Disclaimer: I am just a mere visitor in the sublime world constructed by the brilliant mind that is J.K Rowling. Anything that rings a bell is hers.

Chapter 34

"Malfoy?"

"Thornton!"

He walked in like he owned the place, taking in the table and the cupboards as if he saw it for the first time. He sauntered forward, bumping into the table, and then lowering his elbow onto the surface, a wide grin on his face.

"Did it ever occur to you that this table and that stool and that cupboard…are all the exact same colour! Do you think they're all from the exact same tree?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, "Or maybe it's just the same type of wood…how did you get in?"

"Oh I snuck in behind the she-weasel, her body is really taking shape. When did her legs get so long?"

"Malfoy, what the fuck is going on?" I placed the knife down subsequently stopping my chopping, staring at him lounging at the other end of the table. He looked up, startled at what I said, his face morphing into a lazy smile again.

"Don't get jealous, you still have the best body in these parts. You say fuck nicely. You pronounce it differently, say fuck again Thornton." He mouthed the swear slowly, he looked absolutely ridiculous; I would have laughed if it wasn't so unsettling. He made his way towards me, running his hand across the table surface. When he got close enough everything made sense,

"Ugh did you finish that Twilfitt concoction that you usually lather yourself in and decided to swim in Ogden's Old Firewhiskey."

He took a step back and knocked into the drawer behind him, "Firstly, my cologne is made by Madam Zangara, you cannot buy it in a shop and secondly I do not drink Ogden's, that is piss…I don't drink piss. I'm a Danahagh man."

He shook his finger at me; I walked towards him, pushing the Doxy Venom bottles out of the way of his overly gesturing hands, "Malfoy, why don't you sit down."

"I don't want to sit!"He shouted at me, and I flinched at the loudness but continued towards him. This just egged him on, "You can't make me because I don't want to! I don't want to sit! I won't. I won't do it! I said no! I won't."

His face was crumpling in anger and his hands were trembling, his usual straight back stance dissolved into one of a desolated slouch,

"You don't have to then Malfoy."

"Stop it! Stop calling me that! Stop saying that! Stop saying Malfoy! Malfoy! Malfoy! Malfoy! Malfoy! A Malfoy doesn't forget. A Malfoy doesn't forgive. A Malfoy doesn't show weakness! A Malfoy doesn't falter! A Malfoy…A Malfoy!"He grabbed at his hair. He went from happy drunk to sad drunk to demented drunk in minutes.

"M…Draco. Draco." He pulled his hands away from his face, his steel eyes shining softly at me, vulnerability leaking off of him. "Draco…" I had no idea what to say. I hadn't seen him in weeks, but then again I haven't seen much of anyone in weeks. I spent all my spare time down here, hiding away from Charry, that's apparently what the third years christened them. I'd rather call them Ho, or Pang, much more appropriate.

"I met Theo when I was five. Five." I waited, his head hung low, "It was one of those stupid insipid Balls my mother threw, I hated them because I had to use dress robes and I hated dress robes then, confining fucking things."He held his hand around his neck, "All the children were in my nursery room, I hated that. All of them were terribly boring, I remember the twins, I used to call Crabbe and Goyle that…they just followed me around doing whatever I wanted. And the girls were even worse, all they wanted to do was play stupid games with teacups and…and hand holding. And then, in the corner of the room," He picked up his head and looked in the corner of the room as if he was back there, "This scrawny kid sat on my chair, reading one of my books. Nobody touched my stuff, we bought separate toys for guests, nobody touched my stuff. So I went up to him, grabbing the book from him, telling him the book was mine. Do you know what he said?"

He had a wistful smile on his face, "Did you write that book Draco? I was so shocked that someone dared challenge me, I was a spoiled brat, I didn't take that kind of…shit from anyone… even at the age of five. I was about to shove him off my chair when he gave me this huge…huge toothy smile, telling me if I did write that book, I did a bad job of it, because it was dead boring."

He leaned against the counter, shaking his head, his face pale even for him, "I convinced him to sneak downstairs that day…I remember having to get Dobby to apparate us into the kitchens and we just played…a lot…I can't remember what but I remember being so jealous because that was the first time I met a kid my age who was smarter than myself. He was explaining all these things to me but in a humble way that annoyed me to no end…but somehow I liked him more for it. Then my mother found me, she was so pissed. As the host of the party you were not allowed to wander away from your guests and I had done that. I was fucking five! My father was so angry because some spoiled little German girl went crying to her daddy that I was ignoring her and my father wanted to sign some deal with him so I was to do whatever she asked. Fuck. I was so pissed. And then Theo, that scrawny little nobody, says that the whole thing was his idea. The whole fucking thing. His father slapped him across the face right there, in front of me. And I never said a word. I didn't say…I just let him…take the blame. I should have said something."

His jaw was clenched and he was staring down at the floor. I hesitantly placed my hand on his shoulder, "Sometimes we do things to protect ourselves, only to find out the other better option ends up causing us more damage. Draco…you made a choice. Did you want to punish Theo?"

He looked at me desperately, "No, no I didn't. I just know that his father was fucking pissed and I didn't want to get the parents involved and my father actually trusted me with this and I couldn't screw up because they'd just do something to compensate for my fuck up and then I didn't want them to give it to anyone else because what if they did worse! What if they went too far, I had to…I didn't want to-"

"I know that Draco. And so does Theo. Not all of us are afforded with decisions that are black and white, and the decision you were given was a whole different colour spectrum. You did what you had to…"

"NO I DIDN'T! I DIDN'T! I COULD HAVE SAID NO! TOLD THEM…told them not to…"He banged his head against the wall, I looked on, knowing firsthand what guilt can do to a person, completely at a loss at what to do.

"Why did you have to write that fucking article! Why! Why!"

He looked at me, distraught. He banged his fist against the wall and darted out of the room.

"Draco! Draco-"

I ran after him, not able to keep up with his longer strides. "Leave him."

My steps froze and I turned to the voice, the familiar baritone, "He's not in the right frame of mind. He might hurt himself."

"He'll be fine. Your molly coddling won't help him, he needs to get used to the feeling."

I glared at Sev, "Nobody should get used to hurting others."

He shook his head, a cynical smile on his face, "Such a Gryffindor, all brawn and no brain."

I shook my head at him, no smile present, I turned and walked away, my heart aching for the stranger that now stood before me, and for the stranger that ran away…who wasn't a stranger anymore.

Harry's POV

What do you study to become a librarian? Do you have to just read a lot of books? I stared at Madam Pince, shuffling across, floating books around. I never saw her reading anything. Why would anyone choose to be a librarian? Imagine having to be in one area for the whole day, just going up and down after students. No wonder she was in such a terrible mood most days.

"Are you done?" I snapped my head up, staring at Cho for a moment. I looked back down at the empty parchment,

"Errr…almost."

She laughed and shook her head at me, putting away her neat script, "Shall we call it a night?"

"Sure." I stood up and pushed my stuff into the bag. I waited for her to walk out in front of me, remembering that quip Marietta Edgecombe had made about me being ill mannered when I didn't do so the other day. I held the door out for her and we walked down the corridor.

"So, tomorrow…"

She let the sentence fall away awkwardly, "You are coming to the Hogs Head?"

"Yeah I am…how come you didn't mention anything though?"

"This whole thing was Hermione's idea; she told me that she told you."

"But you didn't tell me?"

I frowned, "You already knew…why would I tell you if you already knew?"

She let out a loud sigh, "Fine."

That most definitely did not sound fine, "Cho, there is going to be a meeting about learning Defence against the Dark Arts tomorrow at the Hogs Head, would you like to come?" I smiled down at her and she shook her head, a small smile gracing her face,

"Don't be smart with me Harry."

"Must be all that time in the library, it must be rubbing off on me."

I laughed but it echoed lonely in the corridor, "Do you have a problem with hanging out in the library?"

"What? No." When did I even say that?

"Because I asked you where you wanted to go and you said wherever I wanted to and I had two essays to do-"

"Cho relax, I don't mind hanging out in the library. I used to hang in there loads of time, Hermione practically lives there."

A weird glint went passed her eyes, but it didn't last long. "So what do you want to do after the meeting?"

I shrugged, "Anything you want to do."

"I'd like you to tell me what you would like to do Harry." Her voice had a slight chill to it.

I smiled down at her, "I'd really just like to do whatever you want to. Is that such a bad thing?" I didn't want to upset her, I liked that dating Cho meant just going with the flow, it caused me no extra headaches at the end of the day and with everything else that was heaping onto my plate I was more than grateful at that. I left her in the fifth floor, kissing her on the cheek and walking away.

Ky's POV

I caught the familiar blue eyed gaze of the barkeep, his eyes were falling on me too many times…pervert. I sighed, this whole thing couldn't end sooner, why were these people so slow. Just sign your name and let's call it a day. Why was I even here? Like Potter could teach me anything at all! Oh wait, there's my reason.

She stood up and spoke nervously to the crowd of students. She wasn't all nervous yesterday when she was screaming at me about united front's having to be displayed, and how would it look if I didn't pitch up. Half the people here were raging hypocrites. Ahh there's their leader; my eyes fell on a mane of dirty blonde. What was Bobby even doing here, I thought she was anti-Harry.

There was a bustling as everybody stood up, lining up to sign some parchment. Finafuckily.

I remained seated, waiting for everyone to bustle out. I saw a lot of familiar faces. I stood up,

"Just sign right here."Cho gestured at the point right after the last person. Why thank you Miss Chang, if you didn't tell me, I would have no fucking idea where to have signed on this very large and confusing parchment.

"Ky?"

I turned to Mi, who moved in closer. She didn't have to, Ron was busy guffawing with the Twins and Harry was talking to Cho.

"You OK?"

I shook my head slightly at her, not even in the mood to pretend. "I'll see you later."

I turned and exited the bar,

"There you are, what took you so long!"

"We were in the same boring ass meeting?"

Ginny rolled her eyes, "What was up with that idiot Smith. Oh and when did Cho become Harry's PA?'

"Did you see Mi's face when she took the sign up parchment from her? That was hilarious. I got Colin to take a picture."

"Hi."

We turned to find Michael Corner waiting just outside the Three Broomsticks. "I have a table in there already, everyone is there..."

We followed him, I saw his eyes linger on Ginny's arse as she walked ahead of him… boys. Oh fuck, please tell me that's not the table.

I looked at the most full table in the bar, which we were heading straight for. Oh Fuckorse this would be it.

"Hey, I'm Henry."

Hi, I haven't even sat down yet. I shook his hand and took a seat next to Ginny, I didn't miss the glare that the black haired boy next to Henry shot at him. Oh why don't you just piss all over me?

Three butterbeers down Ginny and Michael seemed to be doing OK. For one thing they were talking to each other. This of course meant I was left with most of the forth year Claw boys. Being the great Albus Dumbledore's granddaughter seemed to make them all vie for my attention,

"…and then he found the twelfth use when he-"

Yes I wanted to know all about the uses of dragon blood right now.

The three other girls didn't speak to me at all. And I obliged fully. Not like they spoke to each other much either.

"Jack! Jack!" Michael shouted over the crowd. I followed his eye line and watched Jack Corner approach the table.

"Keep your knickers on baby bro, I saw you." Michael blushed a bit at that and I laughed, that caught Jack's attention, he looked at me in surprise.

"Fancy finding you here Miss Thornton, the rose among the ravens."

"More like the lion among the ravens!" I smiled up at Corner

"I like to judge people on their personalities and not what house they're from Miss Thornton."

I put down my butterbeer at that, "And I'm a rose…me? You obviously should just stop judging people period because you're crap at it."

He laughed, "Or maybe I'm so good at it I know the person better than the person knows the person, get what I'm saying?"

I rolled my eyes, "I think I'm going to need something much stronger than this to keep up with this conversation."

"Oh, I can buy you some Firewhiskey." We both turned and looked at the black haired boy next to Henry whilst Henry quickly cut in,

"I don't have to buy you Firewhiskey, I already have some in my dorm, I can…take you-"

I raised my eyebrows at the pair, but before I could say anything Corner cut in,

"Hey Mikie, I'm taking Thornton for a walk."

He might as well have spoken to the brick wall next to him, Ginny had her tongue so far down Michael's throat it was blocking his vision. I stood quickly, more than happy for an excuse to leave this place.

I waved at the boys and walked off, trying to not roll my eyes at the less than eager goodbyes. The other two boys just nodded, they didn't seem the type to enjoy company. I guess they were dragged in here too. I swept the room for Mi but couldn't see her; she did say she would be around.

Corner opened the door and mock bowed me through, I laughed and walked through.

"So…I didn't know you were a cradle snatcher."

"You don't choose the MILF life, the MILF life chooses you. Anyway apparently all his fellow fifth years had dates, yeah right! He just couldn't wrangle them into coming on a 'group date' like how I got wrangled!"

"How did you, by the way?" He said with a chuckle.

I snorted, "Ginny is a little minx that's how, and she has a memory like an elephant and holds grudges and never shuts up about things and just moans and groans, believe me, it was better for me to just go to the damned thing. It wasn't that bad though, it could have been worse. If I got any more bored I might just have taken young Henry up on his offer."

We both laughed at that and walked down the main street. It's strange to think just months ago I was kidnapped down this very same street. It seemed millennia ago, foreign in this bright and lively day such a contrast to the still night of the attack. A shiver ran down my spine and I gritted my teeth, stop being such a fucking coward Ky. I subconsciously moved a little closer to Corner though.

"I read the article, I sent a copy to Mr and Mrs Diggory."

"Oh crap, I'm sorry it was so shit, I had like five minutes to-"

"They loved it. Said it was simple and to the point, like Ced." His lips dipped at that and he remained silent. It must be hard for him, Cedric and he spent a lot of time together. I can't imagine not having Mi around. I scanned the people for my favourite head of brown and came up empty.

"What the fuck, she isn't-"

We walked, or more like Corner stormed and I followed behind him, across the street to this atrocious looking shop. I looked through the window and they should have just hung a sign saying couples only, beware: this is a puking zone. It was all flowery and pink and I could even get the floral scent outside, it was some sort of café. I looked where Corner was looking and frowned,

"Isn't that that arse, Davies." It wasn't hard to spot him, just follow the scent of pompous jack ass. He was seated opposite a blonde girl, I couldn't see her face but she probably was one of his faceless drones. I saw him around with a few of them, hanging all over him.

I stopped looking suddenly and turned and looked at Corner, he had a worried, confused, angry look on his face. I'd rather observe his inner dilemma than what I had just noticed; of course they would be here. Why wouldn't they. They were a couple, right?

"Woah…Corner, what the fuck are you doing?"

I ran after him, as he stormed into the café.

"Hi, welcome to Madam Pudifoots, would you like a window seat or a-"

We didn't stick around for the next option as he walked towards a more secluded corner and sat down. The waitress and I hovered at the entrance, what the fuck was he doing? I'm not going in here, didn't he see the imaginary sign, I didn't want to upchuck my butterbeer.

"Corner, what the-"

"Please just sit and shhh." His black eyes shone up at me and I slowly lowered myself into the chair. Could he get a table more intimate, we were so secluded you wouldn't see us unless you were looking for us. I followed his eye line and saw him observing Davies again, but we were in an angle that couldn't be reciprocated. Thankfully I couldn't see Pang from this angle.

"May I take your order?"

"A double thick chocolate malt, you?"

He continued staring at Davies and nodded. Did he even know what I asked him?

"He'll have the same."

She nodded, doing an excellent job at not staring quizzically at us. I know I would have.

"Corner, Corner?" I clicked my fingers at him and he finally snapped to.

"Oh…er thanks. We won't be long. A few minutes."

"A few minutes to what? Spy on Davies. You don't need to spy on him, you know what's going to happen next. Him and Blondie over there are going to head on over to the first broom cupboard they see and consummate this unholy union that is suffering through a date with Roger Davies. Not that they're not making headway on that right now." I shook my head, really? Get a fucking broom cupboard. They were worse than Michael and Ginny.

Corner's face was getting red and I looked back at the couple, "That's not your ex girlfriend or something, is it?"

"What? No" He said defensively. "No, she isn't."

"Oh. So you just like her?"

"What! No. I don't, no."

I rolled my eyes, sure.

"Look Corner, don't be a pansy. Davies is a…fucktard. If she'd date him, she'd date you." I wouldn't date her if I were him though, considering it takes a fucktard to date a fucktard.

"I'm not…it's…I'm not interested in her like that. She's just a really good friend and I'm…OK get up quickly their leaving."

"But…but my malt…"I just jazzed myself up for one. He ignored me however and walked to the exit, I tried to keep my head forward but in the last moment of weakness I looked to the side, only to find their table empty.

"Corner, can we-"

"Shhhhh. Er…wait here."

I raised my eyebrows at him; he did not know who he was talking to. I followed him down the alley he was going down. I could hear shuffling and heavy breathing; I reached forward to tug his sleeve for an explanation when he stormed forward.

"Jack!"

I ran forward, noticing that red angry look as a danger sign, but it was too late. He already had Roger Davies up against a wall, towering over him as he pushed against his throat.

"Jack!" My voice echoed in unison with someone else. I looked to the huge dumpster that blocked most of the alley and my mouth hung open in shock.

"Fleeceheart?" It was incomprehensible. Fleeceheart was…not a bimbo. She didn't look…like that. Did she? I didn't really know her, but to date Davies? She adjusted her top, slipping the straps back on and pushing her skirt down. Not that it helped much, it put the microscopic in mini.

"Fuck…let me-"I heard someone rasp and remembered that Corner was currently throttling Davies.

"Let him go." Fleeceheart surged forward and tried to pull Corner off. Really, you lot call yourselves wizards?

I flicked my wand in Jack's direction and he suddenly let go, pushed back by a gust of wind. Davies fell over, clutching his stomach, rasping for air. The gust of wind seemed to wake Corner up, and he backed away from Davies horrified. He quickly grabbed my hand and Fleeceheart's, who was screaming at him with no effect and padded down the alley.

"-fucking business! We're both consenting adults! If I want to fuck Davies behind a trash can in a dark alley then I will fuck Davies behind a trash can in an alleyway!"

"You will fuck Davies over my dead body!" Well that wasn't exactly the most romantic setting to be having sex, but I guess to each his own.

She took a step back at that, his sentence obviously hitting home. I saw the tears spring into her eyes. OK, I needed to go; I didn't want to be here. Jack was so engrossed in Fleeceheart that I managed to twist my wrist from his hand without notice.

I made my way down the long road, heading for the castle, giving up on finding Mi and Ron. Trying harder not to look down more alleys, sure I would find Harry and Cho down there, probably with her skirt hiked up. Was she wearing a skirt? Oh what the fuck am I thinking, when did jeans ever stop teenagers before.

"- YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF OF ME! DO YOU FUCKING KNOW WHO I AM! DO YOU!"

OK Ky, just ignore the voice, ignore it. Of course I couldn't…

A/N: So judging the amount of vulgarity that is spouting out of Ky's mouth these days it's safe to say she is pissed. This chapter is more of a filler but quite necessary never the less.

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Kalina