cormac Mclaggen. Draco could tell that Harry resented the boy, but there was no possible way to play a quidditch match without someone tending the goalposts.

Besides this inconvenience, though, the chasers were scoring seemingly every second, the beaters' aim had improved thoroughly so that now they could hit a moving target traveling almost 95 kilometers an hour, and due to Harry's amazing skill, he could catch the snitch in the worst of conditions in almost no time at all.

The big game was coming up- only three days away- and the whole team was getting excited to face the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. There was only one last item of business, picking a team name. Madame Hooch had decided that the teams would need to pick a name that represented both houses. Draco and Harry organized a meeting for the team to brainstorm the new title.

"I personally think," suggested Mclaggen, "that we should be team Cormac. Everyone here obviously idolizes me and I think we should share that with the school." Draco looked over at Harry who was staring at Mclaggen with an expression of utmost confusion. It was all Draco could do not to laugh at the expression.

"Yes, well thanks for that suggestion," said Harry, "We'll um... we'll think about that." Draco looked around the room at the other players. All of them were staring off into the distance, mouths forming words strung together that could somehow possibly represent the two houses. He could hear Ginny Weasley whispering things to herself like, "Slythindor" or "Gryfferin".

"Guys," Draco spoke up, "I don't think we have to make a name combining two things about our house, I think it can be like, a word, or something that represents both our houses, or maybe just our team." Harry nodded along to what Draco was saying.

"You're absolutely right, Draco," he started, "When I think of this team I don't really think about the history of our houses anymore, I think about how we have grown past our stereotypes and actually become a pretty good team. Our new name should be something that represents union and prevailing our differences." Ginny looked up, broken out of her trance.

"Well, Hermione was just lecturing me about something from her Ancient Runes class, and I didn't really listen, but she was talking about how some animals represent ideas and traits. Maybe she could help us." Harry slowly nodded.

"Good idea, Ginny. Why don't you take the team through a warmup and Draco and I will try to find Hermione. We'll be back as soon as possible." Ginny nodded and led the team back out onto the quidditch pitch.

"So," began Draco, "where do you think Hermione is?" Harry looked up at Draco with a look of playful exasperation on his face. "Right," nodded Draco, "that was a stupid question." Harry laughed and pulled on his school sweater.

"When you have known Hermione as long as I have," said Harry, "never doubt where she is. Just go to the library, and if she isn't there, something's wrong." Draco nodded sheepishly and began walking up the steps to the castle with Harry by his side.

"Harry?" he abruptly asked, "why do you think that Hermione fancied Ron?" right after he said it he realized that he shouldn't have. There was no way of knowing whether or not Harry was still talking to Ron. If he was this would certainly come up in conversation. To his surprise though, Harry just nodded knowingly. It was almost as if he had answered this question many times before.

"Look Draco," Harry began, "I'm not exactly sure when Hermione started having feelings for Ron, but I don't think that they were as serious as you or even she thought they were. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that the three of us had been such close friends and done so many things together. Excluding me, he was the only one that had really experienced that same things that she had. And also, if we're being honest. Hermione used to be kind of insecure with herself. I mean, she's one of the only muggle-borns in the school, and she used to have those huge teeth before Madame Pomfrey shrunk them for her. I think that she thought that she kind of doubts how great she really is and because of that lowered her expectations to seem appealing to Ron."

"But she shouldn't need or want to lower her expectations for anyone," observed Draco, "She's pretty much perfect. I mean she's super smart, brave, funny, a great friend, and she she shouldn't have to be insecure because she's beautiful." As he thought more and more about it Draco thought of all the terrible things that he had done to Hermione in the past that could have made her feel insecure. He had called her a mud-blood countless times, made her teeth grow huge, sent her an envelope full of Bobotuber pus that had caused her hands to swell up. The sudden realization of what he had done hit him hard. Draco was only broken from his train of thought by the fact that Harry was staring at him with a huge smile on his face.

"What?" questioned Draco.

"Oh, it's nothing" replied Harry, but the grin of happiness on his face betrayed him. "Oh all right," he added as Draco continued to stare at him, "Mate, it's pretty clear you fancy Hermione."

Draco was taken aback. He tried to respond but only ended up sputtering. Harry laughed, "Hey, it's cool. I'm actually kind of glad. Hermione hasn't had a lot of luck with boys and I'm really happy that she finally has someone that likes her for her."

"Well, um..." Draco began, " I'm glad you think that because it would be kind of weird if you, you know, didn't really like me spending time with her.

"Of course I'm alright with that," responded Harry, "I didn't think I would ever be able to have one conversation with you two months ago, but now, after what Ron did, you, and Hermione are two of my closest friends." Draco exhaled a sigh that he hadn't realized he had been holding. He didn't know how to respond but thankfully he didn't have to because they had reached the library. As he entered, Draco found himself searching the stacks of books for a glimpse of Hermione.

Draco had no idea where she would be, but Harry led the way towards that back of the hall to a small corner where Hermione was deeply immersed in a potions book. Harry cleared his throat softly. As she looked up, Draco noticed a rare blank sheet of parchment in front of her. Usually any parchment that was place in front of Hermione was covered in sentences, phrases, spells, and reminders in seconds.

"Hi, Hermione," whispered Harry, " We were trying to think of a new mascot or word to represent the quidditch team and Ginny was telling us about something you told her on the subject of Ancient Runes that had to do with animals representing traits and emotions." Hermione stared at him for a moment, then responded.

"Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Um...I don't have my Ancient Runes book with me, it's in the common room, but I can go get-" Harry interrupted her before she could finish.

"I'll get it. you and Draco just stay here." Draco wasn't sure, but he thought he saw Harry wink at him briefly before sprinting out of the library doors. Draco took a seat across from Hermione.

"What are you reading?"

"Oh, I'm just trying to find the answer to something that we learned about in Potions. I didn't really understand it, and with exams coming up I thought I would try to find it." said Hermione. Ignoring the fact that exams were almost three months away, Draco realized that he understood what she was reading.

"Wait, you don't understand Golpalott's Third Law?" he questioned. Looking like the world was ending, Hermione solemnly shook her head. "Can I try to explain it to you?" Draco asked. Looking up, intrigued, Hermione nodded. "Well okay," Draco started, " you know how almost every poison has an antidote?" Hermione nodded, "Well Golpalott's Third Law states that if you mix together a bunch of poisons, you can't create an antidote to that substance by mixing together all the antidotes of the individual poisons."

"Okay...then how do you create an antidote for that substance?" asked Hermione

"Well you have to add an ingredient to the mixed antidotes that transforms the antidote into a combined whole that can counteract he mixed poisons. It basically means that the whole antidote is greater than the sum of its parts, or all the antidotes mixed together. Does that make sense?"

Draco looked at Hermione and found her staring deep into his eyes. "Yeah...it does" she responded, never breaking her gaze. Draco swallowed hard to try to relieve his dry throat. Was it just his imagination or was Hermione drawing closer to him every second. He could see the sparks of creamy brown in her deep hazel eyes. Just when there noses were millimeters apart, Harry burst around the corner, Hermione's book bag in hand. Draco and Hermione bolted apart, each trying to look anywhere except at the other.

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