DISCLAIMER: All canon characters and the Harry Potter-verse belongs to J K Rowling, and all "Malfoy Ambition" related things belong to Goddess Blue. Everything else belongs to me.

WARNINGS: Female Harry, Draco/Harry pairing, spoilers from possibly all the Harry Potter books, slight OOCness, cliches, and a bit of coarse language that will appear here and there.

A/N: A quick update to make up for that long absence. :)

Also, I know I've said this before, but - since I feel bad about not being able to reply to your comments - I want to thank my anonymous reviewers again (and probably will do so again and again) for your feedback! Some of you have commented on all of my stories (yes, I recognise your names XD) and I want y'all to know how much your encouragement means to me! You guys rock my world! XD

CHAPTER NINE: TYING UP LOOSE ENDS

'Oh, Merlin, I swear that I'm going to drop dead from sleep deprivation today,' Ron yawned widely as he, Harry and Hermione sat down to breakfast the next day. 'I'm so tired.'

'What, didn't you get enough sleep last night?' Ginny's voice sounded from behind him.

'Morning, Ginny,' Harry greeted her as she sat down beside her.

The youngest Weasley returned the greeting before turning back to her brother. 'So, what was it about dropping dead from sleep deprivation? Were you up all night?'

Ron just grunted as he filled his bowl with porridge and left it to Hermione to answer for him.

'I suppose you could say that.'

The red-haired girl frowned at the older girl. 'And why is that?'

Before Hermione could reply, Ron looked up and directed a half-hearted glare at Harry. 'Ask her.'

The Chosen One had the grace to look slightly ashamed and she lowered her eyes guiltily. 'I already said I was sorry; but I was desperate! After hearing those stuff that Ravenclaw girl said in Flitwick's class yesterday and all those girls swooning over him – I got scared, OK! I just really needed to find a way to take the bloody thing off. '

'Yes, but that's no excuse to keep us going through those bloody books till four in the morning! I'll be lucky if I don't fall asleep halfway through class today!'

'Yeah, I know, I know; I'm sorry about that, Ron.'

'OK,' Ginny interrupted their talk, looking very confused, 'what're you talking about?'

'Well,' Hermione began, shooting Harry a small smile that had just a hint of irritation in it, 'Harry here dragged us to the library first thing after classes ended yesterday. She didn't even let us have dinner which I believe is the major cause for your brother's crankiness.'

'I see,' Ginny murmured. 'What were you searching for?'

Hermione smiled wryly. 'Why don't you make a guess?'

The younger girl frowned slightly as she contemplated the reasons and glanced at Harry; the raven-haired witch avoided her eyes and tried to fight down the light blush on her cheeks, but to no avail. A few more seconds passed before Ginny finally understood. She laughed.

'My, my, Harry,' she teased, her brown eyes twinkling with mischief, 'eager to get away from Malfoy, aren't you?'

Harry just gave her an indignant look before turning back to her toast.

Ginny chuckled again before asking, 'So, did you find anything helpful?'

'No,' Harry grumbled, but did not elaborate.

Ginny turned to Hermione for information.

'The library doesn't have a lot of books about wizarding engagement rings,' Hermione informed the curious sixth year. 'In fact, it took us the better part of four hours to find even a single book about them. And even that one mentioned only how and when enchanted rings were first created and the complex spells used and things like that. Not a word about how the rings can be removed; such a waste for four hours of hard work!' Hermione frowned in disgust.' And when it was time to close the library, we hid under Harry's Invisibility Cloak until Madam Pince left and spent the next few hours trying to find more books, but we couldn't find anymore.'

'What?' Ginny's eyes widened. 'You spent that much time trying to ... well, how come you didn't ask the librarian for help? She could've found the books for you.'

The bushy-haired girl smiled wryly at her again before glancing at Harry. 'I almost did; but she wouldn't let me ask Madam Pince.'

With a furrowed brow, Ginny turned to Harry and asked, 'Why was that?'

Harry took her time chewing and swallowing her omelette. With deliberate slowness, she took a long drink from her goblet – Ginny's eyebrow twitched in annoyance – and wiped her mouth with the napkin before answering indifferently, 'I just didn't want to ask her.'

Ginny snorted. 'C'mon, you and I both know that's not it. Spill, Harry!'

She sighed. Ginny really was a headstrong girl – a Weasley trait; and she would not stop badgering her until she answered truthfully.

As if the red-head had read her mind and wanted to prove it, she gave Harry a playful shove. 'Come on!'

'Fine! It's just that I ... I just ...' Harry fought down a blush again, 'I didn't want her to ... you know, get suspicious.'

'Huh?'

Harry sent her a frustrated look. 'Geez, Ginny, you know what I mean! If I asked Pince where I could find information about blasted engagement rings, she might've possibly thought that I am one of Malfoy's disgusting fan girls, or worse! I mean, everyone knows about Malfoy and his rings, right? And I wouldn't want her to think that I am ...'

Ginny smirked. 'That ... you're his fi-an-cée?' She drew out the three syllables of the last word, all the while grinning teasingly at the raven-haired girl beside her.

Harry scowled.

The younger girl chuckled as did Hermione. 'Seriously, Harry,' Ginny chided, 'so what if anyone suspects that you're his fiancée? What can they do about it?'

'They might tell Malfoy!'

'So?'

Harry gaped at her. 'What do you mean, "so"?'

Ginny rolled her eyes as she reached for a crumpet. 'So what if he finds out that you got his ring? What's the big deal?'

'Are – you – insane?'

'What is the big deal about it?'

Harry stared open mouthed at the auburn haired witch who was looking calmly at her. 'I just don't want him to know,' she finally answered quietly.

'And why is that?' It was Hermione who spoke this time.

Harry could not think of an answer. It was a good question: why did she not want him to know? What was the reason? That he was her rival? That it would be one of the most awkward situations she would ever face in her life?

'Ooh, are you scared of him?' Ginny teased, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Shaken out of her thoughts, Harry scoffed contemptuously at Ginny. 'Of course not! Why would I be scared of him?'

Ron nodded vigorously and grunted something indistinguishable through a mouthful of porridge to show his agreement.

'So, why won't you tell him?' Ginny challenged, throwing a mildly irked glance at her brother at the same time. 'Best case scenario is that he'll be as much repulsed by this engagement as you are and remove his ring from you at once, which, by the way, will save all of us a lot of time and trouble.'

'Er ...' Harry trailed off, slightly dazed at Ginny's bluntness. Well, what she said is true, I suppose.

Ron raised his eyebrows sceptically. 'And worst case scenario is?'

His sister contemplated this for a moment before a fox-like grin spread across her pretty features. 'Worst case scenario?' she purred and Harry instinctively knew that she was not going to like what Ginny had to say. 'Hmm ... worst case scenario would probably be Malfoy declaring his undying love for our Harry and asking her to marry him!'

Ron choked on his porridge and Harry shot Ginny a sickened look.

Hermione, on the other hand, looked quite unaffected. 'Ask her to marry him?' she repeated blandly though her eyes gleamed with laughter. 'Why would he do that? They're already engaged, aren't they?'

Ginny rolled her eyes at the older girl. 'Oh, honestly, Hermione, don't you have a single romantic bone in your body?'

'Ah, I see; so you think it would be romantic if he asked her to marry him even though she already has his ring. Well, in that case, that one should be the best case scenario instead of the worst; don't you think so, Ginny?'

'Hmm, yeah I guess you're right, Mione.'

'But it would certainly be a right sight for sore eyes – Malfoy proposing to Harry!'

'I think it would be cute! Just imagine – Draco Malfoy and Hariah Potter-Malfoy!'

They giggled hysterically like a pair of hyenas.

Harry and Ron followed this unusual banter with wide, alarmed eyes, their breakfasts utterly forgotten.

'Merlin, this is disturbing,' Ron muttered under his breath.

Harry could only shake her head helplessly. 'They really like the idea of my being married to Malfoy, don't they?'

The question was, why?

Draco drummed his fingers on the table, completely ignoring his breakfast and an irritated Blaise Zabini, keeping his eyes fixed determinedly on the high windows of the Great Hall through which the bright morning sunlight beamed into the room. Beside him, Blaise gritted his teeth and tried to focus on his toast, but eventually, the sound of Draco thrumming his fingers became just a tad too annoying.

'Draco, give it a rest!' Blaise hissed, finally giving up on his breakfast. 'Your impatience is not going to get the post owls to arrive any faster.'

His friend did not even bat an eyelash as he continued to await the arrival of the morning post, drumming his fingers even louder just to annoy the half-Italian. Blaise glared at him and Draco smirked at his ire, but otherwise did not acknowledge his fellow Slytherin. He was waiting for an important letter from his mother and, Merlin help him, he wanted it now!

Blaise raised an eyebrow at him, sensing that Draco's patience was wearing even thinner. 'You said that your mother promised you in her letter last night that she'll send you a detailed account today, Draco; be patient.'

'I know that, Blaise, but try to understand. Mother has not seen my Aunt Andromeda in over twenty years; and she only let me know last night that she was going to visit her. I want to know how it went.'

Blaise rolled his eyes. 'I do understand, Draco, but your impatience is not going to help and, frankly, you're driving me insane!'

Draco just ignored him again and looked back up at the windows. Why did she go to see Aunt Andromeda anyway? He mused. His mother had told him during his younger years that her parents had broken off all ties with Andromeda Black when she went against their wishes and married Ted Tonks, a Muggle-born. Narcissa had not seen her sister for a lifetime and Draco had yet to lay his eyes on her. Yet, last night, the brief letter that he had received from his mother had informed him that she was on her way to visit her sister and that she would tell him the details the next day, meaning today. Draco drummed his fingers again. His curiosity had nearly reached its peak.

At long last, the sun shining through the windows was blocked by the feathery mass of post owls that came swooping into the Great Hall and Draco straightened in his seat, searching for his owl. His eyes, however, locked on a single snow-white bird that stood out amongst all the brown and grey and it looked strangely familiar. He followed its graceful descent onto the Gryffindor table where it landed right in front of – Hariah Potter?

Draco blinked. Of course, that's Potter's owl. He watched discreetly as she carefully removed the letter from its leg and smoothed it out before proceeding to read it, all the while caressing the snowy owl's feathers tenderly with her free hand. Her lips twitched slightly as she read the letter and she turned her head to relate whatever it said to her two sidekicks. Draco sneered slightly at the sight. She shares even her personal letters with her friends, does she? It quite escaped his attention that he had pretty much shared his mother's letter with Blaise as well the night before.

He continued to watch, forgetting that he was staring, as she responded to something Weasley said before turning back to her owl. Even from all the way across the Great Hall, Draco could see the genuine smile of thanks she bestowed upon her pet as she stroked it, and he felt slightly overwhelmed when he saw how her face lit up from the simple act; her smile, which he rarely got to see since she never smiled when he was in the vicinity, was beautiful to put it simply.

With a start, he realised what he had begun to think and he shook his head very slightly. He had lost himself again, just like the previous day during Charms, when he had seen that look on her face as she stared at her desk; she had looked as if she had been having a mental debate with herself and was unhappy with the results. Not unhappy as in genuinely saddened, but unhappy like how a toddler would feel if she was denied her favourite sweet. She had been almost pouting and Draco had unconsciously thought that she had looked almost ... cute. And he had caught himself staring at her.

He gritted his teeth. What was coming over him? First he had thought she was cute and now he found her smile nice? He shook his head again. She was not even pretty and he sure as hell did not like her. However, as he cautiously glanced up at her through his lashes again, he could not deny that she was not ugly. Sure, like Blaise had said the day before, she was not beautiful; but she did have a strong, charismatic nature that drew people to her and she was ... attractive ... in her own special way.

Good Lord, what am I thinking? That Potter is attractive? What on –? Draco hissed in pain as something nipped at his finger. He yanked his hand away, but relaxed at once when he saw that it was an owl that had bitten him; and not any owl, either, but his family's eagle owl.

'Roenan! Good, you're here,' he murmured and quickly reached to remove the letter it was carrying, but paused when he heard a chuckle from his left. Draco turned to look at Blaise with a cocked eyebrow. 'And what do you find so amusing, Blaise?'

His friend looked at him with a lopsided grin on his face. 'It's just that you were so eager to receive that letter earlier, Draco, but completely failed to notice the owl's presence when it finally arrived. I admire Roenan's patience; he waited three whole minutes before deciding to call your attention onto himself.' Blaise gave him a knowing smirk. 'Find it hard to take your eyes off Hariah Potter, do you?'

A pink tinge suffused over Draco's face. 'What are you blabbing about?' he hissed.

'Please, what do you take me for, a simpleton?' Blaise rolled his eyes in exasperation. 'Do you honestly think that I don't who you were gawking at just now? And if I remember correctly, she caught your attention yesterday during Charms as well.'

Draco blinked before flushing deeply. Damn it! He had thought (or rather, hoped) that Blaise had not noticed that.

'I was not –' he began, but stopped when Blaise gave him a haughty "please-stop-insulting-my-intelligence" look. Rolling his eyes, Draco swiftly rephrased what he had been about to say, 'I was merely looking at her ... owl, Blaise.' The lie sounded ridiculously pathetic, even to Draco's ears and he almost cringed at his stupidity.

The brunet had his customary annoying smirk on his face, the one he saved especially for his favourite past-time: pissing-off-Drake. 'Right,' he drawled, 'because you've never seen her snowy owl before, is that it?'

'Because I've always found snowy owls to be exceptionally beautiful; it has nothing to do with their owners!' Draco snapped, painfully aware that he was losing the battle here.

'Sure, sure,' Blaise said patronisingly and chuckled to himself; he clearly did not believe a word that Draco had said.

With as much haughty dignity as he could muster, Draco turned back to the impatient owl and removed the letter from its leg. Roenan gave him an owlishly irritated look before spreading his magnificent wings and taking flight again. Draco waved him off vaguely before eagerly unsealing the letter and unrolling it to find his mother's elegant script:

Draco,

I have just come back from Andromeda's place and I must admit that her reception of me was not something I was expecting. I am so happy at the moment, Dragon; the visit went so very well, even better than I had allowed myself to hope.

However, before I tell you about it, I would like to apologise for not giving the reason behind all of this in my letter to you yesterday. I know that you must be wondering why I suddenly made the decision to renew my – our – relationship with my sister after over twenty years of no contact. The simplest explanation I can give on this is that I want my family back intact again. Confused? Let me explain.

Andromeda is all that's left of my broken family; and, of course, her grandson, Teddy Lupin. The War has ended and Andromeda and I are, once more, back on the same side. I do not want to live the rest of my life without at least making an effort to tie up loose ends with her. She is, after all, my sister and both of us are the last of the Blacks. With our deaths, the family line will dissolve into nothing but a memory of a great clan that once existed and I do not want the Black clan to fade away on a bitter note with its members divided by their beliefs and differences. I want to die, Draco, with the happy knowledge and satisfaction that I made my family one and whole again.

Also, I wanted to ask for her forgiveness. I, like so many others, have been blinded and brainwashed by the Dark Lord; but no more. I have seen the error of my ways and I know that I was in the wrong and have treated my sister despicably, especially when my parents decided to make her an outcast. I wanted to – no, I needed to know that she could forgive my actions and can accept me back as her sibling.

Now, with the explanation out of the way, let's move on to the visit. Andromeda was very surprised when I showed up on her doorstep; understandable as I had given her no prior warning of my coming. However, in spite of my fears that she would turn me away without so much as giving me the opportunity to speak, she invited me in to her house – and, at length, back into her life. I never dreamt that Andromeda would accept my apologies so readily; in fact, I had had almost no hope that she would even acknowledge me as family. Indeed, I had quite forgotten how merciful and kind-hearted my sister truly is and I feel all the more guilt-ridden because of it. I do not deserve her forgiveness, though she claims otherwise.

I shall not bore you with unnecessary details of my visit. Just know that we have put our differences behind us and all is solved, from the matter of our beliefs about Muggle-borns to that of the Dark Lord. We are once again part of a family one and whole and I, for one, cannot express how truly ecstatic I am! I have achieved that which I have been dreaming of for the past several months and now can sleep in peace once more.

I should also probably tell you that Andromeda has expressed great desire in meeting you, Dragon; after all, she has not had the pleasure of seeing you yet. Eager as I am to strengthen and maintain the renewed bonds between us, I offered to introduce you to her at the earliest opportunity which leads me to the question: do you have any objections to coming home for the Christmas holidays, Draco? I know it is too early for me to ask this, but Andromeda has very kindly invited us to spend the holidays with her and her grandson. However, if you would rather remain at Hogwarts for Christmas, I would, of course, understand and rearrange our meeting with her. Please send me a reply soon, Dragon.

And now, before I say good bye, has your fiancée approached you by any chance, Draco? I know that it has been only a day since your return to Hogwarts, but I simply just had to ask. I am very eager to know the identity of the girl that I shall soon be calling my daughter-in-law. Whoever the girl is, Dragon, please do not hesitate to tell me. I meant my words when I told you that your father and I have complete faith in your judgement and we shall respect your decisions. We shall accept her as ours, no matter who she is.

And now I must leave. A ministry official has arrived and I suspect that he has news of Lucius' sentence. If it is anything important, I shall inform you. I trust that your reply will reach me soon.

With love,

Mother

Draco stared silently down at the letter. To be truthful, he did not really know what to think. He had never met Andromeda before so it was not very easy for him to understand his mother's perspective of things. He supposed that he did understand somewhat what had driven her to make amends with her sister, but other than that ... well ... he did not know; he felt completely neutral about it. But it was an interesting turn of events, nevertheless. Though he had not bothered to ask his mother about Andromeda, there had been times when he had wondered what his unknown aunt was like. Now there was a chance to get to know her; and judging by how happy his mother sounded, he supposed that he would like her.

He perused the letter again. This time, another name jumped out at him: Teddy Lupin. Draco raised an eyebrow. Lupin? It was a few seconds before he remembered: Ah, of course! Aunt Andromeda's daughter married the werewolf. Teddy must be their son. It took another few seconds for him to recall that the both of them had died in the War. He did not know what to think about that, either. He had not known either of them personally (unless you counted the fact that Remus Lupin had been his former teacher) and there was the fact that they had been on opposite sides of the battlefield until the last moment.

Draco shook his head. His family might have changed sides, but there were still a lot of things to be sorted in his mind, which included his feelings about ... well, a lot of things, apparently. Like how he was supposed to be feeling about the deaths of people who he had not cared about before, and how he was supposed to react to Andromeda Black-Tonks, whom he had been led to believe was a blood-traitor before some sense had been knocked into his family's brains.

He did not feel Blaise's concerned eyes on him as he allowed his mind to wander. Blaise watched him silently for a few more minutes before turning away, leaving his friend to his thoughts. Whatever the letter had been about and had turned Draco into a mute, Draco would tell him when he was ready. And if he did not feel like sharing, then Blaise would not press him. If it was anything urgent, he knew that Draco would tell him eventually.

He pushed the matter out of his mind.

'Who was the letter from, Harry?' asked Ron curiously as he watched Harry put away the small roll of parchment in her pocket.

'Hagrid,' she answered simply, pushing her plate of sausages towards Selene as a reward. As Harry smiled at her, the snowy owl gave her an adoring look – which was agonisingly reminiscent of the affectionate looks Hedwig used to give her – before she dipped her head into the plate and began to help herself to Harry's breakfast. Harry had to make a conscious effort to tear her eyes away from the bird; she had come to love Selene who was as faithful an owl as she could hope for, but the reminders of Hedwig were still painful.

'He's invited us to visit him around this weekend,' Harry continued, turning back to Ron and Hermione. 'He says that he's got the whole of Friday afternoon free as well if we have a free period that day.'

'Oh, really?' said Hermione happily, turning around to rummage in her bag. 'Yes, it's a good idea to visit him; we haven't been able to talk with him much after the battle and funerals.'

'Yeah,' murmured Harry. 'I've really missed him.'

'Here, let's see.' Hermione pulled her timetable out of her bag and scanned the columns quickly. 'Hmm ... we've got a fair amount of free periods but,' she frowned slightly, 'it looks like we have to wait till Saturday to visit him; our Friday afternoons is full: double Defence Against the Dark Arts.'

'Oh.' Ron looked disappointed as did Harry. Both of them began to turn back to their breakfasts when Hermione suddenly gasped.

'What?' Harry and Ron asked at the same time. Even Ginny, who had not been paying much attention to the latter part of their conversation, looked up with concern at the bushy-haired girl.

'Defence Against the Dark Arts!' Hermione cried, looking around at the three of them with a look that clearly said that they should know what she meant. When all she got were blank stares in response, she exasperatedly added, 'This is our second day and we don't even know who our new teacher is!'

Harry, Ron and Ginny gaped at her before they all caught on.

'Merlin, you're right!' Ron exclaimed, dropping his spoon.

Harry shook her head slowly, eyes wide with disbelief. 'I can't believe I forgot about that! I got so caught up with the ring and the engagement business that it completely escaped my mind ... but, wait ...' Harry looked up, face twisted into a puzzled frown. 'Why didn't McGonagall inform the students who the new teacher is?'

Hermione's eyes widened. 'You're right, she didn't tell us. I didn't even notice that first night ... and if McGonagall didn't tell us ... does that mean that they haven't found a new Defence teacher yet? But, no, that can't be it,' she answered her own question decisively. 'They wouldn't reopen the school without a Defence teacher, would they?'

'Maybe they did, Mione,' Ginny murmured softly, with a thoughtful look on her face. 'Last night in the common room,' she quickly began to explain upon catching the confused looks aimed at her, 'I overheard some fifth years talking about having had a free Defence period 'cause there was no professor. So that means that a Defence teacher isn't here at Hogwarts.'

'Seriously?' Hermione looked troubled. 'But then ...' she turned to face the High Table where Professor McGonagall was deep in conversation with Professor Sprout, 'why didn't she say anything about that during the Welcome Feast ...?'

No one could think of an answer.

'Wow,' Ron murmured as they entered the Gryffindor common room after dinner that night. 'It's true then, isn't it? We don't have a Defence teacher this year.'

'Yeah, unbelievable,' agreed Harry.

Hermione just nodded mutely with a distracted look on her face as they made their way to the armchairs by the fire, which were vacant as most of the students were still in the Great Hall.

Their last class of the day had been Defence Against the Dark Arts. All the seventh year Gryffindors had gone to the classroom only to be greeted with a closed door on which a notice hung announcing that their DADA professor was not present yet, and that they could have the period free. The seventh years that had not noticed the absence of their Defence teacher beforehand had been flummoxed, and those that had had looked both curious and worried. Most of them spent the period hanging around one of the school courtyards, discussing and debating on the reasons why Hogwarts had not managed to find a teacher for the position, and why the school had been opened under such circumstances; it had never happened before.

'It can't be anything bad, right?' Harry said, as they sat down beside the fire. 'I mean, there must be a good reason for this; and McGonagall would tell us if it was anything to worry about ... right?'

'Yeah, that makes sense,' Ron nodded, but Hermione shook her head. Harry and Ron both stared at her.

'What'd you mean, Mione?' Harry raised her eyebrows at the bushy-haired girl.

'Well, I was thinking ... what if that's the whole point? What if it is something to worry about, but McGonagall's not telling us because she doesn't want to scare the students or bring attention to the Defence professor's absence?'

A dark scowl crossed Harry's face at that. 'Well, if that's the case, then that's just stupid and unfair. As students, don't we have a right to know about these things? And if it involves us, then all the more reason for them to inform us. Not wanting to scare us is no excuse.'

'Hang on a minute,' Ron interjected, looking a little perturbed by their talk. 'Isn't it possible that they just couldn't find a teacher so soon?'

'It's possible, Ron, but not probable,' Harry answered. 'The war just ended, but there are still some Dark Wizards around that they haven't managed to capture. They wouldn't reopen the school without finding us a proper Defence teacher; not in their right minds, they wouldn't! Besides, if it is true that they just couldn't find one, then why wouldn't McGonagall tell us? There's no reason to avoid the subject.'

'Well, when you put it like that ...'

All three of them stared at each other, as if willing one of them to come up with a reasonable explanation. No one could. With a sigh, Hermione finally turned and reached for her book bag. 'Well whatever is going on, we'll just have to wait for the answers ...' she murmured.

Harry and Ron both caught on to the dismissal of the topic and they both fell silent, though the topic remained at the front of their minds. As Hermione pulled out the Herbology homework that had been assigned to them that day, Harry too eventually reached for her bag and Ron followed suit after a few moments' hesitation. All three of them quietly worked on their school work until Harry glanced up and saw that it was only five minutes to seven thirty. Remembering her appointment in the library, she jumped up with an exclamation of, 'Merlin, I'm going to be late!'

'Where are you going?' Hermione asked, puzzled.

'Library,' Harry answered shortly as she stuffed her books and parchment into her bag. 'I have to meet Blaise Zabini to work on our projects.'

'Damn!' Ron cursed.

'What's with you?' Hermione frowned at the red-head, puzzled.

'I just remembered; Malfoy told me to come to the library tonight, too.'

'When do you have to go?' Harry asked, swinging her bag onto her shoulders.

'Eight o'clock,' Ron grumbled with a frown; then he brightened up and looked at Harry eagerly. 'Can I come with you now? I'll just hang around till Malfoy comes.'

'Sure, sure,' Harry muttered distractedly, already hurrying towards the door.

'Wait,' Hermione said as Ron stood up and reached for his bag, 'why are you going early? You can work on your Herbology essay till eight, can't you?'

'Actually, now that I've remembered that I have to spend the rest of the night in Malfoy's scarily civil presence, I won't be able to concentrate,' Ron groused sarcastically. 'Might as well go to the library and waste my time or try to find some potions books.'

Rolling her eyes and muttering something indistinguishable under her breath, Hermione turned back to her essay and Ron headed towards the door where Harry was waiting impatiently for him.

'Great, researching with Malfoy,' he muttered sarcastically to himself as they left the common room together. 'Whoopee.'

A/N: Hmm, a sort of filler chapter that needed to happen. Sorry about the lack of Draco/Harry moments (but I think the next chapter might make up for that - in more ways than one. ::wink::) However, there are some important stuff up there in this chappy - especially for those of you who want some major Draco/Harry interaction in the future. ::grin:: Try to spot a little something in Narcissa's letter that might make you very happy. ;D

About updating: My AS exams are coming up ... need I say more? ::sigh:: I can only promise faster updates after June; till then, it's gonna be slow - real slow. I can't even guarantee you guys an update before that ... :'(

Feedback is love!

UP NEXT: CHAPTER TEN - Those Annoying Little Accidents