"Oh, I really hope they didn't deduct any marks for getting the list of ingredients wrong the first time!" Hermione announced worriedly. Apparently she had misspelled one of the items in her rush. I rolled my eyes.

"Hah! Neville was lucky to have you! It took Terry Boot two rejections before he would start listening to me so we could move onto brewing! Even then we got told to 'try again' twice more! So fucking full of himself." Ron complained grudgingly, faking a voice when he said 'try again'.

Hermione dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Who did they partner you with, Harry?"

I smiled as I answered her, "Malfoy."

Hermione actually squealed. Ron faltered a little.

"Did you two talk it out?" she asked, grinning. I couldn't understand what she found so exciting about it all.

"Urm… you could say that," I began, my tone becoming unsure.

"What? Harry, I assume you're smiling because it went alright," Hermione put a hand on my shoulder as she said this.

"I mean, there wasn't much talking, but something good came out of it, I think."

Ron spoke up, "do I want to know?"

I shrugged. "Said we'll see each other later."

Hermione sort of jumped then. "Ooh, what for?"

"Hermione, please!" Ron reprimanded her for the first time this year. Or was that ever?

Nothing more on the subject was said, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. What could I expect from this meeting?

Hermione was now bringing up Charms NEWT, but Ron shushed her. "No, no, no. We just finished Potions; I'm starving."

And as Ron said it, Hermione and I realised that we were too, so we headed down to the kitchens for a sandwich platter.

I was watching Ron stuff his nth sandwich into his mouth when I realised that, apart from the house-elves, we were the only ones in the kitchen. I pulled the Marauder's Map out of my bag again.

"What, you're still carrying that around on you?" Ron asked through a mouthful.

"I'll point out that that puts you in the 'obsessive' category of boyfriends," Hermione offered, smiling, and the word 'boyfriend' had very nearly stopped my heart from beating entirely.

"If you could just keep those kinds of things to yourself, Hermione…" I implored her.

"Awww…" was her reply, petting the top of my head. "It's true, though."

I turned back to the Map and found Malfoy in his room back in Slytherin dungeon. I simply watched him for a few moments.

"What was that?" Ron blurted out.

"What?" I asked back, panicking a little, scanning over the Map.

"Oh. I thought I saw- Hey! There it is again!" he had dropped a sandwich and was now pointing at Abigail's dot.

"It's Abigail!" he said, and I felt like smacking him.

"Yes, Ron, the Map shows everyone in the castle."

"No! She sort of disappeared just now!" He tapped on her dot, urging us to keep watching.

Hermione and I agreed to watch her for a bit. Nothing happened at first, but then she went out onto the castle grounds and started flickering.

With a sinking feeling, I followed her dot as it head out to the Lake, and then faded slowly under a birch tree. As one, the three of us got up and bolted out of the dungeon.

She was leaving, now, without saying her proper goodbyes? The selfish brat!

But soon we reached the Lake and were met with a sight that made Hermione gasp; Abigail lied motionless under the tree, her eyes closed in apparent tranquillity.

We rushed to her side, and I desperately looked for a pulse.

"No pulse…" I breathed out, heart hammering.

Ron cursed aloud and then lifted her off of the grass easily. In silent agreement, we ran in the direction of the hospital wing.

I had lost any appetite for food, but Madam Pomfrey wouldn't have us in the hospital wing while she tried to revive Abigail. So I sat staring into a bowl of soup at dinner. Even Ron had miraculously become practised in proper table manners, for now he was eating his dinner without making a mess of it. Of course I didn't expect him to stop eating entirely.

I looked over at the Slytherin table and found Malfoy laughing with his classmates. At any other moment, I wouldn't feel so wretched to see him that way.

Someone tapped Hermione on the shoulder. Ron and I looked up as Hermione turn around to face the short-haired Gryffindor, Sam.

"I don't see Smith. Perhaps you've seen her?" she asked Hermione, her face a blank as she scanned the Slytherin table.

"Oh, Sam," Hermione sounded dejected, and she gestured for the girl to sit down next to her. Once Sam had settled down, she began explaining to her.

"Something's happened. We found her passed out at the Lake and had to take her up to the hospital wing."

The brunette only blinked. "Again?"

I was astounded with the apparent lack of compassion.

Hermione only looked even more sympathetic. "Sam, it looks really bad," she elaborated, as if trying to make the girl understand.

She only nodded, then stood up and left. At the door, she was joined by her friend, Weller.

I continued to contemplate the bowl of soup in front of me. It wouldn't appeal to me, so I looked up again to find Malfoy.

He was smiling to himself, and I fancied that it was because of me. I felt guilty, somehow. I decided to do something about the whole thing.

My friends and I had meant to try to see Abigail at the hospital wing again after dinner, but I felt that there was something I needed to do first, so I parted with them to head for the library.

I knew that this was where Malfoy expected me to come find him; it was the last place we had been alone together. The row was as dusty as before, but the lonely armchair in the end of it seemed less so. The blond seated in it was reading a curious-looking book, and looked every bit like himself again – breath-taking, and a little formidable.

Malfoy was so absorbed in his reading that I had to touch his shoulder to make my presence known. "Hey."

He was only mildly startled. "Oh. Erm, hey."

"I'm glad to see you doing much better."

He seemed to be at a loss for words. "Thank you," he decided. It didn't seem like he was finished, so I waited all over again.

After a moment, he spoke up. "Since I woke up, I've had these… these memories that I can't explain," he looked up at me then, searching my face. I had no idea what to expect.

"I can't make sense of them, and… and so many of them concern you… in one way or another…"

My eyes widened slightly; I also have no idea how to explain that. My wildest guess was that Abigail had been replaced with me in his memories, and I didn't know what to feel about it, if that was the case.

"But… how could that be?" I asked him.

He stood up then, and took my hand in his. He kept his eyes on it as he said, "I'm only sure about one thing, and that is…" he looked me in the eye then, "I've always felt this way about you."

My heart was beating a mile a minute. I also realised that he was getting closer. Desperately, I went over the whole thing in my head.

What if this was all only because of his messed up memories? Was this what Abigail knew? Was this what she was talking about when she told me not to worry? Then this would all be so wrong. Just, wrong. And there was no way I could just leave things this way.

Ripping my heart out, I stopped Malfoy by placing both hands on his shoulders.

"Harry?" he asked, obviously confused. It couldn't have hurt less to hear him call my name, having to refuse him.

I could only shake my head; there was a lump in my throat, choking me. "Please," I managed, "will you come with me?"

He looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. I placed a hand on his cheek. "Please," I repeated, feeling tears stinging my eyes.

He seemed more confused than ever, but chose to comply. I led him away, surrendering, and headed for the hospital wing.

A few moments later, we found Abigail lying motionless on a bed. It also looked like she had a bubble-head charm cast on her. Standing around her bed were Ron, Hermione, Weller, Sam, and Rigel, who was seated and had a blindfold on. I was momentarily surprised to see it.

I watched Malfoy as he observed her, eyebrows knitted together.

"Who's this?" he whispered to my ear, and my heart broke for myself and for Abigail too.

I turned to face her. "A friend." Yours and mine.

"Oh. She was the girl next to me when I was last here," he told no one in particular.

I wondered if he was remembering the part where she had said she had attempted suicide. His eyes found her bandaged arm.

"She asked me to read her a story," he seemed to have not realised that he was talking out loud.

It was Rigel who responded. "Would you say you're a decent storyteller?"

Malfoy blinked at the blindfolded stranger. "Erm, no."

"How about a short one, then?"

Malfoy looked conflicted. He contemplated the faces that were now looking at him. "What's with you all?"

"A really short one?" Rigel insisted.

He turned to me, seemingly pleadingly. I only shrugged.

Malfoy looked a little miffed. "Fine.

"A man was enjoying a walk in a garden of flowers. All around him were fauna of every colour you could imagine. There were bees and butterflies and stuff. He paused to smell a yellow rose, and found a butterfly's cocoon attached to its stem. A new-born was just emerging out of it.

"He sat watching the butterfly, and soon found his heart aching at its struggle. No matter how hard the butterfly tried, it could not release itself from the hardening cocoon. He was then struck with an idea, and took his wand out of a pocket inside his robes.

"He cast a spell that opened the cocoon, freeing the butterfly. At first he was glad, but he saw that the butterfly's wings remained sticky and wouldn't spread open. Unable to fly, the butterfly soon died."

Malfoy's story seemed to have ended; he said nothing more. We looked at him as if dazed.

Ron piped up, "Malfoy, you suck."

"Was that really it?" Sam asked, blinking at him.

"That's… all I could remember."

"But that can't be it," Rigel spoke.

Malfoy didn't budge. "I thought it was a good story."

"It's not." Hermione decided.

Madam Pomfrey then appeared. "Curfew is soon, dearies." Her eyes found the blindfolded Slytherin sitting on the chair. "Why, you're supposed to stay in bed!"

"Forgive me madam, but there's a happy ending I'm waiting to hear and I don't need my eyes to do so."

I couldn't stop myself from laughing. Neither could everyone else. But Rigel's face remained as serious as ever. "Did I just make a joke, imbecile?" the question was only directed at Sam, who laughed even as she said, "but I wasn't the only one who laughed!"

A weak voice was heard then, and we all looked to see Abigail opening her eyes. She tried to sit up, but Madam Pomfrey went and pushed her back down on the bed.

The matron removed the bubble-head-like charm on her. "Take it easy, now. You were just barely alive."

Abigail looked surprised. "What? How did I end up here?"

Hermione took hold of her hand. "You fell unconscious at the Lake. Don't you remember?"

Madam Pomfrey wasted no time in showing us out of the hall. "Alright, she needs to rest. You, too," she pointedly told Rigel, "everyone else, out."

"What happened to Rigel, by the way?" I heard Ron ask Sam in a hushed tone.

"Finals, I think."

I stopped Malfoy once we were out the door. We watched the others disappear from view.

I tried to explain everything to him. I reached a hand into a pocket, touching the cold metal I had placed inside it.

"Look, I really am glad to see you doing better. But those memories you have of me – I don't think they are."

He shook his head slightly. "But, you said that was you the other night, here."

Well, "Yes, but just that one. Maybe what you remember after you passed out outside of the Great Hall and ended up here, but not before."

"And Potions' NEWT today. We've partnered up to brew that potion together before, right?"

Oh. "Yeah, that one time…"

"And… This once I went out of the library sort of angry, and I took it out on Weasley, and Nott was there, and you were there…"

You were angry, because we had upset Abigail.

"And before that, we met in Hogsmeade, at The Three Broomsticks… I don't know why, but we sat at a table together…"

That was earlier on, when Abigail had just arrived back at Hogwarts, and Hermione wanted to go catch up with her, and I spent the entire time watching him… "Well, yes, those ones too."

"And before Christmas break, I signed my name on the list… You were there, and you asked me why I was staying back… Was that not you?"

That was even earlier on. I had come to the office to write my name on the list of students not going back for Christmas break, and had been surprised to see him there… "Okay, that was still me…"

"Back in September, on the train. You told me you looked forward to beating me this year."

I did, actually. "Yes."

"We were on the same team when we volunteered to clean up after the battle…"

I remembered sharing a bottle of water with him… "Yes."

"You saved us back in the Room of Hidden Things. You came back for me…"

I remembered the fire, Ron scolding me, Malfoy holding on to me so tightly. "I did…"

"You got caught by those Snatchers, and they brought you to the Manor. I knew it was you, although you looked different, but I couldn't give you up…"

Has this been going on long before I even realised it?

"So don't you tell me that it wasn't you either, at our Sorting Ceremony, who had stood up for a shabby Weasley kid against me."

It was my turn to be at a loss for words.

"It has to be you. It has always been you. How do I make you understand?" And in his eyes was a pleading look.

I knew then that this was Malfoy as I've never seen him before – this was him being true to himself. And I saw, really saw, that he was mine. He had always been mine.

I swelled up inside and soon found myself embracing him.

"You're right… those were all me," and, with nothing else left to be said, I closed the gap between us, finally claiming Draco Malfoy for myself.

[Author's Notes]

I need to go to sleep now. No smut yet, sorry. But isn't fluff so much easier? Okay. Also, if you've heard the story about the man and the butterfly, do keep it to yourself for now. And kudos to you ^^

(Hermione is so a fangirl. And a Drarry shipper.)