Clara Diggory, Girl of Secrets - a HP fanfic

Chapter 8 - Ghosts and Mrs Norris

"I'm glad to say I've only ever run into him once," I said.

"Oh," Replied the ghost. "Lucky you." He noticed Harry walking past us, and glided after him.

"Harry! Harry! Did it work?"

I followed him out, looking a lot less elegant.

"I persuaded Peeves to crash it right over Filch's office," He said eagerly. "Thought it might distract him -"

"Was that you?" Said Harry gratefully. "Yeah, it worked, I didn't even get detention. Thanks, Nick!"

I stood shocked for a few seconds. "Not even detention?" I echoed, scrambling after the two who were walking (or well, Harry was walking) up the corridor together, talking about some Headless Hunt and a Deathday party, which Nick was inviting Harry to (the Deathday party, I mean. Inviting him to a Headless Hunt might be slightly off-putting). Once they had parted, I struggled to catch up with Harry.

"Harry, hold on one second!" I called. He turned, then smiled at me.

"Hi, Clara. You alright?"

"Yeah, you?" We began to walk together.

"Good."

"Um, Harry..."

"Yeah?"

"You'll probably think I'm mad - my roommates did - but..."

"What is it?" He asked, stopping.

"Well, on that night, you know, on the day of the whole quidditch pitch thing with Slytherin and Gryffindor..."

Harry nodded.

"Well, it's just, Ginny told me that you were in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, and I was wondering... Did you hear anything?"

Harry's eyes widened. "Like what?"

"Like, uh, I don't know -"

"A whispering? Really cold? Almost like a snake?" He asked.

"Yes, that's it!" I exclaimed. At least someone else had heard it, I wasn't going insane. "But... What is it? The things it was saying..."

"I don't know, either. But it can't be good," Harry said.

We reached Harry's portrait, and said our goodbyes. For just a few seconds, I stared after him longingly, wishing that was my common room too, before the Fat Lady nagged at me to move.

***

By the time Halloween had come around, I would normally sit with Ginny at the Gryffindor table (and she would glare at anyone who looked uncomfortable about it, daring them to say something), but we both knew we couldn't do that for the feast tonight. Strictly speaking, we were meant to sit with our houses, and though on most days the professors didn't notice (or if they did, they didn't really care), at a feast like this it was inevitable that I had to sit with Slytherin.

So that's how I came to be sat next to Draco Malfoy at the Halloween feast.

He asked this time. It was slightly odd; He came over to me, alone, and asked me, slightly uncertainly:

"I-Is it alright if I sit here?"

I don't know whether it was because he asked, or because he stammered, or because he sounded gentle again, like all those weeks ago, but I surprised myself by saying yes.

He smiled and sat down, and then we started talking.

It was unbelievably strange; He was civil, for once, and actually rather kind; I found myself enjoying my time with him, although the voice in the back of my head was yelling incessantly to stop, right now. At one point, he told some joke about female Werewolves having two 'Times of the month', and I laughed.