Invisible String

3.

Draco, on the other hand, had sat the lesson out, and chose to watch everyone else practice. Instead of poking fun at how easy these charms were to him, he chose to observe Harry and how carefully he carried out his leadership duties. He would've hated to ever admit it out loud, but he admired Harry's skill. Aurora had to restrain herself from smiling ear-to-ear at what Draco was thinking.

Ron noticed this.

"Oi, Hermione... what is Draco up to?" He walked next to Hermione, whispering so no one could hear. She looked in Draco's direction, whose eyes traced Harry's every move.

"Is he trying to jinx him or something? He does realise that if he harms Harry in any way, he's going to have to deal with the lot of us?" She growled.

Draco would have, in any other case, realised they were staring at him. But he was too caught up his own head.

Once their time was up, Draco was the first to leave; he didn't even say bye to Aurora.

Hermione was handing out the coins that would help the group interact on what time and date they would all meet again.

"Draco didn't get one, I didn't enchant enough either... would you care to let him know about the next one? If he wants to be there?" Hermione asked Aurora.

"What's the point in him being here? Nobody liked it and he clearly seems to know everything," Ron rolled his eyes. "Plus, he was probably scheming some nonsense against Harry."

Turns out, Draco wasn't scheming.

He was anguished over his own godforsaken life.

Not only were his friends bummed out that he discouraged the plan to sing a hilarious tune to Ron Weasley about his poor Quidditch skills, hence feeling like a disappointment towards them; he laid in bed after the meeting and felt nothing but pure guilt as well. A disappointment to his peers.

Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy, had started to pressure him into joining the Dark Lord. Though he knew at the end of the day, when the inevitable war would begin, he would have no choice but to pick his father's side, he was hesitant about it. A disappointment to his family.

He thought he despised Harry Potter. He knew it. But he simply could not help but feel conflict and chaos within his own mind because all he wished for was to do the right thing. For him and his family to be safe. He couldn't bear to attack his fellow peers when they had not done anything wrong. They had all been risking their places at Hogwarts just to learn how to protect themselves, while he had been minding his business with high privilege among the Ministry.

"You're not a bad person, Draco." Draco suddenly heard a voice next to him, belonging to his best friend, Aurora.
He jumped at the sight of her. "When did you get here?!"

She shook off this question, and sat on his bed, facing him.

He wasn't sure how to start, and Aurora knew he was facing several internal conflicts all at once.

They mutually agreed to lay down in silence, next to one another. When Aurora heard his light snores, and his head fall onto her shoulder, she left a kiss on his temple and head back out into the night.

"These poor boys."

Quidditch had taken up a lot of their time, resulting in DA meetings being delayed.

Though Draco had, until then, kept his promise about leaving Harry Potter alone, his friends were oblivious to this and had gone ahead to sing, or rather shout, a discouraging song to Ron Weasley during the Gryffindor vs Slytherin Quidditch match. Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson had ended up provoking George Weasley and Harry into attacking them, and had caught themselves, and Fred Weasley, a permanent ban from Quidditch. The Slytherins had found this amusing and were disappointed to see the lack of enthusiasm from Draco Malfoy.

The next Dumbledore's Army meeting was nearing December. Harry had decided to teach the group the Tickling charm, one mostly used for diversion. Not only was a lighthearted lesson to think about, but it was also helpful regardless.

Everyone in the room was wheezing while practicing on one another, most succeeding.

Draco refused to laugh in front of so many people, because that would let everyone know he was amused, and enjoying himself.

Harry was helping Cho with the correct arm movement to cast the charm; it was quite intimate. Draco took note of this intimacy and decided that was the right time to do what he wanted to do.

Draco took out his wand, and Ron quickly tapped Hermione's shoulder to make her look in Draco's direction.

To their surprise, he did not have an evil look on his face; rather a playful one.

"Rictusempra!" Draco whispered, pointing his wand towards Harry. The charm had hit him, much harder than expected, and everyone stopped what they were doing to watch Harry wheeze with both pain and laughter.

"What the hell Draco!" Aurora pursed her lips, holding back a smirk.

Draco looked at the seriousness on everyone's faces and could not hold back his laughter. He laughed, loud, and nobody knew what to do. Hermione wanted to yell at Draco, but he hadn't really harmed Harry, though he was holding his sides. Harry couldn't help but laugh, either. Draco, Aurora and Harry were the only ones amused.

"Right then, um, everyone can continue..." Hermione loudly said to the rest of them.

Neville approached Harry to ask if he was okay, by that point the charm had worn off. When Neville walked back to his original spot, where he was practicing with Ginny and Luna, he gave Draco a dirty look.

"You're awful for that, D- Malfoy." Harry rolled his eyes and sat down near where the blonde boy had been sitting, wanting to catch his breath.

Aurora had been standing quite a distance away, also helping other people with their charms, but was watching the two boys in the corner of her eye.

Draco did not respond. He sneered and continued to watch everyone. He took note that Aurora was watching him.

"You alright mate?" Ron approached Harry, his body language showing that he wanted to pretend Draco wasn't sitting there.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He smiled at Ron, who had walked back to where Hermione was.

"By the way, that was me getting you back for 2nd year." Draco muttered, at a volume so only Harry could hear.

Harry hated that he smiled at this.