Harry spun his ring around his finger, and nodded in answer to the question that had just been posed to him. He was sitting across from the headmistress in her office. She had called him there, and he had no idea why, although she had assured him he wasn't in trouble. So far, she had only asked general questions about his wellbeing, but he had a feeling that there was something in particular that she wanted to ask.
McGonagall sighed. "I should probably ask you about the matter at hand Potter." She said, her tone somewhat grave. Harry raised his eyebrows, curious to find out the reason she had invited him here. "I probably should have called you in sooner, but I wanted to talk to you about the letter incidents last week." Oh. Of course. She wanted to know how he was doing after the multiple days last week where a deluge of letters had been deposited on him at breakfast for a few days. "First of all, I needed to ask whether any of the letters were explicitly threatening, or if there were any that stood out to you in any way."
Harry thought about it for a moment, before slowly shaking his head. "No… although one person on the first day did fill a letter with powdered ginger…"
McGonagall paused to make a note of this on a pad of parchment. "Do you know who that letter was from? Was it signed?"
Harry went to shake his head, but stopped. "I'm not sure… I was sneezing so much Ron had to take me to the hospital wing, but Hermione might know… I'll have to ask her."
McGonagall nodded once more, and made another note. "You may also have noticed that these letters stopped after around three days?" Harry nodded. "We put a block in place to prevent this happening again. We wanted to ask you whether you would like them to be screened, and then sent to you to do with what you will, or just thrown away if they aren't from a trusted source."
"Just burn them. It's not worth looking through them." He told her without hesitation. He highly doubted any of them would say anything at all interesting, most were just plain rude.
McGonagall nodded, and wrote something else down. "I needed to ask you whose letters you don't want us to burn, so that we can send them letters asking them to inscribe their name on the envelope, and those will go directly to you."
Harry nodded, and bit his lip, thinking. "The Weasleys and Hagrid… Any of my friends during the holidays… Dudley… I think that's everyone?" He finished questioningly.
McGonagall nodded. "If you missed anyone, or want to remove anyone from the list for whatever reason, send a letter to the house elves in charge of post sorting, and if you are expecting a letter from someone not on the list as a one-time thing you can tell them to expect it." Harry nodded, feeling better that this wasn't a fixed list.
"Now, on a happier note, the other thing I wanted to ask you about. As you are probably aware, it is your allotted bonding time with Mister Malfoy in a few days, and I would appreciate it if you would set up the activity. The two of you will take it in turns each week to decide what the activity is. Once you have decided, I will cast the spell, which ensures that the door to the room or requirement remains locked, so you get the full allotted time."
After a moment of brief contemplation, Harry had an idea. "Could I set it up like a muggle movie theatre? Harry asked.
The headmistress shrugged. "I don't see why not. Although getting the film and anything else you want is up to you."
Harry nodded excitedly, and went to get up. "Wait, is that everything?" He asked, pausing so as not to be disrespectful. McGonagall nodded, and motioned for him to go.
Harry left the office, mind buzzing. Malfoy would probably hate something so muggle, Harry thought gleefully. He had to make this perfect!
~oOo~
"But I can't decide which movie to pick." Harry told Ron and Hermione. The three of them were in the 8th year common room, and Harry had just told them about his discussion with McGonagall.
"You have to choose something really stupid, something he'll hate!" Ron said excitedly.
"He's already pretty much guaranteed to hate something so muggle." Hermione mused. "But if you could find a movie that encapsulates muggles…"
"Or something showing what muggles think about magic! Like that one you like Hermione, with the vampires and werewolves-"Ron said contemplatively.
Hermione flushed furiously red. "I don't like twilight THAT much…" She protested.
Suddenly, Harry had an idea. "I think I've got it." He said triumphantly.
~oOo~
Draco was standing outside the room of requirement, looking somewhat apprehensively at the doors, which were large, and made of glass, although he couldn't fully make out what was inside. McGonagall had informed him earlier on in the week that Potter had chosen the activity, and he was honestly quite nervous. Who knew what Golden Boy actually did in his free time?
Deciding not to waste any more time loitering outside, Draco squared his soldiers and pushed open the doors. Inside was a fairly large room with extremely vibrant carpet and what appeared to be some kind of till at one end. There was also some kind of long red seat across one wall, where Potter was sitting, obviously waiting for him, a grin plastered across his face.
"Didn't know whether you would make it Malfoy." Potter said, smirking slightly.
Draco shook his head, mouth open slightly. "What exactly is this place Potter?" He asked in bewilderment.
"This, Malfoy, is a Muggle cinema." Potter replied, gesturing to their surroundings.
Draco opened his mouth to say something, but bit back the retort, and closed his mouth. "What does it do?" Draco instead asked, after a pause.
"All in good time." The other boy replied cryptically. First- popcorn!"
With that, Potter headed off towards the popcorn, gesturing for Draco to follow him. Draco followed somewhat apprehensively as Potter hopped over the counter and started scooping out two huge bags of the stuff, before accompanying it with a large cup of some kind of drink. He then paused. "Oh – you did want sweet popcorn, right?" He asked. Draco opened his mouth, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, before shutting it and just nodding.
He then headed over to a wall, which had numerous glass orbs sticking out of it, all appearing to contain a scooper and some kind of candy. "It's a pick n mix." Potter told him, handing him a paper bag. "Just get some different kinds of sweets."
"What are all these?" Draco asked, not recognising any of them.
"Muggle sweets. Look, there's some sherbet lemons here! Dumbledore used to really like them." Potter told him, already loading up his bag with as much as he could get.
Once both boys had popcorn, drinks, and a bag full of candy, Potter grinned. "Ok, NOW we can get to the fun part." He shoved everything into Draco's arms. "Can you hold these a sec?" He asked him. Draco rolled his eyes, and carefully extracted his wand, before levitating them all. Popper grinned, and hurried towards a door at the side of the room. He dramatically shoved open the door, before standing in front of it, acting as a human doorstop. "I'll meet you in there in a sec… oh, and I recommend seats nearer the back." Potter told him as Draco approached him.
Draco walked into the room, and looked around, aware of the door swinging shut behind him from wherever Potter had gone. It was a large room, filled with many seats arranged in rows, arranged in a way somewhat reminiscent of stadium seating, all facing a square on the wall that was a different colour to the rest of the wall. Still mystified, he decided to follow Potter's advice, and took a seat in one of the chairs further away from the screen. Then, in the blink of an eye, the mysterious square widened, and was illuminated with vibrant colour.
~oOo~
Harry left the room with the screen, and headed behind the counter, to the projection room. He had brought the DVD he had chosen with him, and he now pulled it out of his pocket, smirking. He entered the projection room, and located the projector. There was a small window looking into the screen room, and he could just about see the top of Malfoy's head. Interestingly, he was sitting at the back, as Harry had suggested. Huh. Harry wouldn't have been surprised if the other boy had sat right at the front, just to spite him. Still, that wouldn't stop Harry from purposefully playing a movie Malfoy was sure to hate.
With that thought in mind, Harry smirked, and put the DVD into the machine, and smiled as it lit up the cinema screen. This was going to be hilarious.
~oOo~
Harry crept back into the cinema room, where Malfoy was staring at the screen in rapt attention, despite the fact that only adverts were currently playing. He took a seat next to the other boy. "Is this some kind of painting?" Malfoy asked excitedly. "Also, what is this drink! It's all fizzy!"
Harry laughed. It was interesting to see Malfoy so bemused by something that he was completely used to. "No, it's a movie. A projector projects different coloured light onto a screen, which shows actors, who tell a story. It's like a play, but the actors aren't really here. But the actual film hasn't started yet. These are just muggles trying to sell things through adverts."
Malfoy looked shocked. "But that's… incredible?" He said, looking confused by how advanced muggle technology was.
Harry nodded. "Yep. Muggles are actually quite cool sometimes. Oh, also the drink is called lemonade! I have Pepsi, would you like to try some?"
Malfoy looked somewhat disgusted by the suggestion, but Harry just rolled his eyes and put Malfoy's straw into his cup. To prove it wasn't poisoned or whatever, Harry leant forward to take a sip, but apparently Malfoy trusted him enough, and also leant forwards to try it, resulting in their foreheads colliding.
"Ow, fuck!" Harry exclaimed, jolting away, hands clamped over the area on his head where his scar used to be. He had felt some kind of zap, but it wasn't like the pain that used to come from his scar. It was more like… electricity? He winced, but within seconds it had almost completely disappeared. Next to him, Malfoy also had two fingers lightly pressed to his forehead.
"Must have been… static electricity." Harry said, passing it off with a wave of his hand.
Malfoy still looked confused, but nonetheless leant forwards to taste the cola once more. However, he pulled away very quickly, grimacing. "Ew no! The… lemonade… is much better." He pulled his straw out of Harry's drink, and replaced it in his own, before taking a sip and nodding happily.
Harry snorted, and shrugged. "Suit yourself." He said, reaching for a handful of popcorn.
However, at that point, the lights dimmed. "The movie's actually starting now!" Harry exclaimed, nudging Draco. And so, it did.
Fairly soon, the first song started playing, and Harry realised that he had used a karaoke version. Shrugging, he decided to roll with it, and sing along. Malfoy wouldn't realise that muggles considered it taboo for a male to sing to this.
"This could be the start, of something newww, it feels so right, to be here with youuu, oh oh!" Harry started singing. It was horribly out of tune, and Harry was laughing through his own overly loud wailing, so it didn't exactly sound great, but he was having fun anyway.
"Shut upp, youre ruining itt." Draco complained, but Harry could tell he didn't really mind, as he was laughing too.
Harry grinned, "Duet with me." He said.
"What?" Draco sounded taken aback by Harry's invitation.
"C'mon, the tune just repeats, and all the lyrics are at the bottom anyway!" Harry insisted. Draco looked sceptical. "Please?" Harry asked, eyes wide.
Draco sighed. "I know, that something has changed, never felt this way…" Draco began, a smile lingering on his lips. He was definitely more in tune than Harry, but that didn't stop Harry from joining him.
"This could be the start, of something new, it feels so right to be here with you, oh oh. And now, looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart…"
~oOo~
When the ending credits rolled around, both boys stood and gave a standing ovation, laughing, voices hoarse from singing.
"That was great." Draco admitted, as the boys left the cinema with all their rubbish.
"Told you so." Harry said, smirking. "You know there's two more of these?"
"What, movies?" Malfoy asked, confused.
Harry laughed. "No, there's tons of movies. I just mean movies with the same characters. This one's called High School Musical, and there's also High School Musical 2 and 3!"
"Really?" Malfoy exclaimed, sounding surprised.
"Yep!" Harry confirmed. "Maybe we can watch them next time?" He suggested.
"No way, it's my turn to choose the activity next time!" Draco told him indignantly.
"Ok, fair enough… so I'll see you around then?" Harry asked, as he headed for the exit to the room of requirement.
"Wait. Ha- um, Potter." Draco's voice sounded from behind him, somewhat apprehensive, but he wasn't using the alpha voice to make Harry obey him. Curious, Harry turned around, questioning what the other boy wanted. "I wanted to… I wanted to apologise for what I did to you the other day. It was totally uncalled for, and a huge dick move. I'm… I'm sorry."
Harry was taken aback by this sincere apology. "It's ok." He said, surprising himself with his own forgiveness. "I… forgive you." He nodded, and, after a moment of silence between the boys, left this strange, apparently parallel universe where Malfoy apologised and the two of them had enjoyed each other's company.
Another chapter finished! I'm really sorry it's been some time coming, I've been ridiculously busy. I've been reading all of your reviews and they always make my day.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'll aim to have a shorter break between this chapter and the next one.
Sera xx
