A/N: It's been a while since I last update. Sorry. I didn't feel like wanting to write, so I left it aside. But finally, here's a new chapter for you.

Now enjoy!

Fallen & Risen 15. Gryffindor and Slytherin can be friends?

After the Slytherin-Gryffindor Quidditch game, an undeniable change of atmosphere had settled between the two houses. Taking after the examples of their respective players, every member of each house tried to act polite and civil toward one another. But years of animosity between rival houses weren't that easy to erase.

The new atmosphere was awkward. Lions and snakes greeted each other in the hallway, but securely kept their distant at the same time. Even the Quidditch players of the two houses, who were the first ones to initiate the civility, kept a certain broom sticks length between each other if they crossed paths. Professor McGonagall, wanting to preserve the new change and avoiding the revival of the previous rivalry (Professor Dumbledore's dying wish), came up with a new directive for all of Hogwarts' staff. The teachers now had a new goal for the year: encouraging the development of friendship between the students of the four houses. Gryffindors and Slytherins started the inter-house development during Potions.

While waiting for Potions to start, the students were talking and chit chatting until Professor Slughorn arrived.

"Okay everyone, silence please," Professor Slughorn called the attention. The class instantly quieted down. "For your last year at Hogwarts, you will be making many complicated potions. Therefore, you will work with a partner to help you," he explained. As soon as Slughorn said that, everyone turned to ask their friend to be their partner.

"Woohoo!"

"Yay!"

"Hey! Let's be partners!"

"Cool, mate!"

But Professor Slughorn hadn't finished.

"…but you cannot choose your partner," Professor Slughorn added dryly, interrupting several enthusiastic invitations.

"Ahhhwwww…" the class collectively wailed.

"No fair!" someone complained.

"Why can't we work with who we want?" another asked.

"We will do better job if we partnered with whoever we want," another one added.

"True true!" others agreed, supporting the last comment.

"There's no point in complaining," Professor Slughorn cut in. "What's been decided has been decided. There's no changing it."

"Mrrrmn…" Collective whimper again, but Professor Slughorn ignored them. He took his wand and pointed it at the black board. A stream of magic hit the surface of the board and the names of the Potions class appeared on it.

"Now watch the board," Professor Slughorn said. "This is a magical sorting which will randomly select a partner for you. You will see the name of the person you will be working with for the rest of the year."

Professor Slughorn drew a circle with his wand and muttered a spell. The names on the black board jumped into a tornado dance and mixed themselves together. Everyone anxiously looked at the crazy dance and conveniently forgot to breathe at the same time. When the tornado dance finally started to slow down, the names jumped out of the circle two by two. Everyone saw who they would be working with in Potions until their graduation.

"Awwwwwwwwn!" Everyone groaned. Professor Slughorn's spell put everyone from different houses together, which technically meant a Gryffindor and a Slytherin. Ron scoffed and Heley bit her lips when they saw with who she was paired with: Slytherin resident Ice Prince and Head Boy, Draco Malfoy.

'This must be some kind of bad curse,' Heley and Ron thought. They looked at Draco at the other end of the class to see what kind of reaction the Slytherin had with the results of the sorting. Alas for them, Draco's perfectly straight and elegant features showed nothing of his personal thoughts. No exasperation, no frustration, no smugness. Absolutely nothing. He was good at hiding his emotions. So different from Heley.

'Why do I feel like I'm losing to him?' Heley groaned to herself. Sighing, Heley calmly collected her belonging to change places when Ron grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Heley, you don't have to go with him if you don't want," Ron said. "Let me."

"Ron…" Heley looked up at Ron, who was glaring at the blond Slytherin. Ron really didn't like the idea of her being paired with Malfoy. Professor Slughorn heard him.

"Alas, Mister Weasley, this is not possible," Professor Slughorn said. "Unless there is a very good reason, I will not accept that you change your partner without my consent. Otherwise, it won't be fair for the others."

"Haaaa…" Ron and Heley simultaneously sighed, disappointed. Heley had no other choice. She doubted that saying "I don't want to work with Draco Malfoy because he has always mean to me" would be an acceptable excuse for Professor Slughorn. Besides, Heley Potter had never heard of Draco Malfoy before, right? How could he have been mean to her then? And again, since she became Heley Potter, Draco Malfoy had never done anything mean to her. Thus, she had no choice but to accept her situation.

'Why is it always me who gets into the worst situations?' Heley wondered, grabbing her bag. However, she felt Ron's hesitation in letting her go. His hand still had a tight grip on her arm. Heley discretely smiled to herself. Ron was worried for her and she felt touched.

"It's fine, Ron," Heley said, reassuring him with a smile (and trying to reassure herself at the same time). "I will be alright. Don't worry." She plastered her best smile onto her face, hoping to look very convincing in her act. Ron wasn't completely convinced by her (poor) smile, but nonetheless, he reluctantly let go of her arm, nodding to her. Heley left and moved to Draco's table.

At Draco's table, Heley stopped to give him a small nod. Draco returned her nod and showed her the seat next to him. Heley put her things next to his and sat down. When everyone was with their Potions partners, Professor Slughorn started his lesson. He wrote the instructions on a potion they would be making on the black board. While Draco offered to copy down the instructions, Heley went to collect the ingredients they would need from the potion storage room. On the way back, Heley took her time to look at the other people in the class. In the end, it seemed to her that the random sorting did quite a fair job. Though people from different houses were put together, the spell chose people with compatible personalities to make a team. Hermione was paired with a Slytherin girl named Daphne Greengrass, who looked to be a serious girl like Hermione was. Ron was put with a certain Tracey Davis, an energetic looking guy. Dean was with Millicent Bullstrode, also a serious girl with a compliant personality. Seamus was paired with Millicent's best friend, Victoria Birmingham, a girl who had a cheerful face. Even as a Slytherin, she had that kind of mischievous which fit with Seamus'.

Neville found himself paired with Blaise Zabini. Despite being Gryffindor and Slytherin, the two of them worked well together. Blaise behaved as though he had never heard of Neville's (bad) performances in Potions in the past. In Blaise's opinion, Neville was an extremely intelligent guy, considering the Quidditch strategies the Gryffindor could pull out. Blaise thought that Neville just never had a chance to prove himself to everyone, so he acted in a way that showed Neville he trusted him. This helped Neville feel at ease so he could properly concentrate on his part of the work in making their potion.

On the other hand, Blaise couldn't ignore that Ron wouldn't stop looking at the table where Heley and Draco were working for the past fifteen minutes. It seemed to the half-Italian that Ron would jump at any time Draco was a little too close to Heley. Draco handed to Heley a copy of the instructions for the potion and Heley took it, Ron jumped. Draco extended his hand to take the puffapod seeds jar and brushed Heley's sleeve, Ron jumped again. The aristocratic Slytherin put down a pot of dried gurdyroot next to Heley, Ron's legs sprang. Draco reached to grab the silver knife next to Heley's hand, Ron's muscles contracted and he knocked a pot of mandrake roots. Tracey Davis was seriously starting to believe that his Gryffindor partner was born with springs and instead of flesh and bones. At Hermione's table, the Gryffindor Head Girl's hand automatically worked on chop the Siberian mallowsweet roots, but, like Ron, her eyes often slipped to Heley's table too. It was a miracle that she hadn't chopped her fingers yet. One must be seriously blind for not seeing the protective eyes Ron and Hermione had for Heley. That made Blaise curious.

"Hey, Longbottom, tell me something. Why does Weasley look like an overprotective father - though in this case, it's more like an overprotective brother-, who is suspicious of all the boys around his daughter?" Blaise asked. "I would even say that Granger and him are acting like they were your friend's surrogate parents, who are reluctant to let their daughter date any guy."

"You can't blame them, Zabini," Neville answered as he carefully squashed the dried sea black star into powder with his knife. "Heley is paired up with your friend, Draco Malfoy." Blaise brought his attention to Neville.

"Care to elaborate?" Blaise replied in a slightly defensive tone, his eyebrow raised. Neville stopped momentarily, gathering his thoughts together.

"Ron and Hermione felt guilty for letting Harry die alone," Neville started. "But since Harry is no longer here, they can't ask for his forgiveness. Then, Heley appeared in the portrait. Ron and Hermione see Heley as a chance for them to seek redemption."

"What do you mean?" Blaise asked.

"Harry never knew of parental love, or I should say that he lost it at a very early age," Neville started. "Unconsciously, he wanted to be accepted and to be loved by everyone around him. As a consequence, he would do anything to answer to everyone's expectations of seeing him defeat Voldemort, even with the knowledge that he would have to pay the price with his life. However, we never understood that before. It was only after his death that we realized how selfish we were toward him. He sacrificed his own life for our selfish expectations of him. Do you know how harsh the remorse and grief we felt was after understanding that? Saying sorry and sending a flower everyday to his tomb can't erase that painful feeling. Then Heley arrived. Ron and Hermione, more than anyone one, saw a chance to repay Harry for their wrongs in her. That's why they are so overprotective of her."

Neville paused momentarily, taking his time to delicately put the sea star in the cauldron. Blaise silently watched Neville, awed by the Gryffindor's cleverness.

"Draco Malfoy had always been a j*** (Blaise knew what word Neville was implying) toward Harry from the first day they met and Ron and Hermione couldn't do anything to protect Harry. Today, they can't believe that Draco Malfoy won't be a j*** again toward Heley, like he was with Harry. So of course, they don't like the idea of Heley being paired with Malfoy."

Neville took his wand and waved over the cauldron to add magic inside. At the same time, he continued to speak.

"As for me, I will not hesitate to raise my wand against your friend if Heley loses but ONE hair of her head because of Malfoy," Neville menacingly finished, pointing his wand into Blaise's face and piercing the Slytherin with fiery eyes.

"Gulp!" Blaise leaped and gulped. 'Why is he threatening me when it is Draco he is talking about?'

"I have become very good at Defense Against the Dark Arts you know, thanks to Harry," Neville said. "I know a lot of of bad curses and useful hexes," Neville finished, waving menacingly his wand again. Blaise double gulped.

"C-c-call down, Longbottom," Blaise stuttered, pushing the tip of Neville's wand away from his nose. "If your friend loses but one hair of her head, I would be the first person to punch Draco before you could raise your wand against him."

"Heh?" Neville wasn't expecting to hear this one from Draco Malfoy's best friend, Blaise Zabini.

Blaise started to explain himself.

Post on Tuesday February 24, 2010. Beta-ed on Saturday March 6.