Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this story. None of them at all.

A/N: Here you go. Not one of my best chapters, but it's leading up to some good ones. Review please.

Chapter 15

Harry went to the library, figuring he would find Hermione there. He needed to talk to her. First about how he had actually kissed Malfoy, and how Malfoy had snogged him back, and secondly about how weird Snape was being. The man was supposed to hate him, but he almost seemed nice today.

And it was weirding Harry out. He wasn't entirely convinced it wasn't someone impersonating Snape with Polyjuice Potion.

Harry turned into one of the shelves and spotted Hermione with five or so books stacked against her chest. He moved forward and took some of the books from her.

"Oh hi Harry," She greeted him. She turned to look at him and gasped. "What happened to your face?"

"Somebody punched me," Harry remarked mildly, gently touching his tender nose.

"Did you see Madam Pomfrey?" She asked.

"Well, no," Harry said, not wanting to get into that part of the story until he had told her the exciting story first. "But that's part of what I need you to talk about."

"Should we get Ron?" Hermione asked. Harry shook his head.

"I doubt he'll want to hear that I kissed Draco," Harry said. Hermione dropped her books and flung herself at Harry, wrapping him in a hug. Harry resisted flinching. "You just dropped your books," He remarked. "You must have been more invested in this than I thought."

"Oh, shut up," Hermione said, releasing him. "I'm just glad you actually did something about your feelings. You deserve to be happy."

"You didn't even ask if he kissed back," Harry said, rather than argue about how her last sentence may not have been exactly correct.

"Please," Hermione scoffed, picking back up her books. "I've seen the way that boy looks at you."

"And you couldn't have specified to me that it wasn't like he wanted to kill me?" Harry asked, walking towards the empty table. Hermione followed him.

"You had to figure it out on your own," She said, smiling at him. "You said you had something else to tell me?"

"Yeah," Harry nodded. "I think someone might be impersonating Snape."

"What? Why?" Hermione asked. Harry leaned forward, glancing around to make sure no one was listening.

"He's being nice," Harry whispered. He half expected Snape to suddenly pop up and Crucio him for even mentioning that he could be anything but heartless, but it didn't happen.

"Well, I don't think that necessarily means that he's being impersonated," Hermione said. "What do you mean nice?"

"I went to him to get my nose checked," Harry explained. "And he didn't even throw one insult at me! It was like he was almost caring. And then when Draco brought me down, again, because he saw my hand, Snape didn't even say anything to the effect that I deserved it."

"Well, if Draco trusts him, maybe isn't so bad after all," Hermione suggested. Harry rolled his eyes.

"But that doesn't explain why he's being so nice to me! He hates me, he said so himself," Harry said. Hermione shrugged, running a finger along the spine of one of the books she had gotten.

"Maybe he's finally just seeing the real you and realizing that you're not as bad as he thought you were," She suggested. "Perhaps he's finally realizing that his preconceived idea is totally false."

Harry sat down at the Slytherin table for dinner, sliding between Pansy and Draco, who both scooched over slightly to let him in.

"Hi," Draco said. "How was your chat with Granger?"

"Good," Harry said, grabbing a plate and roll. "She told me how much of an idiot I am, as usual."

Pansy snorted and glanced over at the Gryffindor table. Harry had a feeling that should the two ever actually talk, they would become great friends. They both liked to be the ones that knew best and call boys out on their stupidity.

An owl flew into the room and landed on Draco's shoulder, dropping a letter. Harry caught it quickly before it fell into Draco's food and handed it to him.

"Get away, you useless bird," Draco shrugged his shoulders and the bird took off again. Across the hall Ron stood up and Harry watched him argue with Hermione, trying to figure out what they were saying. Sometimes he just wished they would snog and get over it. Ron said a final thing and then stormed out of the hall. Harry watched him go and then turned back to Draco, surprised to find the boy staring sullenly at the letter in his hands.

"Bad news?" He asked. Draco looked up and shrugged.

"Not really, bad, per se. My mother just wants me home for Christmas this year," He explained. "She doesn't want to be alone."

"You don't want to go home?" Harry asked, biting his roll.

"No, I do," Draco explained. "I just don't want to leave you here all alone."

"I'll be fine," Harry shrugged. "You can't leave your mother alone on Christmas."

"Okay," Draco said reluctantly. "But I'll see if I can come back a little early, so we can spend part of the vacation together."

"It's really okay," Harry said.

Being alone on Christmas was all he had ever known, after all.