"Hermione? Ron?" I hoped with all my heart that they were here to rescue me.

"Harry!" both dolphins exclaimed in unison.

"We have really worried about you! Thought you upped and went holidaying on your own!" Ron confirmed my suspicion.

"Oh, darn it all! We've found you, but now we're all stuck like this!"

"What happened to you guys?"

"The same that's happened to you, it seems! Is this where you've been all through break?" Hermione asked.

"Well, yes," Ron groaned in frustration at this, "yes, Ron, I've been holidaying in Malfoy's bed all holiday. From the look of things, you're gonna be stuck the same way for, possibly, ever."

"Why? Why did you both have to touch that piano?" Hermione almost wailed this.

"How did you find that room?"

"We couldn't reach you all holiday, and you didn't show up even for Christmas, and then you weren't at classes or Gryffindor tower. My goodness, I should have suspected something much, much earlier!" Hermione smacked her forehead at this in her dolphin head, "when we finally decided to look for you, the Point Me spell lead us to the room with the piano."

"Why would it lead you there?"

"We honestly don't know. Are we seriously stuck like this forever?" I think Ron was pulling on his red hair as he said this, inside his dolphin head.

"You should have let me do the spell!"

"It was supposed to be a simple spell!"

"And you should have listened to me and not touch the suspicious piano!"

"Guys, come on. We should be thinking of a way out of this! Wait. Why did you say the piano is suspicious?"

"It wasn't as dusty as the rest of the room," Hermione reasoned.

"Actually, that's just because Malfoy plays it habitually."

"What?" Hermione blurted out.

"So this is Malfoy's doing!" Ron accused.

"All evidence pointed to him, but in the last week I've had to shoot that down," I confessed.

"Why?" they chorused.

"Did you at least tell someone before you went to find me on your own?" I avoided the question.

"Yes, don't worry. They'll find us soon." Hermione was always the sensible one.

"They better. I can't handle any more of-"

I never heard what Ron couldn't handle any more of. Nott had once again let himself into the room. Malfoy was in the shower, and I hoped again that he won't come out.

"Guys, we need to fix this, now!" I announced desperately.

"How? Oof." Nott picked dolphin Hermione up and sat on the bed, reclining on the headboard. He placed her on his lap and stroked her absent-mindedly.

"Hands off my girlfriend, Nott!"

I could almost see Hermione squirming.

Malfoy exited the bathroom then. I would freeze if I wasn't already immotile. "NO!"

Thankfully, Malfoy had his wand. "Get out of my room, Nott."

"Did your dolphin spawned?" Nott drawled, waving airily over us.

Malfoy brandished his wand.

Nott raised both arms in surrender. "No need for that, I just want to talk."

"I have nothing to say to you."

I silently urged Malfoy to hex him right then and there.

"Put it down, Draco."

Malfoy raised his wand. Attaboy.

"Accio, Theodore!" Malfoy shouted just as Nott reached for the teddy bear. It flew into Malfoy's hand. He clutched it closely to his chest.

Nott stood up then, frustrated and confused. "Theodore? You named your precious teddy bear after me yet still refuse to admit that you love me back?"

"Theodore isn't mine, it's not named after anyone, and I don't love you. For you, Nott, I feel nothing but contempt. You're not even worth hating."

Malfoy still had his wand poised to hex him if he so much as flinched.

"Denial, Draco. What has that given you? You're miserable right now. No one else accepts you like I do. No one else could love you like I do!"

"Love? You don't do this to people you love! You're out of your mind, Nott! Now leave!"

Suddenly there were flashes of light, spells cast from either side of the room. My non-existent heart raced as I watched Nott disarm Malfoy and knocked him onto the ground. I could no longer see him from my place on the bed.

Nott walked over to him. I would scream my head off. I did scream, but only my fellow dolphins heard me.

Nott then sunk on his knees. I imagined him straddling Malfoy. This cannot be happening again.

He leaned over, and I could see no more.

"Maybe I never will understand, Draco. But I wish for once you would acknowledge my given name." His voice was slightly muffled, and I imagined him nuzzling into the nape of Malfoy's neck, breathing out the words close to his ear.

It was silent for a moment. "You only ever hurt me, Theodore. Please, just leave me be. Leave me to my misery."

"It hurts me to hurt you, but I really want to. So badly," I could almost hear him brush his lips on Malfoy's neck. His member was probably already pressing against him.

"Theodore, don't-" I heard Malfoy wince. I imagined Nott pressing one of his many bruises.

Nott sat up then. "There, that wasn't so difficult, was it?"

I thought I saw it wrongly, but Nott did have tears in his eyes. "Fuck you, Malfoy. I'll see you around."

With that, he was gone. I cheered in silence.

I noticed Ron for what seemed like the first time, "Harry, what-"

"It's just as you heard. Nott let him go." For good, it seemed. I hoped so. Malfoy didn't seem like the enemy anymore.

That night, Malfoy talked to the teddy bear again, but it was different from usual.

"Now you really don't smell like her at all," he breathed in the teddy bear he had in his arms, "I'm forgetting the scent already without your help."

There was only silence as I watched him rearrange the fibres on Theodore.

"Nott decided to move on. I should too. After all," he curled further into himself, pulling the teddy bear closer to his face and whispered into its cottony ear, "you only ever hurt me, Theodore."

I heard no more that night.

Malfoy had classes for all of the next day. Hermione was stomping her feet in her dolphin head the whole time, muttering about missing classes.

Ron had been quiet up until now. "Harry, just what was that all about, last night?"

"It has nothing to do with us. Just leave it." I dismissed him, and I realised too that it was the truth. When we're found, and everything goes back to normal, Malfoy must go back to normal too. He must be Draco sodding Malfoy, arrogant Slytherin git.

But he cannot be, because I could not let him now. I've watched him for far too long, heard far too much, understood far too well. I simply cannot go back to regarding him as the enemy.

Malfoy came back that evening weary and pensive. I felt the slightest pang of concern in my cottony stuffing.

He was stroking the teddy bear again, in a different manner from usual. It looked like a parting stroke, if there ever was such a thing. He then did the same to dolphin Ron and dolphin Hermione. They purred under his touch.

I knew it was a stuffed dolphin thing! For some time there, I had thought... Never mind! It was a stuffed dolphin thing!

But when it was my turn, I wanted to do more than purr. I wanted to give him a particularly reassuring hug, to tell him that everything will be better after this, because I've got his back. I don't know how I was going to cover his back, being stuck as a stuffed dolphin for possibly forever, but it's a promise I felt I could make.

I will be there for you, Draco Malfoy, my former enemy.

He breathed me in again, I just knew it. "That's actually a nice smell." Momentarily, I ached for him to keep me forever.

He put us side by side on the bed, and took out his wand. When he waved it, I felt myself physically shrinking. He tucked us into a pocket in his outer robes, and sneaked out of Slytherin dungeon.

Author's Note

Of course I'm gonna turn them back! :D